Meowser

Most of the world is reacting to others’ sins with their own sinful behavior, which only leads to more death and destruction. Sin often creates a cycle where it leads others to respond sinfully, causing a chain reaction. That’s why it’s so important to stick to Christ’s teachings and commands. He shows us how to respond to situations in the spirit, not the flesh. This kind of understanding is rare because it comes from being deeply committed to studying God’s word and faithfully following His teachings.

Candlelight concerts light up Sydney's most iconic venues. Don't miss out!🕯️😍

Satan operates by leveraging our fallen nature, knowing we are prone to lash out in rebellion and wrath when pushed. This provocation is deliberate, his goal is to make us act in the flesh and abandon the guidance of the Spirit. Walking the narrow path is challenging, and few find it. If we study scripture, we see that this tactic is typical of Satan's operations. What better way to unite humanity in an unholy, flesh-led rebellion than by presenting a clear and present evil that incites fear, anger, bitterness, and resentment? This aligns with what Jesus said about the last days in Matthew 24:12: "Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold." As wickedness increases, people are more likely to reject Christ’s teachings and the guidance of the Holy Spirit, succumbing instead to fleshly desires. The overtly-tyrannical plans of the globalists is the bait placed before us. Satan's endgame is to keep us in spiritual bondage through temptations of the flesh. It’s tragic that many modern believers overlook this. If more understood, fewer would be deceived, and many more could be saved. We must recognize these deceptions and hold steadfastly to our spiritual commitments, not just the battles of this fallen world.

The Dirty Little Secret About Homelessness Is Also The Key To Ending It The US Supreme Court recently heard oral arguments about what cities can and cannot do to end homelessness. "What if there is a bed available in the Gospel Rescue Mission, but Ms. Johnson, a person, doesn't want it? Doesn’t wish to leave their pet. Her Rottweiler's not permitted there. So that is a difficult question for a person and a difficult policy question..." What everyone agreed on was that homelessness is a difficult problem. "Many people have mentioned this is a serious policy problem… So, the policy questions in this case are very difficult….Martin speaks in terms of someone who is involuntarily homeless and that raises all of those policy questions… We usually think about whether state law, local law already achieves those purposes so that the federal courts aren't micromanaging homeless policy…" I think most people listening to the Supreme Court would agree: it isn’t going to solve homelessness. That is a job for state legislators. So why haven’t they? Why has homelessness gotten worse? The answer that many homeless advocates give is that it’s because we don’t have enough homes, and poverty has increased. But neither is true. Poverty has steadily declined since the 1980s, when homelessness first became an issue of public concern. And very few people are on the street simply because they can’t afford the rent. The evidence is overwhelming that the majority of people on the street are there because of untreated mental illness or addiction, which leads people to use all their money to support their drug habit and be high, rather than work. People who can’t afford the rent but are able to work and aren’t in the grip of addiction or untreated mental illness find a cheaper place to live, move somewhere cheaper, or live with family and friends. It’s true there aren’t enough shelter beds, case workers, group homes, and psychiatric hospitals to care for the homeless. But a big part of the reason for that is that advocates for the homeless have, for 40 years, demanded that funding for dealing with the homeless go into giving people private studio apartments rather than building sufficient shelter beds. They call this “Housing First,” and its record is awful. Few stay in housing, and many die because it fails to treat the cause of the problem, addiction, and untreated mental illness rather than the symptoms. Studies find that cities that prioritize basic shelter over expensive housing reduce the deaths of homeless by 3-fold. And so in LA, homeless die at a rate 3 times higher than New York because living inside protects people from murder, drug overdose, and car accidents. Making matters worse, homeless advocates, along with the ACLU, have opposed expanding psychiatric hospitals, and mandatory care in general, because they believe it’s worse to mandate hospitalization for people who are dangerously psychotic or manic than to simply leave them on the street. But it’s not. Last year, 112,000 Americans died from drug overdose and poisoning because we failed to mandate treatment. Two of my friends from high school would still be alive today had we mandated they get treatment for addiction rather than letting them die. What is happening on homelessness is a record of failure. The number of drug deaths quintupled from 20,000 in 2022 to 112,000 last year. That’s more people dying per year than died in Hiroshima. Homelessness is not a fundamental problem of housing. It’s a problem of enabling addiction and untreated mental illness, both of which lead people to give up on work, lie, steal, cheat their families and friends, and live on the street, where they turn to petty crime to sustain their drug habits. This seems cruel to many people, which is why homelessness has gotten worse. In other words, the reason homelessness has gotten worse is because we’ve enabled it, and subsidized it, rather than funded treatment and recovery. Nobody has subsidized homelessness more than California, Washington, and Oregon. And it’s been in those states that homelessness has worsened the most. Why? The homelessness groups really believe it’s more cruel to mandate care than to let people die on the streets. But there is an ideology behind this, too. It’s the idea that people suffering from addiction and mental illness are victims of society or the system, which is fundamentally evil. And, according to their logic, to restore justice in the world, we must give victims whatever they want, including the right to camp anywhere and use hard drugs, even if it results in their death. You might call this "pathological altruism. Think of the Kathy Bates character in Misery. Or of the mother who poisons her child in order to have a sick person to take care of, like in “Sixth Sense.” It’s no coincidence that the same people who believe this also think civilization is evil and should be replaced by something more akin to primitive anarchism, like the kind romanticized by intellectuals since Rousseau. The alternative to this dystopia is tough love. We need to give people the care they need, but that’s not through enabling addiction and illegal behavior, but rather enforcing laws and mandating care, as an alternative to jail, when they are broken. It’s not enough to do what many Republicans want to do, which is to enforce laws and recriminalize shoplifting and hard drugs simply. We need to do that, for sure. But states must also have caseworkers, group homes, and psychiatric hospitals so there is an alternative to jail, and so states can provide people with the specialized care where it’s available, which simply isn’t going to be in many of the small towns, like the one at the center of the Supreme Court hearing. The dirty little secret about homelessness, which is also the key to ending it, is...

John Mellencamp tries to promote Biden at his concert when a fan tells him to just play music. He calls the fan a c*€ksucker, does about 5 seconds of Jack and Diane, then walks off like the butthurt lefty snowflake he is.

Everyone is living in total fear of what will happen to them in this world. They completely forget or reject that God’s sovereign hand is using these difficult times to test and refine His elect. That’s why it’s called the tribulation. We are being tested on if we really follow Christ’s teachings or if we follow our own sinful instincts. People are following their fleshly, natural desires for vengeance, retribution, peace, and safety in this world because they are led by the fear of the world, and not the fear of the Lord. 1 Peter 1:6-7 says: "In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed." in Acts 5:41, it describes the apostles' reaction after being flogged and ordered not to speak in the name of Jesus. Despite their suffering, they rejoiced for being considered worthy of persecution for the sake of their faith. Here is another example in 1 Peter 4:13, "Dear friends, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that has come on you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice inasmuch as you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed." This is why Christ says whoever wants to be a disciple of His must deny themselves and take up their cross to follow Him. (Luke 9:23) And it’s also why Revelation 12:11 says that the saints overcomes the beast by NOT loving their lives unto death. "They triumphed over him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death.” And that’s too why Revelation 13:10 says, "If anyone is to go into captivity, into captivity they will go. If anyone is to be killed with the sword, with the sword they will be killed. This calls for patient endurance and faithfulness on the part of God’s people." This point is also repeated in Revelation 14:12 which says, “This calls for patient endurance on the part of the people of God who keep his commands and remain faithful to Jesus." So the saints overcome the beast by NOT loving their lives even unto death, because they know what’s waiting for them is far greater than anything this world could offer. And this is also why in Matthew 24:13, when Jesus is discussing the tragic events of the tribulation, He says “but He who endures until the end shall be saved.” Our patience, long-suffering, and endurance is being tested to see if we are truly worthy of being called disciples of Christ. I know this is a hard pill to swallow, but this theme is repeated throughout scripture. David, who was anointed king at a young age, had to go through a period of being hunted and persecuted by Saul before becoming king. The same theme is seen in the life of Jesus, who literally wept in the Garden asking God for this cup to pass over Him. But nonetheless, Christ submitted to the will of the Father, as we will also have to do. This is why it says the meek shall inherit the earth, and the humble will be exalted. Everyone is exalting themselves to stand up for the ultimate idol: their lives and this world. Their own delusion will inevitably lead to their destruction as it is written. Don’t fear the one who can kill the body, Fear the one who can destroy both body and soul in hell. Again, these are very hard pills to swallow for most modern Christians, but that feeling you’re feeling right now is conviction from the Holy Spirit. Don’t resist that conviction, brothers and sisters. "Do not be afraid of what you are about to suffer. I tell you, the devil will put some of you in prison to test you, and you will suffer persecution for ten days. Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you life as your victor’s crown." Rev 2:10