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I was an active, functional, alcoholic for decades. I used to cry in my pillow and beg God to give me the strength to stop, but apparently to no avail as I continued for years. In November of 2023 my elderly mother suffered a stroke and required significant care from my wife and I. However, I continued to drink. But soon thereafter I woke up one day and had no more desire to drink or smoke. That was the weekend after Thanksgiving, 2023. I haven't had a drop or a smoke since. People have congratulated me but I have always corrected them quickly and told them it wasn't me, it was God. God allowed me to change. I've come to theorize that, in my youth, I made the choice to abuse alcohol and I think God said to me "You made your bed and now you're going to stay in it for a LONG time". A couple of times I've been tempted to pick up the bottle again but I know that, if I do, God won't save me from myself again. I will not betray God's gift to me. No way! One day I came across a verse that mentioned God granting repentance. I did more research with an online Bible search and discovered similar verses. I guess I've come to believe that God sometimes gives us over to our unhealthy desires and that repentance isn't possible until God decides we're ready. Do you believe that might be true? Here are verses pertaining to God and repentance. Acts 5:31 Verse Concepts He is the one whom God exalted to His right hand as a Prince and a Savior, to grant repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins. Acts 11:18 Verse Concepts When they heard this, they quieted down and glorified God, saying, “Well then, God has granted to the Gentiles also the repentance that leads to life.” 2 Timothy 2:25 Verse Concepts with gentleness correcting those who are in opposition, if perhaps God may grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth, Romans 2:4 Verse Concepts Or do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and tolerance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance? 2 Peter 3:9 Verse Concepts The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.

Greetings once again brother Neighbor... If...I understand your message in the quote I grabbed from your post...I can agree with your perspective of the "bullying king." As I see it...my opinion...my take on the "bullying king"...America's republican Jesus is a mythical character sent to bring an illusion of the Kingdom of God on the earth...as a nation state...and I know some evangelicals...who have told me this. Instead what we/they are getting is an enlarged and intensified version of a persona that is very similar to the image and depiction of the "white horse and its rider." This rider who is full of deception...starts off by impersonating the "Word of God" who also rides a white horse. The overarching point of this deception to be about "conquering to conquer"...which similarly fit the description of the "bullying king." This rider on the white horse has aspirations of doing his part to enslave all of humanity and the visible manifestation of his intention can be seen in part when you suggest..."My Lord's message was not send them back to their" holes", let us live high without their stench of poverty." Just my thoughts in the matter...and my I say this...soon my fellow American's...religious and worldly alike...will wake up to the decades old delusion...that the America of their imagination is a mirage...There is no “America” to make great again. “America” is a simulation. It is a map of a territory that does not exist. It is a dream within a dream in a film that no one can see because everyone is watching. It is a brand name for an imaginary product. As I was recently told...by one who knows...We are living in a global-capitalist empire...one big global-capitalist empire. We have been for the last thirty-something years. All of us. Americans. Canadians. The British. The French. Australians. Germans. Russians. Israelis. Palestinians. Iranians. All of us. The global-capitalist empire is not a cabal of powerful individuals. It is a system. And that system is evolving, growing, maturing into a new form of totalitarianism. A global-capitalist form of totalitarianism. It is the system, and not its servants, that is driving this systemic evolution. It makes no difference whether Elon Musk, or Donald Trump, or Macron, or Starmer, or Netanyahu, or Gates, or Bezos, or Soros, or any other political “leader” or powerful figure knows what they are doing. They serve the system, as the system requires, each according to their specific role and scope of action within the system. Any Spirit lead mature son of God should plainly understand the picture that is painted here in these words. Of course that would mean having a seat upon the throne of the King and being illuminated by seven blazing torches...which few will ever understand. Tatwo...:)

My prayer life is mostly a constant state of communication in my mind and thoughts. There are many moments when work, life, and the unexpected take place that requires my absolute focus. But in general I praise, meditate, pray constantly. I read my Bible daily and take what I read to see how it applies or how I can apply it to my life. But I have developed a constant line of communication through my thoughts. I also have created a habit of saying the Lord's Prayer that He taught to His Disciples every night before bed time which I do pray verbally in a normal speaking voice. For me, it's habits that I believed were good to do and eventually they become normal activities in my daily walk in God.

We have so many trials, tribulations and coming up short in our life as Christians - why is that? First of all, we don't have "the goods" in ourselves to properly handle these things, and always need the life of our Savior, Who lives in us. And in Romans 8:28 we see that not one thing that happens to us is outside His will for us - NOT ONE THING! All these things come from our Father's hand, so that God would conform all His sons to the image of His Firstborn Son! But so often I think I have to take this endeavor upon myself - however, conforming me to the image of Christ is HIS JOB! My job is to simply cooperate with Him and His indwelling Spirit, and just let Him do His transformative work as I abide in the Vine. "For My strength is made perfect in weakness." 2 Cor 12:9 (grace here = His favored supply) The meaning of your shortages "For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren." Romans 8:29 In our daily life, everything is significant because we know we have been predestinated. We have been marked out ahead with a destiny, which is to be conformed to the image of God's Son. So turning to Jesus and interacting with Him, calling upon Him, touching Him, is the meaning of my life. It is the meaning of every shortage I find in myself. Do you understand that the meaning of your shortages and weaknesses is Christ? Your shortage is not just something for you to overcome, to get through, to be rid of. That is not what it is for. It is for Christ to make His home in your heart (Eph. 3:17). We think that for Christ to make His home in our hearts, we need to "clean up the house." But this means that we would be the savior. We would work to present ourselves to God in a perfect condition, as though we were the ones doing it. However, this is not the way Christ makes His home in our hearts. Instead, we bring our rickety, broken-down house--with the messes, with the clutter in the closets--we bring it to Him and say, "Jesus, now You live here. You cleanse my heart. You come in and do all the work, Lord." This is the purpose of all our problems. It is about Christ taking over the job and making home in our hearts. It is not arriving at a perfect state that I have accomplished by my own energy. It is a perfect touch, a perfect interaction, with a perfect Person who is my supply. from "The Supplied Life" for Jan 25th

Sure…you believe what most believe enoob…I personally do not trust that interpretation because it effectively misses the mark…generally due to interpretational error leading to unchallenged dogma. For example…the idea that all kings, princes, and governments are set up and "ordained by God” only requires we consider a couple of passages, one which was spoken to Hosea by God Almighty himself…emphasis mine “Israel has rejected the good; The enemy will pursue him. They have set up kings, but not by Me; They have appointed princes, but I did not know it. With their silver and gold they have made idols for themselves, That they might be cut off.” Hosea 8:3-4 NASB We can read similar in Psalms… “Why do the nations rage, And the people plot a vain thing? (2) The kings of the earth set themselves, And the rulers take counsel together, Against the LORD and against His Anointed, saying, (3) "Let us break Their bonds in pieces And cast away Their cords from us.” Psalms 2:1-3 NKJV I see no Godly ordination in those examples…indeed the opposite. So maybe it would be prudent to go back over Romans chapter 13 chapter and dig into more…or not. Tatwo...:)

I agree with you. The sad reality is some of these people left their kids here on purpose. I am sure that US will find them homes and take care of them. I don't like when other countries or people in US try to act like US people are heartless and uncaring. What would happen if we went and lived in another country illegally and we aren't citizens of that country?

even in this conversation I see God's Word being fulfilled Isaiah 5:20 (KJV) [20] Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! [21] Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight! they criminally come into this country, and we are not to treat them as criminals? Whether man, woman or child they are invaders from foreign soils!

I lead 28 or so little souls in worship of our Lord each week... as to importance in my heart it might as well be 2o million...

Somewhere I still have a picture of me as a 6 year old sitting down in the dug out base of a snowman my father and I had just made. We rolled snow into a ball taller than me then used his skis as a ramp to stack the next two layers on top of the first. Much latter in life we were making a snowman for my very young sister in law. We had it stacked and shaped as tall as us adults. We used a carrot for a nose, sticks for arms, coal for eyes, but needed a good mouth. About that moment my mother in law "grrrd" loudly and threw a darn near incinerated pie she had been baking and forgotten out the kitchen window. And there it was! The charcoal crust rim now laying in the snow by our snowman friend the perfect grinning smile for our snowman. The crinkled ashen black pie crust rim did make for a perfect big grinning smile on our snow man. We laughed and loved our effort with it's big scallopie grinning smile -took my mother in law a bit of time to appreciate it though. Bits of fun God grants us to enjoy- Fun memories too.

Seriously though, we did cut tunnels through the snow to get from one dwelling to another.

And every direction one went was uphill!

I bet snow really fell back in the 1890s, eh? 40-foot drifts and all that.

Ah global upheaval. Snow fell at the panhandle of Free Florida and I have the heat on in the subtropics! Next thing I'll be using the fireplace for real, hasn't been used in decades. Electric bill nearly hit $400 US for last month. But I am not sweeping icy snow off my front porch, and the ground isn't frozen. Sooo all's well, by comparison. Kind of funny seeing a snow blower in action making easy work of it all, for a little bit of fluffy white stuff. We used to have to cut out chunks and pile the cut snow blocks up to five feet high in the "old days".

I have a somewhat different but not mutually exclusive taken on the matter, mostly revolving around Romans 8:28. I feel that God has an ideal path in mind for each of us, but we can stray from it to varying degrees. That said, He most certainly can and will turn it around for us if we let Him. As for the general topic my own life experience has convinced me that God loves me and has cared for me enough to intervene in a massive way in the past, and probably in even more ways than I realize or remember. So while I do agree that making us more Christlike is the overall package what stands out the most in my view is that these trials are an opportunity for God to reveal Himself and His love for us, as well as opportunities for us to act in faith and to demonstrate our love for Him in return.

We are saved and we are blessed without speaking in tongues. It's because we believe.

Hi VA, Another great topic pointing to Christ our all, thank you. Now, just a query. I find I cannot quite see `All these things come from our Father's hand,` for that would mean sickness, torture, rape, etc.from the Father`s hand. I see that life is damaged and thus there is so much pain, suffering etc. God is not about cleaning up this broken world and evil world system. As you rightly said, I believe, God is about making us like Christ. Thus, God uses every situation that life throws at us to make us like Christ - we humble ourselves through difficult times, we get to see we are so self-centered, and/or so self-reliant etc. regards, Marilyn.

"My power is made perfect in weakness"

I usually read from my Bible as one of the first things I do when I wake up, if not the first. I feel like it's good to demonstrate a sense of priority. Beyond that I tend to thank God when big or little things go my way, especially with my current occupational training. With more struggle I thank Him for the setbacks on that, too. Better to experience the setbacks now in a training environment rather than during the real thing. As a firm believer in flexibility I think it's hard to go wrong as long as we keep the two great commandments in mind.

The New Heavens and New Earth gets rid of any such speculation.

A Bunch of white stuff showed up here. How about you?

Well said!

To follow the 'wise and learned' is a bad mistake, as Jesus said the truths of the Prophetic Word are hidden from them. Matthew 11:25-26 Anyway, to deny the Millennium reign of King Jesus, is an outright rejection of scripture.

I don't understand how others can praise a leader of another country when the people that live there want to leave and live in the U.S? Now, if this were Biden/Harris doing this, I wonder if we would even be having this conversation? (TDS) I pray for the people who feel this way about President Trump. I also thank God for President Trump. He is doing an excellent job cleaning up what Biden/Harris created. Biden/Harris are the ones responsible for all of this nonsense we are dealing with now!

Those of His house are already subject to a King...this is not simply a future reality. Tatwo...:)

Blessings to you, VA. If this is a venue for the Great Commission, it will bless the Lord, too.

Revelation 20: v. 4 "for 1000 years they will reign with Christ." v. 6 "for 1000 years they reigned with Christ." I would venture to say that the millennial reign is indeed mentioned in Scripture. In fact, the period of 1000 years is mentioned six times in six consecutive verses in Revelation 20. Each time, it is validated by the associated events and specific activities linked to it.

This is a key thing in our lives, that is, how much do we see as coming from our Father's hand? Just this morning I was reading in a devotional about how we need to see all things as ultimately coming from, or being allowed by, Him. And according to Rom 8:28, as OrangeCat points out, as a loving Father, everything is permitted by Him that reaches us. So He must see all these things - the good, the bad & the ugly, as to our ultimate benefit and development as sons. We don't yet see it perhaps, but His provision of supply in Christ is always greater than our need. I look at it like this: say there's a nuclear power plant with immense power behind it. If we plug in a 25 watt light bulb it will certainly power it. But if a greater need comes along for more light, we can then plug a 1000 watt light bulb into it. But if we have a really big need, like powering a huge air conditioner, well it will power that too, and much, much more. In the bigger need, we prove the ability of the power plant to be more and more sufficient. Our Father allows something to occur in our lives, and if we turn to Him and allow the supply of Christ in us (grace) to operate, we will discover that He is more than sufficient for our every need. And consider our forerunner, the Man Jesus. The Father allowed many evils to come His way, but then it all worked for good and Christ arose supreme in glorious resurrection life! It was all arranged for Him from before the foundation of the world, and for the joy that was before Him (bringing all of us into relationship with Father), Christ endured the shame and suffering and went to the cross - and through it became a life-giving Spirit to come into our hearts crying, "Daddy! Father!" The principle is set forth with Job: The enemy can only do to us what is permitted. And if we continue to look at Christ (the brass serpent on the pole) we will come out the other side of the cross more victorious than before!

... do you mean perp walked like criminals? Aren't they criminals? Thank God for Trump, who is doing something about the criminal invasion.

Again, I share your sentiments re the U.S.A. of the past. Just your missionary efforts eclipse the economies of many countries. But your example is the declaration of the Jubilee - which God set forth to bless Israel - and no other nation. If you read the whole of Leviticus Chapter 25, you will see that in the 50th years all Israelites are given back their land and relations if they were slaves. Not so the foreigner. He could be a slave for life. God definitely favored His own people. This more than evident in the Covenant with Abraham. And, yes, Mr. Trump can use some choice language. But he is a Gentile and a ruthless man. You don't make it to the Presidency without an inner toughness. His world is one of intrigue, lies, dong illegal favors and toughing through crises. He is the number 1 soldier of the mighty USA military. He makes decisions about war and peace, death and destruction, or peace. He thus speaks like a soldier and their language is not cultivated. We all need the Lord to return. You will be judged worthy or not to be king of a city (Lk.19:17-19). The day will come when a subject residing in your city rapes somebody. You will have been invested with your title and power to RULE with a rod of iron. You will decide on life and death. Are the nations going to dictate to you, or does Christ require that you apply law and order to them? Am I a fan of Mr. Trump? By no means. But according to Romans 13 he is God's choice. He bears the sword. Let us be glad he chooses a line of action which might profit Americans - even if he is a bit in-elegant. 1 Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God. 2 Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation. 3 For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same: 4 For he is the minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in vain: for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil. (Rom.13:1–4).

In my opinion . . . UFOs are spiritual in nature (angelic or demonic) and not alien visitations. The whole idea of more advanced life visiting us reeks of the evolution fallacy by those seeking to discount the creation narrative outlined in Genesis. However, there is more hope of finding intelligent life on distant star systems than among college professors in many universities.

Agreed. It is not an salvation requirement. My thought on this is that it is more an fellowship with Jesus issue (privately), and an edification issue to the assembled church (publicly when interpreted and in order). There certainly are other weightier issues to consider as well . . . how about giving of ourselves, our money, our support? How about holiness and consecrated living to Jesus? How about the Gifts of the Spirit? How about the fruit of the Spirit? How about not bickering and complaining about various ministries and denominations (one of the posters in this thread above took a cheap 'drive-by shot' at Copeland ministries)? Are we in an 'cafeteria style' Christianity where we pick and choose what scriptures to believe and which ones we ignore? Just asking . . . .

I had big galoot dogs to dig paths through the snow. They made shoveling out a breeze.

In all walks of life you get sad stories. I'm with you in your sentiments for the illegal immigrants. Yet these men and women have broken American Law and your authorities are sworn to law and order. I cannot judge the motive of the Colombian President in sending his aircraft, but the Colombian government fought the drug industry from 1964 to 2017 - an industry that employed thousands of simple "poor" people who had to feed their families. But we have to have law and order, or else we have anarchy. God is big on law and order.

Praying for you to receive God's lead on this and to "abide" it.

I wake up, give thanks for this day and all the days of my life, quick prayer and ask God to guide my heart and mind, ask Him to guard my heart and mind. After a 'good morning' to my wife I pour my first cup of coffee, sit down and on the PC pull up my "THE WORD FOR YOU TODAY" I receive daily, A verse or two is explained and expounded upon. It is amazing how the scripture verse being discussed is so often in sink with my present situations, lifting me up, or bringing conviction. I eventually walk down to my shop, sit down and read a few pages of current book being read, a western, a book on the Bema Seat Judgement or a book on a better way for sharing the good news or Readers Digest etc etc. If I'm ripping plywood that day I stop and with my hands on the saw, acknowledge God, ask for wisdom and safety, etc, throughout the day. I am constantly submitting to God's for strength while taking thoughts captive, and resisting the defeated devil who will flee. This goes on throughout the day and has become automatic, without having to think of doing it so much. Quote; "Various sources suggest that the average adult makes 33,000 to 35,000 total decisions each day, including what we will eat, what we will wear, what we will say, and how we'll say it." Dec 5, 2023 (That's a lot of 'thinking/thoughts':) I do not have a quiet time set apart like most say they do. I do not have a special worship time either. I do have a good conversation with God before getting up and getting to bed at the end of the day going through the days events, confessing sin, giving thanks for the victories over temptations, and a big hearty thanks and gratitude for his mercy and grace and all the favor I know I do not deserve. This may go on longer than anticipated. The older I get the more I am grateful, knowing how blessed I am, the real blessings I mean. I worship as best I can in all I do, not in a cathedral setting. Praying or building a cabinet, helping a grandson or visiting a neighbor, as unto the Lord, abiding in all my daily work. The little things, motives, can have more worship in them than the grand things. Two mites can have great golden value, and a fortune may burn like hay. God knows our hearts (“The heart is deceitful above all things, And desperately wicked; Who can know it?) I acknowledge this, and try to remember not to trust my motives till I reflect with scripture. No, I do not always do for sure this but I try. Great topic Lotw8. (So what is your time and rituals with God like?)

I agree with all of this. Europe is in ways a forecast for where a lax or unchecked system for immigration is likely to end up. It's also not entirely about crime and drugs. Culture fits into the big picture as well. Should enough non-Christians enter that can have effects as well. Like I said before I don't expect our government to behave in a Christian way. I'd be loathe to see an enforced "You must be Christian to immigrate here" policy, but the cultural impact of large scale immigration can't be ignored. It's got an impact beyond just religion and raising access to delicious new food that might not otherwise be in an area. In the OT the ancient Israelites were expected to give some hospitality to strangers, but we also see that there were some expectations set of their long term guests. Something like that seems a pretty good idea purely as a matter of civil/government business.

Jackie or Shannon snoozing on the nest at 6:22pm. The chat box besides the video has a note that the camera is solar powered. So if there are any feedback interruptions, it's because we are currently having rain. https://www.youtube.com/live/B4-L2nfGcuE?si=qZOIocYtgZA1jC6F

This isn't about racism or being "native born". It's about protecting the people that live here. Like you said, we have enough criminals already. Why would we want to knowingly let in more? We might as well just let everyone out of prison while we're at it. I'm not against immigration. I'm against letting WAY too many people in without proper housing and not knowing anything about them. Imagine if 50,000 new people showed up in your town every month. Where would they go? Who is going to feed them, house them, clothe them? That's been happening every month in the border states. Having an open border is not compassion. It created nothing but death and suffering. Over a hundred thousand children are missing. Sold into slavery right here in our country. The cartels made hundreds of millions of dollars moving people across the border. Women and girls were raped and abused. Many are now working as sex slaves for the cartel to pay off the trip. The weak were left to die in the desert. Everyone complicit in the open border should be in prison. I believe the majority of illegals just want a better life. I hope they work out a plan for many of them to become citizens. I also know that other countries also sent us their worst to get rid of them. They literally emptied out prisons and sent them here. They also sent terrorists. I'm really worried we are going to see the repercussions of that over the next few years. Those people have to go.

Thanks for your feedback! Also @Marathoner Yeah, AM radio has declined some - from both Covid and manufacturers not wanting AM because electric cars supposedly interfere with the signal. It still has a bigger audience than podcasts, but podcasts are growing while radio is shrinking. I listen to radio (both AM & FM) some and yanked Sirus out as I found it distracting. And the radio station will provide a webpage for the program where podcasts can be stored and listened to. (And because the station is associated with Salem Radio Network and i-HeartRadio there's some kind of national connection I think.) But in any case, I'm not really thinking about large audience numbers . . . I think they said somewhere between 20,000 to 40,000 might be tuned in locally (Phoenix metro), depending on the day and time.

Thinking about Pennsylvania, a big State, I do remember trudging through seriously deep snow into the woods at Altoona to top a pine and drag it back to a family friend's home to be decorated with paper rings, popcorn, and kids drawings, for Christmas decoration. Cold, cold, cold, and deep deep snow with ice packs too. Place had "central heat" as the wood stove sat in the middle of the common portion of the house. We left that area New Years Eve 1958 for Anaheim, California. Lived in an orange grove for a while. Was way better. I'd rather shovel anything, anything at all, than snow!

You are told on the way up to Big Bear too. And even if not required at the moment you will need prove you have them with you; same for Wrightwood, and other areas with snow at California. Must have chains or be turned around by CHP. Some used to make a decent buck selling chains at the turnouts.

and here we go again with the snow piling up on the poor birds

Waiting for three.

I'm glad there are two eggs

.

And weird as it sounds if our leaders and scientist found microscopic life on another planet they would spend trillions trying to communicate with it and save it's life all the while allowing life on earth to be deliberately killed.

Such a discovery would have no "implications for Christianity". The Christian (a.k.a. Biblical) model of reality makes no direct predictions regarding the existence of sentient space aliens. None whatsoever. I have fellowship with Christ. At-most, it would give me a new topic to discuss with Him.

How many actually do? Just like those are supposed to appear when required to, in order to see if they are eligible for remaining in the us. They dont show up.

Personally I do not think there is intelligent life out there. That said I think the question should be turned around. How would atheist scientist and astronomers react to contact is made with ' E T ' language has been translated and the first serious question from them is. " Can you tell us about Jesus? "