#power to change

[momentsbeforemass]

With power

Today’s Gospel starts off a little different.

Instead of quoting Jesus or telling us what Jesus is doing, it starts with some perspective on Jesus. It gives us a glimpse of how the people who heard Jesus were reacting to Him.

“And they were astonished at His teaching, for He spoke with authority.”

Why would people say that? What does it mean for Jesus to speak with authority?

First, Jesus isn’t in charge of anything when they react like this. At this point in His ministry, people see Jesus as a traveling preacher who heals people. So they can’t mean the authority of someone like a king, whose word is law. It’s got to mean something else.

Another translation puts it this way, “and they were astonished at His teaching, for His word was with power.”

What does that mean? It means that Jesus isn’t just giving good advice (although His advice is good). And it means that the people Jesus is speaking to get it. They understand that there’s more to what Jesus is saying. A lot more.

It means that what Jesus is teaching them has power – the power to change lives.

Both in an immediate way, like the healing we see in today’s Gospel. And in a deeper, lasting way, that heals every part of our lives.

Casting out the things that drag us down and harm us. Getting rid of everything that’s come between us and God.

Drawing us closer to the One who loved us into existence. Until we become exactly who God made us to be.

2,000 years have taken away none of that power.

What Jesus is teaching us has power – the power to change our lives.

If we’re wise enough to let it.

Today’s Readings

[thefeawl]

''A blank canvas cannot be judged, for it possesses only potential.''

''Think of your life as a blank canvas, a Divine Canvas upon which you fashion an ideal life, a new beginning, with room to experiment with new or old ideas which can redefine the you that you have thought you were into a you that has a power to change!''

''The Divine Canvas is your magic screen upon which you may recreate any picture you desire and when you install it in your gallery it will be more refined.''

''The paintings are actually thought-forms and you are free to picture the unlimited potential of your creative nature. You are free to re-create your life.''

– John J. Falone

[littlemizzlinguistics]

Studying linguistics is actually so wonderful because when you explain youth slang to older professors, instead of complaining about how "your generation can't speak right/ you're butchering the language" they light up and go “really? That’s so wonderful! What an innovative construction! Isn't language wonderful?"

[thegratitudecoach]

What if You Had the Power to Solve One Global Issue? What Would YOU Choose?

Solving Global Issues Many of us have the desire to solve global issues. However, sometimes it is challenging to do so. We don’t often have the resources or the impact to affect change. But what if we did? This inspiring story will change your perspective when it comes to the impact you can have as one person. Photo by Becca Correia on Pexels.com One Woman’s Power to Change the World  As I…

[sheilamurrey]

Integrating the Spirals: Ancient and Biblical prophecies or self-fulfilling prophecies that seem to align

After binge-watching the entire third season of Never Seen Again, and then perhaps synchronistically watching the latest from Gregg Braden (click on the YouTube link to watch–see the images to get the gist of it), I came away with this thought, “Are we all walking a predestined (prewritten map) kaleidoscope path to some final war between Good and Evil or is Awakening happening to give us the…

[reasonsforhope]

"China’s carbon emissions have flatlined over the past six months and there’s now an opportunity for substantial declines over the next decade, analysts say.

The rapid growth in clean energy generation has been sufficient to offset a recent surge in power demand caused by higher air conditioning use amid late-summer heatwaves, and the government’s manufacturing push, according to an analysis by Lauri Myllyvirta of the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA).

China’s carbon emissions fell by 1% in the second quarter of 2024 and were flat in the third quarter, providing another indication that emissions may have already peaked.

This is largely because solar power output was up 44% in the three months to end-September, compared to a year before, while wind power generation grew 24%. In the first nine months of 2024, China installed 161GW of new solar capacity and 39GW of wind, per CREA data.

For emissions to post a decline in 2024 as a whole, there will need to be a 2% reduction in the fourth quarter, Myllyvirta’s calculations show. That’s probable if power demand growth cools as expected and hydro plants perform in line with historical averages, he wrote in a post on X, adding that over the entire summer period, clean energy expansion covered all electricity demand growth.

“If the current downturn in China’s emissions is sustained — with emissions falling in the second quarter and stable in the third quarter — that would open the door to the country beginning to reduce emissions much faster than its current commitments require.

“This would have enormous significance for the global effort to avoid catastrophic climate change, as China’s emissions growth has been the dominant factor pushing global emissions up for the past eight years since the signing of the Paris climate agreement.”

Based on current trends and targets, CREA expects China’s emissions will decline 30% by 2035. The International Energy Agency says emissions will fall 24% by then based only on stated policies, but that could be raised to 45% if the country follows a pathway that’s consistent with its long-term carbon neutrality target.

For the time being, Chinese policymakers are setting relatively unambitious targets, and “it’s vital that future targets reflect ongoing clean energy trends to avoid locking in lower ambitions,” Myllyvirta said."

-via The Progress Playbook, October 29, 2024

[reality-detective]

President Trump just dropped his plan to DISMANTLE the Deep State. This is the MOST Important 3 minutes of your life 🤔

[shepscapades]

Surely this will have no negative consequences whatsoever!

[slayfk]

posting here because this just doesn’t feel right to talk about in the horseimagebarn voice but this is extremely important to talk about.

my partner and i have returned to our hometown to stay with her family and my own has gotten a hotel here too (they moved to the town we currently live in after we did) so we are all safe and out of the thick of it

however there are tens of thousands of people who are not both in my own town and in the many surrounding it. appalachia will take an extremely long time to recover from this and there are more storms on the way. all i see on social media right now is people asking for shelter because their homes have been destroyed, or people asking for help searching for family members who are missing. hundreds of trees have fallen. hundreds of homes have flooded. roads are literally falling apart. preexisting sinkholes due to shitty pipes are opening up and consuming land. dams are on the verge of bursting and the only way to stop it is to release water so quickly it floods whole towns. all but one of our cell towers are down, so only people with at&t have service and the rest can’t contact anyone. over half the town still doesn’t have power. a major water supply issue occurred and the entire town is on a water boil order with no electricity to boil with. people are trapped in their homes and workplaces or out on the street because they have nowhere to go. law enforcement is blocking off roads but trapping people in the process. people have to be rescued by helicopter. our animal shelter has no water or power and boarding facilities have been flooded. entire villages like chimney rock nc are gone, and entire cities like asheville are cut off from the rest of the state and are completely inaccessible. ALL OF THE ROADS IN WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA ARE CLOSED. 400+ roads are closed because they are unsafe . that is INSANE!!!

when people say that climate change isn’t real, they don’t know what they’re talking about. climate change and its father capitalism are only going to continue to worsen lives in every way possible. i live in the mountains and our infrastructure is completely unprepared to handle hurricanes and it’s only going to get worse. it’s such a strange and eye-opening experience to live something like this when you think that it could never happen to you because that type of weather shouldn’t reach you in your environment. climate change doesn’t care where you live. it’s real.

western north carolina and the rest of the southeast that has been hit by helene need help. more people need to be talking about this so that the government DOES SOMETHING because the government historically fucking hates appalachia and it still does!!! the major state institution near me took DAYS to respond despite being the only place in town with power and wifi connection because they had to wait for the state to approve their response—they could have allowed thousands of people to evacuate days prior to the hurricane hitting us but they didn’t do anything before or after until it was too late!!! it’s bullshit!!! PLEASE get talking about this because something has to be done. climate change is going to continue happening and our mountains and the people in them are going to suffer immensely. hundreds if not thousands are now homeless. please talk about this look at the footage online of the wreckage and look how quickly our infrastructure crumbled. we need better. the people of appalachia deserve better.

i’ll get back to posting horses soon. but for now this is a lot. my friends are homeless and my family had to get off the mountain or be trapped there without power and water for days. we’re all safe but exhausted. i hope everyone who has been affected by this is staying safe. if you are in western nc, dm me. when i come back, if you’re in my area, im happy to bring supplies. stay safe everyone

[mischievous-thunder]

From merely existing in two separate universes all the while trying their hardest every single day to mend the broken pieces of themselves

to finding someone who's willing to sacrifice himself to make sure the other person gets all the love and happiness of the world, to finding someone to go home to, to finally having the family of their dreams materialised, Wade and Logan's paths merged into one. It's but a new beginning.

Nothing really clicked prior to them meeting each other because their soulmates didn't even exist in their respective universes. Everything starts falling into place when their fate brings them together. They are each other's anchor beings.

[theoldkyokodied]

The Allegiance of the Ascended Vampire and the New God of Magic

[sillygoofylittleartist]

Ladybug ice power up redesign. I was going to wait a while to post this but I got impatient so here she is. While I liked chat noirs ice design lady bugs was so disappointing as most of her designs are. The best thing about it was the geometrical spots like snowflakes so I had to include that. I removed the little tiara because I hated it, and overall tried to add more detail to the costume. There are so many beautiful figure skater costumes to take inspiration from and the best they could do was a silly little crown smh. I gave her those figure skater leggings and a little sheer skirt that is meant to resemble wings. I also made a version with wings on the back but I think I like it better without. I gave her a bun to change up the hair a bit and an ombré on her legs so that the majority wouldn’t just be red with black spots. I think she’s very much improved and looks more like both a superhero and a figure skater.

[1introvertedsage]

Dream no small dreams for they have no power to move the hearts of men.

~Goethe~

[feddy-34]

HOW CAN YOU HATE HER??????????

[gascreates]

a new star

[bixels]

Scary Sunset.

I'm concepting things way outta order in this story, but I'm sure you can piece things together. Context is for a storybeat where, after defeating and capturing Adagio (thus having all three sirens in her possession), Sunset enacts her revenge plot to release the sirens on Canterlot as Thea discovers she's been manipulated. In a confrontation, the two scuffle and fight over the siren orbs while Sunset struggles with her conflicting wants and emotions.