#also christ i can't believe it's been 5 years since it came out. i was in HIGH SCHOOL. wild

[remnantglow]

relistening to girl in space at work

[all-seeing-ifer]

Wait I really like ats s5 it has some banger episodes, why don’t you like it?

oh man. season 5.

so, in theory, there's a lot about season 5 that I should like. I think it reinvents the show in an interesting way and I love the themes of never stopping fighting even in the face of the knowledge that the good guys are never going to truly win and that the deck is always going to be stacked against them. the fucking dialogue between gunn and anne in the finale? "I'd get this truck packed before the new stuff gets here"? holy SHIT it is so good!!!

I totally get why people like season 5 I do think it genuinely has a lot going for it BUT you DID ask so I will now be presenting Isabel's List of Varyingly Serious/Petty Beefs With Angel Season Five. In No Particular Order:

Spike's a good addition to the show and god knows angel season 5 does more interesting stuff with him than buffy season 7 ever did but it is fucking insane to me how much focus and development he gets while gunn fred and lorne, who have been mainstays of the show since like season 2, continue to get absolute jack shit to do

just generally let's be honest. anyone who isn't a white guy this season is fucked. harmony gets no development despite being granted main cast status illyria gets nothing to do despite being set up as a super duper important addition to the cast I don't even know what they were fucking thinking with eve. etc.

THEY FRIDGED CORDY AND FRED WITHIN THREE EPISODES OF EACH OTHER. AND AT NO POINT DID ANYONE IN THE WRITERS' ROOM THINK THAT MAYBE THE FACT THAT THEY WERE WERE STARTING TO RUN OUT OF WOMEN WAS PERHAPS A PROBLEM

speaking of cordy my best girl of all time, I know people love you're welcome but i'm sorry i remain deeply ambivalent about that fucking thing. like yes it's nice that the cordy we know and love gets to come back for one last hurrah but also the episode basically never treats her like a person with feelings of her own and instead she's just there to motivate angel and then die so he can be sad about it. i can't believe it only took 40 minutes to set feminism back 4000 years

also sorry but did they really think you're welcome was going to be enough to make up for what they did to her in season 4? have you seen season 4? one episode where cordy looks hot and has her tits out and swordfights will NOT undo the damage that has been done

and then they proceed to set feminism back even further by just refusing to acknowledge the existence of their show's secondary protagonist for the basically the rest of the season and also fridging fred in an arguably even more horrific way three episodes later so wesley can be sad and so they can introduce a new character who does nothing

like seriously nothing makes me more rabid in season 5 than the scene in power play where the characters all vote on if they're gonna go through with their suicide mission against the circle of the black thorn and it's just all the men voting on it bc illyria's been incapictated bc I guess in angel season 5 women don't get to have agency even when they're literal godlike demon lords

on the subject of the illyria plotline i fucking hate how gunn gets treated. like sorry all the men on this show (sans lorne. unproblematic king) have done awful shit why does gunn get singled out as having done something uniquely horrible just for a shady business deal he couldn't possibly have known the consequences of. like we know why but still

and on the subject of gunn.... the fact that they wrote a storyline implying that the only way for the only black main character in the show to become smart and capable is for him to have his brain magically altered and NO ONE in the writers room was like HM MAYBE THIS IS A BAD LOOK ACTUALLY. christ i would feel way better about the whole "gunn feels like he's just the muscle" conflict if the show more consistently came down on the side that players does where gunn does actually have way more to offer than being the muscle but has just come to see himself as just The Guy Who Fights. but unfortunately they spend at least as much time writing gunn as Actually Just The Muscle. usually to make wesley look better (i promise i'm not bitter about it)

and perhaps i'd be less annoyed about all this if gunn also got literally anything else to do this season but this is truly all he gets until not fade away

which i guess is still better than fred? like fred just dies. that's it

guys i don't think we shit on the girl in question enough. like it's bad. it's really bad. i'm so glad we're currently in the shit talking lies my parents told me renaissance but can we also start bringing that same energy for this piece of shit

nina's an art student so i hate her by default (<- guy who went to art school <- i am allowed to say this)

despite spike being intended to serve as a replacement for cordy they just straight up don't give him relationships with any of the characters other than angel (and fred for like. one episode) and it results in him just feeling incredibly out of place

just in general actually it feels like the writers kind of stopped caring about any of the character relationships aside from angel and spike and fred/wesley (which they only care about bc it's a reason for wesley to be sad anyway)

the pacing is a nightmare and i do not give a shit about the circle of the black thorn. sorry

and just as a disclaimer i would like to acknowledge that like. ats was always fairly shitty about race and gender this isn't unique to s5 but MAN does it feel like season 5 in particular is just. saying the quiet part out loud constantly every episode

anyway thank you for giving me free rein to just bitch about angel season 5 for an extended period of time this was fun. still i'm honestly glad that you enjoy it like really truly I wish that were me

[lesfeldickbiblestudy]

What will take place during the 1000 year Kingdom Age? [convertplayer id="tSeSBWGNW" width="700" height="525"] FIRST RESURRECTION - "WHO GOES INTO KINGDOM:" GENTILE BELIEVERS I don't claim to have any special revelations, and I don't think I teach The Bible that much different than a lot of men who are far more important and educated than I am. But I trust that I am able to make it a little easier to understand. We have been talking about the Kingdom the past few lessons. Christ has returned, the Tribulation has run its course, and I think the questions that come into everybody's mind are, "Who is going to go into the Kingdom? Are they going to be flesh and blood? Will they be having families? Will they be reproducing?" And the answer to all these question is, absolutely! This Kingdom will be on the earth, and will be `Utopia,' (that's the word the secular world likes to use). So let's take a few references out of the Old Testament to show that this Kingdom idea has been on God's mind from the very onset of the Book it-self, but especially after the call of Abraham. I stressed many months ago that the Abrahamic Covenant you see was the Covenant between God and the Nation of Israel. He would make them a special, separated nation of people. He would put them in a geographic area of land and then, at the appropriate time, He would come to be their King, and set up the government. That comprises the Kingdom that everything is looking forward to. [convertplayer id="qawitUvMk" width="700" height="525"] Revelation 20:6 "Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection:... but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years." Now the question came up in our last coffee break. That in verse 4, it sounds like just Tribulation people will reign and rule with Christ, and I was glad that someone caught that. Because that is probably true, but again you have to take Scripture with Scripture, and you can't make a doctrine, or identify anything with just one verse. Come back to Revelation Chapter 5, and here we have a verse that I would say includes all of us believers in verse 10. Revelation 5:10 "And hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and (what) we (an all inclusive word) shall reign on the earth (with Christ)." We can also look at Chapter 19 verse 7: Revelation 19:7 "Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb (remember the Lamb is to married to the Body of Christ) is come, and his wife hath made herself ready." Revelation 19:8 "And to her was granted that she (the Body of Christ, the Church) should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints." Go over to verse 14 in this same Chapter. Here we are now included in this army that is coming with Christ at His Second Coming. Revelation 19:14 "And the armies (Heavenly congregation) which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean." Now can you tie all of that together? Not only are the Tribulation saints going to be included in that reigning and ruling with Christ for a thousand years but we are also included. Since we are talking about the Church Age believer in the Kingdom as this Kingdom will come on earth, come back to the Book of Colossians. Now Paul the Apostle to the Gentiles does not dwell a lot on the Kingdom, not nearly as much as the Old Testament does, and the Gospels as they pertain to Israel. But nevertheless we are involved in the Kingdom. Don't think for a moment that we won't be. In Colossians Chapter 1 (and again I'm going to run out of time in the middle of a subject). But if the Lord tarries there will be another lesson, and if He doesn't, we won't need it. Here in this passage Paul has been praying for the Colossi Gentile believers. Colossians 1:12 "Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet (or prepared us)&nb

sp;to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light: Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath (past tense) translated us (you and I as believers) into (what?) the kingdom of his dear Son:" We are already members of the Kingdom. But always remember, where is the Kingdom tonight? In heaven, in the Person of Christ. When He was on the earth John the Baptist approached Jesus and what did He say? "The Kingdom of heaven is at hand." Why? Because the King was at hand. So when the King went back to glory, then the Kingdom is again in heaven (and we don't refer to Him as the King in the Church Age, but as Savior and Lord.) But always remember the Kingdom won't stay in heaven, but will come back to the earth, and Paul says, "We will be with Him. Part and Parcel of that Kingdom." So we are indeed a part of this coming Kingdom, which will then be on the earth. [convertplayer id="nkD64GVSo" width="700" height="525"] BEMA SEAT: GREAT WHITE THRONE: NEW HEAVEN AND EARTH Let's recap our last lesson for a moment about who will go into the Kingdom. First we will have the remnant of Jews that God is going to protect during the last 3 1/2 years of the Tribulation. They will be Jews that we read about in Matthew 24 that were escaping to the mountains at the mid-point of the Tribulation. They were a cross-section of the population of Jerusalem, from children and young pregnant women to retired older people. They will be the seed stock to repopulate the Nation of Israel. Second, there will be the survivors that believed the Gospel of the Kingdom as presented by the 144,000 that survive the Tribulation. They too will be a cross-section of society. This group will be Gentiles and will be the seed stock to repopulate all the nations, except the Nation of Israel. This Kingdom Age will last a thousand years and there will be only believers in this Kingdom. Satan will be locked up, the earth will be like the Garden of Eden. There will be no sin there. And Christ will be the absolute Ruler, a benevolent Dictator if you want to call Him that. It's going to be a glorious time. There will be no sin, sickness, or death, and you will have a population explosion that the world has never seen before. We also know that since the curse has been lifted, there will be no more pain in childbirth, which I think will encourage large families. Regarding other aspects of the Kingdom, I've had many people ask me if they will see their dog or cat again in heaven (they want me to say yes)? But I have to say, "Not the one you had here." But there will be animals in the Kingdom. I'm sure that among those animals, people will have pets. I'm a dog lover myself, and have loved dogs ever since I was a kid. I had one for 15 years and I sure got attached to her. But I know I won't see that little black dog in the Kingdom economy. But there will be animals. That is why I had you turn to Isaiah Chapter 11. We touched on this in the last lesson, so let's just review a little. I like to show everything from Scripture. If I can't show it from Scripture then it's just my own idea. But when you can, I trust you will read it and believe it as this is the inspired Word of God. I take it literally. When you take the Scriptures literally you satisfy a lot of questions (and why not take it literally). If you read the account of Washington and his men crossing the Delaware on that cruel winter day, back there in the early days of our nation, do you spiritualize that and try to dream up something totally different? Of course not. You take it literally, and you take it so literally that you can almost feel the cold and pain they went through. And you need to do the same thing with Scripture. Don't read and then try to dream up something that it must have meant. Just say, "This is what it says, and I believe it." So looking at the animal part of the Kingdom again, let's go to verse 6: Isaiah 11:6 "The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid (baby goat); and the calf and th

e young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them." Can you picture all of that? Just take it literally. The animal kingdom as we know it today would be in total opposition. That lion would eat that little calf in a second. But here they are lying down together. Do you see the difference? I'm always trying to get people to read their Bibles carefully. Don't just read it to be reading it. Here we have wild animals all of a sudden cohabiting with domestic animals! And unbelievable as it may seem, who is in the midst of them? A little child. Immediately you should ask yourself, "Where does this child come from?" Well, like the children today it came from parents, a father and a mother. Let's read on: Isaiah 11:7 "And the cow and the bear shall feed (together); their young ones shall lie down together: and (now here is the secret of the whole thing) the lion shall eat straw like the ox." Now let's compare Scripture with Scripture. Come back to Genesis Chapter l. This is why I say the Kingdom will be a reversion back to the Garden of Eden, before the curse came in. Now the comparison. Isaiah says the day is coming when these wild meat-eating animals are going to eat the same diet of grasses that cattle do today. In Genesis l:28-30 we read (here God is speaking to Adam): Genesis 1:28-30 "And God blessed them, and God said unto them, `Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.' And God said, `Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat (or food).'" Now verse 30: "And to every beast of the earth (that also includes the animals we read about in Isaiah), and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: (or food) and it was so." You won't see God give permission (I don't think even to the animal kingdom) to kill and eat meat for food until after the flood. Noah was then instructed that he could kill and eat the meat of these animals. But definitely before Adam sinned, none of the animals could eat meat, only green herbs. So that is what is here in Isaiah 11. The whole animal kingdom, including the most ferocious, carnivorous meat-eating species are going to change their diets and live peaceably with animals they once would have eaten. Isaiah 11:8 "And the sucking (or nursing) child shall play on the hole of the asp, (which of course was a very poisonous serpent) and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice' s (adder's) den." Here we have had three children mentioned in just two verses. The inspired Word of God tells us that when this Kingdom is set up there will be human beings coming in at the front end of the Kingdom who are going to reproduce. They have to. We know by the time we get to the end of the thousand years, there are multitudes of people on the earth. We will be looking at that in a later lesson. Where did they come from? They came from believing parents who started at the beginning of the Kingdom. Coming out of the Old Testament we came to the time of the Cross, and now we are in that undetermined period of time known as the Church Age. It will end when the Church is Raptured, or called out. And then began that seven-year period of time called the Tribulation. After Christ returns at the end of the Tribulation we come into this thousand years of what we call the Kingdom Age. It will be on earth in which these things will take place that we are reading about. All through this period of human history everything has been under the curse, and we have no question about wild animals and their behavior, and children should never play with them. And then at the end of the last lesson and I recapped at the beginning of this lesson who would

be going into the Kingdom. All of these people I showed you will be different than you and I. We will have our new resurrected bodies, flesh and bone. These believing survivors of the Tribulation will have the same bodies that they had before - flesh and blood. They will then be the parents of these children we just read about with the wild animals in verse 6 and 8 of Isaiah Chapter 11. Let's look at verse 9: Isaiah 11:9 "They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain (a mountain in Scripture, especially in the Old Testament, is a Kingdom. Always look at the text): for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea." Let's look at some more Old Testament references of the earthly Kingdom. Go to the Book of Amos Chapter 9 (in our next lesson I'm going to explain the opposition to this line of teaching about a literal earthly Kingdom that will come on the earth. We call this opposition Amillenialism). Hopefully we'll show you that we are not throwing you a bunch of smoke, but that we can rest assuredly that even in the very early days of Christianity they all held to this view of an earthly Kingdom that someday would be on the scene. We have a lot of people who watch and are in my classes, who are handed books that are in opposition of the earthly Kingdom, the Book of Revelation and so forth. Now look at Amos 9:11,12: Amos 9:11,12 "In that day (in other words when Christ is setting up His Kingdom) will I raise up the tabernacle of David that is fallen, and close up the breaches thereof; and I will raise up his ruins, and I will build it as in the days of old: That they (Israel) may possess the remnant of Edom, and of all the heathen (Gentiles), which are called by my name, saith the LORD that doeth this." In verse 13, Here it is: Amos 9:13 "Behold, the days come (when this Kingdom is finally set up), saith (Who?) the LORD, that the plowman shall overtake the reaper (what does that mean? Intense reproduction, remember there will be no curse, so they won't have to put up with weeds and insects, fungus and moles, and pests and all the things that hinder good crop production), and the treader of grapes him that soweth seed; and the mountains shall drop sweet wine, and all the hills shall melt." And God goes on to say that with His dealing with His people Israel, as we have here in the Old Testament: Amos 9:15 "And I will plant them upon their land, and they shall no more be pulled up out of their land which I have given them, saith the LORD thy God." Go to the Book of Zechariah, Chapter 14 verse 8: Zechariah 14:8 "And it shall be in that day (when the Kingdom is in operation), that living waters shall go out from Jerusalem: half of them toward the former sea (the Mediterranean sea), and half of them toward the hinder sea (Dead Sea): in summer and in winter shall it be." In order to pick up on this you have to go back to Ezekiel Chapter 47. Ezekiel sees this same river, beginning in verse 1: Ezekiel 47:1 "AFTERWARD he brought me again unto the door of the house; and, behold, waters issued out from under the threshold of the house eastward: for the forefront of the house stood toward the east, and the waters came down from under from the right side of the house, at the south side of the altar," Notice this river has it source under the temple in Jerusalem. Now verse 8: Ezekiel 47:8-10 "Then said he unto me, These waters issue out toward the east country, and go down into the desert, and go into the sea (that is the Dead Sea): which (when these waters) being brought forth into the (Dead) sea, the waters shall be healed," "And it shall come to pass, that every thing that liveth, which moveth, whithersoever the rivers shall come, shall live: and there shall be a very great multitude of fish, because these waters shall come thither (from the temple area): for they (the waters of the Dead Sea) shall be healed; and every thing shall live whither the riv

er cometh." Now look at verse 10: "And it shall come to pass, that the fishers shall stand upon it (this is the Dead Sea, and we know that from the term Engedi) from Engedi even unto Eneglaim; they shall be a place to spread forth nets; their fish shall be according to their kinds, as the fish of the great sea (the Mediterranean), exceeding many." When we were in Israel, we stopped at the oasis of Engedi at the Dead Sea and some of our group went swimming. Someday, this will again be fresh water. In Matthew Chapter 19, here again is the promise of this coming Kingdom when Peter says to the Lord: Matthew 19:27,28 "...Behold, we have forsaken all, and followed thee; what shall we have therefore? And Jesus said unto them, `Verily I say unto you, that ye which have followed me, in the regeneration when the Son of Man shall sit in the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.'"  

[just-bible-musings]

2 Chronicles 26

Uzziah was one of the good kings of Judah, one of the kings that served God, but he still committed a sin that led to his demise.

Because Uzziah served the Lord, God made him both mighty and famous (vs. 15). But at some point, Uzziah became proud. He went into the temple to burn incense to the Lord, something that only the priests were allowed to do, according to Mosaic Law.

Uzziah had worshipped God all his life. He certainly knew the law that said that only the priests could burn incense to the Lord, as well as make sacrifices. Why would he choose to disobey God so overtly?

It seems that he saw himself as being above the law. He decided that, since God had made him so mighty, he could do whatever he pleased, worship God however he wanted. This is what most commentators say, and I agree with them, but I also think that the thoughts going through Uzziah's head were more complicated than that, as they often are.

In truth, Uzziah wasn't doing anything different than what we do today- that is, going directly to God to worship Him, instead of going through a priest. Christians who truly understand the Bible know that we don't have to ask a pastor to pray on our behalf, we can pray to God ourselves. We know we can go to God directly.

But the problem was that it wasn't time for that yet, not where offerings and sacrifices were concerned. I think Uzziah understood that God is a personal God that wants to communicate with us directly, but he didn't understand that incense and sacrifices and other offerings were prophetic in nature. All of the Mosaic Law of sacrifice and offerings was meant to foretell the death and resurrection of Christ.

Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. Matthew 5:17

Until Jesus came to earth to walk among us as a human and then be crucified and rise from the dead, people had no way to atone for their sins outside of offerings and sacrifice. The instructions were so specific that anyone could have followed them, theoretically; but God specified that ONLY the specially sanctioned priests that were descended from Moses' brother Aaron could perform the ritual.

What Uzziah failed to realize was that this was not meant to keep us away from God, but to prophecy the coming of the Messiah. Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. Jesus, born hundreds of years after Uzziah's reign, was the one who would fulfill the centuries-old testament of the sacrifice of lambs and young bulls and turtledoves.

In truth, we still can't go to The Father directly. We still have to go through a High Priest:

Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession.  For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Hebrews 4:14-15

This is why we pray in Jesus' name (John 14:13-14). Ending a prayer with "In Jesus' name I pray, Amen," isn't a magic phrase that grants all your wishes. It's submission to God's will.

There is not, never has been, and never will be a way for humanity to reach out to God on our own. Jesus is the bridge between us and God. The Son of God was born and lived a life as a human just so that He could die for our sins and become our living High Priest. The sacrifices of the Old Testament were just that- the old testament, the prophecy, the foreshadowing of Jesus' ultimate sacrifice for all our sins.

Jesus said He is the ONLY way to reach God The Father:

Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. John 14:6

Everyone wants to believe we can reach God on our own, but we really can't, we still can't. We have to go through Jesus.

So when Uzziah went into the temple to offer incense himself, it was really no different than the millions of people today who say they worship God, but have never accepted Jesus' sacrifice on the cross.

Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?  And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity. Matthew 7:22-23

We cannot worship God without going through Jesus.

[bloggingastronaut]

CHANGED FOR THE BETTER 💯

In the middle of situation where things need to be hurried up, I read this in a devotional note in the bible app.

"Life is a highway. Your heavenly Father has a wish for you. He wants to bless your broken road. He stands ready to change you for the better. Just stop wherever you are, and raise your hands up to the Father."

Somehow, it just hit me to slow down or at least pause, but my inner self is fighting since I think I've been in a procrastination state for a long time. But I also realized that I have to be gentle with myself since I am starting from scratch where I don't have any idea to start at all and all I can depend on is God because I can't even depend on myself. Imagine starting this business when everything is lacking - Lacking start up finances where I can't even provide the cheapest rent to put up an office,even to purchase the materials needed. I lack the knowledge to run the business, who to talk to and who and where to market. I even lack of confidence to do it. Deep sigh. Hahaha

But despite it all, I surrender all the lacks into the hands of the Almighty, the One who has the perfect ability to provide it all. I know that in my broken road, God has a purpose and I believe all things will be change for the better, I will change for the better.

https://open.spotify.com/track/6kZTUxYlEakCoi194XLE0Y?si=szKWVwC7Reip8u9H6FyFkA

The most related famous verse that everyone should dig deeper into:

🔅For here is the way God loved the world—he gave his only, unique Son as a gift. So now everyone who believes in him will never perish but experience everlasting life.

John 3:16 TPT

🔅Ang tunay na ilaw na nagbibigay-liwanag sa lahat ng tao ay dumating na sa mundo.

Juan 1:9 ASND

At talagang dumating na talaga Siya! And that's actually what should excite us every Christmas!!! THAT THE WAITING IS FINALLY OVER. HE CAME.

🔅Ang sinumang nakay Cristo ay isa nang bagong nilalang. Wala na ang dati niyang pagkatao; binago na siya.

2 Corinto 5:17 ASND

Reading this now is a refreshment to my soul. "Binago na Siya" I find it so radical for Someone to have the desire to change me knowing that I don't deserve to call that way. I just hope that as this year started, I also have the mindset to embrace the truth that despite of what happened last year, the hurtful words thrown, the bad attitude shown, and even to the people we love but ended up hurting them, I hope and pray that I also find myself in the arms of my loving heavenly Father and to start to act on the grace He was giving me and start redefining myself as changed. Changed not because of me, but because of who He is, and how he define me in His eyes. 💗

🔅Through our union with him we have experienced circumcision of heart. All of the guilt and power of sin has been cut away and is now extinct because of what Christ, the Anointed One, has accomplished for us. For we’ve been buried with him into his death. Our “baptism into death” also means we were raised with him when we believed in God’s resurrection power, the power that raised him from death’s realm. This “realm of death” describes our former state, for we were held in sin’s grasp. But now, we’ve been resurrected out of that “realm of death” never to return, for we are forever alive and forgiven of all our sins! He canceled out every legal violation we had on our record and the old arrest warrant that stood to indict us. He erased it all—our sins, our stained soul—he deleted it all and they cannot be retrieved! Everything we once were in Adam has been placed onto his cross and nailed permanently there as a public display of cancellation. Then Jesus made a public spectacle of all the powers and principalities of darkness, stripping away from them every weapon and all their spiritual authority and power to accuse us. And by the power of the cross, Jesus led them around as prisoners in a procession of triumph. He was not their prisoner; they were his!

Colossians 2:11‭-‬15 TPT

This verse is so powerful. I hope this minister to me throughout the year 2023. I think I've forgotten this lately when I became so harsh on myself. I forgot these Words, and I caught myself in a state of hard and callous heart, considering myself bad and outside the grace of God, which led to bad thoughts and unintentionally hurting the people I love 😕 When all along, the truth is I was changed through my union with Jesus Christ and all my mistakes, shame, and guilt were erased forever. This is not just a one-time event, God will continually pursue you in this lifetime, not using all your mistakes against you, but He will continually not record all the bad doings because He changed you, and His love is more than enough to embrace you despite of it all.

So, beloved, forget all the condemnation in your head. God will always see you in His grace. Through that grace, you will finally walk and see yourself that you are CHANGED. CHANGED FOR THE BETTER 😊

All glory to You, Lord 💗

[adventism-atheism-orthodoxy-me]

What do you think of Joyofsatan.org? They claim to follow the Sumerian God Enki-Satan, they’re pro-choice, they follow gay Pagan Gods and they’re the largest Satanist group in the world.

Thank-you for the question.  This one is tough, because it's been years since I've looked very deeply into any of this.  When I did, I found it as disturbing now as I did then.  

First.  This site.  The fact that it was published, and the fact that it is largely followed, demonstrates to me the abysmal state of Christianity in the World.  It shows to me that at some point, a human being came to the conclusion that  Christianity was so completely toxic to the core, that Satan is better.  If you are a Christian and can't understand how someone could come to that conclusion, you may need to evaluate yourself in light of the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7), and consider the Fruits of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22–23).

Second. Now I know where a lot of Christian negativity I have seen has it's source.  I had a coworker come up to me one night during a graveyard shift, climb up a scissor lift (Not an OSHA approved activity) and confirm with me that I called myself a Christian.  If given the opportunity, I would have given him my measured and qualified response (Not all who call out to me, 'Lord, Lord' will enter the kingdom of Heaven).  That wasn't required though.  Instead I got a lecture about stupid people being controlled by puppet-masters, etc... Now, given my own journey, you can probably imagine that I actually resonated with many of his points, but I couldn't agree to his complete and utter rejection of Christianity.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

You will notice, by certain phrases and words that many of the arguments made on this site are directed to a specific kind of Christian.  Also, keep in mind that I do not claim any new earth shattering insight, it's just how I interpret very traditional Christianity as I understand it.

The first target seems to be the very materialist Christian.  One who doesn't understand or believe in spirits, egregores, or really in anything that could even be remotely considered immaterial.  One of the things that has attracted me to Orthodox Christianity, is that they have maintained a strong connection with the spiritual. If anything, its become stronger through history with Saints like Gregory Palamas. Father Freeman wrote a book on the problems of the Two-Story Universe in our modern thinking.  Jonathan Pageau has tangentially addressed the idea of a multiplicity of spiritual entities many times, not only in, "The Body of a City and how Authority Works", but also more flippantly in, "Santa Clause and the Tooth Fairy Exist". Lastly I would recommend the podcast, "Lord of Spirits" by priests Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick and Fr. Stephen De Young.  I incidentally became interested in egregores a year or so ago when I listened to a discussion with Mark Stavish on a podcast where he was being interviewed about his, then, latest book.  But the idea had been germinating in my mind for awhile, a proto-reference might have been a discussion on 'The conjuring of Phillip' I heard on another podcast (The episode is an hour and a half. the reference is a little after the 36 minute mark, but the following stream of consciousness discussions intrigued me too).

The next target is a Christian whose faith in the Bible is so brittle that they can't imagine that there were undeveloped precursors further back in history, or that the Bible must be understood word-for-word.  I will refer back again to the the Podcast, 'Lord of Spirits', for a deep dive into this idea. Jonathan Pageau is a good reference too.  Keep in mind, Christ himself had to teach the disciples how to understand their own Scriptures within a revolutionary new context for 40 days (Acts 1:3).  Elsewhere are repeated references to treasure found, or lost coins, etc...  The Bible isn't easy to understand, contrary to what some might say.  As for precursors, if a story is true, its true.  Some details may change.  But to see echoes of your life's narrative repeated throughout history in different contexts shouldn't be at all surprising.  None of them have been systematized in the way that the Christian story was in the New Testament, which makes the Christian movement that sprang out of that narrative particularly interesting.  Christiological exegesis that postdates the Great Schism should be met with discernment, as the protestant impulse originating in Rome and spreading through Germany and the West has not improved the narrative of Christ's mission here on earth - and narratives are important.

The Third target seems to be the kind of Christian who assumes that the Western Church is the best repository of Christianity.  There are references to Easter (NOT Pascha), the Vatican, Inquisitions, quotations from Popes, Masses (NOT Liturgies), and maybe a few other things that really make me think that the target here is Organized Christianity here in the post-schism West with all it's faults.  Some may say the Eastern churches have their issues, and they do.  Up until recently, the biggest issue in Eastern Orthodoxy was whether to use the Gregorian or the Julian Calendar - This is an issue that a sensitive Adventist can relate to since the argument drawn from the Bible is largely the same as we use to defend the Sabbath - Daniel 7:25. The issue can be complicated, and my understanding is that not even all churches who follow the old calendar are schismatic.  Back to the point.  There is a conciliar and collegial impulse to the Orthodox faith that seems lost to the West.  There is more than one Patriarch among the Churches, and decisions are reached within counsels that contain more than just the patriarchs.  Even then, some counsels come to conclusions that are rejected by the laity, and in those cases, bad council decisions are corrected in practice by the laity who refuse to abide by them.  The Holy Spirit is assumed to be present in all of this, providentially working to ensure that the Church remains true.  As a contrast, most of us in the developed world live, move, and have our being in top-down hierarchies.  Some hierarchies are better than others.  Many who live in various dysfunctional hierarchies dream of a hypothetical ideal world where the hierarchy is flat, a pure anarchy, where each man is his own god.  That would be where I think the author of Joyofsatan.org is trying to go.

There are probably other points I could try to tease out, but I've read enough that I'm not really interested in going any further.  For an umbrella statement, I would say that for the most part, many of it's assertions are accurate from a certain point of view.  I can relate with many of the criticisms, but disagree with the conclusions.

The biggest difference between my experience with Christianity as I understand it, and what I read on that site, is that the interconnectedness and indwelling that is supposed to take place between God and his creation and within creation itself has been severed.  "In reality, only your own powers will save you."  This is the same argument made in the Original Garden - whether you call it Eden or something else - “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” (Genesis 3:5)  In my own mind, I read Good=communion, and Evil=selfishness (separation, maybe), but that's just my read on the whole thing.  I could be wrong, and probably am, but I think it's closer to the Heavenly reality than two ephemeral words like "good" and "evil" that could be used as philosophical footballs in this discussion.  

My quick take?  I see people in pain, lashing out, wanting to inflict as much pain on others as they can.  I see a group who wants to legitimize sociopathic behavior as normative.  They would like to see the world burn - and when it does, they want to be on top.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Mankind was created for communion. Family, villages, cities, guilds, and many other examples, are all expressions of this impulse.  Our God, who seeks communion, is an expression of this impulse.  

"And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” John 12:32.

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Most High God, have mercy upon me a sinner.

[a-mended-pact]

Unsteady Keys: Chapter 6

Authors notes: This chapter is really short. I wasn't overly sure if this was a good stopping point or not for it. I also will not be posting the next couple of chapters for sometime. My messages and asks are always open.

Word count: 2,192

Part 5 Part 7

Warnings: I can't think of any for this exact chapter. If there is any please inform me.

Requests are open

I think her vision finally cleared because with the way her eyes flickered between Ethan and I. I knew one of us was in for a rude awakening and I certainly knew it wasn't me.

She moved before I could stop her and I winced at the impact of her palm to his face.  The sound of it echoed off the walls in the seemingly abandoned office. My wife wasn't thinking like a federal agent and how that just crossed too many lines. She was thinking as herself and that probably wasn't a good thing.

'He trusted you! He invited you to our wedding and you were involved in kidnapping him!?! I can't believe this! You bastard! Why are you not in a holding cell?! Better yet, why are you not in an interrogation room!?' She was vibrating in my grasp as her voice got louder and louder. She was no longer filled with the overwhelming emotions she was dealing with earlier; she's now just one big bundle of rage.

I should be trying to stop her. I really should but it was so rare when she let her emotions get the better of her that I didn't wanna stop her. I was sorta enjoying it. That is until she turned to me and glared. 

She shook with anger as she looked at me. Like a small puppy trying to hold in a bark. The longer she stared the more she shaked. She was trying to control herself. One of her rules that she made of her own choice was that she'd never yell at me. I told her how preposterous that was. Sometimes I deserve to get yelled at. 

The rule was made due to past trauma of hers that definitely doesn't need to be brought up or discussed in front of Ethan.  He didn't need anymore ammo to use against us. I'm not sure that he would but I couldn't take any chances.  Not anymore then I already have anyway.

I had enough time to catch Ethan's gaze before I watched my wife storm out of Morgan's old office.

-----------------

I paced around the bullpen until Tara told me if I didn't stop I was gonna leave a tread mark in the carpet.  I couldn't help but laugh. I sounded exhausted. I felt dead on my feet but I couldn't close my eyes. I knew that if I did all I would see was Spencer being hurt and tortured.  Me being right there only to have him look at me like I meant nothing to him. Like I was nothing.  Maybe I was but right now wasn't the time to dwell on that thought. 

I looked at her and then at the board of all the victims.  'Do you think it's possible that what Reid said is true? That Ethan didn't have a choice? That Ethan isn't fully in on it? They were kidnapping and killing victims that look like me for Christ sake.' I turned away from the board and through my hands up in frustration before I let them fall to my sides. 'Is Lindsey Vaughn even in on this? We have an eye witness identifying Ethan and here he is walking about as a free man. All because he has Genius in there believing he is innocent!' I could feel my aggravation getting the better of me again.

My palm still stung from the slap I gave him earlier.  I knew it wasn't protocol but I didn't care. He deserved it. All I wanted to do was scream. It wasn't fair. God I needed to sleep. I glanced at the analog clock on the wall. I've officially been up for 4 days now. Which honestly wasn't anything overly new. If I didn't take my medication regularly even without everything going in sleep would still eluded me. Insomnia is definitely a cunt. My mind never knew how to shut off.  Playing records of things I didn't want to see or hear. It had been 4 days since a proper meal. I began to wonder when someone would notice and tell Emily to send me home. 

A part of me hoped someone did another part just wanted to close this case and arrest all those involved. I was sick of Cat always having the upper hand on us in this case. I ran my hands over my face and sighed. I think it's time for a wake up call for our sleeping kitten.

____________________

When I came into view of Cat Adam's I saw that Spencer was already in there grilling her about what she'd done to Ethan.  Asking if Lindsey was the true unsub all along. He was making assumptions completely based off the fact that he knew Ethan. I understood truly I did but he was being biased he can't seriously excuse that his college friend was a kidnapper. Whether being manipulated and played like a puppet on strings he was still a kidnapper and the victims deserved proper justice. 

'So you're telling me that you're not the one behind this really Cathrine? I doubt that. I really do. He has photos of me in Mexico.  Drugged laying next to Nadie Ramos dead! Don't tell me you had nothing to do with this and it was all just Lindsey!' His voice was nearly ruptured the speaker when I turned it on. He was so loud. He was so angry that I myself flinched. I don't see how she could just sit there looking at him unfazed as if this was normal for him.

I watched as she leaned forward making herself look like a viper ready to strike. 

'Spencie If I knew Ethan being evolved would have you so worked up I would have done it sooner.' She smiled at him. 'I however did not plan on you being taken. You being apart of it like that wasn't part of the plan.' She leaned her head on her hand.  That's when I realized he had taken off her restraints.  What was he doing?

'My only goal was to make you squirm in discomfort as your precious wife went missing. With the chance of her being another victim on the side of the road. Ya know I don't go for the throat Baby boy.  I go for the mind.' She laughed as she swiped his hair out of his face. He let her. 

----------

I was furious with everything that had happened.  Ethan being evolved I almost through me off the edge. Then her saying that the goal was for it to be Y/n and not me made me see red. I needed to remind myself that I needed to remain calm. If I didn't I wouldn't get anything out of her besides her lust filled obsession of me being angry with her. 

To be honest I did think about playing into her desire for me. It would have been an easy choice. A simple one. I could have gotten away with it if it wasn't for the fact that my wife was already upset with me. 

I didn't mean to do it but I did end up leaning into Cat's touch when she moved my hair out of my face. I was disgusted with myself.  I was a better man than this. Yet here I was mesmerized by her eyes as they watched me with the curiosity of a wolf preying on sheep. Only I was a wolf in sheep's clothing.  

How easy it would be to deduce Cat Adams into nothing but statistics and profiling. She wanted to have me squirm in misery but It would be so easy to have her broken and on her knees for me.

I pulled away immediately once I realized what I had done. 'You are threatening a federal agent not to mention you are an accomplice to what happened. Even if I wasn't the target. You still knew who took me and who else was involved and you still chose silence. '

A smirk formed on my face as I moved my chair closer to her. Pulling it around the metal table and on her side of it. I leaned in really close to her ear. To be fair I had no idea if anyone was watching or listening but I wasn't about to take anymore chances. 

I gently moved her hair behind her ear as I leaned in closer to whisper. 'If anything would have happened to my wife or Ethan I would certainly be the one in an orange jumpsuit.' My hand slipped up to her throat not squeezing hard but with enough pressure to remind her of the time I had been this close to her last. 'I would watch the life drain from you and sleep well. I know how much you love when people see the resemblance between you and I.' My hand tightened before I slung it off her with such force she wobbled a little in her chair. 

Cat watched me with her pupils dilated as she gently caressed the redding skin where my hand had been. 'If I didn't know any better Spencie I think you just like touching me.' The way she panted as she watched me made my skin crawl. I hated myself for thinking she was such an attractive specimen of a human being. Her mind intrigued me more than anyone I have ever met.

I wanted to pick apart her psyche. I wanted to know what made her tick. Besides her abandonment issues and lack of empathy because she was never shown any kindness a day in her life. Even if she was shown some form of kindness I'm sure she didn't know what to do with it. She probably shut herself down from it. Most likely abused by someone in her life. She was just like every other unsub so why did I crave her so much more.

I couldn't figure out my attraction to her after all these years. Sure she held a very natural beauty to her but she was nothing compare to Y/n who could strut around her hair a mess and stains on her clothes and still pull me in as if she were the gravity holding me to this earth.

I realized then one of my biggest mistakes of the last few days as my wife walked in leaning herself against the wall with her arms crossed. I could tell the moment I walked into the bureau that she hadn't been sleeping. I also knew from her mental state that she in fact hadn't been taking her medication.  

I sighed more at myself than to her. 'Love you shouldn't be in here. If anything you should be at home resting and taking care of yourself.' I turned to lock eyes with her only she wasn't looking at me. She was looking at Cat Adams. 

'You know it's been a couple of hours since you and I spoke. I was hoping you'd be willing to share some info but I see you've been busy.' As she spoke her eyes never left Cat. 

I was surprised to watch the manipulative woman squirm under anyone's gaze. 'So here's the thing Catherine. I'm done playing nice and pretending like I'm not steps ahead of you already.' 

My wife strutted to her, swaying her hips from side to side in a confident manner.  I was intrigued by what she meant but chose to keep my lips sealed. 'The truth is. You lost control over Lindsey the moment you didn't want to hurt your precious Spencie and she didn't like that fact. She was in love with you and you betrayed her by trying to keep the federal agent she hated safe. The moment you brought Ethan in and had him take women that looked like me was the moment you fully and completely lost control over her. By then she knew you would never truly hurt or kill Spencer because rather you understand it or not the desire you have was never to kill him. All you want is his precious attention to never leave you. Simply because you’ve never had anyone show you their undivided focus until he showed up.’ My eyes widened. I kept my head down as I listened. Clearly my wife was done playing by the original rules of Cat’s game. It was always mental but right now my wife was aiming for the verbal killing strike. I glanced up and I could see her eyes hold unshed tears as she sneered at Y/n.

‘It’s funny that you don’t even understand the reasoning you are so infatuated with the idea of Reid. You've never had a man show you attention that didn't want to use you. Spencer came into your life showing you with respect and you didn't know how to handle it because you didn't know what that felt like. It's a shame really. ' 

Y/n kept her face calm but I could see the blood dripping from her palms as her nails dug into them. She was deeply upset right now. I doubt she even noticed she was doing it.

Taglist:

@sassymoon @rainsong01 @onlyhereforthefanfics @itsdars

[queerprayers]

hi there - I am also 19 years old and a christian. at present i am currently struggling with a certain aspect of my faith a bit. to make a long story short, im struggling with a few particular sins in my life, and i've been feeling particularly convicted about 2 Cor. 5:17 - "If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation." i know that i have come to know Christ, and i know that i've grown in my faith in the five years since my coming to that point; but i can't help but feel like, at the same time, i am not a new creation, or that I'm not where I need to be.

i do know that his grace is there for us when we repent, and turn to him.. but i am afraid of presuming upon it. this was also kinda spurned on by reading the story of simon magus; he came to believe, but he still was deeply sinful and wasn't where he needed to be.

i suppose I'm having a hard time entrusting myself to God's grace and placing that faith in him.. I do wish to be intentional and not take it for granted. do you have any ideas or tips for something like this?

Hello! I relate so much! Here're some thoughts!

We are young. We don't have to be everything now. God willing, we have years and years ahead of us. There's a line from an Olivia Gatwood poem that I find myself coming back to: "I have so much beautiful time." (full poem—NSFW) (book) And we do! That's the first thing I want to highlight. I don't think any nineteen-year-old feels like they're where they're supposed to be— and if they do, they're probably wrong.

What really hit this home for me recently was Richard Rohr's book Falling Upward. While I wouldn't necessarily recommend it (my review), it was while reading this book that I fully realized how much more time and space I have to grow in my life. I explained in the review how, because I've struggled so much with suicidal ideation in the past, I often treated my spiritual growth as an ending, instead of a beginning, like a young person should. I have no idea if that's something you relate to, but I've noticed people often have this perspective, even if they've never gone through what I did. So, again: we have time.

I noticed that you mentioned how much you've grown, which is so great. If you're aware of how much you've grown in the past five years, think about how much you can grow in the next five years! And the five years after that! We don't stop growing once we become a legal adult, don't worry.

I've noticed many people (especially evangelical/"born-again"-type Christians) talk about conversion/following Jesus as a lightbulb moment—but it's not (or at least, isn't most of the time/in my experience). Sometimes you don't feel any different. So if you're looking for some magical moment where you'll realize you're a new creation and Christ is in you or whatever, I can't promise you'll find it. What faith/following Jesus is is a choice you make every day. Some days you might feel the Spirit or have a beautiful moment, and some days it'll feel repetitive and tiresome, and some days it'll just be.

This is definitely informed by my Lutheran background, but I would point out that all believers are saved and deeply sinful and not where we need to be. Same goes for all saints, all church fathers, all religious leaders. Simon Magus, the Pope, Mother Teresa, anyone. I would say that being saved and full of sin is an inherently human trait. I'm not saying give up or stop growing, just reminding us that no matter how much we grow and believe, we will still be human.

You bring up something interesting: the tension between accepting and living out God's promise/grace vs. taking it for granted. Even recognizing that and thinking about it is a wonderful sign that you care! If you didn't care, you wouldn't be thinking about this. While avoiding taking it for granted, at the same time I do think that God's grace is something we should presume on and depend on. It's there no matter what to fall back on, and knowing that and embracing that isn't ungrateful. I think there's a balance between these perspectives.

And yes yes yes on the being intentional about it bit! Faith routines/rituals can help us be more intentional— even a tiny thing like lighting a candle can ground us in the moment. Maybe you could keep a journal and write down ways you're following Jesus/growing every day/week/month. (Don't make this super complicated! "What's one way I'm going to be faithful this week?") Simply noticing what I'm doing/learning has been key for me—resisting the urge to mindlessly go through the motions. You could pick a different saint or Bible figure to learn about/think about each month, or pick a theme/goal (charity/mutual aid, reading the Bible every day, something like that) and focus on that for a bit. Don't fall into monotony or, as you put it, take it for granted.

We are a new creation in Christ every day! Let us go forward with all our beautiful time and grow in ways we couldn't even imagine five years ago! God be with you and bring you peace.

<3 Johanna

[dog-day-morning]

THIS AIN'T LEGAL

Have you ever heard of absolute immunity? Federal officers who violate the Civil Rights of American citizens in an attempt to do harm with recorded video evidence of the violation in action or officers who willingly falsify a police report of a violent attack in order to frame the victim while the antagonist sits before a judge and jury perjuring herself with alligator tears before an all white jury with her blonde locks, and blue eyes, damn devil, and goes free while an innocent child spends 17 months behind bars. To say that Amerikkka is unjust is an understatement. Too many times Black people are dragged into a court that's already biased, having to face a judge, and jury who may have a vested financial interest in the private prison industry, but let's be real. The school to prison pipeline is not a myth, it's a bloody bruise on the face of Lady Liberty. Liberty, and justice for all never applied to the indigenous people of Amerikkka or any of the ADOS, and FBA citizens whose roots are entrenched in the Earth bleeding from a wound the wicked do not want to heal. The above mentioned scenarios actually happened to one of your own Amerikkka, and a child from the Middle East. It's funny that Amerikkkans appear to want peace seemingly always, but you're forever raising hell outside of your jurisdiction? Joe Biden is deporting Haitian refugees out of the country ASAP, while transporting inland, and giving amnesty to Afghan refugees, and South Americans even so far as to offer them free secondary education, and housing. The culture of Amerikkka is against a Black man ever rising up to experience the American Dream in a Taliban like Aristocracy or Totalitarian society that started centuries before Biden became president. He's not the answer to our problems nor is he the root of the issue. Amerikkka is a canker sore, and a blight that impedes the progression of a once dominant, but humble people. No one needs to preach of racial superiority and use terror tactics in order to justify a calloused approach to validate this viral disease that affects everyone with a modicum of common sense, decency, and compassion. Amerikkka was a Nation before Amerigo Vespucci set foot on these shores. Alkebulan was inhabited by some of the most brilliant minds, and still is before Scipio Africanus named the dark continent after himself, an albino. Ohhh the irony, and moral hypocrisy. Timbuktu, and the city of Alexandria were well established kingdoms in Alkebulan where Greek, and Roman scholars went to gather much needed knowledge because they were dumb as hell. Egypt is a mystery that none can determine for now. When the prophecy is fulfilled by the Father whom the Prophet Joel spoke thereof He would pour His Spirit down upon all flesh, the truth will set you and I free. And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions. What's impeding us from this prophetic word? Keep your thoughts to yourself. That's a luxury I haven't had since the age of stupid. Not wanting to call you out on the sins of your fathers, but you are just like him. I hope, and pray the Father fulfills His will in time before our hearts wax cold, too late. Amerikkka’s public enemy will not be our Black sons or daughters that are trying to follow the rules of man whose lawlessness has revealed itself to be an entire race of people. You create the laws, and break them leaving everyone with a bad taste in their mouth except those who profit from our pain. Chris Rock said this years ago. “The white man is the only one who profits from everyone's pain, especially a Black man’s.” you see how they treat us, and you have no inclination of what your future will hold for your people in the aftermath of the Zombie Apocalypse. I hate this form of pop culture rhetoric. There will be souls inhabiting these bodies that were once dead, and decomposing. God will deliver the dead from the sea, and He will deliver the dead from death, and hell.

Isaiah 26:17-21

17 Like as a woman with child, that draweth near the time of her delivery, is in pain, and crieth out in her pangs; so have we been in thy sight, O Lord.

18 We have been with child, we have been in pain, we have as it were brought forth wind; we have not wrought any deliverance in the earth; neither have the inhabitants of the world fallen.

19 Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust: for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead.

20 Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee: hide thyself as it were for a little moment, until the indignation be overpast.

21 For, behold, the Lord cometh out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity: the earth also shall disclose her blood, and shall no more cover her slain..

When our Lord Christ Jesus does this work how do you think those who've hated, and betrayed us for a season of sin will react in the oncoming horror set before mankind? God has placed us on the Earth for a purpose, not to suffer. I can't put the blame on Joe Biden or those who came before him for what this nation or planet has done, and is doing to us; psych!!! The God of our fathers will judge you according to your works which has wrought death and destruction. The wrath, and judgment Joe Biden, trump, and their people will incur, and experience is worse than any Stephen King novel or Jordan Peele, and M. Night Shyamalan movies can induce in your alleged, fragile psyche. I've told Jacob, and warned the gentiles of God's incoming judgment, but no ones willing to heed the words of an idiot savant. I'm guilty of many things by way of my woeful condition. I'm compelled to elaborate these truths to you as they become relevant at a particular hour. Watch out for your young children who may be a pain, but they're innocent, and they're yours. The world sees us as prey, a potential payoff for an organ harvest, and fodder for the wickedly unjust. This woman that they have been searching for these last 5 or so days in a National Park has this Nation all a buzz. Who is she? Do you know how many women of Jacob go missing everyday without any press from the media? We can blame them, but are they at fault? Hell yeah!!! Continue to read. Our people have been limited by those who control the information, the social media platforms, infighting within our own tried Black media organizations that have blessed us over the years who are left open to attack by oppressive censorship that purposely restricts what they can, and cannot reveal to the Black masses. I was amazed to find out in 2017 that Coretta Scott King, and her family successfully sued the US government over the assassination of MLK Jr.; that was in 1999. The Atlanta Black Star might have covered the litigation process, but I didn't hear a peep from anyone I knew or even hear about it on any news media platform, especially from the major media news networks. That's how they've Silenced the Lamb with threats, and bullying tactics. We've come too far to go back to Egypt. The only time I wanna hear mention of going to Egypt is if my Church takes a sabbatical to the Motherland, and my Apostle takes the trip with us to seek the truths that have been denied us. Reference Joel 2:28. Those who stay committed to this ministry will see beyond the veil. If you placed all of your faith in me or Apostle Johnson you have overlooked the reasons God led you to this Church, Elders, Evangelists, Prophetesses, Deacons, Ministers, and the entire Church family. He nor I can do anything without the will of the Father, and I’m stuck on dufus. Get yo tail back to Church ASAP!!! We place our faith in men who have let us down many times. Apostle has done much for me, but Jesus has done everything. God will do a good work in all of us. I want every man, woman, and child in this ministry to reap what they have sown; don't leave. When the sky turns black, and the heavens roll back, peeling back the clouds, that's when you will see or hear the Son of God coming for His faithful. Apostle has taught us of the temporal mental mindset many times. Evidently it’s true as many of us have forgotten his teachings. My mind went off on a tangent, excuse me, where was I ? BET is owned by Jews, who used to own us. They run the entertainment industry that Buck breaks our men, and you wouldn't believe what they do to black women, and children who are all looking for a way to display their talents in order to get wealth, and their name up in lights. Leroy has the talent, all Mr. Epstein can offer you is a bogus contract that rips you off in the end leaving you po, broke, and lonely with a busted a-hole. Those who beat the system at their own game wind up 6 feet deep. Why do you think they murdered Michael Jackson, Prince, Sam Cooke, and James Brown? Michael owned half of SONY BMI. Prince owned all of his Masters that his

siblings sold for pennies on the dollar. Sam was going to start his own label, and brother James who had a label, but the IRS falsely audited him several times forcing him to sell his label keeping Soul Brother number 1 from becoming the first billionaire recording artist decades before JZ did. THIS AINT LEGAL. All that glitters isn't gold people. Ask Mr. Goldberg who runs several porn studios in Silicone Valley California. They run the majority of that particular industry as well as recording, movie and TV production studios while controlling the financial institutions. The majority heads of the Department of the Treasury including the current, Janet Yellen have been Jewish. Not trying to be a dissenter, but someone’s getting screwed. It's the middle class, and our fat, Black… ? William Randolph Hearst made the movie Reefer Madness which was a propaganda film not because hemp was a gateway drug to other crap, hell a pack of cigarettes has killed more people than ten thousand blunts. Smoke a blunt, and 30 minutes later you wanna eat. Smoke crack, and 30 minutes later you're sucking d**k. Hemp can be used in a vast amount of ways that would’ve crippled Mr. Hearst’s other industries. You can use it as fabric for clothes that's stronger, and more durable than cotton. The hemp plant had more useful potential than the soybean, and peanut combined!!! Marijuana isn't a drug at all, it's an herb. The Egyptians used it to cure many ailments including cancer. If I were still on Instagram Mark Suckerberg would personally shut my page down himself… again. That's why I no longer use white run social media websites. Mr. Hearst's only interest in getting the government to make hemp illegal was to keep his financial, investment interests ever increasing. In the end it turned out to do more harm than good. Now that the government has managed to tax the herb, they've made it legal. Why in the hell are Black men, and women still serving draconian, archaic prison sentences for minor marijuana drug offenses that don't make sense to a mongoloid retard?!! Like I said: “THIS AINT LEGAL.” Babylon the Damned will fall on its pancaked derriere soon enough. Pray to God the Zombie Apocalypse runs right past your abode or get some pads from your son's football uniform in order to appease the dead in Christ who may want a ham sandwich or your daughter Becky. This too shall pass. Try lamb's blood? The closer I get to death or that visitation with someone I've been wanting to see for a long time because I can't see, the more these things come back to my remembrance. This is enough for today. Whatever God reveals to me in the next few days hopefully I’ll relate some of that information to you. I thank those for judging me as a simp, punk b**ch, p**sy a** n**gah, punk a** n**gah, sorry a** n**gah, faggot, and everything you project or judge according to your flesh. I have no secrets so what am I trying to hide? Get your house in order Jeff, your life may be required of you, and ya boy in the wheelchair. Still someone else's identity Yippie Yai Kai Yay mother!@#$%& 9/21/2021

[torreygazette]

Book Review: Why Can't We Be Friends? (Danielle Pollock)

Friendship between the sexes is a hot-button topic within and outside the church, whether you're married or single, young or old, male or female. That's why I was excited to read and review Why Can't We Be Friends? by Aimee Byrd.  

I came from a church AND social (sort of fundamentalist lite™) background where men and women (if not married to or dating each other) spending any kind of time alone together, even in a public setting, was spoken of as "the appearance of evil," which we are supposed to avoid (1st Thessalonians 5:22). I've always kind of balked at this application of scripture. For one thing, this makes it well-nigh impossible to get to know someone well enough to determine if you COULD date them. For another, if you happen to be same-sex attracted, you would not be entitled ANY friendships or fellowship, since no matter who looks at you, they could assume the worst. Single, straight, and female? You ONLY get to have female friends. Meanwhile: what happens if you ARE dating or married, and someone looks at you and thinks you aren't? Boom. Evil. It's like you'd have to wear a sandwich board announcing your intentions, at all times and in all places, and even then, who are we, the thought police? Believe me when I say my personality type already worries more than I need to about what other people are thinking.

(By the way: 1st Thessalonians 5 contains a lot of verses besides "avoid the appearance of evil." It also exhorts us to "comfort yourselves together, edify one another," "prove all things; hold fast that which is good," "greet all the brethren with a holy kiss"...)

I think a lot about this as a single woman. It has taken me years (and will take more) to de-program from the way I was raised, where friendship was restricted to same-gender relationships. Do you want a male friend? Better get married! But what if ... it doesn't work out that way? Byrd addresses the ridiculous yet widespread concept that whomever you marry must fulfill ALL your needs (Does this sound like the latest rom-com yet?). Yes, if you're married, that person IS going to be the person you turn to for physical fulfillment. But for everything else? There are many dimensions to wellness or wholeness. Putting sole responsibility for all facets of your wellness on your spouse is too heavy a burden to bear.

We are free to develop deep, cross-gender, contextually appropriate friendships, to have mentors, to seek spiritual guidance, to enjoy fellowship, to share a meal. These friendships have no need to be plotted, hidden, or coerced. Married people should have nothing to hide from each other; I have faithful friends who would hold me accountable if one of these friendships was beginning to look like or become something it shouldn't be. I want these relationships to be above reproach. Sometimes that might mean ending one or stepping back from one, and we should be cultivating a sensitivity to the Spirit's leading in this area of our lives exactly as we should be in ALL areas of our lives. But Byrd's point is, if both parties are focused on the good of the other, if we are able to treat each other with holiness, as image-bearers, why deny yourself the God-given good?

Especially as someone who has (despite best efforts) remained single and is more or less okay with staying that way, I NEED the friendship, companionship, encouragement, and support of my brothers in Christ. It is prudent to have multiple friends who can provide insight into different parts of your life, right? That burden cannot fall exclusively to my pastor, my father, my biological brother, or if God chooses to grant me one, my husband. Being single for far longer than anticipated has really driven the point home. And if I find this need in my life, I would think the opposite would be true—there are brothers in Christ I can serve in the same way.  While we all might have different personal or cultural reasons to keep ourselves out of certain specific one-on-one situations, a blanket restriction on all male-female time together leads to a lot of logistical problems. How do you not feel incredibly uncomfortable in professional situations? How do you not feel weird about going to a doctor of the opposite sex? It just gets far more deeply complicated than it needs to be. I realized if I'm more concerned about preserving my "reputation" than about extending friendship and hospitality, then I've made an idol of my reputation, and I'm letting fear, rather than love, dictate my actions. (I'm not advocating a free-for-all, here... just balance! 2nd Timothy 1:7!) You have to ask: how much of our unwillingness to develop strong cross-gender relationships is just a fig leaf, a false modesty? Are we more concerned about what people will say than what God says?

Once I was out of the church I grew up in, and out of my parent's home, I wound up in two more churches where the male leadership practiced the Billy Graham rule. I'm going to assume for the sake of this review that most of you know what it is, or have heard a variant on it (the Pence Rule, etc.). It essentially forbids men and women to be alone together under any but the most extenuating circumstances. I know the heart behind this is well-meaning, but I have to ask if this is not a modern equivalent of the Pharisees "fencing" the law, by tacking on yet another layer of law, so that you might never even approach potential transgression? I mean, we are sinful by nature. Remove all other people, all external circumstances and variables, all tangible temptations, and what do you have? Cloistered monks and nuns, who still have to contend with the sin within them. Guess what? We're going to be contending with sin the rest of our lives. I'd prefer to have some fellowship and some accountability while I do battle, thanks.  

But how do you go about restoring years of lost potential friendship and companionship, or worse yet, relationships that are damaged by the attitudes we've absorbed? How do you stop treating each other with hostility and suspicion? This is why I love Byrd's point about working on "table fellowship" in chapter 11—reclaiming the lost art of the shared meal. This has been a character of Christian relationships since the beginning of Christianity. Rosaria Butterfield's book The Gospel Comes with a House Key: Practicing Radical Hospitality in Our Post-Christian World, which I read a few months ago, talked quite a bit about the tight-knit gay community she had been part of, which she missed desperately upon conversion to Christianity. Room and board were shared, even when there wasn't much to share. Needs were ministered to, there was accountability, there was generosity, and it wasn't confined to the nuclear family. Her point, and Byrd's too, is that we MUST develop intimate (or deep, if that word bothers you less) relationships.

Coincidentally, I started Ed Shaw's Same-Sex Attraction and the Church: The Surprising Plausibility of the Celibate Life at the same time I started this one. He wrote of the grief of not having a biological family and the awareness that he may never get to have one. He and I share that grief, for different reasons: intentional, voluntary celibacy is rough. This kind of suffering (which Byrd addresses in chapter 12) absolutely can and should point us to Christ. But we are given the family of Christ here and now, on earth. Don't cut yourself off from it. Isolation serves no one: not ourselves, not our neighbor. And that's part of what I wanted to get at: I'm a Lutheran. Relating to each other as siblings should be vocation 101. We're supposed to put the best construct on things, we're supposed to serve and defend our neighbors, our family, to seek their best interest over our own. How much have we allowed the Billy Crystal/Billy Graham/Pence Rule to color our perception? Our interpretation of scripture? Our relationships? (The "Billy Crystal" rule, if you didn't read the book, stems from the movie "When Harry Met Sally", and essentially posits that men and women can't be friends, because of the possibility of sex is always between them. I think this is the secular side of the coin, whereas the Graham/Pence rule is the spiritual side of the coin. The Crystal rule says, "I'm not going to invest in this unless there's something in it for me." The Graham/Pence rule says, "I'm not going to invest in this because someone else might point a finger." This isn't the time or place to get into the specifics of power dynamics as they relate to sex—I'm sympathetic to pastors who feel they need to take a little bit of a harder line on this kind of thing than most.)

But we need cross-gender relationships for balance. I think we suffer without it. I don't know how to stress this enough. I've related more easily to men my entire life: I love their company, and yet for most of my formative years, it just wasn't acceptable for a single female to break off of the cluster of girls and women at church or social gatherings and go hang out with the guys. Don't get me wrong, I NOW have some deeply amazing female friends, and they are a complete gift. They have never used my "differentness" as a weapon against me. Learning to develop the same kind of friendship with men has been a learning curve for me. (1st Timothy 5:1 & 2, anybody? Our prime example of how to treat one another is couched in family language: we relate to each other as brothers, sisters, parents, children.)

Moving in those kinds of "fundamentalist/patriarchy lite" circles made me feel like an absolute outsider because I often had nothing in common with the women. I was not married, did not have children, and could only talk about churning buttermilk for so long (you think I'm joking?). And yet, joining the men would not have been kosher, because the boys were being taught the same thing. It is still completely baffling to me how anyone managed to date/court/marry under that kind of system, although now that I think about it, a number of the marriages I knew about were "arranged" by the parents.

Years later, I found to my dismay that the same kind of patterns existed in the broader evangelical and reformed world! Do you want to feel like an outsider? Try being single and female at a theology conference. The "married with children" women are suspicious, because you don't fit in, and they won't talk to you. The men won't talk to you because surely the only reason a woman would act interested in theology is if she is

there to hunt a husband (well, maybe) 

there to steal someone else's husband (no)

or wants to be a pastor (also no). 

Better be safe and steer clear. (There are, of course, some wonderful exceptions to these rules. But I think we can do better, on the whole.)

In those former churches, where the leadership followed the Billy Graham rule, I remember wondering how I would ever get private pastoral counseling if I needed it. I didn't get to know those pastors very well, and they didn't get to know me very well either. How can you, when you never spend time together? Does your church, Byrd asks in chapter 9, cultivate an environment that supports sacred siblingship? If it doesn't, what changes could be made? At my current church, there is a completely different attitude than what I experience previously, one that far more accurately depicts a family. I've spent time with and worked one-on-one with the pastor, the elders, and many of the men in the congregation, doing cleanup, maintenance, projects, you name it. I have ZERO quibbles with how my church handles this—I just wish some of the other Christians I knew were able to approach it in such a mature and balanced way. No hesitation, never a whiff of eroticism: simply an open, Christ-like care for the good of the other, lived out in kindness (see especially chapter 13 for more on this). Aquinas says:

"On the other hand, love of friendship seeks the friend's good: wherefore, when it is intense, it causes a man to be moved against everything that opposes the friend's good. In this respect, a man is said to be zealous on behalf of his friend, when he makes a point of repelling whatever may be said or done against the friend's good."

This is the second part of the Great Commandment: you shall love your neighbor as yourself. Luther's treatment of the ten commandments ties everything to this, to vocation: in each role, we serve others, thereby serving God himself. In each role, we look out for the best interest of the person we are interacting with. And that is what Byrd has written about. Her's is an exhortation to love and serve each other, specifically in the area of male-female friendships, and to view each other in a more holistic manner. 

I hope this book is able to help many people see male-female friendships as the God-given gift that they are: an early and unfinished representation (subject to existence in a fallen earth, and participated in by fallen humans with originally sinful natures!) of our eternal relationship as siblings. In this book, Byrd faithfully points us to the image of Christ as our eldest sibling (see particularly chapter 8), whom we should seek to emulate in our relationships with our earthly "siblings."

Suggested further reading:

Rosaria Butterfield's The Gospel Comes with a House Key: Practicing Radical Hospitality in our Post-Christian World

Ed Shaw's Same-Sex Attraction and the Church: The Surprising Plausibility of the Celibate Life

Martin Luther's The Small Catechism: The Ten Commandments

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255: "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.