#I love that Christian is checking on Jericho

[hanitje]

"You're the Canadian version of Brangelina!"

[blessedarethebinarybreakers]

Wrestling with the Bible's war stories

Spend any solid amount of time with scripture and you'll run into something that perplexes, disturbs, or downright horrifies you. Many of us have walked away from the Bible or from Christianity in general, sometimes temporarily and sometimes permanently, after encountering these stories. So how do we face them, wrestle them, and seek God's presence in (or in spite of) them?

In her book Inspired: Slaying Giants, Walking on Water, and Loving the Bible Again, the late Rachel Held Evans spends a whole chapter on the "war stories" of Joshua, Judges, and the books of Samuel and Kings. She starts with how most teachers in her conservative Christian upbringing shut her down every time she tried to name the horror she felt reading of violence, rape, and ethnic cleansing; I share an excerpt from that part of the chapter over in this post.

That excerpt ends with Evans deciding that she needed to grapple with these stories, or lose her faith entirely.

...But then I ended the excerpt, with the hope that folks would go read all of Inspired for themselves — and I still very much recommend doing so! The whole book is incredibly helpful for relearning how to read scripture in a way that honors its historical context and divine inspiration, and takes seriously how misreadings bring harm to individuals and whole people groups.

But I know not everyone will read the book, for a variety of reasons, and that's okay. So I want to include a long excerpt from the rest of the chapter, where Evans provides cultural context and history that helps us understand why those war stories are in there; and then seeks to find where God's inspiration is among those "human fingerprints."

I know how important it was to Rachel Held Evans that all of us experience healing and liberation, so it is my hope that she'd be okay with me pasting such a huge chunk of the book for reading here. If you find what's in this post meaningful, please do check out the rest of her book! A lot of libraries have it in print, ebook, and/or audiobook form.

[One last comment: the following excerpt focuses on these war stories from the Hebrew scriptures ("Old Testament"), but there are violent and otherwise disturbing stories in the "New Testament" too, from Herod killing babies to all the wild things going on in Revelation. Don't fall for the antisemitic claim that "The Old Testament is violent while the New Testament is all about peace!" All parts of scripture include violent passages, and maintain an overarching theme of justice and love.]

Here's the excerpt showing Rachel's long wrestling with the Bible's war stories, starting with an explanation for why they're in there in the first place:

“By the time many of the Bible’s war stories were written down, several generations had passed, and Israel had evolved from a scrappy band of nomads living in the shadows of Babylon, Egypt, and Assyria to a nation that could hold its own, complete with a monarchy. Scripture embraces that underdog status in order to credit God with Israel’s success and to remind a new generation that “some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the LORD our God” (Psalm 20:7). The story of David and Goliath, in which a shepherd boy takes down one of those legendary Canaanite giants with just a slingshot and two stones, epitomizes Israel’s self-understanding as a humble people improbably beloved, victorious only by the grace and favor of a God who rescued them from Egypt, walked with them through the desert, brought the walls of Jericho down, and made that shepherd boy a king. To reinforce the miraculous nature of Israel’s victories, the writers of Joshua and Judges describe forces of hundreds defeating armies of thousands with epic totality. These numbers are likely exaggerated and, in keeping literary conventions of the day, rely more on drama and bravado than the straightforward recitation of fact. Those of us troubled by language about the “extermination” of Canaanite populations may find some comfort in the fact that scholars and archaeologists doubt the early skirmishes of Israel’s history actually resulted in genocide.

It was common for warring tribes in ancient Mesopotamia to refer to decisive victories as “complete annihilation” or “total destruction,” even when their enemies lived to fight another day. (The Moabites, for example, claimed in an extrabiblical text that after their victory in a battle against an Israelite army, the nation of Israel “utterly perished for always,” which obviously isn’t the case. And even in Scripture itself, stories of conflicts with Canaanite tribes persist through the book of Judges and into Israel’s monarchy, which would suggest Joshua’s armies did not in fact wipe them from the face of the earth, at least not in a literal sense.)

Theologian Paul Copan called it “the language of conventional warfare rhetoric,” which “the knowing ancient Near Eastern reader recognized as hyperbole.” Pastor and author of The Skeletons in God’s Closet, Joshua Ryan Butler, dubbed it “ancient trash talk.”

Even Jericho, which twenty-first-century readers like to imagine as a colorful, bustling city with walls that reached the sky, was in actuality a small, six-acre military outpost, unlikely to support many civilians but, as was common, included a prostitute and her family. Most of the “cities” described in the book of Joshua were likely the same. So, like every culture before and after, Israel told its war stories with flourish, using the language and literary conventions that best advanced the agendas of storytellers.

As Peter Enns explained, for the biblical writers, “Writing about the past was never simply about understanding the past for its own sake, but about shaping, molding and creating the past to speak to the present.”

“The Bible looks the way it does,” he concluded, “because God lets his children tell the story.”

You see the children’s fingerprints all over the pages of Scripture, from its origin stories to its deliverance narratives to its tales of land, war, and monarchy.

For example, as the Bible moves from conquest to settlement, we encounter two markedly different accounts of the lives of Kings Saul, David, and Solomon and the friends and enemies who shaped their reigns. The first appears in 1 and 2 Samuel and 1 and 2 Kings. These books include all the unflattering details of kingdom politics, including the account of how King David had a man killed so he could take the man’s wife, Bathsheba, for himself.

On the other hand, 1 and 2 Chronicles omit the story of David and Bathsheba altogether, along with much of the unseemly violence and drama around the transition of power between David and Solomon.

This is because Samuel and Kings were likely written during the Babylonian exile, when the people of Israel were struggling to understand what they had done wrong for God to allow their enemies to overtake them, and 1 and 2 Chronicles were composed much later, after the Jews had returned to the land, eager to pick up the pieces.

While the authors of Samuel and Kings viewed the monarchy as a morality tale to help them understand their present circumstances, the authors of the Chronicles recalled the monarchy with nostalgia, a reminder of their connection to God’s anointed as they sought healing and unity. As a result, you get two noticeably different takes on the very same historic events.

In other words, the authors of Scripture, like the authors of any other work (including this one!), wrote with agendas. They wrote for a specific audience from a specific religious, social, and political context, and thus made creative decisions based on that audience and context.

Of course, this raises some important questions, like: Can war stories be inspired? Can political propaganda be God-breathed? To what degree did the Spirit guide the preservation of these narratives, and is there something sacred to be uncovered beneath all these human fingerprints?

I don’t know the answers to all these questions, but I do know a few things.

The first is that not every character in these violent stories stuck with the script. After Jephthah sacrificed his daughter as a burnt offering in exchange for God’s aid in battle, the young women of Israel engaged in a public act of grief marking the injustice. The text reports, “From this comes the Israelite tradition that each year the young women of Israel go out for four days to commemorate the daughter of Jephthah” (Judges 11:39–40).

While the men moved on to fight another battle, the women stopped to acknowledge that something terrible had happened here, and with what little social and political power they had, they protested—every year for four days. They refused to let the nation forget what it had done in God’s name.

In another story, a woman named Rizpah, one of King Saul’s concubines, suffered the full force of the monarchy’s cruelty when King David agreed to hand over two of her sons to be hanged by the Gibeonites in an effort to settle a long, bloody dispute between the factions believed to be the cause of widespread famine across the land. A sort of biblical Antigone, Rizpah guarded her sons’ bodies from birds and wild beasts for weeks, until at last the rain came and they could be buried. Word of her tragic stand spread across the kingdom and inspired David to pause to grieve the violence his house had wrought (2 Samuel 21).” ...

The point is, if you pay attention to the women, a more complex history of Israel’s conquests emerges. Their stories invite the reader to consider the human cost of violence and patriarchy, and in that sense prove instructive to all who wish to work for a better world. ...

It’s not always clear what we are meant to learn from the Bible’s most troubling stories, but if we simply look away, we learn nothing.

In one of the most moving spiritual exercises of my adult faith, an artist friend and I created a liturgy of lament honoring the victims of the texts of terror. On a chilly December evening, we sat around the coffee table in my living room and lit candles in memory of Hagar, Jephthah’s daughter, the concubine from Judges 19, and Tamar, the daughter of King David who was raped by her half brother. We read their stories, along with poetry and reflections composed by modern-day women who have survived gender-based violence. ...

If the Bible’s texts of terror compel us to face with fresh horror and resolve the ongoing oppression and exploitation of women, then perhaps these stories do not trouble us in vain. Perhaps we can use them for some good.

The second thing I know is that we are not as different from the ancient Israelites as we would like to believe.

“It was a violent and tribal culture,” people like to say of ancient Israel to explain away its actions in Canaan. But, as Joshua Ryan Butler astutely observed, when it comes to civilian casualties, “we tend to hold the ancients to a much higher standard than we hold ourselves.” In the time it took me to write this chapter, nearly one thousand civilians were killed in airstrikes in Iraq and Syria, many of them women and children. The atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki took hundreds of thousands of lives in World War II, and far more civilians died in the Korean War and Vietnam War than American soldiers. Even though America is one of the wealthiest countries in the world, it takes in less than half of 1 percent of the world’s refugees, and drone warfare has left many thousands of families across the Middle East terrorized.

This is not to excuse Israel’s violence, because modern-day violence is also bad, nor is it to trivialize debates over just war theory and US involvement in various historical conflicts, which are complex issues far beyond the scope of this book. Rather, it ought to challenge us to engage the Bible’s war stories with a bit more humility and introspection, willing to channel some of our horror over atrocities past into questioning elements of the war machines that still roll on today.

Finally, the last thing I know is this: If the God of the Bible is true, and if God became flesh and blood in the person of Jesus Christ, and if Jesus Christ is—as theologian Greg Boyd put it—“the revelation that culminates and supersedes all others,” then God would rather die by violence than commit it.

The cross makes this plain. On the cross, Christ not only bore the brunt of human cruelty and bloodlust and fear, he remained faithful to the nonviolence he taught and modeled throughout his ministry. Boyd called it “the Crucifixion of the Warrior God,” and in a two-volume work by that name asserted that “on the cross, the diabolic violent warrior god we have all-too-frequently pledged allegiance to has been forever repudiated.” On the cross, Jesus chose to align himself with victims of suffering rather than the inflictors of it.

At the heart of the doctrine of the incarnation is the stunning claim that Jesus is what God is like. “No one has ever seen God,” declared John in his gospel, “but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known” (John 1:18, emphasis added). ...So to whatever extent God owes us an explanation for the Bible’s war stories, Jesus is that explanation. And Christ the King won his kingdom without war.

Jesus turned the war story on its head. Instead of being born to nobility, he was born in a manger, to an oppressed people in occupied territory. Instead of charging into Jerusalem on a warhorse, he arrived on a lumbering donkey. Instead of rallying troops for battle, he washed his disciples’ feet. According to the apostle Paul, these are the tales followers of Jesus should be telling—with our words, with our art, and with our lives.

Of course, this still leaves us to grapple with the competing biblical portraits of God as the instigator of violence and God as the repudiator of violence.

Boyd argued that God serves as a sort of “heavenly missionary” who temporarily accommodates the brutal practices and beliefs of various cultures without condoning them in order to gradually influence God’s people toward justice. Insofar as any divine portrait reflects a character at odds with the cross, he said, it must be considered accommodation. It’s an interesting theory, though I confess I’m only halfway through Boyd’s 1,492 pages, so I’ve yet to fully consider it. (I know I can’t read my way out of this dilemma, but that won’t keep me from trying.)

The truth is, I’ve yet to find an explanation for the Bible’s war stories that I find completely satisfying. If we view this through Occam’s razor and choose the simplest solution to the problem, we might conclude that the ancient Israelites invented a deity to justify their conquests and keep their people in line. As such, then, the Bible isn’t a holy book with human fingerprints; it’s an entirely human construction, responsible for more vice than virtue.

There are days when that’s what I believe, days when I mumble through the hymns and creeds at church because I’m not convinced they say anything true. And then there are days when the Bible pulls me back with a numinous force I can only regard as divine, days when Hagar and Deborah and Rahab reach out from the page, grab me by the face, and say, “Pay attention. This is for you.”

I’m in no rush to patch up these questions. God save me from the day when stories of violence, rape, and ethnic cleansing inspire within me anything other than revulsion. I don’t want to become a person who is unbothered by these texts, and if Jesus is who he says he is, then I don’t think he wants me to be either.

There are parts of the Bible that inspire, parts that perplex, and parts that leave you with an open wound. I’m still wrestling, and like Jacob, I will wrestle until I am blessed. God hasn’t let go of me yet.

War is a dreadful and storied part of the human experience, and Scripture captures many shades of it—from the chest-thumping of the victors to the anguished cries of victims. There is ammunition there for those seeking religious justification for violence, and solidarity for all the mothers like Rizpah who just want an end to it.

For those of us who prefer to keep the realities of war at a safe, sanitized distance, and who enjoy the luxury of that choice, the Bible’s war stories force a confrontation with the darkness.

Maybe that’s not such a bad thing.

[edgessunflower]

😭😔 with Eddie Guererro?

Eeeeh

He doesn't define you

Pairing: Eddie Guerrero x Fem reader

Description: You confront your biological father after an exhausting tag team match with your boyfriend Eddie

Warning: Emotions, Minor swearing, and talks of child abandonment

A/N: I cried like a baby writing this especially since my biological father abandoned me as a little girl 🥺

The match was exhausting as you and your boyfriend Eddie Guerrero were against Chris Jericho and Chyna for a chance to go against Edge and Christian for the tag team champions title. The two of you did well together but as the match went on the four of you grew exhausted as none of you would give up even when you broke jericho's nose and eddie accidentally fractured chyna's finger, your chewing on your nails as eddie and jericho hit each other with chops but your heart stops when you see a familiar face of the man who abandoned you as a young child and who you haven't seen since you were 15, jumping in when you see chyna with a chair getting hit in the face still seeing your biological father staring at you not even noticing that eddie got the pin and had won for the two of you noticing the tears that slowly brimmed in your eyes as the two of you raise your belts feeling a bit sore from the chair hit before walking out of the ring where you started to shake with quiet sobs backstage and they broke free after the two of you went in his locker room. "What's wrong mi bebita?" you break down telling him everything, calming down and getting up to check on chyna since she was a friend to you with eddie next to you stopping when you see your father backstage in the corner whispering to eddie to talk to chyna waiting until the door was closed "Hey darling it's been" you cut him off angrily feeling rage boil in you "What the hell do you want? I haven't seen you in seven years and now all of a sudden you appear?! It's because I have money don't I?" he stands there sniffling which only makes you scoff as he tries to "Tell the truth" to you only blaming your mom for her telling him to get his shit together and get clean from drugs but instead he left her, you, and your siblings to fend for yourselves finding out later on that he didn't want any of you which ripped your heart out of your body only making the hatred within you grow "You didn't want any of us you didn't give a fuck then! Why give a fuck now huh?! I have mom and I have a dad, he's been there ever since I was born, was there for every birthday and holiday, took me out for lunch for the day, saw me before I went to formal and prom, saw me graduate, always hugged me with a kiss on my head and told me he loved me and the best part was he was there not because he felt like he had to, needed to, or was told to he was there in my life because he fucking wanted to and loved me with all his heart!" you felt your body shake with sobs as your lungs gasp for air, your face covered with nonstop tears, and your heart pounding as Edge, Christian, and Rikishi turned only to see the confrontation you waited to happen for years. They watch as you turn only have him grab your arm fixing to grab security or jump in when you swing and slap him with all your might "I swear to god you put your hands on me again I'll beat the shit out of you as mom or anyone else who was around you should have a long fucking time ago" christian grabs security as you turn feeling ashamed that the three saw what happened before being pulled into a hug by edge while rikishi stops him from reaching you after he gets up feeling anger seeing all the snake trails on his arms you have him stand behind you with edge as you stare him in the eyes "The only difference between then and now is that I actually know the truth and I get to say goodbye and this one is for good, goodbye stranger now get the hell out of here before I really lose control" security escorts him out after sharing a group hug with the boys before walking back to the locker room quietly crying where eddie finds you having heard everything immediately pulling you in his arms "I'm so proud of you for taking that step to truly heal, he doesn't define you and you are not him, I love you carino" you cry in newfound emotions in his arms before heading home feeling safe and calmer in his arms feeling a long heavy weight lift off of you.

[walkswithmyfather]

The Most Important Commandment.

“One day an expert in religious law stood up to test Jesus by asking him this question: “Teacher, what should I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus replied, “What does the law of Moses say? How do you read it?” The man answered, “‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your strength, and all your mind.’ And, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” “Right!” Jesus told him. “Do this and you will live!” The man wanted to justify his actions, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”

Parable of the Good Samaritan.

“Jesus replied with a story: “A Jewish man was traveling from Jerusalem down to Jericho, and he was attacked by bandits. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him up, and left him half dead beside the road. “By chance a priest came along. But when he saw the man lying there, he crossed to the other side of the road and passed him by. A Temple assistant walked over and looked at him lying there, but he also passed by on the other side. “Then a despised Samaritan came along, and when he saw the man, he felt compassion for him. Going over to him, the Samaritan soothed his wounds with olive oil and wine and bandaged them. Then he put the man on his own donkey and took him to an inn, where he took care of him. The next day he handed the innkeeper two silver coins, telling him, ‘Take care of this man. If his bill runs higher than this, I’ll pay you the next time I’m here.’ “Now which of these three would you say was a neighbor to the man who was attacked by bandits?” Jesus asked. The man replied, “The one who showed him mercy.” Then Jesus said, “Yes, now go and do the same.” —Luke 10:25‭-‬37 (NLT)

https://bible.com/bible/116/luk.10.25-37.NLT

“Caring for Others” By In Touch Ministries:

“Are generosity and service habits in your life?”

“So many people in the world are in need today and serving them is one of the highest callings of the Christian faith. Therefore, it’s essential for believers to commit to give of themselves on behalf of others.

There are countless ways to serve people. For example, a man might decide to pray for and come alongside a friend until a burdensome situation is resolved. Or a woman could make herself available to answer a neighbor’s questions about the faith. If we prayerfully look around, we may see other opportunities, such as driving an elderly friend to medical appointments, mentoring a teenager through a local outreach program, or helping a single parent check some things off a to-do list.

Before you become overwhelmed by the variety of needs in your area, remember that loving your neighbors is meant to be a church-wide effort. One person can’t do it all. Instead, join a small group of fellow believers committed to serving those God brings into your sphere of influence. In order to care for them, you may be asked to surrender resources and time—but when you do, the Lord will bless you with the joy and contentment that come only from Him.”

[eric-the-bmo]

It appers you are a lost and Dreaming Fan What do you think of the rest of the World of darkness and Chronicles of darkness catalog?

AAa sorry, i just now saw this!!! this might be incoherent, here we go:

Changeling the Dreaming is the first WoD game I'm getting into, so I know the most about that one! It's the forgotten middle child of WoD games, and oh my god? the lore is so cool (I'm so fascinated by Dauntain and Bedlam). I like Vampire, since it was the Gateway to me discovering these games (thank you LA By Night), so i know a bit about VtM? But not all of it. I've got a character concept just in case I ever get to play. I know there's a Hunter and Werewolf game- those seem a bit interesting, and I've considered looking into them to make characters for fun (in fact, I plan for my Hunter character to be my Vampire's sibling). However, I know very little about both- also Mage. I dont know about that one either. And I know there's other games? Like with ghosts and demons. I'm not very interested in those guys, to be honest- ghosts seem a bit? boring?? and since the first Demon game i checked out was Descent, i was a bit disappointed with Fallen. It seems like a typical "demons possessing people" kinda thing.

Speaking about Descent- I am ENAMORED with that setting! Religious imagery and robotic angels are some of the Best Things, I think, and the fact their false disguises become reality!! and they are now people, kinda? ugh i love it. I've got a character concept ready for this one, too.

My sister knows more about Lost than me, but I find CtL Fascinating when viewed through the lense of all of it being metaphors for varying trauma and how people deal with them (and in a sense, that IS the game, just filtered through 5 layers of fantasy).

I literally have Zero Knowledge about the other Chronicle games, so I can't really give my opinions on them.

However, I will take this opportunity to list off the Character Concepts i mentioned throughout this ask:

Leo West [Vampire the Masquerade]: The most-thought-about within this list, he used to be a librarian before he was Embraced and became a Malkavian. His backstory is vague, as I havent decided on what's true or not- but perhaps he was a ghoul for a short time, and the gaps in his memory caused him to try and figure out what was going on, leading him to become a conspiracy theorist who possibly broke the Masquerade (ik that seems like more of a Nosferatu thing to do, but maybe he was supposed to be one? who knows? certainly not me.) He ended up leaving in order to prevent his sister (his Touchstone) from getting involved/being in danger. He might also dissociate a lot, and was raised Christian (and maybe used to smoke weed???). Has a Contact named Richard "Compass" North, a young Ravnos he met on his travels.

Jericho/ Murmur [Demon the Descent]: A messenger angel! they Fell for unknown reasons, but ended up falling in love with all the music and parties that were to be found. They're a Vocaloid artist, and are generally just here to have fun- maybe to distract themself from all the religious guilt, and the fact they maybe lowkey want to Reintegrate.

Ginger [Werewolf the Apocalypse(?)]: I literally dont know anything about this one, I doodled a girl on a scrap of paper and decided she was a werewolf. that's it.

Amy West [Hunter the Reckoning]: Leo's younger sister! It's Undetermined if she knows what happened to her brother or not- does she know he's a vampire, or is she just trying to find him, and got tangled up with monster hunting? Amy's lore is More Vague than Leo's tbh, what's up with her. She goes by the nickname Dragonfly, and frequently gets phone calls from various unknown numbers- whoever's on the other end never says anything if she picks up; they just listen.

[laurencodyblog]

Racing through the Bible in one year??

I know a lot of Christians are making new commitments to God during the month of January, and I of course am no exception. We all desire a closer walk, spiritual direction and deeper relationship, and January seems like the perfect time to refocus. Many are choosing to read the Bible through in one year. I've done so myself. But sometimes you find yourself rushing to cram in your 4 chapters per night - so much so that you aren't getting much out of it. I started this reading plans few years ago, and i love it. Why not really take your time?

Now, I still think you should stick to a commitment and a discipline of reading every day - and even chart out a course for your study. But instead of racing through Scripture - why not read an entire book (if it is small, and break it up into 4 sections if it is not) once a day - every day for 30 days?

I like to start with Philippians. I mean think about it.... It will take you from just reading the book of Philippians on day one - to where you end up on day 30: ...you can almost feel dust in the back of your throat from the well trodden streets in Philippi. You can almost hear the rattling of Paul's chains as he glides the quill across the parchment from his cell in Rome.

I for one, don't want to read about Paul. I want to know Paul.

And when I think about the other books as well....

To know what Esther felt as she was checking her lipstick one last time before she went in to see the king....

How Judas tried to mentally justify his betrayal of Jesus until the pressure became too great.....

The lump in the throat of Abraham as he stood over Isaac with knife in hand.....

The desperation of Rahab as she tore open the window and swung out the scarlett cord.....

The sound of the shuffle of sandals in the sand as the children of Israel started their 7th lap around Jericho.

I may not finish in one year. In fact - it will be impossible. But I will take more out of this year than just being able to say I finished it.

In 2022 I don’t want to just read the Bible. I want to experience it!

I’m currently on my 20th day in the deep study of Esther.

It promises to be an exciting journey. Anyone interested in coming with me?

#30daysinphilippi

#30dayssavingherpeople

#30daystakestouintothestory

[the-blue-brand-wrestling-blog]

The Blue Brand Wrestling Blog #5 Watching WWF in 2000 (Heat & PPV’s)

The Blue Brand Wrestling Blog

THEBLUEBRANDWRESTLINGBLOG.BLOGSPOT.COM

The Blue Brand Wrestling Blog #5

Watching WWF in 2000 (Heat & PPV’s)

Hey there guys & girls,

I’m Andy Mac, AKA The Blue Brand owner and creator (@The_Blue_Brand) on X / Twitter. I thought I would delve into the world of blog writing and what better thing to write about than my favourite pastime Professional Wrestling.

Today I thought I’d discuss my earliest memories of watching professional wrestling. In particular WWF Heat throughout the year 2000. In the UK, RAW is WAR and SmackDown were on Sky television, a satellite service my parents didn’t pay for as it was expensive for the time. Thankfully Channel 4, a free to watch channel on UK television would air WWF Sunday Night Heat every Sunday afternoon after Football Italia would finish. Later on, Channel 4 would air Heat during the early hours of Monday morning, thankfully my dad would record these episodes for me. I’d get up early before school on Monday mornings, turn the television and VCR on and check out the episode before school.

You might think ‘poor Andy, only getting to watch Heat back then’ well, yes and no… Heat would often feature Edge & Christian, The Hardys (With Lita), The Dudleyz, Too Cool, T &A (Test & Albert with Trish Stratus) Dean Malenko, Perry Saturn, Eddie Guerrero and occasionally Chris Jericho. I even remember them giving us a random Triple H match once (The opponent escapes my memory) and even a random Kurt Angle Vs Crash Holly for the WWF Championship match which I still vividly remember as a kid.

On top of that, they would usually also feature the two best segments or matches from the previous WWF RAW is War and WWF SmackDown. These were great ways of finding out what was going on with the ‘big’ shows regarding the WWF Championship. Quite often these segments included your usual main eventers from the time – The Rock, Austin, Undertaker, Triple H – Kurt Angle – Stephanie McMahon (Love triangle), Kane, Benoit, Foley etc…

As an added bonus to this, Channel 4 would usually air around four PPV’s a year for free. If my memory is right, it would be January (Royal Rumble), May (Backlash), July (Fully Loaded / Invasion in 2001) and December (Armageddon / Vengeance in 2001)

I remember my first PPV being Fully Loaded 2000, an absolutely stacked show that to this day I still love. Advertised were three main events – WWF Championship, Rock & Benoit. Triple H & Jericho in a Last Man Standing match and The Undertaker & Kurt Angle in a feud over Angle destroying the Undertakers motorbike by accident! (Haha)

The opener was a 6-man tag between the Hardys & Lita vs Test, Albert, and Trish Stratus – This was a fun first match which the crowd was hot for. We also got Tazz vs Al Snow, Saturn Vs Guerrero for the European title, APA Vs Edge & Christian for the World Tag Team titles.

But my favourite match from this show as a kid was Val Venis with Trish Stratus Vs Rikishi inside a steel cage for the WWF Intercontinental title. As a kid, I loved Rikishi, I was so invested in his run as Intercontinental Champ. Him jumping from the top of the cage on to Val before Tazz screwed him over when he tried to escape the cage blew me away. I guess this just proves that everyone on WWF television during this time was over and had a character that nearly everyone was invested in.

I wish at times that we could go back to these days; the business was so hot and even as a young kid it felt like you were watching and experiencing something special.

Anyway, that was just a quick insight into my WWF viewing as a kid in late 1999 into the year 2000. I might at some point watch and review WWF Fully Loaded 2000 and Armageddon 2000 (I was so excited for the 6-man Hell in A Cell match!)

Anyway, I’ll stop rambling on now. Thanks for checking this fifth blog out. I’m a self-confessed WWE fanboy, always have been since I started watching WWE as a child. However, as you can hopefully and probably tell I’m trying to broaden by Professional Wrestling palate and horizons. If there is anything else you can recommend, I’m open to suggestions. I’m taking a break from my 9-5 office job at the moment and trying to fill my time!

Please leave feedback, if it’s constructive then I’ll always appreciate it. I’m always happy to learn and to become better. Please keep it respectful though, everyone is entitled to an opinion.

Take it easy guys,

Andy

[blizzardsuplex]

What's your predictions for DoN?

Let me check that card right now! I don't usually do active predictions cause I am really bad at guessing even the most obvious things LOL, but I'll try. :') As always, under the cut!

Hardy Party/The Firm -> I mean...the Hardys are probably winning with that "Ethan Page is Matt's lackey if he loses" stip, right? I didn't even know this match was happening but LOL Jade/Taya -> I want Taya to win because (as much as I like Jade) IDK how to feel about continuing to feed her wins at this point and whether it advances anything at all, but I kinda think they're saving the dragonslayer role for Kris Statlander when she comes back, so...Jade again, I guess. Blackjack Battle Royal -> Considering we don't know who's in this one (speaking of which, is Ricky in this or what?), it's really hard to guess. Would be cool if Fletcher tries again or something! FTR/Lethal and Jarrett -> Mark Briscoe as special guest ref who hates both sides right now will probably throw ~drama~ in there, but I still mostly think FTR retains. Wardlow/Christian -> IDC if it makes sense I want Christian to win this one. Next! Storm/Hayter -> This match is a.) gonna be a banger and b.) probably will end with Hayter retaining. Cole/Jericho -> I want Adam to win as much as I want Jericho to lose. Also I just love the fact that apparently Adam + Roddy + Sabu is apparently equivalent to 5-6 guys in power level LOL Elite/BCC -> Elite should win here, I think, unless they want to draw it out (which wouldn't be a bad thing either). So I guess my answer is either/or, AKA I dunno! MJF/Darby/Sammy/JB -> IDK if anyone other than MJeff is ready to carry that championship soooooo...yeah, Max retains.

[fierycavalier]

For the last year I have been trying to find a good way to explain how the Christian approach to doing good in the world is insufficient because it focuses on charity and individuals, but nothing sounded right, so I dropped it. Then today I came across this quote from Martin Luther King Jr:

A true revolution of values will soon cause us to question the fairness and justice of many of our past and present policies. On the one hand, we are called to play the Good Samaritan on life's roadside, but that will be only an initial act. One day we must come to see that the whole Jericho Road must be transformed so that men and women will not be constantly beaten and robbed as they make their journey on life's highway. True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar. It comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring.

- Beyond Vietnam -- A Time to Break Silence

Now, before I make my point, I wanna say I went looking for the source of this quote and it's from an amazing speech focused on why Reverend King was actively against the Vietnam War, and the whole speech is worth your time. This is important because separating popular quotes from their contexts is the white way of making Dr. King palatable and so we shouldn't do it.

Anyway, Reverend King solves my whole quandary for me, because he is a great orator and I am not.

We must first help the Samaritan off the road. And not just by checking on him and asking if there's someone he'd like us to call. We have to put him on our backs, carry him to an inn, and pay for a month's rent and medical bills.

But then we have to go back to our community and start figuring out why Jericho Road is so dangerous. And that's not complaining to our HOA's that it's unsafe and demanding more policing (the police don't care about samaritans). Why are there bandits? What social and economic disparaties make it profitable to be a bandit? Why would no one help the Samaritan? How can we go against hundreds of years of discrimination against Samaritans and help them feel safe traveling alone?

We go to our meetings and we hear that we should love others, mourn with them, stand with them. But we've gotten so used to hearing that to mean helping Samaritans if we come across them in our daily lives. We have to start hearing "love one another as I have loved you" and then thinking about knocking down and rebuilding the systems around us to create a better world where everyone can feel safe and loved, and there are no more beaten Samaritans on the side of the road for us to help.

[omegatheunknown]

AEW Double or Nothing 2021

In which the spirit of WCW is alive in confusing and delightful ways and we are left to parse whether overbooking and extracurriculars are offset by having actually very good wrestling happening at the same time.

- Lessons learned from Revolution on the production side? Maybe just cool it on pyro, though the rappelling adventure in the Stadium Stampede showed some of that now-characteristic 'trust us it'll look better on TV' flair. Hot crowd tends to paper over most woes, and the crowd was pretty hot. My one gripe is that the casino theme is hanging around like yesterday's takeout containers. Nothing wrong with clinging to a theme, I just think it's time for season 2. My suggestion? Under the Sea.

*Pre-Card Serena Deeb (C) v Riho for the NWA Women's Championship (***1/2) - Serena Deeb's star has finally risen. She's a remarkably consistent technician and she can get a match out of anyone at this point. She's working at the level of Mercedes Martinez or Madison Eagles at this point, it's amazing that she was overlooked or considered fit only to be a coach for so long. With the NWA belt she has this new swagger, she's basically everything Tessa Blanchard might bring to the table with none of the downsides (Serena has a lot of friends and seems like a lovely person, even!) - Riho's back and here to stay. Her time in Stardom didn't do much for my evaluation of her, which is that there are many better wrestlers that would be better representatives of the joshi style and she's merely pretty good. - The match was very good. Serena showcased a champion's aggression against a sympathetic Riho, they really work well against each other, Deeb's technical prowess against Riho's flexibility led to a very dynamic finish.

*Main Card Hangman Adam Page v Brian Cage (***1/2) - Here the shenanigans start. Brian Cage is on Team Taz, Team Taz has nothing else much to do tonight, so why wouldn't Team Taz flex their muscles, bait us with HOOK, etc? (Because it would be nice to have some variety in the card in terms of a match where one competitor stands across from another competitor?) - Hangman is (checking notes) yeah, still over as fuck, as befits the Anxious Millennial Cowboy. Cage terrifies me, he's a child's drawing of a body builder. He do be very agile for a man of his immense musculature tho. They match up well, Page is biggish for a flyer, Cage loves to play catch. Nothing much to write home about, other than Hangman's beautiful moonsault to the floor and what was overall a very good curtain jerker. - Okay fine, I am curious about Cage's reluctance to lean on the goons, Starks can't come back soon enough.

The Young Bucks v Jon Moxley & Eddie Kingston (***) - I will not be referring to Mox & Eddie as (The) Wild Things because it gives me 'he calls it the wacky line' flashbacks for some reason. - The Bucks have to cheat and abuse Rick Knox's attention span constantly to be on even footing with Mox & Eddie, which is a clever sort of thing that gets washed out by the appearance of LG and Karl Anderson, which again, is cool in a vacuum but was the story of the evening. - Pace was weird - repetitive in eliminating Eddie, then Mox fights back, failed hope spot, Bucks team up, Eddie saves x2/3 in a row. - Mox, unlike Cody (in so many ways,) will probably actually be taking some time off with Renee, which is the kind of thing I would prefer not to know in terms of booking, but they really uh, put him down on the canvas here, and it felt pretty finale-esque.

Casino Battle Royale (n/r, but on the balance pro) - Any changes to the theme of the PPV would likely include changing up the nonsense suit format of these largely joyless slogs. - Obviously anticipating a NJPW talent, or... I dunno, actually -- Lio Rush was a surprise. Got in a quick demonstration of his otherworldly quickness, and you know what, there's probably a fun place for him in AEW. He'll need some friends, of course, feel like Team Taz might fit his temperament. I wonder if he was aware of the Mark Henry news... - Christian does not need to win this kind of match to get a title shot, obviously, but that said it was super lovely to use him to give Jungle Boy the shine. Jungle Boy would be a license to print money if he was even as big as Hangman. - Could register some continued griping about how Penta is not getting his due in AEW but he also literally was dressed as the Joker so I'm low on sympathy on this one particular night.

Anthony Ogogo v Cody Rhodes (*) - I did not like this. It's hard for me to read jingoism as a face move to begin with, and Cody's was egregiously tone deaf and kinda silly yet delivered without a trace of irony because Cody doesn't do irony on purpose, ridiculous neck tattoo aside. - Great argument to be made that Ogogo just isn't experienced enough to be winning matches against Cody. But like, what are we doing here? Cody needs to take some time off, maybe. I thought that's what was happening when he had his mini feud with Penta that really just ended in quick decisive Cody win. I though maybe Cody was being turned when QT and The Factory snapped-- sure, they're a group of impotent player 2s, but Cody is an out of touch elitist with a callous and manipulative streak. Alas, also no. America #1. - Cody is approximately 8 times as tough as Billy Gunn based on his weathering of the one punch man. Match ran a bit long given how little there was to go on. Cody gigged? Quelle surprise. - Cody had the best match on the card like, 3 out of the first 4 AEW events or something, and that was all booking and storytelling. I do hope Cody follows Moxley's lead into a little sabbatical.

Miro (C) v Lance Archer for the TNT Championship (**1/2) - Card's hossiest hoss match, a quick burst reminiscent of a car wreck. Absolutely hit on what it should've hit on but a little slow moving considering it went all of 10 minutes. - I will not complain about Jake the Snake, who I love. And also the gimmick spot, with Miro very astutely yeeting what was definitely a snake in a bag (surely.) back down the tunnel.

Dr Britt Baker, DMD v Hikaru Shida (C) for the AEW Women's Championship (***) - Picked up a lot of steam toward the end but seemed a little toothless (heh) until the last five. - Shida 'deserved' some more time as champion in front of crowds but also it's time to let heel Britt reach her peak, I can't even imagine how obnoxious she can be as the champ, it's going to be great.

Sting & Darby Allin v Ethan Page & Scorpio Sky (***1/2) - Such is the power of STING that I feel like I might be underrating this match... I mean it was an okay match about very simply getting some revenge and the sixty year old man did a very subdued Code Red and a slightly less subdued dive. He's also Sting. They missed an opportunity in calling it the 'Scorpio' Death Drop, but the main takeaway here is you see something like this where it's The Icon and you start to understand why WWE trots out their legends to come out of incredibly still kick ass without bending their knees. - The difference, I guess, is that Sting is absolutely being used to build up Darby Allin, whereas it's not like the fed brought back Goldberg and his attendant aura to pump up... anyone but Goldberg?

Kenny Omega (C) v PAC v Orange Cassidy for the AEW World Championship (****) - Off the top I have to say I'm very sad that the rest of the Galaxy's Greatest Friends were seen only very briefly, nice of them to bring OC's backpack. - Also have to point out that PAC's promo featured one of my favourite jokes, that Kenny must be short for Kenneth as a sort of legal/birth name belonging to a professional wrestler. (See also: Samoa Joseph) - And Mr Cassidy certainly did try in this match, ragdoll sells and all. Kenneth and PAC are absurd talents who bring aerial, power and technical maneuvers in equal measure and OC is not doing any of those on the same level, but he picked his spots, showed his genre savvy and hung in there to the point that he wasn't just the fall guy. - The extracurriculars continue in a match that was already a little overboard for silliness due to asymmetry... I think if you're the Invisible Hand it would've made sense to save up all your tricks for this match, but who am I to question the golden goose? - Sure, Kenny and Don ran the classic heel manager interference spot and taking out the ref in desperation spot but having to take out the ref because PAC wouldn't break the hold is fun, as is the stupid/inspired sense in running the 'smash opponent with the belt' spot four times so as none of your heavy gold prizes feel left out. (I love that AAA Mega Championship, they weren't on TV so we get to see it?) - "Fuck You, Don," indeed.

The Inner Circle v The Pinnacle in 'Stadium Stampede II' (***1/2) - This one had to grow on me for two reasons, first that it's usually pretty unforgivable to co-opt the main event spot from the championship match, and second to law of diminishing returns on dumb gimmick matches. - But grow it did. There's a full on meat locker? Commentary will refer to a cardboard cut-out of Shahid Khan as Tony Khan's father (that's canon now,) and Jericho will lovingly pat it? Konnan happened to be the DJ at whatever night club there is a Jaguar Stadium? Spears surrounds himself dramatically with chairs and his hoisted by his own petard? - Ultimately it comes down to letting Sammy shine. His involvement with the Inner Circle has sometimes come at the cost of being able to showcase that prior to AEW he was an ascendant talent in PWG, on his way to Ricochet level feats of acrobatic excess. Still feel like Sammy could've/should've been the one tossed off the cage a few weeks ago, but even better is being the guy getting the pin in the ring.

[dailyaudiobible]

04/03/2020 DAB Transcript

Deuteronomy 23:1-25:19, Luke 10:13-37, Psalms 75:1-10, Proverbs 12:12-14

Today is the 3rd day of April, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I’m Brian it’s great to be here with you as…as we move into this month, settle into the month of April and continue our journey through this year together day by day, step-by-step. And it is a supreme honor to be here with you today to see where this next step in the story of the Bible leads us. So, we’re working our way through Deuteronomy and we have several days left working through Deuteronomy. And I’ve kind of reminded us along the way, these are the last things that Moses has to say. And some of the things that he has to say are review of things that we lived through in the Scriptures, and he’s reminding the people primarily of a few things - who they are, where they came from, where they're going, who God is. And we all need these reminders every day. So, let's take that next step…step forward in the Old Testament. Deuteronomy chapters 23, 24, and 25 today.

Commentary:

Okay. So, in the book of Luke today Jesus tells a very, very famous parable, a very famous story, the story of the good Samaritan, so it’s unlikely that none of us know this story. In fact, all of us should know this story, we just read even if was your first high, but it's a very famous parable that gives us a sense of who is my neighbor, that is the question that Jesus is answering. “If you’re to love your neighbor as yourself, then define for me, which is…this a very rabbinical Hebrew thing to do…then define for me who is my neighbor because if that can be explicitly defined, then it can be explicitly known whether I’m obeying tat command or not.” So, by way of giving an explicit definition Jesus tells the story, which reveals that it's not going to be as tidy as everybody wanted it to be. And Jesus wanders in some…into some territory here. The back story of this story is so compelling. Even though the story stands on its own, the back story makes it riveting because Jesus walked into some interesting territory, like a long-running simmering battle over who has the true faith, who is worshiping the true God is baked in here. So, a man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, Jesus said, and he got attacked by robbers on that way. So the road down from Jerusalem to Jericho is an 18 mile walk through the Kedron Valley that is very very steep and very dangerous in certain areas and was notorious for bandits, especially once you got out into the desert, especially once it was opening up in Jerusalem. This was the valley of the shadow of death that David wrote Psalm 23 about. So, a man getting jumped and beaten up and robbed, not a good thing but not an unusual thing on this road leads. And these robbers, they strip off the guys clothes, they beat him. He's beaten up. He's half dead and then Jesus starts commenting and defining this neighbor concept. A priest is going down the road, sees the man beaten up, gets to the other side of the road, keeps going right on by him. A Levite, right? So, these are the top people leading God's people, the religious people. A Levite sees the guy, passes on the other side as well. Then a Samaritan comes by and cares for him. And we can deduce just at the surface level of the story that this is a big deal, that this Samaritan would be the one to care for him. So, basically this goes back into the Old Testament and we get to the tine…when we get to the time of the kings, we will read of all of this, when there does come a point when the kingdoms divide. Like in the Old Testament there isn't even a kingdom yet. We haven't crossed the Jordan River, but we will cross the Jordan River when we get to the next book, the book of Joshua. Eventually there is a kingdom. Eventually there are kings. Eventually, the kingdoms split into two different kingdoms, the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah. The northern kingdom falls into idolatry, into a highly modified way of doing worship and eventually this northern kingdom sets its capital in a new city named Samaria. And eventually the Assyrian Empire attacks, Samaria, and the kingdom of Israel, destroying it. And one of the ways of Empire building at the time was to displace the people that were conquered, like to move them into exile into some other conquered territory while taking that other conquered people and moving them in so that the concept of a like a homeland gets obliterated over generations. So, the kingdom of Israel was already doing some wacky stuff, then they were taken into exile, then all of these new people come in and mix in and they don't know how to worship the God of the land. And, so, a priest is appointed to show them and its…it's different than what's going on in Jerusalem. Those 10 tribes in the north, they kind of disappear, they are assimilated. They disappear. And there's all this mixture in the north. Eventually the kingdom of Judah also falls and is taken into exile after the same fashion only by the Babylonian Empire. And then later, not to make this all completely confusing, but later the Persian Empire defeats the Babylonian empire and allows this remnant of Hebrew people to go back to this land that used to be their…their homeland. Meanwhile, the people of Samaria, they've…they’re their mixed up, but they've been there all along, and they've been trying to worship and even worship Yahweh, but they do it completely different. And, so, they are looked down upon. They don't mingle with each other. A long-running family rift that ended up in a divided kingdom. All kinds of different worship styles and understandings separated these people groups. So, for Jesus to make a Samaritan, the hero of this story while trying to answer the question, “who is my neighbor”, this is kind of a big deal, especially when He places a priest and a Levite in the story and they pass this wounded person by who was likely a fellow Hebrew. He’s critiquing the Hebrew religion in the process. To make a Samaritan the hero of the story is to make someone who shouldn't be trusted, who shouldn't be interacted with, who you definitely shouldn’t be friendly toward, who you should be suspicious of, that's who He's making the hero of the story. So, on the one hand, Jesus is unpacking “anybody can be a neighbor no matter what they think, no matter what you think of them. No matter what they believe anybody can be a neighbor.” But He’s also commenting on the religious establishment here because in this story they weren't the neighbor. But I don't think we really need to unpack this anymore to know how it overlays with our own lives. I mean to get ourselves in the story all we have to do is think about the people that we are suspicious of, the people that we don't trust. Maybe they don't look like us, maybe they do, but for whatever reason, they are marginalized in our mind as less than in some way. And we just lead ourselves into the story like Jesus led his hearers. Suppose we are the one that gets jumped and robbed and it doesn't happen by the people that we’re suspicious of. And then the ones that we would expect that would come to our rescue don't. And then it is the one that we’ve marginalized, that we’ve considered less than, the one that we’re suspicious of that comes and actually cares for our needs. Then we enter into the disruption that Jesus story is intended to bring about. You don't have to be a Christian to be a good neighbor, but if you are a believer and act like the religious people in this story, then you are not a good neighbor. And if we’ll take that and stir it into our coffee and drink it down and observe ourselves this day, we will find ourselves in this story because the ultimate question is, “who are we in this story?”

Prayer:

Father, we invite You into that. Who are we in this story? What are our responses and prejudices and stereotypes and suspicions? Where are they leading us? And do they give us eyes to see and ears to hear at all? Are they helping us in that regard? This parable that You told today Jesus, it's ancient now, couple thousand years since it's been spoken and yet it is every bit as poignant as it ever was. It's timeless because it is speaking to our hearts and the posture of heart that we carry toward others. And, so, we invite You into that. Give us eyes to see Your kingdom and how we might see everyone as our neighbor. Come Holy Spirit we pray into this we ask in Jesus name. Amen.

Announcements:

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Also, what's going on around here is the next installment, the next chapter of Sneezing Jesus. We’ve been releasing a chapter a day through that book because it's such a poignant book for the times that we’re in. That giving this to you as a gift, a gift from the publisher of this book NAV Press, a gift from the Daily Audio Bible. This is soul care around the Global Campfire. And one week from today, as strange as this is, one week from today will be Good Friday. And, so, today's chapter and there's only two more, so like today and tomorrow will conclude…will conclude offering the chapters of Sneezing Jesus. But now the book is turned into Jesus final moments. And, so, this is poignant because…because we’re coming into holy week. And, so, this wasn't timed for this, but it's a beautiful thing because…because the chapters of the book are gonna put us in that posture of mind and heart as we reflect on what holy week means and move toward Good Friday and move toward Easter. And, so, today's chapter is called Eucharist. And we will be in that chapter exploring the arrest, the trial, the execution of Jesus. And, so, don't miss that. And in a way I'm kind of sad it's going to come to…to a close tomorrow that it will be ending tomorrow but I am so grateful that we have been able to have this opportunity. But we’re not there yet. We’ve got today. We've got tomorrow. And…and when that ends, we still have every day, every day to continue our journey through the Scriptures. So, be sure to check out the chapter Eucharist today in your Daily Audio Bible app or the web app, however you’re listening to the Daily Audio Bible. It’ll just show up there for you.

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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 this is Victoria Soldier just calling tonight to pray for some of the DABbers. I was listening at Gavin and I heard about his brother who lost his wife at 27 years old. Oh my Lord and what the poor man is going through. I’m doping…I’m praying for you and your family. I want to pray for them right now Gavin. I also want to pray for Asia and all the Asian people and what they’re going through because of the confusion of people going to blame them. Don’t they know that…that any kind of disease is come from sin, it doesn’t come from people. Lord they…we ask you to touch them Lord and open up their eyes and help them to look towards Jesus for healing instead of a finger to blame. I understand what you’re going through Asia. I’m…I’…I’ve been a black American. We…we…we know…we…we’ve faced those situations before, but God is faithful and He’s able. He brought us from a mighty long way and He still haven’t stopped. He said he that is started a good work in you shall perform until the of Jesus Christ. Lord, I’m not only praying for this nation but I’m praying for the people who are going through because of it even the medical people. I’m praying that God will heal this nation and will open up our eyes and help us to love one another and come together as what we call ourselves, a United States not of divided states. Gracious Father we praise You, we lift You up, we magnify Your name. Lord I pray for that Father that lost his life and he has those children to raise. Lord You have Your way. Lord You have Your way, You touch him, You strengthen him like never before. Lord things it’s so…some things Lord we just don’t know the answer. All we need to do is trust in You because You’re a God, You’re a great God, You’re a mighty God, You’re a holy God through the good time as well as the bad and that …

This is Free Indeed in Western Maryland calling in today for a couple reasons. First of all, I was prompted the other day to call for one of my coworkers for prayer from. The reason that I’m calling for prayer for him is, I guess it’s also partially for me. I know I’m probably not the only one that has those coworkers that are just hard to get along with. He is the kind of guy who periodically comes in late and by late, I mean once or twice a week, 15 minutes here a half hour there. Somebody else has to cover the work for him. And he’s just the kind of guy that makes it hard for me to love. I try really hard to love everybody and he just makes it hard for me. But also, he brings these books to work that I’ll see him reading and it’s like __ on the book of the dead, 777 by Alister Crowley, the satanic bible. So, he has these other things that I know I should be praying for and I was prompted on Wednesday to call and pray for him and I didn’t and as a result my brother ended up in an argument with him. And…and I was thinking then, I wasn’t being obedient to God. That’s my fault. I should’ve called. And then I thought, “okay I need to call tomorrow morning”, which would’ve been Thursday morning. I didn’t call again. Thursday morning, he and I ended up in an argument. So, the whole purpose I guess is to pray for Steve that God will lead him where he needs to lead him, that God will open his heart and that…and he’ll forgive me for not being obedient. So, guys when you’re prompted by the Holy Spirit to pray for somebody, please, please follow my example and…

[singing starts] Dear father you’re too high in the lowest valley. Yes, I will bless your name. Oh yes, I will sing for joy when my heart is heavy all my days yes, I will for all my days yes, I will [singing ends]. Good day Daily Audio Bible family this is Sherry calling from British Columbia Canada. Feel free to not play this message if you don’t want to but I just got a prayer chain from my grandmother who actually was the reason I came to know Jesus. And it’s a call to just say the Lord’s prayer, not just, but to say the Lord’s prayer in a hope of putting a stop to the latest coronavirus. So, I’m gonna do the prayer with you because it said eight people but you’re way more than eight so please join me. Our father who art in heaven hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil for yours is the kingdom the power and the glory forever and ever amen. Lord, we just ask that you would put a stop to this coronavirus and that you would receive all the praise, all the honor, and all the glory. Please share with your friends and family. Have a good evening. I love you DAB. This is Sherry from British Columbia Canada. Bye-bye.

Good morning, I live in New York City and as everyone is aware, we are sort of at the heart of the coronavirus issue and…and I really just want to ask for prayer for our government leaders and specifically leaders of government agencies. God has placed a lot of us in those…in those places and some in places of leadership and I’m just acutely aware that our city is in need and our leaders are indeed of God’s wisdom. And there are a lot of us who know Him and not just by name. And we know Him, God as being holy and powerful and sovereign. And we are humbling ourselves and just asking for His wisdom. So, if you would just agree with me and so many others across the city that God would just pour out His wisdom in the same way that He did with Joseph to help preserve and sustain the lives of those who are dependent on the city and the economy for their livelihood. So, thank you so much for agreeing with me in prayer. And thank you…thank you for believing that God is able. And He is. Amen.

This is Candace from Oregon praying for you, each one. I’m reading to you from the Voice version of the Bible, the last verse of John 16 and the first versus of James 1. In this world Jesus said you will be plagued with times of trouble, but you need not fear, I have triumphed over this corrupt world order. Don’t run from toughened hardships James tells us. Don’t run from toughened hardships brothers and sisters. As difficult as they are you will ultimately find joy in them. If you embrace them your faith will blossom under pressure and teach you true patients as you endure. And true patients brought on by endurance will equip you to complete the long journey and cross the finish line mature, complete, wanting nothing. If you don’t have all the wisdom needed for this journey, then all you have to do is ask God for it and God will grant all that you need. He gives lavishly and never scolds you for asking. Jesus said, in this world you will be plagued with times of trouble, but you need not fear. I have overcome the world...

Hello this is Rachel from Pennsylvania. Dear God, I want to thank You for everything You have done for us and given us. I just praise You and I want to thank You for the hard times and the trials that You’re sending our way that is helping us to grow and become closer to You. I…I just pray that You strengthen us in our thoughts in our minds in our hearts so that we can put our faith in You and move every day step-by-step in faith with You. Help us to just give all of our worries and our problems over to You and…and know and be confident that You’re going to take care of us, that You’re going to provide for us, that You’re going to give us our next meal that…that we need to survive and that You’re going to come through financially if we need it, You know, for shelter and, You know, that You will always fulfill our needs if we…if we put our faith in You. So, I just pray for strength and guidance and wisdom for us who are struggling. And I just pray that You protect our minds and protect our families. Help us to be able to get along with…with each other and…and help each other out go out of our way just please help us to come together and support each other through these hard times that...

[beingallelite]

Hoffman Estates, Illinois — All Elite Wrestling returned to familiar ground in the suburbs of Chicago on Saturday, trying to recreate the magic that launched the brand's leading stars into the wrestling stratosphere at last year's All In.

Mission accomplished.

All Out was a five-hour extravaganza, mixing diverse wrestling styles to create a show unlike anything fans had ever seen from a mainstream promotion. From the old-school southern shenanigans of Cody Rhodes and Shawn Spears to the state-of-the-art stunt spectacular performed by the Young Bucks and Lucha Brothers, it was a wrestling show that had something remarkable for every fan in the building.

The energy was electric—and contagious. The live crowd couldn't get enough, and the building was full to bursting with fans who felt invested, not just in individual wrestlers or storylines, but in the entire enterprise.

Something special is brewing in the wrestling industry, and AEW is at the heart of it.

Last week, Off the Top Rope's Jonathan Snowden talked to one of the event's architects, All Elite Wrestling executive Brandi Rhodes, about the launch of a new wrestling promotion, her savvy use of social media and her role in building a women's division from the ground up.

This week, we continue that conversation with a discussion of one of the most multifaceted talent rosters in professional wrestling history.

Jonathan Snowden: I'm assuming you're often the only woman in the room when a lot of important decisions are being made. Is it kind of your duty to keep an eye out for the other women on the roster and help make sure they aren't pushed in directions creatively that a man might not realize could make them uncomfortable?

Brandi Rhodes: That's the goal. I haven't had any situations like that yet, but we're about to start weekly TV. So we'll see some of the ideas. But there have been for myself at times in wrestling, times when I had to say, 'Hey, wait a minute, I'm not really comfortable with that' or, 'That doesn't work for me.'

It's interesting to see how a lot of people don't see the other side of the coin. Since they haven't been there. Someone might suggest your character say something that they'd never say. It doesn't occur to them that there are people who think differently about something, from another perspective.

I think it probably will be helpful to have me there. I'm also someone who is always looking at things from different angles. There's always two answers. Cody and I run a lot of things by each other. We're able to help each other see things differently than we would singularly.

JS: What's an example of a time you remember when you were asked to do something you didn't feel right about doing? Is there a moment that stands out?

Rhodes: Ideas that made it seem like I wasn't particularly faithful to my husband. That's an area I don't like to go. It's just not for me.

And the fans, they know us. They know Cody and I, and they like our relationship. So, I would never want to kind of scoff in their faces and make it seem like it's something that it's not.

JS: You guys have a slogan, "AEW is for everyone." I know just how real that is, and I wanted to personally thank you for your commitment to sensory inclusion. We have two kids on the autism spectrum, and going to an event like yours can be kind of terrifying. But we came out to Double or Nothing, and the sensory room you put together with KultureCity made a huge difference. Why was this so important to you? Because I was told you championed the cause.

Rhodes: Thank you for sharing that with me. I love hearing from people who had wonderful experiences with the sensory room. It really makes me so happy.

KultureCity actually reached out to me. I didn't know anything about them or their mission, because it was really vague to me what they represented. I met with [CEO] Julian Maha, and he told me that when we said "AEW is for everyone," it might not be true. He said: 'You're missing a big part of the market. You're missing people with invisible illnesses.' I said, 'Wow." Because we 100 percent were, and we hadn't thought about it.

It's just one of those things people don't think about unless it personally affects them. It can easily slip your mind unless you're confronted with it. But I've been to countless wrestling shows over the last seven or eight years. I've been a part of many meet-and-greets where someone had a need like this and no one knew what to do. Personally, it was embarrassing when we didn't know how to help people and they would just have to leave.

So, when Julian brought this up, I was all for it. If I can keep those moments from happening for any family, I'm all for whatever it takes to make that happen. We are fully in with KultureCity and doing everything we can to get them to as many events as possible.

JS: Inclusion seems to be important generally to this company. From Nyla Rose to Sonny Kiss to the Chinese superstars from OWE, you've been finding talent where most mainstream wrestling companies don't even think to look for it. Are there barriers you're intentionally breaking down, or is it just a matter of being open to talented performers, whatever their background might be?

Rhodes: It's not something we set out to do. We never said, 'We need to check these boxes.' That's not a good way to find the best talent, in my opinion. As long as you keep in mind that what you're looking for is the best person, regardless of anything else, you're going to find the best of the best. And I think that's what we've got here.

In our case, we were very, very lucky. A lot of talent just kind of fell in our lap, which is wonderful when you don't have to search very hard for such talented people.

Our agenda was always to have an open mind about everything. When you have someone like Sonny Kiss, who is very much on the surface who he is, there is no way we're going to say, 'Maybe he should be different, do different moves or act a different way.' He is who he is, and who he is is perfect. He's very talented, and we absolutely love having Sonny as part of the roster.

JS: You guys have made great use of social media. Before I was familiar with the wrestling work of many of your young performers, I met them on your YouTube shows Being The Elite and The Road to All Out series. Both those shows are great at making you really care about the people who make up this company.

But is that possible with some of the foreign talents? I think Riho and [Hikaru] Shida had a really compelling match at All Out—how do you present them on a YouTube show the same way with the language and cultural barriers that might be there?

Rhodes: That's always a challenge, as many people have seen in wrestling over the years with characters when English isn't their first language. However, there have also been plenty of examples where it hasn't been a factor at all because they've been able to express themselves in other ways.

There are things we have in mind to let people know more about some of these wrestlers and how they came to be, what their background is and who they are in the ring. It's something you'll have to see as we roll it out, but there are definitely plans.

JS: AEW launches on TNT on Oct. 2, just a few weeks after WWE takes their NXT brand into the mainstream on the USA Network. Old-school wrestling fans have seen a version of this before, but for new fans, this may be the first time they've been asked to make a choice. So, with WWE just a click away, why should fans choose to take a leap of faith with AEW?

Rhodes: We've been at the cusp of something amazing in wrestling, something we're calling a revolution. This is the first time in almost 20 years that there has been another brand that is this strong and on prime time.

The fanbase has expressed that they've wanted this and needed this for so long. It's been proven with the sellouts we've been having at multiple arenas throughout the country that people really, really do want this alternative.

We vow to bring that alternative in many, many ways. We've talked about it across many mediums, and we'll stay true to our belief that bell-to-bell wrestling is the most important thing.

Our roster is so diverse, and I think our show will be different than anything people have seen. We just hope to continue this movement, and fans will come with us and tune in every week so we can keep doing what we're doing. That's what makes this possible: the fans. As long as the fans keep rallying behind us and stick with us, we're going to do really, really well.

Brandi Rhodes is the chief brand officer for All Elite Wrestling and a standout performer. You can follow her on Twitter and YouTube for further glimpses into a life well-lived.

Match of the Week

Young Bucks vs. Lucha Brothers (AEW All Out, Aug. 31): These teams have been squaring off for months, to the point where their combined excellence has become almost routine. A ladder match successfully upped the ante, ramping up the danger, level of difficulty and excitement in ways that would have been unimaginable just two decades ago when Edge, Christian and the Hardy Boyz set the standard for all to follow.

With all due respect to WWE's legends of the form, this match surpassed even their best efforts. It was consistently innovative, daring and almost too much for several people in my section at Sears Centre, who hid their faces in their hands and literally begged for someone to stop the match before someone died in the ring.

No one did, but only because the performers executed some of the most bonkers highspots imaginable and almost never missed a beat.

'Hard Times' Promo of the Week

Chris Jericho was on top of the world as he cruised Tallahassee, Florida, in a limousine on his way to a local LongHorn Steakhouse. Jericho was the new AEW world champion, and to the victor go the spoils.

Afterward, however, there was a bit of a problem: he couldn't find the belt. As the internet mocked him savagely, Jericho leaned into the storm and made the moment his own.

Here's a taste of his genius, delivered in a hot tub with a scarf on, because it's Chris Jericho and he can:

"Now, as I sit here in my palatial estate, in my beautiful mansion, getting ready to have a little bit of the bubbly, I'm just imagining what I would do to that son of a b---h if he was here right now.

"And as a result, I am launching a worldwide investigation, using the top private investigators in the world today, to find out who committed this crime. And trust me, as the AEW champion ... I promise to regain and restore and find—and reclaim!—the AEW championship and once again give you another reason to finally give me the 'thank you' that I deserve.

"You're welcome."

Update: He got it back!

[gracewithducks]

Who is my neighbor? (Luke 10:25-27; preached 7/14/19)

I’ve been on the road between Jerusalem and Jericho. These days, it’s a divided highway, full of tour buses and taxis and semis and personal vehicles, one of the busier throughways in a modern nation. It’s a hauntingly beautiful drive that takes you through the wilderness of the Holy Land, through rolling mountains, miles and miles of nothing but rock and stone as far as the eye can see. It’s a beautiful place, but it’s also a harsh landscape – lovely to see through the windows of a tour bus, but not a place I’d ever want to wander on my own.

 Back in Jesus’ day, this was a dangerous and difficult road – so much so that it earned the nickname “the Way of Blood,” because of robbers and bandits would often attack. For this reason, travelers would stay together in groups, looking for safety in numbers – which brings up the question of why the traveler in Jesus’ story is alone. Was he a fool? Was he an outcast? Was he a man so desperate that he set out by himself? Did he bring this attack on himself by being alone and unsafe? And if so, does it matter – does his folly or his lowliness mean that we are excused from having to care?

 There along that famous road between Jerusalem and Jericho, up on the side of the road, is a little building – with a sign that proclaims: The Inn of the Good Samaritan. Of course, there was no actual Inn of the Good Samaritan; this isn’t a historical account, but a parable, a story Jesus told to encourage his listeners to think more deeply. It’s one of the most famous of his parables, however, one that resonated throughout the ages – and in the sixth century, a Byzantine monastery was built on the spot of an old travelers’ hostel, a place to remember the parable Jesus told, a place for pilgrims to visit and imagine their own role in the story.

 When I was on that road, as we followed the path of the man in the story, going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, our tour host pointed out the Good Samaritan’s Inn. We drove past, enjoyed our day, and then our bus made our way back up to Jerusalem.

 And then our bus started to slow down. And smoke started to billow from the engine. And then, we drifted to the side of the highway… and so we found ourselves stranded on the side of the road, and I kid you not, on the other side of the highway, we could see the Good Samaritan’s Inn.

 Thankfully, we didn’t wait for long. Ours was one of three buses full of United Methodists from Michigan, and our bus took pride in always being out front: we got up a bit earlier, left a little earlier, and always were one step ahead of the other two groups. Our guide got on the radio, and ten or fifteen minutes later, the second and third buses pull up in front of and behind our own. As we piled into their empty seats – there were, somehow, exactly enough – we joked about providing our pilgrims with the full Good Samaritan experience – both those of us who needed help, and those who stopped and to make room.

 Of course, we were never in mortal peril. Even as cars went whizzing past us, none of us were injured, none of us were robbed and left for dead. And there’s something inherently safe about pulling over to help a bus full of people just like you, people who are familiar, people you already know. We certainly were grateful for our fellow pilgrims and their guides, who helped us out that day… but I’m not sure that’s exactly what Jesus meant when he told this story to answer a difficult question: “Who is my neighbor?”

 Later that evening, we loaded back into buses – all of which were working – and travelled from Jerusalem to Bethlehem. We crossed through checkpoints, past armed soldiers, to the other side of the big wall, where we had been invited to share dinner in homes, local homes, homes of actual families, of Christians whose families traced their roots all the way back to the shepherds who heard the angels sing there in Bethlehem two thousand years ago. We ate at their tables, and saw their faces, and heard the voices of people who were persecuted, who struggled without enough of anything, whose homeland and been stolen and whose rights were taken away, who faced hatred and injustice and need daily, people whose real “neighbors” built miles of concrete and barbed wire to keep them locked away.

 And still we ask: Who is my neighbor?

In today’s scripture, Jesus meets an expert in the law, who tests Jesus by asking him, “What must I do?” Jesus in turn tests the man, saying, “What does God’s Word tell you?” And the man answered, “Love the Lord your God with your whole being, and love your neighbor as you love yourself.”

 He knew the right answer. But knowing and doing aren’t the same thing. Just knowing isn’t enough. The man starts looking for loopholes – because surely Jesus doesn’t mean that we are supposed to love everyone the way we love ourselves. Surely there are reasonable limits to what God demands. So the man asks, “Who is my neighbor?” How will I know who it is I’m supposed to love?

 He’s looking for some wiggle room; he’s looking for an out. So Jesus tell this story, about a man going to Jericho, a man who is attacked, stripped, beaten and left for dead. A priest comes along and, seeing the man, passes by on the other side of the road. A Levite, a worship leader, comes along, but he too, passes by on the other side. Two good and faithful Jewish leaders, two people who could have quoted the law, chapter and verse, who were respected for their leadership, who knew all about “love the Lord your God with all your heart” and “love your neighbor as yourself” – they fail to do it. But then a Samaritan – an outsider, a stranger, the kind of person who was despised and shunned by those good and faithful Jews… a Samaritan finds the man, and takes pity on him. He bandages his wounds, puts the man on his own donkey, brings him to an inn, pays for his expenses, and promises to come back and settle any additional bills.

 It’s a familiar story – so familiar that even people who’ve never set foot in a church building or cracked open a bible still know that a “Good Samaritan” is someone who helps. But because the story is so familiar, we sometimes lose sight of how demanding it is, how radical and unexpected that the religious leaders pass on by while an outsider, a nobody, is the one who shows mercy, the one who earns Jesus’ praise.

 And sometimes, even like lawyer who questioned Jesus, we too look for loopholes. We make excuses: maybe the priest and the Levite thought the traveler was already dead, beyond their help; and because touching a dead body would make them unclean, they wouldn’t have been able to go about their work of tending the holy things of God. Of course we might rightly ask what is more holy to God than one of God’s children in need? – and there’s no evidence that the priest or the Levite even checks that the man is dead; they simply avert their eyes and pass on by.

 We look for loopholes; from the very beginning, Christians have interpreted Jesus’ story as an allegory: one of the early church fathers, Origen, taught that the traveler is Adam, beaten by sin, and the priest and Levite are the law and the prophets, powerless to save, until the Samaritan, the unexpected hero, who is Jesus, shows mercy, dressing humanity’s wounds and paying our debts. Practically every significant early church teacher repeated this interpretation: we are the wounded travelers, and Jesus is the Samaritan; Jesus shows mercy; Jesus is the only one who saves.

 And it works. It’s a lovely allegory of the compassion and grace God shows to us. And it’s especially attractive, because it places us in the role of the helpless victim, waiting for God to step in and to help.

 But there isn’t any evidence that Jesus set out to tell the lawyer or the crowds how helpless they are, how all they can do, all we can do, is wait for God to act on our behalf. No, Jesus tells this story in answer to the question: “What must I do?” Jesus tells the story to answer, “Who is my neighbor? Who am I supposed to love?”

And the answer is simple: look for the one who needs your help. Look for the one who needs someone to have compassion. And show mercy. That’s how we love our neighbors: not with words but with action, with bandages and donkeys and denarii.

 This is a story about an unlikely hero: while the religious leaders let their busy schedules, their laws and their fears get in their way, the hero is the outsider, the ordinary man, the foreigner, the only one who is willing to cross over, the break taboos, to get his hands dirty and open his pocketbook in order to help a stranger in distress – even a stranger who, on any other day, might have mocked and shunned Samaritans. He doesn’t ask if this man is friendly or if he’s worthy; he simply sees a fellow human being in need, and he does what he can to help. This, says Jesus, this is what matters: not if you worship in the right place, not if you can quote all the right verses, but if, when it matters, when a life is on the line, if you love your neighbor as you love yourself.

 The world has enough Christians today who keep walking, who find loopholes and excuses to avert their eyes and just keep walking, to pass by on the other side. There are enough Christians out there pretending persecution while others are actually dying, enough who argue against basic civil rights for others just because they don’t look or think the same way, who actually argue that Jesus would be okay with not feeding the hungry or not teaching the children or not letting sick people get the medicine and help they need. There are enough Christians who are content to choose profits over people, to choose our own comfort and convenience over someone else’s survival, to ignore the ways our selfishness is destroying the climate, and the global economy, and contributing to violence and unrest and threatening the basic survival of people around the world – and do it all while pretending to be pro-life, and claiming a monopoly on Christian values, even while betraying everything Jesus did and said and lived and died for.

The world is full of so-called Christians who are content to pass by on the other side. In fact, there was a recent study which shows that 2 out of every 3 white evangelical Protestants in the US say that we have no responsibility to help refugees. Two thirds say, when someone escaping famine and war and persecution shows up at our border, we have no moral obligation to help them at all. White mainline Protestants – that includes a lot of us – came out only a little bit better, at 43% saying we need to help. Don’t tell me race isn’t a factor; don’t tell me “I don’t see color,” when white Christians say we have no obligation to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, or tend to the dying and desperate at our doorstep. And what’s especially disheartening is that, of all the groups surveyed – including Catholics and Black Protestants – the group with the highest percentage believing we need to help refugees are the “religiously unaffiliated,” those who don’t worship in any church or claim the name of Christ at all.[1]

Shame on us. Shame on us all.

I remember growing up and wondering how the Holocaust could have happened. But now I know: this is how. Good people just kept walking. Good Christian people looked the other way. Good people chose convenience and obedience over compassion and justice, and as Nazi soldiers marched into war wearing belt buckles proclaiming “God is with us,” for far too long, with just a few brace exceptions, the rest of us were full of excuses, averting our eyes, looking away, and passing by on the other side – until at last, it was too late.

 Jesus says, Love your neighbor. Love your neighbor as you love yourself. Love your foreign neighbor, your immigrant neighbor, your refugee neighbor, your black neighbor, your brown neighbor, your white neighbor, your gay neighbor, your straight neighbor, your transgender neighbor, your Christian neighbor, your atheist neighbor, your Muslim neighbor, your conservative neighbor, your liberal neighbor, your rich neighbor, your poor neighbor, your hurting neighbor – love your neighbor as you love yourself. Period. No loopholes, and no exceptions.

 So what can we do? How do we start to better love our neighbors? We have to start at home, with the people we know and love best – but for whom we often show the least grace and compassion. And we start loving our neighbors with our actual neighbors; do you even know your neighbors’ names? When is the last time you looked the cashier or the waiter or the gas station attendant in the eye, and recognized them as an actual living breathing human being? How often do we go to school events, to community functions, to see the faces and hear the voices of all the people who also call this place home?

 Loving our neighbors starts here. Do you know the people sitting around you today? Do you know the ones who sit on the other side of the room? Do you have any idea who almost didn’t come today, because life is really hard right now, and putting on a happy church face is almost too much to bear? Do you know who’s celebrating? Who’s struggling? Who desperately needs a friend? Do you know who hasn’t been touched all week? Who needs someone to smile at them, to see them, to take their hand or give them a hug, and to say, “You are not alone”? Who is the neighbor in this room whom God is calling you to recognize today?

Loving our neighbors means we have to look beyond ourselves. We consider more than our own wants and needs when are shopping, when we are eating, or when we go to the polls on election day. Loving our neighbors means advocating for them – for Christians being persecuted in Bethlehem, and Sri Lanka, in North Korea and China and Nigeria, and for the Christians being denied their basic human rights at our own southern border. We advocate for and help those who are without clean water in Kenya and Ethiopia and in Flint, Michigan, and for refugees drinking out of toilets in American concentration camps. We advocate for children dying in Afghanistan and Sub-Saharan Africa because they don’t have enough water, enough food, enough doctors – and we advocate for children at our borders who are dying for the very same reasons. How do we love our neighbors? We love by making calls, by writing letters, by lighting candles, by refusing to be silent, by refusing to look away, refusing to quietly pass by on the other side.

 You know that Inn of the Good Samaritan in Israel, the one where our bus broke down? It’s really just an old tourist trap – a place built so good Christians could visit on their pilgrimages, and go away feeling holy and sanctified. These days it’s not an active monastery or a church, but a museum, full of ancient mosaics, relics of faith from days long past. If you went there looking for help, you’d be hard-pressed to find so much as a band-aid.

 Jesus never intended for our faith to end up in a museum, for our churches to be full of beautiful reminders of the olden days, to be a place we look but never touch. No, Jesus calls us to get our hands dirty, to invite in the bruised and the bloody and care more about helping people than keeping the carpets clean. He invited us to go out, to leave our safe sanctuary and find our neighbors who are hurting, to look for those who are dying while good people just pass on by.

 May we be the ones who show mercy. May we love our neighbors, in word and in deed, here in this place and all around the world.

  God of love, give us a deep love for you,

so that we can see the world as you see it,

feel the compassion you feel,

and be a people whose lives mediate your love to others.

 So open our eyes that we might see what the Good Samaritan saw.

Grant us the insight to see the need in others,

the wisdom to know what to do, and the will to do it.

 And so we pray for all those, who in many and various ways,

have been stripped, beaten and left for dead.

 We pray for children who must grow up

in the most awful of circumstances,

especially for those starved of love, or food, or shelter or security.

May they receive the future you have planned for them.

 We pray for those we might cross the road to avoid.

Who have been excluded socially because of their race,

their financial status, or their history.

May the dignity that is theirs be restored to them.

 We pray for those whose need we would rather not face up to,

because it requires action of us,

those who suffer atrocities because of war, unjust trade rules,

or oppressive governments.

May the world receive a true picture of their suffering

and the factors that cause it, that justice may be done.

 Open our eyes, that we might not cross the road from human need.

Give us a deep love for you,

that we might see your love at work in this world,

and that we might Go and do likewise.

 ~ Prayer posted on the Faith and Unity Department of the Baptist Union of Great Britain [2]

  [1] https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/an-old-poll-indicates-evangelicals-dont-care-about-refugees-how-do-they-actually-feel

[2] No longer seems to be posted at the original site; I found this prayer at: https://re-worship.blogspot.com/2013/06/prayer-of-people-good-samaritan.html

[rev-krissy]

Is Christianity based on fact and true?

This is a false question. Sorry, but it’s true. You’ve been lied to. Truth and fact are not the same thing. Many facts contain no truth, especially in the mouths of politicians. But there are fables and legends and jokes and memes completely devoid of facts which are overflowing with truth.

Watch out kids, I’m about to commit heresy. The Jesus story is true even if it never happened. What do I mean by that? I’m going to list some truths I learned from the Jesus story that remain true even if the story is fiction.1) fear is the enemy2) love is always the best choice even when it’s hard3) God/good/the universe can use anybody, even a nobody for the cause if love and justice4) empires of death fall, they do not get the last word5) I can make the world better, and my own life too by choosing to love and seeking justice for all

I choose to believe in the truth of the story even when I know the facts say otherwise. Take Jericho for example: we know from the archaeological record that it wasn’t even a village (forget walled city) until about a thousand years after the exodus event - it doesn’t change the truth of the story which is that sometimes we need to forget what we think we know and act in faith.

The obsession with facts is a modern thing, the Bible cannot be read literally nor seperate from knowledge of its original context it must be interpreted and always checked internally - if a law or teaching conflicts with Jesus’ teaching OR EXAMPLE it is false. If anything seems to conflict with, “ God is love.” It is false.

Truth, YES. Facts, some. Hope, absolutely. Good news, unless you are a rich oppressor…

[laurencodyblog]

Racing through the Bible in one year??

I know a lot of Christians are making new commitments to God during the month of January, and I of course am no exception. We all desire a closer walk, spiritual direction and deeper relationship, and January seems like the perfect time to refocus. Many are choosing to read the Bible through in one year. I've done so myself. But sometimes you find yourself rushing to cram in your 4 chapters per night - so much so that you aren't getting much out of it. I started this reading plans few years ago, and i love it. Why not really take your time?

Now, I still think you should stick to a commitment and a discipline of reading every day - and even chart out a course for your study. But instead of racing through Scripture - why not read an entire book (if it is small, and break it up into 4 sections if it is not) once a day - every day for 30 days?

I like to start with Philippians. I mean think about it.... It will take you from just reading the book of Philippians on day one - to where you end up on day 30: ...you can almost feel dust in the back of your throat from the well trodden streets in Philippi. You can almost hear the rattling of Paul's chains as he glides the quill across the parchment from his cell in Rome.

I for one, don't want to read about Paul. I want to know Paul.

And when I think about the other books as well....

To know what Esther felt as she was checking her lipstick one last time before she went in to see the king....

How Judas tried to mentally justify his betrayal of Jesus until the pressure became too great.....

The lump in the throat of Abraham as he stood over Isaac with knife in hand.....

The desperation of Rahab as she tore open the window and swung out the scarlett cord.....

The sound of the shuffle of sandals in the sand as the children of Israel started their 7th lap around Jericho.

I may not finish in one year. In fact - it will be impossible. But I will take more out of this year than just being able to say I finished it.

In 2022 I don’t want to just read the Bible. I want to experience it!

I’m currently on my 20th day in the deep study of Esther.

It promises to be an exciting journey. Anyone interested in coming with me?

#30daysinphilippi

#30dayssavingherpeople

#30daystakestouintothestory

[jwgammuto]

We’re back with wrestling reviews. Check out my thoughts on last night’s AEW Dynamite.

It’s Thursday and you know what that means! Let’s cut the shit and get right to The Good, The Bad, and the WTF: First Crack at Dynamite Edition.

The Good:

The chaotic action of the main event Trios match between Death Triangle and United Empire. Much as I don’t like wonky endings in AEW matches this was the overall pretty good and the last two minutes or so was predictably filled with insane spots. But I suppose that’s the only point of this entire Trios venture aside from getting more of the 500 AEW talents on tv as much as possible. I’m on record as not caring about the 1000th set of titles in this company and I truly don’t care who wins this thing but the Trios division is like an NBA game. You can watch the last 90 seconds and get all the quality entertainment it has to offer.

Ricky Starks’ promo on Ice Train Hobbs. This felt organic, was filled with passion, and I dug it. This build for All Out has been good and it makes sense unlike quite a bit of the rest of the card. More on that later.

Dax vs Lethal. Can never go wrong with FTR involved and I like Lethal as well. Crowd went bonkers when it was announced that MCMG was teaming with Lethal at All Out to face FTR and Wardlow. Admittedly, i know very little about these guys but the neckbeards love it so I assume it will be an entertaining bout.

The Acclaimed getting a title shot at All Out against Swerve and Lee. Proves TK is paying attention between bumps of cocaine. These guys are crazy over. Not certain they’ll win but they’re certainly deserving.

Moxley’s post match promo. Instead of just bleeding everywhere tonight, this guy solidifies himself as the intense psycho that he is and he belongs at the top of the card. However…

The Bad:

The title match was confusing, awful, and pointless. This was a lot of short term hype for a fart in the wind. Granted, not too many people outside the company really knows what the hell is going on and sometimes that’s the fun of it but I do not buy for one second Punk is re-injured. It’s quite possible AEW still has the Ace yet to be played but if it’s not MJF returning, I can’t imagine I’ll be excited about it. Is Punk quitting? Is he physically done? Did he whine his way into punishment? If he’s still hurt why did he agree to go out there? Wasn’t this one of his massive gripes with WWE? This just plain sucked. No way around it.

Along similar lines, for a company that prides itself on long term storytelling and cohesion, this PPV, their biggest of the year, sure is being thrown together last minute. Starks and Ice Train has been built, Jungle Boy and Christian is boiling, and the Trios title finals is something that’s been planned but the rest of the card is being thrown together in the final couple weeks. Jericho and the American Dragon? Slapped together tonight. Another interim title match, this time for the women? Unavoidable i guess but still slapped together. The tag title match? Last minute decision out of the nowhere. It’s a very odd switch for them. Not that the matches won’t be good, most of them probably will be but they’re not giving the fans any time to invest in the story. It’ll just feel more like a really good episode of Dynamite than a massive payoff event. There isn’t even a world title match set yet. Annoying.

Kip Sabian, if for no other reason than he kind of ruined the main event. Live fans loved it. Ok but that match deserved a cleaner finish. 🤷🏻‍♂️ I’m ok being in the minority here.

Danielson/Garcia/Jericho opening segment. I’m just not into Garcia’s emotional turmoil. Love Jericho. Love BD. They will put on a great match at All Out. Just don’t care at all about this storyline. Put Garcia in the BCC. Leave him in the JAS. I still won’t care.

The WTF:

Britt Baker in another squash match. When was the last time DMD was in a quality feud? She’s the only charismatic woman in the entire division and is the logical choice to win the “interim” title even though I think it would be much more interesting to put the title on Hayter, who is a better worker, and have her feud with Baker. I like Toni Storm and all but that’s a Liv Morgan situation waiting to happen. Don’t make that mistake, TK. Toni does not have the chops to carry a very weak Division.

Billy Gunn vs Colton Gunn. Mr. Ass’s entertaining involvement in this story is limited to Bowen’s screaming “scissor me daddy ass!”

Overall a decent show if not confusing and kind of thrown together following the “talent meeting”. There wasn’t a lot to be offended by with the exception of the ridiculously bad world title match. I suppose AEW got me. I tuned in with excitement about what swerve may be coming and instead I got the Second City Senior Citizen getting treated like Jumpin Jim Powers. Cool. 3.3 out of 5 glasses of the bubblay!