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STATES TURNED NURSING HOMES INTO 'SLAUGHTER HOUSES' BY FORCING THEM TO ADMIT DISCHARGED COVID-19 PATIENTS
from: FEE

Gov. Cuomo (7 May) At an April 23 press conference, Gov. Andrew Cuomo sounded indignant when a reporter asked if anyone had objected to New York's policy of forcing nursing homes to admit recently discharged COVID-19 patients. "They don’t have the right to object," Cuomo answered before the reporter finished his question. "That is the rule, and that is the regulation, and they have to comply with it."

New York isn't the only state to adopt a policy ordering long-term care facilities to admit COVID-19-infected patients discharged from hospitals. New Jersey, Massachusetts, and California - three states also hit particularly hard by the novel coronavirus - passed similar policies to free up hospital beds to make room for sicker patients.

The practice is coming under increased scrutiny by health experts and family members of deceased patients who say the orders needlessly put the most susceptible populations at risk. "The whole thing has just been handled awfully ... by everybody in regard to nursing homes," said Kathleen Cole, a nurse who recently lost her 89-year-old mother who lived at Ferncliff Nursing Home in Rhinebeck, New York. "It’s like a slaughterhouse at these places."

Cole, who shared her story with the Bucks County Courier Times, told the paper her mother, Dolores McGoldrick, became infected with COVID-19 on April 2 after Ferncliff re-admitted a resident who had been discharged in late March. Two weeks later her mother, a former school teacher, was dead.

McGoldrick is one of nearly five thousand COVID-19 victims who died in New York nursing homes, according to new figures from The New York Times. New York's high nursing home death toll is not an outlier. California recently released data showing that some 40 percent of California’s COVID-19 fatalities have come from eldercare homes. In Pennsylvania, nursing homes account for 65 percent of COVID-19 deaths. Both states, like New York, had orders in place that required nursing homes to admit recently released COVID-19 patients. [read more~~]

COMMENTARY: It should come as no surprise that nursing homes and long-term care facilities, which are not equipped with intensive care units and isolation wards, become a breeding ground for highly infectious diseases such as COVID-19. Elderly people often have weaker immune systems and pre-existing medical conditions such as high blood pressure, heart failure, diabetes, and obesity - all of these conditions are the prime target for becoming Wuhan Virus fatalities.

 


 

SUPREME COURT ONCE AGAIN HEARS WHY LITTLE SISTERS OF THE POOR DON’T WANT TO FUND CONTRACEPTIVES
from: LifeSite News

 the Little Sisters of the Poor (6 May) Today, the Little Sisters of the Poor, pro-life nuns who care for the elderly, are once again part of a case before the U.S. Supreme Court. Their goal is to stop the government from forcing the Catholic community to participate in the provision of contraceptives and life-ending drugs to their employees.

The Supreme Court began hearing oral arguments at 10:00 a.m. EST. Given the coronavirus restrictions on public gatherings, everything is set to take place remotely by phone. "The Court will provide a live audio feed of the arguments to FOX News (the network pool chair), the Associated Press, and C-SPAN, and they will in turn provide a simultaneous feed for the oral arguments to livestream on various media platforms," the Supreme Court announced.

Preceding the oral arguments, there was a "virtual" rally to support the Little Sisters of the Poor. "Leaders from around the country will offer messages of support for the Little Sisters of the Poor as they head (virtually) to the Supreme Court," the organizers stated. The Obama administration had first mandated employers to participate in or help facilitate the provision of contraceptives, as well as abortifacient drugs, to their employees. The Little Sisters of the Poor refused to go along with the new policy, as did Hobby Lobby and other religious entities.

If the Little Sisters of the Poor – pro-life Catholic nuns – were forced to provide contraceptive and life-ending drugs and devices, they would explicitly contradict their mission of respecting the dignity of every human life. On October 6, 2017, the Department of Health and Human Services came out with an updated, broad religious exemption protecting communities like the Little Sisters of the Poor from having to provide goods and services that would violate their conscience.

Thus, the Trump administration admitted that the federal government broke the law by trying to force the Little Sisters and others to provide services like the week-after-pill in their health plans that violated their religious beliefs. Nevertheless, the state of Pennsylvania went on to sue the federal government, arguing the religious exemption should be removed. [read more~~]

COMMENTARY: It begs credulity to hear that the government wants to force nuns to pay for services that not only violate their Christian moral belief of a preborn baby's sanctity of life, but that they would never use such services because they are celibate: they are nuns - women who have taken a vow to abstain from sexual relations! Next, the anti-religious nut-cases in high places might try forcing Catholic mens' monasteries to offer pregnancy coverage.

 


 

METR. EPIFANIY CONGRATULATED HEAD OF UGCC ON HIS 50TH BIRTHDAY, EXPRESSING HOPE FOR GROWING MUTUAL RELATIONS BETWEEN OCU & UGCC
from: Religious Information Service of Ukraine

Metr. Epifaniy and Patr. Sviatoslav (5 May) Metropolitan Epifaniy of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church congratulated the Head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church His Beatitude Sviatoslav on his 50th birthday anniversary.

“With a sense of brotherly love and joy in the Resurrected Christ I am expressing my cordial greetings on behalf of your 50th birthday anniversary! An age you reached today carries a significant meaning, as it is filled with academic and work accomplishments, spiritual and life experience, and above all, - keeps strength integrity and a living energy,” wrote the Head of the OCU in his greeting.

“I sincerely wish You to move on with further fruitful ministering for God’s glory and welfare of people, succeed in good intentions, have excellent health, strength and inspiration. I hope that development of good relations between Orthodox Ukrainians and Greek Catholics, which you contribute to immensely, will serve well the Church of Christ and all Ukrainian people,” wished Metropolitan Epifaniy. [read more~~]

COMMENTARY: Some light is shining through all the dark news about disease and death: East and West might finally be coming to some sort of friendly relationship, and the Ukraine - which means "on the border" - would be the natural place for this to happen. Will something substantive come of it? Only time will tell.

 


 

A "BREAKDOWN OF TRUST': PANDEMIC CORRODES CHURCH-STATE TIES IN RUSSIA
from: New York Times

Patr. Kirill at Pascha (5 May) A physics student at Moscow State University, Dmitri Pelipenko turned away from science in 2018 to devote himself to God, enrolling as a novice monk at Holy Trinity-St. Sergius Lavra, the spiritual center of the Russian Orthodox Church. His spiritual journey, derailed by the coronavirus, came to an abrupt and gruesome end shortly after the Orthodox Easter.

Admitted to the hospital after testing positive for the illness, Mr. Pelipenko smashed a window on April 24, jumped outside, doused his body with fuel from a church lamp and set himself on fire. He died from his burns two days later. His monastery swiftly blamed the suicide on "mental illness." Others, however, asked whether the monk's clearly fragile mental state had been broken by the apocalyptic mood gripping wide swaths of the Russian church, some of whose leaders have challenged the state's stay-at-home orders as the work of the devil.

Around the world, religious believers of many faiths have been among the most resistant to restrictions on public gatherings, seeing it as an infringement on their right to worship. But the clash between faith and public health has been particularly divisive in Russia, where memories of religious persecution in the Soviet Union have made priests and their flocks highly sensitive to any limits on their rituals.

The split has gone beyond routine ecclesiastical feuds between liberals and conservatives, expanding to corrode a defining feature of Russian Orthodoxy under President Vladimir V. Putin: its trust in and support for the Russian state. With some of the Russian church’s most important monasteries and other sacred sites now infested with the disease caused by the virus, COVID-19, the Orthodox Church faces not only a health crisis but a deep rift within its ranks about how the faithful should deal with the pandemic. [read more~~]

COMMENTARY: Aside from the New York Times' pretentious writing style and ignorance of religious life (a novice isn't a "novice monk" or later in the article a "monk"), was there pre-existing evidence of mental illness? And why does the term need to be in quotation marks? Dmitri's "clearly fragile mental state" (no evidence given) is then linked to "the apocalyptic mood gripping wide swaths of the Russian church" (again, no evidence given), implying that most religious people tend to be somewhat crazy. Dear NYT: it's not only religious believers who are questioning why this pandemic is happening.

 


 

JUSTICE CLARENCE THOMAS: ROE V. WADE WAS AN 'INCORRECT DECISION'
from: Live Action

Justice Clarence Thomas (26 Apr.) The Supreme Court recently overturned a 1972 case ruling that the Sixth Amendment required unanimous verdicts. Justice Brett Kavanaugh sided with the majority in a 6-3 decision, and in his ruling, it seemed to some that he implied a willingness to overturn Roe v. Wade.

Explaining the concept of stare decisis (to stand by things decided), Kavanaugh wrote that the doctrine of precedent does not mean the court can never overrule ones that are "erroneous." Listing several cases, Kavanaugh appeared to vaguely mention Roe v. Wade, but it seemed to be in the context of Planned Parenthood Southeastern Pennsylvania v. Casey. In this 1992 ruling, the trimester framework of Roe was overturned, but legalized abortion was upheld, and it was determined that "undue burdens" could not be placed on abortion access. It’s not clear if Kavanaugh was implying Roe v. Wade could be overturned on the basis of "erroneous precedent," as he did not mention the infamous 1973 ruling in the same paragraph as this phrase.

Justice Clarence Thomas, however, was much more direct. Joining the majority opinion in the case, Thomas listed three "incorrect decisions" by the Supreme Court: Obergefell v. Hodges, Roe v. Wade, and Dred Scott v. Sandford. In each of these cases, Thomas maintained that the Supreme Court had misrepresented the Fourteenth Amendment. Thomas has been a longtime critic of Roe, and he has strongly implied that he's willing to overturn it. Speaking on the court's reliance on precedent for decisions, Thomas said, "When faced with a demonstrably erroneous precedent, my rule is simple: We should not follow it."

He went on to say how the U.S. Constitution should come before court precedent. Thomas called on the court to "restore" jurisprudence and focus on the "correct, original meaning" of the laws it interprets. Both sides of the abortion debate have grown curious about whether or not the high court will soon overturn Roe v. Wade, transferring control of abortion laws back to the states. Last October, the Supreme Court heard a case involving a Louisiana law concerning admitting privileges. Abortion groups like Planned Parenthood openly expressed their fear that the case, June Medical Services v. Russo, would "strip away [women’s] rights." [read more~~]

COMMENTARY: It is interesting to notice that moral issues such as protecting human life at its beginning and at its natural ending have come to the fore during this COVID-19 pandemic: our attention is being focused on life-and-death issues that in "normal times" we would rather not think about.

 


 

RUSSIAN CHURCH OFFICIAL BELIEVES STALIN SHOULD NOT BE DEPICTED IN THE CHURCH
from: Interfax-Religion

Interfax Religion (4 May) Spokesman of the Russian Orthodox Church Vladimir Legoyda believes that Stalin's depiction should not be placed in the main church of the Russian Armed Forces. On air Vera radio, he noted that the practice of depicting secular people in church had always existed, but Stalin's figure had a very definite symbolism.

"Many troubles in lives of our people were connected with his name and it can't be ruled out," the church official explained. Not definitely evaluating Stalin's personality from the historic point of view, Legoyda expressed his personal viewpoint, saying that Stalin should not be depicted in the church.

It was earlier reported that authors of Russia's main military church were going to place mosaics on its walls with the most important moments of Russian history. It was planned to depict Stalin among other well-known politicians above heads of the participants in the Victory Day parade. [read more~~]

COMMENTARY: This new church for the Russian military had planned to open by now with a huge mosaic depicting Russia's famous leaders, among them Joseph Stalin and Vladimir Putin. But when word of this mosaic reached the Western media, it was hastily revised, removing Stalin's and Putin's visages.

 


 

OTHER NEWS HEADLINES:

TO FACE COVID-19, SURGEONS MUST EMBRACE 'PALLIATIVE CARE'
from
JAMA Network

RUSSIA, NOW 2ND-HIGHEST SPREAD OF COVID-19 ON EARTH, EMERGES AS NEW HOTSPOT FOR CORONAVIRUS
from
YouTube

ANOTHER CORONAVIRUS OUTBREAK IN KYIV-PECHERSK LAVRA: 17 NEW CASES
from
Religious Information Service of Ukraine

ORPHANAGES SUFFER AS BELARUS AND RUSSIA BRACE FOR THEIR OWN COVID-19 PEAKS
from
Mission Network News

HEGUMEN TIKHON, TRINITY LAVRA OF ST. SERGIUS CHIEF PHYSICIAN, DIES OF CORONAVIRUS
from
Interfax-Religion

WHY HAVE PRIESTS TURNED OUT TO BE VERY VULNERABLE TO CORONAVIRUS?
from
Moskovskii Komsomolets

CONDOLENCES EXPRESSED BY PATRIARCH KIRILL UPON THE DEMISE OF BISHOP MILUTIN OF VALJEVO, SERBIA
from
Russian Orthodox Church - Moscow Patriarchate

HOW CAN WE NOT HATE ONE ANOTHER IN ISOLATION?
from
Orthodox Christianity

NORTH KOREA URGED TO RELEASE CHRISTIAN SERVING 15 YEARS FOR SHARING THE GOSPEL
from
Christian Persecution

 



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Christ sending out the twelve

Christ Sending Out the Twelve

(Maybe you've read this before and you're wondering, "Why am I seeing this again?" But millions of other Christians haven't seen it! So please help us by clicking on the title above, then use the "share" buttons to share it with your social media friends. Thanks!!)

Jesus Christ showed and taught His followers how to heal the sick and care for the poor and brokenhearted, then He sent them out. It seems, however, that many Christians think - "I don't have the gift of healing, I'm not a great evangelist or a pastor, so I guess I'll just be an ordinary layperson, sitting in my cushioned pew, singing hymns and listening to sermons." Why do people think that way? And what should we do about it?

We've been conditioned by centuries of social pressure, for example, under the Muslims who in the seventh century conquered the Middle East, North Africa, Spain, parts of France, Italy, Russia, the Balkans and Hungary, and who at best consigned Christians to second-class "dhimmi" status and forbade them to have any social outreach - only Muslims were allowed to do that. Christians were limited to only hold religious observances within four church walls. At worst, Christians were persecuted and killed if they wouldn't convert to Islam.

Then in Western Europe, after driving the Muslims back and after several religious wars that decimated the populations, the various Edicts of Toleration reinforced the notion that people should stop fighting and show "tolerance" to those of other religious convictions, not pushing their religious beliefs on others.

But in the Christian East, shortly after the collapse of the Muslim Turkish Empire, in the 1917 Russian Revolution, Communism took hold and at best strictly limited the Christian faith to only religious observances within four church walls, they were forbidden to have any kind of social ministry: only communists were allowed to do that. At worst, Christians who wouldn't meekly comply were tortured and killed.

And in the West it's just a bit more subtle: the ever-expanding secular humanism under the guise of "democracy", "freedom" and "tolerance" exerts strong social pressure against living out one's Christian faith in the public square. Nowadays, if any Christian suggests, "We ought to be taking care of 'the poor, the maimed, the lame and the blind' like Christ did and taught His followers to do! - the standard reply is - "Oh, that's not our job: let the government do it." But government-managed "healthcare" doesn't care about your health, it's motivated by power and money: if the patient can't pay, shove him out the door. Don't think so? We've seen it happen!

And leftists now push the idea that religious freedom means only the right to attend the worship service of your choice, not "the free exercise of religion" as the First Amendment clearly states. Do you see a pattern developing here? They want to take over the Social Ministry of the Church - see our six short courses that will help you break out of these cultural stereotypes!

How often have you heard, "Don't shove your religion down other people's throats!" and Christians being labeled as "intolerant" or "bigoted" or "haters" if they speak of or live out their beliefs in public? We've internalized these social pressures, accepting them as "normal" and even come to believe in them almost as religious dogma. We must break out of this "psychological box" that we've been shoved into, and reclaim the free exercise of our religion in society, as Christ commanded us to do.

You likely don't have the gifts of healing or exorcism. Perhaps you're not a great evangelist: you get real nervous if asked to speak in public. It's OK if you don't have those spiritual gifts. Remember Christ's parable of the ten talents, five talents and one talent? The person with just one talent buried it, so the Master took it and gave it to the person who had ten.

But actually, you most likely have ten talents already! What are those things attached to your palms? Ten fingers! You have ten spiritual gifts, called the gift of helps! Learn how to start using them, and perhaps the Master will entrust you with some of the greater gifts. Break out of the box!

 


 


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Our first news article STATES TURNED NURSING HOMES INTO 'SLAUGHTER HOUSES' BY FORCING THEM TO ADMIT DISCHARGED COVID-19 PATIENTS and our first news headline TO FACE COVID-19, SURGEONS MUST EMBRACE 'PALLIATIVE CARE' both imply the same thing: the elderly who are sick or frail are close to death anyway, so the process can simply be speeded up a bit. 'Palliative care' is a euphemism for administering a high enough dose of medication to put the patient to sleep, often permanently. Why are we allowing this to happen? Because if we ignore something, it might go away, so if we ignore this sort of events, these people will simply "go away."

It takes much time and effort to care for someone who is elderly and sick. We plan our lives for "normal" living: growing up, learning skills, working, getting married, and raising a family. We don't want to think about the alternatives: sickness and death. Believe me, I sold life and health insurance, so I know how difficult it is to get people to think about eventualities such as these. The average person simply does not plan his or her life around these things; instead, they plan for "normal" living: having a two-story house with an attached garage, a yard with a nice, green lawn, bushes, trees, maybe a garden - all sorts of things that require climbing stairs, walking, bending over, pushing a lawn mower... not thinking that some day, you'll grow old and frail, likely unable to do those things for the last several years of your life. Then those stairs, lawns, bushes, trees, and garden become obstacles and liabilities. This is why we started Agape Restoration Society: to help people look ahead, be proactive, and be ready for what's coming.

 


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YES, YOU ARE YOUR BROTHER'S KEEPER!

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit! Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory forever!

I am my brother's keeperCain's infamous question, "Am I my brother's keeper?" has echoed down through the centuries, mulled over by philosophers, distorted by politicians, and twisted into silly jokes by comedians. Did Cain actually think he could pull the wool over God's eyes and convince Him that he didn't know what happened to his brother whom he had just killed? Do we think that the Lord in heaven doesn't know what's happening when we neglect the elderly, sick and disabled by sending them off to nursing homes to forget about them? We secretly know in our hearts what will likely happen: they will die by benign neglect or by "palliative care" - be put to sleep. God knows too!

In St. Matthew's genealogy of Jesus, we read - "Uzziah became the father of Jotham. Jotham became the father of Ahaz. Ahaz became the father of Hezekiah. Hezekiah became the father of Manasseh. Manasseh became the father of Amon. Amon became the father of Josiah" (Matthew 1:9-10). This was the royal line of Israel, descended from King David. Not many of them were good kings, most "did evil in the sight of the Lord." But sandwiched right between two evil kings, Ahaz and Manasseh, we find Hezekiah: chapters 18-20 of 2 Kings tells the story -

"He did right in the eyes of the Lord according to all that David his ancestor had done. He removed the high places, and he smashed the stone pillars; he cut down the poles of Asherah worship and demolished the bronze serpent which Moses had made, for up to those days the Israelites were offering incense to it and called it Nehushtan. He trusted in the Lord the God of Israel; there was no one like him, before or after, among all the kings of Judah" (2 Kings 18:3-5).

During his reign, Hezekiah "drained the swamp" - he got rid of the idolatry, the temple prostitution (Asherah worship), even did away with Moses' bronze serpent that had been distorted into a fetish and the Jews had begun to worship it. He cleaned up the country of Judah. But he failed in one huge area: raising his son Manasseh, who did not follow in his father's footsteps. Instead, Manasseh "did evil in the sight of the Lord" worse than most previous evil kings, re-introducing idolatry, demon worship, and child sacrifice. What went wrong?

Remember back before King David there was a prophet named Samuel. He had a mother, like all of us have. But she wasn't just an ordinary mother: she was special! Her name was Hannah. In chapters 1-2 of the book 1 Samuel, we read how she had been barren, a shameful thing for an Israelite woman. One day, she and her husband went to Eli the priest, and she wept about not being able to have children: "She vowed a vow, and said, the Lord of hosts, if you will indeed look on the affliction of your handmaid, and remember me, and not forget your handmaid, but will give to your handmaid a boy, then I will give him to the Lord all the days of his life, and no razor shall come on his head" (1 Samuel 1:11). What happened here was that she consecrated (or sanctified) her future baby boy, Samuel, to the Lord. She was like the "Virtuous Woman" that Solomon described in Proverbs 31:10-31. Her children would grow up to call her "blessed."

This is the one huge area where not only kings, but also ordinary fathers and mothers are lacking: they don't consecrate or sanctify their children to the Lord like Hannah did. Instead, they want to ensure that their children have a "good life" including the ability to choose whatever they want to do in terms of learning music or sports, choose whatever playmates they want to have, choose whatever courses to study in high school and university. Whatever. That's the American way, freedom of choice, do whatever you want. But by now, this has degenerated into choosing sexual depravity, much like life under the evil kings of Israel and Judah.


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We as parents are our brothers' and sisters' and children's keepers. We are responsible for each other and especially for the upcoming generations, our children and grandchildren. In this present time of pandemic and economic distress, we are especially responsible for each other. Like Hannah, we must sanctify and consecrate our families to the Lord. This means that we must take time to watch out for, care for, encourage, and support each other, especially to pray for and train our children to love the Lord and follow His commandments. In today's world, this means we wear face masks and gloves when grocery shopping or other activities with larger groups of people, we wash our hands, disinfect doorknobs and other surfaces, etc. - all of this not just for ourselves, but also for others around us. We don't want them to get deathly sick, and we don't want them to get us deathly sick. But it also means we don't want them to "be unequally yoked" (2 Corinthians 6:14) with an unbelieving or unfaithful spouse, which often leads to problems: remember King Solomon and his pagan wives.

In Romans ch. 14, St. Paul writes about the question of eating meat that was offered to idols. He says that if we're strong in the faith, we understand that an idol isn't really anything and the meat is just meat, so you can eat it. But... and here's the big exception... if your weaker brother in the faith sees you eating idol-offered meat and he concludes that idol-worship is OK, then you have caused him to sin. And in verse 8, he writes - "Whether we eat or drink, whether we live or die, we are the Lord's." In today's world, we can apply it this way: if you're young, strong, and healthy, you might do just fine if you're exposed to the Wuhan Virus. But then if you carry the virus to someone who's elderly, weak, or unhealthy, they might get sick and die. If you sleep with your fiancee before you're married, you may be pure in your heart and forever faithful unto death, but at the same time, you might cause your weaker brother to fall into temptation and commit fornication with several women. So be careful about the example you set for others!

Then in the next chapter, he writes - "Now we who are strong ought to bear the weaknesses of the weak, and not to please ourselves. Let each one of us please his neighbor for that which is good, to be building him up" (verses 1-2). And in 2 Corinthians 5:15, St. Paul wrote that Christ "died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves, but for Him who for their sakes died and rose again." That's what consecration (or sanctification) is all about: not living for ourselves, but for Christ. Sanctification (the Latin root) is the same as holiness (the Greek root). It means to be set apart, to be separated or consecrated to the Lord. In 2 Corinthians 6:17-18, St. Paul writes - "'Come out from among them, and be separate,' says the Lord, 'Touch no unclean thing. I will receive you. I will be to you a Father. You will be to me sons and daughters,' says the Lord Almighty."

Again, St. Paul writes - "Pursue peace with all men, and holiness (sanctification), without which no man will see the Lord" (Hebrews 12:14). If we want our children to be holy, consecrated to the Lord, we must set an example by ourselves pursuing holiness. You might be thinking - "Oh, I can't be perfect, nobody can, so I might as well not try!" That's not what Paul wrote. He said to "Pursue... holiness", or to strive toward it, to try to reach it. True, almost nobody has attained perfect, complete holiness, but many strived and tried to reach out and grasp it. Don't ever think you've attained it, because that is spiritual pride.

In Phillipians 3:12-14, St. Paul writes - "Not that I have already obtained, or am already made perfect; but I press on, if it is so that I may take hold of that for which also I was taken hold of by Christ Jesus. Brothers, I don't regard myself as yet having taken hold, but one thing I do. Forgetting the things which are behind, and stretching forward to the things which are before, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus." Those who think they've already attained perfect sanctification are only deceiving themselves: "The heart is deceitful above all things, and it is exceedingly corrupt: who can know it?" (Jeremiah 17:9).

Only the Lord knows our heart, we humans are very prone to deceiving ourselves. Only He has the foreknowledge about who will pursue holiness unto the end and will eventually see the Lord: "For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brothers" (Romans 8:29). We might be predestined, but we cannot know it because only God has foreknowledge. Only "the Lord knows those who are His, and let every one who names the name of the Lord depart from wickedness" (2 Timothy 2:19). What will He say to us in the Last Day? - "I never knew you. Depart from me, you who work iniquity"? (Matthew 7:23). Or will He say - "Come, blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world"? (Matthew 25:34).

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit! Christ is among us! He is and ever shall be!

 


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Prayer and Praise:   For a daily reminder to pray for the items below, go to My Daily Prayer Guide and click on the "H-N pr." link!

Sun. - Pray that state and local authorities will not send recovering COVID-19 patients to nursing homes and likely infect all the other residents there.
Mon. - Ask the Lord to grant clear thinking to U.S. Supreme Court justices so they can reach the sane decision that nuns do not need abortion insurance.
Tue. - Thank the Lord for the meeting of Metr. Epifaniy of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church with Patr. Sviatoslav of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church.
Wed. - Pray that the fear and panic from the COVID-19 lockdown will subside and not cause more deaths from starvation, drugs, alcohol, and suicide.
Thu. - Ask God that U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and other justices will reach the right decision about the right to life of unborn babies.
Fri. - Thank God that the Russian Orthodox Church finally decided to remove the pictures of Stalin and Putin from a mosaic in the new military church.
Sat. - Pray that Christians will realize that we are our brother's keeper, we're responsible for others, not just to live for ourselves and our own desires.

Map of former USSR   Please remember to pray for Christians in Secularized Countries, and for~~

  Your fellow-servants,

  Bob & Cheryl

  p.s. The greatest advantage of speaking the truth is that you don't have to remember what you said.


 

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