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Pray For the Peace of Jerusalem The Book of Proverbs (Proverbs 17) 17 Better a dry crust with peace and quiet     than a house full of feasting, with strife. 2 A prudent servant will rule over a disgraceful son     and will share the inheritance as one of the family. 3 The crucible for silver and the furnace for gold,     but the Lord tests the heart. 4 A wicked person listens to deceitful lips;     a liar pays attention to a destructive tongue. 5 Whoever mocks the poor shows contempt for their Maker;     whoever gloats over disaster will not go unpunished. 6 Children’s children are a crown...

Pray For Our American Heroes and Our Nation Stand Firm But from the beginning of the creation, God ‘made them male and female. For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh; so then they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate.  Mark 10:6-9 


Join with fellow FREEPERS to pray for Presidential candidate DONALD TRUMP and Vice Presidential candidate MIKE PENCE. This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. 1 JOHN 5:14 Religion Forum threads labeled [Prayer] are closed to debate of any kind.

"Take . . . the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God" (Eph. 6:17). God’s Word is your primary offensive spiritual weapon. All the armor Paul lists in Ephesians 6 is defensive, with one exception: the sword of the Spirit. That's your offensive weapon for defeating Satan. We've seen that Roman soldiers carried two swords: the large broadsword and the small dagger. The Greek word translated "sword" in verse 17 refers to the dagger, which was anywhere from six to eighteen inches in length and was carried in a sheath or scabbard at the soldier's side. The...

“And if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow-heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him in order that we may also be glorified with Him” (Romans 8:17). The Holy Spirit confirms within our hearts the hope of eternal glory. I believe people today instinctively know they are devoid of glory (see Rom. 1:18-21), but they explore all the wrong avenues in seeking to regain it. They look for personal glory by building successful careers, spending many hours in community service, being generous to charities, and so forth. But such efforts only lead to jealousy and pride. Unregenerate...

September 23, 2016 Memorial of Saint Pius of Pietrelcina, Priest Reading 1 Eccl 3:1-11 There is an appointed time for everything,and a time for every thing under the heavens.A time to be born, and a time to die;a time to plant, and a time to uproot the plant.A time to kill, and a time to heal;a time to tear down, and a time to build.A time to weep, and a time to laugh;a time to mourn, and a time to dance.A time to scatter stones, and a time to gather them;a time to embrace, and a time to be...

GERMANY, September 21, 2016 (LifeSiteNews) — The German Bishops have presented a new “Unified Translation” of the Bible that follows a significant modernization of the language and will be binding for all German-speaking areas starting in 2017. On Tuesday, the German Bishops Conference (DBK) presented in Fulda the fruit of many years of scientific work: a new edition of the so-called “Unified Translation" (Einheitsübersetzung) of the Bible into German. It’s called “unified” because, from the original published from 1962 onward, these editions are supposed to be used ecumenically, unifying Catholics and Protestants in Germany. The original aim, however, was thwarted...

A meeting between Pope Francis and Cardinal Claudio Hummes has touched off speculation that the Pope might support a move to allow the ordination of married men as priests. Cardinal Hummes, the former prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy, has indicated his support for a discussion of allowing married priests in areas where the shortage of clergy is particularly acute, such as in the Amazon region of his native Brazil. Sandro Magister, the veteran Vatican-watcher for L'Espresso, reports rumors in Rome that Pope Francis intends to devote the next meeting of the Synod of Bishops to discussion of the...

Scholars reportedly achieve breakthrough on synodality and primacyCatholic and Orthodox scholars have reached a landmark agreement on synodality and primacy in the early Church, it has been reported. According to a Russian Orthodox Church website, the Joint Commission for Theological Dialogue between the Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church has approved a joint document called “Synodality and Primacy during the First Millennium: Towards a Common Understanding in Service to the Unity of the Church”.Differing views on the synodal structure of the Church and the primacy of the Pope are regarded as two of the greatest obstacles to unity between...

In Defense of Christians Convention Aims to Preserve Christianity in the Middle EastWASHINGTON — “Time is running out for Assyrian Christians,” declared Michigan-resident Nahren Anweya, 34, speaking to the Register at the third annual convention of In Defense of Christians (IDC) held in Washington Sept. 7-9. Born in Iraq, Anweya vividly remembers being slapped in the face by her first-grade teacher in Baghdad, for describing herself as a Christian — signifying the second-class citizenship suffered by the faithful there long before the current crisis. “We are disappearing literally by the week,” she said, estimating the total number of Christians in...

The Francis Effect: "Catholic" schools and sexual education A U.S. Catholic bishop has explicitly refused to allow parents to opt their kids out of a diocesan-run school’s sex-ed program deemed by parents to be “erotic” and “salacious,” calling the program a “legitimate requirement” for graduation. Instead of listening to the parents’ concerns, the bishop has cited the Vatican’s newly minted and problematic sex-ed curriculum as a way to evaluate the school’s program. In a letter dated September 2, Bishop David Choby of the Catholic Diocese of Nashville, Tennessee, told parents opposing the sex-ed program that while he “wholeheartedly support[s]” their...

And in the latter time of their kingdom, when the transgressors are come to the full, a king of fierce countenance, and understanding dark sentences, shall stand up. And his power shall be mighty, but not by his own power: and he shall destroy wonderfully, and shall prosper, and practise, and shall destroy the mighty and the holy people. And through his policy also he shall cause craft to prosper in his hand; and he shall magnify himself in his heart, and by peace shall destroy many: he shall also stand up against the Prince of princes; but he...

With Burning Concern: We Accuse Pope Francis Part II of III "As you revealed in your manifesto (Evangelii gaudium, 94), you are filled with contempt for tradition-minded Catholics, whom you rashly accuse of “self-absorbed Promethean neopelagianism” and of “feel[ing] superior to others because they observe certain rules or remain intransigently faithful to a particular Catholic style from the past.” You even ridicule a “supposed soundness of doctrine or discipline” because, according to you, it “leads instead to a narcissistic and authoritarian elitism, whereby instead of evangelizing, one analyzes and classifies others…” A Joint Statement from The Remnant and Catholic Family...

Pope Francis contrasted the anxiety that comes from the Holy Spirit and the anxiety that comes from a dirty conscience. During his homily during the daily Mass at the Casa Santa Marta, he also spoke about vanity, which “masks” life, making it look like something it is not. Listen to Christopher Wells' report: Two forms of anxiety The Gospel of the day describes King Herod (Antipas) as being perplexed or anxious because, having had John the Baptist killed, he now felt threatened by Jesus. He was worried just as his father, Herod the Great, was troubled after the visit of...

A wise pastor, whose name I’ve forgotten, once said, “If you want to know what to preach about, find out what sin with which your congregation is struggling.” Or, as I noted after the infamous Obergefell ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court that legally redefined the oldest institution in the history of humanity, pastors, as they prepare their sermons, should always be asking, “Where is the enemy at work in attempting to deceive my congregation?” Likewise, any organization devoted to the works of Jesus Christ—or seeking to “impact the world for Jesus Christ”—should be well prepared to confront the popular...

It's great that C-3PO knows over six million languages. It's less great when he buzzkills your Pentecostal revival by saying all the languages you're speaking are fake. And yes, sorry, 1 Corinthians 13, not 14. My apologies. Or, as they say in Pentecostalism, twa bravintisha.

Pastor Andy Stanley says the Bible is too hard to defend Evangelical pastor preaches that the Bible isn’t the foundation for the Christian faith by Lita Cosner and Scott Gillis Published: 22 September 2016 (GMT+10) Andy Stanley has a church network of over 30,000 people in the Atlanta area, and his church was rated the fastest-growing in America in 2014 and 2015.1 Recently, he has been criticized by many evangelicals for saying that we need to take the focus off the Bible and put it on the Resurrection, because he claims that gives us a firmer foundation for our faith....

There is an “urgent need to cultivate positive dialogue” with Muslims, Archbishop Blase Cupich of Chicago said in a statement. The prelate, who serves as co-chairman of the National Catholic-Muslim Dialogue, stated: The report "Danger & Dialogue: American Catholic Public Opinion and Portrayals of Islam," recently published by the Bridge Initiative, a research project on Islamophobia based in Georgetown University's Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim - Christian Understanding, raises serious questions about how Catholics view their Muslim brothers and sisters. “When there is no attempt to learn more about one another, we see an increase in the tendency...

The latest from the Lutheran Satire guy.

On Jesus’ Merciful Call of St. Matthew, a Great Sinner Msgr. Charles Pope • September 21, 2016 • On the Feast Day of St. Matthew (celebrated Wednesday of this week), we must acknowledge a great mercy in Jesus’ call. As a tax collector, Matthew was considered a great sinner. In fact, the term “tax collector” was a biblical euphemism for great sinner. Yet despite this, Jesus called him to be an Apostle.In our times many set mercy and the fact that we are sinners in in opposition to each other. But the Lord Jesus unites these realities together. For...