What Christ's return will do for you We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies. – Romans 8:22-23 A music composer had a mischievous son who used to love to get under his father's skin. Often, he would come in late at night when his father and mother were in bed. Before going to his room, he would go to the piano and loudly play a simple scale, all but the final note, thus leaving the scale incomplete. The father, hearing the scale minus the final note, would writhe in his bed, unable to relax after hearing the unresolved scale. Finally, he would stumble downstairs to the piano and hit the final note. Only then would he be able to sleep. It's called catharsis... that felt need every single one of us has to resolve things that seem out of balance to us. It's an innate feeling given to us by God to help us work toward and anticipate a time when every tension we have will be released and all things will be made new. That day will happen when Jesus returns. That event will be the final note in the unfinished scale of history. It will be the day when all the wrongs are made right, all our sadness turns to joy, and our faith is made sight. For now, we writhe and wait for the final note to be played. But trust in the Lord that the day is coming when all things will be complete and we'll enter the rest He has for us! Prayer Challenge Pray that God would give you the strength to endure any hardship you face by trusting in the promise of Christ's return. Questions for Thought When you think about Christ's return, what unresolved problem that you have today are you most looking forward to being resolved? How does the promise of Christ's return help you endure hard times today? Visit the Senior Living Ministries website The post What Christ’s Return Will Do for You – Senior Living – May 29 appeared first on GodUpdates.

A Prayer for Spending Money By Heidi Vegh "No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate and love the other or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money. – Matthew 6:24 Whether we have plenty or are in need, money can cause issues and struggles in our lives and relationships. God knows our tendencies as individuals; some of us love to spend money, have a hard time holding onto money, and are challenged to save. Others hoard what they have, keep it for themselves, and never share. Neither of these bless the Lord nor the ones around us. God calls us to have a healthy relationship with our finances, but it is only through following Jesus and obeying His Word that this is possible.  No one is immune to the negative hold that money can have on our hearts in plenty or in want. I am a spender. I like to shop and get new things. However, God has taught me throughout my life to pray about my spending and to listen to the still, small voices that lead me in my financial decisions. God desires us to live a life of generosity, putting God before money. We cannot serve both God and money. (Matthew 6:24)  What does this look like practically? First of all, God calls us to give. He calls us to take 10% of our income and give it to our church to help further the kingdom of God. This can be a challenge for some as they either don't understand or have trouble trusting God with that portion of their income. This heart issue can only be resolved between us and the Lord. However, in my own experience, I have trusted the Lord with a portion and have seen His hand on my finances. I have never gone without. That is not to say that I have not struggled financially, but God always provides. (Philippians 4:19) "Do not store up for yourselves (material) treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in and steal; for where your treasure is, there your heart (your wishes, your desires; that on which your life centers) will also be. – Mathew 6: 19-21 (AMP) Jesus is asking us to be wise with our finances. He is asking us to not put our trust in money. It is okay to save money and make wise decisions about our future. However, that can not be our sole source of security. Our security and peace must come from God alone, regardless of our financial life. Our trust should be in God alone, as Jesus tells us that He alone is the bread of life.  “Then Jesus declared, ‘I am the bread of life.  Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.’" – John 6:35 Let's pray: Lord, thank you for the blessings in my life. Thank you for providing for my needs and giving me what I need every day. However, I find myself worrying over money and how I should spend it, save it, and give it. Money can be a huge source of stress in my life, and I want to be able to live in peace regarding my finances. I want to live a life pleasing to you. I long to trust you so fully with my needs that I don't spend any of my time worrying over how my needs and my family’s needs will be met. I want to trust you with my finances and show you by giving a portion back to you. I want to obey you, Lord, but sometimes I get scared that you won't come through for me. Please help me to trust you enough to put that money in the basket as it passes by and show me miraculous provision so that I won't ever doubt you again. I ask for financial blessings, Lord so that I can use what you provide to help those in need. I don't want to hoard what you give me, Lord, but I long to be a person of generosity and a vessel to be used to bless those around me. Teach me how to spend wisely, Lord. Speak to my heart when I make a wrong financial decision and convict me when I spend money on something that is not necessary. I long to be content in all I have, whether I have a lot or a little. I want to live in financial security because of your presence in my life, not the numbers in my bank account. Show me you through my finances, Lord. Thank you for being Jehovah Jirah, our provider. You alone can provide what we need. Please help me not to rely solely on myself or others to provide for my needs. Give me wisdom with every cent that comes through my hands. God, show me what to give, save and spend. I want to live in your will. Thank you, Lord, for caring for my needs and showing me your love and care daily. Please open my eyes to the miraculous ways that you care for me.In your precious name, Jesus, we pray, amen. Photo credit: ©GettyImages/fizkes Heidi Vegh is a writer, speaker, and ministry leader living in Western Washington. She is a remarried mother of four, navigating the blended family life after the loss of her first husband to cancer in 2013. She longs to use her writing as a way to encourage others who have experienced loss and guide them on the road to healing. She contributes to her blog found at www.mrsheidivegh.com , sharing stories and devotionals of faith stemming from her loss and healing, mothering, and her blended and complex family. She graduated from Southern New Hampshire University with a degree in Creative Writing and English and is working on her first book. Heidi is the Women's Ministry Director at her local church and has a deep heart for sharing Jesus with women and encouraging them in their faith walk. When she is not writing, she loves to travel, read, craft, and experiment in the kitchen. Visit her Facebook and Instagram (@mrsheidivegh) to learn more. Teach Us to Pray is a FREE prayer podcast hosted by iBelieve writer Christina Patterson. Each week, she gives you practical, real-life tips on how to grow your faith and relationship with God through the power of prayer. To listen to her episode on What to Pray in the Morning for a Worry-Free Day, click below! Now that you’ve prayed, are you in need of someone to pray for YOU? Click the button below! Visit iBelieve.com for more inspiring prayer content. The post A Prayer for Spending Money – Your Daily Prayer – May 29 appeared first on GodUpdates.

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That day will happen when Jesus returns. That event will be the final note in the unfinished scale of history. It will be the day when all the wrongs are made right, all our sadness turns to joy, and our faith is made sight.

Some members of Canada's Parliament donned bracelets and marked "Menstrual Hygiene Day." "People don't bring their own toilet paper to work, so they shouldn't have to bring their own pads and tampons. We changed that. We put free menstrual products in federally-regulated workplaces. This bracelet is for Menstrual Hygiene Day," Seamus O'Regan Jr. noted in a post on X, which included a photo of the bracelet.'People who get their period deserve affordable menstrual products.'Canadian MP Lisa Hepfner also showed off one of the bracelets in a social media post on Tuesday. "People who get their period deserve affordable menstrual products - period. On #MenstrualHygieneDay we wear our Menstruation Bracelets - representing the average menstrual cycle - to fight back against the stigma and continue to work towards a #PeriodFriendlyWorld," she noted."On #MenstrualHygieneDay, we commit to a future where women and girls who menstruate can realize their full potential, without unfair barriers. This means access to menstrual products, education, and advancing sexual and and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) around the world," Ahmed Hussen noted in a post that features a photo of him and two women wearing the bracelets."Today we wear bracelets the length of a menstrual cycle to break the stigma, while supporting the rights of all women and girls for a more #PeriodFriendlyWorld," another post added.A post from the United Nations declared, "Periods are just as natural as breathing. Without periods, no one would be here."Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

A previously unknown terracotta portrait head of the great Renaissance architect Filippo Brunelleschi has been acquired by the Opera di Santa Maria del Fiore, the works commission of the Duomo of Florence where Brunelleschi was buried. It is one of only four known portraits of the architect (including his plaster death mask), and dating to 1447, it is one of the oldest terracotta portraits to survive. The portrait was sculpted by Andrea di Lazzaro Cavalcanti (Il Buggiano), a student of Brunelleschi who became his adopted son. It was recently found in a historic home in Florence and identified by art historians Giancarlo Gentilini and Alfredo Bellandi as the model for a marble bust that il Buggiano had been commissioned to create by the Opera di Santa Maria del Fiore after Filippo Brunelleschi’s death. The finished marble bust is in a tondo on the wall in the right nave of the Duomo, a tribute to the man who built the cathedral’s unprecedented brick and masonry dome, revolutionizing architecture in the process. Buggiano was by his father’s side when he died on April 15th, 1446. He is believed to have made the plaster death mask of his father that day. The funerary relief took longer to commission and accomplish. First the Wool Guild had to determine that the final resting place of Brunelleschi’s body would indeed be Santa Maria del Fiore. They decided on December 30, more than eight months after the architect’s death. On February 18, 1447, the Opera di Santa Maria del Fiore commissioned a wall monument to include a realistic portrait and a memorial epigraph. Cavalcanti received the marble for the funerary monument on February 27th, and he immediately got to work forming the model of the realistic bust. The model was finished by the end of the March. The finished marble portrait was completed in May. The terracotta model he had used presumably was stored in his workshop for a while, but we don’t really know where it was or what it was doing in the 700 years before its rediscovery. The wear and tear suggests it was kept as a sculpture in its own right until the association with the funerary monument was forgotten. “The terracotta head with Filippo Brunelleschi’s facial features was moulded by Andrea Cavalcanti (Il Buggiano), who was Filippo’s adopted son and heir”, said Antonio Natali, a council member of the Opera of Santa Maria del Fiore. “It is known that the Opera di Santa Maria del Fiore gave both of them remarkable commissions: Brunelleschi goes without saying. However, Buggiano will be remembered for his admirable humanistic lavers in the sacristies of the cathedral and, at this point in time, especially the monument celebrating Brunelleschi in the cathedral, now that the terracotta head, the model for it, has been found. With these premises, everyone will understand how the acquisition by the Opera di Santa Maria del Fiore was actually unavoidable”. “We believe that this is truly an exceptional opportunity, an unimaginable privilege, to be able to present the previously unknown, vivid portrait of Filippo Brunelleschi, modelled by his adoptive son, Andrea Cavalcanti, shortly after his death”, stated Giancarlo Gentilini and Alfredo Bellandi. As the many formal and technical aspects indicate, the work we present here should be considered as the model prepared by Buggiano for the execution of the marble portrait. It is a ‘life-like’ portrait, considering that Brunelleschi was notoriously “small in stature and features” (Vasari 1568), and the measurements of the face (perhaps slightly reduced by the usual ‘shrinkage’ of the clay) are substantially comparable to those found in the plaster death mask and the marble effigy. But compared to the facial cast, the image, now devoid of the contractions of rigor mortis, has more harmonious proportions. The face could almost be inscribed within a sphere”. The work needs to be restored, and although (apart from a single gap in the chin, where an old, clumsy plaster repair makes it seem bigger), it has scratches all over it and a chalky residue veiling and traces of paint applications (one with seemingly natural tones and at least two brown ones, perhaps to simulate bronze, after the restoration of the chin).

ETNA, Pennsylvania — In January 2022, the local news reported that a homemade gray flag with a swastika in the center of it was hung from the front porch of a resident on Greeley Avenue of this tiny…