#Man Came To Christ After Reading Pastor's Lost Bible

[mybeautifulchristianjourney]

It was indeed a crazy story. This was how this pastor described this man’s testimony about how he came to Christ after reading his Bible that went missing 15 years ago. Pastor Paul Daugherty of Victory church posted on Facebook the story of Clayton and his missing Bible.  As of writing, his post has...

[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

[eli-kittim]

A Response to Tiff Shuttlesworth’s “The Last Trumpet in Revelation”

Eli Kittim

Tiff Shuttlesworth is the President/Founder of Lost Lamb Evangelistic Association at Northpoint Bible College and Seminary. He is also a well-known pastor and Bible prophecy teacher who holds to the pretribulational view of the rapture. His videos on bible prophecy are very popular on YouTube and elsewhere. Recently, I came across a video by Tiff Shuttlesworth, entitled, “The Last Trumpet in Revelation.” In that video, Shuttlesworth took issue with the mid and post tribulation rapture views and publicly denounced them as “poor scholarship.”

In this video, Tiff Shuttlesworth says that the last (or 7th) trumpet in Rev 11:15 is not the same as “the last trumpet” in 1 Cor. 15:51-52, and that it also bears no relation to “the trumpet of God” in 1 Thess. 4:16-17, chronologically or otherwise. He is in error. They are the same. He offers some tendentious reasons why this is so, but they are all based on a basic misunderstanding and misinterpretation of scripture. He says that 1 Cor. 15 is talking about the church, whereas Rev 11 is referring to the judgments of God, and he claims that not only is the timing of these events different but also “the last trumpet” in 1 Cor. 15:51-52 is not the same as the last (or 7th) trumpet in Rev 11.15. As will be shown, this is not the case. The reason he tries to dissociate the last trumpet of 1 Cor. 15:51-52 from the 7th and final trumpet in the Book of Revelation is because Rev ch. 11 implies that the last trumpet takes place AFTER the great tribulation, not before. It is similar to Matt. 24:29-31 (NASB) in which the rapture of the elect occurs AFTER, not before, the great tribulation. Notice that the rapture will begin “with a great trumpet blast” (italics mine):

“But immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from the sky, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. … and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky with power and great glory. And He will send forth His angels with a great trumpet blast, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of the sky to the other.”

So, because Tiff Shuttlesworth is a pre-tribulationist, he obviously wants to dismiss this piece of evidence, which challenges his pre-tribulation rapture view. Naturally, he tries to argue that these passages are diametrically opposed to each other. But this is poor scholarship. As we dig deeper, we realize that they’re very much connected. Moreover, since they are inspired, we must read the books of the Bible in “canonical context,” rather than as separate books that are unrelated to each other.

It is interesting to note that Rev 11, just before introducing the 7th trumpet, mentions the rapture of the two witnesses. And it follows with a celebration of the church triumphant, in heaven, which foresees the reign of Christ. Interestingly enough, Rev 11 makes mention of the esteemed tribulation saints, otherwise known as “the twenty-four elders”——whom we know from chapter 4—-in order to inform us that the great tribulation, the general resurrection of the dead, and the rapture are in view. Revelation 11:18 reads thusly:

“and the time came for the dead to be judged, and the time to reward Your bond-servants the prophets and the saints.”

This is a direct reference to the general resurrection of the dead, that we’re all familiar with from 1 Thess. 4:15-17, which happens simultaneously with the rapture, when the faithful will be rewarded with immortality and glory (theosis). They will shine. There is no other resurrection of the dead (Dan. 12:1-2). This is it! Similarly, 1 Thess. 4:16-17 says that Christ will appear for the resurrection and the rapture with the sound of God’s trumpet:

“For the Lord Himself will descend … with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who remain, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.”

First Corinthians 15:51-52 further clarifies that all this will take place “at the last trumpet”:

“Behold, I am telling you a mystery; we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.”

So, when is the last trumpet? According to Rev 11:15, the last (or 7th) trumpet is blown during the time period when the Lord’s Messiah begins to reign over the entire world. So, it is obviously a period that takes place AFTER the great tribulation, not before. Rev 11:15-17 reads:

“Then the seventh angel sounded; and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, ‘The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ; and He will reign forever and ever.’ And the twenty-four elders, who sit on their thrones before God, fell on their faces and worshiped God, saying, ‘We give You thanks, Lord God, the Almighty, the One who is and who was, because You have taken Your great power and have begun to reign.’ “

[rainsmediaradio]

Open Heaven Daily Devotional 15th January 2023 By Pastor E. A. Adeboye – It Shall Be Well 7

Open Heaven Daily Devotional - It Shall Be Well 7

The Topic of Open Heavens for 15th January 2024 Is “It Shall Be Well (7)”

MEMORISE: Joel 2:25 (KJV) “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.” READ: 1 Samuel 30:1-8, 18-19 (KJV) 1 Samuel 30:1-8 1 And it came to pass, when David and his men were come to Ziklag on the third day, that the Amalekites had invaded the south, and Ziklag, and smitten Ziklag, and burned it with fire; 2 And had taken the women captives, that were therein: they slew not any, either great or small, but carried them away, and went on their way. 3 So David and his men came to the city, and, behold, it was burned with fire; and their wives, and their sons, and their daughters, were taken captives. 4 Then David and the people that were with him lifted up their voice and wept, until they had no more power to weep. 5 And David’s two wives were taken captives, Ahinoam the Jezreelitess, and Abigail the wife of Nabal the Carmelite. 6 And David was greatly distressed; for the people spake of stoning him, because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and for his daughters: but David encouraged himself in the Lord his God. 7 And David said to Abiathar the priest, Ahimelech’s son, I pray thee, bring me hither the ephod. And Abiathar brought thither the ephod to David. 8 And David enquired at the Lord, saying, Shall I pursue after this troop? shall I overtake them? And he answered him, Pursue: for thou shalt surely overtake them, and without fail recover all. 1 Samuel 30:18-19 18 And David recovered all that the Amalekites had carried away: and David rescued his two wives. 19 And there was nothing lacking to them, neither small nor great, neither sons nor daughters, neither spoil, nor any thing that they had taken to them: David recovered all. BIBLE IN ONE YEAR: Genesis 47-50

OPEN HEAVENS DEVOTIONAL FOR TODAY - It Shall Be Well 7

Today, I will conclude the discussion about God’s prophetic message to you from Isaiah 3:10 that says it shall be well with the righteous in this new year and beyond. God indeed desires that you should enjoy all-round wellness, and this includes recovering all that you might have lost to the enemy. I declare that you will recover all that you may have lost to the enemy, in Jesus’ name. Our Father in heaven said in His words, “I will go before thee, and make the crooked places straight: I will break in pieces the gates of brass, and cut in sunder the bars of iron:” (Isaiah 45:2). In other words, the Lord is assuring us of His presence as we pass through this new year. Our Lord Jesus Christ gave us an added assurance in John 16:33: These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world. These infallible words in the Scriptures are an assurance to you that regardless of what you might have experienced in the last year, it shall be well with you in this new year. Beloved, for it to be well with you this year, you must learn a lesson from our Bible text for today. David consulted God before pursuing the enemy, and God assured him of victory. I encourage you to cultivate the habit of seeking divine direction this year as you go about all your lawful endeavours. David, even though He was an army General of high repute, did not rush into pursuing those who raided his camp while he was away. Instead, he consulted with his Commander-In-Chief, Jehovah-Nissi, for divine assurance. God told him to pursue after the invaders, and when he did, he recovered all that they had stolen from him. Are there things you know that the devil has stolen from you? Are there opportunities you believe you have lost? Are there steps you ought to have taken but failed to, and you feel all is over? I want to assure you today that my God can help you recover all if you trust Him and surrender all to Him. I declare once again that as you truly surrender all to Jesus and seek His guidance, you will recover all the losses you may have suffered, and it shall be well with you, in Jesus’ name.

Open Heaven 15 January 2024 PRAYER POINT

Thank God for His assurance of recovering all, and ask Him to recover all your losses for you, in Jesus’ name.

Open Heaven 15 January 2024 HYMN 21 – Standing On The Promises Of Christ My King

1 Standing on the promises of Christ my King, Through eternal ages let His praises ring, Glory in the highest, I will shout and sing, Standing on the promises of God. Standing, standing, Standing on the promises of God my Savior; Standing, standing, I’m standing on the promises of God. 2 Standing on the promises that cannot fail, When the howling storms of doubt and fear assail, By the living Word of God I shall prevail, Standing on the promises of God. 3 Standing on the promises I now can see Perfect, present cleansing in the blood for me; Standing in the liberty where Christ makes free, Standing on the promises of God. 4 Standing on the promises of Christ the Lord, Bound to Him eternally by love’s strong cord, Overcoming daily with the Spirit’s sword, Standing on the promises of God. 5 Standing on the promises I shall not fall, List’ning every moment to the Spirit’s call. Resting in my Savior as my All in all, Standing on the promises of God. Read the full article

[motiv8world]

Rhapsody of Realities 19 May 2023: Focus on Your Assignment (Pastor Chris O.)

SCRIPTURE: …I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly (John 10:10).

One of the beautiful things about discovering your divine purpose in life is that it keeps you focused. Your purpose defines your life, giving you a focus and a direction.

A synonym for purpose is “intent” or “design.” Intent or design is never general; it must be clear, definite and specific for it to be realistic and effective.

Our Lord Jesus had a clear purpose for coming into the world, and He expressed it unequivocally. He said, “I have come that they may have life, and that they may have ti to thefull” (John 10:10).

The Word says in 1 John 3:8: “….For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil.” Then in Luke 19:10, Jesus declared, “…The son of man is come to seek andt o save that which was lost.” His purpose was very clear: He came to do the will of His Father.

He said, “..My nourishment comes from doing the will of God who sent me, and from finishing his work” (John 4:34 TLB).

We see from this statement of Jesus, a very powerful principle of life revealed: the pursuit and fulfilment of your divine purpose is the true sustenance of life; it’s the fuel that keeps your engine running while you’re on the face of this earth.

Even in the natural sense, few things stimulate, keep alive, or stir courage as much as going after a goal and accomplishing it.

We also see purpose expressed in Paul’s narrative of his encounter with Jesus on the road to Damascus (Acts 26:13-16). He appeared to Paul to make him a minister and a witness (Acts 26:16).

He futher reveals to Paul that he was “to open the eyes of the Gentiles and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in Christ Jesus” (Acts 26:18 .)

This was Paul’s reason for being; this was his life’s mission, and he said in verse 19, “..I was not disobedient unto the heavenly vision.” Then in 1 Corinthians 9:26, he said, “I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air.” In other words, I’m focused on my mission; I’m definitive about carrying out God’s plan for my life.

That’s how it ought to be. Be focused on your assignment, on your God-given purpose. Glory to God!

CONFESSION:

Dear Father, I’m unwavering, steadfast, resolute, firm and focused on my mission and the purpose for which I was created. | serve you wholeheartedly as a witness of the Gospel of Christ, definitive about fulfilling your purpose for my life, in Jesus’ Name. Amen.

FURTHER STUDY

Acts 26:16-18

16 But arise and stand upon your feet; for I have appeared to you for this purpose, that I might appoint you to serve as [My] minister and to bear witness both to what you have seen of Me and to that in which I will appear to you,

17 Choosing you out [selecting you for Myself] and delivering you from among this [Jewish] people and the Gentiles to whom I am sending you—

18 To open their eyes that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may thus receive forgiveness and release from their sins and a place and portion among those who are consecrated and purified by faith in Me.

Acts 23:11

11 And [that same] following night the Lord stood beside Paul and said, Take courage, Paul, for as you have borne faithful witness concerning Me at Jerusalem, so you must also bear witness at Rome.

1-YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: John 8:48-59 &2 Kings 1-3

2-YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Mark 11:12-26 & Numbers 22

[deviltoys]

― this is my first time requesting so let's hope i don't fuck this up [lmao].

taking tobio's [who's the pastor's son] virginity and watching him ask for forgiveness for doing something so inappropriate in the church but then you proceed to degrade him. 🙇

— ‘𝘂𝗻𝗵𝗼𝗹𝘆 𝘃𝗼𝘄𝘀.’

tobio kageyama x top!male reader. (wc; ?)

#a/n: stop. this is my favorite request, ever. virginity loss ‘n blasphemy??? hello? too fuckin’ good, been cravin’ a good virgin tobio. thank you fer’ this, it was perfect!

warings. NSFW CONTENT, MINORS DNI, virginity loss, sacrilege, taboo acts, incest, age gap (18-30), pastor!reader, exhibitionism, sex in a church, misusage of the bible, religious speak, little to no prep, dumbification, creampie, degrading, manipulation, corruption, belly bulge, daddy k.

juvenile ministry took up a huge chunk of the church you operated. being the father to tobio kageyama, it was only natural that he was a frequent volunteer for the group of children who'd visit you both to be taught the righteous laws of god.

your boy was so doting with kids, it lay a smile across your lips to see him so devoted as you'd help demonstrate an array of practices to the youth. he was an apprentice of some sort— you two had a closely knit relationship when it came to chruch work.

almost a little too close.

nobody would ever suspect a thing, right? their nurturing pastor and his passionate son; they wouldn't dream of commiting any corrupt acts against the lord they so dearly fawned about.

the children certainly wouldn't know, such mindless followers. that's why during youth hours the two of you would mysteriously ‘disappear’ while everyone else contributed holy related activities to do while father y/n and tobio went to assist the lord.

you had be fighting the urge to take your son aside and tear his tiny body in half right there inside the sacred haven. but poor little tobio was a virgin, nobody would dare attempt to be the one who would strip the priest’s son of his innocence. you and the younger male had only gone as far as sucking on each others lips or caressing one another in sensual ways that would surely be forbidden by the church.

it was unethical practice to do anything under sexual pretense inside the chapel; with your offspring no less. you were already commiting unforgivable acts unbeknownst to your fellow ministers— what was one more? just another sin strewn onto the pile of ones you had been collecting throughout the years.

the line between faith and abandonment finally blurred out when you caught your little kageyama with pants a size to small for his waist. the fabric rode up, perfectly rounding out and drawing scrutiny to his chubby ass. you were well aware of the scandalous gestures he would send your way while he kept his attention on the children. wiggling his ass out every so often was his main form of communicating his intentions.

he was at last ready to make his daddy proud, giving his body to him as though you were christ himself; submitting to you.

all of his coherent brain function was corrupt by you a long time past, the degenerate acts you two would shun from the eye of society had finally caught up to him. he needed the embrace of his dad, his loving, heavenly father that would fill his holes up with the holy spirit.

“tobio, follow me for a second please? i need to speak with you privately for awhile.” a forged grin took reign of your lips, softly signalling for your son as you escorted him through the barren temple halls. after he had finished passing out coloring activities for the group to engross in, he swiftly followed your lead.

“yes father, what is it that-” you barely gave kageyama a warning before slipping your forearms under his thighs, entangling the remainder of his limbs around your lower and upper body. you lifted his smaller from with ease, hot breath tickling the shell of his ear as your tone dropped to a deep whisper.

“are you ready to give your body to our savior, tobio?”

“yes father y/n, yes i am.”

that was all the confirmation you needed to proceed with blessing him. abandoning your clothes at the altar of god, you began to strip the boy attached to your body. steadily yanking down his suit pants, your cock already springing to life as his own came into view.

it was insatiably erect, you forbid your son from even being curious when it came to exploring his hormones. you knew one day keeping him fresh, unexposed to lewd activity would come in handy.

and it did, oh god it did.

his body was sensitive to the touch, you were concerned he was going to cum without you even putting a hand near his bulge. much less before the fun started. it was like caressing a rock, he was so stiff, the tip already dribbling a tiny bit of pre by the time you were able to finish your first stroke to the hilt.

after giving a few more measly flicks to the head of his cock; you guided tobio’s naked body towards the bible you had prepped specifically for this occasion. the oak pulpit stood tall amongst the various rows of seats— at the head of the stand was kageyama; exposed, ass out, and face burried deep inside the open book sprawled out for easy reading.

he could barely squeak out the first few passages as your lube coated fingers spread his cheeks and stretched his virgin hole to a worthy size; able to fit your fat cock.

it burned and ached, the agony of your fingers poking around his walls overthrew any noticable pleasure that may have slipped in unnoticed; it was torture. he thought intimacy was supposed to feel good. he should've listened when you told him it wasn't fun, how it was a crime against god and how he'd be severely punished for doing as such until he was proposed to by the right man.

but you were the right man, at least that's what you would tell him. so why was it so discomforting, so harsh? you weren't purposefully harming him were you? the paranoia was getting to him, it was so overwhelming, the thought of the man he adored so dearly causing him pain. hot, salty tears pricked his eyes, lashes catching any access fluid as they could meanwhile the clear streaks dusted his cheeks with red.

his hole was still barely twitching with anticipation, and would be for awhile; throwing your head back, you painfully fed kageyama’s rim your length. every inch that ventured just as deep as the last forced strained hiccups to seethe from behind his teeth. he was unbearably tight, his guts sucked you in while his walls showed heavy resistance— pushing you in and out of your trembling son.

“fucking hell.. dumb bitch, you’re so tight. ease up, i thought you'd serve me better- maybe i was wrong.”

no no, you were wrong, right? he was great, such an obedient little cocksleeve just for you, all for you. all he ever did was to please you; the man who he chased after for years, claiming he wasn't as nice as he predicted? panick only settle into him more, ruthlessly he began bucking his hips to match your unenthusiastic thrusts. attempting to appease you wasn't an easy feat, but he was so utterly devoted to you that the condition of his vessel meant nothing if it meant you were proud of him.

he attempted to slur out a form of quivering tongue with a few biblical quotes shoved in-between. whatever he was reciting wasn't human, infact you couldn't tell if he was fucked out or just anxious. whatever it was, your words had preformed their purpose; you were far too impatient to fully prepare him for the world of sex. forcing him to mature on the other hand seemed to run it's course— he was the one himself impelling himself onto at the end of the day.

your arms snaked around his tiny waist, hoisting his feet up and off the ground. the entirety of his lower half no longer met with the floor, steamy tears teased eyes while the remainder of his efforts worked into engulfing you whole. the stimulation of being carried off the ground just like that was unimaginable; only to have his pussy pounded mercilessly into the wooden podium.

“ack! ah.. mm. daddy, pl- please i can do better! m’promise, don't hold back- i want to feel every inch of you!” so vulgar, you weren't aware of tobio’s filthy mouth.

angling your hips to perfectly kiss his prostate with every shift in your pace, you plowed repeatedly into the spongy skin until he was no longer babbling on about anything coherent. whatever bible quote he was now listing off was lost within euphoria; his hole was loosening up more and more with each thrust you planted deep inside of his stomach.

he know knew how desperately he craved seeing your cum gush right out of his gaping ass. more than anything in the world.

“hah, what a stupid whore, letting your father fill up your belly like this? no wonder you can't do anything but flatter me.”

“m’not a stupid whore, daddy i promise!”

the way his cunt squelched around you told otherwise, you didn’t let up on the insults; constantly bombarding the male with word after word. his trembling thighs and drool stained expression prompted you to continue the vile humiliation.

“oh-ho yes you are, you're lucky i’m even taking the time to fuck you like this. the lord wouldn't dare touch you, so why should i? you're charity work kageyama, nothing but pity.”

giving his plump rear a deathly tight squeeze, you ramped up the vigor in your movements. aching breaths escape your nose as you send forth more shivers down the length of his spine— as much as he wants to keep you satisfied he can only withstand so much. this is his first time being lost within the rapturous waves of an orgasm. religious words still on the tip of his tongue as your name bounces off the empty church hull.

there's a puddle of semen beneath you at his feet, he's cum far too many times for you to count and he's just now; once again fighting for release. his limp, shaking shaft all swollen as it spurts out the umpteenth load that session.

you swiftly follow behind, using the last bit of strength in your twitching thigh muscles— you sent your hips forward, fully submerging your fat cock down his rectum. he yelps almost violently, but he adores it. the way you use up his spent hole. the amusement in his moans fizzle once he finally comes to his senses, realizing there's no cum sliding down his guts and into his tummy. the expected feeling of warm, sticky fluid staining his intestines was the big prize he was looking forward to.

“don’t you remember, your only use is to please me tobio. and you couldn't even do that, that's why you don't get daddy's cum. understand?” a disappointed glare forms on your face, once he's luckily unable to see.

he implores like you've never heard from anyone before, you've had your fair share of sexual favours under the church’s nose. but the dark haired male in particular was one of a kind, he was begging you for your seed like his life was dependant on whether or not you fufilled his lustful desires. he needed your cum, right there, right now.

even attempting to guide your entirely hard cock right back into his enormous asshole, which you allowed. your composure was iron-willed, you knew you could cum on command if need be. giving into his sinful fantasies, you pistoned yourself balls deep once more— your hands moving his hips for him as he pleaded for the sweet release of your fluids.

“please daddy, m’such a good cum dump! i promise, please just cum inside of me. i need it, i’ll do anything! anything!”

anything indeed, you had just the thing in mind. and you were sure tobio wouldn't refute, how could he? there wasn't any other choice, it was your cum or no cum. simple as that.

[olubode1120]

Bombshell from Bro. Gbile Akanni, read with an open heart and the Lord shall ignite a fire of discontentment in you.

*MESSAGE TO MINISTERS OF THE GOSPEL*

*IF WE ARE DEPENDING ON THIS BABYLONIAN TRANSACTIONS GOING ON ON OUR PULPITS TODAY, IT MEANS THAT BEFORE OUR EYES , WE WILL LOSE AFRICA TO ISLAM IN OUR TIME...*

In one of the Assemblies of God churches, in Aba District, where my late dad pastored in the 1980s, I remember when a young man came very early in the morning and told my father:

"Pastor, what did I do to you? Why do you hate me so much? I have been born again for almost 1 year and I have won many people to Christ, but why have you not recommended me to join others to go for missions work in the northern States of the country... "

His singlet was torn... And with his zeal, he was crying profusely...

My father did not know what to say...

The young man kept crying:" Pastor, why are you doing this to me... Why are you doing this to me? "

My father told him: "Nna, I know very well that you want to serve God... But you are the only son of your mother and your father is late... If anything happens to you, who will look after your mother and younger ones?...

The boy started crying the more...

"Pastor, I am the only son and yet I was an arm robber... I am the only son, yet, I was attending meetings in the midnight with native doctors, where many of friends could not wake up alive after diabolically fortifying ourselves against police bullets... "

" Pastor, what would have happened to my mother if I had died in one of those armed robbery attacks? Who would have taken care of her? If I risked my life when I was serving Satan, why will I not risk it now that I am serving Jesus Christ? "

My father was speechless for almost 30minutes... And it was not long, we saw tears rolling down his eyes...

He held the young man and both of them were crying together...

How can I forget such scenes that God allowed to play out before my eyes? ...

My father recommended him to join some missionaries that came in the area for missions work...

The day he was leaving with them, the mother and his younger ones were crying... Knowing that they might not see him again, both live or dead... But I can still remember that excitement on his face...

Lord, how can I forget?

Brother, let us go to our Bible schools and listen to the conversation of those young men and women who have joined ministry and you will know that many of them have no single passion for the lost...

They are just getting ready to rent halls in the city where they will be rolling out posters and handbills, laying greedy hands on people, collecting offering and tithe...

That's all in their hearts...

Congratulations for your big auditorium...

I am happy for your 10th time services...

But if heaven cannot find such men in your church,...

Young men and women who will say: "Lets go to that village and tell them that Jesus is no more in the grave... Even If we don't have to come back alive... Let it be so..."

If you don't have such calibre of members among your congregation, then, sir, with due respect, it's a big shame! ..

This end time agenda has no need of you and your kind!

A Muslim suicide bomber doesn't need tithe and offering to carry out a bloody assignment, in defence of his faith...

They don't need adverts or media stunts..

But here, we have young men who are in the pulpit, being driven by tithe, offering and honorarium....

If there is no 5star hotel reservation, they will not honour the invitation to preach ...

And yet, they are General Overseers...

Overseeing passionless men and women who are like them...

Where as, their mates in Islam has burnt their school certificates, refused juicy contracts, abandoned wonderful jobs and everyday they are sleeping in the bush and starving for months, receiving trainings, how to carry out terrorist attacks, all in defence of belief...

And we are here looking for churches where they will use convoy to come and pick us up from the airport...

And you wonder why people feel like vomiting when they hear them calling you a voice in the land...

A voice because you went to a program and stole committed members from your host church and you came back and gave them positions in the choir, sowing different uniforms for them every Sunday...

None of them can quote any scripture...

They have not gone for evangelism for any day, after many years of following you...

All of them were members you stole and now you are using juju to keep them from running away...

And they are calling you a voice in the land! ... What a ridicule! What a noise!

Brother, if this is the generation that will usher in a move of God in our days, then, those who have not forgotten what they saw in the church in the 80s and 90s must not keep quiet in a time like this...

The greatest hindrance of revival in our time is not Islam...

The pulpit in our time is the greatest enemy of the expected move of God in our days...

If not for the decline of truth on the pulpits in our time, long ago, we would have seen what we saw in the days of our fathers...

And now we are blaming Muslim fanatics, who are defending with their lives what they believe in...

When else are we going to see young men from our churches, after hearing our messages, getting so angry in the spirit that they make up their minds to convert 10 unbelievers to Christianity every month month?

And the next place you will see them will be in camps or mountains, preparing, praying for Power?

But how can we hear such when the only thing we teach them is about how to be rich and how to suspect detect enemies?

I am tired of hearing testimonies of miracle jobs some of our ladies slept with company directors to get...

I am tired of seeing car dedications my brothers used fraudulent businesses to buy...

When are we going to start dedicating converted souls on our Sunday mornings?

Lord, where are all the men that saw what we saw in the days of our fathers?

This is not the time to keep quiet...

This is not the time to care about who likes or hates you...

If there is a time to beg for pulpit, soldier, it is not in a time like this!

No pulpit hosted John the Baptist...

They preached against him... That He was old fashioned... And that he was envying them who were running 10 times services...

That because he doesn't get any like or comment on his Facebook wall, that he is jealous of them that have huge online followership...

That because he is not anointed and that is why nobody was hosting him in their churches...

But brother, when his time came and he began to roar from the wilderness, those demonic General Overseers who were using marine powers to run ministry knew that indeed, in every generation, God has a breed He is preparing ...

Yes, they knew that "there was a man sent from God"...

Man of God, if you were sent from God, why are you allowing yourself to be influenced by men who were 'sent from Bible schools' ?

Some of the men you are competing with in ministry were 'sent from demonic covens in some parts of Africa' ... If we came from God, let us look more for God...

He will soon show up...

You are almost getting to the time when members of many 'mega' churches will be secretly and openly coming to you, to hear this gospel from your mouth...

Because they would have gotten tired of fake testimonies that leaves them powerless and very vulnerable...

Men who have not bowed to baal are very few in our days...

Men who have not sold out their souls for mammon are rare to find now that we are here...

God depends on you for this end time work...

Why are you bothered because someone somewhere is calling you names online? ...

Churches are everywhere around us, yet, there is a spiritual famine in Africa...

The power of the gospel is suffering bankruptcy in our time...

This is not the same gospel the apostles preached...

Something has happened to the Word of God in our mouths...

We are only showing the form of godliness, but hell has hijacked the power thereof...

And in our carnality, we are celebrating strange Fires...

Polluted Fire!

Moribund Fire!

But brother, I know that God will never leave Africa this way!

If the pulpit has failed, then,, He will bypass us and go down to the pews...

And raise people for Himself...

If our pews have become so frozen, He will go outside...

He will look for drunkards and prostitutes....

He will get hold of witches and wizards...

And those armed robbers on the highways,

He will Clean them up and fill them up with Himself and use them mightily in this end time...

Yes, if those who came out from Bible schools are now using their certificates to raise only funds, God will bypass them and use those who have not gone to Bible schools...

This is the most critical time since the world began...

Islam is preparing to take over nations,...

They are putting funds together which they will use to buy churches and pay their staff off...

Brother, in few years from now, if there is no genuine revival, many of our members today would have become Muslims...

You will see many pastors who will convert their churches into mosques, for a huge financial reward...

That time is not far...

Has it not even started?

When a pastor is collecting powers to grow his church from a Muslim native doctor, is that not handing over the Fire to the children of the bond woman?

The days we are in are terrible...

God knows and that is why He is raising an army that will stand to defend the gospel that was handed over to us, even if they have to lose everything for it...

That young man came back from the missions field, after a year, and later joined the Bible school...

Became a pastor and God used him to win communities for Jesus...

Before my eyes, I saw God using him to sack evil spirits out from villages...

His name became a terror in that area, to the point that deities began to complain about how his presence in the community had rendered them powerless... Halaluya !

Those are the kind of testimonies we were hearing everyday in the days of our fathers that we want to be hearing again in our time...

But alas, here is Ichabod !

Imagine if every church in every community can boast of 10 of such members!

Imagine when many of our followers would have gotten broken enough, by God, that they don't mind what they lose again for God's sake...

Terrorists will no more be bombing our churches...

Because they would have known that already our churches are filled with people who are ready to die, anytime for the gospel ...

You don't have to waste your bomb on a man who is already dead!

But, why they will keep threatening to kill us is because they know that we love our cars and landed properties more than the CHRIST we say that died for us...

Prophet Mohammed was not killed on the Cross shamefully, yet, they can die for him publicly...

What would have happened if their prophet Mohammed was crucified on the cross?

But where are the men and women who claims that Jesus died for them?

Oh Sister, it is time to take our Christian life to another level...

It is time to get 'fanatical' about this Kingdom thing...

Enough of the prayer topics of: "God give me this and do that for me!"

This weekend, take your friends to the next Street and preach the gospel...

Next week, continue with it...

Why are we ashamed to tell people about the Man that conquered the grave?

Why can't we preach about the man that created the heaven and the earth?...

Mohammed did not do any single miracle, but his followers are dying for him...

He did not raise anybody from the dead...

He died and that was his end...

Yet, they can give everything to spread his belief...

How can we be ashamed of Jesus that spoke to the storm and their was peace?

He opened the blind eyes...

He interrupted funerals and raised the dead back to life...

Is He not enough to tell people about?

Did He not do enough to make you let everybody that knows you know that you are not ashamed of the gospel?

When will you be done with hiding from your friends when you want to speak in tongues, so that they will not laugh at you?

Brother, why are you ashamed of identifying with the Man who is the hope of the whole world?

As for me, I am done with religion, till I die..

I cannot stand Christianity by church sticker alone any more ...

Jesus did not die for you to only be attending choir rehearsals and changing uniforms every Sunday....

I hope God is not looking at you from heaven now and regretting why He did not let those people that died of accident to replace you since you are useless to Him on earth...

Many in the hospital now, with few days to live are begging and crying, if God can give them a little more time, that they will preach this gospel under the rain and sun... And they mean it...

Brother, you that is healthy, what will God be saying about you when He sees that they are begging you to go to church?

The time is early enough to ask God for mercy and for Him to revive His work in your life. ..

God is looking for people that will risk their lives for Him in our time...

Let it not be that He is preparing someone who is at the point of death in the hospital bed to come and replace you....

This is scary... But it is a serious matter!

Have you not played so much with the opportunities God has given you?

How much longer do we have to be in sin for grace to abound?

The Holy Spirit is speaking to you now...

He is reminding you of your distance from God...

Imagine if you had died in your sins yesterday morning...

You would have gone to hell, and stay there, from now till the next 2billion years... And yet, that will be just the beginning...

Sister, don't be locked out of grace further... Don't postpone any longer the hour of your salvation...

Right now, hearken to the voice of mercy ...

And where you are sitting is good enough to kneel down and ask God for a revival ... I am very sure that He will clean you up and give you a new....

Lord, let there be revival of true soul winning and genuine christian living In Jesus Mighty Name."

Bro Gbile Akanni. *Sent as Received*...

[stayeducated]

Covid and preaching.

I really don’t know how we got here. And as I write these I realize how poor my writing skills are. Anyways we’re here to take shots not be wussy. 

How did faith in Jesus Christ get correlated with not getting vaccinated? Whichever demon in Satan’s army who constructed this is probably got promotions and mad raises. 

Never in the bible has not going to doctors been associated with faith. Monks were the first scientists. Yet now pastors and evangelists have equated not getting vaccinated with strong faith. I read my bible and associate these people with Satan’s temptation of Jesus in the bible. Belief is associated with healing, but there is no guarantee of healing with belief. Paul had a thorn in his side and was not able to have it removed to stay humble. Humility is knowing God may protect us from the virus or he may not and may afflict us. Humility is getting vaccinated so you can not be a menace to your neighbor and being able to have basic human capability to speak the word’s of God to another people.

Let’s look in the bible because it seems we’ve forgotten about it.

Tempting God Matthew 4 6 And saith unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down: for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee: and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone.7 Jesus said unto him, It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. Y’all preachers want to throw yourself off the temple and say hey! Look at me I’m faithful in Christ therefore these viruses won’t be able to touch me. How about you stop trying to show off get off your pedestal and preach the following of Christ. I remember once I was sitting in the upenn summer school reading the bible and I had a choice of two benches. One was swarmed by mosquitos and the other not so much. I chose to remain in the bench swarmed by mosquitos reasoning that God would protect me because I was reading his bible. Then I got bit and realized I was an idiot. 

A Snake bite thrown off 3 And when Paul had gathered a bundle of sticks, and laid them on the fire, there came a viper out of the heat, and fastened on his hand.4 And when the barbarians saw the venomous beast hang on his hand, they said among themselves, No doubt this man is a murderer, whom, though he hath escaped the sea, yet vengeance suffereth not to live.5 And he shook off the beast into the fire, and felt no harm.

Paul was protected because of his faith. Yet what was he doing? He was willingly putting himself in prison and in shackles so he could go to Rome to preach the gospel. Show me your evangelization and people brought to Christ by your actions. Then I can shut up. Until then I’ll show my vaccine card and my efforts to build my fellowship and bring the lost to Christ. 

The Mark of the beast 

A lot of preachers also equate the vaccine with the mark of the beast. Here’s the funny thing is they might even be right. It will be progenitor of the mark that if you’re not vaccinated you’ll be a menace to those around you so you better not go out into society unless your vaccinated. However this mark of the beast happens after we’re raptured. Read your bibles. The whole point of the mark is for those who are after rapture can know about it beforehand and for us to know the terribleness of the end times in giving us urgency for the present day. 

What the vaccine does represent is returning back to normal where we can have peace and order to practice religion freely and not bring people to death’s door. 

It all comes down this

How can we spread the gospel of Jesus Christ and cause more people to be followers of him? Not by being idiots not getting vaccinated and looking like delusional cultists. But instead by having faith in Christ and going out into the world wisely. Not with the terrible smell of someone who has is uneducated, misinformed, and disease carrying. But rather tactful, understanding, faithful to follow Jesus and doing whatever we can tooth and nail to be a shining testimony to the world. 

Satan doesn’t want this and rather we preach and fight about the vaccine. 

But what if I respectfully or disrespectfully disagree?

Show me your faith and go out there and spread the gospel with your unvaccinated ass. Bring people to Christ at the risk of your own life. You don’t want to get vaccinated? Fine. Be a follower of Christ. But don’t go around spreading misinformation. Teach people the words of the bible not your youtube conspiracy theories. And when things start going badly and the lack of a vaccine hurts your testimony then come back to God humble yourself and accept the things that will help your testimony. 

With love in Christ and forgiveness. But I write these things so that when we are above we beloved are not ashamed. 

[covairecity-promo]

~ WANTED CHARACTER! ~

❝ I belong here. ❞

Name: Jonah Bennett

Species: Werewolf

Age: 21

Sexuality: Heterosexual

Prisoner

Face Claim: Daniel Sharman

✑ BACKGROUND: Jonah’s father was a man of faith, a preacher who followed the bible to the exact word. He believes more so that genetics were a jumble of traits and complexions thrown into one basket from which God’s powerful hands plucked the best, rather than scientifically proven threads that are woven together. He believed it was God that lead him to his wife, the seemingly perfect woman whose beauty could not be matched, and above all else – a Catholic. When she gave birth to their son (1996) his father would even say he was delivered to them from God, a tussle of blonde hair like his mother’s, shining blue eyes like the sky that held the heavens. Jonah was the best of God’s chosen genetics, a pure soul, what a shame all those beliefs his father crafted about him would be shot to hell after he turned sixteen.

Unbeknownst to Jonah’s mother, she had come from a family of werewolves, but because one of her parents was a human, the werewolf trait was not dominant, and skipped her in the generation thus falling next on her son. Before this werewolf gene was triggered though Jonah had a normal life. He rose with the sun to go to church with his father and mother, listening to the ceremonies and taking the bible classes. He got the luxury of going to bible camp every summer and went caroling once winter came. But adolescence reared the corner so once he turned sixteen and met his first full moon and transformed into something unholy. Fortunately enough, he managed to escape from his home that first moon without harming his family. Unfortunately for Jonah, his father saw him.

Keep reading for full biography & visit our group!

From that day on Jonah was viewed as possessed. His father firmly believed that his son was bewitched by an evil spirit, a demon of some kind that caused him to transform every full moon. Jonah’s mother kept quiet, she had no clue what was happening to her son, he appeared only to her as some sort of grizzly beast. So a series of torturous methods were administered by his father disguised as religious techniques, harsh exorcisms and rituals. Often at night Jonah would lay tied down to a bed while holy water and religious verses were thrown at him, and when that didn’t work his father turned to more extreme tactics. A cross, laid in the fire till red hot, would be placed on Jonah’s chest so that Christ could melt into his heart and expel the demon from the inside out. Biblical scriptures would be carved into his skin, cut so deeply into his flesh that is would take the supernatural creature days to heal. But every time a wound would close or a burn would fade it only confirmed that his “demon” was still ever so present. Eventually his father could only think of one thing left to do.

Abraham was tested by God and ordered to kill his son Isaac, when the man followed His command and nearly plunged a knife into his son’s chest God spoke to him and told him to stop. Jonah’s father thought that perhaps he was being tested, given a faulty son, and there was only one way to prove his dedication. He took Jonah to a nearby lake commonly used for baptisms, and Jonah seeking redemption for his sins followed unquestionably. Pastor Bennett held his son under the water, awaiting God’s command for him to spare his son. But when it did not come he continued to pin Jonah within the lake, his body naturally struggling for a breath of air till finally falling still. He had just drowned his son and cleansed his soul. Or so he thought.

You cannot drown a werewolf, they can only be killed by having their heart removed and body set alight. So the pastor was rather shocked when he laid his son on the sand and the boy coughed up water and came back to life. While some may have took this as a sign from God that the boy was meant to live, Jonah’s father saw only confirmation that Jonah was a demon. Afterwards he banished Jonah from his home and sent him and this demon back to hell, to a place he had heard of only in confession described as purgatory on earth: Covaire City. The city of sin and devils. Many had claimed to the pastor that the people there were beasts; vampires and werewolves living with slaves at their feet. The temptation had guided many off the path of God, hence why they came to him. So Jonah’s father sent him to be with his kind. He gave Jonah enough money to take a cab to this city, forever turning his back on him. But as soon as the omega set foot in Covaire he was seized by the guards, stripped of his possessions, and thrown into a cell.

✑ PERSONALITY: Jonah is innocent; he never committed any crimes against humanity or his father when reaching the age of a wolf, and he didn’t get a say in what was written in his genes. But he was told he was evil, and so the timid slave believes he is wrong, an insult to God with his mere existence. He has lost his faith, praying during each ritual his father delivered for atonement, a sign that showed he was forgiven for his corrupted blood. But he was rewarded with silence and pain. Jonah is never aggressive, soft spoken and compliant. After all he had taken every slice of torture his father dished out without complaining. So when he was seized by the guards of Covaire, he did not fight them. And when he was thrown into the dark damp cell he had believed it was the place he was destined to be in. But the sinful city frightens him; its resident’s damned beings just like himself.  He has never been so exposed to reality, his religious views before enlightening each dark situation. But his light has been snuffed; he is in the dark with nothing and no one to bring him joy.

MAIN || PLOT || SPECIES || CHARACTERS || EVENTS || APPLY || MOBILE

[noonymoon]

JUSTICE FOR JESUS — Misconceptions & Prejudices about the Faith in the Biblical Jesus Christ.

INTRO

Jesus put it on my heart to write about one of the main factors that keep people away from Him nowadays and I feel qualified to do that since I was in exactly that peer group before Christ knocked on my door (the second time) and showered me with His Love. As some maybe have read in my first testimony, at first I had violently pushed Him away (and I was extremely rude, I remember how I sent a ten minutes audio voice message to a friend [i mean, who does that...??], and philosophized about how the God of the Bible could be the Devil Himself and that maybe it‘s a trap for the weak people who need Religion to cope in this life; looking back that was just entirely bonkers and also very wrong, and now that I know Jesus, I am ashamed that I‘ve ever thought something evil like this, but gladly He has a heart probably bigger than the Universe itself and will always forgive)

Then came Peter to him, and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times? Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven. — Matthew 18:21-22

and among all the outrageously horrible things I‘ve done in my life, this was probably the most bad error ever. God thought that by now I sure was humble enough to be approached (you know after my Mama died, I‘ve had 2 strokes, I‘ve been in a terribly traumatic violent relationship for over 2 years, I‘ve lost my apartment and almost lost my mind as well clearing out the apartment, was homeless for several months and received multiple thousands of Euros debts in my name because of the situation that was going on in my living community and with my Ex, people who have been following this blog know what I am talking about) but I was sooooo stubborn and DUMB. and not humble at all. I‘ve thought I had all the answers because „Spirituality“ is so much better than „Religion“ and because esoteric and occult knowledge is the Truth and that I would be „enlightened“ someday when I just kept „working“ to „spiritually grow“, meditate, doing divination about „my soul“ and my „past lives“ and „my future“, and „manifest“ my life however I wanted it to be.

A month after I‘ve pushed Jesus away and blasphemed His intentions, well, I was laying on my (new apartment) floor, having the worst seizure one can imagine, my brain was flooded in blood, the pressure and pain on me was extreme, my whole body clenched, the paramedics spoke to me very alarmed and dramatically, and I could hear and understand them but I was entirely paralyzed within my body, I could not speak, I could not move, I sweated so hard that my entire clothes were soaked from only 20 minutes of laying there, then I‘ve had to vomit twice, almost drifted off to unconsciousness, was freezing cold, got transported as fast as possible to the hospital... had a 6 hour brain surgery, was in a coma for 2-3 days and when I woke up I‘ve lived through almost an entire month of hospital „terror“ (I am very sure that I‘ve had something like an almost-psychosis in the first 2 weeks because really weird things happened in my mind back then that I cannot even explain) and it was already the Covid-19 panic, so I was literally alone all day, every day until I was stabilized and was allowed to leave the hospital at the end of April.

I‘m not saying that God punished me, not at all. But what He indeed does is disciplining the ones that He has chosen to be His child, just like an actual Father has to sometimes discipline his child for the sake of proper parenting. When I was stubborn and pushed Jesus away, Satan had legitimate authority to do whatever he wanted, except that I die. We see a similar situation in the book of Job 1:6-12

After I got home, I was still in horrible shape, I could barely walk (I‘ve used a rollator and later on I‘ve used crutches), I‘ve had a bad headache pretty much all the time (I still do, not all of the time, but very often), I‘ve done my daily rehab until first week of July, and now I am on weekly rehab. People would say I‘ve had enormous „luck“ or a „guardian angel“ but I know now that it was God who protected me. He needed to make sure that I meet Jesus AND accept Him before I truly die because death without Jesus means death eternal.

And so, Jesus approached me another time and I‘ve wrestled with Him and I‘ve almost pushed Him away again but THANK GOD, to the exact same time, an old friend from TUMBLR found me on Twitter (she was @spirit-mouse back on here) and also at the same time I‘ve heard of Courtney (@powerpriestess) turning to Christ, and at first I was like „?????“ and it was a huge struggle back and forth for days and I‘ve ALMOST pushed Jesus away again but ... talking with this old friend, who also felt a pull towards Jesus, I let it happen, because she let it happen, like a few days before me, and now I am just eternally grateful that my pride, stubbornness and idiocy didn‘t get a hold of me again and that I just let it happen and it was the best decision in my ENTIRE life. I am just filled with love and eternal gratitude for God and Jesus for not giving up on me, for humbling me enough to make it happen, and I literally don‘t go more than 15 minutes of my day without thinking of them, every single day, since July. It‘s just NOT possible to be born-again and to not think of God all the time *lol* - I have never been more satisfied, happy and peaceful in my entire existence and I could literally drop dead right now and I know it would be okay! (well okay, I really want to be baptized first..)

HOWEVER, - this was a long intro - the misconceptions about the Faith in the Biblical Jesus Christ are severe (!) and since I, myself, had aaaall the evil prejudices that one can have, I want to clear them aaaall up in this post series. My prayer is that people who feel a pull towards Jesus won‘t do the same mistake that I did and that maybe I can help to clear away the stigma and confusion about the faith in Jesus and following Him.

If anyone needs help along the way, you can contact me on Instagram @ noony.newborn - I know just how confusing EVERYTHING is when you start your relationship with Christ and how utterly confusing the Bible is, and sadly, these days, you can literally not trust a SINGLE pastor because Satan has infiltrated the institutional Church around 300 A.D. and ever since then, it just got worse and worse and worse with the blasphemy and deception.

I don‘t have an exact outline but some of the things I‘d like to talk about are the things you most definitely do NOT need to know, love, follow and obey Jesus Christ: Institutional Church, a Pastor, Religion, Creeds and man-made Doctrines, the Pope, Catholic Catechism, Rules, Bible Commentaries of religious Authors, nothing of that. The literally only thing you need is a Bible, Prayer and JESUS and that‘s all that you need. Of course a congregation is a nice thing to have but trust me, you rather want to be alone with Jesus than to be at your local Sunday Service and be entirely devoid of the presence of Christ, His Holy Spirit.

I will include a handful of testimonies of real people who met Jesus, were born-again and are absolutely in Love with Him, on each of these posts. The variety of people who come to Jesus is just incredible and I cry every time when I see such testimonies because I can so much relate to the emotional atmosphere and how everyone is just so grateful. I have been crying pretty much daily since July just because His love is so overwhelming and a human can not possibly hold it inside without shaking and wanting to burst, tears are the only suitable reaction for me (and as far as I’ve seen in the testimonies, every born-again believer feels the same way, it’s beautiful beyond anything).

I pray that you are open to this series of posts and that maybe God can reach you through them, so that you, too, can be born-again and just joyful and at peace with your life forever and ever.

May Jesus bless you ♡

TESTIMONIES

Melody Alisa -  From New Age to Jesus | My Testimony

Kyle -  Suicidal Atheist Finds Jesus | Testimony

Ayelet -  I am Jewish and I Believe in Yeshua - Jesus!

Shokit Ali -  A Muslim gets saved by Jesus Christ! Powerful Testimony!

Samuel A. Perez -  Gay Stripper Saved By Jesus | Christian Testimony

[celestenicolegarcia]

Valentines Day

Valentines Day. A day where people celebrate being in love or having someone to love on. Usually when we think of Valentines Day, we think of spending time with our significant other and having sweet treats and great food. People that are alone however, tend to either be on the spectrum of hating Valentines Day or not even caring about it because it's a government holiday. The annoyed single people hate it because of the sappy couple postings, cheesy romantic comedies, stalking their ex’s profiles to see what they're doing, and themselves spending it alone. 

As a single person myself I can honestly say that I am not upset that I am single this Valentines Day. Maybe its just me getting older and not caring about having someone or maybe I’ve just been tired of the men I have been dating that I don’t feel the need to date anymore. Most of my life I have been in relationships that have the length of 6 months to 3 years being the longest. As far as being in love, I can recall myself truly being in love with a man twice in my lifetime. One was my high school sweetheart and the other was a guy I dated a few years ago, neither shall I say were something I want today, A Godly man.

I don’t know about you but I have had my fair share of men throughout my life. Before I came to know Christ, I was in and out of relationships faster than you could imagine. Some weren’t even real relationships and they were mostly hookups. I did sleep around for money, food, drugs, or just simply wanted the affection. Don’t get it twisted though, even when I found Christ when I was 24 years old I did have a few slip-ups. I still had sex but this time it was within a relationship so I thought it was “okay” since we were together. I just look back at that girl and think man... why didn’t you just run to Jesus when you were lonely? why a warm body? what was going on at home that you had to run off? why did you disobey your parents and screw up your friendships?

A lot of these questions were hard to think of at the time but I simply didn’t care. I just thought since I believed and gave my life to Jesus I was okay and going to heaven. But I was wrong now looking back. Talk about someone who was lost and just wanting a quick fix of affection but not wanting to go to the source. I would always tell myself that I was perfect and that it was the men always screwing up, now I look back at that girl and say get off your high horse and look in the mirror because you are no saint. You are a lukewarm christian trying to make it in the world and not even looking up at the father, only looking at yourself. And that was the breaking point for me to start turning my life around and taking my life more seriously as well as my relationship with God. Attending bible study, going to church, having accountability partners, and managing my own mental health with therapy. Believe me, when I started looking at Jesus and not of the worldly standards my life got clearer but harder at the same time. When you give your life up for Jesus its not always going to be easy, the more you reach up to Him the more the devil is going to wanna block you from your blessings.

 Would you believe me if I told you that I said I’ve never been proposed to? I’m 28 now about to be 29 and I just think to myself sometimes ...why? I’m a good looking woman, attending school online to get my masters degree for psychology, attending church and bible studies, working a part time job doing my hair business since I have my cosmetology license, and I am pretty nice and shall I say funny. Let me tell you, the thoughts of feeling not good enough have come into my mind but I know those are not pure or the right thoughts that Jesus wants me to be thinking. Don’t even get me started on my family members asking me when I’m going to have a baby or pressuring me to adopt. Before you start thinking let me stop you right there and say I love children. I think they are the cutest little people in the world but right now kids are the very last thing on my mind!

I want to encourage you and encourage myself as I feel the Holy Spirit is within me typing up this blog to let you know that you don’t need to be swooped up like in those Disney movies to be truly happy. Let me also say that if you are married or in a relationship am I by no means trying to knock down your union with your spouse or boyfriend/girlfriend. the Bible says in Ecclesiastes 4:9 “Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their labor: If either of them falls down, one can help the other up. But pity anyone who falls and has no one to help them up. Also, if two lie down together, they will keep war,. But how can one keep warm alone?” Marriage is a union and should be sacred. Honor your husband and honor your wife, you both are a team made in the image of our Holy Father.

God created us to love one another no matter what. Even if someone else is having what you wish you had, let them be happy in their life. Love them and support them. Be a good friend and helping hand. Whenever you get angry or jealous of someone else's success remember that God isn't finished with you yet! He has more blessings coming your way and just because you aren’t happy yourself does not mean you take out your personal feelings on others. If someone is mean to you or belittling you because you express how you don’t wanna be alone or hurt because you and your boyfriend/girlfriend broke up, take the high road. Don’t let anyone steal your joy because joy can only come from the Lord and no one else. He is after all the one who created happiness! 

I remember when I would take things so personally and I would want to hurt the people who have hurt me. Even if they did deserve to be punished, I know the one who has that power to give me justice. I have yet to type down my testimony on here but I will when I have the time because its pretty lengthy but you will see why I think the way that I do now. Before I used to hold grudges really badly towards the people who have hurt me. When I tell you I have been through the wringer, I mean it. I have been sexually abused by people who I thought would never hurt me, I have been verbally abused by people who I thought would never hurt me and last by not least I have both been verbally and sexually abused from people I hardly even knew. I have been told I am scum of the earth and no one will want me and I have also been told that no one is going to want leftover goods. I have been sexually assaulted in a place of work. I have been raped by a few men in my past. Some I knew and some I didn’t. All those things have stuck with me but they do not define me. The only one who defines me is Jesus Christ and thank God I have a savior because I can’t live this life all by myself, If I try I would probably would have died by now. I have in the past held these situations in my heart and it has caused me so much pain. Trust me, I wanted revenge but I never got it. Then God really brought me down to a place where I forgave them and myself. My anger cannot bring justice for what they have done, only God can. One movie that really sticks out to me is The Shack, now that is a good movie to watch about forgiveness. If you have time, check it out because you won't regret it.

Another verse comes to mind for me is Luke 6 27-33 “But to you who are willing to listen I say, love your enemies! Do good to those who hate you. Bless those who curse you. Pray for those who hurt you. If someone slaps you on one cheek, offer the other cheek also. If someone demands your coat, offer your shirt also.Give to anyone who asks; and when things are taken away from. you, don’t try to get them back. Do to others as you would like them to do to you. If you only love only those who love you, why should you get credit for that? Even sinners love those who love them! And if you do good only to those who do good to you, why should you get credit? Even sinners do that much!”

Jesus said that when we love people even when they have hurt us. We have to be the ones that rise up from the earthy things going on in the world. I know I tended to go a little off topic but days like this remind me of my past and it brings me to the present. I want to let you know that you aren't alone today. You do have a valentine and his name is Jesus Christ. He will always be perfect. He will never leave you. He will always be there for you no matter what time of the day or night it is. He will never call you names or do things to hurt you, only help you become the best version of yourself. Valentines Day is a fun holiday but it does not define who love truly is. Love is a person and His name is Jesus. I encourage you to reach out to someone today, even if you aren’t feeling like it. Tell someone you love them today and you are there for them. Tell them that you are thinking of them. Jesus loves you and He will never let you go. I remember when my pastor said this line and ill never forget it. “Once you let Him in, He won't move out!” and I firmly believe that til the day I die. 

If you haven’t already and you would like to give your life to Jesus today repeat after me. Jesus, I need you. I’m not perfect and I don’t claim to be. But I need a savior and I’m ready for my life to change for the better. Take me out of myself and let me live the life you promised for me. I love you. I accept you into my life. I welcome you. Amen.

Thank you for taking the time to read my second blog post! I really enjoy doing these posts. They help me vent what I feel and I want to let someone know that they are loved today! 

Much love,

Celeste

[daphner20]

Aaron Roberts

Prologue It’s 2:45 pm sighed Aaron, there was a staff meeting for everyone in the Ballroom at 4pm. The rumors were swinging like a pendulum: we were being sold; we were having mass layoffs, we are closing our doors, and it went on and on. As Aaron, looked out of his office window, which overlooked one of the most beautiful beaches in the world ( don’t take his word, it is ranked in the top five of every Tourist/Travel magazine), he took a short walk down memory lane. He has been with The Kingdom, for the last 10 years, and he has no regrets. By the time he was 22, he had a bachelor’s in Accounting, A Master in Accounting, and a MBA. He had also sat the CPA exams and pass all sections on his first attempt. He worked at, CPDG, one of the largest accounting firms in the world, for 3 years, and he hated every minute of it. His salvation came, when his frat brother, told him about The Kingdom, the name alone piqued his interest. And 10 years later at 35, I was the youngest CFO at a major hotel resort. Yeah!!

The chime of his alarm, brought him back to reality, it’s 3:40. Time to make his way to the Ballroom. It will only take 10 minutes, but Aaron was a stickler for time. 'Good afternoon, every one, thank you for coming, said Mr Keith O’brien, (General Manager). First let me address the rumors, there will be no layoffs and we  are not selling the hotel. I will retire at the end of the month. I will stay on for an additional 2 months so that there will be a smooth transition. So without further delay, the next General Manager of The Kingdom is Mr. Aaron Roberts. What the #$&%?

Chapter 1 It’s has been 3 months now, since that incredulous announcement was made. I didn’t expect it. To be honest that promotion was the last thing on my mind. I think I ambitious as the next person. But to be appointed as General  Manager/CFO is a feat. Yes I retain my position as Chief Financial Officer as well. The Kingdom is a 700 room 5 star hotel, on an island in The Bahamas. With a staff compliment of 2000. We all live on the island. We are the sole employer as well. So my responsibility, is not limited only to the hotel, but the entire island. From the airport, staff quarters, beaches, etc. Not bad for that skinny, shy altar boy Yeah!! My family were so elated, when they heard the news, I think my mom is still crying, and my priest Father John Cooper, (who was also my math teacher in high school) and the entire parish family is still sending congratulations. Am I proud of myself? I think I am thankful and grateful to God. I remembered as a child in CCD, Sister Marva, constantly said, all good and perfect gifts comes from heaven above. Am I overwhelmed? No, I have a great team. We have nearly 100 % occupancy year round. But there is a feeling I can’t put my finger on I Am Lost!!! Chapter 2 I am the way, the truth and life, no one comes to the Father except through me. What does that mean, wondered Aaron. He keeps hearing it in his heart, whether awake or sleeping, those words are there. On top of that he felt lost. I don’t lost is the right word. I have a good job, a great family, am in excellent health, am single (I see it as a plus, so I can focus on my career). What more is there? I was about to find out. A few weeks later, during an executive meeting, the Director of Sales,  Shelby Robinson, said “that we have a group, that wants to book our entire hotel all 700 and meeting rooms for one week”.  Wow, everyone exclaimed, awesome. We’ve had groups before, but never on the scale. It was a religious group. It was a Pastor of a mega church in New York, a membership of 50,000 . It is considered an evangelical non-denominational Christian Church. I don’t know what that means. I was born and raised Catholic. My parents are Catholic, I was an altar boy, from the age of 8 – 18. I attended only Catholic schools and universities. We are the true Christian Church. Yeah!! Chapter 3 The hotel is a frenzy, in good way. After months of negotiating, the day of the big arrival had come. The negotiating had been relentless, they had so many demands. We’re used to that. But they had some non-negotiable items. No alcohol, no secular music, limit Internet access (block all ungodly sights). The list was exhausting!! After calculations, the revenue which was in the millions it was worth it. We will be in the black for years. Every meeting space and restaurant will be utilized. This was considered a conference for men. There were bishops, deacons, men's ministry and lay members. We had a total of 5,000 men descending on The Kingdom, it felt like another Kingdom was invading The Kingdom! On my career side my life was awesome, we were able to negotiate a deal of a life time. However, in my personal life. It was the tale of two cities. Some days I am overwhelmed by this emptiness, that I am feeling, that I can’t sleep or eat! Thank God, I have been able to conceal it with work, nobody seems to be the wiser. I have taken praying the Rosary even more. ( My mother will considered that a dream come true). What is “ I am the way the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father, except through me.” Lord, I cried out “ if you are real, what does this mean.” Help me please!! Mr. Roberts, they are here! Chapter 4 It is not a custom for the General Manager to meet hotel guests, but this was an exception and necessary. Arriving first Apostle Dylan Freeman, he was the Senior Pastor of Greater Cathedral of Brooklyn, New York. He looked like any ordinary man, I think because he had such a large congregation, that he would look ‘holy’. That’s just the Catholic  in me talking.  I have never meet a modern day Apostle before. The ones that I knew of , were Jesus disciples in the bible. “It is a pleasure to welcome you Apostle Freeman, to The Kingdom,” said Aaron. “I have come to The Kingdom, for such a time as this,” replied Apostle Freeman. His entourage laughed heartly . I didn’t get it, maybe it was Christian lingo or some inside joke. I escorted him to his suite which is on the 69th Floor. The Kingdom has 70 floors. The 70th Floor is our major Ballroom, which is called  ‘The Great Hall.’  This is where there will be a welcome cocktail reception. ( Minus the cocktails) at 7pm. I hate  cocktail receptions, but duty calls. It’s 6:30 pm. Most of the guests are here, taking in the breath taking view of the island. The Great Hall, has a panaramic view of the entire island. So, there were a lot of selfies. Apostle Freeman, arrived precisely at 7pm. My goal was to make light chit chat, then make my escape. Finally, he was alone, I eventually got to him, before I had a chance to say a word, he said “ I have a word for you.” “ You want a word with me? “ I asked. He looked at me, and just starting laughing. What was so funny I thought. He must have read my mind. Because he stopped abruptly. ‘ Forgive me, we pastor's believe everyone understands what we are saying, he said apologetically. “ I have a word for you, from the Lord,” he said somberly. I felt like I just got suckered punch, my insides felt like jelly. I didn’t know to say. I thought I was speechless for hours. But he graciously said to me, “ Don’t worry, everything you have been experiencing these last several months, will be made clear to you. And just like that he was throng again, by the other guests. For the next several days, I was eager to have an audience with the Apostle, but with his schedule,  I know that was impossible. It was the last day, I knew that it will be hectic, so my daily morning jog on the beach was imperative. As I was about to begin, Apostle Freeman suddenly appeared. “I am the way, the truth and the life, no one comes to the father, except through me”, he said to me. “ Do you know what that means? I just shake my head weakly, saying no. Thus says the Lord, this emptiness you are feeling, it is your soul yearning for the one true God. And you can only have that with Jesus as your Savior. “Do you want to make Jesus Christ you personal Savior?” asked Apostle “Yes, “ I was openly crying now. Repeat after me: Lord Jesus, I know that I am a sinner, and I ask for your forgiveness. I believe You died for my sins and rose from the dead. I turn from my sins and invite You to come into my heart and life. I confess You as my personal  Lord and Savior. In Jesus name I pray Amen. As I prayed those word, the Peace of God flooded my soul, and the emptiness vanished. Thank you Jesus. As I looked on that beautiful water, I knew what I wanted more than anything. “Will you baptize me, Apostle”, I asked. As Apostle Freeman, baptize me in the Name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, I knew that I was truly alive and Jesus had given me a new life. Later that morning, while I was escorting Apostle to his car. He said this, “ I have two things to things to say to you. “ Jesus loves you and see you next year. Yeah!! THE END

[mightypocketcow]

Can you explain what’s happening with the Canadian church? I’m trying to follow from here (Australia) but confused. Wonderful about the new Primate, what happened re same sex marriages? It’s a terrifying/wonderful time to be Anglican (I’m already bracing myself for lambeth next year)

derHello my darling fellow Rainbow Christian.  A fabulous sister in Christ, as I like to say.  I’m sorry that it’s taken a little bit to answer this question because I wanted to be as certain as I could about what the answer was before I said and explained it.  As it happens, I just had a conversation with my Diocese’s congregational development officer (a wonderful spiritual man, a Reverend with a PhD, by the name of Jay) and I asked him as much as I could before he had to take a conference call, so I have more information and more clarification for myself and for you and for anyone else who wants to read this.  Being part of the Communion, you may already understand most of the terms I’m going to use but I will explain them anyways for not only your sake but for others.

To begin with, in the Canon (the “ ‘sacred’rules of the church”; very similar to a story canon, as in “this is how it is and this is how it happens and this is how it goes”), the Sacrament of marriage is not *necessarily* defined as between a man and a woman, but those words are used in discussing the couple at hand when putting forth the rules and conditions and procedures to follow.  There has been discussion for years in the Anglican Church of Canada about allowing same-sex couples to be married in a church, by a priest, as a Holy Sacrament, just in the same way opposite-sex couples are.  In 2016, a motion was brought forward for them to straight up change the wording of the Canon to say “parties of marriage” or something similar, so that it may be gender-neutral and inclusive, and that it may encompass all who wish to be married regardless of sex or sexuality.  They also, for the sake of those who are not ready and who are on the fence about it, proposed an addition to it which lets a priest say no to performing any marriage without being required to disclose a reason; however, that law is basically already in place.  They were still going to specifically add it for those who cannot “morally” perform same-sex marriages, in asking them to direct the couple to someone who would perform it.  It’s called the Conscience Clause. Read more about the initial resolution here.I know that there’s a priest in my city who would most likely not perform a same-sex marriage; he would NEVER turn someone away from the church and has never (and would never) treated me any differently because of my sexuality (I’m openly bisexual at my church, with my friends and with my family, and 90% of them are good with it).  However, I know that he would say to a same-sex couple “I can’t perform this wedding in good conscience, however here’s the name and contact info for [insert basically any other Anglican priest in my city, including my own rector] who would be more than happy to meet with you.”  He is still a wonderful man, a very loving priest, and an incredible man of God.  He simply struggles with the morality because of his own interpretation of certain passages in the Bible.  And I don’t fault him for that.  I love him, I love his wife, I love their church.

Because this was a proposed change directly to the Canon, it had to be put to a vote by Order.  This means that the entire meeting would be separated (not physically, but just by vote) into three sections; Bishops, Clergy (the pastors/ministers/priests who are ordained but not Bishops), and Laity (a “lay” person is someone who is not ordained; people at this level are simply delegates or representatives of their congregation, be it a youth representative or just a random delegate from that Diocese).  The vote to change a canon would need to pass by a 2/3 majority in EACH order, which is 66%.  In 2016, it nearly didn’t pass - one man who was supposed to be counted as clergy was counted as laity by accident with the electronic clickers.   We nearly lost by one vote in the order of clergy, but it did pass by one vote.

Because this is a change to the Canon, it needs to have two readings; it needed to also be put into vote at the 2019 General Synod, which is happening right now.  This one was defeated.  The House of Bishops voted in at 62.2% in favour, which is down from their 71% in 2016.  Both the orders of Laity and Clergy went far higher than their 2016 numbers, but unfortunately that doesn’t make a difference in the outcome.  

Watching the results come live was devastating.  Even Archbishop Fred Hiltz, our Primate (head of the whole Canadian Anglican church), looked upset.  It was deafening silence as we waited, and as the results came up and people processed them... you could hear crying.  Wailing.  The youth especially were devastated; there were several self-proclaimed queer youth there.  A report from the Anglican Journal says that one youth ran out in tears.  My heart is with them.

There are two or three Bishops that were unable to attend the vote for health reasons, and they all were on the side of favouring the change.  One of them posted a comment on one of the Facebook threads and she says that she feels horrible that her absence has changed the course of the Anglican Church in this Synod.  It’s not her fault, and I feel so awful that her guilt is so high.  One cannot help getting invasive tests with a recurring illness.

However, this is not the end.  To start with, some people have brought forth new motions or a proposal to re-vote.  I am not fully certain which of those two things will be done; the sessions resume tonight at 3:15pm PDT which is 6:15pm my time.  So, in three hours.

On another note, it has been pointed out by our Chancellor himself that the current Canon XXI does not specifically exclude same-sex couples.  It allows for marriage by the church of any recognized as legal by the state, technically.  On that basis, most people have been leaving it up to the discretion of each Diocesan Bishop to decide whether or not the priests in his or her charge can perform same-sex marriages or blessings. Read more about that, and about the self-determination of Indigenous Peoples to deal with the proposed changes in their own way with their own cultural approach, here in a document presented to 2019 General Synod a few days ago. 

In a blessing, a couple would go to a Justice of the Peace at city hall or whatever and get them to perform the marriage, but then come get their marriage blessed by a priest to make it official and holy.  The further differences between marriage and a blessing are unclear to me, and in fact are far deeper than just a simple answer as I was told by Rev Dr Jay.  I’m going to have another conversation with him about it at another time.

As it stands right now, the church has voted against specifically putting forth a canon that is all-inclusive and accepting of same-sex marriages.

If there is a NEW motion brought forward, with Totally Legal Slightly-Different-Wording, it must follow the same path that this motion did with two readings and a 2/3 majority vote by Order.  It could not pass until at least 2022, even if they did a reading before 2019 General Synod is over, because there would still need to be a second reading of the amendment.

If there is a motion brought forth to do a RE-VOTE, that must first pass as a majority vote.  The majority of the General Synod Members -- not by Order, just as a whole -- must vote in favour of allowing them to revisit the proposed amendment.  If that goes through, then it will be re-voted on... I am nearly certain that it would fall back to being by Order again, but I heard from someone else that a re-vote doesn’t have to be by Order.  I do not know if that is true or not, or if I simply misunderstood them.  If this is the procedure that will be followed, I think it is supposed happen before 2019 General Synod is over.  

As far as what the results of the new motions brought forward to reconsider this, I think we’ll hear more about that after they come back from Vancouver parish visits, Sunday morning Eucharist, and lunch.

I hope and pray that if it is called back to a re-vote that there will be people who change their mind from Opposed to In Favour, that they see how heartbroken they have made countless people, especially the youth - who are the future of the church.  There’s a very good Twitter thread by a Queer Christian Youth by the name of Noah that points out the cruel irony and hypocrisy of turning away the very demographic that they want to draw in - read it here.

There was an Indigenous Bishop who got up and spoke right after the vote results came through, and he simply said, “What have we done?  What have You done?  Our children are crying.  You have made our children cry.  Is this what you wanted?  Is this the future of our Church?”  And his emotional state was heart-wrenching, but he spoke nothing but the truth.  You could see and hear the sorrow in not only the Youth but others as well.  I was told by his mother that the youth delegate from my Diocese was really upset at the results.  She was glad that he was there with someone he knew because apparently he got quite emotional.  I don’t know his sexuality and it’s not really my business since I’m not close with him (I’m better friends with his sister), but I know he is a supporter and I know he’s a very sensitive and empathetic kid.

There are two queer youth, from the Dioceses of Toronto and Huron, who have stood their ground about this, and have told the House of Bishops that they will not take the Eucharist for the rest of General Synod.  One of them said, “If you say I am not worthy to receive one sacrament then I’m not worthy to receive any of them.”  That’s very, very bold, and I would like to think that if I had been the Delegate from my Diocese that I would have stood with them on that.  I don’t know if there are more that stand with them on that, but I read about that on the twitter of one of the priests who are there with them.

TL;DR The change did not go through, but that doesn’t mean it won’t happen.  And to be honest, there’s nothing really stopping queer marriages from happening now.  But we are fighting for it.  Love is Love, and God is Love, and there will be NO hatred in my Faith.

@queerlychristian if any of your followers want to know about this or know any more about it than I do, feel free to share this!

[apostlelicteachings-blog]

What is Salvation

CLASS PG 1

 CHRIST’S STUDENTS:  The Doctrine of the Grace and Truth of Christ   

Prophet Joachim Francis

1. WHAT IS SALVATION  

7/22/19, 14:26 - Prophet: We will look at WHAT SALVATION IS and look at WHAT IT MEANS TO BE A CHRISTIAN. The biggest challenge in today’s church is that, many people feel saved but in truth not saved, though they are Christians and are involved in the church or houses of worshiping.   

The purpose of this teaching is to lay the foundation for why we are called Christians.  Number two, to understand salvation which is the foundation of Christianity.

The first one we need to know is WHAT IT MEANS TO BE CALLED A CHRISTIAN.

To be a Christian is not to attend worship every Sunday. To be a Christian is not to offer sacrifices. "A Christian is to be an Agent or Ambassador of the Kingdom of God on earth." That is, "you represent the Kingdom of Heaven on earth."  

This has no Pastor ... Prophet ... Evangelist ... nor believer. Here, everyone carries the Kingdom of God and responds to the exercise of his authority on earth as it is in heaven. The meaning of the word 'CHRIST' is 'OILED / ANNOINTED ONE.' Christ is the Word that has been derived from the three languages ... the Greek, which is the ‘Kristos’.... Latin which is ’KRISTHEN’.... Hebrew that is 'MESSI / MESSIAH;' which means, the person anointed. And in the Old Testament who were anointed were Kings ... the Jews, King was appointed by God to be anointed by the Prophet, therefore, he handed over the Kingdom to be oil on it.    

In the New Testament, Jesus became Christ by the anointing of the Holy Spirit - Matthew 1:16. Jacob became the father of Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is called Christ '- Luke 4: 17-18. [17] He was given the Prophet Isaiah's college, opened the college, and searched for the place where it was written, [18] 'The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. He hath sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the blind to see, to set at liberty them that are bruised...      

Prophet: I want you to understand one thing: 

The Holy Spirit is not the ‘oil’, I am talking about here ... but it is authority / power assigned the oil. When I say oil, I do not mean oil as oil but rather 'Power from the Holy Spirit.' That power is what is called 'Christ.'    

The power I am talking about is 'GOD'S WISDOM.' 

On the other hand, the glory of God ... of that, Jesus came to earth; he came to restore the lost human relationship with God. Romans 3:23 - For all have sinned, 'and come short of the glory of God;' without this glory of God or His presence being in us, we cannot have a relationship with God. 

Being a sinner means is "short of the glory of God '... or ‘fall short of the glory of God's presence,’ which is called 'DEATH!' 

Adam was a victim of ’death’ after sin caught him. All that came after he inherited the condition of death or short of the glory of God after failing to obey the WORD OF GOD.

Romans 5:12 - Therefore, 'as by one man sin entered into the world, and by sin death;' and so death came to all men because they had all sinned... 

Therefore, be very careful as you begin to pray for mercy and say that you are a sinner before God.  Because, we have to remember, we received Christ and we are no longer sinners. That is, we do not lack the glory of God. God gave us the gift of his son Jesus and through Him; we receive 'Eternal Life!'

We receive that life only by believing in Jesus Christ.

John 3:16 - For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

Now, I read with attention here:

In what is called the life of eternity? Because we receive presence / glory of God in the world and after leaving this world, therefore, we find the guarantee of living longer lives after death into glory.   

Therefore, this eternal life / glory of God or the presence of God, we receive and dwell in us ... not at the altar ... not for servants ... but in us because our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit comes into our worship because of the presence of God within us.

1 Corinthians 6:19 - Or do you not know that "your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you," which ye have of God? You are not the property you own...

This is the mystery of God which he has set up from the foundation of the world; that His presence will abide in us and we will be His people.

Colossians 1: 25-27 - [25]in which I have been made a minister, according to the stewardship of God which was given me for your profit, 'to fulfill the word of God; [26] 'the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but is now made manifest to his saints;' [27] To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, 'which is Christ in you, the hope of glory ...'

If you understand that you are carrying the glory of God / God's presence in you, then you will be able to exercise the royal authority within you.

I said before that we are Ambassadors of the Kingdom of God on earth:

2 Corinthians 5:20 - "Only Ambassadors for Christ", as though God were making his appeal through our mouths; we ask you on behalf of Christ to be reconciled to God.

We have the ‘royal authority of God’ when we are "born again here on earth" through the Word of Christ / the Kingdom of God.

Unless we change our living systems by believing in the word of the Kingdom of God, we cannot see the glory of that kingdom manifesting into our lives.

John 3: 3 - Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

We are born again here on earth ... being born again does not happen spiritually ... I want you to understand this paradox from today because, there are many interpretations of what it means to be born again ... Jesus made this clear by telling Nicodemus that, what he was telling him was the stuff here on earth…

John 3:10, 12 [10] - Jesus answered and said to him, Art thou the teacher of Israel, and knowest not these things? [12] 'If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, where will you believe if I tell you heavenly things?' 

To be born again is to transform living systems from earthly systems into a system of the Kingdom of God through the knowledge of God's word of His Kingdom.

Ephesians 1: 18-19- [18]Let the eyes of your heart be enlightened, and know the hope of his calling; and the glorious riches of his inheritance in the saints: [19] 'and the greatness of the greatness of his power in us which we believe to be; according to the exercise of his power; '… understand these things you cannot see the glory of God manifesting in your life. There are works of God but there is glory of God, now you will see works but glory is what you will have trouble seeing if you do not understand what God's kingdom is.

+255 767 540 7 **: It is very true and I feel we are saved by God's grace. Is salvation measured by your actions?   

Prophet: Salvation is not measured by our actions. Ephesians 2: 8-9 [8] 'For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; [9] 'not by works, so that no one can boast.' He tells you that you must make an effort to show that you are saved. If you understand that there is a presence of God in you then you will receive the promise to receive the Holy Spirit as a helper in your life here on earth. Unless you are led or inspired by the Holy Spirit, you will still be unable to find it in the kingdom of God.   

John 3: 5 -Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man is born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.

Being born of water and the Spirit is led by the Holy Spirit. Those who are led by the Holy Spirit are sons of God. They are heirs of God's promises in their lives ... you cannot inherit God's promises without being led by the Holy Spirit or the Spirit of God ... and the purpose of being led by God's Spirit is to that you may know what is yours in the Kingdom of God. 

1 Corinthians 2:12 - "But we received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that were freely given to us of God."

Everything you need God has given you but the prerequisite to receiving it is to listen to Him and accept the guidance of the Holy Spirit because He alone knows the Will of God in relation to you. Your life... not a Prophet ... not a pastor or any minister...

'But we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God;

That we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.

Romans 8: 26-27- [26] likewise, the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not how to pray as we ought; but the Spirit maketh intercession for us with groaning which cannot be uttered. [27] 'And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God.'

1 Corinthians 2: 10-11 - [10] But God hath revealed them unto us by the Spirit. "For the Spirit searches all things, even the mysteries of God." [11] For it is what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? 'So also with the things of God no one knows but the Spirit of God.' 

Prophet: Here I just finished explaining the meaning of the Christian. Anyone in question may ask me via +255743238599. 

I will continue to teach another subject. 

+255 713 626 4 **: Thank you very much.

+255 654 333 5 **: May our Lord Jesus keep you Man of God. I ask, there is this notion that, "to be saved you need to live a life of repentance every hour; every day, because as humans we are imperfect so we need to repent frequently ... now, how do you talk about that?  

Prophet: This is not appropriate.  If it happens, we are wrong, the Bible does not say to ask for mercy. The Bible does not say that. The bible says we have an intercession with God for our transgressions. Acts 26:18 - 'to open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God; then they shall receive remission of their sins, and an inheritance among them that are sanctified by faith in me.    

1 John 2: 1-2 - (1) My little children, these things I write so that you may not sin. In addition, if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, [2] and he is the propitiation for our sins; not only for our sins, but also for the sins of the whole world. 

+255,654,333 5 **: In addition, the reason we humans are too weak, is because heaven exists for those people who God is justified by his grace through Jesus Christ.

1) All who did not believe and would not believe in Jesus

2) All who know the truth and do not follow it

3) All who mend salvation

4) All who blaspheme against the Holy Spirit

5) All who do not live a life of repentance, their place is hell

Life of repentance is not just a matter of asking for forgiveness but continuing to be cleansed in the Blood of Jesus.

+255 654 333 5 **: …be blessed to see this teachings; especially, the last paragraph ‘not just a matter of repenting but continuing to purify yourself with the Blood of Jesus."  

+255 767 540 7 **: Thanks, Servant of God!

Prophet: This sounds good but it is not the true teaching. It is not on WORD at all. 

Repentance is not an apology. Repentance is changing your attitude, intentions, and thoughts and focusing them on the WORD of God. Do not pray for the Blood of Jesus to sanctify you every minute; every day or whenever you want to pray. The Blood of Jesus once cleansed us when He died on the cross; we were indeed cleansed once and for all. What we need is to receive that forgiveness right away. We do not need to pray daily cleansing: Purification was done in Calvary; it is just a matter of believing that you are sanctified. Hebrews 9:28 - so also Christ, having been once offered to bear the sins of others, and he shall appear a second time, without sin, to them that hope for salvation. 

Hebrews 10:10 - In that will you have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. 

+255 686 361 1 **: Amen!

+255 654 333 5 **: Amen!

+255 654 333 58 **: Wow, it is totally true... 

+255,767,540 7 **: This is in fact often confuses a lot, so, for example, someone has committed a sin of lying, do not repent but only believe that Jesus has already forgiven you as a reason of His death at the Calvary? I ask for help, Servant of God.

Prophet: That is what the word says. The problem is the tradition we are in for long time.

+2557675407**: Ok, thank you.

Prophet: We are not told to pray for sanctification because our prayers cannot purify us. Here is where we need to understand that we have been forgiven by grace. If we understand this, even committing a sin will get harder. 

Laura: Amen, today I have learned something very great. Be blessed the Servant of God. I also have a question ... how about every time when we enter the church and somewhere we are led a prayer of ‘repentance’? Put it clear Man of God or it will confuse me…

Prophet: It is just the tradition!

Laura: So, as we are praying; are we screaming loudly or is God watching over us?

Prophet: It is that we have been taught unanswered prayers and understanding of the Word of God. If you say, O God, I am a sinner, forgive me and cleanse me: you mean, you have not been saved yet. Moreover, you do not believe that, Jesus died so that you might be sanctified… 

Laura : Ah!

Prophet: It does not make God pity on you, He sees you perishing for lack of knowledge, nothing else! 

Laura: Today is today!      

Prophet: Because God is watching His ‘Word’ to fulfill it, it is not the sound of your prayers or you are many words…

+255 719 513 9 **: Very good lesson, my Prophet, I have been blessed. 

Prophet: Amen!

+255 719 513 9 **: Amen! 

Laura: Prophet Jo, I say, we have been lost in the wilderness. Bring us back to the real gospel of Apostle Paul! 

Prophet: Satan knows; if people know this, he will stop bothering them!  

+255 719 513 9 **: Did you notice they are not telling us the truth…

Laura : They 've taught us so much ... they don't analyze it like this ... I am completely puzzled because every new day ... Truly, Servant, you just teach us something of great value and God will bless you. As we go to our churches, we will know to differentiate between what is true and what is wrong.

Prophet:  ‘HOW TO PRAY CORRECTLY…’ I want to teach you briefly about ‘How to pray correctly’ because I know you are about to go to bed and you will pray…

+255 686 361 1 **: Okay! 

Prophet: The key to look before you pray, is to examine the motives that make you pray. 

First of all, I want you to understand that prayer is not giving God information. The application is a confession. Prayer is not an excuse for God to do certain things for you. God knows your needs. Therefore, the important things to consider before you pray are what motive has made you pray to. Are you believing what you ask for? Any requests you make will be answered if you have the right motive and confession based on faith. Matthew 7: 7 - [7] Ask and it shall be given unto thee; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; hide and you will be released…  

+255 785 918 6 **: Amen!

Prophet: Any application has three rules which are:  

1.               Pray for Faith

2.               Pray for God's will to be accomplished

3.               Pray through the name of Jesus 

Praying by faith:

Praying by faith is believing that you have received what you asked for: Mark 11:24 – Therefore, I say unto you, what things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them. If you do not believe that what you ask for, you have received it; you will not receive it because you have not prayed in faith.  

+255 785 918 6 **: Amen!

+255 785 918 6 **: God help us!

+255 686 361 1 **: Amen! 

Prophet: Secondly, make sure that what you ask for, if you get it, will bring glory to God! James 4: 3 - Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts. 

1 John 5: 14-15 - [14] And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us. [15] And if we know that he hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the needs that we have asked of him.   

Vesta: O God, help us, we do not understand your scriptures. We are fed things we do not fully understand!   

Prophet: Do not ask for things you can use for your own benefit, you will not receive. 

Vesta: Amen! 

Prophet: Pray ‘God’s will to be fulfilled’, is that, you ask that, whatever they will receive will also be used to develop the Kingdom of God. 

+255 785 918 6 **: Yes!

Vesta: Amen! 

Prophet: Thirdly, pray in the name of Jesus. Jesus said that, He is the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to God except through Him, so He is the door.  

When He had said ‘knock,’ and it shall be opened unto you; He meant to pray through His name only. 

John 14: 6 - Jesus said unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. No one comes to the Father except through me. 

John 14: 6 , 13 -14 - [6] Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life: no man means the Father, but by me. (Jesus said unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.) 

John 14: 13-14 - [13] 'And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, this will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. [14] If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it. The promise of the Holy Spirit.   

John 16: 23-24 - [23] And in that day ye shall ask me nothing. Truly, I say to you, if you ask the Father for anything, he will give it to you in my name. [24] 'Until now you have asked nothing in my name; ask, and ye shall receive; let your joy be full. '

Prophet: Now, if you ask for the name of your favorite and trusted servant then you lose the address completely! You get into other gods. When you pray, make sure you know and believe that God is your Father; He loves you and you are in relationship with Him and you know you will find what you ask for in faith. God is your Father; you better not ask for something until you understand that you have a relationship with the God who is your Father...

Matthew 7: 8-11 - [8] ' to mean everyone who asks receives; and he that seeketh findeth; and he that knocketh, shall be loosed. [9] 'Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone?' [10] 'Or if he asks a fish, will he give him a serpent?' [11] ' If you, then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, do you not? How much more will your heavenly Father give the good things to those who ask him? ‘If you ask for in this manner, you will enjoy your life of prayer and prayer will not be a burden to you. 

+255 719 513 9 **: Amen!

+255 713 626 4 **: I am pregnant now!

+255 713 626 4 **: I guess it is not that they do not tell us the truth, probably they do not understand! 

+255 6543335 **: For me, everyone has different traditions. I do not know what to do to get to a place where all Christians can find the right teachings…

Prophet:  They are available but very few. That is why many of the Christian life do not have good results because of wrong or weak teachings they receive or fed.

+255 654 333 5 **: Well, we need the power of God to help us get out of this tragedy!

+255 654 333 5 **: I have a question. When a young child is baptized, is this wrong? If I look at many of our churches, children are baptized when they are toddlers or under 5.

Prophet: Okay, WHAT IS BAPTISM? Many people have been convinced that, baptism is ‘water baptism’ that is why you even see young children being baptized. I will bring up the scriptures very briefly. 

Are We Christians baptized with water...?   

Our baptism is through faith in receiving the Holy Spirit and receiving His power in us. To receive the Holy Spirit, we must believe in the baptism of Jesus Christ. Here now, is the great challenge...

What is the baptism of Jesus? 

The baptism of Jesus is His death and resurrection. Unless you believe in dying and rising with Jesus you will not receive the Holy Spirit. 

Let me bring you the Scriptures first:

Luke 3:16 - John answered and said unto them all, I indeed baptize you with water; but there cometh one mightier than I, the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to unloose; he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire;' so, it means, Jesus did not come to set up Water baptism, no!

He came to establish the baptism of the spirit. Therefore, here comes the question may be: to why Jesus was baptized with water? 

In fact, Jesus was baptized in water as a sign and prophecy of death and resurrection. It is not necessary for people to be first baptized with water as a tradition. Therefore, those who baptize in water are the only ones who know about John's baptism and not Jesus' baptism of the Holy Spirit. 

Acts 18: 24-26 - [24] 'And a certain Jew named Apollo, born at Alexandria, an eloquent man, and mighty in the scriptures, came to Ephesus. And he was mighty in the scriptures. [25] The man had been instructed in the way of the Lord; and as his spirit was aglow with him, he “began to speak and to teach with correctness the things about Jesus. And he knew only the baptism of John. [26] He began speaking with confidence in the synagogue; even when Priscilla and Aquila heard him and took him to them, they 'directed him in the way of the Lord more correctly.'

Therefore, this servant was preaching about Jesus but he only knew about John's water baptism. Therefore, the baptism of Christian is acquired through trust. Colossians 2:12 - "Buried with Him in baptism; and in that ye were risen with Him, through the faith of the power of God, who raised Him from the dead.”

Vesta: Where do we Africans go wrong? 

Prophet: Here is what the true meaning of baptism is, let me explain it well…

Vesta: We are indeed fed with wild cucumbers, God, help us to know your writings and understand it correctly.

Prophet: Unless you believe that Jesus died for our sins and we died with Him spiritually, raised with the Holy Spirit and raised with Him in the spirit; and set very high with God, you cannot receive the power of the Holy Spirit. 

Vesta: Absolutely true!

Prophet: What I will say here is the basis of our belief as Christians, that, Jesus died; and we died with him; He arose, and we arose with Him. Colossians 1:23 - "if ye continue in the faith grounded and grounded, and be firm; unless ye be turned from the hope of the gospel which ye heard of him, which was preached unto every creature which is under heaven; of which I Paul was made a Minister. Colossians 2: 4, 6-8 - [4] I say this, lest any man should beguile you with enticing words. [6] So as ye have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him; [7] with a stump and built in Him; being made firm in the faith, as ye have been taught; more than giving thanks. [8] 'See that no one be taken captive by his vain doctrine and empty deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after the manner of Christ.'  

Romans 6: 3-5, 8 - [3] 'Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?' [4] 'Therefore, we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.' 

[5]For as ye have been united with him in the likeness of his death, so also ye shall be joined in the likeness of his resurrection; [8) 'But if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him; Therefore, unless you believe that we have died to the nature of sin and received life through the Holy Spirit, it is very difficult to live a victorious life through the power of God ... and no other divine power can be gained without believing this truth. 

(If you want that anointing, you are here.)

1 Corinthians 15:14, 17 - [14] 'And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain.' [17] 'And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is vain; you are still in your sins. ‘So, if you don't believe this and if you don't know this and you go to church you are still not a Christian.

This is not today's lesson but I just answered the question asked above because it touches some areas of today’s lesson. 

+255 785 918 6 **: Amen!

+255 654 333 5 **: Thank you very much Servant of God ... now this lesson I have understood it. So, for those who believes in the baptism of deep water what is it exactly? Because one member of my family this week is going to the deep water baptism.

Prophet: Nothing but will come out wet!

+255 654 333 5 **: When they will hear you about their baptism, they will not understand you! They give their testimonies, some of them on the day they were baptized that, they were touched by the Holy Spirit…

Prophet: You know, many people mix the feelings and power of the Holy Spirit. If you want to know, follow them after two to three days… and see whether they have been transformed… 

+255,654,333 5 **: I heard one Servant of God claiming that the true baptism is the baptism of deep water and not shallow water or water in the cup…

Prophet: Now, the challenge is to understand the scriptures…and connect to the reality.

Prophet: God help us too… 

Prophet: We end up here for today. We will continue with the second part of our lesson focusing on GOD'S PROMISES. 

Continue to next Class 2

Contact: +255743238599

[astarisms]

sacrilege

pairing: natan word count: 1875 warnings: suggestive themes, profanity notes: this is just a part of a church camp au me and @crowbie came up with. maybe they’ll be more in the future but for now, have this.

Natalie woke up with one pounding headache, zero memory of the night before, and, after counting twice to make sure, eight hickeys.

In short, she was very confused and very sick.

She took an ibuprofen and moved slowly until it began to kick in. Her headache didn’t go away, but it became bearable. She tried to use foundation to cover up the evidence of her night, but that didn’t work as well as she hoped.

She chewed on her lower lip before pulling her hair over her shoulders and situating it to hide them. When she walked back into her room, Laila was doing her makeup.

Natalie shifted, wondering if it could have been her. She didn’t know how to ask without bringing attention to the fact that she had eight glaring pieces of evidence as to how her night had gone.

It was embarrassing to not remember who had left them.

“So, Laila…” she started, figuring she might as well try.

“What’s up, McAllister?”

“Did you... do anything uh, fun last night?”

“Fun?” Laila asked, arching an eyebrow at Natalie through her mirror. Natalie shifted her feet as she remembered that night in the lake a few weeks ago. “Not really. Heard you did, though. Way to go.”

“Oh.. Haha, yeah… Hey, can I borrow a scarf?”

What was that supposed to mean? Natalie wondered as she exited their shared bunk, winding the thin black material around her neck. She was able to breathe a little easier, knowing they were covered now, but she still didn’t know who had left them.

*

“Hey, Lucifer!”

He had his nose stuck in a book, as per usual when he wasn’t wrecking havoc and corrupting the youth, as Michael would have put it. He didn’t acknowledge her, but that was also typical. She knew he was listening.

“Paradise Lost, huh? That’s funny. I didn’t know you could read anything intellectual,” she joked, a grin splitting her face. He looked up at her then, with an eyebrow raised, and her smile slipped a little. She quickly forced it back up, though it was less genuine than before.

“Say, um, I was just wondering, for no particular reason, it just seems like you’d have some experience but also guys who look at porn as often as you are usually compensating for something so maybe not—”

“What,” Lucifer said through his teeth, “do you want, kid?”

“Right, right. I was just wondering if you’d ever sucked someone off before.”

“...What?”

“You know,” she said, gesturing vaguely.

“No,” he replied, closing his book and sitting up. “I don’t think I do. Please, enlighten me.”

“You know. Like… oh, forget it. I thought I could count on you, Lucifer,” she pouted, being dramatic to try to make him forget the subject. Clearly, he didn’t know what she was talking about.

“That was your first mistake, kid.” He reopened his book, and she sighed, walking away.

*

“Hey, Kristi—”

Kristi turned her nose up and walked right past her, sniffing indignantly. Natalie supposed that had something to do with the whispers she’d heard that morning about what she’d done last night.

So, not Kristi, then. Not that she had much faith in that option anyways, but it was nice to have the confirmation.

“Thank God,” she whispered to herself, then had to stop to wonder if God would even want her thanks anymore.

*

“Michael, my man! What’s… going…” Natalie trailed off as she took in the state of the head youth pastor. He looked like he hadn’t slept a wink and in fact, was in a very sour mood.

“Not now, Gingersnap,” he said, snappy and short. She held her hands up in surrender.

“Sorry to bother you,” she conceded, and his eyes softened.

“Hey, look, I didn’t mean to sound so harsh. I’m just… not feeling great this morning. If you need something, try Raph or Gabe, ok?”

“Yeah, sure. No problem.”

Not Michael, then. Again, she whispered a quick thank you.

She really didn’t know what she would have done if it turned out that Michael was the source.

*

Natalie went through the remaining potential suspects in her head. Mike was too soft, she decided. He would never leave anything like that on her, let alone so many. Raphael was gay. Gabriel was in love with Anthea.

Ipos and Sheila were among some of the only faces she remembered clearly from the night before, but they were pretty dedicated to each other. She’d already asked Lucifer, so that left Zadkiel, but the thought of asking her unnerved her more than it should’ve.

And, if it had been Zadkiel, there was no way she would’ve let Natalie go all morning without reminding her of it.

There was her answer there, too. It couldn’t have been Zadkiel.

But by her deduction process, it couldn’t have been anyone. Who had hickey’d her?

*

Natalie flopped into the chair across from Lucifer, groaning and muttering to herself. He ignored her, keeping his eyes glued to his book. She huffed a little more, shifting in her seat. Several minutes passed before he acknowledged her.

“Did you want something?” With the prompt, she opened like a dam. There was hardly a beat between him finishing his sentence and her beginning hers.

“I did something last night… And I don’t remember who I did it with.”

“Sounds like you have a problem, but I don’t remember opening up confessions.”

“That’s Catholics, you jerk.”

“Then why are you telling me?”

“Because you’re a youth pastor and you should let me unload on you.”

“Is that so?” he asked, turning a page slowly and fighting a grin. “You did plenty of that last night.”

It took her a second to catch his meaning, but when she did, she gasped.

“It was you!”

He lifted his eyes to hers finally, raising an eyebrow.

“Why did you pretend you didn’t know what I was talking about this morning?!” she exclaimed, snatching his book from his hands and whacking his arm with it.

“Because it’s fun to watch you squirm.”

Another double entendre, and she blushed. Lucifer smirked, plucking his book back.

“I was drunk! You took advantage of me,” she accused, fighting the warmth on her face and in her belly.

“You didn’t seem to mind being taken advantage of. Quite the opposite, in fact.”

Natalie sputtered, placing her hands on her thighs and bracing herself as she leaned forward.

“Of course not! I was drunk. I don’t remember anything. What did you — did I — did we—”

“No,” he said, and his eyes were dark as he copied her position to meet her in the middle. “I stopped even though you were begging me not to, kid.”

“I—” Natalie’s flush deepened, “I don’t believe that.” He sat back, shrugging nonchalantly.

“Believe what you want. I’m the only one who was there who remembers what happened. You didn’t seem to think I had anything to compensate for last night, though.”

She choked, recalling her earlier words to him. He gave her that smug look she found half infuriating half extremely attractive, but she stayed silent. Her mind and her heart raced, trying to put together the pieces he’d given her and come up with a sufficient response.

“Why… I mean, what happened? What, um… started it?” she asked, half afraid of the answer but needing to know. She remembered joining him, Ipos, Sheila and Zadkiel in the woods. She remembered the bottle of wine, and there were fleeting glimpses of others’ faces.

But other than that the night was a blur.

“We were playing truth or dare after you got drunk on the blood of Christ.” He sounded amused, but Natalie moaned and buried her face in her hands. Oh, yeah, she was definitely sure God didn’t want anything from her now.

“And…?” she prompted, through her mortification.

“You’re something of an antichrist when you’re drunk. Did you know that? You’re a fearless little motherfucker.”

That was a compliment from him, and she blanched. Oh, gosh.

“What did I do?”

“Let’s see, let’s see…” He was enjoying keeping her on edge, and she was just about ready to strangle him. “You slingshot Michael’s dick with a rock you found. You jumped off Hangman’s Ridge into the lake. You made out with Zadkiel. You stole Dad’s Bible.”

“No,” Natalie gasped, but Lucifer was undeterred.

“You tied Gabe’s laces together and made him trip in front of Anthea. You tied Uriel to the flagpole.”

“How even— you know, I don’t wanna know how I did it. Is that… Is that it?”

Lucifer smirked. Natalie tensed.

“You flashed me, and we ended up in a bush hiding from Michael.”

“What… What did you dare me to do?” she asked, in a small voice. Some of what he’d said was actually pretty funny, but her head was still pounding and she couldn’t pull apart the good from the bad yet.

“You dared me to kiss you. And I don’t back out of dares, girl.”

There was some part of Natalie that was relieved that that was it. Another part of her, however, soured at his words.

“So it was part of a dare?” she asked, leaning back.

“Were you expecting something else?”

“No,” she said, too quickly. “Just… didn’t think all of this would just be the result of a silly dare, that’s all.”

“Silly, hmm?” He stood up, crossing the little bit of space between them until he was right in front of her. He slipped his finger beneath the thin scarf wrapped around her neck, and she went still as he unwound it.

��What are you doing?”

“Just taking a look at my handiwork,” he said, dropping his voice to match the breathy quality hers had taken on.

The hickeys started high on her neck and disappeared below the high collar of her T-shirt. He ran his thumb over one of the visible ones, and she shivered. He lowered his mouth to her ear.

“You know what I think?”

“...What?”

“I think… you were hoping for something more.”

“Wh… No, I wasn’t.” She wasn’t very convincing, and Lucifer was so close she felt him smirk against her ear.

“Are you sure? Drunk Natalie is fun, but all that’s gotta come from somewhere. I know Sober Natalie isn’t the devout little Christian girl I thought she was 8 weeks ago.”

“I…” She trailed off, hazy as his tongue traced the shell of her ear. She felt warm all over, and she couldn’t remember the taste of his lips but she wanted to.

“Natalie.”

“Hmm?”

There was a pause, deliberate and drawn out to make her squirm. He exhaled and her fingers curled into fists on her thighs.

“It’s time for service,” he finally said, and straightened up as a rush of kids passed by the window towards the small church housed at the edge of the camp. “You might want to pull yourself together first. You’re looking a little like you’ve been doing something you shouldn’t.”

He winked, and walked around her towards the door.

Natalie sat, shellshocked and unmoving for several beats.

“You jerk!” she finally yelled, once she’d gathered her wits about her. He was already out the door, but she heard him laugh nonetheless.

[dailyaudiobible]

01/23/2019 DAB Transcript

Genesis 46:1-47:31, Matthew 15:1-28, Psalms 19:1-14, Proverbs 4:14-19

Today is the 23rd day of January. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian and it's great to be here with you today as we continue forward and take the next step in our adventure that we have embarked on as a community to take one step a day every day for a whole year and read the entire Bible. So, we’re reading from the English Standard Version this week and we are rounding the corner and, you know, in a few days we’ll finish the first book of the Bible, which is the book of Genesis. We’re not quite there, we have a few days to go, but we are also rounding the corner on this Joseph story that we've been tracking for a while and what a drama it is so. So, Joseph, you know, Jacob, Joseph's father has now discovered that Joseph, in fact, isn't dead and all the grief that he's had for all of those years mourning him may turn into joy. And, so, we’ll pick the story up. Genesis chapter 46 and 47 today and we’re reading from the English Standard Version. Sid I already say that? I don’t know. We’re reading from the English Standard Version this week.

Commentary:

Okay. So, we’re beginning to see the antagonism between Jesus and the religious establishment and we kind of know where this story goes. The religious establishment is gonna do everything they can to ill Jesus in the end and in the end they’ll succeed. So, in today’s reading, the religious establishment is questioning why Jesus does the things that He does and why He does them the way that Ge does them because He is breaking the religious traditions. And Jesus pushes back by simply exposing the fact that they also break their own religious traditions. What he's trying to do is help them understand their religious traditions and what they have made of the law is not what it was intended to be. And, of course, this calls into question all kinds of things, you know, what the religion is about, how God will feel about these changes, how to control the population and keep them devout. Like, all kinds of things begin to come up and it's antagonizing because what Jesus is talking about is deconstruction. Ironically, the kind of antagonism that Jesus faced with the Pharisees early in his ministry, you have to wonder if He wouldn't be in just as much trouble if He came here today speaking the same message to Christians. I know that sounds odd but at the end of Jesus confrontation today He said it all, “for the sake of your tradition you have made void the word of God. You hypocrites. Well did Isaiah prophesy of you when he said this, this people honor me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. In vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.” Okay, Jesus spoke this 2000 years ago when He was speaking of a prophecy that was like 700 years older than that. So, this has been going on a long time and it's still going on. And I'm a product of the church, right? I grew up in the church, the son of a pastor. I have been in ministry a long time. Like, if there's something that I do understand I think it's…it’s the ways of the church and it's been an interesting journey for me over the course of 14 years reading the Bible every day. And looking at stuff that Jesus is saying and then going back in the context of why they're mad at him and realizing that we’re repeating the same cycle in so many ways, right? So, for example, what is the message of the gospel? If like…if we were…if we were to articulate what the message of the church and the gospel of Jesus Christ is, we would say, “it doesn't matter where you’ve been, it doesn't matter what you've done, it doesn't matter what has brought you to this point, if you will believe and accept Jesus as your Savior, your sins, all of them, no matter what they are, no matter what they have ever been, they will be washed away and you will be clean and God's mercy will overshadow you and you will be born into the family of God and become a part of the body of Christ, brothers and sisters all over the world.” Right? So, that’s what we would say and that is what we believe. That is absolutely the truth. Ironically, that grace, that hovers over you in the pitch, right, to accept Jesus, that seems to go away after you do because after you do you better never sin again, or your brothers and sisters will crucify you. This is the behavior Jesus is pressing in on here. The religious establishment had gotten about the business of trying to corral the people into a fundamentally uniform process of obeying the law, and yet the spirit of the law had been lost. And, so, we have wrote traditions to follow with the whole thing being about modifying behavior as opposed to experiencing union and intimacy with God. And if you do a 360 around you we see this is still going on. We just have Christian traditions instead of Jewish Hebrew traditions to enforce. And this so quickly turns to judgment and, O my gosh, and you can just go out on social media and find the wars. And so often they boil down to what somebody did say or what somebody didn't say or what opportunity somebody missed when they should have said this or how they might be believing something that we don't believe and that that can’t be right. And, so, we’ve absolutely become Pharisees thinking that we are protecting God and that we are holding onto the traditions and enforcing what God would have us do in protecting the true doctrine. But the bottom line is the true doctrine, like, the true religion can be destroyed over time when mankind tries to interpret and enforce everyone else about it. So, Jesus is pressing into exactly this with the Pharisees today, but all we have to do is just harken back to what he's been saying all along. “judge not lest you be judged. The way that you judge others is the way you are going to be judged. Forgive and you will be forgiven. If you do not forgive, you will not be forgiven.” These are all things Jesus has been laying out all long since we started the journey. So, we have to consider our own posture of heart in the way that it is that we look at our fellow brothers and sisters all around us, especially, especially our brothers and sisters who do not see things the same way that we do. We can find ourselves being very, very pharisaical and then we have to listen to Jesus words, “for the sake of your tradition you have made void the word of God.” So, may we not be people who will honor the Lord with our lips, but our hearts are far from Him, because that is vain worship which means not doing anything and may we be very careful not to teach as doctrines the commandments of men.

Prayer:

Jesus, we come to You, these are Your words that we are speaking about, so we come to You. You said these things and they do prickle us, they do make us go, “wait, what are we talking about here”, because on some level we don't want to be the Pharisees but on the other side of it we want to do right. And, left to our own devices, this will lead us to judging others, this will lead us to unforgiveness, this will lead us into all kinds of things that make our religion nothing more than a tradition when what You are inviting us into is a personal, dynamic, always on, never off, life-giving relationship with You, and that is what we seek. But we do have the tendency to try to box that up and make it dogma and tradition as opposed to life-giving relationship. So, we need You. So. We’re coming to You Jesus. What are You bringing up? What are You speaking to us in this regard? Come Holy Spirit we pray. In Jesus’ name we ask. Amen.

Announcements:

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And, as always, if you have a prayer request or comment, 877-942-4253 is the number to dial.

And that's it for today. I'm Brian I love you and I'll be waiting for you here tomorrow.

Community Prayer and Praise:

Hi DAB family my name is Walla, I’m calling from London. Hi Brian, hi Jill and happy new year to all. This call is for, I think his name is Brendan. He just called for the community prayer, so, the week starting the 20th. And Brian you’ve liked the girl for 11 years…I’m sorry, Brendan, you’ve liked the girl for 11 years but you’re not sure if you should ask her out. Matey, ask her out and if she says no, so be it. __ in her, please talk to this girl, and I’m assuming you’re not called to singleness. So, I mean, if she’s not the right person God would bring someone else. And, yeah, God bless you, I had to pause the community prayer to just talk to you. I’ll be praying for you brother. Alright, have a blessed day, I love you all. Bye.

Hi this is __ from northern Colorado and I wanted to pay for the young man who just called in and said that he’s been diagnosed with MS. Lord, I just lift him up to You and I just pray that he would feel Your comfort in a way that he’s never felt before. Lord, I pray that You would bring a strong support group around him of Christians Lord that would help him to look to You Lord. I just thank You that he has been doing that and that has changed his life Lord. We just thank You that, yeah, he’s had the courage to go another day and that we pray that You would continue to fill him with Your courage Lord and that that courage would grow and multiply in his life Lord. Help them to find his way in this Lord. But if You don’t want to do that and You want to heal him, we’ll take that too Lord. Just pray that You would have Your hand on his life and that You would guide him and that You will provide for his finances, that You’d provide for his support, that You were to reach out and comfort him in a way that he’s never been comforted by the Holy Spirit before Lord. Just do a mighty work and help him to shine Lord, help him to realize while he does have a __ disease that he’s not worthless at all Lord that You can still use him and that You have a plan for his life and I pray that You would help him to complete all the plans that You have ordained for him to do. Amen.

Hey Daily Audio Bible family, my name is Kat and I am a first-time this year listener. This is my first year going through it. My boss really recommended that I start doing it. She’s a wonderful Christian lady and I love it. I love waking up at listening to it. So, I just thank you so much for providing that. And I just…I’ve had this on my heart for a couple days now or a couple of weeks now but I recently had sort of been talking with a young guy who…we just sort of were dating but I realized very quickly that he is Buddhist and does not know the Lord and his name is Aaron and I just had to end things basically with him and it was very painful but I just knew that…I know that God is gonna work in him. Like I have this hope that he belongs to Him and He has that work, but I would really appreciate any prayers that he would just find Jesus. I just feel like it’s hopeless right now…I mean I don’t really…obviously I know God can work but it’s hard for me to believe that I guess, but I just pray that not even for my sake but just for his own sake that you would just…that he would find God and that he wouldn’t be satisfied in his own faith but that he would just hunger and thirst for righteousness and that he can only be filled by the Holy Spirit. So, yeah, thank you so much for your prayers. I listen to everybody else’s prayer requests on here and there’s some really amazing people of faith. And I know we’ll all meet one day, which is very exciting. Alright, thank you, have a great day.

Hi, my name is Dr. Russ, I live in California and I am responding to God’s Light request for being uplifted in prayer. I’m a first-time caller and I’m not calling for prayer, I’m calling to pray. I’m calling for God’s Light. God’s Light I was diagnosed with MS 25 years ago. I have lived a full life depending and relying upon Jesus every day since that time. And take note of this thought, pray through this thought, if we choose to end our lives, if we choose to take things in our own hands, do we not then say that Christ’s blood was spilled in vain and is worthless? Because if it is worth something then it redeems and if it redeems then it changes. And I can assure you, it does change everything. So, hang on. I’m praying for you, you have hundreds and perhaps thousands of people in the DAB family praying for you right now as I’m going to at this moment. Dear Father, for those who are afflicted with disease or things that they can’t understand and we all at one time or another are in that boat. Lord, show Yourself strong the week. Make Yourself that strength that is needed, the gap between where my brother says he is and where You are. Show Yourself Lord, strong to every individual has disease, who has shortfalls, who has shortcomings, and that includes all of us in this human race. Lord, may there be a collective strength of your body for that person. My dear friend, God’s Light…

Hi Daily Audio Bible family this is Kat in the UK. I’ve been listening for number of years now and have called on a couple of occasions but I’m now trying to call more regularly having missed the Christmas greeting last year. I really felt inspired this month to call and pray for those suffering with poor mental health. So here goes. Lord, we just thank You for who You are, for Your grace and mercy. We thank You that You are a God who wants us to have a spirit of love, and power, and of a sound mind and not a spirit of fear. Lord I just lift You, everyone in the Daily Audio Bible family who is struggling with poor mental health. I pray that You will be their rest, You will be their safe place, and You will be their anchor. Lord, in Your grace restore them, make them whole, and let them feel a lightness that comes from knowing You. In Your name. Amen.

Hi family this is Viola calling from Maryland I hope you’re all doing well. Brian and Jill God bless you. China, I’m watching all of the posts on Facebook. Congratulations again for your upcoming wedding in April. Woo hoo. You will make a great bride. O, I have just two minutes to say this. This sister that’s been calling about her son who has been saying horrible things, had a gun, talking about how he will kill somebody and everything. Sister, remember the __ women in the Bible who went to Jesus pleading on behalf of her child. You can still that. It’s __ authority over whatever has gotten in that boy and be gone in the name of Jesus. I am telling you sister this works. So, we are praying with you. Every time you call I’ve been praying, and I pray you will call back and give your testimony. And if he comes and he says everything __ , you begin to refute him with the word of God and say in the name of Jesus. The word of God says that you will be __ the Lord and it will bring you peace. I declare that peace for you right now in the name of Jesus. I bind every spirit harassing you. Begin to speak that to your son’s life and see everything come around you __. And I pray that will be true for you in the name of Jesus. Condon, I’m praying for your marriage. London from Maryland I pray that God will reconcile both you and your wife and there will be much forgiveness, you will make allowance for each others faults and God will just make everything afresh and just make it new again. In the name of Jesus. Lastly, I want to pray that sister who called in about her green card and paying the Lord will make away for you, the Lord will step into your situation, He will give you favor with the authorities, with ICE, and everything will be perfect quickly and speedily. Family, lastly, if you could pray for my son Daniel __ from college. Woo hoo. He’s looking for a good job and we pray that he will get one. God bless you.