#Christ became a life-giving Spirit

[a-godman]

Christ Passed through a Process for us to be Grafted into Christ and Grow with Him

In order for us to be grafted into Christ, He had to pass through the processes of incarnation, crucifixion, and resurrection; through our repentance and faith in Christ, we are grafted into Him and we grow with Him in the likeness of His death and resurrection. Hallelujah! Thank the Lord for opening to us to see what grafting is and how we can be grafted and we were grafted into Christ! May we…

[strangeandoff-putting]

why I'm happysad that they let Numa be the narrator in Society of the Snow.

So if you, like me, have been more than a little obsessed with the story of Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 for a very, very long time, your stomach probably dropped like mine did when the narrator introduced himself as Numa Turcatti. (My immediate thought was, "why would you do this to us?!") If you went in blind, I feel for you!

But while the film gave us a version of Numa, since it's from his perspective what it doesn't really give us is the group's perspective on him. He comes across a bit like an outsider, and although, yes, his only surviving friend was Pancho Delgado, he wasn’t an outsider for long at all. On the contrary. So, here are a few excerpts from the books that tell you more about what he was like and how much they all loved him, because I feel like that’s important.

From Alive, Piers Paul Read:

Next to Parrado, Numa Turcatti was the most generally beloved of the boys. [...] Since he had known few of the boys before leaving Montevideo, it was proof of his strength, simplicity and complete lack of malice that he became so loved and respected by them.

On celebrating Numa's birthday while trapped under the avalanche:

The boys gave him an extra cigarette and made a birthday cake out of snow. [...] Many would have liked to give him a better time on his birthday, but instead it was he who improved their spirits. "We have survived the worst," he said. "From now on, things can only get better."

From Society of the Snow, Pablo Vierci:

‘When I talk about Numa, I can’t help but cry,’ says Coche Inciarte. ‘He’s the best person I’ve ever met in my life. However tenderly I cared for those who were losing heart, Numa did it much better because he never got tired. He was constantly aware of everyone else’s distress. He radiated peace, he never gave up, and when he came near me, I felt like Jesus Christ himself was among us, with such mercy and compassion in his eyes. I don’t know where he got his strength.’ ‘I could never imagine him living in everyday life, because I met him and I loved him in that torment of the Andes,’ says Coche. ‘He had a hard time eating, like I did. We ate the bare minimum in order to survive. I lost one hundred pounds, he lost more. And just like me, his leg became infected after the avalanche. We operated on our legs together with a razor blade. But he deteriorated more quickly than I did, because he had given so much more; he had been too generous.’

Moncho Sabella:

Numa taught us about the anonymous heroism of giving more of himself to others than he reserved for himself. In that balance between solidarity and selfishness, which decided whether you lived or died, he tilted the balance in favour of the others to the detriment of himself. [...] And when the avalanche came and covered the plane, the one who worked the hardest, the one who removed the most snow so that we could come back to life, was Numa. Again, he was exceeding his own limits. [...] In the end, his immune system was so devastated that he got one infection after another. We gave him antibiotics and the doctors on the mountain attended to him every day, but finally he left us. And with him, we all died a little more.

Gustavo Zerbino:

I always remember Numa up there, full of despair, when he told us that he would rather die watching the sky, walking, instead of ending life immobilised in a cave of broken metal. For that reason, after the avalanche, he kept digging and removing snow without rest until he burned himself out with exhaustion. He always thought that his time had come but he wanted to work until the final moment, doing whatever he could to help. I cared for him all those days; I saw how he was hurried to the brink of death, with no defences, getting one infection after another. I went up to him and first I gave him a kiss on the cheek to greet him and asked him how he was doing. He just stared at me with a kind of infinite peace. He never complained. But Numa was quickly deteriorating: from that physical strength and vigour he had had at the beginning, he finished as a skeletal dying boy. He held on to his characteristic qualities until the end though. He was that same stoic guy when he was strong and when he was wasting away.

‘Gustavo Zerbino didn’t tell us the whole truth [about the expedition] because he didn’t want us to be discouraged. When I asked Numa about it, he couldn’t lie and he told me: “As far as we went, all you could see were more mountains.” But even so, he always wanted to be an expeditionary. “I want to go,” he told me, even though I knew at once he could never go, he was too exhausted and too hurt.’ So Numa approached Daniel Fernández, knowing that he had influence over the others, and he tried to convince him: ‘I can do it, Daniel, please believe me. I can do it.’ Daniel recalls, ‘When I told him that his injury made it impossible, he started working even harder than ever, like a bull, shovelling snow to unbury the plane after the avalanche to show that yes, he could do it.’

Finally, from Alive, after Numa died:

On this particular afternoon, Javier Methol lay at the back of the plane. "Be careful," he said to Coche as he rose and stepped over Numa's body. "Be careful not to step on Numa." "But Numa's dead," said Parrado. Javier had not realised what had happened, and now that he understood his spirits dropped completely. He wept as he had wept at the death of Liliana, for he had grown to love the shy and simple Numa Turcatti as though he were his brother or son.

I'm not sure the Numa we see in the film is quite the same person that he actually was on that mountain, but I'm so, so glad that he got a voice. He fought so hard for them all.

So, yeah. In the immortal words of Jake Peralta,

[juliakristeva]

i’m pro choice and religious also but i’m curious if you could expand on how your pro choice beliefs are informed by your faith bc i’ve always felt like mine are in conflict w each other and im very curious bc ive never heard that before!

cw: mentions of rape

in the story of the immaculate conception we are faced with two options to account for the palpable power imbalance between mary- a young, unmarried, working class jewish girl living under a violent colonial power- and god.

the first option is that god is an authoritative, patriarchal god who subjects creation to his will. mary is not really given a choice in the matter of her pregnancy, and her utterance "i am the handmaid of the lord" is thus made under coercive circumstances, a faith born out of fear as would be typical for a young woman in her cultural context. in this scenario, mary's life only becomes worthy of protection after her pregnancy. she is sanctified not through her existence but through the injection of christ into her womb. in this scenario, because mary is coerced in a deeply imbalanced relationship, she is also a victim of coercive rape. jesus is thus the product of rape, and while this argument infuriates christians, this is the underpinning to pro-life ideologies. women are not worthy of protection until they have a child. they are justified not by their own existence but through their relationships to cishetero masculinity, of which god (in this scenario) must be the pinnacle. mary is not and is never worth more than the baby inside of her, which is a god.

of course, the attributes of god in this scenario are largely antithetical to what we know about god, especially what we know about god in a theological context. (such as: the spirit that covers mary in her impregnation is a feminine spirit, the shekinah, not a penetrative masculine entity. in fact the whole of mary's story has very little to do with men: between the shekinah and elizabeth, up until joseph is actively called into the narrative, it is a story about motherhood and sisterhood, not about heterosexual union or male/female connection for the purpose of childbearing.) if mary only becomes sanctified after she becomes pregnant, then the theological underpinnings of christ's conception and his redemptive arc make no sense. christianity at its core is rooted in the idea that all people are uniquely worthy of life. to be worthy of life means also to be worthy of dignity. since mary is the first to believe that christ is the son of god, the one coming into the world, she is the first christian (along with mary magdalene, the first to believe christ returned from the dead- two women named mary are the first to take up the two basic tenets of what it means to be christian); which means that god knew mary was worthy of life and this, worthy of dignity, before she became pregnant. it was mary's womanhood specifically that deemed her as worthy of dignity, because god could have chosen any way to manifest himself in the world but he chose to be the child of a woman.

this god- who is keenly aware of and yearns to give life to his creation, which cannot be bestowed without a deep and enduring respect and elevation of their dignity- cannot be an authoritative patriarchal figure, since that figure is incapable of upholding the life and dignity of a young, marginalized woman. this also means that, since god is not capable of violating creation's dignity, he cannot have coerced mary into pregnancy, meaning that she could not have been raped, meaning that by definition, mary was given a choice. in fact, this is suggested in the lucan narrative by her verbal consent to become pregnant: "let it be with me according to your word." this isnt a passive submission to god's will, because god does not desire passive submission from those he loves. it is an active choice. god wants us to choose him just the way we, as people, want those we love to choose us.

and we can sit and debate omniscience and omnipotence and predestiny, and whether mary really had a choice if god knew she would simply say yes, but i like to humble myself before god and not pretend to even remotely understand his thoughts. i only know what i can see, and what i can see is mary's verbal consent, and the nature of god as it has been revealed to me.

i cannot believe in a god who would violate a woman's dignity even for the most noble of reasons, because that is not the god i know from scripture. otherwise he would not be of the material of pure love that i know god is because he said so (john 15:12, 1 john: 48 and 4:16). so for me the entire basis of christianity comes down to women's choices and their freedom to choose- in that house in nazareth, in front of the tomb in jerusalem, but never once does the god that i know take away that freedom from his creation, whom he made because he loved. to whom he gives the dignity of choice, even when it leads us away from him, because he loves us. but he loves us enough to let us say no.

[mybeingthere]

SISTER GERTRUDE MORGAN, 1900 - 1980, born in Alabama, USA.

“I guess my paintings spread the word; they represent something. They get me a living, of course, and help out the mission here … I am a missionary of Christ before I’m an artist. Give all the fame to some other artist. I work for the Lord. Now don’t forget to give Him credit.”

A street preacher who became an artist, poet, and musician, Sister Gertrude Morgan was guided throughout her life by visions from God. Her artistic talent was a conduit to express her religious fervor and illustrate her teachings. Self-taught, Morgan created artworks when the Spirit moved her, using found materials such as cardboard, window shades, wood, signs, and more. Her imaginative compositions often incorporated text to emphasize important themes or to cite Scripture verses. Later in her career after 1970, Morgan devoted the majority of her paintings to biblical scenes from the Book of Revelation, which focuses on the second coming of Christ. Her recurring imagery depicts the Book of Revelation’s theme of the New Jerusalem, which represents the Holy City for Christ’s followers and the fulfillment of all God’s promises. Morgan’s interpretations of this abstract, spiritual concept often include a large multistory building shown in cross section to reveal empty chambers and Christ preparing for His marriage to Sister Gertrude, as shown in New Jerusalem Court and Untitled (New Jerusalem). “And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband.”

Born on April 7, 1900, to a poor rural family in LaFayette, Morgan moved to New Orleans in 1939 to begin her missionary work as a singing street preacher and soon joined the Holiness and Sanctified denomination, a church where the services praised God through music and dancing. In the early 1940s, Morgan adopted the title “Sister” when she worked with two other street missionaries, Mother Margaret Parker and Sister Cora Williams. The three women built a chapel and opened a children’s shelter; the center closed down when it was destroyed by a hurricane in 1965. Morgan then moved to St. Bernard Parish where she became a nurse to a woman whose house later became Morgan’s Everlasting Gospel Mission.

– Vicki Phung Smith

https://www.juxtapoz.com/.../outsider-artist-gertrude.../

https://www.bridgeprojects.com/art.../sister-gertrude-morgan

[nanomooselet]

Wolfwood and Martyrdom

There's something everyone tends to misunderstand, about martyrdom.

You don't become a martyr against your will. It has to be a conscious choice between renouncing your faith and keeping your life, or remaining faithful and being put to death. It's not just dying, even if it’s in service of faith. It has to be a decision.

It has to be a willing sacrifice. You have to, consciously, purposefully, choose surrendering your life over renouncing your faith.

I do not think people are realising just how profound Wolfwood's devotion to Vash had become. How truly he believed in Vash. How deeply they loved and were devoted to each other.

Because Wolfwood truly did not want to die. And yet he chose to in Vash's name.

Wolfwood loved Vash and his ideals so much that they became his reason to live, and then he accepted death to uphold them. Vash would never have asked that of him. Vash apologised for judging Wolfwood for killing when his willingness to do so saved innocent lives, told Wolfwood his ideals were a burden Wolfwood wasn't required to bear.

Instead, his death was something Wolfwood had to request.

Do you accept this offering?

And Vash had to give him permission.

I do.

His proposal accepted, Wolfwood took up everything he had left, his body and spirit, the life he could have had, the welcome home he always yearned for - and he purposefully set them aside in the name of Vash's ideals. He was obedient unto death.

It's so painful. Vash is devastated, openly howling and weeping in anguish. But he had to let it to happen because it was Wolfwood's choice. That's why when he prays it's not answered. And it's why Wolfwood tells him, with his final words, to smile - because he has no regrets. He chose this. He chose Vash. Don't blame yourself, tongari. You look better when you smile.

It is absolutely a wedding. There's literally no other way for the whole series of events to be properly understood otherwise. The passion and devotion of Wolfwood's sacrifice leaves me standing back in genuine awe.

Because to live outside of Christ is to die, and to die in Christ is to live.

Wolfwood entered the story as a dead man, and then realised he wanted to live. Vash wanted to share all his tomorrows with Wolfwood - and he will. Because martyrdom?

Can be how you become a saint.

And this is why Vash burned through his power to protect Wolfwood's body. Because Knives may consume everything else in his madness and fear and vengeance, but he doesn't get to even come close to touching this. This is sacred. This is a holy relic. This is something that belongs only to Vash.

A sinner like Knives is unworthy.

[sparklingsora]

Hi. I would like to know many things about your roleswap au bc I love it very much but I have no idea what to ask I just want to know many things bc my brain has been consumed already

uhhhhh I guess can you lore dump a little bit on backstories? Idk I just wanna know everything about this au

I will be back in your ask box for this au several times most likely

-Spaghetti Brain Anon

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THE ASK!!! i am SO glad that i could get this au to live in someone else's brain rent free too. all i could ever ask for in life tbh i guess i'll infodump about character backstories, dynamics, character arcs, all that juicy stuff putting it under cut because HO BOY THIS IS GONNA GET LONG

as a heads up, take the timeframes i give you with a grain of salt, because i still havent completely figured out the timeline so first of all, vox!! he's a sinner, died in the 1950s, as per canon. he's a businessman, but less stable than in canon. he's always jumping from job to job, business to business, which results in him having a lot of connections with various people around hell. soon after arriving in hell, he met and became friends with alastor. cut to, i'd say around 7-10 years before the events of the story? alastor disappears without a trace during an extermination and vox assumes him dead. having now been personally touched by the effects of the extermination, the idea to try and solve overpopulation another way is planted in his head, but wont come to fruition until much later. in the meantime he meets velvette - finds her bleeding out in an alleyway after getting too cocky and trying to fight back to an exorcist (bad idea). he nurses her back to health, they become friends and eventually start dating, yada yada yada. one day vox and velvette find a funky little cat (keekee). keekee takes a liking to them and leads them to the old ruins of a building up on the hill on the edge of pentagram city. they figure out that the cat turns into a keyblade that can be used to magically build shit (only the hotel though, as keekee is the spirit of the hotel or??? whatever the hell the canon lore is idk???) vox finally decides to realize his idea to try and solve overpopulation more humanely - through redeeming sinners! his reasoning is, if angels can fall (as proven by lute and charlie), then demons can surely ascend, right? though he's not as sure or idealistic about it as charlie is in canon. he simply thinks it has a chance of working, and opening up a hotel means a bigger sample size than if he were to just try and get into heaven himself or something like that. besides, he wouldnt wanna go to heaven, he likes it here. also, im not sure where this is situated in the timeline yet, but he was in a band with adam, lute and possibly eve at some point? the band is called brimstone eden, as mentioned in the comic i posted. im not sure yet whether he was in the band prior to eve's disappearance or after it (eve disappears 7 years before the story starts to mirror canon lilith). swap!vox, like his canon counterpart, is a very reactive person. he follows trends, he's extremely go-with-the-flow to a fault. he never really had any strong beliefs until the hotel - his character arc mainly involves him gaining something to believe in and learning to fight for that belief, 'ready for this' being more or less the culmination of his arc. jesus christ i cant believe i wrote that much JUST on vox. *slaps the top of his head* this boy can fit so much lore in him

now, velvette... she's how you'd expect her to be. same old brave, arrogant velvette. she's a fashion designer and seamstress and runs a moderately sized business which she promotes on sinstagram. she's mutuals with val there, which is how he finds out about the hotel. there's not much to write home about when it comes to val - it's insane how similar angel and him are. like literally barely anything changes when you swap them, it's very clean. he's a prn star, sold his soul to angel dust, yada yada. though a bit on his dynamic with vox - vox is very good at reading people, and doesn't like being lied to (he's a bit of a hypocrite in that regard - he puts on a facade all the time when in professional settings). he can clearly tell val isnt doing as good as he pretends he is, and wants to help him really badly, but val just sees it as vox pitying him and rejects his help (its what they fight about in ep 4, as a counterpart to the whole "charlie going to the studio" thing bc vox wouldnt do that) and now here's the fun part - ALASTOR! oh, alastor, you beautiful stuck up bitch! so turns out, he's not so dead after all! he ALMOST died in that fateful extermination, but husk found him and offered him a "give me your soul right now or bleed out in this alleyway" type deal. of course alastor chose the former, but boy he's not happy about it. he's extremely ashamed of how far he's fallen. so ashamed, in fact, that he hid from the world for those 7-10 years! yeah! he's only pulled out of hiding when husk summons him to be the bartender for the hotel. vox is of course, extremely bewildered and demands answers. alastor doesnt give them and avoids him instead. it takes a sincere conversation with valentino in ep 4 for alastor to finally talk to vox again and explain himself. alastor is basically in extremely deep denial of just how fucked his life is. he clings onto his radio demon persona like a lifeline bc its the last thing that can help him feel some semblance of control over his situation. his tension with valentino is twofold - first they butt heads because of opposing personalities, and second because they both see the other's bullshittery. it's a clusterfuck it eventually bubbles over in ep 4, they both admit how absolutely fucked they are and are friends now. wish i could say more on al & val bc i love them very much but it seems ive run out of eloquency for now. though i know i'll draw some comics of them eventually so maybe it'll come across better in comic form. anyway as mentioned above ive run out of eloquency and im honestly not sure how coherent this whole thing is so you'll have to come back for the other characters some other time, dear anon! until then, thank you so much for the ask once again, and have a nice day/night :)

[whencyclopedia]

Mary, Mother of Jesus

Mary of Nazareth, the mother of Jesus Christ, is one of the most venerated women from the ancient world. Her most common epithet is "the virgin Mary." She is celebrated by Eastern Orthodox Churches, Catholicism, and various Protestant denominations as "the mother of God." In Islam, Surah 19 of the Quran, the surah of Maryam, is devoted to her.

Stories of Mary evolved over time. Our earliest source for Christianity are the letters of Paul the Apostle to the Gentiles. Written before the canonical gospels, Paul did not name her. We have only: "But when the fullness of time had come, God sent his son, born of a woman, born under the law" (Galatians 4:4).

Mary in the Gospels

Ancient cultures shared a conviction that great people often had a miraculous birth, usually with the mating of a god with a human woman.

The gospels of Mark, Matthew, Luke, and John (70-100 CE) are our sources for Mary. Confusing at times, there are many women named Mary in the gospels. Then (as now) people named their children after famous figures. The name Mary derived from the Aramaic Mariam, in koine Greek, Maria. Miriam was the sister of Moses.

The earliest gospel, Mark (c. 70 CE), began in medias res, with the adult Jesus beginning his ministry in Nazareth:

On the Sabbath he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were astounded. They said, "Where did this man get all this? What is this wisdom that has been given to him? What deeds of power are being done by his hands! Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon, and are not his sisters here with us?" And they took offense at him.

(Mark 6:2-3)

Although not described as a follower in the earthly ministry, we know that his brother James was a historical figure because Paul visited with him twice, and he is referred to as "James, the Lord's brother" in Galatians 1:18. In Acts, James is one of the leaders of the new movement in Jerusalem. Early Christianity understood the siblings as other children of Mary after the birth of Christ.

Matthew and Luke both began their gospels with a nativity story (a birth story) of Jesus. The motivation was most likely to convince people that Jesus was the messiah, predicted by the prophets of Israel. They did this through references to the books of the prophets in the Jewish scriptures. At the same time, ancient cultures shared a conviction that great people often had a miraculous birth, usually with the mating of a god with a human woman.

Matthew's gospel describes the birth of Jesus as follows:

Now the birth of Jesus the messiah took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been engaged to Joseph, but before they lived together, she was found to be pregnant from the holy spirit. Her husband Joseph, being a righteous man and unwilling to expose her to public disgrace, planned to divorce her quietly. But just when he had resolved to do this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, "Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child conceived in her is from the holy spirit." All this took place to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet: "Look, the virgin shall become pregnant and give birth to a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel," which means, "God is with us." When Joseph awoke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him; he took her as his wife but had no marital relations with her until she had given birth to a son, and he named him Jesus."

(Matthew 1:18-23)

The holy spirit at this point was not the third entity of what became the Trinity in 325 CE. It was a reference to the spirit of God, which animated Adam when he "breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being" (Genesis 2:7). It was the spirit of God that possessed the prophets with the ability to speak in God's name and perform miracles.

Readers are sometimes confused with a reference to divorce, as they were not married yet. Both betrothals and marriages were done through a legal contract, exchanging the property of the father to the new husband. To undo an original contract, another contract, that of divorce, was required.

Continue reading...

[walkswithmyfather]

‭‭1 Timothy‬ ‭1:12‭-‬17‬ (‭GNT‬‬). “I give thanks to Christ Jesus our Lord, who has given me strength for my work. I thank him for considering me worthy and appointing me to serve him, even though in the past I spoke evil of him and persecuted and insulted him. But God was merciful to me because I did not yet have faith and so did not know what I was doing. And our Lord poured out his abundant grace on me and gave me the faith and love which are ours in union with Christ Jesus. This is a true saying, to be completely accepted and believed: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. I am the worst of them, but God was merciful to me in order that Christ Jesus might show his full patience in dealing with me, the worst of sinners, as an example for all those who would later believe in him and receive eternal life. To the eternal King, immortal and invisible, the only God—to him be honor and glory forever and ever! Amen.”

“Grace on Display” By In Touch Ministries:

“Even the worst of sinners is welcome to receive God's extravagant mercy and love.”

“Paul described himself as the worst of sinners and as someone to whom the Lord had expressed His favor and love (1 Tim. 1:16 NIV). How could he be both? That’s the power of God’s grace: Though sinners, we become spiritually alive and receive a new purpose for living.

After Paul met the Savior, he cared deeply about those who did not yet know God, and he also desired to help Christians grow in their faith. For the rest of his life, he shared the gospel, encouraged fellow believers, and met the needs of others. He acted as God’s ambassador to the Gentiles, and his letters became biblical wisdom for future generations.

Through the transforming work of the Holy Spirit, Paul began to display more and more Christlike qualities. In his writings, we see compassion, great humility, and appreciation for God’s blessings. Only the grace of God could enable a well-educated and influential man to count all his credentials a “loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord” (Philippians 3:8).

Paul’s life is an example of God working through sinners and transforming them. The Holy Spirit seeks to do the same for you and me. Are you allowing God’s favor and love to work within you?”

[Photo by Jametlene Reskp at Unsplash]

[byzantine-nectarine]

From an ancient homily for Holy Saturday:

The Lord's Descent Into The Underworld (attributed to Saint Epiphanius of Salamis) Something strange is happening - there is a great silence on earth today, a great silence and stillness. The whole earth keeps silence because the King is asleep. The earth trembled and is still because God has fallen asleep in the flesh and He has raised up all who have slept ever since the world began. God has died in the flesh and Hell trembles with fear. He has gone to search for our first parent, as for a lost sheep. Greatly desiring to visit those who live in darkness and in the shadow of death, He has gone to free from sorrow the captives Adam and Eve, He who is both God and the Son of Eve. The Lord approached them bearing the Cross, the weapon that had won Him the victory. At the sight of Him Adam, the first man He had created, struck his breast in terror and cried out to everyone, “My Lord be with you all.” Christ answered him, “And with your spirit.” He took him by the hand and raised him up, saying, “Awake, O sleeper, and rise from the dead, and Christ will give you light. “I am your God, who for your sake have become your son. Out of love for you and for your descendants I now by My own authority command all who are held in bondage to come forth, all who are in darkness to be enlightened, all who are sleeping to arise. I order you, O sleeper, to awake. I did not create you to be held a prisoner in Hell. Rise from the dead, for I am the Life of the dead. Rise up, work of My hands, you who were created in My image. Rise, let us leave this place, for you are in Me and I am in you; together we form only one person and we cannot be separated. “For your sake I, your God, became your son; I, the Lord, took the form of a slave; I, whose home is above the heavens, descended to the earth and beneath the earth. For your sake, for the sake of man, I became like a man without help, free among the dead. For the sake of you, who left a garden, I was betrayed to the Jews in a garden, and I was crucified in a garden. “See on my face the spittle I received in order to restore to you the life I once breathed into you. See there the marks of the blows I received in order to refashion your warped nature in My image. On My back see the marks of the scourging I endured to remove the burden of sin that weighs upon your back. See My hands, nailed firmly to a tree, for you who once wickedly stretched out your hand to a tree. “I slept on the Cross and a sword pierced My side for you who slept in Paradise and brought forth Eve from your side. My side has healed the pain in yours. My sleep will rouse you from your sleep in Hell. The sword that pierced Me has sheathed the sword that was turned against you. “Rise, let us leave this place. The enemy led you out of the earthly Paradise. I will not restore you to that Paradise, but I will enthrone you in Heaven. I forbade you the tree that was only a symbol of life, but see, I who am Life itself am now one with you. I appointed cherubim to guard you as slaves are guarded, but now I make them worship you as God. The throne formed by cherubim awaits you, its bearers swift and eager. The Bridal Chamber is adorned, the banquet is ready, the eternal dwelling places are prepared, the treasure houses of all good things lie open. The Kingdom of Heaven has been prepared for you from all eternity."

[absolutelyhugh3s]

𝐜𝐨𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐜𝐚𝐦𝐩

a/n: part one of the mastermind au! lmk what yall think!

word count: 1.96k

masterlist | next part

“oliviaaaa” i hear my oldest brother bellow from the kitchen of our shared apartment. i peel the covers off of me and trudge to the kitchen, trying my best to rub away the sleep from my eyes. 

“jesus christ trevor. it’s 7am. what could you possibly want” i groan, seeing trevor fully dressed, bouncing around the kitchen making breakfast.

“well good morning to you too sunshine!” he smiles as i take a seat at the island. he slides a starbucks iced coffee across to me. i thank him and take a large sip of the sugary drink.

“i still don’t understand how you like that shit” he says, taking a large sip of his own iced coffee. unlike me, who drinks coffee with every flavor imaginable, my psychotic brother drinks it plain. just plain black coffee.

“says you” i say “for someone with as much energy as you, you would think you drink something tooth-rotting” i laugh. “ouch. black coffee makes me feel manly” he laughs as well.

our argument of coffee became a fit of uncontrollable laughter. to the point that i almost fell out of my chair.

“ok. ok. the coffee may have been a peace offering” his laughter dies down, and i can tell something is askew. “peace offering?” i ask “for what?”

“coach asked for extra help at dev camp this week and i may or may not have volunteered us” he smiles nervously, fiddling with the sleeves of his hoodie.

“so is that why you look like you went on a shopping spree in the team store?” i looks at his outfit, noticing the branded sweatshirt, shorts, and socks. and i can only assume that there is a ducks t-shirt underneath.

“gotta show team spirit munchkin, it’s camp week!” trevor shouts, throwing his hands in the air. “gibby and troy are gonna be there. mac-t and leo might make an appearance too” he bargains. “i’m in!” i shout, running to my room to get ready.

i quickly hopped into the shower, doing my hair and makeup after getting out. i then slipped on a pair of leggings and a ducks t-shirt. 

i was packing last minute things into my hockey bag when trevor walks into the room. “ you ready?” he says, lugging his own bag. “yup” i haul my bag onto my shoulder, walking out of the apartment.

we loaded our bags into the truck of his bright orange bronco and began making our way to the rink. “why me?” i ask, trevor looking as confused as ever. “what do you mean?” he asks, keeping his focus on the road. 

“i understand why you’re going. but why me?” i look out the window “i mean, half of these guys are my age, some even older” i look back at my brother “what do i have to teach them”

“olivia, you are seriously one of the best players i know. how can you not be? you learned everything from me!” he jokes, smiling at the fact that he coerced a smile out of me. 

“coach asked you to help, if that makes you feel better. he said you bring a dynamic to the game that he’s never seen before. he thinks that these guys, despite some of them being older than you, can learn a lot from you” he smiles, placing a comforting hand on mine.

“how is it that you always know what to say when i’m sad?” i ask with a smile on my face. “i’m your older brother. it’s in my blood. not to mention, i’ve lived with you for pretty much your whole life.” he laughs.

we crack a few jokes and share a ton of laughs, and soon enough, pull into the player lot of the honda center.

the both of us are greeted by employees as we walk through the arena to the locker room. the closer we get to the locker room, the louder the noise gets, trevor can feel my nervousness, wrapping an arm around my shoulders and pulling me into his side.

“your gonna be so great livvy, i promise you” he says, giving me a squeeze, as we walk into the locker room. there are players everywhere. tall ones, short ones, ones in black, and ones in white.

“baby z!” i hear someone shout. i look to me right to see gibby with troy by his side, waving enthusiastically at me. i walk over to the two men and they pull me into hugs. “we missed you kid” troy says.

“wow no ‘hey trev! i missed you bud! how’s your offseason going?’” trevor complains, walking over to where the three of us stand. “oh. hey trevor.” gibby deadpans, sending troy and i into a fit of laughter.

“haha. very funny gibby.” his words laced with sarcasm. they all laugh as they pull my brother in for bro hugs.

we begin making small talk, but i soon lost interest in the conversation. my eyes trailed across the room, looking at all the different prospects.

my eyes fall on a tall brunette in the corner of the room, standing next to an equally tall blonde boy. ‘my god he’s gorgeous’ i think to myself.

his hair was straight but not flat, and fluffy, but not too fluffy. he had the most beautiful blue eyes i’d ever seen. and his smile… it made me want to smile, just looking at it.

“i know what your thinking liv. absolutely not” trevor breaks my trance by mumbling in my ear. he made this stupid rule when we were kids that i was never allowed to be (in his words) “romantically involved” with any hockey player. and it was 10x worse when it came to teammates.

“but-“”absolutely not olivia.” he deadpans. trevor doesn’t take a lot of things seriously, but for some reason, my love life was his one of his top priorities.

before i could get another word out, coach cronin walks into the room. “good morning boys! welcome to ducks dev camp!” his tone is sweet, but demands attention. “my name is coach cronin and i’ll be running camp this week”

“but i won’t be doing it alone.” he introduces the assistant coaching staff, then turns to gibby, troy, trevor, and i. 

“to help everyone out with little things, we have john gibson, troy terry, and the dynamic zegras duo, oilvia and trevor! if you have any questions about anything, feel free to ask them” he says enthusiastically. 

coach goes over some more details about what the week entails, as the four of us get on our skates and make our way to the rink.

“you ready for your first camp baby z?” troy asks, nudging my shoulder. “yeah, just a little nervous” i say, grabbing my stick and messing around with the pucks at my feet.

“you’ll be great liv. just be yourself and you’ll get by just fine” he skates away, joining some of the coaching staff on the other side of the ice.

the prospects then skate out of the tunnel and onto the ice, most of them holding their sticks and helmets. i looked around the ice for the brunette boy, but was unsuccessful. 

i zoned out during role call, and the next thing i know, everyone is separating themselves by jersey color, and trevor is dragging me towards those in black jerseys.

come to find out, the boys were starting off camp with a scrimmage. ‘team zegras’ donned black jerseys while those in white played for ‘team gerry’ (a combination of the names of the two men coaching) (they all agreed tibby didn’t sound right)

“your going down z!” gibby yells from where his team is. “quit your yapping gibs, everyone knows team zegras is going to smoke you guys” he shouts across the rink.

“hi baby z!” troy waves “hi big t!” i wave back, which causes some of the boys to laugh. “alright boys. let’s get serious” trevor turns to team zegras.

“we have to play to win. finish your checks, skate hard, and let’s get those goals boys” he says, firing up the boys.

he then reads out the lines and starters, making sure everyone knows what they need to do. 

“sennecke, stop looking at my sister like that” trevor snaps. he apologizes, looking down at his skates instead of up. i look to see who it is when i spot the brunette boy from before, with the same blonde boy next to him.

‘sennecke..that must be his name’ i think to myself. trevor finishes his speech, and the boys head over to the bench.

“sennecke” i call out to the boy, skating up to him. “uh hi.” he says, as red as a tomato. “i’m so sorry about trevor, he’s usually not like that” i say.

“don’t worry about it. i get it. he’s just looking out for you.” he says, still a little red. “so i heard you were our third overall pick” i say, hoping to give him a little bit of confidence.

“uh. yeah. it’s- uh- not really a big deal” he says. i think i might have done the exact opposite of giving him confidence.

“i’ve seen some of your highlights. you are incredible” i say and he blushes “trevor found all of them the night of the draft. he was so excited to get to play with you” i smile and he smiles back at me.

“thanks. it’s nice to know there’s at least one guy who likes me.” he laughs. “oh don’t be silly. all of orange county loves you already” i laugh. “im beckett, by the way.” he holds out his gloved hand to shake. “im olivia” i shake his hand.

“im stian! hi!” the blonde boy skates to my other side. “it’s nice to meet you guys” i laugh. “livvy let’s go!” trevor beckons from behind the bench.

“good luck guys” i smile at my new friends. “play like no one’s watching. you’ll do great.” 

and that they did. team zegras did in fact smoke team gerry, winning 7-3. both beckett and stian had goals.

“nice one boys!” trevor shouted, as the final horn sounded. “congrats guys” i say, tapping the two boys on their helmets. 

the rest of the day went way better than expected. i met even more friends, discovering that the duo was actually a trio. cutter gauthier being the third musketeer.

we ran through tons of different drills, ones for stamina, strength, footwork, you name it. coach even gave me a whistle, which made camp even more fun.

but annoying trevor had to be the best.

“liv if you-” tweeeet “seriously-” tweeeet “olivia grace-” tweeeeeeeeet.

“i’ll tell the hughes’ you can’t come to the lake house next-” “please don’t! i’m sorry! here just take it!” i beg.

“i’m kidding, luke would complain too much” he laughs.

before i knew it, camp was over for the day. i exchanged numbers with beckett, cutter, and stian, and they even added me to their group chat.

on the way home, the boys kept blowing up my phone.

livvy and friends ‼️

cutter 😎: can we pls hang out imu guys 😢

stian ☀️: dude we saw u 10 mins ago?

cutter 😎: 10 mins too long…

beck 😨: why don’t we go out for food or something??

beck 😨: there’s a 24/7 chipotle by my hotel

livvy 💞: #canceltrevorjohnzegras2024

cutter 😎: uh oh

stian ☀️: what did he do now??

livvy 💞: he’s starving me

livvy 💞: pls pls pls beck im dying here

cutter 😎: send the addy

stian ☀️: we’ll pu

livvy 💞: shared her location

beck 😨: omw

a/n: hi!!!!! i hope yall liked this first part pls pls pls feel free to request anything regarding livvy, her backstory, or anything else like that!!

[a-godman]

In Resurrection Christ became the Spirit for us to Receive Him as the Holy Breath!

 Hallelujah, in His resurrection Christ became the Spirit for us to receive Him as the holy breath simply by calling on His name day by day! God’s intention is to gain a corporate God-man for His corporate manifestation in this universe; what He desires is not a good man but a God-man, a man of God with the breath of God, and for this, He became the Spirit to breathe Himself into us to be our…

[mybeautifulchristianjourney]

Morning and Evening by Charles Spurgeon

Morning, September 4th

"Thou whom my soul loveth." – Song of Solomon 1:7

It is well to be able, without any "if" or "but," to say of the Lord Jesus--"Thou whom my soul loveth." Many can only say of Jesus that they hope they love him; they trust they love him; but only a poor and shallow experience will be content to stay here. No one ought to give any rest to his spirit till he feels quite sure about a matter of such vital importance. We ought not to be satisfied with a superficial hope that Jesus loves us, and with a bare trust that we love him. The old saints did not generally speak with "buts," and "ifs," and "hopes," and "trusts," but they spoke positively and plainly. "I know whom I have believed," saith Paul. "I know that my Redeemer liveth," saith Job. Get positive knowledge of your love of Jesus, and be not satisfied till you can speak of your interest in him as a reality, which you have made sure by having received the witness of the Holy Spirit, and his seal upon your soul by faith.

True love to Christ is in every case the Holy Spirit's work, and must be wrought in the heart by him. He is the efficient cause of it; but the logical reason why we love Jesus lies in himself. Why do we love Jesus? Because he first loved us. Why do we love Jesus? Because he "gave himself for us." We have life through his death; we have peace through his blood. Though he was rich, yet for our sakes he became poor. Why do we love Jesus? Because of the excellency of his person. We are filled with a sense of his beauty! an admiration of his charms! a consciousness of his infinite perfection! His greatness, goodness, and loveliness, in one resplendent ray, combine to enchant the soul till it is so ravished that it exclaims, "Yea, he is altogether lovely." Blessed love this--a love which binds the heart with chains more soft than silk, and yet more firm than adamant!

[calledtobethelight]

You Can Do Well (Part 1)

“And the Lord said to Cain, ‘Why are you angry? And why do you look sad and depressed and dejected? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin crouches at your door; its desire is for you, but you must master it.’”

Genesis 4.6-7 (AMPC)

You can do well! But maybe, you are not doing well. Maybe, you find yourself consistently angry, sad, and depressed. Maybe, you see others getting blessed by God and it bothers you. Maybe, you firmly believe you are doing all the right things, but something is still off. It’s time for a heart check. It’s time to be honest. Here are 3 indicators that you are not doing well and what it signifies.

1.      You lack love for God.

Before Cain even committed murder, his deeds were recognized as evil. 1 John 3.11-12 states, “For this is the message which you [believers] have heard from the beginning [of your relationship with Christ], that we should [unselfishly] love and seek the best for one another; and not be like Cain, who was of the evil one and murdered his brother [Abel]. And why did he murder him? Because Cain’s deeds were evil, and his brother’s were righteous.”

What made Cain so different from Abel? They both offered sacrifices to God. However, Hebrews 11.4 distinguishes that “by faith Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, through which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts.” By faith, Abel gave an offering that God respected and regarded “for without faith it is impossible to please Him” (Hebrews 11.6). Abel’s faith set him apart from Cain, and faith works and expresses itself through love (Galatians 5.6).

1 Corinthians 13.1-3 states, “If I [can] speak with the tongues of men and [even] of angels, but have not love (that reasoning, intentional, spiritual devotion such as is inspired by God’s love for and in us), I am only a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers (the gift of interpreting the divine will and purpose), and understand all the secret truths and mysteries and possess all knowledge, and if I have [sufficient] faith so that I can remove mountains, but have not love (God’s love in me) I am nothing (a useless nobody). Even if I dole out all that I have [to the poor in providing] food, and if I surrender my body to be burned or in order that I may glory, but have not love (God’s love in me), I gain nothing.”

God is love and, when you receive Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, He abundantly pours out His love into your heart through the Holy Spirit (1 John 4.8, Romans 5.5). Without God’s love in you, your faith means nothing. Without God’s love in you, any external, religious acts you perform unto God ultimately mean nothing. Without God’s love in you, you are nothing.

Matthew 22.37-39 states, “And Jesus replied to him, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself [that is, unselfishly seek the best or higher good for others].’” Loving God is the greatest commandment and the most important thing you can do.

When you love God willingly and with all your heart, you can live a life defined by faith because you know and trust Him. When you truly love God, you love others. When you love God, you obey His commandments. When you love God, you can give Him the right sacrifice with the right motive. Abel sacrificed the firstborn lamb, a pleasing sacrifice to the Lord (Genesis 4.4). Jesus willingly laid down His life because He “loved you and gave Himself up for us, an offering and sacrifice to God [slain for you, so that it became] a sweet fragrance” (Ephesians 5.2). You are called to offer your life as a “living sacrifice, holy and well-pleasing to God, which is your rational (logical, intelligent) act of worship” out of sincere love for God (Romans 12.1).

You can only do well when you love God, and then everything you do will be motivated by love for Him.

 

2.      You are proud.

When you are proud, you are unteachable. You refuse to be accountable for your actions. You refuse to admit that you’ve done wrong.  When God reproved Cain, Cain should have humbled himself, repented, and received the correction. However, Cain’s heart was hard and callous from pride and he refused the Lord’s chastisement. Proverbs 16.18 states, “Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.” When Cain refused to humble himself and submit to the Lord’s correction, his pride allowed sin to master him, which led to his destruction.

James 4.6-7 states, “But He gives more and more grace [through the power of the Holy Spirit to defy sin and live an obedient life that reflects both our faith and our gratitude for our salvation]. Therefore, it says, ‘God is opposed to the proud and haughty, but [continually] gives [the gift of] grace to the humble [who turn away from self-righteousness].’ So submit to [the authority of] God. Resist the devil [stand firm against him] and he will flee from you.” By the grace of God and the empowerment of the Holy Spirit, you can live in obedience to God and in victory over sin. First, you must humble yourself and submit your life wholly to the Lord – loving, trusting, and obeying Him (1 John 5.1-3). Then, through the Holy Spirit, you will have the power to resist the devil, defy sin, and victoriously overcome the world by your faith in Jesus Christ (1 John 5.4-5).

You can only do well when you humble yourself and submit your life to the Lord.

 

3.      You compare yourself with others.

Cain’s negative feelings flared up because he knew his deeds were evil and Abel’s were righteous. His comparison led to envy, envy led to hatred, and hatred led to murder. 1 John 3.15 states, “Everyone who hates (works against) his brother (in Christ) is [at heart] a murderer [by God’s standards]; and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.” God’s correction was a chance for Cain to self-evaluate and change his ways, yet Cain wanted to lash out in anger and kill his brother. 

You can’t compare yourself with others. It can lead to rivalry, dissension, discontentment, envy, and hatred. It can create opportunities to vent negative emotions towards others that you feel inside of yourself. It will never address the underlying issue in your heart or your circumstances.

Galatians 6.4 states, “But let every person carefully scrutinize and examine and test his own conduct and his own work. He can then have the personal satisfaction and joy of doing something commendable [in itself alone] without [resorting to] boastful comparison with his neighbor.” When you humble yourself, self-evaluate your behavior, and align your ways to God’s Word, your correction will bring true satisfaction and joy. It will eliminate the source of your negative feelings. It will eliminate the need to compare yourself with others. It will assure you that you have done well and are in the right standing with God.

You can do well! It is possible! Crooked paths can be made straight, the wayward can gain understanding, your old moral and spiritual condition can pass away and all things about your life can be made new! You can do well - Love the Lord with all your heart, humble and submit yourself wholly to Him, and evaluate your behavior and align it with God’s Word. Then, you will be accepted and succeed.

[sneakerguybln]

21 year old Marvin (left) is presenting his 19 year old disciple Damian (right) to other members of their fitness sect. Marvin is on his way to full membership. Members are fully brainwashed into building their entire life around gym and working out. The membership is organised in four stages: disciple stage, comitted mentors stage, full membership and presidency.

Disciples are new applicants. With their application they move into so-called congregation houses. A mentor is taking over to restructure the applicant's life. Marvin is Damian's mentor. From day one applicants are watching and listening to brainwashing hypnosis. Contacts to family and friends are under scrutiny and reduced if necessary. All sect members are wearing identical clothes. A mentor is monitoring a disciple's training routine, his nutrition and enforcing the hypnosis. Within the congregation houses the disciples are living in small cells. Applicants have to be without tattoos. Tattoos are forbidden within the first two stages of membership.

Comitted mentors are sect members who are passed the first stage. They're already brainwashed. For them the sect is the family. Marvin entered the sect a few days after his 18th birthday. On his 19th birthday he became a comitted mentor. The ceremony is consisting of giving up his old life formally, ceding all possessions to their church. After the signature a comitted mentor is branded with a stylized dumbbell on the back of the neck. At the end of the procedure they get a vasectomy as church members aren't allowed to start a family. From that point on sex is allowed with other sect members only. They have to lead at least five disciples from application to comittment before being eligible for full membership. They sleep in three men dorm rooms in the congregation houses.

Full members are getting some freedoms back. They can leave the congregation house as they want. Their life is fully developed. They made progressing within their training routine the center of their lives and are fully brainwashed. They have a job that allows them to focus on gym but to earn money for the church at the same time. The result is that their schedules are consisting of working and working out. Within that stage the members get their entire bodies covered in the same tattoos like the church's founder and prophet. They're allowed to build up 'own' companies (in truth the church is owning their companies). They're electing some members of the presidency.

Members of the Presidency are the officials of the church. Each congregation house has two leaders. An administrative leader is elected every second year at every congregation house. Spiritual leaders are full members selected by the prophet. While the administrative leader is taking care of all house related matters the spiritual leader is presiding over the hypnosis and brainwashing routines. Ten congregation houses are forming a ward. The ten administrative leaders are electing an administrative ward leader and the prophet is selecting one of the spirital house leaders as spiritual ward leaders. These ward leaders are delegating disciples and mentors from one house to another if necessary. They're calculating the budgets of the houses within their ward. All house leaders - administrative and spiritual - are forming the General Assembly that elects the President, the Vice-President and the General Secretary of the church on the same day as the US is electing their president. They will be sworn in by the prophet on Jan 20 after their election.

The Prophet is a 47 year old bodybuilder who says that Christ appeared to him and dictated him the 'true' testament of Christ. The prophet struggled in life as he was younger. He married at 20 but was forced into a cuck relationship by his wife and his twin brother. They forced a vasectomy on him and marked his body with tattoos. He fled into bodybuilding to cope with the situation. He was 28 as he cycled home after gym and got his first vision of Christ. In that exact moment Christ promised him to set him free the later prophet's wife and brother had an accident.

Discipline and obedience are the strong pillars of this church. Misbehaviour will be punished with shame punishments like walking naked with a chastity device only within the congregation house or wearing sweaty clothes of other church members. For some more problematic cases of misbehaviour or clear disobedience against members of the presidency corporal punishment is administred. In some very grave cases members can be sent into the hole. Each congregation house has two holes in the basement. These holes are technically on floor -2. They can be entered via the ceiling only and members sentenced to the hole are lowered down into the hole and then the ceiling is closed with a heavy metal cover. The hole is pitchblack. Food and water are provided via a shaft in the wall. Marvin was sentenced to the hole for one week after giving his spiritual house leader a headbutt as they discussed Marvin's potential within the church. Hole sentences are always signed by the prophet.

[shestandsontruth]

And the morning that You rose All of Heaven held its breath 'Til that stone was moved for good For the Lamb had conquered death And the dead rose from their tombs And the angels stood in awe For the souls of all who'd come To the Father are restored And the church of Christ was born Then the Spirit lit the flame Now this gospel truth of old Shall not kneel, shall not faint By His blood and in His name In His freedom I am free For the love of Jesus Christ Who has resurrected me — King Of Kings by Brooke Ligertwood and Hillsong Worship

"And the morning that You rose"

Matthew 28:1-6: "After the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to look at the tomb. There was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and, going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow. The guards were so afraid of him that they shook and became like dead men. The angel said to the women, 'Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here; He has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where He lay.'"

"All of Heaven held its breath 'til that stone was moved for good"

Matthew 28:2: "There was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and, going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it."

"For the Lamb had conquered death"

1 Corinthians 15:55-57: "Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting? The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ."

"And the dead rose from their tombs"

Matthew 27:52-53: "The tombs broke open and the bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life. They came out of the tombs after Jesus' resurrection and went into the holy city and appeared to many people."

"And the angels stood in awe"

Luke 24:4-5: "While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them. In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, 'Why do you look for the living among the dead?'"

"For the souls of all who'd come to the Father are restored"

John 3:16: "For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life."

1 Peter 2:24: "He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by His wounds you have been healed."

"And the Church of Christ was born then the Spirit lit the flame"

Acts 2:1-4: "When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them."

"Now this gospel truth of old shall not kneel, shall not faint"

Matthew 24:35: "Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away."

"By His blood and in His name In His freedom I am free"

Ephesians 1:7: "In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace."

John 8:36: "So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed."

"For the love of Jesus Christ Who has resurrected me"

Romans 6:4: "We were therefore buried with Him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life."

1 Peter 1:3: "Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In His great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead."

[hieromonkcharbel]

Fasting from food is nothing if it is not simply one aspect of a “spiritual” fast. We must “fast from evil,” “fast and abstain from every sin.” For Solovyev the spiritual fast also includes fasting from power and vainglory. “We must not seek power and influence: if we are called to them, we must use them in the service of others. If we have a chance to make ourselves conspicuous without advantage to our neighbor, or to show off our strength and superiority, we must refrain—we must never encourage self-love.” He also makes clear that there is such a thing as intellectual fasting: it involves “abstaining from exclusively intellectual activity, from long and empty speculation . . . about nothing in particular. . . . Do not try to know many things useless for our neighbor and the work of God.” In this he is simply developing what St John Climacus says concerning the demons of philarchia (love of power) and polylogia (garrulity or talkativeness). This “fasting” from love of power and ratiocination is likewise clearly insisted on in the Prayer of St Ephrem that we say throughout Lent: “Lord and Master of my life, give me not the spirit of . . . lust for power and idle talk.” Philarchia, the spirit of domination, was the subject of Christ’s third and final temptation, after which the devil withdrew (Lk 4.13). It stems, in fact, from the mother of all passions, pride. Satan, says St Gregory of Nyssa, “became sick with the love of power, the beginning of the inclination to the worse and the mother, as it were, of the rest of vice.” The self, puffed up with nothingness, quashes or subjugates others, making them revolve around its own hollowness. It amounts to the self-deification of nothingness.

The warning against argologia (idle talk) corresponds to that of Jesus in the Gospel of St Matthew: “But I say to you that for every idle word that men may speak, they will give account of it in the day of judgment. For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned” (Mt 12.36–37). By “idle words” he means every serious word that does not enhance life, that does not come from the heart; any form of thinking or use of the imagination that is contrary to the unifying force of love; all use of language which—as is so frequently the case in our age of publicity and propaganda—is a mere instrument of power or profit. The Holy Spirit, as is said in the prayer that introduces every Orthodox service, is the “Spirit of truth.” Every idle word, every lie that aims to dominate, or manipulate, or kill, is thus a sin against the Spirit.

St. Ignatius Brianchininov