Free Republic

As COVID-19 spread across the world in early 2020, economic activity froze. Entire cities in China were put on lockdown, and the lockdowns soon spread to Europe, the United States, and the whole world. With people confined to their homes, many businesses closed. The global economy came to a grinding halt. Global supply chains broke, airlines canceled flights, and an oil glut drove down petroleum prices as supply outstripped demand. The economic shock of the coronavirus hammered global markets. Bond markets went into freefall, stocks plummeted, and global trade slowed to a near stop. The abrupt impact of COVID-19 on...

As I have gone from place to place speaking and teaching on Bible prophecy, I have often said, if the Rapture does not happen soon, there is no telling what our nation and God’s people will face. No ordinary person could have imagined the things that people are seeing and doing now. Some of it is demonic, to say the very least, and if these are birth pains, things will get worse and there is no telling what our nation and God’s people will face in the near future. The globalists have big plans, but they are not in control;...

.. S I N G P R A I S E S T O . O U R G O D . P S A L M 1 4 7 New International Version, emphases added Abrdgd: the complete text is in your Bible . C L I C K : To read PSALM 147 in full To hear MAX McLEAN reading it To hear a DRAMATIZATION of it HIGHLY recommended by Maudeen! To see an ANIMATION of the Psalms 9 7 9 B. C. . SPECIAL NOTE TO ART LOVERS This series illustrates the Bible, primarily using art. But when...

January 24 2021 Memorial of St. Francis de Sales Parish of St. Francis De Sales, Lake Geneva, Wisconsin Lectionary 68Readings at MassLiturgical Colour: Green.First readingJonah 3:1-5,10 ©The people of Nineveh renounce their evil behaviourThe word of the Lord was addressed to Jonah: ‘Up!’ he said ‘Go to Nineveh, the great city, and preach to them as I told you to.’ Jonah set out and went to Nineveh in obedience to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was a city great beyond compare: it took three days to cross it. Jonah went on into the city, making a day’s journey....

January 23 2021 Memorial of the Blessed Virgin Mary Iglesia de Santa María Magdalena – Mondéjar, SpainLiturgical Colour: Green.First readingHebrews 9:2-3,11-14 ©He has entered the sanctuary once and for all through his own bloodThere was a tent which comprised two compartments: the first, in which the lamp stand, the table and the presentation loaves were kept, was called the Holy Place; then beyond the second veil, an innermost part which was called the Holy of Holies. But now Christ has come, as the high priest of all the blessings which were to come. He has passed through the greater, the...

.. H I S L O V E E N D U R E S F O R E V E R . P S A L M 1 3 6 New International Version, emphases added Abrdgd: the complete text is in your Bible . C L I C K : To read PSALM 136 in full To hear MAX McLEAN reading it To hear a DRAMATIZATION of it HIGHLY recommended by Maudeen! To see an ANIMATION of the Psalms 9 7 9 B. C. . PSALM 136 . 1 Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good.His love...

Didn't play well among her left-wing pals Christian author Jen Hatmaker received the opportunity to lead a group of fellow left-wing progressive faith leaders in prayer Thursday at the National Prayer Service, an event held every four years the day after the presidential inauguration to honor and pray for the president and the country. And now Hatmaker is mea culpa-ing all over social media for daring to thank God for giving America the land we have — and she's throwing event organizers under the bus for her troubles. What did Hatmaker say? When it came time for her to lead...

.. G I V E P R A I S E T O . T H E L O R D. P S A L M 1 0 5 New International Version, emphases added Abrdgd: the complete text is in your Bible . C L I C K : To read PSALM 105 in full To hear MAX McLEAN reading it To hear a DRAMATIZATION of it HIGHLY recommended by Maudeen! To see an ANIMATION of the Psalms 9 7 9 B. C. . PSALM 105 . .. 4 Look to the LORD and his strength; seek his face always....

...Israel’s first king, Saul, only governs some of these people. His successor, David, pulls all the tribes together under him. David’s son, Solomon, does little to hold them in place. When Solomon dies in 930 B.C.E., the kingdom fractures into big northern Israel and meager southern Judah. The north names its capital Samaria. The southern kings retain David’s capital at Jerusalem. As scholar Raymond Brown points out, the distance between Samaria and Jerusalem was 35 miles—closer than Baltimore and Washington, D.C., which share an airport. But proximity doesn’t equal intimacy. Eventually, Samaria becomes a catchword for the entire northern region....

January 22 2021 Day of Prayer for the Legal Protection of Unborn Children Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi, Assisi, Italy Lectionary 315Readings at MassLiturgical Colour: Green.First readingHebrews 8:6-13 ©The first covenant is already oldWe have seen that Christ has been given a ministry of a far higher order, and to the same degree it is a better covenant of which he is the mediator, founded on better promises. If that first covenant had been without a fault, there would have been no need for a second one to replace it. And in fact God does find fault with them;...

A 1,500-year-old Greek inscription bearing the name “Christ, born of Mary” was unearthed in northern Israel, the Antiquities Authority announced on Wednesday. The archaeologists discovered the inscription engraved at the entrance of an impressive building from the Byzantine or early Islamic period, featuring mosaic pavements decorated with a geometric design. The finding was unveiled in a salvage excavation directed by Tzachi Lang and Kojan Haku ahead of the construction of a road inside the village of Taiba in the Jezreel Valley. “We did not know what to expect ahead of the work, but we knew that this was an area...

The first time I heard the name, “Joe Biden,” I wanted to weep. On December 18, 1972, struggling through Washington traffic to my office at the White House, my car radio reported the deaths of a newly elected senator’s young wife and baby daughter in Delaware in a horrific collision. For a moment I forgot that Biden was a political opponent. Instead, as a husband and father myself, I thought of a terribly bereaved human being and choked back tears as I reflected on his grief. Now, all these years later, the last time I heard the name, “Joe Biden,”...

.. PRAISE THE LORD, MY SOUL . P S A L M 1 0 4 New International Version, emphases added Abrdgd: the complete text is in your Bible . C L I C K : To read PSALM 104 in full To hear MAX McLEAN reading it To hear a DRAMATIZATION of it HIGHLY recommended by Maudeen! To see an ANIMATION of the Psalms 9 7 9 B. C. . PSALM 104 . 1 Praise the Lord, my soul. . . Lord my God, you are very great; you are clothed with splendor and majesty. 2 The Lord wraps himself...

January 21 2021 Memorial of St. Patroclus St. Patrokli-Dom in Soest, GermanyBy Frank Vincentz - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=4022349 Lectionary 314Readings at MassLiturgical Colour: Red.Readings for the feriaReadings for the memorialThese are the readings for the feriaFirst readingHebrews 7:25-8:6 ©He has offered sacrifice once and for all by offering himselfThe power of Jesus to save is utterly certain, since he is living for ever to intercede for all who come to God through him. To suit us, the ideal high priest would have to be holy, innocent and uncontaminated, beyond the influence of sinners, and raised up above...

Sometimes I worry that by questioning the way God took certain actions, the way he did according to scripture .. I worry that I may be on the thin line between wanting answers to these questions or actual blasphemy!? One of my most nagging questions and one that seems to have no rational (or scriptural) explanation is "why did Jesus have to be tortured and slaughtered like he was?" Why the carrying and dragging of the heavy beams of the cross? That effort was so cruel that he fell many times on the way to where he would be impaled!...

The result of Democrats controlling Washington will be "more regulation, less freedom, more taxation, less religious liberty, more socialism, less democracy [and] more funds for abortion," contends James Dobson. And, he said in his latest newsletter, there will be "less support for the sanctity of human life, less funding for the military, more illegal immigration, more restrictions on speech, less patriotism, more wasteful spending, less support for families, more regulations on business, more appeasement of China, Iran, Russia, and North Korea, less support for the electoral college, trillions more dollars for climate nonsense, more LGBTQ propaganda, less moral compunction, more...

.. S A V E M E O G O D. P S A L M 6 9 New International Version, emphases added Abrdgd: the complete text is in your Bible . C L I C K : To read PSALM 69 in full To hear MAX McLEAN reading it To hear a DRAMATIZATION of it HIGHLY recommended by Maudeen! To see an ANIMATION of the Psalms 9 7 9 B. C. . PSALM 69 . 1 Save me, O God, for the waters have come up to my neck. 2 I sink in the miry depths, where there is...

January 20 2021 Daily Readings Memorial of St. Sebastian St. Sebastian's Church, Queens, New York, New YorkBy Antony-22 - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=79276350 Lectionary 313Readings at MassLiturgical Colour: Green.First readingHebrews 7:1-3,15-17 ©You are a priest of the order of Melchizedek, for everYou remember that Melchizedek, king of Salem, a priest of God Most High, went to meet Abraham who was on his way back after defeating the kings, and blessed him; and also that it was to him that Abraham gave a tenth of all that he had. By the interpretation of his name, he is, first, ‘king...

Here Catholic pro-family activist Peter Wolfgang argues that, despite his failings, Donald Trump did much for the Church and for the causes she supports, and that we will miss him when Biden becomes president. In the companion article, theologian Holly Taylor Coolman argues that, whatever good he may have done, many of his actions were deeply opposed to Catholic teaching, and that alliance of many Catholics with him damaged the Church. Donald Trump’s presidency ended in disaster. He lost his bid for reelection. Democratic victory in the Georgia Senate runoffs will put the pro-life and religious liberty causes at an...

.. PRAISE AWAITS YOU, OUR GOD . P S A L M 6 5 New International Version, emphases added Abrdgd: the complete text is in your Bible . C L I C K : To read PSALM 65 in full To hear MAX McLEAN reading it To hear a DRAMATIZATION of it HIGHLY recommended by Maudeen! To see an ANIMATION of the Psalms 9 7 9 B. C. . PSALM 65 For the director of music. A psalm of David. A song. 1 Praise awaits you, our God, in Zion; to you our vows will be fulfilled. 2 You who...