Here are some things that define you more than your current relationship status, your job performance, your CV, your genetics, your appearance, your health, your past, your successes, your failures and pretty much everything else.

Hurray!

– you are made in the image of God (Genesis 1:27)
– you are a child of God (1 John 1:3)
– you are no longer a slave (Galatians 4:7)
– the most authoritative being in the Universe sets you free: you are free indeed (John 8:36)
– you have the Spirit of the Son in your heart (Galatians 4:6)
– in fact, you are a temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:19)
– you are a friend of Jesus (John 15:15)
– you are a sibling of Jesus, and he’s glad about it (Hebrews 2:11)
– your life IS Christ (Colossians 3:4)
– you are no longer darkness but light in the Lord (Ephesians 5:8)
– you are more than a conqueror through Him who loved you (Romans 8:37)

Read it all.

South Carolina public health officials have grown increasingly worried this week, as coronavirus cases have spiked significantly in several hot spots around the state.

On Friday, the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control announced more than 1,000 new cases — a daily record. The agency also said a rising number of young South Carolinians are testing positive for COVID-19, the illness caused by the coronavirus.

As of Friday, 4,160 confirmed coronavirus cases — 18.4 percent of all cases — were diagnosed among people between 21 and 30 years old — according to DHEC. Teenagers accounted for 7 percent of cases.

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Last night’s COVID update:

State health officials concerned as cases spike among those in 20s, 30s @postandcourier #chsnews https://t.co/jytsI40pW8

— Liz Foster (@TheDizzyLizzieB) June 20, 2020

Read it all.

O Lord God, heavenly Father, Who didst give up Thine only-begotten Son into grief and sorrow, that we might have peace through Him: grant us so surely to found our faith upon Him alone that we may have peace in our souls. Quicken us with Thy Word; grant already here on earth the peace which is a foretaste of the rest that remaineth for Thy people. And while the cares and tumults of this life beset us round about, guide us in all our undertakings by Thy Holy Spirit, that we may abide in Thy peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord.

–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)

What then? Are we Jews any better off? No, not at all; for I have already charged that all men, both Jews and Greeks, are under the power of sin, as it is written:

“None is righteous, no, not one;
no one understands, no one seeks for God.
All have turned aside, together they have gone wrong;
no one does good, not even one.”
“Their throat is an open grave,
they use their tongues to deceive.”
“The venom of asps is under their lips.”
“Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.”
“Their feet are swift to shed blood,
in their paths are ruin and misery,
and the way of peace they do not know.”
“There is no fear of God before their eyes.”

Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. For no human being will be justified in his sight by works of the law, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.

–Romans 3:9-20