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⛸️ 1 for the road: "Minions" routine iced out Tomàs-Llorenç Guarino Sabaté competes in the U.K. on Jan. 15. Photo: Yuan Tian/NurPhoto via Getty Images A Spanish figure skater can't do his "Minions" routine at the Winter Olympics due to copyright problems, ESPN reports. 🤳 Tomàs-Llorenç Guarino Sabaté said on Instagram: "This season I have competed with my Minions routine to bring joy and a fun style to the ice, while complying with all of the obligatory elements and demonstrating that ice skating as a male Olympic figure skater can also be fun." The Opening Ceremony is Friday (2 p.m. ET), and the Games run through Feb. 22. Go deeper ... See the routine.

They are so interesting. thank you,

❄️ Parting shot: Reverse snow-birding Photo courtesy of Peter Hamner A Philadelphia garden is unexpectedly becoming a favorite winter stopover for a painted bunting, spotted for at least the fourth consecutive year. This Southern beauty is a rarity for this region during the colder months, but a real treat for birdwatchers, Axios Philadelphia's Mike D'Onofrio reports. Buntings, like many migratory species, like to establish patterns, preferring to revisit specific habitats year after year. 🌴 But painted buntings usually spend the winter in places like southern Florida, the Caribbean, Mexico and Central America.

RE: SHUT DOOR EGW: “Others rashly denied the light behind them, and said that it was not God that had led them out so far. The light behind them went out leaving their feet in perfect darkness, and they stumbled and got their eyes off the mark and lost sight of Jesus, and fell off the path down in the dark and wicked world below. It was just as impossible for them to get on the path again and go to the City, as all the wicked world which God had rejected. They fell all the way along the path one after another, until we heard the voice of God like many waters, which gave us the day and hour of Jesus' coming. (From Ellen White’s first vision received in December 1844. Published as “To the Remnant Scatter Abroad,” in “A Word to the Little Flock, May 30, 1847, p.14.) Sounds like probation HAD closed for those who denied the 1844 message, and the "shut door" message. In February of 1845 Mrs. White received another vision confirming the closed door. She speaks of this vision in a letter to Joseph Bates, written in 1848. The vision took place while she was in a meeting with believers who had not accepted the doctrine of the shut door. Because of the vision given to her at that moment, the group - including a woman teacher who had been very opposed - accepted the shut door doctrine. The following is a passage from the letter written by Mrs. White to Joseph Bates. EGW: “The view about the Bridegroom’s coming I had about the middle of February, 1845, while in Exeter, Maine, in meeting with Israel Dammon, James, and many others. Many of them did not believe in the shut door. I suffered much at the commencement of the meeting. Unbelief seemed to be on every hand. There was one sister there that was called very spiritual. She traveled and [had] been a powerful preacher the most of the time for twenty years. She had been truly a mother in Israel. But a division had risen in the band on the shut door. She had great sympathy, and could not believe the door was shut. I had known nothing of their difference.” . . . “At length my soul seemed to be in an agony, and while she was talking I fell from my chair to the floor. It was then I had a view of Jesus rising from His mediatorial throne and going to the holiest, the Bridegroom to receive His kingdom. They all said it was entirely new to them. The Lord worked in mighty power, setting the truth home to their hearts." . . . Sister Durben knew what the power of the Lord was, for she had felt it many times; and a short time after I fell she was struck down, and fell to the floor, crying to God to have mercy on her. When I came out of vision, my ears were saluted with Sister Durben’s singing and shouting with a loud voice. Most of them received the vision, and were settled upon the shut door. Previous to this I had no light on the coming of the Bridegroom, but had expected Him to come to this earth to deliver His people on the tenth day of the seventh month. I did not hear a lecture or a word in any way relating to the Bridegroom’s going to the Holiest.” Manuscript Releases Volume Five pg.97 - “Three Early Letters” The reason for the explanation given in the last paragraph was a paper, published by Mr. Joseph Turner, which taught exactly the “truth” given to Ellen White in her vision, that the door of probation had closed when Christ entered the Most Holy Place of the Heavenly Sanctuary. This paper was published before Ellen White’s “vision.” A copy of the paper was in Ellen White’s house, but she claimed never to have read it, prior to her own vision. (A.L.White, “Ellen G. White and the Shut Door Question,” Letter 3, 1847, pp. 49-51. Printed in Ford, “Daniel 8:14,” pp.417-419.) EGW: “With my brethren and sisters, after the time passed in forty-four I did believe no more sinners would be converted. But I never had a vision that no more sinners would be converted. And am clear and free to state no one has ever heard me say or has read from my pen statements which will justify them in the charges they have made against me upon this point.” Selected Messages Book 1, p. 74, (Written in 1874.)

I am in a personal study of the Sanctuary Service and have quite a stack of books to read thru, and have read thru about half of those planned on being "consumed". However, I have put off EGW until last, not because I do not believe, but the sanctuary books "written" by EGW are compilations by others. Therefore, it will be necessary to find the source of these compilation quotes to see the context. Along the way, it has become apparent that the sanctuary service given to Israel in the desert was a parable of redemption. And like the parables of Jesus while on earth the different parts of the parable have meaning. I am of the opinion that God is a God of order and does not waste symbols or have people engaging in useless ceremonies that have no spiritual meaning. Consequently, many theologians and other spiritually gifted writers that I have read have ably demonstrated the presence of the Investigative Judgement in Scripture. So, I have no problem with believing in an Investigative Judgement. I do have my concerns regarding those who deny things like the cleansing of the Sanctuary, EGW, and many other pillars of the Adventist faith. Like Jesus asked when He was on earth, "Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?" Luke 18:8 Sadly, I see Scriptural truths being denied all the time. And even the visions of EGW being denied. I find this verse to be very sobering for the times we live in. "Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth." 2 Timothy 3:7

Chuck Negron, lead singer on ‘Joy to the World’ and other Three Dog Night hits, dies at 83 https://apnews.com/article/chuck-negron-dies-three-dog-night-0e2ace5b44a3bbaf8d533830e11b872f?

Demond Wilson, who played Lamont on ‘Sanford and Son,’ dies at 79 https://apnews.com/article/demond-wilson-death-667a2715e8b967d6d484bfc572dda9f7?