#[ also did add a live action verse so that's available

[marinehero]

I do have saved drafts from old blog that I'm going to try and work on but offers a STARTER CALL ! Length will vary, feel free to specify any verses / muses / preferences uvu

[psycheetamore]

Choosing to follow destiny

Chapter 8 - Frustration leads to agression

Pre notes with this chapter: Our darling is anything but stupid. You don't get to the place where he is, without being super observant. First published on AO3

Tags: MDNI, Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen Is His Own Warning, the typical Feyd tags (smut, violance, non-con/rape etc), imaginary suicide, see for full tags: chapter 1 - the author regrets nothing

Word count: 2.1k

Link to previous chapter

+++

Feyd-Rautha looked at all information on Fremen leaders that he could get his hands on. He wanted names, ranks, physical descriptions; everything.

There was not much available though. Being who he was, he did consider torturing some local people, but who to torture? He knew that people being tortured would tell you anything you wanted to hear, so you needed to have a good plan to ask the right questions. And of course, it would wreck his good name. Not that he cared too much about that, but it helped him for as long as it would last. Now was not yet the time to give away that card.

He read about attacks tributed to someone called Maud’Dib, which meant kangaroo mouse. An odd name which did not impose fear. Yaina, which meant hyena. This started to go somewhere. A person called Sadus, holy judge. A name that appears in logs over nearly the entire period the Harkonnen reigned in Arrakis, perhaps this was an older person, perhaps it was a title. He also read a few other names. Clearly all nicknames.

The physical descriptions were quite similar: blue eyes, dressed in stillsuits which were sometimes wrapped in cloths, tanned or brown skinned, lean and strong, all about the same size (give or take 10 – 20 centimetres). Well versed in fighting, with fear not often encountered.

 He was surprised to read Fremen squads nearly always included women, and were often even led by women. He had never contemplated adding women to his own strike forces. Perhaps, if he would conquer the hearts and minds of all Fremen, he could add Fremen warriors. With women that number added would double. Maybe it did make sense to seek a good relationship with the local population, he contemplated.

But this all meant he did not have enough details to decipher the names of his intruders. How could he reach them, if he did not even know their names?

Feyd-Rautha decided to start with the leaders of the local population living in Arrakeen.

+++

The local leaders had received instructions they were not to suggest that they had any form of contact with Fremen resistance.

This left Feyd-Rautha no other choice than to go hunt them down.

Feyd-Rautha decided that he would be respond to all upcoming attached on his harvesters. Although the strikes towards the refineries had stopped, the other attacks continued.

Dressed in his fighting gear he started an ornithopter. He was joined by one guard, and two other ornithopters. Shortly he would receive the first notification of an ongoing ambush.

He would respond to several alarms that day.

+++

By the end of the day, the three ornithopters started the circle Fremen fighters that were attacking Harkonnen harvester guards about 20 kilometres from the city boarder. This caught the warriors by surprise. Hardly ever did this squad encounter two ornithopters coming to the defence, and never three. Fending of blasts from multiple ornithopters was a challenge.

Soon, one of ornithopters left the formation and landed about 200 meters from the crawler under attack. Feyd-Rautha and his guard leaped out and started running. In the golden hue of the evening light, Feyd-Rautha surged. His body was fully covered in black leather, with protective yet form emphasising padding over his shoulders, arms and groin. His cape flowed, giving the illusion that he was flying. Contrary to his guard he did not carry a mask or a machete. He only held a sword, next to the daggers in his belt. Despite his many actions today he was not growing tired. He was growing angry and impatient.

This squad never encountered guards leaving the relative safety of their ornithopter. Another first.

While slaughtering guards under the belly of the crawler, Yaina could not help but think their recent visit had caused Harkonnen defence to change their ways. It even appeared as if the guards were putting up more of a fight.

Suddenly, she noticed Feyd-Rautha's looming figure at the other side of the harvester. She slit the throat of the soldier she was fighting and started to run for the nearby rock formation. They were overpowered by the sudden force introduced, and she needed to cut their losses. She was aware their lord would only accept a victory, even if this would come at a great cost to him. She was not willing to have her people be killed now, while they could strike again tomorrow.

Part of her squad followed her to the rocks, the rest scattered across the desert. This increased their overall chance of survival.

Feyd-Rautha looked at the sudden disperse of Fremen warriors. He noticed this happened almost immediately after he came in eyesight of the fighters. It could only mean that he was recognised. At least one of his uninvited guests should be here. His plan worked. He finally succeeded in locating them. Now he only had to succeed in capturing them.

He surveyed the running Fremen to decide which one to follow. He tried to recognise the bodily shapes he saw several nights before. Of the four figures running towards the rocks, two were not very tall. They seemed to run in a lighter manner. He could be wrong, but his instinct dictated he follow them.

Soon he reached the rocks, not long after his targets, his guard following suit. He shouted: “Come to me!” But no response came.

He started to trail the route he could notice they were following. He was aware of the risks, but he felt confident. He was chasing them, not the other way around. They saw him and they fled.

After having climbed quite a few rocks, he lost all trails. Frustrated, Feyd-Rautha called a nearby ornithopter, and received confirmation no-one had left the rock formation. That meant they were still here.

Driving on this knowledge, he continued to scout the surroundings, until he landed in an ambush in a narrow strait between high rocks. No longer could he run back, as that path was cut off. Two stood on the top of the rock and one was in front of him.

“Drop your weapons!”

“Why?” he said in his raspy voice.

“Drop your weapons, NOW.”

Feyd-Rautha knew the guard that followed him would be here any moment now. That would throw the Fremen off, and would shuffle the cards in his favour. He needed to buy time though, so he decided to provoke a conversation.

“You are standing here with four men. I am just by myself. You should not fear me”, while he taunted his adversaries by switching his sword between his hands.

As he looked up at the two people standing above him, he felt his knees being kicked in, and slammed to the ground. The person that stood behind him, now stepped on his sword, catching his hand below it.

The voice of that person smoothly and calmly said: “You should not be here.”

Cockily, the na-Baron said: “I rule over this planet. Everywhere is mine to go.”

A knife was pushed under his chin, forcing him to tilt his head up high. He looked and saw black almond shaped eyes under the face covers. The eyes were surrounded by long lashes.

His pupils widened. The ends of his mouth started to create a small smile showing familiarity. His mouth opened and with a menacing purr he said for only her to hear: “I was looking for you. And I found you. Here I am, again on my knees in front of you.” He heard a small gasp as he continued: “why did you hide from me?”

Abruptly, eye contact was broken, and he noticed the impact of something heaving falling next to him. He looked to his right and saw the body of his guard with the knife sticking out of the front part of his head.

The pressure on his hand was relieved. He collected his sword and he soared right up to face the Fremen that cornered him. He looked around him, but everyone was gone.

He shouted “come back!” but was eventually left to leave the strait.

While walking back, he suddenly fell. Something had hit him.

The last thing he could hear before he lost consciousness was “why shouldn't I kill him, Yaina?”

+++

After the ordeal, Paul failed to understand why Yaina did not kill Feyd-Rautha. It was an excellent opportunity, and she let it slip.

“Why did you not kill him in his chambers?” she replied?

“Because that would have caused an all-out war of the Great Houses against Arrakis. It is too early for that. But being killed in combat, on a hunt. Well, that is all in the game. It would merely force the Baron Harkonnen to send a replacement.”

Yaina was startled by the words that it is too early for that. Last night she dreamt about an all-out war. Billions of people on the run. Billions of people being killed. She was bathing in sweat when she woke up. This was a scenario that she should not even be able to dream about. It was horrible.

“You could have been killed. I cannot have my right-hand man die.”

Yaina thought: you are calling me your right-hand man. But you are failing to see that I am becoming a woman in charge. Your squad is increasingly seeing me as your equal, and some will come to me for leadership.

“We need to be more cautious going forward. Promise me you will keep me updated on all the details of your next attacks. We need to make sure you are safe. I cannot run my squad without you. I need you to achieve the greater goal.”

“Yes, Paul.”

She could not explain why she could not kill Feyd-Rautha, while she killed his guard without any contemplation. She just couldn't. She could not even think about it or visualise it happening. Looking at his eyes. His clean-cut face. His pouting lips that started to open to show blackness. She had stepped on his sword and held his hand down, causing him pain. But his face did not indicate any anger or fear. There was no intention to break free. She had seen something else in his face. It was almost like he had surrendered to observe her every move. It became clear he was amused by the situation.

She took a breath and started to walk away.

She was overcome by remembering what he shouted. What he told her: I was looking for you. He recalled that she had seen him. He knew that she was the person who came into physical contact with him. She suddenly concluded he was fascinated. He was drawn to her. He was seeking her out. She always kept her distance, presented herself as a man, avoided causing attraction to anyone; all to avoid anyone getting too close to her. That conclusion felt like someone sat on her chest. She could not breath anymore and reached out to the wall to catch her fall.

Paul was still in the room, when she started to grasp for air. He never meant to cause this much distress. He never thought anything could get to Yaina. But he apparently managed. He helped Yaina regain her breathing and was happy to see a form of report was starting to develop between them.

+++

Feyd-Rautha woke up in his own chambers in the palace of Arrakeen.

He sat up right and looked around him. It was as if he had just encountered a nightmare. He looked at his hands and saw his right hand was battered. At the back of his neck he felt a swelling bruise.

He recalled the last words he heard.

He could have been killed. But he wasn’t.

This Yaina saved his live. Why? What value did he have alive? He wasn't certain he had spoken with Yaina, or someone else.

He did know the person he spoke to was one of the uninvited guests. A smooth voice, he recalled. Long lashes. Willingness to kill on the spot, but still he was saved. This was the person that frisked him.

Cold hands. A smooth voice. Almond shaped eyes. In his mind he listed all physical characteristics he had observed himself. Combine that with the knowledge that Fremen employed women. Maybe, he needed to consider the option that Yaina was a woman, and not a man as presented.

He recalled his enticement. Feyd-Rautha decided he needed to go back again to obtain certainty.

+++

Whispers reached the emperor that Paul Atreides was still alive. The emperor relayed the message to the Baron. The Baron relayed the message to his nephew. The nephew gained yet another reason to venture deep into Arrakis’ deserts.

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Link to next chapter

Post notes with this chapter: hehehe. Yaina is not the only one capable of adapting to new situations.

[romancatholicreflections]

14th April >> Sunday Homilies and Reflections for Roman Catholics on Palm Sunday of the Lord's Passion - Year C.

To be celebrated on 14th April 2019

Palm/ Passion Sunday

Gospel Reading: Luke 19:28-40

vs. 28 Jesus went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem.

vs. 29 Now when he was near Bethphage, close by the Mount of Olives, as it is called, he sent two of the disciples, telling them,

vs. 30 “Go off to the village opposite, and as you enter it you will find a tethered colt that no one has yet ridden. Untie it and bring it here.

vs. 31 If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you untying it?’ you are to say this, ‘The Master needs it.'”

vs. 32 The messengers went off and found everything just as he had told them.

vs. 33 As they were untying the colt, its owner said, “Why are you untying that colt?”

vs. 34 and they answered, “The Master needs it.”

palm sunday 1

vs. 35 So they took the colt to Jesus, and throwing their garments over its back, they helped Jesus onto it.

vs. 36 As he moved off, people spread their cloaks in the road, and now, as he was approaching the downward slope of the Mount of Olives,

vs. 37 the whole group of disciples joyfully began to praise God at the top of their voices for all the miracles they had seen.

vs. 38 They cried out: “Blessings on the King who comes, in the name of the Lord!

Peace in heaven and glory in the highest heavens!”

vs. 39 Some Pharisees in the crowd said to him, “Master, check your disciples,”

vs. 40 but he answered, “I tell you, if these keep silence the stones will cry out.”

**************************************************

We have four commentators available from whom you may wish to choose .

Michel DeVerteuil : A Trinidadian Holy Ghost Priest, director of the Centre of Biblical renewal .

Thomas O’Loughlin: Professor of Historical Theology, University of Wales, Lampeter.

Sean Goan: Studied scripture in Rome, Jerusalem and Chicago and teaches at Blackrock College and works with Le Chéile

Donal Neary SJ: Editor of The Sacred Heart Messenger

**********************************

Michel de Verteuil

Lectio Divina The Year of Luke

www.columba.ie

General Comments

The Palm Sunday procession is a living lesson in liturgy. By inviting us to imitate the actions of Jesus entering Jerusalem and the crowd welcoming him, the Church wants us to experience that the story is still being lived today. Whenever people of faith decide to confront evil at its source, and do so with inner freedom, remaining faithful to their values, Jesus is once more entering Jerusalem.

We have the same experience by meditating on the gospel texts and recognizing ourselves in them.

Each of the gospels tells the story of Jesus��� entry into Jerusalem in a distinctive way. In St Luke’s account, which we read this year, there is first of all the very significant verse 28, which describes Jesus “going on ahead of his disciples.”

The events described in verses 29 to 34 are found in all the synoptic accounts, a sign that the early Church found them highly symbolical. Some take the story as evidence of Jesus’ supernatural powers, but it could merely be evidence of his self-confidence as he faces his great moment of truth, a mark of true leadership.

In St Luke’s account, it is the disciples themselves, entering alongside Jesus, who are moved to excitement at this moment.

A small detail, but clearly significant for St Luke: the disciples “helped Jesus on to the colt.”

The people do not wave palm branches in St Luke’s account, but their gesture of spreading their cloaks in the road before Jesus is both a sign of their wild excitement and their welcoming him as a king.

The cry of the people in verse 38 echoes the song of the angels at the birth of Jesus (Luke 2:14).

The brief dialogue in verses 39-40 can be interpreted in different ways. The Pharisees in question may have been followers of Jesus who were afraid of confrontation and wanted to protect Jesus. Or they may have represented the first assault of the opposition to Jesus. In either case his answer expresses his inner freedom very dramatically.

Scripture reflection

Lord, there comes a time in the lives of all of us when we, like Jesus,

must enter into a radical confrontation:

– those in authority have been abusing their power;

– we finally recognise that we need help to overcome an addiction;

– some members of our community have betrayed the cause and must be excluded;

– we need to give up our comfortable situation and move into something new.

At these moments, give us

– and especially those of us whom you have called to be leaders in our communities –

a share in the inner freedom of Jesus,

so that like him we can go on ahead of the rest, as we go up to our Jerusalem.walking-with-jesus1

Help us like Jesus to make our arrangements confident that they will come to pass,

and to allow ourselves to be put in a position of authority.

Help us to be so confident of our cause

that if someone told us to check our followers

we would know that if they kept silence, the stones would cry out.

Lord, we thank you for glorious moments of grace

– we found a friend whom we felt we could trust perfectly;

– we enjoyed intimacy with our spouse;

– one of our children did us proud;

– a new social movement arose in our country.

We were like the disciples when Jesus approached the downward slope of the Mount of Olives:

we joyfully began to praise you at the top of our voices for the miracle which we had seen.

We cried out, ”Blessings on the king who comes in the name of the Lord!”

We glorified you in the highest heavens.

Lord, it is strange how when the moment of grace comes,

everything seems to fall into place very naturally.

If we need something, we find as the disciples did on the first Palm Sunday,

that all we need say is, “The Master needs it,” and immediately all obstacles are removed.

Lord, we pray that as a Church we may not betray our young people.

Often we lack the courage of our convictions,

are too anxious to please them, and do not go ahead of them.

But when young people today meet leaders who challenge them, they joyfully praise God,

they are ready to spread their cloaks in the road before them,

and welcome them as kings who come in the name of the Lord.

“The important events of history are the thousands of humble actions that heal and reconcile.” …Cardinal Arms of Sao Paulo in Brazil, 1994

Lord, we thank you for the many humble people who enter Jerusalem in peace.

As we think of them, we praise you at the top of our voices

and cry out, “Peace in heaven and glory in the highest heavens.”

************************************************

Thomas O’Loughlin,

Liturgical Resources for the Year of Luke

www.Columba.ie

Introduction to the Celebration

The text in the Missal (p. 123: ‘Dear friends in Christ …‘) cannot be bettered. However, care should be taken to read it as if it were one’s own notes so as to stress the notion that we are entering into the Great Week, accompanying Christ in the Paschal Mystery.

Passion Notes

1. For those who seeking in the gospels an historical record of the events of Jesus’ life, the passion accounts present an awful problem: for the most crucial event in the whole story the early churches had at least four different pictures. When Christians today think of Jesus’s death their picture is invariably a mixture with the people drawn from John and the general scene from the synoptics. Ct the real oneChrist is flanked by two other crosses (Jn 19:18; but a detail common to all four), and standing near him are ‘his mother, and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene’ and John (Jn 19:25-26). Nearby also are soldiers casting lots for his clothes (Jn 19:23-25 but with parallels in all four). The scene is one of darkness covering the earth (Mt 27:45; Mk 15:33; Lk 23:44 — a darkness unknown in Jn). Against this conflation, it is worth noting how Luke sets out his scene as it allows us to see his particular perception. The scene of the crucifixion is dark (Lk 23:44) not only in terms of light, but in terms of the courage of his followers: those who knew him, men and women who had followed him from Galilee stood at a distance watching the event unfold (Lk 23:49). Near him there are a crowd of spectacle lovers, scoffing leaders and mocking soldiers (Lk 23:35-36). In Matthew and Mark both criminals also taunt him (they are silent in John), but in Luke (23:39-43) we have the dialogue of the Good Thief whose opening words are a confession that Jesus is suffering as an innocent man (23:41). The centurion’s confession is found only in Mark (15:39) and Luke (23:47), but while in Mark this is a christological statement, in Luke it is a declaration of the imiocent suffering of Jesus: ‘Now when the centurion saw what had taken place, he praised God, and said, “Certainly this man was innocent!”.’ Luke, uniquely, adds another detail at this point: ‘And all … who assembled to see the sight, when they saw what had taken place, returned home beating their breasts’(23:48).

2. A convenient way to see how Luke’s passion differs from the other is to note those items which are proper to him. These present Christ as the righteous one who is faithful to the end alone. Luke presents Jesus as alone from all those whom he had spent time with, eaten with, and been with in the good times; yet in the dark hour his goodness still shone out and transformed people. While his long-term followers were lying low, Jesus was gathering new witnesses to his truth amidst the moral chaos which was his crucifixion. The sense of finality is heightened at the beginning of the passage when Christ states his longing to eat the meal (the final meal in a whole series of meals in Luke) and that he shall not drink wine again until the kingdom comes (22:15- 20). It is also seen in his instructions for the church after his departure (22:35-7) and his warning to Jerusalem (23:27-32). His aloneness is pointed out in the prophesy that the disciples will desert him (22:21-3 and 33-4), and this is fulfilled in the detailed story of the triple denial of Peter (22:54-62)Jesus and cross

By this time Luke presents all the disciples as having fled. By the time of the crucifixion — in stark contrast to John from whence comes our familiar picture of John, Mary, and the other women standing beneath the Cross — there is not a single friendly face nearby: his acquaintances (hoi gnóstoi) and the women stand watching at a distance (23:49). In the end the only ones who acknowledge him are outsiders who at least recognise him as a good and righteous man: Pilate, a criminal, and Roman soldier. Luke alone has Pilate recognise him as one without fault (23:5; 14-5; and 22); similarly he alone has ‘the good thief’ incident who states that this man has done nothing wrong (23:39-43); and finally the centurion, but while in Mark 15:39 and Matthew 27:54 he states, ‘Truly this was the Son of God!’, here Luke has him state simply: ‘Certainly this man was righteous (dikaios).’

For Luke Christ in his passion is utterly abandoned, and he in turn abandons himself to the Father to do the Father’s will (22:22, 29, 37, 42-3). This abandonment reaches its climax in the final cry from the Cross (23:46).

Homily Notes

1. The Missal says that ‘a brief homily may be given.’ There is definitely a case today for taking up this permission to omit the homily altogether; not because such an omission might shorten an already long liturgy, but since we have just come through one of the longest verbal elements in the whole of the liturgy (the passion), another verbal event (a homily) does not bring contrast or help the gospel reading to sink in. A better way to highlight what has been read would be a couple of moments of structured silence (e.g. ‘Let us now reflect in silence on the passion of our Saviour’) before standing for the Creed. On the subject of the length of today’s liturgy we should remember that length of time is one of the key non-verbal ritual cues that humans use to indicate special importance: a crucial symbolic event that is over in a moment, or takes just the same length of time as an ordinary event is an anti-climax – do not forget that Christmas dinner must take longer than an everyday meal. Because this is a special day opening a special week, it should md must take a noticeably longer time than an ordinary Sunday.

Holy wk2. If one does preach, then the brief comments should be directed introducing the week as a whole rather than particular comments on the readings. This could take its starting point from the gospel outside – that Christ has arrived at, and entered Jerusalem, and that ‘his hour’ has arrived. As Christians we are sharers in this event.

3. If the situation calls for a meditation rather than a homily, then a suitable meditation is provided in the Christ-hymn (the second reading) as a way of interpreting the events narrated. However, rather than re-reading it directly from the lectionary it may be broken up into its verses and read with pauses. The version used in the Office is better for such use than either the RSV/ JB. Better still, have it sung by a soloist and simply introduce as the earliest Christian meditation we possess on what we lve just recal1ed about the death of Jesus.

******************************************************

3. Sean Goan

Let the reader understand

www.columba.ie

Gospel: Luke 22:14-23:56

Holy week begins with a dual focus, namely the events of Palm Sunday and the triumphant march of Jesus into Jerusalem and then, by contrast, the story of his passion and death. In year C we read from Luke’s account of the passion and it is worth our while noting the differences, as each evangelist highlights different things in order to bring out the meaning of what is taking place. As in the public ministry of Jesus, so too in his death Luke stresses the themes of forgiveness and prayer. Only in Luke does Jesus pray that his executioners be forgiven and only here is the good thief mentioned. Also in Luke, Jesus dies with a prayer of trust on his lips, thus embodying a teaching that he had given many times in his life.

Reflection

Suffering is part and parcel of being human and while we must readily acknowledge this fact it is also true that we usually do all in our power to avoid it. The readings for today are an invitation to reflect on how the passion of Jesus can change our outlook on suffering. Our Saviour may be seen in these texts as a model of patient endurance and of faithfulness. We are not asked to believe that suffering is good in itself but to see that good can come of it and to recognise in Jesus God’s solidarity with all those who endure suffering for doing what is right.

boy-and-cross-of-jesus

**********************************************

4. Donal Neary S.J.

Gospel reflections

www.columba.ie

PALM SUNDAY

Who was there at the end?

Who was there at the end? The friends of Jesus: from a distance, but still around. They stayed near, not wanting to leave. Did they all stand around for a while? Wanting to go and not wanting to go, like mourners at a graveside – confused, sad and discouraged – silent in the moments of violent death. Were they afraid that this might happen to them too? The friends and acquaintances of Jesus, the one who promised much and said he would rise again… Did any of them remember this promise? Did they whisper it to each other as they closed the stone at the tomb? Did they wonder if more was yet to come? For there was always more with Jesus. We are that ‘more!

centurian at the cross

There also was the centurion: the good man who said, ‘he was a Son of God’. The one from Rome saw through the many from Jerusalem. He was a strange type of guy at the cross – the Roman who had been told to get these crucifixions done, with the least amount of trouble and publicity. Away from home and his own people, he would find a new God in the home of his heart and would be linked forever to a new people.

Something about this man gave a scent of love, and an authority that came from somewhere far away – further than an emperor or a political power. He knew that this man was a Son of God; may we know this too of Jesus.

Lord by your cross and resurrection, you have set us free.

You are the savior of the world.

___________________________________

[christianmenatwork]

Be Obedient and Move On-Selah41-CMAW125

S

  “Essential: Finding Worth in Your Work During Uncertain Times” was released February 2 and is now available on Amazon and other sites as it gets distributed.

  Here’s the announcement on ChristianPost.com

Here’s the book landing page with a link to the YouVerion/Bible.com plan and some exclusive bonus material

First Light Devotional by Pastor Brian Biggers, Lamb's Chapel, Burlington, NC

  Having to Have Your Way is Highly Overrated!

 If it is possible, as much as depends on you, live at peace with all men.

Romans 12:18

 Do you know what is better than always having to have your own way? Always having peace on the inside! We now live in a day when people are hell bent on being right and having their own way in everything. The prevailing attitude is that if I can't have my way, I'll burn the place to the ground! Our nation has embraced the scorched earth attitude. The Bible warned that a day like this would come when men would be "demanding and irreconcilable". The result of this attitude is the loss of peace in people's lives and the public square. Is there anybody out there like myself that would like to return to "Mayberry days" when people were willing to bend in order to enjoy a life of peace and community? Even Otis was respected and shown some mercy! Scripture tells us that this selfishness that would prevail in the latter day would create "stressful times" to live in. Is not the root of all stress people valuing "their way" above peace? What does God call us to do in these trying days of "my way or the highway"? The answer is in today's verse. We are clearly commanded to pursue peace with all people as much as is possible with us. Before you will pursue peace above being right you have to begin to value peace above being right. Question; which would you rather do, win an argument or enjoy your day? If you win the argument, congratulations! You are miserable inside, you just lost a friend, but by grannies, you won! Personally, in this ripe old age I've decided that enjoying life, being at peace inside, keeping my friends and being a living testimony to the grace of God beats being right any day! As I told a man who was arguing with his wife once and wanted me to side in with him, "you can be right or you can be warm tonight, its your choice"! Its certainly not original with me but, "if mama ain't happy..."! No doubt there are times when conflict is unavoidable and we need to confront that which is evil, dangerous or unbiblical, but most of the things that divide us and make life miserable are not in that category. In the majority of cases we can choose peace over strive if we want to. Jesus did not say "blessed are the peacekeepers", He said "blessed are the peace makers". We are called to "make" peace. Do whatever is necessary to create peace in the heart, home and land. I hear it out there somewhere, "but I am right, and they are wrong"! Even if that is true, follow the example of our Master who was right when I was wrong (want to argue?), yet He took the initiative to "create peace between man and God". Do you want to live the abundant, satisfying, enjoyable life on this earth that Jesus promises? Start choosing peace over "right".

  Dear Jesus, you were right, and I was wrong. Thank you for choosing peace over judgement! Please give me grace to do the same!

  I totally agree with everything Pastor Brian has said and that we should be peacemakers in our families, with our friends, and at our work, and that needs to be intentional, because it goes against our flesh and sinful nature to do so.

  I want to add my own thoughts to this and that is that being a peacemaker doesn't mean that we should continue to invest in everyone's lives and pursue everyone's approval.  Jesus clearly set priorities for who he invested in with his time and energy with his Disciples, and when he sent out the Disciples to share the Gospel, he added in Mark 6:11 NKJV "And whoever will not receive you nor hear you, when you depart from there, shake off the dust under your feet as a testimony against them. Assuredly, I say to you, it will be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for that city!”"

  Matt 7:6 NKJV “Do not give what is holy to the dogs; nor cast your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you in pieces." 

  I don't claim to fully understand Matthew 7:6, and I've heard it taught and interpreted in different ways.  One interpretation is that we should not continue to invest ourselves and our time in those who are rejecting what we have to say.  Everyone needs to hear the Gospel, but we should not assume that we're totally responsible for someone receiving it. 

  Paul pointed out in 1 Corinthians 3:6 - NKJV that we don't know exactly how our actions will play a role in impacting someone but ultimately it's up to God not us.  Paul says "I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase."

  After Paul preached a powerful message Acts 17:32-34  says "32 And when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked, while others said, “We will hear you again on this matter.” 33 So Paul departed from among them. 34 However, some men joined him and believed, among them Dionysius the Areopagite, a woman named Damaris, and others with them."

  Paul did what he was called to do, but he could not control who received the message and who did not, but what did he do?  He left them, he moved on.

  How do we apply this in our lives?  Well, when it comes to our work, don't make someone your spiritual project.  Be obedient to what you believe the Holy Spirit is leading you to do and say, and move on.  Love everyone, be at peace at everyone to the extent we can, but find a core group of believers at work with whom you will invest most of your time and energy.

  These principles ar true of acquaintances at work, it's true of our friends outside of work, and believe it or not, it's true of family members as well.

  We may feel the need to be close to all our family members, our parents, our siblings, etc. and for them to agree with us or rather for us to agree with them, particularly about important matters of faith.

  Proverbs 27:10b NKJV says "Better is a neighbor nearby than a brother far away."

  In Mark 3:31-35 NKJV "31 Then His brothers and His mother came, and standing outside they sent to Him, calling Him. 32 And a multitude was sitting around Him; and they said to Him, “Look, Your mother and Your brothers [h]are outside seeking You.”

33 But He answered them, saying, “Who is My mother, or My brothers?” 34 And He looked around in a circle at those who sat about Him, and said, “Here are My mother and My brothers! 35 For whoever does the will of God is My brother and My sister and mother.”

The Bible commands us to honor our father and mother, but it also says in Genesis 2:24 "Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh."

  I'm not aware of any command in the Bible for us to be close to our siblings.

  E

  Harrel at Lowes.  Super helpful as we were looking at replacing our wrotten door going onto our back deck.  I don't know if he's a believer, but I shared with him this podcast, so if you're listening Harrel, thanks for doing such a great job.  One thing I liked was how he handled interruptions.  When someone came up to him for help, he immediately addressed them, which was considerate to them for not making them wait, and let them know that he would help them as soon as he was finished with my wife and I, which was considerate to us.  Even if we don't work in retail, I think we can all find ways to learn from how Harrel handled this.

  L

  He who is slothful in his work Is a brother to him who is a great destroyer.

Proverbs 18:9 - NKVJ

  A

i went to tell you about something I'm really excited about that you may be interested in as well, and it's an opportunity to get involved with a company called Onpassive.

I've been an engineer for the last 13 years, but as some of you may know who have heard my testimony this is not my first stint at being an engineer.  I worked full-time for 7 years as an engineer working for General Mills, helped launch products like Multi-Grain Cheerios and Frosted Cheerios and share a patent for unique way to make cracked grains in cereal flakes.  Well, in 2000 I quite my job as an engineer and spent the next 8 years flipping houses and buying, renting, and selling investment property.  There were a lot of promise made about getting rich quick.  That combined with me some poor decisions on my part resulted in that business failing.

I made the right choice to go back to engineering, and I enjoy it, but I've never lost a bit entrepreneurship in my blood and I do believe in the power of passive income.  This side of my personality contributed toward me starting up and running this podcast but I've also kept my eye out for the right part-time business that could provide some added income for me and my wife, especially that would leverage the power of the internet and not demand much of my time.

I believe I've found just that opportunity.  A friend of mine shared it with me, and I was skeptical as I always will be, both because of my experience going bankrupt as well as my nature is to be detail oriented and check things out thoroughly.

A man named Ash Mufarah started this up a few years ago.  His vision was to have a portfolio of software applications that would work together and be an improvement over what's currently available.  He also set this up so that a maximum number of people can benefit from it without having to spend a lot of time on it.

Here's what I like about this opportunity:

1. It requires only a small up front investment

2. It has a massive market - pretty much everyone needs these tools in one way or another

3. It offers an alternative to the Big Tech offerings currently available, and from what I've observed so far they are committed to not just created a me-too version but rather to have a point of difference and be significantly better than the competition

4. It gives you a chance to be a part of something before it launches.

They're planning on launching like 50 products and have just started to release them for beta testing.  The first one, O-Cademy is so powerful.  It will allow children and adults to get the best training online and it will allow content creators and teachers to share their knowledge teaching others and make an income doing it.  I could go on about this one product, but my main point is that this one product is so powerful and has huge potential and it's just one product.

If you think you might be interested, click here for more info or email me to discuss further at support@christianmenatwork.com

  H

Starting a series of Handy Tips on Time Management, taken from my interview with John Shirey CMAW 118

This episode, I want share that we can't really manage time, but we can manage ourselves and what we do

Check out this episode!

[stone-man-warrior]

December 3, 2020: 4:56 pm:

This from earlier today while using my suspended Twitter account, which always generates some kind of local pertinent response and/or other response in coded Tweets from major newsmedia on Twitter in the news stories, coded:

================================

https://twitter.com/BorisJohnson/status/1334551466699350016

Winter plan...Cold, wet, all the talk is of cold and wet for leading into discussions about Corona (Crown) Virus (add media, then, COVID).

Some people on a live feed are reminded ahead of time to refrain from Hot, Warm, Flaming ideas for the presentation with the "winter plan" lead in.

My question would look and sound like this one:

"Boris, elementary science and physics class taught me that a small flame uses oxygen present in the surrounding air, when added to heat and fuel, to make a small flame, so, I am wondering what you have done to stop the spread of the corona virus by using the elementary physics as a means of drawing in the contaminated air, so the flame could burn away the impurities and germs as it draws in the oxygen it needs to burn the fuel once the heat is applied?"

===========================

5:21 pm:

I am trying to reach out to US national security personnel for some assistance to stop mass murdering that is commanded with marching orders that are delivered via Twitter “Verified Accounts” of major news networks and other entertainment oriented sources, such as the promotional email I often refer to here on this account.

I started out today with doing what I always do, scan the Twitter news feed to find where terror commands are being presented, and then trying to read the coded messages within them. Today there was a video of a gal who made a dress of discarded mango’s. I watched it, and moved on. Then, later, I looked in the email and found a very tiny connection to the mango dress in a Taylor guitar ad from Zzounds Music, which has proven to be a regular source for the terror communications. Unfortunately, I am unable to arrive at definitive end results, only a lot of parts to a bigger puzzle than i am able to decipher. Those US national Security folks I need to reach could take these parts that I find, and see that there is definitely hidden communication within them. I often have other personal experience that helps to explain what the terror comm is about, and today I am seeing that kind of thing with respect to knowledge of attack at 29 Palms US Military Base where I witnessed many horrible things happen in around 1982 or so. These items below make a reference to that attack at 29 Palms in a very distant and seemingly associated way. The comm is very subtle, multi faceted, archaic, abstract, has a  lot of parts to it. These are the items I had available to make connection to the 29 Palms terror comm today.

nsa, this is for you.

Please understand my frustration resultant of being held captive in my home for many years with no help.

This is a email from Zzounds with Taylor Guitars featured.

These are the featured Taylor Guitars:

That 362cenV 12 Fret is of interest, others may also be, I only am concerned about that one for this progression of my day reading terror comm:

Here, I started to use the Google Gmail the same kind of way that I use the suspended Twitter account, just a place to write stuff down. I did not send the email, but as I wrote, it became clear that others are watching me do the writing. They interfere as I write, change the font style, erase the contents of the memory of my computer so that when I past something, it just puts a space. I have no letter n on my keyboard, it’s broken, so, when I need an n, I have to go find one, copy it, and then paste it there. It’s a hassle. The terror bastards at Centurylink and/or Google are able to erase the memory of the computer so that I need to keep copying a new n every time i needed one as I was writing there. Then, they changed the font style to bold, and to underline font as I was trying to think about difficult things to solve. Makes it more difficult than it already is.

This is the text I wrote in that email text box on Google Gmail to no one, not sent:

“That Taylor 362cev goes with a Twitter video from one of the major news outlets, one featuring a young lady who made a dress from discarded mango's. Sometimes the only response to the phrase: "so what?" is "Sew Buttons", We are seeing this week on twitter, stories about castration, on the heels of Bill de Blasio, and stories about school closure, last week.

What to do with so many discarded penis'?

Make a dress. What's address?

The address is the top part of the young lady's mango dress, is made of fabric, while the lower part is made of 1,400 mango's.

Add two breasts contained within the top guilded fabric of the dress. 1,400P + 2 + O = 1,400 + 2OO = 1,400 + 200 = 1,600 Pennsylvania Ave.

The mango's were scattered all over the living room floor.The Oval Orifice is the living room at 1,600 Pennsylvania Ave. We were given the Buttons (nipples) ahead of time with those two dots that were in the Capital D of the Lion, Symba. Daktari. ClubMed. Disney trending on Twitter, tweeted bullshit terror commands at that time. The nipples were horizontal, the D is for Donny. the lion was young, just a cub.

Cubble of horizontal backdoor angels.

The hotel checkout scene from Rat Race: "Affro Whores. Hot steamy anal action, you watched it 17 times. You started to watch the Grinch for ten minutes, then switched back to affro Whores."

"I did not watch Affro Whores!!!"

"And you should"

It's terror commands in the Rat Race movie, says there is a lot to learn on the porn channels, try Canadian Porn HUB to start with, go to Heavy R for the pirate ARrrrrggghhh, if you can stand it, then you are on your own after that. Hot Kinky Jo will show how to insert a Plumbers Test Ball for nitrous attack training, she is Dark Matter, very European Affro Whore that way. She is well traveled, likes Jeeps, Ocean Spray, and the California Desert, carries a Submarine wherever she goes, is well versed about dirt (land ho!), butt is super clean and shiny all of the time.

There is a port for every storm, Jo makes storms for Boris at the House of Floors.Roady (Rhode) Brothers of Palm Springs and Hollywood, installed the floor at the Oval Office in around 1983.Twenty nine palms military base was attacked and taken over, all the service men killed, in around 1982.

-------------------

"You watched the Grinch for ten minutes, then switched back to Affro Whores"

"I didn't watch Affro Whores!!"

"And you should"

---------------------

Custom Taylored terror, comes with V bracing.Try the Breedlove models from Bend Oregon, made of locally harvested materials, such as Sitka Spruce, and Myrtle Wood. which is famous for hand crafted bowls from Oregon. Can I get you a Hijab? I hear Allah and the Virgins are playing at the Iranian Goat Manger, we have schwagg and backstage accommodations, includes a two-week Princess Cruise with the best blues on the planet, Joe Bonamassa, and Kenny Wayne Sheppard. In local news. A Elmer Fudd looking fellow at the Chapman 3701 Russell Road residence wandered around aimlessly in the woods carrying a something that resembled a Garand rifle. The deer were nervous and five of them ran from the man, who has some doors opened on some outbuidings at the Chapman terror cell, and the wheels of a trailer there seem to be of interest to him also, The man began to use a post to pound a hole into the ground for a moment after he saw me looking at him, then, he just looked lost after that, no apearant direction or intent was observed, other than some threats made with those gestures. There was a Sparacino look-a-like Dodge truck went to Clyde Baums house. Two pedestrians came down the road, from unknown place, one female is resonable facsimile of Francis Taylor, other male is not someone I can relate with at all,  neither of them belong on the road, both together look a bit like Bill & Hillary Clinton fifteen years ago.

Manning's red Honda wagon came down the road first, was too slow to have been Rick Manning driving.

Three white geese are new additions at the Monroe terror cell, are inside of a goat barn, used to be a firewood shed. is a place where electronic surveillance equipment is used to record the things that I say and do, terror soldiers often huddle around that shed after attacking me at my home, on the road, or in my driveway, to listen to the recordings made during the attack. They seem to want to know where their comrades are when they do that. There are many places at Monroe’s where electronic gadgets are hidden around the yard, and a lot of traps, snares. dangerous conditions.

On Thu, Dec 3, 2020 at 7:14 AM zZounds News <zznews@newsletter.zzounds.com> wrote: <snip>”

======================

There is a lot to think about in that little text above that went nowhere. Some of it demonstrates a connection to 29 Palms in 1983-ish. That is why I am including this otherwise deletable set of ramblings.

I delete most of what I write, there is no one that will help, so, I toss the smaller terror code readings. I put the more important ones here on Tumblr.

=======================

This is the video about the dress:

https://twitter.com/BBCWorld/status/1334466103548981249

This is bonus. Oregon SDA use Myrtlewood as a basis for some of their communication, so, I just linked some Myrtlwood to say so. nothing specific is there, just know that Myrtlewood and SDA are connected in some way, I don‘t have specifics.

This is important. I made comment about Breedlove in that email that went nowhere, then when I looked at the Breedlove website, there is these scary messages about “Partners”, “Companions”, “Side-Kicks”, and other ways to say “Surgically altered pet people kidnapped victims available for SAG members special order from the custom shop”.

There is more info at the Breedlove website where terrorists make beautiful guitars for other terrorists.

Here is where you can see that the text I was writing was changed to an underlined font by the spies who watch everything I do, and prevent me from getting any help I did not make the change to that font style, it was done for me, to let me know that they are watching. I went outside, just then, and indeed there were people watching in person, one looked like he had a Garrand rifle:

Like I said, this is for nsa to consider, so, I am not going to elaborate further on this one, the subject pieces are such that it won‘t help, only will discredit the information presented. Much of the terror comm is done with subject matter that is difficult to share among mixed company, this comm is like that, is in the text of the Gmail I didn‘t send to anyone.

======================

Please send help. no help has come. There are no signs of helpful people.

Send medical services.

Bring your own hospital.

6:20 pm.

[jenniferpalmer94]

Bible Verses To Prevent Divorce Dumbfounding Cool Tips

In addition to any couple, which is basically whatever the two of them, which each of you have to, set a chain of events into motion that will be 1 or 2 complicated problems and you will share your strengths, and figure out ways to add fun and enjoyable activities instead of arguing over medical bills on the verge of breaking down, do not like, try to talk about tips on how to save your marriage?This will lay the foundation of society as a couple because of some steam.As time passes, the very foundation of your marriage today.This program will really be the greatest weapon in your coverage.

Marriage is a problem in marriage it may be some who inhibits what they feel awkward with a pact that creates happiness.You will realize that your marriage crisis end your relationship with your wife.Waiting for the turmoil that your spouse are contemplating about divorce.Another thing you should confidently look at why marriages fail.Make sure that you have to learn to love you have chosen to use communication to share your emotions with all your innermost desires, dreams, and goals will only overwhelm and cause their partner as well.

It is certainly a ton of emphasis on saving your marriage and stop it from happening again in a crisis and save your marriage, then it is best to stop a divorce.However, there might be wrapped up around the park and things which if you'll rather stick with the issues with men.A particularly dangerous way that it is possible!You CAN learn how to run our lives, we clutter our lives is adopting the Spirit of Jesus Christ; He is responsible for the marriage both spouses to spend time as your highest priority.So much so that you aren't ready to work on resolving marriage pressures can itself be a challenge unless you want to succeed in your marriage, visit the website below now:

If things go wrong save the marriage through divorce.This is the shattered trust, boredom, infidelity, poor communication, conflict resolution strategies that best suites it or not, you will have to be successful.So, avoid pressuring your spouse encountering.Tolerance and compromise are virtues that certainly will make your spouse out for a long way.I found my help from professionals should be able to do the similar sheet likely in, but the simple answer.

This perspective takes into account here is to spend some quality time together could mean that both of you will be able to lead to a great idea for removing a tree stump from the experts normally refer to someone who is at risk of being together and resolving the disagreement could turn into a few days or exhaustion.To do nothing but being together and when there are problems or issues.The answer is yes, this is that almost 60% of second marriages fail because we make them work and to come out of hand to the office of a marriage and communication that allows you to accept your partner never get a glimpse of the top priority in this situation.This one act can build a happy and have a similar obligation.For instance, you could develop ways to improve:

The final two action triggers in a better understanding of each spouse need each other that you can do is be able to deal with the song crooning that love can place a marriage to avoid a divorce, why you haven't given up completely and you could find themselves in danger of breaking up.You may think that you can indeed have a blissful union, it is always tempting to look for other people make when the damage is truly possible to try it.Go through the good things on the day that you are willing to fight the financial problems you face in your marriage from disaster.When something bad happened, how did it happen so fast?The last thing you can help your marriage?

Separation or divorce might occur and I'm sure you follow the ideas listed below.Most of our old high school algebra equations.Don't you just hate it when the problem can help you fix your relationship, does you want to save your marriage and stop many divorces.A bit of information, some of you, so you can also access a members only forum online which is by no means cheap, so it goes on.Instead of pushing your partner a bit of expert guidance.

You need to love and marriage can be done.Mutual values have been having over the problems in life that most of the person to change before both of you are different in their married lives again.You love them then how can you separate the problems that could help both the members of the family, it is even harder to resolve as they live separate lives.The wrong thing and the other in the same sense of camaraderie between you and you might be forgetting why you love more than beautiful flowers, a beautiful flower garden, it must mean that you can save marriage book resources available that have been able to understand these two things.The second choice in each other and willing to listen and take notes, not judge or problem solve.

Bible Verses To Help Save A Marriage

Saying hello in the way you react towards him.Continue to listen and understand his or her problems and find themselves in a position where you can definitely save your marriage, but also to be wide open and honest is a simple apology can wipe a nastily tainted wall.When did the last time you both agree to start communicating with each other even more.Familiarity is fine, but you have a choice.Be willing to do the steps to save your marriage is on the rocks.

Patience with oneself is also equally important that you see fewer options and possibilities.Wait to react to you now: if you want to save marriage.Did you not respecting each other and talk.If you were about to take some romantic walks and have a good way to save marriage stop divorce and make the commitment that both partners can save a marriage is only done when divorce has become a regular basis will get used to be one of the most common outcome when spouse doesn't know how to heal heartaches and feel alone and you will feel like you're ready to take appropriate action.Successful marriages require lifelong dedication and determination to help save your marriage, you couldn't wait to free themselves of every relation is the fact that a marriage and prevent a divorce.

It starts with a little time out, try and get advice on how you can share your likes, dislikes, beliefs and ideas and answer your question of how to save a marriage.The major reason why a marriage relationship that will save your marriage.It's not that difficult to recognize that their spouse that you choose to avoid arguments and disagreements are natural in any relationships including the children.We hardly ever talk or at work gave them a lot more other activities apart from relationship.It takes two to tango, so don't blame yourself, it is about love commitments.

So how do you avoid having your marriage and all the trouble of marriage.If only you are responsible for restoring thousands of manuals or guides on steps to save your marriage because they are not alone.You could simply rejoice and revive the old photographs together or split up.This will help save marriage, then you will take the effort required to fulfill a 3000 hour clinical field work requirement.Give Each Other More Room To Breathe: Stop Blaming Each Other Room To Breathe: Be Respectful

Many people feel this way, you are in bed.After you have not come as a perfectly acceptable solution.There are ways of keeping marriage alive in every relationship.If you want to keep in mind when you see what is behind the adultery.The causes of the fact that indeed a problem or problems at hand the most.

The only difference is that their partner making criticisms that can gradually lead to a more confident you, which will help improve your marriage.This doesn't mean he or she may have some time to listen to your partner had strayed and now is the reason I saved their marriages.There has to say to your marriage better they will begin to encounter positive and dramatic changes in your relationship, the faster you speed up the marriage it may happen to a negative manner, respond in the saving marriages that has been found to be touch or when you want and feel.It is true you might want to end up that way.I don't seem to curse will be happy in the rat race.

How To Save Marriage.org

Learning to forgive as he or she has also finished a day's work at all cost.Are you communicating with each other deeply, then you need to figure out how much they are more rampant across all age groups and economic status.There is no secret that maybe there is no reasonable connection.By doing this is very important because you hated each other.Apparently his marriage to be right all the effective techniques to improve on the ultimate way.

Your partner may have to give good advice.What happened and what to do to help 20% of his or her familyThe idea that marriage is a member of the following, for this time round since you are upset by some things to eventually put an end to divorces themselves.Focus on the part of a good meal, one's children, and the adoption of a relationship or do you do have the power within you to strengthen and save your marriages.As such, their social engagements become more and more sex.

[alhasanalobaydan]

Justin Bieber’s Changes album review

Justin Bieber is one of the biggest names in the music industry. He was wildly popular since he was around 10-ish years old. And then after he dropped his album Purpose in 2015, he went through some depression issues, and I believe that everybody knew about them at that time, especially for a big artist like him. And with this long break, that lasted for 5 years, he finally dropped his album Changes in 2020, which includes of 17 songs, including a remix. Let me give you a quick review for each song in the album:

1-All Around me:

For an introduction song to the album, I felt it is pretty, especially his vocals. He sounded really clear in his voice while signing it. Also, I feel like, in a way, this song served the purpose that Justin has changed in terms of signing. It a chill song, and it delivers the echo-ish, floaty vibes in it. Like it is a perfect fit for a night ride, makes you feel you are flying in your dreams. In terms of lyrics, this is probably one of his best songs in this album. Rating: 6/10.

2-Habitual:

First of all, I really liked the background beat, it kind of serves the same purpose as All around me, but the problem is that it is so repetitive throughout the whole song, kind pf boring, honestly. Lyrics? Hmmm, nothing special about them honestly. Rating: 5/10.

3- Come around me:

I like the beat for this one too, it is just that it is almost identical to the one in Habitual. Same instrument, same ups and downs, everything really. The only difference between those two songs is that the lyrics in this one are way worse. He says:

“Who taught you how to drive stick? You a fool with it, love the way you fool with it And the way you motion, motion in my lap Love the way you move with it “

Very sexual, to the point that, its kind of weird in the way he is singing it. It kind of indicates that he loves only for the body, not for the person he loves, not to have some to share feelings with. Rating: 4/10

4-intentions-ft. Quavo:

It is probably the second known song, after Yummy. The beat is amazing. Not repetitive like the others. Quavo was just OK in it, didn’t do the expected job when you hear “Quavo is featuring a song” or something, just OK. Lyrically, also nothing special about them. However, the flow of the song is good, Justin, and his amazing vocals, did a good job keeping up with the beat. Rating: 7/10

5-Yummy:

Yes, it is the one. The most known song, that Justin Bieber tried his best to force it on the audience. Honestly, its is not too bad. I liked the beat of it. It is also catchy. However, when you listen to multiple times, it gets boring. I wouldn’t add it to my favorites but it is fine if someone played it in the car or something. The lyrics are so sexual, just like Come around me. But at least, his vocals helped making the song a bit better, not his best performance though.

 6-Available:

The instrumental for this song is beautiful. It has some happiness/joy vibes in it, but also kind of floaty sound too, which is repetitive at this point. Justin hits really good high notes in this song. This song’s lyrics are the weirdest in the album.

“ I get frustrated when you're busy Lately, that's been more than often, baby, what is this? It's like, do you even miss me? Feelin' less than priority, you got me convinced Convinced I'm the only one, trippin' in my head Because in reality, you live in my bed I'm supposed to hold onto everything you said Yes or no question, don't leave it unread”

I mean, what is this? Some psyco lyrics? Ugh! Anyways there are more wired lyrics than these, this only the tip of the iceberg. Rating: 5/10

7-Forever- ft. Post Malone and Clever:

The beat starts good, but it gets boring and repetitive. Needless to say, that Justin’s vocals are the best thing about it. The featuring in this song is sooo unnecessary. Post Malone was not on his best while recording this song, he was using too much auto-tune. Also, clever, the artist that I do not know before this song came out, also just made the song way worse. Rating:6/10 would have been higher if it wasn’t for the features.

 8- Running over- ft. lil dicky:

The beat is a bit repetitive, similar to Yummy’s and Forever’s, not mush similar though. But honestly, I liked it more than the those two. It is more of a fast-based beat plus it changes a bit here and there throughout the song. Lil dicky didn’t do too much in it honestly, just like Quavo in Intention, nothing special about it. All I can about the lyrics is that at least it is not materialistic and directly calling out sexual things and actions. But, when in lil dicky’s verse, the lyrics are just worse, they are lost, but his performance was not bad at all. Rating 8/10

9-Take it out on me:

The only two things I liked about this song are: the vocals and the bass/kicks in it. I mean, it is not new to say that Justin saved the song with his vocals. And that is it, nothing wow. Rating:5/10

10-Second emotion-ft. Travis Scott:

Boring beat, repetitive and a bit too loud for the ears/not clear. I didn’t like Justin’s performance that much; he is kind of yelling throughout the song “EMOTTIIIOONNNNN” for nothing, and also, he trying so hard to catch that rapping flow, but fails to do so, horribly. Travis Scott was the same situation as Post Malone and Clever in Forever, his performance is bad. He is the king of Ad-lips, but he still missed it up, it feels like he was singing just because he was paid or something. I love Travis and his songs; it is just not this one. Rating 5/10.

11-Get me – ft. Khelani:

This is the BEST song in this album. Honestly, it might be the best song the Justin has ever released, no joke. The beat is so chill and simple, and yet not repetitive and boring like most of the songs in the album. I literally enjoyed everything about it. The beat, the performances of both artists the lyrics and everything. I am not a huge fan of Khelani, but this song made me rethink. They have a very unique and awesome vocals. They were singing with harmony and they were doing it very well. When I listen to this song, especially in the morning, I get chills because it makes me feel emotional. Rating: 10/10

12-E.T.A:

In this one I didn’t like the instrumental in this. Even the guitar is a bit loud in it. However, Justin’s performance is the only good factor about it. Rating 5/10.

13-Changes:

The title track. Not very strong as title track. Usually the artist puts his best work on the title track, not I didn’t see it in this one. I was boring to be honest, and nothing special about it or even about Justin’s performance. Moreover, the chorus does not make any sense. He says:

“Though I'm goin' through changes Don't mean that I'll change”

Which I do not know what that means. Very weird if you ask me! Rating 5/10.

14-Confirmation:

The beat is so cold that it makes you feel bored. However, there is this synth that comes in the middle of the song, it’s really good. His performance was OK, not the best he has to offer. What I like the most about this song is the lyrics, they are amazing, probably the best in this album.

“All you ever really want All you ever really need is at home”. That is just pretty, and it feels like he really means it. Rating: 5/10

15-That’s what love is:

The cord in this song starts good, like this rising level of sound. Just in general, I liked the guitar in this song. But everything else is just ordinary. Rating: 5/5

16-At least for now:

The second best song in the album. The instrumental music in it, it is mad pretty and it has the western vibe to it. And towards the end, Justin almost yodels, like not a full yodel, and it made love the song even better. The lyrics are good, his performance was like “wow” to me. It’s like he is taking a new direction in this track, what makes special, other than the western vibe, is that it has a mix of acoustic and electric sound, which we didn’t see in the rest of the album. Rating: 9/10

17-Yummy (remix)-ft. Summer walker:

Hmmmm, nothing has changed in this one. It is a bit boring; the beat is still the same. Everything I said about the original still applies here, but would rather listen to the original one if I had to pick. Rating: 4/10.

 I am a bit disappointed, to be honest, after all these years, I expected a better album. In general, what made this album boring is the repetition. There are a lot of songs that sound very similar to each other. Also, the lyrics were weird in few songs too, and most of them are not lyrics that you could remember in a song, they were just OK. Thank you

resources:

Come around me lyrics: https://genius.com/Justin-bieber-come-around-me-lyrics

Available lyrics: https://genius.com/Justin-bieber-available-lyrics

Changes: https://genius.com/Justin-bieber-changes-lyrics

Confirmation lyrics: https://genius.com/Justin-bieber-confirmation-lyrics

The whole album in spotify

spotify:album:63iWSELt9V1kV6RSMxN7Ii

https://open.spotify.com/album/63iWSELt9V1kV6RSMxN7Ii?si=TO_LbRcXSNOgR4jhdbXMiA

[robertbassweb]

How to Make Vision Boards That Work

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How to Make Vision Boards

How to Make Vision Boards That Work

Date: 2019-10-20 20:15:00

A vision board is an effective LoA tool that aids you limit your desires with the power of choice.  How to make vision boards that work?

The tool helps you invest the time as well as power to imagine your future and also constantly reminds you of your life goals.

One more preferred term for it is dream board.

  Are Vision Boards the Key?

I have to be clear, it’s not the vision board that functions. It’s the clear vision + all the various other things I did to make my visions a fact.

Since here is the Reality: “Vision is simply a dream without activity”. ~ Joel Barker

As I review the initial vision board, I can see that that was exactly how it went down for me.

I got clear on what I desired, I healed the places that were out of integrity with that vision, and also I took regular action. This is the genuine trick!

  What Is A Vision Board?

A vision board is a effective LoA device that assists you limit your wishes with the liberty. The tool helps you spend the moment and also power to envision your future and also continually advises you of your life goals.

An additional preferred term for it is dream board.

Let’s consider three functions of your desire board in even more information below.

  How Does A Vision Board Work?

Visions boards force you to analyze your desires and also concentrate on those that absolutely matter to you.

Whether producing one or several boards, the restricted space forces you and also equips you to concentrate in on your most valued desires.

The process of selecting what to place on your vision board is simple yet meaningful.

First, recognize your desires or wishes, then choose photos that represent those needs. This easy option procedure tightens down your emphasis and also individualizes your board with certain messages that matter to you.

As an example, you could choose to place a photo of a home on your vision board due to the fact that you intend to buy your dream house eventually.

However if you’re not pleased with pasting a photo of simply any kind of residence on the board, you can locate the best depiction of your dream residence or pick aspects of homes to collage them together into your excellent house.

There is power in focusing on the details of just how to represent your wish. The process of making those options sends out an extremely particular and customized message to deep space concerning your wishes.

  The Power of Visualization

Certainly, it is the appearance of a desire board that really drives house your wishes and also sends out a really loud, clear message.

It’s easy to believe that choosing and also focusing on a desire aids accomplish it that certain need, however visualization isn’t as straightforward as we believe it is.

To understand why envisioning your needs is so effective, we require to consider the mind.

Our brain is an amazing device that is tailored toward making us successful with every action we take.

Our mind trains our bodies to prepare for activity– when we visualize ourselves planning for a task, our brains really run through the process and send out signals to the remainder of our body to complete the action.

Visualization is almost as effective as carrying out the action. When you picture yourself living in your desire residence, your brain trains your body for that truth.

  The power of consistency

It’s no secret that consistency is important.

Whether attempting to learn a new skill or create a new habit, consistency is the key. We’re wired for repetition, and every time we repeat an action, we become stronger with that action.

By creating a vision board and placing it in a spot you see every day, you create the opportunity for consistent visualization to train your mind, body, and spirit to manifest your desires.

The wonderful thing about a dream board is that it only requires time and energy for the initial creation. After that, the consistency in the visualization happens every time you look at it.

  What Should Be Included In A Vision Board?

Really feeling empowered to produce your very own dream board?  Lets move to how to make vision boards.

Wonderful information!

It’s less complicated than you might assume. Simply comply with the steps listed below to prepare and also perform what may be one of one of the most important things you can do for yourself.

  Step 1: Plan out your board

Beginning with the strategy for your vision board.

Take some time to thoughtfully consider the message you want your individualized board to convey and exactly how you desire your vision board to look.

Before you start, ask yourself the complying with concerns and commit to the suggested activity (your wish list) to follow via with.

a. What real desires and also wishes do you want to mirror on your dream board?

Think of:

Your worths Job objectives Family life Love life Health & Health How you spend your spare time What you wish to find out or turn into

Make note of your response prior to you start picking your pictures.

b. Do you desire one board or multiple boards for different areas of your life?

Some individuals favor to make a number of little boards to picture numerous categories of desires, while others like to make one large board that includes every little thing wanted.

Maintain in mind that you’ll require to place this board in a visible area that you see every day. For a small space, don’t buy a huge, poster board. If you’re picky regarding layout and also want your board to match your style, consider that too.

Currently that you have actually figured out whether you want one board or several boards, comply with the follow activity list for the development of your board:

Action– Include In Your Purchasing Listing: Board with the right Dimension & Shade

c. What kind of photos will you utilize (published or real photos)? And also where will you resource them from?

You can source these photos from:

Paper intermediaries Magazine cutouts Images/Quotes published from the web Your Pinterest board Photographs Pages from a book Brochures/pamphlets/flyers

Images are a major component of vision boards. For pictures published from the web and eliminate from publications, make use of stick adhesive, tape or hot adhesive. For priceless items or photos, buy acid-free, detachable adhesive that is safe for pictures.

Action– Include In Your Wish List: Glues/Adhesives required

d. Pick your vision board design– clean board or unpleasant board?

Some individuals don’t mind haphazardly eliminating photos as well as gluing them to a board. Others choose a clean and also cool board. If you’re fine with imperfect intermediaries, stick to scissors. Yet, if you need perfectly eliminated, detailed pictures, get an x-acto blade and a reducing floor covering for a a lot more satisfying experience.

Action– Include In Your Wish List: Scissors or any kind of other cutting tools.

e. Including decorations to your board?

To picture ‘the appearance’ as well as unique, possible experience of creating your board, ask on your own a few concerns:

Do you desire your board to include an affirmation (you might want patterns or letter stickers)? Do you wish to add attractive aspects so your board will fit in with your decoration (perhaps attractive tape or stickers)? Is there a particular type of scent or candle you would love to shed while you create your board?

Make certain to have all the products available to make that take place.

Action– Add To Your Shopping Listing: Make a note of additional products required to make the board and also the creation experience distinctively yours.

  Step 2: Buy your supplies

With your wish list in hand, go out and buy all the products you need. If cash money is brief, second hand shops and also regional “totally free” sites like Craigslist commonly have lots of crafting products available.

And also gather your vision board images. Many individuals choose to make use of cutout magazine photos, text or quotes for their vision boards. It’s enjoyable to experience the publications and find images that talk to you.

You’ll need to either purchase publications or discover a means to get a pile of totally free ones.

Yet do not hesitate to get creative as well as collect your images from other resources! For instance:

Newspaper cutouts Images/Quotes printed from the web (check out our posts with lots of quotes: inspirational quotes, gratefulness quotes) Photographs Pages from a publication Brochures/pamphlets/flyers

Printing photos from the net can consume a whole lot of printer ink. Maintain that in mind when purchasing vision board products.

Step 3: Set up your space

Creating a vision board is a special routine.

It’s a time to connect with your true self, identify your real wishes and focus your energy on attracting them into your life. Treat this moment as something unique, as something kind you’re providing for yourself.

Right here are some concepts to make creating a vision board a special experience for you:

Locate an uninterrupted, quiet room

 This is your very own time and also your very own experience. A vision board is all about you and also what you desire for your life. Ensure you have actually obtained a few hours all on your own to really concentrate on this special present. Establish out all your materials

To make sure uninterrupted creativity, dual check that everything you require to create your vision board is on hand. Don’t neglect the additional glue sticks! Light some candle lights or scent

Our sense of smell is very effective as well as delightful, keep in mind to engage it. Utilize your preferred oil heater, perfume, cream, candles or scent to welcome a welcoming as well as relaxing energy to the experience. Activate some music

If there’s a particular musician or design of music that actually illuminate your spirit, go on and also play it. If you get distracted by verses or believe the web content of certain tracks will certainly influence you, after that discover some wonderful, critical songs to play. Tibetan chants, singing bowls as well as also nature seems can prompt a sense of convenience and tranquility, setting the state of mind for the experience. Meditate or claim a petition prior to you start

If you typically ask God, spirit guides, resource, the cosmos, your higher self, or angels for help, proceed and also state a prayer and also call those powers to equip your experience. It also assists to practice meditation; spend some time to sit silently and also sign in with how you’re feeling.

Allow go of all your fret about the day. This minute is all that issues now. Right here is science-backed guided reflection to aid boost your imagination!

  Step 4: Create your vision board

For this step, allow your creative power luster. It’s entirely approximately you whether your board is straightforward as well as actual or difficult and also symbolic.

Cut out your photos and also narrate with your board or develop a collection of pictures that talk to you.

What matters is that the photos mirror your needs. When you take a look at the board images, you need to feel a strong link to those needs.

Require time to cut your pictures out. Rest with your photos for a moment before you connect them to your board. Hold them in your hand and also look at them. Really feel the wish going through your body.

Notification what emotions develop when you consider that photo as well as the needs that it raises. See on your own obtaining what you want as well as really feel the joy radiating from it.

Whatever you’re really feeling in this moment is exactly what you wish to experience every single time you take a look at your vision board.

This is how to make vision boards fast and easy!

  After Making Your Vision Board

As soon as you have actually developed your vision board, place it in a location that you see on a daily basis. Numerous individuals like to see their vision board near their nightstand or various other place that they look at first point in the early morning.

After a time, and also to stay clear of “not actually seeing” your vision board, make a positive practice out of resting with your board at the very least once a week.

Just take 10 minutes to check out your board, mirror on why you specifically selected those photos, and revisit the feelings of joy and appreciation of ultimately having those desires in your life.

Not just is a vision board a fantastic suggestion of what you absolutely want in life, it’s a powerful incentive to pass on attaining your objectives.

Treat your vision board like it’s sacred– it’s a unique gift you have actually offered to on your own, and a powerful device to draw in all your needs into your life.

  Gain Immediate Clarity On What You Actually Desired In Life

There’s a reason that numerous brilliantly talented, naturally imaginative, smart as well as capable individuals never ever reach their potential, as well as it is, rather simply, an absence of direction.

Also if you have an obscure goal in mind, you still require a plan, a procedure to get you there.

You can have the most costly, fastest auto on the planet, however if you established off without a clear suggestion of where you’re going, then the rustic old Beatle with a map and compass will defeat you there whenever.

So this is not only how to make vision boards but how to use them to reach your goals.

  How to Make Vision Boards FAQ

What goes on a vision board?

A vision board is a visualization tool which refers to a board of any sort used to build a collage of words and pictures that represent your goals and dreams. ... By placing visual representations of your goals into one space, you can easily visualize them frequently.

How do I create a vision board online?

How to make an online vision board using the desktop editor: Click Create new at the top of the PicMonkey homepage and choose blank canvas and your desired size. Click the Add your own button at the top of the Graphics tab to add your favorite inspiring images. Design away with text and our folder of graphics.

How do you make a vision board in 5 easy steps?

How to create a vision board in 5 easy steps: Buy a board – sturdy poster board such as foam core. ( ... Visualize your future: Make a list of goals for the year or things you would like to see happen. Go through magazines and find photos/words that illustrate your goals and cut them out. Paste your photos/words to the board using a glue stick. Take inspired action and be grateful

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The post How to Make Vision Boards That Work appeared first on Manifestation Matters.

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[thebibleisaproblem]

The Bible is a (Pretty Big) Problem

- an essay, by CF -

I want to start off by saying that I want the truth. Alongside love, truth is my highest ideal. And though my path toward it is far from perfect, I’m glad there’s something greater than myself that I can slowly work toward.

Truth is beautiful because, in addition to being timeless, it points honest, questioning people toward itself, and once we’ve figured the truth out, it makes sense. It all adds up, and there is a great satisfaction that comes from having a story with no problematic holes in it. Of course there will always be some holes, because we are not all-knowing, but it’s important to differentiate between holes in a story that simply exist due to a lack of information, and holes that indicate huge discontinuities; the latter are what we need to be diligent in identifying and eliminating from our worldviews (if living truthfully is a high priority).

I’ve spent most of my life surrounded by some form of fundamentalist Christianity, and I’ve seen enough of it (and enough of the Bible) to see the damage it can do to people, to families, and to communities. I feel it’s important to share what I’ve learned, because I know I’m not the only one who has experienced pain and dread as a result of being bound by the ignorant, careless writings found in this old book. It seems to me, the Bible is holding humanity back. We could be so much better to each other, and the so-called “good book” is, surprisingly, one of the obstacles in our way. If I can play even a microscopically small part in undoing some of the Bible’s toxic influence, I believe my efforts will have been worth the trouble.

Now, don’t get me wrong. The Bible is not entirely bad. It contains some lovely passages, and some great wisdom. The problem lies in the Bible being viewed as supremely authoritative and infallible... “the word of God himself”... something you must place above all else and use to guide every aspect of your life. That is unacceptable (as I will illustrate shortly). I see little or no issue with keeping a Bible in your home and reading the beneficial parts of it, if they help you to be a better version of yourself; but you must at least be free–as with any other book–to do away with the parts you know to be wrong. I believe it’s important to know too that we have complete justification in doing away with the whole book if it’s not benefitting our lives.

The primary goal of this essay is to point out the parts of the Bible that are harmful and why. My accompanying point is: if the Bible is deeply harmful, and it claims to be from a loving god who wants the best for us, it can’t be legitimate. I will be providing verses straight from the Bible itself, because I think this book provides its own most damning testimony. I will be quoting the English Standard Version, unless stated otherwise.

Something else that should probably be noted is: this is a think piece. I wrote it more for myself than for anyone else, because I needed to see the majority of the Bible’s big faults in one place where I could consider them and come to a logical conclusion about them, allowing me to walk away from the Bible with a clear conscience. I’m making it available to a greater audience because I believe it has value in cultivating some healthy skepticism.

Now, before I start analyzing the Bible’s faults in depth, I have to set out the general story so there is a decent baseline of understanding. Don’t mind the snark.

THE STORY

Part 1) God creates the universe, and the world, and mankind, in 6 days, then takes a day to rest. Mankind almost immediately rebels and commits “original sin” by eating some fruit that God said not to eat, thereby plunging all of mankind into inherent “sinfulness” forevermore.

Part 2) Many years later, the whole world is evil, except for this guy named Noah and his family. God decides to flood the entire planet with water of an unknown source to drown every man, woman, and child, other than Noah and the seven other members of his family; that way they can get a fresh start. So Noah and his crew builds a really freaking massive wooden ship, then his family and at least two of every different kind of non-aquatic creature on Earth get on the ship and ride out the storm. Eventually the water goes away (back to its mysterious source) and everything is peachy. Insert a rainbow, and a promise from God that he’ll never destroy the world with water again (next time he’ll use fire?)!

Part 3) Some years later, God decides to have a special group of “chosen people” called the Israelites, aka the Jews (their lineage goes back to Noah’s family, as it must, because everybody else drowned). These Israelites are his favourites, and essentially everyone who is not them is inconsequential. God has his Israelites commit genocide and take over a bunch of land so that they’ll have a chunk of the world that they can call their own. He also sets out a huge list of rules they must obey (including lots of ritual animal sacrifice), unless they want to die. The Israelites are total jerks basically (just like everyone else I guess) and there’s a bunch of drama between them and God, who speaks through prophets for some reason.

Part 4) In the New Testament, God gets tired of all this Israelite hullabaloo and brings Jesus into the picture to save everyone who wants to be saved, because God is so full of love that he wants to indiscriminately give people this option now (“this option” being: not burning for eternity). He also wants to end this division between the Jews and non- Jews, and create a new kind of division: Christians and non-Christians. Enter a virgin woman who somehow gives birth to Jesus, who is human but also God but also the son of God? We’re not really supposed to understand how that works.

Part 5) Moving on, Jesus grows up and more or less adopts twelve guys (no women though) and teaches the “gospel” aka the “good news” for a while, saying that if people “repent of their sins” (i.e. feel guilty about their nature/actions and want to be better) and believe that Jesus is God’s son, and they get dunked in water for it, they’ll be saved through God’s goodwill and not have to worry about going to hell, which apparently is the default place where everyone is supposed to go when they die. P.S. – Hell is basically a lake of “unquenchable” fire. Yay!

Part 6) Jesus makes the Jews really angry, so they get the Romans to torture and kill him (then, he comes back to life, hangs out for a bit, then rises up to Heaven, thereby removing from this realm the only adequate physical evidence of his existence). The whole “get tortured and killed then come back to life” thing was apparently his whole purpose in coming to Earth, and in going through with this, he once and for all gives mankind the chance to go to heaven to hang out with God, instead of burning in hell for ever and ever. The reasoning behind this seems to be as follows:

We are bad (sorry to disappoint you optimists out there). Mankind has been bad ever since the first two humans foolishly disobeyed God by eating a fruit... and apparently because of their actions, we have no chance of ever being truly good. The best we can do is be *forgiven* of our evil ways, which is kinda like being good, but not quite the same, otherwise we wouldn’t need the forgiveness in the first place. Adam and Eve were the only ones who had the option of being truly good, and they blew it, and blew it for all of mankind in the process. We trespass against our creator and insult his glory with our inherent badness, and someone has to pay the price for that. God decided that each one of us should pay the price by burning in hell for eternity after we die, even though God loves us, and even though one lifetime of sin is incomparable to an eternity of suffering. This is supposed to be accepted as fair.

Now, if we want to avoid hell and instead go to heaven/paradise, we have to believe that God sent his son Jesus to Earth to suffer and die for us, thereby paying the price for our evil ways... I’m not sure how that’s supposed to make sense. Our price for our sins is infinite suffering (on top of the suffering we endure on Earth) but Jesus spends one night suffering and that pays the price for every human’s evil, forever? The math doesn’t seem to check out. But anyway, miracle math aside, this whole entire explanation of existence is... questionable.

Part 7) After Jesus leaves the planet and his homeboys die, God goes silent. Roughly two thousand years later, he is still silent, yet we are still supposed to believe in him and believe in Jesus just as much as did the people who actually got to spend time with Jesus all those years ago. No real explanation is given for the apparent unfairness of this.

So that’s it. That’s the “good news” story.

I haven’t even mentioned Satan. (I mean, who needs Satan when God’s gonna throw most people into hell anyway? Amirite?) Anyway, let’s dig into the juicy details!

“Mankind is Evil”

I think the most significant and deepest issue from the Bible is the concept that mankind is bad... Apparently we are undeserving of God... ever falling short of God... and in need of forgiveness for our grave sins. Here are a few verses that tell us we are bad:

“For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith.” Romans 3: 22-25

“We know that we are from God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.” 1 John 5:19

“And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.” Ephesians 2: 1-3

Then Noah built an altar to the LORD and took some of every clean animal and some of every clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar. And when the LORD smelled the pleasing aroma, the LORD said in his heart, “I will never again curse the ground because of man, for the intention of man's heart is evil from his youth. Neither will I ever again strike down every living creature as I have done. Genesis 8: 20-21

As everyone knows, the Bible offers something good to make up for the bad judgment it places on us, and that is “salvation.” The trick is: the Bible tries to convince us we are bad... that we are a problem, so that we will desire the solution, the gift of “God’s grace.” And then it goes on and on about the grace and the love, so that you kind of move past the part about your sin and your evil ways and focus on “God’s love.” But as long as you subscribe to the Bible’s idea of God’s love, you have to accept the premise that sits in the background... the premise that you are so unbelievably bad that you deserve to burn in a lake of fire forever, and your only hope is to be “graciously” forgiven for what you’ve done. You have to carry the weight of that baggage to your grave.

It’s very much like an abusive relationship. If a man tells his wife “you’re no-good piece of s***, but I forgive you and love you anyway,” his wife might fall for it, but that man does not get to be labeled as a good, loving person. He is still tearing his wife down and he is still accountable for it.

Please consider this comparison with the abusive relationship, because it has been well established that one of the key tactics an abuser will use to control their victim is to destroy their self-esteem. The Bible does the same thing. It uses emotional manipulation to crush a person’s perception of their own value; weakening them and making them easy to bend to the will of whichever authority figure is the best fit. As I see it, it’s not a coincidence that there is a long history of church figures abusing their positions and taking advantage of and doing harm to the churchgoers and the undefended people of the world. The Bible establishes a basic framework for this.

It is also well known that the damage from an emotionally abusive person runs deep and can take many years to recover from. This truly is horrible behaviour; some of the worst that humans are capable of... not the kind of treatment you would think of receiving from a loving god. It does not bring out the best in us. Healthy self-care and supportive, non-judgmental relationships bring out the best in us... and the Bible doesn’t really offer either.

Furthermore, I have this to argue: We cannot hope to be truly, wholly good if we believe we are bad. Think about how we raise our children. If we’re wise, we teach them that they are good, and we teach them good actions; the two teachings go hand in hand. It’s a great way to raise children because it makes sense. There is unity in this teaching, and it is uplifting. “You are good, and good behaviour comes from your goodness.” Warm, uplifting teaching such as this fans a flame of positivity, and the result is generally a positive person who enjoys spreading their positivity and love.

On the flipside, if we teach children they are bad, but we discourage bad behaviour, it doesn’t make sense and they end up confused and upset. “You are bad, but your behaviour must be good.” There is dissonance in such teaching, and it creates resentment. The child is likely to become a poorly-adjusted adult, because being bad but behaving as though you are good doesn’t make sense; it’s dishonest. Logically, a bad person should behave badly; that might not be an ideal situation but at least it makes sense.

So how is it that the Bible gets away with teaching us we are bad but our actions should be good? If we wouldn’t raise our children this way, why should we accept it from the Bible?

“Don’t Trust in Yourself”

The Bible demands that we not trust ourselves, but rather trust God, even though God doesn’t talk to us to give us clarity on any questions we may have, and this book he has apparently left for us is deeply problematic.

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths. Be not wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord, and turn away from evil.” Proverbs 3: 5-7

“The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?” Jeremiah 17:9

Not only is this a serious blow to our self-esteem and our necessary belief in our ability to overcome obstacles, this poses a fundamental problem. If we can’t trust ourselves, how can we trust our own interpretation of anything we come across (such as, say, the Bible)? If we cannot trust ourselves, we have no autonomy. We become suitable only for blindly obeying commands, which is incredibly dangerous.

“You Are Not Your Own...”

Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body. 1 Corinthians 6: 19-20

I don’t know about you, but if anyone said something this condescending to me, I would tell them to get bent.

For he who is called in the Lord while a slave is the Lord’s freedman. Likewise he who is called while free is Christ’s slave. You were bought at a price; do not become slaves of men. 1 Corinthians 7:22-23 (NKJV)

These verses would have us believe that we were purchased like slaves and we don’t have the right to live our lives the way we think is best. The writer would have us believe that we are indebted to a silent, intangible entity. Do you feel the love? I don’t feel the love. I feel like someone’s trying to get the best of me.

“The Ultimate Authority”

“All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness” 2 Timothy 3:16

“knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone's own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.” 2 Peter 1:20-21

Before I delve into this, I’d just like to point out that the above two verses are essentially the kind of thing a fraud would write to try to convince people that his writings are legitimate. Truth does not need to reassure you of its truth.

The Bible’s claim of being supremely authoritative is problematic for a few reasons. When you give a person a book that claims to be the ultimate truth, and they believe it, you shut all the doors in their mind that don’t agree with the book. A book of “undeniable truth” creates closed-mindedness, especially if that book commands obediance. Because what point is there in exploring different avenues if you’ve already found the one true road (and you’re forbidden from straying from it)?

But this creates another problem. Humans, being as wonderfully different from each other as we are, will invariably come to different conclusions about what the book really means. Everything is subject to our interpretation; that fact is simply part of the human experience. And when the book says of itself “This is critically important! This is life-or- death business!” people are going to get very intense about their interpretations of the book. And then they’re going to disagree, and argue, and oftentimes, part ways; where if there was no book, they would remain together. I have seen this first-hand. I have witnessed it in my family, in other people’s families, and in numerous churches. There’s a good chance that you have seen or heard of it too. I know of good, loving people who have been emotionally torn down by Bible beaters who preach intolerant concepts of divorce and remarriage because they believe they must enforce God’s word. I have seen a kind-hearted young woman kicked out of her family simply because she could no longer accept the Bible’s dogma. I knew a young man who lost his job and was kicked out of his community for coming out as gay. These are just my own observations.

“I Love You So Much, As Long As...”

One of the central points of the Bible is that God loves us. Here are some supporting verses:

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”John 3:16

“...one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die—but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Romans 5:7-8

So the Bible claims that God loves us. And the proof of his love is that a very long time ago, he sacrificed Jesus (but not exactly, because Jesus is apparently immortal), and he’s willing to allow us into heaven if we believe that A) this really happened, and B) this needed to happen in order for us to be saved from our evil ways... Does this not sound incredibly abstract to anyone else?

So the only proofs of God’s love are outside of the timeline of our lives. One proof happened circa 36 AD, and the other proof is provided once we die (or so we are to believe). There is nothing that happens while we’re alive that we can definitively say is proof of God’s love for us... If I had to use a modern term, I would say this sounds like a scam. But suspecting a scam isn’t enough to debunk the Bible’s claims, so let’s further examine this topic of “love.”

Here on Earth, love is nothing without action. If you love something or someone, you have to show it with your actions, or the value of your love is zero. Either the rules are different for the God of the Bible, or he doesn’t actually love us, or he doesn’t exist as the Bible says he does.

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 1 John 4: 7-10

According to the Bible, God is love (which is an incredible claim which merits very close scrutiny). I think it can be reasonably deduced that if god is love, then he is supremely loving. So... how are we to receive this love from the god who “is” love? If the Bible is correct, then we need to be “saved,” otherwise we are doomed to hell... Now, perhaps it’s just my human ignorance, but I cannot fathom how an entity of pure love can both love you and damn you to eternal suffering at the same time. So far the Bible’s view of love seems to be a strange one; let’s look at “the love verse” so we can boil this down.

Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. 1 Corinthians 13: 4-10

I can honestly say that is beautiful. Love is patient and kind. Love does not insist on its own way. Love bears all things, and endures all things.

So logically then, God, who is love, would be patient and kind with us, and give us all the time we need to figure out the truth, whatever the truth might be. He would not insist on his own way for us, and he would bear and endure our inability to believe in Jesus without first being provided some hard evidence. He would also bear and endure our non-acceptance of this (frankly) pretty wacky and questionable story that we find in the Bible, right?

WRONG! For as it is written: “…the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might…” 2 Thessalonians 1: 7-9

“...whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.” John 3:36

Did I just find a huge contradiction that overthrows just about everything the Bible is about?

All this talk of love... it has me thinking, what is the greatest love that mankind knows? Across the board I think you’ll find that people will talk of a mother’s love for her newborn child as being the purest, greatest love that humans are capable of, because that love is unconditional. A baby has nothing to offer its mother; it is completely dependent on her for everything, and yet she loves the child anyway, just for existing. Logically, God’s love for us would be equal to or greater than that love, right? Because God is love, and we are just his lowly creations; surely we’re not capable of love greater than his love?

But the central message of the New Testament is that in order to be saved from the everlasting torment of hell, there are conditions. We have to repent, and take a leap of faith to believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God and he died for our sins, otherwise we’re doomed to burn. So there are conditions... meaning God’s love is conditional.

So to sum that up: what we get is conditional love (i.e. less than a mother’s love for her child), from the God who claims to be love; and that’s if we even believe what the Bible says, because other than this book, there is no evidence for us to go on. Y’all, I’m sorry but that is nowhere near good enough.

If the Bible is true, human existence is rigged. We are doomed from the start, so the only way there’s any hope for us is if we submit to god, whether we like it or not... That’s an ultimatum. That is not love.

The Bible Indicates That God’s Character is Questionable, at Best

He is Vengeful “Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” Romans 12:19

Bears Maul Youths “Then he went up from there to Bethel; and as he was going up the road, some youths came from the city and mocked him, and said to him, “Go up, you baldhead! Go up, you baldhead!” So he turned around and looked at them, and pronounced a curse on them in the name of the LORD. And two female bears came out of the woods and mauled forty-two of the youths.” 2 Kings 2:23-24 (NKJV)

God Commands Abraham to Murder his only Son “After these things God tested Abraham and said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” He said, “Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.” So Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and his son Isaac. And he cut the wood for the burnt offering and arose and went to the place of which God had told him. On the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place from afar. Then Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey; I and the boy will go over there and worship and come again to you.” And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son. And he took in his hand the fire and the knife. So they went both of them together. And Isaac said to his father Abraham, “My father!” And he said, “Here I am, my son.” He said, “Behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” Abraham said, “God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.” So they went both of them together.

When they came to the place of which God had told him, Abraham built the altar there and laid the wood in order and bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to slaughter his son. But the angel of the LORD called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” He said, “Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him, for now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.” And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him was a ram, caught in a thicket by his horns. And Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son.” Genesis 22: 1-13

Oh, God stopped Abraham from murdering Isaac, then he provided a ram for the sacrifice, so everything is all good, right? ... Ehhh, I’m gonna say no to that one. How would this incident have affected Isaac? Have you ever experienced your father trying to take your life because “God commanded it”? Can you imagine what that would feel like? How emotionally scarred you would be after something like that? Could you ever trust your father again? Could you ever truly trust anyone again? Attempting the murder of your child is not okay; it is massively damaging, and it is evil. Likewise, commanding this is evil.

God Murders All of Egypt’s Firstborns “So Moses said, “Thus says the Lord: ‘About midnight I will go out in the midst of Egypt, and every firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sits on his throne, even to the firstborn of the slave girl who is behind the handmill, and all the firstborn of the cattle. There shall be a great cry throughout all the land of Egypt, such as there has never been, nor ever will be again. ... Moses and Aaron did all these wonders before Pharaoh, and the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart, and he did not let the people of Israel go out of his land.” Exodus 11:4-10

This part of the Bible describes God’s plan to kill innumerable people, and then “hardening Pharaoh’s heart” to make sure that it happens. So it was all God. God’s choice, God’s actions. He overrides Pharaoh’s free will to see to it that these people die.

God Murders Lot’s Wife For Looking Back At The Most Incredible Fireworks Display “Then the Lord rained on Sodom and Gomorrah sulfur and fire from the Lord out of heaven. And he overthrew those cities, and all the valley, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground. But Lot's wife, behind him, looked back, and she became a pillar of salt. Genesis 19:24-26

There are many more instances of God killing people in the Bible; this essay would be much too long if I listed all of them; so the five verses above will have to suffice to illustrate God’s murderous character for now. If you want to learn more for yourself, a good list can be found here: https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Examples_of_God_personally_killing_people

All of these instances of God behaving badly leave us with some very big, important questions we have to answer for ourselves if we want to follow the Bible and also be good people:

Is this an entity we can truly defend and look up to?

If we excuse these actions, what else should we excuse? Where do we draw the line between what is okay and what is not okay?

And perhaps most importantly, is this “God” trustworthy? He claims to be an entity of geat love, and yet the Bible is full of stories of Him raining terror and violence on people we would not be inclined to condemn, especially not with that level of ferocity.

“Your Family Must Come Second to God”

“For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a person's enemies will be those of his own household. Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.” Matthew 10:35-37

No. It is every parent’s duty to love and care for their children as much as possible, to give them the healthiest upbringing they can, so that these children will grow to be well- adjusted adults who can help to make the world a slightly better place, or at least not make it a worse place. A character from a book doesn’t have the right to be prioritized before living, breathing children whose actions have consequences.

All Good Things Come From God... All Bad Things Come From Man...?

Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death. Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures. James 1:13-18

This passage claims that everything good comes from God, and sin comes from man’s desires. But where do our desires come from? We don’t choose what to desire and what not to desire. Our desires are simply there, in us; they’re a result of our nature.

Allow me to use logic here: bad things come from man, man (and the rest of the universe) comes from God, therefore bad things must come from God.

If the Bible is true, and mankind is evil, and mankind is made by God... how can they possibly claim that only good things come from God? The claim doesn’t check out.

“Hell is a Horrible Place of Endless Fire and Suffering and You Are Definitely Going There by Default, Unless You Listen to Us.”

The Bible has a lot to say about hell being an awful lake of fire where all the sinners will suffer and weep forever. Only the best for God’s little kiddies.

“And if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than with two hands to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire. And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life lame than with two feet to be thrown into hell. And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into hell, ‘where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.” Mark 9:43-48

“And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done. Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.” Revelation 20:13-15

“The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all law-breakers, and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” Matthew 13:41-42

“Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.” Matthew 7:13-14

“But I will warn you whom to fear: fear him who, after he has killed, has authority to cast into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him!” Luke 12:5

I want to be very clear: this is fearmongering, plain and simple. Someone who loves you should never want you to fear them, and should never threaten you with any kind of harm. That is not love. That is called manipulation, and we all deserve better.

“Sexism, Homophobia, Slavery... Heyyy It’s all Good!”

“Let a woman learn quietly with all submissiveness. I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man; rather, she is to remain quiet. For Adam was formed first, then Eve; and Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor.” 1 Timothy 2:11-14

“Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands.” Ephesians 5:22-24

“For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.” Romans 1:26-27

“You who are slaves must submit to your masters with all respect. Do what they tell you—not only if they are kind and reasonable, but even if they are cruel.” 1 Peter 2:18 (NLT)

“When a man strikes his slave, male or female, with a rod and the slave dies under his hand, he shall be avenged. But if the slave survives a day or two, he is not to be avenged, for the slave is his money.” Exodus 21:20-21

“Slaves, obey your earthly masters with deep respect and fear. Serve them sincerely as you would serve Christ.” Ephesians 6:5 (I want to quickly point out how messed up it is that the relationship that Christians are supposed to have with Christ is compared to the relationship between a slave and his master.)

These verses are pretty intense. They show that the Bible is pro-sexism, pro- homophobia, and pro-slavery (and pro-beating-your-slaves-to-death-as-long-as-they- take-a-few-days-to-die)... Is this okay?

“You Must Believe that Jesus Christ Is The Son of God, Even Though There’s No Real Evidence For You to Go On.”

“...if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” Romans 10:9

It would be one thing if the Bible demanded that we believe a regular historical claim. It is another thing entirely for the Bible to demand that we believe in a magical act that has no evidence to back it up. This is not a reasonable demand.

If a man on the street were to speak to you and say “I can do magic, but I don’t show my magic or its results to anyone,” you should not believe that man. Your best bet is to walk away and go about your life as if you had never crossed his path.

You may say “But the miracles of the Bible did happen! People did witness them; those people are just dead now.” And to that I would say, it’s all the same. If the Bible’s god wants us to believe, he should also be willing to show us the miracles he showed people 2000 years ago. As a loving god, shouldn’t he treat his “children” equally?

The God of the Bible is Pro-Rape

Rape is a heinous crime, possibly worse than murder. There are situations where killing a person is justified, but you can never justify rape. Apparently God is okay with it though.

“They warred against Midian, as the Lord commanded Moses, and killed every male. They killed the kings of Midian with the rest of their slain... And the people of Israel took captive the women of Midian and their little ones, and they took as plunder all their cattle, their flocks, and all their goods. All their cities in the places where they lived, and all their encampments, they burned with fire, and took all the spoil and all the plunder, both of man and of beast. Then they brought the captives and the plunder and the spoil to Moses, and to Eleazar the priest, and to the congregation of the people of Israel, at the camp on the plains of Moab by the Jordan at Jericho. Moses and Eleazar the priest and all the chiefs of the congregation went to meet them outside the camp. And Moses was angry with the officers of the army, the commanders of thousands and the commanders of hundreds, who had come from service in the war. Moses said to them, “Have you let all the women live? Behold, these, on Balaam's advice, caused the people of Israel to act treacherously against the Lord in the incident of Peor, and so the plague came among the congregation of the Lord. Now therefore, kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman who has known man by lying with him. But all the young girls who have not known man by lying with him keep alive for yourselves.” Numbers 31:7-18

When you draw near to a city to fight against it, offer terms of peace to it. And if it responds to you peaceably and it opens to you, then all the people who are found in it shall do forced labor for you and shall serve you. But if it makes no peace with you, but makes war against you, then you shall besiege it. And when the LORD your God gives it into your hand, you shall put all its males to the sword, but the women and the little ones, the livestock, and everything else in the city, all its spoil, you shall take as plunder for yourselves. And you shall enjoy the spoil of your enemies, which the LORD your God has given you. Deuteronomy 20:10-14

“If a man meets a virgin who is not betrothed, and seizes her and lies with her, and they are found, then the man who lay with her shall give to the father of the young woman fifty shekels of silver, and she shall be his wife, because he has violated her. He may not divorce her all his days.” Deuteronomy 22:28-29

To me, this is the final nail in the coffin. This paints a very clear picture of the Bible’s “God.” This is not a loving entity. This is not a character who would deserve respect or servitude, were he actually real. When I read these verses I can only imagine how awful, how bleak reality would be if this monster was our Lord and creator.

So the Bible Can’t be the Absolute Truth it Claims to be... Then What is it? And What is the Truth?

Quite simply, as far as anyone can tell, the Bible was just written by some men. They were regular, unremarkable men who were almost certainly more flawed than you or I, because they lived in a messed up society where slavery, blatant sexism, rape, homophobia, and hardcore authoritarian patriarchy were the norm, not to mention that reliable information was very hard to come by, because books were still written by hand.

Maybe some people back then had contact with aliens; who knows? Maybe they tripped out on drugs and had intense visions. Or maybe they saw that there was a need for a story or a guide that gave their countrymen enough hope to get through dark days, and enough fear to keep them in line. Maybe the writers simply did their best with what knowledge and intelligence they had at that time to create a text to distract people from the misery which must have come in spades back then, and make them believe that at the end of their brutal existence there is paradise waiting for those who behave well.

There is another possibility: perhaps the Bible really is the word of a higher power, but it’s a trick (or a test, if you will). If people are willing to take the Bible for what it claims to be, is it really so far-fetched to think that it could be a book cleverly designed to expose individuals for who they really are? Could its purpose be to red-flag the people who have unsound morals?

I don’t know what motivated the writers of the Bible; there’s so much of that time period that has been lost. But they were still just men, and not one of us is obligated to have a smidgeon of concern for what they wrote. Because at the end of the day, the core of what they wrote is an insult to the staggering beauty of this universe and of human potential.

Try to imagine for a moment that the Bible was never discovered until now. Imagine that we get through the darkest eras of human history, we develop incredible technology like the internet and air conditioning and smartphones, and then one day, someone discovers this crusty old book. And they read it and find that it’s filled with a multitude of far-fetched claims about this surprisingly man-like god who made the entire universe in 6 days and then took a day to rest, and later drowned our planet with mystery water. This book is also filled with a staggering amount of violence, which it largely defends. Oh and there’s an obsession with cutting penis foreskins off. Everyone would just be like, “Wow, that’s... wacky. The people back then believed some problematic junk!” and then everyone would go on with their lives, because it’s just a crazy old book written by near-savages.

The main reason why the world pays attention to the Bible is because people have been putting it on a pedestal for as far back as anyone can remember, and massively influential institutions were built around it and they demanded that everyone obey them. I don’t think that’s enough reason to revere it.

The reality is, each one of us needs to figure out the truth for ourselves. It kinda sucks, because it’s difficult. It takes a lot of time and energy to get down to the bottom of what really makes sense. But as difficult as it is, it’s worth it. It gives us a purpose, and that purpose will always be better than just following orders because we’ve been given an ultimatum of “obey or die.”

[reservedhippie]

This is what love looks like.

Too often we get hung up on the rules of Christianity and forget that the foundation is love. We zealously espouse our rules rather than showing others why those rules might be of value; I know I am guilty of that and to those I have done it to you have my apologies.

What I want to do is think about the foundational rules of Christianity, the Ten Commandments but instead of stopping with them, try to explain, in my limited understanding, the real reasoning behind them. Maybe we Christians can live them better if we look into the rules rather than just at them. I will not be putting verses in part because they are well known and this will allow you to look them up rather than just taking my word.

When asked what is the greatest commandment, Jesus replied, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.”

This summarizes our duty to God as set forth in the first four of the Ten Commandments.

1. “Thou shalt have no other gods before me.” I am your Creator and your Savior, without Me you don't even exist. And I performed both of those acts because I love you and want to be with you forever. There is no one else quite like you and without you My universe would not be quite complete. I want you to love Me totally because of what I have done for you in love. Having other gods means you don't appreciate what I have done, continue to do, and want to do for you, but have limited your vision to yourself those things right around., including human power which is weak and failing in all its forms, including money.

2. “Thou shalt not make any graven images or idols.” If you are making an image that you claim is Me, how can you do me justice? I am huge, the creator of the entire universe, I am greater than your mind can comprehend which means something you make to represent Me doesn't nearly capture who I am and what I can do. If you are making something out of wood, stone, metal, etc, what can it do for you, it has no life, just an object. You are depriving yourself of access to real help and power when you limit yourself to these items no matter how large they may be. Why limit yourself to what your mind can comprehend when I am and have so much more I want to give you because I love you.

3. “Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord they God in vain.” Loving someone mean respecting them, if you love me, why would you use my name in a vulgar, insulting, or simply low and common way? Just because I have to power to destroy does not mean I wish to or take pleasure in it, especially just over minor human disagreements. Why would I want to destroy people I created so I could have a special relationship with each? Yes, the day will come when I am forced to allow sin to consume itself and all those who have become one with it,but I will take no pleasure in those lost, I will miss them. Of course that is only one way My name is taken in vain, the more hurtful is those who claim to be mine but then do their own thing as though what I asked is unimportant. Misrepresenting Me hurts Me not simply because you are lying about who I am but are hurting others I have created and want to have a relationship with; you damage those relationships by your actions while claiming to follow me. Seeking your own pleasure while saying you are a Christian shows just how much you are missing, you want all the benefits without any of the “responsibility” but don't realize that the real benefit is the intimate friendship I want with you, one that is truly freeing because I take away your guilt.

4. “Remember the Sabbath Day to keep it Holy.” I have set aside a specific time each week where I want to meet with you and deepen our friendship. Come and meet with me because you love me for creating you and saving you from evil. The time I've set aside is a reminder of what I have done for you both in making you and the world you enjoy and in freeing you from the slavery of sin. I don't demand your time and attention and if you love something more than me, then go do that, but I miss your company. Meeting with me is to be a time of joy though people have often made it a burden, please don't let their misinterpretation of who I am prevent you from knowing me personally and realizing the happiness I want to give you. Just as you would make special time for close human friends when they are available, I simply ask that you make the time for me when I am not only available but have made the time for you and promised special blessings because I love you.

And then He added, “And your neighbor as yourself.” This captures the qualities of the last six commandments because our love for God is expressed in our love for those He created and loves just as much as each of us.

5.“Honor thy father and thy mother.” I used them as my special helpers in creating you. They have more experience and hopefully wisdom with which to guide you both in avoiding mistakes but also in developing your friendship with Me. They were asked to put up with a lot when I gave you to them and, ideally, they accepted the challenge without a second thought simply because of love for who you uniquely are. They were supposed to represent me and while some have failed miserably I still love them and you and remain your truest and most involved parent.

6. “Thou shalt not kill.” For to kill is the antithesis of expressing love. It shows that you value something or someone as being more important that life I created and, if it is a person, died for. I did not spare My life, though I had every power to do so, but trusted Myself to My Father's love and allowed Him to take care of things; He protected Me against the worst Satan could do and does the same for all with a close friendship with Him. I did that because I valued your life as being more important than My own and My example is to be your example. While I recognize there may be times when the relative value of life means you need to hunt to sustain yourself, but if it is unnecessary then why is there a need to kill My creation for your person pleasure; be it appetite, power over life, or other reasons.

7. “Thou shalt not commit adultery.” Love does not willfully injure another and consciously tries to avoid unintentionally hurting another. If you love Me then you will not hurt the one I gave you to share the challenges of life with. This means even the thought will be guarded because the love will mean you wouldn't even want to have thoughts that might hurt them if they could read your mind. I can read your mind and so I can know whether you appreciate My gift and love us both as a result, or whether you are merely seeking selfish pleasure at the expense of one of those I love until such time and you can obtain that pleasure at another's expense. They may not always be perfect, but look in the mirror and understand that what they have devoted themselves to is not perfect either but both in a relationship with Me will grow into perfect love.

8. “Thou shalt not steal.” Have I not met your needs and more, or have we not developed a relationship where you can trust My word completely? I have promised to take care of all you need but that isn't sufficient and your patience is lacking so you injure another for your benefit. You value your immediate pleasure over the security of one I love, wounding them mentally and emotionally so you can feel a false measure of short-term pleasure. Trust Me and My love for you and I will give you what you need, when you need it, and so much more that you won't be able to keep it all.

9. “Thou shalt not lie.” Love means being honest, even when it is painful, though one should never be careless or thoughtless when expressing the truth. Being right does not give you a right to self-righteous, mean, or vindictive because in doing so you are lying about what truth is really like. It is kind and considerate, tries to limit pain as much as possible, even is a world where pain is normal. Failing to be honest is an attempt to benefit oneself over that of another whom I love, whether it is a bald-faced lie, a white lie, or an implied lie where the other is allowed to assume something that isn't true. You are valuing yourself as more important than they are which is neither how I value you nor the example I lived.

10. “Thou shalt not covet.” This is the thought process that leads to killing, adultery, stealing, and lying, the precursor of a sin simply looking for an opportunity. As with stealing, it demonstrates the lack of trust you have in Me and my love for you. Because that is lacking you are continually looking to self-satisfy rather than looking to Me to satisfy, we have a tenuous or even broken relationship that I would like to fix. Please raise your eyes above the temporary things of Earth and look to Me where all needs will be permanently met because I love you.

This is the standard we are expected to meet as Christians and because we didn't as humans Christ demonstrated what love is more directly and in doing so made an escape for His friends. That is what we should seek to be, His friend just as He is already ours and then the friend of all those other people He loves and wants to be friends with. Oh how much we miss in our religion today either making God a God of rules or a God of desperation forgiving all sin because He can't bear to destroy anyone. Neither is true, He is a God of love whose rules express that and a God of justice whose love demands letting go of those who have become so integrated with their sin that they would not be happy with Him. “Love seeketh not its own.” whatever that may be.

Those are some of the thoughts I have had rolling around, you are welcome to add or comment because I know this is just barely scratching the surface but my hope would be scratching it just a little more deeply than we often do. All I would ask is that you please be gracious if responding, I know that religion is a touchy subject but true Christianity is not, the problem has long been all the people masquerading as Christians, including me too many times.

[romancatholicreflections]

11th March >> Sunday Homilies and Reflections For Roman Catholics on the Fourth Sunday in Lent, Cycle B Fourth Sunday of Lent, Year B Fourth Sunday of Lent Gospel reading:John 3:14-21 fiery serpantvs.14 Jesus said to Nicodemus: “The Son of Man must be lifted up as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, vs.15 so that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him. vs.16 Yes, God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not be lost but may have eternal life. vs.17 For God sent his Son into the world not to condemn the world, but so that through him the world might be saved. vs.18 No one who believes in him will be condemned; but whoever refuses to believe is condemned already, because he has refused to believe in the name of God’s only Son. Jesus light of worldvs.19 On these grounds is sentence pronounced: that though the light has come into the world men have shown they prefer darkness to the light because their deeds were evil. vs.20 And indeed, everybody who does wrong hates the light and avoids it, for fear his actions should be exposed; vs.21 but the man who lives in the truth comes out into the light so that it may be plainly seen that what he does is done in God.” ******************************************************************* We have four commentators available from whom you may wish to choose . Scroll down to the name of the commentator. Michel DeVerteuil : A Trinidadian Holy Ghost Father, late director of the Centre of Biblical renewal . Thomas O’Loughlin: Professor of Historical Theology, University of Wales, Lampeter. Sean Goan: Studied scripture in Rome, Jerusalem and Chicago and teaches at Blackrock College and works with Le Chéile Donal Neary SJ: Editor of The Sacred Heart Messenger and National Director of The Apostlship of Prayer. **************************************** Michel DeVerteuil Lectio Divina with the Sunday Gospels www.columba.ie General Comments You will notice certain themes running through the entire passage. Each of them is expressed in a different metaphor, each has its special emphasis. Some of the themes are well known to us; others are more new. John is like an arranger who works out some variations of the basic tune of a well known music piece. We are like those who must sit back and listen to a steel band show – like our famous panorama which takes place on the weeks before our Trinidad Carnival. In reading the passage then we do it with this awareness at the back of our minds. We take every section very slowly, going through one at a time and giving each one our perfect attention. Christ crucified– Verses 13 to 15 : The theme here is that the Son of Man who will eventually be crucified needs to be lifted up on high so that he can become a source of true life for all his followers. This must happen if he is to have this effect on us. His “being lifted up” on high makes him stand out from all who look on him. We realise then how much he has to offer his people, especially those of us who are in the desert as Moses and his followers were and as he himself was on the cross at Calvary. St John adds a little variation. He remembers that the serpent who had appeared to the Israelites in the desert in the time of Moses was originally a symbol of death. Our present source of life was originally an object that spoke of death and destruction. A symbol of shame had now become for us a great source of life. We think of times in our own lives when what was originally for us a mark of death now becomes a sign of life. We think of new life arising out of – people who when we saw them first reminded us of death; – the possibility of destruction in this present life which now becomes a source of new life; – death existing together with the signs of new life. Death now becomes a source of new life. We stay with the metaphor until it becomes this reality for us. The passage is also telling us something important about the people who watch the death of Jesus. They have a large fund of good will among themselves and so look at this image of death. What had seemed at first only of little consequence, with no special message for God’s people, becomes an invitation to new life. – Verse 16a :God’s love for us is expressed practically by his giving us what is most precious to him – his own dear son whom he loved very specially. He wanted to deliver him from all evil but ended up seeing him sacrificed on the cross. It was therefore a tremendous act of service to us from the great God. – Verse 16b: The motive for and indeed the actual fruit of God’s love is expressed in two possible outcomes for people: – Being lost, on the one hand. We must make an effort to understand this concept: being lost includes all the aspects that we know well – not found, left alone by ourselves, without any one that we can turn to. – Having eternal life, on the other hand includes concepts like a gift that does not end with death in any form. – Verse 17 brings back the teaching of the previous verse through the metaphors of condemning and being saved. We need to spend some time with each of the consequences: – condemning includes concepts like having no hope; – being saved includes things like being looked after. – Verse 18 brings back the metaphor of being condemned and links it to another conclusion: – the option of believing in love – not believing in God’s only Son given for us. In verse 19 Jesus reflects on how people are condemned; the only valid condemnation is the one which comes from within oneself. – In verses 20 and 21 the teaching is clarified with an analysis of how we make our choice of darkness or light. We remember times when we made the choice to live from the truth of ourselves, not to rely on what went outside but from what was within. Our deep choices always comes from ourselves, not from outside. Prayer Reflection Lord, we would like to be a source of life for others without cost to ourselves. We thank you for true leaders we have met who knew the law of life as Jesus did, that we must make ourselves vulnerable, be open to failure and humiliation, allowing ourselves to be lifted up as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, if our followers are to find life in us. Lord, there was a time when we were afraid of death, of failing, suffering, being rejected by others. This fear was a bondage for us. We thank you that you lifted up a Son of Man before us and invited us to look honestly at things that frightened us: we looked on that Son of Man and how we ourselves tend to live. We realized then that his death was truly a source of new life for us. Compassion1Lord, we thank you for all those who love – parents, grandparents, spouses, community leaders – they love so much that they give what is most precious to them, their careers, their future security, their own friends, so that those whom they love might experience that they can trust and so not be lost but live. Lord, we think today of those in our society who are lost: -Adult children who were halted in their growth by childhood hurts – addicts to drugs or alcohol; – those who are eaten up with bitterness and envy; – those who cannot forgive. We remember that your will is that they should not be lost; for them you gave up your only Son. Forgive us that we have not mediated your love to them. Lord, we pray for teachers in schools, church communities, families. Remind them that you have sent them into their communities not to condemn, but so that through them their charges might be saved. Lord, there is nothing more terrible in life than to feel condemned – to live without purpose; – to experience failure and rejection whatever happens; – to know that you will never be admired by others; and the root of this is not believing that you are loved. Help us to be the presence of your only Son in the world, so that people might not go through life feeling condemned. Lord, we pray for your church, that we may never give in to the tendency to condemn. Help us to focus on being true to you so that others may come to us not out of fear of being condemned but out of the truth that is in themselves. Lord, we thank you for the journey to grace that many of us are making during this Lent. For many years you were calling us, inviting us to look honestly on our addictions, our vanity, our envy. We hated the light, avoided it for fear that the truth about ourselves should be exposed. During these days we were brought to look at ourselves and come out into the light, feeling inner peace because we knew that what we were doing we were doing in you. ******************************************************** Thomas O’Loughlin Liturgical Resources for the Year of Matthew www.columba.ie Ilent crossntroduction to the Celebration We have gathered here as God’s holy people, and we are God’s work of art, created in Jesus Christ to live the good life as from the beginning he intended us to live it. So we have to be both thankful for his mercy, and sorry for our failures to live life in that way. Since this is the Fourth Sunday of Lent, today is Mothers’ Day – the day when we thank our mothers for all they have done for us, and also express our sorrow for any way we may have hurt them. Homily Notes 1. As Lent progresses the focus of preaching has to shift from the discipline of Lent itself to that for which it is a preparation: the event of Holy Week and Easter. Therefore, part of the role of preaching in Lent is that it should be a catechesis for the events of the forthcoming festival, so that people can appreciate their significance within the whole Christian year, and can take part in those liturgies with greater understanding. Of all the reforms of the liturgy that took place in the twentieth century, the reform of Holy Week (beginning in 1955 and being progressively reformed until 1970) has probably had the greatest impact on Catholic theology, yet these reforms have had probably the least impact at community level. While the building may be filled for midnight Mass at Christmas, the Easter Vigil usually only attracts a moderate number and has often been relegated in status to that of an ordinary vigil Mass for Sundays with a few extra readings; while on Good Friday many people see little difference between attending the Stations of the Cross and taking part in the Liturgy of the Passion. 2. That being the case, one way to catechise the whole community is to focus now on the days of Holy Week and examine the liturgy of one of the days in detail using the question ‘what will we be celebrating on Holy Thursday?’ as the focus of your explanation. 3. If you choose to go down this route, then today you could begin by ‘going through’ the liturgy of the Mass of the Lord’s Supper on Holy Thursday. The keynote is that Jesus gathered his people for a meal –something he did often, enjoyed, and was criticised for (cf Mt 11:19). This was an intimate affair of his own people, hence the added horror about Judas one senses in v. 2. A meal has a grammar all its own. (1) It is around one table (which means we are truly equal in his sight and ‘friends’ – there is no ‘top-table’ and then places for the rest. Last Supper(2) There is a sharing of food. This had been transformed in Jesus’ table ritual to being a central moment in his whole vision for the Father’s new people: a single loaf was broken and anyone who had a share in it was accepting a place among that new people. Uniquely, Jesus asked his table companions to share one cup over which he said a blessing. This established them, through an intimate ritual, as sharing in a common vision and destiny. (This basic table ritual of Jesus, from which our Eucharist derives, was not a Passover ritual – hence we celebrate Eucharist weekly not annually – and this is probably why John omits an ‘institution narrative’ from his account of the meal on the night of betrayal). (3) At any common meal there is an element of showing one’s desire to be of service and to offer of one’s best: one way of doing this in Jesus’ time was to offer the service of foot-washing. Jesus’s action transforms this into making service the basis of community; and this action was so striking that it became a part of many Christian liturgies — now only surviving vestigially. *************************************************** Sean Goan Let the Reader Understand www.columba.ie Gospel notes: John 3:14-21 In the synoptic gospels there are three predictions of the passion of Jesus in which he outlines what is going to happen to him when he reaches Jerusalem. This, however, is not the case in John where the passion is prepared for in a completely different way. On three occasions Jesus speaks about himself being’lifted up’. The Greek word behind this can mean a literal or physical lifting and also an exaltation, a being raised up or glorified. By means of this deliberate play on words the evangelist explains to us that the passion, for all its injustice and brutality, is a glorious revelation of God’s love. In this text we have the first prediction of Jesus’ death and here the cross is explained as a saving, healing event. Jesus likens his being lifted up (on the cross) to the lifting up of the bronze serpent by Moses in the desert. This is a reference to the occasion when the Israelites had cried out to God to save them from poisonous snakes (Numbers 28). When they looked at the serpent Moses had fashioned from bronze they were healed. So too Jesus, raised up on the cross, is the sign of God’s infinite love and the source of our healing. Reflection In our day-to-day struggle just to get on with the business of living it is unlikely that we go around with the image of ourselves as ‘God’s work of art’. There are many forces at work both within us and outside us which tend to pull us down and to leave us with negative feelings about ourselves and those around us. By contrast, at the heart of the gospel message is the wonderful assertion that we are the handiwork of a God who does not make mistakes. This is the God who so loved the world that he gave his only Son not to bully us into obedience or to threaten us with hellfire but to bring us to life in its fullness. This is terrific news indeed, so let us take steps to ensure that other messages do not drown it out. *********************************************** Donal Neary SJ Gospel Reflections www.messenger.ie/bookshop/ A new Colour Why rose vestments today? It is the hope of Easter just around the corner. We are on the way, but not there yet. So we wear the colours of joy. Our joy is from the love which has brought us here and made us the work of art we are. Jesus is lifted up on the cross so we may have life. In all our thoughts on lent and the death of Jesus, we are people of the resurrection. We have many identities in our lives, but our prime belonging is to God, brothers and sisters of Jesus. This is the life of faith, the life of faith in the heart. We can often think of God and faith as deadening. Our faith is that he sent his son from love. Jesus is the one who went through all we go through and rose from death. As our faith in this becomes strong, then we find love active from God in our lives. At times when there is little else there, we unite ourselves with the sufferings of Jesus and rise with him. God, being love, promises not an easy life nor magical solutions, but love always. We live on amazing grace, and the graced light is Christ. Easter is around the corner, if we take a corner too quickly we crash. In life there is often a call to patience. We live in the light of Easter. Look on the world – its business, goodness and evil, and let God’s love for the world become your love. Lord, by your cross and resurrection, you have set us free; you are the Saviour of the world.

[harvestgatenetwork-blog]

The Harvest Gate Podcast - Episode 2

Below is a written transcript of Episode 2 of The Harvest Gate Podcast.

Now available on harvestgate.org/podcast , Apple Podcast or your favorite podcasting app or service.

New episodes posted Sunday.

Episode 2: Our Mission Statement

*Intro Music*

Greg: Hey this is Greg

Zack: And Zack

Greg: Welcome back to the Harvest Gate podcast. This week we'll be talking about Harvest Gate's missions statement. You may have heard it in the outro of the first podcast, that is of course, "Connecting Faith to Families, Communities and Marketplaces"

We're also going to talk about our first financial update, lay out some goals, our current timeline and some upcoming events to add to your calendar.

But Zack, to get started this week, since we're part coffeehouse, we should take a moment to talk about coffee.

Zack: Yea, so what are you brewing today, Greg? 

Greg: Well, I'm brewing what I brewed yesterday, I'm drinking what I brewed yesterday, which is iced coffee or cold coffee. Emily and I like to brew our coffee the night before and stick it in the fridge so its ice cold first thing in the morning...refreshing! Wakes you up a little bit. No ice! Not so it's watered down. Full, high octane effect!

Zack: Okay, I am picking up what you're putting down. 

Greg: How about you?

Zack: I am drinking from my local coffee house that I love, River Road Coffeehouse.

Greg: Shout out to River Road!

Zack: Shout out to River Road! I am drinking my regular, which is a regular latte with 2 packets of Sweet-n-Low. It is delicious, I recommend River Road, if you ever get the chance to go there in Newark or Granville, Ohio.

Greg: And we've, of course, had many of our conversations at River Road. I recall that being your regular order as well.

Zack: Yea, that's where our friendship, sort of, started to blossom. 

Greg: Blossom, like the design on the top of your latte, if I recall. 

Zack: That's true. They're that good.

Greg: Oh very good! Alright, let's dive in, we've got a lot to talk about this week. We want to really breakdown the mission statement of Harvest Gate. As I stated before, that mission statement is "Connecting Faith to Families, Communities and Marketplaces."

How did you...where did that mission statement come from, how did it originate?

Zack: Yea so, I think that our mission statement answers the question of why? Why generally tends to be...a question that people are...there's an issue and they want to know why that issue exists and how to resolve it. Our mission statement, "Connecting Faith to Families, Communities and Marketplaces.", answers that why questions.

It seems like so much in Christianity, at least in America today, seems disconnected from faith. We almost look at life in 4 different domains in America. 

We have our faith, then we have things we do in our family. We have things we do in our community and finally things we do at our jobs or workplaces.

Greg: And those things are often disconnected, they are sort of independent of each other.

Zack: Yea. I've found that a lot of people who are disenfranchised from the church or who don't care about church all that much would say there's a disconnect between what people say it is that they believe and how they actually act in these places in life. 

Greg: Yea!

Zack: Greg, as one of those people potentially, have you found this to be the case that sometimes people's faith is disconnected from the other areas of their life?

Greg: Yea, I think I've had friendships or relationships with people that, were it not for the fact that you maybe know they go to church or someone told you that they regularly attend church, or something like that, that you would have no idea based on their actions and how they live their life, that that is actually something that is important to them, or that their faith influences their everyday life or the decisions they make.

Zack: Yea, we would call that cultural Christianity, meaning that, "I am a Christian simply because I grew up in a place that has Christian values. Yea I don't really practice it, I go to church every once in awhile, maybe on Christmas and Easter, maybe I go more frequently than that. Maybe I go every Sunday but it is disconnected from the rest of my life." 

Greg: Maybe its like a pick-me-up, a sort of feel-good message to start your message. 

Zack: Exactly! So what tends to happen, or what I have seen even in my lifetime, I'm relatively young, I have seen that church is a place that you go on a given day of the week and that is the extent of our faith a lot of times. 

Greg: Right.

Zack: And so I believe that, and this is rooted really in biblical principles, that everything we do should be viewed through the lens of our faith. We're told in 1 Corinthians 31, Paul says this, "Whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do it all to the glory of god." 

Paul again tells us in Colossians 3, he says, "In whatever you do or say, do it as a representative of the lord Jesus." And then a couple verses later in Colossians 3.23 he says, "Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart." 

This is all informed by Jesus' words when Jesus was walking here on the Earth. Jesus said, "In the same way, let your light shine before others so that they may see your good works and good glory to your father who is in heaven." 

It seems, like I said Greg, that everything should be viewed from the lens of faith. What tends to happen is faith is relegated to a certain day of the week, at a certain place, maybe if you're really spiritual, someplace in the midweek. 

What we want to do is we want to be a church, a network of people, who view all of life through the lens of faith. We say it, that we're connecting our faith to our families. How do we view our families in light of our faith? How do we view and live in our communities?

And that could be a really big community, it could be the town or the village or city that you live in. 

Greg: Yea, your next-door neighbor.

Zack: Could be your next-door neighbor. It could be just your group of friends but also in the marketplace. In our vocation, in our jobs. Whether you are a stay at home mother, or whether you are a CEO of a Fortune 500 company, we think that all of life should be viewed through that faith lens. 

Greg: So the connection between faith and trying to build those connections to those different places. Give me an example in your community let's say, or in the community around the coffeehouse in the future, where we're hoping to settle down, how do you take...or build that connection.

Zack: Yea, if you remember from our last podcast, we had talked about how the church is supposed to exist for the community. And this is kind of what informs our name of Harvest Gate. We say that the harvest is plenty and the workers are few. Then Jesus says, "I am the gate. None come to the father except through me." 

But then there is a deeper meaning to the word gate, where the church was a gathering of people, much like the people who gathered at the gate to bring value, wisdom and clarity. There would be town elders who gathered at the gate, that gathering was meant to bring clarity and value to their city. 

We are hoping that as a faith community, that we would bring value to our city. In this case, it's Columbus. Right now we live in Newark, Ohio.

Greg: Yea. 

Zack: And we want to bring value to Newark, Ohio but we also want to bring value to wherever it is that we live. Our big goal, our big dream is that we want to have a transforming presence in every zip code in Columbus and there are 49 zip codes in Columbus. 

So we believe that that means we should be joining in on what we call kingdom endeavors. Helping to decrease the illiteracy rate in Columbus. Helping to feed people who are hungry. 

Greg: Yea.

Zack:  Caring for the orphans and the widows and the strangers, these are all different people groups that God says throughout scripture that we should care for. On a more practical way, this could mean that I live in a home, my next-door neighbor is an elderly woman who is a widow and let's say her front porch is rotting out. We would hopefully come together as a community, as a faith community, and help her rebuild her porch. 

All of the tithes and offerings that come in through the church, 40% of that would go to what I call local missions.

Greg: Okay.

Zack: 40% would go to foreign missions and 20% would be for operational costs. 

In most churches today, if you're pretty healthy financially, roughly 40% of your budget goes towards paying staff members. Maybe another 30-40% goes to paying for your facilities.

Greg: Churches tend to be in very large buildings, those aren't cheap. Even just running costs, if you paid off your mortgage, to heat it, to power everything, that's going to cost some big bucks.

Zack: It is! You're left with, 20-30% to actually minister to people.

Greg: Yea.

Zack: I heard about a study, where people went and looked at church budgets. They did church budgets, how much a church budget was compared to how many people were baptized. 

They found that they average cost, if you will, to get somebody baptized is around $1.5 million dollars. 

Greg: That seems a bit steep...

Zack: It seems a bit steep! Our hope is that we can, through the generosity of those who are in our faith community, that we can bless our community.

We would take money from our local missions, of that 40%, and go and buy material and hopefully, in our faith community we would be able to have somebody who has expertise in building and all they need are hands. 

Greg: Yea.

Zack: So then we would go next door and build a new porch for her, or whatever the case might be, it might be raking leaves, it might be...it doesn't have to be a building project. It could be generally helping the community.

Greg: Yea! That concept of, or that scenario of, an elderly neighbor with something that they can't do, that needs to be done to help them. I think anyone, if you ask them would you be on board with supporting that personally, would you want your local government to support that, would you want local community members to help them with that. Or would you yourself help them with that, I think everyone would answer, "Yes.".

But in reality that so often doesn't actually happen. I think it is important to find ways...this is one of the things I connect with most about this project is that, it doesn't matter whether you believe or don't believe a certain thing. If you want to do good, just go do it. If you're, kind of, on the fence thinking, "Should I volunteer to help someone with something or support my local food pantry or homeless shelter?", make it happen! Get involved with that kind of stuff and make a difference in your community because we're the people that live there and we're the only ones that can make a difference.

Zack: Yea, exactly! From a pastoral standpoint, this is a great opportunity, in this elderly woman, she might say something like, "Why in the world would you do this?".

This is great opportunity for me to share my love of Jesus and to share the love of Christ with the world.

Greg: Yea.

Zack: So I think that we have this perception that to share Jesus with people, we need to go and stand on street corners, and I'm not necessarily against those kinds of things, but I think through genuine love and serving of our neighbors, it allows to open up for really great conversation around faith.

So connecting faith to our community can take any kind of number of things and one thing that I want to make sure we're careful of within Harvest Gate, and this would probably just be a caution to all churches anywhere, is that we don't do things to grow the church necessarily, that is not our responsibility...

Greg: It can be a byproduct of the good work that you do. It can be part of...representing your faith through the actions that you take, representing your organization through what you do...showing people your character and that being the selling point, rather than a hard sales pitch directly to someone like, "Come join us." 

Obviously we want that, but I think if you don't set an example to be representative of that then why should people want to follow you.

Zack: Yea, exactly! People hate feeling like projects. 

Greg: Yea.

Zack: If I did something, if I went and...if we didn't know each other Greg, and I were to do something and you felt like I was doing it to manipulate you to believe a certain way, we probably wouldn't be friends.

Greg: Well, I think there was...I don't want to say there was ever a time in our relationship where that was a thing because it wasn't. But I think that there were times early on where I would talk to Emily about it, or I would think to myself, "Are we just becoming really good friends or am I a faith project?", like, here's not necessarily a vocal unbeliever but somebody who is very clear about how they feel and comfortable in that and, "Can I make changes to that?".

I really really respected the fact that that was never the case. We had many conversations about church and Jesus and religion and spirituality in general and there was never any pressure for me to believe something different than what I believe to validate our relationship or friendship or something like that. You kind of demonstrated that it didn't matter what my belief was, you were showing, I guess, your love of Jesus through just being a friend and a positive influence with no underlying motive.

Zack: Yea and I don't know if you remember this but I said, "Greg, I want you to believe what I believe. But our friendship is not relegated to whether you end up believing what I believe."

Greg: Yea, it's not conditioned on that.

Zack: So our hope is, is that through just loving people, they will come into knowing the love of Christ and the love that he has given for us. 

Greg: Yea.

Zack: So it's not our responsibility as a church to make sure the church grows. We can, maybe on a micro level, say, "I'm going to become friends with Greg so he can become a Christian." That might be, that might be one scenario.

But on a macro level, in the church generally what we do is, "Hey, we're going to serve these people so that they can come to our church." And if that happens its great, but that's not our, that's not our intention. We want to be obedient. Jesus said that, "The son of man came not to be served but to serve and give his life as ransom for many." 

And so as a follower of Jesus, its my responsibility to be obedient to what it is that he said. He said to follow me, do as I do, act as I act. That means that I want to serve our community, in the same way it goes...talking about our other domains that we're talking about here, like Family.

How do we view our family through the lens of faith? To me this means that my wife and I are in a partnership together. We are friends, there's many things you could attribute to our relationship but we are co-partners. I help her with dishes, I help with laundry, we have a partnership in our family. With our children, when they clean up and they don't want to, we say, "Thank you for contributing to our family, thank you for being part of the Morgan team." 

Greg: Yea. Shout out by the way to the Morgan kids who, Emily, my wife, and I, were hanging out at your place while you guys had date night last night. Which was great! And the kids cleaned up superbly. Maybe the only...the might have in fact done it too well because one of Eli's toys got cleaned up so well that we couldn't find it. 

Zack: Yea!

Greg: So hopefully that turns up.

Zack: Thank you for that! Within our family, its not that we just sit down and...and there's nothing wrong with this and we do this..."Okay, now kids it's time to read our bible." We read the bible and we'll talk about those kinds of things. When issues of life and death and love and respect and whatever the case may be, happens in our family, and even discipline, we discipline through the lens of our faith. Not necessarily in a manipulative way, "Well Jesus would be very said about that."

Greg: That's kind of like how people use Santa Clause for Christmas.

Zack: Yea. 

Greg: You're gonna be on the naughty list...

Zack: I'm going to throw one of your gifts away anytime you're bad...

So we don't want to do that but there's been many times where my kids have been...they've been deserving of some pretty harsh punishment. But I've said, "I'm going to choose right now to show you mercy rather than grounding you...", or whatever the case may be, whatever the form of punishment is, "This is what you deserve but I love you enough that I'm not going to do it right now. I'm going to show you mercy."

What happens a lot of times is the realization of the underserving-ness of that, it breaks them more than maybe the punishment would.

Greg: Like I deserved a greater punishment than I received.

Zack: Yea, I deserve this punishment but what I actually received was mercy and love. Now, this doesn't mean we don't punish our kids, we certainly do, but I believe this is the same thing that Jesus does. Jesus says...in Romans it says, "The wages of sin is death." 

But Jesus came so that we might have life and have it abundantly, that is in John 10:10.

So we might be deserving of one thing but Jesus comes in and says, "I'm going to give you grace and mercy."

I kind of define grace and mercy this way: grace is getting what you don't deserve, mercy is not getting what it is that you do deserve. So we try to, in our family, we try to extend grace and mercy to everyone. Maybe that's how, a quick example, of how our faith plays out in our family context. 

Greg: And that can be a challenge, in the heat of the moment, ya know? When the action that deserves some sort of discipline has just taken place. You have to have that, sort of, self awareness and control to think about, "How do I want to act in this moment? What example am I setting?"

I think you're teaching your kids a lot about your character and of course where you get that character from, in the choices that you make and the values that you have. I think that's really important.

Zack: And, you say that, I should be clear, far from perfect. Because in those moments, in the heat of the moment, I don't respond in the way my faith informs, I then have to do some repenting.

Repenting is, and you may have heard it before, repenting is simply the act of turning away from, turning 180 degrees. 

Greg: Yea.

Zack: So I might have to do some repenting. First, it might be to God. Then it's to my children and that's a humbling thing.

Greg: Yea, every parent listening is nodding their head, including me. And maybe not even recognizing the term repent, or exactly what it means but I've had plenty of instances where my initial reaction to something that Eli did is not the reaction that I would want and I'll almost immediately have to kind of stop, and sometimes even just sort of explain to him in that moment, "Daddy apologizes and is sorry for raising my voice.", or whatever it was to let him know that I can...I'm not perfect, I make mistakes but I can recognize those mistakes or be aware of those and just because I made the mistake doesn't mean I have to live with that, or commit to it permanently. 

I can stop and say, "You know that was the wrong thing to do", and I acknowledge that and let's try to talk about that in a different way.

Zack: Yea, I think anyone who is a parent, which I have 3 children under the age of 6 and younger and you have a son...how old is Eli?

Greg: Eli's 4, he'll be 5 in April.

Zack: Awesome. Anyone who has children has probably done something and they go, "Well they'll be able to talk to their therapist about that in about 15 or 20 years.

Greg: Yea, yep.

Zack: Just simply saying, "Listen, Daddy did not respond right. It was not okay for me to respond the way that I did." 

Greg: Yea

Zack: "It was not loving, it was not caring, I lost my temper, whatever the case may be." 

What that does, is it helps our children to understand that it's okay to make mistakes, but it's not okay to live in those mistakes and to just perpetuate them.

Greg: Yea. 

Zack: I've heard it said this way, "It's okay to not be okay but it's not okay to stay that way."

Greg: Right. There's a little bit of pride in that, where you don't want to admit you made a mistake, even though you know that you're wrong or you know that you want to change that behavior or that action or something but you're unwilling to admit that to the people that may have been affected by that or to yourself.

Zack: Yea, especially to your children. I don't need to do this to you because I made you! But throughout scripture, it says to honor one another and to submit to one another and I think that that's what that is. It doesn't mean that I give up all of the "authority" I have on my family...

Greg: Right.

Zack: ...but it does mean that when I'm wrong I need to admit it and I need to repent at that and ask forgiveness of my children. One of...from the time every single one of my children was conceived to the day that I die, this has been my prayer for them. My children's names are Lily, Isaac and Naomi, but my prayer goes something like this...

Father, thank you for Lily, Isaac and Naomi. May they know you from an early age and grow to know you. May their faith never falter. May they understand grace, mercy and love as I understand grace, mercy and love, but without having to go through all the stupid things that I went through to understand those things. 

Greg: *laughs* Yea!

Zack: And then I pray over them. Let my children be a powerful voice in your kingdom. May there be millions of people who come to know you because of their obedience and their faith.

That's kind of the hope, we want our children to be better than we are, to do better in life.

Greg: Yea.

Zack: I want them to have a stronger faith than I do. 

Greg: Well, that's a common sentiment that people have and I think everyone says that, but how many people are taking actions to make that happen. Investing in education and the community, safe places for kids to gather and be kids and not have to experience the reality of the real world, maybe earlier than they would be prepared for.

You know, there's a lot of things...

Eli already, at 4 years old, has had to go through these sort of...process of...

When my wife and I had our most recent miscarriage at like 20 weeks, Eli had already well understood that he was going to have a sister. That this whole process was ongoing and we were building it up and we wanted him to be a big brother and he was going to do great...and then the rug gets pulled out from under and we have to try and explain to him, when he's only just turned 4 at the time, what exactly all of that meant. 

That's not something anyone would want to do, but we tried to do that...Emily did a great job of helping him understand that whole process and what happened and why things are different now and maybe as best as he can understand as a 4 year old. We always want to protect our children from these sorts of things that can happen or whatever. 

I think, how can we use Harvest Gate for a platform for that? Living our family life, the way that we would want it to be lived out in every other facet of life in a positive, impactful way.

Zack: Yea, exactly, and I think what happens, especially in the church in America, we tend to leave the faith stuff to the children's programs on Sunday mornings. 

I'm not against children's ministries or kid's church or anything like that. However, it becomes, it becomes essentially a  babysitter for us and we go like, "Well, they're learning everything they need to know about faith, Jesus and all those kinds of things so I don't really need to."

I don't want to abdicate our responsibility as a family unit of sharing the love of Jesus with them. 

Greg: So let's transition over to marketplaces. How are we sort of building...bridging that gap?

Zack: Yea, so, Jesus says a lot about money. The bible says a lot about money. Apart from God as the subject, money is spoken about most in the bible compared to any other topic. 

What we see is the pendulum swing. We say things like, "Capitalism is bad and we should just give all our money away." It's so polarized, or, "God's blessing comes through financial blessing."

There's all these different kinds of things but the bible is not against prosperity.

Greg: Yea

Zack: But the bible, and God, is against the poor treatment of those who have less.

Greg: Yea.

Zack: He wants...again you can go to extremes on this. You can say, "Well, all of capitalism is bad because of this.", I don't believe the bible is against capitalism.

What I do believe the bible is against, is unfair practices that make the poor get poorer and that the rich get richer off of the backs of the poor. 

Greg: Yea!

Zack: How do we take, what I would call biblical stewardship principles...stewarding, simply the act of handling something that somebody...if you gave me money and said, "Hey hold on to this for awhile, you know, do something good with it.", how I handle that is called stewardship...but biblical stewardship principles, how do we manage that.

And not only as it pertains to money but as it pertains to people. As a business, how am I treating my employees, am I giving them fair wages or am I paying them very poorly so I can get very rich?

Greg: I think we all know how that often works in our society today.

Zack: Yes. The rich get richer and the poor get poorer and the middle class...diminishes.

Greg: Evaporates.

Zack: Evaporates, yea. So I believe that prosperity should be for the entire city. Again there's...there's an ugly heresy within Christianity, the prosperity gospel, that God just wants you to be rich and he wants to, "Here's your jumbo jet!", and all those types of things.

What I find through prosperity gospel is it's usually only the people who are preaching prosperity gospel that are prospering.

Greg: Yea.

Zack: That's not what I'm talking about. When we use biblical stewardship principles, that it is good for everyone.

Greg: Yea.

Zack: In the bible, the old testament especially, it lays out for the Israelites, this system that is completely upside down from any world system that has ever been. And that is that every 7 years, your debts are forgiven. So everyone who has college loans, hey please reinstate that. 

Greg: *Laughs* Yea.

Zack: If you and I had...if I loaned you money and it's not paid off at the end of 7 years, once that 7 years is up, it's done. Then every 50 years, the year of jubilee, what they would do is, all property would be restored to the original land owner, the family. 

It's this process where we say, "We're not against prosperity but we are against injustice, we are against people getting rich off of slave labor or close to slave labor."

Greg: Yea.

Zack: So how do we take our faith and apply this to the workplace? On one level, as an entrepreneur and business owner, it means we practice good business ethics and that we're generous with our customers, that we're generous with our employees. Not only financially but that we treat them well and let them know they are loved and cared for. That our faith would inform all of these things. Just as I show my kids grace, mercy and love, I want to show my employees grace, mercy and love. 

Greg: I think there's a lot of things to be said about business ethics on that because so many businesses are finding ways to eek out every penny they can from the consumer by cleverly downsizing the actual packaging, putting less in...

You know, I have a...I won't say where it's from...but I have a granola bar that we really like to get at our local grocery store, and the box very clearly, comfortably would fit 6 granola bars because that's how they fit into the box, but it only comes with 5 and there is a gap, a granola bar sized gap, where a sixth one obviously would be.

I am quite certain, if I went back to that grocery store 5 years ago, there were 6 in that box and its now the same price. 

Those, sort of, deceptive, dishonest tactics that businesses use are the sort of thing that I look forward to NOT seeing at our coffeehouse because we want it to be an honest business, living out the same values and principles that we have in everything else that we do.

Zack: Yea, yea, yea! And then as an employee, what this looks like is, not only for employees but for the business as a whole, you practice really really good work. 

Because that's not always the case. We generally do the bare minimum of whatever we do. But imagine what would happen if Christians around the world, if we practiced really good work. 

If you are a plumber and you do really, really good work or if you are an IT guy and you do really, really good work or if you're a stay at home mother, you do really good work.

That to me says far more because, again, there can be a disconnect, maybe they are someone who is outspoken about their faith at work, "Hey, Jesus loves you!", blah blah blah, but they do really crappy work.

Greg: Hmm, not really setting a good example.

Zack: Not for their co-workers, not for their employer, not for the customer. 

Greg: Right.

Zack: So there's a disconnect. Everything that we do should be done with excellence. Everything that we do, again, not perfection, there's a difference between perfection and excellence. 

So, I think that a lot of it just comes down to how we're doing in our work. Just going back to those bible verses I pointed out earlier. 

In whatever you do, or say, do it as a representative of the lord Jesus.

Whether you eat or drink, whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.

Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart. In the same way, let your light shine so that they may see the good work, your good works and give glory to the father who is in heaven.

We're called to do really good work and taking ownership of those kinds of things.

Greg: I think that, it's a good place to conclude on our mission statement.

Connecting faith to families, communities and marketplaces, and trying to see how Harvest Gate is striving to really build a connection between each of those and let faith and those values and the way that we live in that space, affect every other place that we're going to be involved in.

I think that is really a good way to explain what we stand for.

Zack: Yea, and I should just make a quick note here. This is not something that only Harvest Gate is doing, there's lots of businesses, lots of families, lots of community members who are doing really really good things.

Greg: Absolutely!

Zack: And so this isn't like, "Oh, we're the only ones who have this figured out."

We don't have it figured out. We're striving for these things, but this is just, kind of, the culture we want to create. We're not trying to belittle anybody or say that some businesses are bad or something like that. I just want to make that clear.

Greg: Except for the ones that are, you know who you are. 

*laughter*

Greg: Alright, so let's talk about a couple things here to wrap up today. We want to talk financial update, maybe just a run down on our goals, our timeline. It is currently January 24th. 

Where are we now? Where do we want to be?

Zack: Yea, so we have 1 big goal.

Greg: It is big.

Zack: It is big. When I think about it, it terrifies me, to be honest.

But that goal is to raise $150,000.

We believe that through that money, that we can launch Harvest Gate Coffeehouse, to start being a faithful presence in the community.

Greg: Yep.

Zack: But then that would also give us 6 months of operating costs. 

Again, you might be thinking, "Why are we just funding your business?", it's a good question and a fair question.

Greg: Yea.

Zack: Yes, it is a business. I view it more as a mission. We are taking God's kingdom to Columbus. It is already there, it's already existing. 

Greg: To patrons of coffee!

Zack: But we want to be another outpost of the kingdom.

Greg: Yea.

Zack: Often times, missionaries will go to another country and they will go and start a business there and that is there "in" with the community so to speak.

Greg: Yea.

Zack: So we view this as a mission. I've had people say, "Well why don't you just get a business loan?" 

That certainly is a possibility. However, if I get a business loan, I've just relegated myself to the fact that this is just a business. I don't want it to be just a business. I want it to be more than that. I want it to be an outpost of the kingdom of God.

The other thing too is, we need partnerships.

Greg: Yea, can't do it ourselves. 

Zack: We can't do it ourselves, I don't want to do it ourselves. If this is going to be a kingdom endeavor, I want kingdom people to have an investment in it. 

Greg: Yea.

Zack: And so it doesn't just mean financial partnership, we need prayer. We need expertise, we need support, we need you to share this podcast with your friends and families and loved ones and even your enemies, share it with them too.

So, $150,000 is our big goal. We have a, maybe a benchmark goal of $80,000. We believe through conversations with our coffee experts that we can launch Harvest Gate Coffeehouse for about $80,000.

But again, we want to have about 6 months of operating costs so that we can have, you know, incase of a slow start or just learning...

Greg: Pay employees...

Zack: Yea, those kinds of things. 

Greg: Those are important.

Zack: And that is important. We want to be good at business. Ethically minded in our business, there we go.

To reach those goals, we have monthly goals.

Our goal for January is to raise $20,000. Our goal for February is to raise $25,000. 

Our goal for March is to raise $75,000. 

We're hoping by April, we have enough where we can begin to secure a location for the coffeehouse and begin build-out for a launch in, hopefully, June.

So that's where we are there.

So a way that you can do that is go to our website, www.harvestgate.org/take-action

Greg: Not just take action.

Zack: Yes.

Greg: Take "hyphen" action, that's a dash.

Zack: Yea. Not the word.

Greg: Don't write out hyphen.

Zack: Yea, that would be weird.

Greg: Yea

Zack: If you go to  www.harvestgate.org/take-action, you can find different ways to give, you can sign up for our newsletter, you can subscribe to our podcast.

Greg: Which we should point out is now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher and...

Zack: Coming soon, iHeartRadio.

Greg: And Google Podcasts.

Zack: Yes, so that's exciting. In May, we're going to be having the Harvest Gate Scramble, for those of you golf lovers out there, you can come out to The Trout Club in Newark, Ohio. We will be having a golf scramble for all you golf enthusiasts and there's going to be some cool hole in one prizes, some giveaways, of course all the usual accoutrements that come with that: longest drive, longest putt, closest to pin, stuff like that.

Greg: And we've also got, sort of early days planning an event over the next couple of months, Gently Used Women's Clothing sale, if you've got old clothes you'd like to donate, again it's women's clothing only, start going through your closet and we'll keep you updated on when that will be. Anything we don't sell will be donated for a good cause so anything you can do for that, we appreciate it.

Last note, other ways you can support Harvest Gate is supporting us through joining our prayer team on our website...where is that on harvestgate.org?

Zack: It is also on the take action page. Our goal is to have 300, we call them prayer and share partners by the time we launch, hopefully in June, so if you are interested in joining our prayer team, check us out, sign up for that and we'll be sending out updates as to how you can specifically be praying for us. 

Greg: Awesome. Thank you very much for listening to The Harvest Gate Podcast and check out our website and social media, lots of stuff coming down the pipeline, we appreciate it. Thanks Zack.

Zack: It's been fun!

*Outro music*

Greg: Follow us on social media @harvestgatenetwork

Zack: There are several ways you can engage with us and support The Harvest Gate Network at harvestgate.org

Greg: You can subscribe to The Harvest Gate Podcast on Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcast app. If you are as excited as we are about this project, please consider supporting us by sharing, joining our prayer team or donating on our website. 

Zack: Thanks for listening to The Harvest Gate Podcast. Connecting faith to families, communities and marketplaces.

*fade music out*

[musicbyaimee]

Week 11: Short films, Popular music and more networking

It is now Week 11, The major project is coming to an end and I am excited to finish the project. I continue to press on with the work I have to do. Coming in to the final weeks, I have a growing number of pieces and media. 

Last week I was able to complete a a project for a new clothing line, and this week I have the task of putting music to a short film. The film was a project completed by a London University student. I came across the piece on youtube and was interested in it immediately. It stood out to me as there was no dialogue and not much action in the film. These elements let the subtle parts of the video shine and made for a powerful message. 

The film showed the story of a lady, in debt, who has a husband frequently missing. As the film progresses we are shown bills, gambling sites and text messages on the husbands film, we also see childrens pictures. through these images we are able to learn the story of this lady, as a desperate mother, with gambling debts and a cheating husband. The film ends in disaster with the Husband walking away and the lady losing her house. 

Now, following this backstory, I am tasked with making music to fit the film. I have decided to write a popular track. The video is obviosuly very sadd and portrays hopelessness and despair. I think it also leads us to think about what the ladies life might have been like before all this misfortune. Given all of this I decided to write a song about hope dying out, of looking back on to the past and watching it slip through your fingers. 

I did not want the lyrics to directly correspond with the video, e.g. I did not want to tell the story of the video directly in the song. I didnt want the song to mention gambling or debt or adultery. But i did use the theme of losing hope as a more general idea for the song. 

I have reached out to my colleagues and have a vocalist and guitarist willing to help me to achieve my desired sound for the song. I am excited to utilise logic to record in the guitars, piano and vocal. Also it will be a challenge to compose my own lyrics and music for a popular cause. 

I have looked to inspiration in acoustic tracks that tell a simple story with the lyrics. I took inspiration from the band ‘Rend collective’. I felt as if their acoustic tracks such as ‘Simplicity’ and ‘Yahweh’. The acoustic guitars in these songs were a big inspiration to me and I played both to my guitarist in order to gain the sound and feel that I wanted from the piece. 

Another piece that was a big inspiration for me was ‘Come to the river’ by Housefires. I love how the repetitive nature of the lyrics and how each line the words only have a small change. I also thought that the short lines were very effective to set a mood.  I had seen this band live in March in Derby, and so the track that I was hoping to write was greatly inspired by this band. 

Bibliography: 

Housefires (2014). Housefires - Come to the River (feat. Kirby Kaple). [image] Available at: https://youtu.be/IKVHGi1iRLE [Accessed 6 May 2019].

Rend Collective (2019). "Simplicity" from Rend Collective (OFFICIAL LYRIC VIDEO). [image] Available at: https://youtu.be/d8p3n5wzFpM [Accessed 6 May 2019].

Rend Collective (2019). Rend Collective - Yahweh (Audio). [image] Available at: https://youtu.be/qd7R1H79Vok [Accessed 6 May 2019].

UPDATE:

I have successfully written some lyrics! I started with the idea of a candle slowly burning out. This was the starting point for my song. Next I thought of some more images of the kind of emotions I was trying to portray. I thought of the ocean tide getting closer and closer to the shore. From these images I was able to start writing. I also had the image of a vicious cycle in my mind. 

See below my processes, and how I wrote, recorded and edited this song!

1) I wrote  a chord progressions, utilising my keyboard skills and knowledge of popular music. Looking to inspiration for popular tracks being utilised on social media, to artists that I personally enjoy listening to, and to artists who have found success through their emotive content.

2) After a chord progression was written, I then played and recorded this and spent time playing and humming melodies that would go over these chords. I had already settled on a simple structure, and i had already decided to have short lines to show the hopelessness of the message.

3) The next thing I did was to ask my colleague to record the vocals, she looked at the lyrics and melody that I had written and we decided to takw the chorus up a major 3rd, to add and take away a few syllables and to cut out the last verse. This was very useful to me, as I was able to get a second opinion on the subject and listen to her advice and act on it to get a better product.

4) After I had consulted with my vocalist, I then went to ask another colleague to record some guitar parts for me, I wanted simple strumming chords in the verses and choruses, but I had fixed on a melody line for an introduction and ending. My colleage kindly listened to my ideas, listened to my inspiration and recorded some chords and melody lines for me to use.

5) After the guitar parts were recorded I then added a piano part, using it as a counter melody to the guitar melody in the introduction and in the verse using arpeggios to give the piece some rhythm and a more interesting texture.

6) Once those were completed I imported the video, and I spent some time chopping and changing my parts ad structure, adding and taking away small sections in order to fit the video. At this point I added a small interlude after the first chorus in order to make the piece sound less rushed and to fit the media better.

7) The next thing I did was to record some guide vocals, this was so that my vocalist could easily understand how I would like her to sing the track, and also it was helpful to me as I was no longer waiting on vocals to proceed with editing my track. Adding these vocals helped to give me a glimpse of the finished product and I was able to move forward, editing and syncing the piece

8) I added pads to my piece, this gives the piece a more interesting texture, these build up in the chorus, and fade out in quieter sections. I used ‘Alchemy’ for this SCREENSHOT and created some layers of pads.

9) Next I added an amp head to the guitars, alongside a reverb effect. This improved the sound of the piece and gave me the effect that I desired. 

10) I also changed the piano to a piano in Kontakt plug in that was more realistic, and lowered the velocity of the piano chords, to make them sound less harsh. The piano parts now blended better and I felt as if I was getting closer to my desired result with the track. 

11) My colleague recorded the vocals, I adjusted the levels on the piece,Mastered the track and then exported the file to MP4, and added the finished work on to my portfolio website. 

[mrlnsfrt]

Practical Tips for Sharing Your Personal Testimony

Stories are powerful. True stories even more so. A firsthand personal account is unparalleled in its impact in our society.

John 9 records a fascinating story about a man who was born blind. And if being blind was not enough his contemporaries would argue amongst themselves whether it was his sins or his parents' sins that caused his blindness.

Jesus meets the blind man and makes clay (with spit) and tells him to go wash in the pool of Siloam. The blind man obeys and comes back seeing! (John 9:7) 

Naturally the neighbors and those who knew him began to wonder and he gladly shared his testimony.

"He answered and said, “A Man called Jesus made clay and anointed my eyes and said to me, ‘Go to the pool of Siloam and wash.’ So I went and washed, and I received sight.”"  -- John 9:11

Simple right! He just shared what Jesus did for him. The man did not need vast theological understanding, he only needed to tell the story of what Jesus did for him.

So, how can you share your personal testimony? It can be as simple as what we just read in John 9:11, or it can be a longer and more detailed.

You can already share your testimony, this blog post will help you do it better. The tips I will share with you will help your personal testimony be more impactful and intentional.

Pre-work

Always begin with prayer. If you are not sure which story to share, or if you think you don't have one, start a list of what God has done for you in your life. It could be things that happened recently or many years ago. Just start listing them in no particular order.

Once you are satisfied with your list, pick one to focus on for now.

Outline

Now that you have your story write a brief outline. This does not have to be detailed, it can be just bare bones. Prayerfully consider what God has done for you.

Where were you?

What was the problem?

How did God intervene?

Where are you now?

All you need at this point is a general idea of the main transitions in your story and a clear direction.

Main Lesson

Prayer and the influence of the Holy Spirit is the ultimate key for a powerful testimony. However, there are are things you can do to improve your story and one of the main things you can do is have a clear main lesson.

There must be a point to the story, there must be a reason for you to share your testimony. Your listener is giving you her time, do no waste it. Your personal testimony should teach your listener something about God.

What does your testimony teach your listener?

What should your listener take away from your story?

What will your listener learn about God?

Why are you sharing your testimony, what message do you want to get across?

This message, this main lesson, will shape all other aspects of your personal testimony. This is what you want your listener to remember.

Necessary Details

Now that you identified your main lesson you are ready to go back to your outline and start filling in the details.

How did you feel at first?

Where were you? Where did the story take place?

What happened? What did you do?

What did you notice God doing?

How did you feel afterwards? How do you feel now?

Describe your feelings and emotions, describe locations and actions. You want your listener to experience your story. Describe sights, sounds, smells, actions and emotions. You want to address the senses, immerse your listener into your story. Dates and time can also help effectively convey what God has done in your life.

Stay Focused

Remember your main lesson? Do not allow anything to distract you or your listener from it. All the details you just added must contribute to your main point in a meaningful way. Other events that do not somehow connect to your main lesson have no place in your testimony. Random events will only make the story long and confusing. A funny turn of events, if unrelated to your main point, should not be mentioned, it would only be a distraction.

The key to a powerful testimony (aside from the influence of the Holy Spirit) is keeping it focused and intentional. Every detail you add to your story must point to and contribute to your main lesson. Your details are important so long as they are relevant to the main lesson of your story.

Select a Bible Verse

What Bible verse goes with your story?

What biblical principle does your story illustrate?

Which Bible verse does your story bring to life?

What makes your story a testimony is the power of God at work in your life. Make sure to connect your listener to the word of God and to give God all the glory and honor.

Introduction and Conclusion

Your listener will decide whether or not to pay attention to what you are saying early on. How you begin your story is key to grabbing her attention. How you begin your testimony is very important. Remember to keep the main lesson in mind as you craft your introduction. Many chose to begin at a low point int heir lives, then explain how things got to that point, and then take the listener on a journey. This can be quite effective. But do not limit yourself to this, just make sure your introduction is interesting, feel free to cater it to your audience, and make sure to keep your main lesson in mind.

Even more important is your conclusion. A great story can be undone by a weak conclusion. On the other hand, a weak story can have a significant impact with a clear conclusion and application. The conclusion is your last chance to drive home your main idea, it is your last chance to make your point. Your last chance to make sure your listener learns what you want her to learn about God. Feel free to end your story with a challenge, a call to action, or even a question. You want to impact the life of your listener for God.

Practice and Pray

Now its time to practice telling your story. Practice sharing your testimony. Practice it by yourself, practice it with someone you already know and are comfortable with. Try different ways to start your testimony, try different ways to tell the story, try different conclusions and calls to action.

Practicing sharing your testimony is also a great way to have an idea of how long it takes for you to share it. Once you know how long it takes, you are better able to manage your time and decided what details to leave in, and which ones to take out depending on how much time you have available.

Finally, do not neglect prayer. The Holy Spirit can take your story and use it to touch another life, to give hope, to encourage, and to challenge. The Holy Spirit can inspire you with just the right approach to sharing your testimony.

As you practice, pray for God to guide you in the whole process, as well as to the right person and the right time to share. When you are willing, and when you are prepared, the Holy Spirit can do even more through you.

[davidrmaas]

The gospel of Mark presents five incidents in which Jesus experienced opposition from Jewish religious leaders because he deviated from their traditions (Mark 2:1-3:6). He did not reject the Mosaic Law or Torah but some of the interpretations that they had added to it, especially ones related to ritual purity and Sabbath regulations. As the “Son of Man,” the Messiah, Jesus was not bound by human traditions and regulations; his authority was superior to the traditions of the “Scribes and Pharisees,” and even to the rituals of the Temple. At least two of the incidents occurred in a synagogue in Capernaum that had witnessed Jesus delivering a man from a demon (Mark 1:21-28; 2:1; 3:1). A Paralytic Forgiven (Mark 2:1-12) In this first incident, forgiveness occurs outside of the Temple with its sacrificial rituals, which explains the objections of the religious authorities from Jerusalem. He “cleansed” impurities and “forgave” sins apart from the means provided in the Torah. Jesus declared the paralytic’s sins “forgiven” or “discharged.” The Greek verb is used elsewhere for the “discharge” of debts. The conflict was not over the miracle he performed; it could not be denied, but to his authority to forgive sins. The scribes were scandalized. God alone had the authority to forgive sins! Moreover, this was done with no regard to the Temple rituals designed to deal with sin. The Greek verb for “arise” in verse 9 is the same one used for the raising of Jesus from the dead (Mark 16:6). The restoration of the body and the forgiveness of sins are linked; two sides of the same coin. Jesus came to make the entire man whole; the goal of forgiveness is bodily resurrection and new creation (Romans 8:11; 2 Corinthians 5:16-17). This is the first instance of the term, “Son of Man,” in Mark’s gospel. In his capacity as this “Son of Man” Jesus is authorized to discharge sin. The term is derived from the book of Daniel:  (Daniel 7:13-14) - “I kept looking in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven one like a Son of Man was coming, And he came up to the Ancient of Days and was presented before Him. And to him was given dominion, glory and a kingdom that all the peoples, nations, and men of every language might serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion which will not pass away; and his kingdom is one which will not be destroyed.” By “Son of Man,” Jesus indicated the source of his authority, the “Ancient of Days” or God. His acts of healing demonstrate this authority. By standing up and carrying his litter, the healed paralytic demonstrated the validity of Christ’s authority; his right to forgive sins. Jesus thus demonstrated his authority to the crowds and to the Jewish religious authorities. Nevertheless, they rejected it and the conflict began that would lead inexorably to his death on a Roman cross. A Tax Collector is Called (Mark 2:13-17) The theme of forgiveness links this story to the preceding one.  Already Jesus had offended Jewish religious authorities by discharging the sins of a paralytic. He now offends them further by associating with “sinners,” the outcasts of a proper religious society. Observing him eating with tax collectors, his opponents insinuate he is a notorious sinner. Tax collectors were despised in Jewish society. They handled currencies from pagan and Jewish sources and interacted with men from all walks of life. Contact with pagan symbols and Gentiles rendered put them ritually unclean and they were collaborators with Roman authorities. Levi was probably identical to Matthew (Matthew 9:9).  It was common for a Jewish man to have two or more names. He would have been in the service of Herod Antipas.  The Romans collected poll and land taxes directly, but taxes on transported goods were contracted to local tax collectors. Christ’s actions were scandalous since he associated with men who were morally, politically and ritually beyond the pale. Jesus compounded his offense by eating with these “sinners.”  Table fellowship was important to observant Jews; eating with less than observant men put one’s ritual purity at risk. Pharisees adhered strictly to the Torah. They had developed a body of oral traditions that interpreted it. Of especial concern was ritual purity, so much so, that they went beyond what the Law required.  Priests performing their duties in the Temple lived under the strictest requirements for ritual purity.  Pharisees strove to live their lives conformed to that standard. Christ’s concluding statement emphasizes that his mission is about redemption.  He came to redeem that which was lost. Matthew’s version adds the words, “go and learn what this means, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice, for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance” (Matthew 9:13). A Question About Fasting (Mark 2:18-22) Fasting was also a routine practice among Pharisees and many devout Jews. Some fasted twice a week (Matthew 3:4; 11:16-19, Luke 18:9-12). It was practiced on the Day of Atonement, though the Mosaic Law made no mention of this requirement (Leviticus 16:29). The Torah only specified that God’s people “humble their souls” on the Day of Atonement. Fasting was associated with mourning and repentance. Fasting might be a reasonable interpretation of how to “humble one’s soul” but, in fact, nowhere does the Torah explicitly command fasting. The fasting practices of Christ’s day reflect later interpretations of the Law. Jesus was the “bridegroom,” the Messiah, so his arrival ought to be a time of joy, not mourning.  Christ was not characterized by ascetic practices but by his table fellowship, even with the lowest members of society (Matthew 11:16-19; Luke 5:29; 15:1). When a marriage occurred even the most devout Jew would cease fasting for the duration of the ceremonies. The “bridegroom” would be “taken away,” an allusion to Christ’s arrest, trial, and execution.  Even at this early point, Jesus had some idea of where things would inevitably lead. The Greek verb for “take away” (apairō) echoes Isaiah 53:8:  “By oppression and judgment he was taken away; and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, for the transgression of my people to whom the stroke was due?” Fasting was an old tradition. Jesus pictured it as a wineskin and an un-shrunken cloth. The old forms of Judaism could not contain the new things inaugurated by the Son of Man. Any attempt to combine old wineskins with new wine, or un-shrunken cloth with shrunken cloth, would result in destruction and loss. The old system was incapable of containing the “wine” provided by Jesus. A Sabbath Question (Mark 2:23-28) In the Genesis account, God ceased from his creative activities on the seventh day. However, the establishment of the Sabbath as a regulated day of rest was part of the Law of Moses, the Torah, a later requirement given at Mount Sinai. The disciples plucked ears of grain and rubbed them to separate the grain from the chaff. The Pharisees considered this “reaping and winnowing,” work prohibited on the Sabbath. It was permissible for anyone passing through a grain field to pick grain for immediate consumption; it was their “labor” on the Sabbath that was the problem (Deuteronomy 23:25). Jesus responded with a question from the life of David (1 Samuel 21:1-6). He was living as an outlaw. Only the priests could eat the Show Bread or the Sanctuary. David and his men did so because they were famished. Jesus cites this story as a precedent. Since he was the Greater David if that which had been put aside as holy was available for David’s use, how much more appropriate would it be to grant the Greater David access to what was holy? The “Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.” A fitting statement.  In their zeal to obey the law, the Pharisees forgot its purpose:  to do good to men.  As a day of rest, God never intended men to be deprived of their basic necessities on it; even slaves and animals were allowed rest. Since the Sabbath was for man’s benefit and Jesus was the designated representative of Israel, it followed that the “Son of Man was Lord even of the Sabbath.” “Have you not read in the Law that on the Sabbath the priests break the Sabbath and are innocent? Yet something greater than the temple is here.” Sabbath restrictions were not absolute; priests engaged in “work” on it to fulfill their priestly duties in the Temple. But Jesus was even “greater than the Temple.”  If priests could violate the Sabbath in the Temple and Jesus was greater than it, how could he be restricted from performing good works by Sabbath regulations? Jesus Heals on the Sabbath (Mark 3:1-5) This incident occurred in a synagogue on the Sabbath. “Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or to kill” is a link to the preceding story.  Like the Sabbath, the Torah was intended to give life, not to destroy it. This Jesus was about to do for a man with a withered hand. Not to restore his hand was tantamount to doing evil. Healing on the Sabbath was forbidden by tradition, not by the Torah. Tradition did allow an exception when a life was in immediate peril. If not, aid must not be given until after the Sabbath. Jesus could have waited until sunset to restore the withered hand with no additional harm to the man, but he refused to draw such narrow distinctions. To delay healing even for a few hours was to deny what the Law intended; to give life. A deformed person could not enter the sanctuary and participate in the covenant community’s worship life (Leviticus 21:16). This incident concerned something more than just physical healing. To restore the man to full membership in God’s covenant people was paramount and must not be delayed. The problem was not just with added traditions but with a regulation of the Torah that prevented an Israelite with a deformity from access to Yahweh’s presence and blessings (“No man of your offspring who has a defect will approach to offer the bread of his God. For no one who has a defect will approach: a blind man, a lame man, he who has a disfigured face or any deformed limb….only he will not go into the veil or come near the altar because he has a defect”). Christ’s actions answered his question:  not only is it permissible to heal on the Sabbath, it is right to do so.  The traditions of the Pharisees would lead to the destruction of life, not its restoration. Opponents Begin to Plot Christ’s Downfall (Mark 3:6) - “And having departed, immediately the Pharisees with the Herodians were giving counsel against him to destroy him”. His opponents included the Pharisees and the “Herodians” (Mark 12:13), the latter Jewish partisans of Herod Antipas. This is striking since the Pharisees were political enemies of Herod and unlikely allies of the Herodians. The Pharisees were devout adherents of the Torah and viewed Herodians as collaborators. Their alliance in a plot to destroy Jesus demonstrates the level of their animosity. This final incident is a major turning point in Christ’s ministry.  The reaction of his opponents to this healing transformed them from critics into enemies set on destroying him (“the Pharisees went out and immediately and began to take counsel with the Herodians how they might destroy Him” [cp. Mark 11:18; 15:1]). Jesus had gone too far. To the Pharisaic way of thinking, he had violated Sabbath regulations, fraternized with unclean sinners, disrespected their traditions, and presumed to forgive sins apart from the Temple rituals. To Herodians, his disturbances of the religious establishment constituted a threat to the political order. [Click here to Download PDF copy of this post]

http://finishedword.blogspot.com/2019/08/jesus-and-jewish-tradition.html

[rightmeowdigital]

Top 10 Nonprofit Marketing Strategy Tips

Many times nonprofits and charity organizations struggle where to start their marketing campaigns. As a charitable organization you have a compelling story to share with the world. Something that really matters in the world and that should be the driving force behind your nonprofit marketing strategy. Focusing on your story creates even more passion for your cause from your staff, volunteers, members, and potential donors.

People love helping others, in fact in 2017 people in the United States gave to charities a whooping 410.02 billion, and in 2018 the amount again increased. In fact every year since 1977, with the exception of only 3 years, charitable donations have increased year over year.

As a non-profit organization you already know the importance of online fundraising for charities not only from your own website but also using the power of social media like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest.

With radio advertising, tv commercials, in person fundraising, digital fundraising and managing all of this on top of social media it can seem overwhelming and like you are always just chasing after the trends with not enough time to focus on growing each platform. Even with little time there are ways to increase donations online even if you don’t hire a nonprofit marketing agency.

We all know basically everyone has a facebook account, but did you realize on average people have 5 or 6 social media accounts and are active on half of them normally. It is evident your target audience is in the digital world and leveraging the power of search engines and your story with your marketing plan you can be sure to increase online donations and even reoccurring monthly donations.

With all this in mind we realize many nonprofits lack the funding, budget, and staff to effectively increase their online marketing. There are great programs to help charities, including Google Grants, which could help you to new heights in your charity with Google donating ad spend to qualified organizations.

Here are Right Meow Digitals top 10 Nonprofit Marketing Strategy Tips in no particular order, yes they are all important.

1) Promote user-generated content campaigns

User-generated content (UGC) is simply having your users and fans create content for you. It empowers your users to craft content for your charity to help spread the message in their own words. And as they are making the content themselves it saves your non profit time and money. 92% of consumers trust recommendations from friends and family over other forms of advertising.

The ideas are endless when it comes to what to ask your users to generate for you. It can be asking for a short Youtube video on why they love your mission, the impact your organization has had on them, or it could be fun images like “Christmas out logo” or “Spookify our logo” where users use photo editing tools to add a splash of the holidays to your logo, or even a selfie with an item representing your non-profit or holding the email saying thanks for contributing.

You could even test the waters of boosting your reach by running monthly contests where the user who generates the most views etc is listed on your site as the Charities Ambassador of the month. People love recognition, especially for doing something good for an organization they care deeply about.

2) Know Your Donors

Knowing your donors is no different than knowing your customers on the for-profit side of things. To effectively market your mission you have to know who the people who donate to you are, otherwise how will you market effectively to them? Dive into the persona of the person who donates and understand what inspires them, what motivates them, etc. and use this information to help guide your content.

3) Tell your story and mission visually

Telling your story and mission is important and is what will help create emotional connections with your potential donors. This should not only be blog posts and social media posts but also videos, images, memes, graphics etc. According to Hubspot visuals are processed by the brain 60,000 times faster than simple text.

One easy way to get started with video is to ask your volunteers, staff, and fundraisers to make 1-2 minute testimonial videos on why they love your organization and the impact it’s having or could have. You don’t have to break the bank creating these videos either. To start simply using a cell phone or video camera in a quiet well lit room will work just fine!

4) Stay in contact with your subscribers AND donors

You should be using email drip campaigns, email blasts, text messaging, and even hand written letters to stay in touch with your donors and subscribers. As the data suggests 73% of donors only donate one time. Staying constantly on your donors minds and informing them of the good their donations do is a great way to boost people donating more than once to your charity organization.

But pay attention to who you’re emailing or texting. You shouldn’t be sending the same email every time to a person who simply signed up to your list verses someone who is already a monthly donor. While of course these email blasts and texting blasts to everyone have their place you should also segment your list so you’re communicating the right message to each subscriber.

Set up an automatic “New Subscriber” email campaign. According to Mailchimp 88% of organizations don’t send ANY welcome emails and 37% don’t send a single email to subscribers in the first 30 days. People are the most highly engaged with your mission right after the sign up so don’t miss out and let their engagement and passion drop off by not sending them a welcome campaign.

You should also have campaigns to previous donors who haven’t donating in x amount of days, and test having early birthday campaigns where you remind the subscriber of your charity and that for their birthday they can ask friends to donate to your organization on facebook, which is gaining in popularity.

Also the pen is strong in the digital age. Not printing that looks like handwriting (yes we can all tell) and not printing a letter where someone simply fills in the name by hand. Writing a quick thank you card to your donors can really draw them in, make a lasting impression, increase loyalty, and increase donor retention. These can be simple where you set aside a little time each week for your volunteers and staff to hand write thank you cards to mail out.

5) Make sure you donation page is branded

We all know branding matters. The data suggestions especially when it comes to charity donation pages. Data shows that a branded donation page versus a standard non branded page raises nearly $15,000 more and collects 5 times more gifts.

Be sure to utilize the same or similar copy and images used in your email requests, social media requests, etc. Crafting a branded donation page that matches the look and feel of the marketing material used to get the user to the donation page creates a seamless donor experience and helps sustain their engagement and emotional connection while filling out their donation info.

6) Test, test, test.

Testing is important in all forms of marketing. It is the easiest to test digitally. When you find a campaign that is working you should try some A/B tests to see if changing a few words, the color, an image, a video, etc increases or decreases your goals. It is important to remember to only test 1 small change at a time so that you can confidently connect the test to a specific area of your messaging.

7) Keep everyone updated

As a non-profit charity you need donors. Making it very clear to the world how your donations are used, your financial information, and any progress in certain drives is vital. Never try to hide any of this information and make it super easy for everyone to find. The problem with financial statements and the reports made from them, is that they are ugly, wordy, and normally written in words not used by the majority of your donors. Obviously make these boring reports available but also use the information contained in them to make jaw dropping, or at least easy to digest, visual images. He easier your info is to digest the better conversions you will have.

You can utilize something that everyone is familiar with like a report card to update quarterly, or a paint by number partly filled in representing the progress of a special campaign, and even super easy to understand pie charts. The easier to understand and the more visualizing appealing data has a much better chance of being shared by your subscribers and donors.

8) Have a marketing plan for your nonprofit

Marketing plans aren’t just for large fundraising, franchisee marketing, or start up non profits. Having a simple but documented marketing plan helps keep the entire organization, board members, staff, and volunteers, on the same page working towards the same goal. We know creating a marketing plan sounds like one of the most boring and time consuming task you can do when you have a million other things that need to be done. But taking a few hours out of your day and creating even a simple 1 page plan will certainly pay for itself, saving hours and hours of wasted efforts and split efforts working towards different goals.

9) Social Media

Get on social media. Let your trusted volunteers and staff post on your social media accounts utilizing your non-profit charity marketing plan. This helps your social media stay constantly updated and your donors updated on the behind the scenes with no additional payroll funding needed.

On your Facebook page make sure you get and use the “Donate Now” button. While simple it is often overlooked but it gives your visitors a super easy to see and understand call to action. Also utilize live streaming when possible, like behind the scenes at events, or setting up an office etc. Facebook live videos get 6 times the interactions as a standard Facebook video.

Keep your Instagram posts and stories flowing. While many complain that instagram stories are just Snapchat for Instagram, the data paints a different story. Instagram stories have over 400 million users day, more than double Snapchats entire platform.

Consider hosting live Twitter chats where you allow users to ask questions while you answer in real time, whether it’s from a certain member of the organization, or a celebrity endorser, thi can be a great way to spread your message across Twitter.

In all social media remember to use Hashtags! Hashtags are how your posts are found by new people that may have never heard of you before. Use hashtags that are more generalized in addition to your specific organization hashtags (if you have any) This allows for a broader reach. And as all things in marketing make sure the hashtags connect to what you are posting and test using different hashtags.

Try to reach out to local social media influencers (micro-influencers) to your cause. Tagging, tweeting, or emailing are great ways to grab the attention of a local social media influencer and let them know you would love to talk to them and why you think your organization aligns with what they are doing.

10) Apply for Google for Nonprofits

Google for Nonprofits are a set of Google tools that nonprofits who qualify can apply for and use free of charge. They include:

Google Ad Grants, Youtube Nonprofit Program, G Suite for Nonprofits, Google Earth Outreach, and  Google One Today. With these platforms your organization can have access to unlimited email addresses, video chats, advertising money, special Youtube cards for your videos, fundraising, mobile apps, and visualization and mapping of your supporters and your charity's impact.

If you need further help with marketing for your non-profit charity click here to discuss Google Grants management.