Transfigurations: The tests of life are to make, not break us...

Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. -Romans 5:3-5

The tests of life are to make, not break us. Trouble may demolish a man’s business but build up his character. The blow at the outward man may be the greatest blessing to the inner man. If God, then, puts or permits anything hard in our lives, be sure that the real peril, the real trouble, is that we shall lose if we flinch or rebel. -Maltbie D. Babcock

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LA and SD suffer major population drops as immigration slows and CA residents flee A steep drop in immigration, driven by tighter enforcement and fewer legal entry options, is leaving a noticeable dent. At the same time, high costs of living are pushing locals to relocate to cheaper parts of the country, creating a double hit that’s dragging population numbers down.

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Christianity collapsing, Islam rising (Again)?

One of the two major political parties in the United States actually detests U.S. citizens and incessantly woos illegal aliens … and the other party doesn’t really do much about it.

And a country that has deep, profound -- and almost ubiquitous -- ties to Christianity seems to eschew religion in favor of an anything goes hyper-secularism, yet welcomes, tolerates, and defends Islam, a pseudo-religion that considers women as property, stones gays and adulterers, and whose “bylaws” state that infidels must be converted, enslaved, or exterminated. Weird, wild, wacky stuff. And deeply disturbing.

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