#in memoriam is truly a masterpiece

[maybebabyplease]

hello!! requesting 1, 66, and 86 for the book ask game ty ty :)

hello hello!!

a book that is close to your heart

i loved the disreputable history of frankie landau-banks SO much as a kid/teen. it was super formative for me -- i learned so much about the love of language and of learning and of how to be a woman who puts herself first. i haven't re-read it in ages, but it's a book that sits on my shelf always and i smile every time i see it!

66. a book that fucked you up

in memoriam by alice winn. i read it in june in a single sitting, ugly-cried at multiple points, and literally have not stopped thinking about it since. incredible!

86. a book with an insane plot twist

oh gosh i don't want to spoil anything for anyone! i guess everyone's probably seen or read fight club, so i'll just say that -- i honestly did not see that one coming!

book asks

[t4tmoreid]

what's ur favourite season of cm?

i believe in season 4 supremacy 😌 like..... minimal loss, memoriam, masterpiece, normal, pleasure is my business, demonology, conflicted, amplification, it's truly one banger after another like it's unmatched. season 2 is a close second tho

[coreapologetics]

What Happens to a Christian Who Commits Suicide?

Ron Davis | XP Cramerton Church | Founder - CORE Apologetics

In wake of the recent death by suicide of Jarrid Wilson, we have been asked this question many times within the last 72 hours. Understanding this is something many believers are processing right now, we have decided to provide a public response to this important question.

I would like to first offer my deepest condolences to the family of Jarrid Wilson, his close friends, and the many people he ministered to at his church. He was not only a pastor but an advocate for mental health. According to the memoriam written by Greg Laurie, Jarrid repeatedly dealt with depression and especially wanted to reach out to those who were dealing with suicidal thoughts. He was a warrior of the faith fighting a battle that was deeply profound and real in his own mind. I believe he had great courage in this fight, and we applaud his life, ministry and openness about a very difficult issue we face in our world today. Our attempt to answer this question is, by no means, meant to undermine the life or death of Jarrid Wilson. It is only meant to bring perspective and maybe, just maybe, a sliver of hope for those who are hurting and the people who interact with those facing a similar battle.

Before I answer this question, “What happens to a Christian who commits suicide?”, I would like to point out a few church culture assumptions that have made the subject of anxiety, depression and suicide a more difficult topic to engage.

We have made this issue too simple by relegating it to a “spiritual problem.” What do I mean by this? We have taken the position that anxiety is “easily overcome” through a more vigorous engagement of Scripture and prayer. For those of us who have battled anxiety and depression, we know this is not always the answer…and many times it is the absolute worse thing that can be said. Why? It makes us feel more isolated and inadequate. It makes us afraid to ask for help because we fear rejection and judgment. This is not a simple issue, and it will require help beyond what most pastors are trained and equipped to handle.

We are too quick to judge those dealing with these issues (or any issues for this matter). Many of the people we have counseled though religious doubt have been too afraid, many times for years, to reach out because of the judgmentalism they receive from people in the church. This is especially true of those in leadership. We need to create an environment in our churches where grace lives and judgmentalism dies. People who connect with our church on any level should know that it is okay to be broken, to struggle with sin, and to need help.

We make therapy, medication and counseling seem “last resort” and/or something to be avoided all together. Mental health issues are a significant and real problem that needs to be addressed on any level that is helpful to the one who is dealing with it. As a the church, we need to embrace treatment that is helpful and not force our opinions upon those who are trained to deal with deep issues of this nature. While it may be true that some of these issues can be remedied through biblical cognitive therapy (caused by more of an emotional and/or sin issue), mental health issues require an approach that is beyond the training of the majority of those in pastoral ministry. We need to not only be okay with this as church leaders, we need to promote and encourage proper treatment.

Dealing with sin and the struggles of life is abnormal for followers of Christ. This is the furtherest thing from the truth. As followers of Christ, we are to consider ourselves “dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus” (Romans 6:11), but we are also commanded to not let “sin reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions” (6:12). In other words, it is normal for us to deal with sin and difficulties of life. Understanding this is so important, because we want to have a church environment where it is perfectly acceptable to not be perfect. We are all growing in grace, and it is not our job to tell everyone what to do but to love them, accept them, speak the truth, and let God, through the power of the Holy Spirit, lead and guide them. I think he is much better at this than we could ever be.

The idea that it is possible for a believer to go to hell because they commit suicide brings great confusion to the body of Christ and is detrimental to those needing love, guidance, and proper treatment. There is not a single biblical concept, or passage of Scripture, that allows for this to be true in any way. As church leaders, we need to be clear on this and not shy away from speaking the truth in this area. I am going to address the biblical perspective below.

The answer to this very specific question, “What happens to a Christian who commits suicide?” is: the same thing that happens to any Christian who dies — they are in the presence of our Savior. Here is the biblical perspective on why this is true.

Ephesians 1:4 makes it clear that those who are in Christ are “holy and blameless” before the Lord. If by the term Christian, you mean someone who is “in Christ,” i.e., has experienced salvation by grace through faith, the quick answer to your question is, “yes.” Those who know God through Christ, in a redemptive relationship, have been declared righteous before the Lord. In other words, their position has changed. They are no longer dead in trespasses and sins but alive unto Christ and have “abundant life” made available to them by Christ (he came to give life and more abundantly - John 10:10). 

As a believer, Paul warns us of abusing the grace of God (Romans 6:1-23). The grace of God will abound, but we should not let this be! We have died to sin and should not live in it anymore (6:2). He also states that there are “death wages” and “life wages” for the believer (we incorrectly apply 6:23 to the lost - it is clearly written to believers - see this blog on our website). In other words, Christians can live really wicked lives, and in doing so abuse the grace of God. Our position in Christ requires the grace of God to abound, but we, in this life, will reap either death wages or life wages, i.e., God’s law of reaping and sowing is true, and we can choose our actions but not our consequences. 

Suicide is a sinful choice. It is complicated from the aspect of “why would anyone do this if they truly love Christ?” But can we not ask this same question of someone who slanders a fellow brother/sister in Christ, continually lies, commits adultery, etc.? They are all sins, and they all have consequences (death wages according to Paul in Romans 6). This does not mean, however, that our position with God has changed. It also does not mean that someone who choses to disobey God in this way is a “greater sinner” than we are, nor does it mean that we are better than they or closer to God. We all struggle with sin…period.

If we die with any unconfessed sins, including suicide, it does not change our position, i.e., we are still holy and blameless before the Lord. How can this be true? Salvation brings about an incredible spiritual phenomenon that is so wonderful: our sinfulness (all of it) is place upon Christ while, at the same time, his righteousness is placed upon us. Wow! This is so indescribably amazing, and it is why Paul writes in Ephesians 2:10 that we are the masterpiece of God created in Christ for good works. God has chosen us to be used, it is up to our obedience and submission to his leading that will bring this about as a reality in our lives. Death wages destroy our ability to be used, and suicide certainly is an example of how this takes place. Those who truly know Christ, and commit suicide, are most certainly in His presence because of the wonderful grace of God. But they have also missed out on being that continual wonderful masterpiece of God to be used unto good works for the sake of the gospel. 

If you, or someone you know, is dealing with these significant issues, please take the necessary steps to love them deeply and help them find the treatment they need to face what most of us cannot comprehend. Here are some amazing resources to help those of us dealing with anxiety, depression, and even suicidal thoughts.

The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-TALK (8255) | website

Christian Counselors Network | website

The American Association of Christian Counselors | website

ADAA (Anxiety and Depression Association of America) | website

Axis - A resource developed for parents to engage these topics with teens and can also be used for young adults, etc. The “Conversation Starter” they have for anxiety & depression is excellent and good for any age group.

Also, if you would like to give to the Jarrid Wilson Memorial Fund, here is the link: Jarrid Wilson Memorial Fund.

[criminalmindscastandquotes]

Criminal Minds Opening and Closing Quotes: Season 4

Season 4 Episode 1 Mayhem

Hotch: Never think that war, no matter how necessary, nor how justified, is not a crime. – Ernest Hemingway.

Season 4 Episode 2 The Angel Maker

Hotch: “We all die.  The goal isn’t to live forever.  The goal is to create something that will.” Chuck Palahniuk.

Hotch: Wendell Berry said, “The past is our definition.  We may strive with good reason to escape it, or to escape what is bad in it.  But we will escape it only by adding something better to it.”

Season 4 Episode 3 Minimal Loss

Reid: “To follow by faith alone is to follow blindly.” Benjamin Franklin.

Prentiss: “Reason is not automatic.  Those who deny it cannot be conquered by it.” Ayn Rand.

Season 4 Episode 4 Paradise

Hotch: Thomas Fuller wrote, “A fool’s paradise is a wise man’s hell.”

Hotch: Roman poet Phaedrus wrote, “Things are not always what they seem; the first appearance deceives many.  The intelligence of a few, perceives what has been carefully hidden.”

Season 4 Episode 5 Catching Out

Prentiss: “Plenty sits still.  Hunger is a wanderer.” Zulu proverb.

Prentiss: “Beyond the East the sunrise, beyond the West the sea/ And the East and West the wander-thirst that will not let me be.” Gerald Gould.

Season 4 Episode 6 The Instincts

Hotch: “Who speaks to the instincts speaks to the deepest in mankind and finds the readiest response.” Amos Bronson Alcott.

Reid: “I think the truly natural things are dreams, which nature can’t touch with decay.” Bob Dylan.

Season 4 Episode 7 Memoriam

Reid: “What was silent in the father speaks in the son, and often I found in the son the unveiled secret of the father.” Friedrich Nietzsche.

Reid: “There is no refuge from memory and remorse in this world.  The spirits of our foolish deeds haunt us, with or without repentance.” Gilbert Parker.

Season 4 Episode 8 Masterpiece

Rossi: “Let us consider that we are all insane.  It will explain us to each other; it will unriddle many riddles…” Mark Twain.

Rossi: “Man must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression and retaliation.  The foundation of such a method is love.” Martin Luther King, Jr.

Season 4 Episode 9 52 Pickup

Prentiss: Author Harlan Ellison wrote, “The minute people fall in love, they become liars.”

Rossi: P. J. O’Rourke wrote, “Cleanliness becomes more important when godliness is unlikely.”

Season 4 Episode 10 Brothers in Arms

Morgan: “We are all brothers under the skin, and I, for one, would be willing to skin humanity to prove it.” Ayn Rand.

Morgan: “… For he today who sheds his blood with me shall be my brother.” William Shakespeare.

Season 4 Episode 11 Normal

Hotchner: “Every normal man must be tempted at times to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin to slit throats.” H. L. Mencken.

Rossi: “There’s no tragedy in life like the death of a child.  Things never get back to the way they were.” President Dwight Eisenhower.

Season 4 Episode 12 Soul Mates

Reid: “No mortal can keep a secret. If his lips are silent, he chatters with his fingertips; betrayal oozes out of him at every pore.” Sigmund Freud.

Morgan: British historian C. Northcote Parkinson said, “Delay is the deadliest form of denial.”

Season 4 Episode 13 Bloodline

Prentiss: Winston Churchill said, “There is no doubt that it is around the family and the home that all the greatest virtues, the most dominating virtues of human society, are created, strengthened and maintained.”

Hotchner: Mario Puzo wrote, “The strength of a family, like the strength of an army, is in its loyalty to each other.”

Season 4 Episode 14 Cold Comfort

JJ: “And so, all the night-tide, I lay down by the side/ Of my darling, my darling, my life and my bride.  In the sepulchre there by the sea.  In her tomb by the sounding sea.” Edgar Allan Poe.

Rossi: “For those who believe, no proof is necessary. For those who don’t believe, no proof is possible.” Stuart Chase.

Season 4 Episode 15 Zoe’s Reprise

Rossi: “I never teach my pupils; I only attempt to provide the conditions in which they can learn.” Albert Einstein.

Rossi: Austrian novelist Marie Von Ebner-Eschenbach wrote, “In youth we learn; in age we understand.”

Season 4 Episode 16 Pleasure is my Business

Hotchner: “The prostitute is not, as feminists claim, the victim of men, but rather their conqueror, an outlaw, who controls the sexual channels between nature and culture.” Camille Paglia.

Season 4 Episode 17 Demonology

Prentiss: “He who does not punish evil, commands it to be done.” Leonardo da Vinci.

Rossi: “There is no heresy or no philosophy which is so abhorrent to the church as a human being.” James Joyce.

Season 4 Episode 18 Omnivore

Hotchner: “Fate is not satisfied with inflicting one calamity.” Roman author Publilius Syrus.

Hotchner: “Men heap together the mistakes of their lives, and create a monster they call destiny.” John Hobbes.

Season 4 Episode 19 House On Fire

Hotchner: “We all live in a house on fire, no fire department to call; no way out.” Tennessee Williams.

Hotchner: “I have loved to the point of madness; That which is called madness, That which to me, is the only sensible way to love.” Françoise Sagan.

Season 4 Episode 20 Conflicted

Reid: “Light thinks it travels faster than anything but it is wrong.  No matter how fast light travels, it finds the darkness has always got there first, and is waiting for it.” Terry Pratchett.

Reid: “Monsters are real, and ghosts are real too.  They live inside us, and sometimes, they win.” Stephen King.

Season 4 Episode 21 A Shade of Gray

Rossi: Dr. Burton Grebin once said, “To lose a child is to lose a piece of yourself.”

Rossi: “Without a family, man, alone in the world, trembles with the cold.” Andre Maurois.

Season 4 Episode 22 The Big Wheel

Hotchner: “In order for the light to shine so brightly, the darkness must be present.” Francis Bacon.

Morgan: “No matter how dark the moment, love and hope are always possible.” George Chakiris.

Season 4 Episode 23 Roadkill

Hotchner: “I’m not sure about automobiles.  With all their speed forward, they may be a step backward in civilization.” Booth Tarkington.

JJ: “The human voice can never reach the distance that is covered by the still, small voice of conscience.” Mahatma Gandhi.

Season 4 Episode 24 Amplification

Reid: “It will become fine dust over all the land of Egypt and it will become boils breaking out with sores on man and beast through all the land of Egypt.” Exodus 9:9.

Reid: “Security is mostly a superstition.  It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it.”  Helen Keller.

Season 4 Episode 25 – 26 To Hell…And Back

Hotchner: “If there were no hell, we would be like the animals.  No hell, no dignity.” Flannery O’Connor.

Hotchner: Sometimes there are no words, no clever quotes to neatly sum up what’s happened that day. Sometimes you do everything right, everything exactly right, and still you feel like you failed. Did it need to end that way? Could something have been done to prevent the tragedy in the first place? Eighty-nine murders at the pig farm, the deaths of Mason and Lucas Turner make 91 lives snuffed out. Kelly Shane will go home and try to recover, to reconnect with her family but she’ll never be a child again. William Hightower, who gave his leg for his country, gave the rest of himself to avenge his sister’s murder. That makes 93 lives forever altered, not counting family and friends in a small town in Sarnia, Ontario, who thought monsters didn’t exist until they learned that they spent their lives with one. And what about my team? How many more times will they be able to look into the abyss? How many more times before they won’t ever recover the pieces of themselves that this job takes? Like I said, sometimes there are no words or clever quotes to neatly sum up what’s happened that day. The Reaper: You should have made a deal. Hotchner: Sometimes, the day just… (Fade to black.  A gunshot is heard) Hotchner: … ends.