Thank you, God, for the blessing of children and all that they teach us about faith in you. Amen.
https://www.upperroom.org/devotionals/en-2026-04-05

“The future is something which everyone reaches at the rate of sixty minutes an hour, whatever he does, whoever he is.”
C.S. Lewis


Jeremiah 29:11

English Standard Version

11 For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.

O Lord, we thank you for your patient love. Thank you for always encouraging us and never giving up on us. Amen.
upperroom.org/devotionals/en-2026-04-06

"To have faith in Christ means, of course, trying to do all that He says. There would be no sense in saying you trusted a person if you would not take his advice. Thus if you have really handed yourself over to Him, it must follow that you are trying to obey Him. But trying in a new way, a less worried way. Not doing these things in order to be saved, but because He has begun to save you already. Not hoping to get to Heaven as a reward for your actions, but inevitably wanting to act in a certain way because a first faint gleam of Heaven is already inside you.”
C.S. Lewis


Ephesians 2:8-9

King James Version

8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:

9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.

Dr. Ron Rhodes: BECAUSE HE LIVES:
TRANSFORMING BENEFITS OF CHRIST’S RESURRECTION
The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the cornerstone of the Christian faith as well as the wellspring of the believer’s hope.

Here are some inspiring reflections on Christ’s resurrection that have been particularly meaningful to me:

⸻

1. WE ARE FULLY JUSTIFIED BEFORE GOD

The resurrection is God’s public declaration that the payment for sin has been accepted.

“He was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.” (Romans 4:25)

Because Christ is risen, your sins are forgiven, your record is cleared, and you are declared righteous in God’s sight. The empty tomb proclaims that your salvation is complete. If that were the only benefit of Christ’s resurrection for believers, it would be enough. But there is more…

⸻

2. WE CAN WALK IN NEWNESS OF LIFE

You and I can now walk in newness of life.

“We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead… we too might walk in newness of life.” (Romans 6:4)

In Christ, the old life is gone.

You are a new creation, empowered to live differently — with purpose, purity, and resurrection power.

⸻

3. WE HAVE A LIVING SAVIOR WHO INTERCEDES FOR US

Think about it. The risen Jesus prays for you constantly. He knows all your needs intimately, so He knows just what to pray for.

“Christ Jesus… was raised… who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.” (Romans 8:34)

“He always lives to make intercession for them.” (Hebrews 7:25)

At this very moment, the risen Christ is praying for you, advocating for you, and sustaining you. You are never alone.

⸻

4. WE HAVE ASSURANCE OF OUR FUTURE RESURRECTION

Because He lives, WE TOO shall live.

“Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.” (1 Corinthians 15:20)

“He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.” (Romans 8:11)

Jesus promised: “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live.” (John 11:25)

Jesus’ resurrection is the guarantee of yours. Death is not the end — it is the doorway to eternal glory. Your future is secure.

⸻

5. NO MATTER HOW DIFFICULT OUR CIRCUMSTANCES MAY BE, WE HAVE AN UNSHAKABLE HOPE

The resurrection fills life with enduring hope — no matter the circumstances.

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” (1 Peter 1:3)

We have a living hope because we have a living Savior. Our living hope steadies us in trials, lifts us in sorrow, and anchors us in eternity.

⸻

A PRAYER

Heavenly Father,

We praise You for the glorious resurrection of Your Son, Jesus Christ.

Thank You that because He lives, we are forgiven, justified, and made new.

Thank You for the power that now works within us — the very power that raised Him from the dead.

Help us to walk each day in newness of life, to resist sin, and to live in the strength You provide.

Remind us that our Savior is alive, interceding for us, and guiding us every step of the way.

Fill our hearts with living hope. When we face trials, anchor us in the certainty of the resurrection. When we feel weak, strengthen us with Your power.

May we live boldly, joyfully, and faithfully — for the glory of the risen Christ.

In His mighty and victorious name we pray,

Amen.

John Ʌ Konrad V

NATO is in far bigger danger than anyone realizes. And the reason has nothing to do with defense budgets.

The real danger is psychological. It’s cultural.

Europeans didn’t just free-ride on American security for 80 years. They built an entire identity around the idea that they evolved past the Americans protecting them.

That identity is now the single biggest obstacle to Western survival. And the darkest irony is: we helped build it.
After World War II, Europe wasn’t just economically shattered. Its culture was in ruins. The cities, the universities, the concert halls, the museums. Rubble.

The Marshall Plan rebuilt the economy. But culture wasn’t a priority. Not at first.
Then the Iron Curtain dropped. And suddenly culture became a weapon.

American diplomats, academics, artists & scholars flooded Western Europe. We funded their universities. Supported their orchestras. Rebuilt their museums. Promoted their intellectual life.
Not because European culture needed saving for its own sake.

Because Eastern Europeans were struggling for Maslow’s mist basic needs.

We needed the view from the other side of that Wall to be intoxicating.

So America built Western Europe into a showcase of self-actualization. Art. Philosophy. Cafe culture. Long vacations. Universities where people studied literature instead of surviving.
We were manufacturing jealousy.

And it worked. The Wall came down.

But here’s what no one accounted for.

When you give a society self-actualization on someone else’s tab long enough, they forget it was a gift. They start believing it was organically theirs.

And when they look at the country that funded it all, a country busy building aircraft carriers and semiconductor fabs and shale fields instead of reaching the Maslow’s pinnacle.

An overweight American in a ball cap who can’t tell Monet from Pissarro. Who eats fast food. Who drives a truck. Who builds strip malls instead of piazzas.

And to a culture trained in aesthetics but stripped of strategic awareness, that American looks uncivilized.

So the arrogance takes root. And once a culture decides another is beneath them, they stop listening.

Americans say wars are sometimes necessary: crude.

Oil is the backbone of prosperity: unsophisticated.

Kids build companies in garages that reshape the planet: crass.

Wall Street finances the global economy: vulgar.

Europe has no world-class technology sector. No military capable of strong defense. No energy independence. No AI capacity.

What Europe has is culture. The culture we paid for at the expense of us reaching Maslow’s pinnacle.

For decades that was fine. We funded the museums, protected the sea lanes, and tolerated the sneering because the arrangement worked.

Then Europeans stopped keeping the contempt private. They started saying it to our faces. In their media. In their parliaments. At every international forum. “Americans are stupid.

Americans are violent. Americans are a threat to democracy.”

We could have moved the Louvre to NY. We could have built a Venice here. We could have stolen your best artists, designers, philosophers and more… like your conquering armies did for centuries.

Instead we funded them. And all we asked for in return was to let us visit.

You don’t have the military to defend your borders. You don’t have the technology to compete. You don’t have the energy to heat your homes without begging dictators.

What you have is an 80-year superiority complex FUNDED BY AMERICANS, protected by American soldiers, and built on the false belief that self-actualization is civilization.

It isn’t. Civilization is the ability to sustain itself. By that measure, Europe isn’t a civilization at all. It’s a dependency with better wine.

That’s not a threat. It’s a weather report.

Build a Navy. Or don’t. But stop lecturing the people who made you “better than us”

Our “crudeness” our “stunted liberal education” our “ugly strip malls” are because we sacrificed our culture to support yours.

https://x.com/johnkonrad/status/2040976854065049796?s=20