#10 points to whoever knows the refs
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doodles from earlier today
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Imagine Me&You...
I legit lost the post that gave me this idea. I thought I had liked it since it was from a user I don't follow, but alas! I cannot find it. So, whoever it was pleading to Tim for like this dream/alternate universe thing, while I am not a 911 writer or show runner, I wrote a thing, cause I had to. If you don't like that I wrote a thing, send me a message and I'll take it down. Otherwise, I hope you find this, and I can tag you properly to thank your mind :)
This is not Buck's room. Buck has no idea whose room this is or how he got there. The last memory he has is the fire from their last call, and the flames eating away at everything. He remembers Eddie yelling that the beam above them was about give way, and given the dull ache underneath his skull and the veil of fog around his brain, Buck is pretty sure that when it did, it hit him square in the head. Hard too.
So, Hen probably insisted they bring him to the hospital, while Chim half joked that a hit that hard wouldn’t make much of a difference, and then when he was released someone brought him here - wherever the hell that is.
He sits up and tries to find something he recognizes within the sea salt walls, and colonial blue sheets, but nothing looks familiar, and it’s starting to make him feel a little bit nervous.
A prism of color caught in a sliver of dawning sunlight catches his attention to a frame on top of a heavy wooden dresser on the other side of the room. He pulls back the covers and pads over to it, but just like everything else he has no idea what he’s really looking at. It’s him and it’s Eddie, and they’re dressed in suits and there’s a Christmas tree in the background, and god, Buck doesn’t think he’s ever seen either of them look as happy as they do, standing there holding hands.
Wait - is that? Buck squints closer to the picture to see if he’s seeing what he thinks he’s seeing when a glint of something else catches his eye again, and he finds a silver band sitting lonely in a small, wooden bowl. He rolls it between his fingertips; it’s clean, save for a few worn down scratches, and when he slips it onto his finger, it’s warped to a perfect fit. This is his ring.
Why the hell does he have a wedding ring?
Why is this picture of him and Eddie in this bedroom?
Who’s bedroom even is it?
“Hey, you’re awake,” Eddie’s soft voice breaks through Buck’s racing thoughts instantly bringing him peace, “I was starting to get worried.”
“H-how long was I asleep?” Buck asks, and he’s comically thankful when he opens his mouth and his voice still sounds like him.
“Almost twenty hours now. Your vitals were fine though, so I just let you sleep it off.”
“You checked my vitals?”
Eddie laughs, and he’s closer now, “of course,” he answers, his breath ghosting Buck’s ear as he wraps his arms around Buck’s waist and presses a gentle kiss to his temple. It’s completely wrong, but feels absolutely right, and Buck closes his eyes to the moment.
“and I’d really appreciate it if you stopped getting hurt,” Eddie adds.
“I’ll uh- I’ll try.”
“Good. Are you up to helping me with breakfast? The kids will be up soon and Christopher still hasn’t forgiven me for burning the french toast last weekend.”
“Yea, sure.”
Buck shivers when Eddie lets go. He finally turns away from the dresser to try and look at him, but the curtains are still drawn and there isn’t enough light to make out much more than his silhouette as he watches him walk out of the room, and hold up - did Eddie say kids?
Buck is met with a sage colored wall full of photographs as he follows out of the bedroom; the years he missed when Christopher was a baby with Eddie and Shannon, more recent photos of him at the beach with the two of them, and then another baby he doesn’t recognize, but knows he should. He runs his finger along the cool glass of himself holding this strange, tiny baby wrapped up in hospital blankets and a lilac hat.
“You coming?” Eddie asks from the end of the hallway.
“Yea,” Buck answers.
“What is with you and the pictures today?”
“Just re-orientating myself, I guess.”
Eddie saunters back toward Buck, their shoulders hitting agaist each other, “well, here’s a little refresher for you then; that’s you, that’s me -your husband in case you forgot - our son, Christopher, and our daughter, Nicole.”
“When did we get married?” Buck blurts out.
“How hard did you hit your head? Maybe I should take you back to the hospital.”
“No, I’m fine. Just a little fuzzy.”
Eddie sighs and takes Buck by the wrist to even more photos on the mantel of a stone fireplace. He points to one in the middle that has them both in the same suits in front of the same set of palm trees as the one in the bedroom, only instead of holding hands, Buck is kissing Eddie on the cheek while Eddie feigns a look of disgust.
“June 10, 2020,” Eddie tells him, “best day of my life. Even in the middle of a global pandemic.”
“I think it was mine too,” Buck says, and he’s caught off guard when Eddie kisses him again, this time catching Buck’s lips with his, and whispering, “I love you” when he lets them go.
“I love you too,” Buck says back, and he never even knew until now just how true it was.
Maybe it’s a dream or a hallucination. Maybe he’s in a coma, or hell, maybe he’s dead, but Buck slips into this slightly different, but wonderful world where he wakes up and makes his family breakfast, soothes his baby daughter when she falls wobbling to a plush dalmatian wearing a fire hat. This world where he talks Christopher to soccer practice because Eddie has been banned from arguing with the ref too many times, and then he walks down the aisles of Home Depot holding his husband’s hand before they all go to Buffriday at Maddie and Chim’s where his kids play with his niece, and they go back home to watch a movie with Christopher while Eddie rocks Nicole to sleep singing her an off key lullaby.
And with the kids asleep, and the house mostly picked up, Buck lets Eddie kiss his throat and paw underneath his t-shirt until he suggests they take a shower, and Buck agree without a second thought.
His skin burns before he even steps foot underneath the hot spray, and he knows it isn’t real as he slips his hands over Eddie’s naked, soapy body, so he kisses him hard and fast afraid that any moment he might crash back into his reality.
Which, he knows he’s going to have to eventually, but he vows, right there on his knees, that when he does, he’s going to everything he can to make this world the real one.
Clean, exhausted, and coming down from the high of one another, they climb into the bed and curl close like their rings nestled in the bowl on the dresser.
“This was a good day,” Buck muses.
“Everyday is good when it’s us.”
Buck laughs, “you’re so corny.”
“But you love me anyway.”
“I love you anyway.”
“Goodnight, Evan.”
“Goodnight, Eddie.”
#911 fox#buddie#buddie fic#alternate world#married#fluffy#long#sorry about that#but also not sorry#@clearlyivemadesomebaddecisions#Found you!#Thanks to @justsmilestuffhappens!
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Set Up My Heart Pt. 9
PT.8 - PT.9 - PT. 10
College volleyball player!Johnny Suh x reader
Rivals-to-lovers
Fluff and angst
Synopsis: Ever since that fateful day Sophomore year of high school, Johnny Suh had been an insufferable thorn in your side. Once you made it to college you thought the two of you would never have to see each other again. That is, until a sudden school transfer has the entire university buzzing.
Warnings!!!: Mentioned divorce and adult topics. Some strong language. Please don’t read if any of these make you uncomfortable or may be detrimental to you.
~~
We’ve been seeing Y/n’s story in college, but how did she and Johnny become so combative with each other? Will Johnny’s high school story tell all?
Second half to Johnny’s side of the story.
~~
“Nervous?” Johnny asked as he leaned over the wall separating the court from the bleachers.
Y/n grunted as she continued warming up, “Why would I be nervous?” A ball flew her direction as the opposite team started on warm up drills. She swatted it back toward the girl who chased after it. “I’ve been to a state championship before."
Johnny shrugged, "But with a completely different team, with a completely different record. Plus, this time you’re going against said team."
Y/n set the ball to herself as she mulled over Johnny’s words. Johnny couldn’t help but watch her. If they asked him, she was the strongest player on the team. A true all team player. It wouldn’t matter where they placed her, Y/n would thrive in any position, "I don’t think that’s going to be a downfall for us. If anything, that makes me more confident.”
“Oh,” Johnny raised an eyebrow.
Y/n grinned, “I may have moved schools, but they didn’t change teams.” She gave him a slight wave as her coach called everyone in. He sighed as she ran away. He had full confidence in the team, but something didn’t sit right with him. Why were you so confident? Did you know something about RVHS that maybe no one else did?
Johnny watched as the RVHS team sent looks to his school’s team. More importantly, he noticed that the glances landed on Y/n a majority of the time.
“It’s going to be an interesting match,” Kun slid into the seat next to him. “RVHS has been undefeated for the past 3 years.”
“They are a foundationally strong team,” Johnny nods as he watches the teams serving balls across the net. “But they don’t take risks. They only play well because the opposing team plays well.”
“Meaning,” Kun handed a camera over to Johnny.
“Meaning, that when they come across a team that doesn’t always play to perfection,” he took a picture of the net trying to focus the camera correctly. “They can’t make strong plays, which then leads them to not being able to convert points."
"So,” Kun hesitated. He tapped his pen against the notebook sitting in his lap as he watched the court. “We actually have a chance at winning.” Johnny nodded his camera clicking. “All because we play less fundamentally?"
"Not just because of that,” Johnny flipped through the pictures he’d taken. “but also because we are able to take fundamentals and convert them into scrappy plays."
"What? How?” Kun furrowed his eyes at Johnny. Johnny set his camera on Kun’s lap shrugging before standing and stating he was going to the bathroom. Kun looked down to see a picture of Y/n shining up at him. She smiled at the camera through the net. He grabbed the piece of paper sitting on the bench next to him. If they were going to win, then everyone was going to want to know about the prodigy that is, Y/n.
~~
He held his breath as the ball came down the side of the net. The setter lunged for it getting it in the air so the libero could set it to the outside hitter. Johnny felt a little disgruntled. The play was messy, but in a way that could have worked to the team’s much needed advantage. Had they set it up for Y/n or the libero to kill there is a higher chance that they would have won the point. Instead, the volley continued.
The fourth set of the match had Johnny on edge. He could see the tension stirring through both teams. RVHD had won the second and third set, but SJHS had won the first and now had a two point lead and was about to take the fourth. Johnny had watched the entire time trying to write down and follow plays as well as take some shots. RVHS was playing just how he thought they would. With precision and not taking unnecessary risks. It seems that SJHS was following their lead, and it wasn’t working greatly for their benefit. A cheer went up from his bench as SJHS scored the final point. Johnny cheered as he watched the score change and teams switch courts. Whoever won this set was going to be named state champions.
Johnny glanced over at Kun staring at the court, “It’s going to be a miracle if we pull this off.” He scratched a note onto the paper sitting in his lap.
“There’s still a chance,” Johnny noted. “If we can take this set then we win.”
“What are the chances we take this set?”
He watched as the team captains were called back to the refs stand. The clock read 3 minutes before the next set. “If we start playing like we should then,” Johnny plopped down in his seat, “If we were playing to our ability and strengths, we would actually have a chance of winning. It doesn’t look like that’s going to happen.” He watched as the teams settled on their respective sides of the court. Johnny trailed off and the stands went quiet as RVHS’s setter served the ball. “They are really going to have to find something deep down inside of them, fast. Skills alone are not going to allow them to win.” He scoffed as RVHS put a second point on the board.
Kun shrugged his eyes not glancing away from the court, “It’s hard to believe that we could come so far after all the years of never even making it to the final tournament.” He tapped his fingers on the bench watching as SJHS scored a point and was finally moving up on the scoreboard.
Johnny narrowed his eyes, “Are you feeling okay?” He tilted his head trying to get a clear view of Kun’s face.
“Yeah, why,” Kun jolted as Johnny came into his line of view.
Johnny shrugged, “You just seem a little jittery. Is the game that exciting to you?” Johnny glanced at the court noticing that SJHS had caught up to RVHS at 5 points for each team.
Kun crossed his arms across his chest, “I’m just trying to figure out how we got this far. Just because we got Y/n L/n? She is a great player, but a team is only as strong as their weakest player. So it doesn’t make sense. Plus, nobody even knows why she transferred here.”
Johnny frowned at him, “At this point, I don’t think that matters right now.” He couldn’t help the way his words came out harsh and short, “Y/n has obviously become a big part of the team and pretty much everyone at school likes her.”
“I didn’t say that she wasn’t,” Kun hissed. “I’m just saying it’s weird.” He rolled his eyes, “Let’s just watch the game.”
Johnny let out an exasperated sigh and tried to focus on the game. The teams were in a 30 second timeout and Johnny could see the heated discussion coming from SJHS’s bench. Y/n had her hands on her hips listening as the coach was waving his clipboard around. The ref blew the whistle as the time out ended and the teams were back on the court. Johnny narrowed his eyes as he watched Y/n say something to the setter. The setter looked confused and apprehensive, but nodded along to whatever she said. Johnny felt himself getting antsy as the ball was served to the other side of the net. With a score of 10 to 11, there was desperation to make up those points and win this set.
He held his breath as the opposing teams setter dove for the ball but missed it as it hit the outside line. SJHS only needed 5 more points to go to take the set and win the state championships. He would be lying if he said that he wasn’t surprised that the next 2 points came easy. RVHS had seemed to give up. They were not moving as fast and they hesitated before making an attack. Another point was scored off a deep float server, and excitement rose in his chest, they were going to win this set, they were going to win the State Championship.
The ball flew over the net and the opposing team finally made an attack. Y/n dived for the ball and watched as it shanked away from the setter. Johnny pulled his bottom lip between his teeth as the outside hitter set the ball up to the center of the front row. The outside and opposite attackers jumped at the net as the setter hit the ball over the net. The other team scrambled as it shot towards them, landing at the corner before bouncing out of the court. Johnny was on his feet as he listened to the ref announce game point. He watched as the setter moved to serve the next ball. It flew over the net with precision, but instead of landing on the floor or shanking off an arm. RVHS’s libero delivered the served ball directly to their setter. The middle hitter was in the air before the ball left the setter’s hands and they sent the ball over the net, trying to convert the point.
SJHS’s opposite hitter dove for the ball as it clipped the tips of the blockers fingers. “It’s up. Go ten!” Y/n backed up the court as the setter drove the ball to the middle of the court.
Johnny’s breath caught as she jumped through the air. The ball connected with her palm before shooting back across the net. The team dove for the ball putting it up in the air before the SJHS defense sent it down just out of reach of RVHS’s front row.
Johnny jumped up with a cheer as the ref called the point and the teams dispersed. He watched as the teams shook hands before turning to cheer or slouch back to their locker rooms. He grabbed his camera snapping pictures of the excited team. His lens landed on Y/n as a teammate scooped her up in a hug. He could help but grin at the sight as his camera clicked. Her eyes looked up and again her gaze caught his through the lens. Johnny snapped another picture before pulling the camera down and sending her a thumbs up. She smiled at him before jerking her back head towards the locker room. She gave a motion that said 15 minutes and he nodded in agreement.
“Well this was unexpected,” He couldn’t stop smiling as he turned to where Kun was sitting. He froze as he noticed Kun, along with all of his stuff, was gone. “Kun?” He glanced around the stands not seeing the shorter boy anywhere. Gathering his things he rushed out of the gym and down the hall. He wandered the halls for 5 minutes before moving back towards the locker rooms.
Voices met his ears as he turned the corner to the back hallway. “Her parents were going through a nasty divorce. She was talking to lawyers every week, sometimes multiple times a week. Her mother was the one making all the money. Her dad was laid off from his job and spent all her mom made on alcohol and porn.” Johnny’s eyes widened as he saw Kun standing across from a shorter girl. Her hands dropped to rest on her hips the letters RVHS flashed down the dim hall. “Her mom got custody and the two of them moved here to get away from her dad.”
Kun nodded as he scribbled down words on his pad of paper, “That’s it? What about Y/n’s volleyball career? Did any of this affect the season last year.” Johnny leaned closer as Kun’s voice dropped off.
“None that I know of. Y/n was always a private person. She never spoke to us about her home life. I don’t even think she had very close friends,” the girl sighed obviously done with the conversation. “It doesn’t really matter. Ask her about it if you’re so curious. Make sure you don’t mention my name.”
“Of course,” Kun closed the notepad. “Thanks for your time.” she gave him a nod before turning into a room behind her. Kun sighed and walked down the hall towards Johnny. “Oh,” he stopped as he came face-to-face with Johnny. “Hey, going to get some comments from the team?”
“Yup,” Johnny fiddled with his camera. “It should only take a few minutes.” Kun nodded before stepping around him.
“Great try to get your articles to me by Monday evening so we can release them on Wednesday.” Kun called from his place down the hall.
Johnny sat outside the room. He could hear laughter and excitement from inside the room. He heard the door click before it was pulled open and laughter spilled into the hall. “I thought you said 15 minutes?” He teased as he stood from the bench watching as Y/n slipped out of the room. He glanced down at his watch, “It’s been 17 minutes.”
“I’m sorry that you can’t be patient,” she grinned at him as she combed a hand through her hair.
Johnny smiled back as he pulled out his small pad of paper, “I’m on a tight schedule. You see, I have to interview this girl that just led her team to their first state championship in over 5 years. I don’t see why it’s so important but.”
“Get on with it, Suh,” you give him a light shove before sitting on the bench he had just stood from. “What do you need to pick my brain about?”
“You were great out there,” he threw her a smile before clicking his pen and resting the tip on the paper. “I just need some remarks on the game.”
Y/n leaned back against the wall, her head tipped sideways to watch him write, “I’m really proud of the team first of all. We worked really hard this year to make it to the state championships. I am so lucky to know all of them and to be able to grow with them. Every team is unique and has their own stories and personalities. I am blessed to have such an open and welcoming community with these girls. Initially we did not fit together very well. Coming from a team that is very fundamentally based to a team that really does play to have fun was such a big change. I didn’t enjoy it at first, it was all so new, but the team really helped me out!”
Johnny nodded along as he tried to jot down her words as she spoke them, “Great! And then do you have anything to say about the tournament or the game?”
“I really loved playing all these great teams. They all worked so hard and played so well. I look forward to competing against them again.” She smiled at Johnny as his hair flopped in his eyes. Johnny would have never thought that having to write for the school paper sport section would make you two closer. Both had been skeptical when Johnny started to follow the team around to games, but the two found that it worked to their favor as they started to work on Chemistry together and eventually other classes. Johnny helped Y/n with english, while Y/n carried his geometry grade. The two fell into a rhythm outside of school, but in school, peers would think the two hated each other. “My dad tried to call again.” Her voice changed tones. It went from happy to timid. “He left a message saying that he wanted to see me and congratulate me on the state championship.”
Johnny closed his notepad, “Would you like some advice? Do you need me to talk to him?”
She shook her head, “Just sit here until the team comes out.” Johnny nodded leaning back to rest beside her.
~~
“ With a Successful Season, Volleyball Prodigy Turns Out to be a Fraud” by Qian Kun and Johnny Suh
Johnny had to reread the sentence over and over again. “What the hell is this.” He turned sharply to the editor sitting at the large table sitting at the front of the computer lab. “I never allowed you to put my name on this.”
Kun glanced up to peer at Johnny’s screen, “Oh we were running out of room on the sports page. Between your article on the volleyball tournament, Wooyoung’s on the soccer tournament, and my own summarizing the two seasons we had to condense. So we took bits and pieces from each article and made four articles. Two on the tournaments and two on the season summary. So some of your articles replaced mine.”
“But why didn’t you tell me,” Johnny pleaded with him. “And how did you even come to this conclusion. Absolutely nothing I said ever pointed to that and I didn’t give you permission!” Johnny could feel his face heating up as spoke to Kun’s uncaring figure.
Kun glanced at him through the glasses perched on his nose, “Johnny, this story is what the paper needs. It’ll get people reading and we can get permission to do the paper again next year. I thought you of all people would want this.” He sighed as he shuffled a couple papers next to the computer screen, “Besides the teacher approved it. If they thought that it wasn’t okay they would have said something.”
“Kun,” Johnny threw his hands up. “We both know that they don’t care about the student body. They are just trying to look out for themselves. If this comes back to bite us, you know they will throw us under the bus.”
Kun didn’t look up at him, “That’s not going to happen.”
“We are spreading false reports.”
“No, we are telling people the truth.”
“About someone’s private, personal life. We can’t do that, Kun. She never agreed to sharing that information.
“She did,” Kun gave Johnny a once over. “She shouldn’t have told a reporter her secrets if she didn’t want them told. It’s our job to find the skeletons hiding in people’s closets.”
“I can’t believe you,” Johnny spun as he heard the small voice. Y/n stood in the doorway to the lab her phone clutched to her chest. Her eyes shone with unshed tears, “You were using me for some shitty story in a HS paper.” Her face darkened as she stormed into the room, “I trusted you. I told you things that no one else in this school knew, and you turned and blabbed it for the entire school to see.”
“Y/n I never-”
“Save it,” she held a hand up. “You’ve said your piece. You’ve said what you think loud and clear. You twisted my words. Made me sound like a stuck up bitch. ‘Y/n spoke briefly on the season stating, “Every team is unique and has their own stories and personalities. Initially we did not fit together very well. Coming from a team that is very fundamentally based to a team that really plays to have fun was such a big change. I didn’t enjoy it.” Y/n showed contempt for her teammates and school as a result of her parents recent splitting and her forced departure from RVHS.’ Believe me I get the message.” A tear slipped down her cheek, “I hope your happy and you get whatever fucking promtion this article was for.” Johnny reached for her arm as she pulled away from him. “Don’t you dare.” She sent a glare at him before turning out of the room and storming down the hall.
Sadness and anger coursed through Johnny as he turned to Kun, “Take my name off of that article, now.” Kun rolled his eyes as he watched Johnny race out of the room after Y/n.
Jonny had almost caught up to her when a group of his teammates stopped him. They had agreed to a friendly tournament against the girls volleyball team. They said that the competition would be fun and that it would boost student morale. Johnny didn’t feel convinced and he tried to listen as they told him about other events they were trying to set up. He glanced around trying to find Y/n, but she had disappeared and so did his chance to make things right.
~~
The cafeteria was busy the next week as the school buzzed with gossip, drama, and the upcoming student council events. Johnny was trying to weave his way through crowds of students as he searched for the table his friends were sitting at. As he caught sight of them he felt a body run into his as his tray flew up landing square in his chest.
“Oh, I’m so sorry,” Johnny looked up into the eyes he had been wanting to see all week. Y/n stood in front of him, hands raised with napkins sitting in them. Her eyes hardened as she realized who she ran into. “Here,” she shoved the napkins into his hand before spinning on her heel and walking away.
Johnny followed after her, “Wait, Y/n, can you let me explain.”
“Explain what, Johnny?” She turned to him, fire in her eyes, “Why you used my story for your personal gain? Why you let me think that you actually enjoyed being around me? Why everything I told you in confidentiality was just stewing for the enjoyment of our peers? Why you let me start to like you?” Johnny gaped at her as she yelled at him. “I don’t want to hear excuses. I don’t want to hear an explanation from you. Any respect I had for you, is gone.”
Johnny felt anger course through him as she spewed words at him. She never let him speak. She thought she knew what was going on, but she didn’t. He did not work so hard to get Kun to let him release a new article refuting the previous statements, for her to yell at him and doubt his actions towards her. “You’re right. You won’t listen so I won’t talk. We’ll just forget all about everything that happened before. You are a stranger to me.” His voice was cold and his words clipped.
“Perfect,” he could see her walls grow higher and higher. She turned away from him and stepped up to her own table. “Just so you know,” she turned to look at the food staining his shirt. “Food isn’t a good look for you.” Johnny scowled as she rolled her eyes and turned to her table of friends. He brushed the food off his chest before turning away from the table, turning away from Y/n. If she didn’t want to listen to him, he was done trying to make her. His heart gave a tug as he glanced back and she stared back at him, but instead of her face falling into a small smile it tightened into a familiar glare.
~~
@beyond-gethsemane, @lanadreamie, @michplusb @qianinterprises @stayctday @jaxminskale @infnteen @nanascupid
~~
*Reposted from previous blog*
#johnny scenarios#nct scenarios#nct 127 scenarios#johnny fluff#johnny angst#johnny x reader#johnny suh
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I’m really intrigued by Rayla’s moonshadow assassin peers. I especially am interested in Andromeda because I think she is the only other girl in the group? Do you have any headcanons in how these teen/young adult assassins interacted? Do you think Rayla isolated herself from them because she was always iffy about taking a life? Also TDP finally colored their map and I know you live maps, find any new cool stuff? I especially love how there’s a frozen sea north and a spinning sea south, imagine the powerful Magic’s that channeled to make them.
Okay, so I jumped straight to the map, did 80% of it, and wandered away for a few weeks. I apologize, anon. Let’s get this going again:
I’ve got a few headcanons on the Moonshadow assassins! It seems likely that they hang out mostly with each other, when they hang out, to reinforce their teambuilding and to give them some socialization, since assassins tend to keep others at arm’s length. So I kinda figure they tend to roam as a pack on their evenings out in the village, if they’re not married to a non-assassin like Runaan is.
I think that could be part of the reason that Rayla might not have hung out with the others as much, too: Runaan wanted to be either training or at home with Ethari, so Rayla probably spent a lot of time doing those things just because he did them. And when Runaan was doing more serious training or missions, that’s when Rayla had her free time to run around the forest and make adoraburr friends.
Runaan could’ve probably insisted that she do something more assassiny with her free time. Shadow an assassin, do more studying, practice certain prescribed skills on her own. But he didn’t. He let her play. Soft assassin is soft!
Listen, anon, I have a fun headcanon for you about Andromeda--and by fun, I mean it’s really angsty half a second after you start thinking about it. Ready?
What if: Andromeda is Runaan’s half-sister. If they’re both Lujanne’s children by different assassin dads who kept dying in battle, but a Moon mage needs an assassin leader partner to defend Xadia with, and Lujanne knew her son Runaan wasn’t old enough to lead yet, so she burned through three or more husbands protecting him until Runaan was well trained enough to lead the assassins himself and had fallen in love with a mage who adored him and would be his partner in her place.
Andromeda looks a fair bit like Lujanne, too:
Along with Runaan, they all have long hair, side tails bound in silver cuffs, and some form of braids. Andromeda’s hair is sectioned in front similarly to Runaan’s. Her accent sounds more British than Scottish, though she only has the one line: My eyes for truth. And Lujanne and Andromeda are the only two Moonshadow elves we’ve met who have medium blue horns, while Runaan’s are dark blue. Almost everyone else’s horns have purple or pink as their base color.
But then, see, Andromeda went on Runaan’s mission, and she died. Her spirit was the most aggressive in TTM, usually closest to Rayla with her sword out, as if she hated Rayla the most. If she had a vested family interest in Runaan’s mission succeeding, and then it went pear-shaped because of Rayla, that would make sense.
No matter if she’s related to Runaan or not, she’s wearing horn cuffs, so she was in a dedicated relationship of some kind, and that’s so sad. Someone’s missing her the way Ethari’s missing Runaan. :’((((
Anyway, it’s just a headcanon, but since you asked, there ya go.
Okay, on to my thoughts on the map, of which I have a normal and healthy amount:
The Map Border:
Everyone doodles in the borders. I love to see what they put there.
Starting in the upper left and going counter-clockwise, the five human crowns are cool
Cornucopia swirls center left look like an homage to Cabbage Man from ATLA
Bait is staring at Evenere. his home? Or maybe he just wants to eat the dragonfly on its logo
Human defender has a beard. Hairagorn. He's very heavily armored but has no helmet. Long hair is braided to rest on front of shoulder, like the blond elf in the painting at the Moon Nexus. Old timey hairstyle?
He’s defending Katolis Castle specifically. I wonder if the little white building is kinda random or if it’s supposed to represent the Banther Lodge. Nah, I have a better guess: that’s where Viren grew up
The crack in the map looks meta. It's been repaired somewhat. Makes me wonder if it's an in-world map, whose, who ripped it, and who fixed it. Sir Phineas Kurst seems like the kind of guy to almost shred his really cool map
The star behind Zym's egg has seven points
The two ships on the southern waters are western and eastern respectively. Tidebound elves from Singapore? Jack Sparrow would be proud
There is land just south of the Dragontail, wonder what’s there?
The leaves around the human figure are small and numerous while the Moonshadow elf has fewer but bigger leaves
The elf is standing in the way of one of the six leaves growing out of the rune rose and that leaf's curly tip seems to have been replaced with a curl of the elf's very long hair
The human pose is more offense and the elf pose is more defense. But the elf has two swords, and one has some wicked hooks in it.
Elf has 4 fingers instead of 3 so whether it’s in-universe or meta, they were drawn by a human :DDD
The elf's braid winds around their horn and I think that's clever
High collar shirt under protective layer, bracers and elbow gloves, bare biceps, complex shoulder getup, ornate hair that's butt long and partly braided, two long slightly curving swords... horn cuffs too. This is a Moonshadow assassin in the same gear Runaan's got, poised to defend the Xadian half of the map as the human is poised to defend his side
The rune rose isn't a compass. It has a two sided pointer and six primal runes. Just decorative I guess. ;)
More lettuces on right center.
Maybe a portaling caterpillar on the center knot? Little bug pal, I see you
“The Five Human Kingdoms” lettered in red, “Xadia” in blue. Giving me Stratego flashbacks. Even the flowers on their banners are color coded
Banners in the corners are similar but Xadia has more fluttery tips
Thunder drawn all attacky top center, does he have anything to do with the Frozen Sea being frozen?
Compass rose under Thunder’s wing
Dick island near the compass. Well, Duren is the breadbasket of the human lands. A most excellent cartography joke! 10/10 would chortle wholesomely again
The Human Kingdoms:
Neolandia
Capital Eboreus seems to be a lake city below a mountain and I'm here for all the Lake Town refs.
It's also the eye of the elephant shape
Not a lot of trees, mostly grasses or desert. Only borders Duren across a couple rivers/estuaries/sea channels
Heart shaped island next to elephant trunk
Land generally broken into several sections by sea/rivers
If it’s rivers, they seem to generate from the capital’s lake and flow in several directions. And they say there’s no magic left in the western lands! ;)
But if there was exactly one source of freshwater in a desert land, it makes sense that you’d find a way, magical or mechanical, to spread that lifegiving water in as many directions as possible so your people can thrive so kudos to Neolandia’s ancestors/Tidebound elves/whoever managed that, it’s brilliant
I can and will make up explanations for anything on a map. I adore worldbuilding
Del Bar
Two named locations. Since Del Bar’s national symbol is a serpent, I guess Serpentongue is the capital.
Hinterpeak is a sweet name. Looks like Helm's Deep with that retaining wall. What’s it for? Are there dwarves in this land? Is it an Earthblood stronghold? Maybe it’s like the Mines of Moria, and the Earthbloods were chased out and/or killed inside and now it’s full of nasty orcses but someone left a MacGuffin down there so *nudges hero* Off you pop.
Nice forests around the southern mountain range but northern DB is more arid or grassy lands like Neolandia.
Considering that crops grow well in Duren, which is farther north, I assume there is a massive meteorological gyre over the human lands, with a southern wind blowing down over the western realms and keeping them icy until the mountains of Hinterpeak block and divert them, protecting Evenere. The winds don't blow eastward without warming right up-- and causing thunderstorms in Katolis how about that-- because there is a warmer side to the gyre over Katolis and Duren, blowing tropical warmth and moisture north and providing rain for trees and crops alike. Most years, anyway.
How does the weather fail in Duren for seven years in a row, anyway? That seems like a Thunder issue. Unless it’s a Sunforge issue, which I’ll get to below.
Ahem.
Borders Neolandia, Duren, and Katolis across rivers, but most border is coastline.
Serpentongue probably got its name from the two river heads around it
Cluster of dead little cracks spawns a single river. Looks like someone cracked the tub and it drained away. I wonder how much of this landscape has been affected by the Mage Wars. Big watery basins have flooded and other spots seem dead. The lands may or may not actually touch depending on how deep some of these waterways are
Evenere
Looks like someone punched holes in the land with a giant pencil to make it a separate island. Broken outline with scattered islands
That Pawprint Isles has only four toes
Moon-shaped island is very crescenty indeed
Are these isles home to refugees or outcasts from Xadia? Listen, I want pirates and that sea looks pretty Caribbean to me
No capital city, hmmm what's that about? Is it underground, does it move? Maybe Fareeda’s capital is on the back of a world turtle and she’s constantly on tour around the island?
That arm of land ending in a peace sign, please can we get surfers
The hills emanating from that claw shaped headland look like something is sleeping under the island, hello yes I am here for giant immortal creatures please
Katolis
its capital is also called Katolis, the only human realm to use the same name twice
Weeping Bay could be a ref to the tears the humans shed after they reached the west. Or the Moonshadow elves as they left their forest for the east. Or both. Both, in this case, is bad but balanced
Boomerang island next to the Dragontail
The river the Dragaang rode on was going uphill
The watery slash in the land between Katolis and Del Bar is awfully straight. So is the one between Del Bar and Neolandia. I call magical warfare.
Katolis has a bunch of mountains in the east, part of an old natural border before the lava one appeared
Mt Kalik is probably volcanic. It's a standalone mountain and it's really tall. Rex Ignius maybe? Oh, probably not, I think I see him peeking on the other side of the map
The trees of Duren and Katolis are different then the western lands. Softer green, deciduous. And the land itself is yellower, warmer in tone
Forests centered on Mt Kalik
The Moon Nexus looks like an eye on a dragon head near the Dragontail, and Evenere looks like a severed wing (Yes I am still wondering where Luna Tenebris went, why do you ask)
Weeping Bay looks like the most natural body of water in the western lands
Three red little trees scattered around the Katolis map. Fruit trees? How very Moonshadow.
Duren
The only land border among all the human kingdoms is between Duren and Katolis. Maybe it used to be further south along the river?
Capital is Berylgarten, set on a lake. Beryl is a stone that’s usually green, blue, or yellow in color, very gardeny
Second smallest realm but the breadbasket of the human lands. Has several little forests and great tilled fields
Being a farmer in Duren is probably as awesome as being an assassin in the Moonshadow Forest; you do what you do for all your friendly kingdoms
Northernmost land is cold and craggy, named Skall's Hook along the sea
Third ship in the Frozen Sea is icebound and crushed. Looks western, indicating no possible passage
Lots of colored trees and shrubs as if fruitbearing, I keep comparing Duren to the Yakima Valley in Washington State
Where the lava reaches the Frozen Sea, it melts the ice next to Duren's mountains
Northern Xadia:
Lux Aurea
Most of the center lands of this map has warm tones for its ground. Maybe that’s because of the long reach of the warmth and light of Lux Aurea’s Sun Nexus, and only the lands that are just too far from it are truly cold and icy. It would explain why Duren is a breadbasket realm so far north--it’s just across the border from Lux Aurea.
If there’s anything to that, then I suddenly worry for the fate of all the human lands now that the Sunforge has gone dark. It’s early summer now in Xadia, and crops in Duren will be ripening soon... Unless the sun’s magic was helping them grow. This coming winter could be rough. Next winter, people will die. Unless they can purify the Sunforge again.
Also, I have to wonder if Duren’s seven years of famine had anything to do with Sunforge shenanigans. They’d have happened at Khessa’s command, and we know she despises humans. If she was responsible for all the struggles that humans had to go through without enough food for seven years, and then their desperate attempt to fix the problem by invading Xadia for a Magma Titan’s heart which extended and exacerbated the war, I can see why Aaravos might feel Queen Khessa deserved to die
The city’s shaped kinda like an Egyptian pectoral necklace on this map, and that’s super pretty and not at all ominous
Also that’s a lot of gold for a whole city and I wonder how they got it all
The Shiverglades and the Shards
These areas are north of Lux Aurea and seem cold but not very icy, even though the Frozen Sea is right there. More thoughtful glances at the Sunforge over this one. Is it warming the land, or not warming the sea? Both?
Shiverglades is a play on Everglades, so this is a cold swamp, which sounds super fun I’m sure. Permafrost, tundra maybe?
The Shards seem to be rock islands with ice mountains. Glaciers are cool.
I wonder if something broke those islands off on purpose. Have I mentioned how much I enjoy worldbuilding? Yeah, well, I like world-wrecking, too.
Storm Spire
Has a good view on everything that happens for miles, including Lux Aurea, the Midnight Desert, the Shiverglades, the Black Tundra, the Uncharted Forest, and Drakewood.
Defensible position, no other tall mountains nearby
Also able to alert others to danger, especially since Avizandum could teleport like lightning
The Midnight Desert
It’s pretty big! And it looks like it’s littered with ruins of columns and dead palm trees. Like something else used to be in that great space and then something Very Bad happened to it. Maybe there was one great city where all the elves could mix together, and then it got utterly obliterated and the elves all fled to their respective safe places around Xadia. A city of black stone, back when Aaravos wore a crown? Now pulverized to dust and surrounded by not one, not two, but three primal nexuses? Hmmm...
All the wisps could be heat from the sand, or spooky spirit hints, or just an ominous sign of danger from the snakes below, but the overall effect is that the land is unhealthy if not cursed
The oasis is marked, and it must contain a spring since it runs a river out to join the river that passes through the Moonshadow Forest
Also the actual oasis kinda resembles a blue lizard which is adorable and probably also terrifying
Moonshadow Forest
The Silvergrove is the only village marked in the forest, so in keeping with the other lands and general map legend rules, it’s likely the capital/central village for the Moonshadow elves
The village is marked by four round-roofed homes between two tall leafy trees that shelter and hide them. It’s a hybrid balance between the blocky manmade castles of the human lands and the actual forest around them, showing a blending with nature that even the Sunfire city of Lux Aurea did not embrace, with all its golden buildings
It’s a good-sized forest, and it kinda stretches thin to the east but there it tentatively connects to the Drakewood Forest
Moonstone Path to the west just chilling in the lava like a blank alignment chart. Moonstone Path is Chaotic Hot.
Southern Xadia:
Ruins of Elarion
Elarion is a city, and it’s been lost to the humans for a thousand years
The building outlines are squared-off towers like the more modern castles in the west, suggesting that humans in Xadia built for strength and defense as soon as they could. They felt vulnerable and created protections in their architecture. The three elven cities we see also play to their strengths, but those strengths include magic. Elarion’s humans had to find a different strength, and they went with craftsmanship and ingenuity
It seems to be the only human city from before the border was drawn
“Ruins” doesn’t necessarily mean no one lives there at all, but it’s been emptied of humans and no one else has maintained it since
It had a great position on a vast lake, with sheltering hills and easy sea access
Sea of the Castout
This inland sea has five inlets and outlets. It’s hard to be sure which is which with some of them, with the way the water is drawn on this map. But I’m kinda liking the idea that all the water swirlies are places where Tidebound magic has been placed over the millennia, so the water can do whatever it needs to do depending on circumstances. That goes for the human lands, too. Katolis backward river, you’re off the hook.
With a name like "Castout,” I wonder if it was some kind of universal toilet to flush away things you didn’t want--including humans--who might wash up near Elarion and start to build there. Yeesh.
The rivers that flow into this sea pass through or near the Moonshadow Forest, the Midnight Desert, the Storm Spire, Drakewood, and the Uncharted Forest. That’s a lot of drainage.
It’s pretty far from the Tidebound Archipelago, so maybe its name is referencing Tidebound elves who have left their home colony
Was this always a sea, or did something that Xadia wanted to forget get flooded and hidden in the depths?
The land around it seems open and hospitable. It could be a good place to build/rebuild in a time of peace.
The Far Reaches
Open grassland with low hills
Two of the hills look like giant boot prints
Several colorful trees which I hope are fruit trees
Bounded by two rivers from the Sea of the Castout
Looks homey tbh, great spot to retire to get away from everything if there were a war that really shook you up
Ocean Point
There’s a Star rune here, and it could mean many things
The closest other marked location is Elarion
If this was where Aaravos lived of his own free will, I can see why he’d take a shine to the humans. They were his neighbors.
If he is imprisoned here, it’s literally the furthest point in Xadia from the other elven realms, with the Moonshadow Forest being the closest one and Umber Tor not too much further but in a totally different direction. If they were trying to isolate him physically with a portable mirror to watch over him, that’s a good spot for it
Possible location that the cube is leading Callum toward? Portal to the Star Touch home plane? Aaravos’s seaside B&B? Trap street?
Eastern Xadia:
Drakewood
Umber Tor looks to be the tallest mountain in all of Xadia, save possibly for the Storm Spire. It’s more traditionally mountainy, with a nice snowcap. Since it’s labeled, I’m guessing it’s the Earth Nexus, under which an Earth Archdragon sleeps
Also there’s a giant yellowish-brown dragon chilling next to the Tor. Yeah, he seems nice. Rex Igneous, I presume?
Or maybe not, since the neighboring forest is called Drakewood. Maybe this woods is just where a bunch of Earth dragons hang out? Ezran and Pyrrah flew off and returned with a crew of Sun dragons from somewhere, so dragons must have communities too
The mountains that edge the sea are shaped roughly like a stone dragon in flight
Drakewood seems to be the forest closest to Umber Tor, with both deciduous and evergreen trees, though there’s a huge swath of wooded land here, to the north and to the southwest. I wonder what the locals consider the border where the Drakewood becomes the Uncharted Forest and why. The way the evergreens are drawn almost looks like a border, a sort of kingswood set aside for a specific use. Rex Igneous’s best toothpicks?
Uncharted Forest
Okay this is a properly magical name, very mysterious. But uncharted by whom? People with charts? This might be a Sir Phineas Kurst name, which is outsidery, and it makes me wonder if the locals/neighbors have their own name for it, which the human explorer never learned, a la “Thunder” for Avizandum
Maybe “Uncharted Forest” just means no one ever turned those trees into charts though, old growth ftw
If no one lives here, will someone move here? If someone lives here, who are they? Earthblood elves? Moonshadow elves? Humans? This mystery, it calls to me
the trees are mostly deciduous and fill basically all of this whole section of land, up against the mountains and the rivers, so it seems very fertile land indeed
Earthblood elves could live here, but there is no city marked. Maybe because we haven’t gotten that far in the show, or maybe that’s the wrong sort of descriptor for how the Earthbloods live and organize. Maybe the whole forest is their city, like Pando, the interconnected quaking aspen clone forest
The northernmost part of this forest lies right between the Storm Spire and the Tidebound Archipelago, so it might get a regular flyover route for migration or messages
Yes, this forest is the most interesting place in Xadia to me, I desperately want to learn more about it
Black Tundra
Yeah this place isn’t ominous
Similar to the Shiverglades, but where that has shrubbery, the Black Tundra has single dead trees and creepy curving spikes. Scorched? Poisoned? De-magicked?
The water north of this area isn’t frozen, and with a lake to the south and a river and a moderate mountain range, the whole area looks like it would otherwise be decently habitable, but instead it’s cold and black
Is climate change a thing here, or will we get a nice horrible disaster instead?
Tidebound Archipelago
These islands have dotted lines around them, like they’re submerged at high tide, or maybe made of shifting sand that literally moves around like sand dunes across a desert, or perhaps they’re exactly at sea level with half their civilization in the air and half underwater or in cool bubbles, or maybe the islands actually float
Maybe the Tidebound elves even sank them on purpose for defensive purposes
The archipelago is about even latitudinally with the Storm Spire Lux Aurea, Berylgarten, and Eboreus so they probably get pretty nice weather
There’s no ice in sight here in any direction along Xadia’s east coast, so presumably the prevailing current is a warm one
do they have bridges connecting the islands? Ferries, animals who give them a lift across?
the islands have quite a bit of space on them. I wonder if there’s a big population, maybe a shifting population? Do Tidebound elves migrate up and down the coast like gray whales and return to the islands for certain holidays or social events?
This is probably the hub of the Tidebound elves’ culture, but the sea surrounds the whole land and infiltrates it with many rivers and lakes. The Spinning Sea and the Frozen Sea are pretty firm Do Not Enter signposts, but a determined Tidebound could get around either one if they wanted to
What I’m not seeing here is a city. Either it’s not been marked yet, or that’s not a thing that Tidebound elves have in their culture. If they don’t have a city, they’re possibly migratory in family groups, or maybe they stick to small villages like the Moonshadows do, but with even less central leadership
#asks#map of xadia#i love maps okay#xadia#andromeda#rayla#runaan#lujanne#moonshadow elves#moonshadow assassins#tdp angst#angst#through the moon spoilers
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THE DEGENERATE’S GUIDE TO COLLEGE FOOTBALL TV WATCH ‘EM UPS 2021: WEEK TWO, A MUDDLED AND MAUDLIN WEEK OF MAYHEM IN HONOR OF THOSE WE LOST
RTARL would like to extend our warmest holiday wishes to those who celebrate and, even if you don’t, happy 9/11. Now who’s ready for some FOOTBALL!!!!?!?!
So after two weeks of games that combine to count as only one official week even though some teams have already played twice we have only one real question answered: is Alabama still good? Yes, they are. Everything else is still liquefying vapor.
I am assuming everybody is waiting with baited breath for an RTARLsman but I don’t have anything yet. I guess the not-Master Teague RBs on Ohio State are the frontrunners for now. Or that one guy from that one team who was good. You know who I mean.
Saturday, September 11
Matchup Time (ET) TV/Mobile
Illinois at Virginia 11:00am ACCN
Jeff George won Citrus Bowl MVP for the Illini against the Hoos in his last game as a student athlete before becoming the #1 overall pick in the 1990 NFL Draft. Based on this history it is safe to presume that whoever the QB is for Illinois today will be the #1 pick in 2022.
VMI at Kent State 11:30am ESPN3
I’m not sure on this but maybe this game is cancelled.
WKU at Army 11:30am CBSSN
Army is favored by 6. I bet this game is boring.
Norfolk State at Wake Forest 12:00pm ACCNX
I don’t see a line listed but whatever it is bet against Wake covering.
Indiana State at Northwestern 12:00pm BTN
This game is an act of terrorism.
Alabama State at 25 Auburn 12:00pm SECN
Real body bag season starts today, huh?
Youngstown State at Michigan State 12:00pm BTN
The Michigan State running back is the guy I was trying to think of earlier! He’s pretty good. Not good enough to make me watch this but I will check on his stats every so often.
Tulsa at Oklahoma State 12:00pm FS1
I bet Mike Gundy has some really salient thoughts on the 20th anniversary of 9/11 and I can’t wait to hear them.
South Carolina at East Carolina 12:00pm ESPN2
South Carolina is a two point favorite against an East Carolina team that is, per my understanding, not exactly good. So I can only extrapolate that South Carolina is likewise not good.
Pitt at Tennessee 12:00pm ESPN
Look, I’m not going to pretend this is good television but if Pitt rocks their classic yellow helmets and Tennessee wears non-alternates the colors on the screen will at least be pleasing. The thought of the actual football involved hurts my brain but it’s interesting that the points have gone from a consensus pick ‘em to Pitt -3 over the course of the week. Does Tennessee have any players that are good enough that by missing the game they could impact the gambling that much? Or are people just squaring themselves with the fact the the Vols are really and truly a ruined burnt out hole of a football program? Pound the latter.
12 Oregon at 3 Ohio State 12:00pm FOX
Losing Kayvon Thibideaux certainly isn’t going to help Oregon but he’s not usually on the field as a run stopper anyway and if Ohio State learned anything last week it’s that they can just run until they feel like throwing a pass. Oregon actually has some legit talent on the d-line besides Thibideaux but the Ducks are gonna be hard-pressed to keep things within two scores here.
Miami (Ohio) at Minnesota 12:00pm ESPN
If Oregon can’t make a game of it in Columbus look out because this time block is an absolute wasteland. There is scant reason to turn the TV on for the early schedule other than gambling purposes.
Kennesaw State at Georgia Tech 12:00pm RSN/ESPN3
Georgia Tech probably should have closed up shop after Paul Johnson retired. Either that or just absolutely slathered the football program in dollars. The Yellow Jackets being unable to land any big time recruits while playing in Atlanta is a real mindfuck. They aren’t a AA program playing dress up in a “power” conference they’ve got actual history. I don’t mean to give the impression I want them to be good but I don’t understand how they can be such fodder for so long.
13 Florida at USF 1:00pm ABC
Remember that year when USF was the best program in the state? Wild stuff. Weird, wild stuff. I know the deal with UF is that they don’t go out of state for contract games but it’s actually kind of surprising they even bothered to keep this trip to Tampa on the schedule. Like the area recruits would probably be happier to go see a game at The Swamp than to kick around their hometown for a pile of shit like this.
Wyoming at NIU 1:30pm ESPN+
I’m not gonna open the ESPN app for this but if it was on ESPN2 I’d probably check in on it during commercials. Aesthetically pleasing trash with an upside for actual entertainment.
Middle Tennessee at 19 Virginia Tech 2:00pm ACCNX
Virginia Tech’s home crowd scene was the normie story of last week’s games. People that don’t watch college football were either aghast or frantically waving their blue lives matter flags in response. Us in this space just ate the shame and forgot it happened by the time Saturday’s games kicked off. My theory is that VPI is not actually any good but UNC’s 2020 season was a well-timed fluke and the last hurrah of Mack Brown’s storied coaching career. The Hokies are at home, though, and MTSU is almost certainly not on the same athletic level as the Turkey Gobblers so I’d probably take the home team -20 if I were so inclined to wager on this particular game that is being broadcast on the ACC’s new pornography channel.
Rutgers at Syracuse 2:00pm ACCN
Holy fuck does this game suck. Reuniting former Big East, uh, rivals (??? does Rutgers have any natural enemies?) in a cross-conference classic betwixt the B1G and the ACC.
Duquesne at Ohio 2:00pm ESPN3
I don’t think I need to explain to you all the national title implications riding on this game.
Toledo at 8 Notre Dame 2:30pm Peacock
Just remember that if you subscribe to Peacock you are at the very least tacitly supporting Notre Dame. If for some reason you’re watching this please report back on how many of those defensive pick plays Notre Dame runs. They were doing that shit constantly against Florida State last week and it drove me nuts. I think the idea is that you are so flagrantly illegal so often that the refs grow numb to it and just don’t call it at all.
Robert Morris at Central Michigan 3:00pm ESPN3
Not to be outdone by the early games, the 3 o’clock set is equally terrible.
Purdue at UConn 3:00pm CBSSN
I bet Edsall still gets bonuses for stupid shit even now that he’s retired or whatever the official designation was for him no longer coaching.
Boston College at UMass 3:30pm FloFootball/NESN+
I don’t know what FloFootball is but I know it isn’t anything to do with the state of Florida.
Ball State at 11 Penn State 3:30pm FS1
It surprises me to see Penn State as only -22.5 favorites. That seems very kind to Ball State. Hopefully I’m wrong and the Ball State Lettermans take it to the Sanduskys.
Murray State at 7 Cincinnati 3:30pm ESPN+
Practice week continues.
Temple at Akron 3:30pm ESPN+
Pound the under.
Georgia Southern at Florida Atlantic 3:30pm Stadium
There is really nothing going on this week.
Air Force at Navy 3:30pm CBS
Middies vs. Fly Boys in the first leg of the Commander’s Cup on the twentieth anniversary of 9/11. I can’t imagine the amount of emotional manipulation that’s going to make its way onto this broadcast. Normally I watch these games but I don’t think I can do it this year.
UAB at 2 Georgia 3:30pm ESPN2
Georgia may well be absurdly talented on the defensive side of the ball but I’d be surprised to see them make it through the regular season with fewer than two losses.
5 Texas A&M at Colorado 3:30pm FOX
This is only interesting if the Aggies spring a leak.
California at TCU 3:30pm ESPNU
Things most certainly are not looking up.
Buffalo at Nebraska 3:30pm BTN
Nebraska is in an interesting position because if they buck the odds and end up being good after we’ve all been so ready to see a National Championship-winning coach get fired that would be funny but if they end up being really bad it’s even funnier. Go Bulls!
Mercer at 1 Alabama 4:00pm SECN
I’ll cry a little if Saban pulls the starters in the first half and the Tide beats Mercer by less than they beat Miami.
South Alabama at Bowling Green 4:00pm ESPN+
10 Iowa at 9 Iowa State 4:30pmABC
This is not the kind of top 10 matchup I can just sit idly by and let it happen. Your silence is complicity in this monstrous display of modernity.
SC State at 6 Clemson 5:00pm ACCN
Clemson dropped all the way to #6 and they’ll hang around the top of the polls because they don’t have the toughest conference schedule in the world but my confidence in them is not high right now. I think the new QB is just a guy. He’s talented as hell but I don’t see him being great.
Illinois State at Western Michigan 5:00pm ESPN3
This is either MACtion or MACtion adjacent and I have only one word for this midwestern trash: abhorrent.
LIU at West Virginia 5:00pm ESPN+
LIU plays football?
Lamar at UTSA 6:00pm ESPN3
Downside: You’re watching one of the least important games of the year. Upside: You’re really not missing anything.
Portland State at Washington State 6:00pm P12N
Washington State was a perfect spot for the stupid pirate fuckhead and his leaving has ruined the program and, eventually, his reputation. Not relevant to this game necessarily but this game isn’t relevant to anything else, either.
Gardner-Webb at Charlotte 6:00pm ESPN3
Oh, yeah, feel the excitement.
Bethune-Cookman at UCF 6:30pm ESPN+
Go Cats.
NC Central at Marshall 6:30pm ESPN+
The hits keep coming.
Houston at Rice 6:30pm CBSSN
I’ve always had a soft spot for Holgo and for Houston football but somehow I really don’t like seeing him coach the Cougs. This is SWC magic but with no magic. UNLESS! Houston can put up 100. I don’t think they even have the guys to do it but this is Rice we’re talking about here.
Nicholls at Louisiana 7:00pm ESPN3
Keep the energy up.
North Texas at SMU 7:00pm ESPN+
I bet is MS621 were still alive he’d be at this game giving Spencer’s boys hell. Sadly he died doing what he loved, curing his COVID by eating ivermectin paste out of a horse’s butt. R.I.P., friend. Neigh to you wherever you are.
Southeastern La. at Louisiana Tech 7:00pm ESPN3
Even the low tier stuff is geared up for annihilation. This is a bodybag week for all time.
Memphis at Arkansas State 7:00pm ESPN+
Memphis getting less than a touchdown against Arkansas State seems like easy money but I have no real concept of either of these teams just yet. Maybe the end is nigh for the Tigers glory years? I sure hope not but it’s possible.
NC State at Mississippi State 7:00pm ESPN2
This game should be as fun as a parents funeral.
Southern Illinois at Kansas State 7:00pm ESPN+
Over the past week I experienced derision for referring the the guys in purple and silver as “Kansas State” instead of “K State” and that stung because it always surprises me that anybody cares about them enough to have a strong opinion about them.
Stephen F. Austin at Texas Tech 7:00pm ESPN+
Shrugs
15 Texas at Arkansas 7:00pm ESPN
Let’s see if Texas is ready to run with the big boys of the SEC! Arkansas is given a decent shot to win this game and that makes the “15″ next to Texas appear extremely suspect in my eyes.
Texas Southern at Baylor 7:00pm ESPN+
This week Texas Southern is the people’s champion.
Texas State at FIU 7:00pm ESPN+
Oh, Butch, why have you done this to yourself?
Western Carolina at 4 Oklahoma 7:00pm PPV
All the Westen Carolina fans are buying this PPV to see their guys score 40.
New Mexico State at New Mexico 7:00pm Stadium
I looked up the historic rivalry last year to figure out why it was played early in the season instead of at the end but I’ve forgotten and don’t feel the need to look it up again. I figured out how to watch Stadium on my TV but I also forgot that and don’t feel the need to look it up again.
Appalachian State at 22 Miami (FL) 7:00pm ESPNU
My gut tells me Miami is probably legitimately about the 14th best team in the country but I still would never advise you to bet actual money on the Hurricanes. Are they 9 points better than App State? Easily. They should win by 20+. Are they liable to fuck around and lose or scrape out a win in the final seconds? Absolutely. Let’s fuckin’ go.
Morgan State at Tulane 7:00pm ESPN+
A lot of people learned to love the Green Wave last week but it’s hard to keep that going with their schedule. Don’t forget them later in the year when the CBSSN glow is really shining.
Liberty at Troy 7:00pm ESPN+
Liberty -4 is maybe my surest advice of the week. If Malik Willis is as good as his press the fake school should have this game on ice early.
Eastern Michigan at 18 Wisconsin 7:00pm FS1
I find Wisconsin’s losing effort against Penn State last week to be a personal affront against me and all of nature.
Eastern Kentucky at Louisville 7:00pm ACCNX
I think this game being broadcast at night on ACCNX means they’re playing naked.
Grambling State at Southern Miss 7:00pm ESPN3
This is the kind of game that belongs on an app.
Hampton at Old Dominion 7:00pm ESPN3
This is the kind of game that belongs on a well-worn high school football field.
Austin Peay at 20 Mississippi 7:30pm ESPN+/SECN+
This is a pretty big OOC game for an SEC team.
Georgia State at 24 North Carolina 7:30pm RSN/ESPN3
One of several GSUs, I think this is the one I most hope emerges victorious this week.
Idaho at Indiana 7:30pm BTN
Wait, wasn’t Indiana like #10 last week? What the hell happened to them? No, don’t tell me. Seriously, don’t.
Missouri at Kentucky 7:30pm SECN
When the SEC hits 24 teams the “S!E!C!” chants are gonna seem really stupid.
Howard at Maryland 7:30pm BTN
There’s no official line for this game but I hope the Bison can pull off the upset in this classic local rivalry game.
Jacksonville State at Florida State 8:00pm ACCN
Still shaking my head at FSU icing their own kicker. Jesus, Norvell. Get your shit together.
McNeese at LSU 8:00pm ESPN+/SECN+
LOLSU was my lock of the week last week if you’re considering taking gambling advice from me.
Washington at Michigan 8:00pm ABC
UDub lost to a 1-AA team last week and now they have to go on the road and beat Michigan. Which seems inevitable, to be honest.
Cal Poly at Fresno State 10:00pm CW59
The murder rate will continue to increase as the day progresses. I always kind of like it when a local broadcast shows up on the sheet. So pretty much none of us have legal access to this game. It makes it more special.
San Diego State at Arizona 10:00pm P12N
Pac-12 Network is similar to CW59 in that almost nobody in the country has legal access to their broadcasts. If you’ve read enough of these posts you are aware that SDSU is my weird very deep backup team. I don’t have a reason to align myself with the school or program, I just tend to enjoy watching their games.
Vanderbilt at Colorado State 10:00pm CBSSN
This is an abomination.
21 Utah at BYU 10:15pm ESPN
This is a lowkey fun rivalry. I’m pretty sure I write the same thing every year but it’s still true. Go Utes.
Stanford at 14 USC 10:30pm FOX
I think USC could win a national championship and I’d still be baffled that Clay Helton is their coach. Of course, they won’t win a national championship as long as Clay Helton is their coach but they apparently won’t ever get embarrassing enough to fire him, either.
Idaho State at Nevada 10:30pm Stadium
This is the lowpoint of the week’s schedule and you have to stay up late to watch it on a network that only exists as an app or as part of a hidden unlockable download-only level of cable subscription. This is the beauty of the college game.
UNLV at 23 Arizona State 10:30pm ESPN2
Herm Edwards figured out the trick to looking good in the Pac-12 without having a particularly great team and I can’t make up my mind if I’m rooting for him to keep sliding on that rail or to fall off it. I think I’ve come around to rooting for him but it’s a very dynamic and fluid situation.
Hawaii at Oregon State 11:00pm FS1
Hawaii gets to play at their normal time for a game against the bottom of the barrel of the Pac-12 but they’re an 11-point underdog. If you’re ever going to take Hawaii, this is the stars lining up for you to do it. It’s still a big “if” but I’m saying there’s a chance.
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No One Messes With Our Kid
prompt: I love imagines where the team gets overprotective of baby R, maybe one where during a game a player gets all up in baby R’s face and the team comes to her aid just like what happened with Sonny and ARod? Maybe even worse? Thank you :)
warnings: Swearing.
words: 1079
(Y/N) POV
Getting to the World Cup hadn’t been easy. Not only did all of us have to put in a lot of work, but we also had to fight every other team in the world to get a spot in the World Cup. While the US Women’s National Team was considered to be one of the best teams in the world if we weren’t considered the best, there were still only 24 teams that were allowed to compete. It hadn’t been easy to grab one of those spots, but we did.
It hadn’t been easy getting to the semi-finals of the World Cup either. None of our games had been easy to win. Not even our game against Thailand was easy. This game against England wasn’t supposed to be easy.
It wasn’t easy by any means.
Christen had scored early in the game only for Ellen White to score not even 10 minutes later. Alex scored after that, but since then we had been trying to keep our one-goal lead while trying to score. Everything was going relatively ok for the most part. While we weren’t able to get another goal so far, we also hadn’t given another goal up to England.
Keira Walsh was running toward our defenders with the ball at her feet. I was the person closest to her. I ran toward the ball and slid toward the ball when I was close enough. I thought that my tackle would be clean until I clipped Walsh’s ankle. She went down and I was quick to get up to try and get the ball.
It was useless, however, because the ref blew his whistle and a yellow card was pointed at me. I walked over to help Walsh up. When I got over to Walsh, I held my hand out to help her up. I was surprised when Walsh ignored it and got up on her own.
“No hard feelings, right? Didn’t mean to get your ankle.”
Apparently, Walsh did not share the same thoughts as me. She was in my face before I realized it. I was immediately backing away, but Walsh kept up with me as she stayed in my face. I looked away from her and tried to find my teammates.
“You can’t pull that bullshit on me, (Y/L/N). I know you were going for my ankles,” Walsh snapped. I kept backing away, but Walsh wouldn’t back off. “You’re playing in the World Cup, you dumbass. You can’t just fucking attack someone’s ankles.”
“It was an accident. I wouldn’t try to hurt someone on purpose,” I defended. I was surprised when she put her hands to my shoulders and shoved me back. I hit whoever was behind me. I didn’t have time to see who it was because Walsh put her hand on my cheek and shoved my head to the side.
“You think I’m an idiot, you bitch?” Walsh continued as she got closer to me again. “You really are a dumbass if you think I’ll believe your bullshit. You tried to hurt me.”
Before Walsh could put her hands on me again, she was shoved back by two different bodies covered in red. It only took me a second to glance at the numbers to realize that it was Kelley and Tobin who had both come in from opposite sides of me to shove the older midfielder back away from me. I was pulled back.
I was met with the concerned hazel eyes of Christen. Alex was right by her looking at my face. Alex and Christen both looked over at where Kelley and Tobin were going into Walsh. The ref was trying to get the women to separate, but that was harder to do than he thought. Especially with Crystal and Lindsey coming to join the mix.
I was surprised that it was taking so long for the English players to get to their teammate’s aid with how much red was starting to surround her. Broon and Abby had both gotten over there as well and were push Walsh in the opposite direction of me. I felt a hand wrap around my wrist.
“I got her. Help them,” Julie pulled me with her as she wrapped an arm around my shoulder. The yellow jersey that was on Alyssa’s body came into my vision as she joined us.
“You good, kid?” Alyssa asked me when we stopped and she wrapped her arms around me. I nodded in her shoulder even though I was shaken from what had happened. “You are not at fault for anything, ok? Walsh was out of line by getting in your face.”
“She’s right, (Y/N). Don’t even start thinking that what they’re doing is your fault,” Julie added. “Walsh had no right to get in your face, much less put her hands on you like she did.”
The two of them continued to assure me that I wasn’t at fault and that it was all right. It took a few more minutes to pull my teammates away from Walsh, but they were eventually able to separate the group. It wasn’t much longer after it all ended that Jill pulled me out to put Sam in.
“Don’t listen to her, (Y/N). Walsh has no idea what she’s talking about,” Sam said when she hugged me. I smiled up at the taller girl and watched her as she ran onto the field.
I headed to the bench. I was headed for the end to sit by myself, but Sonnett and Mal both grabbed onto me and pulled me down by them. Tierna messed up my hair and I grumbled at her as the three of them hugged me on the bench.
“Walsh doesn’t know what she’s talking about. We know you would never intentionally hurt anyone, (Y/N),” Mal assured. Sonnett and Tierna nodded in agreement. “You’re better than Walsh is and that’s what matters.”
I smiled at them and I went to thank them, but they were shoved away from me. Krashlyn took their spots on my sides so that I in the middle of a Krashlyn sandwich.
“No one messes with our kid,” Ali said as she wrapped her arm around me.
“I think we were all ready to run on the field to fight for you,” Ash added as she pulled Ali and me closer to her. I smiled at the two of them. “No one gets to hurt the baby of our family.”
“I think I heard Kelley yell out to the rest of the team, ‘Let’s go, lesbians.’“ Megan informed me.
Sometimes I couldn’t stand being babied by my teammates, but this was one of the times that I was happy about it. I smiled at the women on the bench as I turned to watch the rest of the game. I couldn’t wait for the movie night that we were sure to have tonight either.
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It's funny to me that Marchand is disgusted about what Wilson did, while knowing he would of probably done the same thing in Wilson's place. Like yes Wilson is in the wrong, but don't act all high and mighty when you have done horrible things too. And also I agree that the code of "honor" that players have only go so far. The refs/linesmen need to stop showing bias or hold grudges against players as well because I feel like that is one of the other glaring issue in miss calls as well.
See, this is what I mean when I say the way allegiance-based bias presents itself in hockey is fascinating to me.
Hopping around and peeking into enough different team fandoms as I’ve decided who I want to root for has taught me something, especially amongst teams like the Bruins and Caps (and the Stars): when you have That Guy (whoever it is), the guy who plays at the edge of the rules and usually gets away with it and drives other teams up the wall and also scores goals and is by all accounts beloved to his teammates — when that guy is your guy?
When he’s on your team, you LOVE that guy. You would go to bat for that guy. You would excuse a LOT from that guy, you would start arguments about that guy, you would find ways to justify that guy’s actions. Why? Because he’s doing it for your team, your cause, and it’s usually effective. And from that perspective, it looks like dedication, cleverness, “stick it to those bitches” stubbornness. Who wouldn’t love a guy who lays it all on the line for the team! (As it looks to you, anyway).
But when he’s the other team’s guy? Fuck him. Worst guy. Absolute bastard. FUCK that guy. Why? Because he’s doing it against your guys. And that’s really fucking aggravating, isn’t it?
Idk, I’m not necessarily trying to refute you here. I just think it’s really interesting how much “whose guy was it” comes into play in how people feel about these things.
(Aside: Do you think most Caps fans would be quite as willing to be hesitantly critical of Wilson today if we won that game instead? What if it was the playoffs? What if it was the Cup final? If it paid off, would we be more willing to say “that’s just the game!”? If it lost us a playoff series because the game devolved into fighting, would we be angrier? I know Leafs fans who adored having Kadri, and still love him, but completely understand that his repeated playoff misbehaviour was gonna lead to him getting traded and think that was fair. Context and perspective is so absolutely everything. We decide what is acceptable based on our allegiance and priorities.)
My other controversial take for the day, after watching enough teams and visiting enough fandoms other the last 10 months, is that everybody seems to think the refs are biased against their team, to the point I’m convinced that the refs are just not effectively consistent at their jobs, period. And our human nature to assign motive to actions and patterns to nonsense (combined with that allegiance-based bias to your team), leads to us saying “Well, surely this means they’re biased against us. All of them. Collectively.”
If they’re supposedly biased against every team, I think that just means they’re not effective enough at consistently performing their jobs, in which case the training and procedures need to be re-evaluated.
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alright this might be a bit of a weird ask but. seeing all ur posts on hockey teams n whatnot makes me Interested in hockey but i have absolutely no idea about the majority of it like all the positions n shit so. where do i start
not weird at all omg !!! it's probably one of the only sports i enjoy, cuz it's super easy to understand and very active :'-) 💘💘💘
i've written out a basic guide to rules, penalties, and positions below the cut:
(ITS SO LONG IM SORRY SJDNDKNDNDJDN I GOT EXCITED)
ok first off: the object of the game is to score the most goals :-) yayyy! nice n easy. it gets a little more complicated when you start looking at things like points, stats, player rankings, etc in the NHL, but you don't have to worry about that right way.
each team normally has 5 players on the ice at a time (3 forwards, 2 defence, plus a goalie).
there are also referees around! the NHL has 2 refs and 2 linesmen for every game, but community leagues/kid's teams would prob just like.... hire a teenager and pay em $50... yknow...
sometimes we have what's called a powerplay, which means one team is serving a penalty, so one team has more players than the other. (e.g: "a 5 on 4 powerplay", which means there are 5 guys playing against 4 guys. easy stuff.)
(ok now let's talk abt rules, penalties, and positions...)
----
ICE HOCKEY RULES
short version, i promise!! first, you kinda gotta know what the rink looks like (this diagram looks complicated but i swear it's not skdjskndj):
to kick off the game, (& every time the game stops and starts again), a faceoff has to happen. this means two players get in one of the 5 faceoff circles, the ref drops the puck (aptly called the puck drop lmfao), and they do that little swipe with their sticks. you gotta love it !!
from there on, it's really pretty simple:
the only person who can grab the puck (closing hand on puck) is the goalie
you can't shoot the puck out of the rink or move the goal ("the net") on purpose
you can't raise your stick above shoulder height to smack the puck out of the air (called "high sticking"). if you score a goal that way, it doesn't count
when your skates crosses the blue line (#4 on the diagram) before the puck does, you're offside. (if only one skate is over the line, you're "onside")
icing happens when you're on your side of the center line, but you shoot the puck all the way across the ice and it crosses the goal line (#7 in the diagram) on either side of the net. when that happens, the game stops and another faceoff has to happen in the offending team's zone (#6 on the diagram). HOWEVER, icing won't be called if the goalie is outside of the crease (#10), if the other team just lets it happen on purpose (lmao), or maybe if the ref says it was an attempted pass.
if you were about to score, but another player tripped/yanked/whatevered you (or knocked the net outta the way), you get a penalty shot! this means the other players clear outta the way & you get to take a shot on the other team's goalie >:-)
GOAL HOLES lmaoooooo why r they called that + a fun infographic
stick side low
glove side low
glove side high
stick side high
five hole! (hardest place to score)
WHAT IF THE GAME IS TIED AT THE END?
the game goes into sudden-death overtime! this means the timer is set for 5 minutes, and whoever scores first wins
if no one scores in overtime, the game goes into a shootout! this means the teams take turns taking penalty shots (3 each)
if that STILL doesn't end the game, the shootout continues until one team scores and the other team doesn't match it... ta-da !!!
FIGHT RULES (per the NHL):
the ref blows a whistle, everyone else has to stop what they're doing and go to their bench
the players have to drop their gloves
they can't remove their helmets before the fight starts. (if it falls off while they're getting whacked that's fine, but taking it off beforehand is a minor penalty)
the fight is allowed to keep going until one player hits the ice, or the refs decide to stop it
both players automatically get major penalties, plus any other penalties that apply. (this site explains it really well!!)
(in community leagues and kids' leagues, fighting is either not allowed at all, or it's a lot less regulated... it could really go either way lmao. in 2021 we know that concussions = bad, but back in the day... hoo boy!!)
---
PENALTY BASICS
3 types: minor, major, and misconduct
penalties are basically decided on severity/degree of injury, etc
a standard minor penalty is 2 minutes and it's served in the penalty box. if the other team scores during this time (the powerplay), the penalty ends and the player can hop back on the ice.
examples of minor penalties could be high-sticking, tripping, elbowing, hooking, slashing, roughing, boarding etc ... like. if a player is acting shitty but didn't do any real damage, that kind of thing
there's also a thing called matching penalties (aka coincidental penalties), which means both teams have a player in the box at the same time. in that case, they usually just keep playing 4-on-4, and the penalty keeps going even if a goal is scored. (except if the game was already 5-on-4 before the matching penalty was called, in which case both teams would be allowed to make substitutions to keep shit moving lol)
there are also double minors or triple minors, which just means 2-3 minor penalties all at once lmao ... so a player could be stuck sitting in the Shame Cube for 4-6 minutes, and if the other team scored, it would only cancel out one penalty at a time
a standard major penalty is 5 minutes in the box, and the player can't get out early if a goal is scored. (if there are matching major penalties, both teams sub players in)
fighting is always a major penalty!!! other examples could be spearing, boarding, butt-ending, charging, clipping, or cross-checking
misconduct:
there are 3 "subtypes": misconduct, game misconduct, & match penalty
a misconduct penalty means 10 minutes off the ice, & the team can sub a guy in. if the player returns and then get another, they can get ejected from the game lmao
misconduct calls also usually come with a minor penalty (called a 10-and-2), which is served at the same time. so like ... the player with the misconduct has to leave for 10 minutes, the substitute joins the game, and then a separate player is picked to serve a 2-minute minor penalty in the box
if you get a game misconduct penalty the player is ejected from the game. their team replaces them, plus there's usually a major (5min) penalty served by a different guy. (you also still get charged with 10 or 20 penalty minutes, which go "on your record")
you can get a game misconduct penalty by getting 2 misconduct penalties, butting into a fight/joining a fight (called "third man in"), leaving the penalty box early, or if you board someone & they get a head/face injury
a match penalty is serious shit but they're less common, i'm just gonna drop screenshots if you wanna read:
(also here's a handy chart off wikipedia lmao:)
----
POSITIONS
ok this is gonna the MOST basic guide lol. here they are on the ice:
2 types:
FORWARD = center, right wing, or left wing. job is to score. they're usually smaller and faster than the defense players.
DEFENsE = right D or left D. usually physically larger, their goal is to protect their zone.
GOALIE: ok everyone knows what the goalie does lmao
they all have different jobs and skills specific to their positions, which you can find on this site in really great detail!!
---
ok, we're done !!
i think this should cover all the basic areas of ice hockey... there's definitely a lot more to it if you feel like doing more research (like how the NHL draft works, the different players and teams, the different divisions etc), but i hope this will be enough to get you started ..... it's also fun to watch even if you don't understand all the rules imo, i could probably sum all of this ^^ up by saying "ten players, two goalies, put on skates, chase puck, put puck in net" LMAO.
i genuinely love ice hockey so much, it's such a huge part of my personal sense of culture & community :'-) if you have any more questions, please feel free to ask em and i'll do my best to answer !!!
#asks#anon#this turned out rlly long but i tried to keep it super simple !!!#hockey is great !!!!#best sport in the world imo. i am biased but it's true#hockey
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session 12 notes
one day . one day i swear i will fix this formatting but today is not that day
Lol late is my brand
Let's go
The halflings can stack up under a trench coat
Adam has disguise self
Aerana and asyna don't need to do anything kinda
Now we're talking abt the road to el dorado
We just killed loser boy
Kenku got info from adam, cel and theo
What are we doing lmao
Adam is jiggling the small room's door and we go inside the room
Inside looks like an office, shelf w pickled body parts + cataloguing what the parts r and what they do
They were running away lmao ok
Yes we're still salty about this
"different interpretations of charm person" - jacob, 2020
Body part stuff
No halfling writing system in waterdeep
Dwarf toes, elven ears
Magic items ? Cel rolls perception 22
Weird jar w dull amber colored liquid, don't know if it's magical but noticed; unlabeled
"the jar of necrotic pee" - jacob, 2020
Smells like aloe
Adam smells his fire-resistant potion and it smells more like burnt ash
Smth else cel found has strange engravings
Just looks like metal bar
Boxy squarish iron bar abt the size of a halfling; it's strong but surprisingly light
Adam picks it up and hits a wall w it
Adam rolls for attack, 4
Nothing rlly happens
Makes a ringing sound
None of us can read giant
Looks rlly strange, written in blocky linear runes
A few things on it that stick out like engravings of ppl
Big bearded humanoids but small and fine so difficult to make out
Adam rolled 17 for investigation through files
Some stuff related to running wig shop; shop was at least somewhat a legitimate business
Notes abt billing for criminal organizations and guilds
Some ref to meeting w xant middlemen who would collect bodies
Names
Noska
Hired gorrick to track us down ??
N ?????
Adam looking for a key in the desk, doesn't find it
Head to the chest, adam tries to open
Not locked
A bunch of teeth
It's a mimic, adam has to roll damage
Adam is hit
Adam takes 10 damage
We're looking at diff things around the room and then hear a screech of pain as adam gets bitten
Slams down on adam's hand and four little eyes pop up and stare as it eats adam's hand
Mimic takes 9 damage as adam explodes
Cel shoots an arrow into the eye
22 to hit, 8 damage
Adam uses cutting words
-1d6
"hey fuck"
Adam could try to pull his hands away
Adam pulls his hands out
Adam bends down to it and takes a ration out of his backpack
"dom I'm gonna bend down to it"
The chest has closed back
Adam is going to throw rations instead, dex check
13; doesn't open so adam drops food on its head
Chest sits there looking at adam and eventually out of the side of the chest a weird stretchy amoeba-like arm comes out of it, takes the food and throws it in its mouth
"who's a good boy ? Who's a good boy !! Who's a good chest !!" adam, 2020
Adam takes out all his five rations and makes a trail leading out of the room
Chomper ? Maybe
It looks uninterested and its eyes have shut
Looks exactly like a chest now and hasn't moved; still has an arrow but just looks like a normal chest
It's a small chest that's pickuppable
Adam wants to walk his chest
Adam casts sleep on the chest
7d8s
27hp
When adam casts sleep the chest doesn't move, adam rolls perception 5
Adam tries to pick it up from behind v carefully from the bottom
It's kinda stuck to the floor and the wall; doesn't appear willing to budge
Asyna is still ape!asyna
Tries picking it up from behind like adam
Rolls a 6; won't move
One of its creepy tendrils sticks out and hits ape!asyna
10 bludgeoning damage; ape!asyna basically got slapped but now stuck to the chest
It's kind of loose now
Ape!asyna rolls a 20 and yanks it off the wall, now just dangling off asyna's arm and it's heavier than asyna thought it was
Feels dense
Adam is gonna try and tie its mouth shut
"he kinda starts flailing around a bit" dom, 2020
"aw he likes his new leash" jacob, 2020
Jacob gets hit again
Ape!asyna is gonna try and pull it off, 17 and gets off
Large clump of fur comes off and it's painful
adam "I'm going to try and use centrifugal force to swing it over my head"
"make a strength check" dom, 2020
Rolls 17
Slams it on desk, doesn't let go, nature check adam has no idea what it is
At some point the chest drops off, we stand back and adam casts shatter
11 damage
Chest kind of melts into the floor almost like it deflated, starts snaking way across room until it finds a hole and slithers up and disappears
"fuck you too chompi" adam 2020
Where it dissolves is 20 gold
"n I c e . That was worth the four spell slots" adam, 2020
Adam disguises self and turns into his dad
Adam is a tiefling
Dad is not a tiefling
Taller, dark black hair but not curly, short on the sides + floof forward
Looks more confident than adam
Same freckles
No one knew adam had freckles
Look p similar overall
Sounds the same as adam when he talks
He's a human
We don't know it's adam's dad
"a real dilf" dom, 2020, about adam's dad
"not like your REAL DAD, JACOB, JESUS" dom, 2020
Now we don't have time to unpack ALL OF THAT
Gonna find a hotel or smth
Except gotta disguise selves first
In the wig shop there is any wig u could possibly desire
Some mounted beards
Can't tell if any of the wigs r magical
I don't haAve magicccc :(
Adam puts a blonde wig on the ape
I thought asyna un-aped
Asyna un-apes and disguises self as asyna
Theo takes a long brunette wig w a braid down the back
Cel wants to pretend to be adam's child
Gets a curly dark hair wig
Hammer pants
Cel theo and adam all have freckles
It's nighttime springtime in waterdeep; it's raining
Trades ward going to find a hotel
Avoid own houses for awhile
Going to nearest inn
Let's go to the yawning portal
It is an inn not just a bar
Typ is in fact in the trades ward
One room as the father and two daughters and one room as lesbian elves
Durnan's downstairs and is friends w mirt
We head over to typ
This ward is busier than others we've seen at this time of night
Walk over to side entrance of typ
It never shuts down; always ppl here
Familiar warmth as we approach
Bard competition
Ppl placing bets, drinking, sitting in booths
The rooms r upstairs
Adam calls himself lysander
"a room for me and my daughters"
They get a room on the third story
Room on the third floor
We rendezvous in adam's room
We hear a scream echo out from the well
Adam has two plans
One includes his pants
The pants plan is we track down the dude w the pants
Second includes him singing, waiting to get mugged by the zants
Get mercenary help ?
Pants is plan c
Durnan is plan a
Cel is portia
Theo is lavinia
The doors lock
Long rest? Long rest maybe later
Adam and cel go up to one of the goliaths
"hey there big friend"
He looks like a well-read person
Takes out honey and asks him if he knows what it is
O it's honey
"well there r means of finding this out . For a price"
How much per item - FIVE GOLD
Adam hands him 10 gold and the big rod
"this is a jar of ointment that was first created by the wizard kyogton" I have no idea what that wizard's name is but that's what it sounded like
A dose can be swallowed or applied to the skin and in addition to healing and rejuvenating health, any poison or disease it may have is instantaneously cured
Can't tell how many doses in it
It's v expensive, v rare
Now the stick and he looks uber interested in it
"hm , where did you find this"
"my dad's attic ,,, he's a hoarder"
"let's make a deception check with a capital d"
Nat 1
Adam tells this guy the whole thing and the guy nods
"this is a valuable piece . Would you be interested in parting with it"
Cloud giants made them so their servants could help them build their castles
It's an immovable rod
Writing speaks of ancient cloud giants that were war-inclined
Flat button on the end of it
He sticks it out into the air and presses the button; when he takes his hand away, the rod doesn't fall and it stays floating in the air
Adam grabs onto it but he can't move it
Anybody can push the button tho
Adam asks what the goliath is offering
Offers us 5,000 gold
Adam gets his name - woetheir ????
Woetheir frequents typ when he's here
They're going on a quest; were asked by the open lord to complete a task on the isle of chault
Adam's gonna go to bed
Cel's gonna take a bath
We take long rest
Durnan time
Adam gives durnan a quick rundown of what happened
"ayo what's poppin durnan long time no see my guy"
It's morning it's 9ish breakfast time
Doesn't give any indication whether or not he recognizes them
Adam asks for scrambled eggs and bacon
Adam's asking if he knows anything abt the xants
Theo asks durnan if there's somewhere more secluded they can talk
Gestures to one of the booths and theo cel adam go over
They're uh . Telling durnan everything p much
He has look of passive disinterest but slightly less disinterest the more of the story they tell
"how is mirt?"
"he has renaer and floon"
"he's let himself go"
The xants r v powerful; leadership inscrutable even to open lord herself
Prior, durnan didn't care abt open lord
Guesses whoever obtains the stone would b hunted by the city which could b problematic
Half a million gold dragons
Could get help outside the city ? Roots go deep but do not extend outwards
Flee or contact city officials
"I think theo has a crush on him" adam, 2020
Stone is likely being taken or was already taken to guild hq
We could bust into hq but probs bad idea
Durnan says he's sure anyone could break into xants hq
Lmao durnan sounds so weighed down by life
Every now and then he looks over to well
Durnan is basically saying friendship is magic
The xants don't often come to typ and don't draw swords there
They fear it and durnan
"what's the hole?" adam rolls for insight, dirty 20
Odd expression comes across durnan's face
Mixture of disgust and longing
Uh … disgust and longing … for a hole? Ok durnan
We don't have to talk abt that I guess
Cel asks durnan to send a message to mirt to let him know we're safe but probs not gonna see him for awhile
Apparently the xants aren't too particular abt their henchmen
He says ask the barkeep abt it
Passive perception
At some point durnan leaves and right as theo says that we hear a loud thump and someone says "cripes"
Jones ?
Cel looks under the table and there's jones
Cel drags him out
Theo has a new idea "hey guys let's not go through with using adam as bait yet"
Adam looks down at the goblin and threatens to make him deaf
Plan d is to eat jones
We take jones upstairs
Theo explains her new plan
If the stone is already at their hq
We go to them
Jones doesn't mess w the xants
Why is jones rhyming
What r we talking abt lmao oops I was looking at primary results
I'M SCREAMING I DIDN'T KNOW GOODSPACEGUY WAS 81
No one has asked us for info abt the stone ?
Lmao is this like @me abt what's his name
Jb nevercaught ???? Jp nevercaught ?????? Idk who he is
What's our goal
We gotta figure out what we wanna do ig
We just wanna know where the xants r otherwise we duct tape his mouth and tie him up
"consider it stroked and very, very much needed" jones, 2020
To the dock ward in a wrecked whale oh the wrecked whale
"not the erect whale" cel, 2020 ????
There's a knock at the door
There's no peephole
Asyna asks "who is it"
HAHAHHAHAHA
MARGUERITE LMAO
"uh I work at the bar downstairs uh durnan had some - he wanted to speak to the drow"
I'm screwed
He has page hat on
"first durnan said we could stay as long as we'd like"
And he was offered money by this guy to speak to me
There's an elven man w v long and stringy hair, pointed nose and pointy ears
Looks rlly skinny and physically weak
Looking over scrolls
"guess who"
What the fuck
Nareel ??? naREEL????? WHO THE FUCK IS NAREEL???????
I don't kNOW WHAT THE FUCK IS HAPPENING !!!!!!
The stone fascinates him
Offering us partial membership
Occasional encouragement to go on various missions
He has resources
Treasure and gold involved, but not for the weak-willed
Offering 500 gold for completion of a task
They have captured a high-ranking member of the xants and tried to get info of him
More resilient than they thought he would be
They need him back in three days
Is this a roast session ???? Of aerana ???? When she dips to hang out with the other guy ???????
They're trying to figure out who her friend is
Jones wanted to be a painter
Adam is offering to have jones join us to maybe kill him??????
If he wants gold he has to go get it
They'll keep
"I'm gonna fill your goody bag real good so you better keep your mouth shut" adam, 2020 to jones
Oh god I'm such an avoidant lmao
Oh god I don't
"these conversations will become more difficult as things become more difficult but I think for now that went as well as it could have possibly gone"
"you will find him in your basement"
wHICH BASEMENT
We're gonna go home
To the north ward we go
You go to the basement
The ropes look kinda weird
He's not tied with rope
They're metal bands looped around him
Metal bindings
Doesn't look like he's gonna get out of it
Adam and cel don't see anything out of the ordinary but have noticed things moved around a little bit
Dwarf w dark brown skin, white/gray beard, looks roughed up - not injured, just worse for wear
Adam has him make a wisdom saving throw
Adam charms him
Approaches him first
Adam starts massaging his shoulders
Jfdkaslfha then takes the gag off
"are you here to let me out?" the dwarf
"even better I'm here to spend some quality time with you" adam, 2020
Says he has to get back to the master
Master silgar must be fed
His sacred duty is to feed master silgar
Master silgar has a shimmering son what
"Shakes the oceans with a swish of his body"
In the beginning there was xanathar and then he said silgar should be the one they care for until the seas rise and destroy the city
Controls the eye of the xanathar as the eye of the xanathar control him
His name is ot stillgeer
Adam says his name is cain
Blasphemy for adam to propose bringing lord silgar to him
Lord silgar lives in a great temple
He's the high priest of silgar
We're telling him it's our summer home
Adam winks at everyone and we go upstairs
Adam casts second-level sleep on him
44hp puts him to sleep
Adam is gonna disguise-self a beard when the dwarf next wakes up
Stage it so it looks like he had been there for a month
Everyone changes their clothes
Tally marks on the wall
It's like late afternoon at this time
Adam tells him he woke up after 79 days, rolls for deception
Rolls a 24
Looks over and says "79 days"
"am I dead"
"no but the xanathar want you dead"
"I'm free"
23 for deception
Lord silgar is a fish? A fish ? A goldfish
Lord xanathar loves his goldfish more than anything
Ot has to replace the fish
19 mans is telling the truth
Not really any sign we're being watched when cel rolls for perception
We watch ot, take turns resting and surveilling our own house
Night comes
When asyna is on watch in the tower
Sees figures start making way across street to our house
6 humanoids start trying to break into the house
Glass shatters as one goes through a window
The tapestry was lord silgar
The goldfish has no connection to the koi fish asyna spoke to
Two objectives?
Find the stone
Or control the xanathar w a fish
The stone is a map to half a million gold
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Sunday sermon
Sunday Sermon
[Post below]
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[Links to all my sites at the bottom of this post]
NOTE- Every so often some of my sites think I am Spam- or a Bot- I am not. My name is John Chiarello and I post original content [all videos and text are by me]. I do share my past posts from my other sites- but it is not spam- Thank you- John.
[TODAY’S POST BEGINS HERE]
Habakkuk 2:1 I will stand upon my watch, and set me upon the tower, and will watch to see what he will say unto me, and what I shall answer when I am reproved.
Habakkuk 2:2 And the LORD answered me, and said, Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it.
Habakkuk 2:3 For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry.
Sunday sermon videos-
https://youtu.be/smTOw7EJSjY
https://www.facebook.com/john.chiarello.5/videos/10205026402177950/
https://1drv.ms/v/s!Aocp2PkNEAGMhBp1wgu7lU34dS_Z
https://www.dropbox.com/s/0wagjiywi1hbl43/11-11-18%20Sunday%20sermon.mp4?dl=0
NOTE-
Church Unlimited- Mass - https://youtu.be/DiRNv2hp3aU
https://ccoutreach87.files.wordpress.com/2017/06/5-28-17-c-u-mass.zip
https://ccoutreach87.com/5-28-17-c-u-mass/
[I talked from the verses used in the Sunday Mass- and the verses from Church Unlimited]
I added the above videos at the time I made this post. Overall I tried to challenge some of our mind sets about the ‘End Times’ and how 20th [and 21st] century Evangelicals look at these passages. The Mass readings for this date did cover some of the more popular passages about the End Times. Some [most?] might disagree with the perspective I tried to talk about- and that's ok. The main point I was trying to make was End Times teachings should be seen in the light of the overall redemptive purposes of God. Revelation [the book] is a beautiful picture of Christ and the Church. And yes- there are passages about ‘violence’ how the Word ‘slays’ people- but in a redemptive context- yes- the Word of God- and those who submit to the Lordship of Christ- are ‘put to death’- or ‘buried with him in death/baptism’ so these perspectives are what I tried to share on the video- For those who want to go deeper into the end times and different ways Christians have viewed these passages- just Google Preterism- partial Preterism- and you can see a different perspective rooted in scripture as well. I am not a ‘full Preterist’ meaning I do believe in the literal 2nd coming of Christ and the future resurrection to come- but some of their ideas are worth listening to-
John
Here are a few links I just found- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preterism
https://www.ligonier.org/blog/preterist-approach-revelation-unfolding-biblical-eschatology/
ON VIDEO- [Past posts below]
.Ascension Sunday
.Cathedral city
.We are the 2nd book- Bishop Mulvey
.Dead words versus life in the Spirit [manifested thru us- the Logos made flesh once again]
.Tertullian ‘Have we chased God into a book’?https://www.britannica.com/biography/Tertullian
.Gnostic writing in the first few centuries
.Pseudepigraphy https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/pseudepigraphy
.Life in community
.Logos
.Watch Tower
.Theresa of Avila http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=208
.Catholic Mystics
.Contemplative prayer
.Hebrews- James- context
.Paul and James
.Faith and works
Correction- On the video I mentioned a quote/book from Theresa of Avila- the book was called ‘The Interior Castle’ written in 1588 - the quote I used was ‘Cathedral of the mind’.
PAST POSTS- [Past teaching I did that relates to today’s post- Verses below]
https://ccoutreach87.com/galatians-links/
https://ccoutreach87.com/hebrews-updated-2015/https://ccoutreach87.com/hebrews-updated-2015/
https://ccoutreach87.com/romans-updated-2015/
https://ccoutreach87.com/james-2015/
https://ccoutreach87.com/2017/06/01/acts-13/
CHAPTER 11: [see commentary on Acts 21]
END NOTES-
JUSTIFIED BY FAITH.
TORTURED- BY FAITH?
REJECTED MONEY- BY FAITH?
THEY ALL WAITED FOR THE CITY- THE CHURCH.
‘Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen, FOR BY IT THE ELDERS OBTAINED A GOOD REPORT [JUSTIFIED]’ This is the key verse to the chapter. Paul will go on to prove that all the Old Testament figures that ‘pleased God’ did it by faith, and not by works! ‘Through faith WE UNDERSTAND that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear’ Faith is not ‘blind’. It informs and gives understanding. This understanding is real! Let me show you what I mean. All of the universe and creation had a beginning point. Science did not always know or believe this. Today science teaches this. It is called ‘the point of singularity/density’. Science has traced back the origins of all things and has found scientific evidence to prove that all things had a ‘beginning point’. Now if you were to ask science ‘what did you have right before the beginning point’? They are stumped. Some of course believe in God and will boldly proclaim him at this point. To the others they can not answer this question. Why? Because they realize, thru science, that matter is not infinite.
Some have theorized that either all things always existed [which science has now disproved] or that at one point nothing existed [which science also teaches that if this were true then you would have nothing today. You can not get something from nothing!] So all true science has gone back to this ‘point of singularity’ and can not see what is right before ‘the point’. The Christian ‘sees’ God at this point! He ‘understands’ that by necessity there has to have been something that existed before creation, science teaches this. This something can not have been created also, because then where did the ‘being’ who created ‘it’ come from? So science teaches us that whoever got the ball rolling [Saint Thomas Aquinas calls this the ‘prime mover’] had to have been preexistent/ self existent in order to have done it. And we know that creation couldn’t have done it by itself, so therefore all reasoning and understanding leave us at the philosophical point of ‘there had to have been something/someone who existed forever in order for anything to be today’. So now you see how ‘by faith we understand that all things that now exist were brought into existence by someone who we can not see’. FAITH UNDERSTANDS!
As we go thru the rest of this chapter I want you to focus in on all the references of justification by faith. You will be surprised [I think?] on how many examples Paul gives to Israel from their own history [his too!] on God justifying people by faith. I will also try and show you [if I remember] how this chapter links the division between Paul’s epistles to the gentiles [Romans, Galatians] with James letter to the Jews. James was one of the lead Apostles at Jerusalem [Acts 15] and the Judaizers who were always accusing Paul of preaching grace in a way that justified sin, they came out of Jerusalem. James and Paul were rivals in a sense. James had the difficult job of overseeing the Church at Jerusalem, who had all the Pharisees who believed, while Paul was preaching this radical message of grace. This is why James’s letter [book of James] focused so much on faith and works. James was seeing the Genesis 22 account of Abraham’s justification when he offered Isaac on the altar. James will say ‘see how Abraham was justified by his works’. While in Paul’s letters he focuses on the Genesis 15 account of Abraham believing God and being made righteous. James was not contradicting Paul; he was showing the actual outcome of the life of a person who was previously justified by faith. James was saying ‘When God made Abraham righteous [Gen 15] he later actually became what God made him!’ [Gen. 22].
Now when Abraham would later do righteous things, he only did them because he previously had faith in Gods promise. But the fact still remains that when Abraham did a righteous act, God still justified him [in a sense, God has the prerogative to say ‘good job son, I am pleased with you’ so this can be described as an act/function of justification]. Well, now that I already showed you all this, I guess I wont have to remember telling it to you later. The point is in this chapter Paul will go down and show all these examples of Jewish leaders acting by faith and doing righteous deeds. This sort of bridges the gap between the strong emphasis on faith in Paul’s letters, with the strong emphasis on works in James letter. Paul is telling Israel ‘yes, all the old saints did do good works that pleased God, but they did them by faith!’ ‘Faith without works is dead’ [James]. So in a sense this single chapter bridges one of the key divisions in the early church between Jerusalem and Antioch [Acts 13 and 15]. Note; I believe all the chapter references above are correct, I write all this from memory so you might want to go back and double check the references. I know all the stories are right.
‘By FAITH Able offered …by which he obtained witness that he was RIGHTEOUS…by FAITH Enoch was translated…he had this testimony that he PLEASED GOD…without FAITH it is impossible to PLEASE HIM [all these ‘please him’ references are like saying ‘being justified’ when a person is justified by God, God sees him as acceptable, pleasing. ‘Thou art my beloved son in whom I am well PLEASED’ God to Jesus!] By faith Noah… prepared an ark to the SAVING of his house…and became heir to the RIGHTEOUSNESS WHICH IS BY FAITH [wow, he makes this one real plain] By faith Abraham…went out into a strange land…and sojourned’ interesting, both the aspect of ‘going out to a new land’ and ‘staying in it when you get there’ are both functions of faith. Let me throw in some practical stuff here. Over the years of ‘doing ministry’ I have seen and been a partaker of both of these experiences. Sometimes it takes an act of faith to uproot us from familiar territory and move on to the next level. And do you know what can happen next? The enemy will try to intimidate you once you get in the land of promise, and tell you ‘you cant stay here, look at all the people who hate you. Look at all the mistakes you made’ and it often takes an act of faith to STAY IN THE LAND. Don’t leave the land of your destiny; all true leaders will go thru both of these dealings.
‘For he looked for a city which hath foundations [Jesus is the foundation of this city!] whose builder and maker is God’ All of these great heroes of the faith were looking forward towards a future promise of being in Gods true church, the ‘City of God’ the Bride, the Lambs wife. Paul shows Israel that this 1st century appearing of Messiah was for the purpose of Israel coming into the ‘new land’ the Body of Christ. It is important to see this. There are many preachers today who are treating natural Israel as in if everything is just fine. It isn’t! They need Christ as much as the Muslim does. God was telling Israel ‘come into this new city’ [New Jerusalem versus Old Jerusalem] he wasn’t appealing for them to stay in ‘old Jerusalem’ and be a ‘completed Jew’. [I know this sounds harsh, but I want to emphasize to all my evangelical friends that Jews need Jesus, they play a special role in Gods plan, but ultimately they need Christ!]
‘Through faith also Sara herself received strength to conceive seed’ it takes faith to produce spiritual offspring! It might look impossible, but with God all things are possible. ‘Therefore sprang there even of one, and him as good as dead, so many as the stars of the sky and the sand by the shore’ sometimes God will allow you to bring forth one ‘seed’ [person or act of ministry] and you will be surprised how much fruit can come forth from this singular effort. This is why it’s so important to simply hear and obey God. Often times in ministry we do tons of ‘leg work’ which is OK. But when God gives you an idea or mode of function that you weren’t even thinking of, go with it. These are usually the ‘little seeds’ that produce the great harvest! ‘THESE ALL DIED IN FAITH, NOT HAVING RECEIVED THE PROMISES’ I want to emphasize here that it is possible to live your whole life in faith without actually seeing the fulfillment of all that God has told you.
Now faith does obtain promises [verse 33] but sometimes we also see things many years down the road and we must realize that the measurement of faith is not whether or not you are currently getting the actual promise. In the above [and below] verse’s we see Abraham and Sara being told that their offspring would number in the millions. They believed these promises, but it is obvious that they didn’t live to see it fulfilled, but they sure knew that after they were gone it would come to pass. So I want to exhort you to believe to see certain things fulfilled in your life time, but have some greater goals that you initiate while here on earth, knowing that after you depart they will be fulfilled. ‘And truly if they had been MINDFUL of the country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned’ what is Paul saying here? The greatest threat to the gospel taking root in the Hebrew community was the desire to go back to old law and culture. How many believers ‘revert’ back to an older form of church simply because they missed the old culture and ‘feelings’ that they had when they were younger? Many of the Jews would not go all the way with the gospel because they were ‘mindful’ of the good old days of law and sacrifice.
I just watched a show the other day that told how even some gentile believers began celebrating certain feasts of Israel with their Jewish neighbors. While it is good to understand and see the significance of the feasts, yet we know Paul wrote the early believers and said ‘you observe days and times and feasts, and I am concerned about it’. So when we [or 1st century Israel] are ‘mindful’ of the ‘good old days’ then there is always a danger of going back! ‘By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac…of whom it was said in Isaac shall thy seed be called. Accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead; from whence also he received him in a figure’ Abraham exhibited characteristics of the Father [God] as well as Isaac being a type of the Son [Jesus]. It’s interesting that these verses show that Abraham knew for a fact that God was going to give Isaac millions of children, Abraham also knew the voice of God so well that when he ‘thought’ he heard God say ‘offer up this boy’ that in the mind of Abraham, the only way these 2 things could be reconciled, is he came to the conclusion ‘I guess God will have to raise him up, being he has told me this boy will have millions of children, plus he is telling me to kill him’. Most of us would not have come to this conclusion! We would have doubted either the original promise, or said ‘surely this can’t be God telling me to offer Isaac’ [most likely we would have doubted the latter!].
There is a real important reason for Abraham to have been a real man of faith. God wanted this ‘picture’ of the offering up of Isaac for a type of the Cross and Resurrection. The only way he could have shown this example was to have had someone so radically filled with faith, that he would have come to this conclusion of ‘well, I guess God will just raise him’. It was necessary for the figure to have been truly fulfilled. It took Abraham many years of hearing and believing God before he would get to this stage. The part of Abraham’s mind that said ‘God will just have to raise him up’ was important for the figure to truly work. God knew he could only bring someone to this conclusion by arranging the whole scenario around a person of faith. It truly took a real person of faith to have come to the conclusion of resurrection as being inevitable! [For Abraham to fulfill the type of God, he had to have been convinced beyond all doubt that after he offered up his son, that he would be raised again. This is exactly what the Father [God] believed and knew about his own Sons death. So not only did Isaac fulfill the type of Jesus in this story, but Abraham also fulfilled a type of God!] [NOTE; Today is September 22, 2007. Israel’s Day of Atonement. I just heard a brother preach on the feasts of the Lord [I have done this also] but he preached it in a way that said ‘because God said you were to observe these feasts perpetually, therefore all gentile believers need to start observing these days’ he added ‘I know Paul taught the law passed and all, but these feasts are supposed to be forever because God said so’.
How are the feasts ‘perpetual’? Thru the fulfilling of them in Christ! Paul makes this plain all thru the New Testament [as well as this letter!] I was surprised to hear the brother preach that the first 2 feasts [out of the 3 main ones] were fulfilled and memorialized, but the 3rd one [Atonement/tabernacles] has yet to be fulfilled! What? Jesus fulfilled Passover and Pentecost for sure, and they are still being ‘fulfilled’ God is still bringing people in thru the blood of Christ and the Spirit is continually being poured out on people, and of course the ultimate reality of our atonement thru our high priest is a daily reality [he ever lives to make intercession] that is ‘fulfilled’ all the time[ I understand what the brother meant, that both Passover and Pentecost were fulfilled at the Cross and the day of Pentecost, and Tabernacles still has a future fulfillment. That Jesus will ‘ingather’ all peoples to himself at the end. The way he said it was in a way that he said Atonement, the beginning of Tabernacles/booths, still has to be fulfilled. It really came out badly!] I just thought it worth noting that today is natural Israel’s feast day, and we hold this feast in reality 24/7!]
‘By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of pharaohs daughter; choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, then to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt; for he had respect unto the recompense of the reward…by faith the harlot Rahab perished not…’ I want you to see that faith in Moses situation caused him to forsake great riches and leave a successful future. This is in keeping with all the times Jesus called people in the Gospels ‘forsake all and follow me’ mentality. We too often equate the ‘treasures of Egypt’ with following Jesus; the scripture puts a different spin on it! Also Rahab ‘perished not’ because she ‘believed’. Paul teaches in Corinthians that those who believe are ‘being saved’ and those who don’t believe are ‘perishing’. I want you to see that Paul is really making a theological argument for ‘being saved by faith’ in this chapter. Even a harlot can be saved! Wow. The law seemed to have no mercy on someone like that!
‘Who thru faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, stopped the mouths of lions…women received their dead raised to life…others were TORTURED not accepting deliverance…others had mocking and scourging and bonds and imprisonment, they were stoned, cut in half, were slain with the sword… being destitute, afflicted, tormented…they wandered in deserts and mountains and dens and caves of the earth, ALL THESE [both the ones who shut the mouths of lions as well as the one’s who were tortured without deliverance] OBTAINED A GOOD REPORT THRU FAITH, AND RECEIVED NOT THE PROMISE’ Faith does not always cause you to be better off in this life. I am very familiar with all the verses of God blessing us and providing for us ‘the blessing of the Lord it maketh rich, and he addeth no sorrow to it’. I believe and claim these verses just like the next guy. I also don’t want to tell people ‘give your life to Christ and all will go well’ did it go well for the ones who were tortured not getting delivered? Sure did. It went well the moment they saw the face of God. The same for those who were cut in half. It also went well for the women who received their dead raised to life. The point is ‘going well’ is not always defined by your outward circumstance.
We must see the overall biblical worldview of all things here being temporary, while all true spiritual riches are eternal. Moses actually was ‘less rich’ by the choice to follow Christ. But he was ‘more rich’ in that he fulfilled Gods purpose. It is important to see that many of these great heroes of the faith died without fully seeing the promise in this life. Now the last verse does say ‘that they without us should not be made perfect’ and this does show that the promise is now fulfilled thru Christ. We have all become recipients of eternal salvation thru Christ. The Old Testament patriarchs have ‘found that city’ in that we are all now members of the great ‘City that comes down from God out of heaven’ we are all in Christ today, even our Old Testament brothers who had faith. The point is don’t always measure a persons faith by their outward wealth and condition. James rebuked this idea in his epistle, he taught us not to show partiality to people who were rich while despising the poor.
When believers see faith only from the standpoint of outward things, they are missing the true riches. Jesus taught that all these outward things were not the true riches; I am surprised how many believers spend so much time hoarding and storing things that will all pass away some day. Let’s close this chapter on a good note. Paul has offered Israel all of their Old Testament heroes as an example of being justified by faith. He is saying ‘look, all the great fathers of the faith pleased God, just like you have said and taught for ages. I am declaring unto you they were all ‘justified/pleasing to God’ by faith, not law’. Therefore if you want to follow the example of Abraham and Moses and all the other wonderful fathers, then you too MUST BELIEVE!
END NOTES-
JUSTIFIED BY FAITH.
TORTURED- BY FAITH?
REJECTED MONEY- BY FAITH?
THEY ALL WAITED FOR THE CITY- THE CHURCH.
This chapter is loaded with the history of the Jewish people-
I could teach on each story- but that would be a bit much-
So I pasted the verses below to show that the writer is saying ‘see- all of our forefathers were justified- received a GOOD REPORT- by faith’.
Wait a minute- they DID THINGS- in these stories-
Isn’t that WORKS?
If you read the letter of James- and the letters of Paul- some scholars says there is a disagreement-
Paul says a man is justified by faith- and not by works.
James says ‘see how a man is justified by works- and not faith only’.
If this letter [Hebrews] was written by Paul- then it’s a true masterpiece- because he is combining the examples that James uses [Rahab- and Abrahams Genesis 22 experience- which James uses to say ‘see how works justifies’].
So- to me- Paul would be saying ‘no- I’m not contradicting James- we both believe/teach the same thing’.
If the letter was written by Barnabus- then it also is a masterpiece- because Barnabus might be trying to bridge the gap between Paul and James.
We read about this tension in Acts chapters 13 and 15.
This chapter is certainly not showing us how to obtain stuff [money- etc.] thru faith- because look at the examples- ‘Moses chose to suffer- and reject the wealth of Egypt- BY FAITH’-
‘SOME WERE TORTURED- SUFFERED- CUT IN HALF- by faith’- ‘CHOOSING TO not be delivered- because they had faith’.
We also see the heavenly city- as the goal of the patriarchs- they were all waiting for THE CHURCH- the city that the apostle John spoke about in the book of revelation.
The writer says ‘if they were mindful of the city they came out of [a reference to the law covenant- meaning if the Jews kept clinging to the law- the ‘city they came out from’- they will have a hard time moving on- into the New Covenant revelation of Messiah].
I didn’t quote verse 2- but we could teach modern physics from that one [the bible says all things were made from something invisible- modern physics has come to that reality in the 20th century- yet this verse was penned 2 millennia ago]!
By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.
So yeah- lots of good stuff in this chapter- but the main point is these ancients were justified by faith- the example of Noah and Abraham actually use that very language- salvation/righteousness [it’s a bit clearer in the King James Version- the above verses are from the NIV].
Yes- the writer is saying ‘everything is based on faith- and even our ancestors were justified by faith- they did all these things because they believed God- and God saw their faith- in action- and they too were made righteous- by faith’.
By faith Abel brought God a better offering than Cain did. By faith he was commended as righteous, when God spoke well of his offerings. And by faith Abel still speaks, even though he is dead.
By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family. By his faith he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that is in keeping with faith.
All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth. 14 People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. 15 If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. 16 Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them
By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. 25 He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. 26 He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt, because he was looking ahead to his reward.
By faith the prostitute Rahab, because she welcomed the spies, was not killed with those who were disobedient.
And what more shall I say? I do not have time to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson and Jephthah, about David and Samuel and the prophets, 33 who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised; who shut the mouths of lions, 34 quenched the fury of the flames, and escaped the edge of the sword; whose weakness was turned to strength; and who became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies.35 Women received back their dead, raised to life again. There were others who were tortured, refusing to be released so that they might gain an even better resurrection. 36 Some faced jeers and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. 37 They were put to death by stoning;[e] they were sawed in two; they were killed by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated— 38 the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, living in caves and in holes in the ground.
39 These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised, 40 since God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect.
CHAPTER 12:
END NOTES-
A HEAVENLY CITY.
DON’T BE SAD, HE’S TREATING YOU LIKE A SON.
NO REPENTANCE- OUTSIDE OF CHRIST THAT IS.
CULTURE SHOCK IS HARD ON US ALL.
‘Wherefore seeing we are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses [all the heroes of the last chapter!] let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us’ a few practical things. Paul compares the journey to a marathon, not a sprint! The patient runner who paces himself will receive a reward. The sprinter will look good at the start, but you never see him again! I have been blessed by so many gifted people over the years. Some who were on radio, or were doing some type of ministry for the Lord. The gifts and callings were truly on these people. A few years would go by and they were no where to be found. Where did they go? Some of them jumped on the latest ‘Christian movement’ [I am not against movements from God, I just feel we get enamored by them and give up on the main thing the Lord has called us to] some walked away from the Lord.
I have come to realize that God will put certain things in you from the early days, things that he predestined for you to fulfill before you were born. These are the things that you should be faithful to. Don’t abandon the original calling, it’s still there! You can spend your whole life leaving one ‘track’ and ‘sprinting’ in another. But God wants you to stay on the original course and run it with patience. It might not seem as glamorous or exciting as the newest race in town, but at the end you will receive a reward. ‘Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him ENDURED the cross, despising the shame and is set down on the right hand of the throne of God. For consider him that ENDURED such contradiction of sinners…and ye have forgotten the exhortation that speaketh to you as children [remember what we said about this type of privileged language in Hebrews? It is speaking to Israel] my son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art REBUKED of him: for whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If you endure chastening, God dealeth with you as sons’.
Now, for many years I read this just like you. That God was telling Christians that he disciplines them. True enough. But in context what is Paul saying here? He spent 11 chapters ‘reproving’ Israel. He told them that all the sacrifices and wonderful holidays and family traditions are no more. That Messiah has fulfilled it and you can’t keep doing it. Now, how would you feel if some know it all preacher came along and totally dismantled your whole way of worship? And you knew in your heart he was right! You would take offence. You would feel like you just got ‘chastened’ up and down and all over. Your initial reaction would be ‘this is too much correction in one letter, I am tired of reading it!’ so Paul is telling Israel ‘Don’t take all this reproof the wrong way, Gods intent is to get you to move on with the program. He loves you guys; don’t forget that scripture [Old Testament] says ‘who God loves he chastens’ hey, God is just dealing with you as children who he loves’ get it? ‘We have had fathers of the flesh that corrected us…shall we not much rather be in subjection to the father of spirits and live?’ Paul is saying ‘you guys want to live [eternal life] then you need to submit to the correction the father is giving you’.
‘For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure, but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness’ Now, God does chasten believers for the purpose of holiness. Scripture says ‘those who have suffered in the flesh have ceased from sin, that they should no longer spend the rest of their days in the flesh pursuing the desires of the flesh, but the will of God’ ‘before I was afflicted I went astray, but after I kept thy word’ ‘thou in faithfulness hath afflicted me’ ‘though he were a son yet learned he obedience from the things he suffered’ ‘the captain of our salvation was made perfect thru suffering’ [the last 2 are in this letter, the others are some where in scripture, I just quoted them off the top of my head. As you can see I have some familiarity with this subject! Ouch] In context Paul is saying to Israel ‘you have tried to attain holiness thru legalistic means, by keeping the law [Romans 9-the last few verses] but until you submit to Gods chastening, and have faith in God, you will not truly have his ‘holiness’ [righteousness].
So God is disciplining them thru this letter so they will ‘believe and become righteous’ as opposed to staying in the old system of law. ‘Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous [old brother Paul, he sure knew how to understate things!] nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of RIGHTEOUSNESS to them that are exercised [or exorcised! Just kidding, but it can feel like this at times] thereby. Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down…and make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame [broken] be turned out of the way, but let it rather be healed’ David said ‘restore to me the joy of your salvation that the bones which YOU HAVE BROKEN may rejoice’ The danger of chastening [both for Christians and Israel] is that we get so broken that we never fully recover. Paul is telling Israel ‘I know it’s been hard on you guys to hear so much rebuke. Don’t walk away totally discouraged. There is a danger that you might respond to Gods correction the wrong way. Lift up your hands, shake off the depression, and let yourselves be healed. God wants to restore you!’
‘Lest there be any fornicator, or profane person as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright. For you know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected: for HE FOUND NO PLACE OF REPENTANCE though he sought it carefully with tears’. This is another reason why reading Hebrews in context is important. One of the themes of this letter is ‘if you miss out on it now, you can’t repent later!’[Chapter 6]. We know that Pauls other letters to the churches leave open future repentance for those who have sinned. In Paul’s letters to the Corinthians we see this being done. But in Hebrews the idea is ‘if you pass on the Cross, you can not find repentance thru any other means. There is no other place for repentance’. So this is the reason why Hebrews has this theme of ‘no future repentance’ thru out the letter. Paul is certainly not telling Israel that if they decide to repent and accept Christ at a future date, they can’t! But he is saying ‘if you pass over this sacrifice of Christ, all the other ‘sacrifices’ and means of repentance that are contained in the law will have no future effect, remember Esau!’
‘For ye are not come unto the mount that might be touched…but ye are come to Mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem [the church]…and to the blood of sprinkling that speaketh better things than that of Able’ Here Paul comes back to a ‘scarlet thread’ that runs thru out this letter. He says ‘hey, you think the first covenant was a fearful thing, watch out! If you disregard this covenant [Jesus blood] then you have gone against something that is much greater than the law’. Also the ‘blood of Able’ cried out from the ground for vengeance, the blood of Jesus cries out from heaven for mercy and forgiveness! It ‘speaks’ better things than that of Able! ‘See that ye refuse not him that speaketh. For if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth [Moses and the law] much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from him which speaketh from heaven’ again Paul repeats themes he hit on earlier in this letter. He says ‘Moses spoke Gods Word [law] to you from an earthly mountain and place, you are come to a heavenly mountain [Sion-spiritual Jerusalem] and Jesus is speaking to you from heaven. This is much more strict than he who spoke from earth’.
‘Wherefore we receiving a Kingdom that can not be moved, let us HAVE GRACE, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear: for our God is a consuming fire’ Though Paul doesn’t say it [I think he should have!] but this alludes to the ‘God’ of Moses day, who did not consume the burning bush, compared to the ‘God’ of today [new covenant] who will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire! This fits in with the theme of a harsher punishment for those who reject the covenant of grace as opposed to those who rejected the covenant of law. I know these themes are not popular, but this is clearly the way Paul is presenting them. I also am not saying the ‘God’ of the Old Testament is different from the ‘God’ of the new [this is the heresy of Marcion! I think that was his name. He was an early Christian heretic who comprised the first canon of scripture for a ‘new testament’ it included basically Paul’s letters, and he taught that The God of the new testament was different from the God in the old] but Paul is presenting the new covenant in a way that says ‘don’t neglect this new way of salvation, those who do will receive a harsher judgment than those who rejected the law’.
END NOTES-
A HEAVENLY CITY.
DON’T BE SAD, HE’S TREATING YOU LIKE A SON.
NO REPENTANCE- OUTSIDE OF CHRIST THAT IS.
CULTURE SHOCK IS HARD ON US ALL.
Once again we see the contrast between ‘he that spoke from earth’ [Moses- the law]- and he that ‘speaks from heaven’ [Jesus covenant is more strict- to those outside of it and reject it- because he has heavenly authority- Moses had earthly]. Hebrews 12:25 See that ye refuse not him that speaketh. For if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven:
The writer says ‘don’t be sad- God disciplines every son who he receives’- though this certainly applies to Christians- Hebrews 12:5 And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him:
Hebrews 12:6 For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.
Hebrews 12:7 If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not?
Hebrews 12:8 But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons.
Remember this- though the message of grace and Jesus as the Messiah is wonderful- especially to us Gentile believers-
Yet- it was indeed a cultural shock to the 1st century Jew-
Why?
Even though Jesus was the fulfillment of the prophets- yet in order for the Jewish person to accept this [Like the apostle Paul]
He had to accept a real cultural change in the religion he practiced from his youth-
He was being asked to stop the animal sacrifices- to ‘move on’ from the Law covenant- and to embrace Christ.
Now- in reality- it would be the fulfillment of all that was contained in the law- but it’s often hard for anyone to ‘move on’ from former religious practices that are embedded in his culture.
So- in context ‘Don’t be sad- God is disciplining you- showing you new stuff- and it’s tough for sure- but he does this with all the sons he receives’.
We also see the promise of the heavenly city- As opposed to the earthly one. Hebrews 12:22 But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels,
Hebrews 12:23 To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect,
The writer is speaking about the church- and how both Jew and Gentile are part of this spiritual community coming down from God out of heaven.
And again we see the warning- of no repentance- for those who keep sinning.
I stress that this is never taught to the Gentile churches- as a matter of fact the Apostle Paul wrote the Corinthians- about a sinning brother- sleeping with his father’s wife [his step mom].
And In the 2nd letter- this brother repented- and Paul exhorted the church to receive him back into fellowship.
But to the 1st century Jew- still not fully in the covenant- he says ‘Hebrews 12:17 For ye know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected: for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears.
In keeping with the theme of the letter- Jesus is now the only acceptable means of repentance- and if you reject him as the Messiah- and continue in sin- then yes- there is no repentance.
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ACTS 1- Luke, the writer of this book, feels the need to document the ongoing work of Jesus and his revolution. He already wrote a gospel and believes this to be the beginning of the story. In essence, the reality of Jesus and his resurrection are just the start, we have much more to do and become on this journey. Most writers jump to chapter 2. We have churches and music groups called ‘Acts chapter 2’. Why does Luke seem to wait till chapter 2 before getting to ‘the good stuff’? Chapter one records the 40 days of Jesus showing himself alive after his death. Luke feels this singular truth to be important enough to simply stand alone [I do realize the early letters did not have chapter and verse divisions like today]. The real physical fact of Jesus bodily resurrection is without a doubt the foundational truth of the gospel. The outpouring of the Spirit and the whole future of the church depends on the reality of the resurrected Christ. Paul will write the Corinthians and tell them if the resurrection were not true then they are the most miserable of all people. Luke tells us Jesus gave instructions for the Apostles to wait at Jerusalem for the Spirit. They will be witnesses of him to all the surrounding nations after the Spirit empowers them. We also see Peter emerge as the key spokesman for the group. He quotes freely from the Psalms and reads their own history into the book. He sees the prophetic verse from David on ‘let another take his office’ as referring to Judas betrayal and death. They cast lots and choose Matthias as the one to replace Judas. Peter shows the importance of Judas replacement to come from one that was with them thru out the earthly time of Jesus. Someone who saw and witnessed Jesus after the resurrection. Scholars have confused this with the ‘ascension gift Apostles’. Some scholars have taken the truth of the early Apostles having the criteria of being actual witnesses of Jesus, and have said ‘therefore, you have no Apostles today’. Paul will teach in Ephesians that after Jesus ascension on high he gave gifts unto men ‘some Apostles, others Prophets, etc.’ The New Testament clearly speaks of Apostles as an ongoing gift in the church. Barnabas will later be called an Apostles [Acts 14:14] as well as many other references in the original Greek using the same Greek word for Apostle. But here we find Peter seeing the need to replace Judas. Other scholars think Peter might have jumped the gun. They see Paul’s apostleship as the possible person the Lord picked out as the replacement. You do find Paul referring time and again to his Apostolic authority as one ‘born out of due time’ who saw Jesus on the Damascus road. If Paul was simply an ascension gift Apostle, why would he refer time and again to his authority based on being a witness who also saw Jesus? It’s possible that Paul was in this group of ‘Apostles of the Lamb’ who had extra authority based upon their testimony of being eyewitnesses. So in chapter one we see that Jesus appeared for 40 days giving instructions to the early leadership and told them to wait at Jerusalem for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. We see the incarnational purpose of God, Jesus was and continues to be the express image of God to man. He was not some ‘phantom’ like the Docetists will claim, but a very real physical resurrected Lord. Luke begins the early history of the church with this reality being important enough to stand on its own.
ACTS 2- The Apostles are gathered together in the upper room. As they continue in unity and prayer the Spirit of God comes upon them like a rushing wind. There appear ‘cloven tongues’ like fire above each of them. Why this image? Why not ‘ears’ or some other sanctified body part? God is going to give supernatural power to the words that they will speak. In a few chapters we will read how an angel will supernaturally deliver Peter from prison and say ‘go, speak the words of this life’. These tongues are a precursor to the tremendous fire that will be loosed from their lips. James says the tongue is a little member but boasteth great things, it has the ability to start fires. Jesus said he came to earth to ‘start a fire’ and how he wished it were already burning. Here he gets his wish! Now the Apostles and early believers experience the gift of tongues. They begin speaking and prophesying in the unknown languages of all those who are gathered together to Jerusalem for the feast of Pentecost. God ordained this event to be strategically done at this time. All the surrounding regions heard the believers speak the ‘wondrous works of God’ in their native tongue. Peter stands up and delivers a scathing message! He basically tells Israel ‘this is that which the prophet Joel spoke about’ he goes on and says this outpouring is part of Gods predetermined plan to pour out his Spirit on all flesh in the last days. He speaks of divine manifestations [dreams, visions] and carries the prophecy right to the end of the age. He then speaks the gospel of Christ and tells Israel ‘this is the Jesus you killed’. Wow, these guys are bold. Peter leads them to faith in Christ, their public baptism is the immediate sign of their willingness to be identified with Jesus and 3 thousand Jews become believers this day. Now, what is the church? This corporate group of first time followers do 4 basic things. They ‘continue in the Apostles doctrine and breaking of bread and prayers and share their goods with all in need’[true fellowship]. This early community was a brotherhood who actually gave priority to the teachings of Jesus passed on to them from the Apostles. Don’t miss this! Many will develop all sorts of practices and beliefs that ‘make up church’. Some will justify extra biblical beliefs under the guise of ‘the Apostles doctrine’ as in if it were something totally contrary or not known thru the gospels or the writing of scripture. Paul will tell Timothy to stay true to the traditions he passed on to him. But I want to focus on the fact that the Apostles doctrine was not something different then the basic instructions Jesus left us in the gospels. Paul will add to this basic body of Christian doctrine thru his letters to the churches, as well as the whole New Testament. But we do not see a bunch of strange or unknown doctrines that come from this time period. The basics are mentioned above. I do want to stress the fact that this early expression of church life had no ‘Pastor’ in the sense of their gatherings being a time where a singular authority figure had oversight of the entire community. They had strong leaders to be sure, but would avoid the Protestant idea of Pastor. They had no church building or belief in a strong liturgy. The ‘breaking of bread’ was a common meal where they all shared together in a real life setting. And of course their giving was radical, it was not ‘a tithe’ and it was done to meet the real needs of the community around them. All these elements are basic to what the New Testament church is. A functioning society of people in whom Christ Spirit dwells and who see themselves as a real spiritual community of people. As we progress thru out the history of the church as seen in Acts we will never lose this basic mindset. It will be carried into the epistles of the New Testament and remain the best idea of ‘local church’ as found in the first century. There is a trend going on right now in Evangelicalism that says ‘lets return to the ancient practices of the church and see what we can find’. As an avid reader of church history I am not totally against this movement, but I do see a danger in thinking ‘the ancient practices’ are the 2nd or 3rd century development of liturgy and Eucharist and other early ideas, and by passing the ‘real ancient’ story in the book of Acts. To put it simply, some of the Protestant and Evangelical ‘practices and beliefs’ that have developed since the reformation are ‘ancient’. I believe we all have a long way to go, but the ‘low view’ of the Lords Table [low as opposed to ‘high church view’. Though I personally believe in the Lords table as a memorial, not as the actual Body and Blood of Jesus. Yet I personally don’t like referring to such an important practice as low!] seems to be the true ancient practice as seen in Acts. The absence of the Priest officiating over the altar is no where to be seen in the actual ‘church’ setting. This ancient church is really a simple brotherhood of believers having all things common and having the resurrection of the Son of God as the central organizing principle of their lives.
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The Donatists taught that the Sacraments were dependent upon the ‘holiness’ of the Priest who ministers them. That if you were in a Parish where the priests were bad- lived in sin- rejected a holy life- then if you were Baptized by these men- that the Baptism didn’t ‘stick’.
The Donatists formed there own break away church in the 3rd century- and a few very influential men would join the group. A well respected early church father- Tertullian- eventually joined their ranks.
Augustine argued against the Donatists teaching- and taught that Gods grace- and the grace given to believers thru the sacraments were not derived from the holiness of any priest or preacher- but if a believer in good conscience received the sacraments- that that’s what really counted.
Saint Augustine is one of the titans of church history- he is loved by Protestants and Catholics alike. He is famous for his belief in the doctrine of Predestination [that those who are saved were chosen by God before they were born] and for this reason he is loved by the original protestant theologians [Luther, Calvin, etc.]
He also taught a very ‘Catholic’ form of Ecclesiology [church govt.] and is well loved by many Catholics as well.
The Catholic Church refers to him as the Doctor of Grace- later on in the 13th century we will meet Saint Thomas Aquinas- who the church refers to as the Angelic Doctor.
Both of these men played a major role in the development of western thought and Augustine made an effort to distinguish true Christian thought from the philosophy of Neo Platonism which was very strong in his day.
When reading Augustine [he wrote a lot] you need to be careful to distinguish some of his earlier writings from his later ones.
Early on you still see forms of Platonic thought in Augustine- but as the years rolled by his thinking progressed more and more towards historic Christian thought.
For those of you who are interested- the Confessions of Saint Augustine is considered one the classics of Christianity- you can pick up a short version at most good bookstores- it’s well worth the time to read.
www.corpuschristioutreachministries.blogspot.com
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The church has debated for centuries on whether or not Philosophy should be taught to Christians. One of the early church fathers- Tertullian- said no- his famous quote is ‘what does Jerusalem have to do with Athens’.
Meaning what does Philosophy have in common with Christianity [Athens- Greece was the seat of philosophy in Jesus’ day].
For the most part- the early church fathers would embrace the study of philosophy- and try to make arguments for the Christian faith by presenting Christianity as ‘thee’ philosophy that best answers the questions of man.
These early Christian thinkers are called Apologists- men like Justin Martyr are in this class.
Apologist is a word we use to describe those who defend the faith- it comes from the Apostle Peter’s letter in the N.T. where Peter says ‘give an answer to those who ask you about the faith’. In the Greek language- the original language the N.T. was written in- this phrase is talking about a defense- an ‘apology’ in the sense of ‘making the case’ not in the common sense of apologizing.
In the book of Acts- chapter 17- we read the famous sermon of the apostle Paul- given at Mars Hill. He was in Athens at the time- and he was debating with all the philosophers of the day. He tells them ‘as I was looking around town- I saw that one of your altars is addressed to The Unknown God’.
He would go on and declare unto them that this Jesus is the true God- the one raised from the dead.
Paul also said ‘in Him we live and MOVE and have our being’. Kind of a popular verse quoted by preacher’s today- but we often overlook the significance of the MOVE part.
I mean- why say we MOVE in him too? Paul was a smart guy- he knew these children of Socrates questioned where motion came from [Remember Thales?] So he was basically saying ‘I am declaring to you the one true reality- the true 5th Element- the missing God particle from your system’ and he went on and preached Christ- being raised from the dead.
Paul knew that you can’t really do true philosophy- to grapple with the questions of life and being and ‘motion’ without realizing that God is indeed the ultimate answer to all things.
Even Peter Singer- who claimed that you don’t need God or religion in order to do Ethics- even he unknowingly quoted Jesus in attempting to give a basis for his Philosophy- yes- he quoted a God- one unknown to him- just like the altar at Athens- but a God never the less.
An inescapable 5th element- the missing part to the whole puzzle.
www.corpuschristioutreachministries.blogspot.com
[parts]
Let’s do a little more on Eschatology [end times stuff] today. Over the last few weeks these things have been in the news because of the Harold Camping prediction and you have heard various news folk- as well as believers giving their slant to all the popular verses that deal with the subject.
Some media people were quoting ‘no one knows when the last day will happen- not even the Son, only God’. Then you have had a few other popular verses seep into the flow. The main portions of the bible that deal with the end times are Matthew 24, Mark 13 and Luke 21. John’s gospel does not have an ‘end times’ discourse- possibly because he covers the subject in length in the book of Revelation.
The main gospel on the subject is Matthew- Mark’s gospel seems to be a shorter compilation possibly taken from Matthew. By ‘taken’ I mean Mark was a scribe/recorder- he was the personality we see in the book of Acts- John Mark. If you remember- he had a falling out with the Apostle Paul and Mark ‘went home’ while Paul took Silas and they embarked on the great missionary journeys of the Apostle.
You don’t hear that much about Mark after the ‘falling out’ but we know that Mark would later pen the 2nd gospel and he was also a recorder [secretary] for the Apostle Peter [might be important to remember this- if I get to it?]
So anyway mark seems to have borrowed from Matthew [some scholars think the familiarity between the gospels should be attributed to another unknown common source- referred to as Q- I prefer to simply see it as the writers being familiar with what the other writers were writing- and in the 1st century you did not have Plagiarism as we do today- where it would be illegal to copy something verbatim from another writer- that’s why Mark- who also probably penned 2nd Peter- not as a Plagiarist who used Pseudepigraphy- writings by authors who pretended to be someone else- but as a scribe who was familiar with the other source documents of the time. 2nd Peter has come under scrutiny because chapter 2 seems to have borrowed heavily from the letter of Jude. At some spots it looks like a direct copy. But as Peter’s scribe- it would not have been out of the ordinary to have included- verbatim- a passage from Jude and to have attributed the entire letter to Peter. Or Peter might have simply been familiar with Jude's letter and it would not have been wrong according to 1st century writing standards to have done this. But skeptics in our day try to use this to say the bible is a forgery- so that’s why it’s important to be familiar with the debate and to have a good response.]
Okay-lets at least try and start a little end times stuff. Matthews 24 begins with Jesus and the disciples walking away from the Temple and Jesus says ‘see all these buildings- truly I tell you that there will not be left one stone on top of another’.
The disciples then ask Jesus ‘when will this happen- and what will be the sign of the end of the age/world, and the sign of your coming’. Now- this sets the stage for the entire scope of the answer. Jesus told them one thing ‘the temples coming down some day’ and they ask a few things.
Some scholars believe that the entire answer Jesus gives- about the end of the world and the coming tribulation- some teach that all these things did happen by A.D. 70- that’s when the Roman general Titus [future emperor] attacked the city of Jerusalem and destroyed the temple. Jesus prediction about ‘one stone not being left on another’ was fulfilled to the tee because the temple stones were overlaid with Gold and the looters burned the stones to melt the gold and in the process they literally laid every stone out.
In the Matthew discourse Jesus also warned the disciples that ‘when you see these things beginning to happen- let those in the city flee to the mountains’. As Titus made his way towards Jerusalem some early communities took his words literally and did use the mountains as a place for protection. The community at Qumran hid their writings in ‘the mountains’ that overlooked the Dead Sea- some 2 thousand years later these writings [scrolls] would be discovered- those are the Dead Sea Scrolls of today- one of the greatestarchaeological finds of history.
And there were Jewish believers at Jerusalem who did indeed flee to the mountains and they escaped the slaughter. So there certainly were things that Jesus spoke about in his 'end times’ teaching that were fulfilled in the 1st century.
But what about the other famous portions? As various media persons were quoting a few famous parts of this discourse [this is the 4th famous discourse known as the Olivet discourse in Matthew- 5 famous long sections of Jesus’ teaching] it would help us to know the entire context of the discourse [which includes chapter 25 by the way].
One of the famous verses is ‘when you see the fig tree putting forth leaves- you know that summer is near- so when you see these signs you know the end is near’. In American evangelicalism this verse has been made popular by men like Hal Lindsay who teach that the fig tree is ALWAYS a symbol for the nation of Israel and therefore Jesus was saying that when Israel becomes a nation again [which happened in 1948] that within ‘a generation’ the end will happen.
This view uses a few other verses to come to this conclusion. Jesus famous ‘this generation will not pass away until all these things happen’ and a few other scriptures. Simply reading the chapter in context does not seem to be saying this at all. The parallel passage in Luke says ‘and all the trees’. It seems like Jesus is simply saying ‘just like when you see a tree blossom- so when you see these signs know that the time is near’.
There really is nothing in the actual text to indicate that this is speaking about 1948. But because of these verses having been used like this many preachers have tried to date the coming of Christ within ‘the generation’ from1948. Lindsey put out a book saying that 1988 was a ‘special time’ why 88? 1988 was 40 years [biblical generation] from 1948. Then some changed the biblical generation to 70 years- which makes this decade real important.
The problem with all these dates is there based on a faulty premise- that Jesus was saying that within a generation of the ‘fig tree blooming’ the 2nd coming will take place- he never said that. As far as I can tell 1948 plays no significant role. Of course Israel becoming a nation again at that time was a great thing- but as a date to begin setting off some type of spiritual clock- that’s not in the bible.
Okay- maybe I’ll do a few more of these over the next few days. Try and read these chapters the next few days and get a feel for the overall meaning [the context] when we become familiar with the overall meaning of the passage- it keeps us from getting lost in the Fig Tree ones.
www.corpuschristioutreachministries.blogspot.com
THE RAPTURE?
I spoke with a friend yesterday about the Harold Camping prediction that obviously failed. They know someone who is really into Camping and that person was being set up for the disappointment. On CNN they had a Baptist preacher who warned against this type of date setting- yet he spoke confidently about ‘the Rapture is the next event on Gods calendar- followed by the 7 years of great tribulation’.
I’m sure this fine pastor felt like he was providing a balanced voice compared to Camping’s date setting- yet I felt his interpretation was almost as ‘bad’ as what Camping was doing. Why?
My first introduction to ‘the Rapture’ came as a new believer who started attending a fine Baptist church- they were an ‘Independent, Fundamentalist, Pre-millennial’ Baptist church – and yes- they managed to fit all this on the sign!
The standard teaching says that in the New Testament there are 2 separate events that make up the 2nd coming. The first event is called The Rapture- that Jesus secretly comes all the way back to the earth and stops short in the sky [his feet don’t touch the ground] he ‘catches away’ all true believers [normally the Catholics, Orthodox and other historic churches get ‘left behind’] and then begins a 7 year tribulation period.
After the tribulation you have the other part of the 2nd coming- called the Revelation of Jesus- some Christians say this happens after 3.5 years of tribulation- others after the 7 year period.
Some say Jesus comes back after a 1000 year literal reign on earth [post millennial] others say before [pre- millennial].
And then you have various ways they interpret the end time judgment- some say you have what’s called ‘the Bema seat’ a separate judgment for believers- and then the ‘Great White Throne judgment’ the general judgment of the wicked.
O.K. does the bible specifically teach that the Rapture event is a separate event from the 2nd coming? No- in my view the bible does not teach this. Now- I’m sure that most of my Protestant readers are surprised that I hold to this view, because in American Evangelicalism this view is almost like the Trinity- in some circles it divides the true believers from the heretics.
Classic Christianity does not hold this view- this idea became popularized the 1800’s under a man by the name of John Nelson Darby and the idea spread to America in the 1900’s- primarily thru the revivalist strain of Christianity- and the ‘bible school/conference’ movement.
The historic churches just stuck with the classic idea that there will be one second coming- and there will be a resurrection and final judgment. I pretty much fall into this category myself.
You would be surprised how much thought has gone into this idea- I mean you have entire schools of thought- who call the other side heretics- just because they believe a 3.5 year tribulation as opposed to a 7 year one.
The word rapture comes from the Greek phrase used in Paul’s 1st letter to the Thessalonians- chapter 4. That’s the rapture chapter. The apostle says that Jesus will return and catch up [catch away] the believers into the air- they will forever be with God. This event is biblical- I believe it will someday take place. I simply believe this event to be the 2nd coming- not another event that you would define as the rapture.
I believe if you simply read the 2nd coming passages in the New Testament- that you would see this to be the most acceptable view. Jesus actually says ‘after these things [the great tribulation] then the sign of the coming of the Son of Man appears in heaven’ and he goes on to say ‘one will be taken- the other left’. It seems pretty clear to me that the event where ‘one is taken- another left’ takes place ‘after these things’ Jesus actually gives us the time table.
To be fair- the other side has many-many ways to ‘get around’ these verses- I just feel that after all is said and done- that the best way to view The Rapture is to see this event as the actual 2nd coming.
I have written a lot about this over the years [under the End Times section] and my purpose today is not to ‘prove’ whose view is right- I have found those tasks to be next to impossible. My point is if a believer [or group of them] chooses to break away from the historic church’s position on anything, then you need to think thru it very carefully. Most classic Christian churches have had very wise and knowledgeable men who thought long and hard before they articulated doctrine.
This is not to say that the majority view is always right- but it’s simply a safe guide to stick with the majority Christian view most of the time. I’m very aware of the minority report when it comes to the Rapture doctrine- I just feel like the portions of scripture that are used to ‘prove’ the doctrine are not strong enough to overthrow the classic belief.
The plain teaching of the New Testament is that there most definitely will be a Second Coming- and this event does not take place in 2 stages- the Rapture is the 2nd coming.
www.corpuschristioutreachministries.blogspot.com
VERSES- [These are the verses I quoted or taught from on the video for this post- Other videos below]
Acts 1:1 The former treatise have I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach,
Acts 1:2 Until the day in which he was taken up, after that he through the Holy Ghost had given commandments unto the apostles whom he had chosen:
Acts 1:3 To whom also he shewed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God:
Acts 1:4 And, being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which, saith he, ye have heard of me.
Acts 1:5 For John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence.
Acts 1:6 When they therefore were come together, they asked of him, saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?
Acts 1:7 And he said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power.
Acts 1:8 But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.
Acts 1:9 And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight.
Acts 1:10 And while they looked stedfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel;
Acts 1:11 Which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.
Acts 1:12 Then returned they unto Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is from Jerusalem a sabbath day's journey.
Acts 1:13 And when they were come in, they went up into an upper room, where abode both Peter, and James, and John, and Andrew, Philip, and Thomas, Bartholomew, and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon Zelotes, and Judas the brother of James.
Acts 1:14 These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication, with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brethren.
Acts 1:15 And in those days Peter stood up in the midst of the disciples, and said, (the number of names together were about an hundred and twenty,)
Acts 1:16 Men and brethren, this scripture must needs have been fulfilled, which the Holy Ghost by the mouth of David spake before concerning Judas, which was guide to them that took Jesus.
Acts 1:17 For he was numbered with us, and had obtained part of this ministry.
Acts 1:18 Now this man purchased a field with the reward of iniquity; and falling headlong, he burst asunder in the midst, and all his bowels gushed out.
Acts 1:19 And it was known unto all the dwellers at Jerusalem; insomuch as that field is called in their proper tongue, Aceldama, that is to say, The field of blood.
Acts 1:20 For it is written in the book of Psalms, Let his habitation be desolate, and let no man dwell therein: and his bishoprick let another take.
Acts 1:21 Wherefore of these men which have companied with us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us,
Acts 1:22 Beginning from the baptism of John, unto that same day that he was taken up from us, must one be ordained to be a witness with us of his resurrection.
Acts 1:23 And they appointed two, Joseph called Barsabas, who was surnamed Justus, and Matthias.
Acts 1:24 And they prayed, and said, Thou, Lord, which knowest the hearts of all men, shew whether of these two thou hast chosen,
Acts 1:25 That he may take part of this ministry and apostleship, from which Judas by transgression fell, that he might go to his own place.
Acts 1:26 And they gave forth their lots; and the lot fell upon Matthias; and he was numbered with the eleven apostles.
Matthew 28:18 And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.
Matthew 28:19 Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:
Matthew 28:20 Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.
Proverbs 29:18 Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he.
2 Corinthians 3:6
Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.
In Context | Full Chapter | Other Translations
John 16:7
Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you.
In Context | Full Chapter | Other Translations
Psalm 85:8
I will hear what God the Lord will speak: for he will speak peace unto his people, and to his saints: but let them not turn again to folly.
In Context | Full Chapter | Other Translations
11 And he said, Go forth, and stand upon the mount before the Lord. And, behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before the Lord; but the Lord was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; but the Lord was not in the earthquake:
12 And after the earthquake a fire; but the Lord was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice.
13 And it was so, when Elijah heard it, that he wrapped his face in his mantle, and went out, and stood in the entering in of the cave. And, behold, there came a voice unto him, and said, What doest thou here, Elijah?
Kings 19
Proverbs 20:27
The spirit of man is the candle of the Lord, searching all the inward parts of the belly.
In Context | Full Chapter | Other Translations
Proverbs 4:26
Ponder the path of thy feet, and let all thy ways be established.
In Context | Full Chapter | Other Translations
Proverbs 30:5
Every word of God is pure: he is a shield unto them that put their trust in him.
In Context | Full Chapter | Other Translations
[these are the verses for the video made 11-11-18]
November 18, 2018
« November 17 | November 19 »
Thirty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time Lectionary: 158 Reading 1DN 12:1-3
In those days, I Daniel, heard this word of the Lord: "At that time there shall arise Michael, the great prince, guardian of your people; it shall be a time unsurpassed in distress since nations began until that time. At that time your people shall escape, everyone who is found written in the book. "Many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake; some shall live forever, others shall be an everlasting horror and disgrace. "But the wise shall shine brightly like the splendor of the firmament, and those who lead the many to justice shall be like the stars forever."
Responsorial PsalmPS 16:5, 8, 9-10, 11
R. (1) You are my inheritance, O Lord! O LORD, my allotted portion and my cup, you it is who hold fast my lot. I set the LORD ever before me; with him at my right hand I shall not be disturbed. R. You are my inheritance, O Lord! Therefore my heart is glad and my soul rejoices, my body, too, abides in confidence; because you will not abandon my soul to the netherworld, nor will you suffer your faithful one to undergo corruption. R. You are my inheritance, O Lord! You will show me the path to life, fullness of joys in your presence, the delights at your right hand forever. R. You are my inheritance, O Lord!
Reading 2HEB 10:11-14, 18
Brothers and sisters: Every priest stands daily at his ministry, offering frequently those same sacrifices that can never take away sins. But this one offered one sacrifice for sins, and took his seat forever at the right hand of God; now he waits until his enemies are made his footstool. For by one offering he has made perfect forever those who are being consecrated. Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer offering for sin.
AlleluiaLK 21:36
R. Alleluia, alleluia. Be vigilant at all times and pray that you have the strength to stand before the Son of Man. R. Alleluia, alleluia.
GospelMK 13:24-32
Jesus said to his disciples: "In those days after that tribulation the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will be falling from the sky, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken. "And then they will see 'the Son of Man coming in the clouds' with great power and glory, and then he will send out the angels and gather his elect from the four winds, from the end of the earth to the end of the sky. "Learn a lesson from the fig tree. When its branch becomes tender and sprouts leaves, you know that summer is near. In the same way, when you see these things happening, know that he is near, at the gates. Amen, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things have taken place. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away. "But of that day or hour, no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father."
Other videos- [These are the videos I post every night- Links to all my sites below]
Kings 4 https://youtu.be/OLW-5PVlzV8
John 19 https://1drv.ms/v/s!Aocp2PkNEAGMg3M4Hh28mYlGWq8a
Friends https://youtu.be/cZLwTwxkESc
Its all a gift https://flic.kr/p/2iD9qA3
11-3-19 Sunday sermon https://1drv.ms/v/s!Aocp2PkNEAGMjE2X0-DUqPwM4brX
8-27-17 Sunday sermon https://www.dropbox.com/s/bh48my17zjp506z/8-27-17%20Sunday%20Mass.mp4?dl=0
2nd Samuel 22 [NYC] https://www.dropbox.com/s/wlwkjbm5nozgcdn/2-22-17%20Day%20Kennedy%20died%20%5B2nd%20Sam.%2022%5D.mp4?dl=0
Isaiah 53 https://dai.ly/x7m5j3q
4-10-20 Good Friday https://www.facebook.com/john.chiarello.5/videos/10207012789156383/
https://youtu.be/m6YP7RNWYUk
The good Sabbath https://youtu.be/YFhTQFRQurI
https://www.facebook.com/john.chiarello.5/videos/10207016524209757/
I have come to start a fire https://youtu.be/pyu0kSBYBO8
Acts 3 https://1drv.ms/v/s!Aocp2PkNEAGMg3FpIZPaevEu4-sx
Homeless friend https://youtu.be/C25zsHNg1J8
Acts 4 https://www.dropbox.com/s/mbpzi567ay7iebq/2-2-17%20Acts%204.mp4?dl=0
4-16-17 Sunday sermon https://www.dropbox.com/s/synraurg0yshfr2/4-16-17%20Easter.mp4?dl=0
Teaching https://1drv.ms/v/s!Aocp2PkNEAGMilxNimhHJ5e9WBqc
10-11-15 Sunday sermon https://ok.ru/video/1589887109687
6-10-18 Sunday sermon https://www.bitchute.com/video/Vn8oXrAMhd1G/
Zech. 2 https://youtu.be/RXCFjghyBHY
Homeless friend https://1drv.ms/v/s!Aocp2PkNEAGMg2-i-JrQQgw8G34T
City of refuge https://youtu.be/BicEi6AvmFE
Waters cover the sea https://flic.kr/p/2iCpydt
6-19-16 Sunday sermon https://1drv.ms/v/s!Aocp2PkNEAGMhjgVDOmEQJQeDwpr
11-13-16Sunday sermon https://www.dropbox.com/s/tra4vdf2ut8tmsc/11-13-16%20Christ%20Church%20%5BC.U.-%20Mass%5D.mp4?dl=0
Samuel 17 https://dai.ly/x7m5j3r
2nd Samuel 21 [NYC view] https://www.dropbox.com/s/jt2dvbku9roav3e/2-20-17%202nd%20Sam.%2021%20%5BNYC%20view%5D.mp4?dl=0
This generation https://1drv.ms/v/s!Aocp2PkNEAGMg2uGrLczW3CETdD2
Homeless friends https://youtu.be/iWQnkKPnIpo
Spiritual Rock https://flic.kr/p/2iBjXwB
12-30-18 Sunday sermon [Part 2] https://1drv.ms/v/s!Aocp2PkNEAGMil1muwvXJPNC3BNn
Colossians 4 https://www.dropbox.com/s/u3urlhqn0uohehn/4-26-18%20Colossians%204.mp4?dl=0
Fatima- 2nd Mile [N.J.] https://www.dropbox.com/s/3b8obhv6chhub8h/2-19-17%20Fatima%20%5B2nd%20mile%5D.mp4?dl=0
Revelation 6 https://dai.ly/x7m20nh
Acts 9 https://youtu.be/VBw6tOxifc4
10-11-15 Sunday sermon https://1drv.ms/v/s!Aocp2PkNEAGMg3CWH34dXfqKGZEA
Not a performance https://youtu.be/hipVuk4m6JY
Colossians 3 https://www.dropbox.com/s/l5uniom6iw4j1tm/4-12-18%20Colossians%203.mp4?dl=0
10-5-19 Sunday sermon https://1drv.ms/v/s!Aocp2PkNEAGMjElNfB6A3ly1GW_g
Acts 25 https://ok.ru/video/1588890503735
Teaching in NYC https://www.dropbox.com/s/31al0l8zx4e0m0r/2-18-17%20Teaching%20in%20NYC%20%5B2nd%20Sam.%2020%5D.mp4?dl=0
5-6-18 Sunday sermon https://www.bitchute.com/video/LhHGVKYdg6we/ 2-26-18 One https://youtu.be/a0dxi27SeD8 2-25-18 Update https://youtu.be/8VhbTy6MgT8 Galatians 5 https://1drv.ms/v/s!Aocp2PkNEAGMejbeju1g4BLexRc Fatima [North Bergen] 2nd mile https://youtu.be/YcfnxpqOOo4 Acts 2 https://1drv.ms/v/s!Aocp2PkNEAGMe74Uzp8M7zlLwek 2nd Samuel 21 [NYC view] https://youtu.be/ahBwNwiQ1s0 Acts 2 https://1drv.ms/v/s!Aocp2PkNEAGMe74Uzp8M7zlLwek
Twilight of the Idols https://youtu.be/OUQg7muqpzU
The carnival https://youtu.be/71ACh0RVuZo
The hornets nest https://trello.com/c/zRamqon8/275-4-9-16-the-hornets-nestmp4
Neil- and Rick Hart- who died about a month ago- https://dai.ly/x6xcitv
Talking church https://www.bitchute.com/video/bbqifwCZs72d/
https://trello.com/c/iffb3zTX/276-talking-church
Acts 12 https://youtu.be/SRmccCVfFTQ
11-20-18 News update-
https://youtu.be/iZj8l-K_jEU
11-19-18 Bank robbery https://www.facebook.com/john.chiarello.5/videos/10205029651339177/
https://youtu.be/KkL1ZUIoiqs
Bethlehem christians https://youtu.be/3QiH9JSXn90
Ride thru Lincoln tunnel https://bit.tube/play?hash=Qmc5Di9G5JQ2F9PDScSnU4WNvBpiiR5WDLCuTuWeG6mpyy&channel=160276
8-26-18 Sunday sermon https://dai.ly/x6xafhp
Homeless friends- Bill Hagan https://flic.kr/p/JSJQEH
Acts 3 https://youtu.be/Zdx2ZP4VqOo
Hebrews 12 https://www.bitchute.com/video/QqXiog6LDAwW/
Holy Savior https://d.tube/v/ccoutreach/b4uq9ws4
North Bergen- Fatima- 2nd mile https://bit.tube/play?hash=QmQHdUN2Ao9UrzZpuJ8Z4v2L1i6kVVfrUZUdQat4hkBgok&channel=160276
Friends https://youtu.be/XXl-Rw0xByk
2nd Samuel 1 https://ccoutreach87.com/2018/11/20/2nd-samuel-1/
Corpus Christi https://ccoutreach87.com/2018/11/21/corpus-christi-4/
2nd Samuel 2-3 https://ccoutreach87.com/2018/11/23/2nd-samuel-2-3/
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These are some of the first posts ever made, I hope to share some of them over time in between my regular studies. Of course they are ‘dated’- and it would be too difficult to edit each post. Some have old news comments in them, but if I also taught on the posts, I’ll post them ‘as is’. Hopefully they will be a benefit in some way- John.
All past posts can be found here- https://corpuschristioutreachministries.blogspot.com/p/links-to-past-posts-up-to-12-2017.html
Note- Please do me a favor, those who read/like the posts- re-post them on other sites as well as the site you read them on- Copy text- download video links- make complete copies of my books/studies and posts- everything is copyrighted by me- I give permission for all to copy and share as much as you like- I just ask that nothing be sold. We live in an online world- yet- there is only one internet- meaning if it ever goes down- the only access to the teachings are what others have copied or downloaded- so feel free to copy and download as much as you want- it’s all free-
Note- I have many web sites- at times some question whether I’m a ‘bot’ because I do post a lot.
I am not a ‘bot’- I’m John- so please- if you are on the verge of deleting something- my contact email is [email protected] - contact me first- thank you- John
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Elizabeth Bishop — An Actual Bishop?
Elizabeth Bishop is not a poet we read for her versificatory virtuosity or marvelous musicality; one need only take a look at The Fish to see that her poems — admittedly not without exception, but overwhelmingly — exhibit less poeticality than many writers' prose. No, her appeal lies not in the traditional qualities we would associate with poetry, but rather in her treatment of the subjects of her poems. She is a poet of incredible empathy, attentiveness and ability to wonder, a poet who exhibits admirable goodness and compassion — acting consistently as per the teachings of the Bible.
Perhaps the best example of Bishop's compassion and empathy is The Prodigal — her retelling of Jesus's parable of the Prodigal Son.1 She conveys sympathy through her detailed description of the son's suffering — an incredibly vivid "brown enormous odor" surrounds him; the sty in which he lives is "plastered halfway up with glass-smooth dung"; his mental state is no better than his surroundings as he is plagued by "his shuddering insights, beyond his control,/ touching him." Bishop focuses on the bestialisation of the son to show him being shunned and ignored by society, dismissed and offered no help. Ken Stone points out the "recurring tendency to disparage humans recognized as different or other (whether on the basis of gender, race, nation, class, or any other marker of difference) by animalizing them, turning them into beasts who then can be treated in ways that we routinely allow ourselves to treat animals."2 This tendency is seen elsewhere in the Bible — for example, Jacques Derrida reads the story of the Garden of Eden as linking animal difference with sexual difference and the boundary between humanity and God3 — and in this case it is made stronger by the fact that the Jews believed pigs to be unclean animals. The animal is associated with the other — Ellen Armour, in a theological essay on Derrida’s Le Toucher, refers to the "fourfold" of "man and his others: his racial and sexual others, his divine other (God), and the animal."4 Armour suggests that modernity is characterized by "a certain configuration of these four elements" in which ‘man occupies the center while the animals, God, as well as man’s raced and sexed others, constitute a network of mirrors that reflect man back to himself by supposedly securing his boundaries."5 This begs the question: why is the son set apart from the rest of society? Perhaps it is simply that his choices led him to poverty and that made him looked down upon. It would not be unreasonable, however, to argue that his situation is the product of prejudice — likely due to homosexuality or other queerness. Nonetheless, this is not the place for a queer reading of The Prodigal (another blessay, perhaps?) — what is important is that Bishop, for one, refuses to shun the son and treats him with an admirable degree of empathy, exemplifying Jesus's commandment "Love your neighbour as you love yourself."6
The Fish is another poem that can be read in light of the Bible. The most obvious link is the ending: "And I let the fish go," which shows empathy and reflects Jesus's teachings: "Happy are those who are merciful to others; God will be merciful to them!"7 What is perhaps more interesting is that Bishop describes the fish at length as being extremely ungainly and repulsive — "Here and there/ his brown skin hung in strips/ like ancient wallpaper"; "He was speckled with barnacles,/ fine rosettes of lime,/ and infested/ with tiny white sea-lice" — yet seems to value it highly despite its seeming worthlessness. This parallels the Bible once again:
The stone which the builders rejected as worthless turned out to be the most important of all. This was done by the Lord; what a wonderful sight it is!8
We see more of Bishop's ability to see the smallest of things as wonderful in Filling Station. It is similar to The Fish for its oddly sympathetic descriptions of ugliness — "oil-soaked, oil-permeated/ to a disturbing, over-all/ black translucency"; "a set of crushed and grease-/ impregnated wickerwork" — but focuses more on the work done in the background by "somebody" who "loves us all". Her focus on efforts which would generally go unnoticed is once again consistent with what Jesus sought to teach us: "Whoever wants to be first must place himself last of all and be the servant of all."9 Bishop elevates the 'servant' to an almost God-like entity that encompasses us all with love.
An extension of Bishop's empathy is her ability to put herself in the mindset of someone else, especially a child. Many of her poems are written from the perspective of herself10 as a young girl, and she masterfully captures the unique way of seeing the world that children are gifted with. First Death in Nova Scotia shows a childhood mentality employed to confront death; a vivid imagination conjures wild explanations to try and come to terms with what is happening. The ending in particular combines fantasy and fairytale with logic in a way that is typical of young children — Arthur was invited to the royal court, but how can he go if he cannot open his eyes? Sestina is a more unusual example because the narrator is an omniscient entity, not a child, but despite employing an adult vocabulary it focuses on a child's mindset — the surreal image of little moons falling off the pages of the book; the characterisation of the almanac as "clever"; the "marvelous" Marvel stove. These examples bring to mind the words of Jesus: "I assure you that unless you change and become like children, you will never enter the Kingdom of heaven."11 Bishop's ability to take on an innocently immature persona is yet another example of her sympathetic, empathetic nature.
Bishop may not have actually been a bishop12, but she was probably a better person than a good deal of them. One needs only to look at the news to know how often the latter seem to completely ignore the teachings of the Bible and do utterly terrible things.13
Luke 15:11-32 ↩︎
Ken Stone, 'Judges 3 and the Queer Hermeneutics of Carnophallogocentrism' in The Bible and Feminism: Remapping the Field, edited by Yvonne Sherwood and Anna Fisk (Oxford University Press, 2017), 264. ↩︎
Jacques Derrida, The Animal That Therefore I Am, edited by Marie-Louise Mallet and translated by David Wills (Fordham University Press, 2008), 101. Cited in Stone, 'Queer Hermeneutics of Carnophallogocentrism', 265. ↩︎
Ellen T. Armour, ‘Touching Transcendence: Sexual Difference and Sacrality in Derrida’s Le Toucher’, in Derrida and Religion: Other Testaments, edited by Yvonne Sherwood and Kevin Hart (Routledge, 2005), 353. Cited in Stone, 'Queer Hermeneutics of Carnophallogocentrism', 263. ↩︎
Ibid. 358. ↩︎
Matthew 22:39. All Bible quotes in this blessay are from the Good News New Testament, Today's English Version. ↩︎
Matthew 5:7 ↩︎
Matthew 21:42 citing Psalm 118:22 ↩︎
Mark 9:35 ↩︎
'Someone else' and 'herself' are not contradictory here; the fact that her mindset as an adult is radically different than that of her as a child justifies the separation. ↩︎
Matthew 18:3 ↩︎
Not that this has been conclusively disproven. ↩︎
Not to go off on a tangent yet again, but here are some examples. ↩︎
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I was tagged by @itsaconfusionthing
1. Do you make your bed?
If my bed even has a bottom sheet than I am doing Great and Living or I have expected company
2. What’s your favourite number?
9
3. What’s your job?
I do so many things and many negative money somehow in spite of being a bored member (punintended typo) for a statewide org etc.... Volunteer work with nonprofits is work and labor but I find it worth it and fulfilling
4. If you could go back to school, would you?
I plan to, even though academia is a prison and i hate it,,,, If I want to live on my own income ever in this economy I need hella letters around my name
5. Can you parallel park?
In theory, in crash team racing and at one point in unturned for sure
6. A job you had that would surprise people?
I used to be at the park from 330pm on friday till 630 pm on sunday with only 10 hour breaks at night to shower and sleep several weekends a year as a soccer player/coach/ref. I’d ref 2+ games, play 2+ games, and coach 2+ games as well as mentoring new refs and staffing the ref booth for 2 hours
7. Do you think aliens are real?
I mean theres sentient life under the sea that we don’t know about yet and space is bigger than that so..... uh.... yeah????
8. Can you drive a manual car?
At least as well as I can paralell park
9. What’s your guilty pleasure?
Since pleasure is the only intrinsic good I don’t feel guilty about feeling pleasure
10. Tattoos?
I have a trio of stars on the back of my neck and a branch of ivy climbing down the surgical scar along my right hip. My next one is a devotional design for Lord Ares and then I’m adding to the special interest collection with probably my CR design first
11. Favourite colour?
Purple, gold, blue, green, silver, rainbow
12. Favourite type of music?
the kind that makes the air wiggle
13. Things people do that drive you crazy?
the only things that drive me crazy are the schizoaffective disroder and the DID
14. Do you love doing puzzles?
Word and logic puzzles? Yes! anything that needs physical or spatial ability? lolno
15. Any phobias?
nothing bad enough to consider it a phobia
16. Favorite childhood sport?
Other than soccer, from age 4 on, I guess probably capture the flag or the “sport” i played with this one friend where we violently attacked each other in the hallways of a medical education building while our moms led LLL meetings every other wednesday night for almost a year
17. Do you talk to yourself?
I have 9+ other people in my same body to talk to so why would I talk to myself?
18. What movie do you adore?
PACIFIC RIM
19. Coffee or tea?
Tea
20. First thing you wanted to be growing up?
President lmao, the first black woman president. And now the only thing still true about that is black
I tag whoever wants to do this
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NJPW G1 CLIMAX 29 Day 17 Review (Aug 10th 2019, Tokyo, Nippon Budokan)
A Block Finals:
EVIL vs. Lance Archer ***1/2
SANADA vs. Bad Luck Fale **3/4
KENTA vs. Zack Sabre Jr. ****1/4
Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Will Ospreay ****3/4
Kazuchika Okada vs. Kota Ibushi *****
Photos.
The A Block closed out in style with another fantastic day of action. This was on par, if not better than the August 3rd show in Osaka. Everything delivered (or over-delivered in some cases), and the final three matches were all spectacular in one way or another. Lance Archer and EVIL had a great little match to start the G1 action. This was another in Archer’s very good tournament showings, and EVIL too has really come into his all this G1. He usually has pretty frustrating G1′s but he’s been consistently great this year. Archer started strong by hitting an impressive Moonsault off the apron onto EVIL and the Young Lions. After a hilarious ref bump, where EVIL tried to make Marty Asami catch Archer’s leg, and he took a bump like he’d taken the John Woo Dropkick, Archer hit the Derailer, then ran head first into a chair EVIL had wedged in the corner, and EVIL lays him out with a Lariat. Lance escapes the STO and hits a massive chokeslam for a near fall, followed by the F5. Archer tries the Claw, but King Of Darkness escapes, again trying the STO, but Archer again locked on the EBD Claw, and got the pinfall at 10:02. SANADA’s match with Fale was also much better than expected, with a hot crowd who were into SANADA. Cold Skull took out Jado and Chase with Pescado’s early so they couldn’t interfere, but then Fale slowed this down to a snails pace after locking on such scintillating moves as nerve holds and the like. After kicking out of the Grenade, SANADA hit the big man with a bodyslam and the TKO, but Owens pulled the ref out as he made the count. SANADA responded by tying both Owens and Jado up in the Paradise Lock, then locked Fale in Skull End. The Rougue General though had it scouted and turned it into a small package for the surprise win. As much as I like these finishes to Fale matches of late, in which he’s been using wrestling holds to win, I can’t help but think having SANADA, how is likely getting an IWGP Title shot in the coming months, lose here to Fale, is somewhat counter productive.
ZSJ and KENTA, two guys with a fair bit of history going back to NOAH, had an excellent match next. It was everything you’d want from these two, with the striker taking on the Submission Master. The story being, whenever they’d trade blows, KENTA would always win, crumpling Zack with his hard kicks and strikes, so Sabre would have to revert to his ground game, and using submissions, focusing on KENTA’ s well known about damaged left arm. After hitting a top rope double stomp, KENTA tried Go 2 Sleep, but Zack escapes, sweeps the leg and hits the PK, but KENTA kicks at 1. They trade strikes, which culminates in KENTA destroying Zack with hard slaps, but Sabre locks in the European Clutch for a great near fall. ZSJ tries the Brakes Armbar, which KENTA turns it into Game Over, but Zack makes the ropes. KENTA gets a near fall with the Busaiku Knee, then tries Go 2 Sleep again, which Zack turns into an armbar, transitions into a triangle, then turns that into the Jim Brakes armbar with the leg crabbed and head stomps, tearing away at KENTA’s shoulder, and he has no choice but to submit at the 16:26 mark. That was a great finish. The dream match of Tanahashi vs. Ospreay followed, and it was a fantastic match indeed. Budokan was white hot for this, with duelling chants from the off (which seemed to perturb Tana). The Ace worked over Will’s legs, hitting Dragon Screws so to ground him, but Ospreay battled back with a Sasuke Special to the floor. Some more high flying moves followed, which forced Tanahashi to go back to attacking the knee, hitting more Dragon Screws, and locking in a deep Texas Cloverleaf, but Will makes the ropes. Ospreay fires back and goes for the Oscutter, but Tana counters into a Final Cut, then tried Sling Blade, which Ospreay countered into a Spanish Fly. Will hits a Shooting Star Press for a near fall, then hit the Oscutter, but Tana kicks at 2.99 as Budokan goes crazy. WIll tried Storm Breaker, but Tana turns it into a Sling Blade. Another follows, and tried the standing High Fly Flow, but Ospreay turns it into a small package for a near fall. Another Sling Blade is countered with a Hook Kick, then Will hits Hidden Blade, followed by Storm Breaker to get the very surprising, though much deserved, win after 17:12 of fab action. This was, by far, the biggest win of Ospreay’s career, and the result means both guys end on 8 points, going 4-5.
The main event had a tough act to follow, but they more than lived up to it. This was a different kind of match than the one which preceded it, but it was equally as good, if not better. There was a lot of drama here since Ibushi needed the win if he wanted to win the Block, whereas Okada only needed to take him the time limit, so Ibushi tried to speed this up, whilst Okada would slow him down with holds in the early going. Okada hits a dropkick which sends Ibushi off the top, to the floor, then hits the draping DDT on the outside. Okada works over Kota’s neck, but Ibushi’s hits a snap Frankensteiner, which sends Okada to the outside, then hits a Pescado, but sells the injured ankle upon impact. Back in the ring, they engage in a forearm battle, then Ibushi hit a powerslam, but Okada gets the knees up on a springboard Moonsault attempt. Okada tries the top rope elbow, but Kota nails him with the Super Springboard Frankensteiner for a near fall, and follows up with the sitout powerbomb for another as Okada grabs the ropes. Okada counters Kamigoye into a German Suplex, then rolls through, holding on for the Rainmaker, but Ibushi escapes, only to eat a dropkick. Okada tries the Tombstone, but Ibushi turns it into a Package Tombstone of his own. They once again exchange strikes, and Okada hits a big John Woo dropkick, but Ibushi pops up and hits a massive Lariat as the crowd go crazy for this. Okada escapes a Lawn Dart, and escapes by finally hitting a short arm Rainmaker, keeping hold of the wrist. He hits another, but Ibushi turns a third into a Straight Jacket Suplex, then transitions into Kamigoye, but Okada blocks and hits a dropkick to the back of the head. Okada tries another dropkick, but Ibushi catches him in mid-air and turns it into a sitout powerbomb for a great near fall. Ibushi tries Boma Ye, but Okada hits a massive dropkick out of nowhere in an amazing spot, then tries Rainmaker, but Ibushi counters with a head kick. Another head kick connects for Ibushi, but Okada once again escapes Kamigoye, and tries Rainmaker again, but Ibushi hits a standing Kamigoye. The Kamigoye follows and Okada kicks at 2.9999 in one of the most believable near falls I’ve ever seen. Ibushi drops the knee pad and hits another Kamigoye to win the match and the Block at the 25:07 mark. This was tremendous action, but as good as it was, it felt very much that they were holding off for a bigger match (hopefully WK14, because a rematch of this is of infinite more interest to me than Okada facing whoever wins the B Block). This was fantastic stuff, with an insane closing stretch. The win sends Ibushi to the finals, and even if he doesn’t win, it seems a given they’ll do this match again soon, given Ibushi’s clean win over the IWGP Champion. Ibushi cut a promo in the post-match, saying he won’t repat the same mistakes as last year, and promising to fight until the bitter end. Dear God, I’m hoping Naito doesn’t win B Block, just because I don’t know if my heart could take another match between those two this year.
NDT
#njpw#g1 climax 29#review#kazuchika okada#kota ibushi#hiroshi tanahashi#will ospreay#zack sabre jr#Kenta#new japan pro wrestling#puroresu#wrestling review#wwe
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Thoughts on MiTB
It started off strong, lost me for a bit in the middle, but really woke up me with AJ/Seth.
1. Not sure what the point of The Usos/Planet’s Champs match was but it was good. I know they built up some tension between them but they’re on different brands so it does leave this feud feeling a little off.
2. The Women’s MiTB match was probably the best one they had yet. It was less brutal than the Men’s but the women definitely held their own. One thing that seems to always distract a little during the women’s match is they do more multi-person spots so it can be noticeable when they’re setting them up. It makes the match a little less smooth. But it was still good and I loved the reaction to Bayley winning.
3. Joe got screwed and not in the fun way! The refs were so bad most of the night. Either they were booked to look stupid or it’s going to be part of a storyline. Who knows with Vince?
4. Bayley is SD Champ! It was good storytelling to see Becky win over Lacey, Charlotte goad Becky into having their match straight after. It was like Becky got a little too confident off a big win and it cost her the SD title. Then, after Bayley made the save for Becky against Lacey and Charlotte, Charlotte got cocky and went after Bayley, who took her out, cashed in, and Charlotte lost her title.
5. I thought the Elias/Roman segment worked. This was one of the matches I was worried about because if Roman overcame a bunch of things to win, I feared the crowd reaction. But instead we got Elias, who I don’t think has ever won a PPV match, attacking Roman backstage, wasted enough time in the ring doing his thing so Roman recovered, and Roman quickly demolished him. Booking like this works.
6. The AJ/Seth match sooooo lived up to expectations. Credit is due to these two, whoever was involved in producing the match, the commentators(especially Cole), just everything came together to work for a great match. Match of the night! There were so many cool spots, the storytelling was there, and it left the feeling like they could easily outdo this match because they have it in them.
7. The Kofi/KO match might have suffered a little for following this. They booked smart to have a little break with LHP coming out(ignoring Lars) to give the crowd time to recover from that AJ/Seth match but I don’t think it was long enough. There seemed to be a lot of dead spots where the crowd was quiet, maybe rebuilding their energy for the MiTB match they knew would follow this one. It was still a good match.
8. The Men’s MiTB match was so brutal. These guys went at it and extra kudos to them for putting their bodies on the line even though they knew the stupid ending that stupid Vince booked. Even if they didn’t know it would be Brock, they still knew someone who wasn’t going to be involved in the match was coming out at the last minute to win. They all deserve so much better. The match was the second best of the night except for that ending.
9. Vince really just spit in the face of every single one of his guys by bringing Brock back. People were leaving, you could see them walking out, their social media comments are mostly negative. This is how delusional Vince has become. Throwing a big shocking swerve at the end of a PPV just for the sake of a shocking swerve no one sees coming only works if it’s a good swerve, not one that now has people clamouring for your competition. Vince fucked up yet again but probably thinks he did a great job because people are talking. He’s too delusional to realize it’s mostly negative.
10. All those in the MiTB deserve better. Seth deserves better than to drop his title to that part time idiot. All the guys who show up and work hard deserve better than to see the title back on that part time idiot just because Vince has a hard on for him. That goes for either show. Brock Lesnar hasn’t been a draw in a long time but Vince is too busy kissing his ass to see it.
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15 questions, 15 mutuals.
⭑ Are you named after anyone? my real name is actually the name of a girl my dad went to high school with & he just really liked her name for some reason.
⭑ When was the last time you cried? that’s a great questions, i don’t remember.
⭑ Do you have kids? no.
⭑ Do you use sarcasm a lot? unfortunately, but because i am monotone from my mental illnesses, no one can tell when i am being sarcastic & they think i am being rude.
⭑ What’s the first thing you notice about people? a lot of things, mostly talking habits. i can pick up on someone’s speech way too easily, honestly to the point where i can tell if someone else is texting for them or not.
⭑ What’s your eye color? i wear colored contacts all the time, so who knows. my fave ones are grey.
⭑ Scary movie or happy ending? scary movie, scary movie.
⭑ Any special talents? i have really good language skills, i self taught myself japanese up until college. i’m also good at video games bc i use them to avoid having to use my language skills.
⭑ Where were you born? trailer park hell.
⭑ What are your hobbies? video games, writing, watching youtube,,,,, i’m kind of boring.
⭑ Do you have any pets? 2 cats, ( coconut & timon ), 2 fish, ( danchiku & issa ).
⭑ What tattoos / piercings / body mods do you have? 10 piercing in total, on my ears & my tongue & belly button. 5 tattoos in total, all of them are horror movie refs / wiccan symbolism.
⭑ How tall are you? 5′6″
⭑ Dream job? i wanna work for disney, it’s a place where people are happy & their creations make people happy, and i want to be a part of that.
⭑ Favorite subject at school? anything based around technology is great too.
Tagged by: @coyotefaced & @pragmanic Tagging: whoever wants to do it!
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I don’t want to hate on the sharks because the refs made bad decisions because the sharks are separate from that. and i like some of the players on the sharks a lot. I know a lot has been made about like Jumbo coming back to boston and winning teh cup, but from me and most everyone i know, there’s no animosity there? we love Joe. He never gave up on us or moved out on us, and he’s been a shark at this point for over 10 years. He’s as much a Shark as Chara is a Bruin. So if he came to Boston and won the cup would I be mad? No. Would I be upset? Yes because my team lost. But I’d take more solace in the fact that Joe won than like idk fuck... bozak or whoever is on the blues.
But at the same time like. Someone needs to start taking responsibility for the game and series deciding calls they are making in one teams favor. It’s not a missed penalty or a missed bad hit. These are calls that have actually changed the landscape of the NHL playoffs. Sharks fans should be proud of their team, they should be excited and I am sorry that these posts have made the fans feel like people are out to get them. but from a bias perspective, as someone who does not give a shit about the western conference right now. The reffing needs to stop doing this and we need to stop comparing a soft penalty or missed call on decisions that directly effect the outcome of the series. Like i think with Vegas and Colorado, better teams would not have lost those games and I think San Jose deserves credit for being good enough to win. But now with St. Louis it’s more than that to me. And again as someone who does not care about the outcome, who would get more out of the sharks being in the final than the blues, it just, needs to be remedied somehow. reffing overall has been bad but in the east it’s been on a petty level in the west it’s been almost malicious.
#my stuff#text#this is nothing against the sharks as a team#or a fanbase#and this is not me saying they are only winning becuase of the refs#both vegas and colorado had a chance to win#but all those things can be true#and the reffing can still be atrocious
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