#BeLIEvers

[avonlady44]

[frommydiary]

“(Those) who remember Allah while standing or sitting or [lying] on their sides and give thought to the creation of the heavens and the earth, [saying], “Our Lord, You have not created all of this without a purpose. Exalted is You [above such a thing]; then protect us from the punishment of the Fire.” (Qur’an, 3:190-191)

[wiirocku]

1 Timothy 4:12 (NKJV) - Let no one despise your youth, but be an example to the believers in word, in conduct, in love, in spirit, in faith, in purity.

[robotshellyeah]

I'm behind on the babylon 5 rewatch but I just finished Believers. this is a great Franklin episode - he's only been introduced recently and the viewer prior to this episode doesn't have a great handle on his personality. from this episode we learn that he 1) has fantastic bedside manner: he goes to great lengths to be comforting and reassuring to the dying kid despite the parents making it really difficult (the gloppit egg bit is very cute), you get the sense that he really is passionate about helping people, and 2) his main character flaw is hubris: in a world where the existence of souls has been all-but-confirmed, how arrogant is it to really think you know better than someone else about their own bodies even though they are from a species/culture you're not familiar with at all?

when I first watched this episode in high school I 100% sided with Franklin and thought that the alien parents were so stupid. when I watched it again a few years after college (but pre-pandemic) I really sided more with the parents and thought it was not Franklin's place to use his authority to force his point of view on them against their wishes.

jms has a quote on the lurker's guide that I thought was interesting about how this situation is like the opposite of having an injured human who is "brain dead" but still has a soul in a living body. if an alien doctor wanted to operate on a human and insisted that it would be totally fine (even if the human's brain would be damaged) because the body and the soul would be unaffected, other humans would be horrified. it's absolutely within the range of possibility in this universe that there is a quality that the aliens have and can detect in each other that humans are oblivious to, and that quality would have been affected by the surgery.

on the other hand of course, watching this in a post anti-vaxxer world obviously felt different and you can't help but think of all the real life human kids in the exact same situation with parents who deny them necessary medical intervention, and in real life the ethics of that are much less ambiguous

I liked the tie-in at the very end of the A and B plots, with Ivanova's comment that sometimes a desperate gamble pays off (and Garibaldi's counter that sometimes it doesn't). I kind of feel like it leaves the viewer with the idea that there's nothing you can do other than just what you think is right, but you also just have to know that it's not always going to work out. it's too bad the B plot prevented us from hearing Ivanova's take on the situation, which I'm sure would have been spicy.

[gospocki]

freedom is coming to you 🇵🇸

i believe

we believe

everybody believes

and that's how it's written .

[thepersonalwords]

We wait expectantly for what we hope for.

Lailah Gifty Akita, Pearls of Wisdom: Great mind

[wecanbeperfect]

JESUS CLEANSES THE TEMPLE

John 2:15 And when he had made a scourge of small cords, he drove them all out of the temple, and the sheep, and the oxen; and poured out the changers' money, and overthrew the tables;

THE TEMPLE OF GOD

1 Corinthians 3:16 Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the spirit of God dwelleth in you?

1 Corinthians 3:17 If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.

[mybeautifulchristianjourney]

For God So Loved the World

For God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son. God gave his Son so that whoever believes in him may not be lost, but have eternal life. God did not send his Son into the world to judge the world guilty, but to save the world through him. — John 3:16-17 | International Children’s Bible (ICB) The Holy Bible, International Children’s Bible® Copyright© 1986, 1988, 1999, 2015 by Thomas Nelson. Cross References: Genesis 22:2; Isaiah 9:6; John 1:18; John 3:18; John 3:34; John 3:36; John 5:36; John 5:38; John 6:29; John 6:38; John 6:40; John 6:57; John 7:29; John 11:25

Read full chapter

What Does “World” Mean in John 3:16?

[momentsbeforemass]

Unbelievers

There is no such thing as an unbeliever.

We are all believers. Whether we are aware of it or not, every last one of us has faith in something. We all believe in, we all trust, something.

Whether it’s God. Or what we imagine science is. Or what we call “our research” (which, if we’re honest with ourselves, is more like an odd mixture of stuff we found online that confirms our biases). Or the classics – like power or wealth or ourselves.

All of us have faith in something. All of us trust something.

There is no such thing as an unbeliever.

But no matter what we think we believe in (if we think about it at all), for most of us, our faith drifts. Because we shift what we trust in.

Usually it happens without thinking. Even when we start the day off right with God, trusting in God. Something can happen that sends us off, trusting in something else.

Maybe someone calls us out on our BS.

Instinctively, we try to explain what we were doing. To justify why we were doing it. To show that it isn’t the BS they think it is.

Without really thinking about it, we’ve seamlessly switched into trusting ourselves to get us out of a situation that we don’t want to be in.

That’s how subtly we can switch our faith. Without ever meaning to.

When we do, all too often, we don’t notice it. We don’t even realize what we’ve done to ourselves.

The thing to know is that what we believe in is the foundation for our thoughts. Our actions. Our lives. Faith is that foundational. That’s why what we trust, what we believe in matters.

Today, look at how you respond to things. Especially the stressful stuff.

Your go to? The first thing that pops to mind? More like the first thing you say without thinking.

That’s what you’re putting your faith in. That’s what you trust.

If it’s anything other than God, eventually it will fail you.

That’s the point that Jesus is making in today’s Gospel. With the story about the two houses, one built on the rock and one built on the sand.

With all the people and things you can believe in, there’s only One that lasts.

Today’s Readings

[izooks]

So why so much christianity?

Do you believe in:

the abominable snowman

Santa Claus

Tooth fairy

Easter bunny

Spider-Man

Leprechauns

Feel free to add to the list of the make believe.



[kaipanzero]

Believers

ビリーバーズ (2022)

[thethirdromana]

Believers!

This was such a good, chewy ethical dilemma, made more complicated by a) the political sensitivities of Babylon 5 and b) more importantly, the fact that Soulhunter suggested that this could be a universe where the soul is an empirical phenomenon.

I also found it fascinating how this highlighted the powerlessness of species without ambassadors.

I love the ship design of the Asimov. Big fan of a Round Boi.

I still don't feel like I have much of a handle on Dr Franklin's character, despite having had two Franklin-centric episodes so far. Maybe this is just a me problem at this point.

And I wish budget had allowed for us to see Ivanova's Epic Space Battle.

[drshermaines-wisdomnuggets]

"THAT CONTAINER IS LYING ABOUT ITS CONTENTS"

Matthew 7:15, “Be on your guard against false prophets; they come to you LOOKING LIKE SHEEP on the OUTSIDE, but on the INSIDE they are really like wild WOLVES.” (GNT) My two favorite seasons are Winter and Fall! Winter, because I love Christmas, snow, carols, decorations and the like. And Fall, because I love the colors, Thanksgiving, the start of the scent of fireplaces, but most of all,…

[wiirocku]

Ephesians 6:18 (NLT) - Pray in the Spirit at all times and on every occasion. Stay alert and be persistent in your prayers for all believers everywhere.

[we-will-swallow-your-soul]

Believers Season 1 Episode 6 Paranormal Playdate

Check out the creeper ghost in the kid's closet. Crazy! You can see it about 23 seconds into the video.

[rubiks-to-the-third-power]

Totally Original Thought:

Kinda hilarious that Easter landed on Trans Day of Visibility this year. Here's your regular reminder that if Jesus truly had a virgin birth, then he is almost certainly a trans man, personal identification notwithstanding.

And yes, I said "is" and not "was" because he was likely a powerful wizard (miracles) who, allegedly, turned himself into a truly immortal lich by making his phylactery "anyone who believes in me". Truly some fae-level rules lawyering. They do say he resides in anyone who believes in him, or rather, a piece of his soul does.

I for one, welcome our trans lich savior, whenever he shows back up 🏳️‍⚧️💀🧙‍♂️✝️