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Linkle’s Fazbear Frights & Lore Insights YouTube Video Script #1: Into the Pit

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(The following is the script of the YouTube Video linked above. In order to encourage watching the video in order to receive early access to new content, all YouTube Video scripts will be released at roughly one month or more after the posting of a new video. Thank you for your understanding.)

Hello, everybody! It’s Linkle and, this will be my first video on this new channel! Yay! 

If you’ve been following me for awhile on my other accounts, you know that I put out a poll asking people if they would like to hear my thoughts on the Fazbear Frights books, and any potential lore relevancy they may have to the main canon universe of FNAF (AKA the universe that most, if not all, of the mainline games take place in — as well as some of the non-mainline games, too, like FNAF World).

With the ‘no’ option taking up just 15% of the final results, the answer was an overwhelming and resounding ‘yes’.

Well, after a little while of getting into the flow of releasing those articles in written form, I have finally decided to get over my stage fright and also begin recording them in the form of public YouTube videos, where I know a majority of the FNAF community congregates.

Disclaimer & Important Notes

Since this will be an on-going series that may take many months or even years to fully complete, and I obviously cannot expect everyone who chooses to watch one of these to first pause the video and go watch another that contains the important pre-article notes and disclaimers, I have decided that I will instead be stitching this section into every single video I create, as well as adding additional, story-specific notes and disclaimers at the tail end of it.

While I intend to break this video up into chapters to begin with, I will also try to leave a timestamps in the description for you to click, in order to jump to the unique part of the disclaimers and notes for each story should you already be familiar with the generic ones, as well as timestamps for other sections of the video you may be interested in jumping to. 

That being said, I would be grateful if you would watch the whole thing through, as I someday hope to have this channel monetized, and from what I know, watch time is very important when it comes to YouTube.

Now, with that out of the way, please bear the following information in mind:

1: I feel it very important to note that I am a ‘Frights Fiction’ truther, and my videos will be written from that perspective, as such.

If you don’t know what ‘Frights Fiction’ is, it is a very specific position in which some people stand that states that while the books are canon to the main game universe, they are canon only in the same sense that the video games commissioned by Fazbear Entertainment LLC were — that is to say, they are an in-universe Goosebumps-like book series created by the company in order to help profit off of and continue to discredit the actual tragedies that occurred within the world, by mixing up truths with untruths and exaggerating events they then sell as fiction, slapping a name reminiscent of the former attraction — Fazbear’s Fright — on the cover, just for extra effect.

If you are not a subscriber to ‘Frights Fiction’ and are not willing to remain to the idea, please be respectful and just click off of the video. I am not interested in seeing people starting some grand debate over whether or not you subscribe to it; I’m just here to share my thoughts with those who are interested, so I would be appreciative if you did not try to start arguments in my comment sections over it. I’m sure there are very many great FNAFtubers out there who will agree with you on your stance and be more to your liking, and if there aren’t, then I wholly encourage you to be the one to start the tradition and film your own video that better suits your own perspectives.

2: I do not particularly intend to get into explaining or defending the concept of Frights Fiction as a whole in these posts, so if you are genuinely interested in the concept, but have never heard of it before, there are many good videos out there which explain the concept quite well; my personal recommendation if you’re interested in the topic is GiBi’s Horror Homestead, who is not only a fantastic FNAFtuber in general, but who is going through each book bit by bit and pointing out all of the evidence to support the theory. 

Given that his 9 hour main canon lore video was the entire reason I fell so deeply in love with FNAF in the first place, I would be remiss not to plug and recommend him at every chance I can get. Although he may not yet carry the big name of those like Game Theory, Dawko, or FuhNaff, he is truly one of the most thoughtful and insightful FNAFtubers out there who actually elevates others within the community (even those he disagrees with), and I truly believe he deserves much more notoriety than he gets for it.

3: These analyses will inevitably hinge on my personal understanding of FNAF canon lore regarding the games, and, yes, will include both theorizing with facts and evidence, and likely a lot of speculation, as well. If you disagree with a stance I have regarding canon, again, I refer you to matter #1; please be respectful and move on. I’m not here to discuss anything except the relevance that the books could have in regards to the lore, in accordance with the Frights Fiction stance, and I would thus appreciate you keeping things on topic.

4: There will be spoilers for the Frights Fiction stories discussed in each video, along with the games from the mainline canon. Obviously. If you don’t want to be spoiled on a specific story or on any of the games, don’t watch the video in question until you’ve read the story you want to read or played the game you want to play.

Certain videos may also contain spoilers for other games and/or stories or books. In each case, those warnings will be added to the tail end of this section on the individual videos in question. You can look in the description for a timestamp to jump to the unique notes and disclaimers that will contain these things if you don’t want to wait through this entire section.

5: I’m calling the Crying Child “Garret”. It’s the only name he canonically has in any form of the series that doesn’t require puzzle solving to come to the conclusion of, and it’s my preference. If you like any other name, just mentally replace it in your head when you read it.

I don���t want to wade through thousands of comments telling me, “Actually, the crying child’s name is Dave”, or “I call the crying child Evan” or anything of the like. I know. I know basically every name out there under the sun that exists. I just don’t want to use those names — plain and simple. 

I respect your own picks; all I ask is that you don’t try to force them onto me.

6: It should be noted that, as Scott has confirmed in a decently recent interview with Dawko that he just writes down the basic plot of his stories and all the important points he wants to cover, and then lets the another author flesh it out more fully, we have no way of knowing outside of the main plot exactly what details are his ideas and which aren’t; therefore, there’s a good chance that a few, or even multiple, of the things I bring up are just massive coincidence and have no meaning whatsoever in reality. I do think there’s value in discussing it nevertheless, but still, that inherent uncertainty is why I will often try to provide more than just one or two details to back up most of my more elaborate interpretations and ideas; if we can’t be sure that any one single minute detail within the books has value — unless of course it’s something Scott has specifically said is important — then I find it a little shaky to place too much importance on them individually.

7: While I will be giving my general impressions of each book as I go along and probably sharing where it ranks currently out of all the stories I’ve read, I do not have any serious intentions to do a deep dive on them beyond how it regards the lore implications of the games. If you’re looking for someone who’s going to break down the books word by word and analyze, in a meta way, what they could be trying to say and possible interpretations of their messages in terms of being a standalone story, this series of posts is probably not for you. For that, I again will recommend GiBi’s Horror Homestead, as he is currently doing the deep dives of exploring themes and general symbolism and interpretations outside of just the FNAF lore, as well as looking for evidence of the Frights Fiction stance he already currently takes, and it’s very interesting and thought-provoking.

Into the Pit-Specific Notes

Today, we’re going to be kicking off this video series by talking about Into the Pit (the story, I should clarify, not the entire Fazbear Frights volume).

For Into the Pit’s analysis, I’m going to need you to note the following:

First of all, I will be discussing the video game adaption version of this story to a limited degree, since, as per ‘Frights Fiction’, it would be a video game that exists in-universe in the main FNAF canon as an adaption of the fictional horror story by the same name, and thus is equally important to examine when talking about potential lore relevancy. If you don’t want spoilers, save this video and come back later after you’ve experienced the game for yourself.

Secondly, I will (mostly) be dismissing any Easter eggs throughout the game version that do not have a crucial part in the story, since Frights Fiction would largely dictate that — unless they do not conflict with the main canon and would genuinely bring something of value to the table in terms of discussion — these merely exist because the game was made within the context of all of the various in-universe fictionalized stories. In other words, most of the Easter Eggs that exist out-of-universe are still just Easter Eggs in-universe, too.

And among all of those, there are two in particular that I do want to knock out of the running for very specific reasons, but since discussing individual Easter Eggs within the game would technically be considered spoilers, it will have to be saved for the actual main analysis section of the video, instead of being thrown out here.

Lastly, apart from where I feel it relevant, I will not be doing a deep-dive into the changes between the book and the game, either, since they are both fictional media within the FNAF universe, and thus the retcons and changes mostly have no value in the discussion of the lore or canon. If someone else wants to scream about how they feel the book was done dirty because of how much they got wrong in the game or something, I absolutely encourage you to go write your own article or make your own video! There are definitely a lot of not-insignificant changes between the two, so I can understand if someone was bothered by that. This video just isn’t about that.

…And I believe that will do it for the disclaimers and notes section. If you haven’t left already and you’re worried about spoilers for anything, this is your final warning to click off the video and come back later. 

I’ll give you a good few seconds to make up your mind and leave if necessary.

…We good? Alright, let’s dive into the main bulk of the video, then.

Into the Pit Analysis

Alright, since this is the first video in the series, let me briefly explain how this format is going to work:

Each analysis is going to be broken up into two major sections: ‘Overall Impressions’, where I talk about my general feelings on the story outside of dissecting the implications it has on the lore, and ‘Lore Relevancy’, where I’ll be talking about everything potentially lore-related.

In both of those sections, we will then have a couple of sub-sections: for the ‘Overall Impressions’ section, if a particular story has any adaptations outside of the original book, there will be subsections dedicated to each different form of media it appears in. In the ‘Lore Relevancy’ section, we will have two subsections — with one being ‘The Lies and Half-Truths’, where we will discuss both anything that we know is definitely not relevant to the FNAF main canon lore and anything that is somewhat based on true events, but confirmably not entirely, and ‘The Truths and Likely Truths’, where we will discuss anything that we can confirm or otherwise be reasonably certain is true, as well as things that seem likely to be true but are not as easily comfortable – which, for ease of determining which is which, will each be divided into two respective sub-subsections.

And now that you understand how this is going to work, let’s get to discussing and analyzing!

Overall Impressions

The Book:

I mean, I liked it. Because I wanted to go into it without any preconceived notions about the story, I had been waiting until after I finished playing the video game adaption to read this, and I’m glad that I did, it’s just… getting used to the formatting of the books was a bit…unusual, for me.

I had seen the comic version of Fetch prior to all of this, but I’d never read the actual story, so there was a lot I really didn’t know to expect with the Fazbear Frights books, in those regards? For example, the constant use of ‘said’ is definitely not to my particular writing style tastes, and there were several times when I thought denoting who the speaker was wasn’t necessary at all, but, thankfully, when you’re consuming it in the form of an audiobook (which I did), you can usually tune that sort of thing out and not notice it as much as you would if the words were staring you in the face all the time.

As for the story itself, yeah, I’d say I enjoyed it! Oswald, on the whole, is a very likable kid with sympathetic plights, his mom is cool, and his father seems like a good and surprisingly not one-dimensional character, for as little time as he’s actually present in the book; throughout the story, we get a pretty good feel for who his family is and how much they care for each other, in spite of the fact that the slow death of the town they live in has left them struggling, and some of the choices that were made in the aftermath were not exactly the best. 

One thing I particularly appreciate is that no character feels out of place or unnecessary in the book version of the story, which, as I’ll get into in the next subsection, I unfortunately can’t really say about the game.

I admittedly do feel that having Oswald immediately find his father again with minimal trouble once he got back to the ballpit was a…bit of an anticlimactic thing to have happen, when I believe it had only been a day since he was kidnapped in the first place; however, I know that this opinion was partially influenced by the fact that the game adaption was my first foray into the story, and, in reality, the book actually makes phenomenally more sense for its choice and raises far less difficult-to-answer questions, so it probably just comes down to a matter of personal preference, in the end, in regard to this — especially when the two are so wildly different in so many other ways, as well. 

I think, overall, I do like the book version the most, in terms of the story, but I appreciate more what new things the game brought to the table in terms of lore relevance (which I’ll discuss in the ‘lore relevancy’ section, obviously).

They’re both good in their own ways.

The Game: 

I don’t have a lot to add here in terms of the characters or their personalities, since, for as many differences as the two renditions may have, a lot of this particular aspect of the story is the same. 

The only character that I’d say somehow feels both slightly more irrelevant and slightly also too relevant in the game version is Dylan Cooper, the bully at Oswald’s school. This may just be me, but the reason that I say this is because they make quite a very big deal about the fact that Dylan finds Oswald at the dump on the second to last day of the game. Not only that, but during this scene, they have Dylan laugh and act very suspiciously, in an oddly menacing way — so much so that I thought for a moment that they were going to have him get directly involved with the main plot in some manner, which he really didn’t.  I think it would’ve been better to just keep his role exactly the same as it was in the book, rather than adding more to him and playing it up in a way that lead one to think that something bigger was going to happen.

Furthermore, the lack of inclusion of any mention of Oswald’s best friend, Ben, removes some of the feeling behind why Oswald is so frustrated with his life situation and his Dad, which I think is a bit of a shame after reading the book.

On the plus side of characters and their development, though, the added ability to pick up the Dad’s items and view little stories about Oswald and his family is a really nice touch that I appreciated, and Oswald thinking in one of them about how much his Mom losing her husband would devastate her was absolutely heartbreaking. 

As for some of the other changes the game made, I have very mixed feelings; although I did think it was cool to have the search for Oswald’s Dad extend for a few days and give us a longer glimpse into the past in doing so, it also raises many more questions in terms of a) why there were several additional kids that Oswald had to rescue, b) whether the kids in the Party Room at the beginning of the game were even dead in that version, because it was never properly addressed like it was in the book and thus left room for doubt, and c) the actions of Spring Bonnie (or the Yellow Thing™️, as it is called in the original story) throughout, which I could also get into, but I feel might warrant an entire video itself. (If you’re interested in that, maybe drop me a comment and I’ll cover it sometime.) 

Also, all the random Easter eggs are super cool, but I feel like anyone who somehow thinks the books and the games based on them are actual 1:1 events that happened, and not just in-universe books and games, are going to use tons of these to go wild with theories about retcons and all of that sorts of stuff that is just…clearly not the case, so…meh. I’m divided.

As for gameplay, it…it’s good! It’s the first FNAF game to have different difficulty settings at the start (except UCN), which is awesome, though I feel like quite honestly, it’s the easiest game of them all, as well. I have no difficulty whatsoever beating it on Frightening mode (the normal mode), and can barely tell the difference from Creepy (easy mode), which…I haven’t played the other modes yet, so I can’t comment on those completely, but I suspect I could easily beat the hardest one with minimal issue, to be honest.

Now, whether that’s a good thing or not is probably going to vary by personal opinion, but…I don’t know, for me, despite being an easy mode lover in most games, not having any level of tension while playing this game somehow just…made it feel very much not like FNAF for me, and not necessarily in the most positive of ways.

Now, that isn’t to say I didn’t like the game, but, it did take a little bit of the essence of FNAF away, and…I feel like in horror games, you should not be able to feel like there is never any real tension involved while playing. Again, this is just personal opinion, but, that’s my stance, at least.

But! I think we all know that’s not really what you’re here to have me go on about, is it? You all want to hear about lore relevancy, so…let’s just get on with that.

Lore Relevancy

In what is an extremely ironic turn of events, despite this story — out of all of the four I’d listened to at the time of writing this, at least — having the most blatant connection to the game’s canon lore, I honestly think that this will probably be one of the books that I have the least to say about in terms of breaking that down and going over it, mostly because I feel that it being so heavily tied to a specific part of the canon we know a lot about from the games just….really makes it blatantly clear which parts we definitely can’t trust.

So, most importantly, I guess let’s start with some examples of the one advantage Into the Pit has over nearly every other book in the series that I’m aware of thus far: the things it tells us that we can know aren’t true.

The Lies and Half-truths

Funnily enough, the thing we know we can absolutely discard the most is any of the details of the murders that happened in 1985 — at least, in the way Into the Pit presents them.

In the book (and perhaps the game? The image isn’t clear enough to be sure), there are six victims — not to mention the game adding a whole potential four other children whom Spring Bonnie tried and failed to kill thanks to Oswald — but we know for a fact that, while William had six victims total when we’re including Charlie Emily, there were only the five at most who died inside the restaurant during that year. So can we trust the number of victims? No.

Can we trust the method they died in, then…? Also no; in both the book and its game adaption, we are painted a scene of families and kids running and screaming in terror from a monster that was mass nabbing and killing kids, but we know for a fact, from multiple canon games both old and new, that William lured the children into the back before killing them covertly, and was never actually seen doing it except in costume via cameras. Furthermore, this must have happened one by one and not all at once, contrary to what Into the Pit purports, as the order in which they died is brought up several times in the more recent canon games as being in some way worthy of mentioning — which it most definitely would not if their deaths only varied by a matter of seconds or minutes at best.

So what can we trust in and rely on about the MCI (Missing Children’s Incident) murders? Well, honestly, just that it takes place in 1985. That’s literally it. That’s all that’s definitely relevant to the canon of the main games from this story in any way, when it comes to the MCI itself.

Now, that’s not to say there’s nothing else in the story that’s of note at all, though; there’s actually a lot that I think is worth paying attention to and speculating on, it’s just that very little of it actually has to do with the crime that was committed, as most of that is, unsurprisingly, heavily played up, exaggerated, and sensationalized; after all, that’s the entire in-universe purpose of these books and games existing — to discredit and make light of the real events by turning bits and pieces of them into spooky fictional stories.

Before we get into what I think is of value, though, let’s just rule out two more things from the game version of Into the Pit that I think we need to firmly take off the table — namely, the toy airplane from the FNAF movie which is on a table in the room where Oswald’s Dad is being held captive, and the photo taken from the Silver Eyes trilogy of Henry beside a fully mascot-costumed William, which was placed in the shadows on the wall in the same area.

These are literally both just Easter Eggs referencing alternate universe stories with no relevancy to the lore, and I want to make that very clear before we begin to move forward.

How do I know this for certain? It’s very easy, actually.

With the airplane, there is literally no way that this has any implications on the lore, because Garret — the one whom the plane belonged to — was not one of William’s victims within the canon of the main games; he was William’s son, who died tragically from an accident that occurred during one of Michael’s pranks, and became the catalyst for everything that William did in FNAF in the first place.

And as for the photo, we already have a brand-new picture of William and Henry that is acknowledged and picked up by Oswald in-game, not to mention crucially recognized by Spring Bonnie himself and absolutely required for the true ending. And in this photo — both in black and white within the in-game and out-of-game trophies achieved when picking it up, and in color in the unused data — the two look entirely different from how that alternate universe portrays them, with Henry maintaining his design from the official Encyclopedia, and William possessing a (as far as I am aware) mostly new and unique design of his own. I apologize to anyone who actually likes the Silver Eyes trilogy’s designs for them, but seriously, there is just no reason to assume that we should trust something that is barely visible and placed on a random wall in shadows, over something that actually has plot relevance to the game itself and is required to get the true ending.

If William and Henry are being given a canon design for the main universe, it’s absolutely the new photo that we were shown, not some other old one tossed in as an Easter Egg.

Oh, and lastly, but definitely still very importantly, in the game version of Into the Pit, there’s also some implication that Oswald’s dad may very well have been the Freddy Bully, one of Michael’s friends, who participated in the prank that led to Garret’s death. Considering Oswald’s Dad’s unwillingness to talk about what happened in regards to Freddy’s in the book, and the fact that Help Wanted 2 strongly implies Cassie’s father is Bonnie Bully, this makes it very likely that we are now being given information in some form about Michael’s various former cohorts when he was a teenager, and how William seems to hold a grudge against all of them in some shape or form, and they frequently met bad fates. 

Obviously, the events of the story couldn’t have played out as they did in the main canon, because of the numerous impossible discrepancies we’ve already discussed, but it does make me wonder if Oswald’s dad really did in some way meet a terrible fate or have a brush with William in some context, at some point in his life.

It’s a very interesting thing that I have seen the more recent FNAF games delving into, and it is something that I am very interested in.

The Truths and the Likely-Truths

So, we’ve talked about the lies, but what about the story do I think does have relevance to the lore of the main canon? What do I think the story is trying — or could be trying — to tell us?

Let’s dive right in.

The things I KNOW are True

Well, first of all, as I said before, that the MCI takes place in 1985. Within the FNAF fandom, dates of various important events are constantly being discussed and speculated upon to death, even when the answer seems blatantly obvious, so I absolutely believe that this was Scott stepping in and waving a hand in front of everyone’s face again in order to fully confirm that this was the year these victims died.

Secondly, and perhaps most excitingly for me personally, the plot-relevant photograph used to get the true ending has finally given us canon designs for the main game universe version of William and Henry, after ten years of them not technically having any fully confirmed physical appearances. It may not seem like much on the surface, but this really is a monumental milestone in FNAF, and I absolutely think it should be celebrated.

Both of those things are pretty on-the-nose, though. I don’t think anyone really needs convincing of those facts, and, if they do, me pointing out the obvious again probably isn’t going to be the big thing that convinces them, so…moving on, let’s see what else we can glean or make note of in the story that we haven’t already discussed in a previous part of the video.

Well, we can definitely infer, looking at it from the perspective of Frights Fiction, that the IPs referenced in the books which are familiar to us must also exist within the main FNAF universe, since these stories are in-universe tales being made for and marketed to the people of that world. It’s not really a big or ground-breaking detail, but I do think it’s a pretty cool little side note to consider for those of us interested in the greater world-building of FNAF.

We can certainly confirm, if nothing else, that some of the posters and drawings shown in the game version of Into the Pit were real, since they were in some of the canon main games, too, but I think there might also be more to the value of the games’ visuals; obviously, this can’t be said with absolute certainty, and I encourage someone to correct me if I’m wrong on this particular subject, but I think we can reasonably come to the conclusion that the MCI took place in a building that likely looked a lot, if not exactly, like the 1985 version of the building we get to visit in the game version of Into the Pit, back in its heyday. I don’t usually want to put things I’m not 100% certain of in this section, but I think that it matches up pretty well enough with what we know of the place to say that this is a decently accurate depiction — probably, anyway, unless there’s something I’m forgetting about.

Furthermore, it’s…quite likely that this story confirms that Foxy had already been temporarily retired in 1985 in preparation of making the failed Toy Foxy that became Mangle, since it’s mentioned in the Into the Pit game (I can’t recall if it was the same in the book) that he wasn’t in use and would be gone for awhile, and there’s no reason in particular to doubt that this is true, as it doesn’t conflict with any known information.

The way that Spring Bonnie goes unnoticed by everyone but Oswald in the story is….also interesting; I definitely feel that the intended “cause” of this that the book is playing off of is an illusion disc, and that, from an out-of-universe perspective, this is Scott once again drawing us back to this concept to remind us that it exists, especially since it seems highly likely based on FNAF 4 and UCN that the Nightmare Animatronics were, in fact, the FNAF 1 animatronics effected by illusion discs. (If you’re interested, I recommend checking out GiBi’s long FNAF video here. The video will be linked above, if I figure out how to do that, in the information tab in the upper-left hand corner of the video. If I haven’t figured it out, then it will be linked down in the description.)

Having the privilege of having listened to a few stories already at the time of writing this, I can say that this is something that is present in at least one other story so far, too, even within the very same book. Just something to note, I suppose.

And then, lastly, we have the general…theme of wills and wishes that seems to keep popping up in most Fazbear Frights stories I’ve read.

I know it’s explicitly stated on the back of this volume that the theme of every main story in Into the Pit delves into exactly that — getting what you wish for, but maybe not in the way you actually imagined it being — but having read as much as I have at the point of re-scripting this for a video, I can absolutely say that it runs much deeper than just the one volume. 

The concept of someone’s will being able to shape reality to some extent is such an underlying, intrinsic part of FNAF that it isn’t just Into the Pit or even the Fazbear Frights books as a whole that it permeates — it’s at least the Silver Eyes trilogy, too, with Henry’s pain and sorrow — and even later his anger — over Charlie’s death having the power to essentially bring her back to life in the form of a living doll, through his own tears.  I’m not 100% clear yet on what it is that’s trying to be said here, but I know that something is being said, and I know that it’s important. I do have some theories on what that could be, but I’ll get to those another time. Just…bear that in mind for now.

For now, all that matters is that you understand that it is there. In this story, Oswald wished for something more interesting to happen, and oh boy, did it happen. The inclusion of it in this story may be a little subtle comparatively to some others, but it’s there; it’s supposed to be there.

I know that in his analyses of this volume, GiBi later states that he feels the stated “theme” of it was just tacked on at the last minute to tie these stories together, but believe me, it’s not. There’s an entire story at the beginning of the very next volume that proves that it’s not.

You just have to trust me on this for now. Keep it in mind. It’s important. It’s so important.

And, on one other but similar note, this particular entire book — including Into the Pit, To Be Beautiful, and Count the Ways — for reasons you’ll see going forward as we review each story, definitely also have a theme going on of “Feeling unlovable, unwanted, and like life is meaningless in its current state”…. This will come up eventually in a future post. I promise. Just bear it in mind for now. 

The things I FEEL are True

Okay, now that we’ve talked about the absolute certainties, let’s get a little bit more into the still solid but nonetheless speculative, and the personal interpretations.

There aren’t many things I want to cover in this section today, because, as I’ve said, a lot of the things that Into the Pit talks about are very easily better slotted into the more definitive category, but, there are a few things that I do want to bring up, and some of them are still very important and meaningful — at least to me.

So, without further ado, here are some things that truly seem like they might have some connection to a canon event or phenomenon and could be useful information to take away regarding it:

Starting off with something I don’t personally subscribe to, but I do feel I would be remiss not to mention, for those who believe in the concept that Gregory is an advanced robot of Garret a la the Silver Eyes trilogy, this story does have some evidence maybe towards that idea?

In one of the Bad Endings in Into the Pit’s game adaption, Oswald appears to have been turned into an animatronic, yet still seems to retain his child form? Now, I’m not sure if that was just creative liberty or perhaps just symbolic of how Oswald thinks of himself, as one of the later Fazbear Frights stories also has a similarly described scene in which that is the case, and the boy is actually revealed to be fully transformed and trapped inside of a Freddy animatronic despite it, but either way, I think it’s certainly food for thought and is worth noting.

Again, I don’t personally subscribe to this theory at this time, but not subscribing to something isn’t a good reason to hide that evidence towards it may indeed arguably exist.

And now, saving the most in-depth and (to me) most interesting for last, I…kind of want to talk a little bit about potential parallels here. After listening to several stories by now, something that’s kind of stood out to me is the idea that a lot of these books could actually have something important to say about — or, even when not exactly about, at least possess a strong and important connection to — one of the Aftons or the Emilys.

Obviously, this is going to rely a lot on personal interpretation, and I know there are going to be a lot of people who disagree with me on this, but…to me, I think Into the Pit — and actually its entire book as a whole, minus the Stitchwraith — is actually sharing insight about Michael, and his relationship with his family and with himself.

I know there are plenty of people who probably think that if anyone’s a parallel to Oswald, it’s Garret, and if anyone’s a parallel to To Be Beautiful’s Sarah, it’s Elizabeth, but I couldn’t disagree more; there’s actually very little alike between these characters at all from how we know them in the game’s canon.

I’ll get into explaining my thoughts on To Be Beautiful later when the time comes to discuss that story, but as far as Oswald and game canon Garret, they only really have three common threads, and even then, that’s only if we dig super deep into things: he’s scared of a golden animatronic, he (in the case of Garret, thinks that he) saw something at the Pizzeria that was terrifying, and he has a bully that sometimes bothers him.

One of these connections, too, is also extremely surface-level: while we could at least make the argument that Garret likely thinking he saw a person being eaten by an animatronic when they were being put into a plush mascot costume and growing to fear Fredbear from it has at least some vague similarity to Oswald seeing the Yellow Thing™️ murdering kids and then fearing it, Oswald’s bully is less of an active tormentor in his life (especially in the book, which is the original version of the story), and more just a general, constant annoyance when he goes to school who has no real connection to the rest of his plight — unlike Michael, who is intrinsically connected to the plight that Garret had and what happened to him, and who was a very, very prominent presence in his life. It’s also important to note that, not only are bullies a common issue to come up for children, but in the FNAF series, so are the animatronics doing scary things and killing people, and the main antagonist in the series is famously a golden one, so it’s really not like this is some big smoking gun.

Meanwhile, let’s look at the parallels between Michael and Oswald in the actual main bulk of the plot itself, rather than random attributes: 

While on the whole, Oswald does clearly love and care about his family, he and one particular family member frequently get into arguments and get on each other’s nerves because they are around each other constantly. They consistently misunderstand each other’s intentions at times, in ways that are quite detrimental to their view of each other, and this culminates one night into him deciding to play a cruel prank on that person and scare him, only for that prank to go horribly wrong, resulting in a golden animatronic taking that family member away from him (and, I might add, also a sustained head injury by said family member).

This is already literally the plot of FNAF 4, according to both it and multiple other games, and that’s not even taking into account the more controversial stance I personally take that the main night sections of FNAF 4 are actually William testing out his illusion disc technology on Michael by attaching illusion discs to his FNAF 1 style animatronics and setting them loose in the home a la The Twisted Ones (as supported by UCN), which we can connect again to Into the Pit and Oswald, as Oswald is, after his prank which ultimately took his family member from him, henceforth tormented by a version of Spring Bonnie that is extremely reminiscent of the nightmare animatronics, and has to set out on a journey throughout the rest of his story to right his wrong in whatever way he can, just as Michael dedicates the rest of his life to helping his lost brother and sister and the other lost spirits (which the game adaption of the book connects to further, by having Oswald save several children throughout many nights). It is also interesting to note that the game version choosing to make Oswald’s father one of Michael’s teenage friends also adds yet another connection to Michael and the incident that I suggest Oswald’s story parallels.

Also, Oswald has the exact toys in his room that Michael has in FNAF 4, if we are indeed to assume, as I do, that Michael is the protagonist of FNAF 4.

And not only that, I would also like to draw attention to one specific line Michael canonically wrote in the Security Logbook, when asked to list his favorite characters from movies, books, and television who showed bravery in the face of extreme obstacles, and talk about how he can relate their heroic journeys to his current experiences, he answers, “Clara, from The Immortal and the Restless, because everything about this place is crazy, and nobody seems to notice except me.” This is a direct parallel to how Oswald is stated to feel about his Dad and his current situation numerous times throughout the book, as he is told by everyone around him that everything is normal and no, there is no giant Yellow Rabbit around and his Dad isn’t missing; that is his Dad right there, even as he sees clearly that it is not.

A few people, including Gibi and…also myself, have noticed that a lot of Into the Pit’s dialogue — in the book version especially -- seems to be able to have a double meaning that could be interpreted as a metaphor about child abuse, or abuse in general, and how people can often appear one way in public, but end up entirely another as soon as they are alone with their victim, and no one else can see the monster they really are behind closed doors. 

While I won’t delve into the specifics of that (you can check out Gibi’s video if you’re interested; I’ll link it in the description below, and perhaps in the information tab above, as well), I do want to speak on how that could symbolism of duality could also pertain to Michael and the life he had with his father. As I’ll get into in a bit (and talk about even further in a future video), Michael out of all of the Afton children did not have the best childhood to begin with, and while I want to make it very clear for reasons pertaining to my personal beliefs that I am not implying that child abuse ever necessarily happened at William’s hand prior to the Bite of ‘83, I do strongly believe that it happened afterward in some shape or form for Michael (which FNAF 4, Sister Location, AND Help Wanted all strongly support in their own ways), and I think that Into the Pit could, in its own way, be seen to be referencing it.

Just…hear me out here. Spring Bonnie taking over Oswald’s Dad’s life after kidnapping him cannot be a coincidence. I mean, just think about it. Sure, maybe Michael and his Dad had their disagreements and troubles prior to the Bite, but it wasn’t until after the Bite of ‘83 that Michael came to see his Dad in a whole new light, because that incident changed his Dad. It made him into something different. Something so twisted by grief and so mangled by resentment for what Michael did that he slowly but surely turned into a monster — a monster that he often became in public only when he was wearing the Spring Bonnie suit, yet a monster that no one else recognized as such. All they saw was William, the loving, grieving father and owner of Fredbear’s who only wanted to make children happy — not the killer who kidnapped and murdered children as Michael would one day find him out to be, and not the man who in one way or another tortured his teenage son for his foolish mistakes at home, as though he wasn’t already being tortured enough by the memory.

In the fictional books, Spring Bonnie may have been pretending to be Oswald’s Dad, but in the real canon FNAF universe, Spring Bonnie was Michael’s Dad, and whether Michael knew it or not for the longest time, he represented everything that was wrong and dark in William.

Okay, so…let’s say it is possible to interpret this as being an intentional parallel to the incident of the Bite of ‘83 and Michael, as I purport; what, then, could the story be trying to tell us about him? What is it trying to get people thinking about that we don’t already know?

Well, firstly, as I said, I believe that every story in this particular Frights book has a strong connection and relevancy to Michael, so I think that the blatant parallel to his situation existing in the opening tale was placed there on purpose to get your attention and get you thinking about all of it, but I do feel it’s also trying to say something about the incident, as well — about part of Michael’s motivation for escalating his pranking towards his brother to the point of the incident which accidentally caused Garret’s death, and a potential glimpse into his general state of mind at the time.

In the book, Oswald had been growing increasingly frustrated with his home situation in general — feeling bored, entirely ignored and abandoned and displaced, and that his father had essentially chosen their entire town and Oswald’s grandma over Oswald himself — when his now-long distance best friend contacted him to coincidentally tell him by contrast how well his own life was going. This led to Oswald and his father getting into a fight in the car on the way to Jeff’s pizza about how much the boy’s life sucked and implying how little he felt his Dad cared about him and his well-being by comparison to everyone else, and once Oswald had been dropped off, this argument was the final straw in making him decide that he was finally going to actually act out in order to force his father to finally, truly acknowledge, put effort in, and show care for him, by hiding in the ballpit and making his dad worry about where he was.

By figuring out the obvious parallels between Michael and Oswald, I feel that we can get a fairly clear and easy picture of what it would say about Michael:

Even if for something of opposite reasons, William and Oswald’s father both would have been very busy with their jobs — with Oswald’s Dad doing it because of their family’s financial troubles, and William doing it because…well, he was a co-owner and crucial worker and performer at a highly successful, award-winning, up-and-coming restaurant and that sort of job is just naturally demanding. 

Combine this with the fact that it’s very clear based on the main games’ canonical lore that Michael was the least favored child of the Aftons in at least Williams’ eyes (no, the Silver Eyes’ lore does not count, as that is an alternate universe story, and, as I will later get into in the post about To Be Beautiful, Elizabeth being ‘unloved’ and/or borderline abused was very clearly not something that carries over from that universe into the games’ lore), and that the (accurately translated) UCN cutscenes very clearly imply that both Michael and Garret were equally suffering in their own ways, yet failed to recognize or turned a blind eye to each other’s pain and took out their frustration on each other in their own ways, and it becomes very clear that Michael’s feelings about his own Dad and his brother were likely the very same that Oswald felt about his Dad and the people around him.

From Oswald’s perspective, his Dad cared more about the town and the inconvenience his grandma would face at having to travel to the next town to visit if they moved than he cared about Oswald and how their current lifestyle was causing him to suffer.

From Michael’s perspective, his Dad cared more about his business (and the town by proxy, as they were the ones bringing in his success) and paying attention to and doting on his other two children than he cared about Michael and how forgotten and sidelined he felt as the oldest sibling.

And just like Oswald had a friend, Ben, from whom he heard about Ben’s ‘better’ life and parents, and whom he complained to about his own, Michael very clearly also had several friends to tell him about their potentially ‘better’ lives and more attentive parents, and whom he likely told about his troubles and how his younger siblings stole the spotlight from him, with Garret being the ‘worst’ culprit of them all, as not only did he prank him back and they got on each other’s nerves from time to time, but he was also William’s ‘favorite’ Afton child.

Putting two and two together, then, it’s fairly clear that the conclusion we come to is, while the two boys did prank each other and annoy each other already, each turning a blind eye to the other’s suffering, it was Michael’s feelings of being the unloved and forgotten child of the family that caused him to start acting out further, believing — like Oswald — that the only way to make his Dad remember he existed was by being a troublemaker (an “any attention is good attention” mindset) until William was finally forced to take notice of him.

That is what, at least according to my own understanding of the novel, I personally believe Into the Pit is trying to say, at least on a deeper level beyond the surface level non-conflicting information, like the year the MCI took place.

Taking it a step further with the William = Oswald’s Dad parallel, we could even say that in a way, Oswald’s Dad preferring in the book to refuse to acknowledge that their dead town was a lost cause and pack up and move on with his family is also a quite interesting and fitting metaphor to William’s later refusal to accept Garret’s death and move forward by focusing on the family and the children that he still had left…

It’s…an interesting thing to think about — how, like with Oswald’s Dad, perhaps if William had just accepted the loss of his son and turned to the family that he still had left, like accepting the dead town and taking the family that Oswald’s Dad had left away, perhaps William might have never done the things that he did; perhaps they might have lived a very happy life, all things considered — although, obviously each would have to grieve what was done. 

Perhaps Michael might have found understanding and not have had to die the horrific death that he did just to feel that he had made up for his mistakes; perhaps Elizabeth would not have to have met her tragic end through her father’s own desperate desire to bring back a child that was already gone, and his failure to look after those that still remained. And, if you believe that Mrs. Afton died, perhaps he would still be with Mrs. Afton to this day, and, she would be alive and happy — or, at least, semi-happy with the family that she had created with him.

However, all that aside, I believe I myself have said all that I wanted to say on the story by now, so I will just leave you with all of these thoughts to ponder on your own time.

Thank you for watching, and I hope you look forward to the next installment, which will be To Be Beautiful. I’m not sure when I will be able to get that scripted and get to working on it just yet, but I will do my best to get these up at a fairly decent pace. Right now, I’m looking at…once a month, if I’m lucky, but I’m not 100% sure; we will have to see how it goes. I…in time, I would like to do it more frequently, if possible, but, as it is currently, I am writing these already on my blog, so if you would like to go over to my blog and read some of the ones that already exist, feel free to do so. I have added parts to this video that were not on that post that this is based on, so bear in mind that there may be things added within these videos that are not in those posts, so it may be worth listening to, anyhow, even if you do decide to go there.

At any rate, ‘til then, take care — like and subscribe if you wish; I would really appreciate it — and, um, I love you all. 💕 Buh-bye.

[samrriegel]

As creators, it’s important that we strive to create a positive relationship between our content and community while still retaining our rights. With this in mind, we’d like to share our new content policy covering how you can use our IP.

(you can click the link embedded above or click the readmore. there is a lot of text!)

Everyone at Critical Role is extremely honored and humbled by the interest our incredible community has shown in the stories that we tell, the shows that we produce, and our company in general. We think it’s pretty amazing that our fans want to create artwork, websites, and other works (“Projects”) based on our intellectual property (“IP”). Our IP includes any unique material our team creates — things like the names of our campaigns (for example, Vox Machina and Mighty Nein), our characters (for example, Grog Strongjaw or Beauregard Lionett), story locations (like Whitestone or Nicodranas), company slogans (such as How Do You Want to Do This?), as well as written content and all related artwork, music, etc. We are generally cool with Projects that follow the rules outlined below, but we reserve the right to remove Projects that, in our view, misrepresent these rules or use our IP inappropriately. We want our fans to continue celebrating our world and sharing their talents with the community, but for Critical Role (“CR”) to exist as a company, our legal advisors have suggested we establish some ground rules for how our IP can be used!

1. What can I develop with Critical Role’s intellectual property (“IP”)?

Free stuff for the community to view, with some exceptions. Critical Role allows you to use, display and create derivative works based upon Critical Role’s IP, strictly for noncommercial (except as specifically provided below) community use. CR reserves the right to use our sole discretion to deny anyone the use of our IP at any time, for any reason or no reason. If we deny you the right to use our IP, you must stop developing, publishing, or distributing your Project immediately.

In all cases, the use of our IP with your Projects must be appropriate for our Critter Community. Projects cannot be defamatory, offensive (including but not limited to anything transphobic, sexist, homophobic, racist, ableist, ageist), or harmful to others (as determined solely by CR).

2. Can I create a project that is commercial in nature?

You may not create commercial Projects, including any Project that (without a written license agreement from us):

i) crowdsources any portion of its funding; ii) involves a business or legal entity; iii) gates the content with a paywall (e.g., Patreon, YouTube Premium, etc.), unless it is also legitimately available elsewhere for free; or iv) involves the sale of merchandise utilizing CR IP

We prohibit the use of our IP in interactive games, apps, and downloads. Please do not take any part of our IP (e.g., character appearance, character abilities, maps, icons, items, etc.) and use it in a game or app for other than your own private, noncommercial use. We do not allow any Projects utilizing our IP to appear in any app stores, including the Apple Store or Google Play, unless they have a written license agreement from us.

No monetized novels, theatricals or the like. You are not permitted to write, produce or create any novels, theatrical productions or other adaptations that include CR’s intellectual property without our express written permission.

Fan fiction is generally permitted (and enjoyed!) by CR, as long as the content is not monetized and otherwise follows the guidelines of this policy.

You are not permitted to manufacture, promote, or distribute (for free or otherwise) any merchandise (such as apparel, game pieces, accessories, etc.) that bear any CR IP without a separate, express written agreement between you and Critical Role.

Critical Role, on occasion, collaborates with and licenses third parties for the creation and distribution of Official CR Merchandise. These agreements are separate from this CR Fan Content Policy.

3. What about passive ad revenue?

This is one of those exceptions we mentioned earlier. We permit fans to promote their Projects on websites, streams, or videos and passively generate revenue through appropriate advertisements, including pre-roll ads, ad breaks, and sponsor ad overlays. No inappropriate direct ads or sponsorships—we alone decide what qualifies as inappropriate, but if you won’t see it on Critical Role, it is probably not appropriate.

We permit individual fans to solicit personal donations or offer subscription-based content while livestreaming, so long as non-subscribers can still watch the live stream concurrently. In other words, you may have your Project behind a paywall, so long as the Project is legitimately also available for free in some other way.

Your use of CR Content must be transformative in nature. You cannot simply re-upload our content. Examples of potential transformative works include:

Animatics

Compilation videos

Remix edits

Added commentary

Music/ music videos

Cosplay content

Art / draw alongs

GIFs / memes

React videos

For longform CR content: Originally 2 hours or more in length (e.g., Critical Role, Exandria Unlimited, and One-Shots)

CR allows your passive monetization of under 10 minutes of content usage per episode

CR may claim monetization or execute an automatic takedown for over 10 minutes of content usage per episode

For medium-length CR content: Originally between 1-2 hours in length (e.g., Between the Sheets, Narrative Telephone)

CR allows your passive monetization for under 5 minutes of content usage per episode

CR may claim monetization or execute an automatic takedown for over 5 minutes of content usage per episode

For short CR content: Under 60 minutes (e.g., Handbooker Helper, All Work No Play)

CR may claim monetization or execute an automatic takedown, which includes any “clips” or “memes”

4. Can my Project make reference to Critical Role?

We’d love that! Just make sure that your Project follows the other guidelines in this policy and clearly let people know it is a fan Project and not an official CR Project. That is, you are not permitted to state or imply that your Projects are affiliated with, sponsored, or approved by Critical Role. You may not create a Project in a manner that could cause other Critters to believe that it is an official CR work. If you share your Project with others, please conspicuously include the following disclaimer (e.g., on your Project’s website):

Portions of the materials used may contain trademarks and/or copyrighted works of Critical Role. This material is not official, is provided for free, noncommercial entertainment purposes only, and is not endorsed by Critical Role.

5. Can I create CR-related video content before the content is available on Critical Role’s YouTube channel?

No. Please be considerate. So it’s clear, any posting or other unauthorized disclosure of CR-created content prior to its official release on YouTube (or an authorized media-sharing platform) is strictly prohibited. In regards to spoilers, even after an episode’s release, spoilers can ruin a fan’s experience and we always aim to avoid them. Please be respectful of others and do not deliberately push plot reveals on people who are actively avoiding learning about them. If you are releasing fan content after its official release on the CR YouTube channels, we ask that you please offer spoiler disclaimers (or appropriate hashtags) as a courtesy.

6. What about CR fan art that’s shared publicly during or after a livestreamed RPG broadcast and before the VOD is available on YouTube?

Boy, we love ourselves some amazing Critter fan art. We also want to ensure that artists are taking every precaution not to spoil an episode before its official release on the CR YouTube channel. Please ensure that your artwork is not audiovisual in nature and follows the guidelines set forth in this policy. Again as a general courtesy, please include spoiler disclaimers (or appropriate hashtags) whenever possible.

7. Is all content in a Critical Role video available for use?

No. Certain CR videos contain music or other content that Critical Role doesn’t own. Critical Role, at times, enters into licenses with 3rd party content providers to enhance CR videos for viewing. Since CR cannot grant you a license to use someone else’s content, you’ll need to get permission from the copyright owner(s) before using their content. If you include non-Critical Role music or other content in your video, do so at your own risk. Your video could be subject to filtering or takedown notices by the owner of the copyright in the original work.

8. Can I use Critical Role’s Logos or Trademarks?

Generally, no, and only in limited instances. Use of Critical Role’s brands, logos, character names, actor names, actor and character likenesses and other IP are only to be used in connection with the discussion of Critical Role works, Official Products and non-commercial Projects in compliance with this Policy. Critical Role expressly prohibits uses of its Trademarks to promote your business or merchandise. You may not register domain names, social media accounts, or similar stuff that uses any of our trademarks, trade names, character names, etc. without expressed written consent.

You definitely may not use any CR trademarks as keywords, titles, or search tags for products that are infringing or counterfeit.

9. Can Critical Role use my Project?

Yes. We want fans to create and share cool things with each other, and we want to remove barriers to sharing. Because you are using Critical Role IP, if we celebrate or spotlight a fan Project, or make something that somehow resembles a fan Project, by posting it publicly you give Critical Role permission to spotlight or share your Project with the world. By using Critical Role IP in the creation of your Project you give CR authorization to share your Project in any way at our sole discretion. Critical Role will always attempt to contact artists in these instances and/or provide proper artist credit whenever possible.

10. What if my Project is not covered here?

If your creative efforts are not covered by this Policy, you’ll need our prior, written approval before you put it out in the world. If you have any questions or creative content you want to make that isn’t covered by this Policy, contact us by sending us an email to info@critrole.com. Written approval is required for Projects that are outside of the scope of this policy.

If you don’t hear from us, it does not mean we approve of your requested use of our IP.

11. Anything else?

Yes. Critical Role reserves the right to change this Policy at any time with no notice whatsoever, but we’ll do our best to communicate any changes widely as soon as we can in the interest of remaining transparent with you.

Please note that we are constantly developing new content and creating new IP that will fall under these guidelines.

Thank you so much for your attention to this policy. Our main goal is to ensure that the Critical Role community remains creative and vibrant as it’s always been. Our content policy will protect what we own today for the long haul so that we can continue to create magic for all of you for many years to come. If you have any questions at all, please reach out to us at info@critrole.com or via critrole.com/contact.

[lucemferto]

WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT PH1LZA (or Why Philza is a Victim of Narrative Circumstance)

Heyo! Per request I am posting the script to my video of the same name here on tumblr. I must warn you that just reading the script will probably not give you the full experience, so I would encourage you to watch the video (linked above).

There might also still be a lot of grammatical errors in the text, because I don’t proofread.

Intro

LAST TIME ON LUCEM FERTO

Okay, so! I don’t want this to turn into a reaction channel OR a Dream SMP channel for that matter! [echo]

Well, I lied.

[Intro to “Luc is pretentious about the funny blockmen. Episode 2”]

I swear, I’m working on other stuff. It’s just that my dumb lizard brain has only capacity for one interest at a time!

So, something you might not know about me, is that I am on tumblr – who am I kidding, most of you will know me from tumblr. Before starting this whole YouTube thing, I thought that website died years ago – but as per usual reality proves me wrong. I’m also on Twitter and Reddit, but I get the most engagement on tumblr – by far! – and I need those sweet, sweet numbers for the serotonin!

Anyways, one of my favourite past-times on tumblr is to razz Philza Hardcore Minecraft – that’s his full name – for being a frankly awful father [clicking away] – wait, wait, no! Philza fans, this isn’t a hit piece on him, I promise! Please come back!

This is video is meant to be a companion piece to my previous video about Technoblade and the Doomsday event – you can tell by the shared nomenclature – so you should probably watch that one before you proceed. Unless you don’t want to, which is also perfectly understandable.

DISCLAIMER: This video is mostly about the character Philza plays on the Dream SMP. Whenever I talk about the content creator Philza, I will say so properly. Also, Spoiler Warning for Dream SMP Season 2.

… What is that? You’re wondering what the Dream SMP is? Well, if you had just watched the other video like I told you to do, you would know, because I explained it pretty well there. But in case you don’t know, here’s the cliff notes.

Dream SMP is the hottest New Media Series on Twitch right now! It has it all: gaslighting, child soldiers, Machiavellian political intrigue, Hamilton roleplay, desecration of the dead, shounen protagonists, SO! MUCH! AMNESIA! Filicide, furries, a red egg that’s definitely homophobic and teenagers inventing nuclear warfare. And it’s all done in Minecraft – yes, the funny block game where the only way to emote is to crouch.

And you say the perfect brief doesn’t exist!

Now, you might be wondering, why do I want to talk about this? Well, it’s because Content Creator Philza is one of least controversial internet personalities that I can think of. That man exudes pure comfort. So, it’s just very, very amusing to me that his character became one of the most controversial figures on the SMP, only outshone by Tommy and Technoblade.

And it’s not just amusing, it’s also extremely interesting! I want to dig deep to uncover and discuss the dynamics behind why that is. How did it come to this point? How did a man who appears genuinely so pleasant create a character that inspires so much discourse!

Now, if you watched that Technoblade video – like I told you to twice now! – you might know, that I am the resident character analyses hater of fandom! And that impression is false and slanderous! Don’t tell other people that I hate character analyses! I love them!

It’s just that, in the Dream SMP in particular, there is an abundance of character analyses! Every streamer has at least two very good essays written about them, exploring every possible angle to view their characters and backgrounds and everything. All I’m saying is: I don’t have anything to add on that front.

So, instead I want to pursue a different approach – something, that I feel is a bit underrepresented in the fandom! And I’m not just talking narrative analysis – that’s right, this episode we’re going even more pretentious! – I’m talking Transtextual Analysis!

Now, what is Transtextuality? Well, unfortunately it has very little to do with actual Trans people – #transrights, just in case that wasn’t obvious – but instead describes a mode of analysis with which to put – to quote French literary theorist Gérard Genette – “the text in a relationship, whether obvious or concealed, with other texts”.

Basically, you know how the L’Manburg War of Independence heavily quotes and borrows from the hit musical Hamilton? That’s transtextuality! A lot of the analyses surrounding how Tommy mirrors the Greek hero Theseus, who was invoked by Technoblade multiple times in the series, are already doing transtextual analysis! So, it’s really not something that’s new to the Dream SMP fandom.

But how does this apply to Philza and how he is looked at and judged by his parental skills? Well, there are multiple forms of transtextuality, two of which we will discuss today.

But before we continue, I gotta do that annoying YouTuber thing. I know these videos don’t look like much, but I spend a really long time making them. I work fulltime and I try my best to keep up, but sometimes I can’t. So please, like, subscribe, comment to give me some algorithm juice – I really need it – and most importantly share it! Share it with your friends, share it with your family – I’m sure Grandma is very interested in what I have to say about Philza Minecraft.

And I’m trying to be better! If I sound at all different for this video, it’s because I finally bought a new pop filter, so I can hit my plosives without it sounding like there’s a thunderstorm in my room. I hope it makes a difference; it was a very cheap pop filter, so maybe it doesn’t. Maybe it sounds worse – that would be bad!

What was I talking about? Oh yeah, CHILD NEGLEGT!

 Intertextuality: Why is Dadza?

You know what’s really interesting about the Dream SMP – aside from, you know, most things about it? Very few of the characters have concrete, fleshed-out backstories – and that’s pretty weird! In no other medium or genre could you get away with something like that – at least for long-form storytelling!

So, how does Dream SMP get away with this? Well, it’s because every character on the Dream SMP is basically a self-insert – and I don’t mean that in the “This character is based on me”-kinda way, but in the “This character, for all intents and purposes, is me!”-way. This, like many things that are fascinating about the Dream SMP, is owed to the fact that this series didn’t start off as a continuous drama – it started off as a Let’s Play.

And while we can talk about how someone’s on-camera/on-mic persona is in some ways a character, it’s still miles off of being an actual, fully-realized, separate character in a storyline.

This is where Intertextuality comes in.

Intertextuality is a subset of Transtextuality. It describes how the hypertext, which is the text, you’re currently engaged with, uses another text, the hypotext, to supplement itself. The interconnection the hypertext establishes with the hypotext, through stuff like allusion for example, uh-hum [Hamilton], can colour how an audience interprets the hypertext. Basically, Hamilton and Theseus are the hypotexts; the Dream SMP is the hypertext.

So, what does this have to do with backstory? Simple: The backstories of the characters in the Dream SMP consist basically of nothing but intertextual references. Through intertextuality their content effectively substitutes their character’s backstory.

You can see it everywhere. Wilbur’s and Schlatt’s relationship and rivalry is hugely enriched, if you are aware of their shared history like SMPLive, for example – I think anyway. I haven’t watched SMPLive, because … there’s only so many hours in the day and I cannot keep up with the Dream SMP and catch up on SMPLive and live a healthy life – which I already don’t do, so…

BadBoyHalo’s and Skeppy’s relationship, which has become the crux of the Crimson-Storyline of Seasons 2 and 3, is hugely supplemented if you know that they’re also very close as streamers and in real life.

Another great example of intertextuality is basically Technoblade’s entire deal. If you just look at him completely within the text of the Dream SMP and try to transplant his entrance to any other medium: It would be extremely weird! Like, he’s just this guy that comes in in the middle of a very climatic arc, no build-up, no explanation what his deal is, and he’s treated like he has always been there. In any other medium that just wouldn’t work – at least not without a flashback or some sort of exposition!

But because of stuff like Minecraft Mondays, the Potato Wars, his Duel against Dream and SMPEarth, we understand that he is a Big Deal!

Anyways, to bring all of this back to Philza Minecraft: What kind of hypotext informs how the audience sees his character? Well, this is where I will have to talk about SBI.

SBI is an acronym that stand for State Bank of India, the 43rd largest bank in the world and…

It also stands for Sleepy Bois Incorporated. Sleepy Bois Incorporated is a loose assembly of content creators, consisting of Philza, Wilbur Soot, TommyInnit and Technoblade. It is most well-known for its very endearing family dynamic – a dynamic that is frequently acknowledged and played up by the creators involved. Tommy is the youngest brother, Wilbur and Techno are the two older brothers and Philza is of course the dad. And when I say, it’s played up, I really mean it! Wilbur seems to be especially enamoured with the idea and leaves no opportunity untaken to bring it up – which we will come back to.

And I’m not saying that they’re faking this and this is somehow an act. While I know none of these people personally, it appears to me, that this is genuinely how they interact – if a little exaggerated for the streaming experience. Even when they’re not consciously playing into the family dynamic, their interactions still very much lend themselves to that interpretation by the viewers.

Philza especially just radiates Dad-Friend energy – so much so that it has become a huge part of his brand identity – yay, I can bring that back (check out my Christmas video if you want to hear me ramble about that). The nickname Dadza stuck even before SBI was a thing.

So, even if we completely disregard SBI – which we shouldn’t for reasons I’ll get back to – Philza has cultivated an image of strong paternal guidance. He is, in my opinion completely deservedly, regarded very positively. He is highly respected and in turn seen as a voice of reason.

All of this would eventually inform the hypotext of the character Philza within Dream SMP.

 Interlude: Before Dadza & November 16th

Okay, so now we have established that a) Dream SMP heavily hinges on intertextual readings by the audience to supplement character backstory and b) that Philza’s entire deal is that he’s the dad-friend – more specifically that he’s the dad of SBI (not the bank). I think you know where this is going.

So, yeah, ever since it was on the table that Philza could join the Dream SMP, it was immediately assumed that he would take on the paternal guardian role all these traumatized people on that server so desperately needed – and with good reason! Like I said before, the audience at this point was trained to take intertextual interpretations as basically canon or at the very least canon-adjacent.

I want to emphasize that this is most likely not done deliberately. I’m sure content creators Wilbur and Philza didn’t sit there and said: “Yes! We will rely entirely on the audience’s inclination to interpret our characters intertextually to define character Philza!”. Like, obviously that did not happen.

But it’s also important to remember that unlike with traditional media and the fanbases cultivated there, the separation between the Dream SMP and its audience is almost non-existent – and purposely so. The story events are streamed live, Chats are acknowledged in canon and even outside of livestreams creators are extremely involved with the fandom. So, the weight of fan-expectations is equally amplified and will more likely be incorporated into the writing process. Case in point:

[Wilbur “I miss Philza”/Philza about Wilbur]

During Wilbur’s villain arc, even before his official involvement, Philza became a prevalent point of discussion. The hope that he would be the one to snap Wilbur out of his downward spiral was not only wish-fulfilment on behalf of the fans; it also very much played off of the intertextual reading of the SBI-dynamic in relation to the Dream SMP.

Of course, this still doesn’t make Philza and Wilbur canonically blood-related – but it definitely used the “paternal”-dynamic of SBI to build-up tension and drama.

And that ultimately brings us to November 16th. The Grand Finale of Season 1 and Philza’s first canonical appearance on the SMP.

Now, for this I want to pull back from the transtextual analysis and talk about simply narrative analysis: What is Philza’s narrative purpose on November 16th?

Philza serves as the last threshold on Wilbur’s Villain’s Journey – to appropriate Vogler’s version of the monomyth for a minute here – he is what Vogler calls the “Threshold Guardian”. He is the last enemy the Hero faces before completing his quest – in this particular case Wilbur’s quest is to blow up L’Manberg. Multiple people have at this point tried to dissuade him from this course of action: Tommy, Quackity, Niki and others. So how come this Philza moment is not redundant in terms of dynamics compared to these prior scenes?

Well, it’s through our intertextual understanding of Wilbur’s and Phil’s relationship. Because Philza does not just occupy the role of the Threshold Guardian – he is also implicitly the Mentor. Before Phil there was no character in the storyline that held a higher position of moral authority than Wilbur – Dream and Schlatt, while at points more powerful in terms of actual authority, were never positioned by the narrative as Wilbur’s superiors in the same way as Wilbur was to Tommy, Tubbo or even Niki.

Before November 16th all challenges Wilbur faced were from people narratively subordinated to him. But that trend is broken with Phil. That is why he is the Threshold Guardian, why this confrontation is at the climax of Wilbur’s arc. Because Phil is the last thing tethering Wilbur to whatever morality he held before his villain arc; Phil is the last, moral obstacle Wilbur has to discard before gaining his reward.

And, just a quick sidenote, because I’ve seen it around the fandom a bunch: When I’m referring to Wilbur denouncing his morality, I’m using that in terms of narrative analysis. I’m mentioning it, because Wilbur’s character can very easily be read as mentally ill or neurodivergent and some people have – rightly! – pointed out that the excessive vilifying when talking about his character is … problematic, to say the least.

So, I just want to make clear, this isn’t a character analysis, I’m being purposely broad when talking about Wilbur and Phil.

In the end, Wilbur takes that final step and gets his “reward”: As his final request his mentor takes his life and vanquishes the evil – the dragon of Wilbur’s story slays the dragon of L’Manburg. It’s very Shakespearean in its tragedy – but beyond the larger theatrics it’s not really used to further characterize Phil – at least in the context of Season 1. There’s not a lot of focus on his characters internal conflict during November 16th.

Phil, like Techno, is very utilitarian in how content creator Wilbur writes him: He serves as a moment of hype; an obstacle Wilbur has to face; a participant in the tragic climax of Wilbur’s character and ultimately takes on his implicit and expected role of mentor and guiding figure to the rest of L’Manburg.

I think not a lot of people talk about how Philza does not join Technoblade during November 16th. He takes the side of L’Manburg – he fights against the withers and he joins Tommy, Tubbo and the others at the L’Mantree, thus framing him as loyal to the L’Manburg administration – even though Season 2 would make his loyalty to Techno central to his character. But more on that later.

What’s also important about November 16th is that this is the day when the general intertextual interpretation became canonized text.

[You’re my son!]

Wilbur is made Phil’s canonical, biological son. The intertextual interpretation of SBI as it pertains to these two characters on the SMP was completely reinforced by the narrative. Or to put it in Fandom terms: The headcanon became actual canon. At least when it came to Wilbur … but what about Philza’s “other” children?

Well, that leads to our second form of transtextual analysis:

 Paratextuality: Is Dadza?

These titles are just getting better and better.

The Paratext is defined as all those things in a published work that accompany the text. It comes in two forms: One of them is the Peritext, which are non-diegetic elements directly surrounding the text – like chapter titles, author’s notes, and stuff like that. Translated to the medium of the Dream SMP, it would be stuff like this:

[Examples]

And, trust me, I could make a whole separate video about how people on the SMP use their peritext as a tool for storytelling – I’m looking at you, Ranboo – but that’s not what we will talk about in the context of Dadza.

Instead, we will focus on the second form of Paratext, the Epitext, which consists of all authorial and editorial discussions taking place outside of the text. That’s stuff like interviews, private letters or J. K. Rowling’s Twitter Account – you know, before she decided to become a full-time asshole.

[Wilbur: Transrights]

After Season 1 ended, Wilbur indulged pretty heavily in providing epitext for the Dream SMP, something he had not done prior to November 16th. His paratextual additions ranged from the playful, like assigning DnD alignments to various SMP members, to the extremely impactful, like the whole three lives system!

You probably think, you know where this is going. Wilbur provided some epitext about how Tommy and Techno either are or are not biologically related to him … and I have to be honest I thought that too. But then I began looking into the impenetrable web that is the SBI-canon on the Dream SMP and found this!

[Ghostbur explains family]

So, it wasn’t paratext, it was just straight text. Said in character, in canon, without any implication that we the viewers should question this. The text of the SBI family dynamic was explicitly linked to Dream SMP-exclusive lore, namely Fundy being Wilbur’s and Sally the Salmon’s son. This is as clear as Philza’s anguished declaration on November 16th in establishing the intertext as text. And because Wilbur also had a very heavy hand in the discussion of paratext around that time, it gave his character’s words even more “canonical” weight. Metatextually speaking, this very much read like the author giving exposition through his character – exposition that we should understand as reliable.

And, by the way, before I continue, I need to give a huge, huge shoutout to kateis-cakeis on tumblr, I hope I pronounced that right, who was just so quick in providing me with these crucial clips. Without him I would have looked for days because these people don’t archive their shit! And the Dream SMP Wiki was NO help, by the way! I love what you guys do, but stuff like this belongs in the Trivia section on characters’ pages!

Anyways, basically during the entirety of early Season 2 the SBI family dynamic was basically canon to the SMP. Sometimes it was only alluded implicitly, again letting the intertext fill out the rest.

[Philza clips]

But just as often it was just explicitly talked about – both in the text and in the paratext.

[Fundy clip/Wilbur “Twins” clip/Tommy clip]

So, I know what you’re thinking: “Why is this part called paratext, if the entire family tree is just textual”. Well, that last clip might give you a hint, as to what I will talk about. Notice how Tommy, one of the people most directly impacted by the canonization of SBI lore, is both unaware of and seems generally unenthused about it, to put it nicely? Well, that would soon turn out to be a much bigger deal than anyone could have imagined as he wasn’t the only one.

[Technoblade decanonizes SBI]

Yeah …

This happened on 20th of December. Regular viewers of this channel will remember that I put out a 90-second joke video, where I complain about this very development. And while I was mostly kidding around, the core idea is still true. The paratext provided by Technoblade and established text were in direct contradiction with one another – and that brought a lot of confusion into the fandom. Confusion, that would soon be followed by frustration.

Because Techno only decanonized himself as part of the SBI family dynamic – but what about Tommy and Tubbo, the latter of which was incorporated into the dynamic exclusively within the lore of the Dream SMP. Was this still canon or wasn’t it?

What followed was a muddled mess of contradictions, intertextual implications, text and paratext in conflict with each another. It was for the most part inscrutable to figure out how Tommy and Philza related to one another. I’ll spare you every comment made about this – mostly because I want to spare myself from looking for all of them.

In the end, the current status is that their familial relationship is … unclear. Philza said, again in paratext, that it’s ultimately up to the writers to decide, whether or not Tommy is his son … which, I personally think he and Tommy should be the ones to establish that, but I’ll come back to that later.

But why is all of this important anyway? Why would this ambiguity create such an uproar, such controversy – especially when it comes to Tommy’s character? What makes Tommy’s and Philza’s relationship such a target for discussion in the fandom?

Well … this is where we will have to talk about the storyline of Season 2.

Interlude II: Tommy’s Exile and Dadza in Season 2

Okay, Season 2. This is where the spoilers are, so I will just sneakily drop this again. It took me five seconds to google this gif and I will milk it for every penny it’s worth!

At the beginning of Season 2, Philza’s narrative role has not changed much from where Season 1 ended. He is in L’Manburg dispensing earthly wisdom, being a paternal figure to Fundy, Ghostbur and Tubbo, helping with the nation’s rebuilding efforts; just generally occupying the role of the mentor.

[clips]

And then came … the Exile. The Exile Arc took place between December 3rd and December 15th during Season 2 of the Dream SMP. It revolves around TommyInnit getting exiled from L’Manburg and slowly getting psychologically tortured and broken down by Dream. It’s a really great arc, at least in my opinion, that explores and deepens a lot of Tommy’s character relationships, whether that be Tommy and Dream, Tommy and Tubbo or Tommy and Ranboo. One relationship, however, is noticeably missing.

So, yeah, Philza spends basically the entirety of the exile doing pretty much nothing of consequence. And that’s not a problem specific to him – One big criticism I would levy against the Exile Arc is that a lot of characters are left spinning their wheels. Which is why we get zany stuff like El Rapids, Drywaters, Eret’s Knights of the Roundtable, Boomerville – anyone remember Boomerville, that was a thing for 5 seconds, wasn’t it? – basically a lot of storylines are started and then unceremoniously dropped. Now, I will talk more about this, when I make a video about Season 2 of the Dream SMP … in ten years, look forward to it.

In the case of Philza, this inaction was especially damning, because at this point it was still a considered canon that he was Tommy’s dad. So, the fans were left with a situation, where just a few weeks prior Philza was occupying a paternal role for Fundy and Ghostbur … but now, that his youngest son was in a very concerning predicament – to put it lightly – he was nowhere to be found.

So why is that?

Well, the most obvious answer is that Dream and Tommy didn’t write him into the storyline. We’ve seen that Tommy wasn’t particularly interested in exploring a familial relationship to Philza, at least at the time. And it would just not fit in with what Dream and Tommy tried to do with the Exile Arc: they wanted to tell the story of Tommy being isolated, completely under Dream’s mercy, slowly worn down and manipulated. If Philza had been constant presence for Tommy during that time, it would have definitely shifted the narrative focus. That doesn’t mean that they couldn’t have done that, it’s just a matter of fact that they didn’t.

This also reveals another truth about content creator Philza’s character work, that I think is extremely crucial: He takes what the writers give him. Outside of a few choice moments, he doesn’t seem particularly interested in expanding or even solidifying his character on the SMP.

What I’m saying is that he is very go-with-the-flow: Wilbur wants to enact a Shakespearean tragedy? Philza’s up for it. Fundy wants him as a parental figure and mentor? Philza’s here for him. Tommy, conversely, doesn’t want him as a paternal presence, even though it would make sense for Philza’s character, as it was established so far, to be there? Philza will oblige.

The reason I’m mentioning this is because, while Tommy and Dream were unwilling to utilise Philza in their storyline, someone else was more than happy to. Which leads us back, like it always does, to everyone’s favourite Porky Pig-kinnie in a crown: Technoblade.

Technoblade and Philza, from everything I’ve seen of them, seem to be very good friends – and they share a lot of history even outside SBI. So, it’s commendable that they would collaborate on a storyline together.

A consequence of that, however, is that Philza’s narrative purpose shifts completely with very little transition. His entire character changes from being the Mentor-figure of L’Manberg to being pretty much exclusively defined as Technoblade’s ally; his man on the inside. It is a very sharp turn from the end of Season 1. Their relationship is once again informed via intertext – this time the Antarctic Empire on SMPEarth serves as the hypotext – but there isn’t a huge effort made to smoothly integrate that aspect of Philza’s character into the larger narrative framing around him.

How much the narrative utilisation of Philza has shifted can be very easily observed through the Butcher Army event on December 16th, a story event that I like less and less the more I think about. Here Philza is used to show just how corrupt and violent Tubbo’s administration has becomes. He is no longer the respected mentor, he is now the stand-in for the oppressed populace, similar to Niki’s role in Season 1. On a narrative level, he is here to prove a point.

If you’ve seen my Technoblade video, you know how I feel about … just that entire storyline, so I will not reiterate too much on it. I just want to make clear that I’m not principally against this development – if they wanted to truly explore Tubbo going down a dark path and getting corrupted by power, so much so that he would even treat the person who effectively raised him like a prisoner, I would be extremely here for it, I cannot stress that enough.

The problem I have is that it’s just so sloppily done. It is not coherent with how these characters behaved and, more importantly, how they were narratively framed prior to the Butcher Army event. Fundy gets one token line about Phil being his Grandfather – a far cry from the very emotionally complex relationship they had established at the beginning of Season 2 – and Phil then callously disowns him.

The major problem simply is that we don’t see how Philza changes from Mentor-figure to embittered, oppressed citizen. And there was enough time to build to that. During the entirety of Tommy’s exile Tubbo was pretty much spinning his wheels and Quackity and Fundy were opening up plot cul-de-sacs that didn’t end up going anywhere. This is time they could have spent on developing their relationship to Philza and the dark path they were going down – but again, Season 2 video.

There is not much to say on Philza’s narrative purpose and framing beyond the Butcher Army event. He remains pretty much exclusively Techno’s consigliere with his role as Mentor to L’Manburg a distant memory. He has some cute character moments with Ranboo, because content creator Philza is just big dad-energy whether he wants to or not, and whenever he and Ghostbur share a scene suddenly the narrative remembers that there are people other than Technoblade that should exist in Philza’s inner world. But aside from that, Philza’s storyline in Season 2 remains … pretty definitive is the nicest way I can put it.

Most importantly his relationship with Tommy continues to be completely unexplored – whether by chance or choice – and that combined with ever vaguer paratext leaves “Dadza” in a very peculiar situation.

 Conclusion: Is Dadza a Good Dadza?

So, the question to end all questions. The big, obnoxious text, that I will probably have put in the thumbnail – I haven’t made it yet, but I know myself. The honest answer is: I couldn’t tell you.

I have, in the past, been expounding the virtues of narrative analysis. That is because I feel that Narrative Analysis and Textual Analysis, like in this video, can provide certain tools that Character Analysis lacks. Often times I see people trying to get at a writing problem or query and getting frustrated because they’re not using the toolset, they need to figure out what they want to figure out.

But I’d be a hypocrite if I pretended like everything could be solved through the modes of analysis I prefer. And I think the Dadza-issue is exactly such a case.

I set out to explore why the Philza-Tommy-“Dadza”-relationship has become so controversial. It’s a combination of expectations build up through intertextual readings, that were partly canonized – something that is very common for the Dream SMP – conflicting pieces of paratext, which only serve to muddle the issue further and a text that is not only completely uninterested in actually exploring Tommy’s and Philza’s relationship – as it stands right now they might as well be strangers, narratively speaking – but also completely changes Philza’s narrative purpose as it relates to characters like Fundy or Tubbo about half-way through with little to no transition.

That is why I say, that Philza’s character is a victim of narrative circumstance. Because unwittingly, through all of these factors and decisions, there is not coherent reading of Philza that frames his parental skills in a particularly kind light.

The question of how we can judge Phil as a paternal figure ultimately falls within the purview of the character analysis – and that’s a very multifaceted issue, highly dependent on which POV you focus on and how you interpret the other characters in that POV’s periphery.

To put my cards on the table, I think that Philza is a very flawed father/father-figure – and I find that absolutely okay. Flaws are the spice of character building. He is not Cinderella’s Evil Stepmother – but he’s also definitely not Mufasa. If we were to read Philza as a paternal figure, then he would have made a lot of mistakes and decisions to the detriment of his “children” – least of all everything that happened on Doomsday.

But I also have sympathies for Philza fans who are tired of the Dad-Debate and would like to have his character judged independent from his relationship to Ghostbur, Fundy, Tubbo and Tommy.

Ultimately, to bring it all to a point, I’d like to end with saying, that I think that Philza, out of all the characters on the SMP, has the potential to be on of the most intriguing, multifaceted ones. There are all of these different patches of story, character moments and narrative and transtextual implications, that, if brought together, could create a beautiful tapestry of the character Philza.

You have his relationship with Techno, which holds the potential for so much emotional conflict and vulnerabilities, you have his time as mentor of L’Manburg, which is just criminally underused; the complex relationship between him and Ghostbur/Wilbur; and – for me, personally – most intriguingly this weird, almost uncomfortably distant non-relationship with Tommy. That last one is intriguing to me, because it contrasts just so much with our intertextual understanding of the characters and streaming personas – and it just holds the potential for so much conflict, so much drama, so much angst. Which I live for!

And, yes, I do believe that most of this is narrative happenstance, that this was largely not intended by Philza or really any of the writers. It’s just what happens when hybrid-roleplay-improv a long-running, livestreamed storyline in Minecraft.

But I want them to realize the potential they have on their hands, because it could – with barely any adjustments – turn Philza from a victim of narrative circumstance to a champion of it!

 Outro

Thank you so much for watching this video. Usually, I don’t record outros this standard, but after this beast of a video I felt it necessary. I hope that whether you’re a Philza fan or a Philza critical or just completely uninvolved in the whole thing, there is at least a little entertainment you could get from this.

I want to take this opportunity to say that my next few videos will probably not be Dream SMP related – a sentence which undoubtedly lost me a bunch of subs – simply because I don’t want to burn out on it. I genuinely enjoy watching the SMP and being exhausted by it would be something I wouldn’t want to force on myself.

But who knows what will happen? The Karl Jacobs video was something I did spur of the moment because the idea just came to me – so I can’t guarantee that the next video won’t be a three-minute joke about Purpled or whatever.

Anyway, my concrete plans for future Dream SMP videos are essays on Season 1 and Season 2 as well as one for Tales from the SMP.

Before that I have a longer video in the works, which I’ve already teased a bunch, so I hope it will finally be finished sometime. And I also may be working on something … eboys-related? Maybe. I’m not making any promises!

[contentbaer]

How to build White Hat SEO Links for Contentbär SEO

So, how do you go about doing true White Hat SEO link building these days? This is perhaps the most often asked question of mine.

To be honest, there is a LOT of incorrect material on the internet about how to accomplish link building that isn't "WHITE HAT."

To be clear, requesting for links for the sole goal of getting them is against Google Webmaster Guidelines and hence not “white hat.”

The good news is that you may now produce a significant return on investment without manually establishing links. Today, I'm going to show you how I've been able to naturally grow links and generate cash without writing a single email, guest post, purchasing a PBN, or doing anything else that link builders do to build links, and how you can do the same.

Does that make sense? Let's get started.

Build Authority for Contentbär Contest Using Your Market's Vulnerabilities

SEO is marketing, not magic. I've said it before, and I'll say it again: it's not magic. Rankings for keywords and links are only a small element of marketing that will ideally result in dollar signs. So, if you could find alternative ways to get revenue outside rating a webpage, wouldn't you want to? The importance of competitor research cannot be overstated.

Here's how to spot flaws in your specialty, as well as how to turn those flaws into natural links and long-term advantages. Take a look at your top 3-5 competitors' platforms to discover where they perform the poorest and best. Determine what works and what doesn't for them.

Is it skyscraper (long form) content that they're after? Maybe 10 minute Youtube videos with unique layouts? Do they have a successful Twitter outreach strategy? and so on. The argument is that if you're just starting out and want links, don't reinvent the wheel; instead, concentrate on establishing authority. To put it another way, strive to copy what your competitors are doing first and then innovate, rather than the other way around.

Consider the following scenario: Because the market on YouTube was so undersaturated in comparison to Google when I launched my SEO service, I started developing big content there. I now have 25k subscribers and over 1 million views on my YouTube channel, and I generate clients, backlinks, reviews, and other revenue from that asset alone on a regular basis. That isn't all, though.

I'm able to divert traffic to new assets that I want to promote and make money off of, such as Facebook groups, blog entries, courses, and so on, thanks to the authority I've built on YouTube. And, if I choose, I can leverage the authority and viewership I've built on Youtube to build links simply by discussing the new assets I'm developing.

In a moment, I'll expand on this. Value is quite important.

If you're having trouble getting links, it's likely that you're not providing enough value for your audience to link back to or share the material you're creating. Alternatively, you may have no audience at all. That is why you must have a strong foundation.

Look, it may seem obvious, but figuring out who you're selling to and what they genuinely want in the first place, if you haven't already, is critical. At the end of the day, you must understand: There are two categories of users who will see your article.

People who are likely to purchase from you

Individuals who will link to you There are some similarities here, but for the most part, people who buy from you are unlikely to connect back to you. So, at first, your content and authority development should ideally be aimed toward the people who will connect to you.

Is that clear?

Doing a roundup or an interview is a great approach to gain links from these folks. Pitchbox is my favorite tool for this because it allows me to connect with some of the world's top experts in any subject with just a few clicks. Take, for example, a recent article I wrote about "the top SEO tools recommended by professionals." All of this outreach was automated, and it only took a few minutes to get the piece published. Every single one of these suggestions came from people with blogs and, in some cases, large social media followings. Not only do I get almost free content from people who know a lot about the subject I'm having them write about, but I also get the chance to gain a link from them in the future because they were mentioned in the piece.

Let's go one step further for Contentbär.

I also now have a direct line of communication with these individuals, so if any of them have unusually high authority in the industry, I could invite them to an interview on my Youtube channel, then give them the video and transcription to post on their site with a link back to me. Again, focusing on building connections and substance rather than going out to random website owners and asking for a link is a WAY better marketing strategy. Make something that people want to tell their friends about.

Figure out what your industry's true needs are if you really want to establish links. Some SEOs seems to only want to do the following:

Investigate keywords.

Find a keyword with a large search volume that appears to be profitable.

Create material based on a guess at the word count.

Inquire about linkages.

I'm hoping the page will be ranked.

For a variety of reasons, this is a bad plan.

If you want to rank for something, you should first check at what is already ranking well for that topic. It's possible that the content is already well-formatted, with thousands of words, video, photographs, comments, and so on, and in that case, simply putting words on a website isn't going to cut it.

You're trying to figure out why Google is giving that page such a high rating in the first place. It's usually because the post is something that people genuinely want.

After you've figured out these two things, you'll want to aim to beat the average user intent and go above and above in terms of not just word count, photos, video, and so on, but also in terms of beating whatever the average expectation for that post is.

If someone is looking for top gaming tips for "insert new game," and the best article on the market is some weak post about 3 strategies to win, which isn't even directly targeting what people are looking for, you could easily write an article on the top 5 gaming tips and rate it without a single link.

If you want to build links, though, you should aim to go above and beyond the average and make the top 50-100 gaming advice, and BOOM, you've got something special worth connecting to. In terms of naturally creating links, obviously you won't want to just generate content and hope someone reads it; instead, you'll want to use the strategies I outlined earlier to bring in more visitors. Here's how I'm going to promote the article you're reading right now.

Originally, I'll have it indexed by Google Search Console so that Google knows the stuff I'm authoring first appeared here.

After that, I'll make a video in which I read this article and add my own thoughts and observations. Once the film is released, I'll link it back to this page in the hopes of having it rank as a video in Google Search as well (making sure I add JSON-LD video markup to the post with a plugin I acquired).

Then I'll take the video and post it on my Facebook group, page, and personal profile in its native format. I'll publish the video to similar other SEO groups after I see how well it performs.

After that, I'll directly repost this post on Reddit. Then, to target recent visitors, I'll launch a remarketing campaign on Facebook advertisements.

Then I'll send an email to my 4k-strong email list, telling people to read the piece and watch the video. After that, I'll share this article on LinkedIn.

You get my drift. At the end of the day, my Youtube video or blog post may only receive a few hundred views and appear on Google's or Youtube's fourth page.

However, my article on various assets will acquire THOUSANDS of views before it even ranks, thus increasing the chances that I will obtain a link or a share.

So there you have it, that's how I develop links without going out and doing it myself, and how you can do it too. If anything was unclear, please let me know by leaving a comment and I'll get back to you as soon as possible.

[hqvalentineexchange]

Posting the gifts

You don’t know how to post the gift? Or just want to make sure how to do it? Are you curious if there is any official formating you should adhere to? This post is for you!

Before I get to the point though, a small reassurance that it's not too late to ask for beta! You can ask for beta till the end of the event! So if you finish your fic sometime during the posting week, you still can ask for beta as well!

Now to the revealing the gifts - so, since there are people who never participated in a fandom exchange before, as well as people who already did, I will do some explaining.

(a table of content of sorts:

1. How to reveal my gift?

2. Formating

3. AO3 collection

4. A few additional words to people who participate in an exchange for the first time

5. To summarize)

So, short explanation for exchanges veterans: you can reveal your gift however you want! There are no submissions (meaning - you don't have to send the gift to us first; you can submit your gift to this blog if you want your work posted on Tumblr but don't have an account, but there are no mandatory submissions)! The only important thing is making sure your giftee sees it (so you should @ them, send them the link etc., but well, you’re the veterans, it’s an obvious thing)! Of course you don’t have to @ them on every platform you post your gift on. You can also find a few words about proper tagging below in the "Formating" section ^^ Also there's AO3 collection if you want to add your work there! You can find more information about the collection below the "Formating" section.

Long explanation for those, who aren’t sure what “you can share it however you want lmao” entails: there are a few different ways to post your gift, briefly explained in the FAQ (mobile friendly link). The most important thing is you don't have to send your gift to us first. How to reveal it then? There are a few ways you can do it:

1. You can submit your gift here and we will publish it when the time comes (you can find more in depth explanation about formating below). It's not a mandatory thing! The option is here if you want to have your gift posted on Tumblr, but don't have an account! The "submit" window is easy to use, although a bit limited - it only has the basic formating options and doesn't accept HTML, which means that whatever HTML code you'd use, it'll stay as a code (for example when you put text between the <i> marks to make it into italics, it will stay as "<i>word</i>" in the post, instead of becoming "word"). Just remember to @ your giftee!

2. You can post it on your own Tumblr blog/Twitter page/etc. (you can find more in depth explanation about formating below). Remember to @ your giftee!

3. You can post your gift on an outside platform (for example if you’re writing fanfiction, the outside platform would be AO3, FF.net or whatever platform you use), copy the link to it and paste it in a post you make on your Tumblr blog/Twitter page/etc. (you can find more in depth explanation about formating below). Remember to @ your giftee! Also if you're posting on AO3 - there's event's collection you're welcome to post to (more information about the collection below the "Formating" section)!

4. If you are in our event Discord server and your giftee is there as well, you can just post your gift in the right channel and @ them, no need for any public posts.

5. If you decide to post your work on an outside platform, you can also just copy the link and send it directly to your giftee on their social media in a private message. No need for any public posts. The only additional requirement here is to let us know you shared your gift!

Formating

Let’s be honest, a fanart doesn’t really need any specific formating (outside of 1 small thing), so this section will be mainly dedicated to fanfic writers. The said one small thing is a thing that everyone should do if they decide to post their gift on their social media, and it’s:

a) @ing our blog or Twitter page (depending on where you post)

and/or

b) using the #hqvalentineexchange or #hqvalex2021 tags (in the five first tags if you post on Tumblr)

so we can reblog/retweet it. 

Now, to the actual formating part. Remember it’s only recommended formating! You can format it however you please. There are a few ways to do it tbh:

once you enter your work which you posted on AO3, there is a “Share” button right above the fic’s header, between “Comments” and “Subscribe” buttons. Once you click it, it will show you HTML code to copy and paste. There are also two buttons below the code (for Tumblr and for Twitter) that will create a post ready to publish when clicked, if you don't want to copy the HTML code or don't know what to do with it.

you can make your own text version of preview. You should include a pairing, rating and word count, then. If you post your work in its entirety on Tumblr, you should also consider putting the story under a read more for convenience of others. You also should include the things that can potentialy trigger others, even if your giftee is fine with such content (for example - the person you’re making the gift for asked for super angsty and dramatic zombie apocalypse au with a happy ending. You should warn others there’s violence and blood, and maybe gore, even if your giftee is absolutely fine with it).

you can make a screenshot of your AO3/FF.net preview and only put the link to your fic below it. Some writers decorate it in some way (putting the preview half-transparent on a pretty background for example), so you can play with it if you want something more special!

AO3 collection

You can find the collection here or by typing "hqvalentineexchange" in the collection field while posting your work. It has the same profile pic as the event blog and Twitter page, so it should be easy to find!

The collection is moderated, which means your work won't show up in the collection until we approve of it, so don't worry if it doesn't show right away! We will accept it in a matter of a few hours ;D

A few additional words for those, who participate in an exchange for the first time

There is no set etiquette of giving gifts in the exchanges, so don't worry about it! ;) Your message to your giftee can be as long or as short as you want. Some people compliment the prompts their giftee gave them, some say they enjoyed working on the gift, some wish their giftee a happy Valentine's Day (or holidays, speaking about exchanges more in general, since a lot of them are holiday themed/specifically Secret Santa events), and some are simply like "my gift for @giftees-name for @exchanges-page, hope you enjoy". Don't sweat it ;D

To summarize

there are 5 ways to reveal your gift (or maybe more if you came up with something else not on the list? Asks us first though, please! ;)), they are listed at the beginning of the post

you have to make sure your giftee will see your gift

you should put #hqvalentineexchange or #hqvalex2021 in the tags or @ this blog or the official event Twitter page; there's also an AO3 collection you're welcome to post to

all the formating suggested above is optional and presented here more as an inspiration - you're only limited by your creativity! ;)

If you have any questions/concerns/doubts, feel free to send us an ask or message us privately on our social media (mobile friendly link)! ;D

And have a nice day/night/whatever it is in your timezone! ❤️

[candid1964-blog]

Come Share And Support My YouTube Channel

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For anyone that have that extra time and want some videos to watch to keep you laughing and entertained click the link or copy the link above and please please Subscribe Comment Like and Share my channel link to all your family and friend Please give me a chance while I work hard to continue as a Youtube Content Creator so far I have 107 videos up and I just started July 8, 2020 thanks in advance

[helpmakebetterdecisions]

Empowering Lives: The Personal Benefits of Eco-Friendly Technology 🌍

[johnchiarello]

Sunday sermon

Sunday Sermon

  [Post below]

Blog-  https://corpuschristioutreachministries.blogspot.com/

Site-  https://ccoutreach87.com/

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 LINKS TO ALL MY SITES AT THE BOTTOM OF EACH POST

 The blog [Corpus Christi Outreach Ministries] is my main site- on some sites if you click the link it gives a ‘warning’- if that happens- simply type the address in or search on a search engine- the site is safe- the most up to date posts are on the Blog.

[Please Like, Share, Connect, Follow and Subscribe to the sites below- as well as all my sites linked at the bottom of each post-Thanks]

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Cloud links- https://ccoutreach87.com/cloud-links-12-2018/

Archive- Text posts only- https://corpuschristioutreachministries.blogspot.com/p/archiv.html

 Some of my studies-

https://corpuschristioutreachministries.blogspot.com/p/reformation_12.html

https://corpuschristioutreachministries.blogspot.com/p/overview-ofphilosophy-thales-andthe-pre.html

https://corpuschristioutreachministries.blogspot.com/p/romans-links-1-2019.html

https://corpuschristioutreachministries.blogspot.com/p/colossians-links-2019.html

https://corpuschristioutreachministries.blogspot.com/p/corinthians-links-4-2019.html

https://corpuschristioutreachministries.blogspot.com/p/ephesians-links.html

https://corpuschristioutreachministries.blogspot.com/p/acts-links.html

https://corpuschristioutreachministries.blogspot.com/p/galatians-links.html

  [Links to all my sites at the bottom of this post]

NOTE- Every so often some of my sites think I am Spam- or a Bot- I am not. My name is John Chiarello and I post original content [all videos and text are by me]. I do share my past posts from my other sites- but it is not spam- Thank you- John.

 [TODAY’S POST BEGINS HERE]

   Habakkuk 2:1 I will stand upon my watch, and set me upon the tower, and will watch to see what he will say unto me, and what I shall answer when I am reproved.

Habakkuk 2:2 And the LORD answered me, and said, Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it.

Habakkuk 2:3 For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry.

  Sunday sermon videos-

 https://youtu.be/smTOw7EJSjY

https://www.facebook.com/john.chiarello.5/videos/10205026402177950/ 

https://1drv.ms/v/s!Aocp2PkNEAGMhBp1wgu7lU34dS_Z

https://www.dropbox.com/s/0wagjiywi1hbl43/11-11-18%20Sunday%20sermon.mp4?dl=0

   NOTE-

Church Unlimited- Mass - https://youtu.be/DiRNv2hp3aU

https://ccoutreach87.files.wordpress.com/2017/06/5-28-17-c-u-mass.zip

https://ccoutreach87.com/5-28-17-c-u-mass/ 

 [I talked from the verses used in the Sunday Mass- and the verses from Church Unlimited]

  I added the above videos at the time I made this post. Overall I tried to challenge some of our mind sets about the ‘End Times’ and how 20th [and 21st] century Evangelicals look at these passages. The Mass readings for this date did cover some of the more popular passages about the End Times. Some [most?] might disagree with the perspective I tried to talk about- and that's ok. The main point I was trying to make was End Times teachings should be seen in the light of the overall redemptive purposes of God. Revelation [the book] is a beautiful picture of Christ and the Church. And yes- there are passages about ‘violence’ how the Word ‘slays’ people- but in a redemptive context- yes- the Word of God- and those who submit to the Lordship of Christ- are ‘put to death’- or ‘buried with him in death/baptism’ so these perspectives are what I tried to share on the video- For those who want to go deeper into the end times and different ways Christians have viewed these passages- just Google Preterism- partial Preterism- and you can see a different perspective rooted in scripture as well. I am not a ‘full Preterist’ meaning I do believe in the literal 2nd coming of Christ and the future resurrection to come- but some of their ideas are worth listening to-

John

 Here are a few links I just found- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preterism

https://www.ligonier.org/blog/preterist-approach-revelation-unfolding-biblical-eschatology/ 

 ON VIDEO- [Past posts below]

.Ascension Sunday

.Cathedral city

.We are the 2nd book- Bishop Mulvey

.Dead words versus life in the Spirit [manifested thru us- the Logos made flesh once again]

.Tertullian ‘Have we chased God into a book’?https://www.britannica.com/biography/Tertullian 

.Gnostic writing in the first few centuries

.Pseudepigraphy https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/pseudepigraphy 

.Life in community

.Logos

.Watch Tower

.Theresa of Avila http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=208 

.Catholic Mystics

.Contemplative prayer

.Hebrews- James- context

.Paul and James

.Faith and works

Correction- On the video I mentioned a quote/book from Theresa of Avila- the book was called ‘The Interior Castle’ written in 1588 - the quote I used was ‘Cathedral of the mind’.

   PAST POSTS- [Past teaching I did that relates to today’s post- Verses below]

 https://ccoutreach87.com/galatians-links/

https://ccoutreach87.com/hebrews-updated-2015/https://ccoutreach87.com/hebrews-updated-2015/

https://ccoutreach87.com/romans-updated-2015/

https://ccoutreach87.com/james-2015/ 

https://ccoutreach87.com/2017/06/01/acts-13/ 

 CHAPTER 11: [see commentary on Acts 21]

END NOTES-

JUSTIFIED BY FAITH.

TORTURED- BY FAITH?

REJECTED MONEY- BY FAITH?

THEY ALL WAITED FOR THE CITY- THE CHURCH.

  ‘Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen, FOR BY IT THE ELDERS OBTAINED A GOOD REPORT [JUSTIFIED]’ This is the key verse to the chapter. Paul will go on to prove that all the Old Testament figures that ‘pleased God’ did it by faith, and not by works! ‘Through faith WE UNDERSTAND that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear’ Faith is not ‘blind’. It informs and gives understanding. This understanding is real! Let me show you what I mean. All of the universe and creation had a beginning point. Science did not always know or believe this. Today science teaches this. It is called ‘the point of singularity/density’. Science has traced back the origins of all things and has found scientific evidence to prove that all things had a ‘beginning point’. Now if you were to ask science ‘what did you have right before the beginning point’? They are stumped. Some of course believe in God and will boldly proclaim him at this point. To the others they can not answer this question. Why? Because they realize, thru science, that matter is not infinite.

 Some have theorized that either all things always existed [which science has now disproved] or that at one point nothing existed [which science also teaches that if this were true then you would have nothing today. You can not get something from nothing!] So all true science has gone back to this ‘point of singularity’ and can not see what is right before ‘the point’. The Christian ‘sees’ God at this point! He ‘understands’ that by necessity there has to have been something that existed before creation, science teaches this. This something can not have been created also, because then where did the ‘being’ who created ‘it’ come from? So science teaches us that whoever got the ball rolling [Saint Thomas Aquinas calls this the ‘prime mover’] had to have been preexistent/ self existent in order to have done it. And we know that creation couldn’t have done it by itself, so therefore all reasoning and understanding leave us at the philosophical point of ‘there had to have been something/someone who existed forever in order for anything to be today’. So now you see how ‘by faith we understand that all things that now exist were brought into existence by someone who we can not see’. FAITH UNDERSTANDS!

 As we go thru the rest of this chapter I want you to focus in on all the references of justification by faith. You will be surprised [I think?] on how many examples Paul gives to Israel from their own history [his too!] on God justifying people by faith. I will also try and show you [if I remember] how this chapter links the division between Paul’s epistles to the gentiles [Romans, Galatians] with James letter to the Jews. James was one of the lead Apostles at Jerusalem [Acts 15] and the Judaizers who were always accusing Paul of preaching grace in a way that justified sin, they came out of Jerusalem. James and Paul were rivals in a sense. James had the difficult job of overseeing the Church at Jerusalem, who had all the Pharisees who believed, while Paul was preaching this radical message of grace. This is why James’s letter [book of James] focused so much on faith and works. James was seeing the Genesis 22 account of Abraham’s justification when he offered Isaac on the altar. James will say ‘see how Abraham was justified by his works’. While in Paul’s letters he focuses on the Genesis 15 account of Abraham believing God and being made righteous. James was not contradicting Paul; he was showing the actual outcome of the life of a person who was previously justified by faith. James was saying ‘When God made Abraham righteous [Gen 15] he later actually became what God made him!’ [Gen. 22].

 Now when Abraham would later do righteous things, he only did them because he previously had faith in Gods promise. But the fact still remains that when Abraham did a righteous act, God still justified him [in a sense, God has the prerogative to say ‘good job son, I am pleased with you’ so this can be described as an act/function of justification]. Well, now that I already showed you all this, I guess I wont have to remember telling it to you later. The point is in this chapter Paul will go down and show all these examples of Jewish leaders acting by faith and doing righteous deeds. This sort of bridges the gap between the strong emphasis on faith in Paul’s letters, with the strong emphasis on works in James letter. Paul is telling Israel ‘yes, all the old saints did do good works that pleased God, but they did them by faith!’ ‘Faith without works is dead’ [James]. So in a sense this single chapter bridges one of the key divisions in the early church between Jerusalem and Antioch [Acts 13 and 15]. Note; I believe all the chapter references above are correct, I write all this from memory so you might want to go back and double check the references. I know all the stories are right.

 ‘By FAITH Able offered …by which he obtained witness that he was RIGHTEOUS…by FAITH Enoch was translated…he had this testimony that he PLEASED GOD…without FAITH it is impossible to PLEASE HIM [all these ‘please him’ references are like saying ‘being justified’ when a person is justified by God, God sees him as acceptable, pleasing. ‘Thou art my beloved son in whom I am well PLEASED’ God to Jesus!] By faith Noah… prepared an ark to the SAVING of his house…and became heir to the RIGHTEOUSNESS WHICH IS BY FAITH [wow, he makes this one real plain] By faith Abraham…went out into a strange land…and sojourned’ interesting, both the aspect of ‘going out to a new land’ and ‘staying in it when you get there’ are both functions of faith. Let me throw in some practical stuff here. Over the years of ‘doing ministry’ I have seen and been a partaker of both of these experiences. Sometimes it takes an act of faith to uproot us from familiar territory and move on to the next level. And do you know what can happen next? The enemy will try to intimidate you once you get in the land of promise, and tell you ‘you cant stay here, look at all the people who hate you. Look at all the mistakes you made’ and it often takes an act of faith to STAY IN THE LAND. Don’t leave the land of your destiny; all true leaders will go thru both of these dealings.

 ‘For he looked for a city which hath foundations [Jesus is the foundation of this city!] whose builder and maker is God’ All of these great heroes of the faith were looking forward towards a future promise of being in Gods true church, the ‘City of God’ the Bride, the Lambs wife. Paul shows Israel that this 1st century appearing of Messiah was for the purpose of Israel coming into the ‘new land’ the Body of Christ. It is important to see this. There are many preachers today who are treating natural Israel as in if everything is just fine. It isn’t! They need Christ as much as the Muslim does. God was telling Israel ‘come into this new city’ [New Jerusalem versus Old Jerusalem] he wasn’t appealing for them to stay in ‘old Jerusalem’ and be a ‘completed Jew’. [I know this sounds harsh, but I want to emphasize to all my evangelical friends that Jews need Jesus, they play a special role in Gods plan, but ultimately they need Christ!]

 ‘Through faith also Sara herself received strength to conceive seed’ it takes faith to produce spiritual offspring! It might look impossible, but with God all things are possible. ‘Therefore sprang there even of one, and him as good as dead, so many as the stars of the sky and the sand by the shore’ sometimes God will allow you to bring forth one ‘seed’ [person or act of ministry] and you will be surprised how much fruit can come forth from this singular effort. This is why it’s so important to simply hear and obey God. Often times in ministry we do tons of ‘leg work’ which is OK. But when God gives you an idea or mode of function that you weren’t even thinking of, go with it. These are usually the ‘little seeds’ that produce the great harvest! ‘THESE ALL DIED IN FAITH, NOT HAVING RECEIVED THE PROMISES’ I want to emphasize here that it is possible to live your whole life in faith without actually seeing the fulfillment of all that God has told you.

 Now faith does obtain promises [verse 33] but sometimes we also see things many years down the road and we must realize that the measurement of faith is not whether or not you are currently getting the actual promise. In the above [and below] verse’s we see Abraham and Sara being told that their offspring would number in the millions. They believed these promises, but it is obvious that they didn’t live to see it fulfilled, but they sure knew that after they were gone it would come to pass. So I want to exhort you to believe to see certain things fulfilled in your life time, but have some greater goals that you initiate while here on earth, knowing that after you depart they will be fulfilled. ‘And truly if they had been MINDFUL of the country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned’ what is Paul saying here? The greatest threat to the gospel taking root in the Hebrew community was the desire to go back to old law and culture. How many believers ‘revert’ back to an older form of church simply because they missed the old culture and ‘feelings’ that they had when they were younger? Many of the Jews would not go all the way with the gospel because they were ‘mindful’ of the good old days of law and sacrifice.

 I just watched a show the other day that told how even some gentile believers began celebrating certain feasts of Israel with their Jewish neighbors. While it is good to understand and see the significance of the feasts, yet we know Paul wrote the early believers and said ‘you observe days and times and feasts, and I am concerned about it’. So when we [or 1st century Israel] are ‘mindful’ of the ‘good old days’ then there is always a danger of going back! ‘By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac…of whom it was said in Isaac shall thy seed be called. Accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead; from whence also he received him in a figure’ Abraham exhibited characteristics of the Father [God] as well as Isaac being a type of the Son [Jesus]. It’s interesting that these verses show that Abraham knew for a fact that God was going to give Isaac millions of children, Abraham also knew the voice of God so well that when he ‘thought’ he heard God say ‘offer up this boy’ that in the mind of Abraham, the only way these 2 things could be reconciled, is he came to the conclusion ‘I guess God will have to raise him up, being he has told me this boy will have millions of children, plus he is telling me to kill him’. Most of us would not have come to this conclusion! We would have doubted either the original promise, or said ‘surely this can’t be God telling me to offer Isaac’ [most likely we would have doubted the latter!].

 There is a real important reason for Abraham to have been a real man of faith. God wanted this ‘picture’ of the offering up of Isaac for a type of the Cross and Resurrection. The only way he could have shown this example was to have had someone so radically filled with faith, that he would have come to this conclusion of ‘well, I guess God will just raise him’. It was necessary for the figure to have been truly fulfilled. It took Abraham many years of hearing and believing God before he would get to this stage. The part of Abraham’s mind that said ‘God will just have to raise him up’ was important for the figure to truly work. God knew he could only bring someone to this conclusion by arranging the whole scenario around a person of faith. It truly took a real person of faith to have come to the conclusion of resurrection as being inevitable! [For Abraham to fulfill the type of God, he had to have been convinced beyond all doubt that after he offered up his son, that he would be raised again. This is exactly what the Father [God] believed and knew about his own Sons death. So not only did Isaac fulfill the type of Jesus in this story, but Abraham also fulfilled a type of God!] [NOTE; Today is September 22, 2007. Israel’s Day of Atonement. I just heard a brother preach on the feasts of the Lord [I have done this also] but he preached it in a way that said ‘because God said you were to observe these feasts perpetually, therefore all gentile believers need to start observing these days’ he added ‘I know Paul taught the law passed and all, but these feasts are supposed to be forever because God said so’.

 How are the feasts ‘perpetual’? Thru the fulfilling of them in Christ! Paul makes this plain all thru the New Testament [as well as this letter!] I was surprised to hear the brother preach that the first 2 feasts [out of the 3 main ones] were fulfilled and memorialized, but the 3rd one [Atonement/tabernacles] has yet to be fulfilled! What? Jesus fulfilled Passover and Pentecost for sure, and they are still being ‘fulfilled’ God is still bringing people in thru the blood of Christ and the Spirit is continually being poured out on people, and of course the ultimate reality of our atonement thru our high priest is a daily reality [he ever lives to make intercession] that is ‘fulfilled’ all the time[ I understand what the brother meant, that both Passover and Pentecost were fulfilled at the Cross and the day of Pentecost, and Tabernacles still has a future fulfillment. That Jesus will ‘ingather’ all peoples to himself at the end. The way he said it was in a way that he said Atonement, the beginning of Tabernacles/booths, still has to be fulfilled. It really came out badly!] I just thought it worth noting that today is natural Israel’s feast day, and we hold this feast in reality 24/7!]

 ‘By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of pharaohs daughter; choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, then to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt; for he had respect unto the recompense of the reward…by faith the harlot Rahab perished not…’ I want you to see that faith in Moses situation caused him to forsake great riches and leave a successful future. This is in keeping with all the times Jesus called people in the Gospels ‘forsake all and follow me’ mentality. We too often equate the ‘treasures of Egypt’ with following Jesus; the scripture puts a different spin on it! Also Rahab ‘perished not’ because she ‘believed’. Paul teaches in Corinthians that those who believe are ‘being saved’ and those who don’t believe are ‘perishing’. I want you to see that Paul is really making a theological argument for ‘being saved by faith’ in this chapter. Even a harlot can be saved! Wow. The law seemed to have no mercy on someone like that!

 ‘Who thru faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, stopped the mouths of lions…women received their dead raised to life…others were TORTURED not accepting deliverance…others had mocking and scourging and bonds and imprisonment, they were stoned, cut in half, were slain with the sword… being destitute, afflicted, tormented…they wandered in deserts and mountains and dens and caves of the earth, ALL THESE [both the ones who shut the mouths of lions as well as the one’s who were tortured without deliverance] OBTAINED A GOOD REPORT THRU FAITH, AND RECEIVED NOT THE PROMISE’ Faith does not always cause you to be better off in this life. I am very familiar with all the verses of God blessing us and providing for us ‘the blessing of the Lord it maketh rich, and he addeth no sorrow to it’. I believe and claim these verses just like the next guy. I also don’t want to tell people ‘give your life to Christ and all will go well’ did it go well for the ones who were tortured not getting delivered? Sure did. It went well the moment they saw the face of God. The same for those who were cut in half. It also went well for the women who received their dead raised to life. The point is ‘going well’ is not always defined by your outward circumstance.

 We must see the overall biblical worldview of all things here being temporary, while all true spiritual riches are eternal. Moses actually was ‘less rich’ by the choice to follow Christ. But he was ‘more rich’ in that he fulfilled Gods purpose. It is important to see that many of these great heroes of the faith died without fully seeing the promise in this life. Now the last verse does say ‘that they without us should not be made perfect’ and this does show that the promise is now fulfilled thru Christ. We have all become recipients of eternal salvation thru Christ. The Old Testament patriarchs have ‘found that city’ in that we are all now members of the great ‘City that comes down from God out of heaven’ we are all in Christ today, even our Old Testament brothers who had faith. The point is don’t always measure a persons faith by their outward wealth and condition. James rebuked this idea in his epistle, he taught us not to show partiality to people who were rich while despising the poor.

 When believers see faith only from the standpoint of outward things, they are missing the true riches. Jesus taught that all these outward things were not the true riches; I am surprised how many believers spend so much time hoarding and storing things that will all pass away some day. Let’s close this chapter on a good note. Paul has offered Israel all of their Old Testament heroes as an example of being justified by faith. He is saying ‘look, all the great fathers of the faith pleased God, just like you have said and taught for ages. I am declaring unto you they were all ‘justified/pleasing to God’ by faith, not law’. Therefore if you want to follow the example of Abraham and Moses and all the other wonderful fathers, then you too MUST BELIEVE!

END NOTES-

JUSTIFIED BY FAITH.

TORTURED- BY FAITH?

REJECTED MONEY- BY FAITH?

THEY ALL WAITED FOR THE CITY- THE CHURCH.

This chapter is loaded with the history of the Jewish people-

I could teach on each story- but that would be a bit much-

So I pasted the verses below to show that the writer is saying ‘see- all of our forefathers were justified- received a GOOD REPORT- by faith’.

Wait a minute- they DID THINGS- in these stories-

Isn’t that WORKS?

If you read the letter of James- and the letters of Paul- some scholars says there is a disagreement-

Paul says a man is justified by faith- and not by works.

James says ‘see how a man is justified by works- and not faith only’.

If this letter [Hebrews] was written by Paul- then it’s a true masterpiece- because he is combining the examples that James uses [Rahab- and Abrahams Genesis 22 experience- which James uses to say ‘see how works justifies’].

So- to me- Paul would be saying ‘no- I’m not contradicting James- we both believe/teach the same thing’.

If the letter was written by Barnabus- then it also is a masterpiece- because Barnabus might be trying to bridge the gap between Paul and James.

We read about this tension in Acts chapters 13 and 15.

This chapter is certainly not showing us how to obtain stuff [money- etc.] thru faith- because look at the examples- ‘Moses chose to suffer- and reject the wealth of Egypt- BY FAITH’-

‘SOME WERE TORTURED- SUFFERED- CUT IN HALF- by faith’- ‘CHOOSING TO not be delivered- because they had faith’.

We also see the heavenly city- as the goal of the patriarchs- they were all waiting for THE CHURCH- the city that the apostle John spoke about in the book of revelation.

The writer says ‘if they were mindful of the city they came out of [a reference to the law covenant- meaning if the Jews kept clinging to the law- the ‘city they came out from’- they will have a hard time moving on- into the New Covenant revelation of Messiah].

I didn’t quote verse 2- but we could teach modern physics from that one [the bible says all things were made from something invisible- modern physics has come to that reality in the 20th century- yet this verse was penned 2 millennia ago]!

By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.

So yeah- lots of good stuff in this chapter- but the main point is these ancients were justified by faith- the example of Noah and Abraham actually use that very language- salvation/righteousness [it’s a bit clearer in the King James Version- the above verses are from the NIV].

Yes- the writer is saying ‘everything is based on faith- and even our ancestors were justified by faith- they did all these things because they believed God- and God saw their faith- in action- and they too were made righteous- by faith’.

By faith Abel brought God a better offering than Cain did. By faith he was commended as righteous, when God spoke well of his offerings. And by faith Abel still speaks, even though he is dead.

By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family. By his faith he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that is in keeping with faith.

All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth. 14 People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. 15 If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. 16 Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them

By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. 25 He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. 26 He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt, because he was looking ahead to his reward.

By faith the prostitute Rahab, because she welcomed the spies, was not killed with those who were disobedient.

And what more shall I say? I do not have time to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson and Jephthah, about David and Samuel and the prophets, 33 who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised; who shut the mouths of lions, 34 quenched the fury of the flames, and escaped the edge of the sword; whose weakness was turned to strength; and who became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies.35 Women received back their dead, raised to life again. There were others who were tortured, refusing to be released so that they might gain an even better resurrection. 36 Some faced jeers and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. 37 They were put to death by stoning;[e] they were sawed in two; they were killed by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated— 38 the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, living in caves and in holes in the ground.

39 These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised, 40 since God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect.

  CHAPTER 12:

END NOTES-

A HEAVENLY CITY.

DON’T BE SAD, HE’S TREATING YOU LIKE A SON.

NO REPENTANCE- OUTSIDE OF CHRIST THAT IS.

CULTURE SHOCK IS HARD ON US ALL.

 ‘Wherefore seeing we are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses [all the heroes of the last chapter!] let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us’ a few practical things. Paul compares the journey to a marathon, not a sprint! The patient runner who paces himself will receive a reward. The sprinter will look good at the start, but you never see him again! I have been blessed by so many gifted people over the years. Some who were on radio, or were doing some type of ministry for the Lord. The gifts and callings were truly on these people. A few years would go by and they were no where to be found. Where did they go? Some of them jumped on the latest ‘Christian movement’ [I am not against movements from God, I just feel we get enamored by them and give up on the main thing the Lord has called us to] some walked away from the Lord.

 I have come to realize that God will put certain things in you from the early days, things that he predestined for you to fulfill before you were born. These are the things that you should be faithful to. Don’t abandon the original calling, it’s still there! You can spend your whole life leaving one ‘track’ and ‘sprinting’ in another. But God wants you to stay on the original course and run it with patience. It might not seem as glamorous or exciting as the newest race in town, but at the end you will receive a reward. ‘Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him ENDURED the cross, despising the shame and is set down on the right hand of the throne of God. For consider him that ENDURED such contradiction of sinners…and ye have forgotten the exhortation that speaketh to you as children [remember what we said about this type of privileged language in Hebrews? It is speaking to Israel] my son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art REBUKED of him: for whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If you endure chastening, God dealeth with you as sons’.

 Now, for many years I read this just like you. That God was telling Christians that he disciplines them. True enough. But in context what is Paul saying here? He spent 11 chapters ‘reproving’ Israel. He told them that all the sacrifices and wonderful holidays and family traditions are no more. That Messiah has fulfilled it and you can’t keep doing it. Now, how would you feel if some know it all preacher came along and totally dismantled your whole way of worship? And you knew in your heart he was right! You would take offence. You would feel like you just got ‘chastened’ up and down and all over. Your initial reaction would be ‘this is too much correction in one letter, I am tired of reading it!’ so Paul is telling Israel ‘Don’t take all this reproof the wrong way, Gods intent is to get you to move on with the program. He loves you guys; don’t forget that scripture [Old Testament] says ‘who God loves he chastens’ hey, God is just dealing with you as children who he loves’ get it? ‘We have had fathers of the flesh that corrected us…shall we not much rather be in subjection to the father of spirits and live?’ Paul is saying ‘you guys want to live [eternal life] then you need to submit to the correction the father is giving you’.

 ‘For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure, but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness’ Now, God does chasten believers for the purpose of holiness. Scripture says ‘those who have suffered in the flesh have ceased from sin, that they should no longer spend the rest of their days in the flesh pursuing the desires of the flesh, but the will of God’ ‘before I was afflicted I went astray, but after I kept thy word’ ‘thou in faithfulness hath afflicted me’ ‘though he were a son yet learned he obedience from the things he suffered’ ‘the captain of our salvation was made perfect thru suffering’ [the last 2 are in this letter, the others are some where in scripture, I just quoted them off the top of my head. As you can see I have some familiarity with this subject! Ouch] In context Paul is saying to Israel ‘you have tried to attain holiness thru legalistic means, by keeping the law [Romans 9-the last few verses] but until you submit to Gods chastening, and have faith in God, you will not truly have his ‘holiness’ [righteousness].

 So God is disciplining them thru this letter so they will ‘believe and become righteous’ as opposed to staying in the old system of law. ‘Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous [old brother Paul, he sure knew how to understate things!] nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of RIGHTEOUSNESS to them that are exercised [or exorcised! Just kidding, but it can feel like this at times] thereby. Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down…and make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame [broken] be turned out of the way, but let it rather be healed’ David said ‘restore to me the joy of your salvation that the bones which YOU HAVE BROKEN may rejoice’ The danger of chastening [both for Christians and Israel] is that we get so broken that we never fully recover. Paul is telling Israel ‘I know it’s been hard on you guys to hear so much rebuke. Don’t walk away totally discouraged. There is a danger that you might respond to Gods correction the wrong way. Lift up your hands, shake off the depression, and let yourselves be healed. God wants to restore you!’

 ‘Lest there be any fornicator, or profane person as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright. For you know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected: for HE FOUND NO PLACE OF REPENTANCE though he sought it carefully with tears’. This is another reason why reading Hebrews in context is important. One of the themes of this letter is ‘if you miss out on it now, you can’t repent later!’[Chapter 6]. We know that Pauls other letters to the churches leave open future repentance for those who have sinned. In Paul’s letters to the Corinthians we see this being done. But in Hebrews the idea is ‘if you pass on the Cross, you can not find repentance thru any other means. There is no other place for repentance’. So this is the reason why Hebrews has this theme of ‘no future repentance’ thru out the letter. Paul is certainly not telling Israel that if they decide to repent and accept Christ at a future date, they can’t! But he is saying ‘if you pass over this sacrifice of Christ, all the other ‘sacrifices’ and means of repentance that are contained in the law will have no future effect, remember Esau!’

 ‘For ye are not come unto the mount that might be touched…but ye are come to Mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem [the church]…and to the blood of sprinkling that speaketh better things than that of Able’ Here Paul comes back to a ‘scarlet thread’ that runs thru out this letter. He says ‘hey, you think the first covenant was a fearful thing, watch out! If you disregard this covenant [Jesus blood] then you have gone against something that is much greater than the law’. Also the ‘blood of Able’ cried out from the ground for vengeance, the blood of Jesus cries out from heaven for mercy and forgiveness! It ‘speaks’ better things than that of Able! ‘See that ye refuse not him that speaketh. For if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth [Moses and the law] much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from him which speaketh from heaven’ again Paul repeats themes he hit on earlier in this letter. He says ‘Moses spoke Gods Word [law] to you from an earthly mountain and place, you are come to a heavenly mountain [Sion-spiritual Jerusalem] and Jesus is speaking to you from heaven. This is much more strict than he who spoke from earth’.

 ‘Wherefore we receiving a Kingdom that can not be moved, let us HAVE GRACE, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear: for our God is a consuming fire’ Though Paul doesn’t say it [I think he should have!] but this alludes to the ‘God’ of Moses day, who did not consume the burning bush, compared to the ‘God’ of today [new covenant] who will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire! This fits in with the theme of a harsher punishment for those who reject the covenant of grace as opposed to those who rejected the covenant of law. I know these themes are not popular, but this is clearly the way Paul is presenting them. I also am not saying the ‘God’ of the Old Testament is different from the ‘God’ of the new [this is the heresy of Marcion! I think that was his name. He was an early Christian heretic who comprised the first canon of scripture for a ‘new testament’ it included basically Paul’s letters, and he taught that The God of the new testament was different from the God in the old] but Paul is presenting the new covenant in a way that says ‘don’t neglect this new way of salvation, those who do will receive a harsher judgment than those who rejected the law’.

END NOTES-

A HEAVENLY CITY.

DON’T BE SAD, HE’S TREATING YOU LIKE A SON.

NO REPENTANCE- OUTSIDE OF CHRIST THAT IS.

CULTURE SHOCK IS HARD ON US ALL.

Once again we see the contrast between ‘he that spoke from earth’ [Moses- the law]- and he that ‘speaks from heaven’ [Jesus covenant is more strict- to those outside of it and reject it- because he has heavenly authority- Moses had earthly]. Hebrews 12:25 See that ye refuse not him that speaketh. For if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven:

 The writer says ‘don’t be sad- God disciplines every son who he receives’- though this certainly applies to Christians- Hebrews 12:5 And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him:

Hebrews 12:6 For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.

Hebrews 12:7 If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not?

Hebrews 12:8 But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons.

 Remember this- though the message of grace and Jesus as the Messiah is wonderful- especially to us Gentile believers-

Yet- it was indeed a cultural shock to the 1st century Jew-

Why?

Even though Jesus was the fulfillment of the prophets- yet in order for the Jewish person to accept this [Like the apostle Paul]

He had to accept a real cultural change in the religion he practiced from his youth-

He was being asked to stop the animal sacrifices- to ‘move on’ from the Law covenant- and to embrace Christ.

Now- in reality- it would be the fulfillment of all that was contained in the law- but it’s often hard for anyone to ‘move on’ from former religious practices that are embedded in his culture.

So- in context ‘Don’t be sad- God is disciplining you- showing you new stuff- and it’s tough for sure- but he does this with all the sons he receives’.

We also see the promise of the heavenly city- As opposed to the earthly one. Hebrews 12:22 But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels,

Hebrews 12:23 To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect,

 The writer is speaking about the church- and how both Jew and Gentile are part of this spiritual community coming down from God out of heaven.

And again we see the warning- of no repentance- for those who keep sinning.

I stress that this is never taught to the Gentile churches- as a matter of fact the Apostle Paul wrote the Corinthians- about a sinning brother- sleeping with his father’s wife [his step mom].

And In the 2nd letter- this brother repented- and Paul exhorted the church to receive him back into fellowship.

But to the 1st century Jew- still not fully in the covenant- he says ‘Hebrews 12:17 For ye know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected: for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears.

In keeping with the theme of the letter- Jesus is now the only acceptable means of repentance- and if you reject him as the Messiah- and continue in sin- then yes- there is no repentance.

[parts]

ACTS 1- Luke, the writer of this book, feels the need to document the ongoing work of Jesus and his revolution. He already wrote a gospel and believes this to be the beginning of the story. In essence, the reality of Jesus and his resurrection are just the start, we have much more to do and become on this journey. Most writers jump to chapter 2. We have churches and music groups called ‘Acts chapter 2’. Why does Luke seem to wait till chapter 2 before getting to ‘the good stuff’? Chapter one records the 40 days of Jesus showing himself alive after his death. Luke feels this singular truth to be important enough to simply stand alone [I do realize the early letters did not have chapter and verse divisions like today]. The real physical fact of Jesus bodily resurrection is without a doubt the foundational truth of the gospel. The outpouring of the Spirit and the whole future of the church depends on the reality of the resurrected Christ. Paul will write the Corinthians and tell them if the resurrection were not true then they are the most miserable of all people. Luke tells us Jesus gave instructions for the Apostles to wait at Jerusalem for the Spirit. They will be witnesses of him to all the surrounding nations after the Spirit empowers them. We also see Peter emerge as the key spokesman for the group. He quotes freely from the Psalms and reads their own history into the book. He sees the prophetic verse from David on ‘let another take his office’ as referring to Judas betrayal and death. They cast lots and choose Matthias as the one to replace Judas. Peter shows the importance of Judas replacement to come from one that was with them thru out the earthly time of Jesus. Someone who saw and witnessed Jesus after the resurrection. Scholars have confused this with the ‘ascension gift Apostles’. Some scholars have taken the truth of the early Apostles having the criteria of being actual witnesses of Jesus, and have said ‘therefore, you have no Apostles today’. Paul will teach in Ephesians that after Jesus ascension on high he gave gifts unto men ‘some Apostles, others Prophets, etc.’ The New Testament clearly speaks of Apostles as an ongoing gift in the church. Barnabas will later be called an Apostles [Acts 14:14] as well as many other references in the original Greek using the same Greek word for Apostle. But here we find Peter seeing the need to replace Judas. Other scholars think Peter might have jumped the gun. They see Paul’s apostleship as the possible person the Lord picked out as the replacement. You do find Paul referring time and again to his Apostolic authority as one ‘born out of due time’ who saw Jesus on the Damascus road. If Paul was simply an ascension gift Apostle, why would he refer time and again to his authority based on being a witness who also saw Jesus? It’s possible that Paul was in this group of ‘Apostles of the Lamb’ who had extra authority based upon their testimony of being eyewitnesses. So in chapter one we see that Jesus appeared for 40 days giving instructions to the early leadership and told them to wait at Jerusalem for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. We see the incarnational purpose of God, Jesus was and continues to be the express image of God to man. He was not some ‘phantom’ like the Docetists will claim, but a very real physical resurrected Lord. Luke begins the early history of the church with this reality being important enough to stand on its own.

 ACTS 2- The Apostles are gathered together in the upper room. As they continue in unity and prayer the Spirit of God comes upon them like a rushing wind. There appear ‘cloven tongues’ like fire above each of them. Why this image? Why not ‘ears’ or some other sanctified body part? God is going to give supernatural power to the words that they will speak. In a few chapters we will read how an angel will supernaturally deliver Peter from prison and say ‘go, speak the words of this life’. These tongues are a precursor to the tremendous fire that will be loosed from their lips. James says the tongue is a little member but boasteth great things, it has the ability to start fires. Jesus said he came to earth to ‘start a fire’ and how he wished it were already burning. Here he gets his wish! Now the Apostles and early believers experience the gift of tongues. They begin speaking and prophesying in the unknown languages of all those who are gathered together to Jerusalem for the feast of Pentecost. God ordained this event to be strategically done at this time. All the surrounding regions heard the believers speak the ‘wondrous works of God’ in their native tongue. Peter stands up and delivers a scathing message! He basically tells Israel ‘this is that which the prophet Joel spoke about’ he goes on and says this outpouring is part of Gods predetermined plan to pour out his Spirit on all flesh in the last days. He speaks of divine manifestations [dreams, visions] and carries the prophecy right to the end of the age. He then speaks the gospel of Christ and tells Israel ‘this is the Jesus you killed’. Wow, these guys are bold. Peter leads them to faith in Christ, their public baptism is the immediate sign of their willingness to be identified with Jesus and 3 thousand Jews become believers this day. Now, what is the church? This corporate group of first time followers do 4 basic things. They ‘continue in the Apostles doctrine and breaking of bread and prayers and share their goods with all in need’[true fellowship]. This early community was a brotherhood who actually gave priority to the teachings of Jesus passed on to them from the Apostles. Don’t miss this! Many will develop all sorts of practices and beliefs that ‘make up church’. Some will justify extra biblical beliefs under the guise of ‘the Apostles doctrine’ as in if it were something totally contrary or not known thru the gospels or the writing of scripture. Paul will tell Timothy to stay true to the traditions he passed on to him. But I want to focus on the fact that the Apostles doctrine was not something different then the basic instructions Jesus left us in the gospels. Paul will add to this basic body of Christian doctrine thru his letters to the churches, as well as the whole New Testament. But we do not see a bunch of strange or unknown doctrines that come from this time period. The basics are mentioned above. I do want to stress the fact that this early expression of church life had no ‘Pastor’ in the sense of their gatherings being a time where a singular authority figure had oversight of the entire community. They had strong leaders to be sure, but would avoid the Protestant idea of Pastor. They had no church building or belief in a strong liturgy. The ‘breaking of bread’ was a common meal where they all shared together in a real life setting. And of course their giving was radical, it was not ‘a tithe’ and it was done to meet the real needs of the community around them. All these elements are basic to what the New Testament church is. A functioning society of people in whom Christ Spirit dwells and who see themselves as a real spiritual community of people. As we progress thru out the history of the church as seen in Acts we will never lose this basic mindset. It will be carried into the epistles of the New Testament and remain the best idea of ‘local church’ as found in the first century. There is a trend going on right now in Evangelicalism that says ‘lets return to the ancient practices of the church and see what we can find’. As an avid reader of church history I am not totally against this movement, but I do see a danger in thinking ‘the ancient practices’ are the 2nd or 3rd century development of liturgy and Eucharist and other early ideas, and by passing the ‘real ancient’ story in the book of Acts. To put it simply, some of the Protestant and Evangelical ‘practices and beliefs’ that have developed since the reformation are ‘ancient’. I believe we all have a long way to go, but the ‘low view’ of the Lords Table [low as opposed to ‘high church view’. Though I personally believe in the Lords table as a memorial, not as the actual Body and Blood of Jesus. Yet I personally don’t like referring to such an important practice as low!] seems to be the true ancient practice as seen in Acts. The absence of the Priest officiating over the altar is no where to be seen in the actual ‘church’ setting. This ancient church is really a simple brotherhood of believers having all things common and having the resurrection of the Son of God as the central organizing principle of their lives.

[parts]

The Donatists taught that the Sacraments were dependent upon the ‘holiness’ of the Priest who ministers them. That if you were in a Parish where the priests were bad- lived in sin- rejected a holy life- then if you were Baptized by these men- that the Baptism didn’t ‘stick’.

 The Donatists formed there own break away church in the 3rd century- and a few very influential men would join the group. A well respected early church father- Tertullian- eventually joined their ranks.

 Augustine argued against the Donatists teaching- and taught that Gods grace- and the grace given to believers thru the sacraments were not derived from the holiness of any priest or preacher- but if a believer in good conscience received the sacraments- that that’s what really counted.

 Saint Augustine is one of the titans of church history- he is loved by Protestants and Catholics alike. He is famous for his belief in the doctrine of Predestination [that those who are saved were chosen by God before they were born] and for this reason he is loved by the original protestant theologians [Luther, Calvin, etc.]

 He also taught a very ‘Catholic’ form of Ecclesiology [church govt.] and is well loved by many Catholics as well.

 The Catholic Church refers to him as the Doctor of Grace- later on in the 13th century we will meet Saint Thomas Aquinas- who the church refers to as the Angelic Doctor.

 Both of these men played a major role in the development of western thought and Augustine made an effort to distinguish true Christian thought from the philosophy of Neo Platonism which was very strong in his day.

 When reading Augustine [he wrote a lot] you need to be careful to distinguish some of his earlier writings from his later ones.

 Early on you still see forms of Platonic thought in Augustine- but as the years rolled by his thinking progressed more and more towards historic Christian thought.

 For those of you who are interested- the Confessions of Saint Augustine is considered one the classics of Christianity- you can pick up a short version at most good bookstores- it’s well worth the time to read.

www.corpuschristioutreachministries.blogspot.com

 [parts]

The church has debated for centuries on whether or not Philosophy should be taught to Christians. One of the early church fathers- Tertullian- said no- his famous quote is ‘what does Jerusalem have to do with Athens’.

 Meaning what does Philosophy have in common with Christianity [Athens- Greece was the seat of philosophy in Jesus’ day].

 For the most part- the early church fathers would embrace the study of philosophy- and try to make arguments for the Christian faith by presenting Christianity as ‘thee’ philosophy that best answers the questions of man.

 These early Christian thinkers are called Apologists- men like Justin Martyr are in this class.

 Apologist is a word we use to describe those who defend the faith- it comes from the Apostle Peter’s letter in the N.T. where Peter says ‘give an answer to those who ask you about the faith’. In the Greek language- the original language the N.T. was written in- this phrase is talking about a defense- an ‘apology’ in the sense of ‘making the case’ not in the common sense of apologizing.

 In the book of Acts- chapter 17- we read the famous sermon of the apostle Paul- given at Mars Hill. He was in Athens at the time- and he was debating with all the philosophers of the day. He tells them ‘as I was looking around town- I saw that one of your altars is addressed to The Unknown God’.

 He would go on and declare unto them that this Jesus is the true God- the one raised from the dead.

 Paul also said ‘in Him we live and MOVE and have our being’. Kind of a popular verse quoted by preacher’s today- but we often overlook the significance of the MOVE part.

 I mean- why say we MOVE in him too? Paul was a smart guy- he knew these children of Socrates questioned where motion came from [Remember Thales?] So he was basically saying ‘I am declaring to you the one true reality- the true 5th Element- the missing God particle from your system’ and he went on and preached Christ- being raised from the dead.

 Paul knew that you can’t really do true philosophy- to grapple with the questions of life and being and ‘motion’ without realizing that God is indeed the ultimate answer to all things.

 Even Peter Singer- who claimed that you don’t need God or religion in order to do Ethics- even he unknowingly quoted Jesus in attempting to give a basis for his Philosophy- yes- he quoted a God- one unknown to him- just like the altar at Athens- but a God never the less.

 An inescapable 5th element- the missing part to the whole puzzle.

 www.corpuschristioutreachministries.blogspot.com

 [parts]

Let’s do a little more on Eschatology [end times stuff] today. Over the last few weeks these things have been in the news because of the Harold Camping prediction and you have heard various news folk- as well as believers giving their slant to all the popular verses that deal with the subject.

 Some media people were quoting ‘no one knows when the last day will happen- not even the Son, only God’. Then you have had a few other popular verses seep into the flow. The main portions of the bible that deal with the end times are Matthew 24, Mark 13 and Luke 21. John’s gospel does not have an ‘end times’ discourse- possibly because he covers the subject in length in the book of Revelation.

 The main gospel on the subject is Matthew- Mark’s gospel seems to be a shorter compilation possibly taken from Matthew. By ‘taken’ I mean Mark was a scribe/recorder- he was the personality we see in the book of Acts- John Mark. If you remember- he had a falling out with the Apostle Paul and Mark ‘went home’ while Paul took Silas and they embarked on the great missionary journeys of the Apostle.

 You don’t hear that much about Mark after the ‘falling out’ but we know that Mark would later pen the 2nd gospel and he was also a recorder [secretary] for the Apostle Peter [might be important to remember this- if I get to it?]

 So anyway mark seems to have borrowed from Matthew [some scholars think the familiarity between the gospels should be attributed to another unknown common source- referred to as Q- I prefer to simply see it as the writers being familiar with what the other writers were writing- and in the 1st century you did not have Plagiarism as we do today- where it would be illegal to copy something verbatim from another writer- that’s why Mark- who also probably penned 2nd Peter- not as a Plagiarist who used Pseudepigraphy- writings by authors who pretended to be someone else- but as a scribe who was familiar with the other source documents of the time. 2nd Peter has come under scrutiny because chapter 2 seems to have borrowed heavily from the letter of Jude. At some spots it looks like a direct copy. But as Peter’s scribe- it would not have been out of the ordinary to have included- verbatim- a passage from Jude and to have attributed the entire letter to Peter. Or Peter might have simply been familiar with Jude's letter and it would not have been wrong according to 1st century writing standards to have done this. But skeptics in our day try to use this to say the bible is a forgery- so that’s why it’s important to be familiar with the debate and to have a good response.]

 Okay-lets at least try and start a little end times stuff. Matthews 24 begins with Jesus and the disciples walking away from the Temple and Jesus says ‘see all these buildings- truly I tell you that there will not be left one stone on top of another’.

 The disciples then ask Jesus ‘when will this happen- and what will be the sign of the end of the age/world, and the sign of your coming’. Now- this sets the stage for the entire scope of the answer. Jesus told them one thing ‘the temples coming down some day’ and they ask a few things.

 Some scholars believe that the entire answer Jesus gives- about the end of the world and the coming tribulation- some teach that all these things did happen by A.D. 70- that’s when the Roman general Titus [future emperor] attacked the city of Jerusalem and destroyed the temple. Jesus prediction about ‘one stone not being left on another’ was fulfilled to the tee because the temple stones were overlaid with Gold and the looters burned the stones to melt the gold and in the process they literally laid every stone out.

 In the Matthew discourse Jesus also warned the disciples that ‘when you see these things beginning to happen- let those in the city flee to the mountains’. As Titus made his way towards Jerusalem some early communities took his words literally and did use the mountains as a place for protection. The community at Qumran hid their writings in ‘the mountains’ that overlooked the Dead Sea- some 2 thousand years later these writings [scrolls] would be discovered- those are the Dead Sea Scrolls of today- one of the greatestarchaeological finds of history.

 And there were Jewish believers at Jerusalem who did indeed flee to the mountains and they escaped the slaughter. So there certainly were things that Jesus spoke about in his 'end times’ teaching that were fulfilled in the 1st century.

 But what about the other famous portions? As various media persons were quoting a few famous parts of this discourse [this is the 4th famous discourse known as the Olivet discourse in Matthew- 5 famous long sections of Jesus’ teaching] it would help us to know the entire context of the discourse [which includes chapter 25 by the way].

 One of the famous verses is ‘when you see the fig tree putting forth leaves- you know that summer is near- so when you see these signs you know the end is near’. In American evangelicalism this verse has been made popular by men like Hal Lindsay who teach that the fig tree is ALWAYS a symbol for the nation of Israel and therefore Jesus was saying that when Israel becomes a nation again [which happened in 1948] that within ‘a generation’ the end will happen.

 This view uses a few other verses to come to this conclusion. Jesus famous ‘this generation will not pass away until all these things happen’ and a few other scriptures. Simply reading the chapter in context does not seem to be saying this at all. The parallel passage in Luke says ‘and all the trees’. It seems like Jesus is simply saying ‘just like when you see a tree blossom- so when you see these signs know that the time is near’.

 There really is nothing in the actual text to indicate that this is speaking about 1948. But because of these verses having been used like this many preachers have tried to date the coming of Christ within ‘the generation’ from1948. Lindsey put out a book saying that 1988 was a ‘special time’ why 88? 1988 was 40 years [biblical generation] from 1948. Then some changed the biblical generation to 70 years- which makes this decade real important.

 The problem with all these dates is there based on a faulty premise- that Jesus was saying that within a generation of the ‘fig tree blooming’ the 2nd coming will take place- he never said that. As far as I can tell 1948 plays no significant role. Of course Israel becoming a nation again at that time was a great thing- but as a date to begin setting off some type of spiritual clock- that’s not in the bible.

 Okay- maybe I’ll do a few more of these over the next few days. Try and read these chapters the next few days and get a feel for the overall meaning [the context] when we become familiar with the overall meaning of the passage- it keeps us from getting lost in the Fig Tree ones.

 www.corpuschristioutreachministries.blogspot.com 

THE RAPTURE?

 I spoke with a friend yesterday about the Harold Camping prediction that obviously failed. They know someone who is really into Camping and that person was being set up for the disappointment. On CNN they had a Baptist preacher who warned against this type of date setting- yet he spoke confidently about ‘the Rapture is the next event on Gods calendar- followed by the 7 years of great tribulation’.

 I’m sure this fine pastor felt like he was providing a balanced voice compared to Camping’s date setting- yet I felt his interpretation was almost as ‘bad’ as what Camping was doing. Why?

 My first introduction to ‘the Rapture’ came as a new believer who started attending a fine Baptist church- they were an ‘Independent, Fundamentalist, Pre-millennial’ Baptist church – and yes- they managed to fit all this on the sign!

 The standard teaching says that in the New Testament there are 2 separate events that make up the 2nd coming. The first event is called The Rapture- that Jesus secretly comes all the way back to the earth and stops short in the sky [his feet don’t touch the ground] he ‘catches away’ all true believers [normally the Catholics, Orthodox and other historic churches get ‘left behind’] and then begins a 7 year tribulation period.

 After the tribulation you have the other part of the 2nd coming- called the Revelation of Jesus- some Christians say this happens after 3.5 years of tribulation- others after the 7 year period.

 Some say Jesus comes back after a 1000 year literal reign on earth [post millennial] others say before [pre- millennial].

 And then you have various ways they interpret the end time judgment- some say you have what’s called ‘the Bema seat’ a separate judgment for believers- and then the ‘Great White Throne judgment’ the general judgment of the wicked.

 O.K. does the bible specifically teach that the Rapture event is a separate event from the 2nd coming? No- in my view the bible does not teach this. Now- I’m sure that most of my Protestant readers are surprised that I hold to this view, because in American Evangelicalism this view is almost like the Trinity- in some circles it divides the true believers from the heretics.

 Classic Christianity does not hold this view- this idea became popularized the 1800’s under a man by the name of John Nelson Darby and the idea spread to America in the 1900’s- primarily thru the revivalist strain of Christianity- and the ‘bible school/conference’ movement.

 The historic churches just stuck with the classic idea that there will be one second coming- and there will be a resurrection and final judgment. I pretty much fall into this category myself.

 You would be surprised how much thought has gone into this idea- I mean you have entire schools of thought- who call the other side heretics- just because they believe a 3.5 year tribulation as opposed to a 7 year one.

 The word rapture comes from the Greek phrase used in Paul’s 1st letter to the Thessalonians- chapter 4. That’s the rapture chapter. The apostle says that Jesus will return and catch up [catch away] the believers into the air- they will forever be with God. This event is biblical- I believe it will someday take place. I simply believe this event to be the 2nd coming- not another event that you would define as the rapture.

 I believe if you simply read the 2nd coming passages in the New Testament- that you would see this to be the most acceptable view. Jesus actually says ‘after these things [the great tribulation] then the sign of the coming of the Son of Man appears in heaven’ and he goes on to say ‘one will be taken- the other left’. It seems pretty clear to me that the event where ‘one is taken- another left’ takes place ‘after these things’ Jesus actually gives us the time table.

 To be fair- the other side has many-many ways to ‘get around’ these verses- I just feel that after all is said and done- that the best way to view The Rapture is to see this event as the actual 2nd coming.

 I have written a lot about this over the years [under the End Times section] and my purpose today is not to ‘prove’ whose view is right- I have found those tasks to be next to impossible. My point is if a believer [or group of them] chooses to break away from the historic church’s position on anything, then you need to think thru it very carefully. Most classic Christian churches have had very wise and knowledgeable men who thought long and hard before they articulated doctrine.

 This is not to say that the majority view is always right- but it’s simply a safe guide to stick with the majority Christian view most of the time. I’m very aware of the minority report when it comes to the Rapture doctrine- I just feel like the portions of scripture that are used to ‘prove’ the doctrine are not strong enough to overthrow the classic belief.

 The plain teaching of the New Testament is that there most definitely will be a Second Coming- and this event does not take place in 2 stages- the Rapture is the 2nd coming.

 www.corpuschristioutreachministries.blogspot.com 

  VERSES- [These are the verses I quoted or taught from on the video for this post- Other videos below]

 Acts 1:1 The former treatise have I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach,

Acts 1:2 Until the day in which he was taken up, after that he through the Holy Ghost had given commandments unto the apostles whom he had chosen:

Acts 1:3 To whom also he shewed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God:

Acts 1:4 And, being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which, saith he, ye have heard of me.

Acts 1:5 For John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence.

Acts 1:6 When they therefore were come together, they asked of him, saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?

Acts 1:7 And he said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power.

Acts 1:8 But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.

Acts 1:9 And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight.

Acts 1:10 And while they looked stedfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel;

Acts 1:11 Which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.

Acts 1:12 Then returned they unto Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is from Jerusalem a sabbath day's journey.

Acts 1:13 And when they were come in, they went up into an upper room, where abode both Peter, and James, and John, and Andrew, Philip, and Thomas, Bartholomew, and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon Zelotes, and Judas the brother of James.

Acts 1:14 These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication, with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brethren.

Acts 1:15 And in those days Peter stood up in the midst of the disciples, and said, (the number of names together were about an hundred and twenty,)

Acts 1:16 Men and brethren, this scripture must needs have been fulfilled, which the Holy Ghost by the mouth of David spake before concerning Judas, which was guide to them that took Jesus.

Acts 1:17 For he was numbered with us, and had obtained part of this ministry.

Acts 1:18 Now this man purchased a field with the reward of iniquity; and falling headlong, he burst asunder in the midst, and all his bowels gushed out.

Acts 1:19 And it was known unto all the dwellers at Jerusalem; insomuch as that field is called in their proper tongue, Aceldama, that is to say, The field of blood.

Acts 1:20 For it is written in the book of Psalms, Let his habitation be desolate, and let no man dwell therein: and his bishoprick let another take.

Acts 1:21 Wherefore of these men which have companied with us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us,

Acts 1:22 Beginning from the baptism of John, unto that same day that he was taken up from us, must one be ordained to be a witness with us of his resurrection.

Acts 1:23 And they appointed two, Joseph called Barsabas, who was surnamed Justus, and Matthias.

Acts 1:24 And they prayed, and said, Thou, Lord, which knowest the hearts of all men, shew whether of these two thou hast chosen,

Acts 1:25 That he may take part of this ministry and apostleship, from which Judas by transgression fell, that he might go to his own place.

Acts 1:26 And they gave forth their lots; and the lot fell upon Matthias; and he was numbered with the eleven apostles.

Matthew 28:18 And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.

Matthew 28:19 Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:

Matthew 28:20 Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.

Proverbs 29:18 Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he.

2 Corinthians 3:6

Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.

In Context | Full Chapter | Other Translations

John 16:7

Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you.

In Context | Full Chapter | Other Translations

Psalm 85:8

I will hear what God the Lord will speak: for he will speak peace unto his people, and to his saints: but let them not turn again to folly.

In Context | Full Chapter | Other Translations

11 And he said, Go forth, and stand upon the mount before the Lord. And, behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before the Lord; but the Lord was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; but the Lord was not in the earthquake:

12 And after the earthquake a fire; but the Lord was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice.

13 And it was so, when Elijah heard it, that he wrapped his face in his mantle, and went out, and stood in the entering in of the cave. And, behold, there came a voice unto him, and said, What doest thou here, Elijah?

Kings 19

Proverbs 20:27

The spirit of man is the candle of the Lord, searching all the inward parts of the belly.

In Context | Full Chapter | Other Translations

Proverbs 4:26

Ponder the path of thy feet, and let all thy ways be established.

In Context | Full Chapter | Other Translations

Proverbs 30:5

Every word of God is pure: he is a shield unto them that put their trust in him.

In Context | Full Chapter | Other Translations

[these are the verses for the video made 11-11-18]

November 18, 2018

 « November 17 | November 19 »

Thirty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time Lectionary: 158 Reading 1DN 12:1-3

In those days, I Daniel, heard this word of the Lord: "At that time there shall arise Michael, the great prince, guardian of your people; it shall be a time unsurpassed in distress since nations began until that time. At that time your people shall escape, everyone who is found written in the book. "Many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake; some shall live forever, others shall be an everlasting horror and disgrace. "But the wise shall shine brightly like the splendor of the firmament, and those who lead the many to justice shall be like the stars forever."

Responsorial PsalmPS 16:5, 8, 9-10, 11

R. (1) You are my inheritance, O Lord! O LORD, my allotted portion and my cup, you it is who hold fast my lot. I set the LORD ever before me; with him at my right hand I shall not be disturbed. R. You are my inheritance, O Lord! Therefore my heart is glad and my soul rejoices, my body, too, abides in confidence; because you will not abandon my soul to the netherworld, nor will you suffer your faithful one to undergo corruption. R. You are my inheritance, O Lord! You will show me the path to life, fullness of joys in your presence, the delights at your right hand forever. R. You are my inheritance, O Lord!

Reading 2HEB 10:11-14, 18

Brothers and sisters: Every priest stands daily at his ministry, offering frequently those same sacrifices that can never take away sins. But this one offered one sacrifice for sins, and took his seat forever at the right hand of God; now he waits until his enemies are made his footstool. For by one offering he has made perfect forever those who are being consecrated. Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer offering for sin.

AlleluiaLK 21:36

R. Alleluia, alleluia. Be vigilant at all times and pray that you have the strength to stand before the Son of Man. R. Alleluia, alleluia.

GospelMK 13:24-32

Jesus said to his disciples: "In those days after that tribulation the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will be falling from the sky, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken. "And then they will see 'the Son of Man coming in the clouds' with great power and glory, and then he will send out the angels and gather his elect from the four winds, from the end of the earth to the end of the sky. "Learn a lesson from the fig tree. When its branch becomes tender and sprouts leaves, you know that summer is near. In the same way, when you see these things happening, know that he is near, at the gates. Amen, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things have taken place. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away. "But of that day or hour, no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father."

 Other videos- [These are the videos I post every night- Links to all my sites below]

 Kings 4  https://youtu.be/OLW-5PVlzV8

John 19  https://1drv.ms/v/s!Aocp2PkNEAGMg3M4Hh28mYlGWq8a

Friends  https://youtu.be/cZLwTwxkESc

Its all a gift  https://flic.kr/p/2iD9qA3

11-3-19 Sunday sermon  https://1drv.ms/v/s!Aocp2PkNEAGMjE2X0-DUqPwM4brX

8-27-17 Sunday sermon  https://www.dropbox.com/s/bh48my17zjp506z/8-27-17%20Sunday%20Mass.mp4?dl=0

2nd Samuel 22 [NYC]  https://www.dropbox.com/s/wlwkjbm5nozgcdn/2-22-17%20Day%20Kennedy%20died%20%5B2nd%20Sam.%2022%5D.mp4?dl=0

Isaiah 53  https://dai.ly/x7m5j3q

4-10-20 Good Friday  https://www.facebook.com/john.chiarello.5/videos/10207012789156383/

https://youtu.be/m6YP7RNWYUk

The good Sabbath  https://youtu.be/YFhTQFRQurI

https://www.facebook.com/john.chiarello.5/videos/10207016524209757/

I have come to start a fire  https://youtu.be/pyu0kSBYBO8

Acts 3  https://1drv.ms/v/s!Aocp2PkNEAGMg3FpIZPaevEu4-sx

Homeless friend  https://youtu.be/C25zsHNg1J8

Acts 4  https://www.dropbox.com/s/mbpzi567ay7iebq/2-2-17%20Acts%204.mp4?dl=0

4-16-17 Sunday sermon  https://www.dropbox.com/s/synraurg0yshfr2/4-16-17%20Easter.mp4?dl=0

Teaching  https://1drv.ms/v/s!Aocp2PkNEAGMilxNimhHJ5e9WBqc

10-11-15 Sunday sermon  https://ok.ru/video/1589887109687

6-10-18 Sunday sermon  https://www.bitchute.com/video/Vn8oXrAMhd1G/

Zech. 2  https://youtu.be/RXCFjghyBHY

Homeless friend  https://1drv.ms/v/s!Aocp2PkNEAGMg2-i-JrQQgw8G34T

City of refuge  https://youtu.be/BicEi6AvmFE

Waters cover the sea  https://flic.kr/p/2iCpydt

6-19-16 Sunday sermon  https://1drv.ms/v/s!Aocp2PkNEAGMhjgVDOmEQJQeDwpr

11-13-16Sunday sermon  https://www.dropbox.com/s/tra4vdf2ut8tmsc/11-13-16%20Christ%20Church%20%5BC.U.-%20Mass%5D.mp4?dl=0

Samuel 17  https://dai.ly/x7m5j3r

2nd Samuel 21 [NYC view]  https://www.dropbox.com/s/jt2dvbku9roav3e/2-20-17%202nd%20Sam.%2021%20%5BNYC%20view%5D.mp4?dl=0

This generation  https://1drv.ms/v/s!Aocp2PkNEAGMg2uGrLczW3CETdD2

Homeless friends  https://youtu.be/iWQnkKPnIpo

Spiritual Rock  https://flic.kr/p/2iBjXwB

12-30-18 Sunday sermon [Part 2]  https://1drv.ms/v/s!Aocp2PkNEAGMil1muwvXJPNC3BNn

Colossians 4  https://www.dropbox.com/s/u3urlhqn0uohehn/4-26-18%20Colossians%204.mp4?dl=0

Fatima- 2nd Mile [N.J.]   https://www.dropbox.com/s/3b8obhv6chhub8h/2-19-17%20Fatima%20%5B2nd%20mile%5D.mp4?dl=0

Revelation 6  https://dai.ly/x7m20nh

 Acts 9  https://youtu.be/VBw6tOxifc4

10-11-15 Sunday sermon  https://1drv.ms/v/s!Aocp2PkNEAGMg3CWH34dXfqKGZEA

Not a performance  https://youtu.be/hipVuk4m6JY

Colossians 3  https://www.dropbox.com/s/l5uniom6iw4j1tm/4-12-18%20Colossians%203.mp4?dl=0

10-5-19 Sunday sermon  https://1drv.ms/v/s!Aocp2PkNEAGMjElNfB6A3ly1GW_g

Acts 25  https://ok.ru/video/1588890503735

Teaching in NYC  https://www.dropbox.com/s/31al0l8zx4e0m0r/2-18-17%20Teaching%20in%20NYC%20%5B2nd%20Sam.%2020%5D.mp4?dl=0

5-6-18 Sunday sermon  https://www.bitchute.com/video/LhHGVKYdg6we/ 2-26-18 One https://youtu.be/a0dxi27SeD8 2-25-18 Update https://youtu.be/8VhbTy6MgT8 Galatians 5 https://1drv.ms/v/s!Aocp2PkNEAGMejbeju1g4BLexRc Fatima [North Bergen] 2nd mile https://youtu.be/YcfnxpqOOo4 Acts 2 https://1drv.ms/v/s!Aocp2PkNEAGMe74Uzp8M7zlLwek 2nd Samuel 21 [NYC view] https://youtu.be/ahBwNwiQ1s0 Acts 2 https://1drv.ms/v/s!Aocp2PkNEAGMe74Uzp8M7zlLwek  

 Twilight of the Idols https://youtu.be/OUQg7muqpzU

 The carnival https://youtu.be/71ACh0RVuZo

The hornets nest https://trello.com/c/zRamqon8/275-4-9-16-the-hornets-nestmp4

Neil- and Rick Hart- who died about a month ago- https://dai.ly/x6xcitv 

Talking church https://www.bitchute.com/video/bbqifwCZs72d/ 

https://trello.com/c/iffb3zTX/276-talking-church 

Acts 12 https://youtu.be/SRmccCVfFTQ 

11-20-18 News update-

https://youtu.be/iZj8l-K_jEU

 11-19-18 Bank robbery https://www.facebook.com/john.chiarello.5/videos/10205029651339177/

https://youtu.be/KkL1ZUIoiqs 

Bethlehem christians https://youtu.be/3QiH9JSXn90

Ride thru Lincoln tunnel https://bit.tube/play?hash=Qmc5Di9G5JQ2F9PDScSnU4WNvBpiiR5WDLCuTuWeG6mpyy&channel=160276 

  8-26-18 Sunday sermon https://dai.ly/x6xafhp

Homeless friends- Bill Hagan https://flic.kr/p/JSJQEH 

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Hebrews 12 https://www.bitchute.com/video/QqXiog6LDAwW/

Holy Savior https://d.tube/v/ccoutreach/b4uq9ws4

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 These are some of the first posts ever made, I hope to share some of them over time in between my regular studies. Of course they are ‘dated’- and it would be too difficult to edit each post. Some have old news comments in them, but if I also taught on the posts, I’ll post them ‘as is’. Hopefully they will be a benefit in some way- John.

All past posts can be found here- https://corpuschristioutreachministries.blogspot.com/p/links-to-past-posts-up-to-12-2017.html

 Note- Please do me a favor, those who read/like the posts- re-post them on other sites as well as the site you read them on-  Copy text- download video links- make complete copies of my books/studies and posts- everything is copyrighted by me- I give permission for all to copy and share as much as you like- I just ask that nothing be sold. We live in an online world- yet- there is only one internet- meaning if it ever goes down- the only access to the teachings are what others have copied or downloaded- so feel free to copy and download as much as you want- it’s all free-

 Note- I have many web sites- at times some question whether I’m a ‘bot’ because I do post a lot.

I am not a ‘bot’- I’m John- so please- if you are on the verge of deleting something- my contact email is ccoutreach87@gmail.com - contact me first- thank you- John

[its-mike-karpov]

WHO IS A PRODUCT MANAGER?

I have a dream to create a guide book for Product managers. Now it’s not only the dream but a precise action plan for me. And I’m glad to start sharing some notes with you while I’m on my way to this big aim. Your support will be much appreciated :) Let’s go!

My first article here I would start from the topic WHO IS THE PRODUCT MANAGER

A product manager is at the junction of the three blocks with which he or she constantly works: users, technology and business.

Users

We create a product for people. It is for them that we work as product managers. This block also includes marketing and sales teams that are at the forefront of communication with users.

Technology

The technical team, our developers, analysts and designers, those who directly create the product.

Business

The management, which has certain expectations related to understanding how a business should work, how much money it should be making and answering the questions: why do you work in this company, and for what purpose?

Users, marketing and sales

Main question — What do we have?

After launching the product, we receive feedback from users (market feedback) about the results of product development: how much do they like / dislike the product, are the users willing to pay for it or not?

← What do we give users and the marketing and sales teams as a product manager?

User segmentation as determined by current product statistics.

Message to users — information about how you want to deliver the product to the user (end-user of the product). The marketing team works on this with you

Functionality, “features” are the advantages of our product, something that is worth paying attention to

The cost of the service

→ What does the product manager get from users and the marketing and sales teams?

Market feedback. The opinion of different user groups about the product, what they like or dislike, what is missing from the product, whether they consider the offered price of the service to be fair.

Business

Main question — How can we help?

The business is the company’s management with whom the product manager works directly.

← What do we give to the business as a product manager?

A strategy, which decides what we will move towards and what we will create

Obligations and timelines that we set (usually in the format of a RoadMap)

→ What does a product manager get from the business, the leadership?

People, a team

A budget

Specific developmental goals: what the company needs at this stage is a global focus

! You are given resources and are expected to provide some sort of benefit to the business (financial or otherwise, depending on the company).

Technology

Main question — What to do?

At this stage, you, as a product manager, form a set of documents and communication methods through which you will give your team the necessary information. It is important for the development team to be aware of ongoing changes in the market, as well as the results of user interactions.

← What do we give to the development team as a product manager?

Information about the market and its users

Task priorities — all information for developers should be clearly structured and established so that developers will not become distracted, but instead correctly perform task after task, starting with the most important one, as well as clearly understand why the team is currently focused on a specific task

RoadMap: a plan for the several months / quarters ahead, so that the team understands when and how the product development will move ahead and can choose the best ways to get to the right point.

Document formats

Technical Specifications (TS)

MRDs (Marketing Research Documents)

RoadMap

UserStories, Personas (with their help, it is possible to better explain the necessary cases that are part of the product, so that the developers add to these cases and make the best possible product).

The product is developed not only by the product manager but by the whole team. The product manager’s task — is to organize approximately the same level of awareness, in order to synchronize with the development team.

→ What does the product manager receive from the development team?

A working product

Analytics and data, compiled from the use of the given product

Other roles that the product manager encounters and interacts with

Project manager

Has a described and prioritized set of tasks. With the help of the development team and the use of his or her skills, is responsible for the timely product development and implementation. Makes sure that all timelines and specification are met.

Marketing manager

Helps identify the best target audience as well as a strategy to let users know about the product.

Analyst

Conducts an analysis of users’ behavior: which functionality is more successful than others, what should be improved, what aspects require more attention, as established by collected data.

Business development manager

Decides who to partner with in regards to the product and which partners will be the most useful (traffic, content, licensing).

Monetization manager

Answers the questions: “What will earn money and how?” & “How can profits be increased?”

Product designer

Decides what can be done to make the product easy and convenient to work with or use. Empathy!

Very often having only one or a few of the above mentioned roles in a team is not enough. In this case, the tasks that would normally be done by the missing role should be performed by the product manager. If the PM understands that he or she is not able to perform them due to a lack of time and/or focus that is needed to perform these tasks, then he or she needs to find and hire new members into the team.

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[theonyxpath]

Yeah, the above art is pretty much us, dealing with Kickstarter shipping.

I’ll get back to that later, but right now, YAY! for our Trinity Continuum: Aberrant Kickstarter that funded in less than a day! Right now we’re blasting through the Stretch Goals as noted below in the Kickstarter section of the Blurbs!

Thanks so much for everyone supporting this KS, we’ve had some great comments and ongoing conversations there, with all kinds of fantastic ideas for how folks can enjoy TC: Aberrant. That’s really one of the best parts of using a crowd-funding platform: the energy and ideas that backers share with each other and all of us.

Now, at the beginning, there were a bunch of concerns voiced about the cost of International Shipping, and I would like to poke at that just a bit here, because some folks are moving from “Yikes, that’s expensive!” to “You’re out to get us.”

The former being totally understandable – and my reaction, too, when getting those costs from our shipper – and the latter one…not so much.

Particularly because I made the decision to continue to allow international backers, and to be upfront about the costs, specifically so that our international community could have the information and options to be able to choose how they can obtain our projects. You can back the KS for a hardcover with shipping, you can back the KS for a PoD version, you can back for a PDF, you can not back and buy the hardcover in stores, you can not back and get the PDF and/or PoD version from DTRPG.

You see, other game companies have straight-up just stopped shipping internationally. Boom- full stop. And I understand why. Primarily, there are the costs. If you do as we have and put accurate shipping costs into your Kickstarter, backers and potential backers can get angry. As I understand it, a lot of these other companies have chosen not to take the chance that angry customers become customers no longer.

And really, all we do is take the numbers our shipper gives us and add them in; there’s no secret mark-up so we make more sweet, sweet, cash. But there’s still sticker shock. Like I said, I understand and have experienced it myself. It makes no sense to me why our own Dixie Cochran just spent $50 to ship a book to a friend in Canada. Canada! Right up there to the north and connected to the US by land (mostly). So seriously, we all relate.

Wr20 Book of Oblivion art by Phil Lee

The thing is, we’re not just wringing our hands and passing the shipping costs on to backers. We continue to explore other options that are actually possible for a company our size. Like, despite how big we seem, we’re still doing TTRPG Kickstarters, so even our biggest ship-outs to some 4,000 backers are once in several years things. Those numbers are “phftt!” to shippers; I mean they don’t earn us reduced rates or anything that could help from that direction.

We have tried to ship in bulk to individuals and companies outside the US, to the EU specifically, but either through logistics reasons or just bad luck, I’ve never been able to find a way to do that which didn’t wind up costing us more. Which is, y’know, the opposite of what we’re trying to do with our Kickstarters…we want to make the pledges go towards the KS’s goals, not to shipping.

So, I continue to look. Part of the reason we are working with Handiwork Games on the Scarred Lands 5e Creature Collection is to explore with them more potential solutions, as they are not a US-based company. We also continue to talk with our friends at Modiphius with the same eye towards finding solutions to the KS shipping problem.

Enough about this for now, I think, it’s a complicated issue that gets even further into the weeds once you factor in getting through Customs as well – which is probably a topic for a whole nother blog!

Scion Ready Made Characters art by Marco Gonzales

Gen Con 2019 is fast approaching in less than a month, and while we have decided that we won’t be in a booth on the exhibition floor this year, like I talked about several MMN blogs ago, you’ll be able to find Mighty Matt McElroy and myself around the con, chitting and chatting with anybody who will listen.

Specifically, we may be at either the IPR or Studio2 booths, or at these events:

Wednesday night – Diana Jones Awards

Thursday 3pm – What’s Up With Onyx Path Publishing? panel

Friday 11am – What’s Up with Onyx Path Community Content? panel

Friday 3pm – Freelancing with Onyx Path Publishing? panel

Saturday 11am – What’s Up with Onyx Path Publishing? panel

Right now, I’m not going to be able to make the Saturday panel, although if things change I will be there with bells on. But Matt and Eddy are slated to run things there, plus we always have walk-on creators stopping by.

It’s going to be a very different Gen Con for us, but I think a really good one.

V5 Chicago art by Amy Wilkins

Finally, a few notes from the meeting today:

#1: The Scarred Lands mega-epic adventure series, The Vengeance of the Shunned, started going on sale last week and will continue all month on the Slarecian Vault, the SL Community Content site. Check out interviews and profiles of the creators on our social media, and the projects themselves!

#2: The Storypath Nexus Community Content site is coming this week! Could be tomorrow or later in the week, but the chance to publish your Scion ideas is almost upon us!

#3: DTRPG is going to be starting their Christmas in July sale very, very soon, and as always there are going to be some great deals on our PDFs as part of it!

And that is a lot of PDFs, because we’re not just talking one game line on sale, but games from:

Many Worlds, One Path!

BLURBS!

Kickstarter!

The Trinity Continuum: Aberrant Kickstarter funded in less than a day and continues to blast its super-powered way into our lives! We’ve already passed Stretch Goals that are enabling us to recreate missing first edition books, a compilation of the web comic, and…

N!WE N!TERNATIONAL WRESTLING ENTERTAINMENT – A new PDF product discussing the N!WE, the performers and industry personnel, and various elements of professional wrestling in the world of Aberrant!

At $73,000 and climbing, we’ve got many more fantastic Stretch Goal rewards to come, so come check it out! https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/200664283/trinity-continuum-aberrant

ONYX PATH MEDIA

Onyx Pathcast art by Michael Gaydos

This Friday’s Onyx Pathcast features a timely deep dive (considering our new errata process and forms) by our Intrepid Trio into errata, playtesting, and how to give good feedback: https://onyxpathcast.podbean.com/

And Here’s More Media About Our Worlds:

The Onyx Path News returns with another live edition for last week here: https://youtu.be/nlQjKxQX860 Subscribe to our channel and click the bell symbol to be informed whenever a new video goes up!

The first major chapter of Matthew’s Contagion Chronicle concludes here: https://youtu.be/JUTaYwffjI0 We will return once all the players are again available!

Keep watching Travis Legge’s Scarred Lands actual play of Myths & Matchmakers over here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLmiXCaSrrCIjmCJQQ7oLwLNahmDbdn_2J

Devil’s Luck Gaming continue their epic costumed pirate journey through Scarn here: https://www.twitch.tv/DEVILSLUCKGAMING

Occultists Anonymous‘ Mage: The Awakening actual play continues here: Episode 27: Hammer & Anvil With some technical difficulties, on our part, we’ve got a short episode. Songbird delves into his soul. Wyrd, Mammon, and Atratus breach the home of… someone? https://youtu.be/xmiuK7lU_oQ

And here’s the Story Told Podcast with another episode of their excellent Dragon-Blooded actual play: http://thestorytold.libsyn.com/fall-of-jiara-episode-9-a-road-to-trouble

Please check any of these out and let us know if you find or produce any actual plays of our games!

ELECTRONIC GAMING

As we find ways to enable our community to more easily play our games, the Onyx Dice Rolling App is now live! Our dev team has been doing updates since we launched based on the excellent use-case comments by our community, and this thing is awesome! (Seriously, you need to roll 100 dice for Exalted? This app has you covered.)

ON AMAZON AND BARNES & NOBLE:

You can now read our fiction from the comfort and convenience of your Kindle (from Amazon) and Nook (from Barnes & Noble).

If you enjoy these or any other of our books, please help us by writing reviews on the site of the sales venue from which you bought it. Reviews really, really help us get folks interested in our amazing fiction!

Our selection includes these fiction books:

OUR SALES PARTNERS:

We’re working with Studio2 to get Pugmire and Monarchies of Mau out into stores, as well as to individuals through their online store. You can pick up the traditionally printed main book, the screen, and the official Pugmire dice through our friends there! https://studio2publishing.com/search?q=pugmire

We’ve added Prince’s Gambit to our Studio2 catalog: https://studio2publishing.com/products/prince-s-gambit-card-game

Now, we’ve added Changeling: The Lost 2nd Edition products to Studio2‘s store! See them here: https://studio2publishing.com/collections/all-products/changeling-the-lost

Scarred Lands (Pathfinder) books are also on sale at Studio2, and they have the 5e version, supplements, and dice as well!: https://studio2publishing.com/collections/scarred-lands

Scion 2e books and other products are available now at Studio2: https://studio2publishing.com/blogs/new-releases/scion-second-edition-book-one-origin-now-available-at-your-local-retailer-or-online

Looking for our Deluxe or Prestige Edition books? Try this link! http://www.indiepressrevolution.com/xcart/Onyx-Path-Publishing/

And you can order Pugmire, Monarchies of Mau, Cavaliers of Mars, and Changeling: The Lost 2e at the same link! And NOW Scion Origin and Scion Hero are available to order!

On Sale This Week!

This Wednesday, we are offering the Werewolf: The Forsaken 2nd Edition Night Horrors book Shunned By The Moon Advance PDF on DTRPG!

Like all Night Horrors books, this is usable for any of the Chronicles of Darkness game lines, although I’m told it is especially tasty as a treat for Hunter: The Vigil and Beast!

CONVENTIONS!

Gen Con: August 1st – 4th Save Against Fear: October 12th – 14th GameHoleCon: October 31st – November 3rd We’ll also be back at PAX Unplugged later this year!

And now, the new project status updates!

DEVELOPMENT STATUS FROM EDDY WEBB (projects in bold have changed status since last week):

First Draft (The first phase of a project that is about the work being done by writers, not dev prep)

M20 Victorian Mage (Mage: the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition)

Exalted Essay Collection (Exalted)

Trinity Continuum Jumpstart (Trinity Continuum Core)

Wraith20 Fiction Anthology (Wraith: The Oblivion 20th Anniversary Edition)

One Foot in the Grave Jumpstart (Geist: The Sin-Eaters 2e)

Dragon-Blooded Novella #2 (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Exigents (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Terra Firma (Trinity Continuum: Aeon) Titanomachy (Scion 2nd Edition)

Crucible of Legends (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Many-Faced Strangers – Lunars Companion (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Contagion Chronicle: Global Outbreaks (Chronicles of Darkness)

W20 Shattered Dreams Gift Cards (Werewolf: The Apocalypse 20th)

W20 Art Book (Werewolf: The Apocalypse 20th)

Yugman’s Guide to Ghelspad (Scarred Lands)

Vigil Watch (Scarred Lands)

Redlines

Monsters of the Deep (They Came From Beneath the Sea!)

Tales of Aquatic Terror (They Came From Beneath the Sea!)

Kith and Kin (Changeling: The Lost 2e)

Scion: Demigod (Scion 2nd Edition)

Second Draft

Tales of Good Dogs – Pugmire Fiction Anthology (Pugmire)

Dragon-Blooded Novella #1 (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Across the Eight Directions (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Mummy: The Curse 2nd Edition core rulebook (Mummy: The Curse 2nd Edition)

Masks of the Mythos (Scion 2nd Edition)

Scion: Dragon (Scion 2nd Edition)

Geist 2e Fiction Anthology (Geist: The Sin-Eaters 2nd Edition)

Development

WoD Ghost Hunters (World of Darkness)

Oak, Ash, and Thorn: Changeling: The Lost 2nd Companion (Changeling: The Lost 2nd)

M20 The Technocracy Reloaded (Mage: the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition)

Creatures of the World Bestiary (Scion 2nd Edition)

Heirs to the Shogunate (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Scion Companion: Mysteries of the World (Scion 2nd Edition)

Cults of the Blood Gods (Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition)

Legendlore core book (Legendlore)

City of the Towered Tombs (Cavaliers of Mars)

TC: Aeon Jumpstart (Trinity Continuum: Aeon)

Manuscript Approval

Trinity Continuum: Aberrant core (Trinity Continuum: Aberrant)

Hunter: The Vigil 2e core (Hunter: The Vigil 2nd Edition)

Chicago Folio/Dossier (Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition)

Deviant: The Renegades (Deviant: The Renegades)

TC: Aeon Ready-Made Characters (Trinity Continuum: Aeon)

Let the Streets Run Red (Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition)

Editing

Memento Mori: the GtSE 2e Companion (Geist: The Sin-Eaters 2nd Edition)

Night Horrors: Nameless and Accursed (Mage: the Awakening Second Edition)

Lunars: Fangs at the Gate (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Heroic Land Dwellers (They Came From Beneath the Sea!)

DR:E Threat Guide – Helnau’s Guide to Wasteland Beasties (Dystopia Rising: Evolution)

DR:E Jumpstart (Dystopia Rising: Evolution)

Pirates of Pugmire (Realms of Pugmire)

Post-Editing Development

M20 Book of the Fallen (Mage: the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition)

V5 Chicago By Night (Vampire: The Masquerade)

V5 Chicago By Night Screen (Vampire: The Masquerade)

CofD Contagion Chronicle (Chronicles of Darkness)

Distant Worlds (Trinity Continuum: Aeon)

Dark Eras 2 (Chronicles of Darkness)

Spilled Blood (Vampire: The Requiem 2nd Edition)

Indexing

ART DIRECTION FROM MIRTHFUL MIKE!

In Art Direction

Contagion Chronicle – Figuring out art buy.

Dark Eras 2

VtR Spilled Blood

Trinity Continuum Aeon: Distant Worlds – Sketches coming in.

Trinity Continuum Aberrant

Hunter: The Vigil 2e

Ex3 Lunars

They Came From Beneath the Sea

TCFBtS!: Heroic Land Dwellers

Night Horrors: Nameless and Accursed

Ex3 Monthly Stuff

In Layout

M20 Book of the Fallen

Trinity Core – Getting cover specs from printer.

Trinity Aeon – Getting cover specs from printer.

CoM – Witch Queen of the Shadowed Citadel 

Proofing

DR: E – annotated proof back to Josh

Aeon Aexpansion

C20 Cup of Dreams – This week.

V5: Chicago – Proceeding to 2nd proof.

At Press

Dragon Blooded – Deluxe at Studio2.

Dragon-Blooded Cloth Map – Shipped at Studio2.

Dragon-Blooded Screen – Shipping to Studio2.

The Realm – PoD proofs ordered.

Trinity Core Screen – Shipping to Studio2.

TC Aeon Screen – Shipping to Studio2.

Geist 2e – Inputting Errata.

Book of Oblivion

Signs of Sorcery – Gathering Errata.

Trinity: In Media Res – PoD proofs ordered.

Scion Jumpstart – Prepping PoD files.

Scion Ready-Made Characters – Waiting to order PoD proofs.

Blood Sea – PoD file uploaded, waiting to order proof.

WtF Shunned by the Moon – Advance PDF on sale Wednesday at DTRPG.

Today’s Reason to Celebrate!

Today we are 6 degrees from Kevin Bacon’s birthday!

[huangfilms]

Youtuber!Jisung

summary: we’re both youtubers and i don’t know you personally, but i watch your videos on occasion and we’re both pretty well known on youtube and i mentioned you being cute Once and now our ‘fans’ ship us

(A/N) hey kids im bacc with another scenario! and its for jisung ! this wasnt requested but i wanted it so im writing it :D i hope you enjoy i love u all also blease leave me feedback (ps,, my time is now going to b spent on hs tutor mark and then uhh prince chenle and then bf jisung but idk when i’ll have them out so be patient please!!! love you <3)

so obviously jisung would be that youtube channel filled with dance covers and just videos of him dancing

some videos would include the rest of the dreamies dancing with him

or just random videos,, like vlogs 

his channel is like his little own archive so he can watch these videos when he gets older

like he doesnt care if people watch him he just wants to share these vids of him dancing and doing weird shit with his friends

but he’s well known around youtube anyway

so where do you come in?????/

you’re also a youtuber

but you dont really know jisung

you do watch his videos sometimes because hes crazy talented

and a little awkward but its endearing and cute

you tend to binge watch his videos when you’re bored

um,,, your youtube channel is basically like his

except its more of vlogs and everyday life videos

you dance sometimes (and if you dont just pretend that you do HAHA)

anyway

so one day you wake up with a billion notifications

and a lot of messages from your friends

‘check your twt y/N BLEASE’

and youre s o confused

and you see that you’ve gained a lot of subscribers or whatever overnight and you’re just????? why???

then you open up twitter and then you see it

‘omg i ship y/n with jisung ! they would be so cute together AHHH’

someone tweeted that

you have never been more confused because you don’t think you’ve mentioned him in your videos

you do watch him as stated above but like,,,, whats goin on

your phone dings and you see that you got a text from ur bestie 

‘watch this RIGHT NOW’ and attached to it is a youtube link

so you click on it and its a video from jisung and the title is uhhh

‘Q&A with my 🅱️ros 😩💯👊’

so ur just laughing and shit and ur like halfway through the video

and you’re wondering why your friend sent it to you

but then theres this question

‘do you watch other youtubers??? if so who?’

and you can see jisung turn red

and its so CUTE

but then he says something that like,,,,,,,, SHOCKS you

fat oof

‘u-um i watch y/n’s channel a lot! they’re super talented and i mayhaps think that they’re cute,,, or whatever,,,,,’

and then it becomes quiet

‘ANYWAY’ - probably donghyuck

and you pause the video and you SCREAM

cause in ur videos u act like a total crackhead i mean if ur on this website then ya ur a certified crackhead

then you start to text ur friend and you’re freaking out

its all incoherent words and keyboard smashes

but then on twt ur just like,,,, ‘@ jisungstwthandle i think you’re cute or whatever too’

EVERYONE IS RIOTING CAUSE !

when jisung gets the notification hes screaming

‘JAEMIN LOOK’

‘mhm mhm’ hes not even paying attention to jisung

after that tweet you post another that says ‘reply what i should do for my next video kids !’

a lot of people say a collab with jisung

others say q&a

SO you don’t really want to bother jisung so you stick to the q and a idea

and then you say to tweet you with uhhh wutevr hashtag with a question and you’ll answer it in a video

you’re not surprised when you see tons of questions asking about jisung

‘so first question,,,, ‘what do you think about jisung???’

you just quietly laugh before you start talking

‘i watch his videos all the time! he’s crazy talented so if you don’t already watch him,,, what r u doing ! plus he’s so awkward that its endearing and i dont know, hes cute or whatever’ and then you wink at the camera

when you post this video jisung watches it

and then when he gets to that part of the video about that question abt him

HE BLUSHES CAUSE OF YOUR WINK

‘jisung why are you red’

‘nothing go away’

so after a few weeks all of it dies down

people still think yall would b cute together

but its more mellow 

then ! jisung posts a pic on twt saying that he’ll have a special collab posted on yt soon! 

and the picture is of two pairs of legs LMAO 

everyone is just ??? cause who could it b

no one suspects its you cause you two ‘havent interacted’ for weeks 

what they don’t know is that you and jisung actually started to talk more! 

so much to the point where you guys are doing a surprise dance collab

hehahhehskdfh

so when jisung drops that youtube video

everyone is screaming, crying, wigless

cause your guys’ dynamic really does go well together

after that you two hang out a lot and he becomes part of your yt videos a lot

vice versa with you in his

everyone loves the both of you its really heart warming cause everyone can see how whipped you two are for each other just not,,, you guys smh

so!!!! its been like months and you can confidently say that jisung is part of your life

and you may or may not of developed a crush on him

he may or may not have developed a crush on you too

but you dont say anything

oh my god open your ears blease

anyway

in the comments you could see a lot of them being about the two of you

‘two they're so cute!!!!!!’

‘Blease Date Already’

sometimes you read them and you get so flustered just thinking about it

well one day you’re reading comments and u get a text from jisung

and he's asking if you want to do a q and a video together

since you guys haven’t done one together yet

so you both tweet about it blah blah whatever

when it comes to the filming you guys are loose and comfortable with each other

but then you stumble across this question that makes everything g so a w k w a r d

‘are you guys dating?’

jisung was drinking something but now he's choking and coughing

‘no! we are not dating BUT i do like jisung in that way’ and then you wink

and then you’re just s o casual about it ‘next question says-’

jisung’s heart is going into overdrive

yOu liKe mE OH mY gOd - his mind

‘jisung u ok there bud????’

and he just nods and smiles big to show that he is ok when he is intact /not/ okay

but anyway

you’re done filming and then you start to edit right after

jisung is just occasionally bringing you snacks but

don't think he FORGOT

cause he didn't !

‘y/n, did you really mean it when you said you liked me???’

then you stop clicking and then you look at him with a grin

‘of course i did jisungie!!!! i thought i was obvious mister’ and then you start laughing but then you go back to editing

‘i- uh, just wanted you to k-know that i like you too.’

‘i know’

‘HOW’

‘you’re friends with 6 demons sweetheart i been knew’

and jisung is dumbfounded and embarrassed

but hey at least you like him too hehehe

‘so.... y/n..... what are we???’

and ur just like hm we’ll be whatever you want us to be!

so then he smiles big ‘okay be my s/o’

‘ask me again in a week’ and his smile drops

‘I’M JUST KIDDING’ ASKJDFLASD

anyway now you’re together !!!!!!

so when you upload the video you put in the description box that !!! jisung asked you out while editing the video so yes! you guys are dating

everyone is not surprised but they’re all happy for you guys

but on camera jisung is too shy to do anything like kissing or whatever

the most HE’S ever done is hold your hand or hug you

but you???????? sis u really b out here

you kiss him on the cheeks

everywhere on his face

you smother him with love and he gets sooo shy 

but everyone loves it cause you guys are so cute together

in the comments you get stuff like ‘wow they’re so CUTE makes me wanna throw up- iN A GOOD WAY’

when the dreams see you guys be too couple-y or whatever

‘you guys are children blease stop it’ - probably mark

but anyway!! i don’t think there would be a dull moment cause off and on camera

you guys would be dancing and popping everywhere

like,,,,, music is being played so you or jisung start dancing and the other joins in

i don't know i find yt jisung so wholesome cause he's got talent and him spreading his talent through videos on the inter webs is so cool !

Masterlist

[lovehercollectiontale]

HOW TO CROCHET CUP COASTERS TUTORIAL Hello Friends Welcome back today's video is HOW TO CROCHET CUP COASTERS TUTORIAL For Free written patterns http://followsteps.me/ HOW TO CROCHET CUP COASTERS TUTORIAL HOW TO CROCHET CUP COASTERS how to crochet a coaster step by step double crochet circle pattern free crochet coaster patterns Pinterest crochet coasters tutorial how to crochet a flat circle crochet project ideas crochet projects easy crochet projects DIY crochet projects for beginners youtube Hi, I'm Siri from handmade by Siri and this is my YouTube channel. My channel is primarily about crochet, knitting, Decoration and a few other DIY tutorials, be sure to click on subscribe button to get notified of new videos from me each week if you're on social media, you can also find me on Facebook Instagram Pinterest and Twitter and if you have any requests for a DIY tutorial be sure to post it in the comments below thanks for watching. Make sure to subscribe and check out my website Facebook: https://ift.tt/2GZx73Z... Instagram: https://ift.tt/2typz0g Twitter: https://twitter.com/Handmadebysiri Pinterest: https://ift.tt/2GYphb9 Keep in mind that some of the links above are affiliate links and if you go through them to make a purchase I will earn a commission. Keep in mind that I link these companies and their products because of their quality and not because of the commission I receive from your purchases. The decision is yours, and whether or not you decide to buy something is completely up to you. if this video was helpful please like, share and subscribe and don’t forget to share your experience in the comments section and ask your questions below if you have any Thank you for tuning in to Handmadeby Siri I'm your host Siri Thank You once again and happy looming Bubye So, Friends try this How to crochet cup coasters tutorial and let me know how it works for you and if you like the post please share it with your family and friends. Thank You Happy loom knitting and crochet…

[easyvegrecipes]

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[ibeardedstudentdetectiveus]

ভাইফোঁটা কে যমদ্বিতীয়া বলা হয় কেন?| ভাইফোঁটার গান | Vai fota | Vai fota song

Watch video on YouTube here: ভাইফোঁটা কে যমদ্বিতীয়া বলা হয় কেন?| ভাইফোঁটার গান | Vai fota | Vai fota song In this video I’II be talking about ভাইফোঁটা কে যমদ্বিতীয়া বলা হয় কেন?| ভাইফোঁটার গান | Vai fota | Vai fota song.Neither ভাইফোঁটা কে যমদ্বিতীয়া বলা হয় কেন?.Or ভাইফোঁটার গান.Otherwise ভাইফোঁটা কবিতা.Or we can say ভাইফোঁটা 2018.Or we can know ভাই ফোটার মন্ত্র.It can also be called ভাই ফোটা গান.Mentioned here ভাই ফোটার নিয়ম.We will know this video ভাই ফোঁটা.Who he is asking for Vai fota song The video has been fully disclosed. Those who want to know Vai fota, they can watch this video.It is mentioned here that Vai fota song status. If you would like to see more of those videos,Let me know in the comments. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 🎎 Credit: ✍️ Channel name--DIL SE AWAAZ ✍️link-https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G6aSvESRMw8. I have use your video Material in my video. if you feel bad, Please firstly contact me after take any action.Thanks. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 🎎 For related written form go to my website ✍️ https://ift.tt/2QYUGM4 🎎 Click here to subscribe to my channel: ✍️ https://goo.gl/23N7m1 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 🎎 See about this video related other videos: ✍️ ✍️✍️✍️✍️✍️✍️✍️✍️✍️✍️✍️✍️✍️✍️✍️✍️ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 🎎 Click here for see my best views videos ✍️ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2aFonfLLMaQ&t=2s ✍️ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJAXWtqLK8I ✍️ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vEg6KYPbB-o ✍️ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZ4CtKrELGQ&t=29s ✍️ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2TEkhMAb_y0 ✍️ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHzdsvY6LoY ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 🎎 Click here to Follow me on social media: ✍️ https://ift.tt/2QYUGM4 ✍️ https://ift.tt/2rsrFxs ✍️ https://twitter.com/bipulgayla55441 ✍️ https://ift.tt/2HWfSCo ✍️ https://ift.tt/2rrnmCp ✍️ https://ift.tt/2KLHLeq -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 🎎 Click here to check out all playlists: ✍️ About Youtbe channel →https://goo.gl/rVRhrk ✍️ About Bangla bakaron → https://goo.gl/tT9sAA ✍️ About history of Bengali literature → https://goo.gl/GXydwS ✍️ About online service → https://goo.gl/8iN84v ✍️ Trivasha siksha → https://goo.gl/a4XUzS ✍️ About central government scheme →https://goo.gl/hfgNsq ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 🎎 We can says also above the video title as: #vaifota #ভাইফোঁটা #vaifotasong #vaifotasongstatus Etc ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 🎎 🎎 🎎 Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for 'Fair Use' for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research, Fair use is a permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing, Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use. _ 🎎 Email:bipulgayla36@gmail.com Please subscribe my channel”How the ways” and like,share,comments about this video. Thank you for watch this video(By-Bipul Gayla). --------------------------🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷------------------------- by HOW THE WAYS

[johnchiarello]

Sunday sermon

Sunday sermon

[Post below]

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 [TODAY’S POST BEGINS HERE]

 Ezekiel 36:26 A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.

Ezekiel 36:27 And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.

 Sunday sermon videos-

https://youtu.be/CEznhZchZDM

https://www.facebook.com/john.chiarello.5/videos/10204979692130228/ 

https://1drv.ms/v/s!Aocp2PkNEAGMhDhxIxWdzx-wW5mv

https://www.dropbox.com/s/1fesn8zmu3nly9k/11-4-18%20sunday%20sermon.mp4?dl=0

ON VIDEO [ This Sunday I spoke on the verses from the Mass as well as a few verses from Rock City Church]

.The commandments SHALL be in you

.Moses and Joshua also said the people would not keep them

.Why? Even though they were given the law- yet- until the time of Christ and the New Covenant- the law would only reveal their sin

.Jesus quotes Moses- and ‘adds’ to it- the great commandment- Love God- and man

.The 4 questions in Mark 12

.Of course- Jesus wins the debate- every time

.Overview of Paul in Acts

.How does Psalm 110 fit in today's reading?

.After Jesus silences the critics- the common people loved it- why?

.Jesus ‘broke’ the religious customs of his day- and showed the true nature of the kingdom

.Some church history-

.Luther and John Hus- how did Luther fulfil the prophecy of the swan? http://lutheranpress.com/the-swan/ 

.The Medici Popes and the Renaissance

.Erasmus- Zwingli- Calvin

Isaiah 31:4

For thus hath the Lord spoken unto me, Like as the lion and the young lion roaring on his prey, when a multitude of shepherds is called forth against him, he will not be afraid of their voice, nor abase himself for the noise of them: so shall the Lord of hosts come down to fight for mount Zion, and for the hill thereof.

TEACHING [Past posts below]

This day I went to rock city church and taught on some of the verses from the Mass-

There was 1 verse that a girl talked about in her testimony at Rock city Church and I decided to use that verse for this teaching as well-

Ezekiel 36:26 A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.Ezekiel 36:27 And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.

From the Mass we read-

Deuteronomy 6:2 That thou mightest fear the LORD thy God, to keep all his statutes and his commandments, which I command thee, thou, and thy son, and thy son's son, all the days of thy life; and that thy days may be prolonged.

Deuteronomy 6:3 Hear therefore, O Israel, and observe to do it; that it may be well with thee, and that ye may increase mightily, as the LORD God of thy fathers hath promised thee, in the land that floweth with milk and honey.

Deuteronomy 6:4 Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD:

Deuteronomy 6:5 And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.

Deuteronomy 6:6 And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart:

I focused on verse 6.

It is interesting when you read the Old Testament- there were many times where the people of God were told to keep the law-

Yet we also read that they could never really keep it?

These prophecies are all contained in the law itself.

We also read of promises God made to his people that there would be a day when the law would be written on their hearts-

English Standard Version For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Jer. 31:33

Because of the work of Christ- his death and resurrection- the Spirit would come to all believers- and the work of the law- the actual character of God [of which the law was simply a glimpse] would then indeed be written upon our hearts.

Peter declares that we are partakers of God’s Divine nature-

2 Peter 1:4

Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.

I tried to teach this a Little more on the video- but this is truly the message of the Cross- the whole study of Hebrews I have been doing these last few weeks.

The reading from Hebrews for this day [ Hebrews 7:23-28] fits the theme we have been focusing on the last few weeks as well-

I’ll simply add my past commentary on that chapter below.

I also Taught from Mark chapter 12- and hit on the 4 questions that were asked- starting in verse 14 through out the end of the chapter..

Jesus himself asks the last question [of the 4 I taught] and it is in the answer to this question that all else hinges upon-

Mark 12:35 And Jesus answered and said, while he taught in the temple, How say the scribes that Christ is the son of David?

Mark 12:36 For David himself said by the Holy Ghost, The LORD said to my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, till I make thine enemies thy footstool.

Mark 12:37 David therefore himself calleth him Lord; and whence is he then his son? And the common people heard him gladly.

Matthew’s gospel puts it this way- 

42 Saying, What think ye of Christ? whose son is he? They say unto him, The son of David. Matt, 22

Who is the Christ? How can he be the son of David- and David himself call him lord?

Of course we know the answer today- but for people in the first century- this was indeed a hard question to answer.

I’ll also add my past teaching below on Mark 12-

The conclusion is if we know Christ- the Son of the Living God- then the word- law of God is written upon our hearts.

The prophecies of Ezekiel and Jeremiah have now come true- we have been born of God- born from above-

And what the law could not do- Christ has done for us-

3 For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh:

4 That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.

Romans 8

 Psalm 110:2

The Lord shall send the rod of thy strength out of Zion: rule thou in the midst of thine enemies.

PAST POSTS [These are links and parts of my past teachings that relate in some way to today’s post- Verses below]

https://ccoutreach87.com/protestant-reformation-luther/

https://ccoutreach87.com/mark-links/

https://ccoutreach87.com/hebrews-updated-2015/ 

https://ccoutreach87.com/christian-recovery-from-addiction-long-version/

https://ccoutreach87.com/acts-links/

https://ccoutreach87.com/john-complete-links-added/

MARK 12 Mark 12:25 For when they shall rise from the dead, they neither marry, nor are given in marriage; but are as the angels which are in heaven. Mark 12:26 And as touching the dead, that they rise: have ye not read in the book of Moses, how in the bush God spake unto him, saying, I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? Mark 12:27 He is not the God of the dead, but the God of the living: ye therefore do greatly err. https://youtu.be/VJBAPuroAUY Mark 12 https://ccoutreach87.files.wordpress.com/2017/07/7-6-17-mark-12.zip https://ccoutreach87.com/7-6-17-mark-12/ ON VIDEO- .Sandia .Storehouse wisdom .Kingdom to the gentiles [church] .Vineyard- wisdom- tower .Song of the vineyard .Apostles .Leadership .7 dead brothers .Married in heaven? .We are the bride- he is the groom .Burning bush- I AM .Great commandment .Beware of the religious leaders .Jesus has a question too .The common people liked it

NEW- Jesus teaches the parable of the vineyard [or tenants]- it comes from the song of Isaiah chapter 5. The parable speaks about the Jewish people- and their rejection of Jesus as the promised Messiah.

A landowner plants a vineyard- puts a hedge around it- places a wine-press in it- and sets up a tower. He then leases it out to tenants.

The Lord of the vineyard leaves- and over time he sends his men back to collect the fruit. The people who have leased the land refuse to give the fruit.

They beat and stone those who are sent. And finally the landowner sends his son- and they kill him.

The meaning is clear- God sent his prophets to speak to his people [Israel] they rejected them over time- and finally kill the Son.

Remember- Jesus is teaching this- before he is crucified. He predicts his own death in the parable. Yet- at the end- he quotes Psalm 118- Psalm 118:22 The stone which the builders refused is become the head stone of the corner. Mark 12:10 And have ye not read this scripture; The stone which the builders rejected is become the head of the corner: Mark 12:11 This was the Lord’s doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes? He predicts his Resurrection as well. The Son who was rejected and killed- becomes the head of the corner.

In this chapter Jesus will also quote Psalm 110- Mark 12:36 For David himself said by the Holy Ghost, The LORD said to my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, till I make thine enemies thy footstool. Psalm 110:1 The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool.

He questions the religious leaders- He asks them Mark 12:35 And Jesus answered and said, while he taught in the temple, How say the scribes that Christ is the son of David? Yes- Jesus did indeed come from the line of David- but as the eternal logos- he was before David- John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

The chapter ends with 2 stories- about widows. It’s important that we see them both.

Jesus rebukes the religious teachers for taking advantage of widows- for financial gain Mark 12:38 And he said unto them in his doctrine, Beware of the scribes, which love to go in long clothing, and love salutations in the market places, Mark 12:39 And the chief seats in the synagogues, and the uppermost rooms at feasts: Mark 12:40 Which devour widows’ houses, Then he commends the poor widow for giving into the offering- Mark 12:42 And there came a certain poor widow, and she threw in two mites, which make a farthing. Mark 12:43 And he called unto him his disciples, and saith unto them, Verily I say unto you, That this poor widow hath cast more in, than all they which have cast into the treasury: Mark 12:44 For all they did cast in of their abundance; but she of her want did cast in all that she had, even all her living. Over the years there have been many examples of religious leaders taking advantage of the poor- many have enriched themselves by abusing their office as teachers of the bible.

Jesus strongly condemns those who do this. Yet- he commends the poor widow for giving to God.

The rich were giving out of an abundance- it seems as if they actually learned the principle of abundance in their giving to God. Yet- he sees the woman giving out of her poverty- understand- she is still poor at the time she is commended.

Yet the others were rich- and giving.

Many in today’s church would look at the rich- who had an abundance- and say they prospered because they were giving- and had a lot.

And some would condemn the poor widow- because she obviously must be doing something wrong- because she gives- and is yet poor.

But Jesus did not see it that way. The woman gave sacrificially because of her love for God.

The rich gave- yet they did it out of their wealth. Jesus honors the poor widow- not because she learned some secret of giving to get a harvest- because she had no harvest. But she loved God- she gave for the work of God- as she understood it.

Her giving was not based on the return she would get- because as of now- she has not received a return [poor widow]. Yet in the eyes of Jesus- she indeed gave more.

There are a few other things in this chapter that I taught on the video. The challenge of the Sadducees- who do not believe in the resurrection. And Jesus rebuke- Mark 12:24 And Jesus answering said unto them, Do ye not therefore err, because ye know not the scriptures, neither the power of God? I have taught this before- and will try and find those past posts and add them below. Jesus also gives us the great commandment in this chapter- Mark 12:29 And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord: Mark 12:30 And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. Mark 12:31 And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these.

When the common people saw Jesus put the religious leaders to silence- the bible says they loved it- Mark 12:37 David therefore himself calleth him Lord; and whence is he then his son? And the common people heard him gladly.

The downtrodden of society were rejected by the religious leaders of the day. Their outward religion caused them to neglect true justice- true love of fellow man.

The same things that the song of Isaiah- which Jesus used in the parable- were being rebuked for- Isaiah 5:7 For the vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah his pleasant plant: and he looked for judgment, but behold oppression; for righteousness, but behold a cry. The fruit the land owner wanted- was not simply religious works- It was what the other man in this chapter saw- Mark 12:32 And the scribe said unto him, Well, Master, thou hast said the truth: for there is one God; and there is none other but he: Mark 12:33 And to love him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the soul, and with all the strength, and to love his neighbour as himself, is more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices. The animal sacrifices and outward religion were the things that Jesus rebuked them for. Those who seemed to use religion in order to have an abundant wealthy life- were not seen in a good light by Jesus.

The tenants wanted an inheritance and their lust for the wealth of the vineyard [financial harvest] caused them to reject the actual Son of God himself- Mark 12:6 Having yet therefore one son, his well beloved, he sent him also last unto them, saying, They will reverence my son. Mark 12:7 But those husbandmen said among themselves, This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and the inheritance shall be our’s.

Yes- many in the modern church have tried to seize on some material inheritance and given out of an abundance and implemented many of the principles of the bible in order to prosper.

But in doing this- they have had to reject many of the plain things Jesus taught- New International Version “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money. Matt. 6:24

Yes- in a way- they have killed the Son- and seized the wealth.

But Jesus saw the widow- the poor widow- the woman who seemed to have never gotten a hold of the wealth building principles of those who gave out of their abundance.

Yes Jesus saw her- And in the wisdom of God- She gave more than all the others combined-

And thus the chapter ends.

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I mentioned Bultmann and the Herodians on today’s video- below are some past teachings I did on them-

During the time of Jesus you had a divided people. In 1st century Palestine the Jewish people split into 4 basic sects. 2 of them are pretty well known- the Pharisees and Sadducees- they are mentioned often in scripture.

The other 2 are less well known- the Zealots and the Essenes. The Zealots are named in the bible- but only in passing. We have no references to the Essenes.

The Pharisees were sticklers for the Torah [Jewish bible] and the Sadducees centered their life around the Temple- they were more of a political/religious type group.

They stuck to the Torah alone. That is they only received the actual first 5 books of the Old Testament- which is the Torah [also the term is used to speak of the entire Old Testament] and that’s why the Sadducees rejected miracles and angels and stuff. Most of those stories are found in the other O.T. books.

The Zealots were a group of people who hated compromise- they were actually a 1st century ‘terrorist’ group- who carried out assassinations. Not on Rome- but on their own people!

The zealots hated those who compromised with Rome- and if they felt a leader was too chummy- they killed him.

The Essenes were a separatist group who lived in ‘the hills’ [Qumran community] they simply gave up completely on any political solutions for the day- and went and lived in the hills. These are the ones responsible for hiding the Dead Sea scrolls [old bible books found in the last century] in a cave.

It’s interesting to note that Jesus had both a Zealot on his team [Simon- not Peter who also went by that name] and Matthew- a Tax collector. Tax collectors were considered the biggest sell outs of all- they actually worked for Rome and scammed their own people- it must have been hard for Jesus to lead this group [the 12 disciples] who came from such opposite ends of the political spectrum.

Yet Jesus did lead them- he was even offered earthly rule a few times [once from satan- and once from the people who heard him] he rejected it both times. His kingdom was not ‘of this world’.

In the New Testament book of Philippians- the bible says that though Jesus was in the form of God [deity] yet he became a man and humbled himself to the death of the Cross- a shameful way to die.

We have one letter written in the N.T. by a ‘family’ member of Jesus- that’s the epistle of James.

Protestants believe that Mary had other kids after Jesus was born- our Catholic friends teach that she remained a Virgin her whole life. My purpose right now is not to get into that.

James was considered the ‘half brother’ of Jesus [Mary was the mom of both boys- Joseph was the dad of James- Jesus’ father was God]. Okay- James was slow to believe in his brother- but over time as Jesus was declaring himself to be the Messiah- I’m sure James had to wonder- you know- think back ‘gee- come to think of it- I can’t’ remember a time where my brother got in trouble’.

Wait- now I remember- yeah- that time when Jesus was 12- we all went to Jerusalem for the big feast- and Jesus stayed behind while we started the trip home. Yeah- we went 3 days before we realized he was gone. Boy was mom mad that day.

So we went all the way back to get him- and when we found him- he was sitting in the temple- asking these questions- I mean questions that only theologians knew- Jesus was still a kid.

Mom said to him ‘son- why did you stay behind- we were worried’! Yeah- she was mad- if there was ever a time my brother came close to getting in trouble- this was it. But Jesus said ‘why were you worried- didn’t you know I would be doing my Fathers business’ yeah- he sure seemed different- but the Messiah- come on.

So as the ministry years of Jesus role by- there are all these reports of miracles and healings- blind people seeing- dead people coming back from the grave.

Yeah- James has got to be wondering now- but no- he could not accept that his own brother was the promised Son of God- no- too much.

Then the day came- that terrible day where mom had to watch Jesus die on that rugged Cross- on Golgotha- man the hill looked like a skull.

Yeah- it was a strange site- I mean the sky got dark- an earthquake shook the place- and even the Roman soldier who witnessed my brother die said ‘surely this was the son of God’. Wow- too much- my bother has carried this thing too far- even in his death he won’t let this obsession go.

Then James hears some disturbing reports- his friends are saying that Jesus has come back- that he pulled it off- the greatest miracle ever- the one Houdini himself couldn’t do.

But are the reports true? I mean if anyone could tell if this guy walking around is really Jesus- James would know.

We don’t read of the account- but all we know is James became a believer- a believer that his brother was indeed the Messiah- the Son of God.

I guess it went something like this- Jesus sitting there with his men- James shows up and sees his brother- the perfect one- not a spot on his record. Maybe Jesus looked up- maybe he said ‘brother- do you now see’ and yeah- he saw.

James would go on to be one of the leaders/Pastors of the church at Jerusalem- we read about him in Acts chapter 15. Most scholars believe this was the same James who penned the short letter we find in the N.T. that bears his name.

One thing James hits on a lot in his letter- is he defends the poor- the downtrodden- and he rips into the rich- the elite of the day. He warns us not to be biased- not to use ‘uneven scales’ when dealing with people.

James hit on social justice issues- he picked them up from his brother.

We need to be concerned about the world- if a raped woman is forced to marry her rapist- then we ought not say ‘she was pardoned’. When we critique one person for past failures- then we must do that to all.

But at the end of the day- Jesus never took the earthly crown- he did not see the solution to be a political one- he brought Simon and Matthew together on the same team- and he showed them what it means to lay your life down for others- to live without the praise of men- the earthly standard of success- he chose another way- and he left that path for us.

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[1622] ARE THE JAPANESE DISPROVING FREUD? One of the narratives coming from the Japan disaster is the response of the Japanese people. In contrast to our Katrina tragedy the Japanese are very self reliant. Jack Cafferty [CNN] read an email from some elderly lady who contrasted the 2 responses. She called the Louisiana residents who looted, killed, complained and wined- she said ‘those scumbags’ [ouch!] What are we seeing in the Japanese people? The media are referring to them as Stoic’s- the philosophy [ancient Greek- one of only 2 philosophies mentioned by name in the bible- Acts chapter 17 mentions the Stoic’s and Epicureanism] that said the secret to life is living on an even plane. Don’t get too ‘up’ or too down- just ride the wave of life as moderately as you can. The other side of the coin is Hedonism- the philosophy of men like Freud- who taught that the problem with man is that he is taught to restrain himself [by religion] and that this restraint is itself a product of neurosis. Freud was a strange fellow, the father of modern Psychoanalysis; his ideas were actually quite weird. As a Jew [non practicing] he embraced the higher criticism of his day [a way of interpreting the bible as not being actually true- just good stories] and he sought to come up with an explanation for mans religious bent. So he came up with the idea of the Oedipal Complex- a strange view of man that said the real problems of man are they have this view of love and hate for the father figure- and the ‘real’ story of Moses and the children of Israel was the Jews killed Moses in the wilderness [hatred for the father figure] they then felt guilty about it- and out of this guilt they would eventually develop a ‘religion of the Son’ [Christianity] and Walla- that’s the real story. You would be surprised how many people hear silly stuff like this in life [or college!] and they never give it a second thought. Like Pope Benedict says in ‘Jesus of Nazareth’ [1st book of a trilogy on the life of Christ] he mentions the theories of the critics [men like Bultmann] and he then responds ‘and how do you know this’? Bultmann [one of the famous liberal theologians of the day] would come up with ideas like this- and he would just espouse them. The funny thing about these critics was they were trying to challenge the historical accuracy of the bible- are the gospels true- stuff like that. And in their challenge they would ‘make up’ their own stuff [Oedipal complex] and simply expect everyone to believe it. So Freud taught that we need to free man from this neurosis of religion- this thing in society that says ‘restrain yourself’ and if we teach man to do and be all that he feels like doing- then we will have healed him of this destructive religious belief that developed out of a secret love/hate relationship of father. Wow. I can think of no greater philosophy to not live your life by than that. How did the Freudian experiment turn out? It was/is a disaster- I’m not just saying this as a Christian who rejects Freud’s atheism- but many of his ideas have also been roundly rejected by the psychologists of the modern day. Freud actually taught that when you counsel a person [yes- he was the originator of the idea of the patient lying on the couch while the counselor listens] that the patient is ‘transmitting’ psychic energy from himself to the doctor- and that’s what makes him better. Freud wrote Moses and Monotheism [his fictional account of the origins of Judaism/Christianity] Totem and Taboo- the fictional idea of the primitive religion of man- and Civilization and it’s Discontents, his explanation of the conflict between mans psychic life and the demands of society. The basic view of Freud [Hedonism] is a failed system that does not work in the real world. To live your life based on the philosophy of ‘if it feels good- do it’ does not work in any area of life- for the long term. In food, shopping, family life, marriage, sexual expression- the basic principle of self restraint and discipline [the Japanese response] is in great contrast to the ‘unrestrained’ view of life [as seen in some of the Katrina response- many of the looters and rioters were raised with a welfare mentality- they were dependant on the state/govt. to do things for them. When things went bad- they blamed the govt. for it]. In the end of the day- the society that practices self discipline- that teaches their children to be self reliant- those are the ones who have the most successful lives. Those who practice Hedonism blame stuff on everyone else.

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VERSES- New International Version As it is, you are looking for a way to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God. Abraham did not do such things. John 8:40 10 We have an altar, whereof they have no right to eat which serve the tabernacle. 11 For the bodies of those beasts, whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest for sin, are burned without the camp. 12 Wherefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate. 13 Let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach. Heb. 13 KJ21 “Behold, a virgin shall be with child and shall bring forth a Son, and they shall call His name Emmanuel” (which being interpreted is, “God with us”). Matt. 1:23 Proverbs 21:20 There is treasure to be desired and oil in the dwelling of the wise; but a foolish man spendeth it up. In Context | Full Chapter | Other Translations 1 Peter 1:25 But the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you. In Context | Full Chapter | Other Translations John 10:16 And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd. In Context | Full Chapter | Other Translations 7 For the earth which drinketh in the rain that cometh oft upon it, and bringeth forth herbs meet for them by whom it is dressed, receiveth blessing from God: 8 But that which beareth thorns and briers is rejected, and is nigh unto cursing; whose end is to be burned. 9 But, beloved, we are persuaded better things of you, and things that accompany salvation, though we thus speak. Heb. 6

Mark 12:1 And he began to speak unto them by parables. A certain man planted a vineyard, and set an hedge about it, and digged a place for the winefat, and built a tower, and let it out to husbandmen, and went into a far country. Mark 12:2 And at the season he sent to the husbandmen a servant, that he might receive from the husbandmen of the fruit of the vineyard. Mark 12:3 And they caught him, and beat him, and sent him away empty. Mark 12:4 And again he sent unto them another servant; and at him they cast stones, and wounded him in the head, and sent him away shamefully handled. Mark 12:5 And again he sent another; and him they killed, and many others; beating some, and killing some. Mark 12:6 Having yet therefore one son, his wellbeloved, he sent him also last unto them, saying, They will reverence my son. Mark 12:7 But those husbandmen said among themselves, This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and the inheritance shall be our’s. Mark 12:8 And they took him, and killed him, and cast him out of the vineyard. Mark 12:9 What shall therefore the lord of the vineyard do? he will come and destroy the husbandmen, and will give the vineyard unto others. Mark 12:10 And have ye not read this scripture; The stone which the builders rejected is become the head of the corner: Mark 12:11 This was the Lord’s doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes? Mark 12:12 And they sought to lay hold on him, but feared the people: for they knew that he had spoken the parable against them: and they left him, and went their way. Mark 12:13 And they send unto him certain of the Pharisees and of the Herodians, to catch him in his words. Mark 12:14 And when they were come, they say unto him, Master, we know that thou art true, and carest for no man: for thou regardest not the person of men, but teachest the way of God in truth: Is it lawful to give tribute to Caesar, or not? Mark 12:15 Shall we give, or shall we not give? But he, knowing their hypocrisy, said unto them, Why tempt ye me? bring me a penny, that I may see it. Mark 12:16 And they brought it. And he saith unto them, Whose is this image and superscription? And they said unto him, Caesar’s. Mark 12:17 And Jesus answering said unto them, Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s. And they marvelled at him. Mark 12:18 Then come unto him the Sadducees, which say there is no resurrection; and they asked him, saying, Mark 12:19 Master, Moses wrote unto us, If a man’s brother die, and leave his wife behind him, and leave no children, that his brother should take his wife, and raise up seed unto his brother. Mark 12:20 Now there were seven brethren: and the first took a wife, and dying left no seed. Mark 12:21 And the second took her, and died, neither left he any seed: and the third likewise. Mark 12:22 And the seven had her, and left no seed: last of all the woman died also. Mark 12:23 In the resurrection therefore, when they shall rise, whose wife shall she be of them? for the seven had her to wife. Mark 12:24 And Jesus answering said unto them, Do ye not therefore err, because ye know not the scriptures, neither the power of God? Mark 12:25 For when they shall rise from the dead, they neither marry, nor are given in marriage; but are as the angels which are in heaven. Mark 12:26 And as touching the dead, that they rise: have ye not read in the book of Moses, how in the bush God spake unto him, saying, I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? Mark 12:27 He is not the God of the dead, but the God of the living: ye therefore do greatly err. Mark 12:28 And one of the scribes came, and having heard them reasoning together, and perceiving that he had answered them well, asked him, Which is the first commandment of all? Mark 12:29 And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord: Mark 12:30 And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. Mark 12:31 And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these. Mark 12:32 And the scribe said unto him, Well, Master, thou hast said the truth: for there is one God; and there is none other but he: Mark 12:33 And to love him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the soul, and with all the strength, and to love his neighbour as himself, is more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices. Mark 12:34 And when Jesus saw that he answered discreetly, he said unto him, Thou art not far from the kingdom of God. And no man after that durst ask him any question. Mark 12:35 And Jesus answered and said, while he taught in the temple, How say the scribes that Christ is the son of David? Mark 12:36 For David himself said by the Holy Ghost, The LORD said to my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, till I make thine enemies thy footstool. Mark 12:37 David therefore himself calleth him Lord; and whence is he then his son? And the common people heard him gladly. Mark 12:38 And he said unto them in his doctrine, Beware of the scribes, which love to go in long clothing, and love salutations in the marketplaces, Mark 12:39 And the chief seats in the synagogues, and the uppermost rooms at feasts: Mark 12:40 Which devour widows’ houses, and for a pretence make long prayers: these shall receive greater damnation. Mark 12:41 And Jesus sat over against the treasury, and beheld how the people cast money into the treasury: and many that were rich cast in much. Mark 12:42 And there came a certain poor widow, and she threw in two mites, which make a farthing. Mark 12:43 And he called unto him his disciples, and saith unto them, Verily I say unto you, That this poor widow hath cast more in, than all they which have cast into the treasury: Mark 12:44 For all they did cast in of their abundance; but she of her want did cast in all that she had, even all her living. Isaiah 5:1 Now will I sing to my wellbeloved a song of my beloved touching his vineyard. My wellbeloved hath a vineyard in a very fruitful hill: Isaiah 5:2 And he fenced it, and gathered out the stones thereof, and planted it with the choicest vine, and built a tower in the midst of it, and also made a winepress therein: and he looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes. Isaiah 5:3 And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem, and men of Judah, judge, I pray you, betwixt me and my vineyard. Isaiah 5:4 What could have been done more to my vineyard, that I have not done in it? wherefore, when I looked that it should bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes? Isaiah 5:5 And now go to; I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard: I will take away the hedge thereof, and it shall be eaten up; and break down the wall thereof, and it shall be trodden down: Isaiah 5:6 And I will lay it waste: it shall not be pruned, nor digged; but there shall come up briers and thorns: I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it. Isaiah 5:7 For the vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah his pleasant plant: and he looked for judgment, but behold oppression; for righteousness, but behold a cry.

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Sunday sermon

Sunday sermon 10-28-18

Sunday sermon 10-21-18

HEBREWS 7-9

https://ccoutreach87.files.wordpress.com/2015/05/5-7-15-hebrews-7-9.zip

[note- some of the posts are too long to post on facebook-so if you just see the video- you can go to the blog and read the post- thanks].

END NOTES OF POST BELOW-

WHAT ARE THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS?

OCTAVIAN- A GOD?

CICERO- MARK ANTONY [or Anthony if you like].

WHO WERE THE ESSENES?

DID THE CHURCH ENGAGE IN A GRAND CONSPIRACY?

NOTE- On the video I said that Herod the Great had 4 sons who ruled areas at the time of Christ- actually there were 3.

Archelaus- Ethnarch of Judea. Antipas- tetrarch of Galilee [I did get this right] and Philip- tetrarch of regions east of the Jordan.

  CHAPTER 7:

NEW NOTES-

MELCHIZEDEK/JESUS NEVER DIES.

NEW PRIEST- NEW LAW.

 ‘For this Melchisedek, king of Salem [Jerusalem], priest of the most high God…to whom Abraham gave a tent part of all…without father or mother [no record in scripture!] having neither beginning of days nor end of life [no record of his death or birth] but made like unto the Son of God, abideth a priest continually’ first, Paul is showing the superiority of the New covenant over the Old. These verses are often used to teach tithing to gentile believers, they really teach the opposite! In context they are showing that the New Covenant is greater than the law, therefore the law [represented as Levi being in the loins of Abraham] submitted to Grace [The priesthood of Melchisedek/Jesus] and showing how grace is better than law. Paul’s point is to once again use the Melchisedek figure as a type of Christ. Jesus is called a high priest forever after this order, Paul says in essence ‘this order has priests who have no beginning of days or end of life, the priests in this order have a forever priesthood’. It really is amazing how Paul gets all this from the few verses of scripture that speak of Melchisedek. Many theologians today question even the most obvious truths. Some good ones will say there isn’t enough evidence for certain doctrines. Even though the evidence is 100 times more than what Paul used in his teaching on Melchisedek! I find it interesting how Paul continually sees Jesus thru every story! The man was a true ‘Jesus freak’.

 ‘Now consider how great this man was, unto whom Abraham gave the tenth…they that are of the sons of Levi have a commandment to TAKE TITHES OF THE PEOPLE ACCORDING TO THE LAW’ Lets settle this once and for all. To all my friends who teach tithing is for Christians today, many of them justify it by saying ‘tithing was before the law [true] in the law and after the law’ I have tried to explain this many times before. This verse shows tithing to be part of the law, specifically, not just ‘during it’. Also, the whole point of the argument here is that Grace and the New Covenant are better than the law. The tithe here is mentioned in a way that shows the superiority of the new covenant over the Old. ‘Levi also paid tithes in Abraham, for he was yet in the loins of his father when Melchisedek met him, if THEREFORE perfection were under the Levitical priesthood, what further need was there that a priest should rise after the order of Melchisedek, and not after Aaron? FOR THE PRIESTHOOD BEING CHANGED, THERE IS A NECESSITY FOR A CHANGE OF THE LAW’.

 The ‘therefore’s’ are real important. They show you the main reason for the argument. If Paul can prove that God raised up Jesus from another priesthood, then there must also be ‘another covenant’. For this reason [therefore] you [Jew] should move on from the Old one and into the New! ‘For it is evident that out Lord sprang [root out of dry ground!]out of Judah, of which tribe Moses spake nothing concerning priesthood…who is made not after the law of a carnal commandment, but after the power of an endless life, for he says “thou art a priest FOREVER after the order of Melchisedek”. Again Paul gets all he can from the ‘Melchisedek verse’. Because this single text of scripture says ‘Jesus is a priest forever’ therefore God knew all along that he would raise up a priest with an endless life. Wow, Paul even gets the resurrection from this verse!

 As Paul was learning all these things in a new way after his conversion, it was blowing his mind. He saw all these ‘hidden’ nuggets of wisdom that Israel had all along in hidden form contained in their law. Paul is doing his best to present his case from their own ‘bible’ if you will… ‘For the law made nothing perfect, but the bringing in of a better hope did; by which we draw nigh unto God…and they truly were many priests, because they were not permitted to continue by reason of death: but this man, because he continueth ever, hath an unchangeable priesthood. WHEREFORE he is able to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him’. Now, we usually read this ‘the guttermost’ but it means something a little different. It means because Jesus has an endless life, he is ‘always’ interceding on our behalf. His very presence continually before the throne is what ‘keeps saving us continually all the time’. It is more along the lines of ‘Jesus never will die; therefore we will continually be saved’.

 Paul compares this to the insufficiency of the priesthood of the law. Those priest’s ‘meant well’ but the poor brothers kept dying! This showed the total inability of those priests to effectively stand in on our behalf, even though they did all they could do. Jesus, on the other hand, will never die. Who would you prefer to have on your prayer team? Someone who will forget to pray for you down the road, who will last so long? Or someone who will pray for you forever? I know this is a crude way to look at it, but for our gentile minds it gets the point across. ‘For such an high priest became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens’ Paul describes the character of Jesus as ‘harmless’ as someone who would never ‘get even’ who is always pure, the perfect intercessor!

 There are times in our lives, as well as all ‘natural priests’ that we are not pure, holy or harmless. During these days our prayers can’t get thru. If people are depending on us for true intercession, we let them down. There is never a day where our ‘chief intercessor’ lets us down. There are days when we feel useless, we have failed. Our own agendas get in the way. Days when we are not ‘harmless’. Thank God that our ‘prayer warrior’ is always on the job on our behalf. This is what  it means when it says ‘he is able to save to the uttermost that come to God by him’. All you have to do on those down days is ‘come’.

 ‘Who needeth not daily to offer for sins… he did this once and for all when he offered up himself’ Jesus is the ultimate sacrifice, there will never be another! ‘For the law maketh men high priests which have infirmity, but the word of the oath, which was since the law, maketh the Son, who is consecrated forevermore’ Paul takes the verse again where it says ‘thou art a priest forever’ and compares it to the law. He says ‘the oath that God swore when he made Jesus a priest forever, came after the giving of the law. Therefore it supersedes the law. The law made priests that were failing, the oath made a priest who would last forever’ it really is amazing how much use Paul gets from this one verse. He in essence is saying ‘because Jesus was made a priest by this later oath, therefore the former making of priests is no longer in operation. You must leave the Levitical priesthood [law] and enter into the new one made by the oath’ [New Covenant] all the arguments that Paul makes in this letter are always pointing to Jesus as the final word from God. A better covenant with better promises. This is the whole context of Hebrews, for the people to come out of the law and into Christ!

NEW NOTES-

MELCHIZEDEK/JESUS NEVER DIES.

NEW PRIEST- NEW LAW.

Ok- we see the Melchizedek figure a bit more here-

The writer is saying ‘look- my Jewish brothers- in Psalms 110- King David- a prophet- spoke about another Priesthood.

This priesthood is not from the tribe that priests from the law come from [Levi].

But the promise/oath made about this priest [Jesus] says ‘you are a priest FOREVER’.

How can this be?

The writer says this must mean that David was talking about some future priest- who would have an endless life-

How else could anyone be a priest FOREVER?

So- David spoke about another priesthood- outside of the law.

And this priest is superior to the ‘law’ priests- because those guys died- but this one lives.

He also says ‘there must then be a change of the law [Old Covenant] too- because if we have a new priest- then there must be a new TESTAMENT/COVENANT as well’.

The whole argument is showing the superiority of what Jesus has done for us- versus the requirements of the Old Law.

The writer says ‘see- Abraham our forefather paid tithes to him- and Abraham had the tribe of Levi ‘still in him’ [Abraham was the father of Isaac- Isaac was the father of Jacob [named Israel] and he was the father of the 12 tribes].

Levi being one of those sons/tribes.

The point being that this example of Abraham paying tithes to Melchisedek- shows that he [and the priestly line that would follow- Jesus] was superior to the old law/priesthood- because Abraham was blessed by him- and truly ‘the lesser is blessed by the greater’.

Once again- this whole argument only makes sense to the 1st century Jew in transition- it has no real relevance to a new- first century- gentile church.

Notice how much the writer is ‘getting’ out of this obscure reference in the book of Psalms-

We really don’t have a whole lot of stuff in the bible about Melchizedek- but what we do have- is enough.

Hebrews 7:1 For this Melchisedek, king of Salem, priest of the most high God, who met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings, and blessed him;

Hebrews 7:2 To whom also Abraham gave a tenth part of all; first being by interpretation King of righteousness, and after that also King of Salem, which is, King of peace;

Hebrews 7:3 Without father, without mother, without descent, having neither beginning of days, nor end of life; but made like unto the Son of God; abideth a priest continually.

Hebrews 7:4 Now consider how great this man was, unto whom even the patriarch Abraham gave the tenth of the spoils.

Hebrews 7:5 And verily they that are of the sons of Levi, who receive the office of the priesthood, have a commandment to take tithes of the people according to the law, that is, of their brethren, though they come out of the loins of Abraham:

Hebrews 7:6 But he whose descent is not counted from them received tithes of Abraham, and blessed him that had the promises.

Hebrews 7:7 And without all contradiction the less is blessed of the better.

Hebrews 7:8 And here men that die receive tithes; but there he receiveth them, of whom it is witnessed that he liveth.

Hebrews 7:9 And as I may so say, Levi also, who receiveth tithes, payed tithes in Abraham.

Hebrews 7:10 For he was yet in the loins of his father, when Melchisedec met him.

Hebrews 7:11 If therefore perfection were by the Levitical priesthood, (for under it the people received the law,) what further need was there that another priest should rise after the order of Melchisedec, and not be called after the order of Aaron?

Hebrews 7:12 For the priesthood being changed, there is made of necessity a change also of the law.

Hebrews 7:13 For he of whom these things are spoken pertaineth to another tribe, of which no man gave attendance at the altar.

Hebrews 7:14 For it is evident that our Lord sprang out of Juda; of which tribe Moses spake nothing concerning priesthood.

Hebrews 7:15 And it is yet far more evident: for that after the similitude of Melchisedec there ariseth another priest,

Hebrews 7:16 Who is made, not after the law of a carnal commandment, but after the power of an endless life.

Hebrews 7:17 For he testifieth, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec.

Hebrews 7:18 For there is verily a disannulling of the commandment going before for the weakness and unprofitableness thereof.

Hebrews 7:19 For the law made nothing perfect, but the bringing in of a better hope did; by the which we draw nigh unto God.

Hebrews 7:20 And inasmuch as not without an oath he was made priest:

Hebrews 7:21 (For those priests were made without an oath; but this with an oath by him that said unto him, The Lord sware and will not repent, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec:)

Hebrews 7:22 By so much was Jesus made a surety of a better testament.

Hebrews 7:23 And they truly were many priests, because they were not suffered to continue by reason of death:

Hebrews 7:24 But this man, because he continueth ever, hath an unchangeable priesthood.

Hebrews 7:25 Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them.

Hebrews 7:26 For such an high priest became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens;

Hebrews 7:27 Who needeth not daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifice, first for his own sins, and then for the people’s: for this he did once, when he offered up himself.

Hebrews 7:28 For the law maketh men high priests which have infirmity; but the word of the oath, which was since the law, maketh the Son, who is consecrated for evermore.

Genesis 14:17 And the king of Sodom went out to meet him after his return from the slaughter of Chedorlaomer, and of the kings that were with him, at the valley of Shaveh, which is the king’s dale.

Genesis 14:18 And Melchizedek king of Salem brought forth bread and wine: and he was the priest of the most high God.

Genesis 14:19 And he blessed him, and said, Blessed be Abram of the most high God, possessor of heaven and earth:

Genesis 14:20 And blessed be the most high God, which hath delivered thine enemies into thy hand. And he gave him tithes of all.

 THE WELL- John 4 [and Brexit too] John 4:25 The woman saith unto him, I know that Messias cometh, which is called Christ: when he is come, he will tell us all things. John 4:26 Jesus saith unto her, I that speak unto thee am he. TODAY’S VIDEOS- https://youtu.be/qaD4EfJLH_g Media [Brexit] https://youtu.be/n2l2UuWbiVw The Well- John 4 https://ccoutreach87.files.wordpress.com/2016/06/6-23-16-the-well.zip https://ccoutreach87.wordpress.com/2016/06/14/amos-5/

MY LINKS- https://ccoutreach87.wordpress.com/the-great-building-of-god/

ON VIDEO .Are people afraid to report possible Muslim suspicious activity? .Look at the boy with the ‘clock’ story. .Big money politics. .Polls? .My big sin confession- yes folks- this might be the bombshell you have been waiting for! [what is it John- can’t you just write it? No- you have to watch] .Was big money behind the Iran Nuke deal? .The Boeing plane contract- to Iran. .Iraq debacle. .Media slams Trump- because he only raised 1 million- and used 50 million of his own money. .Sanders raised most of his money from small donations. .Hillary raised 25 million- from corporations and Wall street [the only corrupt money candidate out of the 3] and one of her main campaign points is ‘we need to get wall street out of politics’- Maybe you should start by getting out too? .And the media praised her for it- huh? .5 fold ministry [apostles- prophets- teachers- etc.] .AA sponsors- watch till the end- this might be the day you have been waiting for? .AA or the Church? [verses below] On THE WELL video [2 more articles below] Jesus has a long dialogue with a woman from Samaria- he speaks to her all alone- and she’s also from a region that the ‘Jews’ don’t associate with. Yet- he breaks the rules- and asks her to draw him water from Jacob’s well. She say’s ‘our father Jacob drank from it- his kids- and his cattle too’! The well was a source- not just for Jacob’s kids- but for him too. Meaning- when God grants us a ‘well’ [a source of communication for the truths of God] we too partake of it- like King David in the bible- he went to the house of God when he was on the run from Saul- and ate of the showbread- and gave it to his men. Paul tells Timothy ‘preach the word- in doing this you will SAVE yourself- and those that hear thee’. And when Jesus broke bread with his men- he too ate. The principle is- ministers- Pastors- 5 fold- You’re not the source- but God is speaking thru you [hopefully] and the things ‘coming out of you’ are for your sustenance too- get it? Now- the woman has been waiting for the Messiah her whole life- she says ‘we know he is coming’ and she says ‘the way we will identify him- is he will TELL US EVERYTHING WE DID’. Hmm? Everything? Ok- as he talks to her- he tells her he has some living water [the Spirit] and if she asks him- she will get the water that never runs dry. So- she asks. Jesus says ‘go get your husband’ . Her answer ‘I don’t have one’ [true] Jesus says ‘your right- you have had 5- the guy you are with now is not your husband- so yeah- that’s true’. Ok- she’s caught- and says ‘I perceive you are a prophet’ Remember- she is waiting for Messiah- and when he comes- he will TELL HER all that she did- she herself already said this. The conversation goes on- and Jesus says ‘ I AM HE’. Now- she clicks- has an epiphany ‘wow- that’s right- you did tell me my past- you did expose my sin- and now I’m able to access the well’. She goes on and tells her town about Jesus- ‘Come see a man that told me everything I did’. Actually- he did not tell her everything she ever did- but he did tell her enough- that she knew he was the one. Sometimes in life- we are seeking the miracles- we want to see God do something- and when the opportunity comes around- we miss out. Why? Because of our pride- on a recent video [link above- Amos 5] I told a story about a friend who was into the prophetic ministry- following ‘on-line’ prophets and all. He had stories of when he ran our of gas- somebody gave him gas- and he ‘turned’ that simple encounter- into an angel must have given him the gas. Fine. He went on to tell other stories just as ‘miraculous’ as the angel and the gas can. Then I told him the story of when I prayed over a dead boy- and God raised him from the dead. And how the Kingsville record ran a front page story ‘child says he saw the Lord’. And the whole city was rocked- the testimony of God went forth- the paper even said ‘Chiarello was in the room praying’. Ok- if your looking for ‘the well-‘ conjuring up stories about gas cans and angels- this is a pretty good one- you don’t even have to go on-line to find it. Yet- my friend said ‘oh- that just a resuscitation’. Sometimes God brings you the signs you have been waiting for your whole life [like the woman at the well] And because of pride- we miss it. Be attentive to the prophetic things happening around you- Paul told Timothy ‘wage a good war by the prophecies that were given over you’. Yes- God still speaks today- the well is for you- and for those who hear you. Just be careful- because Jesus was passing thru Samaria on that special day- and the woman almost missed it.

On the video MEDIA- I talk about the American media coverage of the Brexit [Britain leaving the E.U.] The 30 minute news went like this- 1 Trump on a golf course- with Nazi golf balls [thrown by a protestor] 2 Then the reasons why [the media said] they left- ‘racists- bigots- hatred- right wing Christians who want to enslave the younger generation- anti Muslim ignorance’ [they claimed it was only the older bigots who voted to leave] 3 Then they showed a Trump sign that was vandalized- and it said ‘Trump- make America WHITE again’. 4 Then an interview with a Scottish business man who said ‘trump is a nut- we can’t let him have Nukes’! [world news mind you- gave this guy a worldwide platform] 4 A story about a boy who ‘came out’ as gay- in honor of the victims of the mass shooting in Orlando 5 Then him and his mother saying he risked his life by coming out as gay [huh?] 6 Then they showed a picture of a Christian church- and said because they live in the south- his life is now in danger from Christians who might try to murder him. 7 They never mentioned the fact that it was a radical Muslim who killed the actual victims he was ‘coming out’ for. [note- The image of golf balls with swastikas- the Trump poster that said ‘Trump- make America White again’- then the young gay man- who feared for his life because Christians in the south might murder him- then the image of a southern church- images are powerful- the media knows this- and the average person might think ‘I’m not that dumb to fall for it’- but it’s subliminal- and that’s how all advertising works- even if you don’t think you’re ‘falling for it’] At the end of the 30 minute news- they associated Trump- conservatives- and Christians as a great danger to society- and those who voted for the Brexit were motivated by ignorance and racism.

Then I watched an interview with a Brit- a young Socialist [meaning- he was not a conservative] he said it would be very wrong to view those who voted to leave as racists- bigots- and ignorant. This liberal kid from Britain said there were many young progressives- and workers who voted to leave- who had very honest- non racist reasons. That’s what I said on the video- that the American media did a great disservice by spinning the whole thing as a racist- conservative- Trump- Nazi- anti freedom vote. And it took a young- liberal socialist- from Britain- to say the same thing. WHY SO MAD? An honest look at what happened in Britain would be a discussion that the Western world has been having for the past 10 years. The rise of radical Islam has caused many in the Western world to re-evaluate what it actually means to become a citizen of their countries. In Britain for many years it was just assumed that both Muslim immigrants and ‘home grown’ could live their lives and hold to their religious beliefs- and sort of be on their own. Then you had the rise of many isolated communities of whom a great number of the younger Muslims hold to extreme beliefs- even though they are citizens of Britain. This caused many brits to ask the question ‘should we have been more honest- forceful- in what it means to actually be a Brit’. They failed to ask the big questions- ‘if you want to be a part of us- and you are Muslim- that’s your belief- we get it- but if your actual belief includes the acceptance of executing gay people- and the hope of the establishing of Sharia law and courts- then those ideals will not be tolerated among true Brits’. The same questions we should ask all U.S. citizens- not a religious ‘test’- but an ideological one. Meaning- if you hold to the belief that Hitler was a great man-o k- I disagree with you- but if that belief includes you wanting to implement his anti-Semitic beliefs- and put them into practice [gassing Jews] than that’s more than simply a ‘religious belief’- you have crossed a line that is not acceptable if you want to become an American citizen. That’s an ideal that must be challenged. And Obamas belief that we need to distinguish between the radicals and the more moderate- I understand. But- he seems unable to admit that their is a huge percentage of ‘moderate’ Muslims who still hold to the honest belief that gay people should be executed under a ‘just’ system of Sharia law. That’s a problem- that’s not American. It’s not just a problem because it’s a ‘belief’ but it’s a problem that many who want to be part of a society [Britain- Europe- the U.S.] think it’s ok to have those beliefs- and to advocate and try to implement them- and it’s simply not acceptable- and if you want to be a part of a society- we will not reject you based on your belief about God- but we will make you say an oath- pledge to the new society you are coming to- which includes the acceptance of the values of that country- that’s what immigration means. That’s a ‘test’ of a radical unacceptable view- that’s should not be tolerated. Now- In Britain’s vote to leave the E.U. The European Union started after WW2- about 28 nations formed a union for strength and unity. Later on they had the Euro- about 20 nations joined in a common currency and formed the largest single trading block in the world. Ove the past 10 years Europe has faced many challenges- and the countries [Greece] that are on the verge of bankruptcy- began looking to the more stable ones as a sort of bailout neighbor [Germany being one of the more stable]. The Brits began asking if it was better for them to be under this 28 nation union [EU] and to have over regulation coming out of Brussels [the headquarters for the E.U]many sincere brits- not out of racism- but out of honest questions- decided it was better to leave the E.U. and not be under the ‘federal’ regulations of an outside body. Just like many Americans value their independence- and resent our own federal government having too many regulations. Ok- this was- is- an honest reason for the Brits to do their Brexit. But the media portrayed the vote as a bunch of ignorant- older- anti Muslim racists who bought into the ‘hatred’ of the Muslim world and voted out of ignorance. That’s not what happened- and this narrative is dangerous in my view. Why? I mentioned on the video [MEDIA] that they even talked to the businessman who Trump had dealings with over his golf course in Scotland. They gave this guy a platform to the world- to say Trump is unstable and will possibly hit the ‘Nuke’ button if he became president. But the real story over the past few years is many intelligent analysts have said the present course the Obama administration is on- is actually pushing Russia close to a hot war. Both liberals and conservative thinkers have said this. The threat of NATO- and Obamas willingness to sanction Russia- and to put more troops on the Russian/European border- is bringing the world to the brink of a real ‘Nuke Button’- not some golf course guy spewing off the top of his head about Trump.https://ccoutreach87.wordpress.com/russia-u-s-world-events/ Even Germany said it a few weeks ago- that NATO is war mongering- pushing Putin to the brink. A serious analysis should ask these questions- A real ‘news story’ should ask if It’s acceptable that about 50 percent of the Muslim world [not just radicals] think sharia law should be instituted- and if so- the execution of gays is a good thing. Now- that percentage is too high. You might have less than 1 percent of fundamentalist Christians who hold to an extreme view [maybe less] but the great majority of Christians absolutely reject the idea that gay people should actually be executed- because they are gay. Yet- a majority of Muslims world wide- believe this is ok. No- it’s not- and for Obama- or the media- to act like the problem is with the Christian- or the ‘ignorant- anti immigrant/Muslim bigots of Britain’ who voted to leave the E.U.- When they give you this narrative- they are doing a disservice. Britain left the EU- that was their democratic choice. Many brits have real problems with the Muslim communities in their country who still hold to these wrong views. These Brits should not be portrayed as ignorant right wing bigots- because the views they are rejecting by many Muslims in their country- are the radical- bigoted views- that all religions should reject. The threat of a real nuclear war has to do with decisions we are making right now- and our refusal to re-evaluate NATO [which Trump also got criticized for saying we need to do]. But the media preferred the analysis of some guy who did a business deal for a golf course in Scotland- and gave him world airtime to say how ‘Trump might hit the Nuke Button’- when in reality ‘the button’ might actually be hit- but it has nothing to do with Trump. VERSES- [news links below] John 4:1 When therefore the LORD knew how the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John, John 4:2 (Though Jesus himself baptized not, but his disciples,) John 4:3 He left Judaea, and departed again into Galilee. John 4:4 And he must needs go through Samaria. John 4:5 Then cometh he to a city of Samaria, which is called Sychar, near to the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. John 4:6 Now Jacob’s well was there. Jesus therefore, being wearied with his journey, sat thus on the well: and it was about the sixth hour. John 4:7 There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water: Jesus saith unto her, Give me to drink. John 4:8 (For his disciples were gone away unto the city to buy meat.) John 4:9 Then saith the woman of Samaria unto him, How is it that thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria? for the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans. John 4:10 Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water. John 4:11 The woman saith unto him, Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep: from whence then hast thou that living water? John 4:12 Art thou greater than our father Jacob, which gave us the well, and drank thereof himself, and his children, and his cattle? John 4:13 Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again: John 4:14 But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life. John 4:15 The woman saith unto him, Sir, give me this water, that I thirst not, neither come hither to draw. John 4:16 Jesus saith unto her, Go, call thy husband, and come hither. John 4:17 The woman answered and said, I have no husband. Jesus said unto her, Thou hast well said, I have no husband: John 4:18 For thou hast had five husbands; and he whom thou now hast is not thy husband: in that saidst thou truly. John 4:19 The woman saith unto him, Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet. John 4:20 Our fathers worshipped in this mountain; and ye say, that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship. John 4:21 Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father. John 4:22 Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews. John 4:23 But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. John 4:24 God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. John 4:25 The woman saith unto him, I know that Messias cometh, which is called Christ: when he is come, he will tell us all things. John 4:26 Jesus saith unto her, I that speak unto thee am he. John 4:27 And upon this came his disciples, and marvelled that he talked with the woman: yet no man said, What seekest thou? or, Why talkest thou with her? John 4:28 The woman then left her waterpot, and went her way into the city, and saith to the men, John 4:29 Come, see a man, which told me all things that ever I did: is not this the Christ? John 4:30 Then they went out of the city, and came unto him. John 4:31 In the mean while his disciples prayed him, saying, Master, eat. John 4:32 But he said unto them, I have meat to eat that ye know not of. John 4:33 Therefore said the disciples one to another, Hath any man brought him ought to eat? John 4:34 Jesus saith unto them, My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work. John 4:35 Say not ye, There are yet four months, and then cometh harvest? behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest. John 4:36 And he that reapeth receiveth wages, and gathereth fruit unto life eternal: that both he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together. John 4:37 And herein is that saying true, One soweth, and another reapeth. John 4:38 I sent you to reap that whereon ye bestowed no labour: other men laboured, and ye are entered into their labours. John 4:39 And many of the Samaritans of that city believed on him for the saying of the woman, which testified, He told me all that ever I did. John 4:40 So when the Samaritans were come unto him, they besought him that he would tarry with them: and he abode there two days. John 4:41 And many more believed because of his own word; John 4:42 And said unto the woman, Now we believe, not because of thy saying: for we have heard him ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the world. John 4:43 Now after two days he departed thence, and went into Galilee. John 4:44 For Jesus himself testified, that a prophet hath no honour in his own country. John 4:45 Then when he was come into Galilee, the Galilaeans received him, having seen all the things that he did at Jerusalem at the feast: for they also went unto the feast. John 4:46 So Jesus came again into Cana of Galilee, where he made the water wine. And there was a certain nobleman, whose son was sick at Capernaum. John 4:47 When he heard that Jesus was come out of Judaea into Galilee, he went unto him, and besought him that he would come down, and heal his son: for he was at the point of death. John 4:48 Then said Jesus unto him, Except ye see signs and wonders, ye will not believe. John 4:49 The nobleman saith unto him, Sir, come down ere my child die. John 4:50 Jesus saith unto him, Go thy way; thy son liveth. And the man believed the word that Jesus had spoken unto him, and he went his way. John 4:51 And as he was now going down, his servants met him, and told him, saying, Thy son liveth. John 4:52 Then enquired he of them the hour when he began to amend. And they said unto him, Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him. John 4:53 So the father knew that it was at the same hour, in the which Jesus said unto him, Thy son liveth: and himself believed, and his whole house. John 4:54 This is again the second miracle that Jesus did, when he was come out of Judaea into Galilee. 1Timothy 5:8 But if any provide not for his own, and specially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel. NEWS LINKS- http://www.kristv.com/story/32298748/eu-leaders-say-britain-will-stay-member-for-now http://www.kristv.com/story/32304103/britains-departure-from-eu-impacts-americans http://www.cnn.com/2016/06/19/us/oakland-police-scandals/index.html http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3658258/White-House-crisis-talks-Britain-DEFIES-Obama-quit-European-Union-plunge-world-markets-shock.html http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/683224/END-OF-THE-EU-Germany-France-Austria-Hungary-Finland-Netherlands-Europe-Brexit

http://www.corpuschristioutreachministries.blogspot.com facebook.com/john.chiarello.5 https://ccoutreach87.wordpress.com/ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZ4GsqTEVWRm0HxQTLsifvg

https://plus.google.com/108013627259688810902/posts Note- Please do me a favor, those who read/like the posts- re-post them on other sites as well as the site you read them on. I deal with issues at times that it would be beneficial for some of you to download and save the file from the Word Press link. This creates a permanent record. The on-line videos are only good if sites are not hacked- which has happened in the past. Thanks- John.#

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Sunday sermon

Sunday sermon

Sunday sermon 9-30-18

[1770] TREASURY OF MERIT

Let’s pick up where we left off 2 posts back. We were talking about Martin Luther and the events that led up to the Protestant Reformation.

In order to understand the key act that caused the protest- we will have to teach some Catholic history/doctrine.

In the 16th century Pope Julius began the effort to build St. Peters basilica in Rome. He got as far as laying the foundation and died. Pope Leo the 10th would pick up after him.

The church needed to raise money for the project- and the German prince- Albert- would play a major role.

It should be noted that both Catholic and Protestant scholars agree that the Popes of the day were pretty corrupt. They came from what we call the Medici line of Popes.

If you remember last month I wrote a post on the Renaissance- I talked about the Medici family and how they played a major role in supporting the Renaissance that took place in the 13th century in Florence Italy that would spread to the region.

Well this very influential family also played a big role in who would get top positions in the church.

At the time of Luther and prince Albert- if you had the right connections and the money- you could literally buy a position in the church.

Albert already held 2 Bishop seats- and there was an opening for an Archbishops seat in Mainz [Germany] and he wanted that one too.

It should be noted that official Canon law [church law] said you could only hold one seat at a time- Albert was bidding on his 3rd one! And he was too young for all of them.

So even the Pope and the officials held little respect for what the church actually taught at the time.

So Albert opens up negotiations with Leo- and the bidding starts AT 12,000 Duckets [money] Albert counters with 7,000- and they agree on 10,000. How did they justify the numbers? 12- The number of Apostles. 7- The 7 deadly sins. 10- The 10 commandments.

Yes- the church was pretty corrupt at the time.

So Albert works out a plan with Leo- he will borrow the money from the German banks- and pay the banks off by the Pope giving Albert the right to sell Indulgences.

What’s an Indulgence?

Okay- this is where it gets tricky.

The ancient church taught a system called The Treasury of Merit. This was a sort of spiritual bank account that ‘stored up’ the good deeds of others over the years.

You had the good deeds of Jesus at the top- but you also had Mary and Joseph- the 12 Apostles- and other various saints thru out time.

The way the ‘bank’ worked was you could tap into the account by getting a Papal indulgence- a sort of I.O.U. that had the Popes guarantee that it would get so much time out of Purgatory for a loved one.

The actual sacrament that accesses the account is called Penance [confession].

When a penitent does penance- he confesses his sin to the priest- and he is absolved by the authority of the church that the priest has. The priest usually tells the person ‘say so many Hail Mary’s- Our Father’s’ and that’s a form of penance.

One of the other things the church practiced was called Alms Deeds. This term is found in the bible and it means giving your money to the poor- it is a noble act that Jesus himself taught.

In theory- part of the sacrament of penance was tied into Alms Deeds- you can access the account thru the practice of giving to the poor- which also meant giving to the church that helps the poor- and in the hands of the Medici line of Popes- meant outright giving money to the Pope.

So now you see how the abuse worked its way into the pockets of the faithful.

Albert now had the permission from Leo to sell these indulgences in Germany- and he would pick a certain corrupt priest to sell them in a place called Saxony- the region where Luther operated out of.

It should be noted that the Catholic Church never taught the crass act of ‘buying your way out of Purgatory’. The practice of including giving money as a part of the sacrament of penance was tied into the biblical principle of giving to the poor- a good thing.

But Tetzel and others abused the official meaning of the indulgence- and did make it sound like you could by your way out of Purgatory [in theory- a loved one might be in Purgatory for so many years- and through the indulgence you are actually getting time off for them- because the good deeds of others are now applied to the account].

The money Albert would raise- half would go to Rome for the building of St. peters- and half would go to pay off the banks in Germany- it was a sad system- and a sad time for the church as a whole.

It would be wrong to judge the entire church at the time as being corrupt- you did have many sincere Priests and Catholic men and women who saw the abuses and did not take part in them.

But there was corruption at the top- and this would eventually lead to the breakup of the church- and the launching of what we now call the Protestant Movement.

As a side note- it should be said that many Catholics and Protestants are not aware of the whole treasury of merit system- and the church never officially changed her position on the doctrine.

There were 3 Church councils since the time [Trent- 1500’s, Vatican 1- 1800’s and Vatican 2- 1962-65]. The Treasury of Merit never came up for change.

Obviously Protestants don’t believe in Purgatory- and it’s not my purpose in these posts to change Catholics into Protestants or vice versa- but to give all sides a clear view of the issues that divided us- and to try and be honest- and respectful during the process.

Does the bible teach anything like a Treasury of Merit? Well actually it does. The bible teaches that the righteousness of Christ is the treasury that people can access- by faith- and become righteous in the sight if God.

The idea- applied to Christ- is good.

But in the hands of the Medici Popes- and the ambitious prince of Germany- it would lead to disaster.

www.corpuschristioutreachministries.blogspot.com 

Note- Do me a favor, those who read/like the posts- re-post them on other sites as well as the site you read them on. Thanks- John

[1768] LUTHER- THE TOWER EXPERIENCE

Let’s start with some church history. In the last post I covered the early years of Martin Luther- probably the most significant figure of the Protestant Reformation.

Luther studied for the priesthood in Erfurt, Germany. He would eventually wind up in Wittenberg- one of the major university cities of the Reformation. Wittenberg was actually a small insignificant town- but the political leader over the region- Frederick the Wise- sought to put it on the map.

He wanted to turn Wittenberg into a German ‘Rome’. He wanted it to become a major Pilgrimage city where Christians would see Wittenberg as a destination- just like they saw Rome.

So Frederick embarked on this plan and he searched thru all the Catholic learning centers of the time and finally recruited 3 top scholars to teach out of the university at Wittenberg- Luther was one of the 3.

Just as a side note- Frederick would succeed at making Wittenberg a major catholic center. He would eventually obtain over 19,000 Relics for the Cathedral church there [Relics were used in the ancient system of buying indulgences and making special pilgrimage trips to important Churches. If the church/city that your making the Pilgrimage to has a lot of Relics- bones or other famous material objects from church history- then the value of the Pilgrimage was high. In theory Frederick collected so many that if you added up all the ‘time off’ from Purgatory- you would get 1 million, 900 thousand years off! Some of the famous relics at Wittenberg were a hair from the beard of Jesus- straw from the manger Jesus was born in- and even a branch from the famous burning bush of Moses! As you can see- there was a lot of commercializing going on- even back then].

When Luther arrived in Wittenberg- he made a name for himself as a top scholar. Many protestants- who revere Luther- usually are not aware that he was a master Linguist [sort of like Rick Perry!]

Yes Luther mastered language- and he showed it in his teaching on the book of Psalms.

In 1515 he began his famous study on the book of Romans and as he went thru the very first chapter- something shook him. He came across the passage that says the Just shall live by faith. This verse first appears in the O.T. book of Habakkuk- and is quoted 3 more times in the N.T.

Luther was very aware of the concept of the righteousness of God- he struggled for many years trying to reconcile his own sinful nature with Gods holiness- but he never really ‘saw’ the biblical concept of righteousness as a free gift that God ‘imputes’ to the sinner.

Yes- for the 1st time in Luther’s life- after his years training for the priesthood- the pilgrimage he made to Rome- the thousands of hours he spent confessing his sins while a monk in Erfurt- he never really understood that the righteousness of God was a free gift given to those who have faith.

It was a giant weight lifted from his shoulders- Luther did not need to try any more to live up to the standards of God- in  a way that would earn for him forgiveness- but he would simply believe- and the righteousness of God would be counted to him as a gift.

Luther would go on to call this an Alien Righteousness- that is it is not found within the person who tries to do all the church works he can- or buying all the indulgences- or any other of the many religious actions he was practicing- but this free gift of being right with God- it came to those who had faith- the Just shall live by Faith- this was indeed good news for the scholar.

As time went on- Germany would get embroiled in the political machinations of the day- Luther’s top political cover was Frederick the Wise- hardly a Protestant Reformer! He spent lots of time trying to make Wittenberg the major Catholic center in Germany.

But at the time there was a political fight raging between Rome and some of the other nation/states. There was a figure head office called the Holy Roman Emperor. This office was really in name only- but it rose up during the first Millennium of Christian history and sought to replace the influence that Rome was losing.

So you had France, Spain and England all vying for the title. Eventually it would go to King Charles of Spain- but the Pope- who played a major role in nominating the person- he did not want any of these top 3 to get the position. Henry the Eighth was the king of England at the time- and these ‘3 kings’ were sort of in competition with Rome- so the Pope tried to get Fredrick the Wise to throw his hat into the ring.

Frederick just happened to be one of the Electors of this position.

His actual title was The Elector of Saxony.

So Fredrick had lots of influence- and as Rome would eventually but heads with the stubborn bull of Wittenberg [Luther] Frederick would become the major protector of Luther.

Okay- I think we’ll stop here for today. The experience that Luther had- the enlightenment that came to him while teaching the book of Romans- this is often called The Tower experience of Luther- it took place in the year 1515.

[parts]

Being I already mentioned Italy- let me finish with some history/philosophy that might be relevant.

In the last post I mentioned saint Thomas Aquinas- and after Augustine [and Anselm- 11th century] he is the next main character I wanted to cover [in our ongoing philosophy study].

Aquinas is referred to as the Doctor Angelicas [angelic doctor] by the catholic church. Aquinas lived during the time of a cultural/philosophical reawakening that was beginning to take place in the Western world- the Renaissance.

Renaissance means ‘re-birth’. It was a rebirth of the ancient Poets and philosophers of days gone by. Men like Cicero and Aristotle were once again brought to the fore front of many thinkers and lovers of culture.

The catch phrase for the Renaissance was Ad Fontes- which meant ‘back to the sources’ [source- Fountain- Fontes]. In the 14th century a famous and influential Catholic family- the Medici’s- were a catalyst for mixing this cultural movement in with the church.

The Renaissance sort of challenged the historic view of education- up until this time most learning was done thru the prism of the church. In the universities of the day Theology [study of God] was called the Queen of the sciences- and philosophy was referred to as her Handmaiden.

Well the Renaissance thinkers said they wanted to study things for what they are- they did not want to see everything thru the lens of the church.

Eventually the theme of the movement [back to the original sources] would play a major role in the Protestant Reformation of the 16th century. Men like Erasmus [the famous 16th century Catholic Humanist] would re discover the original Greek New testament- and it was thru the study of the Greek text that many of the Reformers made their case to get ‘back to the bible’ and eventually break from Rome.

This was also the beginning period of modern capitalism. Recently when Libya had her ‘civil war’ and the new leaders started talking about a new constitution- one of the interesting things that came up was they wanted to do away with interest on loans.

Why? Well Muslims teach that interest itself is a bad thing. ‘Gee- wonder where they get that idea from John’ Oh- from a little book- called the bible.

Yes- to the surprise of some- this is very much taught in the Old Testament. Now- it was God’s law governing the nation of Israel- but they were forbidden to charge interest.

‘So John- is it wrong for us today to make interest’? Not really- Jesus used interest [usury] as an example in some of his parables- and overall- we as believers are not under the Old Testament laws that govern natural Israel.

But- for many centuries- the world did not see interest on money as a legitimate way to earn a living. So during the Renaissance you also had the rise of exploration- and explorers like Columbus would go on their voyages with the financial backing of investors.

The normal rate for these voyages was a 75/25% cut. When the explorer returned- the investor [Spain- or whoever] got 75% of the goods- and the explorer kept 25.

So there were a lot of changes taking place in the world at the time- and the rise of modern capitalism was one of them- money of course existed way before this time- but as a commodity- this was a new way of viewing the world.

Okay- just thought I would throw in a little history along with the current events of the day. As we see the current turmoil in the Italian markets [the original renaissance started in Florence- Italy] maybe seeing money/interest as a commodity- and ‘usury’ as a major way to increase ones wealth- well  maybe that’s not such a smart way to do things after all.

When Jon Corzine's global investment firm went bust the other day- it was a direct result of taking a gamble on the ‘gullibility’ of the common man.

What his firm did was they took a huge risk by investing in European bonds- bonds from Greece that everyone knew was a terrible 'bet’. Then why did he do it?

The risk was so high- that the interest [usury] on the bonds was also high- you would make lots of money- if you got your money back.

But how would you get the money back- if the company [or nation- or bank] is in such bad shape that they might go bust? Your basically betting that the other nations around them [and the 1% crowd] would never let this happen [too big to fail] and when the nation [or company] gets ‘bailed out’ well then you get the money back- at a huge gain- all at the expense of the ‘99’ %.

‘Gee John- that doesn’t seem right to me’. That doesn’t seem right to me either- and to the legitimate ‘occupy Wall st. guys’ that’s not right to them as well.

Basically Corzine did the exact same thing that the big banks did during our 2008 bail out crisis- the banks can’t do that anymore- we did pass regulations that forbid this. But private investment firms can- they take a risk if they do- but that’s their choice.

Corzine took the risk- and lost [besides the fact the there is also about 600 million dollars ‘missing’ from private investors money!].

Okay- that’s it for now. We will keep an eye on Italy for the next few days [Germany is already talking about bailing out of the Euro Zone] and if things keep going downhill like this- well we might all be better off if we moved our money into less interest bearing accounts- safe places to ‘park’ your money- and after the dust settles- then maybe get back into the market.

But right now- I would trust getting a bigger return from a Columbus voyage than the market- yes- maybe ‘usury’ is not all that’s it’s cracked up to be- maybe the Libyans are right [and the Old Testament]. Yeah- maybe they know something we don’t.

[parts]

Okay- being I already wasted all this space- let me hit a few short things. I just finished the book of Proverbs again [reading it slowly over a few weeks] and there were a lot of points I wanted to hit- maybe the next week or 2 I’ll get to some. I just started a new book on Philosophy- I picked it up a few months ago at half price books and never looked at it until last night- I like it a lot. I know the subject is controversial- many Christians shy away from it- but if you study history [like I do a lot] you will see the strong connection between philosophy and theology [study of God]. In the ancient universities [Paris- etc.] these were referred to as the main subjects- Theology was the Queen of learning and philosophy was her handmaid.

So let me just give a short quote- Socrates said ‘the unexamined life is not worth living’. Philosophy- as a system- started around 6oo years before Christ in Greek society. The popular guys we hear about- Socrates, Plato and Aristotle- they lived around 3-350 years before Christ. Christian teachers have taken different stances for and against philosophy. The church father Tertullian said ‘what does Athens have to do with Jerusalem’ meaning philosophy and Christian teaching don’t go together. Yet the great Swiss reformer- Ulrich Zwingli [16th century] was a well schooled theologian- learned in many of the subjects of his day- like the great Catholic scholar Erasmus. These guys were a little more refined [though Zwingli was actually a warrior- killed for the cause] and they saw the Greek philosophers as precursors to Christ- Zwingli believed he would see the great Greek philosophers in heaven some day. So as you see the church has taken different stances on the subject. It’s hard to say that philosophy had no role on Christian thought- many Christians don’t realize that the apostle John almost quoted verbatim from Greek philosophy when he used the phrase ‘In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God’ [John’s gospel- chapter 1]. In Greek philosophy there was what was considered this ultimate unified principle- that would bring all learning together as one giant truth- this was called Logos- the Word. Greek philosophy had been looking for the Word [Logos] for years- trying to find the one key truth that would tie all other truth together- John was simply saying to Greek society ‘Look- we have found the Truth- the Divine principle that you have been looking for’. So for John to quote this in his gospel was not plagiarism [as some atheists contend] but wisdom- he was speaking to the people in ways that would connect with them. Yes- because scripture is Divine- Inspired- we believe Jesus is very much The Word- the one who proceeds from God- but we also realize that in a sense John borrowed this form of words from the Greek philosophers- nothing wrong with it.  

Okay- that’s it for today- I hope you guys always pick something up that sticks with you- you know a little nugget of wisdom that in 30 years from now if I see some of you at an old school reunion you can walk up to me and say ‘John- Jesus is the Word of God’ something that I will be proud about. O wait- just had a thought- if someone walks up and says ‘John- I hear you like Hanson’ I will respond ‘Who’s John?’

 VERSES [These are the verses I either quoted or taught from on today’s post- Other videos below]

 Thirty-first Sunday in Ordinary TimeLectionary: 152

Reading 1

DT 6:2-6

Moses spoke to the people, saying: "Fear the LORD, your God, and keep, throughout the days of your lives, all his statutes and commandments which I enjoin on you, and thus have long life. Hear then, Israel, and be careful to observe them, that you may grow and prosper the more, in keeping with the promise of the LORD, the God of your fathers, to give you a land flowing with milk and honey. "Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD alone! Therefore, you shall love the LORD, your God, with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength. Take to heart these words which I enjoin on you today."

Responsorial Psalm

PS 18:2-3, 3-4, 47, 51

R. (2) I love you, Lord, my strength. I love you, O LORD, my strength, O LORD, my rock, my fortress, my deliverer. R. I love you, Lord, my strength. My God, my rock of refuge, my shield, the horn of my salvation, my stronghold! Praised be the LORD, I exclaim, and I am safe from my enemies. R. I love you, Lord, my strength. The LORD lives! And blessed be my rock! Extolled be God my savior. You who gave great victories to your king and showed kindness to your anointed. R. I love you, Lord, my strength.

Reading 2

HEB 7:23-28

Brothers and sisters: The levitical priests were many because they were prevented by death from remaining in office, but Jesus, because he remains forever, has a priesthood that does not pass away. Therefore, he is always able to save those who approach God through him, since he lives forever to make intercession for them. It was fitting that we should have such a high priest: holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners, higher than the heavens. He has no need, as did the high priests, to offer sacrifice day after day, first for his own sins and then for those of the people; he did that once for all when he offered himself. For the law appoints men subject to weakness to be high priests, but the word of the oath, which was taken after the law, appoints a son, who has been made perfect forever.

Alleluia

JN 14:23

R. Alleluia, alleluia. Whoever loves me will keep my word, says the Lord; and my father will love him and we will come to him. R. Alleluia, alleluia.

Gospel

MK 12:28B-34

One of the scribes came to Jesus and asked him, "Which is the first of all the commandments?" Jesus replied, "The first is this: Hear, O Israel!The Lord our God is Lord alone!You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart,with all your soul, with all your mind,and with all your strength. The second is this: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these." The scribe said to him, "Well said, teacher. You are right in saying, 'He is One and there is no other than he.' And 'to love him with all your heart, with all your understanding, with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself' is worth more than all burnt offerings and sacrifices." And when Jesus saw that he answered with understanding, he said to him, "You are not far from the kingdom of God." And no one dared to ask him any more questions.

Psalm 110:1 The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool.

Psalm 110:2 The LORD shall send the rod of thy strength out of Zion: rule thou in the midst of thine enemies.

Psalm 110:3 Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power, in the beauties of holiness from the womb of the morning: thou hast the dew of thy youth.

Psalm 110:4 The LORD hath sworn, and will not repent, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek.

Psalm 110:5 The Lord at thy right hand shall strike through kings in the day of his wrath.

Psalm 110:6 He shall judge among the heathen, he shall fill the places with the dead bodies; he shall wound the heads over many countries.

Psalm 110:7 He shall drink of the brook in the way: therefore shall he lift up the head.

OTHER VIDEOS [These are the videos I post nightly to my various sites- Links to all my sites below]

3-30-20 Siloam- A teaching [Talked about the Covid 19 crisis]

https://youtu.be/GFhd5VcNzDQ

https://www.facebook.com/john.chiarello.5/videos/10206962758625651/

Fatima  https://vk.com/video533663718_456239699

12-23-18 Sunday sermon  https://1drv.ms/v/s!Aocp2PkNEAGMiAorylDLvJ2sh_Nz

Ephesians 3  https://www.dropbox.com/s/iv9uxkj7s25q1sb/1-2-18%20Ephesians%203.mp4?dl=0

The bright and morning star  https://youtu.be/tEXDjNf1xAk

Homeless friends  https://1drv.ms/v/s!Aocp2PkNEAGMh2AVJd2MQmy-43z0

Friends  https://youtu.be/D0XakSC5Djs

9-23-18 Sunday sermon  https://www.dropbox.com/s/7xzgx18i002w25a/9-23-18%20Sunday%20sermon.mp4?dl=0

Gideon  https://www.bitchute.com/video/8VBvF4K40Wbt/

Homeless friends  https://youtu.be/4Tk7faf516E

Hebrews 13  https://1drv.ms/v/s!Aocp2PkNEAGMh2IMG9b49q8XQaro

The Cross- 2   https://youtu.be/uWcGl9nPYsE

2nd Samuel 19  https://www.dropbox.com/s/xes5h6ecapn23gs/2-15-17%202nd%20Samuel%2019.mp4?dl=0

Galatians 6  https://flic.kr/p/2iyBiNj

9-30-18 Sunday sermon  https://1drv.ms/v/s!Aocp2PkNEAGMh15tnMpfhlcTiy2P

Ephesians 2  https://www.dropbox.com/s/dcterll6r8stc28/12-9-17%20Ephesians%202.mp4?dl=0

John 14  https://dai.ly/x7luxno

Kings 21  https://youtu.be/3VvtYYop1ho

House of prayer  https://1drv.ms/v/s!Aocp2PkNEAGMh2FDIx2Dx13uYuK4

2nd Samuel 3- homeless friends  https://vk.com/video533663718_456239692

10-7-18 Sunday sermon  https://1drv.ms/v/s!Aocp2PkNEAGMhBUiR6L41iuTNeTI

The Cross  https://youtu.be/v85WoYe1Fkk

Ephesians 1  https://www.dropbox.com/s/uve5l1dh546zxcp/11-21-17%20Ephesians-%20Intro-%20chapter%201.mp4?dl=0

Mark 10  https://www.bitchute.com/video/6ETd2cs0559o/https://www.bitchute.com/video/6ETd2cs0559o/

The cup- NYC view  https://www.dropbox.com/s/g1tclu3tc7ouezi/2-14-17%20The%20Cup%20%5BNYC%20view%5D.mp4?dl=0

The Capstone  https://youtu.be/6J_o4xZlhg8

Sons of Thunder  https://1drv.ms/v/s!Aocp2PkNEAGMh12homyBoP_G01OR

Friends  https://youtu.be/hzD_HSZJzXs

Mary’s prayer  https://www.dropbox.com/s/augfx8qsisrm10f/2-14-16%20Mary%27s%20prayer.mp4?dl=0

10-21-18 Sunday sermon  https://www.dropbox.com/s/6vblfo15tkwii4b/10-21-18%20Sunday%20sermon%20%5BTree%20of%20Life%5D.mp4?dl=0

8-20-17 Sunday sermon  https://dai.ly/x7luxnp

Romans 4-7  https://flic.kr/p/2ix77DX

Teaching  https://1drv.ms/v/s!Aocp2PkNEAGMjCvzvCQvXp6YbzvG

New wine  https://youtu.be/kBGeb1V6mTI

Talking church  https://1drv.ms/v/s!Aocp2PkNEAGMh18DcYFCCf6A2_9w

In the image of God  https://youtu.be/If5GrqzO3O4

Waters cover the sea  https://www.dropbox.com/s/60w5qgw819xnkhv/2-13-16%20Waters%20cover%20sea.mp4?dl=0

GW bridge- NYC  https://vk.com/video533663718_456239694

10-28-18 Sunday sermon https://1drv.ms/v/s!Aocp2PkNEAGMhAmiIi_CNnIIiGKw

Galatians 6  https://www.dropbox.com/s/8p7q3cc47gtv6gb/1-31-17%20Galatians%206%20%5BConc.%5D.mp4?dl=0

James 2  https://www.bitchute.com/video/j8Hfn0STQ917/

Rick  https://youtu.be/K2GIiKEDyag

9-3-17 Sunday sermon  https://www.dropbox.com/s/xac233r5bq5722e/9-3-17%20Sunday%20sermon.mp4?dl=0

Spiritual Rock  https://1drv.ms/v/s!Aocp2PkNEAGMhHfonsWslTrmE8-c

Sartre  https://youtu.be/Y2PTFBPxLes

Hebrews 8-9  https://dai.ly/x7lt05x

Matthew 23  https://flic.kr/p/2ivUnkt

11-4-18 Sunday sermon  https://1drv.ms/v/s!Aocp2PkNEAGMhDhxIxWdzx-wW5mv

Update- https://youtu.be/MAmzq3mgoWk Friends- https://youtu.be/YZhLGWjTIEM [I made these 2 yesterday- 1-31-18- the 2 below were from this week]

The professor- Frankie too https://youtu.be/BJUtJGC-vRw LinkedIn Trump n more https://youtu.be/75eYBHTVkpU

Scriptures fulfilled https://youtu.be/kH6QifEBXsw Pops candle https://my.pcloud.com/publink/show?code=XZS6Rz7ZrClSfoXYPQBTLt1uqgtCEHSOt9tV Ephesians 3 https://1drv.ms/v/s!Aocp2PkNEAGMbmJ7N-LFNKVN2n0 James [filmed in Fairview- New Jersey 2017] https://youtu.be/s4gmugL2nsU

 11-8-18 Teaching with homeless friend- https://www.facebook.com/john.chiarello.5/videos/10204992659494404/

https://youtu.be/htO6KyOb954 

Times up https://youtu.be/4AdHpOklfGM

Slow train comin’ https://trello.com/c/FA9Kys97/248-3-23-16-slow-train-cominmp4

The keys https://youtu.be/Tg4jm8lXe0g

Acts 10 https://1drv.ms/v/s!Aocp2PkNEAGMghkgkNaWyrqc8D_m 

Sunday sermon https://bit.tube/play?hash=QmbQJSAVS8TGXEJwuhjB9XrxVUq1V5fFveuPCwL2TXY4RV&channel=160276 

Revelation 11 https://youtu.be/mXaBqHOO81Q

9-30-18 Sunday sermon https://dai.ly/x6weyw3

Teaching with friends https://youtu.be/lL_eLyz_3Ac

Acts 1 https://flic.kr/p/2crTth3

The loft- the windmill- the grave https://dai.ly/x6wgu4z 

Mark 8 https://youtu.be/plWlLNg0bbU 

The flood https://youtu.be/orHTqd1qis0

9-23-18 Sunday sermon https://dai.ly/x6wke7s 

Kings 5 https://youtu.be/jQLv8K8qWrU 

The roof https://youtu.be/2kjfAyYEdG8 

Bus ride from new Jersey to NYC https://bit.tube/play?hash=QmVFJkXZYygCjAHaFin4uak8mR8hdnGzww8nywDQYqDKtq&channel=160276

Redeeming the time https://dai.ly/x6wm28d 

Colossians 4 https://youtu.be/rcElEm46kp8 

Friends https://youtu.be/oAKSn6cf2T0

No mail today https://trello.com/c/kmHSA2Qp/256-3-29-16-no-mail-todaymp4

Christian- Muslim dialogue https://flic.kr/p/QugJ6j

Trump tower- 5th ave. NYC https://bit.tube/play?hash=QmUaLbuKJYV7DpTFUeWZ3E9ok8JtqcX3ZnfQ2PK5mHmSkb&channel=160276

Acts 10 https://youtu.be/lAs4sZY-mDg 

11-4-18 Sunday sermon https://www.liveleak.com/view?t=CweLT_1541780779 

https://peertube.video/videos/watch/315d5df6-e4b3-4d84-b2e5-2c352b03443b 

https://ccoutreach87.com/2018/11/08/colossians-1-2/ 

https://ccoutreach87.com/2018/11/09/colossians-2-2/

 MY SITES [Please Like, Share, Connect, Follow and Subscribe to the sites below- Thanks]

Web sites-

www.corpuschristioutreachministries.blogspot.com  [Main site]

https://ccoutreach87.com/

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https://johnchiarello.webs.com/  

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https://voat.co/u/ccoutreach87/submissions

 http://corpuschristioutreachministries.blogspot.com/p/one-link_18.html [Link to past teaching]

 Video sites- [Can view and download my videos free of charge]

Streaming sites-

Youtube  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZ4GsqTEVWRm0HxQTLsifvg?view_as=subscriber

Youtube Playlist- https://ccoutreach87.com/youtube-playlist/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/ccoutreach87/ [Most viewed]

https://www.dailymotion.com/ccoutreach87/videos [India]

https://www.bitchute.com/channel/jsS961GkXUSn/ [Most viewed]

https://vk.com/videos533663718 [Russia]

https://www.facebook.com/john.chiarello.5/videos?lst=1779330793%3A1779330793%3A1546906912  [My Facebook videos]

https://www.instagram.com/john.chiarello/channel/ [IGTV]

https://www.brighteon.com/channel/ccoutreach87

https://vimeo.com/user85764413

https://ccoutreach87.com/youtube-catalog-2020/ [Youtube catalog- 2020]

Cloud sites-

https://1drv.ms/f/s!Aocp2PkNEAGMg0G_aInmCi8XUC-C

https://my.pcloud.com/publink/show?code=kZ1sXP7ZardKGRUxFByiFYi667jeup7MD1Sy

https://mega.nz/#F!7WQCSIJR!-4v9-zUQRq4MIQbBfI2n4A  

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/d43nhtrgysqg493/AAAlCszxZXJoRtk8UudtuR9ma?dl=0

https://ln.sync.com/dl/3e1f4c5e0/tcnm9p32-xiwe4nbu-zjbkitqj-4fvemf6m

https://1drv.ms/f/s!Aocp2PkNEAGMg0MwmUCJ1XM3q9ui  

https://icedrive.net/dashboard/#/cloud

Cloud sites- https://ccoutreach87.com/cloud-links-12-2018/

 Inactive- work in progress-

https://sites.google.com/yahoo.com/ccoutreach87/home

http://johnchiarello.doodlekit.com/

http://corpus-christijohnchiarello.simplesite.com/

https://spark.adobe.com/page/6INKwX1tFT7WA/

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxWXKfaFDZrfNUzloSqg8Kg?view_as=subscriber 

Beta

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYlLmUkKiB6VoWE9CB1UQew?view_as=subscriber ccoutreach87

https://www.facebook.com/ccoutreach1/?ref=aymt_homepage_panel&eid=ARCo7sBBI_1fHMUwrHJbFUGf73C6FmpZxtgTcWET2gVwpdHCKmXSGxs6wyeA-qGCnbsr2ILaXqpd4ACt  [my page]

 These are some of the first posts ever made, I hope to share some of them over time in between my regular studies. Of course they are ‘dated’- and it would be too difficult to edit each post. Some have old news comments in them, but if I also taught on the posts, I’ll post them ‘as is’. Hopefully they will be a benefit in some way- John.

All past posts can be found here- https://corpuschristioutreachministries.blogspot.com/p/links-to-past-posts-up-to-12-2017.html

 Note- Please do me a favor, those who read/like the posts- re-post them on other sites as well as the site you read them on-  Copy text- download video links- make complete copies of my books/studies and posts- everything is copyrighted by me- I give permission for all to copy and share as much as you like- I just ask that nothing be sold. We live in an online world- yet- there is only one internet- meaning if it ever goes down- the only access to the teachings are what others have copied or downloaded- so feel free to copy and download as much as you want- it’s all free-

 Note- I have many web sites- at times some question whether I’m a ‘bot’ because I do post a lot.

I am not a ‘bot’- I’m John- so please- if you are on the verge of deleting something- my contact email is ccoutreach87@gmail.com - contact me first- thank you- John