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The Secret: the Law of Attraction, that you can use mental/mind control to get what you want
is New Age/Theophostic/secret mystery religion/psychology/metaphysics stuff that has been around for thousands and
thousands of years.

The Secret teachers are not followers of Jesus Christ and have rejected the God of the Bible, and
the truth of God's word, and have rejected faith in His Son, Jesus. They have fashioned a system of
personal power, based on human power. This philosophy and method is just the doorway/lowest level
of the world of deep occultic mystery religion, which is the belief that either lucifer is god, or "we are god".
This has been around for a long time and can be traced to Egypt, the tower of Babel and
to the garden of Eden, when the serpent said, "yea, has God really said that?....", encouraging
doubt, rebellion and ideas of human deification, power and control; the idea that you can create
your own power and authority, for yourself. This is old. This is satan's religion; it is very popular.

In contrast, God calls us to have faith, to do what He commands, and to trust Him: The writer of Hebrews defines
faith as follows, "Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain
of what we do not see." True Biblical faith is
believing God can and will do exactly what He has promised in the Bible, and putting your trust in Him.

Those who pervert true Biblical faith make it about what we want, when true
Biblical faith is about what God wants, and our faith and trust in Him, and obeying Him because of our love for Him, and because He is God.

There are no secrets to living this life. God gave us
everything we would ever need in the pages of His Word.

Did you know occult actually means, "hidden", or, "secret".


God has openly revealed all truth that we need, and He has not kept it a secret.
Secret philosophies that come from the world of occult and sorcery have been
keeping these philosophies secret for a long time, but now they are beginning to introduce
them to the general public, because the whole world is being prepared
for Antichrist. Like the bible says, even now, there are many little "antichrists" in the world.
An anti christ is anything or person that opposes or makes itself a substitute in place of Jesus Christ.
There are many in the world now. Oprah is one for sure. Her following is huge.
People even talk of a 'church of Oprah'. She denies Christ, that He is the only way to God, that He is God in the flesh,
and she encourages her following to follow the new age philosophy of
"Do what you want, follow your dreams, be true/faithful to yourself, trust your heart" This is satan's religion.


These are anti christ messages which come from satan, because this is what he told Eve
in the garden, and she listened to him.

Instead, God tells us to, "Do what God says, follow Christ, be true/faithful to the Lord, trust in the Lord."

The world system has many things it offers for "help", but God's word says, "my help is in the Lord".
He is our help, not the power of our mind.

Following Jesus is hard because we have to count the cost. Part of the cost is deciding to choose to not follow
the world anymore, or follow those who promote the teachings of satan. This is hard for us all because we want
to do what feels good and what is easy, but Jesus never said it would be easy to be His disciple,
He just promised to be faithful to His promises.

He is our help ps 33:20
O Lord, be Thou my helper ps30:10
Behold, God is my helper ps 54:4
The LORD is my helper Heb13:6

If we are going to follow God, His word has what we need.


The Word has a lot to say about 'secret' in the NT. In all passages, the 'secret' is
the deity, incarnation, and revelation of Jesus Christ, now revealed to us.


Here's some cool verses about this:

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that their hearts may be encouraged, having been knit together in love,
and attaining to all the wealth (spiritual wealth) that comes from the full assurance
of understanding, resulting in a true knowledge of God's mystery, that is, Christ Himself,
in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
I say this in order that no one may delude you with persuasive argument. col2:2-4

See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception,
according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world,(the unbelieving world's philosophies)
rather than according to Christ. For in Him all the fulness of Deity dwells in bodily form. col2:8-9


Now to Him who is able to establish you according to my gospel
and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery
which has kept secret for long ages past,
but now is manifested, and by the Scriptures of the prophets,
according to the commandment of the eternal God,
has been made known to al the nations, leading to obedience of faith;
to the only wise God, through Jesus Christ, be the glory forever. Amen. rom16:25-27

The God of Israel is in control.

Interfaith involves different religions coming together. Ecumenical would be different kinds of Christians coming together.

Pope Ben XVl is wrong. Each person on the planet is not a child of God.
Each person is a creature; a creation of God, but only those in Christ by grace,
through faith, is a child of God (Ephesians 2:8).
But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of man, but of God (John 1:12,13).
We are only sons of God through faith in Jesus Christ (Galations 3:26).

LOL! The guy in the original pic had way too many Cool Ranch Doritos apparantly.
It is getting hard to satire the modern church though; reality is seriously trumping attempts at poking fun.

"in addition to managing the official aid entrusted to it by the federal government,"

hi Dilbert. Hey, the reason this is "ok" with powers that be, is, this is exactly what they want. Yes, you'd think that, since Catholic Charities are a religious organization, that it would violate separation of church and state. A threat to the very foundation of our republic! But this is what politicos want. Assuming this group has signed up with the "Faith Based Initiatives" program (assuming since they are managing federal money entrusted to them), they will be using government money to fund government desired social programs, using the volunteer workforce of the private organization. The separation of church and state issue is (imo) solved, in the fact that basically the private organization now has no more freedom of speech as a private organization; they have signed up to become an arm of the government, in taking the federal money.

When Faith based initiatives first came out, I watched Bush on CSPAN wax eloquent on the new initiative, and he said, quote:

"Of course, there are limitations to the program. One, no discrimination"
(This meant, the organization cannot discriminate about who they help,
and they cannot discriminate regarding who they let help them implement this program.)

"and, two, no prostylization."

So, according to Faith Based Initiatives, any religious organization taking this money, is legally forbidden to say anything or do anything, in the course of helping with physical needs, that would in any way be promoting or talking about any issues of belief or faith/practice. No need to call "ACLU".

Hope this helps. Hearing the pres. say this with my own ears, sure "helped" me understand
what is really going on.

You are right. I understand your point. My dh has done all you have mentioned regarding proper training and handling. It's a female thing to respond this way. For me anyway. I'm not the combat type.

respectfully,
Gal

thanks CCC for the ping!

this is not funny, it is sad.

Thanks for the ping! Went last year, it was a "memorable" experience. Will try to go again this year.

unsolicited advice: leave the kiddies at home...

merry Christmas!
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Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? Matthew 2: 2

When Jesus was born, there were many people in and outside of Judea who were waiting for Him. They knew that God Himself would send a savior (messiah) into the world to save sinners by being the blood payment for our sins. Who else but God could save us from our sins? Surely there is nothing a man could ever do to satisfy the holiness, righteousness and justice of Almighty God, and only God could pay for our sins against God. Only He is holy, righteous. Only He could come and do for us, out of His mercy and grace, what we could never do for ourselves, being sinners. They knew the Promised One would be Savior, King and Lord. These trusted in God as they waited for Him to come.

Some of many prophecies foretelling the coming of the messiah (savior), written hundreds or thousands of years before:
Gen3:15, Gen12:3, 18:18, Gen49:10, Ps132:11, Jer23:5, 33:15, Isaiah11:10, Ps2:7, Ps16:10, Ps22, Ps69:21, Ps68:18, Ps72:10-11, Ps110:1, Ps118:22, Is8:14, Is28:16, Is7:14, Is42:1, 50:6, Is52:13-53:12, Is55:3-4, Is59:16, Is61:1-11, Is35:5-6, Jer23:5-6, Dan9:24-26, Micah5:2, Malachi3:1, Zech9:9, Zech12:10, Ps22:16, Zech13:7, Joel2:28, Ps2:2, Is25:8, Is63:1, Ps2:6-9, Is11:10....

The shepherds sought Him. Luke 2. An angel of the Lord told them the good news which was for all the people (Jews and peoples of the nations alike): in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. The multitude of angels praised God and the shepherds went right away to see this thing which the Lord had made known to them. They found Him lying in a manger, in a stable, and they worshipped Him as Savior.

The wise men sought Him. Matthew 2. They knew, even being from the far east, that the prophecies concerning the Jewish Messiah were being fulfilled. They probably read Daniel and Isaiah. Perhaps they read all of the Law and the Prophets (the Old Testament). If the prophecies were true, they must not fail to seek and find Him! They saw the star over Judea and knew that it announced the coming of the Jewish Messiah, the one who would be King of the Jews. They travelled far, following the star, and upon arriving in the capitol of Judea, Jerusalem, inquired of the evil king, “Where is he who has been born King of the Jews?” Herod was not paying attention to the prophecies and had to inquire of his chief priests and scribes to seach the scriptures to answer the question. There they found the answer in Micah5:2. So off to Bethlehem they went and found the Child in a house and fell down before Him and worshiped Him as King.

The old man Simeon sought Him. Luke 2.Full of faith and seeking the the promised messiah, he knew he would not die until he had seen the Lord’s promised Christ (annointed one). When he found Him in the temple, there to be presented on the eighth day, according to Jewish law, he held the baby in his arms and broke out in a song of praise to God, blessing Him and saying that now he could die in peace, since he had seen the Lord’s salvation which He had given to all peoples; a light of revelation of God to the Gentiles, and the glory of God’s people Israel. Simeon knew that the Lord’s messiah would be savior to Jews and Gentiles alike. He found Him in Jerusalem and worshipped Him as the light and glory-the salvation- of the Lord.

Where is He now? Still in a manger? God incarnate, He was born to die! He came to seek and save that which was lost. Dying and shedding His blood for our sins, He rose up from the grave, raised to life and ascended up to the right hand of God the Father in heaven. He is exalted and crowned with glory and honor. Someday He will come back in power and glory. He who came the first time a sacrifice for sin will come a second time as the King of Glory! Call upon His name!

All these things being true, we must not fail to seek Him and to find Him and to respond with faith and with worship! Have you sought the savior? God came to seek and save sinners like me. Come to Him. Seek Him. Find Him. You know Who Jesus is: God. You know where He is: in heaven, someday to come again. You know how to find Him: call upon His name. “Lord I call upon your name. Forgive me. Save me. I repent of my sin. I believe and trust in You.”
They that call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. He who seeks finds Jesus, the salvation of the Lord.


love,
Gal.5:1

How about the basement?
The basement I saw had all that. In the basement. The one I saw had no "gift shop" (lol). Maybe this was an abnormal lodge. Yes, perhaps this one was perverted. Look, I'm not going to argue with masons. It looked to me that the masons are a pretty religious deal. Looked like 'religion' to me. Sure looked like worship took place there. There is only one true God, the LORD the God of the bible. I am a Christian. Jesus Christ is Lord. He is God. There is no other.


Gal.5:1

Fascinating. Whenever I've mentioned this experience of mine, I get a violent reaction from some people who are sympathetic to masonry or who must be masons themselves.

Yes, I'm sure it must be true, what you say about the American founders- that they were masons. I'm not argiung that at all. I don't know either way, but if true I certainly would not be surprised. : ) That is my point- it was AMERICANS who built the building I got to "tour".

I came back to FR just to have this conversation with you! : D

No I am not a mason, I'm a wife, mother, writer, evangelist, teacher...
I did not see any rituals, thank God. I saw the place when it was 'empty'.

Yes, yes, yes, you have many fine friends in the Masonic order, and they are people of the finest character. I am not saying your friends are bad. I did not say anything about your friends. : ) Yes, yes, I see the emblems on our currency. There it is!

I am sorry it is offensive. I know it sounds strange. Believe me, it was strange to be in the Grand Masonic Lodge!

All I am saying is, the people who hung out at this Masonic lodge- at least some of them -were sure worshipping something, and it was not the Lord Jesus Christ. I am not saying Masonry "fosters" devil worship. The people who used the place I saw were certainly worshipping someone. How can this be ignorance if this is my personal first hand witness testimony? I am ignorant of what I saw with my own eyes? Someone there was worshipping someone who likes to be symbolized with a pentagram and a goat with horns head. (shrugs). Look. I am sorry it upset you. It was a shock to me too. Made me realize some people are real serious about worshipping other entities besides the Lord God Almighty.

I try to forget about it, really. Then, someone mentions something (in this case, the story involved a pentagram) and there it is again- that memory. These kinds of things are hard to forget. I did not mean to hurt you. God bless you.
love
Gal.5:1

oy vey, why did I come back onto FR? lol.
Yes, I know all that- those ideas about the founders. I do not know which is true- were they masons? Christians? deists? I suppose there were some of each. I am not a history expert. What I meant in the about me comment was referring to the content of what is written in the Constitution, regarding the original intent of how it was meant to be interpreted, as opposed to the judges who think of late, that they can reinterpret it accroding to the whims of their own political opinion, that the Constitution is a living, changing document- you know - that whole issue. Legislating from the bench and making up wild ideas about how they think the Constitution should be interpreted according to their political bias.

Regardless of the spiritual condition and alleigances of the founders,(?) I am still thankful that I (still) can meet, speak, publish, worship, etc, in freedom. That is what I am thankful for.

of course I was what?

thank you for clarifying. I appreciate it.

I don't know what that is (E clampus vitus). All I know is those Masons tried to keep hidden something about how they really worship- but it did not remain hidden. This experience was an illustration to me of how the things hidden in the darkness will be exposed someday and judged. God will bring these things to light and will deal with them. That is a good thing.

Yea, the 'crying Mary' statue is nutty alright. Are you saying my eyewitness account is nutty as well? That I did not see this, that I am nutty or making it up? ok, fine. : ) that does not bother me. It's no biggie, God will sort all this kind of stuff out in His time. : )

No, it looks like some use children.
Btw, I have been inside the depths of a Grand Masonic Lodge where at one time luciferian worship was taking place, judging by the enormous altar, throne, satanic symbols etc. The enormous 12' pentagram with the goat head 'god' depicted within pretty much made it clear what had been going on in there. So much for "secret" societies that try to get the public to think that they are such nice, upstanding members of society... right.