Free Republic

Officials now say tragedy was only averted on Northwest flight 253 because a makeshift detonator failed to work properly. Share Man accused of attempt to blow up plane was sent on mission by terror leaders. Bomb experts say there was more than enough explosive to bring down the Northwest jet, which had nearly 300 people aboard, had the detonator not failed, and the nation's outdated airport screening machines may need to be upgraded.

My job was SAVED today. I billed a client for work I DID! I hope and know that many of you Saved yours today also.

Verses about salvation: Ezekiel 18 23"(A)Do I have any pleasure in the death of the wicked," declares the Lord GOD, "rather than that he should (B)turn from his ways and live? Ezekiel 18 31"(A)Cast away from you all your transgressions which you have committed and make yourselves a (B)new heart and a new spirit! For why will you die, O house of Israel?  32"For I have (A)no pleasure in the death of anyone who dies," declares the Lord GOD. "Therefore, repent and live."  30"Therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel, each according to his conduct," declares the Lord GOD. "(A)Repent...

I was looking at a Free Republic post Is There Salvation Outside The Catholic Church which incurred an astounding reaction among Freepers. You won't see that kind of post in Huffington or Kos. I am a former Catholic, now merely and simply a nondenominational "Christian" not bound, or aided by Protestantism or Catholicism. I received an excellent education in parochial grade and high schools, was an altar boy, and like most boys in the 1950's I was steered toward Catholic seminary. I did not go. Again, my parochial education, except for some of the doctrines, gave me an advantage in...

Created or Saved I’ve been a bit skeptical on how Obama keeps saying he’s “created or saved” different numbers of jobs, but the media seems credulous so I guess “created or saved” is a perfectly fine formulation. Thus we might as well apply the phrase to lots of different things. * I decided not to be bloodthirsty against common nuisances today and created or saved three squirrels. * By not going to McDonalds, I created or saved two cheeseburgers and a large fry. * Deciding against serial killing, i created or saved upwards of 33 people (I’m very smart and...

Rock & Roll and Warehouses When I was 5 I asked Jesus to come into my heart. I remember it vividly. But of course, we don't understand too much at that age, so, my calling (back) came when I was 23. I was living in a friend's warehouse where a rock band that I sang for also practiced. Living the wannabe rockstar life of partying, fighting, etc. I was a rebel. One night I went to friend's apartment for a little get together. I ended up staying the night. In the morning, I found one of those big family bibles...

After long search, football star finds Jesus “hangin’ out” in courthouse restroom Michael Vick trades up! RICHMOND, VA – They say all dogs go to heaven. Well, after punching more than his share of canine tickets to paradise, Michael Vick seems to have finally found a little salvation for himself. After pleading guilty to federal dogfighting charges last month, the world heard Michael Vick proclaim his newfound faith in Christ. “I found Jesus,” Vick told reporters outside the courthouse. “And turned my life over to God.” What most people don’t know is that Vick had actually been looking for Jesus...

FORWARD OPERATING BASE HAMMER — A routine meeting on Aug. 18 became a saga of tragedy and heroism when one young Iraqi man gave his life to save his family and his friends in the U.S. Army. The Soldiers he saved that day say they will never forget the man’s sacrifice. The plan was to visit a leader of the al-Arafia Concerned Citizens Program. After a hectic month of raids and route clearance missions, the scouts of 2nd platoon, Troop B, 3rd Squadron, 1st Cavalry Regiment, 3rd Heavy Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, weren’t worried about that day’s particular...

Widespread use of a damaging conservation technique has seen many of Italy's Renaissance frescoes darken and crumble. That degradation can now be stopped in its tracks. In the 1960s conservators began coating frescoes in clear acrylic polymers to preserve them, but the treatment has had the opposite effect. "The acrylic makes the fresco look brilliant and well preserved initially," says Piero Baglioni, a chemist at the University of Florence. "But as the plaster can no longer breathe, degradation beneath the coating actually speeds up, due to calcium salt and humidity build-up."

Firefighters responding to a small basement fire Thursday morning were startled to find a 10-foot python, two cobras, tarantulas and an assortment of other creatures inside. "It was like out of a science fiction scene," said Lt. Ed Ireland, whose engine company responded to the Queens blaze. The fire, whose cause hadn't been determined, was reported at about 11:20 a.m. in the borough's Corona section. Once it was extinguished and the smoke cleared, Ireland noticed the python writhing near his feet. In cages and tanks, there also were two small alligators, frogs, turtles and tarantulas, he said. All the creatures...

Sent from Warner Bonderman, our Roanoke District President of the United Methodist Men: Jarrett Lane, a civil engineering major from Narrows, Va., was in Dr. G.V. Loganathan's classroom in Norris Hall when he was shot and killed. A senior and recipient of a special scholarship for engineering students, he had just celebrated his 22nd birthday in March. His former teachers at Narrows High School spoke of him in glowing terms, remembering him as a talented student, four-sport athlete, and valedictorian. Here is a wonderful story of God's Grace: This is from Mark Cox. On Sunday morning April 15, 2007, Jarrett...

Salvation And Its Importance In Your Life The assurance of salvation is the most important thing in life. It should be the number one concern of every human being. Sadly, too often it is not. The good news is, the Bible teaches that you can know for sure that you are going to heaven. I John 5:13 says: "These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may KNOW THAT YE HAVE ETERNAL LIFE..." Notice that this verse doesn't say, "that ye may HOPE that you can GET eternal life."...

ROCK HILL, S.C. — Smoking just might have saved Brenda Comer's life. She said she had just finished washing dishes Monday and stepped outside to smoke a cigarette when an 80-foot oak tree crashed through her roof, landing across the sink where she had been standing just seconds before.

JERUSALEM -- Newly discovered records document the role of Monsignor Angelo Roncalli, a Vatican diplomat in Istanbul during World War II who later became Pope John XXIII, in helping rescue thousands of Hungarian Jews from the Holocaust. They also lend weight to arguments that Pope Pius XII, who was pontiff during the war, failed to do all he could to prevent the systematic massacre of millions of Jews. The memoirs, documents and letters stashed away in the private collection of a Jewish associate of Monsignor Roncalli describe frequent late-night meetings in the Vatican compound in the heart of Istanbul. There,...

<p>The assurance of salvation is the most important thing in life. It should be the number one concern of every human being. Sadly, too often it is not. The good news is, the Bible teaches that you can know for sure that you are going to heaven. I John 5:13 says: "These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may KNOW THAT YE HAVE ETERNAL LIFE..." Notice that this verse doesn't say, "that ye may HOPE that you can GET eternal life." It says that you can know that you have it, as a present possession. How do you get it? Acts 16:31 says: "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved..." Notice again that it doesn't say, "Believe and you will someday be saved." It rather says, "Believe...and BE saved." Of course, the word "saved" makes a lot of people nervous. A man told me once, "We don't speak in those terms at our church." But that's a shame, because the Bible uses this word over and over again. John Newton used it hundreds of years ago when he wrote that most beloved of all Christian hymns, "Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound that SAVED a wretch like me." You've probably even sung that song! Well, it was written by a man who was saved, and you can be saved too. Ephesians 2:8,9 says: "For by grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God” “Not of works, lest any man should boast." Here we see that people are saved "by grace," and "through faith." By God's grace. Through your faith. Faith and believing are the same thing. If you believe something, it means you have faith in it. Notice also the contrast to "works." Works are things that we can DO. Most people think that they can be saved by the things that they do. If they don't do bad things, if they instead do good things, they think that they will be saved. The problem with this system is that you can never be SURE that you've done enough good things, and avoided enough bad things, to be saved. That's why the people who believe this are generally not sure they are saved. But Romans 4:16 says, "Therefore it is OF FAITH, that it might be BY GRACE, to the end THE PROMISE MIGHT BE SURE..." The only way you can be sure of salvation is by faith. If you had to do as little as lift your finger to be saved, you could never be sure that you had done it right. But by faith we can believe that the Lord Jesus Christ did it right. We can be sure that He lived a sinless life. He never did anything wrong, He did everything right. A person like that didn't deserve to die. The Bible says that "the wages of sin is death" (Romans 6:23). But He was no sinner. Why did He have to die? Ah, He died OUR death. He died our death so that we could have His righteousness and be saved. II Corinthians 5:21 says: "For God made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him." Two thousand years ago, God laid all of our sins on Christ as He hung on Calvary. But that doesn't mean that everyone is saved! Two thousand years later, WHEN YOU BELIEVE that Christ paid for all of your sins, God then takes Christ's righteousness and puts it on you, completing the transaction that must be completed for the redemption of your soul. I like to explain it this way. God says to us in the Bible that Christ paid for all of your sins. The only question is, Do you BELIEVE God when He says that all of your sins are paid for? Do you TRUST Him when He says that? If you do, the Bible says that you are SAVED. If you don't, well, you just have to go on trying to pay for your sins in your own way. By being good. By not being bad. But these are things the Bible says you can't do well enough to be saved. Romans 4:5 says: "But to him that worketh not, but believeth on Him that justifieth the ungodly, HIS FAITH is COUNTED FOR RIGHTEOUSNESS." Titus 3:5 says: "Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost." That big word "regeneration" is just a big word that means to be "born again," as the Lord talked about in John 3. But in both of these verses, you can see that salvation is by faith alone, and has nothing to do with your conduct. Most people think that we are all born GOOD, and on our way to heaven, and that we have to do something REALLY BAD to blow it and go to hell. But the Bible teaches the opposite. The Bible teaches that we are all born bad, and have to get saved by faith to go to heaven. Sometimes when we explain this, people then ask, "Why then should I be good?" The answer to this question is, we should be good out of gratitude for God for saving us. Earlier I quoted Ephesians 2:8,9 to show that we are saved "by grace" and "through faith." But the NEXT verse in Ephesians 2 tells us where "being good" comes in: "For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus UNTO good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them" (Ephesians 2:10). When we are saved, we are made "new creatures" in Christ (II Corinthians 5:17). But Ephesians 2:10 here says that we were "created in Christ Jesus UNTO good works." That is, we were saved by faith, but we were saved FOR A PURPOSE, for a reason. God saved us and made us new creatures in Christ so that we would THEN do good works. Most people get the cart before the horse, as the saying goes. Most people think you do good works, then God saves you. The Bible teaches that instead we are saved by believing, then we SHOULD do good works. Right after Titus 3:5 says we are saved "not by works of righteousness," three verses later it says, "...these things I will that thou affirm constantly, that they which have believed in God might be careful TO MAINTAIN GOOD WORKS. These things are good and profitable unto men." Do you see it? We are not saved by good works, but after we are saved by faith, we are told we should do good works to please the One who saved us. Romans 6:23 says: "For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." Here there is a contrast drawn between "wages" and a "gift." Wages are something that we EARN. We go to work, and work all week, and the boss pays us. If we want to be polite, we can say "thank you" when he hands us the check, but we don't have to. He OWES us that money, we EARNED it. But a gift is something altogether different. You can't earn a gift. If you did, it wouldn't be a gift. That's why the verses BEFORE Romans 4:5 says, "Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt "But to him that worketh not, but believeth on Him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness." You can't earn a gift, you can only receive it. And the way you receive the gift of salvation is by faith, by believing God when He says your sins are paid for. Suppose you were a gambler, and racked up a debt of a million dollars to the Mafia. They threatened to kill you unless you paid up. A wealthy friend learns of your plight and comes to you and says, "Don't worry, I've paid your debt." Now in this case, you must REALLY BELIEVE that your friend paid your debt. You must really TRUST your friend when he says that. That's why the other word that the Bible uses besides "believe" is "trust." Ephesians 1:12 talks about people... "...who first TRUSTED in Christ "In whom ye also TRUSTED, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise" (Ephesians 1:13). If you DON'T trust that your friend paid your gambling debt, then you will most likely continue to make payments to your bookie or loan shark. But if you DO trust your friend when he says that your debt has been paid, then you will rest comfortably in that knowledge, knowing that you've been "saved" from an awful fate, and you will be forever grateful to the one who saved you. That's how salvation works too. In John 5:24, the Lord said: "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth My word, and believeth on Him that sent Me, HATH EVERLASTING LIFE, and SHALL NOT COME INTO CONDEMNATION, but IS PASSED FROM DEATH UNTO LIFE." Here we see that the Bible teaches that not only are you saved if you believe on the Lord, you already possess eternal life, and it is NOT POSSIBLE for you to ever be condemned for your sins, for you are ALREADY passed "from death unto [eternal] life." Remember, Acts 16:31 says, "believe...and...be saved." It DOESN'T say, "Believe and be good." It doesn't even say, "Believe and be religious." It just says believe and be saved. If you believe that Christ died to pay for all of your sins, and that you don't have to pay for any of them, the Bible says you are saved. In I Corinthians 15:1-4, the Apostle Paul identifies “the gospel” that he preached to the Corinthians, by which they were “saved”: “For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures; “And that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures” You too can be among those who are “saved,” if you will simply put your faith in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ (Romans 3:25).</p>

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- A 54-year-old Florida man credits two small Bibles in his shirt pocket with saving his life when they stopped a bullet. The man, whose name was withheld because his attackers are still at large, told Orange Park police that two men he didn't recognize ambushed him with a rifle as he carried bags of garbage to a trash bin. He said his attackers then fled in opposite directions. The man said the bullet was stopped by two New Testaments that he was carrying in his shirt pocket to give to friends. Police took them as evidence. The...

With the World Trade Center death toll shrinking to somewhere around 3,000, many hesitate to speak of a miracle or a success. But those are the words they are using when they remember that thousands of others got out alive before the towers collapsed. Many officials say the loss of life would have been many times higher if not for three factors: the timing of the attack, before the buildings had filled to their usual workday peak; emergency-evacuation improvements prompted by the 1993 terrorist bombing of the trade center; and the urgent reaction of workers, many of whom had been...

16th of June DEFEATING DEPRESSION PART 1 “Anxiety in the heart of man causes depression, but a good word makes it glad” Proverbs 12:25 Depression- from Webster’s New Unabridged Dictionary Low spirits, gloominess, dejection, sadness, a decrease in force, or activity, or amount, a decrease in functional activity. An emotional condition either normal or pathological characterized by discouragement, a feeling of inadequacy, the act of humbling abasement as a depression of pride. Abasement, reduction, sinking, fall, humiliation, dejection, melancholy. Major Depression Facts Major depression is the No.1 psychological disorder in the western world.(1) It is growing in all age groups,...

HONOLULU - Legendary Hawaiian crooner Don Ho says he could barely walk, let alone sing, and would have been a "goner" without an experimental stem cell procedure on his ailing heart earlier this month in Thailand. Ho, known for his signature tune "Tiny Bubbles," said he hopes to return to the stage soon. "I'm feeling terrific, 100 percent better," Ho told The Associated Press in one of his first interviews since surgery Dec. 6. "I'm ready to go, but I've got to listen to the doctors. "When they say my heart is strong enough to get excited, I'm on." The...

The man who saved the world -------------------------------------------------------- © 2005 WorldNetDaily.com You almost died in 1983. Do you remember what you were doing on Sunday afternoon, Sept. 25, of that year? Not likely. But you came within a whisker of dying that day. Amazingly, the news about this didn't come out until 1998. And only since 2004 has the press actually begun to pick up on the story. It was just after midnight, Sept. 26, and 120 staff were working the graveyard shift in Serpukhov-15, the secret USSR command bunker hidden in a forest 30 miles northeast of Moscow. In the...