#I just read from halfway through chapter 18 to the beginning of chapter 38 in one sitting

[qu1cks1lversb1tch]

This may end up being Silver's ACOTAR posting for a little bit 💀

But not for long

[bthump]

now listen. i LOVE berserk and when i watched the 90s anime i binged the whole thing in two days because ive got no self control. but i feel like the eclipse has taken a harsh toll on me and i coudlnt handle it. ive tried to read further on from the manga and i dont think i can bear with how violent it seems to get from there on out- but i find myself obsessing over griffiths character and i feel like i have to know what happens next. how do i cope with this pain ???

oof that’s a tough one.

Honestly if it’s the violence in general, yk sword swinging and blood and guts and whatnot then I think you’re kind of out of luck unfortunately. There’s the 2016/17 anime which covers some of the post-eclipse stuff, which might be easier to watch in terms of violence because... it sucks lmao, the animation is awful so the violence might be harder to take seriously. but hey afaik it does tell a chunk of the rest of the story, so maybe it’s an option.

But otherwise it’s just impossible to skip the violence because it’s so constant in the story, and many important things happen during violent scenes.

On the other hand, if it’s specifically the sexual violence that’s hard for you to take, I might actually be able to help: I already have a big list of content warnings with manga page numbers written up that I made for someone else.

I’ll copypaste it here under a cut on the offchance that it helps. And if there’s anything specific other than sexual violence you want warned for, like suicide or self-harm or non-sexual parental abuse, just send me another ask and I’ll try my best. But yeah, gore in general is just too prevalent.

Also I wrote this for someone unfamiliar with the whole story so you can probably skip the golden age stuff if you’re not reading it.

Just so you know going in, this mainly just focuses on visual depictions of sexual assault. I don't think I could write a guide that covers every rape threat or mention or insinuation, in part because I'd have to re-read the story front to back, and also because like, significant plot points revolve around threats and discussions of rape so it's not really possible to skip a lot of it.

Chapter and page numbers are taken from the scans on mangasee and probably won't match the physical volumes. (They changed some of the formatting on the site recently, hopefully that doesn’t affect the page numbers but apologies if it does)

Black Swordsman arc:

nothing that i can remember. the story opens with Guts fucking a monster before killing her but the sex is consensual lol.

Golden Age arc:

Guts is raped as a child by Donovan, who tells Guts that Gambino sold him to him. ch 9, pg 44 - ch 10, pg 15

Guts has a nightmare about it ch 13, pg 2 - 9 If you skip this, it's worth knowing that guilt for killing Gambino features heavily in this nightmare, and that as he wakes up the monstrous representation of Donovan shifts into Casca who is lying on top of him. Guts is close to panicking as he wakes up before realizing that Casca is a woman. She's gone when he fully wakes up on page 10.

brace yourself for rape threats towards casca in ch 15

A nobleman attempts to rape Casca in a flashback to her childhood, Griffith interrupts the attempt by slicing off his ear ch 16, pg 13 - 14 If you skip this it's worth noting that Casca's reaction is helpless acceptance and believing it's natural.

ch 17 as a whole is p heavy with discussions of pedophilia and graphic self harm, but the csa isn't graphic and it's not really skippable anyway, just something worth bracing for.

more rape threats towards casca in ch 18

Casca's pursuers catch her and attempt to rape her ch 20, pg 18 - 21 Casca fights off her attacker on pg 21

brace yourself for Gennon's return at the end of chapter 23

rapey implications at the beginning of chapter 24 w/ Gennon thinking about Griffith

more rape threats in chapter 26+27 as Casca fights Adon

end of chapter 37 - halfway through ch 38 This whole sex scene with Charlotte is really fucked up, it's treated like consensual sex by the narrative but Charlotte says "no" early on before getting into it. I wouldn't skip it, there's some important emotional stuff here that's hard for me to convey, but I'd be aware going in that Miura is leaning heavily on v misogynist tropes in this scene.

discussion of incest ch 39, pg 7

incestuous rape attempt ch 39, pg 15 - 19 and ch 40, pg 2 - 7 (I wouldn't recommend skipping the 2 pages in between which return to Griffith in the torture chamber) And if you do skip this the things worth knowing are that Charlotte fights off the king and screams for Griffith to help her, upon which the king abandons the attempt and flees.

ch 46, pg 15 - ch 47, pg 5 Guts has a graphic flashback to his rape during sex with Casca and strangles her.

might want to brace yourself for the torturer being v suggestively creepy to Griffith in his scenes, particularly in chapter 54, but there's nothing explicit there

Wyald begins to choke a woman he was seemingly having consensual sex with ch 58 pg 20 the entire sex scene is ch 58 pg 18-20 if you skip it the only mildly important part is that Wyald mentions he already has business with Griffith to take care of, suggesting many or all apostles are aware he has the crimson behelit

ch 59, pg 16 graphic rape in the last panel. i'd recommend reading the rest of the page and just not scrolling down, last panel just describes how the black dog knights would rape women and murder children etc.

ch 59, pg 25-26 graphic rape

ch 60, pg 1-2, and pg 9-10 dismembered bodies skewered on swords, the imagery is p sexually violent if you skip it, guts thinks to himself that wyald's troops are being driven by fear. wyald attacks him with a body on his sword, which guts notices and which informs his outrage

implied rape threat ch 63, pg 18 - 19

rape attempt ch 64 pg 9 - 17, though Casca's torn clothes unfortunately remain throughout the rest of the Wyald fight, and Guts' response to her is terrible If you skip, Griffith sees Wyald grab Casca and tries to get to her despite not being able to walk, Guts eventually wakes up and saves her, nothing else of note

ch 68, from pg 15 to end of scene Wyald strips and humiliates Griffith, it's not overtly sexual and it's not skippable but it might be something you want to be prepared for

ch 71, pg 4 - 7 Griffith makes a sexual advance on Casca. It's not a rape attempt, he stops when she says stop, but it's wordless and might be another thing worth being warned for going in

ch 72 pg 10 - 13 Another one that's not really overt and not skippable but is just kind of vaguely sexual in a disturbing way. Griffith's nightmare sequence of a life with Casca suggests they have a kid together while Griffith is pretty far removed from reality, can't talk, and can barely move

ch 81, pg 21 - 22 The monster rape begins, nothing of value is lost if you skip these pages.

ch 85, pg 8 - 16 More monster rape

ch 86, pg 11 - ch 87, pg 16 Femto rapes Casca in a horrifically grautitous and eroticized rape scene in which the focus is entirely on Guts' feelings as he's forced to watch, with nothing from Casca's point of view. it's bad.

ch 93, pg 14 - 17 Guts tears Casca's dress after hot soup spills on it, then nearly kisses her before she shoves him away and runs, screaming.

Now I have to apologize because I can only warn for major rape scenes here on out. My memory of the post-golden age story isn't the best and there's some random background assault and rape for tone setting, sudden eclipse flashbacks featuring monsters holding up Casca, etc and I don't remember every instance.

Lost Children arc

general tw for abuse, implied csa, implied incest, this is a really dark arc tbh

assault attempt ch 95, pg 3

I believe there's a scene where Jill is sexually harassed by one of her father's friends in a tavern, but I can't find it.

violent rape, potential csa triggers ch 109, pg 14

Conviction Arc

general tw for a few full page spreads full of torture, including sexual torture, but I can't find specific pages

rape attempt, eclipse flashbacks ch 124, pg 6 - 9 + pg 12

possessed farnese tries to fuck guts' sword, idk ch 125, pg 8 - 12

eclipse flashback ch 130, pg 8 - 9

a monster sexually assaults casca ch 147, pg 21 - 22, ch 148 pg 3 - 5

Millenium Falcon Arc

the beast of darkness implies that guts should rape and kill casca in a nightmare. the imagery isn't graphic but it's fairly disturbing. I wouldn't recommend skipping this part but it's worth bracing yourself for. ch 187, pg 21-22

this is the scene where guts assaults casca ch 189 pg 11 - ch 190, pg 9 if you skip it, what happens is that casca is assaulted by bandits, which become monsters from the eclipse from her point of view, but she grabs one of their swords and kills them. guts finds her as she's holding the sword, naked and bloody, and pushes her down and forcibly kisses her. there's some gory beast of darkness imagery in guts' mind. guts bites her breast and then seems to come to his senses and stops. the scene ends abruptly.

single panel flashback to casca right after guts has assaulted her, not very graphic but just in case ch 199 pg 2

trolls rape a village woman ch 204 pg 5-7

a lot of graphic troll rape and gore featuring naked women ch 216 bottom of page 12 - end of chapter, easily skippable (tho top of page 12 is good)

somewhat sexualized image of a naked eviscerated woman ch 217 pg 10

another panel of trolls raping women ch 217, pg 13 hopefully that’s all of it, but apologies if I missed some, these troll chapters suck

slan getting sexually menacing with guts ch 219, pg 13 through ch 221, pg 3 this isn't really skippable, but fair warning going in. it's stuff like slan pressing him against her tits, tearing off his shirt, making a lot of suggestive comments, and kissing him on the last page

I can't find this, there are so many potential chapters it could be in, but at some point Raksas and Silat end up spying on Ganishka together and they see that he creates his demon army by immersing kidnapped pregnant women in a vat full of... apostle essence idk, and it corrupts the fetuses and turns them into demons. it's graphic and fucked up so brace yourself when you get to a scene where Raksas is leading Silat around Ganishka’s palace. ETA it's chapter 233, thank you @satanswolfcut

Fantasia Arc

eclipse flashback ch 354, pg 5

[pamphletstoinspire]

WHY DID JESUS WRITE WITH HIS FINGER IN THE DUST?

Gospel of April 7, 2019 - John 8: 1 - 11

Today’s beautiful gospel of the woman taken in adultery contains that curious detail of Jesus stooping to write in the dust with his finger.

At dawn he appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them. 3 The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group 4 and said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery.5 In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women.Now what do you say?”6 They were using this question as a trap,in order to have a basis for accusing him.

But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. 7 When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” 8 Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground.

9 At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. 10 Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”

11 “No one, sir,” she said.

“Then neither do I condemn you,”Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”

Apart from the fact that this detail shows Jesus could read and write what does it really mean?

Why did Jesus write in the dust of the earth?

There are three traditional interpretations. First, maybe Jesus was just doodling. He was stalling for time. He was giving the Pharisees the brush off. But Jesus doesn’t waste time and doesn’t ignore people so that’s out.

A second interpretation was favored by St Jerome and by lots of commentator since. This version says Jesus was writing the names and sins of the accusers in the dust. That would fit the story sort of, but why writing in the dust. Yes, well maybe but why write in the dust? Why not tell a parable about the accusers’ sins or speak out their names and give, let’s say, the number of the commandment they had broken? It’s a plausible theory, but it still seems like we’re stretching for a solution.

I once came up with a third option I’d never heard from anyone else, that Jesus is performing a significant, prophetic action. Elsewhere he refers to himself as “the finger of God.” (Luke 11:19-20) so maybe this is a prophetic action. He is, with his finger, designing in the dust of the earth the way God created Adam from the dust of the earth. Therefore he is revealing himself as the creator. Creative maybe, but far fetched, and it doesn’t really fit the context.

No, the fourth answer is correct, and this is one which dates back to St Augustine.

But it’s a riddle, and to understand we have to go back to the context. In chapter seven of John’s gospel, (which is immediately before the passage of the woman taken in adultery) Jesus’ conflict with the Scribes and Pharisees has reached a climax point. They are plotting to kill him and he knows it and actually calls them on it.

Here’s the passage:

Not until halfway through the festival did Jesus go up to the temple courts and begin to teach. 15 The Jews there were amazed and asked, “How did this man get such learning without having been taught?”

16 Jesus answered, “My teaching is not my own. It comes from the one who sent me. 17 Anyone who chooses to do the will of God will find out whether my teaching comes from God or whether I speak on my own. 18 Whoever speaks on their own does so to gain personal glory, but he who seeks the glory of the one who sent him is a man of truth; there is nothing false about him. 19 Has not Moses given you the law? Yet not one of you keeps the law. Why are you trying to kill me?”

20 “You are demon-possessed,” the crowd answered. “Who is trying to kill you?”

21 Jesus said to them, “I did one miracle, and you are all amazed. 22 Yet, because Moses gave you circumcision (though actually it did not come from Moses, but from the patriarchs), you circumcise a boy on the Sabbath. 23 Now if a boy can be circumcised on the Sabbath so that the law of Moses may not be broken, why are you angry with me for healing a man’s whole body on the Sabbath? 24 Stop judging by mere appearances, but instead judge correctly.”

The argument goes back and forth, and the people are wondering who he really is:

At this they tried to seize him, but no one laid a hand on him, because his hour had not yet come. 31 Still, many in the crowd believed in him. They said, “When the Messiah comes, will he perform more signs than this man?”

Now we’re getting somewhere. Jesus does “signs”. John is big on this. The “signs” Jesus does are always secret significant acts that point to his true identity. So at the beginning of his gospel ohn says the miracle of the wedding at Cana in Galilee was the “first of the signs that he did.” In that “sign” Jesus performed the duties and took on the role of the bridegroom thus showing that he was the prophesied bridegroom of God’s people Israel.

So what is the next sign Jesus is going to perform?

In chapter seven he says,

“Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. 38 Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.”[c] 39 By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified.

40 On hearing his words, some of the people said, “Surely this man is the Prophet.”

41 Others said, “He is the Messiah.”

We need to ask, therefore, who is the “Spring of Living Water”?

The answer is in the prophet Jeremiah.

In chapter seventeen Jeremiah is inveighing against the corrupt and unbelieving religious leaders of Israel. Go here to read the whole chapter. He is calling them out for following false gods and turning away from the Lord. The cornerstone quote is verse 13:

Lord, you are the hope of Israel; all who forsake you will be put to shame. Those who turn away from you will be written in the dust because they have forsaken the Lord, the spring of living water.

Ha! There’s the answer to the riddle! Jesus calls himself the Spring of Living water. “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink!” he says in the verses just before chapter eight. (and remember, the chapter and verse divisions in the Bible are a much later addition to aid easy reference. They’re not in the original)

What happens to those who forsake the Lord? According to the prophet Jeremiah–and remember the Jews at this time knew their Old Testament forward and backward–those who forsake the Lord who is the Spring of Living Water–will have their names written in the dust.

Dust you are and to dust your will return.

I will show you fear in a handful of dust.

By this prophetic sign Jesus is showing who he really is: The Lord who is the Spring of Living Water…he is also showing his accusers–who have planned to kill him–exactly who they are. They are the corrupt, immoral liars and murderers who the prophet Jeremiah condemned.

I believe Jesus just wrote their names in the dust and they, knowing the prophecy, understood that he was holding up a mirror to their apostasy and corruption. On the second occasion he may also have recorded the details of their own liaisons with the woman. Notice that the adulterous man was not brought for judgement. Why? Because it was one of them? Probably.

In this way Jesus recapitulates not only the prophet Jeremiah, but also the prophet Daniel in his encounter with the elders in the story of Susannah.

So the writing in the dust is one of Jesus’ signs to show who he really is. He is the Lord, the Spring of Living Water. If you reject him your name will be written in the dust of destiny.

Written by: Fr. Dwight Longenecker

[dailyaudiobible]

01/08/2019 DAB Transcript

Genesis 18:16-19:38, Matthew 6:25-7:14, Psalms 8:1-9, Proverbs 2:6-15

Today is the 8th day of January. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian and, of course, it's a pleasure to be here with you today, we are past the week threshold, of course we’re in the middle of a week, but we’re a full week now into this year and we’re sailing strong and out into the deep and we should be all getting kind of moved in and understanding what's going on. And about another week and we’ll be like locked in and sailing strong with our daily rhythm in the Bible and in the year. So, let's go ahead and take that next step. We’re reading from the New International Version this week and we’re working our way through the first book of the Bible, the book of Genesis and today we'll read chapter 18 verse 16 through 19 verse 38.

Commentary:

Okay. So, there's so much to talk about in our reading today and that's the case often where it’s like, wow, that was one days reading, but, wow, there's a lot going on there for me to contemplate and consider. In the book of Genesis today, the first book of the Bible, we have finally reached a point where we enter into a story and we’re like…wait…wait…what is going on here? We have cities being destroyed, we have daughters having sex with their father, and this is the first book of the Bible, and I'm halfway through it, and what is going on? And this is a good time to point out the fact that we will encounter stories in the Bible this year that will make you scratch your head and say, what is going on here? And what you need to notice, what you need to notice when we encounter those stories is the subtle judgment that comes up in our heart toward God. That might sound odd but it's what happens, especially if we’re on our first trip through the whole Bible, like this is the first time going, like where we’ve made a commitment and we’re like, okay, I place my faith in this in this book, but I’ve never read it and now I'm gonna read every word and now I’m gonna understand what's in this book. We begin to realize that if we’ve never been on the trip, on the journey through the Bible, that we have sort of these prejudices. We think that there is an angry God who’s vengeful and wants to smite humanity. And we more we need to meet him and find out how to fear him properly. And then we have a dichotomy, we have Jesus showing another way of actually being in the world altogether and we’re trying to mash those together because father, son and Holy Spirit, these are the same being. And, so, how does this all equate? And we get this angry God thing going on and we fear the Lord because He’s gonna be so angry. And, so, this is the first time today, we come up against one of those notions, we see a story in the Bible that just rings all the wrong bells. So, let's just go back and look for the story real quick and try to find a place where it is that our hearts have turned toward judgment at God or maybe we’re looking at a story that tells us something completely different. So, let's begin with the fact that God comes to meet the person that He's in covenant with, Abraham, and they have this meal and then God is leaving to go see what's going on in Sodom and Gomorrah down in the valley. And God's tops, according to the story in Genesis, and thinks to Himself, should I keep this from Abraham, should I keep this from the one that I'm in covenant with. And He decides that he shouldn't keep it from the one that He's in covenant with. And, so, He tells Abraham what his intentions are. And then what do we see? A man, a human being, Abraham approaches God, the Creator of all things, the All Powerful One and begins a negotiation, right? Would you go down there and wipe that city, those cities out if there are 50 righteous people? And the Lord reveals His heart. No, I wouldn't do that. Well, what about 45? No, I wouldn't do that. What about 40? How about 30? How about 20? How about 10? And we see that God is revealing His heart in the story because this is where God is speaking for Himself in the story. I'm not about the business of destroying people, I’m about the business of eradicating evil and wickedness. And as the story progresses we get a sense of the wickedness that he's talking about. I think that, like no matter what else we might say, that we would probably all agree that if you're going into a village and the outcome is that you are going to be gang raped by the men of the city that that's, you know, like, that's evil. And, so, we just read the stories, so we know how the story goes. And we have this, you know, Lot trying to protect the Angels who he know are beings sent from God, but the only thing that he thinks he can barter with is to throw his virgin daughters out the door and let them endure the gang rape, which makes you go, “hold on a second…hold…what in the world is something like this doing in the Bible? Like, this isn’t the right way to live. Why would Lot do something like that?” And then the story goes on, right? The girls as it turns out are betrothed, they're engaged to be married. And, so, Lot’s trying to get everyone that is connected to him out of the city, but the guys, they won't go, they don't believe him, they think he’s joking. And, so, it ends up that Lot and his wife and his two daughters are the only ones that escape the city and their running and then, of course, this story is famous, so Lot’s wife looked back, she turned into a pillar of salt and so there's only Lot and his two daughters fleeing for their lives and everything that they had, all of their possessions, all of their wealth, all of their standing, everything is wiped from the face of the earth along with their home and everyone that they knew. So, they are completely on their own in this valley and they end up in a cave in the mountains, right? We know the story. The two daughters decide that the best course of action is to have sex with dad and see if they get pregnant. So, it's a pretty disturbing story that we can go, “why is this in the Bible? And, you know, where is God in all of this?” Well, God was in the beginning of the story speaking to Abraham, telling Abraham that he wasn't going down to Sodom and Gomorrah to destroy righteous people. In fact, had there been 10 righteous people the story would be like that, the destruction wouldn't have happened. And, so, it was. There weren't the people who could maybe be considered righteous. Lot and his two daughters and his wife, they got out. Of course, mom isn't there anymore. And, so, the daughters are thinking, “what are we supposed to do?” And if we kind of get contextual here we can understand the dilemma that they were in. This family that had been reduced to poverty, like everything was destroyed. They were foreigners, these two daughters were foreigners and Lot was the only family member that could protect them, especially in the culture of that time and he's getting older. So, there’s no one for them and if a Lot were to perish, and they were obviously in a pretty precarious situation, they had lost everything and were hiding in a cave in the mountains. So, things were pretty bad. And, so, they’re thinking to themselves, “this isn't the desirable choice, this is the only choice. We need another male heir. We need someone that can speak for us and can have property.” And, yeah, we get into patriarchy, we can get into all that stuff, but why don't we just say, “this is what was going on then, this is how they understood the world to be. This is how it was to live at this time in the book of Genesis, which is a long time ago.” And, so, the outlook for the daughters was to either have a male heir somewhere or what was gonna happen is their Father would be killed or would die and they would be taken and probably live a life of prostitution. So, they did what they did. And, yeah, we can look at what they did and say, “that's just that's not how it's supposed to go. And yes, it's not, but we need to look at a story like this and say, “why am I judging God about this story? Why am I saying there, I told, you see, this kind of stuff is in the Bible?” I mean, when Lot fled and only had his daughters why didn't they finish climbing up the mountain that they were hiding in to get to the top where their uncle Abraham was living? Why didn't they go back to the family that they had? We don't have the answer to that question. But why would we blame God for the choices that they made? Remember back earlier in the story when Lot and Abraham got together because they had grown too wealthy to stay together and everybody was kind of fighting and so they decided to part ways so that there would be room enough for them both. It was Lot who picked what he thought was the best option for himself. He picked the best of the land and went and lived in it and this is what happened. Why is it God's fault? Was God anything but a Redeemer in this story. He told Abraham what He was going to do and then He went and did it. And why would Abraham being…why would Abraham ask these questions of the Lord if its not to protect his own family? So, what God did was go down into the midst of this debauchery and rescue Abraham's family and get them out. What we don't see in the story is how they fell down and worshiped the Lord and asked for counsel on what to do and were led on the path that they should go, right? They went their own way and what happened happened. Which brings us to a little touchy point where we’re gonna have to realize as we continue to take this journey that it is absolutely going to touch all of the soft spots of our lives. And this is a good time to realize how much blame we place on God for things that He hasn't done. It's incredible, the trash heap of things that we throw upon the Lord that He had nothing to do with. And we can say He is Sovereign and He knows all and so He could like preempt things, and yet there was that story back at the very, very beginning, the second day together where Adam and Eve were in the garden staring at the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and they were instructed not to eat from it and then they did and they were allowed to make that choice and that choice was allowed to matter. We are each created in the image of God and God is a Creator and He creates things and because we are created in His image and it is hardwired into who we are, so do we. And every day we are writing that story and creating what our destiny is going to look like. We get to make choices and they get to matter. And this story that we just read in the book of Genesis shows us once again this reality. Not everything’s God's fault and when we just throw everything that we get ourselves into onto God like it's his fault, then how is it that we can have a trusting loving relationship with Him? How is it that we will walk through this year with a God that we do not trust and do not know?

On the other hand, we zoom forward into the book of Matthew and we have Jesus, who is God in the flesh here in a relatable way that we can understand speaking the heart of God to us by inviting us to understand specific realities, that all of the worry and the chaos and the stress that we carry around with us is not going to get us anywhere. In fact, Jesus is bold enough to say, I'm telling you not to worry about your life. The choices that you gotta make about eating and drinking, what you’re gonna wear, there's way more going on, it's a bigger story and can anyone of you, by worrying, add a single hour to your life? And we can stop right there and say, “okay, okay, enough for today, there's a lot going on”, but Jesus's isn’t done, He’s saying, look, the way to do this right is to not estrange yourself from the Father. What you need to do if you want to do this right is to seek the kingdom of God first and seek His righteousness and then everything else that you are trying to arrange for will be given to you. You don't have to worry about it. You don't have to worry about tomorrow. Tomorrow will worry about itself. What you should worry about, what you should think about, according to Jesus, is how you are judging things, right? And, so, we just talked about how we can subtly begin to judge God but we are doing this constantly to each other. And Jesus has some very clear, very choice words that we need to get into our minds before we get out of sight of shore, right? We’re one week into this journey and we’re getting absolute, pivotal, foundational instruction about how to navigate this world and our life upon this earth. Jesus says, “do not judge or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the same measure you use, it will be measured to you.” So, get 2 tablespoons of that and stir that into your coffee and drink that one down because that's a big one, especially if you just love to fight on the Internet about what every leading Christian may or may not be doing or saying or how they may be conducting their walk. How we judge others is how we are going to be judged. So, if we can't be merciful, we will not experience mercy. If we learn nothing else from the Bible this whole year, which will not be the case, but if we learn nothing else from the Bible this year but this one thing, if we stop living in judgment continually and instead see what is a right about a person and what is right about a situation as opposed to only what is wrong and needs to be judged, that’ll change our whole year right there. That one thing right there will change the way we interact with everybody. So, there's plenty to think about today. And we could go on. I mean, there's more, but go back and read it again. I mean there's plenty to meditate on. Jesus leaves us with some thoughts. “Enter through the narrow gate. Wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through that. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life and only a few find that.” So, what's it going to be? I want the narrow path that leads to life and I admit there are times that I feel like I'm walking on that narrow path and there are others that I feel like I've run down onto the main highway that leads to destruction and we all probably have those seasons and days, but the path that leads to life is narrow and there aren’t going to be a lot of people on that path. This is from God in the flesh. These are the words of Jesus. And if we’re gonna live judge mental lives then we can pretty much be assured about which path we are on. How much in judgment in your life has ever brought you inner peace and tranquility and an overwhelming sense of the presence of the Lord, right? When you’re tithing those nasty things out on social media and being in a war with somebody over some kind of theological point like some hill to die on or you’re saying things out of your mouth to the people that you love that you shouldn't…that are wounding them because you don't like how they've done something and your judging them, how much…even if you are right and you pound them into mortar on the floor and they are absolutely destroyed because you have a powerful vocabulary and you’ve just…you’ve just torn them down…like what…what do you get out of that? You leave the room feeling overjoyed you were right? You got to judge them appropriately and they got what was coming to them? Jesus is saying this is not the way it's done. For one to navigate humanity like we were intended we have to become like Christ. Christ-like. And when we watch Jesus in the Gospels we need to watch close because this is the example of not only what humans are supposed to be like, but exactly what it is that Jesus offers to us. This is the good news of the gospel, that we can be fully human like Christ revealing His kingdom on this earth and enter into a relationship with the Father that will never, ever, ever end.

Prayer:

Father, you have given us plenty to think about today. There are…on the number of levels you have you've touched some things within us and now we are seeing, now we are seeing just how deep this can all go and we can already feel you shifting things inside of us and in some cases it’s very uncomfortable because we have all the reasons for why we do what we do. And yet we are still confronted with the fact that there is a narrow road that leads to life and only a few find it. May we be one of the few Lord. Come Holy Spirit, we surrender our rights and our wrongs in our judgments and all the things that we are carrying around. We begin to release that, and we begin to become aware that what the Bible is going to do is invite us to release a lot of things. And, so, we start here with judgment. We release our judgments against you, we release our judgments against everyone who has ever wronged us, we begin to move toward a posture of forgiveness. Come Holy Spirit we pray. In Jesus’ name we ask. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is the website, its home base, its where you find out what's going on around here.

And we’ve been talking a little bit each day about different things that are going on around here. And, so, one thing that I’ll mention today is the Daily Audio Bible transcripts. For many years now, there've been volunteers that have transcribed, posted what gets said here on the Daily Audio Bible. And, obviously, if you're using the Daily Audio Bible web player or the app, you can favorite it, an episode, so that you can go back and re-listen to what was said or even write some notes that you want to remember. So, that is certainly a way to go back because a lot…I mean we’re going through the whole Bible. So, we’re trying to unpack a lot of things this year and some of those things we need to remember because they’re life-changing things. So that's one way to go back. But the transcripts are in written form, what got said. And, so there may be a day where you’re like, “okay, I want to go back and read that. I want to listen to that, I want to read that to consider that a little bit more deeply. So, you can get to the Daily Audio Bible transcripts by going to dailyaudiobible.tumbler.com. That's just kind of a blogging platform that makes it easy enough for us to offer this. So, dailyaudiobible.tumbler.com. If you can't remember that, just go to dailyaudiobible.com and click the Community section. It’s like in the navigation at the top and then click the Social Media button, which will show you all of the different places where we’re on social media so that we can, well, so you can stay connected. But one of the links is to the transcripts. So, there's a valuable resource for you as we continue this journey.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com. There is a link on the homepage. If you’re using the Daily Audio Bible app, you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner or, if you prefer, the mailing address is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill Tennessee 37174.

And, as always if you have a prayer request or comment, there are a number of numbers that you can use depending on where you are in the world. If you're in the Americas, 877-942-4253 is the number to dial. If you are in the UK or Europe 44-20-3608-8078 is the number to dial. And if you are in Australia or the lands down under, 61-3-8820-5459 is the number to dial.

And that's it for today. I'm Brian I love you and I'll be waiting for you here tomorrow.

Community Prayer and Praise:

Hi family, this is His Little Cherrie in Canada. Happy new year. I’m calling with another creative way to pray from the banqueting table of prayer. And this one is one of the most hopeful things that I personally do every day, and that’s to use a prayer binder. And it simply is a normal binder that I put pages in, divided into either five days or seven days depending on how many you’d like to have, and each day I use as a reminder to pray for certain people. So, for instance, I have my binder divided into five days for the five days of the week. And the first day, on Monday, I have pictures of people that I’m praying for their salvation. Tuesday are couples, I’m praying for their marriages. Wednesday is family and friends and Thursday is people in ministry. And it’s just a reminder to me to pray for certain people because I think we’ve all been in the situation where someone has shared a concern or a prayer request with us and we’ve told them, “oh I’ll be praying for you”, with every intention of praying for them but life happens and we forget and then the next time we see them, they say, “oh thank you so much for praying”, and we smile and nod and realize we haven’t prayed for them because we’ve forgotten. Well, a prayer binder makes sure that doesn’t happen. When you tell someone, “I’ll be praying for you”, you put the picture or even just their name in your prayer binder and as you go through it day by day you remember to pray for them. So, that has been really helpful for me and I wanted to let you know about it in case you’d like to try it this year. Prayer binders, a creative way to pray from the banqueting table of prayer. Thank you, family. Bye for now.

Hi everybody this is Tony the Painter, really really happy to be starting this new year with you all. Brian, I just want to thank you for this opportunity and say that we love you too and thank you for doing what you do and China too. I’ve started listening to Chronological and congratulations on your engagement. That’s awesome news. Diane Olive Brown, we love you so much, you have no idea and your message from Christmas Day brought…I actually flapped my hands __ but it’s true. I was like oh, “you sound so happy.” So, yeah just so you know that I’m still praying for you. Also, Prodigal, yeah brother, I’ve recently gone through divorce this year and I’ve been suicidal myself. I love you, I empathize with you, I understand what…some of what you’re going though, and I just want to just let you know that I’m praying for you and that we’re all praying for you in this time. And everybody is bringing over baggage from last year and that’s fine, but I noticed in everybody’s voice who was speaking today on the 2nd January, everybody it is that little bit hopeful. You know, so, we’re gonna maintain this year. We’re gonna, you know, that’s my job, its maintenance. So, I go and repair stuff. So, yeah, just keeping that…letting you all know that I’m praying for you all. You all have my love and God bless you. Dial back soon.

Hi this is Tito Ramirez calling from Southern California. I want to reach out to Prodigal. You know, I feel your pain so much because my life mirrors so much of what you’re going through. You know, I’ve been through divorce and business has just been terrible, it’s been so tough and I’ve fallen behind on so many important things - taxes and child support and trying to get health insurance for the kids and trying to make sure we have money to eat and just pay rent - and it’s just so, so, stressful and it feels like just a gigantic failure and you just…I’d never thought it could happen to me because I’m an educated individual, I should have a good job, like this shouldn’t be happening but I just keep trusting in the Lord. And prodigal, I’m reaching out to you because I need you, I need somebody that’s gonna be praying that’s in the same space that I’m in. And I can’t afford to lose somebody like that and I’m gonna pray for are you and you pray for me and the Lord’s gonna do wonderful things in our lives for us. I look in Romans, in Romans 7 and in Romans 8, I look about how sin trips us up and I looked about us just trusting in the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit changing us. And I look in Proverbs 3 and it gives me so much hope, you know, that these old dry bones, these messed up bones would come back to life, you know? And I look in Psalms 51 when things don’t go bad or a when I feel like I’ve made a mistake again or when I feel like I’ve blown it again and I look at David crying out to the Lord and I think, you know, I did something, but it wasn’t what he did. I mean, what he did was so much worse, but I use that Psalm 51 as a prayer of confession sometimes and I love in that Psalm when David asks for a new clean heart and that’s something that I can’t do for myself and it mirrors so much what is being spoken about in Romans, that we can’t…we can try to change ourselves and do it. God has to do it for us…

Happy new year daily audio Bible, this is Isabel from Australia in Melbourne. Just want to wish is all a happy new year. May God’s blessing be upon you and your family. Just wanted to wish China and Ben a happy engagement and congratulations to the Hardin family. There’s a new addition in the family, soon to be married, so happy for you guys. Let this be a year of blessing to all of you. Thank you, Brian once again for all the amazing, you know, readings of the word and just for your teaching on the word of God and just thank you…I’m growing a lot through it and I know a lot of us are too in the Daily Audio Bible.  I just want to say hello to all the families just may this year be a year of blessings to all of you. Please call in and just say hello and I’d love to hear from all of you. Blessings. Love you all. Bye.

[florencetheflowerfairy]

TSOL Chapter 30 Liveblog

For @lightchildofthespring

The Song of Love by Koukacs / Lightchildofthespring is a longfic retelling of Digimon Adventure where Taichi and Yamato never became Chosen Children, so the focus is more on the other children. It’s epic and dramatic and the ladies are awesome.

Supposedly SHOCKING THINGS are supposed to happen in this chapter, so I have decided to liveblog it!

Please, DO NOT READ THIS LIVEBLOG unless you have read “The Song of Love”! There will be massive spoilers!!

Anyway that’s me (I’m both of them), SUPER READY to tackle this chapter!

How much suffering will you get away with, Koukacs?? I’LL FIND OUT!

Thoughts before I begin:

Supposedly this chapter is darker than “For Friendship, Perhaps,” where there was a GRISLY MURDER.

I REALLY DON’T KNOW HOW YOU CAN GET DARKER THAN THAT BUT OKAY.

BASICALLY I AM EXPECTING KOUSHIRO TO DIE.

Though of course he will get better. 

Though I also have a wild theory that you will parallel Otae and Koushiro by having them both watch their brothers get killed.

WHAT IS THE REVEAL? Something to do with how Fate was created? Are we going to see that? Was Makoto involved?

Is Koushiro going to get a fabulous hairdo ala “Steven and the Stevens”?

So many important questions. OKAY LET’S DIG IN.

1. “The end of all things”

WHAT A TITLE. I MEAN, WHAT CAN I EVEN SAY ABOUT THAT.

2. “I did nothing wrong, Hikari-san.”

Fate, is that you?? My favorite villain?? Also LOL, “nothing wrong,” you TWAT.

3. YES IT IS FATE. MUAHAHAHA.

4. “You’re not really that logical. There’s a lot of pain in you. And anger.”

Hikari is so perceptive and brave!

5. FATE IS PUNISHING KOUSHIRO?? BECAUSE HE INFECTED FATE WITH GLITCHES OF BEING ABLE TO FEEL EMOTIONS??

AAAAAHHHH AW MAN.

6. OMG I love Hikari being so logical about how Koushiro is the brain and absolutely integral to the team, while Fate is being such an emotional mess about this.

This mysterious conversation is giving me lots of Utena vibes and Fate is like Dios.

7. Okay wait. The person Fate is talking to is NOT Hikari? That finally clicked in my brain. I assumed it was like a Dream Version of Hikari. Um.

8. The mysterious wise Hikari-like person just said that Love is Eternal, awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww.

9. “You’re just a simulation of her that I created!”

I am suddenly reminded of Sirelo’s Ex Machina fanfic. HIKARI THE ROBOT STRIKES AGAIN.

10. “In the end, you are a part of me, just like those other two!”

The other two?? Are the other two Koushiro and Makoto?

11. The story of the Shepherd Boy STRIKES AGAIN.

12. BACK TO YOSHIE YAY!

13. “Among my friends, I was the one who took the longest time to start understanding my partner.”

This made me emotional.

14. Yoshie isn’t shocked at all by Motimon’s assessment of Koushiro’s personality, and she even talked to Masami about it! It’s amazing how similar she and her son are!

15. Aaaahhhh, Yoshie and Koushiro love each other but are terrible at communicating. SO YOSHIE NEEDS TO PLAY HER VIOLIN FOR HIM! THAT’S BEAUTIFUL! I hope to see that happen!

16. OH HI MASAMI. And Koushiro is unconscious, oh dear. STILL ALIVE, THOUGH. THAT’S A PLUS.

17. Back to Koushiro’s vision which Fate has apparently been planning for ages. Makoto’s face is so similar to Yoshie’s!

DON’T TOUCH ME.

18. Haha!! I like how Koushiro is already trying to outsmart Fate! :D

PLAY IT COOL, KOUSHIRO. YOU CAN WIN THIS THING. BE COOL AND CONFIDENT AS WHOEVER THIS LADY IS.

19. DON’T FALL FOR THE TRAP, KOUSHIRO. SOMEBODY IS GOING TO DIE IN THIS CHAPTER AND I DON’T WANT IT TO BE YOU.

20. Fate would use TENTOMON against Koushiro. EVIL EVIL EVIL.

21. “I can hear Koushiro’s heartbeat” and this is shocking?? ARE THEY ALL DEAD AND IN HEAVEN EXCEPT FOR KOUSHIRO? IS THAT’S WHAT GOING ON? Oh wait it’s literally Hell isn’t it.

22. Aaaaaand now Makoto and Tentomon are acting as though they can “still save Koushiro from Fate.”

23. YOU GUYS ARE GOING TO HAVE TO BE VERY CONVINCING IN ORDER TO GET ME TO TRUST YOU.

24. “Calm down, please. We’ll tell you everything you need to know. It’ll be hard to believe...”

“I’m very open-minded.” The other boy spoke in a defiant tone.

THAT’S MY BOY. THAT’S MYYY BOOOYYYY. THAT’S SOME QUINTESSENTIAL KOUSHIRO RIGHT THERE RIGHT THERE. THAT MIGHT BE THE MOST KOUSHIRO-ESQUE THING YOU HAVE EVER WRITTEN.

I LOVE KOUSHIRO.

“I’M VERY OPEN-MINDED AND ALSO HOW DARE YOU ACT LIKE I’M NOT.”

25. Makoto and Tentomon are the other two computer simulations!! :O

ROBOTS GALORE. IT’S A ROBOT CHAPTER. YAY!

26. “Who were the others? Am I not the first one whose mind Fate abducted? Did those other people... Did Fate kill them all?”

Steven and the Crystal Gems

Come on now don’t be shy

I learned to stay true to myself 

by watching myself die!

I mean I knew this was coming so I’m not surprised but STILL.

27. Aaahhh, so many Koushiros, tortured to death. Koukacs...

28. I’m willing to believe that these Sophisticated Imaginary Friends are good people and that they can help Koushiro. I need to believe that!!

29. I’m very curious why Koushiro is older in this place?? 

30. FAKE-HIKARI IS HERE. SHE’S GOT BLACK BOOTS AND A BADASS PINK COAT. WILL SHE BE FRIEND OR FOE?

31. I’m like barely halfway through this chapter. XD

32. Aaaaahhhh, Koushiro is so afraid that Fate is putting his mother through the same anguish that it did to him. :’’(

33. THE SHEPHERD BOY STRIKES BACK.

34. It’s Real-Hikari! (?)

I CAN TRUST HER, RIGHT?

35. MAYBE SHE’S NOT REAL-HIKARI EITHER GAAAH.

36. MASAMI, SAVE YOUR SON.

37. I have decided that I don’t trust this Hikari after all.

38. “The third question is ‘How many seconds of time are there in Eternity?’”

And Lo, Florencetheflowerfairy answered: Count the number of letters in The Song of Love. Then start from the beginning and count them again. And once you have finally understood all the mysteries in this fanfiction, exactly one second of Eternity will have passed.

39. Anyway, it seems like the reason Koushiro is in this unusual circumstance is because he and his mother have “synchronized.” Not unlike what happened to Koushiro and Sora when Sora was trapped in her own personal hell! The word “synchronized” also makes me think of two hearts singing together, like a song of love. :)

Koushiro and Sora!!! Their friendship!! <3 <3 <3

40. Okay I am TRYING to trust this Fake-Hikari. She seems like a good Sophisticated Imaginary Friend.

41. Aaahhh, Koushiro is being very smart to ask them for information to ask on how to kill Fate! I wonder if that will happen??? (Certainly these computer simulations inside of Fate don’t seem to be as evil...)

42. “I want to know how Fate was created” and then apparently this knowledge is VERY BAD AND WILL HURT. Oh nooooooo. BUT KOUSHIRO IS TOO CURIOUS. HE MUST KNOW.

43. “You really hate the Spirit...” WOW, YOU THINK?

Makoto is sad about this.

I don’t know how this is possible, but is the Spirit somehow made from Koushiro or Makoto’s spirit...?

44. “You’ll be bringing yourself your own end!” Tentomon says. Aaaahh, that old prophecy, finally finally going to happen.

BUT HE’S GOING TO GET BETTER. IT’S OKAY.

45. Aww, I’m glad that Koushiro remembers that his friends and family love him! :’)

46. That’s very clever of the Sophisticated Imaginary Friends to say that they can tell him everything that happened leading up the the creation!

47. And now, they are telling the story of the drabble you posted on your tumblr, when Makoto told the Fairytale to Koushiro... 

48. It really sounds like Koushiro and Fate are the same and I don’t know how that’s possible.

49. Oh no, Masami and Yoshie died in this universe. :’’’(

(I’m fine, don’t worry about me. They’re fictional.) (BUT THAT’S SO SAD, REALLY.)

50. “HE”? IS KOUSHIRO FATE? DID HE DIE TO CREATE FATE? TO CREATE UNIVERSES WHERE HIS PARENTS WEREN’T KILLED?

51. “Where have you been?” And Koushiro thinks that the voice sounds familiar? Who else could it be but Koushiro? Or, Makoto?? Somehow??? I DON’T KNOW???

52. Fake-Hikari is deleted, aww. :( 

53. Aaaaand Fake-Tentomon is also deleted! Makoto will probably be deleted soon, like I thought at the beginning...

54. Aww, Makoto loved him!! <3 :’)

55. Aaahh, Koushiro promises to tell his parents about him!

56. Makoto dies before Koushiro’s eyes. Just like what happened to Otae! Poor Koushiro!!

57. And now we see the chair from Wizarmon’s vision!

58. “Don’t let that thing scare you! Be brave!” BE BRAVE, MY SON!!

59. “I know you too well.” THIS THING HAS TO BE KOUSHIRO. THERE IS NO OTHER WAY.

60. “But I know I would never do something like that!” I sense a big dose of IRONY is going to smack you in the face, Koushiro.

61. It’s Koushiro. The chapter ends with the image of Season 1 aged Koushiro and Season 2 aged Koushiro looking at each other.

62. WELP

63. OH GEEZ

64. HOW CAN HE EVER GET OUT OF THIS MESS?

65. GOOD LUCK I LOVE YOU AND YOU’RE GOING TO BE OKAY AND YOU’RE GOING TO HUG YOUR MOM SOON.

[bad-at-names-and-faces]

100 Days of Writing: Day 11

@the-wip-project

How do you create your characters? Do you make a profile of them? Do you know your character before you start writing the story?

Gonna put this under a cut for length (and spoilers?)... (If you’ve read the Young Diplomat, I’m going to go into some of my thought process.  It’ll either be interesting or it’ll be the proverbial sausage factory...)

I’m not particularly organized in creating my OCs...  they basically sort of take form as I’m thinking of scenarios in my head, and slowly become more and more set people. I’ve really gotten to like 100 word drabbles for doing this, to some extent, since it’s kind of a low risk thing, but initially when I started writing, I hadn’t gotten into drabble writing yet.

I’d kind of started thinking of children for Anna and Kristoff a while before I actually started writing anything.  I don’t think any of them exactly look like any of the children in The Young Diplomat (though I sort of had some “essense” of Inga and possibly Frederick and the twins in some earlier ideas.  As far as the full set of children in the story, that was partly a deliberate plot move...  

(teeny bit of a spoiler)...  So... Lars Nilsen was the first character I came up with for the story.  He’s the title character, and he basically came about when I was trying to think of what a child of Anna and Hans would be like, especially if raised in a loving environment with no idea of his origins. Anyhow... The drama, of course, comes from his arrival in Arendelle.  

Now, why wouldn’t he just meet Queen Anna his first day there, and, with his remarkable resemblance to Prince Hans, cause Anna to just go into shock right then and there?  Oh, well, she’s about to give birth, of course.  Now, Lars is old enough to have a job, but, on the other hand, Anna would have still been 18 when he was born, so even if he’s 20, she’s 38 (39 at the beginning of the action, I drive myself crazy keeping track of dates in all this...), so that’s not really all that weird, even in the 19th century.  Also, I didn’t want to do the “law of inverse fertility” trope, so, well, she’s just good at getting pregnant. (the fact that every single dress she wore in Frozen II was covered in wheat motif makes me feel this is justified... don’t get me started on Kristoff)...  

Oh, but why would someone who’s already had a bunch of kids and is really sociable hide herself away just because she’s having a baby soon?  Well, let’s put in a difficult birth a while back--basically, make her go on modified bed rest.   Taking a break after that near-death experience also keeps the number of children from getting too insane (there are 4 older children, and 3 younger children plus the baby--it was also important to me that there were some other young children, because I didn’t want this to be the big scary first birth since that near-death experience, but just enough worry.)... Also, having the age gap avoids that lucky 13 number...  Like I said, most of their kids in the story are plot devices, essentially. Not individually important, but it would be a different story if I took them out.  Anyhow... where was I?  Right, Inga...

I have an indulgent headcanon that the trolls marry Anna and Kristoff between when they return to Arendelle at the end of Frozen II and before the epilogue.  So, Inga is born the following summer, and is old enough that she can pretty much be on equal footing with Lars from the start. That said, Inga didn’t really start to take form quite as early as Lars did in my story planning process, though she was mostly set by a few chapters in. Frederick didn’t really develop until I was over halfway through writing. (and if we’re going farther, Henry initially didn’t exist as more than a plot device...)  (and while we’re at it, Henry and Elizabeth both exist because I didn’t want to write a Greek Tragedy...)

That’s a bit of a rambling sort of answer, but it’s also a mishmash of some things I’d been thinking about writing up for a while... so, there we go.

[dailyaudiobible]

6/30/2022 DAB Transcript

2 Kings 17:1-18:12, Acts 20:1-38, Psalm 148:1-14, Proverbs 18:6-7

Today is the 30th day of June, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I'm Brian. It's wonderful to be here with you today, around the Global campfire for the next step forward. And wow, it’s the 30th of June, which means it is the final day of the sixth month of the year. I guess we are about as close to the halfway mark, in terms of months, that we can get. And so, let's enjoy being here, kind of stretch our arms and it's been a bit of a journey, all of the things that we've gone through in the last half of the year, not only in the Scriptures, but in our lives and in applying the Scriptures to our lives, so that we might continually be transformed. It's been a journey. And so, here we are kinda stretching her legs and moving around a little bit and enjoy the fact that we made here, kinda at the halfway point now. So much as happened in the Scriptures, so much is out in front of us, what an exciting journey to be on together. My heart is just full of gratitude right now that we even get to do this together, day-by-day, step-by-step. But the only way this works, is if we take the next step and so, let's do that and dive back in. In the Old Testament we are in the book of second Kings, kinda moving through different summaries of the kings and the different things that happened. Let’s find out what happens today, second Kings chapter 17 verse 1 through 18 verse 12.

Commentary:

Okay so, in the book of second Kings, again, so many times when really important things happen, it's understated in the Bible like, when major prophets that we’re moving along with for a long time die, right, we've already seen as the Bible is…is like and then they died, for the most part. And so, it's really interesting that something profound happened in today's reading. We read it and we probably know, but it's understated, again. The northern kingdom of Israel at this point, going forward now, after today's reading, the northern kingdom of Israel, those 10 tribes, are gone, never to come back. Like, the 10 tribes were deported and carried into exile and were assimilated and never returned. They disappeared from history. Israel is over. All that's left of the people that we've traveled for six months to get into the Promised Land, all that's left is the kingdom of Judah, which indeed includes the city, the holy city, of Jerusalem and the Lord's temple. But the northern kingdom and its capital, Samaria, was captured and the people sent away. And when people were sent away, other conquered peoples were brought into the land to live there, which was Empire building, at the time. Conquer a people, deport them from their homeland, make them settle in a land that has already been conquered, so, it's a foreign land and here's your stuff and make a life here. And they just kept switching people around, so that as the generations went by there is no connection to a homeland anymore. There is a connection to the entire Empire, in this case it's the Assyrian Empire. So, that's what happened. The Hebrew people were deported, people from all kinds of other places were brought in. It wasn't going well, lions were attacking the people in they’re sending word to the authorities like, we need to know how to worship the God of this land because we don't know about the God of this land, we only know about our own gods and we’re worshiping our own gods. But the God of this land seems to be upset. And so a priest is sent back to begin to instruct the people in the ways of the Lord. And as we read from the Bible, they did fear the Lord, but they also feared and worshiped their own gods, the gods of the lands that they had come from. So, over time things get fairly well discombobulated. The land of Israel had already been led away by Jeroboam, son of Nebat, right, the first king of Israel, after the kingdom divided into two kingdoms. They were led into idolatry. And so, their customs and forms of worshiping Yahweh were increasingly different than those in the kingdom of Judah. And now, we have all these people deported and new people brought into the land and a priest instructing them in the ways of the Lord. But there are all so intertwining all of that, with the customs from their own lands, and the worship of their own gods from their own lands. If you go in that direction and continue to move toward the New Testament, you find out that these people become known as Samaritans, after the capital city of Samaria. And so, when we read through the Gospels, we can see pretty clearly that Samaritans are not people who are to be trusted, they are frowned upon. They are considered other and, in some cases, they are the enemy. They are just, you are to hold them suspicious, they worship weird, it's all messed up. They're not true. And we see that, in the Gospels. And then, then we see Jesus making a Samaritan the hero of the story of the good Samaritan. Or we see Jesus talking to a Samaritan woman, telling her, her life story and Samaritans flocking to Jesus to believe. So, it's interesting to look back and go, that's how we got there. So, it went from this, to that and Israel is gone. Like, it's hard to even imagine. At this point, as we’re reading this, in second Kings, there isn't in Israel anymore. There is the kingdom of Judah. But the 10 tribes are gone forever. These people had been freed from slavery in Egypt and brought into the wilderness, where they were to learn utter dependence upon God. God had come through on his promises and given them the land that was promised to them and it just, it all fell apart. And there is so much for us to consider. But one of the things important for us to consider, is that walking this path of faith and trust in God, requires vigilance. It requires that we are actually paying attention and we all know this. If we stop paying attention, we drift and we start right away and start sliding, sliding, sliding, that's how it goes. And so, vigilance is so important on the faith journey. What we see here with…with the removal of Israel, is that had broken down pretty much altogether. They began to vigilantly serve many god's and this is where the road leads, this is where that goes. This is, this is God's chosen people right, that He brought into this land. So, let's not think that it doesn't apply to us. These are God's chosen people that have been removed and disappeared from history. And it wasn't because God woke up on the wrong side of the bed. It was because he had chosen and they had rejected and that's a big ouch. Because we do it too. So, that is something for us to sit with, specially here, while we’re kind of stretching our legs, at the halfway point of the year. There’s something for us to consider.

Prayer:

And so, Holy Spirit, we invite You into that. We do understand that we take our eyes off of You, we start moving in all, different directions, any number of different directions. And then, when we wake up and pay attention to where we are we realize, we’ve drifted far away and that can be just the nature of our lives, that can be the whole story, back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. But what could our life look like, if we were aware and vigilant and walking with You wherever you are leading, every day for our whole lives. What could become of us, if we actually went all in and never wavered. We want to know the answer to that question. Come, Holy Spirit, and lead us into all truth. We pray in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is home base and that's you find what's going on around here and there are things going on around here. So, one week from today is the Daily Audio Bible Long Walk, our own little holiday, something that we do around the Global Campfire each year. If I have counted, well I can't remember, it's well over a decade, that we've been doing this, every seventh of July. And it is a day, that we just set aside on the calendar, recognizing we’re in the middle of the year, recognizing that it's been pretty chaotic, recognizing that we could use a breather, recognizing that we could use a breather with God. Understanding that we can set the trajectory of the, of the rest of the year with God, knowing that He's very, very interested and go for a long walk. Share everything that's been going on and allow the Holy Spirit to lead and guide us, in the way that we should go. And that's a very solitary, beautiful, devotional thing to do, spend the day with God and set up the second half of your year, that's awesome, but it's also really fun to be aware that no matter where we are, no matter how far out in the wilderness we think we are, enjoying beauty, our brothers and sisters all over the world are enjoying the beauty of God's creation, at the same time. So, we put a post on the Facebook page at the…the Daily Audio Bible Facebook page, so that you can come back and share pictures, share stories, share videos from your journey. And that is, sort of like a double blessing. We go enjoy the day but then we can come back and look through all the different windows, into the different people's lives that have participated and see the beauty of the earth, all on the same day, all over the world. So, make plans for that. That's one week from today.

The other thing that's going on right now, as we have announced, just a few days ago, our intention to return to the land of the Bible in 2023. So, we’ll be going back to Israel February 6 through the 19th of 2023. And going on another pilgrimage, through the land of the Bible, connecting the stories found in the Scriptures to the places that they happened and the profound change that comes from it. So, if that's something that's on your bucket list or something the you’ve been waiting for, now would be the time to check that out. You can check it out at dailyaudiobible.com, look for the initiatives section and you'll find Israel, 2023 there. If you're using the app, you can press the drawer icon in the upper left-hand corner and when the drawer opens up, you'll find the initiatives section there, press that button and you'll find Israel, 2023. Or you can go to dailyaudiobibleIsrael.com and that will get you there, as well. So, check that out. Very much anticipating and looking forward to seeing you. Well, the first time we’ll get to see each other would be on the Mediterranean Coast, right on the ocean, in the ancient Philistine city of Ashdod, as we prepare to begin our journey. So, we’ll look forward to seeing you there, you can check it out, well, you can check it out where I just said, so check it out.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, if what's happening here brings life and good news and hope to you, then thank you for your partnership, as we move through summertime, thank you. There is a link on the homepage at dailyaudiobible.com. If you're using the app, you can press the Give button, in the upper right-hand corner, or the mailing address is P.O. Box 1996 Springhill, Tennessee 37174.

And as always if you have a prayer request or encouragement, you can hit the Hotline button in the app, that's the little red button up at the top, or you can dial 877-942-4253.

And that's it for today, I'm Brian, I love you, and I'll be waiting for you here, tomorrow.

Prayer and Encouragements:

Good day, Daily Audio Bible family. It’s been a very long time. This is Pamela, the pastor's wife/teacher, from Huntington, New York. Thank God, I’m still listening. It’s been, oh my goodness, at least 13 to 14 years. I've been reading through the Bible. I thank God for Pastor Brian and his lovely wife Jill and all of you, my brothers and sisters in Christ. I was just listening and I heard Clarabell, calling from United Kingdom, I believe. And your story touched me. I can relate to your story. I was able to conceive children, but I wasn't able to hold them. I had an incompetent cervix. So, I had to have a procedure done every time I got pregnant and I would have to stay in bed the entire pregnancy. So, I understand your feeling and what you're going through. I lost two children, prior to receiving, there’s three, that the Lord has blessed me. So, just be encouraged. I want you to know I’m praying for you. And I want to leave you with Psalm 113:9 - He gives the childless woman a family, making her a happy mother. Praise the Lord. Be blessed.

Hi, this is Victorious Soldier. I wanted to just pray for some of the DABers. I wanted to pray for LauraBell who has been, she and her husband have been trying to have the baby and vasectomy work through. I’m with you LauraBell, I believe in miracles and I’m praying that God work a miracle, just like He did with me. God blessed us with a child and I was almost in my forties. And God can do anything but fail. Gracious Father, I just ask You to have Your way Lord, in LauraBell’s life and those who are trying to receive, to have a baby, Lord, we just ask You to open up the womb. We just ask You to bless, we just ask You to open up the doors and bless with this precious baby. You have a precious baby who You have a purpose and a plan for their life and they need a precious parent that’ll love them and that will be there for them. And we just ask You to have Your way. We just ask You to have Your way and continue to do what You do because You’re a God that never changes and nothing is too hard for You. And Lord, we will give You the glory and the honor and the praise. And we want to also, want to pray for, someone who has been diagnosed with Hodgkin’s a brother who was diagnosed with Hopkins disease, we just ask You for a healing, Lord. We just ask You for Devine healing in his body, Lord, and we ask You to have Your way. In the name of Jesus. And the one who has Leukemia, we just ask You to heal. I know that nothing’s impossible for You. And we just ask You to have Your way. In Jesus name. Bless you DABers, bless China and bless Brian and all the people of God and bless our Long Walk Day, Lord. Bless it that it’ll be a blessing, that it be a day that we’ll remember for You and remember how You bless us on this 7th

Good morning, all, Daily Audio Bible friends and family. This is Theresa in Tampa, Florida. And I heard a prayer request today from Travis in Alberta, Canada, who is doing ministry. And Travis, you just touched my heart, today. I just want to give you words of encouragement. I really feel in my heart that God has great things for you. And just believe in yourself, know that God’s got you. God will make you do great things. Never doubt yourself, you are a true inspiration. You are doing the right thing. And you are going to achieve all of God’s goals for yourself. Have faith, never lose faith. Give it to God and you will do great things. God Bless you Travis.

Hi, DAB family, this is Jessica from California. Today, I’m calling in for Thomas. He called on the 28th podcast and I just know that he’s struggling with all these questions and all the different people telling him different things. And he’s afraid that if he gets off track that he’ll lose the job that God has for him. And that’s not true. That’s not true, Thomas. He who began a good work in you will continue it on until the day of Jesus Christ. And also, He wouldn’t have even begun the good work, if He didn’t call you to Him. And, yeah, maybe if you’re not ready, there could have been a potential work or a job that you could have done. But don’t think that God’s not working on you, every single day of your life. And he will find a new job for you, a more proper job or you know, you just gotta keep your eyes forward and keep looking to the future and trusting and believing God, that He has your best interest and He loves you with an everlasting love. I just wanted to encourage you, Thomas, to not be a doubting Thomas but be a believing, Thomas. And also, I love the name Thomas, that’s my father's name and I just hope and pray and wish that you can find the joy of the Lord and you will continue on and get through this rough patch. And don’t be scared to love God, I mean, He’s the creator of the universe, He created you, He created everything. You should rest securely in His love and His all-powerful hands. In Jesus name. Talk to you later, Thomas. Have a good one. I believe in you. Take care.

Good morning, this is John Ransom from Budapest. And I wanted to respond to Thomas, Thomas who called in right after wonderful woman, wonderful sister in Christ, just gave him amazing, and all of us amazing advice and just wise counsel about running the race. Thomas, thanks for calling in. I wanted to share a poem that I wrote in a very difficult time, very similar to what you're describing of uncertainty and just a lack of clarity, from 2003 and I hope it blesses you. It's called victory. This too is victory, muddled, fearful, tired, truthful, hoping, Loving You, seeking You, unwilling to say no to the cross Captured by such love, overwhelmed by such mercy And understanding and compassion far greater than any hymns have yet revealed Your loving eyes, see my heart, Your strong embrace breaks my fall Your caress moves back my hair, as you say softly, shhhhhh Rest in me. What counts is joy, my joy, is your strength For you with your faith have overcome the world

[dailyaudiobible]

06/30/2019 DAB Transcript

2 Kings 17:1-18:12, Acts 20:1-38, Psalms 148:1-14, Proverbs 18:6-7

Today is June 30th. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian and it is great to be here with you today as we enter a brand-new, sparkly, shiny week, but also this is the last day of the sixth month of the year. So, this is kinda the point where we’re halfway through the Bible. Well done for making it six months every day through the Scriptures. And we have another six months out in front of us as we reach for the end of the year and reach for all that God has for us in the second half of the year through His Word. So, let’s dive in and get this week off to a good start knowing that we will enter the seventh month of the year beginning tomorrow. This week we’ll read from the Christian Standard Bible, and we’ll be picking up where we left off in the book of second Kings today. Chapter 18…sorry…17 verse 1 through 18 verse 12.

Commentary:

Okay. So, even as we conclude our reading for the first six months of the year and even as we prepare tomorrow to kinda turn the page and move into the back half, the second six months of the year, some pretty big things have happened today that we should know, kinda going forward. And these things are things that we will refer back to, but this is the place where we encountered them in the Bible. So, in the book of second Kings today, we've been tracking…and you gotta pay attention…because we’re moving through the kings of Israel, which is the northern kingdom, and the kings of Judah, which is the southern kingdom. So, today, what we just read was the end of the northern kingdom of Israel. Like, it will never be the northern kingdom of Israel again. It never was again. Assyria captured Samaria, the capital city of the northern kingdom and deported all of its inhabitants, which, as we have referred to before, is the way that they built the empires back then. Like, displacing people so that they didn't have a homeland outside of the empire, and so that over the course of generations they would forget where they came from. And, so, what we watched in today's reading was that the children of Israel were displaced from the Promised Land, 10 of the tribes were deported to other lands while many other conquered peoples from different places were moved in, right? And, so, they’re like, we don't know how to worship these gods and there were lions and all of this. What we are seeing happen now is the earliest versions of what would later be known in Jesus time as Samaritans, right? So, the capital city of the northern kingdom was Samaria, but the Israelites were deported, and new people were moved in. They sent for a priest who already was worshiping false idols and he began to teach them, and they began to mix all of their cultures together creating a new way of worshiping God unlike Moses teachings and over time they became the Samaritans. And, so, the people of Judah, they will get conquered, but they will get to come back and they will believe that they are holding onto the true traditions. And, so, those people up in the north near the Galilee area, they will be known as Samaritans because although they worship Yahweh they don't worship him the same. They don’t have the same understanding of Him at all. And, so, we will…it won’t be the last time that we interact with people of the north near the Galilee. But at this point in second Kings we are well before of the Roman Empire came in and controlled the area.

So, then in the book of Acts we’re obviously moving into the New Testament, moving forward in time considerably. So, are at a time where Paul is moving around the Roman empire, but these returned exiles who have come back to Judah and control Jerusalem, the remnant, the remainder of these people are trying to hold onto some influence and power. Paul has been moving around the empire sharing the gospel, but in Jerusalem they want Paul dead, right? He's an apostate as far as they're concerned, he has left is faith and has begun these crazy teachings about this guy Jesus. So, he deserves to die under Mosaic law…they want Paul to die. And now Paul’s on his way to Jerusalem where people want him dead, but the Holy Spirit has told him to come. And, so, we see this final meeting between Paul and the brothers and sisters, the Ephesians who have come to see him at the docks and we see this tearful farewell where he’s like, “I have to go back to Jerusalem. I don't know exactly what's gonna happen. The Holy Spirit just keeps telling me I have to go back there and that I will experience chains and affliction and I know that I'll never see you…you will never see me again.” So, it’s a bittersweet moment to say the least. And we’ll continue to track with Paul, obviously, for quite a while, but we'll see where this story leads because he's on his way to Jerusalem and the complexion of his ministry is gonna change dramatically.

Prayer:

Father, we thank You for Your word. And here we are at the end of the first half of the year and at the precipice of the second half of the year and we invite Your Holy Spirit into that second half of the year, into all that is out in front of us and we ask that You speak to us and transform us and change us, so that as we complete this year we don't even recognize the person that we once were. You have changed our hearts from within. And we look back and we’re thankful for all the work that You have done in our lives this first six months. We are so grateful. We are so thankful. And as we move through the center of the year, even as we prepare for the Daily Audio Bible long walk, just to reset and live into this second half of the year, next week, we invite Your Holy Spirit. Come Jesus we pray. In Your mighty name, we ask. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is the website, it is home base, it's where you find out what's going on around here.

And, yeah, we’ve been talking about this for a week, but one week from today is the 7th of July and it is our own little holiday, the Daily Audio Bible long walk. And we’ve been unpacking that for a week. It’s very simple. It's just a matter of giving yourself permission and taking the reins and taking a day out of your life and going for a long walk with God who loves you more than words could ever articulate. He’s been waiting for some uninterrupted time with you. And if you think about it, your soul has been craving uninterrupted time with God. It's just been too frantic, which explains a lot. So, we just set aside the 7th of July, whatever day it happens to be. This year it happens to be on a Sunday. It's very convenient. And all you gotta do is go somewhere beautiful whether that's two blocks down the street or whether you get in your car and drive a couple hours to someplace that you love that's meaningful for you. Go somewhere beautiful. Go for a long walk with God. Don't allow the distractions and interruptions to invade your life like they do every other day. Set this day aside and just go for a long walk. It doesn’t matter whether you're a long walk is like, you know, like you’re gonna walk 20 miles or whether you're going to walk, you know, a 1/4 of a mile. Like you’re just gonna go real slow. It doesn't matter. The point is that you have time to say everything that you need to say and that you have time to hear everything that you need to hear. So, it’s very individual, but it's also communal because we’re doing it all over the world at the same time. So, just take your phone, take whatever…whatever…camera…whatever. Like don't go find a bench and spend the day on social media, but have your phone or whatever and wherever you go, take a picture or shoot a little video of where you were and you can post that back to facebook.com/dailyaudiobible. And then we watch as all of the little windows into each other's lives all around the world and all the beauty of God's creation all over the earth start to materialize before our eyes. It is a beautiful tradition that we have, a beautiful opportunity to reset and live into the new year and start it strong. So, make plans for that, that's next week

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com. There is a link, it is lives on the homepage at dailyaudiobible.com. If you’re using the Daily Audio Bible app, you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner or, if you prefer, the mailing address is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill Tennessee 37174.

And, as always, if you have a prayer request or comment, 877-942-4253, is the number to dial.

And that is it for today. I'm Brian I love you and I'll be waiting for you here next month, which happens to be tomorrow.

Community Prayer and Praise:

Hello, my name is Shirley and I’m calling to…for a request not to be despairing. I __ with God yesterday. I said why, why, why? Of course, you know, he’s good and all-powerful and merciful. I pray for my daughter who has addictions and I don’t know…I feel like I…I don’t know how to wait on God to make a move. And if I start to think, what’s the point of prayer? All of that foolishness. So, I’d like if you could hold up my arms to continue to pray in hope and love, God will make a move soon in her life. Thank you. Bye-bye.

Hi, my name is Helena. I’m ringing from __ in the UK. I’m ringing for the first time to ask for prayer for my family with hope that my aunt Lydia whose estranged herself from her family has just found out that she has stage IV cancer. She has it in her brain, her lungs, and her lymph nodes. She used to have a genuine faith but lost it many years ago. My grandparents have already lost one daughter to cancer and would ask…I’d love to ask you guys to pray for salvation, restoration and forgiveness, reconciliation and healing for Lydia and the family and for peace and strength for us. Thank you very much. God bless you.

Hi, my DAB family, this is Mark Street from Sydney Australia, today is Thursday the 27th of June and today there’s many people I wanted to call in for but I’m sorry I haven’t been calling in as much but today…look…I really want to call out Lee from New Jersey. Lee, you know, you have been given a gift from God to call in with the seven deadly sins, covetousness. Lee, I just want to say…sorry…for everyone in the DAB. I’m 56 and I have no assets, no car, no house, no nothing. I’m stuck panicked thinking that I’ve got to get material possessions as I’m getting to an age of retirement. I live paycheck to paycheck. And you know what Lee? Your message hit me direct from God because I mean the last nine years when I’ve…business failed, and I lost everything, He’s never let me down, not even once. I’ve always had the funds to meet my commitments even though there was times when I forethought I was gonna go bankrupt multiple times. His Words come through with a tax return check or some other funding or just people that have donated to me. And He’s never let me down. So, Lee, thank you for being so faithful for God and calling in what God has been asked because He certainly spoke to me and said, Mark, you know, He will look after me. And that’s renewed my spirit Lee. So, God bless you my brother and I’m always praying for you too and your family. Love you all family and I’ll talk to you again soon. Mark Street from…

Hi Daily Audio Bible. I first just want to say…well…my name is Crystal…and I’m a homeschooling mom of two. And I just first want to stay thank you so much to Brian and to Jill and to just the family here that make it happen. It’s amazing. And this is the furthest I’ve gotten. I’ve listened for a couple of years, but this is the furthest I’ve got through the Bible and I just am so appreciative. It’s just so intensely enriching in so many ways, the community, the prayers, the breakdown of what happens in the Bible at the end by Brian. I just really appreciate it. And, so, I’m calling today because I just really find I need prayer. I’m in a difficult place and feeling incredibly discouraged and overwhelmed to be honest. I’ve been struggling with drinking alcohol for the past two years and I kind of feel like I’ve reached out to every, you know, so many different places and just…I just really, really want some help. I’m scared of getting worse, especially because I home educate my children. I’m scared of what could happen. I find it very hard to quit this habit with my husband and his bad habits and I really would love it if me and him could get to a place where we both want to serve God in a really passionate way together, we’re going to church together, bringing our family up in the way of God. So, I’m just reaching out to really ask for prayer. I’m incredibly desperate and I just know that the Scripture says that if we pray together, share our prayers, that we can pray for one another and be healed. So, I’m just reaching out for that. And I love you all and I hear people’s prayer requests and I pray for you. Thank you, guys. Take care I appreciate…