#making disciples

[tom4jc]

Jim Putnam Quote

Jesus’ mission is not to make converts, and it never has been. His mission is to make disciples. – Jim Putnam

[alandemoss]

Top Ten Times #JesusWasntJoking: Rethink Your Faith

Top Ten Times #JesusWasntJoking: Shocking Truths That Will Make You Rethink Your Faith

1. The Beatitudes: Blessed Are the Unexpected (Matthew 5:3-12) Jesus flipped the script on who’s truly blessed, uplifting the poor in spirit and the meek. Are you ready to embrace a faith that celebrates the outcasts? 2. Table-Turning Fury: When Jesus Got Angry (Matthew 21:12-13)Watch out! Jesus cleansed the temple, unleashing righteous anger against corruption. This wasn’t just a scene; it was…

[geminiagentgreen]

Pray for the Great Commission. Pray for workers for the harvest, and pray for the church the world over. Pray for me, I will be praying for you.

I love you, guys, Jesus loves you more ♥

[tojisun]

forgotten war god simon being woken up from his slumber when a lonely patron begged for any god to listen to her prayers for vengeance and protection as she watches her father's house be razed by the encroaching legion. the guttural plea and her fury brings him to her, and simon rages on - anything for his first, and his only, worshipper.

something something along the way, it is simon who spoils his only disciple, granting her godship and marking her as his. something something

[deikshen]

Shen Yuan, who opens his eyes and has just transmigrated into some strange demon deep in the Endless Abyss. Well, GREAT! He's a demon, and while he's not OP, if he behaves and doesn't mess with Binghe's women, maybe they could even be traveling companions. Cool! Incredible!!

It doesn't take long for him to find Luo Binghe in the Abyss some time later. He leaves a trail of carnage... And he's speedrunning!! Ignore the wife and solo plots, just mow down monsters and charge forward! He's awesome!

Shen Yuan tries to avoid the red flags that the stallion protagonist isn't, well, forming a harem. Maybe he would form later, when he had more power!! He's not exactly sure in which narrative arc are.

However, his days of watching Luo Binghe through the shadows are soon over. Luo Binghe catches him!! He has obviously noticed Shen Yuan following him. What does he want? Is he looking for him to kill him?

Shen Yuan ducks out a bit, but ultimately decides to impart his honed Abyss 101 knowledge from months of Wiki editing. He disguises himself as a demon who has been searching for a way out of the Abyss, and he knows that he can only do so with Xin Mo, but he knows he doesn't have enough power to wield it. So, he will tell Luo Binghe where the portal-opening sword is, if he allows him to travel by his side and accompany him when he leaves!!

... It's very easy to become travel companions after that.

Luo Binghe is suspicious (of course he would be!! After all, who wouldn't be?!) but he's nice when he's not on his monster-killing rampage. Shen Yuan kills minor monsters, but in reality, he might be getting into more trouble than he should... spiritual flora, ancient artifacts! Luo Binghe should collect them and become more stronger with them! Shen Yuan rambles a lot: he talks about flora, beasts, monsters, demonic history, he throws out fact after fact of PIDW backstories that never got fleshed out from the old demonic civilizations, banished kingdoms, people literally turned into black jade statues...

Luo Binghe seems to find it irritating that he's talking at first, but actually... It's like he can't stop looking at him afterward. Shen Yuan guesses that he must be considering getting rid of him, sometimes: Luo Binghe looks at him with an expression of dismay and doubt. It's like he's searching for something in him. Like he sees something familiar, but Shen Yuan finds it ridiculous. Bah!! As if there's something familiar about him to some random NPC in the world!

One day, after several weeks of traveling, Luo Binghe asks him: "Little Demon. Do you have a name?" And it's not like Shen Yuan has introduced himself, but he considers saying "Shen Yuan" to him not to be wrong.

After that, Luo Binghe... gets worse? He also becomes a little more talkative, which is good, they can have conversations. Shen Yuan enjoys learning little things about his favorite character: how he likes tea, what he misses most is not water or clean clothes but being able to cook with spices, his favorite food, his mother's favorite recipe, about his life on Qing Jing Peak...

That's when everything goes to hell.

A kind Shen Qingqiu? What the fuck? Luo Binghe speaks about his Shizun with more passion than he has spoken about Ning Yingying or any other person or thing. That he had had this horrible qi deviation, but right after, he had been so kind, giving him medicine, a new cultivation manual, fair training, even letting him live in the bamboo house! For the past few years, Shen Qingqiu had practically spoiled him: the best missions, all the running of the Peak, he was basically the head disciple in all but name.

That Luo Binghe had fallen in love with him. Deeply, devastatingly. And Shen Qingqiu had pushed him into the Abyss when his heritage was revealed. However, Luo Binghe will not doubt! He will leave the Abyss, return to his Shizun, and show him that his heritage does not determine who he is. He will become a righteous cultivator and will have his respect to reach his heart.

OOC! So OOC! What the fuck!? Where was the scum villain!? Why is Luo Binghe gay now!? What weird fanfic did he end up in!? Actually, Shen Yuan supposes, well. That means at least he wouldn't destroy Cang Qiong and all that. Wow. Dramatic but calm ending. A better world!! And worse for him, being a demon. Maybe Could he find a way to disguise himself as a human? He believes he has already won Luo Binghe's friendship and sympathy. Maybe he'll even help him to disguise.

Revelations are a rare thing, but Shen Yuan guesses, it's okay. They continue their travel, collecting flowers along the way (for real, not meimeis) who improve the cultivation, and occasionally fight for their lives. Shen Yuan has defended himself very well with his claws so far, but Luo Binghe teaches him how to use a sword, and it's nice to have one.

Shen Yuan has drawn a map, more or less: it is the path that must be taken to reach Xin Mo. He knows that some of those places will be more difficult than others; he explains to Binghe many times that collecting things to strengthen him is necessary: it's a waste of time for him to meet with his Shizun now, but he'll be grateful! He'll need to get strong fast!

Shen Yuan shamelessly takes advantage of all his knowledge of the plot: he teaches Luo Binghe everything he knows, all the weaknesses of the beasts, all the strengths of certain flowers or roots. However, the more Shen Yuan teaches him over the weeks of their travel together, the more Luo Binghe seems... weirder. If he looked at him too much before, now it's incredibly worse. Sometimes he even asks extremely specific questions and seems frustrated when Shen Yuan doesn't answer exactly as he expects. Once, even, when they are crossing some paths surrounded by magma and the heat is suffocating, Binghe improvises a folded fan of leaves for him, and he seems clearly aggrieved when Shen Yuan's first instinct is to fan Binghe!

Luo Binghe is a frustrating little creature who seems to be testing him. Constantly. Shen Yuan assumes it's normal, but still!! He thought he had the protagonist's confidence!! Something seems to sparkle in his eyes when Shen Yuan stops halfway to explore a forest of giant mushrooms and talks at length about the properties and, above all, about the mole-squirrels who get high off their asses biting mushrooms, and he even seems fucking frustrated when he offers some weird herbal blend similar to a bitter tea and Shen Yuan accepts it just out of politeness because it tastes awful. It's like they're running in circles!!

Still, they continue on their way.

There is still a large stretch of the map to go, which Shen Yuan translates into a few more months of travel, when they are cornered by some beasts. They're horrible, disgusting spider-beetles the size of a fucking elephant; it's an unfair fight, seven against two, and even with their swords the bugs are fast, their legs sharp, and Shen Yuan is too exhausted after hours of only being able to defeat two of them.

Luo Binghe fights majestically, but even so, there is one thing Luo Binghe cannot fight: being outnumbered. And when Shen Yuan sees the giant insect's attack at Binghe, his only instinct is to get in the way.

The insect's leg pierces through him. It doesn't quite touch Binghe, but Shen Yuan isn't even aware of the pain from the way his nerves have been ripped apart. He's stunned, disoriented, and only a moment later Luo Binghe enters that desperate berserk mode that the protagonist only got once every two hundred chapters. The horrible insects fall, and Shen Yuan doesn't even know why he's still alive.

He supposes that dying while Binghe is fighting is a bit anticlimactic. He's in a pool of his own blood and he's sure that not even the blood parasites will be able to regenerate any of it. He's dying, he knows it, and from the way Binghe drops to his knees beside him after defeating the insects and holds him, Binghe knows it too.

"It's okay," Shen Yuan manages to speak, weakly patting Binghe's face, "follow the map, leave the Abyss and meet your Shizun. I bet you'll scare him to death, but hey. You're a great boy. A very good one. Show him there's no one better than you for him."

Luo Binghe holds him. Shen Yuan is aware that there were blood parasites in his food months ago, but oh well. Nothing can be done now. It's too much.

Actually, he wants to say something else, something other than a pathetic goodbye talking about how the ex-stallion protagonist should go after his Shizun's bone, but while he recognizes that he is dying (he already died once, damn it, he recognizes death) a blue screen flashes in his head.

[ Recalculating data... Correcting recipient... Downloading files... Importing... ]

[ Bugs fixed! ]

[ Returning the Host to his main user... ]

At the exact moment Shen Yuan dies, Shen Qingqiu wakes up in Qian Cao with a gasp, suddenly touching his chest where a second ago he had felt a hole that pierced him from side to side. His head hurts, his muscles burn, and someone definitely screams in surprise because a bunch of disciples call out to Mu Qingfang and, damn, it's fucking chaos.

He's apparently been in a coma for the past eighteen long months since the Immortal Alliance Conference. A qi deviation? No one knew. It was as if he were just asleep, but nothing woke him. His vital signs were normal, low, but active. Except for Without-a-cure, there was nothing else in his spiritual veins, and Without-a-cure could not cause his current state.

Now, with a huge headache, Shen Qingqiu remembers. He remembers not only the last year and a half with Binghe in the Abyss, but his last years as Shen Qingqiu. And he remembers that, just after of pushing into the Abyss, the fucking System COLLAPSED! Damn SHITTY AI! And Shen Qingqiu believed that he was really going to deport him back to his body even if he pushed Binghe into the Abyss! ... But he hadn't. Just to a random demon's body until the system repaired itself.

The story he tells to Mu Qingfang about the qi deviation after Binghe was swallowed by the Abyss is as good as any. So, Mu Qingfang finally lets him rest until he recovers, and Shen Qingqiu accepts it.

During the Abyss, he had been... Free, somehow. He had no memory of being Shen Qingqiu, and he hadn't had to pretend to be anyone else. It had been the greatest freedom he had had since he arrived. Fuck, he has a lot to think about. How, above all, what the hell he's going to do now that, damn it, he knows Luo Binghe has somehow fallen in love with him. Fuck.

... Well, at least the other transmigrant on the scene will surely have something to say. Eighteen months in a coma! Ha! Shang Qinghua wouldn't even know what hit him.

[simulation-error]

"I will always love you" // "The Jedi's words are a gift to you."

[wyyvoren]

scumcum from twitter :))

[an-unanonymous-messenger]

I said it before and I'm saying it again - DON'T. STOP. EVANGELISING! Don't listen to what articles say, but listen to what God says. His words are above the words of man (Acts 5:29), so why bother with this kind of statement that we should stop evangelising. The only reason to stop evangelising is death, and that hasn't happened yet. You're still alive, so you're chosen to keep on with the good work with the Good News. Let us keep on pushing until the Gospel reaches the whole world. God bless you in the Name of Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour! Amen.

[martyschoenleber]

Confusing Effects for Foundations

I had a conversation with a ministry leader today about the need for discipleship in the local church and the inability of some leaders to free themselves of the shackles of the 80’s and 90’s nightmare called “The Church Growth Movement.” I told them the story of sitting in a Team 500 meeting of the Evangelical Free Church of America and hearing a moment of brutal clarity from a “K-Club” pastor…

[tom4jc]

Mark 4:3 Where Does The Seed Fall?

Listen! Behold, a sower went out to sow. Mark 4:3 During planting season seeds are placed into the ground to grow. In modern times, many seeds are specifically placed individually in specific locations. Those who plant the seeds need to take into consideration where they plant the seeds. Seeds need to be placed in soil that is ready for the seeds and will provide the exact nutrition to allow it…

[nikonuee]

Shang Qinghua should make the Xianxia version of Redbull.

Maybe he can't get Coffee in this world (Why Oh Why did he not write in coffee-) But He'll eat his own paperwork (And maybe go down for attempted murder-) if he doesn't start getting more caffeine in his system to deal with tax season!

So, some herbs and ill-advised monster parts (The feathers of the 3-headed celestial bull being a key ingredient had him ugly laughing when he figured *that* out-) mixed in with his tea later and viola! DIY energy supplements! Yippee!

He is defs going to use this responsibly!

(Spoiler: he doesn't and when he eventually crashes and gets brought to Mu Qingfan. He gets the reaming of his life about untested medicines and then bullied into allowing MQF into helping refine it because like HELL the doctor is giving up those stimulants!)

[rhiangalaxy]

Congrats GYX on the gay awakening <3 (Immortal alliance conference pt.1) (Next)

[ID: A Scum Villain Comic. Panel one first depicts Chibi!Plant Yuan sitting on a bench resting his head on his hands with a disgruntled look. A caption says "Waiting for Binghe to register as SQQ banned SY from participating due to 'past incidents'" His demonic butterfly floats in front of him. A voice from off-camera says "Shen-Gongzi?" a zoomed in Chibi!PY perks up in surprise and his butterfly hides. A non-chibi Gongyi Xiao is shown with has hands cupped in a martial salute and bright expression saying, "You're Peak Lord Shen's son right? This one is Gongyi Xiao from Huan Hua." A chibi PY in a box in the corner continues to look up in surprise with his hands slightly lifted from his face with thought bubbles saying 'Woah..so bright.. Kinda reminds me of Binghe.'

Panel two depicts a non-Chibi! PY looking up with a gentle smile with his hands in his lap, replying "Yes, this one is Shen Yuan! Are you here to participate in the Conference?" The rest of this panel is depicted in chibi form. GYX sits next to SY and responds, "This one is! Is Shen-Gongzi not?" to which SY closes his eyes with a disgruntled/tired look and places his head back in his hands, stating "My A-Die banned me. Said this one attracts too much demonic attention..." to which GYX points and says "Oh? Is that why you have that demonic butterfly?" Leading SY to have a panicked look, his thought bubble saying "Shit" whilst he verbally says "Please don't tell my A-Die I brought her."

The final panel has chibi!GYX raising his hands up to placate SY with an amused nervous expression saying "Don't worry! This one won't. It seems very friendly, with you especially." To which non-chibi!SY, now having his butterfly balanced on one of his hands, the other raised up as if to gently pet it, looks down fondly and says "Yes she is... She's been with me a long time." A very flustered Chibi!GYX replies softly "oh". End ID]

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Lan Wangji Goes To Lotus Pier AU: Part 5: Flip Slip.

(Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 4.5)

[honestlyitsjustsam]

favourite moments of bg3 -> (6/?)

[benevolenterrancy]

"Heavens, he doesn't understand again." "Every time he says 'I don't understand', Lui-shixiong grabs someone to demonstrate until he understands..." Ji Jue quietly complained to Shang Qinghua. No wonder the injuries at Bai Zhan Peak had only increased!

so this is obviously Liu Qingge's entire love language, right?