we exist for love btw

Would like to reiterate that Christians cannot be possessed.

Christians receive the Holy Spirit based on the finished work of Christ alone.

This means the Holy Spirit never leaves us.

Not even when we go astray and get involved in things Christians shouldn't. Not even when we sin in a big way. I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Thank you.

"The Holy Spirit never leaves us." Peter would like to have a word with you.

 If they have escaped the corruption of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and are again entangled in it and are overcome, they are worse off at the end than they were at the beginning. It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than to have known it and then to turn their backs on the sacred command that was passed on to them. Of them the proverbs are true: “A dog returns to its vomit,” and, “A sow that is washed returns to her wallowing in the mud.”

Pretty obvious to Peter that some people can be in relationship to Jesus and then leave Him. Other places in Scripture make it clear that you can make your soul an uninhabitable place for the Spirit. Plain experience proves people raised in the faith can reject it - or embrace it again.

It's also, honestly, dangerous to tell Christians they can never be possessed. No demon can possess you without consent, I'm sure, but just because you were once saved in Christ doesn't guarantee you will always cooperate with those graces. Many people fall away.

The Assumption by Juan de Jesus Mundra Ochoa

Paintings of the story of the Assumption of the BVM

@shoutsofmybones

when it comes to the dating outside the faith conversation, which has circled around a few times in the last couple months, I think there are a couple points it helps to remember:

and my own personal take: what makes a good partner is not necessarily piety or “practice” of religion, but openness. somebody who really lives for others and keeps their commitments and recognizes good where they find it, even if they don’t practice a religion (right now), might very well be a better spouse than someone who lives for themselves, flakes out every time responsibility rears its head, and is blind to everything in the world but their petty inconveniences and sufferings, even if that person goes to church on Sundays. that’s because worldview is more than just skin deep! the first person might be far more capable of appreciating your faith as a good and beautiful thing than the second person, because the second person is gonna balk every time you try to nudge them to give more or try harder. and that is actually the litmus test: whether your significant other sees your faith as a good thing, something that they love about you, or whether they see it as an annoying inconvenience.

it’s fine to say that personally you don’t think you’d like to marry someone who doesn’t share your beliefs. healthy and prudent, even. but it’s not okay to say that someone who marries outside the faith is less Christian or less holy for it.

i'm not sure it's about being "less Christian" or "less holy" (although concerning that latter bit, with absolute certainty holiness will be much, much harder by marrying outside the faith). it's more that marrying somebody outside of your faith is wildly imprudent at best, and the main reason people even have this conversation is they are unwilling to sacrifice their personal, self-interested, but also natural desire to be with a certain person for the sake of their faith, which explicitly asks us not to marry unbelievers. i notice you left out what Paul says about partnerships with unbelievers: "Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?”

i am a little shocked that you mention St. Monica and St. Rita - women for whom being married to unbelievers/men of poor faith was an incredibly painful, painful cross. it is one thing to already be married to someone who becomes this way, and for God to bring good out of that situation. to intentionally do it is, frankly, a kind of sin against your children.

i have to wonder if you're unmarried, and therefore speaking from zero experience regarding what married and family life is really like. these things will become extremely, painfully, abysmally apparent to you when you have children and are put to the test through various trials that push you to your very last thread. then you would see how marriage to an unbeliever becomes a huge open wound in your family, and the worst part is - you would have chosen that for your family, knowingly, when the Scriptures explicitly advise against it.

A close up of the death panels on at Mary’s church Sparham Norfolk the last Anglo Saxon designed church to be built and was most probably finished by the Norman 1067AD.

I love slinging off my bra and just going the fuck to bed instead of whatever this insane shit is

According to the legend St. Nicholas dropped a sack of gold down a chimney every night for three nights to save three desperately impoverished young women from being forced into prostitution, so when we all go to Heaven one of you is going to have to explain to him about “Santa Baby,” because I ain’t doing it.

I was searching for some pretty Hanukkah gifs to schedule a post tomorrow wishing my Jewish followers Happy Hanukkah and I found a fit/shape/body building site that posted this

And I thought to myself, I simply must show my Jewish followers fit Menorah Man

muscle tov

MUSCLE TOV IM SCREAMING 

This was NOT how i planned to wish my Jewish followers Happy Hanukkah but with that said I must share these additions to the post:

Happy First night of Hanukkah my friends

MACCA BEE!!

Happy Hanukkah, to all the Jews out there

Queen of England

Tsar of Russia?

"no one's saying stop being religious, just if it comes down to your religion or me you need to agree with me" do you hear yourself

If religion doesn't inform how I interact with the world, if it doesn't give me guidelines on how to behave and what to believe? It's not religion. It's a social club at best, an aesthetic at worst. You might not care what aesthetic I slap on top of agreeing with you, but don't say you're okay with my religion when you're not.

What's that line from St. Thomas More? "I am the king's good servant, but God's first?"

I think this might be something nonreligious people don't always understand. There is no higher authority to whom I listen nor greater love to which I cleave nor higher approval which I desire than that of my God. Christ the Lord is lord of my life, He comes before everything else—before my husband, before my family, before my friends, before my country, before my job, before social approval. Don't get me wrong, I love so many people and things; the world is so good an the people who are in my life are amazing! And yet, they're all second in my heart.

If it's a choice between my nation and my God, I choose my God. If it's a choice between my friends and my God, I choose my God. If it's a choice between social approval and my God—I choose my God.

Of course my God also demands I love people, and not just the people who agree with me but the people who disagree with me. "Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you" is a high demand, but "love people who think differently than you" is easy by comparison. So I try to be tolerant—as in "I will love and treat you as a person, regardless of where we disagree"—of everyone, because my God loves everyone and my greatest goal in life is to be close to Him.

But if someone were to demand I choose between Him or them? If they asked me where my final love stands?

I have to stay here at His side. He is my final loyalty and love. I can't help it if people don't like that and walk away from me. I have to stay here.

My religion isn’t a bunch of opinions I’ve collected in a nice shiny box over the years. I actually believe that this is the Truth. Big T truth. ‘It cannot be any other way’ Truth.

You aren’t asking me to disagree with my uncle at thanksgiving. You’re asking me to deny that 1+1=2 for you. I love you, but not enough to deny reality for you.

And what's more, you don't want me to be the sort of person that can toss away my religion. You like that I'm trustworthy and reliable and live my values. You just have a problem when someone else expects you to live by the same standards you want others to live by.

Adult friendships be like “I miss you bro, let's hang out in November"

i *need* to stop automatically and quickly saying "it's okay" when someone apologizes or "i'm fine/okay" when someone asks what's wrong all because somehow i feel like i'd be burdening them if i responded with how i actually feel???? this needs to change

people can't love you properly if you don't allow yourself to be a burden sometimes. you don't have to dump everything on a single person, but if someone sounds really concerned if they ask you if you're okay, you're allowed to say "i'm having a really rough time." you're allowed to accept an apology even if you're still hurt- "thank you for your apology" or "i accept your apology" work well.

you are important! it's okay to share your troubles. a burden shared is halved, after all. just remember to share your joys, too. a joy shared is doubled!

the reason you should never feel guilty about putting your burdens on God