O Gato Bonito

Trump promises a “Golden Age” by spending and borrowing more. No sacrifice. No repentance! 2 Chr 7:14: “If my people shall humble themselves, pray, seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and forgive their sin, and heal their land.”

@RepThomasMassie Ending the war and resigning. That would make my day.

When President Trump addresses the nation tonight at 9pm, which are you hoping to hear:

@franko_ufo @Megatron_ron Blocking for stupidity.

@Megatron_ron Good Israel is the promised land and shouldn’t have to go through being attacked constantly. God said that Israel would become a heavyweight on it’s enemies and so be it.

JUST IN: 🇮🇱🇮🇷 Netanyahu admits that he started the war on Iran in order to transform Israel into a supernation We are working on transforming Israel into a supernation in the region and globally.

War criminal Trump strikes again.

@Vicar1973 Our pets are not sinners, but they are under the curse of sin. And in so many ways, they show us the nature of an extravagant God. They are beautiful. They show devotion. They have intelligence. They are one of God's blessings to us in this often depressing world.

“If God brings our pets back to life, it wouldn’t surprise me. It would be just like Him. It would be totally in keeping with His generous character…Exorbitant. Excessive. Extravagant in grace after grace. Of all the dazzling discoveries and ecstatic pleasures heaven will hold for us, the potential of seeing [my dog] Scrappy would be pure whimsy – utterly, joyfully, surprisingly superfluous…Heaven is going to be a place that will retract and reflect in as many ways as possible the goodness and joy of our great God, who delights in lavishing love on His children.” -- Joni Eareckson Tada

@Vicar1973 "Likewise, when some pastors teach on a wife's submission to her husband, it's qualification after qualification..." "By contrast, when the same pastor teaches on husbands loving their wives, all the positive duties are stressed" I've yet to hear a sermon on what submission IS!

Far too many modern pastors spend far too much time explaining what the text of the Bible is NOT saying rather than what it IS saying. A few examples: I've been in conservative paedobaptist churches where, when an infant gets baptized, the pastor spends far more time explaining what is not happening than what is happening. 1 Peter 3 says, "baptism now saves you," but by the time the pastor is done with the text, it means "baptism most certainly does not save you." The language of the Bible is not explained in a way that we could make it our own and speak like the apostles did about the sacrament; instead, the language is completely negated. The pastor is not at home in the language of the Bible, so his people never will be either. Paul calls baptism "the washing of regeneration" in Titus 3, but by the time the pastor gets done with the text, the one thing baptism is not is "the washing of regeneration." Romans 6:3ff, Acts 2:38, Galatians 3:27, 1 Corinthians 12:13, and other passages likewise get explained away rather than explained. This even happens in churches where the pastor has sworn to uphold the teaching of the Westminster Standards which explicitly call the sacraments "effectual means of salvation." Sadly, in far too many such churches, baptism gets redefined as an ineffectual symbol. Here's another test case: When Jesus blessed the children who were brought to him in Matthew 19, he said "for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven." But by the time the pastor gets done with the text, he has argued for the exact opposite position: children are not actually members of the kingdom, and the kingdom does not actually belong to them. The pastor might point out that being born into a Christian home does not automatically save, that grace cannot be transmitted by natural reproduction, and so on. All well and good. But then why did Jesus say what he said and what did he mean? The pastor never actually gets around to that. The result is that the pastor is not training his people to embrace the Bible's way of speaking about covenant children. He is training them to explain the Bible away when the text is controversial or cuts against the grain of cultural sensibilities. In this case, a text that has rich and powerful implications for Christian mothering and fathering is drained of its force and application. A text intended to train believing parents in how to view and treat their children leaves them confused rather than encouraged. Likewise, when some pastors teach on a wife's submission to her husband, it's qualification after qualification: "Submission does not mean obeying him when he tells you to sin." "Submission does not mean enduring physical abuse." "Submission is does make the wife a doormat who never gets to share her own thoughts with her husband." All perfectly reasonable qualifications to make, of course. But far too many pastors never actually explain what it does mean. Instead, the text gets paper cut to death -- it dies the death of 1000 qualifications. The pastor never plainly restates what the text says so plainly (and repeatedly). The pastor never does what Paul does -- command wives to submit to their husbands in a straightforward way. Thus, the Christian wife is given no concrete, practice guidance in how to be a wife. Her positive duties are never driven home. The pastor apologizes for the Bible more than he applies the Bible. By contrast, when the same pastor teaches on husbands loving their wives, all the positive duties are stressed, and usually in an unconditional way. There is all too often an asymmetry in the way way roles and duties are taught in marriage: wives are only told what they do not have to do, while husbands are told what they ought to do. A simple, straight-forward text gets mangled and silenced. A final example: James 2 says, "You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone." Again, many pastors explain this away. The pastor explains what the text is not saying -- that good works cannot earn salvation - which is a fine point to make. But the congregation is never told, in no uncertain terms, what James meant and why he said what he said. The pastor balks when it comes to insisting on works as a necessary component of salvation, flowing out of faith as its fruit. He fails to make the point the text is making about the necessity of obedience in the lives of Christians -- that while we are not saved on account of good works, neither can we be saved without them. His preaching becomes practically antinomian because he is so afraid of sounding legalistic (apparently a concern James did not share). The same pattern happens with the other texts that describe a final judgment according to works - John 5:29, 2 Corinthians 5:10, etc. The net result of this kind of teaching is that Christians never get comfortable using the Bible's own language. They are not taught what many texts actually mean and how they should be applied. The fierceness of the Bible's teaching is tamed and domesticated. The Bible is not allowed to do its challenging and convicting work in the hearts of the people. It's as if the pastor is protecting his people from the hard-edged truths of the Bible by blunting their force and impact rather than bringing the people into direct contact with Scripture''s difficult and counter-cultural truths. This kind of preaching seeks to muzzle the Bible rather than unleash it in people's lives. This kind of preaching is driven by an agenda other than exegeting and applying the plain meaning of texts. Every pastor will admit some texts of the Bible are hard to understand. Many passages are complex. But many very plain teachings of Scripture are offensively simple and rather than letting the text stand on its own and say what it says, many pastors reshape and repackage the text so his congregation does not really have to wrestle with it. This is a form of pastoral malpractice.

@StateDept The botoxed comb-over villain screeches that Iran could spend billions on their people instead of terrorism while Rubio’s party is calculating how to take $200B from health care to fund military operations that blew up 200 school girls in Iran on the first day of the war.

SECRETARY RUBIO: Imagine if instead of spending billions of dollars supporting terrorists or weapons, Iran had spent that money helping the people of Iran. They would have a much different country.

@RightWingWatch I have another suggestion. Instead of outlawing political parties, let’s start a stupid and unwinnable war in the ME, bomb a school full of girls and kill 200 of them, and then brag about what a great country we are.

Right-wing commentators James Kunstler and Eric Metaxas suggest that Trump needs to declare a national emergency and outlaw the Democratic Party: "I think it would probably look something like a civil war." peoplefor.org/rightwingwatch…

@archer_rs Trump’s a piker. King Nebuchadnezzar made a golden statue sixty cubits high and six cubits wide, and he set it up on the plain of Dura in the province of Babylon. That’s about 3 times the size of King Trump’s statue.

Not a parody, not a comedy show item. Donald Trump has designed for his Presidential Library main hall, as its highlight, a 10m tall golden statue of himself.

"...Distracting the ayatollahs by strolling around Disney World waving a bubble wand at any passing bubble butt is the greatest military feint since Alexander deceived King Porus as to the river crossing he'd be using in the Battle of the Hydaspes in 326 BC...." more from Mark at SteynOnline:

@atrupar Why would anyone put his faith in a man, and in a man who is incapable of keeping his word?

Hegseth: "As far as President Trump and boots on the ground, I don't understand why the base wouldn't have faith in his ability to execute on this. Look at his track record."

@RepThomasMassie Nice to see the ones on your farm rather than those in DC.

Wild turkeys in the orchard this morning!

@TrumpDailyPosts King Nebuchadnezzar made an image of gold. When you hear the sound of the horn ... and every kind of music, you are to fall down and worship the golden image. ... And whoever does not fall down and worship shall immediately be cast into a burning fiery furnace.

Donald J. Trump Truth Social Post of Video 07:59 PM EST 03.30.26 President Trump just posted a powerful new video on Trump library

An unjust and stupid war.

@roddreher Murdering 200 or so Iranian school girls on the first day of the war is another of many war crimes.

Trump is now threatening to blow up Iranian desalination plants, which would deprive millions of fresh water. If that's not a war crime, what is?

@JDVance Name one negotiation success of Witkoff or Kushner.

Steve Witkoff is a great guy doing an incredible job. The people sniping at him are mad that he is succeeding where they failed for 40 years. Turns out a lot of diplomacy boils down to a simple skill: don’t be an idiot.

I thought it was regime change and stopping Iran from developing a nuclear bomb. Nothing’s clear about this war except that it was foolishly started by the U.S. and Israel war criminals. Who’s responsible for the murder of nearly 200 Iranian school girls on day one? Resign in disgrace now.

SECRETARY RUBIO: Here are the clear objectives of the operation. You should write them down: 1. The destruction of Iran’s air force 2. The destruction of their navy 3. The severe diminishing of their missile launching capability 4. The destruction of their factories 🎯

Non compos mentis

White House statement tonight: “President Trump does not bluff. He is prepared to unleash hell. Iran should not miscalculate again.” “Iran has been defeated militarily. Any violence beyond this point will be because Iran refused to understand they have already been defeated.”

@tedcruz Ted - always a proponent of more war and more violence.

We have a better chance to see new governments in Venezuela, Cuba, and Iran than at any point in our lifetimes. America and the world are safer when our President is strong and our enemies fear him.

@ericmetaxas If there were a textbook example of an unjust war, this US/Israel Iran War would be it.

Has this Pope not heard of "Just War Theory"? I think St. Augustine who came up with it may even have been Catholic. Go figure.