#faith and forgiveness

[christisilluminati]

A Call to Healing: The Word of Christ

This poem explores the struggle between darkness and redemption found within us through Christ. It begins by depicting a "single spirit" that embodies despair and sin, weaving through lives and igniting violence and turmoil. Amidst this chaos, the voice of Christ emerges as a beacon of hope, offering healing and the promise of redemption.

In the quiet depths of a hollowed heart, Where echoes of despair and shadows start, A single spirit roams, a specter of fate, Weaving through lives, a concealed darkness waits.

Born from the chaos of the earth, It whispers in silence, a murmur of coal, A flicker of violence, a breath of sin, The complex tapestry woven within.

In alleys forgotten, where shadows conspire, This spirit ignites an unquenchable fire, The rage of the voiceless, the cries of the meek, Mankind reflects it, the strong and the weak.

Beneath the surface, in each twisted lie, It dances through dreams, where the innocent die, With every decision, a choice to be made, The line between mercy and violence displayed.

Ode to the murders, the sins unconfessed, To the wars that were waged, to the souls dispossessed, Each drop of blood spilled stands as a testament, To the spirit of sin that whispers in every man's ear.

Yet amidst this turmoil, a voice breaks the night, The audible Word, a beacon of light, With power to shatter the chains of despair, A whisper of healing, a promise laid bare.

It echoes in the tabernacle, roaring through the night, A balm for the broken, a truth that defies, The weight of our burdens, the darkness we bear, The Word of Christ beckons, "Come, cast off your cares."

In the grip of temptation, we falter and fall, This viper bites us all, Yet the voice of redemption cuts through the venom, A reminder that love can conquer sin.

With the sound of Christs calling, the stillness gives way, To hope like a river that washes away, The scars of our past, the guilt we disguise, In the love of the Savior, our spirits can rise.

Oh, the stories we tell, of heroes and foes, Each tale a reflection of the spirit that grows, But the greatest of stories is woven in grace, In the heart of the One who showed us Christs place.

For violence breeds violence, and sin begets sin, Yet the audible Word can draw us within, Transforming our hearts, renewing our sight, Illuminating the path from darkness to light.

In the grip of despair, when our voices grow weak, The whispers of Christ, we find what we seek, A touch of forgiveness, a glimmer of hope, In the shadows of sorrow, we learn how to cope.

The temptress, the false god who lies, With promises gilded, he leads us to the grave, But the voice of the Savior speaks louder and clear, Inviting the weary to draw ever near.

For within this great struggle, a lesson unfolds: That love can triumph where the spirit once scolds, And the power of Christ, like a sword in the fray, Can vanquish the darkness, turning night into day.

So let us awaken to the truth of our plight, Embrace the complexity, the shadow, the light, For even in struggle, there’s a chance to be free, A recognition of Christ spirit, and who we can be.

Let us rise from the ashes, let us break every chain, A spirit of God, a union of pain, For in our collective, we’re bound to reflect, The beauty of life, the essence of respect.

The shadowed spirit walks, seeking control, For each heart has the power, each mind has the goal, To rise above violence, to shun the Vipers deceit, To find in the struggle, our journey complete.

And so, with each promise that Christ speaks aloud, We gather our courage, our heads unbowed, His Word is the light that dispels every fear, A melody soothing, whispering, “I’m here.”

For in the end, we are not shadows, we are the light, A single spirit binding, through day and through night, In the heart of humanity, where love will prevail, We rise from the ashes, becoming veiled.

So let this journey continue, with hearts open wide, For the audible Word is our anchor, our guide, In the depths of our struggles, in moments of strife, We find in His voice the true essence of life.

And thus, may we carry this truth as we tread, The spirit of Christ, a beacon ahead, In the shadows of chaos, in the weight of our sin, We hear Him calling us home, let the healing begin.

Learn more at:

[theoakings]

Don’t let shame distract you from the immense love Jesus has for you! He loves you so much! More than you could ever imagine. Nothing you could do or have done could ever separate you from His love!💗💫

[karisumawrites]

Don't shine so others can see you. Shine so that through you, others can see Him. - C.S. Lewis

[crazygirl6122]

Ephesians 4:31-32

"Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you."

[aroaceleovaldez]

not to complain about the show again but genuinely I think people should be WAY more pissed off that s2 cast an abled actor as a character with Down syndrome - particularly a character whose entire arc and narrative presence is focused on the fact that he has Down syndrome and how Percy has internalized ableism and how Percy unravels that (and also chewing out Annabeth for her ableism).

Like. Tyson has down syndrome. This is a very core part of his character, because like I've said before: the entirety of the first series is centered around and hinges on disabled stories and themes. If you are having an abled actor cast as Tyson you have already failed step one. Cause either you are actively erasing Tyson having Down syndrome or you are having an abled actor try to portray Down syndrome and neither of those things are okay.

[twocathedrals]

conclave / i’m your man, mitski / strangers, ethel cain

[acetier]

torin/varre art dump based on a sweet lil ask sent to me by @kirango-rouge about the immediate aftermath of torin's induction into the blood cult ((sorry this took like 5 years lmao))

varre is already thinking of marriage and torin is still processing aka they are so embarrassing about each other

[user235323]

William Bearheart, "At The Dinner Table with God and My Father" // Batman: Under the Red Hood

[nexadarling]

Watching tristamp: oh vash has mommy issues

Watching trigun 98: oh vash has MOMMY ISSUES

Reading Trimax: Actually Vash went through an extremely traumatising event at a young age and had to face the realities of humans. Rem was there, as the twins' mother figure, to represent the good. Reconciling humanity's differences is what made him how he is, and he projects that onto Rem. In this essay I will-

[alwaysrememberjesus]

Forgive Them Anyway

“Then Jesus said, ‘Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do.’” Luke 23v34 NKJV

They didn’t know, that’s what Jesus said. Even as they mocked Him, bruised Him, spit in His face and nailed Him to a cross, He looked at the very ones destroying His body and said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do.” It wasn’t that they deserved forgiveness, it wasn’t that they asked for it. Love doesn’t wait for an apology, grace doesn’t check the record to see if it’s deserved and mercy isn’t based on merit, it’s based on the character of the one who gives it.

And now, here you are… carrying the pain someone left you with. Maybe they betrayed you, humiliated you, walked out on you, or said something that cut deeper than they’ll ever realize. You replay it in your mind, you rehearse what you’d say if you ever had the chance, you carry the receipt like proof that they owe you something. But here’s the truth: you’re the one still holding it. And until you release it, it will keep holding you. Forgiveness isn’t denial. It doesn’t excuse what happened or pretend it didn’t hurt. It simply says, “I refuse to let what they did keep defining how I live.” It’s the soul’s decision to stop bleeding and start healing.

Jesus didn’t forgive from a place of comfort, He forgave while suffering. And He left us a model: not just of what love looks like in perfection, but what freedom looks like in action. Maybe you’re still saying, “But I need to understand why they did it.” The hard truth is, you may never know. Wise people still make foolish choices, broken people still break others, and sometimes, people just don’t know what they’re doing.

Jesus knew that, and He still said, “Forgive them.” Not just for their sake, but for yours. Because dragging bitterness behind you will wear you down, keeping score will keep you stuck, and what you refuse to release will end up releasing poison in you. Forgiveness sets the prisoner free, and more often than not, you find out the prisoner was you.

So go ahead, pray for them. You may not feel it yet, but your spirit will grow into that prayer. You don’t have to understand everything that happened and you don’t have to wait for closure. You weren’t built to carry the burden, you were made to walk in freedom. Forgive them anyway.

[loveerran]

Your Worth is Unchanging

I am someone who has had difficulty understanding the way we use 'worth' and 'worthiness' in the church, and has felt my worthiness before God or God's approval and Grace were somehow tied to my performance and obedience.

Today, Sister Tamara W. Runia spoke to me (and judging by the tears, many others) when she emphatically stated: "Your worth isn’t tied to obedience. Your worth is constant. It never changes. It was given to you by God, and there’s nothing you or anyone else can do to change it."

I also love the way she said "heaven isn’t for people who have been perfect. It’s for people who have been forgiven, who choose Christ again and again" and "if you wait until you’re clean enough or perfect enough to go to the Savior, you’ve missed the whole point."

She also made the point that God forgives "without shaming us, comparing us to anyone else, or scolding us, because this is the same thing we were repenting of last week... Everyone is diving with their own degree of difficulty, and your Savior is the only one who truly knows the difficulty you are diving with."

But perhaps the most important thing I will remember from this talk - "If you could hear the Savior praying for you, what would He say?"

Love, Erran

[dollya-robinprotector]

Worlds crossed! Gender bends meeting

A.k.a PCs and School LIs dress in Vietnamese student attires (modernized áo dài and áo tấc)

At this point, many have known I am Vietnamese, so I take the chance to finally do what I always had done when entering new fandom: MAKE CHARACTERS WEAR VIETNAMESE TRADITIONAL CLOTHES!!

I hope you guys can appreciate the beauty in our culture~🫶✨✨

[ae-cha08]

In the Bible, Joseph was betrayed and sold into slavery by his own brothers, then falsely accused and put in prison. He could have used excuse after excuse to be bitter and angry, but he had a "no excuses" mentality. He kept doing the right thing when the wrong thing was happening. And in the end, he came out vindicated, promoted, and in a place of influence and respect.

Let go of the hurts, offenses, and wounds of the past. Declare that they have no power over you. 💙

[crazygirl6122]

2 Timothy 2:22-26

"Flee the evil desires of youth and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart. Don’t have anything to do with foolish and stupid arguments, because you know they produce quarrels. And the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but must be kind to everyone, able to teach, not resentful. Opponents must be gently instructed, in the hope that God will grant them repentance leading them to a knowledge of the truth, and that they will come to their senses and escape from the trap of the devil, who has taken them captive to do his will."

[fatalism-and-villainy]

I want to talk a bit about Kira’s character in Wrongs Darker Than Death or Night. Before I reached that episode in my rewatch, I’d seen people characterizing it as claiming that the “Bajoran comfort women were collaborators” or otherwise as victim blaming towards Kira Meru. But upon watching it again, I really disagree, and I think it presents Meru and her situation with a lot of sympathy and nuance.

Kira herself characterizes her mother as a collaborator at the end, in her conversation with Sisko:

I’ve always hated collaborators. I mean, what could be worse than betraying your own people? During the occupation, if I ever had any doubt about what their fate should be, I would think of my mother, how she gave her life for Bajor. She was a hero, they were traitors. It was that simple. Or so I thought.

Do you know how many Bajorans died in the labor camps during that time? Died, while my mother sat sipping kanar with Dukat?

But I don’t think we’re intended to take Kira’s judgment of her mother at face value. The episode is pretty clear that Dukat is the bad guy here, and draws specific attention to how he manipulates Meru into trusting him by setting up the scene where he “rescues” her from the other Cardassian (and discloses this to her himself later in a further manipulative cycle of feigned repentance). Not to mention the abundance of food she’s given after experiencing extreme deprivation, another factor in why she’s inclined towards trauma bonding with him. The fact that she is drinking Dukat’s kool-aid a little bit does not take away from the fundamentally coercive nature of their relationship. And the degree to which she’s making excuses for him is pretty clearly a result of his manipulation. He is a manipulator! This is shown both here and in plenty of other places!

Meru even gets a moment where she stands up for herself to Kira and points out that she has very limited options and is motivated in part by wanting to protect her family. And there’s the scene right near the end where she breaks down crying while listening to the message from her husband, which really hammers home that she’s ultimately in an awful situation that she never asked for and will likely never be allowed to see her family again. Also, the episode presents us with an actual collaborator - the man who’s in charge of corralling the captured women is himself Bajoran, and a much more active and willing party to the colonial and patriarchal violence on display than the women are.

Furthermore, Kira frequently falls back onto a very black and white moral framework, and experiences a very strong sense of moral injury when people she cares about or idolizes falls on the wrong side of that. You see this with Tekeny Ghemor in Ties of Blood and Water, when Kira finds it enormously difficult to forgive his involvement in the destruction of Kiessa Monastery - and, just as she saves her mother’s life as a testament to their family connection, she ultimately goes to Ghemor at his deathbed for her own personal closure re: her failure to do the same for her father, rather than because she’s fully forgiven him. Her anger is more comprehensible there, because of course there’s no comparison between Meru’s level of complicity and being part of an occupying army (even if Ghemor’s role was negligible, as Odo speculates). But that’s exactly the thing - Kira reacts to them pretty similarly, and is not really ready or willing to acknowledge different degrees of complicity, or to put the symbolic affront of her mother living in luxury during the Occupation into perspective re: actual material harm (or the very, very limited amount of power her mother actually had within that lifestyle). How Kira reacts to Odo sentencing innocent people to their deaths in Things Past is similar - she was very invested in not categorizing him as a collaborator, even though he literally did work with the Cardassians, and was not prepared to face the possibility that that work might have made him complicit in Cardassian sham justice.

She also has that exchange with Winn in Rapture, where Winn says that people who were in the resistance discount the sacrifices made by other Bajorans, and she honestly does have a point, even if the situations are different. Kira’s answer to injustice is to fight it, at every turn, and that’s one of her biggest heroic qualities - but she also genuinely has trouble comprehending or sympathizing with the mindset of other Bajorans who don’t share that response, even when their passivity is something they’re coerced or railroaded into. She was running largely on survival mode while she was in the resistance, and it prevented her from fully comprehending the complex dynamics of the occupation - and she’s forced to do that quite a bit during the show, once she’s no longer running on autopilot.

And I genuinely think it’s interesting that she doesn’t forgive her mother, and that she’s even a bit victim blaming in how she talks to and about Meru. It’s in keeping with her character, but it’s also in character for her to have genuine blind spots. And given what we’re actually shown of the situation, I don’t think the episode is presenting Kira’s perspective as the final word on how we’re meant to evaluate the situation.

[walkswithmyfather]

I quote this often, it's one of my favourites. God is so good, all the time! Thank You, Lord! Praise Your name! Amen! 🙏🕊️🙌