Prayer

Light the candles, smell them burning,
While the gospel, men are churning,
And the hearts of men not turning
From their sins. And God not learning.

Religious practice is their cover.
Sinful lifestyles, they’re not over.
Godless idols are their lover.
Righteousness is not their mover.

Wickedness is what is leading,
While they go on now deceiving,
And the lies they’re now believing.
And their sins they are not grieving.

Women, now, you are included,
Which you might now have concluded,
Some of you, too, are deluded,
So your sin you’ve not eluded.

Jesus Christ is now your answer,
For He should be your commander,
Suffered, died, and he is risen,
So to free you from your prison.

Turn from your sin, follow Jesus,
For from sin our Lord does free us.
Walk with Jesus, serve him daily,
Worship Him, in truth, not vaguely.

An Original Work / February 27, 2023

On September 11, 2012, 11 years after the attacks on the Twin Towers in New York (USA), the Lord Jesus gave me this song to write in memory, not only of that tragedy, but of other tragedies, as well, such as the bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, and Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans on August 29, 2005, and the assassination of JFK on November 22, 1963.

And through this song he is reminding all of us that he is calling each and every one of us to turn from our sins and to surrender our lives to him and to now walk in his ways and in his righteousness, in walks of obedience to his commands. For not one of us knows if we have tomorrow, do we?

But he is also cautioning all of us against putting our faith and trust in human beings who may lie to us and deceive us and lead us astray. We must be those who test everything in prayer and whose trust is in God to lead us in the ways of righteousness and to what is true, and who will point out to us the lies of the enemy so that we are not easily deceived. For not everyone tells the truth, and lies and liars are all over the place. So pray. Trust God.

For Our Nation

An Original Work / September 11, 2012

Bombs are bursting. Night is falling.
Jesus Christ is gently calling
You to follow Him in all ways.
Trust Him with your life today.
Make Him your Lord and your Savior.
Turn from your sin. Follow Jesus.
He will forgive you of your sin;
Cleanse your heart, made new within.

Men betraying: Our trust fraying.
On our knees to God we’re praying,
Seeking God to give us answers
That are only found in Him.
God is sovereign over all things.
Nothing from His mind escaping.
He has all things under His command,
And will work all for good.

Jesus Christ is gently calling
You to follow Him in all ways.

Men deceiving: We’re believing
In our Lord, and interceding
For our nation and its people
To obey their God today.
He is our hope for our future.
For our wounds He offers suture.
He is all we need for this life.
Trust Him with your life today.

Login to view embedded media

The context here is we are being taught that, as followers of Jesus Christ, we are to get rid of every hindrance to our walks of faith in Jesus Christ and every sin which clings so closely, so that we can run with perseverance the race (our walk of faith) that God has set before us, keeping the focus of our minds and hearts set on Jesus Christ. And we are not to be lazy or slothful in our walks of faith and obedience to our Lord, but we are to make straight (righteous, godly) paths for our feet (our walks of faith in Jesus Christ).

So, we are not to refuse the Lord who is speaking to our hearts and who is counseling us in the ways of righteousness, and who is warning us against paths of sin and slothfulness. We are not to be like the children of Israel of the Old Covenant who wandered in the wilderness for forty years, the majority of whom did not listen to God and to Moses, but they rebelled against the Lord and went their own way, and they indulged in sexual immorality and in idolatry, and they were revelers who put Christ to the test.

And what happened to those who rebelled and who continued in their sinful practices? They died, and they did not get to go into the Promised Land. But worse is that they did not get to enter into God’s eternal rest, so they were not saved from their sins, and they did not have eternal life with God. And these things were written down for us as examples, and for our instruction, so that we do not desire evil as they did and face the same punishment. For if sin is what we practice, and not obedience to God, we will die in our sins.

[Hebrews 12:1-24; 1 Corinthians 10:1-22; cf. Romans 6:1-23; Acts 26:18]

So, if we ignore the words of the Lord, and if we think that we can live however we want while we go through the motions of religious practice, then we have another thing coming. For he says in Romans 11 that we can be cut off, too, like he cut off all the non-believing Jews who refused Jesus as their Messiah, the Christ. For we are all going to be judged by God on the basis of our deeds. Those for whom sin is their practice, and not righteousness, and not obedience to the Lord, they will not inherit eternal life. And all Jews who do not believe in Jesus will not inherit the promise God made to Abraham.

And the Lord will judge his people. And he will shake the earth and the heavens in order to remove the things that have been made in order that the things that cannot be shaken may remain, such as genuine walks of obedience to our Lord in holy and righteous living, to the glory and praise of God, in the power of God, by the grace of God. For Jesus died on that cross so that we will die with him to sin and live to him and to his righteousness, not so that we will go on living in sin while claiming heaven as our eternal destiny. Heaven is not promised to all those who do not obey God.

And so the encouragement here is for all of us who profess the name of Jesus Christ to offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe. And that acceptable worship of God is for us to give our lives to God as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God, which is our acceptable worship of God. And that also includes that we must no longer be conformed to the ways of this sinful world, but we must be transformed in heart and mind of the Spirit of God so that by how we live our lives we prove what is the acceptable and perfect will of God. So we must no longer walk in sin, for our God is a consuming fire to all who will not obey him.

[Matt 7:21-23; Lu 9:23-26; John 10:27-30; Acts 26:18; Rom 2:6-8; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-14; Rom 12:1-2; 1 Co 6:9-10,19-20; 1 Co 10:1-22; 2 Co 5:10,15,21; Gal 5:16-24; Gal 6:7-8; Eph 2:8-10; Eph 4:17-32; Eph 5:3-6; Col 1:21-23; Col 3:1-17; Titus 2:11-14; 1 Jn 1:5-10; 1 Jn 2:3-6,24-25; 1 Jn 3:4-10; 1 Pet 2:24; Heb 3:1-19; Heb 4:1-13; Heb 10:23-31; Heb 12:1-2]

For Our Nation

An Original Work / September 11, 2012

Bombs are bursting. Night is falling.
Jesus Christ is gently calling
You to follow Him in all ways.
Trust Him with your life today.
Make Him your Lord and your Savior.
Turn from your sin. Follow Jesus.
He will forgive you of your sin;
Cleanse your heart, made new within.

Men betraying: Our trust fraying.
On our knees to God we’re praying,
Seeking God to give us answers
That are only found in Him.
God is sovereign over all things.
Nothing from His mind escaping.
He has all things under His command,
And will work all for good.

Jesus Christ is gently calling
You to follow Him in all ways.

Men deceiving: We’re believing
In our Lord, and interceding
For our nation and its people
To obey their God today.
He is our hope for our future.
For our wounds He offers suture.
He is all we need for this life.
Trust Him with your life today.

Login to view embedded media

Yikes!

Can the Trump cards be sacrificed for three mana of any color?

This is my third article published in one day, and it is my first on Bibliotecanatalie. It delves into misconceptions surrounding the life expectancy of Medieval peasants and nobility.

Matthew11: "28 Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls."

I know this is harder for some than for others to do, even when they understand that it is true, that this life is not for this life, and that their life is not about them nor about their spiritual/Christian performance, but about Christ. It will take a long hard time to begin to understand what I am still learning after 68 years of praying for understanding. I have prayed for years (to put it VERY mildly), and come to see that he has taken me where he has for HIS OWN SAKE, and that according to his mercy to me, he is making me into what he had in mind for me from the beginning.

I am his, and not my own. This is not about duty and accomplishment, but about knowing God. It will take your whole life.

The mercy of God is the safest place to be.

HTacianas said:

The answer to your question is no. And there is a very good example of it recorded in Acts.

Act 19:1 And it happened, while Apollos was at Corinth, that Paul, having passed through the upper regions, came to Ephesus. And finding some disciples
Act 19:2 he said to them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” So they said to him, “We have not so much as heard whether there is a Holy Spirit.”
Act 19:3 And he said to them, “Into what then were you baptized?” So they said, “Into John’s baptism.”
Act 19:4 Then Paul said, “John indeed baptized with a baptism of repentance, saying to the people that they should believe on Him who would come after him, that is, on Christ Jesus.”
Act 19:5 When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.
Act 19:6 And when Paul had laid hands on them, the Holy Spirit came upon them, and they spoke with tongues and prophesied.

So we ask the question, when was Apollos saved? If Apollos was saved when he believed why did he then need to be baptized and have hands laid on him to receive the Holy Spirit?

Click to expand...

Would Paul have baptized the unsaved?

bèlla said:

Weston Price chronicled the impact the western diet had on various cultures around the globe as evidenced through dentistry. While it originally addressed the effects of sugar he went on to discover the correlation between diet, habitat and ethnicity. He believed our bodies had a natural preference for the foods related to our region and genetic makeup.

Or put more simply, that's why my Italian friend struggled to eat clean -- a Mediterranean diet -- and always had to reset (start again). The carb deficiency fostered cravings she satisfied with other foods (junk carbs). It's unnatural for her and she needs something more substantial.

I applied his ideology with positive results. My affinity for French culture and food wasn't happenstance. I aligned my eating habits with the French and never struggled with high blood pressure, cholesterol, diabetes, etc. We settled on a whole foods approach with seasonality and growing conditions in mind. While many eat organic we consume the items when they're at their best taste wise and nutritionally.

We switched to ancient grains a couple years ago exclusively and increased our consumption of fermented foods and probiotics. The shift jump started our metabolisms and we began losing weight and burning fat without exercising. We eat nose to tail and make our own bone broths and medicines. We don't shy away from fat and prefer things in their natural state (dairy, sugar, etc.) Most of which Sally Fallon champions. I discovered Price's teachings through her.

~bella

Click to expand...

This only proves there's way more than just 1 way to live healthy.

In my mom's case, what causes her to have high blood pressure is drinking too much water.

There's too much hype in hydration by the media. It does make you spend more money, way more than just the water itself and mostly from the negative health consequences of drinking too much water.

iluvatar5150 said:

As I pointed out in another thread today, Trump’s platform also promises support to first time homebuyers. I wonder how Trump manages to avoid the inflationary pressures they fear will plague Harris’ plan.

Click to expand...

I wonder why the Democratic Party is now adopting Republican platforms?

Is it an admission of the dismal failure of the past 4 years?

Or are they so out of ideas they're literally stealing them from the competition?

Of course it's evil. It's a vehicle for mainstream Neoconservatism.

Xeno.of.athens said:

The psalms are a source of comfort for me, as well as a place to lay out my trials and cry out to God for help, to weep and to rejoice. But other places in the holy scriptures also provide comfort, wisdom, and what is needed in times of trouble. Where do you go for such things?

Click to expand...

The Psalms are my go-to book also.

Oompa Loompa said:

It would be difficult to transfer an unborn child to an artificial womb when it is torn into pieces and sucked out with a vacuum.

Click to expand...

Details, details.

DaveM said:

thanks everyone for the great feed back, I am much clearer on this subject now !!

Click to expand...

AND maybe not ??

All that Gal 3:28 are several things!!

That is the BODY of Christ there CANNOT // OV , ever beeeeeeeeeeeee, Jew nor Greek , as CANNOT // OV is a

DISJUNCATIVE PARTICIPLE NEGATIVE , meaning there will NEVERRRRRRRRRRRRRR be Jews or GENTILES in the BODY of Christ ,

Then in Col 3:11 reads differently , Where there CANNOT // OV is also a DISJUNCATIVE PARTICILE NEGATIVE , which also means

there will NEVERRRRRRRR be in the Body of Christ Greek , Jew , Circumcision and uncircumcision , Foreigner , Scythian , slave

( nor ) free, but Christ , is the all things and in all .

And verse 28 says we ARE // ESTE , is in the Greek Present tense , meaning OSAS .

Could say more , but have to go home .

dan p.

gzt said:

The Low Church segment is a very large segment of the ECUSA and was even more dominant then.

Click to expand...

They were much larger then, unfortunately now the Liberal Catholic and Liberal Broad Church segments are dominant. As far as traditional low church ECUSA parishes, that would be considered the most conventionally Protestant, as opposed to Broad Church parishes which represent what Anglicans like to call the via media, these have become quite rare in the Episcopal Church, and to a very large extent most low church or Evangelical Anglicans have left for ACNA, leaving behind more liberal broad church parishes. Likewise, conservative High Church and conservative Anglo Catholic parishes have become quite rare, although I am aware of one, St. John’s Episcopal Chuech in Detroit (which I thought was Continuing Anglican, indeed I was almost certain it was Continuing Anglican, and was genuinely shocked to discover it is still in the Episcopal Church).

gzt said:

We also don't have the most recent numbers for Orthodoxy, but they're not going to jump that much.

Click to expand...

I should expect they will show much more of a jump (the jump is due to the end of the pandemic which was adversely affecting us due to illegal restrictions on worship) and the recent influx of converts, whereas the Episcopal Church is continuing to lose members at a very high rate (if it continues, they will be gone by 2050, but I expect their membership will bottom out at some point, as happened with the UUA, which after alienating nearly everyone, now shows growth, albeit at the expense of the liberal, but less authentically or consistently liberal, mainline Protestants).

But I will say I am shocked our average attendance now equals that of the Episcopal Church, that is still very good for us, but also very sad, when you consider how many American cities have large, imposing Episcopal parishes - they must be mostly empty, and the much fewer and generally much smaller Orthodox parishes mostly full, to attain such a result.

I would particularly like to compare the statistical mode of attendance in Orthodox parishes with Episcopal parishes, because I figured on the basis of median average attendance, given how Episcopal parishes do tend to fill up for seasonal services like Christmas and Easter (for example, 9 Lessons and Carols), that it would throw the mean average in their favor to such an extent that they would be twice as large as us. Of course, since the statistics you refer to are average (presumably mean) Sunday attendance, that probably cancels out Christmas services except for in 2023, when Christmas Eve on the Gregorian Calendar fell on a Sunday, which, unless they compensate for it, will cause a huge bump in 2023, which would only be partially compensated for on our end since ROCOR, the Serbians, ACROD (at least their cathedral), the Georgians, and other jurisdictions (including if I recall the massive OCA Archdiocese of Sitka and Alaska) use the Julian calendar (although effective last Christmas some churches switched to the Revised Julian including the UOCNA, and Holy Virgin Mary Russian Orthodox Church in Los Angeles, which is under the OCA, broke with its normal tradition and celebrated Christmas on the Revised Julian calendar, at least in terms of streaming, although lately they appear to have returned to using the Julian Calendar except for the English language services they have in one of their chapels, which are on the RJC).

Nonetheless, a distortion can be expected in the raw 2023 data.

Grafted In said:

Thank you for your informative responce.
I understand very little of what you wrote, but it's nice to know it's a normal phenomena.
Is this directly connected to the practice of using a planet or moon to accelerate a satellite by swinging around it?

Click to expand...

Totally different scenario which involves gravity and the conservation of momentum.
A spacecraft approaching a planet from an opposite direction to the planet's orbit around the Sun is accelerated due to the planet's gravitational field.
It swings around the planet in a hyperbolic trajectory exiting the gravitational field, with a greater velocity.

The spacecraft takes some of the planet's orbital momentum, gaining energy in the process.
In the planet's frame of reference, the spacecraft's speed remains unchanged (since gravity is a conservative force), but from the Sun's frame of reference, the spacecraft gains velocity due to the motion of the planet.

In the solar (Sun's) frame of reference:
v₁ is the velocity of the spacecraft entering the planet’s gravitational field.
v₂ is the velocity of the spacecraft exiting the planet’s gravitational field.
U is the orbital velocity of the planet around the Sun.

RoBo1988 said:

The church is always looking for "God to move in the service. That's good, but I feel like a lot of people (and this individual in particular) are trying to force His movement.

Click to expand...

If there are no interpretations to that persons so-called messages, then they don't have a ministry with their gift. Just because any one of us who are filled with The Spirit can pray in tongues, it doesn't give us permission to think we can use that portion of our gift in the assembly.

Someone probably needs to talk to the leadership and they eventually get that person corrected.

RileyG said:

Thankfully i have a FSSP chapel near me that is thriving.

Click to expand...

What a great blessing that is!

Xeno.of.athens said:

Romans 9:5, Acts 20:28. and some more, but these are not Granville Sharp rule passages.

Click to expand...

True the ambiguity possible in places like Titus 2 - is not found in Rom 9:5

Acts 2:28 Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood.

Rom 9:3 For I could wish that I myself were accursed, separated from Christ for the sake of my countrymen, my kinsmen according to the flesh, 4 who are Israelites, to whom belongs the adoption as sons and daughters, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the Law, the temple service, and the promises; 5 whose are the fathers, and from whom is the Christ according to the flesh, who is over all, God blessed forever. Amen.

Neither of those passages present a problem where one has to choose between Christ being God or not being God.

synger said:

I think one of the best places to start with Luther is the Small Catechism. The Small Catechism He wrote it to help fathers teach their families basic Christian (Lutheran) principles. It's an easy read because it's designed for home use, and if you want more detail on any of what he says you can look up the same section (Ten Commandments, Creed, Baptism, etc.) in his Large Catechism, which goes into much more depth.

One of his early seminal works was "The Freedom of the Christian", (https://static1.squarespace.com/sta...+Martin+Luther+The+Freedom+of+a+Christian.pdf) which led to his much more involved "Bondage of the Will". I've read both, and Bondage is an amazing piece. there's a good reason it's considered his magnum opus. That said, it's a deep read. It's not something to dash off in a weekend.

The "95 Theses" are interesting primarily as a historical touchpoint to show the main issues that he had with current (at his time) Roman Catholic teaching. It was an invitation to discussion, not so much an exploration of the issues in detail. It gets pretty redundant after a while.

Probably the closest thing we have to a systematic theology from him is the Augsburg Confession. The Augsburg Confession He was asked by the Emperor to put in writing his beliefs so the Roman church could dispute them (very general description of the history there... it was a lot more complicated than that). So you have articles "of God", "of the Ministry", "of Justification", etc. Keep in mind when you read them the context here. He will say "this is what we believe, over against what the Romans or the Anabaptists believe".

If you're still reading and want more, the next one would be The Defense of the Augsburg Confession. (also available at bookofconcord.org) Basically, the Roman Catholics replied to his Augsburg Confession (above) and the Defense is his rebuttal. So you get more history within the theology as well.

Click to expand...

I could download it to the AI.

tonychanyt said:

Jesus' ministry after resurrection until ascension: A harmonized chronology
The descriptions in the gospels were rather confusing. This is my attempt to harmonize.
After the resurrection morning, Jesus met two disciples in Lk 24:

After spending some hours with them,

M2 decided to go back to Jerusalem to report to the Peter et al:

Thomas wasn't there (Jn 20:24).
Jn 20:

Some days later, 1Co 15:

More days later, Jesus told his disciples the great commission in Mt 28:

Galilee was 80 miles from Jerusalem, a 3-day walk.
Some days later, Jesus appeared to 7 disciples by the Sea of Galilee (Jn 21:2). They were fishing:

Another day, he appeared to James, his genetic half-brother (1Co 15:7).
Jesus ascended to heaven from Mount Olivet (Ac 1:12) near Bethany. Lk 24:

Bethany was 2 miles from Jerusalem.
From resurrection to ascension was about 40 days (Ac 1:3).
Chronology:

1. Resurrection morning at the tomb and in Jerusalem.
2. In the afternoon, Jesus broke bread with two disciples at Emmaus, 7 miles from Jerusalem.
3. In the evening, he appeared to Peter et al in Jerusalem. Thomas wasn't there.
4. 8 days later, he showed up again to his disciples. Thomas was there.
5. Some days later, over 500 brethren saw him in one gathering.
6. Some days later, the eleven met him at a mountain in Galilee, 80 miles from Jerusalem. He told them the great commission.
7. Some days later, he showed up while they were fishing in the Sea of Galilee.
8. Another day, he appeared to James, his half-brother.
9. About 40 days after resurrection, he ascended to heaven from Mount Olivet, 2 miles from Jerusalem.

Over 40 days, Jesus appeared in Jerusalem, Emmaus, Galilee, and Bethany.

Click to expand...

Interesting. Thanks for sharing. Yeah, it's a bit hard to visualize the chronology by going back and forth between the accounts unless you put it all together like this.

As for Galilee being a 3 day walk from Jerusalem....maybe He didn't walk? Obviously, He was able to just appear wherever He wanted at any time, as evidenced by the fact that He just suddenly appeared out of nowhere in a locked house.

Ignatius the Kiwi said:

Pornhub should not only be banned because of incidents like this, but because pornography and it's effects on society in general have been disastrous and evil.

Click to expand...

Amen