#Salvation Message

[tmarshconnors]

"Since the Bible is God's Word, we shouldn't be surprised if Satan tries to convince us otherwise."

William Franklin Graham Jr. was an American evangelist, ordained Southern Baptist minister and civil rights advocate whose broadcasts and world tours featuring live sermons became well known in the mid- to late 20th century.

Born: 7 November 1918, Charlotte, North Carolina, United States

Died: 21 February 2018 (age 99 years), Montreat, North Carolina, United States

Renowned Evangelist: Billy Graham was one of the most influential Christian evangelists of the 20th century. He preached to over 210 million people in more than 185 countries and territories, spreading his message of Christianity and salvation through large-scale revival meetings and crusades.

Advisor to Presidents: Graham served as a spiritual advisor to several U.S. presidents, from Harry Truman to Barack Obama. He was often called "America's Pastor" and provided counsel to leaders during times of crisis, including offering prayers at presidential inaugurations and national events.

Television and Radio Pioneer: Graham was a pioneer in using media to spread his message. His radio program, "Hour of Decision," began in 1950 and reached millions of listeners weekly. He also launched a television ministry that brought his crusades into homes across the United States and around the world.

Founder of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (BGEA): In 1950, Graham founded the BGEA, which became a major force in global evangelism. The organization produced numerous films, publications, and television programs aimed at spreading the Christian gospel.

Author and Writer: Billy Graham authored 33 books, many of which became bestsellers. His writings covered a range of topics, from spiritual growth to personal testimonies and reflections on his life and ministry. Notable works include "Just As I Am," his autobiography, and "Peace with God."

[thewordfortheday]

We need to be reminded of the cross every single day. Never allow the cross to lose it’s centrality to your life.  To the world the cross is a symbol of shame; to those who believe it is a symbol of salvation, the power of God. God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. The message of the cross is the ultimate love story. Through His shed blood Christ paid for the penalty of our sins. Yes, it seems almost mind-boggling to think that Jesus loved us so much that He freely gave His life for us. 

I John 3:16 says,  "This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down His life for us."  I truly believe it was not the nails that held Jesus on the cross, but rather it was His love for us.

[jordoperson]

so guess who fucking called it.

[walkswithmyfather]

“Love Supreme” By Charles F. Stanley (In Touch ministries):

“Why the cross is so much more than a symbol”

“The cross is one of the best-known symbols in the world today. Crosses are displayed on church steeples and walls, embossed on the covers of Bibles and books; we fashion them out of precious metals to wear proudly around our necks. But in the first century, the cross was a Roman instrument of execution, something to be feared.

How did an object that was once a symbol of cruelty come to represent Christ’s supreme love for us? In Galatians 1:4, the apostle Paul succinctly summarizes what Jesus accomplished on the cross. He “gave Himself for our sins so that He might rescue us from this present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father.” In this short passage, we can learn three things about the Father’s supreme love for us.

Christ suffered voluntarily. Jesus “gave Himself” on the cross (v. 4).

Jesus suffered for our sins.

Christ offers us His salvation.

The cross was a rescue operation. Jesus suffered and died “so that He might rescue us from this present evil age” (Galatians 1:4). Christ’s supreme love reached down to rescue us from our hopeless condition. How in the world can we neglect so great a gift? Christ has accomplished everything for us on the cross, and all we have to do is respond in faith. We have nothing to lose by yielding to God’s call, and everything to gain.”

[This is quite a long Web Article. Please read the rest here.]

[orv-quotes-tournament]

ORV Quotes Tournament Round 1

Plain text under the cut:

Ch 186: The 73rd Demon King, V: I overcame all the tragedies in my life with a single story. It was the story of a person who never gave up, no matter what. That story made me. I could survive to reach here.

Ch 545: The Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint, X: She believed that she worked hard to endure. She believed that a lot of time had passed by now, as much as all the sentences she had written down. She breathed, she ate, and she slumbered – Han Sooyoung survived in that manner. ⸢You are not a regressor because you regress.⸥

[amessageonthewind]

Chapters: 34/? Fandom: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Main Video Game Series), Pocket Monsters: Omega Ruby & Alpha Sapphire | Pokemon Omega Ruby & Alpha Sapphire Versions, Pocket Monsters: Ruby & Sapphire & Emerald | Pokemon Ruby Sapphire Emerald Versions Rating: Mature Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Cynthia (Pokemon) & Original Female Character, Higana | Zinnia/Original Female Character(s), Mikuri | Wallace/Tsuwabuki Daigo | Steven Stone, Tsuwabuki Daigo | Steven Stone & Original Female Character(s), Haruka | May & Original Female Character(s), Yuuki | Brendan & Original Female Character(s), Mitsuru | Wally & Original Female Character(s) Characters: Haruka | May, Yuuki | Brendan, Original Female Character(s), Original Pokemon Trainer(s), Shirona | Cynthia, Senri | Norman, Odamaki-hakase | Professor Birch, Original Non-Human Character(s), Original Pokemon Character(s), Original Male Character(s), Original Characters, Tsutsuji | Roxanne, Aqua-dan | Team Aqua, Touki | Brawly, Tsuwabuki Daigo | Steven Stone, Aogiri | Archie, Lutia | Lisia, Gonyonyo no Shigana | Aster the Whismur, Kyogre (Pokemon), Groudon (Pokemon), Rayquaza (Pokemon), Mitsuru | Wally, Tessen | Wattson, Matsubusa | Maxie, Homura | Tabitha, Magma-dan | Team Magma, Jun | Barry, Girii | Aarune, Asuna | Flannery, Nagi | Winona Additional Tags: First Meetings, Self-Insert, Self-Indulgent, Slow Burn, Alternate Canon, Blood, Blood and Injury, Developing Relationship, Complicated Relationships, Pokemon Journey, Talking Pokemon, Houen-chihou | Hoenn Region (Pokemon), Platonic Relationships, Romantic Angst, Minor Character Death, Trans Male Character, Autistic Steven Stone, Transmasculine Wallace, Gore, Death, Nuzlockers are canon in this universe, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Shadow Pokémon are also canon in this universe, yes i bullshitted a pokemon universe version of the twilight saga because i thought it'd be funny, Autistic Character, full disclosure: some parts have been taken loosely from STikER's romhack but not fully, there are fakemon new mega evolutions and regional variants in this fic, Nudity, Public Nudity, it's a hot spring, Strangers to Lovers, Mutual Pining, Suicidal Thoughts Series: Part 1 of Rachel's Pokémon Adventure Summary:

Growing up with a peculiarly strong connection to Pokémon, it takes a while before Rachel is ready to start her Pokémon journey to become a trainer. But, once she starts, she's sent away to the Hoenn region to make her own path and forge her own independence and her identity. Along the way, she encounters challenges she never thought possible alongside all her new friends and other strange adversaries and ambiguous allies. All while discovering just how deep her connection to Pokémon really goes.

[monkeyssalad-blog]

1970s Older City Bus with Salvation Message by Vinnie DeVille Via Flickr: Vintage image of an older city bus with sign on the back reminding us that Jesus Saves. More than likely this was a retired city bus that was purchased by a religious group for private use. It may also be out of commission as there are no license plates on it. This original image was scanned from an old contact sheet and was a little blurry. I felt it was an interesting image and tightened it up a little for others to enjoy. This found photograph comes from the private collection of an unknown and/or unknowing art collector. It’s always a thrill when it’s from Vinnie DeVille!

[salvationofsouls]

fortitudina : [ text ] –– things that hurt: knives, lightning, breathing, reading, talking, looking at the moon, paraphrasing, and recycling. ( From Ruby for Sebastian )

[ Message : Rubes. ] Noted, kid. You creating a list or something? Why does looking at the moon hurt? That one has me dumbfounded. No cheeky comment about how it doesn’t take much…  ~ SM

[mybeautifulchristianjourney]

The [Christian] message is that there is hope for a ruined humanity – hope of pardon, hope of peace with God, hope of glory – because at the Father’s will Jesus became poor, and was born in a stable so that thirty years later He might hang on a cross.

J.I. Packer

[itsadragonaesthetic]

Forgive me for my rambling incoherent nature for I am very tired and scatterbrained. (Post about finding community and connection as a dummy little white American below the cut)

But like, sometimes... I don't know how I feel about things as an American. In general... honestly. I'm mostly white, raised in a white family. I have zero connection to my genetic ancestry, and I don't know most of it anyway. My mom's side is just, mostly white Americans that go back maybe hundreds of unrecorded years. My dad's side is Italian and Irish Catholics. I could not be more far removed from that culture. I grew up in an ecological community that no one in my family has ever known or cared about until I was born.

I just feel like this creature, abandoned to freedom. I feel like this is a very white American thing to say, but I have no... inherent culture at all. None that was given to me by generations of family, considering they all cut ties with me and my parents a long time ago. Me and my immediate family have just been adrift in the ebbs and flows of American life.

But I meet groups of people who have never been to the place I grew up and they have... a lot of reactions. They tell me they hate it here, mostly. They comment on the light stone architecture. They ask me about the old stone buildings in the middle of nowhere. They think the plant life is ugly. They hate how dry and "dead" everything is. They mispronounce words that I kinda forgot were native or Spanish words. People comment on how much I know about the plants.

I think about it sometimes and I feel really connected to this place. We have special holidays unique to only this city. Its nearly the birding capital of the lower 48. This place is literally covered in art. Every empty building face has a mural. The mountains stand like comforting friends to me. I really do feel like this place is a huge part of who I am.

Sometimes I go by Sentinel Peak. The hill the city was named after (an O'odham word that means "at the base of the black hill"). It was used as a sort of landmark to get to a spring where there were ancient settlements. Some of the houses and grinding bowls still stand and are still maintained by the O'odham. There is actually still a garden there dedicated to giving nursery jobs to the disabled.

Like you can guess, some Christian people built a church and began to kick natives out. The Black Hill became Sentinel Peak; a sentinel lookout for Apache invaders. The mountain is now mostly famous for the giant white 'A' that was built by university students around 100 years ago (giving it its somewhat more common name, "A Mountain"). It is also home to an annual firework display every 4th of July that can be seen from every corner of the city. The biggest problem is that the black hill is covered in invasive cattle grasses that combust easily. Every year, the black hill persists in maintaining its name.

I love that hill to bits. It hurts to think of its past, and I feel guilty for even looking at it from my paved sidewalk just under a giant, somewhat ugly highway that has pretty much destroyed any chance for archeological digs or cultural restoration. But I frequently remind myself that negativity gets me nowhere. I begin to feel humbled for this mountain letting me make not only a physical home, but a spiritual home here too. It's like an infinitely forgiving grandmother who welcomes me with open arms despite any wrongdoing people who look like me have done. It's because of the resilience of this mountain, it's people, and it's ecosystem that I have somewhere that my heart can call home.

Then I pull out my calendar and plan another invasive grass pull at the Base of the Black Hill.

[tmarshconnors]

Thousands Hear The Gospel at Franklin Graham's God Loves You Tour in London 2023

[wingaround]

I don’t often see it get talked about much these days (maybe I’m wrong, IDK, it’s just that other fans I’ve talked to don’t know/don’t recall), but the Grimm storyline from Legends of the Dark Knight had a pretty memorable portrayal of Bruce, Dick, and guilt.

If you’re not familiar with this, Grimm was a five-issue arc in Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight (#149–153) which took place during the maiden year of Dick’s term as Robin. It was written by J.M. DeMatteis with art by Trevor Von Eden and José Luis García-López.

Basically, Dick follows a pickpocket named Wendi into the subterranean “children’s paradise” of Mother Grimm, a deceptively jovial villain who lures wayward children there. The plot and writing honestly gets a bit convoluted towards the end, but commits and resolves satisfactorily. All you really need for context here out is Mother Grimm.

(All images henceforth are described in ALT text.)

I’m specifically talking about issue #151, or Part 3 of the arc. At this point, Dick had become entranced by the temptation of Mother Grimm’s world like the other children had, and when Batman came to take him back, Dick refused to go along. It was then that Mother Grimm gave Batman some vivid hallucinations (where he’s reverted to the form of a child) that stirred up some morbid, subconscious thoughts.

Already we get hit on the nose with the question, “Why’d you bring a little boy into the Batman’s warped world?” Because it’s this very notion that makes up the foundation of why Bruce found a connection with Dick in the first place during their early years together.

The following panels then posit a pretty disturbing frame of reasoning. And also keep in mind that Dick is the one recounting and narrating what Bruce told him of the ordeal, which Bruce had chosen to disclose years later. It illustrates a subconscious fear that Bruce has: that he had only taken Dick in and raised him into vigilantism for the sole purpose of compensating for what he (in his mind) had failed to do: die with his parents.

I cut off the lower panels, but it’s necessary for you to know (if you’ve never read this) that it’s Batman who saves young Bruce from the fall, and wakes him.

So he breaks free of the hallucination, but some pages later Bruce is exposed once again to the mind-altering chemicals of Mother Grimm, and this time he’s seeing himself as a child alongside Dick and a vision of the scenes of their respective parents’ deaths, had they both died alongside them.

He has a bit of a reckoning in this moment, saying to both Dick and his child self that he’s trying in his own way to help them, to prevent the fate of death from coming to them as it did their parents, that they do not also have to die.

But HOLD IT! There are some serious layers to this onion. After all, as Dick is the one narrating, he admits that Bruce didn’t really tell Dick what exactly he saw in this particular moment, but could reasonably guess (and he’s most likely correct, which is a testament to the fact of how deeply Dick knows Bruce). But that means this is also a reflection of Dick’s psyche, which develops in relation to Bruce’s because of the similarities of their traumas.

This simultaneously accomplishes the following:

Dick coming to terms with his own survivor’s guilt by using Bruce as a mirror.

Dick comes to a better understanding of why Bruce let him become a part of Batman’s world.

It means a lot more when you consider how Dick is recalling this whole story as an adult. How within that time, experiences like this one would have marinated.

Bruce found purpose and control in his grief, at a much greater capacity and intensity than what the average person might, thus creating the persona of the Batman as a way of avoiding and eliminating that feeling of helplessness. He extended that to Dick, who he essentially latched onto as a companion who knew what that helplessness was like.

Any psychological analysis of Batman (and Dick Grayson) would need an entire separate post, so this is where I’ll end it. When I first read Grimm a long time ago, I was especially stricken by the implication of Bruce believing that he was using Dick as both punishment for himself and compensation for living on while his parents were dead. It was nice for both Dick and Bruce to have that affirmation where their relationship was ultimately one born from compassion.

(Of course, as the years have passed, their relationship has taken on new strains, but it’s all the more tragic when remembering where they began.)

[godnectar]

The pictures you use as a reaction make these ten times funnier 😭

glad they help 😼👍 bc when I use them, most of the time it's because 'm too shocked or sobbing to even know what to answer 😭🔫

[generalsmemories]

not sure if my original ask made it through and you're saving it (if it did, you can ignore this one) or if tumblr ate yet another of my asks, but I agree with 🍄-anon. reading your fics inspires me to work on my own OC stories. I really should write something for JY that doesn't include my OC so others will enjoy it too 🤔 -🍁

still gonna answer this one since u added more thoughts

but 🍁 anon im ngl. i replied to that ask in my head and thought i replied HAHAHA my brain was fried after only 3 days of work cause everything is actually turning upside down LMFAO

BUT OF COURSE!!! IF MY WRITING ALSO INSPIRES YOU TO COME UP WITH YOUR OWN JING YUAN FICS THEN THAT MAKES ME EVEN HAPPIER SO PLEASE DO!!

AS I'VE ALREADY SAID TO LIL SHROOMIE ANON IT MAKES ME UNBELIEVABLY HAPPY THAT THE SILLY LIL FICS BRINGS SO MUCH INSPIRATION TO SOME OF YA'LL SO <3 <3

[sweagen]

The Bible App is really well-made and comes with a ton of user friendly features

I s2G I’m not sponsored by them. I Rly recommend downloading it if u don’t currently carry a Bible!!! Being able to read the Bible on the go or in between waiting for stuff has helped me an incredible amount in my personal life to stay connected with God’s Word!!!! Also it’s free and barely has ads from what I have seen and they actually carry my favourite Bible translation: The Passion Translation (which is mysteriously missing from Bible Gateway)

Here are the most recent reviews: (wholesome af)!!!! Strongly recommend looking at them especially the first pic wit the 81 year old person…

[amessageonthewind]

Chapters: 36/? Fandom: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Main Video Game Series), Pocket Monsters: Omega Ruby & Alpha Sapphire | Pokemon Omega Ruby & Alpha Sapphire Versions, Pocket Monsters: Ruby & Sapphire & Emerald | Pokemon Ruby Sapphire Emerald Versions Rating: Mature Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Cynthia (Pokemon) & Original Female Character, Higana | Zinnia/Original Female Character(s), Mikuri | Wallace/Tsuwabuki Daigo | Steven Stone, Tsuwabuki Daigo | Steven Stone & Original Female Character(s), Haruka | May & Original Female Character(s), Yuuki | Brendan & Original Female Character(s), Mitsuru | Wally & Original Female Character(s) Characters: Haruka | May, Yuuki | Brendan, Original Female Character(s), Original Pokemon Trainer(s), Shirona | Cynthia, Senri | Norman, Odamaki-hakase | Professor Birch, Original Non-Human Character(s), Original Pokemon Character(s), Original Male Character(s), Original Characters, Tsutsuji | Roxanne, Aqua-dan | Team Aqua, Touki | Brawly, Tsuwabuki Daigo | Steven Stone, Aogiri | Archie, Lutia | Lisia, Gonyonyo no Shigana | Aster the Whismur, Kyogre (Pokemon), Groudon (Pokemon), Rayquaza (Pokemon), Mitsuru | Wally, Tessen | Wattson, Matsubusa | Maxie, Homura | Tabitha, Magma-dan | Team Magma, Jun | Barry, Girii | Aarune, Asuna | Flannery, Nagi | Winona Additional Tags: First Meetings, Self-Insert, Self-Indulgent, Slow Burn, Alternate Canon, Blood, Blood and Injury, Developing Relationship, Complicated Relationships, Pokemon Journey, Talking Pokemon, Houen-chihou | Hoenn Region (Pokemon), Platonic Relationships, Romantic Angst, Minor Character Death, Trans Male Character, Autistic Steven Stone, Transmasculine Wallace, Gore, Death, Nuzlockers are canon in this universe, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Shadow Pokémon are also canon in this universe, yes i bullshitted a pokemon universe version of the twilight saga because i thought it'd be funny, Autistic Character, full disclosure: some parts have been taken loosely from STikER's romhack but not fully, there are fakemon new mega evolutions and regional variants in this fic, Nudity, Public Nudity, it's a hot spring, Strangers to Lovers, Mutual Pining, Suicidal Thoughts Series: Part 1 of Rachel's Pokémon Adventure Summary:

Growing up with a peculiarly strong connection to Pokémon, it takes a while before Rachel is ready to start her Pokémon journey to become a trainer. But, once she starts, she's sent away to the Hoenn region to make her own path and forge her own independence and her identity. Along the way, she encounters challenges she never thought possible alongside all her new friends and other strange adversaries and ambiguous allies. All while discovering just how deep her connection to Pokémon really goes.