#i do happen to like lewis overall but like i said: more importantly i find him INTERESTING! | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

childrenofexcess · 7 years

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Strange Aeons: Understanding the theme of the 41st Millennium

[I just found this article on Faeit 212 and thought I should share it with tumblr for those that haven’t seen it. It’s quite long for a tumblr text post but worth it.]

“With the imminent release of the next edition of Warhammer 80,000 set to grace the tables of gamers in the next few weeks, it seems an appropriate time to take a step back and cast a contemplative eye over this most unique of sci fi settings. In this short article, I wanted to briefly discuss some of the literary and cultural influences of the 40k universe, and to understand what it is that can be said to really define the setting as we know it. To be sure, to offer an exhaustive analysis of all aspects of Warhammer 40,000 could take up an entire book; after all, we’re speaking here of an IP that’s been shaped by many different creatives and has existed in one form or another for nigh on 30-odd years. Indeed, there’d be a very strong argument to say that nothing can truly be said to ‘define’ Warhammer 40,000; it’s a wild collection of themes, aesthetic styles and ideas jammed into one insane, sprawling pastiche. It’s the heavy metal, post punk and glam rock music waves of the 80’s mixed with the cyberpunk sci-fi films of the 1990s, it’s Hieronymus Bosch meets Dune, it’s a universe that can claim inspiration from sources as vast and diverse as Gothic and Baroque architecture to mecha anime (lookin’ at you, Tau) and the history of the Roman Empire, all filtered through a distinctly British sense of ironic humour.

Nevertheless, one major unifying thread has been the idea of ‘grimdarkness’, a theme that’s been raised to such a status now that it’s become an adjective, a noun and a moderately popular internet meme. The question is then what constitutes the idea, and what influences we can find behind it. As an overarching heading, I’m going to argue that what defines the idea of grimdark isn’t necessarily Warhammer 40,000’s emphasis on conflict, but rather the subtler and more disturbing notion of man’s insignificance in an essentially indifferent universe. If we take a trip back in time and look at the know-legendary Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader[1], we can see that this has been a theme from the very start. Released in 1987, this source and rulebook represented the first iteration of the 40k universe, and though the setting subsequently received numerous additions and revisions to its lore, much of the core structure would remain consistent. It’s as early as Rogue Trader that we get the first iteration of its famous opener, which captured its bleak themes in two short paragraphs;

"For more than a hundred centuries the Emperor has sat immobile on the Golden Throne of Earth. He is the Master of Mankind by the will of the gods and the master of a million worlds by the will of his inexhaustible armies. He is a rotting carcass writhing invisibly with power from the Dark Age of Technology. He is Carrion Lord of the Imperium to whom a thousand souls are sacrificed each day, and for whom blood is drunk and flesh is eaten. Human blood and human flesh- the stuff which the Imperium is made. To be a man in such times is to be one amongst untold billions. It is to live the cruellest and most bloody regime imaginable. This is the tale of these times. It is a universe that you can live today if you dare- for this is a dark and terrible era where you will find little comfort of hope. If you want to take part in the adventure then prepare yourself now. Forget the power of technology, science and common humanity. Forget the promise of progress and understanding, for there is no peace amongst the stars, only an eternity of carnage and slaughter and the laughter of thirsting gods. But the universe is a big place and, whatever happens, you will not be missed...."

It’s interesting to trace the number of different inspirations and angles that this tone initially emerged from. One useful place to start is by noting that the creators of Warhammer 40k always saw it as being an offshoot of Warhammer Fantasy Battles, not only in terms of its game mechanics but more importantly in its overall tone. Indeed, in the Rogue Trader book itself it’s boldly stated that 40k wasn’t ‘just a science fiction game, although it’s set in the future … we call it a fantasy game set in the far future … a sort of science fantasy.’ What’s significant about this, however, was that it was fantasy of a sort that was the diametric opposite of conventional[2] genre fare. Warhammer, both in its straight and futuristic guises, was part of the subgenre of ‘dark fantasy’, a reaction against the more mainstream conventions laid down by ‘swords and sorcery’ fiction (associated with the likes of Robert E. Howard’s Conan the Barbarianseries) as well as the titanic presences of C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien’s work. In all such works one often commonplace thread was that they created universes that were essentially ordered, knowable and benign, with the most obvious illustration of this being that the concepts of good and evil were frequency depicted as cosmic forces with some sort of objective existence. Arguably, this stemmed from (amongst other things) a tendency for the early founders of such fiction to use historical myths (such as Norse mythology and the Arthurian tales) as their inspiration, where man’s relationship to the natural world was seen as one of unity rather than alienation and where the protagonists of such tales were heavily idealised.

Dark fantasy, however, presented a startlingly different perspective in its approach. In place of clear-cut black-and-white morality came only shades of grey, with no benevolent, omnipotent arbitrator to decide right from wrong. Both the characters and the worlds they inhabited became dirtier, more dysfunctional, even downright terrible. If Tolkienesque fiction (generally speaking) took its inspiration from a largely symbolic, even nostalgic, view of history, focusing on the legends of old, then dark fantasy looked at the crueller, actually existing side of the past and humanity. This was the world of plagues, of famines and blighted crops, where people lived short, difficult lives in a world that they little understood and which showed them little mercy. Again, we see these themes as early as Rogue Trader; as it put it, in the world of the 40k universe there exists an;

‘almost medieval attitude amongst the human societies. Fear, superstition, self-sacrifice and common acceptance of death are all strongly featured. Technology is present, but it is not central to the way people think. Most common folk see technology as witchcraft- so do the technicians!’

But this emphasis on the petty, unpleasant lives of humans in the 40k setting is only one half of the coin that is the concept of grimdark. For what the 40k universe achieves, which few other fictional settings do, is to emphasise the dark side of scale. In this regard, one cannot talk of influences on the 40k setting without mentioning the works of H. P. Lovecraft. Lovecraft’s presence looms large over the 40k setting, with the most obvious connection being Chaos, though it’s a source of inspiration that works in a number of different ways. On a purely visual level, there’s the ideas of physical mutation and pulpy, tentacled horrors that stories like The Rats in the Walls and The Dunwich Horror introduced, which have been a part of Chaos ever since the days of the Lost and the Damned and Slaves to Darkness sourcebooks. Equally important in this regard was Lovecraft’s frequent emphasis on the dreamlike and surreal quality of the supernatural, which finds a parallel in some of the original illustrations of the artist Ian Miller, whose crowded, twisted nightmare landscapes featured heavily in these publications. (If this seems like mere speculation, it should be noted that Miller was commissioned to illustrate the Panther Horror paperbacks of Lovecraft’s works in the ‘60s and ‘70s. But I think it does a disservice to both the writer himself and the 40k setting to only consider this angle. For what marked out Lovecraft as one of the seminal horror authors of the Twentieth Century wasn’t necessarily the monsters of his stories themselves (creative though they were) but his pioneering of the concept of ‘cosmic horror’. More of an ethos than a well-worked out philosophy, it might be roughly said that cosmic horror was a sentiment of seeing horror in vastness; the idea of things in this universe being so large, so immeasurable and incomprehensible that our limited human existence is absolutely meaningless by comparison. On one level, this was a sentiment expressed by Lovecraft’s fictional characters (most notably Cthulhu) and finds a parallel in the 40k setting with the Chaos Gods and the C’tan, terrible beings of such power and infinitude that the entirety of mankind is but cattle to them. But at the same time it’s really an attitude to our existence in the world itself. Lovecraft was writing at a time when astronomy and geology were coming into their own (both of which he studied during his teenage years), revealing the full scope of the cosmos in terms of its age and size, and many of his stories express this sense of despair and realising the insignificance of our brief existence by comparison. And it’s this sort of feeling that only something like Warhammer 40,000 can properly capture, presenting us with a galaxy entirely separated from our own both by cycles of eons and by a magnitude which we can scarce imagine, yet without the sort of up-beat positivity that a lot of more mainstream sci fi usually engenders. If things like Star Wars and Star Trek offer space operas offering high adventure, then Warhammer 40,000 offers us a universe where we are but small blips beset on all sides. To round things off, I think that if there’s one specific area that conveys this most of all it’s the Imperium itself, where the scale and indifference of the universe is reflected in mankind’s own social structures. To me, what will always define the Imperium and the grimdarkness of the 41stmillennium are those brief but sinister glimpses we get of the countless citizens and organisations of mankind’s empire; it’s the hunched, shuffling servitors we see in the corners of the artwork, it’s the description of the teaming, polluted hive cities and the administratums manned by millions of nameless scribes. Above all, it’s the idea that moral, social and political values are totally irrelevant in comparison to a galaxy spanning industrial bureaucracy fighting against its own extinction, where only the forces of efficiency and necessity can hold sway. A piece of art that I think conveys this most is John Blanche’s stunning depiction of the Mechanicus on Mars (see above), where in one sprawling picture we get a glimpse of an environment utterly alien to comforting sentiments; an enormous, arcane landscape where people have literally become just cogs in a machine.” [1] Which we can do thanks to the retro-review over on realmofchaos80s.blogspot.co.uk[2] Speaking relatively, that is

#warhammer #40000 #40k #rogue trader #grimdark #chaos #dark fantasy #space opera #scifi #science fantasy

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jenniewetter · 5 years

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Legendary Racing Driver turned Award Winning Wine Maker has a Gig Harbor connection!

If you’ve met me, you probably know I am crazy passionate about Car Racing - specifically - Formula 1, but also Endurance Racing and IndyCar Racing - and have been so almost all of my life. Most of us sports fan rarely get a chance to meet our legends in any sport, even for a quick autograph. So, to be able to say that I am one of the lucky ones… privileged to have opportunities to be “on the inside” is an understatement! I often say, “just pinch me” because this starry eyed fan has met and chatted with some of the greatest!

The first time I met legendary racer, Scott Pruett, he was sharing his wines with us at a small dinner pizza party in Pebble Beach, CA. His passion for his relatively new craft of winemaking radiated from his every word. It was so much fun and inspiring to hear him talk about the parallels between his two careers, which would seem to most of us to be radically different. To Scott, there are obvious parallels.

Fast forward to a couple of years later… I spent time talking with Scott and his lovely wife, Judy, again pouring their wines for all of us at a dinner party in Pebble Beach - this time the intimate low key pizza party was still low key, but now had several hundred attendees :) It was obvious they were exactly where they wanted to be… sharing their fantastic wines and their story. I asked Scott about his plans now that he had retired. “Are you going to go big? Seems the next logical step?” His answer initially surprised me, but after I pondered it for a moment, it made perfect sense. “No, not at all, actually. It might seem the logical step to expand, however, think about it from a racing driver standpoint. Perfection is attained in almost micro adjustments - lap after lap you evaluate and make tiny changes the next time around - there is always room to improve no matter how perfect the last lap. I’ve decided to apply that philosophy to my wine making. I want to continue to refine what Judy and I are creating - making tiny adjustments to our small batch wines - always improving - as close to perfect as we can get.

Of course I was moved (again, if you know me - makes perfect sense!) And of course I wanted to buy a case of their great wine! Come to find out (as I was giving Judy my address), an integral part of their operation lives and works for them right here in Gig Harbor!! It’s such a small world :)

You don’t have to be a racing junkie like to me to be able to appreciate the awesome story I’ve attached below… how one of the most decorated (yet kind & genuine) racing drivers in history has produced one of the best Syrah’s in the world in just a few short years in to the winemaking business! Enjoy the article… and the wine!

How This Legendary Racing Driver Became One of the Best Winemakers in the World in Just a Few Short Years

Scott Pruett wrapped up a five-decade career as one of the most celebrated drivers in sports car history. And he also produces award-winning wines at his family-owned vineyard.

By Jeff Haden

Contributing editor, Inc.

@jeff_haden

Scott Pruett.

CREDIT: Courtesy IMSA

Scott Pruett is the racer’s racer – and one of the most versatile drivers in motorsport history.

He’s a 5-time IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Series overall champion. He won IROC races. He won IndyCar races. He raced in NASCAR.

And along the way he’s turned a wine business he (literally) started in his garage into Pruett Vineyard, a world-class winery that produces, among other award winning wines, what Wine Spectator declared the highest-rated Syrah in the country.

There’s an old joke that goes, “How do you make a small fortune? Start with a large fortune – and start a winery.” So why (and more importantly, how) did a race car driver launch a winery that within a few short years consistently score 90-plus wine ratings?

To find out, I talked with Scott and his wife Judy – two of the nicest people you could ever hope to meet – at the Rolex 24, his final race before retiring from driving.

Racing at the highest levels is all-consuming… so why get into winemaking?

I grew up on a ranch. I love working. I love being outside. I love working in the dirt.

As far as making wine… I wanted to give it a try, and I knew a few things. I didn’t want to just hire a winemaker and step back out of the way. I didn’t want to just put my name on a label. I didn’t want to buy my fruit.

I wanted to do the work.

You didn’t want to be like a corporate seagull: Fly in, eat all the food, and poop on everything as you fly away?

(Laughs.) Well, no.

During my IndyCar career we had purchased a property in the Sierra foothills with an incredible view of the American River. The Sierra foothills are a very old wine-growing region because of the gold rush: The miners would plant vines, harvest the fruit, ferment the grapes… it gave them something alcoholic to drink.

Being just over an hour from Napa, we knew a lot of very successful people in the business. Thomas Rivers Brown has multiple Wine Spectator and Parker hundred-point Napa Cabernets. Randy Lewis was a racer and is now a successful a winery owner. Bill Harland is there.

Through them we met Tom Prentice and Peter Michael. We needed experts to do climate and soil studies because the last thing I wanted to do was just put vines in my backyard and say, “Isn’t that pretty.” (Laughs.)

But you had no idea whether your property was actually good for growing grapes – much less high quality grapes.

No one had really done much in our area. There were a number of wineries around… but not necessarily making premium wines.

So we took a couple of years to do soil studies and climate studies: Looking at soils at different times of the year, looking at moisture levels, at holding capacities, etc.

Keep in mind we were doing all this in and around racing, but I could manage it fairly easily because we could just set up tests… it wasn’t complicated from a time management point of view.

And when we completed our analysis Tom said, “I will quit my job if you can’t produce something exciting here.”

So I said, “Let’s go.”

Of course deciding to start, and actually working through the process, are two different things.

The next challenge was choosing our root stock. That was a process in itself. Then, our soil type is 80 percent fractured rock and red clay soil. You couldn’t stick a shovel anywhere without hitting a rock. That also created challenges.

Fast forward and we were two years into analysis, more years into preparing the soil and putting plants in and cultivating them… it’s a long runway, and you’re spending money all the time.

But that’s where your inclination towards bootstrapping comes in.

There is a fairly sizable amount of capital involved, but if you’re willing to do the work yourself you can save a lot of money. Tearing down trees, doing all the dirt work, being creative… It was a lot of hard work.

But it was also a lot of fun. I like working outside and digging up dirt. It was right up my alley. Although it did mean I got so filthy I had to take my clothes off outside before I came in the house. (Laughs.)

So we got the plants in the ground and I got some help from guys who really knew what they were doing. Again, that came through my contacts in Napa. And I hired a consultant and bought some grapes from my neighbor just so I could start the learning process of actually making wine.

Saying there’s a lot to making wine is a huge understatement, and I started with no real experience.

So how do you resist the temptation to just turn it over to someone knowledgeable?

Again, that’s not why I got into it.

On the growing side, I felt more comfortable. Getting the plants in the ground, managing them.. and soon you have a little bit of fruit. The goal was to play with the fruit – with no intention of ever selling it – and just gain some knowledge.

And I did get some help with that process. But the goal was for me to learn from the help I got, not just turn things over to someone.

What did you learn early on?

For starters, we set up all the cross arms based on growing principles from Napa.

But we don’t get those really cool, foggy Napa mornings. So it wasn’t uncommon to have a lot of heat in the fruit because they were in direct sunlight. So I had to go back in and change cross-arms to expand them out and let branches cascade over the shoots so it resulted in a dimpled instead of intense light on the fruit.

I didn’t know what I didn’t know, but I was willing to do the work to correct for things I didn’t know.

How did all that work fit into the time you needed to spend racing?

Fortunately, harvesting happens towards the end of the racing season. But it’s still tough.

And the fact that I’m a racer made it challenging from a mental aspect. Skipping forward a little bit, our first significant crop was in 2010. We harvested, got some help with the pressing, did all the fermentation… and then it’s still another two years before you can release the wine.

For me, as a race car driver used to things happening in fractions of a second, two more years was almost more than I could deal with. That was probably the hardest part – dealing with that really, really long runway.

And with no guarantee of a return.

Exactly. You could be five years in and be left wondering how long you can use your vintage for cooking. (Laughs.)

In 2011 we were hit with a really long growing season. A lot of rain, we’re really having to move and adapt… it was good we had a small vineyard. Between myself and a couple of guys who helped, we came through it.

So our 2010 was still in barrels, 2011 was a challenging growing season… and my racing was going really well. So I’m out there winning races and I come home the next day and am out there in the wind and rain and dirt.

But that’s what you do.

So time passes and you finally release a vintage. What was the response?

We continually test and try different protocols, different floors, different toasts… the more information we have, the better we learn what brings out the best in our wines. But again, there’s no guarantee that you’re doing anything right.

So we submitted to Wine Spectator and right out of the box we got three 93-point wines.

What was that like?

We did a happy dance. (Laughs.) Plus it was really cool because we name our estate wines after our kids. So that made it fun, too.

And we kept learning. I realized that using less new oak really showed our fruit better. The expression of the wines kept getting better. The flavors and the textures and the mid-palate and the affinity… they’re striking and wonderful.

Did you ever imagine you’d be sitting here with all those terms rolling off your tongue so nicely?

(Laughs.) Oh, heck no. But that’s the great part about doing something new. You learn a lot… and you can also surprise yourself by what you learn to love.

What I also never imagined is that we’d have one of the two highest-rated Syrahs, with 96 points, in the world. Or that we’d have a 95-point wine.

And all of a sudden our sales boomed. We sell our wines ourselves, and the phones and website just lit up.

Which only works if you have something people want; otherwise you need a distributor to push sales.

Exactly. Otherwise you need some sort of distribution model to get your wine out there and get it sold. But when you have people coming to you, you get to stay in control of your marketing and sales… which is very cool.

It also helps that we did something unexpected: Here I was, a guy who shouldn’t be making great wine, doing it in an unknown wine-growing region.

That also helped put us on the map.

I’m fascinated by people who are serial achievers – who accomplish more than one thing at a very high level. Did working on your winery benefit your racing?

I wouldn’t say it made me better at racing, but it was a wonderful getaway. As a vineyard owner you’re walking through your vineyard at sunrise, at 5:30 in the morning, the sun is coming up, it’s peaceful and quiet… it’s pretty cool to know you built all that.

Plus being involved in making wine makes us part of that very centuries-long chain of people who have made wine. That’s a humbling and wonderful thing.

Honestly: All I wanted was to be able to sit across from my friends and have them try my wine and not bust my chops over the taste. (Laughs.) Everything else is gravy.

Judy: Lots of people chase one thing and try to be really, really good at it – much less two things. So I do sometimes think, “How did this happen?”

Scott says he’s totally shocked by the success of the wine. I’m not shocked. He commits all the time and energy necessary to succeed. If it needs to be done, he’ll do it, and he won’t complain. He’s the first guy there in the morning and one of the last to leave. He’ll give up sleeping and eating and anything he has to in order to make it perfect.

So it doesn’t surprise me at all that the wine is so good.

Is the ability to work hard and persevere something you had to develop?

That’s the way my dad was. That’s all I know. And I like working: This harvest was a lot of 14, 15 hour days.

My dad always said, and we say to our kids, “Do your best. Invest yourself in what you want to do. Do your best, then push it a little farther.” That’s how you accomplish hard things.

So you have 50 acres… are you running out of room to expand?

We had this courtyard in front of our house, a big grassy area… and I was constantly fixing irrigation lines and sprinklers. I finally said to Judy, “I’m sick of taking care of this grass and mowing it. Plus it’s using a lot of water. We’re going to rip it out.”

I might be able to pick up another acre, but that’s about it. That’s all there is.

Judy: And now there isn’t much room left to park cars. (Laughs.)

Will that be enough? And if it’s not, when you do you run out of personal capacity to be as involved as you are?

That’s a complicated question.

One, the winery is doing well. It’s paying for itself, putting some money in the bank, letting us buy new equipment… and it’s paying back past debt. And we’re making highly-rated wines. Those are all very, very good things.

That also put you in a small fraction of wineries.

Yes. We started out like Lucy and Ethel, bootstrapping, with minimal equipment… there was a lot of physical labor. But we’ve been able to buy equipment to help make the work easier. And we’re a lot more efficient.

So it’s paid off the installation of the initial vineyard, it’s paid back all this debt and put some money in the bank, there are two vintages sitting in the wine barrels right now and all those costs have already been absorbed… that’s a really good situation to be in.

And we don’t need to work with distributors. Nothing against distributors, it’s just nice to be able to set our own prices, to not absorb the cost of a middle-man, not have to raise our prices to support that… because when you do, the consumer ends up paying that cost.

So we won’t ever get rich from this, but it provides a good living and we get to produce great wines.

And we have a loyal following with our wine club members. One might can call and say, “My father-in-law’s birthday is next week, can you autograph a bottle?” We do, we add a special card… we like providing that kind of service.

It’s a business, but there is a personal aspect to it, too, and we never want to lose that.

So with all that said: We want to stay small because we like the personal relationship we have with our customers. We like our old-school approach.

Wine is ultimately a product… but it can be more than that.

There’s something special about sharing a bottle with your spouse, a business associate, your friends… when you pull out a special bottle and share it, that’s a really cool thing.

People put away bottles for special occasions: Graduations, birth of a grandchild, wedding anniversaries… there’s a community aspect that comes with wine.

And our vineyard is also our home. It’s like living in Tuscany.

Making wine started as just an idea, but it’s become a lot more than we ever imagined. That��s what happens when you pour yourself into something.

When you’re willing to work hard, you really do get out what you put in.

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johnchiarello · 7 years

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Kings 7

KINGS 7

Hebrews 8:5

Who serve unto the example and shadow of heavenly things, as Moses was admonished of God when he was about to make the tabernacle: for, See, saith he, that thou make all things according to the pattern shewed to thee in the mount.

In Context | Full Chapter | Other Translations

Kings 7- https://youtu.be/vV3VwRrY_0M

https://ccoutreach87.files.wordpress.com/2017/06/6-6-17-kings-7.zip

https://ccoutreach87.com/6-6-17-kings-7/

https://vimeo.com/221892931

Gary update- https://youtu.be/cKQlYzQFUfQ

http://wp.me/a4V5qQ-C1

NOTE- Why all the video links? As I uploaded to Youtube- once again someone ‘hacked’ into my site- and changed the settings to private. I usually go to settings- and change them back. This time my access to Youtube was denied. So- that's why I added W.P. and vimeo. I haven’t commented on the media recently [ I made this post before yesterdays roll out- before I spoke about the crisis in Corpus Christi Texas- the corruption in the courts- judge Sandra Watts- Judge Loyd Neal not running again- the national media rebuking the CCPD for the famous Rosas case- Flash bomb- the national media questioning the shooting of Judge Tom Greenwell in the Nueces county court house- yes- I made this post before all of this- here’s the link- https://ccoutreach87.com/2017/06/16/friday-3/ ] but one of the big stories is the Comey leaks to the NY times. Ok- I find it funny- because Comey leaked his memos to the Times- because he felt he needed to get the info out. There have been other intelligence people who have done the same- though the leaks are illegal- they feel they are doing it for protection. Yet- the same government [U.S.] is going after Snowden- Assange- Reality Winner- for doing the same thing. Yes-we live in a day where social media- and ‘leaking’ play an important role- shining light. I just find it ironic that the ‘deep state’ leaks like a sieve - yet they also hunt down others who do the same.

ON VIDEOS-

.Gary update

.Why am I still teaching Kings?

.Discipline to finish the job

.Many houses [Mansions]

.Solomon stuck with the pattern and built more than one

.Another Hiram

.More than enough

.Wisdom to build

.Global warming

.B.P. oil spill [Remember the video of all the ‘filthy oil’ spilling into the sea- that was unrefined oil meaning- it was nature- the oil was as natural as the salt in the sea- the sand on the shore- it came from under the ocean floor- a purely natural thing. Yet- in the minds of the public/media- they made you think it was like refined dirty oil spilling from some refinery]

.Don’t cut corners

.Free cigarettes!

.What day are the prophets speaking about?

.Wisdom from my homeless friend Albert

Zechariah 11:8

Three shepherds also I cut off in one month; and my soul lothed them, and their soul also abhorred me.

In Context | Full Chapter | Other Translations

PAST POSTS [These are my past teachings that relate in some way to this post KINGS 7-verses below]

KINGS-

https://ccoutreach87.com/1st-2nd-kings/

https://ccoutreach87.com/2017/03/29/kings-2/

https://ccoutreach87.com/2017/04/12/kings-3/

https://ccoutreach87.com/2017/04/27/kings-4/

https://ccoutreach87.com/2017/05/04/kings-5/

https://ccoutreach87.com/2017/05/25/kings-6/

Bible books I quoted on today’s video- here are my complete studies on those books-

https://ccoutreach87.com/john-complete-links-added/

https://ccoutreach87.com/hebrews-updated-2015/

https://ccoutreach87.com/james-2015/

(1055) 1ST KINGS 7- We have more details of what went into the building of the temple. The ‘foundation stones’ were large and costly. Remember, Solomon was said to have ‘largeness of heart’. In the New Testament the Apostles are called the foundation stones of Gods spiritual temple. Peter calls us living stones. Let’s do a little house cleaning; in all areas of church renewal/reformation, we need to be careful when handling the foundation stones. In some efforts to reform [Emergent] there is an attempt to return to the teachings of Jesus, as opposed to Paul. The problem with this effort is the historic church [and scripture!] teach us that Jesus appeared to Paul [Acts 9] and told him he would be a witness of the things that Jesus would reveal to him. So if the revelation/teaching from Paul on the atonement and the substitutionary sacrifice of Christ, if these teachings are things that were shown to Paul from Jesus himself [which I believe they were] then to ignore them would be like removing the ‘foundation stones’ of the temple. These are ‘large stones’ [doctrines accepted across the broad stream of Christian churches; Catholic, Orthodox, Reformed, Radical Reformers, etc...] large stones that form the foundation of all Christian truth, C.S. Lewis’s ‘common hall’ if you will [though Lewis himself said some shaky stuff on the atonement]. I want to restate that we sometimes confuse the foundational doctrines of Christianity with the limited practices of Christianity that have developed over the centuries. We need to understand/embrace the ‘faith once delivered to the saints’ while at the same time being flexible in the various structures that Christians have developed over the centuries to express their faith. As we challenge ‘high church’ [liturgical] structures, we need to be careful that we are not also challenging the heart of the gospel as well. I have heard/read too many statements from certain reformers that are way too pluralistic in their expression of the gospel. Denials of the Cross being the key mechanism that God chose to use to redeem man [foundation stones!] Or the mistake of thinking that the Cross was simply a display of the injustices of man, a challenge to unjust governments oppressing men. While the apostle Peter does teach us that the Cross was a display/example left to us on how we should react to suffering and oppression, yet it wasn’t ONLY that. It was also a redemptive sacrifice made on the behalf of sinful men; ‘Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures’ [Corinthians]. Well, lets just keep in mind that as God’s ‘living temple’ we are being built upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets [Ephesians] Jesus himself being the ‘chief corner stone’, be careful when messing with the stones!

GLOBAL WARMING- I wrote better posts on this before- I can’t find them now. But being I spoke about it some on the video- I’ll paste them here. I wrote these years ago- but they still apply-

(1321) WONDERFUL, WONDERFUL COPENHAGEN! Today the president jets off to Copenhagen for the closing of the world summit on global warming. He originally was going to go at the start but the politicos figured if he went at the end he might be able to undo the last failed Copenhagen venture- getting turned down for the next Olympic Games at Chicago. But what has happened instead is the summit has been a disaster. Why? First you of course had the nuts in the streets destroying stuff, but more importantly you had some major disagreements between the nations attending. The poorer nations actually walked out at one point because they want the industrialized world to fund them at 100 billion dollars for their part in cutting greenhouse gases, the rich countries are pledging 10 billion. China and India, 2 of the greatest polluters on the planet [they make up a total of 80 % of all the pollutants] are not willing to sign a binding agreement which can be verified. Why? These countries are at the beginning of their own industrial revolutions, they still have many years of rapid growth ahead before their overall population benefits from their growth. India has many people still in the extreme poverty class and for all practical purposes you are asking them to trade much of the future of their country for a possible fraction of a degree of global warming over hundred a year period. I mean it’s really a cost/benefit scenario. Now, am I a global warming denier? No. the science seems pretty clear, the nations of the world have gone thru an industrial age and the effects of burning coal and other dirty energy have produced lots of green house gasses that get trapped in the atmosphere and cause the heat to stay in. Not too hard to understand. So what’s the problem, well we don’t really know for sure how much of an overall effect we can have over the long haul. For instance our planet has gone thru at least one ice age and we have only been keeping global heat records for a short time. We don’t know if the earth goes thru thousand year cycles of cooling and heating that we could have little effect on. For instance if we are on a warming trend, and say the planet is going to warm so many degrees over the next thousand years, well maybe our efforts at cooling it less than one degree in the overall scheme really doesn’t count for much. Then there is the real cost/benefits analysis- I’m not talking profits for industry, but real questions on whether or not the global community should sink trillions of dollars over many years into this project, which might not save too many lives; or sink the money into these 3rd world countries who have hundreds of thousands of kids dying because they simply don’t have the money to feed them or provide them with cheap vaccines. This same money today can save so many lives. A serious global warming believer has done the analysis and believes it simply is not feasible to spend the money on the global warming efforts. If we had the extra billions to spend, sure let’s do it. But if we are doing it at the expense of real time lives, then it’s simply foolish. Last night I watched a documentary on the logging business in the Amazon, how so many poorer areas have learned the trade of tree chopping and have lifted themselves out of poverty by cutting down the trees. Now lots of the Amazon has been destroyed and it is an environmental disaster to some degree. So they started this fund that pays the tree choppers more money to not cut the trees. As they interviewed this brother who seemed to be on the lower income scale of society, they showed you him with his used chain saw and his truck and all the ‘blessings’ he has reaped from his new found job; they asked him why he won’t stop chopping thee trees. He said they don’t want to get paid for doing nothing. Ouch! They rather cut the trees and feel industrious than take the free welfare money that the west wants to appease them with. What a lesson for the victim hood mentality of the west. The reporter drove down the road to an Indian tribal area that never cut the trees; they always respected the land and lived off of fishing and hunting. What did their chief say? That they are not getting money because they have always preserved the trees, therefore they will start chopping the trees so the west will pay them to stop. What’s going on here? We have many well meaning people on both sides of all these issues, overall we have to be realistic about this stuff. Poor countries are not going to sacrifice their people on the altar of global warming science when they are not sure their efforts will really pay off in the long run, many of them attended the summit because they were simply hoping the rich countries would give them money. Rich western nations can’t expect to impose these types of restrictions on developing nations, it’s just unrealistic. And last of all the president just told us the country will go bankrupt if we don’t pass the latest version of health reform; you know, the version with no public option, no Medicare buy in, no real control over what the insurance companies will charge us. This bill has now become a bad bill as far as I can tell, then what in the heck are we doing making the second trip to Copenhagen in the last few months? The president used to say he was not like the last administration, he could walk and chew gum at the same time- I’m beginning to wonder about that.

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Last night I had a rough night, I thought I would skip the Monday morning intercession time, I do pray regularly during the week and figured it would be no big deal. But when I got up [a few hours ago] I felt the Lord wanted me to pray, so I did the normal intercession thing [3:30-5-5:30]. I read earlier in Luke 11 where Jesus is accused of casting out demons by the devil, he then corrects the accusers and says when a strong man is in control of his house, his goods are at peace, but when a stronger man comes upon him and overcomes him, he robs him of his goods. During my prayer time I quote lots of stuff, one of the regular quotes is ‘strengthen the bars of our gates, bless our children within, let peace be within our borders and let out garners be filled, providing all manner of store’. I felt like the Lord was telling me that when we pray we are ‘binding the strongman’ and ‘our goods’ [the people/communities we are working with] experience peace. Jesus said when the leader is leading his ‘goods are at peace’ I thought this was interesting. I at first felt like I was the one who was being overcome by the strongman, having a tough day and all, but then I felt like the lord was saying ‘no, when you persevere in prayer, you are overcoming his goods!’ [The people he holds in bondage]. Jesus also gives the famous quote ‘a house divided against itself can not stand’ I think Lincoln quoted this during the Civil war. As of today [7-09] I feel this is a sad description of the political environment of our country. I am not a conservative per se, or a liberal! But as a Christian I think we should be wise as serpents and harmless as doves. I want national heal care! I don’t have any medical coverage for myself right now, so yeah, I want it. Our country is in pretty bad financial shape right now, don’t let the media fool you. We have sent representatives to China and other nations that lend us money, we have asked them to please not cut us off as borrowers, this my friends is not a good thing. California has the eight biggest economy, in the world! They are giving out i.o.u’s for heavens sake! I am not an alarmist, but you would have to be blind to think that things are all right, and yet the politicians are making decisions based on their political interests. I know our president means well, but it is simply irresponsible to try and initiate a trillion dollar national health plan at this time, he realizes this, but they still talk about it as a possible option. Or to be the only country that passes ‘cap and trade’ laws [cutting back pollution- or simply new laws to make more money for the govt.] as of now the bill has passed in the house, but is having problems with the conservatives in the senate [Democrats and Republicans]. Obama just went to the G-8 [meetings with the top industrial nations] and not a single nation would bind itself to any pollution control mandates. But they agreed to ‘try not let the world temperature rise by more than a few degrees over the next 50 years’ wow, what a deal! The whole point being these other industrial nations laugh at us for doing what we do. In a time of national economic crisis, you cant pass laws that would put an extra burden on any type of business in the U.S. Now, I believe the environment is important, but we our not ‘the globe’! Global warming is warming effecting ‘the globe’ if the other nations on the globe don’t give a rip, we are fooling ourselves by strapping our nation with restrictions, we cant change the global environment by ourselves. Now to be doing all this at a time where the world markets are thinking of raising our debt risk is truly irresponsible. Then why are we doing it? Because the political wars are on and each side wants to score points with it’s base, truly sad. Lincoln quoted Jesus and realized that a nation divided against itself would not stand, I fear we are looking like that nation more and more each day.

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VERSES- [The verses I taught- or quoted on today’s post KINGS 7]

John 14:2

In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.

In Context | Full Chapter | Other Translations

Proverbs 24:3

Through wisdom is an house builded; and by understanding it is established:

In Context | Full Chapter | Other Translations

1 Corinthians 9:24

Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain.

In Context | Full Chapter | Other Translations

Psalm 19:13

Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me: then shall I be upright, and I shall be innocent from the great transgression.

In Context | Full Chapter | Other Translations

Isaiah 43:13

Yea, before the day was I am he; and there is none that can deliver out of my hand: I will work, and who shall let it?

In Context | Full Chapter | Other Translations

Psalm 118:24 [Full Chapter]

This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.

James 1:5

If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.

In Context | Full Chapter | Other Translations

1Kings 7:1 But Solomon was building his own house thirteen years, and he finished all his house.

1Kings 7:2 He built also the house of the forest of Lebanon; the length thereof was an hundred cubits, and the breadth thereof fifty cubits, and the height thereof thirty cubits, upon four rows of cedar pillars, with cedar beams upon the pillars.

1Kings 7:3 And it was covered with cedar above upon the beams, that lay on forty five pillars, fifteen in a row.

1Kings 7:4 And there were windows in three rows, and light was against light in three ranks.

1Kings 7:5 And all the doors and posts were square, with the windows: and light was against light in three ranks.

1Kings 7:6 And he made a porch of pillars; the length thereof was fifty cubits, and the breadth thereof thirty cubits: and the porch was before them: and the other pillars and the thick beam were before them.

1Kings 7:7 Then he made a porch for the throne where he might judge, even the porch of judgment: and it was covered with cedar from one side of the floor to the other.

1Kings 7:8 And his house where he dwelt had another court within the porch, which was of the like work. Solomon made also an house for Pharaoh's daughter, whom he had taken to wife, like unto this porch.

1Kings 7:9 All these were of costly stones, according to the measures of hewed stones, sawed with saws, within and without, even from the foundation unto the coping, and so on the outside toward the great court.

1Kings 7:10 And the foundation was of costly stones, even great stones, stones of ten cubits, and stones of eight cubits.

1Kings 7:11 And above were costly stones, after the measures of hewed stones, and cedars.

1Kings 7:12 And the great court round about was with three rows of hewed stones, and a row of cedar beams, both for the inner court of the house of the LORD, and for the porch of the house.

1Kings 7:13 And king Solomon sent and fetched Hiram out of Tyre.

1Kings 7:14 He was a widow's son of the tribe of Naphtali, and his father was a man of Tyre, a worker in brass: and he was filled with wisdom, and understanding, and cunning to work all works in brass. And he came to king Solomon, and wrought all his work.

1Kings 7:15 For he cast two pillars of brass, of eighteen cubits high apiece: and a line of twelve cubits did compass either of them about.

1Kings 7:16 And he made two chapiters of molten brass, to set upon the tops of the pillars: the height of the one chapiter was five cubits, and the height of the other chapiter was five cubits:

1Kings 7:17 And nets of checker work, and wreaths of chain work, for the chapiters which were upon the top of the pillars; seven for the one chapiter, and seven for the other chapiter.

1Kings 7:18 And he made the pillars, and two rows round about upon the one network, to cover the chapiters that were upon the top, with pomegranates: and so did he for the other chapiter.

1Kings 7:19 And the chapiters that were upon the top of the pillars were of lily work in the porch, four cubits.

1Kings 7:20 And the chapiters upon the two pillars had pomegranates also above, over against the belly which was by the network: and the pomegranates were two hundred in rows round about upon the other chapiter.

1Kings 7:21 And he set up the pillars in the porch of the temple: and he set up the right pillar, and called the name thereof Jachin: and he set up the left pillar, and called the name thereof Boaz.

1Kings 7:22 And upon the top of the pillars was lily work: so was the work of the pillars finished.

1Kings 7:23 And he made a molten sea, ten cubits from the one brim to the other: it was round all about, and his height was five cubits: and a line of thirty cubits did compass it round about.

1Kings 7:24 And under the brim of it round about there were knops compassing it, ten in a cubit, compassing the sea round about: the knops were cast in two rows, when it was cast.

1Kings 7:25 It stood upon twelve oxen, three looking toward the north, and three looking toward the west, and three looking toward the south, and three looking toward the east: and the sea was set above upon them, and all their hinder parts were inward.

1Kings 7:26 And it was an hand breadth thick, and the brim thereof was wrought like the brim of a cup, with flowers of lilies: it contained two thousand baths.

1Kings 7:27 And he made ten bases of brass; four cubits was the length of one base, and four cubits the breadth thereof, and three cubits the height of it.

1Kings 7:28 And the work of the bases was on this manner: they had borders, and the borders were between the ledges:

1Kings 7:29 And on the borders that were between the ledges were lions, oxen, and cherubims: and upon the ledges there was a base above: and beneath the lions and oxen were certain additions made of thin work.

1Kings 7:30 And every base had four brasen wheels, and plates of brass: and the four corners thereof had undersetters: under the laver were undersetters molten, at the side of every addition.

1Kings 7:31 And the mouth of it within the chapiter and above was a cubit: but the mouth thereof was round after the work of the base, a cubit and an half: and also upon the mouth of it were gravings with their borders, foursquare, not round.

1Kings 7:32 And under the borders were four wheels; and the axletrees of the wheels were joined to the base: and the height of a wheel was a cubit and half a cubit.

1Kings 7:33 And the work of the wheels was like the work of a chariot wheel: their axletrees, and their naves, and their felloes, and their spokes, were all molten.

1Kings 7:34 And there were four undersetters to the four corners of one base: and the undersetters were of the very base itself.

1Kings 7:35 And in the top of the base was there a round compass of half a cubit high: and on the top of the base the ledges thereof and the borders thereof were of the same.

1Kings 7:36 For on the plates of the ledges thereof, and on the borders thereof, he graved cherubims, lions, and palm trees, according to the proportion of every one, and additions round about.

1Kings 7:37 After this manner he made the ten bases: all of them had one casting, one measure, and one size.

1Kings 7:38 Then made he ten lavers of brass: one laver contained forty baths: and every laver was four cubits: and upon every one of the ten bases one laver.

1Kings 7:39 And he put five bases on the right side of the house, and five on the left side of the house: and he set the sea on the right side of the house eastward over against the south.

1Kings 7:40 And Hiram made the lavers, and the shovels, and the basons. So Hiram made an end of doing all the work that he made king Solomon for the house of the LORD:

1Kings 7:41 The two pillars, and the two bowls of the chapiters that were on the top of the two pillars; and the two networks, to cover the two bowls of the chapiters which were upon the top of the pillars;

1Kings 7:42 And four hundred pomegranates for the two networks, even two rows of pomegranates for one network, to cover the two bowls of the chapiters that were upon the pillars;

1Kings 7:43 And the ten bases, and ten lavers on the bases;

1Kings 7:44 And one sea, and twelve oxen under the sea;

1Kings 7:45 And the pots, and the shovels, and the basons: and all these vessels, which Hiram made to king Solomon for the house of the LORD, were of bright brass.

1Kings 7:46 In the plain of Jordan did the king cast them, in the clay ground between Succoth and Zarthan.

1Kings 7:47 And Solomon left all the vessels unweighed, because they were exceeding many: neither was the weight of the brass found out.

1Kings 7:48 And Solomon made all the vessels that pertained unto the house of the LORD: the altar of gold, and the table of gold, whereupon the shewbread was,

1Kings 7:49 And the candlesticks of pure gold, five on the right side, and five on the left, before the oracle, with the flowers, and the lamps, and the tongs of gold,

1Kings 7:50 And the bowls, and the snuffers, and the basons, and the spoons, and the censers of pure gold; and the hinges of gold, both for the doors of the inner house, the most holy place, and for the doors of the house, to wit, of the temple.

1Kings 7:51 So was ended all the work that king Solomon made for the house of the LORD. And Solomon brought in the things which David his father had dedicated; even the silver, and the gold, and the vessels, did he put among the treasures of the house of the LORD.

Zechariah 14:1 Behold, the day of the LORD cometh, and thy spoil shall be divided in the midst of thee.

Zechariah 14:2 For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished; and half of the city shall go forth into captivity, and the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city.

Zechariah 14:3 Then shall the LORD go forth, and fight against those nations, as when he fought in the day of battle.

Zechariah 14:4 And his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley; and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward the south.

Zechariah 14:5 And ye shall flee to the valley of the mountains; for the valley of the mountains shall reach unto Azal: yea, ye shall flee, like as ye fled from before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah: and the LORD my God shall come, and all the saints with thee.

Zechariah 14:6 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the light shall not be clear, nor dark:

Zechariah 14:7 But it shall be one day which shall be known to the LORD, not day, nor night: but it shall come to pass, that at evening time it shall be light.

Zechariah 14:8 And it shall be in that day, that living waters shall go out from Jerusalem; half of them toward the former sea, and half of them toward the hinder sea: in summer and in winter shall it be.

Zechariah 14:9 And the LORD shall be king over all the earth: in that day shall there be one LORD, and his name one.

Zechariah 14:10 All the land shall be turned as a plain from Geba to Rimmon south of Jerusalem: and it shall be lifted up, and inhabited in her place, from Benjamin's gate unto the place of the first gate, unto the corner gate, and from the tower of Hananeel unto the king's winepresses.

Zechariah 14:11 And men shall dwell in it, and there shall be no more utter destruction; but Jerusalem shall be safely inhabited.

Zechariah 14:12 And this shall be the plague wherewith the LORD will smite all the people that have fought against Jerusalem; Their flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet, and their eyes shall consume away in their holes, and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth.

Zechariah 14:13 And it shall come to pass in that day, that a great tumult from the LORD shall be among them; and they shall lay hold every one on the hand of his neighbour, and his hand shall rise up against the hand of his neighbour.

Zechariah 14:14 And Judah also shall fight at Jerusalem; and the wealth of all the heathen round about shall be gathered together, gold, and silver, and apparel, in great abundance.

Zechariah 14:15 And so shall be the plague of the horse, of the mule, of the camel, and of the ass, and of all the beasts that shall be in these tents, as this plague.

Zechariah 14:16 And it shall come to pass, that every one that is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall even go up from year to year to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, and to keep the feast of tabernacles.

Zechariah 14:17 And it shall be, that whoso will not come up of all the families of the earth unto Jerusalem to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, even upon them shall be no rain.

Zechariah 14:18 And if the family of Egypt go not up, and come not, that have no rain; there shall be the plague, wherewith the LORD will smite the heathen that come not up to keep the feast of tabernacles.

Zechariah 14:19 This shall be the punishment of Egypt, and the punishment of all nations that come not up to keep the feast of tabernacles.

Zechariah 14:20 In that day shall there be upon the bells of the horses, HOLINESS UNTO THE LORD; and the pots in the LORD's house shall be like the bowls before the altar.

Zechariah 14:21 Yea, every pot in Jerusalem and in Judah shall be holiness unto the LORD of hosts: and all they that sacrifice shall come and take of them, and seethe therein: and in that day there shall be no more the Canaanite in the house of the LORD of hosts.

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