#I just know in my heart eph saw his entire future when he looked at her

[thetwilightroadtonightfall]

this is how you know eternity exists

(her name is Aeon, she’s the firstborn 😌💜)

[dfroza]

God our Creator is Love.

and Love is illuminated in the sacred truth of the Scriptures:

“You embraced it not as the fabrication of men but as the word of God. And the word continues to be an energizing force in you who believe.”

Today’s reading of the Scriptures from the New Testament is the 2nd chapter of the Letter of First Thessalonians:

My dear brothers and sisters, it’s obvious that our ministry among you has proven to be fruitful. And though we had already suffered greatly in Philippi, where we were shamefully mistreated, we were emboldened by faith in our God to fearlessly preach his wonderful gospel to you in spite of incredible opposition.

Our coming alongside you to encourage you was not out of some delusion, or impure motive, or an intention to mislead you, but we have been approved by God to be those who preach the gospel. So our motivation to preach is not pleasing people but pleasing God, who thoroughly examines our hearts. God is our witness that when we came to encourage you, we never once used cunning compliments as a pretext for greed, nor did we crave the praises of men, whether you or others. Even though we could have imposed upon you our demands as apostles of Christ, instead we showed you kindness and were gentle among you. We cared for you in the same way a nursing mother cares for her own children. With a mother’s love and affectionate attachment to you, we were very happy to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our lives—because you had become so dear to us.

Beloved brothers and sisters, surely you remember how hard we labored among you. We worked night and day so that we would not become a burden to you while we preached the wonderful gospel of God. With God as our witness you saw how we lived among you—in holiness, in godly relationships, and without fault. And you know how affectionately we treated each one of you, like a loving father cares for his own children. We comforted and encouraged you and challenged you to adopt a lifestyle worthy of God, who invites you into his kingdom and glory.

This is why we continually thank God for your lives, because you received our message wholeheartedly. You embraced it not as the fabrication of men but as the word of God. And the word continues to be an energizing force in you who believe.

My dear brothers and sisters, the same thing happened to you as happened to God’s churches in Christ Jesus that are in Judea. For you received the same kind of mistreatment from your fellow countrymen as they did from theirs, the Jews who killed both the Lord Jesus and the prophets and ran us out of town. They are offending God and hostile to everyone else by hindering us from speaking to the unbelievers so that they might be saved. By so doing they are constantly filling up to the brim the measure of their guilt, and punishment has come upon them at last!

Beloved friends, we may have been torn away from you physically for a season, but never in our hearts. For we have had intense longings and have endeavored to come and see in your faces the reflection of this great love. We miss you badly, and I personally wanted to come to you, trying again and again, but our adversary, Satan, blocked our way. For what will be our confident hope, our exhilarating joy, or our wonderful trophy that we will boast in before our Lord Jesus at his appearing? It is you! Yes, you are our glorious pride and joy!

The Letter of First Thessalonians, Chapter 2 (The Passion Translation)

Today’s paired chapter of the Testaments is the 20th chapter of the book of Jeremiah where Jeremiah was wrongfully punished for sharing the words that burned inside that declared God’s Judgment of sin and lies:

When the priest Pashhur (son of Immer, chief officer of the temple guard) heard what Jeremiah was prophesying, he had the prophet beaten and put in the stocks at the upper Benjamin gate near the temple, a place where everyone in the city could see this painful and embarrassing spectacle. The next morning, Pashhur released him from the stocks, hoping Jeremiah had learned his lesson. Instead, this is what he heard from the prophet:

Jeremiah: The Eternal no longer knows you by the name Pashhur. He has renamed you Magor-missabib, which means “terror on every side.” And these are the words the Eternal has spoken of you: “Certainly I am going to make you a symbol of terror—to yourself and to all your loved ones. You will see those close to you die in battle against the enemy. I will give all of Judah over to the king of Babylon, who will make them either casualties of war or prisoners of war. I will also give the wealth of Jerusalem over as plunder to this enemy. The resources and treasures of this city and Judah’s kings will be taken and carted off to Babylon. And you Pashhur, along with your entire household, will be taken to Babylon and become exiles. You and your friends who have heard your lies will never see home again; you will all die in exile in Babylon and be buried there.”

O Eternal, You deceived me into being Your prophet,

and I went along and allowed it to happen!

Your strength is too much for me,

and so You win; I speak Your words.

Just look at what I have become: a laughingstock;

all day long people mock me.

The only words coming out of my mouth

are loud cries of “Violence and destruction!”

It is the Eternal’s words—Your words—

that bring me insults and jokes all day long.

But when I tell myself, I’ll never mention Your name

or speak for You again, it’s no use.

The word of God burns in my heart; it is like fire in my bones.

I try to hold it all in, but I cannot.

I hear the crowds whispering behind my back and mocking my prophecies:

“‘Terror is everywhere we turn,’ he says. Let’s report him for breaking some law.”

Even my trusted friends are waiting for me to make a mistake:

“Maybe he will be deceived,

and then we’ll win, take control, and have our revenge on him.”

But I am not alone. The Eternal is here with me.

He stands beside me, as a dreaded warrior.

That is why my tormentors will fail so miserably. They cannot win.

Their humiliation and permanent dishonor will be remembered for all time.

Eternal, Commander of heavenly armies, You test the righteous;

You see my deepest thoughts; You know my heart.

Let me see Your vengeance exacted against these people.

for I am trusting my cause, my future to You.

Sing to the Eternal God!

Praise the Eternal now for what He will soon do.

For a troubled soul is snatched from the hands of the wicked.

Cursed be the day I was born—

cursed, not blessed is the day my mother gave birth to me.

Cursed be the man who told my overjoyed father,

“You have a son.”

May he be as cursed as the towns of Sodom and Gomorrah,

which the Eternal decimated without a care.

Let him hear cries for help in the morning.

Let him recoil at the shouts of war at noon,

For he did not kill me before I was born

so my mother’s womb would become my grave—

my mother’s womb forever enlarged.

Why was I ever born? To watch such tragedy?

To feel such sorrow? To live my days in utter shame?

The Book of Jeremiah, Chapter 20 (The Voice)

A link to my personal reading of the Scriptures for Thursday, September 2 of 2021 with a paired chapter from each Testament of the Bible along with Today’s Proverbs and Psalms

A post by John Parsons about being children of our heavenly Father:

"Because you are his children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, "Abba! Father!" (Gal. 4:6). Note here the Spirit does not cry out using “esoteric” or abstruse names for God, nor does the Spirit refer to one of God's many titles based on the divine attributes, but instead uses a term of intimacy and profound trust. After all, the word "abba" (אַבָּא) is not so much a name for God as it is a claim about who you are -- it is a confession that you belong to the Lord as his beloved child... It has been noted that throughout his ministry Yeshua referred to the LORD simply as his "Father" though he used the intensive address "Abba, Father" (Ἀββᾶ, ὁ πατήρ) just before his arrest and crucifixion, that is, during his intercession at Gethsamane (גַּת שְׁמָנִים), near the olive oil press on the Mount of Olives where the anointing oil for the Temple (שֶׁמֶן הַמִּשְׁחָה) was made, and therefore he called upon “Abba, Father” while in deep suffering and tribulation of heart (Mark 14:36). “Take this cup away from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will..." The mixed dialect of Hebrew and Greek here (i.e., Ἀββᾶ, ὁ πατήρ) may indicate identification with both the Jewish people and the Gentiles who would be united in his passion, as it says, shalom shalom la'rachok vela'karov: "Peace, peace, to him who is far off and to him who is near," says the LORD; "and I will heal him" (Isa. 57:19, Eph. 2:15). Knowing God as your "father" is a matter of the heart, an inner cry or groan coming from the miracle of spiritual rebirth. "The Spirit himself bears witness to our spirit that we are God's children" (Rom. 8:16). [Hebrew for Christians]

and another about grace and being connected to the True Vine:

Yeshua said: "I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever lives in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:5). We cannot create the new birth by means of moral reformation, since the divine life is a miracle from above and not the result of human agency or aspiration (John 1:13; John 3:6). If we "live in" Yeshua we will bear fruit - our spiritual connection or "union" with him is sufficient for every good work, but only fruit that derives from the life of Messiah will abide (1 John 2:17). Good works are a necessary consequence of regeneration in Messiah, but by themselves they are insufficient and something more is needed (Matt. 7:21-23). Therefore the Scriptures point to the salvation of God and his grace as the efficient cause for the miracle of newness of life: "Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us..." (Titus 3:5); "for by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves (τοῦτο οὐκ ἐξ ὑμῶν), it is the gift of God" (Eph. 2:8); "so if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works; otherwise grace would no longer be grace" (Rom. 11:6).

Grace and human effort are mutually exclusive when it comes to life from above: "It is the Spirit that gives life (τὸ πνεῦμά ἐ��τιν τὸ ζῳοποιοῦν); the flesh (i.e., human nature) is no help at all" (John 6:63). There is a new “center” of identity within the heart: "I is no longer I who live..." (Gal. 2:19-20). We do not appeal to God for mercy based on our best efforts, but like father Abraham we believe that God brings life to the dead. In short we believe that "salvation is of the LORD" (יְשׁוּעָתָה לַיהוָה), that is, that God justifies the ungodly and performs the inner work of salvation on our behalf and for our healing (see Rom. 4:1-5:2). As C.S. Lewis once said in this connection: “The Christian is in a different position from other people who are trying to be good. They hope, by being good, to please God if there is one; or -- if they think there is not -- at least they hope to deserve approval from good men. But the Christian thinks any good he does comes from the Christ-life inside him. He does not think God will love us because we are good, but that God will make us good because He loves us; just as the roof of a greenhouse does not attract the sun because it is bright, but becomes bright because the sun shines on it” (Mere Christianity). However we must not confuse cause and effect. The work of God is to believe in Yeshua (John 6:29) and we then learn to "work out" what God has "worked in" to our hearts by faith, as it says, "work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure" (Phil. 2:12-13). God who has performed a good work in you will "confirm you to the end blameless in the Day of our Messiah Yeshua" (1 Cor. 1:8; Jude 1:24-25). [Hebrew for Christians]

9.1.21 • Facebook

Today’s message (Days of Praise) from the Institute for Creation Research

September 2, 2021

My Every Prayer

“I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, Always in every prayer of mine for you all making request with joy.” (Philippians 1:3-4)

The letter to the Philippian church stands as perhaps the most personal of the epistles, with Paul’s love for the believers being obvious. He expressed his love with heartfelt prayer for them every time he thought of them.

These prayers are constant in the sense that the Philippian believers were never far from his thoughts. Often Paul resorted to prayer for their personal needs and their relationship to God. His prayers are described by at least two Greek words of interest to us. First, he tells that he “thanked [his] God” (Greek eucharisteo) each time they came to mind. To another church he similarly wrote, “I thank my God always on your behalf, for the grace of God which is given you by Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 1:4). The word implies a sincere statement of genuine gratitude for their fellowship in being with him in serving God and partnership in the ministry.

Likewise, he used the word “supplication” (Greek deesei), an expression of gratefulness for his needs having been supplied. Paul’s needs were often provided for by those to whom he ministered, and he was profoundly grateful. The Christian minister is enjoined to remember his followers with “joy.” Paul remembered them in thankfulness to God for them and to them for their response.

We should strive to arrive at a balance between our ministry goals in evangelism and ongoing care for believers’ Christian growth and steadfast doctrinal purity. What is the state of our harmony among church members, as well as our prayers for them? JDM

A tweet by illumiNations:

@IlluminationsBT: Meet one of our illumiNations partners - United Bible Societies. Learn more at: unitedbiblesocieties.org

Come back tomorrow to see our upcoming post to learn more about what they're working on in Asia!

9.2.21 • 12:01pm • Twitter

[drthestrainlove]

Episode 2: “The Blood Tax”, or “Raining Dumb”

I’d like to attach a picture here, a picture that more accurately summarizes how colossally dumb this show is better than any words I could ever use: 

That’s our dude Eichorst, the Nazi-Vampire-Right Hand to the Master-Evil Mastermind wearing a cowboy hat Crocodile Dundee said was too ostentatious and sunglasses that can charitably described as belonging to your grandmother that frequented opium dens back in the day.  I have no idea who this guy is he’s talking to, all I know is this is probably supposed to be a discreet meeting and yet if anybody actually saw Eichorst they’d report him to the cops because he just LOOKS like he’s carrying out an apocalyptic plan.  You know what’s not hard to find?  A fedora, or a shepherd’s cap, or literally anything other than what a depressed Louisville housewife wears to the Kentucky Derby.  You know what else isn’t hard to find?  Any pair of sunglasses that doesn’t look like they belong to Bono but for fancy occasions only.  This is a layup that the Strain fires into the second deck.  It’s a little thing, but it’s indicative of how this show can screw up just about anything it puts its mind to.

Keep in mind, this is just in the Previously On segment, we haven’t even gotten to the title credits yet.  But this theme of snatching idiocy out of the jaws of good ideas permeates this episode through all three plots this week, none of which make any God damn sense.  Let’s look at them from least inexplicable to most, keeping in mind they are all inexplicable:

We start of with Gus, the hispanic ex-con with a heart of gold.  Well strike that, we don’t start with Gus, we start with Raul.  Raul is just a guy getting by in the apocalypse, working for the Partnership making the nutrition bars that feed all the humans.  It’s not a great gig but it keeps him alive and sometimes that’s all you can ask for.  It’s a great vignette into what life is like for the layperson in this particular dystopian future.  Which is why it’s so frustrating when Gus shows up, mugs Raul, it’s revealed that the two are cousins, and after the briefest “So how you doin’ man?” in history, Gus demands Raul help him rob Raul’s place of work, placing Raul at great personal jeopardy, all in the name of family.  This raid of course goes poorly and now Raul is on the run with Gus.  This entire plot did nothing but introduce a new character to compliment an existing character and exhibit no agency throughout the entire process.  Raul is less a character than a human who’s main contribution to proceedings is saying “I can’t do that” or “no!”.  Real glad we’re getting introduced to this guy with 8 episodes to go in the entire show.

I waffled on who to put second, but I have to go with Dutch.  We presumably haven’t seen Dutch yet, and we open with her getting... some kind of transvaginal procedure explaining her ovulation schedule.  it’s revealed momentarily that she’s in some kind of forced breeding facility, because again apparently this show believes that tentacle faced vampires bent on world domination aren’t evil enough so they have to make it WORSE.  It’s revealed that she got captured after she and Setrakian were away from his apartment, Strigoi invaded it, and then she went in trying to save the MacGuffin Book.  Yes, a show that devoted a whole season to a magical book that did absolutely nothing to prevent the thing it was explicitly introduced to prevent is still somehow a major plot point.  ANYWAY I’m pretty sure this show is trying to do One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest with forced breeding programs which, yeah.  The thing that kills me is Dutch, who every time I mention her I’m reminded that she HACKED THE ENTIRE INTERNET OF NYC, has a meeting with the mysterious gentleman in the photo above that’s apparently running the program and he kinda sorta maybe starts to talk to her about how screwed up this thing is... only to say that the people that aren’t on board with it are selfish and this is the future and blah blah blah.  There’s some real, honest-to-god potential in that conversation!  The moral deliberating about doing what you can to survive in a hellish world, even if that means doing evil, is an interesting question!  And yet as soon as this show introduces this, it punts it away and Mr. Mystery Dr. Man reverts to carrying water for the strigoi like they have some kind of moral imperative.  Dutch ends this cringe inducing segment by hatching her escape plan, which involves smuggling her out in a chest freezer breathing through a straw hoping nobody will notice the chest freezer is slightly open, only to hesitate when a fellow prisoner has a miscarriage which leads Dutch to want her friend to get smuggled out in her stead.  This leads to what felt like an eight hour “No YOU go” session until they are all predictably found out.

But the most, and I mean the MOST baffling thing in a deeply silly episode is the story of Eph.  As you may remember, our plucky hero was blown up in a bus but saved by the people blowing up said bus last episode.  Turns out the folks that blew up the bus are part of a larger resistance movement taking potshots at the strigoi while they can and waiting for a better plan to come around.  You would think this would make Eph ecstatic, right?  WRONG.  He spends his entire time with them sulking and being a haughty dick to them for no reason whatsoever.  He ends up saving them from a strigoi attack and afterwards, when they’re trying to thank him, is where the real mind boggling begins.  He basically tells them that they’re not doing anything in the grand scheme of things, that their efforts don’t matter, and that if they REALLY wanted to make a difference they’d do something big like poison the tankers full of blood that he’s discovered.  It is at this point, in one of the most surreal things I’ve ever seen in a television show, that the head rebel looks at him and goes “so why don’t we do that?” and Eph looks at them and goes “My god you’re right, let’s do that!” LIKE IT’S A REVELATION.  There are two explanations for this.  One is that the writers are trying to convey that Eph is such a mopey, self-absorbed sack of bullshit that he’s legitimately never thought of this before.  Two is that the writers realized halfway through writing this episode that they should have had Eph be looking for someone to help him do this all along and convince this motley crew to join him all along, hadn’t done so, and had to scramble to get this to work as their endgame.  Again, this is a layup.  This is easy.  And yet they’ve written it in such an asinine fashion that now everybody looks like the biggest idiots possible.  Earlier in the episode Setrakian mumbles some garbage about how “This is our fault, we as humans lost our way” like the strigoi taking over is some kind of moral failing on the part of humanity.  Setrakian, buddy, I’m going to have to disagree with you on this one: Humanity in this universe isn’t doomed because of some moral failing, it’s because they’re all inexplicable idiots and it’s a miracle they’ve made it this far.