In Varanasi’s Ramnagar Rastapur village, many Dalit & Muslim families have faced sewage overflow for 15 years. Tired of empty promises, they’ve put up posters on their homes: “This house is for sale.” A protest born out of frustration and neglect. #GroundReport# coming soon. https://t.co/IpY3S3mnjI

Episode 4 of Core Notes from Core Devs is out now! Catch the Ethereum core developers at @offchainlabs discuss the latest happenings in @Ethereum development. This week we talk with @manunalepa and @jameshe_eth about their learnings from challenging times as core devs and advice for their past selves! Hosted by @ohyeahdavid. Time stamps: 0:49 One thing every Ethereum user should know 2:03 Takeaway from Holesky challenges 3:22 Moments of joy and frustration for core devs 6:20 Advice for a younger core dev

Understanding the Emptiness within 1 Corinthians 13:1-3 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a ringing gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have absolute faith so as to move mountains but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and exult in the surrender of my body but have not love, I gain nothing. Do you have a heart? Yes, all of us have a heart, but not many of us have a heart for GOD and others, making us miss out on GOD's goodness for loving Him and others. Our heart is for ourselves, making it the underlying motive for many things we do. GOD understands where He stands in our hearts when He said, "These people honour Me with their lips, but their hearts are far from Me." No matter how holy our worship may seem, they are frivolous acts if our hearts are not in it. To GOD, our hearts are deceitful above all things and beyond cure. The lips can say one thing, but the heart means another. No one can understand what is in the heart because there is no congruence between what the heart says and what it means. GOD knows that. It is not without reason that Jesus asked us to 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' The emphasis is on the word all. GOD demands that our love for Him should be 100% and nothing less. Without any other love coming in between our love for Him, our love will be genuine and sincere. Nothing will lure our hearts away, and they will forever be for GOD. Why do we need to have a heart for GOD and others? It is because no man is an island, and GOD has not made man to be an island. In the book of Genesis, even though GOD was with Adam, He still said, "It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make for him a suitable helper." Therefore, a man is not made to exist alone with GOD. He needs someone to complement him to make him complete. He is a part of the whole of GOD's organisational structure. The Apostle Paul illustrates the structure as: "The body is a unit, though it is composed of many parts. And although its parts are many, they all form one body." Therefore, we are, in Christ, many but are one body, and each member belongs to one another. Even if we exist as individuals, we do not belong to ourselves but to one another for the kingdom of GOD. Therefore, no one exists as a solitary star in the galaxy but as part of a constellation of stars twinkling for GOD. As individuals, to gel into GOD's structure as an integrated whole, we need love. The Apostle Paul avowed that love is the bond of perfect unity. Love is like gravity, which holds everything together and holds us together with GOD and others. Only when we stay in love with GOD and others will the blood of Christ flow through us to be one body. Only then, we could be as Jesus said, "I have given them the glory You gave Me, so that they may be one as We are one— I in them and You in Me—that they may be perfectly united, so that the world may know that You sent Me and have loved them just as You have loved Me." This bond of love is so strong that nothing could break it. The Apostle Paul ascertained that when he said, "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor principalities, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord." Many of us cannot comprehend the mystery of being one with GOD. He is spirit, and we are physical. To do that, we need to understand the spiritual realm. The only way we can connect to GOD is through the spirit. 1 Corinthians states, "He who unites himself with the Lord is one with Him in spirit." What does that mean? It is similar to what GOD said in Genesis, "For this reason, a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh." Both mention being united to become one. The difference is in the realms. Perfect unity in the physical realm is called one flesh, while in the spiritual realm, it is called one spirit. If we can understand the concept of one flesh in the physical dimension, like between Adam and Eve, we should be able to understand the one spirit in the spiritual dimension between Jesus and us. Both are synonymous, and both require the bond of love to be in unity. It is not surprising that the Apostle Paul compares our relationship with Jesus to that of a husband and wife when he said, "Husbands love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her." Metaphorically, the superglue that bonds any couple to be united as one is nothing else but love. Therefore, before a couple decides to come together as one, they will confess their love for each other. In the name of love, many are willing to commit their lifetime to one another, demonstrating the magical power of love. However, whether they can achieve it is another question because love is more than an emotion but an attitude. To Jesus, love is a commandment to be with GOD and others, and it ranks above other commandments. If love is a commandment, it will mean we will have to adhere to it as long as we live. It cannot be taken lightly. If we ever break it, as in all commandments, we will have to face the detrimental effects of it. Yes, there are consequences to our unloving actions. Though it might seem harmless as we are not lying, stealing, killing or mass destruction, regardless, the repercussions are significant. Without love, the integrity of the spiritual matrix we are in with GOD and others will be compromised. It is similar to a family without the bond of love will soon break. Anyone who does not love will ultimately leave GOD's matrix for something else. Furthermore, if we have no love or cannot love, we would have failed fundamentally as Christians because GOD is love. It is the uniform we wear that will distinguish us from the world. That is to say, if we do not have love, we do not belong to GOD. As it is written in 1 John, "Beloved, let us love one another because love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God because God is love." Love allows us to be with GOD and know Him. But what is so special about knowing GOD? Many people know GOD but do not love Him. Therefore, knowing Him is more than recognition and awareness. In the book of Genesis, the same word is used to describe the relationship between Adam and Eve. It writes, "And Adam knew Eve, his wife, and she conceived, and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the LORD." Adam and Eve were of one flesh, and knowing each other meant having an intimate relationship. If we love GOD and are of one spirit with Him, then knowing GOD, naturally, means that we have an intimate spiritual relationship with Him where we will bear much spiritual fruit. That explains why some people are more anointed than others. They love GOD more, so they bear more fruit. This intimate relationship with GOD can only happen if we love Him. Otherwise, we will never know Him and will not bear any fruit. To a non-Christian, if we leave GOD out of the picture, what is the purpose of love that binds a couple to be one flesh? Against all logic, many couples fall in and out of love, and after much hurt, disappointment and sadness, they still have the stamina to seek love out again and again. Isn't it once bitten, twice shy, but when it comes to love, they are not fearful of trying again and again. What are they looking for? Everyone is looking for completeness. Figuratively, Adam is not a complete man, and neither is Eve a complete woman. Adam has a missing bone that was given to Eve, and Eve is only a bone in need of a body. Only when they come together will there be completeness. This completeness is GOD ordained as He said, "So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate." Without this completeness, a man will experience loneliness, as Adam experienced before he had Eve. GOD understood the no-good effects of loneliness when He said, "It is not good for the man to be alone." This loneliness is man's shortcoming, which is predestined from the beginning in GOD's perfect wisdom. Later, GOD used this shortcoming so that man could find his completeness in Him. This incompleteness could manifest itself in many forms, leading to emptiness, meaningless, unhappiness, depression, hopelessness, worthlessness, frustration, et cetera. Sadly, it cannot be filled with promiscuity, drugs, liquor or any form of destructive behaviours or addictions. When GOD created man with the capability for loneliness, loneliness became a spiritual issue that requires a spiritual remedy. The only remedy is to love and be loved. The Apostle Paul expresses the condition of being without love as 'I am nothing', denying his worthiness in all the good he did. Love adds warmth and colours to our world, meaning to our lives, purpose to our sacrifices, fulfilment to our achievements, contentment to the little we have, gratitude to goodness, appreciation to beauty, and forgiveness to wrongdoings. Love is so magical that it is the strength in weakness, the determination in hardship, the hope in hopelessness, and the steadfastness in adversity. In short, where there is love, there is GOD and the fruit of the Spirit - joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. As humans, we understand physical unity as one flesh. But then, what is spiritual unity as one spirit with GOD? In short, it is the unity of the heart, mind and soul with GOD. For that, we need to obey the greatest commandment to love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind because only then will GOD be in perfect unity with us in the heart, mind and soul. When we give our hearts to GOD, we will have the love of GOD and the mind of Christ (1 Cor 2:16). He will become our soulmate, understanding us from the inside out. Then, we will not be alone in our minds, hearts, and souls. We will find our match and never feel alone. The difference between being one flesh and being one spirit is no matter how close we are to a person as one flesh, the person cannot fully understand us. But GOD as one spirit with us can. The Psalmist expresses it, "O LORD, You have searched me and known me. You know when I sit and when I rise; You understand my thoughts from afar. You search out my path and my lying down; You are aware of all my ways. Even before a word is on my tongue, You know all about it, O LORD. You hem me in behind and before; You have laid Your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain." With such understanding of us, how can we ever be lonely or feel no one cares or understands? If anyone ever feels empty, void or lonely, needing to hit the pub or be involved in some frivolous relationships or activities, it might be that he has not loved enough. GOD is waiting for us like the father of the prodigy son. As long as we are willing to walk the one step towards Him, He will run the ninety-nine steps towards us. All we need to do is commit our hearts to Him, and we will never have to feel empty again. If love is the main reason for a filled and satisfied life, then how can a physical being love a spiritual being, GOD? There are many things we could do to express our love, but only one thing is needed, and that is to keep His command. Jesus said, "As the Father has loved Me, so have I loved you. Remain in My love. If you keep My commandments, you will remain in My love, just as I have kept My Father's commandments and remain in His love. I have told you these things so that My joy may be in you and your joy may be complete." Keeping GOD's commandments is the only currency GOD accepts for His love, and anything else is not necessary. It is not what we want to do for GOD that counts; it is what GOD wants of us. Therefore, some people do not experience the love of GOD despite all the things they did because they did it their way and not GOD's way. In conclusion, GOD in the New Testament is no longer the GOD of the Old Testament. He no longer exists as GOD and us as two separate entities but as GOD in us as one entity. GOD no longer put His law before us to separate us from Him. Instead, He is one spirit with us in heart, mind and soul to fulfil His Law. By loving Him and others, we have a deep spiritual connection with GOD and a strong affinity with others. We become one spirit in the body of Christ. We know, understand and feel for one another through the spirit. As long as we are connected in spirit with GOD, nothing can separate us, not time, not distance or place. With GOD with us and in us, we will not be lonely, isolated, or empty.

Understanding His Faithfulness Psalm 100:5 For the LORD is good, and His loving devotion endures forever; His faithfulness continues to all generations. Have we ever wondered why Jesus came only approximately 4000 years after Adam? There are estimated to be thirty-four generations from Adam to Abraham and forty-two generations from Abraman to Jesus, totalling seventy-six generations. The figures imply that salvation came after 4000 years and seventy-six generations later. Are these figures just numbers, or is there significance in them? Many might be unaware that GOD not only speaks through His Words but also His actions. Therefore, the Bible consists of more than the law, rules, and practices. It consists of stories and events that reflect the act of GOD in the lives of His people. When GOD says He will be good to His people, the stories will reflect His goodness to His people. Then, the next question we will ask is, how many times? If it is all the time, then there must be sufficient records proving it. Basically, GOD will do what He says and what He says are not empty words. Hence, the Bible records the events as testimonies of GOD's goodness. If GOD says He will show loving devotion to a thousand generations of those who love Him and keep His commandments, He will do it. Even if the promise is yet to be fulfilled, then heaven and earth will have to wait for Him to fulfil His promise before the world can come to an end or anything else can happen that will jeopardise His promise. If not, GOD does not live up to His Words, speaking in a figure of speech and exaggeration. It means He cannot be trusted, overpromising and under-delivering. Therefore, GOD let time prove everything, and what He says is true. GOD took 4000 years and seventy-six generations to demonstrate His faithfulness to His Word. Despite all the unfaithfulness from His people through the generations, God remains faithful and even sends Jesus to the cross for His unrepentant people. In any given situation, even if all have given up, GOD will never give up. GOD has to prove Himself faithful even in our unfaithfulness. Paul asserts that if we are faithless, GOD remains faithful, for He cannot deny Himself. Therefore, time became the acid test of GOD's true nature. He is what He is according to His Words, without addition, subtraction, multiplication, or division to them. When GOD says, 'My purpose will stand, and all My good pleasure I will accomplish,' there can be no deviation. And if GOD says a thousand generations to those who love Him, it must be a thousand generations and nothing less. Just imagine someone telling us something, giving us a solemn promise, and at the end of it, saying he was joking and did not mean what he said. GOD is not like that; He is not a Joker, and He does not joke with His promises. GOD is faithful in His promises, but not all promises are easy to grant, especially those involving the destruction of our enemies. Because being kind to one is being cruel to the other, we must be patient with GOD because all things must happen according to His will in His time. Our enemies are nothing more than good people being disobedient. Therefore, many things cannot be rushed, and we must understand that if it is not within GOD's perfect timing, we cannot see the promise. It is written in Hebrews that many were all commended for their faith, yet they did not receive what was promised. To say it bluntly, GOD did not save them from their enemies because the timing was not right. The reality of living in the dualistic world is that for good to live is for evil to die, or for light to exist is for darkness to vanish. Therefore, if it is not time for GOD to destroy evil like the way GOD destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, then the good will have to suffer. When we pray for GOD to deliver us from evil, and if it is not happening, it is not that GOD is dead, but we need to have patience. As much as GOD wants to deliver us from our sufferings by destroying evil, He first needs to save those still in bondage to evil. In Epistle 2 Peter writes: The Lord is not slow in keeping His promise as some understand slowness, but is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish but everyone to come to repentance. As long as there is a possibility that someone might change his heart for GOD, GOD is willing to wait. It is similar to taking a plane. As long as we have checked for departure, the plane will wait even though we are late for boarding. Therefore, Jesus said, "And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that I shall lose none of those He has given Me, but raise them at the last day. For it is My Father's will that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in Him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him at the last day." In other words, as long as our names are in GOD's manifest, we will never miss the plane. God is adamant about fulfilling His promises on the one condition that none of His chosen ones perish, but everyone comes to repentance. That is GOD's faithfulness. Only when GOD is assured that all who are good have left the so-called Sodom and Gomorrah will He show no mercy in destroying it. GOD is answerable to those who love Him and keep His commandments to be faithful to their thousand generations. There is a little secret here. If we want to see our children, grandchildren, and many generations after that be well, we must love GOD and keep His commandments faithfully and carefully. Even if we are not good parents and grandparents, GOD will not fail us in taking care of them. In other words, when we are faithful to GOD, He will take care of our fruit. It is when we take care of the roots, and the fruits will take care of themselves. When we have strong roots with GOD, our fruit will naturally be strong. Even when we are long gone, His faithfulness will never leave them. In view of GOD's commitment to the descendants of those who love Him, He must be faithful not only to the living but also to the dead. GOD is in a tight spot, having to find a fair balance between them. Therefore, in the parable of the weeds, GOD did not remove the weeds from the wheat but let them grow together until harvest. There is another way of looking at this parable. GOD is faithful even to the evil ones, as seen in the parable. He will not prematurely remove the weeds until harvest, giving the weeds a chance to be full-grown before they are removed. The epistle of James writes: Then after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death. Only when sin is full-grown will it lead to death. Any time shorter than full-grown, GOD will not sentence them to death. That is GOD's mercy and grace. Though a weed cannot change to a wheat, a man can change from one who belongs to evil to good. The penitent thief on the cross next to Jesus changed in his last hours. If GOD had prematurely removed him, he would have missed his salvation. Many times, we will not understand GOD's wisdom, especially those whom the thief stole from. Just imagine the frustration, anguish, and suffering the thief would have caused if he had stolen from the poor, needy and helpless. We must know that a thief has no morals; if not, he would not be stealing. He would not have considered the consequences of his actions to his victims. Despite all the evil he had done, everything could be forgiven through Jesus. To the thief, this is grace, but to his victims, it is injustice and unfairness. That is the fact, whether we like it or not. GOD is not going to ostracise the thief for us. It becomes our obligation to forgive if we love GOD. To forgive is a huge obstacle we must overcome. As Jesus taught us to pray: And forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us. Instead of hating our enemies, we must love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us, that we may be sons of our Father in heaven. If we do not forgive, GOD is not going to forgive us. Therefore, when we meet with our oppressors, we must be magnanimous and forgive. No matter how unwilling we feel, this unwillingness will turn to willingness if we understand how much Jesus suffered for us. If we are reluctant because we cannot see the pain of Jesus on the cross, then we will lose more than what we have lost: our eternity. Never be penny wise, pound foolish. Therefore, when we pray, please refrain from praying for the death of our enemies or curse them to hell. That is not biblical. All we can do is to ask GOD to deliver us from our enemies. Anything more than that is evil. We must understand that GOD hates the sin but loves the sinners. Therefore, when sinners oppress us, we must learn to forebear and not sin against GOD by complaining. We must remember the condition of GOD's forgiveness is that we forgive those who sin against us. As in the story of the prodigal son, GOD shows His faithfulness by His willingness to wait and keep on waiting for His sons to come back. However, it is on His terms and not on their terms. That wait can be as many years as it needs, as nothing can stop GOD from being faithful. In our lifetime, we can only see a fraction of GOD's divine plan, not the whole plan. Therefore, we must have faith in GOD as Abraham did when GOD promised to make him a great nation and that his descendants would be as numerous as the stars in the sky. Abraham never once saw any of those happen. GOD is faithful; even when Abraham was long gone, GOD ensured that He fulfilled what He promised. What can we understand through this? We count our time by years within a lifetime, while GOD counts His by generations by thousands of years. What is considered a long time to us is not long to Him. Though long, GOD's plan is not infinite but finite, with a definite beginning and an ending. Within His allocated time, He will demonstrate who He is through the lives of His people. If GOD does not prove Himself, what He says might be empty words. However, when GOD reveals Himself, it is not as simple as writing a book. His Words must become life, force or energy to His people, leading the way and revealing the truth. When we want to know GOD, we must read His actions. As action speaks louder than words, we must countercheck His Word with His action to know His true intent. His actions are a way GOD uses to define His Word so that there is no misinterpretation. If GOD says He loves us, then how much does He love us? For that, He has to show us through His action. If GOD does not demonstrate it, then what is the value of His Word? When GOD says He loves us, it means He is willing to die for us. That is when we see GOD as Christ on the cross. That far exceeds any love declaration from any man to his lover. Without His actions, we cannot understand the magnitude of His love. Therefore, be highly suspicious of salesmen promoting GOD, like selling snake oil, with their stories and testimonies from their unverified scriptwriters, which are fictitious. Do not be swept away like Eve did by the words of the Serpent. Be also suspicious of false prophets who weave lies with the truth. Only the Bible is the officially accepted Word of GOD. Therefore, please do not believe in any unofficial sources that will convince us with a bit of truth and lead us to lies. GOD has used 4000 years to write about Himself in His stories, and they should be enough to lead us through the most one hundred and twenty years of our lives. Prayer: Thank you, God, for your faithfulness to me through time and generations. Your faithfulness knows no boundary or obstacle. Even when I am unfaithful and evil, you remain faithful. Your love for me will never change. As you will never give up on me, let me not give up on myself. Continue to be that hand that lifts me when I fall and to guard me from my foolishness as I find my way home to you. Amen.

https://t.co/ePKubqhy4Q See, the problem with what you're saying is that it targets the top end—but this has always been a recurring issue with Path of Exile. They constantly focus on the top-performing builds while neglecting the bottom, and it takes multiple leagues or updates before we see any meaningful changes for the rest of the playerbase. If 95% of players are using just a handful of builds, then why did the patch notes only include a few buffs buried under a mountain of nerfs? You could argue they’re saving the buffs for the actual update launch, but let’s be honest—we know that’s not true. The number of content creators who go out of their way to borderline shill while ignoring this simple fact is always frustrating to me. You know damn well you could put that same energy into calling out these inconsistencies, and the game would genuinely improve. But obviously, it’s in your best interest to stay positive—because when there’s no pushback, it makes for a more "positive" stream environment and, of course, that’s better for your income. At the end of the day, I’m going to crush every bit of content regardless, because I’m seasoned enough in the game. But I’m always frustrated by this mentality from creators—that we should be happy with a mountain of nerfs and almost no buffs, even when there are clearly things that needed help. It's honestly impossible for anyone in the Path of Exile community to not gaslight well except ben i guess