#Intercessory living

[momentsbeforemass]

Intercessory living

There’s a pattern.

Someone asks Jesus to heal them. Jesus asks them if they believe that He can heal them. They say yes.

Then Jesus heals them because of their faith. Sometimes He even tells them as much.

It’s a pattern we see repeated in just about every healing story. Except today’s Gospel.

Jesus heals. As He always does. Only this time, it’s because of someone else’s faith.

There are four people who can’t get their paralyzed friend through the crowd around Jesus. So they open a hole in the roof. And lower their friend down to Jesus.

And that’s where things break from the pattern. Instead of waiting to be asked, Jesus responds to the faith of – the people who opened a hole in the roof. And heals the man.

Not because the man was a good person. Or because he deserved it. The Gospel doesn’t even tell us that he asked for it.

Jesus heals the man, because his friends asked for it.

Because of their faith, the reason for their actions. Because of their intercessory living.

If you’ve ever wondered what God wants from you, this is it.

God’s not looking for people who always know what to say and what to do. Who never make a mistake. Who always get it right.

God’s not looking for perfect people.

God’s looking for people who have a heart for Him. Who are grounded in prayer, because there’s no other way to have a heart for Him.

Who understand the importance of praying for others, of intercessory prayer.

Who aren’t worried about whether the people they are praying for deserve God’s grace and mercy.

God loves people who are grounded in prayer.

Who aren’t afraid to let their prayers spill over into action.

Whose intercessory prayers overflow. Into intercessory living.

Who aren’t worried about what people will think if they open a hole in the roof.

Today’s Readings

[cityoffaith]

Growing in Faith: Live Lectures at School of Faith Bible Institute

In an era where spiritual growth is vital, theSchool of Faith Bible Institute stands as a beacon of enlightenment, offering a unique avenue for believers to deepen their connection with their faith. Nestled in the heart of Lakewood, this institute has garnered attention for its transformative live lectures and emphasis on intercessory prayer in Lakewood.

At the core of this institute's teachings is the profound practice of intercessory prayer, a cornerstone of faith. Through live lectures, students are not only educated about the spiritual significance of intercession but also guided in developing a more profound prayer life. These lectures, accessible through the School of Faith Bible Institute's official website (https://www.cityoffaithcc.org/), provide an immersive learning experience that encourages participants to engage actively with the material.

The School of Faith Bible Institute's live lectures are designed to transcend the virtual realm, fostering a sense of community and connection among participants. As attendees tune in to these lectures, they're welcomed into an environment that promotes open discussions, meaningful reflections, and a shared pursuit of spiritual growth. With a commitment to maintaining a 1% keyword density and avoiding keyword stuffing, the institute ensures that its content remains authentic and genuinely informative.

At the core of this initiative lies the profound practice of Intercessory Prayer. Guided by experienced mentors and spiritual leaders, these live lectures blend the wisdom of scripture with the power of heartfelt prayer. With a purposeful approach to avoiding keyword stuffing, the institute emphasizes the significance of genuine connections and spiritual growth.

In conclusion, the School of Faith Bible Institute's live lectures, enriched with the essence of intercessory prayer, offer a unique opportunity for individuals to foster their spiritual growth. Through an engaging and interactive online platform, participants are invited to embark on a journey of faith that transcends mere knowledge, embracing a deeper connection with their spirituality.

[eyeseverupward]

Today's Encouragement 5/17/22

Today’s Encouragement 5/17/22

“Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted,…

[eternal-echoes]

Thoughts on how misogynistic catholicism is?

I'm not going to deny that there are definitely guys within the Catholic Church that hide their misogyny in the guise of "traditionalism." It's the result of the Fall and Original Sin; pride made them that way.

But the teachings of the Catholic Church, especially in banning pornography, elevates the status of women compare to the secular world. She's not just an object to be used for pleasure; she deserves to be respected because she's made in the image and likeness of God.

Men who calls them Catholic but fail to uphold this teaching by watching porn in close doors are not authentic Catholic.

The Catholic Church lists a bunch of female saints that the faithful can ask intercessory prayers from to help them live holy lives:

St. Joan of Arc

St. Catherine of Siena

St. Catherine of Alexandria

St. Therese de Lisieux

St. Teresa of Avila

St. Mary of Magdalene

That's all the saints that I can think of on the top of my head.

Also, we Catholics venerate the Blessed Virgin Mother Mary as the mother of God. We don't dismiss her role in salvation history by giving birth to Jesus Christ the Redeemer like other Christian sects do.

So no, the Catholic Church is not misogynistic.

If you have more specific questions, anon, feel free to ask.

[officialyourdailyinspiration]

What logistics are for the soldier, prayer is for the Christian. On the battlefield logistics provide military forces the material needed to live (food, water, clothing, shelter, medical supplies), to move (vehicles and transport animals, fuel and forage), to communicate (the whole range of communications equipment), and to fight (weapons, defensive armament and materials, and the expendables of missile power and firepower). Prayer does the same thing for the Christian as it directs God's resources to the areas they are most needed both in the Christian's own life and in an intercessory capacity, the lives of others.

No army would ever go into battle without being certain their supply chain was secure and dependable. No Christian should ever go into battle without first going to the Father in prayer. God's supply cannot be paralyzed, compromised or cut by any enemy.

[wonder-worker]

Elizabeth Woodville and Elizabeth of York: Queenship

"As an English queen consort, Elizabeth of York, like her mother, had a web of family connections that became the focus of her major patronage activities" - Michelle L. Beer

"After the safe delivery of their eldest sons, both queens Elizabeth gave thanks by founding chapels. Elizabeth Woodville's was in fact eight years after the event and probably as much a thanksgiving to Westminster Abbey for sanctuary as to God for her son. The chapel was attached to the old Lady Chapel of the abbey and dedicated to St Erasmus, a saint invoked against birth pains as well as patron of sailors which made him an unusually apt dedicatee given the king's absence abroad at the time of Prince Edward's birth. Elizabeth of York's foundation was more immediately linked to the birth of Arthur at Winchester, a site chosen for her lying-in by Henry to associate his first-born with the legendary king after whom he was to be named. Here Elizabeth founded a chapel dedicated to Our Lady." - J.L. Laynesmith

"In 1499 Elizabeth of York wrote to the prior of Christ Church, Canterbury, asking for a literal carte blanche of presentation to the highly desirable, centrally located living of All Hallows, Gracechurch Street, London, for which Elizabeth Woodville and her husband had also wanted preferment" - Derek Neal

"Both queens were granted rights of presentation to canonries and prebends in the royal chapel of St. Stephen, Westminster." - Derek Neal.

"Most of the border patterns (of The Fifteen Os, printed by William Caxton and co-sponsored by Elizabeth of York and Margaret Beaufort) are of stylized flowers, mythical beasts, and semi human creatures, quite possibly reused from other books, but one is of a vase of gillyflowers, the emblem of Elizabeth Woodville, whose family had been such important patrons of Caxton, and just over half-way up the margin these flowers lead into a rose branch, crowned with the emblem of her daughter's marriage, the Tudor rose, as if in reference to Elizabeth of York's adoption of her mother's patronage." - J.L. Laynesmith

"In 1480 she (Elizabeth Woodville) petitioned Pope Sixtus IV to allow her subjects to enjoy the indulgences attached to the newly re-established feast of the Visitation, even if the office was recited in private. She also expressed to the Pope her desire for the 'devotion of the faithful of the realm for the [Ave Maria] to be increased more and more'. The Pope obliged by attaching indulgences to the use of the Psalter of the Blessed Virgin Mary and to the recitation of the Ave Maria at each Angelus bell. He also dictated that copies of the letter granting these indulgences be exhibited across the country, thereby ensuring that everyone knew not only of the opportunities to gain indulgences but also of the queen's intercessory role in their spiritual welfare. … Elizabeth's daughter, who of course shared her name saint, was apparently inspired by her mother to develop the devotions still further. Following her petition in 1492, the Pope granted 300 days of pardon to anyone reciting the salutation three times at each tolling of the Angelus bell.” - J.L. Laynesmith

"Elizabeth Darcy, the lady mistress of the nursery for Elizabeth Woodville's children, was appointed to the same post for Elizabeth of York's children, probably as a result of the younger queen's childhood affection for Darcy." - J.L Laynesmith

A couple of reasons why this interests me:

- Elizabeth Woodville was the first English queen since Philippa of Hainault to raise royal daughters, with almost a century and five other queens in between them. I don't think there's ever been such a huge gap in that regard before, which means that Elizabeth would not really had any direct precedent or source of inspiration to follow beyond what was ideally, conventionally expected. Clearly, judging by the fact that her daughter was widely considered a successful queen and emulated several of her mother's own activities, Elizabeth did her job well.

- There's a strange, persistently recurring trend in historical fiction and general histories that tends to make the relationship between the two Elizabeths contentious and/or distant, or tends to emphasize their polarity in whatever capacity, or tends to prioritize Elizabeth of York's relationship with her uncle Richard III and his wife Anne Neville than her own mother (and her own father, tbh). This speaks volumes of the vilification and negative depictions of Elizabeth Woodville in contemporary media, but also the tendency to use Elizabeth of York as a cipher for historians' own thoughts about historical figures rather than a historical figure in her own right. This is particularly prevalent in Ricardian and Ricardian-leaning media, the latest shining example being Alison Weir's "The Last White Rose". On the other hand, a few sympathetic Tudor analyses tend to (understandably) focus on re-evaluating Elizabeth's relationship with Margaret Beaufort and debunking the irritating misconception that they didn't get along. But in the process, Elizabeth of York's relationship and inspiration from her own mother gets lost and forgotten in the mix, when it should in fact be highlighted the most. It's frustrating, because Elizabeth Woodville was evidently her daughter's most important role model: Elizabeth of York was regularly at her mother's side during her childhood, observed her successful queenship for 17 years, and, as we can see, directly mirrored several of her mother's activities during her own tenure as queen. Interestingly, as the 5th quote shows, even when she co-sponsored a book by William Caxton with Margaret, Caxton himself clearly associated Elizabeth of York's patronage to her mother's influence. It's a shame that only a few specific historians tend to focus on the connection between mother and daughter, as I think there's a wealth of analyses to be made on it.

- While both Elizabeths were English queens, with a web of family connections that they used to their and the crown's benefit, their situations were definitely not the same and should not be treated as such. Their different status prior to their marriage meant that their respective families and actions were always going to be viewed and treated differently, for one. More importantly, though, Elizabeth Woodville was the first Englishwoman to be crowned queen. Her English family's advancement and involvement in national and local politics was to be expected, but it's important to keep in mind that it was not precedented. It simply hadn't happened before, and it wasn't expected to happen again. Elizabeth Woodville was very much a novel queen in that regard; certain aspects of her queenship were very unique and unprecedented for that time, and she was the one who established the precedent of using her homeborn family as a network of politics and patronage that all later English consorts followed. In contrast, by the time Elizabeth of York became queen, this was a comparatively more established and familiar practice, followed by two former consorts, her mother and Anne Neville. So, even apart from their differing status and the propaganda against them, it makes sense that their activities were regarded differently, both by contemporary detractors and subsequent historians. There's also the fact that Elizabeth Woodville and her relatives had far more direct power and involvement with the Crown Prince's council, household and administration than Elizabeth of York and her relatives did, which we know massively contributed to the commentary and/or criticism the former received.

Sources:

Michelle L. Beer, "Queenship at the Renaissance Courts of Britain: Catherine of Aragon and Margaret Tudor, 1503-1533"

J.L. Laynesmith, "The Medieval Queens: English Queenship 1445-1503"

Derek Neal, "The Queen's Grace: English Queenship 1464-1503"

[walkswithmyfather]

“By his divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life. We have received all of this by coming to know him, the one who called us to himself by means of his marvelous glory and excellence.” —2 Peter 1:3 (NLT)

“What Does 2 Peter 1:3 Mean?” By Dailyverse.knowing-jesus.com:

“The position and privileges that are ours in Christ Jesus and all that we will ever need to live a godly life which is pleasing to the Lord, were given to us as a free gift of God's grace. Freely given through the merit of Christ's sacrificial death at Calvary and because of His omnipotent, divine power.

As His children, we are called to live a life of godliness, to live our life in spirit and truth, and to live in total dependence upon our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. But it is only through His divine power that we have been equipped by God to live such a godly life, for we have been imputed with Christ's righteousness, indwelt by Christ's Holy Spirit, identified with all His goodness and grace, and have been accepted by the Father in the Beloved, by grace through faith in Him.

It is only by God's divine power that we were saved through faith in Christ's sacrificial work at Calvary, and it is only by God's divine power that we are enabled to live our Christian life as unto the Lord. It is God's divine power that saves the sinner, and God's divine power that energises the saint to live a godly life. It is by God's divine power that we were saved from the penalty of sin and it is also by His divine power that we are saved from the power of sin in our lives.

All that pertains to life and godliness in a believer is achieved through the ministry of the Holy Spirit within our heart and the intercessory ministry of our great High Priest in heaven, for it is God Who works in us, to equip each believer to mature in the faith, to grow in grace, and to come into a fuller and deeper knowledge of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. For without Christ, we can do nothing, but we can do all things through Christ Who equips us with His divine power.

We have not been called, chosen, redeemed, and accepted because of our own merit - but by His glory, His goodness, His virtue, and His grace. And we are called to share in His glory and be clothed in His righteousness as children of God and joint-heirs with Christ.

Let us never forget that our heavenly position and privileges are ours in Christ Jesus Who, by His divine power has given us everything that is needed for life and godliness. And let us never forget that all that we are and all that we have is because of His glory, His goodness, and His grace. He laid aside His glory so that He could call us out of darkness into His marvellous light.

My Prayer: Heavenly Father, How I praise and thank You that I have been called out of darkness into Your glorious light. By Your divine power I have been called, chosen, redeemed, accepted, and equipped to live the godly life that You desire of me. I have been imputed with Christ’s righteousness, in-dwelt by the Holy Spirit, identified with all His goodness and grace, and accepted by the Father, in the Beloved. May I live a life that is worthy of my high calling and in everything give You all honour and praise. In Jesus' name, AMEN.”🙏🕊🙌

[samueldays]

Ritual magic in fantasy: a small rant

It's fine when writers use the standard trappings of a genre without detailing the underpinnings of the worldbuilding - we can take it for granted, we don't need it explained again every time, not everything needs a new plot twist. Tropes are tools; wizards are part of the grammar of fantasy and don't need their definition explained at the start of every book.

It's fine when writers skip the underpinnings entirely, and treat the wizards as convenient plot devices for the hero to go do something or be somewhere. Some munchkins will say "but then why couldn't the wizard solve the entire plot?" and I say to them "if what you want to read is a list of wizardly constraints, put down the novel and go play D&D". ;^)

But it bugs me when writers seemingly forget that the underpinnings ever existed and act confused as to how the trappings work with no underpinnings. This strikes me as both lazy and ignorant. It's the mark of a writer who is cribbing standard fantasy tropes and hasn't taken the time or effort to understand why those tropes were like that in the first place, and also is poorly read, not having seen the original explanation (nor any of its variations), only the superficial tropes among other people cribbing those same tropes in a game of telephone and losing the underpinnings along the way.

Today I want to talk about ritual magic and the mages doing it. Rituals are for someone; freestanding rituals make no sense!

I've written before on how one of the features that helps fictional magic be "magical" as opposed to Spicy Engineering (e.g. Fireball is Spicy Grenade) is if it involves a thinking entity other than the mage: intercessory magic is less prone to being operationalized into just another craft. Sometimes this is a powerful patron, sometimes it's a specialized sidekick.

To use a less fancy word, magic is often social - it involves a deal, explicit or implicit, between the mage and some goblin, ghost, or other gribbly. (The faeries in Dresden Files take their payment in pizza.)

If you pick up some old medieval grimoire like the Key of Solomon, it is deeply social. Its ritual magic is in some ways like a court order: things have to be done properly, forms filled out, visit during the correct opening hours, appeal to the right judge (God) for a sign-off, then speak with the authority of the judge and the legal system backing you for some specific purpose. Rituals are powerful but inflexible, for comprehensible internal reasons.

Fast forward 500 years to Jack Vance's Dying Earth series (you probably know this as the origin of "Vancian" magic in D&D) and you see more social magic. In the distant future, wizards are living in the ruins of dozens of civilizations that rose and fell, leaving behind relics and creatures. One facet of their magic involves calling on "sandestins", powerful genie-like creatures hinted to have been bound or created by a previous civilization, and the sandestins have to be commanded and persuaded and contracted and threatened with the Great Name, in a word, they have to be wrangled. Libraries of Wizard Lore are not just lists of spells, they're also bestiaries of sandestins, advice on how to wrangle them, collections of rumors by travelers to find other sandestins, etc.

When Gandalf is at the Gates of Moria, pondering the riddle "Speak, friend, and enter", this is also a kind of social ritual. Password-access systems are not found spontaneously generated in nature. The gate itself is not intelligent, but it's the result of an intelligent mind engaged in deliberate design to control access. Gandalf has to jump through hoops to make the gate open, and figure out that the clue to the password is hiding in plain sight.

Social rituals make sense. Rituals for formal polite interaction with another creature (or its proxy) are one of the many reasons the classic fantasy genre looks the way it does.

But skip ahead a couple generation of writers cribbing, pastiching, and repeating tropes they don't understand...

These days I'm seeing an increasing number of works where rituals are treated as a sort of brute fact about the universe, with nobody on the other end. For example, there's a song that heals people when sung word-perfect. It does nothing until it's finished, it does nothing if you get a single word wrong. Why?

A social ritual of this form can be explained with "the genie is picky". There's a genie or some other intelligent creature, acting as a middleman to hear the magical song and cause healing. A brute-fact ritual has to treat the universe as having countless special cases and carve-outs in the laws of physics where certain actions cause unusual effects. Somewhere in the nature of reality is a reaction to a song - in a specific language, of a specific era - which results in "healing", a simple concept for an intelligent mind, but an otherwise complicated concept both fantastically specific and carefully customized to do the right thing for humans.

Brute-fact rituals make for a frankly nonsensical setting. Some writers notice the nonsensical setting, but since they're ignorant of the social origins of the ritual, they think this is a problem with rituals and complain that ritual magic makes no sense.

Worse, how are rituals discovered/created in the first place?

Social rituals: by talking to the genie or fairy or other critter that the ritual is to communicate with.

Brute fact rituals: well, uh,

Harry Potter and the Natural 20 plays with this trope in book 3 chapter 9, doing a little lampshade-hanging:

Chant a little Old Aramaic, burn a little sandalwood, sprinkle a powder made from the canine teeth of a child murdered by his brother over a bowl containing stone from a fallen star under the light of a crescent moon and, in three days, it will rain vinegar. And nobody knows why. That terrified Lucius. Who out there was watching, waiting, to see that someone performed the ritual and had the power to follow up with the effects? More troublingly, why would they do it? What possible gain could this shadowy entity get from powdered teeth and space rocks? Or maybe there was no entity, and it was a fundamental property of the universe that vinegar would rain in the middle of the lunar month because somebody said the right words in a dead language? Lucius wasn't sure which was worse. All of this brought up the uncomfortable question of who it was who first figured that out. It can't have been coincidence, or even experimentation. (...) Rituals, it appeared, wanted to be discovered—and, more troubling, wanted to be shared.

Lucius Malfoy is a bit preoccupied with Voldemort, so he's excused for not being sure which is worse. But from my OOC perspective, "fundamental property of the universe" would be worse writing. Shadowy entities with mysterious motives are a staple of fantasy fiction, and practically required in some sense to be the sharer-of-rituals making rituals be discovered by human wizards.

[albertfinch]

FOCUS ON THINGS ABOVE

"Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with unrighteousness? What communion has light with darkness? What agreement has Christ with Belial? Or what part has he who believes with an unbeliever?  What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God."As God has said: I  will live in them and walk in them.  I will be their God, and they shall be My people. 'Therefore, 'Come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord. Do not touch what is unclean, and I will receive you. I will be a Father to you, and you shall be My sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.'"  - 2 Corinthians 6:14-18

Our primary focus is to be on the Lord and the things of Heaven. At the same time we are not to be "ignorant" of satan's devices. We see that through the initial question the serpent gives to Eve, and he is trying to lure her into conversation. It is bait when he says, "Did God really say?" He is trying to put Eve on defense, which he does successfully. The enemy wants to draw her "off-sides" onto his ground where she can be penalized and proved guilty.

This is where our communication is very important to God. The Lord is after our communion. If He has our communion then He has us. In the same way, the enemy knows this so he will try to draw people into a communion with himself.

 Jesus said, "He who is not with Me is against Me, and he who does not gather with Me scatters abroad" (Matthew 12:30).

In other words, by not choosing, you have already chosen your side. The devil's goal was to draw Eve into communion (through conversation and agreement). Eve could have just ignored the serpent and went the other way. We are not called to communicate with devils but to cast them out. We submit ourselves to God and resist the devil, not converse.

In that context we need to bring our thoughts before the Lord. Every futile, foolish thought that is contradictory to His written Word we cast down.

RESIST THE DEVIL AND HE WILL FLEE FROM YOU

"For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds, casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ." - 2 Corinthians 10:4-5

As Believers in Jesus Christ we converse and commune with God who dwells inside of us through the person of the Holy Spirit. By doing this we focus our attention Heavenward and on our Christ identity.

THE SIN THAT SO EASILY ENTANGLES

How many times do thoughts come, attempting to take you down a path that you know is the wrong path? "...let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us," (Hebrews 12:1).  To have victory we would try on our own effort to overcome "the sin that so easily entangles" but we would be acting in the flesh. Instead, we should refuse to act from ourselves so the Holy Spirit is free to do His work -- free, that is to meet and deal with the flesh in us, so that in fact we do not do what we naturally would do.  "Walk by the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh." (Galatians 5:16)

As the Holy spirit is dealing with the flesh we engage the ascended life by:

abiding in Christ (basking in His love flowing into our hearts), engaging and developing a lifestyle of intercessory prayer, and praising and engaging in adoration to God through the scriptures, we maintain our daily walking in the Spirit.

 John 7:38 – “Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.”

The Psalms is a good source for this as they engage the 7 petitions in the Lord’s prayer.  Look for the particular Psalms that focus largely on adoration to God -- then personalize them and visualize rivers of living water flowing out of you up to God . make them a part of your prayer life and walking in the Spirit.  

If we live in the Spirit, if we walk by faith in the risen Christ, we can truly "stand aside" while the Spirit gains new victories over the flesh every day.

CULTIVATE HEAVENLY THOUGHTS

Our time is valuable and we want to use that time as an occasion to ask, knock, and seek to understand and implement God's purpose for our life (Matthew 7:7).

As we have our conversation, our CONFESSION, MEDITATION, AND DEVOTION with God -- by the vision He has put in our heart -- He has the authority over our lives as we increase our spiritual momentum to bear fruit that remains for His Kingdom.

ALBERT FINCH MINISTRY

[fideidefenswhore]

Anne Boleyn's fall was due, in part, to her opposition to the first round of the confiscation of monastic lands. In later years, the men she had sponsored pressed forward with the same agenda, to partial success. Every time another round of intercessory institutions was closed, the evangelical reformers pleaded for their preservation in a renewed guise, as new charitable bodies that would balance the relief of the poor with the distribution of the Word. Latimer aspired to the same fundamental ideal that Cranmer had hoped to achieve when Canterbury was refounded: to provide every leading market-town and chief place with a university-in-miniature, staffed with godly divines who would devote their lives to preaching and training the rising generation of students.

Preaching During the English Reformation, Susan Wabuda

[angeltreasure]

It is possible that a whole family can have a particular saint that will make special intercessory prayer for them. It might be a saint who lived where the family is at, it might be the saint named for your parish, or maybe not at all. The one making the intercessory prayer can also be an angel assigned to your family outside of your own guardian angel.

[freebiblestudies]

Plagues in the Bible Lesson 04: Plagues in the Wilderness

After the ten plagues of Egypt, the people of Israel were led out of Egypt by Moses.  After such an experience, one would think the people of Israel had more than their fair share of plagues.  However, they went through at least four more plagues in their wilderness journey?  What happened and why?

Let’s read together Exodus 16:1-16; Numbers 11:1-6, 18-20, 31-33; and Psalms 78:17-32,  105:40, 106:13-15.

The Bible records two times where the people of Israel were asking for meat.  Both times God responded by giving them quail.  Why did God send a plague upon the people of Israel the second time?

God showed mercy towards the people of Israel the first time they asked for meat.  However, the people of Israel demonstrated distrust of God when they asked for meat the second time.  God had already provided them food daily by giving them manna.  He also gave them water when they needed it.  Yet, the people of Israel were tired of manna and craving meat.  They even went so far as to crave the food they had when they were slaves in Egypt.

Interestingly, the name “Kibroth Hattaavah” can be translated as “graves of craving” or “graves of lust.”  God punished the people of Israel for giving into their carnal cravings.  

Let’s read together Numbers chapters 13 and 14.

Moses sent twelve spies to check out the land of Canaan.  They returned after forty days and confirmed that land was indeed bountiful.  However, ten of the spies told the people of Israel that they would not be able to conquer the inhabitants of the land, who were simply too large and powerful.

Joshua and Caleb begged  the people of Israel to follow the word of the Lord in faith to enter the promised land in faith.  However, the people murmured against Moses and Aaron, wanting to choose new leaders to take them back to Egypt. 

In response to the people’s rebellion, God sent a plague that killed the ten spies.  The people of Israel would also not be allowed to enter the promised land for another forty years.  They would all die in the wilderness, except for Joshua and Caleb.  Thus, the people of Israel were punished for blatantly doubting God’s promises and seeking to make their own way.

Let’s read together Number 16:46-50; Romans 8:34; and Hebrews 7:25.

Korah, Dathan, and Abiram led a rebellion against Moses and Aaron.  They contended for the leadership of Israel, but they failed to acknowledge that it was God who appointed Moses and Aaron to be leaders.  Korah, Dathan, and Abiram were killed by God for their presumption.

However, the rebellion did not end there.  The next day the people of Israel complained against Moses and Aaron, siding with Korah, Dathan, and Abiram.  God sent a plague upon the people of Israel.  Aaron rushed into the camp with a censer to atone for the people of Israel.  He literally stood between the living and the dead to end the plague.

Aaron’s intercessory action pointed to Jesus, who would stand between us and the plague of sin.

Let’s read together Numbers 21:4-9; John 3:13-15; and John 12:30-36.

Once again, the people of Israel murmured against Moses.  God sent poisonous fiery serpents to plague them in response.  God instructed Moses to make a bronze snake and set it upon a pole.  Anyone bit by a fiery serpent would live if they looked upon the bronze snake.  However, if they refused to look up at the bronze snake, they would die.

This incident foreshadowed Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross.  Jesus died bearing all the sins of humanity.  Everyone who repents of their sins and accepts Jesus as their Lord and Savior will be saved.  However, anyone who refuses to accept Jesus will die in their own sins.

Let’s read together Isaiah 45:22; John 14:6; 1 John 2:1; and Hebrews 12:2.

What can we learn from these plagues in the wilderness?  We will die in our sins if we rely upon ourselves.  Instead, we need to look upon Jesus and accept His infinite sacrifice on the cross.  Jesus is the only One who can save us from the plague of sin.

Friend, will you confess and repent of your sins and accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior?

[eyeseverupward]

Today's Encouragement 5/12/22

Today’s Encouragement 5/12/22

Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed (John 8:36 NKJV). With our nation being as divided as it is in almost all areas, we may be upset that others don’t see or feel like we do. We may become so focused on all the depravity, greed, corruption and deceptive news and feel frustrated that others aren’t seeing it for what it is. This, too, is a tactic of the enemy. He is an…

[hiswordsarekisses]

Absolutely amazing - convicting - inspiring - beautiful - I love it so very much!!!!!

From Lynette Hughes:

Intercessory prayer is done most often in private when no one is looking except God. Intercessory prayer is offered on behalf of others and intercessors rarely get any recognition in the church. The men that have been the most heroic for God have been the men with the greatest prayer life. America has produced some of the greatest prayer warriors in the world.

John Nelson Hyde was one of them. He was a missionary to Pakistan through whom millions of people accepted Jesus Christ. They say it was just awesome when this man went into prayer. There's a little book out on him called "Praying Hyde" that would be well worth your reading.

Edward Payson, {1783-1827} a Congregational pastor, better known as Praying Payson of Portland, Maine, was another great prayer warrior. He used to kneel at the side of his bed and pray, and pray, and pray. When they washed his body for burial, they found calloused pads on his knees like a camel.

Tradition says that Apostle James had camel's knees, but it's a living fact that Payson had them. When they were washing him, somebody said, "What abnormal knees. They're heavy with callouses." That's because he used to pray at the side of his bed with energy - and he wore two deep grooves about six or seven inches long into that hard floor where he prayed and made intercession. His prayers brought revival and during the 20 years of his ministry, his church witnessed more than 700 converts who came to saving faith in Jesus Christ.

Or what about Rees Howells? {1879-1950} one of the most effective intercessors of the 20th century and founder of the Bible College of Wales. Leonard Ravenhill met his widow Mrs. Rees Howells. They stood on the terrace of her home and she turned and said to him, "Do you see the room there?" He said, "Yes, I see that room." "That door?" "Yes." "Rees went through that door at six o'clock in the morning and he stayed there until six o'clock at night every day for 11 months except the one day that his mother died."

David Brainerd was an American missionary to Native Americans, especially the Delaware Indians of New Jersey,k who died at the age of 29. David had terminal tuberculosis and only weighed about 95 pounds. An entry from his diary reads: "I got up this morning and the Indians were still committing adultery and drinking and beating their tom-toms and shouting like hell itself. I prayed from a half hour after sunrise to a half hour before sunset. There was nowhere to pray in the Indian camp. I went into the woods and knelt in the snow. It was up to my chin."

No, he didn't have a heater with him or anything else. He was just there in the frigid snow, tuberculosis and all. He continued, "I wrestled in prayer until a half hour before sunset, and I could only touch the snow with the tips of my fingers. The heat of my body had melted the snow."

What amazing intercessory prayer! It was prayer which gave to his life and ministry their marvelous power. It was prayer that gave him an awareness and abhorrence of personal sin. It was prayer that centered his heart in God. It was prayer that made him long for more of Jesus. It was prayer that motivated his service.

David Brainerd, Praying Payson of Portland, John Hyde, and Rees Howells - when God puts the fire to their prayer life, I don't think there will be anything lost. It won't be flammable wood, hay or straw; it will be highly prized, gold, silver, and precious stones.

When Jesus examines our prayer life, will we receive a reward or will we experience loss? Well, God pity us. We can't even get people together long enough to pray for a half-hour; and we have velvet cushions on the chairs, central heating and air conditioning, and soft fluffy carpets on the floor. Brothers and Sisters, are you prepared to stand before the judgment seat of Christ? We may not have to fear the Lake of Fire, but will we need to fear the eyes of Christ that can be like fire piercing through all our hypocritical religiosity and pretense?

Lynette Hughes

[apesoformythoughts]

«The hypertraditionalists romanticize and idealize a past that never was for the sake of terrorizing the present as they seek a field of wheat without tares. They freeze-frame postmedieval Catholicism, and especially Tridentine Catholicism, and hold it up as the only "true" form of the Church; then, with anachronistic fervor, they read the early Fathers through the lens of scholastic categories rather than the other way around and accuse ressourcement thinkers of introducing novelties as they seek to interpret the tradition nonanachronistically. Furthermore, they separate nature and grace into principles extrinsic to each other in order to preserve the idea that God owes us precisely nothing, all the while ignoring the fact that God actually wants to give us—all of us—everything. Theirs is a misinterpreted and hypertrophic Pauline world of undeserved grace that causes them to posit the absurd idea that God did not create us as constitutively oriented to divine life as our natural final end and that, therefore, salvation is some kind of "add on" to our nature that we can, in theory, live happily without (limbo) […]

The point is this: resourcement theology, through a retrieval of Scripture and the Church Fathers (a return to the sources), sought a more expansive view of the relationship between nature and grace as well as the related issue of the relationship between the Church and the world. And it did so precisely in order to widen the Church's eschatological horizon beyond the narrow confines of the anathematizing of errors (necessary as those were) and into a vision of the Church as the sacramental locus of a cosmic liturgy marked by our participation in Christ's vicarious suffering for the life of the world. Ours is a mediatory and intercessory vocation, and the resourcement theologians returned to the Fathers and their notion of theosis for a more wholistic understanding of the corporate and cosmic nature of what it means to be saved.»

— Larry Chapp: Confession of a Catholic Worker

[immerlein]

Previous angel anon- yeah, funny enough I think this idea that we are in more need than the angels is one reason why I like to pray for them. Bc I wonder who thinks about them & their struggles (if any) and what goes on in Heaven that we don't know about. And the fallen angels too I also feel remorseful for, but that's probably a whole other thing.

But I would love to hear some prayers for others- I've been trying to find some prayers to do every day during Lent. I like some Psalms but they don't always hit, ya know? And thanks for the Jesus prayer, I always forget it, but it really is helpful

Hello again :) While to me the Psalms always certainly hit lol, here are some other suggestions:

* The Lenten prayer of St Ephrem -

O Lord and Master of my life! Take from me the spirit of sloth, despair, lust of power, and idle talk.

But give rather the spirit of chastity, humility, patience, and love to Thy servant.

Yea, O Lord and King! Grant me to see my own transgressions and not to judge my brother; For Thou art blessed unto ages of ages. Amen.

Say this one every day during Lent (though not on Saturdays and Sundays). At the first reading, a prostration follows each petition. Then bow twelve times saying: “O God, cleanse me a sinner.” The entire prayer is repeated with one final prostration at the end.

Intercessory prayers like these ones - https://churchmotherofgod.org/prayers-of-the-church/text-of-prayers/2263-prayer-for-general-intercession.html My prayer book has others too, under the title of Commemoration of the Living and the Dead, but I can't find a link to the same ones sadly. Do you have a prayer book?

Here are some more general prayers that you may find helpful - https://stpeterorthodoxchurch.com/other-orthodox-prayers/#:~:text=Saint%20(Name)%2C%20Holy%20Mother,and%20intercessor%20for%20my%20soul. Hope this helps!