The city of El Paso, a West Texas way station long accustomed to migrants arriving from Mexico, has begun to buckle under the pressure of thousands upon thousands of people coming over the border, day after day.

The usual shelters have been filled. So too have the hundreds of hotel rooms wrangled by the city to house migrants. A new city-run shelter opened over the weekend in a recreational center, and rapidly filled all of its roughly 400 beds. Another shelter is planned in a vacant middle school.

Mayor Oscar Leeser said over the weekend that the city had reached a “breaking point” and was no longer able to help all the migrants on its own. He welcomed the buses, chartered by the administration of Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas, that once again began carrying hundreds of migrants out of the city to Denver, Chicago or New York. The mayor said he was seeking millions of dollars in additional aid from the Biden administration.

Read it all.

El Paso, Texas, has begun to buckle under the pressure of thousands upon thousands of people coming over the border. Mayor Oscar Leeser said the city reached a “breaking point,” and is seeking millions of dollars in additional aid from the White House. https://t.co/QfxKxft3us

— The New York Times (@nytimes) September 27, 2023

Compel us, O God, to attend diligently to thy Word, as didst thy faithful servants Paula and Eustochium, that, by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, we may find it profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, and for instruction in righteousness; and that thereby we may be made wise unto salvation through faith in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.

January 26th is the feast of Saint Paula: Roman noblewoman, mother of five (including Saints Blaesilla and Eustochium), widow, disciple of Saint Jerome, foundress of four monasteries, and patroness of the Hieronymite Order, who died at Bethlehem on this day in A.D. 404. pic.twitter.com/AjPr3pbb2U

— Tradical (@NoTrueScotist) January 26, 2020

O Lord Jesus Christ, who hadst compassion on the widow of Nain, and didst say unto her, Weep not: Comfort, we beseech thee, the hearts of those who mourn the loss of their beloved, and when thou comest in thy kingdom, wipe away all tears from their eyes; who livest and reignest with the Father and the Holy Spirit, ever one God, world without end.

Autumn light 💡 #autumn #woodland #ThePhotoHour #sunlight pic.twitter.com/LUA0u9lsPJ

— Gareth Mate (@GarethMate_) September 28, 2023

O taste and see that the Lord is good!
Happy is the man who takes refuge in him!
O fear the Lord, you his saints,
for those who fear him have no want!

–Psalm 34:8-9

Good morning from Wensleydsle

📸 IG/rachmf7 pic.twitter.com/oaUql0mMxe

— Love North Yorkshire (@LoveNorthYorks1) September 28, 2023

Ten survivors of church-based abuse have written to the Archbishops’ Council criticising their treatment after the Independent Safeguarding Board (ISB) was disbanded.

On Sunday evening, a letter was sent to the council by ten of the 12 people who had been awaiting a review of their cases by the ISB when it was disbanded without warning (News, 21 June). They write: “In the period since you closed the ISB we have been left in uncertainty and distress.”

The group criticise the announcement on 14 September that Kevin Crompton had been appointed as an “interim commissioner of independent reviews”….They say that the council’s handling of the situation has caused “harm” to members of the group.

“We have no forum through which to raise these concerns. Collectively, we believe that the harm these decisions have caused needs to be independently assessed and we have asked an expert clinical psychologist to complete this work as a matter of urgency.”

Read it all.

Ten survivors of church-based abuse wrote to the Archbishops’ Council on Sunday evening, criticising their treatment since the Council disbanded the Independent Safeguarding Board (ISB).https://t.co/Tj6StIHVG3

— Church Times (@ChurchTimes) September 25, 2023

Federal government shutdowns have become so common in recent years that forecasters have a good read on how another one would affect the American economy. The answer is fairly simple: The longer a shutdown lasts, the more damage it is likely to inflict.

A brief shutdown would be unlikely to slow the economy significantly or push it into recession, economists on Wall Street and inside the Biden administration have concluded. That assessment is based in part on the evidence from prior episodes where Congress stopped funding many government operations.

But a prolonged shutdown could hurt growth and potentially President Biden’s re-election prospects. It would join a series of other factors that are expected to weigh on the economy in the final months of this year, including high interest rates, the restart of federal student loan payments next month and a potentially lengthy United Automobile Workers strike.

A halt to federal government business would not just dent growth. It would further dampen the mood of consumers, whose confidence slumped in September for the second straight month amid rising gas prices. In the month that previous shutdowns began, the Conference Board’s measure of consumer confidence slid by an average of seven points, Goldman Sachs economists noted recently, although much of that decline reversed in the month after a reopening.

Read it all.

“There’s a reason shutdowns tend to be pretty short. They end up causing disruptions that people don’t like.”
New from @nytimes, Equitable Growth’s Senior Policy Fellow @MichaelSLinden on the potential government shutdown. 👇https://t.co/etQF4cRgyh

— Equitable Growth (@equitablegrowth) September 27, 2023

Investors overseeing $23.6 trillion of funds have kick-started a campaign to pressure 100 companies to ramp up the fight against biodiversity loss.

Axa Investment Managers, Robeco, the Church Commissioners for England, Storebrand Asset Management and 186 other participants in the Nature Action 100 initiative have written to companies demanding “urgent and necessary actions” to protect and restore ecosystems, according to a statement released Tuesday.

The targeted companies include BHP Group Plc, Alibaba Group Holding Ltd, Nestle SA, Bayer AG, Amazon.com Inc. and Unilever Plc. They were selected based on their market values and participation in industries ranging from mining, food and pharmaceuticals to chemicals and forestry that are considered vital to reversing biodiversity loss by 2030.

Read it all.

Investors overseeing $23.6 trillion of funds have kick-started a campaign to pressure 100 companies to ramp up the fight against biodiversity loss https://t.co/YBXl6RtBou

— Bloomberg (@business) September 26, 2023

The Cross is the abyss of wonders, the centre of desires, the school of virtues, the house of wisdom, the throne of love, the theatre of joys, and the place of sorrows; It is the root of happiness, and the gate of Heaven.

Of all the things in Heaven and Earth it is the most peculiar. It is the most exalted of all objects. It is an Ensign lifted up for all nations, to it shall the Gentiles seek, His rest shall be glorious: the dispersed of Judah shall be gathered together to it, from the four corners of the earth. If Love be the weight of the Soul, and its object the centre, all eyes and hearts may convert and turn unto this Object: cleave unto this centre, and by it enter into rest. There we might see all nations assembled with their eyes and hearts upon it. There we may see God’s goodness, wisdom and power: yea His mercy and anger displayed. There we may see man’s sin and infinite value. His hope and fear, his misery and happiness. There we might see the Rock of Ages, and the Joys of Heaven. There we may see a Man loving all the world, and a God dying for mankind. There we may see all types and ceremonies, figures and prophecies. And all kingdoms adoring a malefactor: An innocent malefactor, yet the greatest in the world. There we may see the most distant things in Eternity united: all mysteries at once couched together and explained. The only reason why this Glorious Object is so publicly admired by Churches and Kingdoms, and so little thought of by particular men, is because it is truly the most glorious: It is the Rock of Comforts and the Fountain of Joys. It is the only supreme and sovereign spectacle in all Worlds. It is a Well of Life beneath in which we may see the face of Heaven above: and the only mirror, wherein all things appear in their proper colours: that is, sprinkled in the blood of our Lord and Saviour.

The Cross of Christ is the Jacob’s ladder by which we ascend into the highest heavens. There we see joyful Patriarchs, expecting Saints, Prophets ministering Apostles publishing, and Doctors teaching, all Nations concentering, and Angels praising. That Cross is a tree set on fire with invisible flame, that Illuminateth all the world. The flame is Love: the Love in His bosom who died on it. In the light of which we see how to possess all the things in Heaven and Earth after His similitude. For He that suffered on it was the Son of God as you are: tho’ He seemed only a mortal man. He had acquaintance and relations as you have, but He was a lover of Men and Angels. Was he not the Son of God; and Heir of the whole world? To this poor, bleeding, naked Man did all the corn and wine, and oil, and gold and silver in the world minister in an invisible manner, even as He was exposed lying and dying upon the Cross.

—Centuries of Meditations 1:58-60

The Shining Human Creature#Christian #Ethics, Vol. 1

BY THOMAS TRAHERNE @ThomasTraherne, MODERNIZED BY COLIN REDEMER @RedemTheTimes @DavenantInst #Book https://t.co/MLhgx8qiYA pic.twitter.com/8oNfJOhRdB

— Theology Books (@theology_books) June 17, 2023

Creator of wonder and majesty, who didst inspire thy poet Thomas Traherne with mystical insight to see thy glory in the natural world and in the faces of men and women around us: Help us to know thee in thy creation and in our neighbors, and to understand our obligations to both, that we may ever grow into the people thou hast created us to be; through our Savior Jesus Christ, who with thee and the Holy Spirit livest and reignest, one God, in everlasting light. Amen.

" The Idler ". Thomas Traherne stained glass window Hereford Cathedral. pic.twitter.com/SgSYAAQwN5

— andy luff (@andyluff8) January 20, 2023

Lord, who hast warned us that without thee we can do nothing; and by thy holy apostle hast taught us that in thy strength we can do all things: So take and possess us, that our weakness may be transformed by thy power; that we be no longer our own, but thine; that it be not we who live, but thou who livest in us; who now reignest with the Father and the Holy Spirit, world without end.

—Daily Prayer, Eric Milner-White and G. W. Briggs, eds. (London: Penguin Books 1959 edition of the 1941 original)

Catching this morning's mackerel sky- have a wonderful Wednesday, friends #ScotlandisNow #StormHour #photography #photooftheday #landscape #OutAndAboutScotland #landscapephotography @VisitScotland @ScotsMagazine #friends #ThePhotoHour #stvsnaps #beautiful #sunrise#StormAgnes pic.twitter.com/5Rlo9gFMxT

— Mike Wood (@MikeMikwd) September 27, 2023

When the servant of the man of God rose early in the morning and went out, behold, an army with horses and chariots was round about the city. And the servant said, “Alas, my master! What shall we do?” He said, “Fear not, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.” Then Eli′sha prayed, and said, “O Lord, I pray thee, open his eyes that he may see.” So the Lord opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw; and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Eli′sha. And when the Syrians came down against him, Eli′sha prayed to the Lord, and said, “Strike this people, I pray thee, with blindness.” So he struck them with blindness in accordance with the prayer of Eli′sha. And Eli′sha said to them, “This is not the way, and this is not the city; follow me, and I will bring you to the man whom you seek.” And he led them to Samar′ia.

As soon as they entered Samar′ia, Eli′sha said, “O Lord, open the eyes of these men, that they may see.” So the Lord opened their eyes, and they saw; and lo, they were in the midst of Samar′ia. When the king of Israel saw them he said to Eli′sha, “My father, shall I slay them? Shall I slay them?” He answered, “You shall not slay them. Would you slay those whom you have taken captive with your sword and with your bow? Set bread and water before them, that they may eat and drink and go to their master.” So he prepared for them a great feast; and when they had eaten and drunk, he sent them away, and they went to their master. And the Syrians came no more on raids into the land of Israel.

–2 Kings 6:15-23

This is Chrome Hill, perhaps the peakiest peak in the #peakdistrict. It looks dramatic from every angle but I love this view of it dominating the landscape. And the rather lovely horse was a complete gift, giving me his best side and enjoying the scene as much as I was. pic.twitter.com/mNehVBUisk

— peaklass (@peaklass1) September 27, 2023

Adama Zourkaleini Maiga is soft-spoken, but her eyes suggest steely determination.

The single mother-of-two lives in a quiet, middle-class part of Niger’s capital Niamey, but is originally from Tillabéry, one of the regions worst-hit by violence.

“My mother’s cousin was chief of a village called Téra,” she tells me over lunch. “He was assassinated just seven months ago.

“The terrorists were looking for him and when they found out he’d rented a car to flee, they caught up with him and killed him. They slit his throat. It was a real shock for our whole family.”

Read it all.

"Why is Macron saying he doesn't recognise our authorities, when he's accepted coups in other countries like in Gabon and Chad?" The doubt raised by an Iman in Niger echoes the ill feeling of many there towards France, tells the BBC's @MayeniJones. https://t.co/N2e9oWkth4

— BBC News Africa (@BBCAfrica) September 26, 2023

It’s been about 250 million years since reptile-like animals evolved into mammals. Now a team of scientists is predicting that mammals may have only another 250 million years left.

The researchers built a virtual simulation of our future world, similar to the models that have projected human-caused global warming over the next century. Using data on the movement of the continents across the planet, as well as fluctuations in the chemical makeup of atmosphere, the new study projected much further into the future.

Alexander Farnsworth, a paleoclimate scientist at the University of Bristol who led the team, said that the planet might become too hot for any mammals — ourselves included — to survive on land. The researchers found that the climate will turn deadly thanks to three factors: a brighter sun, a change in the geography of the continents and increases in carbon dioxide.

“It’s a triple whammy that becomes unsurvivable,” Dr. Farnsworth said. He and his colleagues published their study on Monday in the journal Nature Geoscience.

Read it all.

A new model suggests that in 250 million years, all land will collide into a supercontinent that boosts warming and pushes mammals to extinction. https://t.co/9TUqSKRVjR

— NYT Science (@NYTScience) September 26, 2023

More than a quarter of churches in Cornwall are failing to offer a Sunday service, analysis by The Telegraph has revealed.

Across 287 churches in the county, 78 had no forms of Sunday worship advertised on the last weekend of September – a total of 27 per cent.

Of those that did, just 114 advertised that Communion was being offered, considered by many Christians to be the most important sacrament.

Responding to the data, the Rev Marcus Walker, chairman of the campaign group, Save The Parish, said: “It can come as no shock to anybody that if you reduce the number of priests, you reduce the number of services; if you reduce the number of services you reduce the number of people going to church.

“The Church of England has hundreds of millions of pounds to throw at pet causes. Now is the time to put that money back where it was supposed to be spent: parish ministry.”

Read it all.

I think the final comment about rotation of services being long-established is a fair onehttps://t.co/SgjM7cKRpJ

— Madeleine Davies (@MadsDavies) September 25, 2023

The top translator and overseer of the KJV translation, Lancelot Andrewes was perhaps the most brilliant man of his age, and one of the most pious. A man of high ecclesiastical office during both Elizabeth’s and James’s reigns, bishop in three different cities under James, Andrewes is still highly enough regarded in the Church of England to merit his own minor feast on the church calendar.

Though Andrewes never wrote “literature,” modern writers as diverse as T. S. Eliot and Kurt Vonnegut Jr. have called him one of the great literary writers in English. His sermons feel too stiff and artificial and are clotted with too many Latin phrases to appeal to most today, but they are also filled with strikingly beautiful passages. Eliot, a great modern poet in his own right, took a section of an Andrewes sermon and started one of his own poems with it (“The Journey of the Magi”):

A cold coming we had of it,
Just the worst time of the year for a journey,
and such a long journey:
The ways deep and the weather sharp,
The very dead of winter.

Andrewes served not only as the leader of the First Westminster Company of Translators, which translated Genesis – 2 Kings, but also as general editor of the whole project. He very likely, as Benson Bobrick suggests, drafted the final form of “such celebrated passages as the Creation and Fall; Abraham and Isaac; the Exodus; David’s laments for Saul, Jonathan, and Absalom; and Elijah’s encounter with the ‘still small voice.’”

Read it all.

Today the Church of England celebrates Lancelot Andrewes, Bishop of Winchester, Spiritual Writer, 1626
He oversaw the King James Bible translation & is personally credited for his translation of the Pentateuch
Image: Window in St Giles-without-Cripplegate (Ndoduc, CC BY-SA 4.0) pic.twitter.com/jhZFkQw7Qt

— The Anglican Church in St Petersburg (@anglicanspb) September 25, 2023

Almighty God, who gavest thy servant Lancelot Andrewes the gift of thy holy Spirit and made him a man of prayer and a faithful pastor of thy people: Perfect in us what is lacking of thy gifts, of faith, to increase it, of hope, to establish it, of love, to kindle it, that we may live in the life of thy grace and glory; through Jesus Christ thy Son our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the same Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

25 Sept 1626: d. Bishop Lancelot Andrewes #Southwark #otd translator, devotional writer, he is buried in #Southwark cathedral ( photo: @rhetorician) pic.twitter.com/ZQpks5S2XI

— John McCafferty (@jdmccafferty) September 25, 2023

O Spirit of the living God, who dost sanctify the lives of thy people, and dost build them up into a holy temple for thy habitation: Grant us so to know thy indwelling presence that we may be set free from lesser desires, and by thy grace may be conformed to the likeness of Jesus Christ our Lord.

—New Every Morning (The Prayer Book Of The Daily Broadcast Service) [BBC, 1900]

Morning everyone hope you are well. Dunmail Raise towards Thirlmere and a distant Skiddaw. It's amazing how different the weather can be, north or south of the Raise, driving out of the rain in Ambleside towards the sun of Keswick. Have a great day. #LakeDistrict @keswickbootco pic.twitter.com/iTagy4JPfq

— Rod Hutchinson (@lakesrhino) September 26, 2023

But when Na′aman had gone from him a short distance, Geha′zi, the servant of Eli′sha the man of God, said, “See, my master has spared this Na′aman the Syrian, in not accepting from his hand what he brought. As the Lord lives, I will run after him, and get something from him.” So Geha′zi followed Na′aman. And when Na′aman saw some one running after him, he alighted from the chariot to meet him, and said, “Is all well?” And he said, “All is well. My master has sent me to say, ‘There have just now come to me from the hill country of E′phraim two young men of the sons of the prophets; pray, give them a talent of silver and two festal garments.’” And Na′aman said, “Be pleased to accept two talents.” And he urged him, and tied up two talents of silver in two bags, with two festal garments, and laid them upon two of his servants; and they carried them before Geha′zi. And when he came to the hill, he took them from their hand, and put them in the house; and he sent the men away, and they departed. He went in, and stood before his master, and Eli′sha said to him, “Where have you been, Geha′zi?” And he said, “Your servant went nowhere.” But he said to him, “Did I not go with you in spirit when the man turned from his chariot to meet you? Was it a time to accept money and garments, olive orchards and vineyards, sheep and oxen, menservants and maidservants? Therefore the leprosy of Na′aman shall cleave to you, and to your descendants for ever.” So he went out from his presence a leper, as white as snow.

–2 Kings 5:19-27

High Lodore, the little bridge across Watendlath Beck. Borrowdale. pic.twitter.com/F7n9PKcuKb

— YorkshireLass (@MaureenPlatts) September 26, 2023

Thriving churches, Hayward says, ‘are very intentional about what they do. They are very clear in their beliefs’ – particularly about the urgency of accepting Christ, since one’s eternal destiny is at stake. ‘Rather than, “Well, everybody here believes something, and we’re not really sure what, but we can always put on an event and maybe somebody will come along.”’

A week after my visit to the Pentecostals, I attend a service at a United Reformed Church – which is the fastest-declining of any UK-wide church. The service is led by the Moderator of the URC, the Revd Dr Tessa Henry-Robinson, described by her church as ‘a womanist practical theologian’ who has a particular focus on ‘uplifting ethnically-minoritised women and communities’. The URC itself, according to its website, ‘is not rigid in the expression of its beliefs, and embraces a wide variety of opinions’.

The Gospel reading is about forgiveness: a ‘contentious’ subject, Dr Henry-Robinson concedes in her sermon, but ‘we can begin almost immediately by asking forgiveness for how we buy into containing and using God’. Such as? Pronouns, apparently. ‘I am not asking people to be on the same journey, but I am trying to be intentional about not using “he” or “she” or “it” or “they” to identify God… not limiting our language in identifying a God that is limitless.’

The trade-off is that so limitless a God may also be too fuzzy to see clearly. At the back of the Elim church is a cross, a reminder of Jesus’s saving death. At the back of the URC church is a stained-glass depiction of a tree with tongues of fire in it, a general image of life and renewal.

Read it all.

“Thriving churches… ‘are very intentional about what they do. They are very clear in their beliefs’ – particularly about the urgency of accepting Christ, since one’s eternal destiny is at stake.” https://t.co/LKYwQNZPOO

— Fr Chris Phillips (@phillipsc) September 22, 2023

Church of England education officials have welcomed the Government’s new Model Articles of Association, which sit alongside an updated national Memorandum of Understanding, as a recognition of the historic relationship between Church and State in education. They describe it as a move that offers “broad and expansive hope” for the development of church multi-academy trusts (MATs) “in a way that suits the local and regional context”.

But the new model documents, published on Monday, have also raised significant concerns. Writing in the Church Times this week, Howard Dellar, who is senior partner and head of the ecclesiastical and education department at Lee Bolton Monier-Williams, describes some of the changes as “exceedingly unwise”, and warned that the new model articles represent a sea change into “very choppy waters”.

One key change is the removal of Single Academy Trust Clauses to support the growth of MATs. Another is that there is now one consolidated model Article of Association, predicated on a majority governance structure, with flexibility to adapt governance provisions according to diocesan policy; previously, there were two separate models for majority and minority C of E governance, reflecting the difference in context between schools converting from voluntary aided and voluntary controlled status.

Read it all.

"The embedding of the diocesan strategy in these core documents offers a broad and expansive hope for the development of Church of England MATs in a way that suits the local and regional context" https://t.co/vEanFj8C2t

— Church Times (@ChurchTimes) September 22, 2023

I’m grateful for the humor infused into our friendship. But I’m also grateful for the ways Tim Keller encouraged me. One such occurrence was at the conclusion of a conference when I was walking him out of the venue. As we made our way toward the exit, he stopped. When I turned around and walked back to him, this six-foot-five man extended his arm, pulled me in, and said, “You’re doing really good work here.” It was the most awkward, most affirming hug I’d ever received.

Yet, what’s equally important to the humor and the encouragement is the way Tim Keller shaped me as a preacher. Before I encountered him years ago, my messages were heavy on how-tos and performance. Do this. Become that. But in every single sermon I preach today, I strive to direct people to worship Jesus and adore him more as opposed to inspiring them to work harder as Christians.

I believe Tim was quoting D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones when he said, “There ought to come a time in every message where the pen goes down and the eyes go up and you stop saying, ‘Oh my God, look at all the things I have to do for you. And you start saying, ‘Oh my God, look at all the things you’ve done for me.’”

Read it all.

“Before I encountered Tim Keller years ago, my messages were heavy on how-tos and performance,” writes @jdgreear.

“But in every single sermon I preach today, I strive to direct people to worship Jesus and adore him more.”https://t.co/3sqHHvYefP

— Christianity Today (@CTmagazine) September 25, 2023

Global warming has focused concern on land and sky as soaring temperatures intensify hurricanes, droughts and wildfires. But another climate crisis is unfolding, underfoot and out of view.

Many of the aquifers that supply 90 percent of the nation’s water systems, and which have transformed vast stretches of America into some of the world’s most bountiful farmland, are being severely depleted. These declines are threatening irreversible harm to the American economy and society as a whole.

The New York Times conducted a months-long examination of groundwater depletion, interviewing more than 100 experts, traveling the country and creating a comprehensive database using millions of readings from monitoring sites. The investigation reveals how America’s life-giving resource is being exhausted in much of the country, and in many cases it won’t come back. Huge industrial farms and sprawling cities are draining aquifers that could take centuries or millenniums to replenish themselves if they recover at all.

Read it all.

Readable, emblematic description of problems with water that occur, to different degrees, but with same causes, pretty much everywhere: bad policy, poor enforcement, lack of valuation, sectoral lobbying, poor monitoring, political v hydrological. https://t.co/1bJWE5lykh

— Scott McCready (@scottmccready) September 24, 2023

O God, whose blessed Son became poor that we through his poverty might be rich: Deliver us, we pray thee, from an inordinate love of this world, that inspired by the devotion of thy servant Sergius of Moscow, we may serve thee with singleness of heart, and attain to the riches of the age to come; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.

Saint Sergius of Radonezh #byzantineorthodoxart #byzantineart #byzantine #icons #paintings #art #history #artwork #artworks pic.twitter.com/wwHdUHFQsb

— Byzantine Orthodox Art (@ArtOrthodox) September 24, 2024

O Lord, we beseech you mercifully to hear the prayers
of your people who call upon you;
and grant that they may both perceive and know
what things they ought to do,
and also may have grace and power faithfully to fulfil them;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
Amen.

Buachaille Etive Mhor. Really looking forward to getting up here again in the next few weeks. pic.twitter.com/XFuMjc2l4p

— YorkshireLass (@MaureenPlatts) September 25, 2023

Already you are filled! Already you have become rich! Without us you have become kings! And would that you did reign, so that we might share the rule with you! For I think that God has exhibited us apostles as last of all, like men sentenced to death; because we have become a spectacle to the world, to angels and to men. We are fools for Christ’s sake, but you are wise in Christ. We are weak, but you are strong. You are held in honor, but we in disrepute. To the present hour we hunger and thirst, we are ill-clad and buffeted and homeless, and we labor, working with our own hands. When reviled, we bless; when persecuted, we endure; when slandered, we try to conciliate; we have become, and are now, as the refuse of the world, the offscouring of all things.

–1 Corinthians 4:8-13

Monday sunrise over the Charleston Harbor! pic.twitter.com/zSaBktL8YD

— Joey Sovine Live 5 (@JoeySovine) September 25, 2023

O Lord, you have taught us that without love, all our deeds are worth nothing: Send your Holy Spirit and pour into our hearts that most excellent gift of charity, the true bond of peace and of all virtues, without which whoever lives is counted dead before you; grant this for the sake of your Son Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.  Amen.

Autumn ▪️▪️▪️#fotoshot #photooftheday #picoftheday #NaturalBeauty #NaturePhotography #ThePhotoHour #nature pic.twitter.com/a0I8zOTOd8

— Dorothea Ostra (@DorothyOstra) September 24, 2023

Now there was a disciple at Damascus named Anani’as. The Lord said to him in a vision, “Anani’as.” And he said, “Here I am, Lord.” And the Lord said to him, “Rise and go to the street called Straight, and inquire in the house of Judas for a man of Tarsus named Saul; for behold, he is praying, and he has seen a man named Anani’as come in and lay his hands on him so that he might regain his sight.” But Anani’as answered, “Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much evil he has done to thy saints at Jerusalem; and here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who call upon thy name.” But the Lord said to him, “Go, for he is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the sons of Israel; 16 for I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name.” So Anani’as departed and entered the house. And laying his hands on him he said, “Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus who appeared to you on the road by which you came, has sent me that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” And immediately something like scales fell from his eyes and he regained his sight. Then he rose and was baptized, and took food and was strengthened. For several days he was with the disciples at Damascus.

–Acts 9:10-19

Günaydın ~~Good morning ~~Guten Morgen ~~☕️
Have a beautiful and happy Sunday pic.twitter.com/oOPZadPiHc

— kuremel ⚖️ (@EmelKurdoglu2) September 24, 2023

Month by month Ukraine’s wishlist of weapons has shrunk. At the start of the war came Javelins and Stingers to take out tanks and planes. Then came artillery. himars rocket-launchers followed in the summer. This January it was tanks. And in August the White House even agreed that European allies could send f-16 jets.

Only one major weapon was left: the Army Tactical Missile System, known by its acronym atacms (pronounced attack ’ems). On September 21st that hurdle fell when Joe Biden, America’s president, told Volodymyr Zelensky, his Ukrainian counterpart, during a meeting in the White House, that “a small number” of atacms were on their way, according to reports in the American press the following day. The move, first reported by nbc News, has not been formally announced.

Atacms has acquired totemic status during the war. It is a ballistic missile that can be fired from the himars launchers Ukraine is already operating. Thus far those have mostly fired gps-guided rockets known as gmlrs, which can travel 70km or so. The initial appeal of atacms was that it could go a lot further—the official range is 300km—allowing Ukraine to reach even those facilities which Russia had moved farther behind the front lines.

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Joe Biden’s critics saw his reluctance to send the missiles as a sign of timidity. His reversal on the issue is a sign of trust—and may have positive knock-on effects https://t.co/YjTRbd80RS

— The Economist US (@EconUS) September 23, 2023

O Lord Jesu Christ, Son of the living God, grant me, a weak and wretched sinner, to have ever before the eyes of my heart Thy life and character, and as far as in me lies to imitate them. Make me to go forward in them and to grow up into a perfect man and into an holy temple in the Lord. Enlighten, I pray Thee, my heart with the brightness of Thy grace, and let it continually prevent and follow me; that having Thee as my guide in all my ways, I may do such things as please Thee and shun what is displeasing in Thy sight. Direct, I beseech Thee, my thoughts, words, and actions in Thy law and in Thy precepts, O Most High; so that in all things I may do Thy will, and may be accounted worthy to be saved by Thee both here and for ever.

–Frederick B. Macnutt, The prayer manual for private devotions or public use on divers occasions: Compiled from all sources ancient, medieval, and modern (A.R. Mowbray, 1951)

Guten Morgen ☕️🌸🌿 wünsche euch ein gesegnetes und ruhiges Wochenende 🌸 🌿
⭐️ Bewahre das Schöne in deinem Herzen, dann wirst du es nie verlieren ⭐️ Helena von Straten pic.twitter.com/ozJXS1XYRr

— Renate Kleine (@RenateKleine) September 23, 2023