Free Republic

Friends, in today’s Gospel, Jesus declares that he has come to fulfill the Law. The same Jesus who railed against the hypocritical legalism of the Pharisees also said, "I have come not to abolish the law but to fulfill it." And the same Jesus who threatened to tear down the temple in Jerusalem also promised "raise it up" in three days. The point is this: Jesus certainly criticized the corruption in the institutional religion of his time, but he by no means called for its wholesale dismantling. He was a loyal, observant, law-abiding Jew. What he effected was a transfiguration...

An often way too misunderstood verse from the Bible is, 1 Chronicles 4:10, more commonly identified as the "Prayer of Jabez". In the New King James version, the prayer reads; " And Jabez called on the God of Israel saying, “Oh, that You would bless me indeed, and enlarge my territory, that Your hand would be with me, and that You would keep me from evil, that I may not cause pain!” So God granted him what he requested." The introductory text is self explanatory, Jabez is asking God to bless him and enlarge his territory. That is, increased and...

ALEXANDRIA, La., Jan. 26, 2009 – At 38 years old and with a 15-year-old daughter, Angela Fry took on the challenge of basic training and the possibility of deployment. She already had a degree, so it wasn't for college. She had a job, so it wasn't for the money. Army 2nd Lt. Angela K. Fry hugs her cousin Stephanie G. East, of Hackberry, La., after East and other family members were rescued from flood waters by the Louisiana Army National Guard after Hurricane Ike in September 2008. Fry joined the Louisiana National Guard when she was 38 years old....