Aside from His predetermined primary purpose of giving Himself a ransom for many (Mk. 10:45), Jesus many times over stated His reason for coming was to preach (Mk. 1:38; Lk. 4:18, 43). Preaching the kingdom was Jesus focus prior to His sacrifice.

As He quoted of OT prophecy regarding Himself, “And the book of the prophet Isaiah was handed to Him. And He opened the book and found the place where it was written, ‘The spirit of the lord is upon me, because he anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free those who are oppressed, to proclaim the favorable year of the lord.’
And He closed the book, gave it back to the attendant and sat down; and the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on Him. And He began to say to them, ‘Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing’” (Lk. 4:17-21).

There is much in those few verses, one bit of which stands out. You may ask, in what way were captives released? Oh, praise be to God for Jesus coming! He taught elsewhere, “If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.” (Jn. 8:31-32). Free from what? To what are (or were) we captive? Jesus clarifies: ““Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin. The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son does remain forever. So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed” (Jn. 8:34-36).

Prior to salvation, all men are slaves to sin. But Jesus, who Himself is “the Truth” (Jn. 14:6), set us free from that enslavement. No longer are we slaves to sin, but now are, as Paul explains, “having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness” (Rom. 6:18). Therefore, as Paul exhorts, “just as you presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness, resulting in further lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness, resulting in sanctification” (Rom. 6:19). This is echoed in Rom. 12:1 and 2, where Paul penned “I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.”

Let us therefore, as Paul urges, present ourselves no longer to sin for it to be our master, since we have been set free. No, let us present our bodies a living and holy sacrifice to God, that He may be glorified through us and that Christ may live through us (Gal. 2:20).

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Spurgeon’s Morning and Evening Devotions

Morning, November 25

"To preach deliverance to the captives." Luke 4.18

None but Jesus can give deliverance to captives. Real liberty cometh from Him only. It is a liberty righteously bestowed"; for the Son, who is Heir of all things, has a right to make men free. The saints honour the justice of God, which now secures their salvation. It is a liberty which has been dearly purchased. Christ speaks it by His power, but He bought it by His blood. He makes thee free, but it is by His own bonds. Thou goest clear, because He bare thy burden for thee: thou art set at liberty, because He has suffered in thy stead. But, though dearly purchased, He freely gives it. Jesus asks nothing of us as a preparation for this liberty. He finds us sitting in sackcloth and ashes, and bids us put on the beautiful array of freedom; He saves us just as we are, and all without our help or merit. When Jesus sets free, the liberty is perpetually entailed"; no chains can bind again. Let the Master say to me, "Captive, I have delivered thee," and it is done for ever. Satan may plot to enslave us, but if the Lord be on our side, whom shall we fear? The world, with its temptations, may seek to ensnare us, but mightier is He who is for us than all they who be against us. The machinations of our own deceitful hearts may harass and annoy us, but He who hath begun the good work in us will carry it on and perfect it to the end. The foes of God and the enemies of man may gather their hosts together, and come with concentrated fury against us, but if God acquitteth, who is he that condemneth? Not more free is the eagle which mounts to his rocky eyrie, and afterwards outsoars the clouds, than the soul which Christ hath delivered. If we are no more under the law, but free from its curse, let our liberty be practically exhibited in our serving God with gratitude and delight. "I am Thy servant, and the son of thine handmaid: Thou hast loosed my bonds." "Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?"

These 5 Big Food Corporations are the ones feeding you Inside Your Hospitals when you’re sick.

When you’re sick, you’d expect hospitals to give you real nourishment. Instead, the same corporations that dominate the processed food industry are the ones feeding patients at their weakest.

1. Nestlé – “Medical Nutrition”
Nestlé partners with hospitals to push shakes like Boost and feeding tube formulas like Nutren. These products contain canola oil, corn syrup, sugar, and additives. Marketed as “nutrition,” but far from real food, they fuel inflammation and poor health outcomes.

2. Coca-Cola – Beverage Contracts
Coca-Cola has exclusive contracts inside major hospitals. Patients are sold Coke, Diet Coke, Powerade, and sugary juices instead of clean hydration. The same sodas and sweeteners tied to obesity and diabetes are handed out in places meant to treat those very conditions.

3. PepsiCo – Junk Food in Cafeterias
From Pepsi and Diet Pepsi to Mountain Dew, Gatorade, Tropicana, Quaker, and Frito-Lay, PepsiCo fills hospital vending machines and cafeterias. Patients recovering from surgery walk past the same junk food that drives heart disease and metabolic illness.

4. General Mills – Processed Cereals
Hospital breakfasts often include Cheerios, Lucky Charms, and Wheaties. Marketed as “healthy,” but loaded with sugar, dyes, and refined grains. Instead of nutrition, patients get bowls that spike blood sugar and disrupt gut health.

5. Kellogg’s – Sugary Breakfasts
Cereals like Frosted Flakes, Froot Loops, and Rice Krispies are served daily in hospitals. Packed with refined flour, sugar, and preservatives, these cereals are tied to the same chronic conditions hospitals claim to fight.

6. Kraft Heinz – Processed Comfort Foods
Brands like Oscar Mayer, Jell-O, Lunchables, and Philadelphia show up in hospital trays and cafeterias. Behind the comfort foods are nitrates, preservatives, and artificial ingredients linked to inflammation and poor recovery.

The Truth: The very corporations fueling sickness through processed food are the same ones feeding patients in hospitals. The cycle of disease is profitable—and it’s being served up on your tray.

Below, is a FREE program that if I accept they will do free soil testing for lead contamination. First of all, nothing is free, second this is another trap set to prevent rebuilding my property that burned down to the ground on Jan. 7, 2025. I’m not doing it. They have no proof that the soil never had lead before the house was built on the lot, so why test now? If I have to my attorney will talk to them.

FREE SOIL TESTING FOR PALISADES FIRE BURN AREA:

This is your LA County Third District Supervisor Lindsey P. Horvath.

As part of Los Angeles County's commitment to support your recovery from the Palisades Fire, we have allocated an additional $3 million to provide free soil testing for lead.

To learn how to participate in this no-cost resource -- including steps to collect and submit your soil for testing -- please visit: ph.lacounty.gov/wildfire-soil-testing/

DAY 114: Overwhelm the Weak — Bring Superior Strength
Use superior force on inferior targets and leave no recovery for the enemy.
https://myr2b.substack.com/p/day-114-overwhelm-the-weak-bring?publication_id=1361476&post_id=176350745&isFreemail=false&r=1maoyr&triedRedirect=true&utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email

Our God is able to do far more than we ask or imagine (Eph. 3:20). So then, brethren, do we not come before Him with our every need? While Jesus walked the earth, the infirm, the afflicted, the weak all came to Him seeking the solution to their woes.

We just need to remember, as Jesus taught us to pray, "Your will be done" (Mt. 6:10) and in the garden in His own prayer said the same (Mt. 26:42). Even the leper, when He approached the Lord in Mark 1:40 fell before Him and said, "if You are willing..."

He will hear and answer our prayers, when they are according to His will: "This is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests which we have asked from Him: (1 Jn. 5:14-15).

Most importantly, He grants us cleansing, not from illness (though He can grant that as well), but from sin, from spiritual sickness. As He tells us in 1 Pet. 2:24-25, "He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed. For you were continually straying like sheep, but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Guardian of your souls."

He died to provide our spiritual healing, so that we might "die to sin and live to righteousness." Like sheep we had gone astray (Isa. 53:6; 1 Pet. 2:25), but the Good Shepherd has gathered us back to Himself.

Brethren, we are saved because it was His will. Let us now conform ourselves further to His will through prayer and supplication.
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Spurgeon's Morning and Evening Devotions

Morning, September 4

"I will; be thou clean." Mark 1:41

Primeval darkness heard the Almighty fiat, "light be," and straightway light was, and the word of the Lord Jesus is equal in majesty to that ancient word of power. Redemption like Creation has its word of might. Jesus speaks and it is done. Leprosy yielded to no human remedies, but it fled at once at the Lord's "I will." The disease exhibited no hopeful signs or tokens of recovery, nature contributed nothing to its own healing, but the unaided word effected the entire work on the spot and for ever. The sinner is in a plight more miserable than the leper; let him imitate his example and go to Jesus, "beseeching Him and kneeling down to Him." Let him exercise what little faith he has, even though it should go no further than "Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean"; and there need be no doubt as to the result of the application. Jesus heals all who come, and casts out none. In reading the narrative in which our morning's text occurs, it is worthy of devout notice that Jesus touched the leper. This unclean person had broken through the regulations of the ceremonial law and pressed into the house, but Jesus so far from chiding him broke through the law Himself in order to meet him. He made an interchange with the leper, for while He cleansed him, He contracted by that touch a Levitical defilement. Even so Jesus Christ was made sin for us, although in Himself He knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. O that poor sinners would go to Jesus, believing in the power of His blessed substitutionary work, and they would soon learn the power of His gracious touch. That hand which multiplied the loaves, which saved sinking Peter, which upholds afflicted saints, which crowns believers, that same hand will touch every seeking sinner, and in a moment make him clean. The love of Jesus is the source of salvation. He loves, He looks, He touches us, WE LIVE.

Spurgeon's Morning and Evening Devotions

Morning, August 11

"Oh that I were as in months past." Job 29:2

Numbers of Christians can view the past with pleasure, but regard the present with dissatisfaction; they look back upon the days which they have passed in communing with the Lord as being the sweetest and the best they have ever known, but as to the present, it is clad in a sable garb of gloom and dreariness. Once they lived near to Jesus, but now they feel that they have wandered from Him, and they say, "O that I were as in months past!" They complain that they have lost their evidences, or that they have not present peace of mind, or that they have no enjoyment in the means of grace, or that conscience is not so tender, or that they have not so much zeal for God's glory. The causes of this mournful state of things are manifold. It may arise through a comparative neglect of prayer, for a neglected closet is the beginning of all spiritual decline. Or it may be the result of idolatry. The heart has been occupied with something else, more than with God; the affections have been set on the things of earth, instead of the things of heaven. A jealous God will not be content with a divided heart; He must be loved first and best. He will withdraw the sunshine of His presence from a cold, wandering heart. Or the cause may be found in self-confidence and self-righteousness. Pride is busy in the heart, and self is exalted instead of lying low at the foot of the cross. Christian, if you are not now as you "were in months past," do not rest satisfied with wishing for a return of former happiness, but go at once to seek your Master, and tell Him your sad state. Ask His grace and strength to help you to walk more closely with Him; humble yourself before Him, and He will lift you up, and give you yet again to enjoy the light of His countenance. Do not sit down to sigh and lament; while the beloved Physician lives there is hope, nay there is a certainty of recovery for the worst cases.

Spurgeon's Morning and Evening Devotions

Evening, July 17

"Let not one of them escape." 1 Kings 18:40

When the prophet Elijah had received the answer to his prayer, and the fire from heaven had consumed the sacrifice in the presence of all the people, he called upon the assembled Israelites to take the priests of Baal, and sternly cried, "Let not one of them escape." He took them all down to the brook Kishon, and slew them there. So must it be with our sins- they are all doomed, not one must be preserved. Our darling sin must die. Spare it not for its much crying. Strike, though it be as dear as an Isaac. Strike, for God struck at sin when it was laid upon His own Son. With stern unflinching purpose must you condemn to death that sin which was once the idol of your heart. Do you ask how you are to accomplish this? Jesus will be your power. You have grace to overcome sin given you in the covenant of grace; you have strength to win the victory in the crusade against inward lusts, because Christ Jesus has promised to be with you even unto the end. If you would triumph over darkness, set yourself in the presence of the Sun of Righteousness. There is no place so well adapted for the discovery of sin, and recovery from its power and guilt, as the immediate presence of God. Job never knew how to get rid of sin half so well as he did when his eye of faith rested upon God, and then he abhorred himself, and repented in dust and ashes. The fine gold of the Christian is oft becoming dim. We need the sacred fire to consume the dross. Let us fly to our God, He is a consuming fire; He will not consume our spirit, but our sins. Let the goodness of God excite us to a sacred jealousy, and to a holy revenge against those iniquities which are hateful in His sight. Go forth to battle with Amalek in His strength, and utterly destroy the accursed crew: let not one of them escape.

Ongoing recovery operations in the Texas Hill Country.

Graph shows job recovery in relation to pre-pandemic levels. The '1' at the bottom axis represents pre-pandemic job levels, '1.1' is 10% growth. The colors represent political party representation.

Trump Heads to North Carolina and Los Angeles to Oversee Disaster Recovery, Considers Returning FEMA Powers to States
https://yournews.com/2025/01/24/3153699/trump-heads-to-north-carolina-and-los-angeles-to-oversee/

They're home! 3 female former hostages – Romi Gonen, Emily Damari and Doron Steinbrecher – arrive back in Israel
'We send you and your families a huge embrace. This is a day of joy and comfort, and the beginning of a challenging journey of recovery and healing together'
https://www.wnd.com/2025/01/theyre-home-3-female-former-hostages-romi-gonen-emily-damari-and-doron-steinbrecher-arrive-back-in-israel/

Timothy Prickett Morgan - Cisco Starts to See Signs of Datacenter Spending Recovery:

https://www.nextplatform.com/2024/05/16/cisco-starts-to-see-signs-of-datacenter-spending-recovery/

#CiscoSystems #Cisco #Splunk #DataAnalytics #Acquisition #Datacenter #InformationTechnology #Networking #ComputerScience #Finance #Economics #Business

Sis came out good from surgery. No cancer! Praise Jesus! Basketball sized cyst...praying for a good recovery and for this to help her back to a "normal" life.
God is so good!

Aliza Chasan - 21 species removed from endangered list due to extinction, U.S. wildlife officials say:

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/21-species-removed-from-endangered-list-due-to-extinction-us-wildlife-officials-say/

#EndangeredSpecies #Extinction #USFWS #HumanEncroachment #Encroachment #HabitatLoss #InvasiveSpecies #Diseases #Conservation #PopulationRebound #Rebound #Recovery #EnvironmentalScience #Ecology

Brett Tingley - NASA's OSIRIS-REx lands samples of asteroid Bennu to Earth after historic 4-billion-mile journey:

https://www.space.com/nasa-osiris-rex-success-recovery-asteroid-sample

#OSIRISREx #NASA #SampleReturn #Asteroid #Bennu #SpaceExploration #Astronomy