A. Greeting and giving of thanks.

1. (1-2) Paul greets the Christians in Colosse.

Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, to the saints and faithful brethren in Christ who are in Colosse: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

a. Paul: According to the custom of writing letters in that day, the author’s name is given first. Therefore the author was Paul; he wrote the letter while in Roman custody (Colossians 4:3, 4:10, and 4:18), probably from Rome and around A.D. 63.

i. Paul probably wrote the letter because of the visit of Epaphras from Colosse (Colossians 1:7). It is likely that Paul himself had never visited the city (Colossians 2:1).

b. An apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God: Paul was qualified to write this letter of instruction to the Colossians, though he had never met them personally, because he was an apostle.

i. “The literal meaning of apostolos is ‘one sent’; but at its deepest level it denotes an authorized spokesman for God, one commissioned and empowered to act as his representative.” (Vaughan)

ii. And Timothy our brother: Timothy was an honored companion of Paul, but he was not an apostle. “Though Timothy is here joined in the salutation, yet he has never been understood as having any part in composing this epistle. He has been considered as the amanuensis or scribe of the apostle.” (Clarke)

c. To the saints and faithful brethren: When Paul addressed the saints, he did not separate some Christians from others in the Colossian church. Every true Christian is a saint. However, Paul may make a distinction with the phrase faithful brethren. He may refer to those who haven’t embraced the false teaching that concerned Paul so much in this letter.

d. Who are in Colosse: The city of Colosse was probably the smallest and least important city that Paul ever wrote to. It might surprise us that Paul would turn his attention to the Christians in Colosse at a time when he had so many other concerns. Yet he apparently thought the situation in Colosse was important enough for apostolic attention.

i. Paul wrote because there were problems among the Christians in Colosse, but the doctrinal problem – sometimes described as “The Colossian Heresy” – is difficult to precisely describe. It probably was a corruption of Christianity with elements of mystical and legalistic Judaism perhaps combined with early Gnosticism.

ii. The first century religious environment was much like our own. It was a time of religious mixing, with people borrowing a little from this religion and a little from that religion. The only difference was that in the first century, one joined a group who did the borrowing. In our modern culture one does the borrowing one’s self.

iii. Whatever the problem was precisely, Paul dwelt on the solution: a better understanding of Jesus. Knowing the real Jesus helps us to stay away from the counterfeit, no matter how it comes packaged.

e. In Colosse: The city of Colosse is not even mentioned in the Book of Acts. All our Biblical information about the church there comes from this letter and a few allusions in the letter to Philemon.

i. From these sources we learn that Epaphras was responsible for bringing the gospel to the Colossians (Colossians 1:6-7). He was a native of the city (Colossians 4:12), and also got the message out to neighboring towns in the Lycus Valley like Hierapolis and Laodicea (Colossians 4:13).

ii. Perhaps Epaphras heard the gospel himself when Paul was in Ephesus. As Paul taught in the lecture hall of Tyrannus, all the residents of Asia heard the word of the Lord (Acts 19:10). It would not be surprising if some people from Colosse heard the gospel at that time.

iii. Historically, Colosse was a prosperous city, and famous (along with other cities in its region) for its fabric dyes. Yet by Paul’s time the glory it had as a city was on the decline.

iv. Adam Clarke adds an interesting comment: “That this city perished by an earthquake, a short time after the date of this epistle, we have the testimony of Eusebius.” Tacitus also mentioned this earthquake, which happened around A.D. 60.

f. Grace to you and peace from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ: Paul’s greeting was familiar but heartfelt. “Grace is God’s unconditioned goodwill toward men and women which is decisively expressed in the saving work of Christ.” (Bruce)

i. This letter – full of love and concern, written to a church Paul had neither planted nor visited – shows the power of Christian love. Paul didn’t need to see or meet or directly know these Christians in order to love them and be concerned for them.

2. (3) Paul’s habit of prayer for the Colossians.

We give thanks to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you,

a. Praying always for you: Though he had never met most of them, the Christians of Colosse were on Paul’s prayer list. He prayed for them not only often, but always.

b. We give thanks: When Paul did pray for the Colossians, he did it full of gratitude. Perhaps those who pray the most end up having the most reasons to thank God.

3. (4-8) Why Paul was thankful.

Since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of your love for all the saints; because of the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, of which you heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel, which has come to you, as it has also in all the world, and is bringing forth fruit, as it is also among you since the day you heard and knew the grace of God in truth; as you also learned from Epaphras, our dear fellow servant, who is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf, who also declared to us your love in the Spirit.

a. Since we heard: Paul was thankful for their faith in Christ Jesus and their love for all the saints. Genuine faith in Jesus will always have a true love for God’s people as a companion.

b. Because of the hope: Paul was thankful for the hope laid up for them in heaven. He was thankful when he considered the destiny of the Colossian Christians.

i. We notice the familiar triad of faith, hope, and love. These were not merely theological ideas to Paul; they dominated his thinking as a Christian.

c. Which you heard before in the word of the truth: Paul was thankful that their eternal destiny was affected by the truth of the gospel, brought by Epaphras (as you also learned from Epaphras).

i. Epaphras is described as a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf. This doesn’t mean that Epaphras was superior to the other Christians in Colosse. The word minister does not mean “superior”; it means “one who serves.”

d. And is bringing forth fruit: Paul was thankful that the gospel was bringing forth fruit over all the world, even while Paul was in a Roman prison.

i. The phrase “in all the world” was “A legitimate hyperbole, for the gospel was spreading all over the Roman Empire.” (Robertson)

ii. “The doctrine of the Gospel is represented as a traveller, whose object it is to visit the whole habitable earth… So rapid is this traveller in his course, that he had already gone nearly through the whole of the countries under the Roman dominion, and will travel on until he has proclaimed his message to every people, and kindred, and nation, and tongue.” (Clarke)

Kamala Harris Would Be Disastrous for the Middle East

National Interest  

Foreign Policy cites what it calls Harris’ “mantra” of favoring “what can be, unburdened by what has been.” In practice, this “mantra” and her public statements show a pronounced indulgence toward Iran and a hostility to Israeli efforts to ensure its own survival.

"With Donald Trump and Kamala Harris functionally tied in the polls, it is high time to ask: What would a Harris foreign policy look like?

First, let’s dismiss the idea that Harris has little foreign policy experience and, therefore, will likely rely heavily on veterans of the Biden, Obama, and Clinton administrations. This view is comforting to the alumni of previous Democratic administrations and suggests continuity. It is also convenient for partisans and pundits on both sides of the Blue-Red divide, allowing them to defend or attack Harris based on the Biden record.

"But this is a false premise. Harris actually has far more executive-branch foreign-policy experience than Trump did in 2016 and more than Republican challengers in 2012 and 2008. Harris has visited twenty-one countries on seventeen foreign trips as a representative of the president and met with more than 150 leaders of allied or independent nations, including the leaders of China and Russia. Significantly, she led the U.S. delegation at three Munich Security Conferences, where NATO leaders gathered to debate and discuss global threats. These meetings include prime ministers, defense ministers, foreign ministers, generals, admirals, and diplomats.

"And Harris sharpened her foreign policy views inside the White House by attending “almost every National Security Council meeting and, more important still, almost every President’s Daily Brief,” according to Fred Kaplan in Slate. The Daily Briefs draw on the most complete information that U.S. intelligence can offer, and the meaning of various developments is dissected by subject-matter experts and the president’s senior staff. It’s far more than a daily graduate-level seminar; it is a real-time laboratory of how information is assimilated and how executive decisions are made.

"Finally, she has had years of regularly scheduled one-on-one meetings with Secretary of State Anthony Blinken. In these settings, views were crafted, tested, sharpened, discarded, or re-forged.

"So, the idea Harris has no foreign-policy views of her own is laughable. No one with that level of experience and access is a blank slate to be scribbled on by aides.

"Some point to the “high turnover” among her vice-presidential staff to suggest that her views are erratic or ephemeral. This “evidence” also does not deliver the conclusion it suggests." . . .

The Significance of the ‘Make Women Female Again’ Hat

 Ultimately, the hat is one small part of a much larger message and movement. “The point is: Say it loud; say it proud,” Megyn said. “You might think that you’re in the minority, but you’re not – especially on this issue.” Megyn said the reality is simple: “Women are still women… we’re the only ones who are female.” And that understanding “crosses party lines,” she added.

. . ."It didn’t take long for the hat, which is from Kellie-Jay Keen’s (a.k.a. Posie Parker) Adult Human Female collection, to spark a firestorm in the comments section and across the internet. On Monday’s show, Megyn shared why chose to wear the hat and what the fight for women’s rights means to her." . . .

Why She Wore and Posted About the Hat   "Megyn said the main reason she wore the hat is because she is “fed up” with trans activism infiltrating women’s spaces and rights. “I’m sick of all the bullsh–t,” she declared. “I’m sick of denying women’s rights in the name of sparing people’s feelings.” This extends to “women’s bathrooms, and women’s lockers, and women’s swimming lanes, and sports, and places that are supposed to belong to women,” she continued. The reason: “Trans women are not women,” she said. “They’re men.”

"While Megyn expressed empathy for the “difficult situation that the people who genuinely suffer from gender dysphoria are going through,” that does not include “glommers like Dylan Mulvaney” who she believes is looking for attention in that category. “No, zero empathy for somebody like that,” she explained. “I care about women, I care about girls, I care about their feelings – that’s who I’m fighting for.”

"As such, “I’m going to wear the hat,” Megyn reiterated." . . .

The Taliban extends their thanks to Biden and Kamala for arming their military

Taliban shows off US military vehicles 3 years after Afghanistan withdrawal

   

"National security analyst Hal Kempfer joins LiveNOW's Austin Westfall to react to video showing members of the Taliban celebrating the third anniversary of the American withdrawal from Afghanistan by parading through a former U.S. air base with abandoned American weapons and vehicles. Bagram Airfield was once the center of America's war to unseat the Taliban and hunt down the al-Qaeda militants responsible for 9/11. Uniformed soldiers marched with light and heavy machine guns, and a motorcycle formation carried the Taliban flag. President Biden’s decision to pull troops from Afghanistan faced widespread global backlash after Taliban insurgents retook the country in a matter of days in 2021."

Silence from the White House after Taliban parade abandoned American weapons "US President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris have yet to acknowledge the footage released by the Taliban this week celebrating three years since America’s chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan.

"The Taliban celebrated with some of the $7 billion in US military equipment left behind in Afghanistan in a military parade to mock America and what they left behind. "The regime paraded US and Soviet-era military weaponry, vehicles and equipment through a former US airbase, Bagram."

Iran's Mullahs and Their Deadly Serious Plan: The Total Annihilation of Israel and the US

Majid Rafizadeh; Gatestone Institute   

The Iranian regime and its proxies appear to believe they have the perfect opportunity to eradicate Israel. They perceive a weak administration in the United States under President Joe Biden and VP Kamala Harris: the US has released billions of dollars that mainly assist Iran in arming its proxies. 

"The war initiated against Israel on October 7 by the Iranian regime, along with its proxies and terrorist groups — Hamas, the Houthis, Hezbollah, and Iraqi Shia militias — is far more than a minor skirmish or an isolated act of aggression.

"The conflict appears to be a meticulously orchestrated campaign aimed at the total annihilation, at this point, of the Jewish state.

"The Biden-Harris administration does not yet seem aware of the real gravity of the situation. Although it has recently provided much extremely welcome support to Israel, it has not shown until last week the unwavering support that would have acted as a real deterrent. That is what would have caused the Iranian regime to have second thoughts, stopped them dead in their tracks.

"This conflict is a battle for survival not only for Israel but for the region, and ultimately for Europe and the United States.

"Israel understands the stakes: Iran's belligerency requires an unequivocally committed response from the United States. In that part of the world, wishy-washy means a green light, open season. The consequences are assumed to vary from minimal to non-existent – and often even a profit!

"Apart from extremely generous supply ships and materiel, rhetorically there has been just another unelectrifying "Don't." Where is the message that if Iran or any of its sidekicks goes anywhere near Israel -- or anyone else -- what a shame it would be if a country as magnificent as the Islamic Republic of Iran, along with its distinguished regime, were actually to be returned to the seventh century?

"Iran has no interest in becoming a sand dune. That is why it has proxies, so that they will do the attacking and take the incoming retaliation, ensuring that their devoted patron, Iran, will not have to. Iran's proxies are its human shields." . . .

Meanwhile Iranian speakers here in the U.S. hold classes to teach Americans to shout,  "Death to America! Death to Israel!"

Kamala says, "Gauge this"!

Power Line  

“Every socialist experiment in human history has started with caps on food and it has resulted in bread lines like you can see in the image behind me…This is a mistake. It is anti-American.”

Toon added by TD

"John Hinderaker has performed a public service in expounding on the stupidity of price controls. It is egregious in the context of “grocery chains” (as Harris refers to them in her speech), where profit margins run between 1 and 2 percent. As I say, there oughta be a law, and I don’t mean price controls.

"I particularly appreciate the concision of former Obama administration economist Jason Furman’s comments to the New York Times. “Egg prices went up last year — it’s because there weren’t as many eggs, and it caused more egg production,” Furman told the Times. More generally, he observed, “This is not sensible policy, and I think the biggest hope is that it ends up being a lot of rhetoric and no reality. There’s no upside here, and there is some downside.”. . .

. . .Yesterday Harris unveiled her plan to mitigate the pain she has caused in a speech at a campaign rally in Raleigh (White House transcript here.) However, you have to wonder if Harris knew what she was talking about as she read her script. She called it “price gauging” — and she’s agin it: “So, believe me, as president, I will go after the bad actors. (Applause.) And I will work to pass the first-ever federal ban on prou- — price gauging [gouging] on food.” That’s what she said (video below)."

 "David Friedberg SHREDS the Kamala Harris Grocery ‘Price Gouging’ Plan  Video

“Every socialist experiment in human history has started with caps on food and it has resulted in bread lines like you can see in the image behind me…This is a mistake. It is anti-American.”@friedberg… pic.twitter.com/IurKyCT1cT

— Chief Nerd (@TheChiefNerd) August 17, 2024

"Here is a slightly more expansive statement of the case by David Friedberg flagged by Elon Musk. Friedberg is founder and CEO of The Production Board and co-host of the All-In podcast.   

Video

 

Kamala’s economic plan: gouge corporate profits

 Noel S. Williams  

Kamala is an equivocating imposter who tries to shield her socialist bona fides in pandering fashion. 

 "Kamala has unveiled her economic plan. Put the veil back on it, please. Under the concocted fabrication of price gouging, she is seeking excuses to justify gouging corporate profits.

"She has been appropriately labelled as a chameleon, but as she pretends to distance herself from Bidenomics, perhaps “hermaphrodite” also applies (in the sense of something in which two opposite qualities are confusingly combined).

"That’s because she plans to propose a federal ban on food and grocery price gouging, something Biden was always harping on about. In reality (a realm the chameleon-cum-hermaphrodite doesn’t occupy), it is great American companies operating on a flexible and streamlined business model that she intends to gouge.

"Let’s just cut straight to the bottom line -- i.e., net profit margins.

"In her socialist mindlessness, it is not foolhardy tax-and-spend policies by drunken Dems (let’s not keep offending our great “drunken” sailors), but corporate greed that is exacerbating inflation. What follows is a representative list of companies in the food and grocery business that Kamala mistakenly (or worse, deceptively) believes are extorting excessive profits.". . .

Kamala Harris gets dragged, from even the left, on her communist price-control scheme  "Now she wants price controls to control it.

"Funny how no one but her had ever thought of it -- or that she thought it was the way to fix the economy.

"Except of course, that it isn't." . . The Nightmare Of Grocery Shopping In Venezuela

Elon Musk on Twitter:

What happens when price controls are mandatedhttps://t.co/we0uQnBr9R.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 16, 2024

In Venezuela, government supermarkets sell price-controlled food, making them far cheaper than private stores. But Valero explains that people are allowed in state-run supermarkets just two days per week, based on their ID card numbers. The system is designed to prevent shoppers from buying more than they need and then reselling goods on the black market at a huge markup.

Why they are streaming across our border.

Reasons we must fear Kamala Harris

Kamala Harris Tyrannical 2019 Video Resurfaces: 'I Will Snatch Their Patent So That We Will Take Over'  . . ."[Patent] law is notoriously complex, and there are certainly some drug companies that take advantage of them. I have no love for the Pfizers of the world who raked in billions with their flawed COVID vaccines. But her view of the government’s role is chilling, and she seems drunk on power (that she didn’t even have at the time)." . . .

So let's take a look at the profit margins of one grocery chain that Kamala claims is 'price gauging'   . . ."Grocery stores are not gouging. Democrats are trying to divert blame for high prices from themselves. 

 It is a true shame that the media doesn't show a graph of what grocery store margins are instead of campaigning for these people whose goal is to make the government more powerful and to make more people dependent on the government for their survival. 

 

Kamala says her policies are about creating opportunities. The only opportunity is to create more government bureaucrats. 

They are intent on remaking (destroying) the greatest country that ever existed.

Why Price Controls Don’t Work | Insights    . . ."Why are price controls such a bad idea? They distort price signals, which are core to markets’ functioning effectively and, not unrelatedly, economic growth. Prices balance supply and demand, coordinating production and consumption. They are signals, full stop. On the demand side, when they are high and rising, they encourage more people to cut back, substitute and economize. At the same time, high and rising prices imply greater potential profit, signaling producers to boost supply—which eventually helps keep prices in check.

"But if prices can’t fluctuate freely, they don’t tell producers when they need to crank up output. Nor do they incentivize people to adjust consumption in order to help limited supply stretch further in the short term. As a result, you don’t get the changes in behavior that help stabilize prices. Heck, price controls can even cause severe shortages if prices are set near or below producers’ costs, which discourages production by destroying the profit motive—ultimately driving prices far higher still.

"Price controls aren’t hard permanent ceilings. Sometimes the caps reset periodically, causing prices to jump in blocky stair-steps, much as the UK is enduring with household energy prices under its retail price cap right now. Or, they lift, and shortages quickly drive prices much higher—potentially higher than they would otherwise have been." . . . 

This won't be good: Economically Dumb, Politically Smart - The Atlantic  ..." According to the Econ 101 model of prices and supply, when a product is in shortage, its price goes up to bring quantity demanded in line with quantity supplied. This price increase sends a signal to producers to make more stuff. If you cap prices, you get shortages. That’s because there isn’t enough of the demanded good to go around, and producers don’t have sufficient incentive to start making more of the good to meet demand in the future." . . . The rest of this article is behind a paywall, but what matters is that you know the above, TD

 I do not know if this video will make you fear Kamala Harris or - wisely - the American voter. Listen carefully for their thoughts on how Kamala might handle the economic situation; surely they have some idea of her administrative qualifications. TD

Kamala Harris Is Fast-Tracking Citizenship Applications in an Attempt to 'Reshape the Electorate'

RedState   

Harris’ mindset was exposed on her 2019 campaign website which linked to a study touting the “electoral implications” of not deporting some illegal immigrants. Those individuals, the campaign wrote, “could provide sizable contributions to the margin of victory in swing states." 

"The Biden-Harris administration is granting citizenship to immigrants at speeds not seen in over a decade while a wholly disinterested mainstream media is doing little more than bragging about it.

"There was a time in this country when journalists would find stealing an election a topic of interest. A threat to democracy, even.

"Instead, the New York Times recently published a glowing report indicating that over the first nine months of the fiscal year, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USIS) is averaging under five months to process naturalization applications.

"That process took almost exactly a year on average in 2021. What could possibly be happening in 2024 that would cause the administration to view the process of turning an immigrant into a citizen with the right to vote with such urgency?

"While the answer to that seems glaringly obvious, Xiao Wang, chief executive of Boundless, a company that offers services to immigrants seeking help with the naturalization process, makes it even more clear.

" 'The surge in naturalization efficiency isn’t just about clearing backlogs; it’s potentially reshaping the electorate, merely months before a pivotal election," Wang admits. "Every citizenship application could be a vote that decides Senate seats or even the presidency."

"That’s not subtle. At all. "Reshaping the electorate" has always been the goal of this administration. It was the only way Biden was going to win in 2024. Now, it might be the only way to drag Harris across the finish line come November." . . .