#like my fate is in Jesus’s hands and once i acknowledge that and surrender to Him i feel so much more light and protected

[crusaderchinchilla]

[thecameronchronicles]

The Stepmother Part 2: Deceptions

TW: Smut. Language. 

SUMMARY: You and Topper try to uncover who is attempting to blackmail you, leading to more surprises (and more danger) than either of you ever expected. 

WORD COUNT: 1800

The Stepmother Part 2: Deception

“Sweetheart?” Your nickname was called from over dinner, an array of elegant edibles doing nothing to satiate your appetite, as your eyes lifted to your husband in acknowledgement. However, as you feigned interest in how he spoke of the week’s coming reservations and the upcoming renovations of the house, you could only bring your true focus on the fleeting gaze given to you by Topper. But it wasn’t in revived lust or the intention of garnering your focus just to seduce you as you would have optioned for once upon a time. Instead, it had been in the uncertainty of a specific message gone unanswered. 

‘What do you want?’ This was what you and Topper had ‘decided’ as a response after an argument that prompted you to simply steal his phone and send the message yourself, having left you in wait until now, three days later with the illumination of his screen forcing him to his soles. The look he had cast in silence had validated this as he was berated for the interruption by his father before excusing himself and claiming it was important. Meanwhile, you were left needing to appear indifferent to keep from raising suspicions, but found each and every second to be unbearably torturous. 

You would only learn what the response had been when you found it impossible to sleep and made a journey throughout the house long after your husband had fallen asleep, finding Topper on the balcony that stretched the length of the rear house. Once you’d come to view, he quickly disposed of the joint he’d lit when believing he’d get away with it, as you set your hands up in surrender. 

“I’m no rat.” You reminded as he nodded. 

“Habit…” He confessed before bowing his head back over the balcony, not allowing you even a chance to inquire about the message before leading his phone to view. 

“We’re fucked…” Your eyes came to a conversation between Topper and this phantom figure that had ended just as vulgar as it had begun. 

"Jesus, Top! This person has our currently intertwined fate in their hands and you go out of your way to piss them off? What the hell?!"

"Did you see what he asked for?" He didn't even try to defend his actions. Instead, you were left with a sigh before finding the message that made your eyes close with disbelief. 

"Me? That doesn't even make any sense…"

"The bastard wants 'what you gave me'...says so right there in black and facing white…And if you don't…he threatens to make that go viral…Oh…and there's more…keep reading-"

Your eyes returned to the phone as you pulled the conversation lower with your mouth parting in further astonishment. 

"He wants…you to watch?" You paused, a realization suddenly cresting across your expression. 

"Do you think it's your dad? Sounds like something he'd do-"

"My dad can't use anything electronic that was made after the year 2000."

"He could have hired someone…"

"It's not him…"

"How can you be sure-do…do you know who it is?" 

"No…But I know if it WAS him that he would spend every second berating me for me." He now took his phone back as you paved the length of the patio, hands set in quick reps through your hair and over your pajamas in unsteadiness. 

"I-I guess we have to-" His eyes enlarged at the offer. 

"Are you serious?! You'll let the guy who is blackmailing us just fuck you-" You moved closer to him, speaking behind clenched teeth. 

"We won't have to worry about it if you don't shut up!" You snapped as he looked to the direction of the bedroom doors closed just over his shoulder. 

"It's my fault…" He finally spoke, aggression having now altered to self-loathing. 

"I never should have taken you to that window…I never should have let it happen at all.. and now…" He let out an exhausted sigh, "Shit…I'm sorry…I'm…I'm really sorry…"

"You can't really take all the blame, Top…" His eyes lifted to you in compassion despite the fact his frown remained. 

"I kinda instigated." This made him scoff with a smirk. But not because he had been surprised you'd taken blame, but in the way you appeared almost innocent, precious even, with the specific expression worn. Wide eyes casting in nervousness and lips pulled to a pout and cock before finally falling into a pitiful grin all your own. He couldn't help but admire your beauty in this moment, in a way that wasn't just lustful. 

"But I'm not letting it happen-"

"What?" Your eyes narrowed. 

"We don't know who this guy is. He could be dangerous-I mean clearly he is!"

"If that is all he wants is one night-"

"No-"

"Top-"

"I said no." Your head now cocked to question him. 

"He doesn't just want you, he wants me to watch you." His eyes darkened in that familiar lust you couldn't help but miss in your first exchange. He held it with such a talent that was both innocuous but filthy while you were desperate for its focus. It was a desperation he had shared as he looked to the direction of the bedroom one last time before taking you against the side paneling of the house with just his fingertips. 

"And I don't share what's mine-"

"It was one time-"

"Bullshit. It it were a quick fuck, maybe…but that…that was validation."

"For what?" 

"That you married the wrong Thornton-" Your lips parted in objection, prepared to give every reason that nothing could happen again. But in the way he'd kissed you, those very reasons were suddenly forgotten and you were wrapped in him once again. Only this time, HE had been the instigator and he was just as thorough as you. If not more so. 

You were consumed by him entirely, a new pace rivaled that which you'd known before. Instead of that rush to taste you, he had savored the way you had allowed him control, showing this gratitude in passion in place of possessiveness. But he WAS only human after all, and the soft means left as he descended to your neck, brought him harder against you. 

Immediately, your fingers wrapped over his muscles that tensed over your grip while he lifted your shirt to expose your breasts to him. With a single finger between them, he'd bring them to the night air once pulling down your bra, and paid each one individual and loving attention. It was enough to forget everything but his touch-a detail you hadn't counted on when you had instigated things the first time. 

"Top-" You were reminded of your reality, however, when a neighbor's timed sprinklers had alerted you to just how you hadn’t learned your lesson in public sex, your eyes pulled open and your hands came to his chest to stop him.

"We're already fucked…But if I'm going down, I'm gonna make it fucking worth it-" Before you could object, he sunk to his knees, pulling you out of your silk shorts and teasing your heat through the fabric of your panties. Licking and breathing over it, it was somehow more erotic than the contact itself, which brought you into motions made against him. Once realizing you were just as insatiable, he pulled the edges of your panties freely and committed to your core. 

Your digits were quick to collect his frosted hair, tugging in appreciation to how generous he has been in contrast to his own desperations, and giving him further evidence of this favor by allowing soft moans to fall from your just parted lips. But as your eyes peeled from their recent rest, finding him focused on you in study, this drove him somewhere further.

His ambitions exceeded previous experience as he deepened this by drawing your leg over his shoulder. And without a word between you aside from that of his name and the warning of a release, he led his crusade to its precipice. He continued still, grinning as you moaned to the night air, whimpers as echoes to the belting chorus you kept within, and the sudden snap of your hips reacting to the addition of his fingers curving inside of you with a mission all their own. 

"Fu-fuck me…please…" He rose to your lips, taking your jaw for guidance instead of aggression, and set a single yet passionate kiss against you. Without the need for reiterating your plea, he pulled your trembling legs to his hips, one at a time, before removing the buttons of his own bottoms and exposing himself to you. 

"Slowly- '' He teased in memory of the first time you had felt him inside of you. But in contrast to that initial penetration, this was sweeter, softer-and everything you'd hoped it wouldn't be. But it was what you needed as your body informed you of this with each and every contortion made throughout your expression or groan left from your lips, and it still remained a question, that final arch of your back as you had found your release had answered it. 

"You think for a second I'm gonna let anyone else hear THOSE sounds?" He allowed you back to your feet, but now brought his touch between those folds slick with a mutual release. Your hand reached to apprehend him immediately, but you were made weak by the mix of his touch and his words that planted you into submission. 

"Anyone else to hear how sweet you sound when you come?" He shook his head, his fingers inserting themselves into that painfully erotic bend. 

"The way your face looks so desperate right before you soak me?" His fingers increased until they were merciless, overestimating with intent as you were powerless against him, favoring his dominance in this moment. 

"Not a fucking chance-" 

"Ugh-Top-"

"You only come for me." His second hand wrapped in your hair, forehead set to yours for sincerity and grounding as his thrusts continued to climb in pace.

"You only say MY name when you feel THIS good-"

You nodded, willing to agree to anything for that imminent gush set behind his eagerness to please while also making his point. 

"And you only squirt for me-" Your eyes blew wide before his words were proven true, the spurt of his intention now staining everything within a foot radius of your thighs as he grinned to how you trembled beneath him. 

"I mean it. I'll take care of this…" He explained while holding up the phone. 

"But you let anyone else touch you…And the way I'll take care of you won't be a way you'll like." Just before walking away, he pulled his fingers between his lips as you fought the urge to lunge at him with how truly calrvating his willingness to remain erotic had made you feral.

 He'd abused your pussy, contradicted your own intentions, and somehow exercised both dominant and submissive in the same degree. It was confusing and alarming to how much you favored it. 

But it only complicated things further…

Taglist: @hopebaker @iovdrew @penny4yourthoughts @magnificantmermaid @pickingviolets @lovedetlost @trikigirl271 @my-baexht-ls @slut4starkey @slvtherinseeker @obxiskewl @obxxrxfes @bluesongbird @slut-era @ailee-celeste @rafesbae

[aion-rsa]

Vikings Ending Explained

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

The following contains spoilers for Vikings season 6 part two.

Vikings has always been concerned with legacy: that of the Vikings themselves, and of Ragnar and his sons. It’s clear from the show’s coda – Ubbe and Floki side by side on a distant beach, contemplating existence as the sun glows down upon the endless stretch of ocean before them –  that the two ultimately are inseparable. Bound up in this spider’s web of myth and mayhem, too, is the fate and legacy of the show itself. How will it be remembered now that it is gone? In a word: fondly. 

Creator Michael Hirst has left us a show for the ages, one that transcends the war, blood, and murder that first drew audiences to its story. The closing run of episodes is at turns thrilling, stirring, chilling, harrowing, heart-breaking, savage, sensual and ethereal, and is capped off with a mesmerizing, mytho-philosophical finale that retroactively elevates everything that came before it, all the way back to the moment when Ragnar first asked Floki to help him sail west. So how does it achieve this greatness? And what does it all mean? Let’s break it down. 

Groundhog Deity

One of the central themes of the show is the cycle of violence and bloodshed in which Viking society finds itself mired, and the battle between those who seek to perpetuate it, and those who seek to break free from it. It’s a dichotomy that burns down through the wick of the show, and often rages within its characters, most notably Ragnar, Lagertha, Floki, Bjorn, and Ubbe. Season upon season, each promise of peace is swiftly pounded into the blood-soaked earth by the vengeance, skulduggery or megalomaniacal ambitions of a chaotic individual, faction or rival; the old ways refusing to cede ground to the new. But still the dreamers and visionaries struggle, against themselves, against the furious roar of tradition, again and again. This rise and fall happened so frequently throughout the show’s run that its rhythm caused some sections of the audience to grow weary. This repetition, though, this sense of helplessness, is largely the point (not to mention an accurate portrayal of the brutish life endured by most people in the Dark and Middle Ages), and one that’s made more explicit than ever before in the final stretch of the season. Like the characters themselves, we the audience must feel – truly feel – the suffocating hopelessness of it all before we can begin to appreciate the burst of light at the end. 

All throughout the series the Vikings’ thirst for war and conquest is cloaked in the language of fate, destiny, glory, and the Gods. In a telling sequence half-way through the final ten episodes, these justifications are stripped away to reveal the dark, very mortal truth that lies behind them. Ivar, Hvitserk, and King Harald reunite in a calm and peaceful Kattegat. All three are burnt-out, frazzled, and dissatisfied. There’s a real sense that “the age of the Vikings is gone” and that this is “the twilight of the Gods”. Harald and Ivar admit that there is no pleasure in being a King, despite it being a title both men have dreamed of and longed for, and for which they’ve lied, cheated, betrayed, and killed. In the final analysis, we can see – and finally they can see, however indirectly – that the great cycle in which the Vikings are trapped has been perpetuated not by the Gods – those great scapegoats in the sky – but by bored and angry men seeking in bloodshed distractions from a cold and brutish world whose quotient of misery has only ever been increased by their actions. It is especially sad to see Ivar churned back into this mill given the growth he experienced throughout this season, not only in being a caring, surrogate father to the Rus heir Igor, but in becoming an actual father after his body asserted itself just long enough to plant his seed in Princess Katia’s belly. 

Ivar witnesses two men in a public gathering-place squabbling over a trivial matter, and extrapolates from this that war is a necessary state for the Vikings, because in peace they fight amongst themselves. It’s patently obvious that the lesson Ivar pulls from this incident says more about his pain and psychopathology – his hatred, his emptiness – than it does about society at large. Ultimately, it is he, and Harald, and Hvitserk, and a million other men just like them, who need war. They need external conflict to distract them from their own internal conflicts and inadequacies. Never-the-less, and perhaps unsurprisingly, Ivar’s facile supposition is all that King Harald needs to hear. Before long, the three men and a ready-made army are heading back across the sea to England for a final confrontation with King Alfred and his Christian Saxon soldiers. 

“The Twilight of the Gods”

This climactic confrontation is, on one level, less a battle between two armies and more the continuation of the chess game Ivar and Alfred once played as children, as their fathers – King Ragnar and King Ecbert – cut deals and hatched plots in another room. 

In many ways, Ivar was always marked for monsterhood. He grew up with the fierce love of his mother, Aslaug, which she wrapped around him like a blanket made of steel. By over-compensating for his condition and physical fragility to such a suffocating degree, she left him isolated, conceited and angry. His father, Ragnar, was absent for most of his youth. Though Ivar had Floki to teach and guide him in the ways of the Gods, Ivar didn’t realize quite how much of himself had been missing until Ragnar returned and took him under his wing. Ragnar was one of the few men who seemed to have faith in Ivar’s abilities; who told him that he could be something other than a liability, a cripple, a joke. They journeyed to England together with conquest in mind, but when a storm sank most of their boats, Ragnar swiftly refocused the purpose of their visit, enlisting Ivar’s aid to kill the surviving members of their party (to remove all evidence of their initial intent) and surrender themselves to King Ecbert. 

Ragnar tells Ecbert to deliver him into the hands of King Aelle, so that Ecbert will not be blamed for Ragnar’s death, and the full fury of the Vikings will be directed at their mutual enemy instead. However, Ragnar has instructed Ivar to return home with news of Ecbert’s duplicity, so that both Kings will become the targets of the rage-and-grief-filled Viking horde. Ivar is the perfect capsule for this incendiary message, as Ragnar gambles, quite correctly, that King Ecbert’s sense of fair play, filtered through his Christianity, won’t permit him to harm or imprison a poor, harmless crippled boy. Ragnar thus succeeds in turning the Saxon’s Christian compassion into a fatal weakness, while at the same time teaching his weaponized son that love, violence, deceit, and death are so intimately connected as to be almost indivisible. 

When Aslaug died at Lagertha’s hands, soon after Ragnar’s death, it removed his only other source of love, cloying though it was. He took that love and turned a mutated version of it upon himself, imbuing himself with delusions of Godhood, something his fury at his parents’ deaths only served to magnify.

In the first dramatic round of the final battle against Alfred, Ivar repeats his father’s tactic of weaponizing kindness. He orders traps to be set in the forest with which to painfully ensnare the first line of Alfred’s advancing soldiers. The hope is that Alfred’s Christian compassion will compel him to send the next few lines of soldiers to assist their wailing brothers, allowing the Vikings to ambush them like lambs to the slaughter. And so it proves. Many lives are lost. The fighting is kinetic and savage; the pervading mist and gloom only enlivened by the occasional eruption of fire, like a melding of Valhalla and the Christian conception of Hell. King Harald is killed, finding some solace and peace at last with a dying vision of his brother, Halfdan, whom he’d killed in a previous battle. 

After this, there is a lull in the fighting. Alfred and Ivar meet under a white flag to discuss terms. Alfred will not yield. He will never again reward Ivar for his unprovoked attacks, nor fall into the trap of trusting his word. He tells Ivar to leave his kingdom, leave England, and never return; entreats him to save his people from further pointless bloodshed.  He goes on to declare: “My God is the God of peace and love. Your Gods are savage. They demand sacrifice. They do not know human love.” The final fight that follows is as much the culmination of a struggle between two competing religious and cultural ideologies as it is a battle between Ivar and Alfred; and by the end of this final episode the matter is settled, at least in a thematic sense. 

Alfred and Ivar cleave to their God and Gods on the battlefield, looking to them for guidance and answers. As the situation becomes ever more desperate, both leaders soon find themselves deserted by their Gods, their imagined connection to them severed. 

“What am I supposed to do?” Ivar shouts to his suddenly deaf and mute Gods. “Answer me!”

“Speak to me, please. I’m afraid. Speak!” Alfred beseeches his lord Jesus. 

Stripped of their Gods, both men are forced to acknowledge in whose image they’ve truly been forged: their fathers’. What they do next will decide if history is doomed to repeat itself, and also settle the question of whether it is their own wills or the wills of their fathers that are the stronger. Ultimately, it is love and compassion, in both instances, that proves to be their guiding light, leading Ivar to reject his father’s ways, and Alfred to embrace his father’s – his real father: the monk Athelstan, who was once a friend and confidante of the great Ragnar Lothbrook. 

All You Need is Love

Ivar watches the battle from the side-lines. Hvitserk has long been a tormented, tortured and fractured man, but in combat he’s whole, screeching and roaring through the flames like a mythical demon. But one man can’t best a whole army, and it becomes clear that Hvitserk isn’t long for this world. Ivar’s eyes shine an electric blue, a physical indication known since childhood that his brittle bones are about to break. Ivar knows his actions in the next few minutes will serve as his last will and testament, the means by which the world will remember him. Ivar watches Hvitserk – the brother he’d many times mocked and tormented, whose life he’d tried to ruin, who’d long forsworn to kill him – and charges onto the battlefield to take his place, submitting himself to the same forces of compassion he’d spent a life-time deriding and subverting.  

“I could never kill you,” he tells Hvitserk.

“I love you. I love you brother,” Hvitserk replies tearfully.

“Now go. Go!” hollers Ivar.

Ivar’s rage and defiance seem to shake the very earth around him. He is at one with his army. He fights and lives through them. In the midst of his last stand a young soldier, shaking with fear, approaches him from the mist.

“Don’t be afraid,” says Ivar, an almost Christ-like evocation at this, his moment of sacrifice. The soldier stabs him repeatedly, and, as Ivar falls, his bones snap and break. Hvitserk runs to him and cradles his dying body, while Alfred calls for the fighting to stop. “I am afraid,” Ivar splutters, words no-one thought they would ever hear from Ivar the Boneless. And then there are three more; his final words: “I love you.”   

Ivar has thus broken the cycle. He has sacrificed himself not for hate, as his father once did, but for love. He was finally able to know and to feel human love; and crucially to demonstrate it instead of demanding it, even if it was right at the end of his life, and only for a few moments. Already Ivar had begun to demonstrate humility. On the eve of the battle he told Hvitserk: “Hundreds of years from now, someone will be proud to find my blood is in their body and my spirit is in their soul.” Maybe part of him realized that in becoming a father he’d finally achieved the immortality after which he’d always hungered, and it was enough.  

Hvitserk is carried away on the back of a wagon. We’re given an aerial view of this, lending Hvitserk the appearance of a corpse returning from battle. In many ways he is. Hvitserk is dead, in a sense. The merciful Alfred baptises Hvitserk, allowing him to be reborn with a new name: Athelstan. 

We know from our future vantage point that the loving Christ Hvitserk has now embraced is destined to eventually, and irrevocably, defeat the old Norse Gods. Not only that, but there will be a millennium of distinctly non-loving conquests, wars, decimations, genocides, enslavements and cultural destructions carried out in His name, all of which will make the exploits of the 8th and 9th century Vikings look like the tantrums of naughty children in comparison. But Hvitserk doesn’t know this. All he knows is that he has found peace by rejecting war and embracing love. He has finally found a way to honor his father – or at least the part of his father that loved Athelstan, and came to see Christianity and Paganism as two sides of the same coin. Love and mercy, then, are the instruments that Hvitserk and Alfred use to break free from the ‘endless cycle of suffering and war’.     

Out With The Old

The show’s themes converge, coalesce and crystalize in the New World, too. The journey from Iceland to Greenland to North America is one fraught with danger and death, but characterized by faith and hope and sacrifice. And it is Othere, the Christian wanderer once known as – appropriately enough – Athelstan (no relation), who leads them there. 

 “This is everything [Ragnar] was searching for,” Ubbe tells Othere, in their new land of milk and honey. “And I found it.” Othere cautions Ubbe against behaving in the same ways that he did before – the old ways – lest this land become just like the land he left behind.

They are not alone. The Vikings discover that the land is occupied by a tribe of indigenous peoples they refer to as Skraelings. The tribe welcomes them warmly. Ubbe soon discovers they have a friend in common: Floki, who somehow reached these same shores from Iceland, alone, and now lives on the periphery of the Skraelings’ land as a revered mystic. If it wasn’t for the Skraelings’ kindness, Floki would have died on arrival. They showed him mercy and kindness.

Asked why he left Iceland, Floki says it was because he was ‘imprisoned in sadness’. 

“What made you so sad?”

“I don’t always remember,” he says, with a wistful smile.

Floki here represents the past of the Vikings as we in the modern world have come to know it, a patchwork of tall tales and omissions. Floki embodies how time will continue to wash away both the Vikings’ history and their legend, until there’s little difference between them, and nothing much is left of either. Floki also embodies the idea that the golden age of the Vikings is gone; he remembers that he once was a Viking; he remembers Ragnar, the sons of Ragnar and the people who were important to them, but little else. There was a time when Floki was the greatest soldier of and preacher for the Gods, but he has now let them go, shed them like a dead skin. “I called to them and no longer heard their voices, or they didn’t make sense,” he tells Ubbe. Again, entropy, evolution, death, re-birth, legend, past, future: all suffused. 

The old ways make one last effort to re-assert themselves, even here in this paradise, and Ubbe gets his defining moment – just as Ivar and Hvitserk and Bjorn before him got theirs. One of his party murders the son of the Skraeling’s leader while ransacking the leader’s home for gold. The Skraelings – clearly more civilized than the Vikings ever were – hand this man over to Ubbe to decide his fate. 

This is a pivotal moment for the series. Where once we were encouraged to see Ragnar as the hero, even when he was killing and pillaging his way through innocent peoples, here we perceive this man, this murderer – who has simply acted in accordance with how the Vikings have always acted – as a dangerous savage. We, the audience, have already made a choice about who the Vikings are now, or who they should be – and so has Ubbe.

At first the murderer is to be publically blood-eagled, a particularly savage and painful form of execution that never-the-less guarantees its sufferer entry to Valhalla. At the last moment, Ubbe changes his mind, and slits the man’s throat instead. 

“Valhalla is not for you, my friend,” Ubbe tells him, mere seconds before carrying out his sentence, “Let me put you out of your misery.” Ubbe does not say this to be cruel, to rob the man of his place in the afterlife. He simply doesn’t want to inflict unnecessary pain, and is showing mercy. But it’s deeper than that, too. Valhalla doesn’t seem to matter to him anymore. Ubbe has come to understand that life can be lived without the old ways and their Gods, and be all the better for it. 

On the beach, Ubbe seeks Floki’s advice and counsel. Floki smiles. “You don’t need to know anything. It’s not important. Let it go.”

It’s fitting that Floki is there at the show’s end. Without his innovation as a boat maker, Ragnar would never have sailed west and discovered Saxon lands; would never have met Athelstan. Without Floki, the Vikings would never have discovered Iceland, or Greenland, or the New World on whose shores they now sit. Ragnar is the one who will be immortalized in legend, while the world will slowly forget Floki. He has already started to forget himself. Perhaps that is the point. Warriors live on in legend and infamy, while the people who built the world around them and at their backs fade away. But wasn’t it ever thus? Legends change the world; love saves it. And here we see that love is the more important, and more enduring, force of the two, even if we’re sometimes too proud to acknowledge it, or too blind to see it. 

“I love you, Floki,” says Ubbe, as they stare across the ocean, at their past, at their possible future, at eternity. 

What a beautiful, and truly surprising, sentiment for a show as blood-soaked as Vikings to bow out on.  

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Of course the status quo clings on in Kattegat, and I guess this will be picked up in the spin-off series. Set 100 years after the events of Vikings, Vikings: Valhalla is reportedly coming to Netflix sometime next year.

The post Vikings Ending Explained appeared first on Den of Geek.

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[dfroza]

“Don’t be afraid or intimidated by others,

for God will bring everything out into the open and every secret will be told.”

A line from Today’s reading of the Scriptures from the book of Matthew

[Chapter 10]

Jesus gathered his twelve disciples and imparted to them authority to cast out demons and to heal every sickness and every disease.

Now, these are the names of the twelve apostles: first, Simon, who is nicknamed Peter, and Andrew, his brother. And then Jacob and John, sons of Zebedee. Next were Phillip and Bartholomew; then Thomas and Matthew, the tax collector; Jacob the son of Alphaeus; Thaddeus; Simon, the former member of the Zealot party, and Judas the locksmith, who eventually betrayed Jesus.

Jesus sent out the Twelve with these instructions: “Don’t go into any Gentile or Samaritan territory. Go instead and find the lost sheep among the people of Israel. And as you go, preach this message: ‘Heaven’s kingdom realm is accessible, close enough to touch.’ You must continually bring healing to lepers and to those who are sick, and make it your habit to break off the demonic presence from people, and raise the dead back to life. Freely you have received the power of the kingdom, so freely release it to others. You won’t need a lot of money. Travel light, and don’t even pack an extra change of clothes in your backpack. Trust God for everything, because the one who works for him deserves to be provided for.

“Whatever village or town you enter, search for an honorable man who will let you into his home until you leave for the next town. Once you enter a house, speak to the family there and say, ‘God’s blessing of peace be upon this house!’ And if those living there welcome you, let your peace come upon the house. But if you are rejected, that blessing of peace will come back upon you. And if anyone doesn’t listen to you and rejects your message, when you leave that house or town, shake the dust off your feet. Mark my words, on the day of judgment the wicked people who lived in the land of Sodom and Gomorrah will have a lesser degree of judgment than the city that rejects you, for the people of Sodom and Gomorrah did not have the opportunity that was given to them! Now, remember, it is I who sends you out, even though you feel vulnerable as lambs going into a pack of wolves. So be as shrewd as snakes yet as harmless as doves.”

“Be on your guard! For there will be those who will betray you before their religious councils and brutally beat you with whips in their public gatherings. And because you follow me, they will take you to stand trial in front of rulers and even kings as an opportunity to testify of me before them and the unbelievers. So when they arrest you, don’t worry about how to speak or what you are to say, for the Holy Spirit will give you at that very moment the words to speak. It won’t be you speaking but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.

“A brother will betray his brother unto death—even a father his child! Children will rise up against their parents and have them put to death. Expect to be hated by all because of my name, but be faithful to the end and you will experience life and deliverance. And when they persecute you in one town, flee to another. But I promise you this: you will not deliver all the cities and towns of Israel before the Son of Man comes.

“A student is not superior to his teacher any more than a servant would be greater than his master. The student must be satisfied to share his teacher’s fate and the servant his master’s. If they have called the head of the family ‘lord of flies,’ no wonder they malign the members of his family.

“Don’t be afraid or intimidated by others, for God will bring everything out into the open and every secret will be told. What I say to you in the dark, repeat in broad daylight, and what you hear in a whisper, announce it publicly. Don’t be in fear of those who can kill only the body but not your soul. Fear only God, who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. You can buy two sparrows for only a copper coin, yet not even one sparrow falls from its nest without the knowledge of your Father. Aren’t you worth much more to God than many sparrows? So don’t worry. For your Father cares deeply about even the smallest detail of your life.

“If you openly and publicly acknowledge me, I will freely and openly acknowledge you before my heavenly Father. But if you publicly deny that you know me, I will also deny you before my heavenly Father.

“Perhaps you think I’ve come to spread peace and calm over the earth—but my coming will bring conflict and division, not peace. Because of me,

A son will turn against his father,

a daughter her mother

and against her mother-in-law.

Within your own families you will find enemies.

“Whoever loves father or mother or son or daughter more than me is not fit to be my disciple. And whoever comes to me must follow in my steps and be willing to share my cross and experience it as his own, or he is not worthy of me. Those who cling to their lives will give up true life. But those who let go of their lives for my sake and surrender it all to me will discover true life!

“Whoever receives you receives me, and whoever receives me receives the One who sent me. Whoever receives a prophet because he is God’s messenger will share a prophet’s reward. And whoever welcomes a righteous person because he follows me will also share in his reward. And whoever gives a cup of cold water to one of my disciples, I promise you, he will not go unrewarded.”

The Book of Matthew, Chapter 10 (The Passion Translation)

Today’s paired chapter of the Testaments is the 7th chapter of the book of Ezra that includes a letter given to Ezra:

[Ezra Arrives]

After all this, Ezra. It was during the reign of Artaxerxes king of Persia. Ezra was the son of Seraiah, son of Azariah, son of Hilkiah, son of Shallum, son of Zadok, son of Ahitub, son of Amariah, son of Azariah, son of Meraioth, son of Zerahiah, son of Uzzi, son of Bukki, son of Abishua, son of Phinehas, son of Eleazar, son of Aaron the high priest.

That’s Ezra. He arrived from Babylon, a scholar well-practiced in the Revelation of Moses that the God of Israel had given. Because God’s hand was on Ezra, the king gave him everything he asked for. Some of the Israelites—priests, Levites, singers, temple security guards, and temple slaves—went with him to Jerusalem. It was in the seventh year of Artaxerxes the king.

They arrived at Jerusalem in the fifth month of the seventh year of the king’s reign. Ezra had scheduled their departure from Babylon on the first day of the first month; they arrived in Jerusalem on the first day of the fifth month under the generous guidance of his God. Ezra had committed himself to studying the Revelation of God, to living it, and to teaching Israel to live its truths and ways.

* * *

What follows is the letter that King Artaxerxes gave Ezra, priest and scholar, expert in matters involving the truths and ways of God concerning Israel:

Artaxerxes, King of Kings, to Ezra the priest, a scholar of the Teaching of the God-of-Heaven.

Peace. I hereby decree that any of the people of Israel living in my kingdom who want to go to Jerusalem, including their priests and Levites, may go with you. You are being sent by the king and his seven advisors to carry out an investigation of Judah and Jerusalem in relation to the Teaching of your God that you are carrying with you. You are also authorized to take the silver and gold that the king and his advisors are giving for the God of Israel, whose residence is in Jerusalem, along with all the silver and gold that has been collected from the generously donated offerings all over Babylon, including that from the people and the priests, for The Temple of their God in Jerusalem. Use this money carefully to buy bulls, rams, lambs, and the ingredients for Grain-Offerings and Drink-Offerings and then offer them on the Altar of The Temple of your God in Jerusalem. You are free to use whatever is left over from the silver and gold for what you and your brothers decide is in keeping with the will of your God. Deliver to the God of Jerusalem the vessels given to you for the services of worship in The Temple of your God. Whatever else you need for The Temple of your God you may pay for out of the royal bank.

I, Artaxerxes the king, have formally authorized and ordered all the treasurers of the land across the Euphrates to give Ezra the priest, scholar of the Teaching of the God-of-Heaven, the full amount of whatever he asks for up to 100 talents of silver, 650 bushels of wheat, and 607 gallons each of wine and olive oil. There is no limit on the salt. Everything the God-of-Heaven requires for The Temple of God must be given without hesitation. Why would the king and his sons risk stirring up his wrath?

Also, let it be clear that no one is permitted to impose tribute, tax, or duty on any priest, Levite, singer, temple security guard, temple servant, or any other worker connected with The Temple of God.

I authorize you, Ezra, exercising the wisdom of God that you have in your hands, to appoint magistrates and judges so they can administer justice among all the people of the land across the Euphrates who live by the Teaching of your God. Anyone who does not know the Teaching, you teach them.

Anyone who does not obey the Teaching of your God and the king must be tried and sentenced at once—death, banishment, a fine, prison, whatever.

[Ezra: “I Was Ready to Go”]

Blessed be God, the God-of-Our-Fathers, who put it in the mind of the king to beautify The Temple of God in Jerusalem! Not only that, he caused the king and all his advisors and influential officials actually to like me and back me. My God was on my side and I was ready to go. And I organized all the leaders of Israel to go with me.

The Book of Ezra, Chapter 7 (The Message)

my personal reading of the Scriptures for friday, march 12 of 2021 with a paired chapter from each Testament of the Bible, along with Today’s Psalms and Proverbs

A post by John Parsons about not giving up:

The Lord is likened to a potter and we are as clay in his hand (Isa. 64:8). Life on the "potter's wheel" can be messy, unsettling, and sometimes excruciatingly hard, but it is God's sovereign work to form your life according to his design and purposes....

Contrary to the assumption that the life of faith should always be triumphant, we all inevitably will experience various setbacks, pratfalls, troubles and sorrows in our lives. This does not mean that God does not care for us however, because on the contrary, this is by his design; a plan supervised by God's love and blessing, and the afflictions we therefore encounter are part of his work for our good (Rom. 8:28; Heb. 12:6). We descend in order to ascend. It make seem counterintuitive, but the heart of faith gives thanks for all things - the good as well as the evil (see Job 2:10). We affirm: "This too is for the good," yea, even in the midst of our struggle, no, even more -- precisely in the midst of our struggle -- for this, too, is for our good. Faith is the resolution to trust in the reality of God's goodness even during hard times when we feel abandoned or lost (Isa. 50:10). The Lord uses the "troubles of love" (יִסּוּרֵי אַהֲבָה) for our good - to wake us up and cling to him all the more, since this is what is most essential, after all...

The difficulty of personal suffering is intensely intimate: how do you keep hope in the midst of this tension? “Lord I believe; help my unbelief” (Mark 9:24). How do you affirm that your heavenly Father will heal you but at the present hour you must endure suffering? Do you devise a “soul-building theodicy” seeking to explain your struggle – providing an answer about the “why” of your suffering – or do you attempt to sanctify suffering as a means of healing others by the grace of the Messiah (Col. 1:24)? Or do you wither in your despair? As Soren Kierkegaard said, “It is one thing to conquer in the hardship, to overcome the hardship as one overcomes an enemy, while continuing in the idea that the hardship is one's enemy; but it is more than conquering to believe that the hardship is one's friend, that it is not the opposition but the road, is not what obstructs but what develops, is not what disheartens but ennobles" (Four Upbuilding Discourses, 1844).

When Yeshua victoriously proclaimed, “It is finished” just before he died on the cross, he foreknew that his followers would experience a “purging process,” a “refining fire,” and time on the “potter’s wheel” to perfect their sanctification. At the cross of Yeshua death itself was overcome – and all that it implies – and yet it is nevertheless true that we will suffer and die and that death persists an enemy (1 Cor. 15:26). While we celebrate the reality of the final redemption, the “instrumentality of our sanctification” needs to be willingly accepted and endured. I say “endured” here because I don’t think we will ever have a complete answer to the question of “why” we undergo the various tests we face in this life. Our disposition in the midst of this ambiguity, in the midst of seemingly unanswered prayers, is where our faith is disclosed: will we despair of all temporal hope or not? Will we console ourselves with the vision of a future without tears and loss – a heaven prepared for us? Will we trust God with our pain and submit to his will, or will we “curse God and die” inside – losing hope and despairing of all remedy?

God forbid we should give up now, friends. Faith “sees the unseen” and believes that the day of our ultimate healing draws near. You are in good hands as the Lord forms your soul for the glory of his purposes... Stay strong and keep your hope alive (Psalm 27:14). [Hebrew for Christians]

3.11.21 • Facebook

Today’s message from the Institute for Creation Research

March 12, 2021

The Limited Knowledge of Jesus

“But of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father.” (Mark 13:32)

This verse has always been difficult to understand. If Jesus was God, how could He be ignorant of the time of His second coming? Indeed He was, and is, God, but He also was, and is, man. This is a part of the mystery of the divine/human nature of Christ. In the gospel record, we see frequent evidences of His humanity (He grew weary, for example, and suffered pain), but also many evidences of deity (His virgin birth, His resurrection and ascension, as well as His perfect words and deeds).

He had been in glory with the Father from eternity (John 17:24), but when He became man, “in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren” (Hebrews 2:17), except for sin. As a child, He “increased in wisdom and stature” like any other human (Luke 2:52). Through diligent study (as a man), He acquired great wisdom in the Scriptures and the plan of God. After His baptism and the acknowledgment from heaven of His divine Sonship (e.g., Matthew 3:16-17), He increasingly manifested various aspects of His deity, but He still remained fully human.

With respect to the time of the end, this depends in some degree on human activity. For example, He said that “the gospel must first be published among all nations” (Mark 13:10), and only God the Father could foresee just when men will have accomplished this. Although the glorified Son presumably now shares this knowledge, in His self-imposed human limitations He did not.

In no way does this compromise His deity. In our own finite humanity, we cannot comprehend fully the mystery of the divine/human nature of Christ, but He has given us more than sufficient reason to believe His Word! HMM

[theolddarkmachine]

Kingdom- Chapter Five

Gajeel has had the dream about dying for the blue haired girl for as long as he can remember. Which is weird, since he’s never met anyone with blue hair in his life.

Levy has always loved myths and legends. So much so, in fact, that she was currently getting her master’s in mythological studies.

What neither of them realized was that they were living a legend all their own.

AKA the one with a knight, a princess, and a curse that keeps bringing them together just to pull them apart.

Previous Chapters

AO3

So I’m pretty proud of myself for getting this out since I didn’t actually get to work on it yesterday like I had thought I would. If it’s horrendous, please don’t tell me until tomorrow because right now I am very proud. DON’T TAKE IT FROM ME OKAY. Anyway, buckle up kiddos, while this one is a bit more of a fun chapter, it sneaks answers in there..... but also possibly some more questions too. Also, small fun fact, I nearly posted this unfinished because I’d forgotten about a spot I’d meant to come back to and almost didnt fill it oops

**********************************

Levy groaned loudly as she threw her pen down on her desk, the plastic clattering loudly against the wood as it bounced against it. It had been three days since The Incident-- so dubbed by her best friend Lucy-- and she hadn’t been able to get those damn crimson eyes out of her head. They taunted her, following her through her dreams and popping up in her mind’s eye at the most inconvenient of times. Those times being whenever she sat down to try and work on her paper, much like right now. Instead of words, her hand had started to trace the outline of the brooding eyes onto the page of her notes. The worst part was that she hadn’t even noticed until she’d looked down expecting to see an analysis between the monikers of knights and the Iron Dragon, and instead found herself staring into a blue ink homage to Gajeel’s stare. With an angry huff, she flipped the notebook over before pushing it away to the far corner of her desk so the offending image could no longer continue to keep gazing into her.

When she’d returned home from the coffeeshop, heart still beating a hummingbird’s beat in her throat, she’d realized she hadn’t gotten the man’s number. Not that she was even sure she would have used it if she’d had it, but the small thrum of regret had tickled low in her gut all the same. She suspected the fact that the sparkling garnet was continuously painted across the inside of her eyelids whenever she closed her eyes was her subconscious telling her she’d missed out on something.

As her mind wandered through the images of ruby and onyx, she pulled the book towards her and started to flip through the delicate pages. She’d never had a problem with words, and the fact that the practical stranger seemed to have stolen hers away from her set her on edge. She kept words close because they’d never failed her, and it stung knowing that, for the first time in her life, they’d left her to be replaced by images that she couldn’t put to paper.

Her eyes scanned across the curling script that made up the tales in the leather bound tome and drank them in. If the words wouldn’t come to her of their own volition, she’d find other words that would hopefully inspire her. The tales she read through painted her imagination with surprising detail as she was sucked into the different worlds.

One took her to dance amongst the stars as she watched the Sun and Moon chase after one another as their love filled the skies with light.

Another led her deep within long forgotten forests where an oracle resided, watching all around her from afar and though she knew the fates of all, she was powerless to stop the inevitable.

The next dragged her to a kingdom with a princess who had waited her entire life for her prince to come, passing her time by dabbling in old magicks.

As she continued flicking through the pages, her attention landed on a painting of a beautiful queen. The woman stood against the page, eyes burning as she clutched a dagger within her fist. A small shiver ran down Levy’s spine as a small drop of fear raced in her veins. In the far edges of her memory, something familiar and ominous stirred. Her eyes flickered away from the illustration and up towards the words that held some of the queen’s story.

The discovery of her king’s hidden daughter had broken her heart, shattering it to dust and unleashing a dark malice within her. Her once beautiful and light magic twisted and decayed, turning as black as the underworld she’d pulled it from. She would take everything from the girl the way she’d taken her king’s love from her. Tucked deep into the cellars of the castle, far away from King Dreyar, she began to weave together a curse so old that even the ancient druids she’d learned her spells from had forgotten it. As she invoked the words that spilled across the enchanted paper, crackling with inky black electricity, a single tear fell onto them. The harsh lines of the words pulled the tear deep within the curse, unknowingly binding the queen to the curse.

As the excerpt ended, to be continued on the next pages, Levy couldn’t bring herself to look away from the hard stare looking up at her. Something about the purple eyes of the painted queen were unsettling as she leaned in closer. It almost felt as if they were watching her from the page, the malicious light of a woman scorned captured within the colored slopes of her eyes. With a trembling finger, she gently brushed the tip against the soft paper and let go of the breath she hadn’t realized she’d been holding as her touch met the surface.

A hand dropped down onto her shoulder, effectively forcing Levy’s heart up into her throat as she jumped away from the book with a shriek. Grabbing the pen from her desk and brandishing it like a knife, pushed herself out of her chair and spun to face the intruder.

“Down, girl!” Lucy cried, hands raised in surrender as she shrunk away from the pen that was pointed dangerously at her. Levy dropped the pen as soon as she saw the blonde, placing the now empty hand over her heart as if the weight of it would slow the way it pulsed against her sternum.

“Jesus, Luce, you ever hear of knocking?” Panic held onto the edges of her words as she tried to steady her breathing.

“You didn’t answer! The door was unlocked so I came in to make sure you were okay,” Lucy said through a pout as she crossed her arms over her chest. The blonde fixed her blue gaze on her friend as she took in her disheveled appearance.

“You forgot.”

It wasn’t a question, but a statement that came out flat and harsh. The blankness of her stare matched Levy’s as she searched through her mind for what she could have possibly forgotten. Amongst the chaos of her mind with spinning jewel toned eyes, dragons and words that just wouldn’t come, she couldn’t find the information she had seemed to have lost within the wreckage. She offered her friend a small smile in way of an apology and earned a long sigh in return.

“You promised we’d go out.” Lucy paused as she waited for the look of acknowledgement from Levy that didn’t come. “Because you’re a workaholic that needs a break before you drive yourself crazy? And I’m sad and lonely because Natsu is away for his internship?”

A sudden flash of her wrapping a pinky around Lucy’s as she swore to go out with her danced across her vision.

We’ll drink until we both forget our names, okay? We’ve earned it.

At the time she’d made the promise in hopes that her best friend would forget, only wanting to get back to the paper she desperately needed to finish, but that had been before The Incident and the following writer’s block it had created. Blue eyes watched her with the hopeful glimmer of someone waiting to hear an affirmation. Levy cast a glance over her shoulder towards the book that sat open on her desk, her heart still racing as she stared into the haunting mauve eyes of the queen. She closed her eyes against the glare and took a steadying breath as Gajeel’s crimson one replaced them. Maybe she didn’t exactly want to forget her own name, but drinking until she forgot that unique shade of red for awhile had sounded like a plan to her.

With a gentle finger, she flicked the corner of the book upward so that it flipped shut with a gentle clap. Turning her attention back to her best friend, she offered her a smile.

“I could use a break.”

“That’s my girl!” Lucy cheered as she bent down to pull brand new bottles of whiskey and coke from the plastic bag at her feet.

“Let’s get this party started!”

***

The neon of the sign of the bar stung Levy’s slightly bleary eyes as she stared up at it.

Ironside

It was a strange name for a bar, to say the least.

It’s supposed to be one of the best bars around, Levy had exclaimed with a hiccup as they’d waited for their cab. There’s always a huge line, but Natsu said he knows a guy whose brother is a bartender there and he got us on a list.

Lucy hadn’t been wrong about the crowd that would be gathered outside of the establishment. The line wrapped around the building as patrons huddled together against the cold of the fall air that permeated through their barely there clothes. A few passed flasks of liquid warmth back and forth as they waited for the line to move enough for them to get passed the pearly gates that would lead to Ironside.

Levy’s own skin was speckled with goosebumps as a stiff breeze danced over her alcohol warmed flesh, biting through the thing material of her goldenrod halter top and through the black denim of her jeans. A frozen shiver dragged down her spine as she hugged herself in an attempt to keep whatever heat she had close. A flash of bright blue pulled her attention from the blinking neon word as Lucy joined her side after having finished paying their cab driver.

The cerulean dress her friend had changed into was short and hugged her curves, leaving more skin exposed than Levy, yet she showed no signs of the chill bothering her. Rosy pink dusted her cheeks as she smiled at Levy and grabbed her wrist to pull her towards the front of the line. The quick movement caused her head to spin dangerously.

“C’mon, Lev! It’s too cold to stand out here!” The blonde exclaimed, earning sharp glances from the other bar goers as they made their way ahead of them. A lean man with shaggy black hair and eyes like endless dark pools of blue stood in the doorway with a clipboard clutched in his fist. His eyes tightened slightly as they approached and he made himself larger.

“Sorry girls, you have to go to the back,” he said, his voice brusque as he addressed them. If her mind wasn’t swimming in a sea of whiskey, Levy may have actually been intimidated.

“Nope.” Was all Lucy said as she pointed a finger at the clipboard in the security guard’s hand. “We’re on that.”

Her words were doughy as they slurred slightly together, but her smile was genuine. The man’s eyes softened slightly as he lifted the clipboard to inspect it.

“Name?”

A beat passed as Lucy searched her mind for the name that they’d be listed under.

“Lily plus one!” She said happily as it finally came to her. The name sent a small jolt through Levy’s alcohol addled mind. Did she know a Lily? The guard dragged a finger down the paper attached to his clipboard before he nodded and stepped aside so they could walk by him.

“Welcome to Ironside,” he said as they pushed open the door.

“C’mon, Gray!” She heard an angry voice say before it was cut off by the door closing. The dull sound of bass vibrated against the red walls of the hall they’d stepped into. Large, twisted iron fixtures lined the path that led towards an intimidating iron door opposite of where they stood. Lucy squealed with glee as she grabbed onto Levy again to pull her towards the entrance.

A wall of music hit them as the blonde pushed the doors open. The buzz of the electric beats tickled Levy’s stomach as it vibrated her insides with its intensity. Flashing lights spun across the bodies that crashed against each other on the darkened dance floor. Iron chandeliers hung from the ceiling dripping with gothic elegance and garnet silk and the marble tile on the ground sparkled. It was a lavish setting and suddenly Levy felt as if she was underdressed. The hype suddenly made sense as she took in the otherworldly dark beauty of the room before them. Lucy moved forward from where they stood, pulling them both further into the bar.

The familiar burn of someone’s gaze on her made her stop as Lucy disappeared into the crowd of bodies that moved together with the music. Looking around, her eyes were drawn towards the bar where her golden stare met a crimson one. Standing behind the bar with a rueful smile tugging at his lips, was Gajeel. Her heart stuttered as she stared at him, taking in the way his eyes gleamed in the dim light of the bar. As he held her gaze, he winked and crooked a finger towards her in a come hither motion.

Moving of their own accord, her feet brought her closer until she stood in front of the bar.

“Fancy seeing ya here,” he said, his smile pulling up further to one corner and his eyes smoldering.

“My friend dragged me here,” she said lamely as she tried to push back the thoughts his crooked smile were stirring at the back of her mind. Levy saw the motion of his laughter instead of hearing it as it was lost to the sound of the bass.

“What can I get you to drink?” He asked loudly as he leant closer so she could hear him better. The shirt he wore shifted to reveal the sharp dip of his collarbone that pulled her attention in like a magnet. She wondered quickly what it would be like to trace it with her fingertip.

“Levy?” Gajeel’s voice broke her concentration as her eyes darted away from his skin to a small menu that sat on the bar. A few drinks were listed but one in particular caught her eye.

“Can I have a Blue Princess?” She said, a small river of pride running through her as she managed to push the breathiness she felt out of her voice. His answering smirk was filled with unknown humor to her as he nodded a confirmation before he pushed back from the bar and started to mix the drink.

Levy’s eyes traced over him as he busied himself with creating the concoction, taking advantage of being free from his stare so she could drink him in. Her memory hadn’t done him any justice as she examined the cut definition of his jawline and the way his biceps strained against the cuff of his shirt as he shook the ingredients together. His black hair had been tied back and only showed more of his face and for a moment, she wanted nothing more than to taste the fullness of his lips.

“This one’s on me,” Gajeel said as he pushed a whiskey glass filled with a brilliant blue liquid and adorned with a mint leaf towards her. As the lights swirled around her, dancing over her skin and painting it rainbow, she looked up into the ruby eyes she’d originally been trying to drink away. The irony wasn’t lost on her as she smiled and took a sip of the blue drink. Sweet berry exploded on her tongue, any traces of the alcohol that was mixed within it was lost within the cool mint that weaved itself within the fruity flavor. It could have been the whiskey talking, but it was the best drink she’d ever had. Gajeel’s eyes traced the length of her neck as she drank, the stare a cool caress against her skin that sent a thrill through her. He smiled at her as she gently set the glass back onto the bar.

“So what do ya think?” He yelled over the beating bass that was shaking the bar and her insides. Levy’s own gaze worked its way over his frame, enjoying the way his black shirt pulled across his chest and the way his strong hands wrapped around the glass he was polishing. She very much wanted to tell him she was thinking about how looking at him felt the same as she imagined it would feel seeing color for the first time. It filled her chest with an indescribable awe as her heart tried to reach out to him as if it were trying to get home.

Something in the back of her mind told her it had always been meant to be his.

She would take everything from the girl the way she’d taken her king’s love from her.

The line of text from the queen’s tale sliced through the thought. A slick trickle of unease as the letters twisted across her mind made its way over her nerves. It had been such a sudden change in her stream of conscious that it had caused mild whiplash and left her dizzy. Screwing her eyes shut, she took a deep steadying breath and pushed the memory away.

With her vision off of him, Gajeel shot a quick glance to a man sitting on the opposite end of the bar, who raised a scarred eyebrow in his direction.

“Levy?” His worried voice cut through the din of her thoughts and her warm honey gaze fixed on him again. The alcohol pumped liquid courage through her veins as she smiled up at him. Placing both hands on the bar, she pushed herself up so she was balanced on her palms as she leaned into the bartender’s space. Heat rolled off his skin, their chests ghosting together as she brought her face close to his ear so she could answer. He tensed at her proximity as her breath tickled his ear and the scent of lilacs and whiskey filled his nose.

“That blue princess is lucky to have that named after her.” Levy’s voice was husky with the warmth of the alcohol she’d consumed. Her heart jumped as she heard Gajeel’s breath hitch, the cool sensation of it tickling her shoulder. She dropped back onto the ground lightly and grabbed the drink off the counter.

“Levy!” A blonde shouted from behind her, eyes flickering towards the man behind her before turning back to the bluenette with a catlike grin. The look was lost on Levy as she lifted the blue liquid towards him in a small salute and winked.

“Thanks for the drink, Gajeel!” She said before she turned towards her friend and joined her. The bartender watched as she went, the lithe way she moved filling his chest with electrical pops.

At the other end of the bar, Lily’s dark gaze danced between Gajeel and Levy as a sadness burned in his eyes.

***

Levy stared at her reflection, the twin hazel stare appraising her with mild curiosity as her doppleganger took her in. The other her wore a cream smock with a lemonade yellow surcoat over it. Embroidered blue flowers decorated the otherwise modest fabric that adorned her petite frame. One of her hands twirled the end of her that had been twisted into a braid that fell over her shoulder.

Shifting uneasily, Levy changed the weight she leaned onto one leg to the other, noting the way her other self’s eyes never left her.

“Who are you?” She heard herself ask. Her voice echoed through the empty void that surrounded them. The copy just watched her, her lips turning down into a look of immeasurable sadness.

“What is this?” Levy pressed, taking a step towards her other self. The other Levy didn’t move as she closed the distance between them. She only shook her head slowly before turning her eyes down to the ground. Frustration bubbled up within Levy as she grabbed onto her reflection’s arm as if she could shake some sort of answer from her. Her skin was ice cold against the warmth of her hand as her eyes shot open to reveal burning purple irises. Her face fell away from the reflection to reveal a tall woman with raven hair and a fearsome scowl that had matched that of the painted queen from the book. A loud roar filled the space around them as the woman opened her mouth.

You will kill him.

A sharp, shuddering breath ripped it’s way up from her lungs and through her throat Levy shot up from where she’d been tucked amongst pillows and heavy blankets. Her heart hammered against her chest as if it was attempting to break free of its cage as the terror she’d felt from the dream made the tips of her fingers buzz. Gulping in large gasps of air, she looked around at her surroundings, the feeling of dread only growing as she realized she didn’t recognize the room she was in. The bed she was in was plush and far larger than the one she had with a great many pillows surrounding her, creating a nest around her. A heavy black comforter had slipped from her shoulders and into her lap. Her eyes wandered around the room, trying to find any clue as to who it belonged it, and only finding a matching mahogany dresser and nightstand set and a leather jacket that hung from the corner of what she assumed was the bathroom door.

Heart still racing, she pushed herself out from under the weight of the comforter and quietly got out of the bed. The change in position left her head spinning as she tried to steady herself against the way the alcohol from the night before continued to cloud her mind. Lucy smiling at her on the dance floor and a pair of warm red eyes were the last things she could remember from the night prior and she bit back a groan as her stomach rolled.

If she wasn’t killed in this mysterious apartment, she’d have to tell Lucy that she was never drinking again.

She padded lightly over the wooden floor towards the closed door, taking deep steadying breaths the entire way. The metal of the doorknob was cool in her palm as she twisted it slowly and gently pulled the door open. A slight creak whispered from the hinges as she made her way into the living room.

Gentle snores rose from a white lump of blanket on the black leather couch that sat in the middle of the room. Stepping closer, careful not to make any loud noises, her eyes searched for any sign as to who the sounds belonged to. Familiar black hair stuck out over the top of the couch’s armrest and caused a small pool of panic to in her throat as murky memories started to play like a scene in her mind.

“You okay, Levy?”  Gajeel’s eyes were filled with concern as he looked down at her. “Where’d you friend go?” His questions were only answered with low giggles as her fingers brushed over the sharp plane of his cheekbone.

Bile rose in her throat as the brief memory faded away, bringing with it a panicked gasp as she threw her hands over her mouth. Her quick footsteps echoed through the apartment as she ran back into the bedroom and towards the bathroom where she fell to her knees before the toilet and retched up the night before.

******************************

[robedisimo]

The Last Jedi: six observations and four questions [MAJOR SPOILERS]

[WARNING: the following contains HUGE PLOT SPOILERS for Star Wars: The Last Jedi. Please proceed at your own discretion.]

It has been a strange, busy year for franchise sequels. Between Alien: Covenant, Blade Runner 2049, Thor: Ragnarok and now The Last Jedi, a lot of what has graced our screens has been saddled with a lot of different expectations, and with more than a little anxiety concerning its relationship to vast pre-established canon. In my opinion, all four films handled that task well; however, each of them approached the matter in a very different way.

Denis Villeneuve’s Blade Runner sequel embraced and expanded its predecessor’s style and themes, for example, while Ragnarok upended pretty much everything in its franchise so far with maniacal glee and an irrevent attitude bordering on outright mockery. Covenant also played fast and loose with established lore, but unlike the third Thor it did so without acknowledging it, “pretending” – thanks to original creator Ridley Scott being at its helm – to perfectly fit into everything that preceded it.

At its heart, The Last Jedi has more than a little in common with the latter two. It – literally, in certain cases – sets fire to certain aspects of the Star Wars canon to make room for a newer iteration of the franchise, but it does so with respect and love, pruning selected parts of the property to allow it to flourish. Its mockery seems instead aimed at its direct predecessor, The Force Awakens, which director Rian Johnson appears to retroactively adjust in order to steer the saga towards his own vision.

That attitude is nowhere more apparent than in the outright derision of Kylo Ren’s mask, which “makes him look like an idiot”. The meta-textual jab at J.J. Abrams’s aesthetic sensibilities betrays a ballsiness bordering on arrogance, as does the U-turn on Snoke’s characterisation, going from grave, sombre Palpatine wannabe to sneering, opulent Bond villain.

Whatever the reasoning behind The Last Jedi’s changes to the franchise, in my eyes the overwhelming majority of them was for the best. But did Johnson’s film really change everything, or was it more of a balanced mix of old and new? Following is a brief list of things that didn’t go as we might have expected and things that most certainly did, as well as some that still may or may not in the near future.

1. Subverted expectations

Leia’s death Given historic Star Wars precedent, it was very reasonable to expect Leia to not survive Episode VIII’s events: Kylo Ren was on a stated mission to forcibly (har har) eradicate his family ties, “mentor”-like characters have a track record of not surviving long into a new trilogy and, well, Carrie Fisher won’t be around for Episode IX. And indeed, The Last Jedi does give Leia a swift and dramatic death scene... only to reverse it immediately by virtue of a plot twist hinging on the character’s previously-undisclosed Jedi training, in a textbook example of a trope which I’m sure must be already defined somewhere on the Internet but which I’m personally more than willing to dub “Secretly Jesus”. It’s a stunning sequence and one that’s proving quite controversial with fans, setting the scene for the no-holds-barred approach to storytelling showcased throughout the movie.

Finn’s sacrifice I’ve written at length about how Finn is the best candidate for Sequel-Trilogy replacement to Han Solo, and so there was good reason to believe that, as he threw himself into a First Order super-weapon, we were in for a rerun of Han’s heroic surrender to frozen doom – I don’t think anyone was expecting Finn to actually die, but by that point The Last Jedi had certainly demonstrated that it was down for pretty much anything – at the end of The Empire Strikes Back. Once again, that didn’t end up happening but the spirit was certainly there: just like Han, Finn had spent the whole film – and the whole franchise up to that point – torn between his own good heart and an individualistic penchant for self-preservation; by the end of their respective second chapters, both characters finally embrace their heroic streak. Ironically, whereas Han sacrificed himself to save Leia – culminating in the saga’s first explicitly-stated romance – here it’s the girl who ends up in suspended animation instead, after saving the day and declaring her love.

Rey’s parentage The most (apparently) outrage-introducing aspect of Johnson’s film is also the most interestingly handled. After two years of speculation regarding Rey’s true parents, and a number of increasingly far-fetched theories – Rey is Luke’s, Obi-Wan’s, Qui-Gon’s, Palpatine’s daughter – in The Last Jedi she was finally revealed to have been just a regular Jane Doe all along, an outsider to the Skywalker family saga. Some fans have met this with outcry, partly because they don’t seem to understand that the Sequel Trilogy is still part of the Skywalker arc through Kylo Ren, and partly because of precedent. The reveal of Luke’s parentage in The Empire Strikes Back is the single most iconic moment in the entire franchise, and quite a few people were expecting a direct retread of that. Except a direct retread is precisely what they got. Even without getting into the fact that Kylo could’ve simply been lying, the scene plays exactly how you’d expect: the bad guy extends his hand to the hero, offering a place beside them on the Galaxy’s throne after dropping the unexpected bombshell about their parents’ identity. The scene is almost exactly the same, but in reverse: for starters, the hero has just been in a fight involving the film’s villain; but unlike in Empire, Rey comes out of the fight victorious and having fought on the same side as the villain, not against him. Similarly, the biggest reversal comes in the fact that the bombshell shock doesn’t come in the shape of a twist reveal but rather in the absence of one. The Last Jedi – something it has in common with another piece of oft-maligned fiction that I happen to love, but that’s a story for another time – trades a twist for an anti-twist: “I am your father” becomes “Nobody is your father”. Which isn’t just poetic, it also works on a number of levels. Rey doesn’t have to be connected to everything else in the saga, just like Finn doesn’t have to be Lando’s or Mace Windu’s secret son. In The Last Jedi we finally get to know and love these characters for who they are, not for who they could be. This moment in which the saga is freed from the weight of its own legacy is as earth-shattering and franchise-changing as the ending to Empire was; if not more, because this time around we were prepared for it but were still surprised. We were prepared for anything, and they surprised us with nothing. You can call that cheating. I call that clever.

2. Confirmed tropes

Luke’s goodbye While Luke’s final act of heroism in The Last Jedi is breathtaking in its unexpectedness, his ultimate fate is as traditional as they come. Right after re-enacting Obi-Wan’s “strike me down” scene, Luke pulls a Yoda and peacefully joins the Force. It’s something that by all logic should’ve been reserved for the first half of Episode IX – just as Yoda’s death signalled the beginning of act 2 for Return of the Jedi –, but then again I did mention in my review that The Last Jedi is a bit of an episode-and-a-half kind of deal. Narratively speaking, the film could’ve ended on an Empire-like note right as Rey manages to escape after her lightsabre-breaking, parentage-revealing confrontation with Ben. Instead, Johnson took things one giant step beyond. And that’s a good thing, fortunately: had this movie closed on yet another cliffhanger, we wouldn’t have had the chance to conveniently explain away Leia’s departure from the franchise by means of a – all but inevitable, now – time skip between Episodes VIII and IX.

Snoke’s death Unexpected as it was in its timing, Snoke’s demise was anything but in terms of pure narrative structure: he was set up to be defeated, and he most certainly was. Not just that, but he was defeated in what’s arguably the most traditional way to be found in Star Wars canon: an apprentice turning on his own master when he’s instead supposed to finish an incapacitated opponent. It happened to Palpatine in the Original Trilogy, and it happened to Mace Windu – in a direct reversal of that same scene – in the Prequels. Snoke may not have been an actual member of the Sith order, but his fate certainly conformed to that of historic Dark Side practitioners. What’s more, his efforts to turn Ben Solo into a new Vader definitely paid off... perhaps even too much for his liking.

DJ’s betrayal Benicio Del Toro’s character is more a walking, talking plot device than anything, but he’s an undeniably charming addition to the franchise. Still, for anyone who thought he didn’t get enough development on his first time on the Star Wars scene, his return is pretty much a given. His potential for a face-turn in Episode IX, combined with his introduction as a shifty but useful ally to our heroes, only to grievously betray them while maintaining a measure of relatability, paints a very clear picture: DJ is, quite simply, the Sequel Trilogy’s Lando. There’s probably no easier cross-trilogy comparison in all of The Last Jedi, in my opinion. And to be frank, it’s a pretty entertaining one.

3. Still-dangling plot threads

What role do Luke’s relics play? The Last Jedi includes more than a few deep-lore easter eggs, many of them hidden on its characters. Snoke, for example, wears a golden ring whose stone – as one can read in the Visual Dictionary companion book – comes directly from the Dark Side pit originally lying beneath Vader’s fortress first glimpsed in Rogue One. Luke carries not one but two of these significant relics. The first is a Jedi compass, a MacGuffin introduced in the recently-released Battlefront II video game whose exact purpose wasn’t really disclosed, although one might speculate that it’s through it that Luke managed to find the ancient Jedi planet of Ahch-To. The second is Luke’s pendant, apparently housing a red crystal of unspecified origins. This particular object became the centrepiece of a fascinating fan theory in the months preceding the film’s release, and while that specific scenario didn’t pan out, the pendant itself did get a suspicious close-up shot which went entirely unexplained. The Visual Dictionary lists it as an ancient “Jedi Crusader” trophy, sparking rumours about the renewed canonicity of fan-favourite Knights of the Old Republic character Darth Revan. Could that be it, or is there more to Luke’s story between trilogies that we have yet to see? And if so, will that be addressed in Episode IX, or is it something that’s bound to be left to exploration in New Expanded Universe material?

Who was Snoke, exactly? Easily the second most controversial bit in the movie, Snoke’s sudden death left a lot of questions hanging. Who exactly was this guy? Where did he come from? Why was he so strong in the Force, and how did he know so much about everyone involved in the previous two thirds of the saga? The fans’ frustration about these unresolved plot points is understandable, and it’s undeniable that Johnson has left quite the hot potato in Abrams’s hands. Still, one must never forget that Emperor Palpatine was just as much of an unknown quantity in the Original Trilogy: character-wise, he was very little more than a cackling, mugging “evil incarnate” trope, blandly intimidating up to the point where his right-hand man killed him by essentially pushing him down a flight of stairs. It wasn’t until the oft-maligned Prequels that good ol’ Sheev took on a personality all his own. On the other hand, that sort of undefined mystery just isn’t viable in the franchise’s current state. After forty years of accumulated, obsessive exploration of the narrative universe’s every nook and cranny, fans are no longer willing to put up with not knowing. And, to be completely fair, relegating Snoke’s backstory to Expanded Universe novels or comic-book series would be a disservice to the portion of the audience that only watches the film instalments – whereas Phasma’s mostly-perfunctory role in the movies is more acceptable, vis-à-vis her much more in-depth characterisation in ancillary material – and a general faux pas from a narrative standpoint.

What about the Knights of Ren? Speaking of dubious narrative choices, another unexpected element in The Last Jedi’s standalone-but-not-standalone structure – the movie works extremely well in isolation, but it’s also perhaps the most interconnected to previous lore that Star Wars has ever been – was the total absence of Kylo Ren’s eponymous Knights, teased in Rey’s “Force Vision” sequence halfway through The Force Awakens. From a purely in-universe standpoint, their uninvolvement with the film’s proceedings makes sense: Episode VIII takes place over a short period of time immediately on VII’s heels, and as such it would’ve been strange for the Knights to come running as a sort of bad-guy cavalry, especially if it were for the sole purpose of being anticlimactically slaughtered barely halfway through the trilogy at the hands of a still-inexperienced Rey. Narratively speaking, however, what we got was a full movie – and two more years of endless wait – going by without the characters being addressed, which is pretty frustrating. So much so, in fact, that some fans have already begun speculating that the Knights actually were featured in The Last Jedi as none other than Snoke’s Praetorian Guards, a truly awful theory that presupposes a shockingly appalling grasp of storytelling on Rian Johnson’s part. One can only hope that with Kylo now positioned as the trilogy’s Big Bad, they’ll serve as the mid-boss-level characters our heroes will have to get through if they want to face the ultimate evil... potentially resulting in the most spectacular lightsabre battle ever witnessed in Star Wars canon.

Where are the other Force ghosts? The question of where Yoda’s Force ghost has been all these days as Luke – and the Galaxy – needed his guidance is easily answered by The Force Awakens, in both title and dialogues: there has been an “awakening” in the Force, at least the Cosmic side of it, with Rey’s and Kylo’s mounting powers. So it’s not hard to imagine that the world of spirits has been a lot less in touch with that of the living over the past thirty years. Nonetheless, that dry spell is now decidedly broken. Obi-Wan whispered in Rey’s ear at least once in Episode VII, and Yoda’s appearance in The Last Jedi showed us a Force ghost with more power and influence over the physical world than ever before – although that may have to do with the peculiar Force-attuned nature of the planet Ahch-To –, and that’s a pretty hard can of worms to re-seal. So the big, looming question right now is: where is Anakin Skywalker’s ghost, and why isn’t he giving his grandson a piece of his mind about his hare-brained scheme for galactic annihilation? Should we expect Hayden Christensen to make a Vader-y return in Episode IX, or will Abrams’s apparent loathing for the Prequels rob us of that long-delayed rehabilitation of his take on the character?

Other questions loom large over the next (and final) episode in the Skywalker saga, of course. Did Kylo lie about Rey’s parents? Will Snoke still exert some sort of influence on the Galaxy’s fate, even after death? How exactly will Leia die? How will the Resistance turn things around to win the day? Will Rey and Poe start a surprise romance? And how will Phasma have ludicrously survived this time?

We’ll just have to wait, I guess. In the meantime, I’m sure Solo: A Star Wars Story will give people a lot more to complain about.

[netmaddy-blog]

A Difficult Woman To Know

New Post has been published on https://netmaddy.com/a-difficult-woman-to-know/

A Difficult Woman To Know

I admit it. I have a love/hate relationship with the Proverbs 31 Woman. At times she inspires me to no end. Yes, who can find a more virtuous, capable woman? She is an exquisite portrait of a truly remarkable and lovely woman, wife and mother. At other times I want to know where she lives so I can toilet paper her front lawn. Anyone who makes Martha Stewart look like a slacker has serious issues. I am sure she has never had a bad hair day. She probably doesn’t even know what cramps are. Her foot never finds its way into her mouth, repeatedly, like mine. The meticulous woman would almost certainly be aghast at my dusty floors then would give me pointers on housecleaning. I am sure she would then wash my floors herself like some deranged Mary Poppins. What a show-off!

I have often compared myself to this epic woman whom we will call Prov. She is like that tall, beautiful model trying on the exact same clothes as you. You compare your assets with hers and find yourself seriously lacking. As you gaze in the mirror, your reflection looks pitiful next to hers, like a speck of sand against the breathtaking superstar. According to the Bible, not only does Prov do everything perfectly, but all around her think the same. Plus she has the husband and children surrounding her. For us single ladies, we feel even more inept. We hope that our singledom gives us the blessed loophole from trying to be everything Prov is. Does my empty ring finger give me a Get-Out-of-Proverbs-31-Free card? As I read and study about Practically Perfect Prov (her formal name), I am inundated with questions. What is a woman’s worth? What is my value? Does a woman have merit if no one is there to acknowledge her capabilities? Why does she have to be so flawless? And why is God pressing on me to examine her?

A mother wrote this discourse on the most excellent of women in the hopes her son would recognize a Godly wife when he saw one. Generations later and these 22 verses have become a checklist for some and for others a carnival mirror that distorts perception. I read about Prov and grow tired as I remember the dirty dishes in the sink and the spider webs in the corners of the ceiling. I tell myself that I don’t want to be like her, but secretly I crave to have someone say those things about me. Someone determined she was of great importance and value. I think that is what I am most jealous of. The Bible says Prov has excelled over all other women. She has surpassed Deborah, Ruth and Esther. She has outdone Miriam. She outshined them all and she is the ideal that I am to live up to. Are you serious? “Susan?” “Yes, God?”

Obviously He was tired of me talking smack about Prov. “Do you even know what it means to be a virtuous woman?” “Pure, perfect, capable, high morals, quiet, and always polite.” On a good day, I am maybe two out of five. “That is what the dictionary says.” “Dig deeper, Susan. You might actually like her.” “Wait, God, I have so many questions.” “You usually do.” “God, what is my worth?” “You will figure it out. Susan, meet Prov.” And so began my character study of this exceptional and highly irritating woman that had taken up residence on a pedestal.

Like any difficult person, once you get to know them and what makes them tick, your opinion softens and you see something of yourself in them. Or in this case, you discover components that are missing in yourself. I have found myself housecleaning my soul and spirit and she is the tool God is forcing me to use. How convenient that this investigation started during the days of Omer. The second day of Passover is the beginning of Firstfruits and the counting of the Omer which lasts the next 49 days leading to Shavuot or Pentecost. The Israelites would take the omer or grain, and divide it before it was winnowed and sifted. Then it was parched over a fire. After the heat, came the refining and grinding followed by another thorough sifting. Eventually the best of the best grain was brought before the Lord and waved in His Presence as an offering. It was a declaration that everything came from God.

It was also a spiritual assessment of where each person needed to examine themselves. They took stock of their lives, emotions, choices and habits. Was their life a pleasing and sweet fragrance to God? The Israelites had left behind their physical and spiritual bondage in Egypt on Passover. Those first days in the wilderness were opportunities for them to improve and upgrade who they had been. They didn’t know the particulars, but they understood God was taking them where preparation was paramount. Those days of counting their lives and actions were the biblical version of a makeover show. God calls us to be a holy nation. Do we look holy? Do we act like we are set apart for His use? Being holy is about being separated and elevated from all that would pull us down and take our focus of the Lord.

Comparing myself to Prov, I know my habits and actions need to be examined. Where do I fall short? The omer of my life needs to be sifted and refined. So I am choosing to take stock of me. Am I a pleasing aroma to the Lord or with one good whiff do I clear out the heavenly realms? Have I concealed areas of my life that stink with air freshener in order to disguise them? I’m pretty sure I will find things that I don’t like about myself, but this house needs a transformation. Like the grain offering, I will be sifted and ground then toasted on a relentless fire. I want to present myself as a new offering to God. As I look in the spiritual mirror before me, I am seeing the ways I don’t measure up. There are a few blemishes in my heart that have been covered. Sometimes the hardest person to study is the one in the mirror. Maybe Prov isn’t as a difficult woman to know as myself. “This is me, God. For better or worse, I am Yours. I am nothing like Prov. Maybe that is why she gets on my nerves. I want to be like her, but don’t know how. There is a lot of distillation and mending to do, but this is my start. Have Your way, Jesus. Make me over.”

The Israelites were safely situated in the unfamiliar wilderness. God had confirmed His covenant with Moses. The commandments had been given. The golden calf incident was still a smarting sting in their minds and Moses had seen God’s glory through a cleft in the rock. Now the building of the tabernacle, God’s dwelling place, had begun. God had given specific instructions for each piece and the blueprints were divine. God even anointed the people to do the work. Once it was completed, the temple work began. The priests would come to the bronze laver. They washed their hands and feet in the basin in preparation to meet God. The washing bowl was made with the mirrors of the women who served the tabernacle. They weren’t pretty, clear mirrors made of glass, but were polished brass. The imperfect surface did not give a smooth likeness Give Us Life.

As a tabernacle priest would wash, he saw two reflections. One was in the stand and one in the cleansing water. The laver is where they truly looked at themselves with all the bumps, bruises and imperfections in plain sight. Then they looked into the water that washed them. This is where they became the reflection of Jesus and left the old likeness at the door. Like the women who gave up their mirrors so a priestly nation could see who they really were, God asks us to do the same. He says, “Give up what you think you look like to the world and focus on what I look at.” So often we concentrate on the inadequate image that we forget there is a sanctified figure in the Living Water.

How hard it must have been for those women to give up their mirrors. Let’s face it; mirrors are sacred properly to us females! Women have always been described and categorized by how they look. All women, no matter the era, have some degree of vanity within them. God moved them to surrender their airs by giving up control of their pride. Looking at ourselves in the mirror can be one of the hardest things to do. Mornings can be especially difficult since we more than likely have gunk in our eyes, smeared makeup and unkempt hair that has a mind of its own. Once we see what is amiss, we begin to put it back together again. How many times do we check our appearance throughout the day? Every potty break includes inspecting the mirror. We walk past department store windows and cast a sideways glance at the image just to ensure that we haven’t left the house with our skirts tucked into our underwear.

There is one woman who would be more than happy to give up her mirror. I can only imagine how hard it was for her to look at the face staring back at her. She didn’t need to be reminded of what the world saw; she had been hearing it her whole life. Look at how she is depicted in the Bible: “Leah had weak eyes, but Rachel was lovely in form, and beautiful.” Can you imagine the wound to a woman’s heart if she knew that her less than attractive appearance was still being talked about a few millennia after she walked on the earth? Ouch! I freak out when people talk about me the next day not to mention the next millennium.

What did it mean that Leah’s eyes were weak? Some Jewish scholars say her eyes were pathetic because she cried so often about her circumstances. Perhaps she was ill, or maybe she was just plain ugly. The word used for “weak” means to be liable to give way under pressure. It comes from a Hebrew word meaning to faint, to have a dismal and weak appearance. There was no sparkle or breathtaking quality to Leah. She was less than average. Saying she had “weak eyes” was the polite way of saying she had a good personality. No man would choose her. Her father Laban was probably very vocal about his burden to offload his first born daughter.

Leah might have already accepted her fate as a spinster when in walks Jacob. Everyone knew he was head over heels in love with the striking Rachel. It was no secret that he had been working for the past seven years to marry her. Finally the day had come that would pay off for Jacob. All the back-breaking work in the hot sun was a distant memory as the thought of his bride filled his heart and mind. Laban threw a wedding feast for the big event. One can’t help but wonder how long he had been plotting the next events. Laban lead his new son-in-law to the bridal chamber. Jacob was probably skipping with anticipation and nervousness. Seven years of daydreams were coming true.

Who knows where Rachel was kept or if she was even made aware of the dastardly plan. Leah had taken her younger sister’s place either by choice or by a father’s forceful hand. Maybe Leah felt guilt for stealing her sister’s moment, but then again a lifetime of being jailed in someone’s shadow may have helped her overcome any momentary remorse. Rachel captured every gaze as she entered a room while Leah was inconspicuous and unremarkable. She was not easily seen; someone had to choose to see her and no one had. This was her moment to be noticed even if it was stolen attention. Feelings of pitiful sadness had to be flowing in her heart. “The only way I can get a man to choose me is by my father tricking him.” A bride is to feel so beautiful on her wedding day, but this was probably the ugliest she had ever felt.

Jacob did not detect the switch. Maybe it was the veil covering Leah’s face, the amount of wine in his system, or a combination of both that made him unaware of the true identity of the bride lying in his bed. Not realizing it wasn’t the love of his life, Jacob treated Leah like beautiful, stunning Rachel. For one night the unsightly woman was deemed remarkably exquisite. Perhaps in the course of the night, Jacob called out the name of Rachel in ecstasy, but Leah chose to ignore it. Leah was finally touched by hands that coveted her. She was whispered to by lips that craved her. Leah was beautiful that night. She was no longer invisible, but the totality of one man’s attention. She didn’t want the truth that comes with the dreaded morning light to ever show its repulsive face. If only time could be stopped.

Jacob woke to find the weak eyes of Leah and not the remarkable face of Rachel lovingly gazing upon him. He was anything but tactful. With shock and anger he shouted, “What have you done to me? I served for Rachel, not Leah! Why did you deceive me? I have been cheated!” The pleasure and acceptance she embezzled in the night was replaced with the reality of her worth to Jacob. She was unsolicited and undesired. She was once again the ugly woman who only looked good after enough wine and a veil. Leah knew she was the raw end of the deal. His love was so great for Rachel, Jacob chose to work another seven years for her. He was willing to work a total of 14 years for her sister. No one had even offered to work a single day to win Leah. A week after her momentary joy, she witnessed Jacob marry Rachel.

Leah was not the one who was loved most. She held on to a brief ray of hope within her because Jacob still came to her bed. Leah was probably the backup when Rachel was considered unclean every month. God saw that she was unloved and opened her womb. With the birth of her first son Reuben, she was sure her husband would love her, but nothing had changed. With the next two sons Leah continued to hold onto the fantasy of being treasured. By the fourth son something in her had changed. She gave birth to Judah and cried out, “Now I will praise the Lord.” It stopped being about a man’s love and about loving God. Sarah, Rebekah, and Rachel were barren until their prayers succeeded in changing their nature. Leah’s barren heart was altered after her praises unto the Lord succeeded in transforming her soul. She still battled Rachel in the offspring race, but her heart was settled.

She didn’t know her worth, but God blessed Leah more than she would ever know. Rachel might have been the wife of Jacob, but Leah was the wife of Israel. From her son Levi came a tribe of priests that would man the tabernacle and temple. Israel was built in the house of Judah. Through Judah came the line of David and eventually Jesus. Through all the pain, toil, and heartbreak, God was planning to redeem her. God loved her where Jacob failed. In God’s eyes, Leah was precious and had value.

As women, we have worth. It might be hidden, but it is there. The Bible says the price for Prov was far above rubies. Everything in this world has a price tag. An amount has been determined and set. From towels to people, everything has a decided fee. In Uganda, a bride’s price is set by the number of cows a family thinks their daughter is equal to. In some cultures it is the number of children a woman bears for her husband that decides her estimation. Jacob’s price for Rachel was 14 years, but God’s value of Leah was priceless. She became the mother of God’s chosen people. If God uncovered Leah’s inestimable value, He will also expose ours. What is our value and worth? What is God seeing that we miss? What did Jesus see in us as He was on the cross? So much of our value is assessed by how we look. Some men also look at our housekeeping and cooking skills to accurately price us, but let’s be honest. A man will marry the world’s sexiest and most beautiful woman if given the chance even if she keeps a messy house and can’t cook soup from a can.

As women, beauty can control our life. It did for Leah. It determined her marital status for years before Jacob came in the picture. What happens when we are not a physically beautiful woman or we don’t fit the world’s definition of good-looking? How do we get past the world’s ruling on our significance and focus on the importance God places on us? I struggled for the majority of my life about my appearance. Somewhere about the age of 15, I encountered the world’s snobbery when it came to beauty. For the next few years, well into college, I was truly a geek. I was overweight, self-conscious, and completely believing the enemy’s lies. At school I heard boys tell me I was ugly, but then my Mom would tell me I was beautiful. I stopped trusting my Mom’s opinion because she obviously was either blind or lying to me. On days when I knew pictures would be taken, I would get dressed up and do my hair and makeup. When I looked in the mirror I felt somewhat self-assured, but when the pictures came back I cringed, “This is how I look?” So many mornings were spent in front of the mirror in hopes that something would change. I excelled in school subjects while my sisters surpassed in attractiveness. I would have traded my A’s for just one day of prettiness. The mirror became my prison and my perceived value was worthlessness. Then I became Born Again and had to confront my feelings of inadequacy.

First of all, who do we belong to – the world or God? The world didn’t create us; it merely influenced the opinion of ourselves. God fashioned us and it is His estimation that matters and should define ours. God doesn’t make mistakes and He doesn’t make ugly. Yes, some of us are not the picture of a model. We do not have the hourglass figure and the flawlessly proportioned face and flowing long hair not to mention that come hither look, but we have something better. God will make beautiful the humble with His salvation (Psalm 149:4, KJV). That kind of beauty transcends time. The world’s version of loveliness is conditional and can fly away at any moment. Imagine the most beautiful model in the world. Every magazine wants her ideal image on the cover. Men all over the world desire her. What if she was in a disfiguring accident? The covers would be gone and the men’s attention would gravitate to her successor. That kind of beauty lost its conditions.

In describing Prov, Proverbs 31:29 says that outward beauty has no real significance or value. It is fleeting at best. Godly beauty has no conditions to be met or lost. When Psalm 149:4 says God will beautify us, picture the opening of a seed to reveal the magnificent interior. Inside a seed is potential for greatness. Inside of us, no matter the outward appearance, there is magnificent promise and capability that God has planned to reveal through Jesus Christ.

Inside of us is Godly beauty. I know, I know. We all want, at least once, to feel like the most beautiful woman in a room. My fantasy is walking into a ballroom in a splendid dress. I imagine every eye turned towards me, this breathtaking creature, and I hear over the chords of music, “Who is that?” That is my Cinderella fantasy that gets me through the last 10 minutes of every workout. What I truly want is to be the stunning woman that enters heaven to worship my Creator. The world’s opinion only lasts for a moment, but Jesus’ estimation lasts for eternity. That is where I try to keep my focus.

[dfroza]

being brave is doing something you believe is right

despite the fear of what others will think or do. and only God is truly right and the Spirit inspires within from our own hearts to know right from wrong behavior.

A set of lines from Today’s reading that illuminates this:

Don’t be afraid or intimidated by others, for God will bring everything out into the open and every secret will be told. What I say to you in the dark, repeat in broad daylight, and what you hear in a whisper, announce it publicly. Don’t be in fear of those who can kill only the body but not your soul. Fear only God, who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.

The Book of Matthew, Chapter 10:26-31 (The Passion Translation)

The whole chapter in The Passion Translation:

Jesus gathered his twelve disciples and imparted to them authority to cast out demons and to heal every sickness and every disease.

Now, these are the names of the first twelve apostles: first, Simon, who is nicknamed Peter, and Andrew, his brother. And then Jacob and John, sons of Zebedee. Next were Phillip and Bartholomew; then Thomas and Matthew, the tax collector; Jacob the son of Alphaeus; Thaddeus; Simon, the former member of the Zealot party, and Judas the locksmith, who eventually betrayed Jesus.

Jesus commissioned these twelve to go out into the ripened harvest fields with these instructions: “Don’t go into any non-Jewish or Samaritan territory. Go instead and find the lost sheep among the people of Israel. And as you go, preach this message: ‘Heaven’s kingdom realm is accessible, close enough to touch.’ You must continually bring healing to lepers and to those who are sick, and make it your habit to break off the demonic presence from people, and raise the dead back to life. Freely you have received the power of the kingdom, so freely release it to others. You won’t need a lot of money. Travel light, and don’t even pack an extra change of clothes in your backpack. Trust God for everything, because the one who works for him deserves to be provided for.

“Whatever village or town you enter, search for a godly man who will let you into his home until you leave for the next town. Once you enter a house, speak to the family there and say, ‘God’s blessing of peace be upon this house!’ And if those living there welcome you, let your peace come upon the house. But if you are rejected, that blessing of peace will come back upon you. And if anyone doesn’t listen to you and rejects your message, when you leave that house or town, shake the dust off your feet as a prophetic act that you will not take their defilement with you. Mark my words, on the day of judgment the wicked people who lived in the land of Sodom and Gomorrah will have a lesser degree of judgment than the city that rejects you, for the people of Sodom and Gomorrah did not have the opportunity that was given to them! Now, remember, it is I who sends you out, even though you feel vulnerable as lambs going into a pack of wolves. So be as shrewd as snakes yet as harmless as doves.”

“Be on your guard! For there will be those who will betray you before their religious councils and brutally beat you with whips in their public gatherings. And because you follow me, they will take you to stand trial in front of rulers and even kings as an opportunity to testify of me before them and the unbelievers. So when they arrest you, don’t worry about how to speak or what you are to say, for the Holy Spirit will give you at that very moment the words to speak. It won’t be you speaking but the Spirit of your Father repeatedly speaking through you.

“A brother will betray his brother unto death—even a father his child! Children will rise up against their parents and have them put to death. Expect to be hated by all because of my name, but be faithful to the end and you will experience life and deliverance. And when they persecute you in one town, flee to another. But I promise you this: you will not deliver all the cities and towns of Israel until the Son of Man will have made his appearance.

“A student is not superior to his teacher any more than a servant would be greater than his master. The student must be satisfied to share his teacher’s fate and the servant his master’s. If they have called the head of the family ‘lord of flies,’ no wonder they malign the members of his family.

“Don’t be afraid or intimidated by others, for God will bring everything out into the open and every secret will be told. What I say to you in the dark, repeat in broad daylight, and what you hear in a whisper, announce it publicly. Don’t be in fear of those who can kill only the body but not your soul. Fear only God, who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. You can buy two sparrows for only a copper coin, yet not even one sparrow falls from its nest without the knowledge of your Father. Aren’t you worth much more to God than many sparrows? So don’t worry. For your Father cares deeply about even the smallest detail of your life.

“If you openly and publicly acknowledge me, I will freely and openly acknowledge you before my heavenly Father. But if you publicly deny that you know me, I will also deny you before my heavenly Father.

“Perhaps you think I’ve come to spread peace and calm over the earth—but my coming will bring conflict and division, not peace. Because of me,

A son will turn against his father,

a daughter her mother

and against her mother-in-law.

Within your own families you will find enemies.

“Whoever loves father or mother or son or daughter more than me is not fit to be my disciple. And whoever comes to me must follow in my steps and be willing to share my cross and experience it as his own, or he cannot be considered to be my disciple. All who seek to live apart from me will lose it all. But those who let go of their lives for my sake and surrender it all to me will discover true life!

“Whoever receives you receives me, and whoever receives me receives the One who sent me. Whoever receives a prophet because he is God’s messenger will share a prophet’s reward. And whoever welcomes a good and godly man because he follows me will also share in his reward. And whoever gives a cup of cold water to one of my humble disciples, I promise you, he will not go unrewarded.”

The Book of Matthew, Chapter 10 (The Passion Translation)

and a few encouraging words from Today’s devotional email sent by The Passion Translation as Whispers (written by Brian Simmons and Gretchen Rodriguez)

I Hear His Whisper . . .

All I have asked for is your heart.

I’ve seen your struggle. I’ve heard you crying out to know me more. I know that you want to please me, but feel as though you just can’t get it right. Beloved, we are in this together. Meaningful relationships are raw and genuine—each person free to be themselves. I want you to be yourself. I created you and love you just the way you are. You don’t have to perform for me or try to impress me. I simply want you to get to know me—to not only know me as Lord and Savior but enjoy me as Friend.

Let me smooth out the rough edges. Let me teach you how to walk as my child. Don’t worry if you mess up. Just stay close to me with a tender heart and admit when you notice I’m tapping on areas that need to change. Growing into my image isn’t a duty; it’s something you desire to do when you get to know me on a deeper level. Stop putting so much pressure on yourself and relax. All I’ve ever asked for is your heart—completely.

Romans 12:2

The Passion Translation

Stop imitating the ideals and opinions of the culture around you, but be inwardly transformed by the Holy Spirit through a total reformation of how you think. This will empower you to discern God’s will as you live a beautiful life, satisfying and perfect in his eyes.

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Today’s paired chapters of Matthew 10 and Numbers 33 reminds me of the address number 10733 of Love envelopes, inc. in Tulsa, Oklahoma with a view here i took on Saturday, march 2 of ‘19

and a personal poetic memory about opening to share secrets:

And to accompany Today’s reading here’s a set of posts by John Parsons of the page [Hebrew for Christians] on Facebook:

"Blessed is the person who does not heed the counsel of the wicked, nor take the path of sinners, nor join the company of the insolent; but his delight is the Torah of the LORD (תּוֹרת יהוה), and in his Torah he meditates day and night" (Psalm 1:1-2). Note that the Hebrew word "torah" (תּוֹרָה), often confusingly translated as "law," comes from a verb (יָרָה) that means to aim or direct something to its goal. Torah therefore is a general term suggesting direction, focus, volition, training, instruction, or guidance as imparted by a teacher.

Now since the Torah of the LORD is comprised of sacred words spoken to guide our souls, its synonym is rightly called the Word of God (דּבר יהוה), the Agency that reveals heavenly truth to the heart of faith, as it says: "The Word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart" (Heb. 4:12). In other words the Torah of the LORD "cuts to the bone," past all the outer layers to connect with the inmost of who and what we are. Torah is therefore not something abstract but intensely personal; its message penetrates and transforms the listening heart, directing it to understand God's passion that is behind the words.

"My child, keep your father's commandment (i.e., mitzvah, “connection”), and do not forsake your mother's instruction (i.e., Torah, guidance); bind them over your heart; fasten them around your neck. When you walk about, they will guide you; when you lie down, they will watch over you; when you wake up, they will talk to you. For the commandment (mitzvah) is like a lamp, instruction (Torah) is like a light, and rebukes of discipline (musar) are like the road leading to life" (Prov. 6:20-23). O LORD our God, help us to love your Torah and to meditate upon it all day long (Psalm 119:97). Amen. [Hebrew for Christians]

6.24.20 • Facebook

Christian (and Jewish) theology insists that truth matters, and knowing the truth about God is absolutely essential for life itself. Nothing is more important. Nothing is more vital. “This is eternal life (חַיֵּי עוֹלָם), that they may know you, the only true God (אֶל־אֱמֶת), and Yeshua the Messiah (יֵשׁוּעַ הַמָּשִׁיחַ) whom you have sent (John 17:3). The truth sets us free; it is the unbreakable seal that bears witness of reality. In the Gospel of John it is recorded that Yeshua said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life” (i.e., ᾽Εγώ εἰμι ἡ ὁδὸς καὶ ἡ ἀλήθεια καὶ ἡ ζωή). The Greek word translated “truth” in this verse is aletheia (ἀλήθεια), a compound word formed from an alpha prefix (α-) meaning “not,” and lethei (λήθη), meaning “forgetfulness.” (In Greek mythology, the “waters of Lethe” induced a state of oblivion or forgetfulness.) Truth is therefore a kind of “remembering” something forgotten, or a recollecting of what is essentially real. Etymologically, the word aletheia suggests that truth is also “unforgettable” (i.e., not lethei), that is, it has its own inherent and irresistible “witness” to reality. In that sense light is a metaphor for truth: “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it” (John 1:5). There can be no truth apart from moral reality. People may lie to themselves, but ultimately truth has the final word.

Greek scholars note that the word lethei itself is derived from the verb lanthano (λανθάνω), which means “to be hidden,” so the general idea is that a-letheia (i.e., truth) is non-concealment, non-hiddenness, or (put positively) revelation or disclosure. Thus the word of Yeshua - His message, logos (λόγος), revelation, and presence - is both “unforgettable” and irrepressible. Yeshua is the Unforgettable One that has been manifest as the express Word of God (דְּבַר הָאֱלהִים). Yeshua is the Light of the world (אוֹר הָעוֹלָם) and the one who gives us the “light of life” (John 8:12). Though God’s message can be supressed by evil and darkened thinking, the truth is self-evident and intuitively certain (see Rom. 1:18-21).

We have a moral imperative, given by God Himself, to receive the truth and to live according to the nature of spiritual reality. Those who reject or suppress the truth, however, are responsible for their actions, as it is written, “No one who practices deceit shall dwell in my house; no one who utters lies shall continue before my eyes” (Psalm 101:7). [Hebrew for Christians]

6.24.20 • Facebook

How do we share the message of God with others? How do we reveal the truth of Messiah in this world? In other words, how may the Spirit of God be manifest within us? The Scriptures say first to "sanctify the Messiah" within our hearts and then we will be ready to give a reason for our hope -- though we must do so in humility and reverence before heaven" (1 Pet. 3:15). We sanctify the Lord by choosing to make sacred place for him within our consciousness; we enshrine him and make him beautiful within our affections and actions (Exod. 15:2). When God said to his people, "Let them make for me a sacred place (i.e., mikdash: מִקְדָּשׁ) that I may dwell in their midst," then, he was inviting them to make room within their hearts (בְּתוֹכָם) for His Presence to be revealed (Exod. 25:8). King David understood this principle: "I have set the LORD always before me..." (Psalm 16:8). In other words we must open our eyes to see; we must humble ourselves to believe; and we must open our hearts before the greatness of God. This is the first step, as Yeshua taught us: Avinu shebashamayim, yitkadesh shemekha - "Our Father in heaven, let your Name be sanctified" (Matt. 6:9). As we sanctify the Lord we bear witness of the truth of Reality, and the Spirit of God will empower us to living signs of the Divine Presence. “But the fruit of the Spirit (פְּרִי הָרוּחַ) is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness... (Gal. 5:22-23).

"Know therefore this day and lay it to your heart, that the LORD is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath; there is no other" (Deut. 4:39). Note that the phrase “lay it to your heart” in this verse may better be rendered as “return to your heart” (וַהֲשֵׁבתָ אֶל־לְבָבֶךָ), suggesting that the truth of the LORD is found there – within the heart that truly seeks him (Jer. 29:13). Hashivenu! In other words, the truth is found in the heart’s seeking for the LORD and His love. Know this truth today... "The most important part of teaching is to teach what it is to know," that is, to know "in your heart." [Hebrew for Christians]

6.24.20 • Facebook

The Spirit of God cries out, “choose life that you may live!” (Deut. 30:19), which implies that is our responsibility to believe in the Reality of God, to trust in his providential care, to affirm that “all is well and all manner of thing shall be well,” and to understand that our present struggle is designed by heaven to help us grow in grace and the knowledge of the truth (1 Pet. 3:16). All things work for our good (Rom. 8:28) and therefore we “choose life” both in happier moments when all goes well, but also (and especially) in the midst of our afflictions, in the panting of our hearts for deliverance, in the loneliness of our heartache, and in the lament of our soul over the pain of our sins (Psalm 25:16). Faith courageously refuses the messages of fear, silences the angry voices of this world, and resists the idols of the age that offer spurious respite from the struggle at hand... “If we live by the Spirit let us also walk in the Spirit” (Gal. 5:25). We may ask God to help us choose life, but what does that mean if not asking God to grant us the ability to believe in the miracle of love - despite everything else? Choosing life involves the surrender of the heart and the will to the promise of God, choosing to receive the blessing of the Divine Presence – his word, his promise, and his healing – and resolutely deciding to live in light of that hope today...

To de-cide means to “cut away” other options. Yeshua tells us to “take up the cross and die” because that which is dead no longer suffers from ambivalence and carnal inner conflict... "I have been crucified with Messiah (Χριστῷ συνεσταύρωμαι): it is no longer I who live, but Messiah who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me" (Gal. 2:20). There are no "half-measures" here; when we accept that we have already been crucified with Messiah, we confess that our true life is not here, in this world, but is bound up in Him, and that God alone is our ultimate concern and end. In that sense, the life we now live in the flesh "catches up" with the truth and power that God has decreed for our salvation.

If we are spiritually identified with Yeshua, we are both made "dead" to this age (olam hazeh) and awakened to a realm that transcends the appeals of the flesh (olam habah). We no longer live chayei sha'ah (חַיֵּי שָׁעָה, "fleeting life") but chayei olam (��ַיֵּי עוֹלָם, "eternal life"). "If then you have been raised with Messiah, seek the things that are above (τὰ ἄνω ζητεῖτε), where the Messiah is seated at the right hand of God; focus your thoughts on the things above - not on things here on earth - for you have died, and your life has been hidden with Messiah in God" (Col. 3:1-4). The aorist verb "you have died" indicates "you have died once for all," that is, that this is a condition granted by the power and agency of God on your behalf. You don't "try to die" to the flesh; you accept what God has done by killing its power over you through Yeshua...

All this takes faith of course. Affirm then that you are dead to this world; you are dead to sin's power; you are set free and no longer enslaved to the deception of the worldly matrix, etc. Now you are made alive to an entirely greater and more powerful order and dimension of reality, namely, the spiritual reality that is not disclosed to the vanity of this age. Therefore we are to consciously focus our thoughts (φρονέω) on the hidden reality of God rather than on the temporal world that is passing away: "For we are looking not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient (i.e., "just for a season," καιρός), but the things that are unseen are eternal" (2 Cor. 4:18). [Hebrew for Christians]

6.25.20 • Facebook

Today’s paired chapter of the Testaments of Numbers 33 documents the travels of Israel through the 40 wilderness years:

Based on the meticulous records of departure points Moses kept, at the direction of the Eternal One, he reported that the Israelites’ wilderness journey from Egypt led by Moses and Aaron followed this itinerary: They started out from Rameses in Egypt on Month 1, day 15 (the day after observing the Passover), and were exalted before the Egyptians’ eyes (who were burying their firstborn dead, struck down by God, and whose gods the Eternal was punishing). The Israelites’ first camp after Rameses was Succoth. The next, Etham, was right where the wilderness begins. From Etham, they went toward Pi-hahiroth, facing Baal-zephon, and camped in front of Migdol. From Pi-hahiroth, they crossed the sea and entered the wilderness proper. For three days, they crossed that Etham Wilderness, stopping over at Marah and then Elim. That was a good spot to camp. Elim was an oasis with 12 springs and 70 palm trees. After Elim, their next stop was at the coast of the Red Sea; then they camped in the Sin Wilderness. After leaving Sin, they traveled to Dophkah, then Alush, and then Rephidim. At that point, the people were getting desperate for water and ornery on account of their discomfort and thirst. There, God told Moses to produce water for them from out of a rock. After that, the Sinai Wilderness. Their stopping places after Sinai were first Kibroth-hattaavah, then Hazeroth. They camped as they moved from place to place through Rithmah, Rimmon-perez, Libnah, Rissah, Kehelathah, and Mount Shepher. From there they moved through Haradah, Makheloth, Tahath, and Terah. Continuing their journey from place to place, they went through Mithkah, Hashmonah, Moseroth, Bene-jaakan, Hor-haggidgad, and Jotbathah. They camped in Abronah, Ezion-geber, Kadesh (in the Zin Wilderness), and then Mount Hor (on the Edomite border). It was at Mount Hor that Aaron the priest went up the mountain and died as the Eternal said he would. That was in the 40th year after the Israelites had left Egypt, and it happened on the first day of the fifth month. Aaron was 123 years old when he died on Mount Hor. That was also when the Canaanite king of Arad, from the Negev region, caught wind of the Israelites’ arrival and attacked them.

After Mount Hor, their next camp site was Zalmonah, then Punon, Oboth, Iye-abarim (on Moab’s border), Dibon-gad, Almon-diblathaim, and Nebo’s foothills of Abarim. From Abarim, they set up camp on the flatlands of Moab, on the western banks of the Jordan River, east of Jericho. Their camp stretched from Beth-jeshimoth on the riverbank to Abel-shittim in the flatlands.

In that Moabite flatland, next to the Jordan, east of Jericho, the Eternal One told Moses to speak to the people.

Eternal One: Tell this new generation of Israelites that as soon as they cross the Jordan into Canaan, they must make its inhabitants flee. They must obliterate any carved or molded images of other gods and goddesses and the high places where they’re worshiped. Tell them they must take that land. I promised it to them and have determined they should live in it as their own. Divide it up among the people by clan, and make decisions about who gets what partly based on the size of the groups. But once you’ve made that rough distinction, draw lots for the specific territories. Whatever you draw, that’s how the land shall be allotted. Each of the tribes from Jacob’s extended families shall have their own land. If they do not fully conquer and take the land from its native inhabitants, those remaining people will be a constant irritation, causing trouble and annoyance like thorns in their eyes and barbs in their sides because if they don’t fully dispossess the present occupants, I will do to the Israelites what I would have done to the Canaanites.

The Book of Numbers, Chapter 33 (The Voice)

my personal reading of the Scriptures for Thursday, june 25 of 2020 with a paired chapter from each Testament along with Today’s Psalms and Proverbs