Week long “study sessions”! And this is the government that Obama wishes we had so he could rule more efficiently.
The supreme good is like water,
which nourishes all things without trying to.
It is content with the low places that people disdain.
Thus it is like the Tao.
In dwelling, live close to the ground.
In thinking, keep to the simple.
In conflict, be fair and generous.
In governing, don't try to control.
In work, do what you enjoy.
In family life, be completely present.
When you are content to be simply yourself
and don't compare or compete, everybody will respect you.
Happy Easter everyone!
Pray for the Church in China.
That's what Cesar always wants, to subject all right to organize anything, especially to organize a Christian church, to the State.
The Romans didn't didn't raise a generation of lion cubs on the flesh of slaughtered Christians because they were worshiping Christ, they slaughtered those Christians to refuse to accept Cesar as the foremost authority in all things and the King of Kings. One of the first things that shocked me when reading what all Luther wrote was that he was so strongly convinced that the State should be the chief authority over the Lutheran Church with each other country doing likewise. Were are the heads of people who can think that the State will be benign toward Christ over any protracted length of time? Where has a country been benign towards Christ for multiple generations and not periodically persecuted one or another group of Christians the State didn't agree with or care for? The US can't make that claim given the anti-Catholic laws they've passed in many states and the way the Federal government treated the Amish during WWI when they refused to serve due to their religious beliefs.
Anyone reading this post has by definition someone who has lived through the most pro-Christian period in the history of this country and yet the majority of them think the world is coming to an end when things are really just settling back to the mean. Christ said we are to spread His Kingdom so by definition, Christians are either Christians in name only or they're a threat to State power.
Those who believe that giving up and going into hiding is what Christ had in mind those who follow Him have to ignore or dismiss great deal of both the Old and New Testaments in order to rationalize their opinion. We're supposed to rock the boat, make the State more like His Kingdom, and in general be a thorn in the side of all those who believe that the State or anything other than Christ should rule.
JMHO