Free Republic

A federal judge has ordered the release of a defendant convicted in the January 6 Capitol attack due to a Supreme Court ruling.The Supreme Court ruled in June that federal felony "obstruction of an official proceeding" charges are only valid if the government can prove that a defendant "impaired the availability or integrity" of documents or records rather than merely obstructing an official proceeding.Prosecutors had used the charge against hundreds of January 6 defendants under the assumption that it pertained to obstructing an official proceeding like the January 6, 2021, joint session of Congress, which was stormed by a mob...

Stedman Graham misheard question about Oprah running and DIDN'T mean she 'would absolutely' go for the White House, claims best friend Gayle King When Oprah Winfrey's longtime partner Stedman Graham said she 'would absolutly' seek the White House if prompted, he misheard the question Gayle King, Winfrey's best friend, explained on CBS This Morning that Graham told her he thought the reporter asked him if she would make a good president Graham's comments added fuel to the fire that Winfrey might launch a presidential bid in 2020 to take on President Trump, another entertainer On CBS This Morning, King said...

  THE MAN WHO UNDERSTOOD WOMAN by Ray C. Stedman The story of Jesus and the woman at the well of Samaria helps us deal with many modern issues. Here Jesus crosses the barrier of race prejudice and interacts with a race hated and rejected by the Jews. That helps us greatly in our own bigoted, prejudicial society. Our Lord encounters a moral outcast and displays for our instruction the proper approach to take with such a person. In this story he also settles a theological quarrel that had been going on for centuries as to the proper place and...

Today we come to Genesis 2, and one of those unexplained and unexplainable misplaced chapter divisions which we find so frequently in the uninspired division of our Bibles. The first three verses of Chapter 2 really belong with Chapter 1 and complete the record of the creative week. We must now consider the seventh day of creation. Yesterday, which was the seventh day of the week, my wife and I attended a Bar Mitzvah service for a Jewish neighbor lad, to hear him conduct the service much as a rabbi would. He read, for the first time, from the scrolls...

  THE BEST POSSIBLE NEWS by Ray C. Stedman The section in the Gospel of John to which we come this morning begins with the world's best known Bible verse. I have been in meetings where people were giving memory verses, and before long someone always stood up and quoted John 3:16, and everybody else said, "Oh, he's given my verse!" For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. (John 3:16 RSV) There is debate among the scholars as to whether those words...

  WATER TO WINE by Ray C. Stedman In the second chapter of John's gospel we have the account of the first miracle of our Lord. The scene has now shifted from Judea, where John the Baptist was baptizing in the river Jordan, to seventy miles north, the area of Galilee. Jesus and his disciples have walked all that way. On the third day there was a marriage at Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there; Jesus also was invited to the marriage, with his disciples. When the wine gave out, the mother of Jesus said to...

  THE MAN WHO KNEW MEN by Ray C. Stedman Next year is election year. Political drums are already beating. Already banners are beginning to fly, and the politicians are beginning to spout as we head toward that three-ring circus by which we choose the leaders of the world for the next four years. I could not help but note the contrast with the passage we have this morning from the Gospel of John. Here Jesus chooses the men who will change the course of world history for twenty centuries to come. What a difference! John tells us that Jesus...

  THE STRANGER OF GALILEE by Ray C. Stedman Who was Jesus -- visibly? What did men see when they looked at him, when they heard him teach, when they followed him and lived with him? A great many images of Christ today are far removed from the biblical picture of him. They range all the way from "gentle Jesus meek and mild" -- a sort of harmless, gentle spirit whom no one need take very seriously -- to a fiery-eyed radical, all set to burn everything to the ground and overthrow the establishment. In the midst of these contradictory...

LIVING DANGEROUSLY Chapter 12. Matthew 25:14-30 by Ray C. Stedman     Parables can be as exciting and challenging as detective stories. Even more so, for in the end they turn out to be dealing with real life, while detective stories can be pretty far-fetched. But parables, like detective stories, are filled with half-hidden truths and secret meanings and yet with clues to these secrets scattered liberally throughout. Parables are God's exciting way of challenging us to a mystery hunt, and the treasure we are after is a new insight into the nature of life which will enrich us in...

  HELLO DARKNESS by Ray C. Stedman In the prologue to the Gospel of John, the apostle is setting forth a summary of who Jesus really is. Last week we looked at who Jesus is eternally, and why the world cannot forget him. Here is a quotation from a very well known personality, who found he could not forget Jesus: I know men, and I tell you that Jesus Christ is not a mere man. Everything in Christ astonishes me. His spirit overawes me, and his will confounds me. Between him and whoever else in the world there is no...

  WHO IS JESUS? by Ray C. Stedman This morning we are beginning studies in the Gospel according to John. This gospel was written by the disciple of whom it was said, "Jesus loved him." John was the closest intimate of our Lord during the days of his ministry, so this constitutes a very important gospel. In September of 1950 I came to this area, to what was then called Peninsula Bible Fellowship, to begin a ministry, after three months of travel and close companionship with Dr. H. A. Ironside. Dr. Ironside (who was often called "The Apostle of Fundamentalism"), was well known as...

THE MESSAGE OF FIRST CORINTHIANS by Ray C. Stedman The first epistle of Paul to the Corinthians is a very, very important letter for us because it so thoroughly captures the problems that we face as moderns living in this modern age. The reason is, of course, that Corinth was the most American city in the New Testament -- it was a resort city, the capital of pleasure in the Roman Empire. If you remember your geography you know it was located on the Peloponnesian peninsula, and the conditions under which the Corinthians lived were very much like the conditions...

  The Gospel of John: WHO IS THIS MAN? by Ray C. Stedman The fourth Gospel holds peculiar significance to me for many reasons, but especially because it is written by the disciple closest to our Lord. When you read the Gospel of Matthew, you are reading the record of our Lord as seen through the eyes of a devoted disciple. Mark and Luke, of course, were dedicated Christians who knew and loved Jesus Christ, though they learned about him largely through the testimony of others, but John is one who leaned upon his breast. He was of that inner...

Oprah: Daytime Talk’s Jihadi Sister May 25, 2005 By Debbie Schlussel Ann Coulter says Katie Couric is “the affable Ava Braun” of daytime TV. But Couric’s got nothing on Oprah Winfrey. **** Cheating husbands don’t get off as easy as Islamic terrorists, murderers, and torturers in Winfrey’s world. **** Last month, Oprah’s “O” asked readers to understand “The Heart of a Destroyer,” Mohammed Atta. You remember him—the Al-Qaeda ringleader of the 9/11 hijackers who murdered 3,000 Americans. But that’s not exactly the way “O”’s “reading room” wants you to remember him. Beneath a picture of young Mohammed and his smiling...