#ok the for real answer is that in obey me-verse he gets to get away with being unemployed as long as he's not being too much of a nuisance

[shootingstarrfish]

DOES MY FAVORITE 33 YEAR OLD BOBBY GRILL (gender neutral) HAVE A JOB???????

yeah his job is being cute <3

[bastardtetsu]

critical thinking | ch②

pairing: kuroo tetsuro x gn!reader

genre: college au, enemies to lovers, tsundere!reader, slow burn

wc: 1.7k

warning: swearing, being a theatre major

※ mlist | ① ● ③ ④

after several weeks of douchebag exposure therapy, you’re practically numb to kuroo’s bullshit - for the most part. you still get a bit flustered when you get things wrong, but his teasing barely phases you since you’ve abandoned the concept of speaking to him with respect.

“STILL struggling with balancing equations, y/n??” he chides as you work on your homework, “jeez, maybe i need to start giving you extra assignments.”

“on god kuroo, if you try to make me do any more chemistry than is absolutely necessary i will make sure you never know a day of peace in your life.”

“but y/n,” he teases, “you know if you don’t practice you’ll never get any better.”

“i’m not trying to ‘get better,’ i’m trying to pass the class.”

“ahh, no ambition. you hate to see it.”

“wanna shut the fuck up and let me do my homework?” you snap.

“see, there’s that passion!”

he really is insufferable. you roll your eyes and groan, turning your attention away from the mocking rooster & back to your homework while he gets up to stretch his legs.

what he said wasn’t wrong, you are struggling with the whole balancing equations thing. your brain feels like it’s working on overdrive as you scribble away - numbers are definitely not your strong suit.

you can hear him start to snicker behind you as you work. you pause your writing and turn around to see him peeking over your shoulder with a sadistic smile on his face.

“is something funny?” you ask, unimpressed. his smile softens a bit as you stare him down.

“you’re doing it wrong,” he says, and leans down to correct your work. his face is much closer to yours now, you can almost feel the warmth of his breath as his arm reaches around your right side to write in your notebook while his left hand rests on the back of your chair, practically enveloping you.

resisting the urge to turn and stare at the annoying, criminally sculpted face that’s now inches away from yours, you fix your eyes on his hand as he writes and try to ignore how warm you suddenly feel.

his hands are big, you think, noticing how much smaller your pencil looks when he holds it. you can smell his cologne again, too. sandalwood or whatever.

“there, see?” he says, turning his head to look at you.

your faces are still so close.

what is it about his eyes that makes his stare feel so intense every time?

you quickly avert your gaze back to the page of notes, focusing extra hard on the numbers so you can ignore the beat your heart skipped just now. somehow, the equation in front of you looks even more indecipherable than it did before. and why does your face feel so hot?

“i… still don’t get it,” you admit tentatively. he just lets out a soft chuckle, letting his gaze drop for a second before locking eyes with you, lips curled into a smirk.

“you really are bad at this.”

another electric shock of embarrassment mixed with rage jolts through you.

“yeah, and what?” you challenge, “that makes me dumber than you? ok, well if you’re so smart why don’t you try telling me about willy loman’s superobjective in death of a salesman? or identifying the difference between verse and prose in classical text?? i bet you don’t even know who anton chekhov is, but sure, i’m the idiot because i don’t know how to balance a damn equation. how about learn your shit, and then you can teach me mine.”

kuroo just stands there for a moment, taken aback by your outburst. then the bitch starts laughing.

“what’s funny?!!” you interrogate, your voice getting louder. his laugh sounds like a goddamn hyena.

“y/n oh my god,” he chokes out between cackles, “you’re such a nerd!”

“ME??!!?!” you just about scream, furious, “you’re calling me a nerd?? have you met yourself??!”

“well at least i’m not in danger of failing a class,” he giggles.

“that has nothing to do with this,” you snap.

“so who’s anton chek-whatever?” he prods, still amused.

“see, you’re laughing but you’re the one sounding stupid this time,” you grumble. you can tell he’s just searching for something else to tease you about, but you can’t resist the opportunity to turn the tables & be the one schooling him for once. “chekhov. he’s a famous playwright. from russia. one of the early pioneers of modernism in the late 19th/early 20th century - not that you’d even know what that means.”

“you’re right, i don’t,” he relents, “but you seem like you do. nerd.” his eyes have an extra glint in them as they narrow with another taunting smirk.

“leave me alone, you’re the one who asked,” you groan, finally fed up with his antics. “look, i need to finish this homework before i get out of here. otherwise it’s never getting done.”

“i’ll check your answers when you’re finished,” he offers.

“only if you’re not a dick about it.”

“you only think I’m being a dick when you get the answer wrong.”

“SHUT UP.”

—

as midterms approach, the stress is starting to get to you as your workload gets heavier and heavier. maybe that’s why you seem extra snarky towards your annoying, hot, annoyingly hot chemistry tutor today.

“y/n, did you review chemical bonds like i told you to last week?” he chides after you get another homework question wrong. sometimes he really does sound like a teacher, or someone’s dad. but thankfully, he is neither of those things, which means you can comfortably trash him.

“sorry i have things to worry about besides memorizing how electrons work,” you snark, “what about you? this isn’t even your major, do you not have other shit to do besides come here & make fun of me?”

“hey, i do this because i love it!” he protests dramatically. you can see the smirk in his eyes.

“sure” you sneer back, “look, i don’t know about you, but some of us actually have to work for our degrees. we don’t have time to waste bullying people who don’t know science for fun.”

“who says I can’t do both?”

now you’re starting to get annoyed.

“dude for real. do you know how busy i am?? like, ALL the time??? why else do you think i’m here? i wouldn’t be in this shitty class if i had room for anything else. i can’t even go to my professor’s office hours!”

“ah, well, that explains a lot.”

“shut up,” you jab, “the only reason i keep coming back to your dumb ass tutoring hours is because my schedule is so goddamn packed i can’t meet up with anyone else.”

“sure, whatever you say y/n,” he croons, tone dripping in sarcasm.

“what’s that supposed to mean?”

“oh you know,” he teases, eyes full of mischief. you really don’t though?

“you’re full of shit,” you mutter dismissively. he’s trying to egg you on to say something stupid so he can ridicule you for it, but you can see right through him.

“i’m not the one dodging the subject,” he grins, his eyes unmoving from you as you turn back to your paper. even facing away from him, you can feel his laser beam of a stare on you as if he were breathing right down your neck. ha, i wish. wait— “you know, you’re not gonna get very far on that worksheet if you didn’t do any review.”

“would you be quiet?” you snap at him, fed up with his condescension, “or better yet, maybe do your job and help me figure it out?”

“well,” he purrs with a sickly sweet smirk, “only since you asked so nicely.”

you make sure to roll your eyes extra hard at him to make up for the way your heartbeat quickened at his flirtatious tone.

thankfully, he actually obeys your request this time and tones down the teasing as he explains chemical bonds, doing his best to help you through each homework problem step-by-step. usually he can tell when you’re actually getting irritated and makes up for it like this. you’re silently grateful for this form of kindness from him, even if it’s only because you’re a nightmare to work with otherwise.

as you wrap up your session with him - late once again, but he never minds staying past the end of his tutoring hours since he has the rest of the day off anyway - you hurriedly pack your things, grumbling a complaint about how now you don’t have time to get something to eat before you meet with your scene partner to rehearse your acting midterm. while it’s pretty normal for you to miss meals because of your schedule, it’s frustrating nonetheless, especially after your brain has just been fried by molecular bonds.

“oi, y/n,” kuroo says as you turn to leave. you pause, bracing yourself for whatever stupid comment he’s about to make.

“take care of yourself,” he says, a tinge of concern just barely distinguishable in his tone, before adding, “and remember to review covalent and ionic bonds!” you sigh. he sounds like a dad again.

“see, those are contradictory statements,” you gripe, “chemical bonds could not be further from self care.” he chuckles softly at that.

“at least make sure you eat, ok? maybe you’d get better at chemistry if you had more nutrients.”

“BYE, kuroo,” you call out, already headed for the door.

as you hurry towards your next destination, you can’t get your mind off of how weird it was to see kuroo acting… worried about you? normally his reaction to your struggling is just to tease you about it, but this was new for him. you’re not sure how to feel about it, and it’s hard to tell when the adrenaline of being in a rush is making your heartbeat do all sorts of things that might be confused with something else.

either way, there’s no way you’re reviewing a goddamn thing before next week.

a/n: yeah ok my theatre major jumped out in this one.. i can’t believe i’m posting a fic where i talk about superobjectives & chekhov unironically dsfdddfs hope that doesn’t ruin the experience for u, i really tried to do some research so y/n and kuroo could have an actual discussion about chemistry but turns out i’m dumb in real life so u get this instead

[vyladromeave]

From The Ashes

a/n: hhhhhh so i wrote this for practice but here i am posting it anyways. kinda edgy. ok who am i kidding its very edgy. based off this hc i have that since shadowknights are basically the shadow lord’s weapons, they get “forged” like one when they become a shadowknight. yeet. its from vylad’s p.o.v if that isn’t obvious enough dfshjfsjghdh. alternate title is What The Fuck What The Fuck Everything Is On Fire What the F u- (also, i finally got an ao3! you can read this fic here!)

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The first thing he feels is heat. Its burning his skin, but it hurts less than he feels it should. All he can see is a field of orange and red around him, and it's making his nerves go numb. The heat feels more like needles covering every inch of his skin. The liquid flames seem to almost shape his body, reform him anew, but thats what catches him. Anew from what? Reshaped from where? And then the memories hit him all at once.

He was stabbed. Stabbed? Betrayed. A knife through his back. The location of the wound, just off-center and to the left on his lower back, flares up in pain. This pain isn't like the ever present needles burning into his skin. This time it hurts. But the memories won't stop. Who stabbed him? A friend? No. Family? That sounds familiar. A brother? It was a brother yes, his memories return to him in a storm. It was Zane's fault. For a second, he's almost shocked, but then he realizes that he really should have seen this coming. Zane had always wanted him out of the way, always treated him as if he were a stranger, a thief, someone who did not belong.

As his memories returned to him, so did the pain of the lava (He was pretty sure by now that it was lava that he was floating in). It started to burn away at him, from both the inside and out. His lungs burned. He had no way of knowing how long he had been under the surface, but right now he needed air. He thrashed around, and started swimming in the direction he assumed was up. He had no way to tell up from down, and no idea if the direction he was going was the right one, but by the time he started to doubt himself it was too late to turn back around. His body felt numb, his lungs felt like weights dragging him down. Just as black started creeping into the corners of his vision, he broke the surface of the pool.

He took a deep breath of air- real air- and coughed up the lava that had crept into his lungs. Sure it was bitter, and acrid, and tasted like ash and candle wax, but it was air. He was breathing. He wasn't dead. Not fully. That thought gave him the strength to pull himself out of the pit of lava and over the edge. The cold air stung against his skin- his armor? Looking down, he was dressed in obsidian black metal with red highlights. It struck him as odd, but not as odd as taking a bath in lava, so he simply accepted it for the moment and just laid there on the floor.

The world around him felt different from the one he knew. He wasn't quite sure if it was the I think I just died or the this is not the world I used to live on thoughts that he felt tangling at the back of his brain. He wasn't quite sure how they'd got there in the first place. Everything that he knew and everything that he'd just experienced warred with each other in his head. He had just died, but now he was breathing. He'd known the Earth, but this clearly wasn't anywhere there. He'd never touched real armor in his life- his father had never allowed it- and yet here he was, laying on the floor of some lava ridden cult in a full suit of it. It was pretty safe to say he had no idea what the hell was going on. He was pretty sure that the panic of the whole situation was so much that it had basically collapsed on itself. He had no strength or motivation to do anything but lay there.

And then​ there was noise. A voice. A figure stood in the doorway (How long had that been there for? Was the figure always standing there?) clad in a similar armor to his. He stared at the figure cautiously, eyes wide, like a deer in headlights. And then the figure spoke.

"On your feet, soldier."

Soldier? He wasn't a soldier, he wasn't even an adult. He didn't trust his voice to respond, his throat ached and his lungs still felt like they were on fire. Instead he sat up slightly and shook his head weakly, but the figure didn't seem to take that for an answer. Lacking the energy to argue, he decided to tough it out and speak up. His voice was rough and hoarse, as if he had been screaming for the past couple hours. (Which he figured could have been possible. Who knows what happened before he'd regained consciousness here).

"I'm not-"

"Not what? If you aren't going to obey our lord's orders, then I'm sure he'd have no problems with me tossing you back into the lava."

His eyes widened, not so much out of fear, but more out of shock at the situation at hand. He tried not to let the soldier's words phase him. He was well versed in diplomacy (the one thing his father had cared to teach him), and figured that bending to the person's intimidation would only make things worse. He kept his voice level.

"That's not what I meant at all. I just want to know what's going on." Slightly risky, but the person seemed honest so far, if not brutally so. But the soldier rolled his eyes in response, as if he'd had to explain this a hundred times already.

"You are a knight of the Shadow Lord now. You are his blade, his weapon. He chose to spare you, save you from the fate of death, reforge you in flame as any trusted blade would be."

He could've imagined it, but it seemed as if the figure had a mocking tone. Formalities and speeches did not seem to be his point of interest. In fact, he gave up on the fancy speech shortly.

"You know, there aren't a lot that survive that process. I'll be honest with you, there aren't many of us right now. We're building up from nothing. But the fire inside you burned brighter than the fire around you, and that sort of willpower is gonna get you a lot of places. You might just make it around here."

He paused for a second, and then the figure turned around and started down the hallway behind him. He made no motion to follow, but Vylad had no intention of being left behind. He stood up, albeit a bit clumsily, and followed cautiously after him. The other soldier, although he tried to hide it,  seemed almost excited to lead. Vylad wasn't very eager to find out where they were headed, but he was reassured by the other person acting less like a soldier and more like an average human.

"I'm Zenix, by the way. Remember it. I'm gonna be the best of this place eventually. You got a name?"

"... It's Vylad."

"Ohhh as in like, the bastard son of O'khasis? Man, didn't know that was a common name. Yikes."

"... Yeah. Rough luck, I guess."

They continued down the hall together.

[dailyaudiobible]

04/12/2021 DAB Transcript

Joshua 5:1-7:15, Luke 15:1-32, Psalms 81:1-16, Proverbs 13:1

Today is the 12th day of April welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I'm Brian it is wonderful to be here with you today as we move into this week and get settled and get to work. We’re also getting settled and taking the next step forward in the Scriptures in this adventure that we are on together for a year all the way through the Bible all the way through a year all the way through life together. So, we…we’re getting ourselves moved into the book of Joshua. A couple days ago we began the book of Joshua, which was definitely and is definitely a transition. We crossed the Jordan River in our reading yesterday and it…in our reading anyway, it was the first time we’ve been there in 400 years, more than 400 years, but this time we’ve crossed the Jordan River with the children of Israel with the intention of settling the land, the promised land. And, so, let's dive in. We’re reading from the New English Translation this week. Joshua chapter 5 verse 1 through 7 verse 15.

Commentary:

Okay. So, in the gospel of Luke today we have a very, very famous passage, a famous story or a parable told by Jesus about the lost son who returned. And we know the story, we just read the story, so I don’t have to re-tell the story. And there are so many ways of looking at this story. It's a beautiful story that has been examined from a bunch of angles. I just want to kind of zoom in to the last part of the story because it seems as if one of the main points of the story is that…is that it's all already yours. That is essentially what gets said to the older son who is a little confused and a little ticked off that his…his brother comes home and all the sudden there’s this grand celebration, when this brother, all he did was take half of the assets and go squander them and wild living. And then he comes home, and he has the audacity to come home. And then dad is so excited that he's killing the fattened…like they're throwing a huge party. So, he’s a little bit exasperated and there's this confrontation with the father where he's like, “look I've served…I’ve served you…I’ve served you faithfully. I’ve done what you told me to do. I've obeyed your commands and you never did anything like this for me.” And the father's response, I mean quoting Jesus, the father says to the disgruntled son, “son, you are always with me and everything that belongs to me is yours. It was appropriate to celebrate and be glad for your brother. He was dead and is alive. He was lost and is found.” In other words, the father is saying, “son, it's all already yours.” And in the case of the story the son that had gone off and wild…and lived wild and squandered his resources, he's back alive but he already spent his resources. He's back with his father but everything in the estate belongs to his father and will be passed to the first son because the second son already took his reward and squandered it. So, the father's like, “I'm just glad to have my son back. Everything else is already yours.” The way that this becomes a mirror for us in our own lives is when we put ourselves in that same position. “I've been serving you faithfully. I have obeyed your commands. I have been faithful and loyal to you. And yet I look around and see blessing descending on people who don't deserve it. And you never did anything like that for me.” And you see how we can get into that posture very easily. I bet that even as I'm describing this, we can think of situations that are currently in our lives or have been in our lives we’re we’ve felt that way. And, so, it might help us when we find ourselves in this kind of tired out weary worn-out situations where you feel like, “I'm…I'm trying to be faithful, and I just don't see any breakthrough. I don't see any forward progress.” It would help us to remember what the father in the story says. “You are with me all the time and everything that belongs to me is yours. It's all already yours. Let's celebrate that one who was dead to us is the live.

Prayer:

Father, this definitely touches us in all kinds of places, places where we’re selfish and self-absorbed, places where we want to put ourselves in the in the seat of the judge where we can make the kinds of judgments that are only Yours to make. All kinds of things come from these kinds of postures. And yet if we would realize there's really nothing to get, it's all already hours that we’re not really trying to compete with each other to get more of You, that all of You has been poured out to all of us and You love us all, then we can enter into the rejoicing as well when one who is dead has been restored to us alive and when we remember that we are inheriting a kingdom. Come Holy Spirit we pray. In the mighty name of Jesus, we ask. Amen.

Announcements:

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There are resources that are available in the Daily Audio Bible Shop there, fun things, things to take that journey deeper, things to write on, things to write with, coffee and tea. Just over the years we've just developed resources for the journey through the Bible in a year. And, so, check those out at the Daily Audio Bible Shop.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com as well. There’s a link on the homepage. If you're using the Daily Audio Bible app you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner, or the mailing address is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill Tennessee 37174.

And, as always, if you have a prayer request or encouragement…well....you can hit the Hotline button that's in the app, it’s the little red button up at the top, hard to miss it, very plain, very easy to see. No matter where you are in the world, as long as you have Internet, you can hit the Hotline button and share from there, or there are a number of telephone numbers depending on where you are in the world. If you are in the Americas 877-942-4253 is number to call. If you're in the UK or Europe 44-20-3608-8078 is the number to call. And if you are in Australia or the lands down under 61-3-8820-5459 is the number to dial.

And that's it for today except to remind you of what is true every day, I love you, I’m grateful for you and I'll be waiting for you here tomorrow.

Community Prayer and Praise:

This message is to Carlos. We hear your prayer, we hear your needs, and we're all praying for you Sir. We're praying for your family, for your wife, your children, your grandchildren, and you as well. Just know that you're not alone during this time. This is Steve from Albertville AL and I just wanted to have maybe a word of encouragement that through prayer you can get through this situation. God bless you. I pray for you my friend in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Good morning DAB family it's the 8th of April I'm calling in today, this is Laura from Heather Hill Florida. I’m praying for Carlos who called in today. He's been listening to the DAB for 10 years. Carlos I’m praying for you and your family, all of you that have covid. I just know it's been a few days now since you called in and you're into this a few days and I just pray heavenly father that You would completely heal Carlos, his wife, his daughter, his grandsons. I pray You heal this family completely of this covid. I pray Father that they would recover quickly and that Father that they would not spread it to anyone else in their…in their vicinity. Lord I pray for complete healing, that they would not have any serious issues, that it would pass quickly and Lord that this virus would be eradicated soon in our world. Father, please bless this family. Protect them. Protect them from harm in Jesus’ name.

Keota from New Zealand DAB family this is my first time calling in. My name is Kate. I wanted to express my gratitude for all that I've learned and all that I’ve absorbed since the 1st of January this year when I started listening. It's really affected me deeply, the whole context of the word and understanding it. I feel like I’ve really encouraged and grown in my faith, my understanding and my relationship with God, my relationship with others. I'm seeing things in a whole new light. I was surprised by given a short notice of eviction from my rental. I live in an area where there's…it's a holiday area so there's not many rentals and everything and real estate is in high demand. So, the opportunity of getting a new place to live is very low if non-existent. Impossible would be more accurate. I decided when I got that notice I was completely relaxed and almost bemused about, “OK God. Where are we going with this? Where are you going to lead me?” The old me would have been panicking. After listening to Brian today 7th of April talking about “seek first the Kingdom” I realized that I have not been worrying, I've been relaxing and letting Him do it. And He's done it. He's provided the impossible, not only a rental but cheaper than the one I was in before and I am…had so many people just come and help. I am amazed. I am very grateful. I'm astounded. I’m humbled. So, thank you for all your input. I hope this encourages someone, that our God is a provider. God, He loves us so much. He's in every detail. Thank you.

My family is feeling a little bad because my uncle just passed away. Please Mr. Brian pray for...

Hello Daily Audio Bible family I'm reaching out. I need prayer from my beloved daughter. Her husband has been battling depression and…and mental illness of some sort and she tried fervently to get him help to get him committed and get him…and he was always able to say the right answers to not be able to be admitted to the metal place. And finally, he took things in his own hand and committed suicide on March 26th. And, so, now there's no chance of reconciliation at all, obviously, in this world. And my daughter she now wants to join him. And I thought that she meant like where he did the deed. No, she literally wants to end her life now too. They've been together 14 years. Anyway, I just appreciate if you could just uplift my daughter Robin, please. And she does know the Lord, but she is in such pain and suffering right now. I want everyone to know who even thinks of committing a suicide, do not. Do not. The pain and the horrific wave that results from it is just…if you only know how unbearable it is. Hopefully anybody who is tempted will not do it because it's just the horrific counter of the aftermath of suicide is so painful. I mean I…I grieve for people who die of natural causes or, you know, accidents or…or worse but when someone…

[significanceofsongs]

Christianity and BDSM - “You Take My Rights Away” by Skillet

Is the goal of Christianity to selectively give up your freewill and agency? Are Christians just bottoms for God? If you asked Skillet in 2000, they’d probably argue that the answer is yes - or at least that this is a good metaphor for the Christian walk. Invincible was released in the year 2000, when I was a Christian teenager that didn’t even know what BDSM was. Nevertheless, this album made me very uncomfortable - particularly the track “You Take My Rights Away”. I guess I’m just not that into BDSM. But first, let’s talk about the music:

“You Take My Rights Away” is a shiny, big Alternative Rock anthem I guess. It was during the era in the late nineties and early 2000′s when industrial music and electronic genres were starting to meld with more traditional alternative and pop rock. There’s so much production on this track it makes your head spin - from the breakbeat interludes, to the analogue blips and boops, to the ambiguous leads (is that a guitar or a synth?), it’s got a lot going on. The vocals, hooks, and melodies? Poppy. It’s more polished and busy than pretty much anything on alternative rock radio at the time. I think that’s why it didn’t get much traction - since alternative rock generally veers towards having a messy room. This song has a spotless room - with a big wall mounted bookshelf. And if you pull on a copy of “My Utmost For His Highest”, the bookshelf slides open and there’s a locked door behind it. And if you have a key, you can enter the room. Guess what? It’s a sex dungeon - replete with whips, chains, sex swings, ropes, etc.

It’s an anthem because it has a pretty, soaring minor key melody that could carry lots of topics - love lost, the mystery and wonder of the universe, the inevitable singularity, etc. But instead, it celebrates God’s meticulous, micromanaging control of his life. To be sure, he maybe voluntarily gave up control at one point, but now he’s just along for the ride. Read the lyrics with me now.

[Chorus]

You take my rights away

You take control, No stopping You

You take my rights away

I can take it, oh, oh

[Verse 1]

See me let it go

You are in control

Suffer as we grow

And we say - we say we don't want to

Holding nothing

You take everything

You're worth anything at all

[Chorus]

You take my rights away

You take control, No stopping You

You take my rights away

I can take it, oh, oh

You take my rights away

You take control, No stopping You

You take my rights away

I can take it, oh, oh

[Verse 2]

You define me

With your identity

Lose my life in You

I can take – I will take what it costs me

I showed these lyrics to my wife and she said:

“Ok clearly, he’s discovering that he’s into BDSM and trying to figure it out. He wants to write about it, but he’s in a Christian rock band and he knows no one will call him out on it if he says it’s about God or whatever. But seriously? How did anyone not notice this? It’s so blatant.”

Personally, I’m in favor of BDSM between mortals. As long as there’s no real power differential in other parts of the relationship and everyone is into it, I’d say “go for it”. But sexual relationships go from bad to ugly really fast when there’s actually a power difference between the parties. And when the power difference involves ritualized abuse, it’s not really fun anymore.

But between a god and a mortal? This is an extreme imbalance of power. 

Part 1: The Biblical and Theological background:

Would it surprise you to say that there is only one verse in the whole Bible that could be used to justify this song, and also it totally doesn’t? Thank God I don’t have to use extended block quotes this time: 

https://biblehub.com/hebrews/12-6.htm

5 And you have forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons: “My son, do not take lightly the discipline of the Lord, and do not lose heart when He rebukes you. 6For the Lord disciplines the one He loves, and He chastises everyone He receives as a son.” 7Endure suffering as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father?…

I say one verse, because it’s a recurring motif stated throughout Deuteronomy, Psalms, Proverbs, and Revelations. I won’t make you read them all, but if you click on the link, it will show them under the cross references.

But it doesn’t really justify “You Take My Rights Away” does it, because the focus is more on a parent-child relationship - and parent-child relationships are not at all analogous to BDSM relationships. For instance, in this metaphor, Children can’t consent to a BDSM relationship because BDSM is inherently sexual. Also, good parents don’t use corporal punishment these days. Child abuse is what this is called. Children can’t consent because of the power differential. Since God is much, much, much more powerful than any individual human, one could easily argue that we also could not consent to a bdsm type relationship with God. A good parent allows his or her kids to say “no” and have personal boundaries - “rights” as it were.

Furthermore, Hebrews is kind of making a messed up point, right? Maybe God controls everything. Why did I have to then be publically flogged for my beliefs in the towne square? That’s not very nice. Well, it must be because God is mad at me for (insert sin here). I guess, whatever helps you get through your day as a Christian living in the ancient Roman empire.

But the problem comes in when people try to apply ancient peoples’ coping mechanisms to their own lives. We aren’t being publicly flogged for any reason these days - especially not being Christians. To take this metaphor and twist it into some sort of ode to consensual bdsm between adults...it’s silly at best. But other words come to mind, including alienating and blasphemous. Blasphemy is sort of funny sometimes. In this case, it’s just really, really awkward.

What started out as a theodicy- an attempt to explain suffering in light of the existence of God has now turned into an ode to “God as BDSM top”. There are numerous problems with this. Let’s break down the lyrics, shall we?

See me let it go

You are in control

Suffer as we grow

And we say - we say we don't want to

Holding nothing

You take everything

You're worth anything at all

In other words, he has nothing of his own because God is in control of his life. When you’re on his boat, it’s not his boat. It’s God’s boat. I guess? Or is it that God wants him to donate the boat to the Salvation Army so that they can pay for more bell ringers at Christmas time? I’m not sure there’s a way we can know. At any rate, this seems to be an intensely personal communication that is supposed to be a bit vague for the listener. Only God and the songwriter know the concrete applications. 

His suffering is part of God’s agenda for his life. He’s willing to give up everything for God, including his right to self agency. Allow me to elaborate:

You take my rights away

You take control, No stopping You

You take my rights away

I can take it, oh, oh

You take my rights away

You take control, No stopping You

You take my rights away

I can take it, oh, oh

What are our rights?

Well according to the bill of rights, we have the right to peacefully assemble, to bear arms, to freedom of speech, etc. Does God really take these rights away? Does God come in and say, “I know you’d like to write an Op Ed about how the city government shouldn’t let the train companies start trucking oil through your city, but guess what? Nope! Instead you need to...idk...uh... how about advocate for a reduction in property taxes”? Or what? A literal reading of this section makes no sense.

But if you know a bit more about Evangelical culture and have listened to lots of sermons like I have, you’ve heard at least one sermon about obeying the voice of God in your life. Rights here seem to be shorthand for “self determination” in other words, our “rights” are our personal agency and freedom in deciding what we will do with our lives. Instead of “just” doing whatever we think is right, we should do what God says. We should follow God’s plan. Why is it important that we enter such a relationship?

If you read the New Testament as if it was handwritten by God for you, you might come to some odd conclusions. Like, this for instance. Does God actually want us to not exercise our rights to freedom of speech or assembly? Is this anywhere in the Bible? The answer is; “obviously not directly”. The whole idea of commoners having individual rights is relatively new to human history. Why would someone write a vaguely gothy pop rock song about how God doesn’t respect our rights - as established in the first 10 amendments to the constitution?

This is where it gets really convoluted so hang on to your intellectual seats with me.

The Deep Anxiety of the Evangelical Movement:

In Matthew 16, Jesus says:

24 Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 25 For whoever would save his life[a] will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. 26 For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?

In other words: “If you’re gonna call yourself a Christian, you better not be a poser. You’re either in this thing or out of it. If you’re not willing to suffer for the Gospel then you obviously don’t believe in it. If you’re not willing to go all the way with this and endure the worst, then what are you even doing here? The implication here is that if you crack under social pressure, torture, violence, mockery, the threat of death, and sell out (deny God, pretend to convert to paganism to avoid a horrid fate, etc) - then you’re gonna go to hell (aka, lose your soul). After all, Jesus went to his death on behalf of the same thing and he didn’t crack. If you’re not at least sort of like him, why even bother?

This is a great verse to have on hand when you’re trying to start a religion and keep people from selling out. If I’m leading an army to defend my city against the Mongols, I’m not going to tell them “you know, if you’re not really feeling this battle and you don’t want to die a horrible death against some Mongol who strings you up on a tree and uses you for target practice, it’s probably better if you just run off now and don’t worry about it. NO. I’m going to say: “Everyone in our city is going to die, become slaves, or be raped - or all three if you don’t give it your all in this battle. DO NOT half ass this one.”

But on the other hand, if I’m talking to a modern corporate board meeting about how we need to stop a hostile takeover by Allergan or whatever, I’m going to say something totally different. 

In other words, you would have to go through great lengths to literally be crucified in this day and age. You can go organize a protest against the government or run for office as the “King of the Jews” party and no one will pay any attention, much less torture you to death. You can scream obscenities about Zeus on a street corner, and people will generally just snicker and think you’ve lost it or hurry away in fear.  Therefore, Christians have elected to take this passage allegorically. The result is a weird brutalization of the meaning of the passage. What started as a Christian rallying call against Roman persecution has become the source of anxiety in countless American Christians - and I’d add - the source of a lot of odd behavior. Why?

If you read it metaphorically “Take up your cross” sounds like you need to submit yourself to punishment in order to be a TRUE Christian. Jesus was willing to submit himself to punishment (I doubt he actually was willing - I think he was betrayed) in order to further his cause (I doubt he thought it actually would further his cause), so you should be too. 

Generally speaking, Christians in the USA don’t have a big bad government torturing and killing them for their faith. No one is going to come to your house and say you need to surrender your Bible - or else. No one is going to burn down your church unless they’re a crazed arsonist or something. No governmental forces are currently persecuting Christians in the USA.

Therefore, Christians don’t have to literally take up their crosses and follow Jesus to their deaths to be Christians. No. In fact, it would be a nonsensical thing to do to go find some punishment to endure in the name of Jesus.

Ahem.

Part 3: What I think the A&R team at the Christian Label wants you to think:

My producers have informed me that I’m taking this way too literally. It’s a metaphor after all. Brendan, my executive producer explained that really, what Skillet wants, is for the kids who listen to the song to not drink before their 21 or smoke weed or have premarital sex. After all, these are decisions that one might make, and God doesn’t want children and youth to make them. God’s not coming in and saying literally “I’m going to punish you like a BDSM Dom”. He’s saying “You might think it would be fun to go out camping with the boys on a Friday night and bring a bunch of porn and alcohol and tell a bunch of dirty jokes or whatever, but that’s not my plan for you. My plan is for you to stay away from the gateway drugs, go to Church, quit looking at porn, find a nice girl settle down, and have Christian babies so that my children (your parents) can become grandparents and not have to worry about you anymore.”

After all, he explains, it’s hard to not give in to social pressure, and to say “no I pass on grass because I have all of the love I need from Jesus”, is pretty embarrassing. It’s kind of humiliating to not swear like everyone else because you’re trying to keep your tongue holy for the Lord. You just seem like a prude or something. Skillet isn’t talking about BDSM for God. They’re talking about staying true to the culture and values of Christianity and not giving an inch to the Devil. Kids should listen to “You take my rights away” and say: “Yes! I want God to take control of my life when I really want to go on incognito mode in Google. The suffering I feel when I’m really horny and not looking at porn will bring me closer to God”.

It’s really boring to write a song called “I don’t do drugs” and then sing about how you’re better than everyone because you’re clean. Sure, there’s probably a straight edge hardcore song called “I don’t do drugs” lurking around out there. But its boring, and legalistic, and fuddy duddy. Evangelicals don’t want you to be good because you feel like you had better (or else), or so that you can lord it over other people, or even because you are acting in your own self interest. They want you to be good because you’re in a personal relationship with God. It’s by faith, through grace that we’re saved, but you also have to die to your old self and be reborn anew in the Spirit so that you can become righteous enough to please God. God dwells within you and changes your mind so that you no longer want to be a bad person and instead want to be a good person. Therefore, God takes your rights away in the metaphorical sense. Sure, it’s technically your “right” to drink 10 PBRs and have casual with some rando. It’s 2019 after all. But God makes it so you don’t want to do those things by taking over your executive functioning and giving you the fruit of the Spirit of self control. God takes that option away for you.

If youre a Christian, you might read the first few parts of this...essay... and think you’re dealing with an idiot who doesn’t know how to think in terms of metaphor. You might think you’re dealing with a clueless atheist who is trying to understand Christianity, or to satirize it. But NO. I know about SKILLET. YOU CAN’T MANSPLAIN THE THEOLOGY TO ME! THIS IS SOVIET RUSSIA AND ATHEIST MANSPLAIN BIBLE TO YOU! Also, a minor quibble; I’m not actually an atheist. Kidding sort of aside, here is how the theology was developed: Over the centuries, theologians and pastors tried to make sense out of the Bible to varying degrees of success. How can one make the Bible mean something to 14th century English peasants? Idk. But the illiterate English Peasants are Christians, so I guess someone has to figure out how to make it make sense for them. In practice, to make a coherent narrative of salvation and holiness, theologians and Church leaders stitched several Bible verses from a few different Epistles and Gospels and stitched them together to create coherent narratives.  I can’t really blame them. They lacked a lot of the resources we have in terms of interpreting these passages. There was no internet. There was no Biblical historical criticism. There was no modern archaeological study. They had a book and a library of writings about the book by other theologians trying to do the same thing - Anselm, Aquinus, Augustine, etc. And then on top of that, they had to reinterpret the reinterpretations to fit their own times. So they wrote those interpretations down and so on and so forth. All the way down to 2020 - almost 2000 years after the first words of the New Testament were penned. So, how can we know whether our interpretation of the Bible is right? Post Modernist thoughts such as “It means whatever it means to you” aside, I’d just say I don’t think that we can know for sure whether our interpretation of the Bible is right. However, I think we can look at the consequences of the Church leaders’ teachings about the Bible in 2020 and see - if followed - how they influence people; if they make people’s lives better or worse - if following a particular interpretation gets people to where they’re “supposed” to go. So to recap here’s the interpretation:

1. Jesus died on the Cross to save us from our sins

2. We have to accept his free gift of salvation and repent of our sins in order to go to heaven. 

3. Once we have accepted the gift and repented of our sin, the Holy Spirit will come and dwell within us and change us to make us better.  4. However, many find that this process is too slow and not to their satisfaction. They want be more righteous and they want it now, but also, they know how weak they are as people.  5. They ask God to come in and take over entirely so that they don’t even WANT to sin - so that they are literally unable. They’re basically an RC car or Drone controlled by God - so that they are just being moved around to do His bidding. For example; they don’t actually want to stop looking at porn because they like it, but God will take over somehow and make it so that they can’t or won’t. 

I think that 1, 2, and 3 are pretty classic Protestant interpretations of scripture. I think that 4 and 5 are somewhat unique to American/Anglo Christianity. The Holiness movement was developed during the early Industrial Revolution by an Englishman who came to America - John Wesley. John Wesley himself probably wouldn’t even sign off on 4 and 5. I think these ideas caught on more in the fast paced 20th Century where we don’t have much time for self-reflection and there is a nearly constant barrage of stimulation. It’s easier for many to just put things in the hands of a higher power - to ask God to let them off the hook so they can mellow out in a divine reverie and float through life without a true care in the world. I personally think BDSM is not the best Aesthetic. The leather and the straps and all of that is kinda ugly to me. I don’t really get wanting to control and dominate, and I don’t really want to be controlled or dominated myself. But I have read about it a bit here and there as a matter of curiosity. It turns out that a lot of subs are rich, powerful people that have lots of responsibility and just want to be able to be “helpless” for a while. When they give themselves over to the Dom, they don’t have to think or do anything on their own - just what the Dom tells them. It’s sort of relaxing for them to not have to be in charge for a while.

Hey, if this offends you, I’m not the one who wrote. “You Take My Rights Away”. They ought to have their theological license revoked! And perhaps we should revoke that whole line of thinking. I wish I had fewer cares in my life. I wish I could just relax and be taken care of. I wish I could just follow someone else’s lead and not have to worry. But most of the time, I like to drive. I like to drive a manual in fact. I hate flying because - while it’s nice and fast - I can’t really control anything about the scenery or the environment. I’m just stuck there on that plane. Driving is a better metaphor for life than flying - unless of course, we’re the pilot of the plane. By this I mean that we are responsible for our own actions and we have to experience the consequences thereof. If we are addicted to porn, it’s us alone that has to experience the consequences. I think we’re here to learn, experience, grow, AND decide. I don’t think you can ever be fully let off the hook for any of that. 

I am not skeptical of the idea of a God. I’m probably what you’d call an “agnostic theist”. I am skeptical of “God as micromanager”. I am skeptical of the idea of “Jesus take the wheel”. I get where it comes from, I just don’t really think it lines up well with human experience. And I’m especially concerned with it when it comes to indoctrinating children - which is the real problem with “You Take My Rights Away”.

Perhaps most significantly, this may give kids the idea that they have no agency or control over what happens to them. "We're all just tools in the hands of spiritual forces." It's not like this song was the only place I heard that message. It was like, 25% of youth group messages - only presented without the weird bdsm poetry. Due to this kind of thinking, I used to have a fatalistic attitude about my life. I would say fatalistic things and my mom (who was happy to have me listening to Skillet) would argue with me - saying that I did have personal agency and control over the direction my life took. I remember it wasn't until I stopped being a Christian that I snapped out of this weird fatalism. And part of me snapping out of it was being so uncomfortable listening to Skillet, but that wasn’t the only thing. In college, I had a friend who was terrified that God wanted her to marry my other friend. She felt a strong anxiety and compulsion around it. On top of the anxiety that God wanted her to do something she didn’t want to, she was afraid that God would change her heart so that she did want to. She went to counseling and was diagnosed with anxiety. I have another friend who had the overwhelming internal obsessive thought that God wanted him to become a medical missionary and go to Africa. Only problem is, he’s terrible at science. Bro is a musician through and through. He didn’t enjoy and couldn’t get through the basic science classes required to become an RN. He quit that program and went to counseling, where he was diagnosed with OCD. Then there’s me, I thought that God wanted me to stop playing guitar (sacrifice the thing I loved the most at the time) just because he said so. I was later diagnosed with anxiety. Your kids are probably fine, be nice to them.

My mom is great in general, but on the topic of music/religion, she - like many Boomers - abdicated the parental role of trying to understand what I was listening to and to have conversations about it with me. It’s one thing to have a conversation about how “You Shook Me All Night Long” is a song about having a one night stand with a groupie, and it’s probably a lonely existence to be a rock star, and kids should save sex for marriage or whatever. And yes, it’s a catchy song, but you can get hurt and hurt people with casual sex, and also STDs and pregnancy, and consent and all of that. Using music lyrics, whether good or bad, would be a good way to bring up topics around ethical sexual relationships. She never did any of that. 

The point is, my Mom didn’t really have any conversations about music with me other than to say “these lyrics are bad (or stupid)” when I listened to a racy secular song. That’s it. Instead, she just let me listen to any Christian music and any secular music without swearing. And on the topic of Christian music, she never said anything negative about any of the lyrics. I showed her some Christian lyrics and she said “I have no idea what they’re talking about. They don’t make sense to me.” So I just stopped showing her lyrics and I kept bopping out to angsty 90′s Christian rock. I don’t think Christianity is bad. I don’t think it’s inherently unhealthy. I realize that it’s a response to oppressive and stressful situations, and it attempts to bring a higher power into the equation to make life better and to cope. I understand how Christianity has changed in meaning over the years to deal with different stressors and to aid people in different life situations.  But honestly, “you take my rights away” is a pretty scary thought for kids who have almost no rights as it is. It’s a pretty scary thought for kids like me who were already austere and pious to the point of not being very likable for most kids. “Wait, God is going to come in here and make me even lonelier and less likeable? No thanks.” It’s isolating, because instead of looking around at the world and experiencing life and enjoying people, it’s basically saying that we ought to focus inward on achieving maximum spiritual perfection. “Death to the self!” Some people pay thousands of dollars to go to South America so that they can experience an Ego death by taking Ahuyasca. And anyway, people who experience an Ego death eventually have to come back to a rational state of functioning to be able to do anything in the rest of their life. One can theoretically live one’s life in a state of enlightenment at all times, but generally one is then not worrying about whether or not to masturbate and writing songs about it. That’s to say that “You Take My Rights Away” is a weird and scary song. Sure, Slayer has songs about Nazis that are pretty scary and gross, but that’s the point. They’re trying to scare you and gross you out. When the singer of Venom bellows about Countess Bathory murdering peasant children, I’m like “Ew”. But that’s great because I just say “ew” and I move on. I don’t question whether I should live my life differently or start to believe in odd ideas. I just say “ew”. I wish I could have just listened to Slayer growing up. Not that I would have. It was too scary. What’s scarier is when a scary idea is presented to you as being something to celebrate.  And while we’re on Slayer and Venom, I sort of get why my parents wanted me to stay away from secular music. I guess every parent is a little bit afraid that their kid is going to be a sociopath. Songs about antisocial activities might give kids ideas. They believe that one doesn’t grow up to be a robber or murderer without outside influence. I disagree. I am not the nicest most agreeable person ever, but I’m also pretty empathetic to the suffering of others. The last thing I want to do is kill anyone, ever. Countess Bathory is a fun horror movie song for me, and it always would have been. However, it might be inspiration for others.  I just don’t get how my parents couldn’t see me for who I actually am and just have earnest conversations with me about stuff instead of pushing me to be a part of this weird culture of enforced piety. I have listened to a lot of heavy metal and rock about a lot of sleazy things, and I am basically a saint in the grand scheme of things. I ended up getting married and having a baby - living that straight and narrow life. It just probably happened a lot later in my life than if I had just had a little greasy phase when I was 20 or whatever. I wish I would have just gotten it out of my system then instead of flailing through my 20′s trying to figure out why I was so uncomfortable with Christianity. I feel like my parents are disappointed in me for being a normal human being and trying to figure out life. I tried to find a wife who was actually a good match for me instead of settling down when I was 20, Etc. It was really kind of hard for me. I feel like they’re sad that I didn’t want to just hand my rights over to a higher power and become a zombie for God.

But I don’t even think my mom had a sense of what I was really learning about in youth group or in the songs I was listening to. She often taught me the exact opposite of what I would learn about in Sunday school - for example, that I had personal agency and wasn’t merely subject to the control of forces outside of myself. But then if I criticized Sunday School on account of learning some weird lessons, she would defend it vigorously. Church was beyond reproach, and I should listen to them. I should never satirize or criticize, because if I do, I’m attacking Christianity (and therefore her personally). “They’re just people!” she would insist, as if that somehow made up for the wacky bullshit they were teaching me. SO! To all of the Christian parents out there that are trying to decide how to raise your kids: Here’s a bulletin: 1. Metallica or Arianna Grande are better than praise and worship music because they’re not trying to make any amateur weirdo theological claims. If your kid is actually into torturing small animals or whatever, call a psychologist. Otherwise, they’re probably fine. Be nice to them, and teach them love. If they do want to listen to Christian music, pay even more attention to the lyrics because who knows what shit they’re singing to your kids about these days? Either way, music is a great opportunity to start conversations with your kids about things, and they will respect you for it. I promise. 2. Visit your kid’s youth group with them periodically to get a sense of the kinds of messages they’re receiving and the general vibe and attitude of the place. If it feels a bit awkward or toxic to you, it might actually be that for your kid. Sounds like time for a conversation. 3. Listen to your kids when they’re unhappy about stuff instead of dismissing what they have to say and/or taking it as a personal attack. Then, when they listen to songs about flings with “The best damn woman that I ever seen”, they’ll nod sagely and keeping what you said in mind, they’ll perhaps turn those flings into long term relationships, or not but then they’ll learn from their mistakes and find someone better but then you’ll have grandkids sooner and they’ll be younger than 35 when they’re showing up to work all bleary eyed after a night of a crying baby.

This is in no way a commentary on how my life has gone so far.

[argentinian-argentum]

An original post. What? From me? Who has heard of that? No one. I am kidding, I have some, like 3 or 4 original posts, but even that is debatable. Aaaaanyway, I found this audio yesterday and I HAD to make something out of it.

Ok, ok, so, before I start, I will clarify what´s that thing up there. I found this gem while searching for stuff about Robbie Daymond (Prompto´s voice actor). He voices this character on an animated show called Breadwinners, and someone had linked a scene of the show and…DUDE, HE SINGS! Like ROBBIE FREAKING SINGS LIKE AN ANGEL AND HE KILLS IT! IT´S PROMPTO ROCK STAR GUYS! And after I heard it I got inspired and made a “little” fanfic to go with it. I know my writing won´t make my idea true justice, but I wanted to try. This is my first thing of the sorts here so be nice, and sorry for any grammatical mistake I make. I am still learning English. I am really excited. I really hope you guys like it, and please tell me what you think. So *breaths in* let´s start.

( Beware of loud parts and cartoony effects in the audio. Can´t really eliminate those XP)

Dedicated to All B who helped me and is such a great friend and I love you <3

---

JENNY QUACKLES

It was late at night. The boys were strolling through the city after a big and busy day.

“Dudes! I´m so hungry! Can we have dinner or something?”asked Prompto to the gang.

Gladio was pretty hungry too. He started looking around and had an idea. “Mmh, I know a nice diner just a couple blocks from here. Wanna try it out?” he suggested.

“I would eat anything at this point. Lead the way Gladio.”Noct said between whines.

They arrived just outside the “diner”. But it wasn´t really a diner. Noct was about to comment on his reluctance when Prompto beat him to it. “A karaoke bar?” he said. There was fear shown in his eyes.

“What? You have a problem with that?” Gladio asked judgingly.

“No, no, it´s just, I don´t want to sing.”

“You don´t have to sing just because you are eating there.” Ignis said trying to reassure Prompto. It seemed to work.

“Oh, okay then.” He said relieved “Well, what do you say Noct? You want to try this place out?”

Noctis noted Prompto´s nervousness and that made him change his mind and want to enter. “Let´s enter and eat.”

They sat at a table that was two roads away from the main stage. It was really small, only about three people could fit up there, and that was if they were willing to budge up. The table they chose was one of only two possibilities. It was either that one or another one next to the bathroom. And surely the prince wouldn´t be willing to seat near the bathroom door.

“So, Gladio, how come you know about this place?” asked Noct curiously.

“Iris likes to come here every once in a while. We come here for family outings. She is the one who sings, mostly; though I must say I have given some awesome renditions of Can't Stop by RHCP on that stage.” Gladio answered.

“Too bad we missed that.” Said the prince.

Just then a waiter appeared and gave them the menu, and with it, the list of songs that the karaoke machine had available. They started ordering, but Noct couldn´t take his eyes off the karaoke song list. He suddenly saw one song and a smirk originated in his face. He quickly hides it though; he can´t let his plan be known.

“So… have you guys seen how many songs they have listed in here?” he started saying.

“Yes, the amount of variety is rather alarming actually, although understandable. They need to attract as much clientele as possible. They certainly aren´t coming here for the food” Ignis said as he eyed off what people were eating at the other tables. Nothing really appetizing.

“Yeah, they put new ones every month. It´s impressive how they don´t run out of songs.” Gladio answered.

“You know, it would be a shame if we left this place without anyone of us singing, don’t you think Prom?”

Prompto was starting to get nervous at Noct´s questions “Emm, er, maybe. If you wanna sing you should totally do it.” He said trying to deflect Noct´s attention from him.

“I was thinking something more like you got up there and sang.”

“What? Me? Nononono, no way” Prompto was hyper nervous now.

“Come one, it will be fun”

“No thanks, I am good”

“Ok, I will sweeten the deal for you. If you sing I will gladly pay dinner AND a trip to the Chocobo Ranch” Noct said tentatively.

“The chocobo ranch?” Prompto asked. Now he was interested “But, I thought you didn´t want to go there again after last time.”

“Hey! Just ´cause I fell in the middle of the race doesn’t mean I am not going back there again.”Noctis answered. Gladio was trying to hide the giggles without success. ”Besides, this is a challenge, my opinion doesn´t matter; if you like it, we will go there.”

“Em, can I think about it?”

“Where is the catch kiddo?” Gladio now asked seriously.

“Catch?” Prompto asked.

“You must know him by now. He always has an ace under his sleeve. Spill it out, what´s the catch? Surely singing isn´t all you really want.”

Noctis tried to defy Gladio but couldn´t beat his stare. “Ugh, fine. I wanted to tell him once he agreed but I guess now I have to obey my shield.”said Noct in a sarcastic manner “I will pay for all of that if, and only if, you sing this song” he said as he pointed the chosen song with his finger.

“Jenny Quackles??!!” shouted Prompto scandalized.

“What the hell is that?” Gladio asked in confusion.

“Just a silly song from a cartoon we saw a video of. I am not singing that!”

“Aw, come on, it´s funny!” Noctis pleaded.

“Why don´t you sing it then?”

“Because I don´t want to and I am the one who is paying.”

“Leave him alone Noct, he doesn´t want to do it” Ignis said firmly.

“I..I gotta go to the bathroom, be right back” Prompto claimed as he got up and left.

Ignis turned his head and looked at Noct disapprovingly. “You shouldn´t put him in these kinds of situations Noct.”

“Aww, come on Specs. It´s harmless fun. Besides, he can just say no.”

At the bathroom, Prompto started washing his hands, and then his face. He couldn´t stop thinking. “By the Six. What should I do? I really don´t want to sing that stupid song.” he sighed” But if I do I can visit the chocobos. And they created a new track just last week.” He elevated his gaze and looked at himself in the mirror “Why am I like this? It´s just a stupid song. Just go up there sing it and it´s over. Why are you so scared?”

He knew why though, he wanted people to perceive him as an extrovert and outgoing person so they wouldn’t note his insecurities. He cared about what people thought of him, even if he didn´t know them. And singing meant full exposition, everyone can see you; after all, you can´t hide on a stage, even if it were a big one. He likes to sing but he usually does it when he is alone or around people he is close with. This, well, this was really out of his comfort zone. But he kept wondering “Could I do it?” Suddenly there was a rush of a warm feeling, almost like fire. He felt something. What was it?

Determination. He was determined to do this; to throw his fears aside for the next couple of minutes and just do it. He had never felt like this before, so secure, so motivated to do something without caring about the consequences. He decided to go out there and do it before he changed his mind.

He went straight up to Noct, who was conveniently talking to the waitress at that moment. He did not sit, but instead looked straight into his eyes and said “Let´s get this over with.”Noctis immediately started smiling and asked the waitress to prepare the next song.

Prompto waited next to the limited stage for his turn. He would go after a young woman who was singing “Stand by me”. It was a beautiful rendition though it seemed she was on the verge of tears. Prom hoped she was okay, but he immediately started concentrating and gaining strength. If he was going to sing that song he was going to sing it right, with all his self-taught skills.

The girl finished singing. A couple of people applauded her, including Prompto, and then she went down the three steps next to the stage. Sweet and caring Prompto congratulated her and gave her a sympathetic look, in case that would make her feel better. The girl smiled and wished him good luck. Accepting those wishes, he went up the steps and stood behind the microphone. There were two monitors on the floor, where the lyrics would appear. He looked forward and thought to himself “You can do this”. The first notes started playing and he took a deep breath.

He started singing with real confidence. He read the lyrics as they were and used them to his advantage. It didn´t matter if the lyrics were silly, he was gonna grab them and turn them into something cool. He was not going to let this stop him. The others were pretty impressed with his skill, though it wasn´t otherworldly.

“Not bad” Gladio commented.

“Not bad at all” Ignis agreed.

Prom took advantage of the “that´s you girl” verse to point to the nice girl who had just wished him good luck. The girl smiled and that small gesture motivated Prom to go all…the…way.

And suddenly he took the microphone off its stand and started singing in a rock and roll style so good that made everyone´s jaw drop. Even Iggy was struggling to keep his mouth shut. It was so out of nowhere, no one could imagine that incredible voice coming out from him. And he sounded so cool even though he was singing a song from a cartoon. It really shocked all the people at the bar.

And finally, in the last verse he decided to eff the whole thing, kneel down and go full Aerosmith and shout the last words. The place metaphorically exploded. Everyone was at a loss of words, but instinctively stood up and started applauding. The gang followed, with their mouths still open. Gladio was really amused and was already laughing and cheering for the impressive blond rock star. Ignis was still trying to process the whole thing. He really didn´t expect that much power and voice control to come out of that small boy. And Noctis? Noctis was speechless; he couldn´t believe what he had just witnessed.

Prompto couldn´t believe it either. He was trembling. He couldn´t believe that he had done that, and couldn´t believe all the cheering and praises he was receiving. The warm feeling of determination disappeared to be replaced with happiness and gratitude. “Thank you” He quietly said into the microphone, as he was still breathing heavily.

He went down the steps and towards the table where his shocked friends were waiting.

“So… What did you guys think?” He asked nervously. Even after all that he really cared about what they thought. They were his friends after all.

“Ha ha ha. I think his highness here now owes you a big meal and a whole day at Chocobo heaven. Isn´t that right Noct?” Gladio said as he slapped Noct on the back.

Prompto started laughing at Noct´s face, which was a mixture of shock, annoyance and amusement. Although it had really scared him at first, he was glad Noct had challenged him. That had been an incredible experience, and one he would never forget.

[ar3volut1on]

Well, I had this planned for last night but the weather had other plans, it knocked out our power most of the night.  So I stewed a little longer over it, not a problem really.  So anyway here goes.

Last night our preacher taught on 1 Thessalonians 4, a great passage I must say.  I usually take notes, jot down ideas, verse references etc. during the lesson and I’m telling you that the pen never left my hand.  God was speaking to me, leading me to speak to you about this.  Someone out there must need to hear this.  Cause God knows his own and he knows when one of us in need of something.  But he doesn’t always say it directly to us, maybe he knows we are too tied up in the situation to hear him, or maybe he knows the message bearer will benefit from the message as well, maybe he just likes to give us something real and meaningful to do, who knows.  All I know is he has laid it on my heart to write about this and well I’m not in to disobeying my Lord.

Furthermore then we beseech you, brethren, and exhort you by the Lord Jesus, that as ye have received of us how ye ought to walk and to please God, so ye would abound more and more.  1 Thessalonians 4:1

Only let your conversation be as it becometh the gospel of Christ: that whether I come and see you, or else be absent, I may hear of your affairs, that ye stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel;  Philippians 1:27

That ye would walk worthy of God, who hath called you unto his kingdom and glory.  1 Thessalonians 2:12

Our calling is an upward calling, holy and pure, and God makes it very clear to those who will hear him how we as followers of Christ are to present ourselves to the world.  We are the Lord’s hands and feet here on earth and we should always bear this in mind and walk worthy of being called to serve our King.

For ye know what commandments we gave you by the Lord Jesus.  1 Thessalonians 4:2

Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.  Matthew 22:37-39

The Lord himself gave us the two greatest commandments, ones that when we make them the foundation of our lives we will never stray from the path he has set before us.  For when we love God with all we are then we live to please our Father in heaven, and when we love our neighbor as ourselves then we will treat one another just as Jesus treated his brethern and neighbors, with love abounding and overflowing.  We will also present ourselves to the world as followers of Christ, following in his footsteps, allowing him to change our old stony hearts that wallowed in sin, mire, and misery into tender, pure, overflowing hearts that reflect his love and ways back into the world.  That means we not only love as he did but we also act as he did – we reject sin, turn from it choosing instead to follow the one who died to take that sin from us.

For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication:  1 Thessalonians 4:3

That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.  Ephesians 5:27Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry:  Colossians 3:5

As true believers no matter how vile and sinful we were before trusting in the Lord once we allow him into our hearts to work that wondrous change we no longer desire those old lusts and snares.  We can resist the temptations the devil once bound us with and stand strong in the power and might of our Lord and Savior knowing that old slewfoot and his vile lies and lusts have no hold on us any longer.  We are no longer of this world, but above it.  No longer bound by sin, held in it’s chains, a slave to the lies and treachery – we are FREED!  Freed by the death of Christ on the cross, bought and paid for by the only one who could love us so much he would suffer, die and ultimately rise from the grave the third day that you and I might be set free, made whole, restored to rightness with God in heaven.  That we might accept grace.

That every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honour;  1 Thessalonians 4:4

  I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh: for as ye have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity; even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness.  Romans 6:19

We are changed, made new and brought into relationship with God, with his Son, and through this we begin to know right from wrong in the truest sense.  Not man’s sense but God’s!  We understand how we ought to behave and act, we understand that we live a higher calling, we exist to please and serve God, and his ways are always pure, just and true.  He never leads us to fall back into our old paths for the old man is dead and gone, replaced by the love of his Son, cleansed through his precious blood!

Not in the lust of concupiscence, even as the Gentiles which know not God:  1 Thessalonians 4:5

Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry:  Colossians 3:5

This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind, Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart:  Ephesians 4:17-18

Awake to righteousness, and sin not; for some have not the knowledge of God: I speak this to your shame.  1 Corinthians 15:34

I find the repentance part of our salvation to be the most fascinating.  See before I accepted Christ that was the part that kept me from him, my sin, I didn’t want to be told what to do, I was in rebellion, rejecting the only real hope I had.  I wanted to continue doing the things I did, Satan had me believing I loved rushing headlong down that highway straight to an eternity in the lake of fire.  Even though I wasn’t raised to know God, didn’t go to church, never read the Bible, my parents never prayed with us or for us but it didn’t matter because deep in my heart I knew that there was hope somewhere.  For the first 30 years or so of my life I was lost, my soul was under torment as the devil tried to steal it and I was to blind in my ignorance to see what was happening, I couldn’t hear the voice telling me wait there’s a better way, I love you, I can save you.  No instead I spent my waking hours in sin and my sleep, well the little of it I got was a foretaste of where I was headed.  But finally the sweetest voice broke through the sheer cachophony and I heard the most amazing words I’ve ever heard “It’s ok, I love you, I’ve always loved you and always will.  I will never leave or forsake you child for you are mine.  I made you because I wanted you, I love you in spite of all you’ve done because I know all you have yet to do, all I created you to do and it is glorious!  Will you trust me?  Come to me?  Let me wash those wounds from sin that are destroying you away, I never made you to suffer and hurt like this, I made you to love and be loved, to bless and be blessed, to share eternity with my Father and I as our own.”

That no man go beyond and defraud his brother in any matter: because that the Lord is the avenger of all such, as we also have forewarned you and testified.  1 Thessalonians 4:6

In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ:  2 Thessalonians 1:8

I answered that voice, I accepted the most amazing and wonderful gift, allowed the most incredible man who ever lived into my heart to change my life forever.  On that day I experienced real love, pure love.  Love so breathtaking it broke my rock hard heart of stone, dashed it right to smithereens and replaced it with a heart that brimmed, spilled, with love for my Savior, my Father.  I longed to please Him, to be who he always intended me to be, do as he would have me do.  I rejoiced as I gave him my heart, all of it.  That joy overflowed in me, turned my anger, hurt and fear into love pure and true.  Suddenly I was free to truly love others, I knew how to because Jesus had shown me how.  Never again would I willfully mislead or hurt a brother or sister in this world, never again would I be led onto that oh so common path of the world to put myself before others, before my Savior.  No instead I love, even when they make it hard, cause I know that no sin is worse than my sin and that love is the only way they will ever let the scales fall from their eyes, let Jesus into their lives, have their Damascus road moment.  I have to show them the love he showed me.

For God hath not called us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness.  1 Thessalonians 4:7

For I am the LORD your God: ye shall therefore sanctify yourselves, and ye shall be holy; for I am holy: neither shall ye defile yourselves with any manner of creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.  Leviticus 11:44

I was no longer consumed with hate for the world, hate that disguised itself as lust, as anger, as greed, really it all boils down to hate and I had been a willing slave to it for far too long.  But no longer, from that day forward I was set free.  I knew whose I was and who I served and it was not this world or it’s prince, not ever again!  I knew true love then, selfless love that puts others first, finding the pure joy of serving those the Lord has seen fit to bless me with.  Whether it is something as simple as getting up early to back my husbands lunch allowing him a few extra minutes of rest each day, having his coffee ready when he comes in the kitchen, fixing his favorite meal when I know he’s had a busy day.  Or choosing to homeschool our son because I want to answer the Lord’s call that we train him up in the way he should go, teaching him to love God with all his heart from the beginning, to hide the word of the Lord in his heart and teach him the ways of God even though we face resistance, persecution, rejection from many in our lives, it doesn’t matter because God’s word is clear that parents are to raise their children to fear him, know him, love him.  Mine did not do that and I suffered for 33 years because of their decisions, I will not make that mistake with my precious gift from God, the son he has entrusted into my care to raise for Him.  In spite of the way those who should share our joy instead hate it and us I no longer share their worldly feelings, I no longer hate them, I love them, they don’t know the truth, their eyes are blinded, they are filled with stubborn pride but I love them anyway.  My heart breaks for their wretched condition, just as the Lord’s does for he loves them even more that I do.

He therefore that despiseth, despiseth not man, but God, who hath also given unto us his holy Spirit.  1 Thessalonians 4:8

He that heareth you heareth me; and he that despiseth you despiseth me; and he that despiseth me despiseth him that sent me.  Luke 10:16

But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.  1 Corinthians 2:10

I know now that hating one of God’s children is the same as hating God.  God is love, not hate.  True he is also just and has shown the world his just wrath when it rejects him, when we spit in his face screaming leave me alone well he will, but we will ultimately regret getting our way.  He has judged before and will again one final time, there’s no escaping it, the world will face his judgement for their rejection of him.  But I am not the judge for God, vengeance is His and his alone, for he alone searches and knows all hearts.  I am just called to share his love that great and glorious news with the lost and dying world in the hopes that they will see and hear truth.

But as touching brotherly love ye need not that I write unto you: for ye yourselves are taught of God to love one another.  1 Thessalonians 4:9

But of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you.  1 Thessalonians 5:1

And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.  Jeremiah 31:34

And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.  Matthew 22:39

As followers in Christ we are called to share the good news and love… love God, love our brothers, love!  It’s that simple, and that hard.  Cause love isn’t always pretty, easy.  Sometimes it’s tough, sometimes it’s hard, it hurts like a surgery that ultimately mends it hurts as it is healing.  Love can be like that, it has to be tough sometimes to get through the lies, the sin, to find the heart.  But even if we have to show tough love, we are called to show love.  Trust the Lord to lead us, to fill us, praying always that we serve and honor him with our lives, bringing him all the praise and glory.

And indeed ye do it toward all the brethren which are in all Macedonia: but we beseech you, brethren, that ye increase more and more;  1 Thessalonians 4:10

So that ye were ensamples to all that believe in Macedonia and Achaia.  1 Thessalonians 1:7

When His honor and glory are our purpose, our goals then we know we are serving him and that he will bring the increase in our lives.  We just have to invite him in, let him be our Lord.

And that ye study to be quiet, and to do your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you;  1 Thessalonians 4:11

For we hear that there are some which walk among you disorderly, working not at all, but are busybodies.  2 Thessalonians 3:11

I have shewed you all things, how that so labouring ye ought to support the weak, and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, It is more blessed to give than to receive.  Acts 20:35

Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labour, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth.  Ephesians 4:28

That way he can lead us and we will live lives pleasing to him, fulfilling the purpose God has for us.  We will no longer be consumed with the spirit of laziness, expecting others to do for us what we ought to do for ourselves.  We ought instead to work hard, laboring to serve those who can’t labor, working to provide for our families as well as those in need.  I think it is clear here that those in need are not those unwilling to work, but those unable to.  It’s clear we are to work if we are able, God has given us that ability from the beginning, that purpose that we work with our hands, that we till the soil, provide our bread, etc.  He also tells us to be generous with the rewards he bless our labor with too, to share our abundance with those who lack the ability to do the same.  If all who are able to work do the work the Lord calls them too willingly, sharing the results cheerfully then we will bless those unable to work with their hands, to till the soil or labor physically and we will show them the love of the Lord.

That ye may walk honestly toward them that are without, and that ye may have lack of nothing.  1 Thessalonians 4:12

Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying.  Romans 13:13

  Walking With God Well, I had this planned for last night but the weather had other plans, it knocked out our power most of the night. 

[johnchiarello]

Sunday sermon

Sunday sermon  [Video made 9-30-18]

Numbers 11:29 And Moses said unto him, Enviest thou for my sake? would God that all the LORD's people were prophets, and that the LORD would put his spirit upon them!

Sunday sermon videos-

https://youtu.be/UsFo9PSTD24

https://www.facebook.com/john.chiarello.5/videos/10204853305490641/

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1fsFoLmL3tFhv7OveEK-t4mqzgeNrlaWM/view?usp=sharing

ON VIDEO

.The pot hole

.Moses and the 70

.Why didn’t 2 of them show up? [Numbers 11]

.What do all the readings from today’s Mass have in common?

.The Manna wasn’t really that bad after all

.We ate ‘freely’ in Egypt- huh?

.Moses 2 prayers in Numbers 11- he went from good- to bad- real quick

.The anointing on Moses was actually ‘divided’- because of his request God took some of the anointing and gave it to the others.

.He had ‘less’ at the end- meaning God’s grace was indeed sufficient for the job- but because he prayed to die- God took some away and gave it to the others

.God fed about 2 million with meat- how?

.Moses a type of Christ

.The Lord of the Sabbath- how does this passage from James 5 fit?

Mark 2:28

Therefore the Son of man is Lord also of the sabbath.

In Context | Full Chapter | Other Translations

 .A brief history of the Sabbath- both a day and a year http://lhim.org/blog/2015/10/25/did-the-babylonian-captivity-really-last-70-years/

 [New Teaching below]

Other sites- https://ccoutreach87.com/links-to-my-sites-6-16-18/

Blog- www.corpuschristioutreachministries.blogspot.com

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Youtube- https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZ4GsqTEVWRm0HxQTLsifvg?view_as=subscriber

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

NEW [Other videos below]

This Sunday I taught from the bible verses for the Mass- I covered most of Numbers 11 and tried to tie in the common theme from all the readings.

Later today- 10-7-18, I will try and post the video I make today to Youtube and Facebook.

The 2 main verses were-

Numbers 11:24 And Moses went out, and told the people the words of the LORD, and gathered the seventy men of the elders of the people, and set them round about the tabernacle.

Numbers 11:25 And the LORD came down in a cloud, and spake unto him, and took of the spirit that was upon him, and gave it unto the seventy elders: and it came to pass, that, when the spirit rested upon them, they prophesied, and did not cease.

Numbers 11:26 But there remained two of the men in the camp, the name of the one was Eldad, and the name of the other Medad: and the spirit rested upon them; and they were of them that were written, but went not out unto the tabernacle: and they prophesied in the camp.

Numbers 11:27 And there ran a young man, and told Moses, and said, Eldad and Medad do prophesy in the camp.

Numbers 11:28 And Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of Moses, one of his young men, answered and said, My lord Moses, forbid them.

Numbers 11:29 And Moses said unto him, Enviest thou for my sake? would God that all the LORD's people were prophets, and that the LORD would put his spirit upon them!

Mark 9:38 And John answered him, saying, Master, we saw one casting out devils in thy name, and he followeth not us: and we forbad him, because he followeth not us.

Mark 9:39 But Jesus said, Forbid him not: for there is no man which shall do a miracle in my name, that can lightly speak evil of me.

Mark 9:40 For he that is not against us is on our part.

We see both in the story of Moses and Jesus how others [Joshua- John] wanted to prevent those who were gifted by God- simply because they were not part of the group.

In Moses statement we see the true heart of God from the Beginning-

Numbers 11:29 And Moses said unto him, Enviest thou for my sake? would God that all the LORD's people were prophets, and that the LORD would put his spirit upon them!

This would be fulfilled on the day of Pentecost when the Spirit was poured out on the church- we all now have the ability to ‘prophesy’ if you will- to speak the words of life by the Spirit of God.

The James reading did tie in to the other readings- but I had to get more in depth on the video to show how this fit in.

When God’s people seek more than what he has already provided- then they run the risk of judgment.

In Numbers 11 the people complained because they were tired of the provision of Manna- this led them to get what they wanted [Meat]- but at great expense [judgment].

The rebuke from James was on those who practiced unethical business dealings- in order to gain more wealth-

James 5:1 Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you.

James 5:2 Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are motheaten.

James 5:3 Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days.

James 5:4 Behold, the hire of the labourers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth: and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of sabaoth.

They robbed the poor and cheated them out of their pay- for profit.

Yet James shows us that when you cut corners like that- it will come back on you.

I taught about the Sabbath violation that the Jewish people would later be held accountable for.

In the Old Testament the prophets spoke about the judgment that would come on those who did not honor God in the Sabbath year-

The people were to let the land rest every 7th year- but if they did not practice this law- then they would be taken into captivity- and during their captivity the land would have her rest [see link here- http://lhim.org/blog/2015/10/25/did-the-babylonian-captivity-really-last-70-years/ ].

In the James 5 rebuke- he ties it in to not honoring the Lord- of the Sabbath.

In both cases- people violated the ethical law of God in order to make more gain- get more meat.

The Lord of the Sabbath would have blessed them if they simply obeyed his Word- but in disobeying it- the end result would be far worse.

Ok- that's just a brief review of the main points on the video- to get the rest of it you would have to watch the video.

I added my past teachings below that relate in some way to this teaching-

John

 OTHER VIDEOS [These are the videos I upload nightly to my various sites- PAST POSTS below]

10-4-18 News update https://youtu.be/bDNzTXj9a44

Last update https://youtu.be/q8Q7rbCle80

 10-1-18 Update https://youtu.be/46O_QIAr0ok

9-29-18 News update https://youtu.be/eyCz-bQtpaw

https://www.facebook.com/john.chiarello.5/videos/10204848786057658/

Cats in the cradle https://youtu.be/mVXCbapKF5c

Romans 1-3 https://trello.com/c/iARhkOFm/199-2-3-15-romans-1-3mp4

https://drive.google.com/file/d/10B590nvz5_myWvPziBYakbj8VMqlDee9/view?usp=sharing

Story of scripture https://youtu.be/T9UY5-_Mwhc

Friends https://1drv.ms/v/s!Aocp2PkNEAGMggbLnQdzcZZR-mBb

9-30-18 Chuck Schumer https://youtu.be/onn52YDpCcE

https://www.facebook.com/john.chiarello.5/videos/10204854322996078/

Presidential run! https://youtu.be/NFwWZv5_Nuo

Apologetics- Philosophy https://1drv.ms/v/s!Aocp2PkNEAGMcqT0iKU_ZT_0qsM

Kings 1 https://youtu.be/FyJe8L9eHsU

American sniper https://drive.google.com/file/d/12JYXB8zkWWW6AelPbypBY1qosExpuB2n/view?usp=sharing

Don’t seek glory from men https://youtu.be/TPMjIj71CHc

Romans 4-7 https://trello.com/c/Iz0DbaCU/203-2-11-15-romans-4-7mp4

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1j_MwXe7vfX2onS7RJ0TbLbeSHu5EeB0h/view?usp=sharing

Colossians 1 https://youtu.be/Trr4k-IjENQ

Acts 8 https://1drv.ms/v/s!Aocp2PkNEAGMggeXjNIT2q_rg7yL

Pops https://youtu.be/cMllRu_uJ7k

7-15-18 Sunday sermon https://vimeo.com/292918061

Acts 5 https://youtu.be/GkmIIqMyJVY

Moses https://trello.com/c/057dAUtX/205-2-9-16-mosesmp4

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1v3eLUMlxZ8tq0AIhoR92t1GnR5dUw0Bj/view?usp=sharing

Solo Jesus https://youtu.be/ySLWj3_Oa10

Sanctify them https://drive.google.com/file/d/18U1R-Q8SQVnQRqueAiwOanPv9J74uy9m/view?usp=sharing

3-18-18 Sunday sermon https://youtu.be/v7Jfisrykio

4-8-18 Sunday sermon https://1drv.ms/v/s!Aocp2PkNEAGMggj9Da-udJOpofi4

Testimony of God https://youtu.be/vt9yvzys1iU

Pirate Scotty https://vimeo.com/293133887

Mark 5 https://youtu.be/OSRKmVuXbXs

Friends- Bill tells his story https://1drv.ms/v/s!Aocp2PkNEAGMggkW7X7aec-dDWR6

Spiritual Rock https://drive.google.com/file/d/1jm8vsbTtIs0MfWEWtahiG_UpOsr-nf-T/view?usp=sharing

New Jersey Trip- 2015- take off https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xEp9SZFwQwc&t=2s

Kings 2 https://youtu.be/iTxLcDa90m0

   PAST POSTS [These are links and parts of my past teachings that relate in some way to today’s post- Verses below]

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

https://ccoutreach87.com/james-2015/

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

ACTS 2- Acts 2:16 But this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel; Acts 2:17 And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams: Acts 2:18 And on my servants and on my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my Spirit; and they shall prophesy: Note- on an upcoming video- I have a question for CCPD and chief Markle ‘Why did you draw your guns at the park the other day- after I posted the video about CCPD?’ ON VIDEO- https://youtu.be/BMQZmqmiYM8 Acts 2 https://ccoutreach87.files.wordpress.com/2017/01/1-19-17-acts-2.zip https://ccoutreach87.files.wordpress.com/2017/01/1-19-17-acts-2.zip .The cats and dogs all have one name? .The freedom of information requests have gone out- the affidavits taken- the hour has come! .Corpus Christi .Rushing Wind .Tongues of fire .Passover then- .Pentecost .God rules in the affairs of men .What about tongues? .Marx .Thomas Moore .Utopia .Do they really fall down? [slain in the Spirit] .Shared some experiences PAST TEACHING- {links and past teaching I did that relates to today’s post] https://ccoutreach87.com/acts/ https://ccoutreach87.com/1st-2nd-corinthians/ [focus on1st Cor. 12-14] https://ccoutreach87.com/2017/01/18/acts-1/

(739) ACTS 2- The Apostles are gathered together in the upper room. As they continue in unity and prayer the Spirit of God comes upon them like a rushing wind. There appear ‘cloven tongues’ like fire above each of them. Why this image? Why not ‘ears’ or some other sanctified body part? God is going to give supernatural power to the words that they will speak. In a few chapters we will read how an angel will supernaturally deliver Peter from prison and say ‘go, speak the words of this life’. These tongues are a precursor to the tremendous fire that will be loosed from their lips. James says the tongue is a little member but boasteth great things, it has the ability to start fires. Jesus said he came to earth to ‘start a fire’ and how he wished it were already burning. Here he gets his wish! Now the Apostles and early believers experience the gift of tongues. They begin speaking and prophesying in the unknown languages of all those who are gathered together to Jerusalem for the feast of Pentecost. God ordained this event to be strategically done at this time. All the surrounding regions heard the believers speak the ‘wondrous works of God’ in their native tongue. Peter stands up and delivers a scathing message! He basically tells Israel ‘this is that which the prophet Joel spoke about’ he goes on and says this outpouring is part of Gods predetermined plan to pour out his Spirit on all flesh in the last days. He speaks of divine manifestations [dreams, visions] and carries the prophecy right to the end of the age. He then speaks the gospel of Christ and tells Israel ‘this is the Jesus you killed’. Wow, these guys are bold. Peter leads them to faith in Christ, their public baptism is the immediate sign of their willingness to be identified with Jesus and 3 thousand Jews become believers this day. Now, what is the church? This corporate group of first time followers do 4 basic things. They ‘continue in the Apostles doctrine and breaking of bread and prayers and share their goods with all in need’[true fellowship]. This early community was a brotherhood who actually gave priority to the teachings of Jesus passed on to them from the Apostles. Don’t miss this! Many will develop all sorts of practices and beliefs that ‘make up church’. Some will justify extra biblical beliefs under the guise of ‘the Apostles doctrine’ as in if it were something totally contrary or not known thru the gospels or the writing of scripture. Paul will tell Timothy to stay true to the traditions he passed on to him. But I want to focus on the fact that the Apostles doctrine was not something different then the basic instructions Jesus left us in the gospels. Paul will add to this basic body of Christian doctrine thru his letters to the churches, as well as the whole New Testament. But we do not see a bunch of strange or unknown doctrines that come from this time period. The basics are mentioned above. I do want to stress the fact that this early expression of church life had no ‘Pastor’ in the sense of their gatherings being a time where a singular authority figure had oversight of the entire community. They had strong leaders to be sure, but would avoid the Protestant idea of Pastor. They had no church building or belief in a strong liturgy. The ‘breaking of bread’ was a common meal where they all shared together in a real life setting. And of course their giving was radical, it was not ‘a tithe’ and it was done to meet the real needs of the community around them. All these elements are basic to what the New Testament church is. A functioning society of people in whom Christ Spirit dwells and who see themselves as a real spiritual community of people. As we progress thru out the history of the church as seen in Acts we will never lose this basic mindset. It will be carried into the epistles of the New Testament and remain the best idea of ‘local church’ as found in the first century. There is a trend going on right now in Evangelicalism that says ‘lets return to the ancient practices of the church and see what we can find’. As an avid reader of church history I am not totally against this movement, but I do see a danger in thinking ‘the ancient practices’ are the 2nd or 3rd century development of liturgy and Eucharist and other early ideas, and by passing the ‘real ancient’ story in the book of Acts. To put it simply, some of the Protestant and Evangelical ‘practices and beliefs’ that have developed since the reformation are ‘ancient’. I believe we all have a long way to go, but the ‘low view’ of the Lords Table [low as opposed to ‘high church view’. Though I personally believe in the Lords table as a memorial, not as the actual Body and Blood of Jesus. Yet I personally don’t like referring to such an important practice as low!] seems to be the true ancient practice as seen in Acts. The absence of the Priest officiating over the altar is no where to be seen in the actual ‘church’ setting. This ancient church is really a simple brotherhood of believers having all things common and having the resurrection of the Son of God as the central organizing principle of their lives. [parts] 1916 WHO IS JOHN GALT?

Over the weekend- my habit is now to watch a couple of documentaries from Netflix.

I always got into them- but with the Rocu thing- I can start a few at a time- and then pick up right where I left off.

I’m watching the Cosmos- Carl Sagan [excellent by the way].

Just started Greek Civilization- narrated by one of my favorite actors- Liam Nessen.

And I caught a short one on Ayn Rand- the now famous author of Atlas Shrugged.

I have never read any of Rand’s stuff- she is a novelist- and I don’t read them.

But- she is also a philosopher- the founder of the system called Objectivism.

And her works and thought are more known right now because a movie was made about the book- Atlas Shrugged.

Rand taught a system that said mans main purpose in life is the pursuit of his/her own happiness.

Now- she was not a strict Hedonist- she also taught that man should be productive- should be a contributing member of society- and should be free to excel- to ‘make it’ without the state making the rich guy feel bad about it.

Yes- back to the 99 versus the 1.

As you can see- that’s why her work has made it back into the collective consciousness at this point in time.

The other day we went to see my friend John at the hospital- I took Henry [John Henry], John from Arlington- Andy- and of course myself.

The day before we went to the bookstore- and I met father John- a nice Catholic Priest.

The guys were calling John [from Arlington] Joe.

I told Henry ‘no- his name is John’.

Henry quipped ‘too many John’s’

In Rand’s work- she tells the fictional story of John Galt [who is John Galt? This sign pops up every so often]

Galt is the leader of the ‘productive’ class in society- the thinkers- producers- etc.

These noble ones rebel against what they see as an all encroaching Entitlement society- a ‘world’ that keeps blaming them for the ills of man.

Eventually these productive people have had enough- and they withdraw from the world and start their own world- based on the principles of Objectivism.

‘Every man for himself’ type of thing.

There is one line in the book- where you have this image of Atlas [the man who has the world on his shoulders].

He is bowing and bending and struggling under this Entitlement world.

The ‘have nots’ keep seeing the ‘haves’ as the cause for their problems.

The more pressure put on Atlas- does not seem to appease the Entitlement class.

So- he shrugs- and walks away.

A couple of years ago when we did a short history of Philosophy- I never covered Rand.

Why?

She never came up in any of the stuff I was reading at the time.

Rand was a Russian American who came to the states in the early 20th century.

She saw the rise of Communism in her homeland- and she believed that the U.S. was in danger of going down the same road.

She lived to see the presidency of FDR- and his creating of what we call the Entitlement society.

But Rand- like other thinkers of her day- also rejected Faith and Religion [Marx].

She believed that Reason was enough to establish morality- and build an adequate Ethical society.

To be honest- Ayn was wrong about this.

But- because she angered the Left with her capitalist thought- and the Right with her anti God ideas- well she would alienate not just the 47% [Romney’s gaff] but both ‘47’s’.

Thus- Rand never came up on the radar when I was studying philosophy.

I have not read the book- but from what I picked up on line- I can see how Christians would indeed have a hard time with Objectivism.

In scripture- we don’t see ‘statism’ per se- but we do see a sort of collective ideal.

In the books of Acts we see the early believers selling their goods and giving to those in need.

We read many-many portions of the bible that speak about helping the less fortunate.

Yet- the argument is ‘should the state force man to do this’.

The state- govt. – according to scripture- has the right to tax.

Rand’s argument [and others] is ‘fine- but don’t demean me because I am one of the producers- don’t demonize those in society who are holding the system up’.

Rand did not teach that you should never help another- but she rejected the govt. forcing you to do it.

In Ayn’s Utopia- the John Galt’s of the world withdraw- they take their toys and go home.

From a biblical perspective- we are indeed our brother’s keeper.

That does not mean we encourage people to be non productive- to live off the wealth of others.

But we see the goal of our lives as more than seeking happiness- more than pursuing the Dream.

No- we often give things up- material things- in order to pursue a more just society.

In our World- Atlas doesn’t shrug. [parts] [parts] [1587] OVERVIEW- Lets over view a little today- in the last post I mentioned how we will be getting into Marx, Freud and Nietzsche in the coming months- yet I have so many things going on at this time that just in case I never get to them I want to lay out some stuff. First, most challenges to the Christian faith/God- have come from the point of view that said ‘yes- we believe that there is some being out there- God- but we challenge the purveyors of religion and how man has used religion to control- manipulate the masses’. It was not until the rise of these men that the popular approach of ‘no God’ would take a foothold in the minds of many unsuspecting ‘masses’. Before we delve into the ideas and contradictions of these men- let me explain why most thinkers of the Enlightenment did not take the atheistic approach- and instead opted for some form of Deism/Theism. The original debate of ‘where did everything come from’ did not start during the Enlightenment- it dates back as far as 4-5 centuries before Christ- the question is obviously older- but you can read the debate taking place in the great minds of the Greek philosophers; Socrates, Plato and Aristotle. Though the idea of God in the minds of these Greek thinkers was not the same definition that Christianity would hold to- yet they did believe in some type of being who for the most part was what we would think of as God- they referred to him as The Prime Mover- a term that the great Catholic thinker Thomas Aquinas would use in the 13th century as he too argued for the existence of God. Okay- the Greeks taught that the universe/cosmos always existed- and there was an initiator who started the ball rolling [motion]. Their ideas about how the solar system worked were primitive- the famous idea espoused by Ptolemy had a sort of crystalline sphere [parts] https://youtu.be/NiQdGyM6mjk History of everything- 2

https://ccoutreach87.files.wordpress.com/2016/06/6-17-16-2-history-of-everything.zip MY LINKS- https://ccoutreach87.wordpress.com/russia-u-s-world-events/ https://ccoutreach87.wordpress.com/atheism-apologetics/ https://ccoutreach87.wordpress.com/overview-of-philosophy/

ON VIDEO- .I hit the jackpot! .A.A. .Renaissance .Erasmus .Copernicus .Spontaneous Generation? .Darwin .Aquinas Locke .Kant .Latin Vulgate- Jerome Luther .Church fathers .Henry the 8th .Marx .Freud .Einstein .Law of cause and effect .Fossil record? .Scientific method ‘invented’ by the Catholic church- true [Jesuits] .The $200 dollar sign to AA .Recovery .You all have your own TV channel- for free .Social media- use it for good

NEW- [past posts- versus below] On today’s video I fill in some blanks- As time progressed- and man advanced in knowledge- he also thought we would arrive at a time where advanced civilization would ‘through off’ the harmful effects of the church. Yet- they struggled with the idea of how a society could regulate itself [moral aw] without ‘God’s law’. So- some thinkers like Kant- Locke talked about ‘natural law’ which actually is one of the ‘proofs’ of God. Because where did man- on his own- have this innate understanding of morality? It’s not simply what they came up with- but it’s imbedded in his conscience [which is another proof of God- why do humans have this conscience? – or self-awareness- where did that come from? Why can’t we really create a computer with this characteristic? A.I.] This is the period of the Enlightenment- and the Philosophers on the rise. Men Like Freud [later] would do a grand experiment- saying ‘actually the cause for man’s problems- is this very thing- him trying to deal with the guilt of sin’ [which he denied] and said man should act out on his desires- which we refer to as the philosophy of Hedonism. He taught the idea of sexual revolution- and died as a victim of his own thinking. Eventually man came to the end of his new journey- without God in his thoughts- and wound up back at the beginning. God indeed was the creator- and his laws are the only possible way for society to regulate itself. Jesus Christ came to redeem man- from the very thing he could not do for himself. Through the death and resurrection of ‘the Logos’ we are now brought back into right relationship with God- and all the pieces of the puzzle come together. Not that hard- is it? RUSSIA- 2 days ago- Russia bombed- killed many of the troops we raised up in Syria. Our planes were flying overhead- to guarantee their protection. Russia has not been bluffing- they flew 2 planes- right next to ours- and bombed them. Defense secretary Carter was livid- because Russia [like I said recently] is ready to have a real- HOT WAR- with the U.S. Both on their border with the NTAO states- as well as over Syria. I’ll add the news link on this or the next post. It didn’t get a lot of play in the media- because it is what Russia said all along- they are not ONLY going to kill ISIS fighters- but all the rebel/terrorists on the ground. A great majority of those groups are backed by the U.S. Carter- in an interview makes it sound like ‘what are they up to- they are deceiving the world because they said they would only bomb ISIS’. THAT’S A LIE- Lavrov [the defense guy from Russia] said from day one- we will bomb them all- even the terrorists the U.S. is backing [news link at bottom [parts] Okay- I am skipping a bunch of stuff to jump into the thinkers who represent the most popular forms of atheism- Marx, Nietzsche and Freud. But first we need to take a look at Ludwig Feuerbach. L.F. [Ludwig Feuerbach] laid the groundwork for these other more famous rejecters of God and Christianity. During the enlightenment period it was rare for the critics of religion to hold an outright atheistic view- men like Hume and Voltaire- though true critics of the church- did not come out openly and deny the existence of God. It was also difficult [impossible?] to hold professorships in the universities if you were a doubter of God. Both Hume and Voltaire did not hold positions. F.S. was Hegelian in a way [he followed Hegel’s idea that ‘God’ comes to self consciousness thru the development of humanity] but F.S. was a Materialist- Hegel was an Idealist. Remember- idealism is the philosophical system that sees reality existing in forms/ideas first- then later comes the material thing. The great ancient philosophers- Socrates, Plato and Aristotle were all Idealists. F.S. espoused the idea that reality starts with the material existence of man first- and thru religion man ‘projects’ the idea of God/spirit into society- and as man and [parts] NEW STUFF- Sartre is one of the most famous 20th century philosophers- also described as the father of existentialism. I say ‘also’ because when we covered Kierkegaard- I said the same of him. How can this be? Well- Kierkegaard was a Christian- Sartre an atheist. So you can divide existentialism between ‘Christian existentialists- and atheistic’. Ok- it would be a lot to try and cover all of his ideas- but what I want to do is sort of contrast the thinkers who trended away from God with those who continued to believe in a creator- while at the same time engage in the intellectual world [many I could name- Descartes- Kant- etc.]. Though Sartre- like Camus- was indeed an intelligent man- when they tried to develop philosophies- ways to explain man- his purpose- what ‘it’s’ all about. They have difficulty giving any real purpose or meaning to man. Why? Because if you believe [and teach] that man is really some sort of a cosmic accident- with no creator who made him- then how do you teach ‘that man’ that he has a purpose? This would apply to all the great thinkers- who rejected God. In the end- if you were born without a preceding purpose [which Christians teach is to glorify God] and when you die- there is no after life- then it’s common sense to see your life ‘without purpose’. Sartre’s most famous work ‘being and nothingness’ says it all in the title. Some of his most famous ideas are ‘no essence before existence’. Now- Christians usually criticize him for this [which I just did in a way]. But he sort of tried to apply this idea- and say ‘because we are not predetermined- then we are indeed responsible for our actions- we are ‘left alone- without excuse’. When you study Philosophy- along with Theology [the study of God]. A big thing that is debated is predestination. Many misunderstand the historic reformation doctrine of Predestination –and they see it as a form of fatalism- meaning ‘whatever will be- was meant to be’. You can do a whole debate on this subject- in studying theology alone. Yet it also ‘bleeds’ into philosophy- because many thinkers were trying to figure out the problems of man- and some thought the doctrine of original sin taught a form of fatalism. Actually- it does not. But that’s why you see these ideas pop up – that we can act without our past having power over us. So- in a sense- though Sartre was an atheist- this was an attempt [I think] to try and give man the ‘freedom’ to act on his own will. But without belief in God- there really is no grounding authority to values- ethics. Where would they come from? [that’s a long debate- but if in effect ethics- right and wrong- were simply some sort of value system that was majority rule- then when the majority gets it wrong- slavery- abortion- etc.- then these values do not really ‘mean’ anything]. From the Christian view [they do debate between predestination by the way] Values- worth- purpose- do indeed ‘precede’ existence. God had a purpose for us before we were born- and values are the revealed ‘rules’ that God gave to man. The Nihilistic thinkers [those who admit that there really is no purpose] in the end have a hard time teaching their ideas- and at the same time instilling self-worth in people. Camus summed it up when he said-“There is only one really serious philosophical question, and that is suicide” (MS, 3).Oct 27, 2011 Sartre [like Kierkegaard] wrote plays- poetry- etc. One of Sartre’s dramas was called ‘NO EXIT’ He depicted Hell as a place where people are forever ‘observing’ one another- with no way out [obviously he did not really believe in Hell]. But why would he see it this way? Sartre had a unique insight [though an atheist- he was indeed smart]. One of the things that Sartre believed- was subjectivity- he taught that if man were to be truly Free- he could not be an Object [lots has been said in the last few years on objectifying people- seeing them as objects degrades them]. So in Sartre’s mind- belief in God objectifies people. How? If there is an ‘all seeing’ creator who is always looking/seeing into people’s lives [and intents- hearts] then they are not truly free. All the thinkers who rejected God- did not do so for the same reasons. Freud- and those who taught Hedonism- said it was the moral constraints on man [from God and the church] that was the problem. So in Freud’s mind- we should deny God- and man should live out all of his most base desires. It was a failed idea for sure- but that was the Hedonists view. Sartre did not espouse unrestrained passion- actually even though he was an atheist- he believed that men should live with some type of ethic. So his rejection of God was based on the idea that God is always ‘watching you’ and a man cannot truly be free- if someone is always watching him. It was an interesting idea [and yes- God is always watching- but from the Christian view he is not watching as some type of cosmic voyeur- but as a Father watches over his children. Or- as the bible says ‘as a mother hen watches over her chicks’. So Sartre was right about God always seeing us- but he disagreed with the Christian view of omniscience [all knowing God] and said this ‘constant watching’ makes us an object- and to Sartre- the basic attribute of human character is subjectivity- if he is not a subject- with no previous ‘essence’ [remember- his other famous idea was ‘existence precedes essence’] he is not truly free. So to Sartre- man and reality are simply things- and we develop life from this materialistic view. He rejected universals- there is not a universal category of ‘mankind’ but simply individual people. Another famous atheist thinker was Camus [‘there is only one really serious question left- suicide’]. Even though some of the atheistic thinkers ‘meant well’ yet- in the end- as Kant said- if there is no God- then society cannot function without the basic understanding that we are all accountable- and will someday give an account. In Kant’s view- he rejected the classical idea that you could ‘prove God’ from reason and nature. But some said he ‘let God in the back door’. Because for Kant- if you reject God outright- then society cannot function. For instance- if there is some type of injustice- maybe framed for murder and you sit in jail your whole life- never being vindicated. For Kant- the person can survive- because he knows- in the end- the truth will come out [if there is a God]. And not only will it come out- but those who wronged the man will give an account. So Kant saw the need for there not only to be an ‘all seeing God/judge’. But that Judge had to also have all power- so he could carry out justice in the end. But for Sartre- and Camus- and the other atheists- they grappled with the problem of where moral laws come from [or if there is even such a thing]. How can we really define ethics if there is no real meaning to our existence? If ‘nothing matters’ [no essence before existence] then in the end- WE don’t matter. And you come to the same conclusion as Camus. The question of suicide has been pondered for centuries- it has made it into the plays of Shakespeare [below] Many are familiar with this famous line- but read it carefully- it’s Hamlet’s struggle- whether it’s nobler to ‘go thru stuff’ or- end it. That’s why I think the Camus’ and Sartres of the world don’t help- in the end.

To be, or not to be, that is the question: Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, Or to take arms against a sea of troubles And by opposing end them. To die—to sleep, No more; and by a sleep to say we end The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks That flesh is heir to: ’tis a consummation Devoutly to be wish’d. To die, to sleep; To sleep, perchance to dream—ay, there’s the rub: For in that sleep of death what dreams may come, When we have shuffled off this mortal coil, Must give us pause—there’s the respect That makes calamity of so long life. For who would bear the whips and scorns of time, Th’oppressor’s wrong, the proud man’s contumely, The pangs of dispriz’d love, the law’s delay, The insolence of office, and the spurns That patient merit of th’unworthy takes, When he himself might his quietus make With a bare bodkin? Who would fardels bear, To grunt and sweat under a weary life, But that the dread of something after death, The undiscovere’d country, from whose bourn No traveller returns, puzzles the will, And makes us rather bear those ills we have Than fly to others that we know not of? Thus conscience does make cowards of us all, And thus the native hue of resolution Is sicklied o’er with the pale cast of thought, And enterprises of great pitch and moment With this regard their currents turn awry And lose the name of action. Hamlet PAST POSTS I WROTE THAT RELATE- . TELOS [What’s your purpose?] https://ccoutreach87.files.wordpress.com/2015/07/7-3-15-telos-or-jack-nichols-n-the-3-dollar-tip.zip A telos (from the Greek τέλος for “end”, “purpose”, or “goal”) is an end or purpose, in a fairly constrained sense used by philosophers such as Aristotle. It is the root of the term “teleology,” roughly the study of purposiveness, or the study of objects with a view to their aims, purposes, or intentions. Teleology figures centrally in Aristotle’s biology and in his theory of causes. It is central to nearly all philosophical theories of history, such as those of Hegel and Marx. One running debate in contemporary philosophy of biology is to what extent teleological language (as in the “purposes” of various organs or life-processes) is unavoidable, or is simply a shorthand for ideas that can ultimately be spelled out nonteleologically. Philosophy of action also makes essential use of teleological vocabulary: on Davidson’s account, an action is just something an agent does with an intention–that is, looking forward to some end to be achieved by the action. In contrast to telos, techne is the rational method involved in producing an object or accomplishing a goal or objective; however, the two methods are not mutually exclusive in principle. Q. 1. What is the chief end of man? A. Man’s chief end is to glorify God,[1] and to enjoy him forever.[2] 1Peter 2:1 Wherefore laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, all evil speakings, 1Peter 2:2 As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may [parts]

VERSES- Acts 2:1 And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. Acts 2:2 And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. Acts 2:3 And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. Acts 2:4 And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. Acts 2:5 And there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men, out of every nation under heaven. Acts 2:6 Now when this was noised abroad, the multitude came together, and were confounded, because that every man heard them speak in his own language. Acts 2:7 And they were all amazed and marvelled, saying one to another, Behold, are not all these which speak Galilaeans? Acts 2:8 And how hear we every man in our own tongue, wherein we were born? Acts 2:9 Parthians, and Medes, and Elamites, and the dwellers in Mesopotamia, and in Judaea, and Cappadocia, in Pontus, and Asia, Acts 2:10 Phrygia, and Pamphylia, in Egypt, and in the parts of Libya about Cyrene, and strangers of Rome, Jews and proselytes, Acts 2:11 Cretes and Arabians, we do hear them speak in our tongues the wonderful works of God. Acts 2:12 And they were all amazed, and were in doubt, saying one to another, What meaneth this? Acts 2:13 Others mocking said, These men are full of new wine. Acts 2:14 But Peter, standing up with the eleven, lifted up his voice, and said unto them, Ye men of Judaea, and all ye that dwell at Jerusalem, be this known unto you, and hearken to my words: Acts 2:15 For these are not drunken, as ye suppose, seeing it is but the third hour of the day. Acts 2:16 But this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel; Acts 2:17 And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams: Acts 2:18 And on my servants and on my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my Spirit; and they shall prophesy: Acts 2:19 And I will shew wonders in heaven above, and signs in the earth beneath; blood, and fire, and vapour of smoke: Acts 2:20 The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and notable day of the Lord come: Acts 2:21 And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. Acts 2:22 Ye men of Israel, hear these words; Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know: Acts 2:23 Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain: Acts 2:24 Whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death: because it was not possible that he should be holden of it. Acts 2:25 For David speaketh concerning him, I foresaw the Lord always before my face, for he is on my right hand, that I should not be moved: Acts 2:26 Therefore did my heart rejoice, and my tongue was glad; moreover also my flesh shall rest in hope: Acts 2:27 Because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption. Acts 2:28 Thou hast made known to me the ways of life; thou shalt make me full of joy with thy countenance. Acts 2:29 Men and brethren, let me freely speak unto you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his sepulchre is with us unto this day. Acts 2:30 Therefore being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him, that of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne; Acts 2:31 He seeing this before spake of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in hell, neither his flesh did see corruption. Acts 2:32 This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses. Acts 2:33 Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath shed forth this, which ye now see and hear. Acts 2:34 For David is not ascended into the heavens: but he saith himself, The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, Acts 2:35 Until I make thy foes thy footstool. Acts 2:36 Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made the same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ. Acts 2:37 Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do? Acts 2:38 Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. Acts 2:39 For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the LORD our God shall call. Acts 2:40 And with many other words did he testify and exhort, saying, Save yourselves from this untoward generation. Acts 2:41 Then they that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls. Acts 2:42 And they continued stedfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers. Acts 2:43 And fear came upon every soul: and many wonders and signs were done by the apostles. Acts 2:44 And all that believed were together, and had all things common; Acts 2:45 And sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need. Acts 2:46 And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart, Acts 2:47 Praising God, and having favour with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved. Joel 2:1 Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain: let all the inhabitants of the land tremble: for the day of the LORD cometh, for it is nigh at hand; Joel 2:2 A day of darkness and of gloominess, a day of clouds and of thick darkness, as the morning spread upon the mountains: a great people and a strong; there hath not been ever the like, neither shall be any more after it, even to the years of many generations. Joel 2:3 A fire devoureth before them; and behind them a flame burneth: the land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness; yea, and nothing shall escape them. Joel 2:4 The appearance of them is as the appearance of horses; and as horsemen, so shall they run. Joel 2:5 Like the noise of chariots on the tops of mountains shall they leap, like the noise of a flame of fire that devoureth the stubble, as a strong people set in battle array. Joel 2:6 Before their face the people shall be much pained: all faces shall gather blackness. Joel 2:7 They shall run like mighty men; they shall climb the wall like men of war; and they shall march every one on his ways, and they shall not break their ranks: Joel 2:8 Neither shall one thrust another; they shall walk every one in his path: and when they fall upon the sword, they shall not be wounded. Joel 2:9 They shall run to and fro in the city; they shall run upon the wall, they shall climb up upon the houses; they shall enter in at the windows like a thief. Joel 2:10 The earth shall quake before them; the heavens shall tremble: the sun and the moon shall be dark, and the stars shall withdraw their shining: Joel 2:11 And the LORD shall utter his voice before his army: for his camp is very great: for he is strong that executeth his word: for the day of the LORD is great and very terrible; and who can abide it? Joel 2:12 Therefore also now, saith the LORD, turn ye even to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning: Joel 2:13 And rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto the LORD your God: for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth him of the evil. Joel 2:14 Who knoweth if he will return and repent, and leave a blessing behind him; even a meat offering and a drink offering unto the LORD your God? Joel 2:15 Blow the trumpet in Zion, sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly: Joel 2:16 Gather the people, sanctify the congregation, assemble the elders, gather the children, and those that suck the breasts: let the bridegroom go forth of his chamber, and the bride out of her closet. Joel 2:17 Let the priests, the ministers of the LORD, weep between the porch and the altar, and let them say, Spare thy people, O LORD, and give not thine heritage to reproach, that the heathen should rule over them: wherefore should they say among the people, Where is their God? Joel 2:18 Then will the LORD be jealous for his land, and pity his people. Joel 2:19 Yea, the LORD will answer and say unto his people, Behold, I will send you corn, and wine, and oil, and ye shall be satisfied therewith: and I will no more make you a reproach among the heathen: Joel 2:20 But I will remove far off from you the northern army, and will drive him into a land barren and desolate, with his face toward the east sea, and his hinder part toward the utmost sea, and his stink shall come up, and his ill savour shall come up, because he hath done great things. Joel 2:21 Fear not, O land; be glad and rejoice: for the LORD will do great things. Joel 2:22 Be not afraid, ye beasts of the field: for the pastures of the wilderness do spring, for the tree beareth her fruit, the fig tree and the vine do yield their strength. Joel 2:23 Be glad then, ye children of Zion, and rejoice in the LORD your God: for he hath given you the former rain moderately, and he will cause to come down for you the rain, the former rain, and the latter rain in the first month. Joel 2:24 And the floors shall be full of wheat, and the vats shall overflow with wine and oil. Joel 2:25 And I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten, the cankerworm, and the caterpiller, and the palmerworm, my great army which I sent among you. Joel 2:26 And ye shall eat in plenty, and be satisfied, and praise the name of the LORD your God, that hath dealt wondrously with you: and my people shall never be ashamed. Joel 2:27 And ye shall know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I am the LORD your God, and none else: and my people shall never be ashamed. Joel 2:28 And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions: Joel 2:29 And also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out my spirit. Joel 2:30 And I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke. Joel 2:31 The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and terrible day of the LORD come. Joel 2:32 And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the LORD shall be delivered: for in mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, as the LORD hath said, and in the remnant whom the LORD shall call. ________________________________________

1Corinthians 12:1 Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not have you ignorant. 1Corinthians 12:2 Ye know that ye were Gentiles, carried away unto these dumb idols, even as ye were led. 1Corinthians 12:3 Wherefore I give you to understand, that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed: and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost. 1Corinthians 12:4 Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. 1Corinthians 12:5 And there are differences of administrations, but the same Lord. 1Corinthians 12:6 And there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all. 1Corinthians 12:7 But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal. 1Corinthians 12:8 For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit; 1Corinthians 12:9 To another faith by the same Spirit; to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit; 1Corinthians 12:10 To another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another discerning of spirits; to another divers kinds of tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues: 1Corinthians 12:11 But all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will. 1Corinthians 12:12 For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ. 1Corinthians 12:13 For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit. 1Corinthians 12:14 For the body is not one member, but many. 1Corinthians 12:15 If the foot shall say, Because I am not the hand, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body? 1Corinthians 12:16 And if the ear shall say, Because I am not the eye, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body? 1Corinthians 12:17 If the whole body were an eye, where were the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where were the smelling? 1Corinthians 12:18 But now hath God set the members every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased him. 1Corinthians 12:19 And if they were all one member, where were the body? 1Corinthians 12:20 But now are they many members, yet but one body. 1Corinthians 12:21 And the eye cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of thee: nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you. 1Corinthians 12:22 Nay, much more those members of the body, which seem to be more feeble, are necessary: 1Corinthians 12:23 And those members of the body, which we think to be less honourable, upon these we bestow more abundant honour; and our uncomely parts have more abundant comeliness. 1Corinthians 12:24 For our comely parts have no need: but God hath tempered the body together, having given more abundant honour to that part which lacked. 1Corinthians 12:25 That there should be no schism in the body; but that the members should have the same care one for another. 1Corinthians 12:26 And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; or one member be honoured, all the members rejoice with it. 1Corinthians 12:27 Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular. 1Corinthians 12:28 And God hath set some in the church, first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, governments, diversities of tongues. 1Corinthians 12:29 Are all apostles? are all prophets? are all teachers? are all workers of miracles? 1Corinthians 12:30 Have all the gifts of healing? do all speak with tongues? do all interpret? 1Corinthians 12:31 But covet earnestly the best gifts: and yet shew I unto you a more excellent way. ________________________________________ 1Corinthians 13:1 Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. 1Corinthians 13:2 And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. 1Corinthians 13:3 And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing. 1Corinthians 13:4 Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, 1Corinthians 13:5 Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; 1Corinthians 13:6 Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; 1Corinthians 13:7 Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. 1Corinthians 13:8 Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away. 1Corinthians 13:9 For we know in part, and we prophesy in part. 1Corinthians 13:10 But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away. 1Corinthians 13:11 When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things. 1Corinthians 13:12 For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known. 1Corinthians 13:13 And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity. ________________________________________ 1Corinthians 14:1 Follow after charity, and desire spiritual gifts, but rather that ye may prophesy. 1Corinthians 14:2 For he that speaketh in an unknown tongue speaketh not unto men, but unto God: for no man understandeth him; howbeit in the spirit he speaketh mysteries. 1Corinthians 14:3 But he that prophesieth speaketh unto men to edification, and exhortation, and comfort. 1Corinthians 14:4 He that speaketh in an unknown tongue edifieth himself; but he that prophesieth edifieth the church. 1Corinthians 14:5 I would that ye all spake with tongues but rather that ye prophesied: for greater is he that prophesieth than he that speaketh with tongues, except he interpret, that the church may receive edifying. 1Corinthians 14:6 Now, brethren, if I come unto you speaking with tongues, what shall I profit you, except I shall speak to you either by revelation, or by knowledge, or by prophesying, or by doctrine? 1Corinthians 14:7 And even things without life giving sound, whether pipe or harp, except they give a distinction in the sounds, how shall it be known what is piped or harped? 1Corinthians 14:8 For if the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself to the battle? 1Corinthians 14:9 So likewise ye, except ye utter by the tongue words easy to be understood, how shall it be known what is spoken? for ye shall speak into the air. 1Corinthians 14:10 There are, it may be, so many kinds of voices in the world, and none of them is without signification. 1Corinthians 14:11 Therefore if I know not the meaning of the voice, I shall be unto him that speaketh a barbarian, and he that speaketh shall be a barbarian unto me. 1Corinthians 14:12 Even so ye, forasmuch as ye are zealous of spiritual gifts, seek that ye may excel to the edifying of the church. 1Corinthians 14:13 Wherefore let him that speaketh in an unknown tongue pray that he may interpret. 1Corinthians 14:14 For if I pray in an unknown tongue, my spirit prayeth, but my understanding is unfruitful. 1Corinthians 14:15 What is it then? I will pray with the spirit, and I will pray with the understanding also: I will sing with the spirit, and I will sing with the understanding also. 1Corinthians 14:16 Else when thou shalt bless with the spirit, how shall he that occupieth the room of the unlearned say Amen at thy giving of thanks, seeing he understandeth not what thou sayest? 1Corinthians 14:17 For thou verily givest thanks well, but the other is not edified. 1Corinthians 14:18 I thank my God, I speak with tongues more than ye all: 1Corinthians 14:19 Yet in the church I had rather speak five words with my understanding, that by my voice I might teach others also, than ten thousand words in an unknown tongue. 1Corinthians 14:20 Brethren, be not children in understanding: howbeit in malice be ye children, but in understanding be men. 1Corinthians 14:21 In the law it is written, With men of other tongues and other lips will I speak unto this people; and yet for all that will they not hear me, saith the Lord. 1Corinthians 14:22 Wherefore tongues are for a sign, not to them that believe, but to them that believe not: but prophesying serveth not for them that believe not, but for them which believe. 1Corinthians 14:23 If therefore the whole church be come together into one place, and all speak with tongues, and there come in those that are unlearned, or unbelievers, will they not say that ye are mad? 1Corinthians 14:24 But if all prophesy, and there come in one that believeth not, or one unlearned, he is convinced of all, he is judged of all: 1Corinthians 14:25 And thus are the secrets of his heart made manifest; and so falling down on his face he will worship God, and report that God is in you of a truth. 1Corinthians 14:26 How is it then, brethren? when ye come together, every one of you hath a psalm, hath a doctrine, hath a tongue, hath a revelation, hath an interpretation. Let all things be done unto edifying. 1Corinthians 14:27 If any man speak in an unknown tongue, let it be by two, or at the most by three, and that by course; and let one interpret. 1Corinthians 14:28 But if there be no interpreter, let him keep silence in the church; and let him speak to himself, and to God. 1Corinthians 14:29 Let the prophets speak two or three, and let the other judge. 1Corinthians 14:30 If any thing be revealed to another that sitteth by, let the first hold his peace. 1Corinthians 14:31 For ye may all prophesy one by one, that all may learn, and all may be comforted. 1Corinthians 14:32 And the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets. 1Corinthians 14:33 For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints. 1Corinthians 14:34 Let your women keep silence in the churches: for it is not permitted unto them to speak; but they are commanded to be under obedience as also saith the law. 1Corinthians 14:35 And if they will learn any thing, let them ask their husbands at home: for it is a shame for women to speak in the church. 1Corinthians 14:36 What? came the word of God out from you? or came it unto you only? 1Corinthians 14:37 If any man think himself to be a prophet, or spiritual, let him acknowledge that the things that I write unto you are the commandments of the Lord. 1Corinthians 14:38 But if any man be ignorant, let him be ignorant. 1Corinthians 14:39 Wherefore, brethren, covet to prophesy, and forbid not to speak with tongues. 1Corinthians 14:40 Let all things be done decently and in order.

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Acts 23

Acts 21

Acts 13

JAMES 3-5 [I’ll be in New Jersey June 19th-21- with my daughters- won’t have enough time to see my friends on this trip- but I’ll be back after that- see you then. Flying in on the 19th– out on the 21st– only have one day in town].

https://ccoutreach87.files.wordpress.com/2015/06/james-3-5-cut-short-on-the-boat.zip

James 3:1 My brethren, be not many masters, knowing that we shall receive the greater condemnation.

James 3:2 For in many things we offend all. If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man, and able also to bridle the whole body.

James 3:3 Behold, we put bits in the horses’ mouths, that they may obey us; and we turn about their whole body.

James 3:4 Behold also the ships, which though they be so great, and are driven of fierce winds, yet are they turned about with a very small helm, whithersoever the governor listeth.

James 3:5 Even so the tongue is a little member, and boasteth great things. Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth!

James 3:6 And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity: so is the tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire of hell.

James 3:7 For every kind of beasts, and of birds, and of serpents, and of things in the sea, is tamed, and hath been tamed of mankind:

James 3:8 But the tongue can no man tame; it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison.

James 3:9 Therewith bless we God, even the Father; and therewith curse we men, which are made after the similitude of God.

James 3:10 Out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not so to be.

James 3:11 Doth a fountain send forth at the same place sweet water and bitter?

James 3:12 Can the fig tree, my brethren, bear olive berries? either a vine, figs? so can no fountain both yield salt water and fresh.

James 3:13 Who is a wise man and endued with knowledge among you? let him shew out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom.

James 3:14 But if ye have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not, and lie not against the truth.

James 3:15 This wisdom descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish.

James 3:16 For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work.

James 3:17 But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy.

James 3:18 And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace.

NOTES-

 In the tradition of wisdom literature [Proverbs- etc.] James gives practical advice about what we say.

Proverbs says wise men spare their words- fools don’t.

James tells us not to seek after a big audience- or any for that matter.

Teachers will give an account- they hold special responsibility for what they teach.

  James 4:1 From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members?

James 4:2 Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not.

James 4:3 Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts.

James 4:4 Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.

James 4:5 Do ye think that the scripture saith in vain, The spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy?

James 4:6 But he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble.

James 4:7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

James 4:8 Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded.

James 4:9 Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness.

James 4:10 Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up.

James 4:11 Speak not evil one of another, brethren. He that speaketh evil of his brother, and judgeth his brother, speaketh evil of the law, and judgeth the law: but if thou judge the law, thou art not a doer of the law, but a judge.

James 4:12 There is one lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy: who art thou that judgest another?

James 4:13 Go to now, ye that say, To day or to morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain:

James 4:14 Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.

James 4:15 For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that.

James 4:16 But now ye rejoice in your boastings: all such rejoicing is evil.

James 4:17 Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.

NOTES- War is never a noble thing- it comes from the heart of sinful men.

Life is short- like smoke- it’s here for a short time- then gone.

The Christian life is one of discipline ‘resist the devil- draw near to God’.

 James 5:1 Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you.

James 5:2 Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are motheaten.

James 5:3 Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days.

James 5:4 Behold, the hire of the labourers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth: and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of sabaoth.

James 5:5 Ye have lived in pleasure on the earth, and been wanton; ye have nourished your hearts, as in a day of slaughter.

James 5:6 Ye have condemned and killed the just; and he doth not resist you.

James 5:7 Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain.

James 5:8 Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh.

James 5:9 Grudge not one against another, brethren, lest ye be condemned: behold, the judge standeth before the door.

James 5:10 Take, my brethren, the prophets, who have spoken in the name of the Lord, for an example of suffering affliction, and of patience.

James 5:11 Behold, we count them happy which endure. Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy.

James 5:12 But above all things, my brethren, swear not, neither by heaven, neither by the earth, neither by any other oath: but let your yea be yea; and your nay, nay; lest ye fall into condemnation.

James 5:13 Is any among you afflicted? let him pray. Is any merry? let him sing psalms.

James 5:14 Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord:

James 5:15 And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him.

James 5:16 Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.

James 5:17 Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months.

James 5:18 And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit.

James 5:19 Brethren, if any of you do err from the truth, and one convert him;

James 5:20 Let him know, that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins.

 NOTES-

Last night I read Luke 6- Jesus says-

 ‘Luke 6:20 And he lifted up his eyes on his disciples, and said, Blessed be ye poor: for yours is the kingdom of God.

Luke 6:24 But woe unto you that are rich! for ye have received your consolation.

Luke 6:25 Woe unto you that are full! for ye shall hunger. Woe unto you that laugh now! for ye shall mourn and weep.

Luke 6:37 Judge not, and ye shall not be judged: condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned: forgive, and ye shall be forgiven:

Luke 6:46 And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?

Luke 6:47 Whosoever cometh to me, and heareth my sayings, and doeth them, I will shew you to whom he is like:

Luke 6:49 But he that heareth, and doeth not, is like a man that without a foundation built an house upon the earth; against which the stream did beat vehemently, and immediately it fell; and the ruin of that house was great.

I mentioned earlier in this study that James was the brother of Jesus- and that the letter of James is the only New Testament book that fits the category of wisdom Literature- besides the teachings of Jesus in the gospels- The Sermon on the Mount/ beatitudes.

Look at the similarity of James and Jesus-

James rebuked the rich- said if we hear the Word- but don’t do it- we are in trouble.

James said to not judge- to show no partiality-

All of these teachings are short- pithy- and get straight to the point.

We live in a day where much of the popular preaching is very ‘flashy’- we desire great audiences- for people to sit- and hear.

Many see this act- ‘going to church- and hearing’ as their main responsibility as Christians.

Yet the bible puts a huge emphasis on being ‘doer’s’- seeking justice in society- James warned the upper class- Jesus too.

They said ‘woe to you that have it all- that hold the seats of power- and yet take no thought of the plight of the suffering and afflicted- your day is coming!’

We read this theme all thru out the Prophets of the Old Testament-

We see it in the life of John the Baptist-

And we read it in the prophetic praise of Mary- Jesus Mom!

 Luke 1:46 And Mary said, My soul doth magnify the Lord,

Luke 1:47 And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour.

Luke 1:48 For he hath regarded the low estate of his handmaiden: for, behold, from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed.

Luke 1:49 For he that is mighty hath done to me great things; and holy is his name.

Luke 1:50 And his mercy is on them that fear him from generation to generation.

Luke 1:51 He hath shewed strength with his arm; he hath scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts.

Luke 1:52 He hath put down the mighty from their seats, and exalted them of low degree.

Luke 1:53 He hath filled the hungry with good things; and the rich he hath sent empty away.

  Affliction- difficulty- these are ways God forms our character- not things to be ‘rebuked’.

Pray during times of testing-

Pray for one another- God heals us.

Have you been treated unjustly?

Don’t hold a grudge-

Know that God is a just God-

He sees-

Confess your mistakes- faults- to each other- don’t live a hidden life of sin.

If people are straying from truth- and you recognize it- then help them see this.

Proverbs says the wounds of a friend are better than false flattery.

 END NOTES- As we go thru the letters of the New Testament- I want you to follow the underlying theme about riches/money- how both leaders in the church as well as church members are to view the ‘wealth of this world’.

Over the years- I have heard/seen many of the verses-  even from this letter [chapter 1 ‘Don’t be double minded- don’t listen to people who are against a wealth building mindset- or you won’t get your harvest of money’] and use them to focus believers on the actual thing the verses teach against.

When we read the bible- it’s important to understand that even though we believe the bible is the Word of God- ‘Every Word is True’- yet- it’s the ‘Word of God’- in context.

So- if we read warnings against riches [like in this letter] you don’t take those actual warnings- out of context- and then teach the opposite.

I didn’t comment much on these last 3 chapters- because I wanted you to simply read them.

We can stay balanced as Christians if we regularly read thru the bible.

In chapter one James said if we lack wisdom- we should ask God- and he will give us wisdom.

James is a very practical book- and in ways [like the way you saw me teach chapter 2] it can lead to unity in the church.

I encourage you guys to copy these studies- download the videos from my WordPress site- use these things for yourself- and those who you teach.

 I re posted these verses below- just to remind us- get ‘the feel’ of the letter again.

James was one of the main church leaders at the church of Jerusalem- there were a lot of poor saints residing in this city.

In today’s popular Christianity you could accuse James of ‘preaching a poverty gospel’.

I mean look at what he was teaching!

Yet- this book of the bible is part of the canon of scripture- meaning we should form our views about God and our role as believers- from the bible- not from the popular writings of our day- no matter how well meaning- or ‘attractive’ they are.

 James 1:9 Let the brother of low degree rejoice in that he is exalted.

James 1:10 But the rich, in that he is made low: because as the flower of the grass he shall pass away.

James 1:11 For the sun is no sooner risen with a burning heat, but it withereth the grass, and the flower thereof falleth, and the grace of the fashion of it perisheth: so also shall the rich man fade away in his ways.

James 2:2 For if there come unto your assembly a man with a gold ring, in goodly apparel, and there come in also a poor man in vile raiment;

James 2:3 And ye have respect to him that weareth the gay clothing, and say unto him, Sit thou here in a good place; and say to the poor, Stand thou there, or sit here under my footstool:

James 2:4 Are ye not then partial in yourselves, and are become judges of evil thoughts?

James 2:5 Hearken, my beloved brethren, Hath not God chosen the poor of this world rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom which he hath promised to them that love him?

James 2:6 But ye have despised the poor. Do not rich men oppress you, and draw you before the judgment seats?

James 5:1 Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you.

James 5:2 Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are motheaten.

James 5:3 Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days.

James 5:4 Behold, the hire of the labourers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth: and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of sabaoth.

James 5:5 Ye have lived in pleasure on the earth, and been wanton; ye have nourished your hearts, as in a day of slaughter.

James 5:6 Ye have condemned and killed the just; and he doth not resist you.

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MARK 9 Mark 9:39 But Jesus said, Forbid him not: for there is no man which shall do a miracle in my name, that can lightly speak evil of me.Mark 9:40 For he that is not against us is on our part. https://youtu.be/6Bp5quWWNxs Mark 9 https://ccoutreach87.files.wordpress.com/2017/05/5-2-17-mark-9.zip https://ccoutreach87.com/5-2-17-mark-9/

https://youtu.be/uKm5kCsO8dY Preview- Mark 9

ON VIDEO- .Mount of transfiguration .Moses and Elijah appear .Kingdom of God .Prayer and fasting .Not a formula .if they are on our side- leave them alone .Fundamental Baptists .Assembly of God .Catholics .Tongues .Once saved always saved .Hedonism .Evil eye .Origen

NEW- [Past teaching- verses below]

There are a few teachings I want to focus on in this chapter- and briefly overview the whole chapter.

First we have the mount of transfiguration. Jesus takes 3 of his men up a mountain- and is changed before their eyes- Mark 9:2 And after six days Jesus taketh with him Peter, and James, and John, and leadeth them up into an high mountain apart by themselves: and he was transfigured before them. Mark 9:3 And his raiment became shining, exceeding white as snow; so as no fuller on earth can white them. He is white- shining with the glory of God. His men are terrified- never saw any thing like it before. Then Moses and Elijah appear with Jesus- Mark 9:4 And there appeared unto them Elias with Moses: and they were talking with Jesus. In Luke’s account it says they were discussing Jesus death- which was yet to come- Luke 9:30 And, behold, there talked with him two men, which were Moses and Elias: Luke 9:31 Who appeared in glory, and spake of his decease which he should accomplish at Jerusalem. Moses is representative of the law- and Elijah the prophets [divisions we have in the Old Testament]. And Jesus is the fulfillment of all that the law and prophets said- Luke 24:44 And he said unto them, These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me.

The disciples have a question for Jesus- Mark 9:11 And they asked him, saying, Why say the scribes that Elias must first come? Word must have gotten around ‘Hey- Jesus can’t be the Messiah- because the prophets said Elijah must come first’. True- But Jesus teaches us that John the Baptist was the fulfillment of the Elijah prophecy- Mark 9:13 But I say unto you, That Elias is indeed come, and they have done unto him whatsoever they listed, as it is written of him. 17 And he shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elias, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just; to make ready a people prepared for the Lord. Luke 1- [speaking of John the Baptist- Elias in the King James is Elijah] Jesus casts put a demon- his disciples tried- but had no effect. Jesus replies- Mark 9:29 And he said unto them, This kind can come forth by nothing, but by prayer and fasting. Then the disciples get into an argument over who will the the greatest- and Jesus gives them a lesson- Mark 9:35 And he sat down, and called the twelve, and saith unto them, If any man desire to be first, the same shall be last of all, and servant of all. Mark 9:36 And he took a child, and set him in the midst of them: and when he had taken him in his arms, he said unto them, Mark 9:37 Whosoever shall receive one of such children in my name, receiveth me: and whosoever shall receive me, receiveth not me, but him that sent me. John also has a question- Mark 9:38 And John answered him, saying, Master, we saw one casting out devils in thy name, and he followeth not us: and we forbad him, because he followeth not us. Jesus teaches his men not embrace the view that ‘they are the only right group’ meaning the core group of followers. No- if others are accepting the message- and doing kingdom works- then leave them alone. Those who are not against us- are on our side- Mark 9:39 But Jesus said, Forbid him not: for there is no man which shall do a miracle in my name, that can lightly speak evil of me. Mark 9:40 For he that is not against us is on our part. The chapter ends with some seemingly difficult instructions- Mark 9:43 And if thy hand offend thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter into life maimed, than having two hands to go into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched: Mark 9:44 Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched. Mark 9:45 And if thy foot offend thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter halt into life, than having two feet to be cast into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched: Mark 9:46 Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched. Mark 9:47 And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out: it is better for thee to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye, than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire: Jesus is showing us that life is not about getting all you can- having all the eye can see- all that the hand can do- and all places that your feet can take you to.

No- there are things to avoid seeing- things to avoid doing [hand] and places you should not go [areas of sin].

It’;s better to live sacrificially and walk in the kingdom- then to get all you can get- in this life now. On the video I gave a few more examples about the transfiguration- and talked a bit more about those who took the Command about ‘cut it off’ a bit to literally [Origen- an early Church father].

But overall this is the gist of it. Jesus had a manifestation of the glory of God- pre- resurrection.

The Mount of transfiguration was a Divine revealing of the Glory of God- on the Son of man. Yes- on Jesus Christ- a sinless man.

Paul taught us in Romans that the Spirit can make us alive now- can free us from all sin- and this act- also described as ‘raised to life’ takes place in this life- Romans 8:10 And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. Romans 8:11 But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you. On the Mount of transfiguration we saw the only sinless man- and the glory of God upon him. I think the Beginning of the chapter has something to do with the end of the chapter.

As believers- if we learn to ‘cut off’ the stuff in our lives that hold us back. The things we look at that are wrong. The acts we do that are sinful. The places we go that are traps. Then in a small way- we too can be ‘made white’. Yeah- whiter than any bleach on earth could ever do- Jesus’ appearance changed in front of them. 3 His clothes became dazzling white, whiter than anyone on earth could bleach them. Mark 9:2-3

PAST POSTS- [here are my past teachings that relate in some way to today’s post MARK 9] https://ccoutreach87.com/hebrews-updated-2015/ https://ccoutreach87.com/1st-2nd-corinthians/ https://ccoutreach87.com/galatians-links/ https://ccoutreach87.com/romans-updated-2015/ https://ccoutreach87.com/overview-of-philosophy/ MARK- https://ccoutreach87.com/2017/02/28/jersey-city-ride-mark-1/ https://ccoutreach87.com/2017/03/02/mark-2-north-bergen/ https://ccoutreach87.com/2017/03/04/mark-3-isaiah-61/ https://ccoutreach87.com/2017/03/14/mark-4/ https://ccoutreach87.com/2017/03/27/mark-5/ https://ccoutreach87.com/2017/04/05/mark-6/ https://ccoutreach87.com/2017/04/16/mark-7/ https://ccoutreach87.com/2017/04/30/mark-8/ 2ND CORITNHIANS 5- Paul speaks of the Christian hope- resurrection! This chapter can be confusing if not taken in context. You could think that Paul is saying when we die we have a house/room in heaven ‘waiting for us’ and this seems true enough. But he is really saying something more along the lines of ‘in heaven [Gods realm] we have a promise of a new body. The Spirit in us is the down payment, but full redemption will be complete when we are raised from the dead’ the hope is a new body, not our souls living some type of disembodied existence in a heavenly mansion. Now, Paul teaches us that this new covenant [last chapter] is one of reconciliation, not condemnation. That because of the work of the Cross, all men have been reconciled to God! It is therefore our job to tell them. In the field of Christian thought there have been thinkers [Origen, Carlton Pearson, etc.] who have dabbled with the doctrine of universalism. They believe that ultimately all people will be saved. I do not believe in this doctrine myself [though I wished it were true- I mean wouldn’t you want everyone forgiven and with God?] but those who embrace it find there reasoning in these types of verses. The New Testament teaches a theme of redemption that says ‘all men have been reconciled to God; Jesus has died for all men. God wills for all to be saved’ and it is because of this theme that some have held to universalism. The point I do want to make to all my orthodox friends is the New Testament message is one of total acceptance based on Christ’s death for us. Sometimes Christians ‘make it hard’ for people to ‘get saved’. The bible doesn’t make it hard, it says it’s a free gift that anyone can have [I know my Calvinist friends are upset right now, but heck I cant please all the people all of the time]. We want the world to know that ‘God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself’. These major themes need to be engrained into the mind of the church and the world. I am not talking ‘easy believism’ in the sense that God requires no repentance, but I am talking the reality of the free gift based upon what Jesus has done. There are so many people struggling with so many things, many have prayed and pleaded with God for change. Many have given up; they see God as a demanding judge whom they could never please. The message of the Cross is ‘you can’t please God, make up for your own sins. God placed those sins on Jesus, that’s why you can be accepted’. He was made sin for us, who knew no sin. That we might be made the righteousness of God in him. Once you see this truth, God will set you free. You will change, you will become ‘righteous’ but it’s a result of the Cross, not your own efforts. [parts] THE RAPTURE?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

http://www.corpuschristioutreachministries.blogspot.com

[1659] HAROLD CAMPING

As you well know- today will be our last day together. Yes- at 6:oo tonight the world is supposed to end. I first stumbled across the article a few weeks ago. The famous preacher from the east- Harold Camping- has once again predicted the return of Christ [or the Rapture].

Camping has gone down this road before- and I have a friend who actually follows Camping and I have tried to be nice about it- but of course most Christians believe Camping is part of a long line of well meaning men- who can’t resist the temptation to date set.

Now- I of course do not fall for stuff like this- I am not that gullible for heaven’s sake, some kind of conspiracy nut. Plus- if the world ends today- then how will we ever catch Bin Laden [of course you heard- he’s still alive?] hiding in Pakistan- with the fake birth certificate duplicator machine- you know- the one he used to fake Obama’s long form!

So yes- we as believers do have a history of doing silly things at times- and for some reason these things take on a life of their own. Many years ago I had a friend [Emit- for those of you who have read my posts these past few weeks- you now know who he is] he was/is sort of a spiritual son- you know- one of the sons of the guys hooked on drugs who eventually became a member of our little church movement.

So one day Emit tells me about the movie Jesus of Nazareth. It came out years ago and they did a good job at depicting the life of Christ. He says ‘did you see the actor who played Jesus? Wow- he was mysterious/spooky’ he watched it with his family and they felt touched by the actor who played Christ.

So I of course opined ‘You know brother- after the movie was made- when you look at the credits at the end- no name shows up for the actor. Then when the other actors and the director questioned each other- no one knows who the actor is!’

Now- of course I was kidding- and I made sure I told Emit ‘brother- just kidding’. But you know how these urban myths go- once you start them- there hard to stop!

So a few years later [maybe 5?] I was talking to his mother in law [Yolanda- another church member who was a woman preacher who did preach and had influence with other Christians- she was Emit’s mother in law]. And somehow she says ‘hey brother John- did you know that no one knows who the actor was in that Jesus movie’. I asked her ‘Yolanda- who told you that?’ she says ‘Emit’.

Now- after all those years the story got out- I mean I wish the truth could spread like this. For all I know there might be an entire group of people in Texas- you know- the ‘anonymous Jesus movie actor believers’ who all believe this story. Heck I always wanted to head up a movement.

But things like this do have a tendency to get around. So anyway that’s how the ‘end of the world is today’ thing has caught on. Now- will the world end today? Doubt it. Will ‘the world’ make fun of us? Sure. Will Christians continue to do things like this? Probably. How can we avoid doing things like this?

The safe way to go- in my view- is to stay connected to the historic church as much as possible. The Christian church has a good- long tradition of Christian truth. For the most part- the stability you find in the Christian classics- the church fathers- Patristics- this tradition is a good one.

Harold Camping is a good man- but he is a retired civil engineer- I’m sure he means well- but try and get your info from men who have been educated- yes thru the more traditional forms of education. Yes- I know ‘who are you to talk- you’re a retired fire fighter!’ But I try to offset that with many years of study- not just bible study- but studying the things I just mentioned. Taking the attitude that I can learn from those who have been at this longer than me. Camping believes ‘all the churches’ are now in deception- yes- he has another weird teaching that says the ‘church age’ has ended and there are no longer any true churches in the world today.

I hope most of you will not fall for stuff like this- we have bigger fish to fry- heck- I need to go out today and start the ‘anonymous Jesus actor followers’ are you in?

http://www.corpuschristioutreachministries.blogspot.com

[parts] LITTLE BOY LOST

The other day we saw the tragic story of the little Jewish boy who went missing on his way home from summer camp. This day he was without a ride, and his mother thought it would be okay for him to walk home the few blocks. After he didn’t show up she called the police.

They eventually discovered that he had been abducted by a member of their own community- and was tragically killed. The Jewish community in this area of Brooklyn is known as an Hasidic community. My mom was born and raised in Brooklyn- and as a boy I remember going to the city and seeing these strange looking guys with funny looking hair and dress.

This community dates back around 2300 years or so. During the Intertestemental period [the time between the last Old Testament book- Malachi- and the book of Matthew] you have quite an interesting history. It was during these 400 years that we saw the rise of the Greek world under Alexander the Great.

In the Greek world you had some very influential philosophers; Socrates most famous student was Plato- Plato’s most famous student was Aristotle- and his most famous student was Alexander the Great.

Alexander sought to implement the ideals of his teacher- he wanted to unify the known world under one people/culture- a belief that Aristotle held- a sort of ‘unified theory’ [Einstein] that would seek to bring all learning/knowledge together under one supreme [Divine] principle.

Alexander’s experiment was called Hellenization- which was the Greek worlds attempt to impose Greek culture/language on all their conquered enemies- and at the same time allow them to hold on to the their own culture too. Alexander did amazingly well at this experiment- at the young age of around 24 he had accomplished most of his mission. The cities were a sort of composite of Greek culture mixed in with their own culture- this is where we get the modern term Cosmopolitan.

Alexander died young and his kingdom was divided between 4 generals- one of them- Ptolemy- would himself make it into the history books because of his keen intellect.

The system of cosmology developed under him would last [and work!] until some 17-18 hundred years later when it was overthrown by the Copernican revolution during the time of Copernicus and Galileo.

Alexander’s generals would do their best to carry on the system of Hellenization- and other nations generals would keep the system going even after Greece fell. One of them- Octavian [Roman general] makes it into the history books by another famous name- Julius Caesar.

Alexander established a great library in the Egyptian city of Alexandria [named after him] and many of the great writings were preserved during this time.

The writings of Aristotle would be discovered again during the time of Thomas Aquinas [13th century Catholic genius/scholar] and this would lead to Scholasticism [a peculiar school of thought developed/revived under Aquinas] and give rise to the Renaissance.

Okay- before the birth of Christ- the Jewish people resisted the imposing of Greek culture upon them- you had the very famous resistance under the Jewish Maccabean revolt- where the Jews rose up and fought the wicked ruler Antiochus Epiphanies- and till this day the Jewish people celebrate this victory at Hanukah.

Eventually Rome would conquer the Greek kingdom and the Jewish people were allowed to keep their culture and temple- yet they were still a people oppressed. Hassidism [getting back to the beginning] developed during this attempt to not lose their Jewish roots- the Pharisees of Jesus day came from this movement.

Alexander was pretty successful in his attempt to unify language- even though the bible [New Testament] was written by Jewish writers- living under Roman rule- yet the original bible is written in the Greek language.

Bible scholars till this day study the Greek language to find the truest meaning of the actual words in the bible [I have a Greek Lexicon sitting right in front of me].

It would take a few centuries before a Latin version appeared on the scene [the great church father- Jerome- would produce the Latin Vulgate].

Yet it would be the re- discovery and learning of the Greek texts [under men like Erasmus- and the Protestant Reformers] that would lead to the Reformation [16th century] and other movements in church history.

Of course the tragedy of the little boy lost is very sad- and the roots of Jewish culture are noble and good- Pope Benedict refers to the Jewish people as ‘our elder brother’ because of the Jewish roots of Christianity. The original church was made up of Jewish believers- people who were waiting for the Messiah for centuries [actually Millennia] and they were convinced that this Jesus- this Jewish itinerant prophet- was indeed the one that was to come.

When you read the sermons in the book of Acts- you hear Peter, Paul- and especially Stephen [ Acts 7] relating the person of Jesus to the prophecies that were spoken about the Messiah in the Old Testament- these early Jewish believers were convinced- in no uncertain terms- that Jesus was the Messiah who was foretold to come.

At the Jewish trial of Jesus- the high priest asks ‘are you claiming to be God’s Son’ Jesus- one of the few times he did this- said ‘you said it’. The priest throws up his hands and says ‘what more need do we have of witnesses- he himself has said he claims deity’.

In John’s gospel we read when Jesus said ‘Abraham saw my day- and was gad’. They asked him ‘how could Abraham see your day- you’re not even 50 years old’ Jesus replied ‘BEFORE ABRAHAM WAS- I AM’ They were incensed- the words I AM were the words used to describe God. The bible says they took up stones to kill him.

The great Christian writer- C.S. Lewis- spent many years as an atheist- yet as an intellectual he read all the great writings of history- and he said that no matter how hard he [and other atheists] tried to reject God- that history was filled with writings- both pro and con- about God.

As a matter of fact- there was no other underlying theme- some scarlet thread- woven thru out the entire history of man- that even came close to this testimony of the reality of God.

Many agnostics of Lewis’ day said ‘we believe Jesus was a good person- even a Rabbi- Prophet- great messenger of God’ Lewis said Jesus did not leave this option open to us. Jesus said he was indeed the Son of God- Deity come down- born from a virgin- crucified- died and was buried. On the 3dr day he rose again- according to the scriptures- he is seated at the right hand of God and will come again- to judge the living and the dead.

Yes kingdoms have come and gone- great men and despots have either honored this Jesus- or despised him- but today we still talk about Jesus- King of Kings and Lord of Lords- we have only one option- either we confess him as Lord- or we call him a madman- which one will you choose?

http://www.corpuschristioutreachministries.blogspot.com

VERSES- Mark 9:1 And he said unto them, Verily I say unto you, That there be some of them that stand here, which shall not taste of death, till they have seen the kingdom of God come with power. Mark 9:2 And after six days Jesus taketh with him Peter, and James, and John, and leadeth them up into an high mountain apart by themselves: and he was transfigured before them. Mark 9:3 And his raiment became shining, exceeding white as snow; so as no fuller on earth can white them. Mark 9:4 And there appeared unto them Elias with Moses: and they were talking with Jesus. Mark 9:5 And Peter answered and said to Jesus, Master, it is good for us to be here: and let us make three tabernacles; one for thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elias. Mark 9:6 For he wist not what to say; for they were sore afraid. Mark 9:7 And there was a cloud that overshadowed them: and a voice came out of the cloud, saying, This is my beloved Son: hear him. Mark 9:8 And suddenly, when they had looked round about, they saw no man any more, save Jesus only with themselves. Mark 9:9 And as they came down from the mountain, he charged them that they should tell no man what things they had seen, till the Son of man were risen from the dead. Mark 9:10 And they kept that saying with themselves, questioning one with another what the rising from the dead should mean. Mark 9:11 And they asked him, saying, Why say the scribes that Elias must first come? Mark 9:12 And he answered and told them, Elias verily cometh first, and restoreth all things; and how it is written of the Son of man, that he must suffer many things, and be set at nought. Mark 9:13 But I say unto you, That Elias is indeed come, and they have done unto him whatsoever they listed, as it is written of him. Mark 9:14 And when he came to his disciples, he saw a great multitude about them, and the scribes questioning with them. Mark 9:15 And straightway all the people, when they beheld him, were greatly amazed, and running to him saluted him. Mark 9:16 And he asked the scribes, What question ye with them? Mark 9:17 And one of the multitude answered and said, Master, I have brought unto thee my son, which hath a dumb spirit; Mark 9:18 And wheresoever he taketh him, he teareth him: and he foameth, and gnasheth with his teeth, and pineth away: and I spake to thy disciples that they should cast him out; and they could not. Mark 9:19 He answereth him, and saith, O faithless generation, how long shall I be with you? how long shall I suffer you? bring him unto me. Mark 9:20 And they brought him unto him: and when he saw him, straightway the spirit tare him; and he fell on the ground, and wallowed foaming. Mark 9:21 And he asked his father, How long is it ago since this came unto him? And he said, Of a child. Mark 9:22 And ofttimes it hath cast him into the fire, and into the waters, to destroy him: but if thou canst do any thing, have compassion on us, and help us. Mark 9:23 Jesus said unto him, If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth. Mark 9:24 And straightway the father of the child cried out, and said with tears, Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief. Mark 9:25 When Jesus saw that the people came running together, he rebuked the foul spirit, saying unto him, Thou dumb and deaf spirit, I charge thee, come out of him, and enter no more into him. Mark 9:26 And the spirit cried, and rent him sore, and came out of him: and he was as one dead; insomuch that many said, He is dead. Mark 9:27 But Jesus took him by the hand, and lifted him up; and he arose. Mark 9:28 And when he was come into the house, his disciples asked him privately, Why could not we cast him out? Mark 9:29 And he said unto them, This kind can come forth by nothing, but by prayer and fasting. Mark 9:30 And they departed thence, and passed through Galilee; and he would not that any man should know it. Mark 9:31 For he taught his disciples, and said unto them, The Son of man is delivered into the hands of men, and they shall kill him; and after that he is killed, he shall rise the third day. Mark 9:32 But they understood not that saying, and were afraid to ask him. Mark 9:33 And he came to Capernaum: and being in the house he asked them, What was it that ye disputed among yourselves by the way? Mark 9:34 But they held their peace: for by the way they had disputed among themselves, who should be the greatest. Mark 9:35 And he sat down, and called the twelve, and saith unto them, If any man desire to be first, the same shall be last of all, and servant of all. Mark 9:36 And he took a child, and set him in the midst of them: and when he had taken him in his arms, he said unto them, Mark 9:37 Whosoever shall receive one of such children in my name, receiveth me: and whosoever shall receive me, receiveth not me, but him that sent me. Mark 9:38 And John answered him, saying, Master, we saw one casting out devils in thy name, and he followeth not us: and we forbad him, because he followeth not us. Mark 9:39 But Jesus said, Forbid him not: for there is no man which shall do a miracle in my name, that can lightly speak evil of me. Mark 9:40 For he that is not against us is on our part. Mark 9:41 For whosoever shall give you a cup of water to drink in my name, because ye belong to Christ, verily I say unto you, he shall not lose his reward. Mark 9:42 And whosoever shall offend one of these little ones that believe in me, it is better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he were cast into the sea. Mark 9:43 And if thy hand offend thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter into life maimed, than having two hands to go into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched: Mark 9:44 Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched. Mark 9:45 And if thy foot offend thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter halt into life, than having two feet to be cast into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched: Mark 9:46 Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched. Mark 9:47 And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out: it is better for thee to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye, than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire: Mark 9:48 Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched. Mark 9:49 For every one shall be salted with fire, and every sacrifice shall be salted with salt. Mark 9:50 Salt is good: but if the salt have lost his saltness, wherewith will ye season it? Have salt in yourselves, and have peace one with another. Hebrews 11:13 These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. In Context | Full Chapter | Other Translations Matthew 3:3 For this is he that was spoken of by the prophet Esaias, saying, The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. In Context | Full Chapter | Other Translations Mark 1:3 The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. In Context | Full Chapter | Other Translations Luke 3:4 As it is written in the book of the words of Esaias the prophet, saying, The voice of one crying in thewilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. In Context | Full Chapter | Other Translations John 1:23 He said, I am the voice of one crying in thewilderness, Make straight the way of the Lord, as said the prophet Esaias. In Context | Full Chapter | Other Translations Matthew 11:10 For this is he, of whom it is written, Behold, I send my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare thy way before thee. In Context | Full Chapter | Other Translations Mark 1:2 As it is written in the prophets, Behold, I send my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare thy way before thee. In Context | Full Chapter | Other Translations Luke 7:27 This is he, of whom it is written, Behold, I send my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare thy way before thee. In Context | Full Chapter | Other Translations Mark 7:22 Thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness: In Context | Full Chapter | Other Translations Mark 7:22 Thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness: In Context | Full Chapter | Other Translations 1 John 2:16 For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not ofthe Father, but is of the world. In Context | Full Chapter | Other Translations 1 Corinthians 7:9 But if they cannot contain, let them marry: for it is better to marry than to burn. In Context | Full Chapter | Other Translations Hebrews 12:1 Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside everyweight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, In Context | Full Chapter | Other Translations Romans 8:1 There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. Romans 8:2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. Romans 8:3 For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: Romans 8:4 That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. Romans 8:5 For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit. Romans 8:6 For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Romans 8:7 Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. Romans 8:8 So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. Romans 8:9 But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. Romans 8:10 And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. Romans 8:11 But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you. Romans 8:12 Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. Romans 8:13 For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. Romans 8:14 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. Romans 8:15 For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.

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Sunday sermon

Sunday sermon

Sunday sermon for 9-16-18

  VERSES [These are the verses I either quoted or taught from on today’s post]

September 30, 2018

 « September 29  |  October 1 »

Twenty-sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Lectionary: 137

Reading 1

NM 11:25-29

The LORD came down in the cloud and spoke to Moses. Taking some of the spirit that was on Moses, the LORD bestowed it on the seventy elders; and as the spirit came to rest on them, they prophesied. Now two men, one named Eldad and the other Medad, were not in the gathering but had been left in the camp. They too had been on the list, but had not gone out to the tent; yet the spirit came to rest on them also, and they prophesied in the camp. So, when a young man quickly told Moses, "Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp, " Joshua, son of Nun, who from his youth had been Moses' aide, said, "Moses, my lord, stop them." But Moses answered him, "Are you jealous for my sake? Would that all the people of the LORD were prophets! Would that the LORD might bestow his spirit on them all!"

Responsorial Psalm

PS 19:8, 10, 12-13, 14

R. (9a) The precepts of the Lord give joy to the heart. The law of the LORD is perfect, refreshing the soul; the decree of the LORD is trustworthy, giving wisdom to the simple. R. The precepts of the Lord give joy to the heart. The fear of the LORD is pure, enduring forever; the ordinances of the LORD are true, all of them just. R. The precepts of the Lord give joy to the heart. Though your servant is careful of them, very diligent in keeping them, yet who can detect failings? Cleanse me from my unknown faults! R. The precepts of the Lord give joy to the heart. From wanton sin especially, restrain your servant; let it not rule over me. Then shall I be blameless and innocent of serious sin.  R. The precepts of the Lord give joy to the heart.

Reading 2

JAS 5:1-6

Come now, you rich, weep and wail over your impending miseries. Your wealth has rotted away, your clothes have become moth-eaten, your gold and silver have corroded, and that corrosion will be a testimony against you; it will devour your flesh like a fire. You have stored up treasure for the last days. Behold, the wages you withheld from the workers who harvested your fields are crying aloud; and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts. You have lived on earth in luxury and pleasure; you have fattened your hearts for the day of slaughter. You have condemned; you have murdered the righteous one; he offers you no resistance.

Alleluia

CF. JN 17:17B, 17A

R. Alleluia, alleluia. Your word, O Lord, is truth; consecrate us in the truth. R. Alleluia, alleluia.

Gospel

MK 9:38-43, 45, 47-48

At that time, John said to Jesus, "Teacher, we saw someone driving out demons in your name, and we tried to prevent him because he does not follow us." Jesus replied, "Do not prevent him. There is no one who performs a mighty deed in my name who can at the same time speak ill of me. For whoever is not against us is for us. Anyone who gives you a cup of water to drink because you belong to Christ,  amen, I say to you, will surely not lose his reward. "Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him if a great millstone were put around his neck and he were thrown into the sea. If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter into life maimed than with two hands to go into Gehenna, into the unquenchable fire. And if your foot causes you to sin, cut if off. It is better for you to enter into life crippled than with two feet to be thrown into Gehenna. And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out. Better for you to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into Gehenna, where 'their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched.'"

Numbers 11:1 And when the people complained, it displeased the LORD: and the LORD heard it; and his anger was kindled; and the fire of the LORD burnt among them, and consumed them that were in the uttermost parts of the camp.

Numbers 11:2 And the people cried unto Moses; and when Moses prayed unto the LORD, the fire was quenched.

Numbers 11:3 And he called the name of the place Taberah: because the fire of the LORD burnt among them.

Numbers 11:4 And the mixt multitude that was among them fell a lusting: and the children of Israel also wept again, and said, Who shall give us flesh to eat?

Numbers 11:5 We remember the fish, which we did eat in Egypt freely; the cucumbers, and the melons, and the leeks, and the onions, and the garlick:

Numbers 11:6 But now our soul is dried away: there is nothing at all, beside this manna, before our eyes.

Numbers 11:7 And the manna was as coriander seed, and the colour thereof as the colour of bdellium.

Numbers 11:8 And the people went about, and gathered it, and ground it in mills, or beat it in a mortar, and baked it in pans, and made cakes of it: and the taste of it was as the taste of fresh oil.

Numbers 11:9 And when the dew fell upon the camp in the night, the manna fell upon it.

Numbers 11:10 Then Moses heard the people weep throughout their families, every man in the door of his tent: and the anger of the LORD was kindled greatly; Moses also was displeased.

Numbers 11:11 And Moses said unto the LORD, Wherefore hast thou afflicted thy servant? and wherefore have I not found favour in thy sight, that thou layest the burden of all this people upon me?

Numbers 11:12 Have I conceived all this people? have I begotten them, that thou shouldest say unto me, Carry them in thy bosom, as a nursing father beareth the sucking child, unto the land which thou swarest unto their fathers?

Numbers 11:13 Whence should I have flesh to give unto all this people? for they weep unto me, saying, Give us flesh, that we may eat.

Numbers 11:14 I am not able to bear all this people alone, because it is too heavy for me.

Numbers 11:15 And if thou deal thus with me, kill me, I pray thee, out of hand, if I have found favour in thy sight; and let me not see my wretchedness.

Numbers 11:16 And the LORD said unto Moses, Gather unto me seventy men of the elders of Israel, whom thou knowest to be the elders of the people, and officers over them; and bring them unto the tabernacle of the congregation, that they may stand there with thee.

Numbers 11:17 And I will come down and talk with thee there: and I will take of the spirit which is upon thee, and will put it upon them; and they shall bear the burden of the people with thee, that thou bear it not thyself alone.

Numbers 11:18 And say thou unto the people, Sanctify yourselves against to morrow, and ye shall eat flesh: for ye have wept in the ears of the LORD, saying, Who shall give us flesh to eat? for it was well with us in Egypt: therefore the LORD will give you flesh, and ye shall eat.

Numbers 11:19 Ye shall not eat one day, nor two days, nor five days, neither ten days, nor twenty days;

Numbers 11:20 But even a whole month, until it come out at your nostrils, and it be loathsome unto you: because that ye have despised the LORD which is among you, and have wept before him, saying, Why came we forth out of Egypt?

Numbers 11:21 And Moses said, The people, among whom I am, are six hundred thousand footmen; and thou hast said, I will give them flesh, that they may eat a whole month.

Numbers 11:22 Shall the flocks and the herds be slain for them, to suffice them? or shall all the fish of the sea be gathered together for them, to suffice them?

Numbers 11:23 And the LORD said unto Moses, Is the LORD's hand waxed short? thou shalt see now whether my word shall come to pass unto thee or not.

Numbers 11:24 And Moses went out, and told the people the words of the LORD, and gathered the seventy men of the elders of the people, and set them round about the tabernacle.

Numbers 11:25 And the LORD came down in a cloud, and spake unto him, and took of the spirit that was upon him, and gave it unto the seventy elders: and it came to pass, that, when the spirit rested upon them, they prophesied, and did not cease.

Numbers 11:26 But there remained two of the men in the camp, the name of the one was Eldad, and the name of the other Medad: and the spirit rested upon them; and they were of them that were written, but went not out unto the tabernacle: and they prophesied in the camp.

Numbers 11:27 And there ran a young man, and told Moses, and said, Eldad and Medad do prophesy in the camp.

Numbers 11:28 And Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of Moses, one of his young men, answered and said, My lord Moses, forbid them.

Numbers 11:29 And Moses said unto him, Enviest thou for my sake? would God that all the LORD's people were prophets, and that the LORD would put his spirit upon them!

Numbers 11:30 And Moses gat him into the camp, he and the elders of Israel.

Numbers 11:31 And there went forth a wind from the LORD, and brought quails from the sea, and let them fall by the camp, as it were a day's journey on this side, and as it were a day's journey on the other side, round about the camp, and as it were two cubits high upon the face of the earth.

Numbers 11:32 And the people stood up all that day, and all that night, and all the next day, and they gathered the quails: he that gathered least gathered ten homers: and they spread them all abroad for themselves round about the camp.

Numbers 11:33 And while the flesh was yet between their teeth, ere it was chewed, the wrath of the LORD was kindled against the people, and the LORD smote the people with a very great plague.

Numbers 11:34 And he called the name of that place Kibrothhattaavah: because there they buried the people that lusted.

Numbers 11:35 And the people journeyed from Kibrothhattaavah unto Hazeroth; and abode at Hazeroth.

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[ourlittledinosaur]

Train Up a Child...

New Post has been published on http://ourlittledinosaur.azurewebsites.net/train-up-a-child/

Train Up a Child...

Let’s Get Real.

I am seriously thinking about deleting all the game apps from my phone and iPad.

My sister and I were recently discussing all the things we could accomplish and all the things we could learn, if we just put down our phones. We have very different lives as I have a husband and son and she is currently single and scratching the itch to travel. So, while I have been working on teaching myself to crochet better, she is learning a 2nd language in her spare time. Putting down the phones and partaking in these worthwhile hobbies is something that we both can benefit from. These are hobbies that will still hold some value tomorrow.

These games that are time wasters hold no value at any time (except for the game developer if you purchase the in-game currency…500 magic beans anyone?). While I think of these games as something I do when I’m relaxing and just “veggin out”, what they are actually doing is stealing my joy.

While they are sucking the time in my life away, I am missing out on something much more fulfilling. Even watching TV with my husband would be a step up. That sounds pretty sad, but it’s true.

How Much is a Picture Worth?

Let me paint a picture. After the baby has gone to sleep and I’m exhausted. All I want to do is put my feet up and relax. I don’t want to think about anything. I don’t want to use my brain. I want to shut down for a bit. I know I should do the dishes or write an article, but I plop down on the couch, pull the handle to prop up my feet, and reach for the iPad. It takes my eyes and both hands to play a silly game, and sometimes even a little concentration. My husband sits one seat away on the couch. We aren’t touching. I don’t talk much, listen well, or respond as I should. This picture is embarrassing…but it has been me many an evening.

Now let me paint a slightly different picture. It’s not the most ideal, but it’s much better, in my opinion.

After our son is in bed, my husband and I sit down on the couch and flip on the television. We get comfortable, leaning into each other or holding hands, or rubbing each other’s feet. We have some light conversation, share some laughter in the show we are watching.

That’s better right? Ok, so we didn’t clean the house from top to bottom… Ok, so we didn’t have an intellectual discussion about the Bible… And definitely we need to do these things as well, however, just one step in the right direction paints an entirely different picture, doesn’t it?

I need to put down the game. Period.

Now imagine we turn the television off and play a game, or read, or pray together. Now that’s quality time!

Didn’t Have or Didn’t Make

I can’t tell you how many times I have said, “I just didn’t have time for…(fill in the blank).” But if I am honest with myself, I don’t have to dig that deep to realize the reality is, I didn’t make time.

Good time management overcomes the problem of “there aren’t enough hours in the day”. Oftentimes, I get to the end of the day and haven’t spent my time doing the things I should have been. I think, “What did I all day?” Now during the day, I’m not sitting down and playing app games all day, but I do find that I don’t push myself to accomplish simple tasks. I let the combination of all the items on my To Do list overwhelm me.

However, my concern goes beyond washing laundry and doing dishes…especially now that I am a mother. The questions that plague me at the end of the day are Did I spend enough quality time with my son? Did I play with him enough? Sing to him enough? Read to him enough? And when I can answer immediately no, I really didn’t, I am very saddened. Sure, I have a million-and-one excuses that nobody would question, but I know in my heart that I can do better.

Train Up a Child in the Way He Should Go…

I have a unique opportunity in our western culture to be a stay-at-home mother. That means I have the privilege as well as the responsibility to “teach my son in the way he should go…” I am realizing every day, that teaching began the moment he was born.

…And He Will Not Depart from It

My son is watching my every move and although he may not remember what I did or didn’t do today, what I do and say and how I do and say it (joyfully or with a bad attitude) will still impress upon him in the days to come. He can still learn from what happens today, even if he has no memory of it 5 years from now… Or 50 years from now…

That’s a humbling thought, isn’t it? How many of us see a child acting wild in public and think “The parents should do something. Where are they?” Anyone’s hands raised? Now how many of us blame the parents when we see a grown person doing something they shouldn’t? Obviously, as adults we are responsible for our own actions, but there is much to be said for helping children to form good routines and healthy habits early on. If I can get it together now, while he is young, I can be setting up my son for success later in life.

No pointless screen time today is worth not helping my son achieve his goals in the future.

Turn Away My Eyes from Worthless Things…

Another verse that convicted me this week about my screen addiction:

“Turn away my eyes from looking at worthless things, And revive me in Your way.”

Psalm 119:37

I need to allow God to work in my heart and in my life. I need to allow Him to revive me in HIS way. How do we allow God to do this? Well, we follow the commands in His Word. We seek His truth and wisdom written there. If we aren’t reading, we aren’t seeking.

The Bible speaks of being disciplined. Disciple is important for a functional life and God knows this. He did create us after all.

I need to do better, but I don’t have to do it alone because God is my helper and He provides peace and joy and love when we obey Him and rest in His lovingkindness.

What about you?

What’s keeping you from accomplishing the things on your list? Is there anything in your life you’re allowing to steal your joy or keep you from obeying God’s will?

“Train up a child in the way he should go, And when he is old he will not depart from it.”

Proverbs 22:6

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[paulsletters]

Dear Tim,

Hi Tim, I appreciate you making some comments and yes we are the best of friends. Yes you are saved thru the love of God but your earthly actions of complete obedience to Him proves your salvation. If a man thinks he is saved but doesn't keep the commandments, then in fact he isn't saved because if he was he would keep the commandments, as outward evidence of his salvation. But God says very clearly in the Scriptures that many, not few, are going to perish in hell. Ok so you are a guy that didn't need to be warned into the kingdom of God. I get that. I am the same. But not everyone is the same as us. People who aren't really going God's way need to know the consequences of their actions. They need to be warned. Do you think the people of Nineveh would have repented in sack cloth and ashes without Jonah warning them. When people go far from God they need to be warned. I tell my family it's either heaven or hell. And maybe because I have told them the truth, because hell certainly is truthful, then maybe they just might wake up and make the right choice and get 100% on God's side. Let's be real. God is going to condemn many to hell. The Scripture state it. No God isn't judgmental and condemning but yes he is sending many to hell and it's our job to warn them. How do we face God for not warning those who actually ended up going to hell but they might not have if we had warned them. Who are you to not warn a perishing soul. Why should you be saved and be so sure of your salvation when you didn't bother to warn those who are lost. Where is your love? What will your excuse be when God says why didn't you warn them. Noah tried and only got 8 but he tried and for trying he cannot be condemned. But what are you doing? You have people perishing all around you. It sounds cute to say that I know a different God to you. But God is an infinite God which means if you live for all eternity and every day you learn something more of what God is, you'll never know it all, because the infinite knowledge of God is inexhaustible. I know of the love of God but I choose to also be mindful of his complete dealings with man which includes hell. My faith isn't based on fear but yes I certainly do cultivate the fear of God which is something that you don't seem to do. I embrace it. The bible says that without the fear of the Lord it's impossible to be wise. What is fear of the Lord? The fear of the Lord is the deliberate act of being mindful of God's complete dealings with man which certainly includes hell, the great flood and Sodom and Gomorrah. You don't know Scripture Tim. It's a Catholic trait. I know. I was born a Catholic. And I had 2 uncles and a great uncle that were priests and an aunt was a nun. Yes thinking about God is obviously good but even Jesus Christ knew Scripture. The scriptures feed and guide us. Didn't the lord say man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. That's Scripture Tim. Proverbs 9:10 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. If you embraced the fear of God you would get to work on all those that God has put in your sphere instead of kicking back and not warning and winning them. Without the fear of God you won't be thinking straight. The atheist who are often the most intelligent of men certainly aren't thinking straight are they. But they think they are. But they have absolutely no fear of God. They couldn't care less about the flood or hell. The fear of the Lord makes us sober minded. It gets us to seriously consider what you won't consider. If it was good enough for Solomon to fear God, and who apart from Jesus Christ is wiser than Solomon, then we who need to be wiser, should indeed be embracing the fear of God. You keep going on about scoring points but you couldn't be further from the truth. But yes we want to please God and so we should. But it's not about scoring points. Maybe you say this because your own life is lacking and you should be doing more as absolute proof of your great love for God. I do what I do to please God. If you want to displease God by not trying harder that's your business. But He has done so much for you. Why can't you reach out to those who are going down the tubes. They are going to hell. They need to wake up call. We aren't scared of going to hell but the realisation that many are going to go there, helps to get us to realise our priorities. You don't actually understand the fear of the Lord. It's not being in terror of Him. Embrace it and find out for yourself. Yes you are right. Our father in heaven wants us to know His love and forgiveness which is unconditional. But after Nineveh repented in sack cloth and ashes it was then time for that aspect of God's character to be preached. People are going to hell and they don't know it. And you don't want to tell them. Jesus Christ told them Tim. You don't seem to get it. Of course there is no proviso. Yes we are saved but that's not where the buck stops. We now have to do our bit if we love others. We warn them. We reason with them. We talk of the great love of God. We talk about Everlasting Life and heaven. But if they are being idiots happily going to hell then we better tell them so, otherwise they just might go there. You've got me wrong. It's because I love God and I am grateful to Him for all that He has done for me, that my way of thanking Him is to do all I can to please Him. Is God displeased or pleased if your warning to a reckless soul results in repentance? We know that answer. God is definitely pleased isn't He. No my faith is not based on fear and retribution. I can never do enough for my God who has done so much for me. It's the very least I can do and it's what we all should do. When it comes to matters relating to God we are first and foremost guided by scripture and not by our own assumptions alone. Regrettably Tim you err by not letting Scriptures be your final authority. Let's be clear Tim and face that truth whatever that might be. The work of the cross absolutely proves God's great love for us. As God absolutely knew that mankind was going to fall and require the absolute Redeemer being Himself in the form of a man hanging on a cross, He could have saved Himself the trouble and not created us. But His love is so great that He wants us to have Everlasting Life, so much so, that He will lay down His own life on the cross, in the form of Jesus Christ. Proving that there is no greater love than the love of one who lays down His life for his friends. Yes God makes us, knowing full well it will entail His own suffering in the form of Jesus Christ. Instead of electing to not make us and save Himself the heartache, He actually creates us knowing full well what He is in for. That is an unfathomable love. Why didn't he simply abandon the plan to create man? Love. Yes amazing love. Yes God loves us. But this same God who loves us so much also kills all the sodomites in Sodom and Gomorrah. And He kills everybody except for the 8 people on Noah's Ark. This is the God that loves us. Ok so what do the scriptures say. I will paraphrase this for you and follow it up with the actual scriptures. God says that many will perish in hell. Not few. Many. Hey what's new. The whole world perished in The Flood. And God defines few by actually calling them a remnant. Who are the few? Does it say in the Scriptures what is required to be in this category of the few? Yes it does. The few are the obedient to God. They keep His commandments. They love God and their fellow man. And they love them enough to warn them as I am doing. They believe that Jesus Christ is God incarnate and they worship and obey Him, by doing what He has clearly told us what to do. The flood was real. Sodom and Gomorrah was real. Satan is real. Hell is real. In the bible it says try real hard. I will show you this presently. It says straight and narrow is the way. Yes our our love and appreciation of God is almost all the motivation that's required to lead a God pleasing life, But even the apostle Paul speaks of the necessity of ensuring that even He needed to ensure that he didn't get cast away. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. This doesn't mean that we are quaking in our boots. The fear of the Lord is having a mindful appreciation of God's complete dealings with man, which is yes the love of God but also let's not forget The Flood and Sodom and Gomorrah and Hell. Having this complete mindful appreciation, in balance, is a definition of having the fear of the Lord, and this good mindset gives us the strength to rule ourselves to flee from sin. It's good to have this discussion and I haven't addressed all your points but I will in another email. Ok this is the Scripture that relates to trying real hard and the straight and narrow way. Strive means try real hard. Luke 13:24 Strive to enter in at the strait gate: for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able. ( read the remaining following verses) Ok here is the Scripture about many going down the tubes. You may not like it but hey it's Scripture. Matt 7:13 Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide us the gate and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat. 14. Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that findeth it. Ok let's talk about the few actually being described as a remnant. It's found in in Revelations 12:17 And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ. No we don't need to fear God in the normal sense of the word but neither do we want to underestimate Him either. To not be fully mindful of The Flood, Sodom and Gomorrah along with hell, is to not fear God. I think you have to be careful that you aren't twisting doctrine to suit yourself. You say you aren't saved by your actions. And whilst that's sort of true and I say that because if your actions are such that you aren't keeping the commandments of God as he clearly tells us to do then no you are not saved. We all are inclined to think this and that, whether we believe in God or not, but unless what we believe lines up with Scripture, lit's not worth a figurative hill of beans. You make a good point regarding the love of God. I will try to be more mindful of it. Your Pal. Paul

[standrewumcspokenword]

Doubting Thomas

I always feel like this Sunday is here to play tricks with us. John’s gospel gives us this definitive account of who Jesus is, inspiring us with Peter and John running to the tomb, seeing it empty, and consoling us with hearing the risen Jesus call Mary Magdalene by name.  

 1 And then we get to Thomas.  Thomas called Didymus, or the twin, but we’ve always called him “Doubting Thomas.”  How would you like to be pegged by a name like that?  We call him Doubting Thomas because for one instance in scripture 2 he gives the only sane response anyone would have to “Jesus is Risen.” He asks, “really?” 3 Prove it.  

 People rising from the dead isn’t the norm in life.  It’s not what we usually encounter.  So when Jesus appears to the Twelve after the Resurrection, when Thomas is absent, 4 he comes into that upper room and says “Peace be to you.”  Not go make war, but he speaks peace.  And Thomas is naturally skeptical.  He wants to be sure.  5 And so he says he won’t believe unless he can touch the body of Jesus, to know that it is the SAME body by touching the nailprints, the cut in his side.  Even his risen body still bears the marks of the pain he endured. It’s interesting that none of those Disciples stayed around on Good Friday long enough to see those nails go in, but now they see.  And so Thomas says he, too, must see, to believe.  John presents this to us today and 6 ends with, “blessed are those who do not see and yet believe.”  

 From the beginning of the Christian movement, faith and doubt have been linked.  Those who believe in Jesus and put their trust in his movement and those who naturally say… wait a minute, I’m still not sure.  

We’ve often treated those two as polar opposites, as if to have any doubt is the enemy of faith, when we know full well that faith without any questioning is blind and not open to seeing.  The disciples didn’t kick Thomas out for questioning. They invited him to stay and helped him believe.

 Martin Luther, the one who started the Reformation by doubting some of the teachings of the church, put it like this – Pride – not doubt – is the opposite of faith.  Paul Tillich, a writer who lived long ago, said “Doubt is not the opposite of Faith but an essential part of it.” 7 Even John Ortberg, one who writes a book meant to convince of faith has said that doubt does good – it motivates us to learn about Jesus, as it did Thomas; it purifies away beliefs that are false; it humbles our arrogance; and it gives us compassion with other doubters. [John Ortberg Faith & Doubt, p. 12]

8 <BLANK>

Right after confirmation Sunday, I never saw a young man I’ll call Tom in church again.  He went through a year of confirmation with me, professed his faith, and then, his mother came down with cancer.  This was pre-Facebook, so I had to hear from a few friends of his that he was no longer calling himself a Christian. He never returned my calls.

 So many times I wanted to sit down and talk about God. His mother beat cancer and she’s in remission now. But that was at the beginning of the cancer. And Tom was angry. I heard that he couldn’t believe that God, an all-powerful God, would choose to let his mother suffer.  If I had the chance, I’d sit down with him and say, “you know, I’m not sure that I believe in that kind of God, either.” I don’t believe in a God who randomly selects some for easy lives, calls them “blessed” and selects others for cancer.  In fact, I see Jesus healing repeatedly, telling us that God does want us to be healthy. Perhaps the doctors and scientists today are helping us to do God’s work on earth.  If I had the chance, I’d ask whether God could be the one who walks with us through our hardest days?  And THAT God convinces us through the Resurrection that the End isn’t the End after all?  

9 Doubt is not the end of Faith.  It opens up new avenues to understanding ourselves and knowing God.

 Don always loved Doubting Thomas Sunday. Don was a faithful member of my church, attended every week for many years, but one day after Doubting Thomas Sunday he pulled me aside, looked around, and confessed – “I believe in God, God I’m sure about now… but Jesus… I have some questions.”  We had many great conversations.  I was there as Don breathed his last, still professing faith in God and hopeful about who would welcome him and call his name.

 When I come to this Sunday, I find it asks me to be honest about why I believe.  To be honest about my faith and about my doubt.

 Faith and Doubt is all over the news now. 10 Perhaps you’ve heard of a movie that’s out, The Case for Christ. It comes from a book of the same title by Lee Strobel, a former journalist at the Chicago Tribune. It’s gotten pretty good reviews.  Strobel called himself an atheist until he sat down and, like a journalist on the courtroom beat, investigated the Bible – his objections to it, his doubt about the resurrection.  

 I’m encouraged by what he did in that book.  

 One of the main objections comes down to the question “Can we trust scripture?”  

 Two of the objections he writes down are those I hear a bit, the first is wondering whether outside evidence – archeology – confirms scripture or not.  The second is about whether we can trust that what we have is what Jesus said.

 11 We humans are a skeptical bunch.  Like Doubting Thomas, we find it hard to believe what we don’t touch with our hands, or at least, we find it hard to trust that we’re given the real story. Look at the JFK Assassination and how many still wonder whether we have the whole truth about it.  Or those who deny the fact of the Holocaust.  And about 9/11.  I suspect that in my children’s lifetime there will be those who will wonder whether 9/11 ever even happened. Despite those of us who know people who were there, the smoke I saw a few months after, the towers I touched, my kids may know some doubters.

 And so it’s natural that people come to scripture and want to “trust but verify.”

 To verify scripture, many doubters ask –12 is there archeological evidence, outside evidence to support scripture.  I can tell them yes there is.

  ·        Tacitus, writing in about 116 CE (formerly AD), confirms Pontius Pilate existed and even uses the name Christus when referring to Jesus’ followers, and confirms that the name “Christians” was given to us by those who opposed Christianity in the first century.

o   He confirms that Christianity was a substantial movement, worthy of mention.

o   If many others who were contemporaries of the disciples believed, it makes the witness credible to me.

 ·        Josephus, a Jewish historian writing just a few decades after Jesus’ crucifixion, mentions Jesus a few times.  Not all of his writings are authentic, they’ve been modified. But in the most credible passage, he lists Jesus as “Jesus-who-was-called-the-Messiah” or a better translation – who was believed to be the Messiah.  Not all of his writings are authentic, but that one is.  Along with Tacitus, his writings confirm

o   That Jesus lived.

o   That his name was Jesus.

o   That he died by crucifixion at the hands of Pontius Pilate.

o   That he was believed to be the Messiah.

  The Second objection people have, is ok, but can I trust the internal documents, the scriptures themselves.  After all, much of scripture was transmitted orally for the first 30-60 years until the gospels were written.  I like this objection, and I think it’s one we need to take seriously, because it’s really a question of whether we can trust the message we’ve been given about Jesus.

         Here is how we tend to answer it.

         13 What do you notice about this image?  

   1.   It has the time things were written down for scripture and the number of manuscripts we have.  

 Ø  Interesting that in comparison to other major works, the Christian scriptures were written down rather quickly.  Especially if you take Paul’s letters into account, which were written within two decades of Jesus’ death.  

 We have a lot of manuscripts – those are everything from a little piece of papyrus to a whole scroll.  A friend of mine whose a philosophy professor at DePaul shared this image on Facebook.  James McGrath, chair of the New Testament department at Butler University commented that the last column is a little “iffy.”  If the documents are pointing to something inaccurate, it doesn’t matter how many we have.  It doesn’t matter how many copies of a history book we have saying the world is flat, it isn’t so.  But still… it does mean that we have many to compare.

 What else do you notice about it?  It’s laminated.  It’s pocket sized.  This chart is something someone keeps in their backpocket or their wallet in order to whip out whenever they want to convince someone else of faith.

 That never works.  That’s not how someone comes to Christ.  It’s how we drive people away. As a missionary, nobody in India was convinced by arguments I presented about Christ. But I did have a guy tell me he wanted to be a Christian because of how we cared about each other, how we lived.  Can you show someone where you struggle with scripture?  Because scripture has parts in it that we have to wrestle with. Things that we have to decide whether we’re still going to believe that today –14 1 Peter said “slaves obey your masters.”  I think none of us here would still support that idea. 15 1 Peter 3 also says “wives obey your husbands.” Uh-hem, I don’t think that’s going to win the argument over who does the dishes. She’ll convince it me it was my idea to wash them before quoting that verse will change anyone’s mind.  

 Quoting scripture doesn’t change people’s minds, nor does taking them to a movie like the Case for Christ.  Part of the reason for that is because many Christians have caused belief in Jesus to come with a high price tag.  For many who use books or movies like The Case for Christ, they believe that if I convince you with my argument, then you have to believe AS I believe.  You have to profess faith not just in the teachings of Jesus, but how I interpret them.  And often that’s included terrible ideas about who’s in and who’s out, who’s loved by God and who should struggle.  For many who doubt, it’s not God or Jesus that makes them doubt, it’s that we as Jesus’ followers have done such a poor job of being honest. Honest about our own struggles with faith and life.

 16 Pride, not doubt, is the opposite of faith.  And believing that our way is the only way a Christ-follower can go is the pride that leads to the fall of all of us.

 This week, 17 can you have an honest conversation a time you doubted about God, the Resurrection, or about Jesus?  Can you share about a time when someone did something that hurt you and made you doubt even your faith?  

 If the Disciples didn’t kick Thomas out for not believing, then none of us can do that to each other.  In those conversations this week, I also believe you may have someone who is there with you, eavesdropping, yet unseen, one you may not even recognize.  We’ll talk more about him next week. I want to invite you back next week 18 for another look at Faith & Doubt. We’ll look less at the arguments around faith, and more about what faith in Jesus really looks like.  What it means to believe in this Resurrection.   19 Amen

[ourlittledinosaur]

Train Up a Child...

New Post has been published on http://ourlittledinosaur.com/train-up-a-child/

Train Up a Child...

Let’s Get Real.

I am seriously thinking about deleting all the game apps from my phone and iPad.

My sister and I were recently discussing all the things we could accomplish and all the things we could learn, if we just put down our phones. We have very different lives as I have a husband and son and she is currently single and scratching the itch to travel. So, while I have been working on teaching myself to crochet better, she is learning a 2nd language in her spare time. Putting down the phones and partaking in these worthwhile hobbies is something that we both can benefit from. These are hobbies that will still hold some value tomorrow.

These games that are time wasters hold no value at any time (except for the game developer if you purchase the in-game currency…500 magic beans anyone?). While I think of these games as something I do when I’m relaxing and just “veggin out”, what they are actually doing is stealing my joy.

While they are sucking the time in my life away, I am missing out on something much more fulfilling. Even watching TV with my husband would be a step up. Don’t believe me? Continue reading.

How Much is a Picture Worth?

Let me paint a picture. After the baby has gone to sleep and I’m exhausted. All I want to do is put my feet up and relax. I don’t want to think about anything. I don’t want to use my brain. I want to shut down for a bit. I know I should do the dishes or write an article, but I plop down on the couch, pull the handle to prop up my feet, and reach for the iPad. It takes my eyes and both hands to play a stupid game, and sometimes even a little concentration. My husband sits one seat away on the couch. We aren’t touching. I don’t talk much, listen well, or respond as I should. This picture is embarrassing…but it has been me many an evening.

Now let me paint a slightly different picture. It’s not the most ideal, but it’s much better, in my opinion.

After our son is in bed, my husband and I sit down on the couch and flip on the television. We get comfortable, leaning into each other or holding hands, or rubbing each other’s feet. We have some light conversation, and share some laughter in the show we are watching.

That’s better right? Ok, so we didn’t clean the house from top to bottom… Ok, so we didn’t have an intellectual discussion about the Bible… And definitely we need to do these things as well, however, just one step in the right direction paints an entirely different picture, doesn’t it?

I need to put down the game. Period.

Didn’t Have or Didn’t Make

I can’t tell you how many times I have said, “I just didn’t have time for…(fill in the blank).” But if I am honest with myself, I don’t have to dig that deep to realize the reality is, I didn’t make time.

My hunch is that good time management isn’t that the problem is “there aren’t enough hours in the day”. Oftentimes, I get to the end of the day and haven’t spent my time doing the things I should have been. I think, “What did I do all day?” Now during the day, I’m not sitting down and playing app games all day, but I do find that I don’t push myself to accomplish simple tasks. I let the combination of all the items on my To Do list overwhelm me.

However, my concern goes beyond washing laundry and doing dishes…especially now that I am a mother. The questions that plague me at the end of the day are Did I spend enough quality time with my son? Did I play with him enough? Sing to him enough? Read to him enough? And when I can answer immediately no, I really didn’t, that is just sad. Sure, I have a million and one excuses that nobody would question, but I know in my heart that I can do better.

Train Up a Child in the Way He Should Go…

I have a unique opportunity in our Western culture to be a stay-at-home mother. That means I have the privilege as well as the responsibility to “teach my son in the way he should go…” I am realizing every day that teaching began the moment he was born.

…He Will Not Depart from It

He is watching my every move and although he may not remember what I did or didn’t do today, what I do and say and how I do and say it (joyfully or with a bad attitude) will still impress upon him in the days to come. He can still learn from what happens today, even if he has no memory of it 5 years from now… Or 50 years from now…

That’s a humbling thought, isn’t it? How many of us see a child acting wild in public and think “The parents should do something”? Anyone’s hands raised? Now how many of us blame the parents when we see a grown person doing something they shouldn’t? Obviously, as adults we are responsible for our own actions, but there is much to be said for helping children to form good routines and healthy habits early on. If I can get it together now, while he is young, I can be setting up my son for success later in life.

No pointless screen time today is worth not helping my son achieve his goals in the future.

Turn Away My Eyes from Worthless Things…

Another verse that convicted me this week about my screen addiction:

“Turn away my eyes from looking at worthless things, And revive me in Your way.” Psalm 119:37

I need to allow God to work in my heart and in my life. I need to allow Him to revive me in HIS way. How do we allow God to do this? Well, we follow the commands in His Word. We seek His truth and wisdom written there. If we aren’t reading, we aren’t seeking, and we won’t find.

The Bible speaks of being disciplined. Disciple is important for a functional life and God knows this. He did create us after all. I need to do better, but I don’t have to do it alone because God is our helper and He provides peace and joy and love when we obey Him and rest in His loving-kindness.

What about you?

What’s keeping you from accomplishing the things on your list? Is there anything in your life you’re allowing to steal your joy or keep you from obeying God’s will?

“Train up a child in the way he should go, And when he is old he will not depart from it.” Proverbs 22:6

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