#my brother in christ i cannot escape this verse

[praazlwurm]

Just heard about #Volotober!

I've been working on a collection of one-off chapters set during the timeline of my fanverse, which starts with pick a god (and pray), and wrote a chunk of prequel fic set during main-game events.

It's partly inspired by a fanart of Volo studying one of the murals in this post. And here's the Picrew credit!

Posting here before ao3 (the collection will go up eventually)

(reading the "fates favorites" fics is optional, just know that Magpie is the player character, 25, and highkey actually isekai'd and not from pokemon-future)

Volo did not intend to encounter her in the icelands – not yet, at least.

He's settled inside a winding cave on the southern end of the region, warmer than some areas but still frigid enough to require the constant companionship of his newly-evolved arcanine. Between her, his lantern, and the folded bedroll he sits cross-legged on, the chill of a howling blizzard is kept out, if barely.

And, between the blizzard and the rapt attention he's giving the mural above his head, he doesn't note the scuffling approach until his arcanine perks up.

A hulking form makes its way into the cave on enormous paws, claws meant for mud resigned to make do with snow. The firelight is barely enough to illuminate a muzzle billowing steam.

Ursaluna barrels down upon him, and in his scramble to escape he knocks over his lantern.

Arcanine rises with him, letting out a sharp bark of warning, and the beast hesitates long enough for him to kick his pack out of the range of sparks.

"Woah!" comes a familiar yelp, and the lord backs up a few steps as the voice's owner slides down from their perch. Then, muffled by cloth, "Sorry! Didn't see you there -- oh, just you, Volo."

"Just me," he responds and scolds himself for the sour note as he puts his little campsite back to rights. He looks up to see her pull up a pair of slit-eyed snow goggles and allows this to excuse her tactless entry; such things were designed to block out as much excess light as possible, after all. He affects cheer as though just recognizing her (as though anyone else in Hisui could arrive with such fanfare.) "Miss Magpie! I hadn't heard you were in the north yet. For Lord Avalugg, I presume?"

An easy lie, seeing as he'd moved north as soon as he heard she had quelled the Lord of the Hollow. He thought this would give him a jump on surreptitiously keeping track of her in the wastes, but of course, such luck wouldn't bear out.

Magpie hums, setting the goggles above the furred brim of a hat and working a finger under the scarf bound around her chin. She shakes off the snow inelegantly, a flat expression barely more readable than total obstruction.

Without a response, Volo's mind races for thought, his prefabricated cover story with Gaeric inapplicable as of yet. He could pose it as resource gathering, assuming she doesn’t know the Guild traded with the Pearl Clan for most northern supplies; or simple bad luck to be caught by the storm, or even that his hand had been forced by--

"Is that Lord Braviary?" she asks.

Her voice is rough, as the lungs are often left by the wastes, but her dark eyes are bright with intrigue. She's looking behind him, and even if he feels his pulse pick up he still finds earnest cheer in his response.

"I suspect so, yes!" He settles his arcanine, but remains standing to gesture broadly. "I happened upon this cave only recently, and what an enthralling find! These etchings match a number found in other places in Hisui, though I've yet to puzzle out the significance."

Magpie moves further into the firelight, tucking her hands into the fold of her uniform. Her neck has to crane a fair bit higher than his, but her mouth moves into a familiar frown of intense focus.

He relaxes just barely, knowing that look well enough to know he can escape her notice for now. He mulls the predicament a little more and can't ignore the twist of ire in his gut.

He'd accepted weeks ago that he would never (legitimately) lay hands on the plates given to her by the lords, and instead kept her trials in his periphery while finding something else to study. A set of ruins in the mirelands had set his search ablaze, and he's been trying to work out the depictions by elimination.

"Luckily I just met him, so it’s a familiar figure. This one…” she trails off. She has yet to look over, so he doesn't put much effort into the show of tapping his chin contemplatively. She cocks her head, pointing to the top line, “It would be a little rude to have some drawn head-on and others not. But this one might be Lord Kleavor, if he’s facing left."

"Truly?" he chirps, with genuine surprise. The nearly colorless drawing had escaped parsing so far. He drags his pack back over and makes to sit, just as she looks over again.

"Mind sharing your bedroll?"

He freezes, thoughts stuttering before catching up. Volo unfolds it from a square pad to a rectangle, offering a smile both thin and saccharine. "For my favorite corpsmember? Never!"

She snorts, and they sit as he pulls a journal into his lap a bit more sedately. He flips to a blank spread, just in case, and sketches out a figure to label as the Lord of the Heartwood.

His gaze flicks up through his bangs, furtive, relieved to see her no longer looking at him but at the mural. Only for his chest to stutter when he sees her looking at the high, far right corner.

"Do you recognize any others?" he asks, light and neutral, leaning into her expertise even when he has his own theories for each figure.

"No," she says, equally neutral, but the wheels are spinning. He can see it in the worrying of her lower lip and, as the focus grows more intense, a gnawing at the cuticle of one thumb.

It's a tic he hasn't noted before, and he must be looking too hard because she shifts to look like she's merely warming her hands. She twitches as he looks away, and buries her hands in her lap.

"What do you think they mean?" she prods after a beat of snow-blown silence. Ursaluna settles down huffily, blocking what little wind could sneak in from the side they entered from just enough to gain a little warmth.

He pauses in his note-taking, looking up at the mural. The furrow in his brow is genuine as he asks, "Mean? I've been thinking it’s depictions of the figures of legend. A proto-pokedex, if you will!"

His chipper jibe slides off her as water from a psyduck's feathers, offering the barest twitch of her chin in denial. Before he can rile, and long before he would need to stifle it, she explains.

"The fact they're lined up so carefully suggests it's not just art. But, this one would impact a lot of translation if it was mistaken for anything," she says, and gestures to one that makes his breath catch.

Bipedal and bearing a vividly pink pinwheel like a shield, he's suspected it to be one of the great trio spoken of reverently in the scant remaining Celestica scriptures. He remains still, wound to strike, behind a blank mask long enough that she opts to fill the silence.

"I don’t think this could be a one-glyph to one-letter translation. It would be a lot of work to pass on such a short phrase, and not a lot of remarkable, three-letter words start with the letter bee, y'know?" she seems to jest. He feels his brows scrunch as he tries to grab hold of her meaning, and when she sees diligence in his curiosity –

She blanches.

Panic is not something he's often seen on the woman's face. Tension, tiredness, even a rare fit of pique when he'd approached her and the two wardens of the highlands.

The way she pales, the suck of breath, the brief flash of the white of her eye; it's all foreign to him, and more alarming than the nonsense sounds she had been spouting a moment ago.

"W-what I mean is," she says, and has her hands up to point at the mural, to twist and flutter articulately, something anyone else might find distracting, "they could s-symbolize ideas of things, like traveling for Braviary or, uh, woodcutting? Fighting, maybe, on the part of Kleavor."

He drags his focus away to at least feign distraction for the moment, desperately pinning this moment to the back of his mind, squarely at the top of the list labeled: Weird Things About the Riftborne. 

Then, mind catching up, he sets a hook in this new line of thought eagerly.

"Using pokemon to communicate concepts?" he posits, low and intrigued. Some color returns to her cheeks in his periphery, and he continues, "That would be a fascinating way to pass on messages to future peoples. Prone to losing nuance but otherwise unchanging."

She doesn't respond, and as he's less bothered by the silence he's content with the quiet as he scribbles out line after line. Pausing every so often to turn a page or tap his stick of charcoal against his chin, cautiously noting in his own shorthand the possible 'concepts' behind the few great pokemon he's wary of her knowing about just yet.

Magpie is a terrible fidgeter, he notes as he looks back and forth between his notes and the mural. His bangs being on the side she sits at allows him to sneak glances. To see her tapping along the lines of her knuckles with her fingertips or pinching a hem.

The only one that irks him is the sudden, incongruous popping of her knuckles, wrists, and finally neck – the latter loud enough to make him flinch.

"Are you alr–" he starts.

"Sorry!" she chirps, tucking her hands away again.

He tries not to scrutinize it too much but must fail somewhere because she continues.

"It's just too cold out to add anything to the 'dex notes, and I'm all stocked up on potions, is all."

"It is cold," he grants, allowing himself a little wryness. The barrier he’s constructed between Local Merchant Volo and his fiercely guarded passions is strong enough to allow some gaps of false vulnerability. So long as it means coaxing his way into her trust for the work ahead. He's wrapping up what he's gleaned, so he hazards, "Why are you here, anyway?"

"Ugh, so," and she scooches to lean against ursaluna's side, facing him more directly. "To quell Avalugg, I need a piece of ice, but from a specific mass of ice, but specifically from the bit on top, and to reach that I need to fly up there, except the warden with the burrd," another unrecognizable interjection, "not only won't get it for me, but is making me play tag to even reach the burrd. So I thought, hey, let her stew at Snowpoint for a hot minute and I'll kindly ask Ursa– oh, I forgot!"

She stands abruptly, not minding that Volo is fully reeling from that onslaught.

As he recuperates, she leans down to the pokemon's face, coaxing, "You were onto something, just then right? What'd you smell?"

Ursaluna chuffs, grumbles, and eventually rises enough to cross the frigid stone to the foot of the mural.

He can't place why he tenses, but can equate the feeling to seeing old Calaba among the Solaceon ruins: the wariness of a stranger around his ancestral site, which came just before the shattering realization that the site had been vandalized by another party entirely.

As the beast digs, then retreats enough for Magpie to finish unearthing its find, however, he finds the tension slipping away. In their few, manufactured encounters, he's never known the woman to be glib about a history foreign to her, or treat the aged wonders around them apathetically. 

In fact, he thinks as the two trains of thought begin to overlap, her reaction at Solaceon had been... extraordinarily odd.

She had gotten shifty the moment she entered the ruin, not an uncommon reaction, but upon viewing the mural she'd looked ready to bolt.

To say nothing of her reaction to the fragment itself.

On the List of Weird Things About the Riftborne, the third or fourth entry -- depending on the sorting being chronological or in order of significance -- has long been the moment she had hauled the stolen stone through the entrance of the ruin.

For the scant heartbeats before he'd greeted her with customary false cheer (and customary, less-false gratitude) she had looked... electrified.

Not shocked or surprised, but as though the only thing keeping her hair from standing on end was the perpetual weight of wetland air. She barely said a word to Calaba, something the woman took as deference, and moved with a stiltedness that looked downright painful. He had kept an eye on her from afar the rest of that day, half in curiosity and half in an uncharacteristic fear that she would get mauled by something in the depths of the swamp.

After the ruin, however, she had been something fearsome herself. Her already fully evolved partner decidueye had helped her hack and slash her way south, crossing broad rivers with daring leaps he couldn't think to match. When she had returned to the territory of the lord and warden, her pack stuffed and pokeball supply expended, the tension had vanished, placid hyperfocus returning to the matter at hand. A theory forms in his mind that she pours that excess energy into battling, which would explain not only her exceptional skill at battling, but also the fact she seems to spend more time away from Jubilife village than within it.

Volo is yanked from his reverie by her shrill gasp, not quite fast enough to lean away as she scurries to the side of his lantern and kneels in its glow. With near reverent care, something he’s quite literally never witnessed in her before, she unfurls a scrap of enticingly aged vellum and pins down the corners with nearby stones.

“Lords,” he breathes, leaning over fast enough to unbalance himself. In a spill of ink, miraculously unfaded after not seeing the light of day for decades, at least, lines of what can only be verse loop across the page. It’s an ancient form of Hisuian, far closer to the blockish single letters of the Celestica than the modern swipes of syllabic kana. Mind awhirl, it is no great challenge to let his voice lift with curious ignorance, “That… what on earth could that be?”

“Poetry, I think,” she says, and his breath catches. She couldn’t possibly– “I’ve found just a couple others like this. One right near Lord Ursaluna’s home, and one around Cottonsedge.”

She flashes a grin at him, oblivious of his pallor as the expression is so unrestrained as to pinch shut her eyes. A familiar, accursed thump echoes in his eardrums from the vicinity of his chest.

“The second was about sootfoot root, of all things,” she continues, returning focus to the page, “I think implying it to be the predecessor of the potato we use today. This one though…”

Volo watches, pulse fluttering as rapid as a starly’s, as the sky-fallen woman of indeterminate origin and bearer of less-indeterminant godly favor reads out his ancestral tongue.

“When that Pokemon was born,” she reads, stuttering over what ought to be the most commonly spoken word, “intelligence bloomed among us, enriching all our… morrows, which could mean the future in general or the broader human experie–”

She pauses, and he realizes she’s actually looking back at him. He had been so lost in the depths of his own confusion, anger, and awe, that he had been staring at her in dumbfound silence for a few minutes now.

“Volo?”

“You… you can,” he swallows, throwing lassos about his mental moorings to try and leash a coherent thought together, “you can read that?”

Magpie goes very still.

With the wind leeching in from the cave opening at her back, it could be passed off to anyone else as a chill, but Volo sees through that. Sees the way her shoulders fold in just a hair, the scrunch of her brows, the flat turn of her eyes as she retreats into herself, hauls up the drawbridge and readies the portcullis to fall between them.

“A little,” she says, quietly. A hand on the lever, or ready to cut the rope entirely.

In a heaven-sent moment, he snaps back into awareness, knowing with a fire in his chest that this is a moment he cannot lose to the sands of time.

“That’s amazing,” he says, intrigued but stifling any note of awe as he suddenly knows it would only chase her off. It’s disorienting, and to be investigated further, but he knows this is a moment to abandon a layman’s artifice. “It’s an old system of writing, predating modern Hisuian but not so ancient as to be extinct,” he says, feeling a bit like he’s coaxing out a rare pokemon.

Yet, it is in a bid towards equal footing, something he hasn’t stood on with anyone but Cogita. And the Mistress had soured at the very sight of him, refusing to relay anything more than bare bones of Hisui’s legends as though guarding them. Hoarding, he thinks sharply, for some other, better inheritor. 

That thought, and the likelihood that he could well be looking at that inheritor now, is enough to anchor him once more in the present, in his own machinations.

Still, Magpie’s lips twitch into a weak smile.

“I’m… glad it’s not another dead language,” she says, eventually, and though the phrasing is baffling he nods to the sentiment. This bolsters her a bit, gaze returning to match his from where it had drifted aside. “I have a couple others I’d be glad to show you, actually, and–”

She pauses, and he catches the barest flick of her focus from his eyes to his chin. She snickers, reaching up a hand.

“You’ve got a bit of–” her fingers stop just short of touching his face, his heart pounding, and snaps back down. Like a groundwater pump, the force of it seems to flood scarlet into her cheeks, and she whips her head away. “Y-you’ve got a bit of black there. On y-your. Face.”

Oh, Arceus, he thinks, and the thought is like taking his own gabite’s Dragon Claw to the chest. He rubs at his chin mindlessly, his eyes wide and downcast. Unbeknownst to either party, both share a giddy, terrifying thought: I’m in trouble.

After about a decade of excruciating silence, Volo finds it in himself to snap back into what has fast become the neutral territory between the two of them.

“I could never deny a chance to read some ancient texts,” he says brightly, and when she dares a glance he plasters on a not-entirely-fake smile and wags his finger, “any more than I could deny my favorite customer!”

It’s the exact right thing to say, he knows with no small amount of pride, as she sinks into the kind of relief only felt by those who escape the notice of the deadliest alphas. She busies herself rolling up the scroll and tucking it away – in her pack, not what she’s bafflingly termed her “quick-ditch satchel.” He hasn’t learned much beyond the term, but thinks she might have it packed with a few essential supplies and a small horde of tempting diversions, as it's designed to provide a last-resort escape.

Volo, in turn, finishes scribing out the last of the hieroglyphic figures before shutting his journal, weighing the risks of asking “where are the other scrolls” or “could we meet again before you return to Jubilife?” Either could be too forward, but he does so ache to know more about these lost, terribly old verses.

In a moment of grace, Magpie offers a solution quite outside the realm of what he’d considered possible.

“Do you want to come with us,” she asks, and motions past him to the Lordly pokemon, “to look for more?”

“Oh, dear me. I see I’ve quite failed,” he says dramatically, and assuages a flicker of alarm by continuing, “to remove any doubt in your mind of my interest in doing so.”

Her grin is blinding, and he doesn’t think he’ll ever be quite able to regret inspiring it.

• • • • •

“Keep an eye out for pep-up plants, would you?!” Magpie shouts over the sound of both the wind and the incredible pounding of ursaluna’s paws upon pack ice.

“White flowers in the icelands,” Volo responds, a little quieter as he’s inches away from clinging to her back in fear. “Will do!”

Her laugh is less vocal than it is physical, something he can feel beneath his arms as they’re wrapped around her torso. He keeps his hands clear, gripping his own forearms despite the chill, because he’s learned any sudden pivot of their enormous escort could pitch the two riders into collision.

She had barely waited for the storm to pass before harrying him on board, entirely too confident that she could hold her own position at the reins as he settled in the actual saddle. It wasn’t the worst choice, seeing as they still had some daylight left – anything was better than trying to traverse the wastes at night, even this borderline compromising position and jostling passenger experience.

“Where are we going?” he asks, hoping his voice isn’t lost to the thick fur of his uniform’s neckline, cuffed over his face.

“Wherever the wind takes us,” she answers in jest, then amends, “north, right now. Which is good since I’m supposed to head that wa–”

Ursaluna jerks into a hard bank leftward, surging so much that his spine hits the saddle’s back like a brick wall. Never has he wished so much for his guild backpack, currently lashed to the deepest slope of the pokemon’s back. Nor has he wished so suddenly for some other padding as Magpie is thrown into his front. She lets out a meager oof while he’s entirely winded.

“Northwest,” she amends.

Breathless as he is, it’s not until the lord breaks into a sprint that he yelps, incredulously, “What’s it doing?!”

“He’s got a scent!” Magpie barks, with a little bit of a bounce in her seat. Volo feels it through his arms and, far more notably, where his knees are folded forward around her hips. The woman is oblivious, so it’s up to him to quell his thoughts alone. The lord gallups on, until the distant western hills begin to loom out of the foggy atmosphere, until a sparse forest jabs defiantly from the snow to their right, until– “Stop!”

She hauls on the reins, nearly crashing the crown of her skull into his face in the process. He reels, narrowly avoiding getting winded again by preemptively tightening his hold, and sparks with annoyance for all of a heartbeat.

It’s then that he sees the enormous cavern that’s opened up in front of them, a notorious feature of the wastes known for killing misled travelers by the dozens either in falls, by exposure, or to their… residents.

Ursaluna settles from its near-vertical rear, grumbling, and Magpie gives it a commiserating pat on its enormous, discolored ruff. 

“I know what to look for now,” she assures the beast as she slides down from her perch, looking up at Volo with what might be expectance. With the hat, slit-eyed goggles and scarf, not a lick of her expression gets through.

He joins the Lord of the mire in its malcontentedness, gingerly hopping down onto the slick ice which surrounds the mouths of such caverns. He reacquires his pack as, in his periphery, Magpie unloops the obijime beneath her coat, losing the cloth at her waist carelessly.

Lower on the List is that the riftborne either has not learned or does not much care for the proprieties of clothing. She adores them aesthetically, as he'd often grow bored of watching her raid Anthe's newest additions like someone starved of the arts. But barring actual nudity, from the months-ago moment she had wandered out of Galaxy Hall in a pair of trousers cut unconscionably short, she has not adhered to the average feminine Hisuian's sense of modesty.

He angles his cap down for his own sake of mind, and is yet able to see as she proffers one end of the length of gilded rope to their escort. Brow furrowing, he rescinds his aversion to look up and ask, "Why are you…"

Magpie pauses shy of the lip of the cavern, looking for all the world as one about to leap off daringly. She might smile, behind the scarf; it certainly sounds like it when she responds, "Ever heard of free rappelling?"

He very much hasn't and thus very much jolts in surprise when she does step off the ledge. He darts forward, low to the ground to stay balanced, in time to watch her lower herself down five feet or so from the eight-foot drop. Once she touches down, and out of the wind chill, she pulls up the goggles to ensure he can see that entirely barmy smile of hers in her eyes.

"C'mon down, the water's great," she jibes.

Volo looks from her, to the enormous pokemon, to the hazy skies above in search for cosmic leniency. I'm really in trouble.

Then, grasping the rope by both hands and between his thighs in a proper grip, he joins her below.

As does her partner pokemon, an umbreon she had introduced weeks ago as Panos. It spoke volumes that she had reared an eevee just as quickly to this form as she had her earlier rowlet.

Panos fluffs up against the chill, casting off a warm glow as they creep below the shadow cast by the mouth of the cavern.

In a breathless moment, he understands why the umbreon has joined them.

At the far end of a hollow of ice shaped like a distended stomach, a writhing mass of scarlet and whispy white bleeds a weight into the air. Seething malice turns the air acrid in his lungs, and he finds himself gagging on it, hanging back as she forges on.

The zoroark swipes out, wild and ruthless, but is a mite slower than the umbreon, whose effectiveness quickly sees the beast confined to yet another pokeball for further study.

"You don't even know what that was, do you?" he snarks upon seeing a look of blithe curiosity in her eyes. The same he's glimpsed at the mention of any new find. He sighs when she looks up with a tilt to her head, tugging down his now stifling collar. "That was the baneful fox, zoroark. Legends of it abound with the horrors of tragedy and spiteful memory, and it bears ill will on just about every living thing."

"It looks incredibly badass, my guy," she retorts, and before she can catch his bewildered expression at the phrasing, she turns and loops her scarf around Panos' neck and shoulders with a tiny croon of endearment.

Then she's puttering about the perimeter of the icy cavern, drawing out a rudimentary chisel of iron to test for spots of interest. An ore or two later, she ducks down and sinks the iron in a soft spot of densely packed snow rather than ice. She lets out a little, a-hah!

Volo busies himself with digging out his lantern and journal, watching as her pokemon joins her in digging at the snow. He hazards a couple paces closer, only to have her crowd into his light to read the scroll. Then, like it’s only just occurred to her, she looks up to ask,

“Can you also read this?”

“...yes,” he says, straining not to let his aggravation show. He doesn’t want to let on too much but it’s a matter of principle to say, “It’s been a focus of study for me the last few years.”

It throws him entirely to see her deflate – not disappointed, but with a hint of wariness. In the beat of quiet he feels a desperate curiosity as to what all these variables add up to. It’s as she glances away that an answer occurs to him.

She had seen something in the space beyond the rift. She might have clammed up directly after but she had and with Giratina still in the realm of Distortion…

Arceus. Of course. 

As his stomach drops out from under him, she buys into his placid mask for once and begins to read.

“Wintry… austere… brimming with strange power,” she recites, pinching the vellum at the corners. “Certainly the land of Hisui bears some resemblance to s-sin… Sin-joh? Lords, it's hard to parse this without capitalization. Do you–”

Magpie finally looks at him, likely catching the tail end of his open shock at the word.

He can’t entirely help it, feeling like he’s balancing on the sheer face of Mt. Coronet. Clinging on meant keeping it all to himself, Sinjoh, Blackthorn, his ancestry. But letting it out meant freefall, a… leap of faith.

Arceus, he thinks; he prays. If ever you deigned to listen to me, or my people, speak to me now. Guide me.

Into the resounding silence, Magpie prompts, “Hey, Volo?”

He looks at her, every muscle wound tight as the springs in a pocket watch, watching as a gentle, coaxing smile curls her lips.

“Let’s get out of the cold.”

• • • • •

“Aren’t you meant to be seeking out the Warden at Snowpoint?” he asks, lightly, as he steps into the hot spring to join her. Magpie hums without looking up, resting her head against the stone and letting her legs rise to the surface. He looks away, focusing on the soaking heat rising past his hips.

“This is what’s called ‘marinating’ the enemy,” she eventually responds, cracking open her eyes.

“So not only do you make an enemy of a child,” he echoes, unable to stifle a chuckle as he sits down, “but you treat her like a serving of stewmeat?”

“It refers to–” she halts. Behind eyes drifted shut in his pleasure at the heat, he hears her breath catch. “That is, I – ugh, just shut up.”

Volo relents to a laugh, savoring the slow unwinding of tension from his muscles. With nightfall, the wastes drop to nigh uninhabitable temperatures, populated only by pokemon with ice at their cores and the rageful ghosts of anything foolish enough to brave traveling. In contrast, the hot spring she had led them to just west of the cavern below is searingly hot, leeching a mist into the air that shrouds it like a land forbidden from mortal sight. 

“You know, there’s an old legend about this place holding the secret to immortality,” he sighs, keeping his eyes shut, half out of courtesy. The both of them had only their own undergarments to swim in, and as much as the riftborne intrigues him he’ll not go so low as to seduce her to his whims.

“I have a working theory,” she answers after a beat, and her tone is sly, “that anyone advertising a path to eternal legacy is actually hawking aphrodisiacs.”

His head tilted skyward, he allows himself just a beat of gobsmacked surprise. Now who isn't above seduction?

“Don’t you think I of all people would know of such a thing,” he jibes instead, finally looking at her from across the eddies of steam. He waits just long enough to spot a flush before continuing, “As a member of the inimitable Gingko guild?”

“They would sell it,” she says with just a whiff of disparagement. 

“Only to the worthy,” he responds, and props himself up on his elbows when she actually engages the baited comment.

“Who would you consider worthy, wise guildsman?”

Volo looks at her, for once entirely undistracted by her near nudity and far more enthralled by the flare of curiosity in her eyes. After a long moment stewing, he offers, “I should think the most deserving people would be the kindhearted.”

“Not the just,” she asks, and he can see her hands move beneath the water, scooping up her ankles to sit crosslegged on the shelf of rock beneath her. “Or perhaps the clever?”

“There are very few arbiters of justice deserving of an everlasting life,” he mutters and traces an eddy into the water, ever preoccupied by questions of the character of his deity. He sighs, continuing, “And as for the clever…” 

“It would be cruel, I think, to inflict two curses on the same soul,” she offers.

A spark races up his spine, electrifying, as he reevaluates nearly every preconception of the riftborne he’s maintained. He dares to breathe, “Curses?”

Magpie hums, mulling this in turn. “I think so. To be so curious and adept at questing for knowledge, and be given an eternity to pursue it? The experience might be interesting, but I think the older you get, the less sane you can stand to be.”

Volo remains quiet, watching her with what some might mistake as a heated gaze, though it is flush with a different kind of desperation. He so, so rarely stumbles upon someone both aware enough to engage such ideas and willing to talk to him, of all people.

“Kids are the sanest of anyone, never so insistent on making rules or forcing the world to fit into so many boxes,” is all she offers after some time, looking once more heavenward to study the skies.

Rivulets trace the column of her throat. With the moon all of a sliver of silver above, the only light is offered by the stars as they spill out across a velvety, celestial cloak.

“Christ,” her lips spill yet another foreign phrase, “what a sky.”

He could interrogate; could prod in jest at the dissonance between her apparent envy of children and her current avoidance of the waiting Diamond clan warden; could move closer across the pool and ensnare her while her mind seems adrift; could force the knowledge of the higher powers at play in Hisui with the ease of twisting a limb.

But for the moment, and for the night, he chooses to remain quiet. To listen to the gentle rasp of water on stone, the occasion doleful cry of a froslass, the wind over the wastes. To be still, wait for the morning and its renewal to approach.

He tells himself it isn’t fear that makes him turn down her offer of companionable travel at dawn. That it isn’t a twist of bitter anger that he feels when he thinks of her connection with the Lord above all, with his heritage. That it isn’t mourning, when he thinks of betrayals to come.

That he doesn’t hope she’ll forgive them.

[preceding the events of pick a god (and pray)]

Happy Volotober!

[evangelistedissoncharles]

Good morning brothers and sisters! Peace of Christ is not from the absence of fear, but peace in the midst of fear.

‭John 14:27 ESV‬

[27] Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.

We can have all forms of peace the world offers us and still be in want of Christ's peace. In the above verse, Jesus gives the promise to His disciples and to us, that He is giving us His peace, and leaving us a peace that this world cannot give. And I might add neither can it take away.

Brethren, the peace Jesus gives, cannot be given by anything nor person in this world. He reminds us that His Peace does not keep us from trouble and fear, but it protects us from allowing these forces to overwhelm us. The Peace He gives does not mean peace in the absence of trouble, but peace in the midst of trouble.

The peace, which the world offers, is the peace of escape, the peace that comes from avoiding trouble, peace based upon what one possesses, financially and materially, a peace which comes from refusing to face our realities. The peace that Jesus offers us is the peace, which is independent of outward circumstances. It is the peace which no experience in life can ever take from us. The peace He gives, no sorrow, nor danger, nor suffering can make less of. Jesus is our Peace. He is the Prince of Peace.

[spiritsoulandbody]

#DailyDevotion We Weep Now By The Waters Of Babylon As We Wait For The New Jerusalem

#DailyDevotion We Weep Now By The Waters Of Babylon As We Wait For The New Jerusalem Psalm 137 By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down and wept as we thought of Zion. 2There we hung our lyres on the poplars. This psalm we can see took place during Judah's exile in Babylon. The people of Judah had rebelled against the LORD and worshiped other gods. The LORD sent the Babylonians to punish them by tearing down their city and the temple which had been defiled. It would seem by the prophets, the Babylonians went further and were more vicious than the LORD told them to be to His people. Those who were left were taken off to Babylon to serve the Babylonians for 70 years. They wept by the rivers of Babylon as they thought of their once beautiful city. Having nothing to sing about, they hung up their lyres on the poplars. It's hard to sing when you're weeping. 3Those who hold us captive there asked us for a song, and those who mocked us wanted us to be cheerful — "Sing us a song of Zion!" 4How could we sing the LORD's song in a foreign land? The Babylonians obviously wanted to rub it in. They ask their captives to sing a song of Zion. I'm sure they had some nice songs about their city on the hill. Now verse 4 seems to equate Zion with the LORD. Any song about Zion would include the One who protected it, until now. This seems awfully ominous to me the state of Christianity. If the exiles who were there because they worshiped other gods and lived as though the LORD wasn't the Living God could have still sung songs during that time about Zion and the LORD, what does it say about Christianity which sings about our LORD Jesus Christ, yet does not live as if it trust His promises and still lives and acts like the world it lives amongst? 5If I forget you, Jerusalem, may my right hand wither and my tongue stick to the roof of my mouth, if I don't remember you, if I don't put Jerusalem above my highest joy! The psalmist calls a curse upon himself if he forgets Jerusalem and doesn't place it above his highest joy. Jerusalem is being identified here with the LORD again. For Jerusalem can only be thought of as such if the LORD dwells within her. At this time, since it fell, He was not there. But, the psalmist does have the promise his descendants will return one day. Then the LORD will inhabit it again. We as Christians look to the New Jerusalem when the LORD comes, conquers all our enemies and ushers us into His eternal kingdom. 7LORD, keep in mind what the people of Edom did on the day Jerusalem fell. They said, “Down with it, down with it, to its very foundation!" 8O people of Babylon who destroy, happy is he who pays you back with the same treatment you gave us! 9Happy is he who grabs your little children and dashes them against a rock! I imagine a lot of us may have a hard time singing or praying these verses. For context, the Edomites, Israel's brother, sang as the Babylonians destroyed the temple. They had no mercy on their relations. He prays the same would come upon them. The Babylonians were merciless as they conquered Judah, overcame Jerusalem and its inhabitants. The Judahites children were treated no better. What they are singing here is the vengeance the LORD had prophesied to them as to what He would do to them in the future. We as Christians may look somewhat in horror as we know, those who reject Jesus and mistreat His people, they and their unbelieving children will fare no better on the day the LORD Jesus returns. It will be the holy angels from above who cannot bear anything unholy who will wreck the LORD's vengeance upon them. We pray for their conversion and share the Gospel with them so they may escape it. Almighty God and Father, we long for the New Jerusalem where You and Jesus are our temple. Grant we may bring salvation to those around us. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Read the full article

[scribeforchrist-blog]

Rejoicing Through The Storm

MEMORY VERSE OF THE WEEK

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+ 1 Corinthians 2:2 For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified

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VERSE OF THE DAY

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+Philippians 3:1 Whatever happens, my dear brothers and sisters,rejoice in the Lord. I never get tired of telling you these things, and I do it to safeguard your faith.

‭‭=========================

SUBJECT: Rejoicing Through The Storm

=========================

** SAY THIS BEFORE YOU READ; HERE’S SOME CHRISTIAN TRUTHS **

I AM HANDING IT ALL TO GOD

I AM FREE

I AM REJOICING

I AM NOT TIRED YET

********************************

THOUGHTS:

=======================

Rejoicing in the lord, what does that mean? What does it look like ?? I had a situation happen to me once, and I never experienced hurt or pain like this; it was the worst feeling in the world, and when I was in that moment, it took me a while to smile again; it took me a while to feel again and not feel numb and as I try to pull my self out of this “I.”

The Holy Spirit taught me that I have to give it all to God That when must give myself more to him than I ever have before, and I have to let go of this idea that “I” could do it all and I couldn’t; the moment the Holy Spirit helped me realized that yes I feel this way and yes I can’t escape this I have to go through it, I realize that I must rejoice in God regardless, and it was tough I’m going to be transparent it was very TOUGH. As I gave more of my brokenness to God, I felt better, and the more I gave, the more I felt and knew he saw me , I didn’t have to do anything but exist and he always seen me !

Pain hurts. Yes, that might not sound grammatically correct, but foot pain hurts,any kind of pain hurts ,and when we have this pain we can feel it all over; pain makes us where we don’t want to get out of bed, we don’t want to do anything but be in our pain rather emotional pain, physical pain, mental pain, pain is pain.

What Paul is telling us to do is rejoice in those moments, not to fake until we make it, but to rejoice in those moments is putting ourselves beyond what we’re feeling its saying; even though I feel this way I know God‘s going to help me feel better even though my life is in chaos I know I can find peace in God That’s what Paul saying rejoice because he still there with us even though it hurts rejoicing in God gives us pleasure to go beyond what we’re feeling.

“Romans 5:3-4 We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. 4 And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation.”

The problem is some Christians like to fake like they’re happy, and they think that will make them look more HOLY OR that it will make them look more righteous, and it doesn’t. God isn’t telling us today to put on a fake face, but what he’s telling us is to rejoice in our trials that when we rejoice, it develops endurance & endurance, gives us more strength and strength, helps us build character and character give us confidence in our faith and in our salvation because we can’t do anything without God; we cannot give ourselves the help that we need; we have to depend on God, so when we rejoice, we are depending on him to fix us ,to mend us so that’s what rejoicing looks like pushing through our sadness to give God the glory.

“Psalm 118:24 This is the day the Lord has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it.”

The Bible is telling us in this verse to rejoice because this is the day the Lord has made that, even though we feel the way we feel, we must give him praise. We must give him more of that, even though we feel like we are in the deepest, darkest spot we have ever been in, rejoice because God gave us this day. Rejoice because we could be underground, but we’re above the earth because we have salvation in God; rejoice because we’re going through. Paul said one time that the troubles that we’re going through are small and they won’t last that long.

*** Today, if you’re having trouble with anything that you’re dealing with, take it to God and pray for the pain that you’re feeling. God doesn’t want you to ignore it. He wants us to take it, to him in prayer . He wants us to see that he’s bigger than what we’re dealing with. He wants us to see that he can guide us through, but we must depend on him and not be so focused on the problems that we’re having; he wants us to be so focused on him that the problems that we become so small because being in his presence is bigger than what we’re suffering so if you’re suffering, if you’re depressed, or if you’re dealing with anxiety, place it in his hands and focus on him and what you’re feeling would become smaller and smaller as you give it to him ©Seer~ Prophetess Lee

========================

PRAYER

========================

Heavenly Father we thank you for helping us rejoice through our problems , lord we give you everything right now ! We ask you to help us depend on you and not ourselves ! We ask you to give us strength to push through, lord the word today tells us to rejoice we so badly want to rejoice but we ask you to give us help to see you through our sadness and disbelief, we rebuke the spirit of depression, we rebuke the spirit of pride we ask you to walk with us every day , your word says you’ll never leave us or forsake us we have confidence in that in Jesus Mighty Name Amen

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REFERENCES

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+ Ephesians 6:10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might.

+ Psalm 32:7 You are a hiding place for me; you preserve me from trouble; you surround me with shouts of deliverance

+ Psalm 16:11 You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore

========================

FURTHER READINGS

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1 Chronicles 4:5-5:17

Acts 25:1-27

Psalm 5:1-12

Proverbs 18:14-15

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https://linktr.ee/surrenderministry

[isaiahbie]

Contentment Through Christ

It is one of the best-known verses in the Bible. It appears on wall art, bumper stickers, social media profiles and even tattoos. But we usually misinterpret it. Philippians 4:13 is not about personal empowerment. It is not a promise that you can become anything you want when you grow up if you want it badly enough. It certainly isn’t assurance that you’ll win an athletic contest or find success in your job. Quite the opposite is the case. In Philippians 4:13, the Apostle Paul models contentment in whatever circumstances he finds himself, whether things are going well or poorly. Moreover, the focus of this verse isn’t on you or me—or Paul for that matter. The focus is on Christ who strengthens for contentment. How do I know that contentment in any situation is the central issue in Philippians 4:13 rather than empowerment? Look at the verses that come just before: “Not that I speak from need, for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am. I know how to get along with little, and I also know how to live in prosperity; in any and every circumstance I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need” (Philippians 4:11-12). It is only after Paul writes about contentment despite circumstances that he pens the words: “I can do all things through Him who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13). That Paul is writing about non-circumstantial contentment in this well-known verse is confirmed by the following verse: “Nevertheless, you have done well to share with me in my difficulty.” (Philippians 4:14). Paul thanks the Philippians for sharing his sufferings through financial aid. He is chained to a guard and needs external aid to provide food and clothing. Philippians 4:13, thus, cannot be about personal success; it must be about contentment despite one’s circumstances, even if those circumstances include chains. What Paul intends to say, then, is that through Christ he can be content despite his circumstances. No matter how hard it gets. No matter whether things are going well. Paul is content. You can be, too—regardless of your circumstances. But where does such contentment come from? This is a deeply personal question since many of us struggle with contentment. I know I sometimes do. When things are hard, I long for escape. When things are OK, I wish they were better. When things are good, I want them to be great; good isn’t enough for me. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this discontent? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! The only way—the only way—to break free from the incessant desire for better and more, from the constant longing for comfort and ease, is “through Him who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13). What an astounding faith affirmation! As we depend upon Christ, whether our circumstances are easy or hard, Christ strengthens us to persist and persevere, to rest and rejoice, to be constant and content. Precious brother or sister, is your life marked by contentment? Is rest and trust—whatever the circumstances—a defining characteristic of your life? Have you learned to be content regardless of the circumstances? If you sense that God is calling you into a deeper life of contentment, let me encourage you to start leaning into the truth of your “in Christ-ness.” You can only move toward profound contentment during the ups and downs of life when you focus on the truth that when you came to Christ you were united with Christ. You will discover strength from Christ to be content, despite your circumstances, as you deeply rest in the truth that no matter what happens, you are “in Christ.”

[steveezekiel]

FINDING GRACE TO HELP IN THE TIME OF NEED 2

17. Therefore, it was necessary for him to be made in every respect like us, his brothers and sisters, so that He could be our merciful and faithful High Priest before God. Then He could offer a sacrifice that would take away the sins of the people.

18. Since He Himself has gone through suffering and testing, HE IS ABLE TO HELP US WHEN WE ARE BEING TESTED."

Hebrews 2:17,18 (NLT)

• The Bible says in the time of trials and persecutions, we should turn to Jesus, look to Him for help?

15. “For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin.

16. LET US THEREFORE COME BOLDLY TO THE THRONE OF GRACE, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”

Hebrews 4:15,16 (NKJV)

- If you have accepted Jesus as your Savior and Lord, you are born again, then you are not left alone to fend for yourself.

15. “If you love Me, keep My commandments.

16. “AND I WILL PRAY THE FATHER, and He will give you another HELPER [comforter], that He may abide with you forever—

17. “the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you.

18. “I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.

John 14:15-18 (NKJV)

- Jesus did promise to ask God the Father to give every believer another HELPER like Him in the person of the Holy Spirit, which He has fulfilled (Acts 2:1-4; Romans 8:9,14).

- But He said something in verse 15 of that passage, John Chapter 14, "If you love Me, keep My commandments.”

- Many who claim that they are Believers in Him are not keeping or obeying His commandments.

- You cannot be wallowing in sin, compromising your faith, living like unbelievers, AND still want Jesus to be there for you when you are being oppressed (Roman 6:1,2).

- The devil will have an access to your life if you have his properties, sins, in your life.

- God will forgive unintentional errors, mistakes and any sin, but for a professed Christian to leave habitually in the sin is unacceptable to God (1 John 1:9; 1 Peter 1:14-16).

• And if you are having a material need or whatever need in your Life, you do not need to compromise you stand in Christ—the word of God.

- Christian living should be centered, basically lived by the principles of the Word of God.

- If everything you do, things about your life generally does not based on the principles of the Word of God, the Bible, there would be distress and confusion about what you should do when challenges come or persecutions arose (Mark 4:16,17).

- The Word of God is the guide for Christian living, and if your life is not built on it; when there is a shaking or turmoil, you may not be able to stand (Matthew 7:24-27).

- When you live by the principles of the Bible, it means you are living by Faith, because Faith is an act of obedience to the Word of God—either the written Word or the Word impressed in your heart by the Holy Spirit on the inside of you (Romans 8:14; Hebrews 11:7,8).

- Whatever the problem may BE, it is not new, and Jesus is ready to help, give solution to it—if you come to Him through His Word.

“If you abide in Me, AND MY WORDS ABIDE IN YOU, you will ask what you desire, AND IT SHALL BE DONE FOR YOU.”

John 15:7 (NKJV)

“No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, WHO WILL NOT ALLOW YOU TO BE TEMPTED BEYOND WHAT YOU ARE ABLE, BUT WITH THE TEMPTATION WILL ALSO MAKE THE WAY OF ESCAPE, that you may be able to bear it.”

1 Corinthians 10:13 (NKJV)

• Every problem of life can be solved through God’s Word.

- When you live by the principles of the Word, you give God an opportunity to help in whatever need that may have come your way.

- The only thing that can incapacitate God in the matter of your life is, when you refused to agree with the terms of His Word.

- God can only help you so far, only to a limited degree, if you do not live by the principles of His Word.

- We have a High Priest, Jesus Christ, who is merciful, faithful, and can sympathize with our weaknesses; but He would not be able to help if we do not agree to walk in the light of his Word (John 14:15; 15:14).

“You are My friends if you do whatever I command you.”

John 15:14 (NKJV)

• You will not fail in Jesus' name.

Peace!

[seekfirst-community]

MAKE THE KINGDOM OF GOD OR FOLLOWING JESUS YOUR TOP PRIORITY. MAKE JESUS WAY OF BEING RIGHTEOUS YOUR WAY. THEN ALL SHALL BE WELL WITH YOU.

"Great crowds were traveling with Jesus, and he turned and addressed them, “If anyone comes to me without hating his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.

"Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.

"Which of you wishing to construct a tower does not first sit down and calculate the cost to see if there is enough for its completion?

"Otherwise, after laying the foundation and finding himself unable to finish the work the onlookers should laugh at him and say, ‘This one began to build but did not have the resources to finish.’

"Or what king marching into battle would not first sit down and decide whether with ten thousand troops he can successfully oppose another king advancing upon him with twenty thousand troops?

"But if not, while he is still far away, he will send a delegation to ask for peace terms. In the same way, anyone of you who does not renounce all his possessions cannot be my disciple.” (Luke 14: 25..... 33).

Sunday September 4th of the 23rd week of Ordinary Time.

When you embark on a new project: building a home, a new career, moving to a new city, volunteering for a new ministry, etc. Rule #1 is sit down and count the cost. This will save you embarrassment and mockery from friends, family and neighbors. "This fellow started something he is unable to complete. He is foolish."

How then can we escape such a fate? The answer is in the first Reading for today:

"Who can know God’s counsel, or who can conceive what the Lord intends? For the deliberations of mortals are timid, and unsure are our plans. For the corruptible body burdens the soul and the earthen shelter weighs down the mind that has many concerns. .... Or who ever knew your counsel, except you had given wisdom and sent your Holy Spirit from on high? And thus were the paths of those on earth made straight." (Wisdom 9: 13.... 18).

To make good decisions, you need wisdom. Wisdom is the gift of the Holy Spirit. Solomon asked for wisdom rather than wealth, health and power. God answered him: "Here and now, I give you what you ask for." God added: And for what you did not ask for, I grant them to you in abundance!

The greatest wisdom is to know the shortcut to peace and prosperity:

"Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all the rest will be given you."

If you are unwilling to renounce all your possessions to seek first the kingdom of God and its righteousness, not only can you not be a disciple of Jesus Christ but you will be like the man who started a building he can never complete.

Daily Bible Verse @ SeekFirstcommunity.com

[urcadelimabean]

Ahahahahahha...14.

At some point yall are going to think I’m making shit up because I SWEAR TO GOD.

Here I was all concerned that I was too muscular and blah blah blah too butch blah blah and this guy... the pullups came up again because he said his brother in law can do 20 and I said huh, I don’t know anyone else who can do as many as me, which I gleefully sort of enjoy, and technically I’ve done 21 and 22 a few times, so I beat his brother in law (or that’s the idea or whatever). he wanted to see the video....I showed him. my shirt’s on in this one ok. I wouldn’t feel brazen enough for the other one. HE LITERALLY....said it was sexy. that word has never escaped his lips before now so you bet your ass I noticed. I cannot even deal with this I am going to launch myself into the SUN. WHAT IS MY LIFE? I’m sorry this is too FUNNY. ITS TOO FUNNY. WHO IS WRITING THIS WEIRD ASS SCREENPLAY

No but actually, he hit me with one of the best compliments Ive ever gotten. I dont know who the fuck put a love spell on this guy but he said before he knew about that about weightlifting, that he thought I exuded strength in my personality, and that I’m one of the most genuine people he’s ever met.

Anyway I.............................................WHAT THE FUCK

He feels slightly imposter-ish about my compliments to him, and believes that I am being genuine but is puzzled by my description of his eyes and lips. I’ve been staring at his face for many hours, of course I enjoy staring at it.

Oh jesus christ his comments on my lips. WHY ARE YOU GUYS READING THIS THIS IS HORRIBLE HORRIBLE STUFF

We had some interesting conversations about fears and shit. philosophical. like a conversation you’d have at a sleepover. I love that stuff. we actually had like....some conversations interspersed with the staring and flirting.

uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGH I would kill someone just to be able to kiss him. He moved the laptop onto his lap and said “how do you feel about being on my lap” sexually frustrated is how i feel, fuck you very much. He was sort of melting into the mattress at the end, trying to figure out where to put the laptop, and wanting it to be over him so he could look up at me. So um. I’d be very happy there.

Yep.

I told him I like the creases at the corners of his eyes. I really like them a lot. He has very kind eyes.

He joked about how he’s not doing a good job of “seducing” me. This is scandalous stuff for us. When one of us actually says the word “kiss” I will have a stroke. Him talking about my lips was .....a lot.

I told him I’d write a poem in verse about alternate ways we could have met, and he looked like a cat that got the cream.

Oh bitch I’m so sexually frustrated I could cry.

I’m being very silly about all this but really I just feel very happy. I have reservations about everything at all times and with him it feels like I don’t need any. It’s a great feeling. I really like him. I’d also really like to TOUCH him.

[dfroza]

lost & found things

this is what we see in Today’s reading of the Scriptures from the New Testament book of Luke in chapter 15:

Jesus became increasingly popular among notorious sinners—tax collectors and other social outcasts. The Pharisees and religious scholars noticed this.

Pharisees and Religious Scholars: This man welcomes immoral people and enjoys their company over a meal!

Jesus (with another parable): Wouldn’t every single one of you, if you have 100 sheep and lose one, leave the 99 in their grazing lands and go out searching for the lost sheep until you find it? When you find the lost sheep, wouldn’t you hoist it up on your shoulders, feeling wonderful? And when you go home, wouldn’t you call together your friends and neighbors? Wouldn’t you say, “Come over and celebrate with me, because I’ve found my lost sheep”? This is how it is in heaven. They’re happier over one sinner who changes his way of life than they are over 99 good and just people who don’t need to change their ways of life.

Or imagine a woman who has 10 silver coins. She loses one. Doesn’t she light a lamp, sweep the whole house, and search diligently until that coin is found? And when she finds it, doesn’t she invite her friends and neighbors and say, “Celebrate with me! I’ve found that silver coin that I lost”? Can’t you understand? There is joy in the presence of all God’s messengers over even one sinner who changes his way of life.

Once there was this man who had two sons. One day the younger son came to his father and said, “Father, eventually I’m going to inherit my share of your estate. Rather than waiting until you die, I want you to give me my share now.” And so the father liquidated assets and divided them. A few days passed and this younger son gathered all his wealth and set off on a journey to a distant land. Once there he wasted everything he owned on wild living. He was broke, a terrible famine struck that land, and he felt desperately hungry and in need. He got a job with one of the locals, who sent him into the fields to feed the pigs. The young man felt so miserably hungry that he wished he could eat the slop the pigs were eating. Nobody gave him anything.

So he had this moment of self-reflection: “What am I doing here? Back home, my father’s hired servants have plenty of food. Why am I here starving to death? I’ll get up and return to my father, and I’ll say, ‘Father, I have done wrong—wrong against God and against you. I have forfeited any right to be treated like your son, but I’m wondering if you’d treat me as one of your hired servants?’” So he got up and returned to his father. The father looked off in the distance and saw the young man returning. He felt compassion for his son and ran out to him, enfolded him in an embrace, and kissed him.

The son said, “Father, I have done a terrible wrong in God’s sight and in your sight too. I have forfeited any right to be treated as your son.”

But the father turned to his servants and said, “Quick! Bring the best robe we have and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and shoes on his feet. Go get the fattest calf and butcher it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate because my son was dead and is alive again. He was lost and has been found.” So they had this huge party.

Now the man’s older son was still out in the fields working. He came home at the end of the day and heard music and dancing. He called one of the servants and asked what was going on. The servant said, “Your brother has returned, and your father has butchered the fattest calf to celebrate his safe return.”

The older brother got really angry and refused to come inside, so his father came out and pleaded with him to join the celebration. But he argued back, “Listen, all these years I’ve worked hard for you. I’ve never disobeyed one of your orders. But how many times have you even given me a little goat to roast for a party with my friends? Not once! This is not fair! So this son of yours comes, this wasteful delinquent who has spent your hard-earned wealth on loose women, and what do you do? You butcher the fattest calf from our herd!”

The father replied, “My son, you are always with me, and all I have is yours. Isn’t it right to join in the celebration and be happy? This is your brother we’re talking about. He was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found again!”

The Book of Luke, Chapter 15 (The Voice)

Today’s paired chapter of the Testaments is the 23rd chapter of the book of Job:

Job confided to his friends.

Job: So once again you are telling me my complaint amounts to rebellion,

that the heavy hand I feel upon me is smothering my groans?

Would that I knew where to find Him.

I would appear before Him.

I would lay my case out before Him;

I would fill up my mouth with arguments.

And then I would finally learn how He would answer me,

and I would understand what He tells me.

Would He oppose me merely with His great power? Surely not!

Surely He would show me the respect of listening to my argument.

There, in that courtroom, a moral man might hope to reason with Him,

and I would escape my Judge forever.

Alas, wherever I go, ahead or behind,

He is not there;

I am unable to find Him.

When He works on either side of me, I still cannot see Him.

I catch no glimpse of Him.

But He knows the course I have traveled.

And I believe that were He to prove me,

I would come out purer than gold from the fire.

My foot has been securely set in His tracks;

I have kept to His course of life without swerving;

I have not departed from the commands of His lips;

I have valued everything He says more than all else.

He alone is one True God; who can alter Him?

Whatever He desires within Himself, He does.

For He will carry out exactly what He has planned for me,

and in the future there are more plans to come.

Therefore, I am deeply troubled before Him;

when I ponder it at any length, I am terrified of Him.

Yes, God has melted my courage,

and the Highest One has overwhelmed me with His terror.

He could have turned me aside when the darkness came,

but He did not cut me off.

Nor does He hide my face from the gloom that has now overtaken me.

The Book of Job, Chapter 23 (The Voice)

my personal reading of the Scriptures for friday, April 30 of 2021 with a paired chapter from each Testament of the Bible along with Today’s Proverbs and Psalms

A post by John Parsons that looks into our “rest”

It is written in our Scriptures: "Commit your way to the LORD, trust also in Him, and he will bring it to pass" (Psalm 37:5). In this verse, the word translated "commit" comes from the Hebrew root galal (גלל), which could be rendered as "roll away" or "heap upon" (the word gal means a heap or pile of stones). The LORD spoke this word when He said to Joshua, "This day have I rolled away (galal) the reproach of Egypt from off you" (Josh. 5:9) and named the place "Gilgal" (גִּלְגָּל), a word-play meaning a wheel or "rolling away." In great mercy the LORD "rolls away" the reproach of our sin.

The word galal can also mean to trust or to commit, with the connotation of "rolling one's trouble" away from oneself upon someone else who can help. Thus the Messiah entrusted (galal) His suffering unto the LORD (Psalm 22:8), and we are likewise encouraged to "commit" (galal) our way to his loving will. When we trust in His love, when we "roll away" the burden of our lives to His care, our thoughts will be "established" and we can freely enjoy the confidence that God Himself is directing our way (Prov. 16:9, Psalm 37:23). We can then experience genuine rest and shalom, despite the tumult of the world and its tribulations.

As the Lord Yeshua cried out, "Come unto Me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest" (Matt. 11:28), so may we come, rolling away our burdens unto Him, and having our way established in His shalom (1 Pet. 5:7; Psalm 55:22). Amen. [Hebrew for Christians]

4.29.21 • Facebook

Today’s message from the Institute for Creation Research

April 30, 2021

Jehovah

“And, Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth; and the heavens are the works of thine hands.” (Hebrews 1:10)

The primary name for God in Scripture is the majestic name Jehovah, occurring nearly 7,000 times. The early Jews were reluctant to use that name for fear of using it lightly (Exodus 20:7) and substituted the word Adonai (meaning Master or Lord) in its place. Our English versions have followed suit, using the term “Lord” for Jehovah (small or all caps to distinguish it from Adonai, or Lord). Thus, the name Jehovah appears only four times in the King James and causes us at times to miss the full impact of the passage.

This is especially true in the New Testament quotations from Old Testament passages that used the name “Jehovah” for which “Lord” has been substituted. Now in the English versions the name “Lord” appears. If “Jehovah” (i.e., deity) were read instead, much richer meaning would be gathered, and it would prove beyond a doubt the full deity of Christ. Consider two examples.

First, our text quotes from Psalm 102:25-27. The entire psalm consists of praise to Jehovah, and here in Hebrews it addresses the Son. If we read “thou, Jehovah, in the beginning hast laid the foundations of the earth” and realize that Jesus is the subject of the passage, we recognize that Jesus can be none other than the Creator God.

Also, in Matthew 3:3, where John the Baptist fulfilled his prophesied role by teaching “Prepare ye the way of the Lord,” quoting from Isaiah 40:3, we see Jesus equated with the Jehovah of the Old Testament, for Isaiah uses the term LORD, or Jehovah.

In these and many other examples, we see Christ as the Jehovah Jesus and that the Lord of the Old Testament is the Jesus of the New Testament. JDM

[dailyaudiobible]

09/13/2020 DAB Transcript

Isaiah 12:1-14:32, 2 Corinthians 13:1-14, Psalms 57:1-11, Proverbs 23:9-11

Today is the 13th day of September welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I'm Brian it is great to be here with you as we reach the…the threshold of a shiny, sparkly, new week. We only get to do this 52 times in a year, and this is one of those times, but 52 times a year we get to imagine ourselves walking forward into our future. We are right here, right now and there is a week in front of us and it's ours, it's a gift, it's ours. We get to write the story of our lives upon this week and we get to choose what that's gonna look like. We can just wander into it aimlessly and be tossed about, like we just stepped out of last week and jumped into a washing machine on spin cycle or we can orient ourselves to God each day and walk with confidence into this week, knowing who we are and knowing where we’re going. And let's choose the latter. Let’s do the…let's do the latter thing that I just said. Let's walk into this week with confidence together and allow the Scriptures to inform our choices and decisions and postures of heart in the coming days including today. So, we got a brand-new. We’re gonna read from the English Standard Version this week and we will pick up in the book of Isaiah where we left off yesterday. Isaiah chapters 12, 13, and 14.

Prayer:

Father, we thank You for Your word. We thank You for a new week. We enter this new week with…with a grateful heart. And even as we have now concluded the book of second Corinthians and look forward into the new week moving into some new territory in the New Testament, we are grateful. We see that we are progressing. And we are not only progressing through the Bible, this big thick ancient book, the Bible is making us progress forward in our lives, our Spirits are being renewed, we are being sanctified, we are being set apart as holy. This is remarkable and we are grateful. And, so, we thank You. We look forward to all that You will speak to us in the coming days of this week. Well up from within Holy Spirit. May we become more and more aware of Your constant presence in our lives. We pray this in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Announcements:

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

Community Prayer and Praise:

Lord we lift up Your children who are burdened with feelings of shame and condemnation. We thank You Lord that You do not condemn us or shame us. Convict us, yes, because You want to encourage us to turn away from sin and toward You. But shame and condemnation are chains the enemy designed to mobilize us and hinder Your work. Help us and our brothers and sisters in Christ who are bound by chains of shame and condemnation to raise our fettered hands for You and allow You to remove our shackles. Lead us to verses in Your word that affirm Your forgiveness for all confessed sins. Remind us that You have cast those confessed sins as far as the east is from the west encouraging us that just as east and west never meet so our confessed sins are cast forever out of Your presence. Give us Your strength to leave those sins at the cross and to walk in the newness of life that Jesus purchased for us. Thank You, Lord that there’s no sin You cannot forgive, no sinner that You cannot save, no chain that You cannot break. Thank You that when the enemy whispers an invitation to walk back through the valley of shame and condemnation, we can answer him as it is written - I will forgive their iniquity and I will remember their sin no more. Thank You that no matter how many times we fall into that valley Your help to escape it is only a prayer away. Thank You, Lord that no matter how many times we give up on ourselves You never do. Free us Lord so that we can use what You’ve done for us to lead others to that same freedom that You have given us. Help us Lord to empty our hands of all that hinder us so that You can fill them with Your word, Your worship and Your work. I ask all these things or something even better in the mighty name of Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. Amen.

Hey, everyone this is Valerie from Arizona calling again. I just left a message a couple of days ago I was feeling pretty down about my difficulties for me and my husband dealing with infertility. And as some of you guys may remember I have been living in the past as I’ve been saying, listening to the DAB entries from the beginning…the beginning of the year on and something just really, really incredible happened. So, I’m not caught up to date. So, I’m not listening to the current prayer requests or anything but I just felt so moved to call in last week when I was feeling down and I thought, you know, even if I don’t hear these until I make it to September then then I think I’ll still feel better knowing that maybe people out there are praying. So, something really cool happened. I’m painting this weekend, I’m working on projects and I’m blasting through all the entries and on April 19th someone named Hopeful called in and her message, it’s like it was for me in that moment and it was about how you can be thankful for things in your life even if maybe motherhood isn’t happening when you want it to happen. And I just felt so amazed and overwhelmed by that, that here I am listening to all these past entries and God still finds a way to connect me with somebody for the problem I was having this weekend, feeling down. So, God’s amazing, I’m just so thankful I found this app and this community, and I just had to come on and give a little praise report. And I’m out of time so I’ll talk to you guys soon. Praise Jesus. O…I just love it.

Hey fellow DABbers this is Joe the Protector from Georgia September 9th here 7:58 in the morning. Just got finished listening to the 9th day of the DAB and I’m calling in reference to Joe the new listener who called in. And Joe I just want you to know that we do have your back spiritually and that we are in prayer with you and that this fight that we fight daily…daily. It’s a spiritual battle. We fight a daily spiritual battle. It’s not a weekly or a monthly or even a yearly battle as the Israelites did when…when they had to go sacrifice once a year but this is a daily battle that we have to come to God and sacrifice what’s going on in our life. So, Joe I want you to know that just stay firm, be courageous and bold. Don’t give in to the enemy’s tactics because that’s what this is, is one of the enemy’s tactics. And God has not promised us a life of ease but of hardship. It says it in His word that this is a...this path that we take is a life of hardship at times. So, Joe we’ve got your back and I totally get and understand what you’re going through. I’ve had it happen in my home as well and not…maybe to the severity you have it, but I do have it. So, just…just take a stand, just right now in your mind just take that stand. All right fellow DABbers. Love you all. Be safe. See y’all next time.

Hey all, this is the Midwest teacher I hope you’re having a blessed day. This message is for Sonny from Florida. Sonny I know exactly what you’re going through. Last year three months before my husband and I’s three-year anniversary he was diagnosed with leukemia. And we definitely expected trials in our marriage but that was not one that we foresaw. And I…I just…I get it and it is so difficult and I can’t imagine going through it our first year of marriage. But I do have a verse that I highlighted shortly after he got diagnosed and I would love to read that to you. But please know that I am praying for you. A lot of us are praying for you. Don’t let the devil get inside your head or your wife’s head. Here’s that verse. It’s Psalm 18:16 through 18. He reached down from on high and took hold of me. He drew me out of deep waters. He rescued me from my powerful enemy, from my foes who are too strong for me. They confronted me in the day of my disaster, but the Lord was my support. Just know that we’re thinking of you and praying for you and don’t hesitate to call in and give us updates or more prayer request because we are here for you. We are here for you. Thank you. Bye.

Good morning Daily…Daily Audio Bible family it’s Susan from Canada, God’s Yellow…God’s Yellow Flower calling. I’ve been listening daily and praying daily for each and every one of you and my heart just breaks over each and every one of your prayer requests. It’s just so distressing that I want you to know that I do pray along with you guys will and I love you all and you move me deeply with your tears and your…and your troubles. And I want to pray for Joe the new listener, welcome Joe to the family. We’re glad to have you and we pray that we can support you in your walk. And, so, let’s pray. Dear heavenly Father I just ask that You be with Joe and strengthen him and give him wisdom during this time of attack on his family and his home. I pray Holy Spirit that You would just fill his home, every corner of his home, that everyone there will know that You are God and that no evil can enter. Dear Lord I come against the powers of Satan that are trying to bring this home down, bring this family down and I just ask dear God that Your You send Your angels with a burning fire to just eliminate Satan from that home, just to hold…uphold Joe with Your righteous right hand and give him the strength he needs to overcome and to empower his family with truth. In Jesus’ precious and holy name, I pray.

__ gosh I want to cry. Hold me together Lord. I just need some prayer. My sisters daughter has been killed in a car accident yesterday and she leaves behind a daughter and a husband and a sister and her brother and mother and two fathers. __ if we can have prayer all around from everybody and having everyone connected. We are __ this prayer line opportunity __. Bye.

This is my first-time calling in. I was looking at pictures on Facebook tonight of the country where I’ve been a missionary. My name is Jeannie and that is…the name of the country is Niger Republic. There’s a terrible flood going on there and there are hundreds of people in the capital city of Niamey that are without any place to sleep, they’re without close, they’re without food, they’ve lost everything. So, please pray for them. Pray that sons come in to help many people and that this is an…this will become a glorious opportunity for many Muslim people in that country to come to know that there’s a Savior named Jesus who loves them and who wants them to be in relationship with Him. Thanks everybody.

[gospeltruths2]

A Loving, Merciful God of Standards

The Lord Almighty, the one who created everything is a God of love and mercy, but he is also a God with standards. Because of his mercy and grace all of mankind can be saved from damnation. I have found that many believers today imagine that because God is a God of grace, mercy and forgiveness, they can get away with anything, get away with doing whatever they want to do and behaving in any-which-way they want to behave. I’ve been there! And I have learned and am learning from mistakes I’ve made regarding this. But here is something that everyone needs to remember, God has standards, standards which he upholds all mankind to, Christian or not; all our actions have consequences!

There were several Bible verses I learned in High School, that expound on this truth, which have pretty much been my life verses. They are Proverbs 18:24, Luke 6:31, Colossians 4:6, and Matthew 12:36; Proverbs 18:24 says, “One who has unreliable friends soon comes to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.” -NIV, but I learned it in the King James Version which states, “A man that hath friends must shew himself friendly, and there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.” I understood this verse to mean that if I want good friends, lifelong friends, I must also prove myself to be a person that is identified with ‘good’ ‘lifelong’ friend’ characteristics. Growing up, I was shy, and sheltered, so making friends ‘outside’ my family circle was important and scary to me, but I also found it to be easier than I imagined, because I tend to attract people. Talking to other people was quite scary mostly during my preteen and teen years, even though people are generally drawn to me. It is still quite scary for me to make friends because I am also a very empathic, emotional person, so when I make friends, I tend to want a lifelong friendship, and not just any kind of lifelong friendship, but a good one with God as the foundation. Granted, I cannot claim to have always been a person of ‘good, lifelong friend’ material, but I do my best; I digress! I was just recalling a few occasions where I did not treat others right, and other separate occasions where others didn’t treat me right as well. As you may have guessed, these occurrences happened in college, sometimes between me and professors, but most times between me and my roommates/suite mates or between me and the Residence life staff. I recalled an occasion, after one such altercation with two of my suite mates, where I was speaking to the former Residence Life Director about how the altercation occurred, how I was clearly being treated unfairly because the cause of the altercation was not me, yet, I was being blamed, and disciplined for it while the real culprits went scot free, in my opinion, anyway. In order to control my temper and keep the peace, I decided to just accept the discipline, though, to be entirely honest, I did do something wrong during the altercation, I fought with this suitemate. Anyway, I cautioned her and told her that God sees all and the ‘day of reckoning’ will come where God will fight for me and ‘balance the books’, so to speak, in essence consequences follow actions, and she said to me that “the God she knows is a God of mercy, and He does not or will not punish us anymore for sinning,”like he punished the ancient world when they sinned. While that is true, the God I know is also a God of standards, standards he upholds the human race to. All actions have consequences!

I learned this concept early in life, but I didn’t fully grasp it until some of my actions in 2012 resulted in some very bitter consequences, consequences I’m still suffering from till today, eight years after the fact! Trust me when I say, actions have consequences! And I have experienced the war and peace of consequences throughout these past nine years. In as much as becoming a Christian means having an escape from ‘judgment’ and damnation, all humans are accountable to God! Jesus’ exhortation in Matthew 12:36 & 37 says, “But I tell you that everyone will have to give an account on the day of judgment for every empty word they have spoken. For by your word you will be acquitted and by your word you will be condemned.” Every time I remember the person that called himself a ‘cussing Christian’, I feel so sad for him, and every time I remember all the ‘empty words’ that have come out of my own mouth, I begin to wonder about how I’m going to account for them before God, like what exactly would I say? Our words, our thoughts, and our actions all have consequences or blessings attached to them! So we all ought to be cautious about what we say, what we think about, and how we act. Since our thoughts determine our actions, our thought life should also be controlled by God.

I received this word in my spirit while formulating this post, when I pondered on this question, ‘Why then did God punish the ancient Israelites when they sinned? And not just the Israelites, remember Nebuchadnazzar, his son Belshazzar, and other people’s of the ancient word who did not follow him, remember the Philistines, Amalekites, Amorites, Babylonians, and so on, the Word I received is this, “when God punished the ancient Israelites for sinning, he didn’t punish them because he hated them, or didn’t forgive their trespasses, no, he forgave their trespasses, and still loved them despite their failures, when God destroyed the ancient world with a flood, he didn’t destroy mankind because he hated us, no, he punished them, and ‘punishes’ or rather ‘disciplines’ because he loves us so much that he wants to correct the sin in us because God cannot and will not tolerate any kind of sin; any kind of behavior that is contrary to his way. When God created the world, everything was good, everything was perfect and peaceful! But sin destroyed that goodness, and brought the curse of evil on all creation; now we crave for everything we had in the Garden, good health, long life, peace, unity, and so forth. This sin separated us from God, so badly that coming to him required atonement. The beautiful relationship and unity we had with God as mankind was broken by sin, and blood had to be spilled, usually the blood of a clean, unblemished animal was required to commune with God.

But God could not stand being separated from mankind because our sin clashed negatively with his righteousness, so he sent Jesus to build a bridge for us back to him.

Again, I digress. Whether you identify yourself as a believer or not, God holds you to certain standards of behavior. If you are a believer, reading this post, God holds you to even higher standards of behavior. I have quite a number of life Bible verses, learned in High School, some to use as sources of encouragement and healing, and others to guide me in the way I live, one of them is Jesus’ words in Luke 6:31, “Do to others as you would have them do to you”, in other words, treat others the way you want to be treated by them.

Anyway, the purpose of this post is to admonish; admonish especially believers, including myself, to work at being a person who lives like Jesus lived. I have worked at living by Luke 6:31, yet I have found that on many occasions, people do not reciprocate my kindness, consideration and my cordiality, rather they try to take advantage of it. This does not discredit Jesus’ words, though, it just confirms that the heart of man is desperately wicked’, because I have also found some people to reciprocate my kindness and cordiality wig even more kindness, generosity and cordiality. Those, I believe, are friendships I have made having God as it’s foundation, ‘good-lifelong’ friendships.’

The bottom line is, God is watching, not just our behaviors, but also our hearts. I have a blog post about motives. Sometimes, I wonder ‘why’ ; ‘why am I continually considerate, kind and cordial?’ ‘Am I that way only because I want ‘good’ friends or because I want others to be considerate, kind and cordial towards me? Better yet, do I behave considerately, kindly and cordially because I love Jesus and want to do what he says, or is there another motive? Another Bible verse I live by is Galatians 6:7, “Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked, a man reaps what he sows.” In other words, people who sow kindness, reap kindness; using a farming analogy, if you sow green beans, you cannot reap carrots or even brown beans! It works the same way in life, you don’t usually reap meanness from kindness and compassion, except in unusual instances where emotions like jealousy and envy prevail, and vice versa, it is abnormal to reap compassion from sowing rudeness. Bottom line, God sees all, and he fights for the ‘oppressed’ and the ‘ill-treated’. We always reap what we sow. There is no tricking God, he looks right past our actions into our hearts and he knows why we do what we do, why we behave the way we behave. And as much as he does not ‘smite’ us down for sinning, we will face the consequences of our actions. Remember Galatians 6:7, “Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked, a man reaps what he does.” So why do ‘bad’things happen to ‘good’people? How come my consideration and kindness is usually met with unkindness, and inconsideration? I have a theory: perhaps my motives for being kind and considerate were not to please God, but I don’t know, do I make myself ‘appear’ to be ‘good’,’godly’ and ‘righteous’? Or have I developed those characteristics of Christ? One great big lesson I’m learning is that when it comes to God, it all boils down to the heart. The point of this entire post, though is ‘watch yourself’ “God cannot be mocked’ and ‘a man reaps what he sows’ it is sad that many ‘Christians’ believe that because God is forgiving, and we are living in the period of grace, they can do whatever, and escape the consequences because God is forgiving. Sometimes I wonder if people, if (I )truly understand what ‘repentance’ is all about.

Yes, God forgives and picks us up every time we fall, but why live in the viscious cycle of sin, ‘repentance’, andforgiveness? We gotta do better, how can we be good examples and great representatives of Christ if we’re living in a viscious cycle? We(I’ve) got to strive to be better! The great news is that in Christ, we don’t have to strive to be perfect in our own strength, we have the Holy Spirit to help us live right.

[ftpthemovement]

LUNCH SPECIAL

Don’t allow yourself to be driven away into temptation. Scripture itself says “When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; but each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.” James‬ ‭1:13-15‬ ‭

So if we know that “No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.” 1 Corinthians 10:13

What are the ways we can escape going through the process of even being tempted?

#1: Let go and let God: Call out to God immediately what is happening and ask him to take care of it, having full faith and confidence that he’s already in the process of doing so. This allows you to not stress, but progress in the works that he’s called you to do. He’s not to busy to help out his kids, he’s waiting on you to have faith enough to trust his process, instead of stressing and robbing yourself of a blessing. Simply ask him to remove the distractions so you won’t have impure reactions. “Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. James 4:7

#2: Make the Lord your refuge: “You will not fear the terror of night, nor the arrow that flies by day, nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness, nor the plague that destroys at midday. A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you. You will only observe with your eyes and see the punishment of the wicked. If you say, “The Lord is my refuge,” and you make the Most High your dwelling, no harm will overtake you, no disaster will come near your tent. For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways; they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone. You will tread on the lion and the cobra; you will trample the great lion and the serpent. “Because he loves me,” says the Lord, “I will rescue him; I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name. He will call on me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble, I will deliver him and honor him. With long life I will satisfy him and show him my salvation.”” Psalms‬ ‭91:5-16‬ ‭

#3. No vacancy: A lot of times we are willing to let God into our house, but we are to afraid to not fully sign over the deed. Some allow him to come stay in their lives, but not every room of it. Some might be so bold as to give God their master bedroom, just not the closet, or the basement where we want to keep our messes hidden. I’d like to challenge you today to allow the Lord in every part of your life by signing the deed of your life over to him, making the house his responsibility.

So when the enemy comes knocking on the door, no longer will you have to answer it, God will. When the accuser comes knocking ready to plow through your life, he will be met face to face with God the creator of the cosmos, your vindicator. Do you have even the slightest idea of what happens when the enemy comes to bully one of Gods children? Do you know what the Lord will do to the enemy, when he tries to trespass on his property?

As an example I’ll say, “Lord you see that I’m under attack and I thank you for stepping in and defeating the enemy right before my eyes. Thank you for the victory, you’ve prepared a feast before my enemies, anointed my head with oil, and my cup runs over with your abundant blessings and protection. My mind and conscious is clear, I give you all the glory! Thank you for removing this stress so I can continue to progress for you”

#4. The meditation of your mind: If someone hasn’t told you yet, you definitely need to know, you are not responsible for all the thoughts that pass through your brain. It’s when you choose to hold on to one of them by dwelling on them, that things can really get out of hand. Instead of holding onto a negative thought, say “I hold all thoughts captive to Christ who strengthens me. May the meditation of my mind be pleasing in your sight. Remove any barriers that would be a hindrance and bless me in all of my ways. I thank you that this is complete in my life in Jesus name.

#5. Believe and Receive: Some time a go I began to reword my prayers. When I did, I noticed a huge transformation in my life. I realized that God was so good that he was blessing my faith. When I increased my faith to pray big, bold prayer, is when a major shift happened in my life. Scripture says it Mark 11:24 “Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.”

This single verse of faith changed my entire life. I plan on going over this topic in extreme depth in the near future, but for now just let that verse be the meditation of your mind when making a request from the Lord. These words directly from the mouth of Christ, give us an inside look into how God operates in our lives, how to access him at that level, and what the result of our faith can truly be when we choose to ask God to move on our behalf.

I pray that today you will take the opportunity to operate in these 5 opportunities. Reading them is the same as looking at weights, if you don’t use them you will never grow and muscles. You can stare at them all day, and pray all day long that you’ll grow strong, but until you use your freewill to operate the weights by putting them into action, you’ll never begin to grow.

Same goes for scripture, you can read it and know it all day, but it counts for nothing until put into actions. Faith without works is like knowledge without application, it’s dead. So be encouraged today, choose one of these each day to practice, let the meditation of your mind become dependent on the Lord. Begin to walk in relation by conversation with him, reminding yourself that he’s present and willing at all times to be of service to his children.

Humble yourself to remember that’s exactly what you are and will forever be in his eyes. You are blessed, righteous, redeemed, children of God. You are loved, blessed with abundance, and fully walk in the light of his grace, mercy, and peace. Go today and be blessed by being a blessing to others. Let your irrational generosity be a symbol of hope to others, by refreshing them through your faith. Finish the day without arguing or complaining, without grumbling about situations. Scripture says that this will allow you to shine bright in a crooked and perverse generation.

Most of all go in full trust that God is working all things towards the good of those who love him. When the spirit of temptation comes, point him to Jesus. When the accuser starts pointing fingers your way, point him to the finished works of Jesus Christ. Go be the change you want to see, go be FTP my brothers! -ES

[wisdomfish]

Think clearly and correctly about temptation. Paul writes, “No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it” (1 Corinthians 10:13). You are not immune to temptation. You are not unique when tempted. You are not alone in your temptations. James writes, “Let no say when he is tempted, ‘I am being tempted by God,’ for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death” (James 1:13-15). You cannot gain victory over temptation fighting the wrong battles. Do not blame God. Do not trust yourself. Do not be deceived about temptation.

Renew your mind.Temptation is a battle of the mind. We often lose when temptation comes, because we give up too much territory before the battle ever begins. Paul admonishes, “Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall” (1 Corinthians 10:12). You can easily fall, if you have faulty thinking about yourself, temptation, and sin. You must renew your mind: “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good, acceptable, and perfect” (Romans 12:2). Victory over temptation the spiritual power of a renewed mind: “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things” (Philippians 4:8).

Fight.Temptation is spiritual warfare. To gain victory over temptation, you must fight! James gives a crash course in spiritual warfare in one verse: “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you” (James 4:7). This is a remarkable promise. The devil will flee from you, like a defeated army in full retreat. But Satan does not withdraw automatically. You must first submit to God. In a real sense, you cannot win over Satan until you learn to lose to God. Then the submissive believer must resist the devil. Victory over temptation requires that you stand your ground and fight. This spiritual battle may require extreme measures. You may have to tear out your right eye or cut off your right hand to resist temptation (Matthew 5:29-30). But it is worth whatever it costs you to win the battle against temptation and live in obedience to God.

Avoid Temptation.Warning against sinful temptations, Solomon asked, “Can a man carry fire next to his chest and his clothes not be burned? Or can one walk on hot coals and his feet not be scorched?” (Proverbs 6:27-28) These rhetorical questions assume a negative answer. Likewise, they teach us that the best way to gain victory over temptation is to avoid it altogether. It is foolish to stick your hand into a fire and then pray for strength, protection, or intervention. If you do not want to be burned, stay away from the fire! And if you want to resist temptation, stay away from places, practices, and, yes, people, that feed your temptations. Paul exhorts, “But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires” (Romans 13:14). Avoid temptation. Don’t trust yourself. Don’t stick your hand into the fire. Don’t give your flesh any opportunity to gratify its desires.

Make Yourself Accountable to Godly People.When fallen leaders are surveyed, the same responses emerge. First, they did not think it would happen to them. Second, they did not have people in their lives who told them the truth. The fact that spiritual leaders fall when they do have healthy relationships should be a stern warning to us all. You cannot overcome temptation on your own. You need godly people in your life. And these godly people need to be free to hold you accountable. That is, they should be free to ask you personal questions, challenge the answers you give, and follow up to see if you are keeping your word. I know this seems inconvenient, if not invasive. But if you do not have people who will speak the truth in love to you, you will succumb to the lies your flesh tell you. “Two are better than one,” wrote Solomon (Ecclesiastes 4:9a). He explains: “And though a man might prevail against one who is alone, two will withstand him – a threefold cord is not quickly broken” (Ecclesiastes 4:12).

Put the Past Behind You. As we deal with temptation, we must forget the failures of the past. Indeed, we should remember the lessons of the past. But must not let yesterday’s failure’s control our past and determine our future. We must put the past behind us. There is only one way to do that: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). If you are honest with God about your sin, he promises to blessings. First, the Lord will forgive your sin through the finished work of our Advocate, Jesus Christ the Righteous (1 John 2:1). But that’s not all! The Lord will also cleanse us from all unrighteousness. The God who forgives sin also cleanses sin. God can create within you a clean heart (Psalm 51:10) that puts the past behinds you and gives you a new start.

Set Your Desires on Godly Satisfaction. “Just follow your heart,” may seem like good advice. But it is actually the worst advice anyone can give you. Our hearts are deceitful above all things (Jeremiah 17:9). And left to their natural devices, our hearts will inevitably lead us astray. Victory over temptation requires that we set our hearts on something above and beyond us (Colossians 3:1-2). We must set our affections on God. David wrote, “Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart” (Psalm 37:4). If you delight in the Lord, he will teach your heart what to desire and fulfill those godly desires. Temptation cannot lead you astray when your delight is in God, not the things of this world. Moses prays, “Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days” (Psalm 90:14). True joy is only found in the satisfaction of living in the loyal love of God in Christ.

Remember the Lord. Potiphar’s wife tried to seduce Joseph. He resisted. But she insisted that he go to bed with her. Firmly refusing to give in to temptation, Joseph asked, “How then can I do this great wickedness and sin against God?” (Genesis 39:9) Joseph fully understand it would betray Potiphar’s trust to sleep with his wife. But Joseph stated that it would be a great act of wickedness against God, not Potiphar. Temptation seduces the mind and causes us to forget about God. We overcome temptation by remembering the Lord. When sin solicits you, ask yourself questions that will force you to remember the Lord. Can I thank God for what I am tempted to do? (1 Thessalonians 5:18) Can I do this in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ? (Colossians 3:17) Can I do this to the glory of God? (1 Corinthians 10:31) Remembering the Lord weakens the power of temptation and gives strengthens your resolve to please him.

Commit Yourself to Good Works. You go into the field and pull up weeds. But your work is not done. You must plant seed that will be fruit to replace the weeds. If you allow the ground to lay fallow, uprooted weeds will grow again. So it is in dealing with temptation. Paul wrote, “Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord” (Romans 12:11). The old saying is true, “The idle mind is the devil’s workshop.” The more you consume your life with the fruit of righteousness the less room you give for the seeds of temptation to grow. 1 Corinthians 15:58 reads, “Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.” Always be at work for the Lord. In fact, abound in the work of the Lord. Your labor in the Lord will not be in vain. Faithful service will have a sanctifying effect in you as you serve others for Christ’s sake.

Depend on the Power of the Lord Jesus Christ. You cannot gain victory over temptation in your own wisdom, strength, or resources. You need divine help that only comes through Jesus Christ. Paul calls the saints to arms: “Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil” (Ephesians 6:10-11). The power of Satan is deceit. He schemes against believers to undermine and overthrow our faith in Christ. But God has given you the armor you need to stand firm. The whole armor of God is effectively by the strength and might of the Lord. You can only wear and work the armor by the power of Christ. This is the believer’s only hope for gaining victory over temptation. I can state it in five words: Jesus only. And only Jesus. Trust Jesus can clear your guilt. Trust Jesus can change your habits. Trust Jesus can conquer your problems.

~ H.B. Charles

[galadrieljones]

The Lily Farm - Chapter 31

AO3 | Masterpost

Rating: M (Mature) - sexual content, violence, and adult themes

Summary: To help her process Sean’s death, Mary Beth asks Arthur to take her on a hunting trip, somewhere far away. He agrees, and on their journey to the north, they find quietude and take comfort in their easy bond. They’ve been friends for a while now, but life, like the wilderness, is full of uncertainty and complications, and as they embark on their desperate search for meaning together, they endure many trials, some small, some big—all of which bring them closer to one another, and to their future.

Chapter 31: The Wayward Minister

My Dearest Reverend,

Mary Beth and I have decided to get married, and we would be most thankful if you would do us the honor of performing the service. It is to be held up at the Winterson Bed and Breakfast near Emerald Ranch as soon as possible. If you would prefer not to ride, I have included $5 in this envelope, which should be enough to buy you a train ticket from St. Denis. We will wait for you until June 30th. If you have not arrived by then, we will travel to the church in Valentine, no hard feelings.

I ain’t much of a man for the Bible, sir, but I do remember one verse you gave to me many a year ago, from John I believe: “He that is without sin among you, let him cast the first stone.” Something like that. The folks who own the Wintersons’ establishment are real nice, and they will not judge you nor any of us. I know that, should you choose to come, you will be as clean as you can be. I have nothing but faith in you, sir.

I have similarly sent for Dutch and Hosea, but seeing as we are all wanted men in a great deal of shit these days, the rest of the gang must be left behind. We hope to see you soon.

Sincerely,

Arthur

Swanson had been lying in the weeds at Shady Belle when he received the letter.

“You alive?” said Karen, nudging him with the toe of her boot. Of course, she meant it in a colloquial way, but the question, to Reverend Swanson, was one of deeply profound meaning. “Hello?”

“Yes,” he said, sitting straight up, coming out of an existential nightmare in which bugs crawled all over and inside of his body “Miss Jones.”

“Got a visitor.” She walked away.

Standing there now was a young man wearing a messenger’s cap. He could have sworn that it was Arthur Morgan twenty years ago. “You Reverend Swanson?” the boy said.

Swanson rubbed his eyes. It was not Arthur. It was not twenty years ago. He had a splitting headache. “Yes, I’m Swanson,” he said. He took off his hat. He stood slowly, one foot at a time and dusted off his pants at the knees. “How can I help you?”

“I got a letter here for you on express delivery from Mr. Arthur Morgan.”

“Arthur?”

“Yes, mister. Big man with a pretty horse? Looked like a gunslinger if you ask me, but I ain’t got no interest in his work. No, sir. He paid me double to see I get this here letter to you by this very morning, and I’d appreciate it, mister, if, next time you talk to him, you could confirm my success.”

“What?” said the Reverend. The kid seemed to be speaking a hundred miles per hour. “Oh, yes. Of course.”

The boy with the letter nodded. He was tall and lean but in an awkward sort of way, and he smoked a cigarette as he handed over the envelope. He wore simple clothing that suggested he was of a lower class family, miners probably. Annesburg no doubt. He did very much remind Swanson of Arthur when Arthur was real young—just a kind of blot-on-the-town but good intentioned, maybe a little more put together around the edges than Arthur ever was but the same softness in the eyes. He carried with him a leather messenger bag, and inside of it was a book by Mark Twain, though Swanson could not see which. It warmed his heart that the boy was somehow literate, and he wished to save his soul but he had his own soul needed saving first, and in the meantime, could do nothing but tip the boy generously with a handful of coins from his pocket and send him on his way.

“Thanks, mister,” said the boy. “The man Arthur Morgan said he was not expecting your reply, so I’ll be leaving now. Do you know where I can find a Hosea Matthews?”

“Yes,” said the Reverend. “Hosea—he should be in St. Denis. Check the saloon. The fancy one. He’s, uh, in his late fifties. White hair. He’ll be with a somewhat younger, singular looking man in black”

“Thanks a lot.”

”What is this about? Young man? Do you know?”

“I got no idea. You have a good day, mister.”

“Oh. You, too.”

The boy got back on his horse and rode away.

Upon reading Arthur’s letter, Swanson wiped his brow with a handkerchief from his pocket, picked up his valise, which contained his Bible and all of his earthly belongings and set off walking through the bayou to clear his brain. He had done this many times. Some people were afraid of this place, but he knew that if you just left the gators alone, they would leave you alone, and he was unafraid of night folk, because he knew that should they take his life it was meant to be and karmic retribution for his sins. They were unaware of their own barbarism, thought Swanson. They were just living the life handed to them as any other. He walked all the way to St. Denis. It took several hours.

When he got there, he went to the saloon and bought a bowl of soup and drank water to kill his headache and recuperate. He did not order any whiskey. He then walked through the clean streets to the church where it was less clean, and there were orphans and a couple of Mexican men learning English from a Bible with one of the Brothers on the steps. Swanson had been coming here for some weeks now, visiting with the Mother Superior Sister Calderón. She was providing him guidance as he journeyed toward redemption and sobriety.

He found her inside, sitting at a table in the kitchen, eating lunch alone. The church was otherwise empty aside from a few who sat with their heads down in the pews. Sister Calderón was eating a steak with a fork and knife and just finishing up when he arrived.

“Reverend,” she said, smiling. “Come, join me.”

He sat down at the table across from her, feeling disheveled. The sun came through the simple window overhead, looking like a bright square. “Good afternoon, Sister.” He removed his hat.

“This is a surprise,” she said. “I thought we were meeting tomorrow.”

“I thought so, too,” said Swanson. “But something has come up.”

“Oh?”

He took a deep breath and examined the brim of his hat and the stitching where it was coming apart around the edges. She got up to place her dishes in the sink and to pour him a glass of water. He drank some and looked down at his hands. “I received a letter from a friend today.”

“What is your friend’s name.”

“Arthur. Arthur Morgan.”

She lit up in recognition. “Yes, I know Mr. Morgan. He has donated to the church and done me many favors. He is your friend?”

“Yes,” said Swanson. “I’ve known him a long time. I did not know he was affiliated with you here.”

“We, too, are friends,” she said. “He is trying to atone, like you and me.”

Swanson smiled at this. It brought him joy.

“What did he say in his letter?” said Sister Calderón.

“He said that he is getting married,” said Swanson, “to a girl that has been traveling with us now for some years. She is a very kind young woman, been kinder to me than I believe I deserve. They have both been kinder to me than I believe I deserve. Arthur, he—he saved my life, some months ago when I was at my lowest, most reprehensible point, and now he has asked if I would…officiate them in matrimony. Provide the service. Up in Emerald Ranch, very soon.”

“Mr. Morgan is getting married?” said Sister Calderón. “That is wonderful news. And for him and his beloved to ask you to take part in such a special day, that is a rare blessing.”

“I do agree, Sister,” said Swanson. “I do. But I am afraid. I don’t know that I’m not ready.”

“Ready for what?”

“To preserve him and his beloved and unite them before the eyes of God. I have been wayward far too long, Sister. I am a bad man. I am unworthy.”

Sister Calderón sighed in her wise way. She placed her hand on his. “Reverend, you are not a bad man.”

He shook his head.

“I know that I cannot make you see that. You must see it for yourself. You know, Mr. Morgan is always saying the same thing to me. I am a bad man. He is working on this, the same as you, and he would not have sent for you if he did not think you were worthy of his cause. It is this way he chooses to communicate your worth to you.”

“I know that’s supposed to make sense,” said the Reverend. “I known Arthur since he was a teenager.”

“I believe you should take this leap,” she said. “Of course, it is up to you. But you should go. That is the clear path. It is a sign! It is your opportunity to confront your fears, confront your God and begin to make amends. To give the gift of love.”

Swanson picked up the cup, swallowed some more of the water. Overhead, the crucifix on the wall seemed very heavy and mundane. A fly was tapping at the window from the inside, searching for escape. “Will you accompany me?” he said. “Sister? I cannot let him down. I am far less likely to do that if—if I am not alone.”

She smiled again, squeezing his hand assuredly. “I will. We will take the train, first thing tomorrow morning.”

They sat some time longer, speaking of Arthur and his beloved, and then of Christ and other mysteries.

Hamish rode about half a day behind Arthur and Mary Beth. He wanted to cut over to Moonstone Pond, spend some time in solitude, fishing. He didn’t often make it far from the lake up there on his own. He assured them both that he would be okay.

Now, camping in Ambarino for one night, Mary Beth caught a fish, and Arthur cleaned it up and cooked it for them. The fire made beautiful sparks that went up like little plumes, and the weather was fine.

“I might never get bored of this,” said Mary Beth. She had good color in her cheeks that night. She said she was feeling better. She had a handful of pebbles and was tossing them into the fire one by one. “Camping.”

“I never really knew you liked camping,” said Arthur, frying up the fish. “I always thought you was more of an indoor girl. Before, of course. Could just be the way you seem.”

“Can’t really be an indoor girl when you live most of your life on the run,” said Mary Beth. “Shady Belle might be falling apart but it’s the first warm house I’ve called home in…years.”

Arthur smiled. “I imagine Shady Belle was a beauty in her time.”

“I'm sure she was."

After dinner, they played several games of Hearts. Mary Beth complained that she was no good at Hearts. Arthur wouldn’t let her win though. He was trying to smoke less and had taken up chewing on reeds and sticks and branches instead. This part of him was familiar and it made him seem younger. His hair had grown out now, down to the very tops of his shoulders, and it had gotten lighter being in the southern heat for so many months, blanched from the daylight, and his eye lashes even looked kind of blond. On their final hand, she studied him closely and reached to put one stray lock of hair behind his ear. This made him look at her casually, but then he kept looking at her, chewing that reed, and he grinned and put the loose hair behind her ear, too. “You’re real pretty, you know that?” he said, tossing the reed to the dirt. “I’m sure I’ve told you that a thousand times, but it’s true.”

“Thank you, Arthur,” she said.

“You’re welcome.”

“When we get married, I don’t want anything to change,” she said. “I just wanna be your wife.”

“Ain’t nothing gonna change,” he said. “Save for maybe our location, eventually. And, well.” He nodded to her tummy—still flat. It wouldn’t grow for a little while yet. “We’ll have company.”

“You’ll still read me poetry?”

He smiled. “Yes, I will.”

“Do you think Dutch will come?” said Mary Beth.

Arthur sighed. He shrugged. “I hope so. I don’t know that it’ll feel the same if he ain’t there.”

“Yeah,” said Mary Beth.

They heard some nightingales, and then a distant loon. The fire blazed and crackled. The sky overhead was so black, and the stars were so clear.

He kissed her, and she took off his hat and grabbed him by the collar. Sometimes, she could still sense his near surprise upon being touched with her reckless abandon. Like he was delayed, and it took him some time to let go, but once he did, it drove him. As a gunslinger, Arthur was full of swagger and aloofness for the craft, but when it came to his personal life, he had been closed for too long, never opening up to anybody, hiding himself so as to never have to apologize to the world for existing. He had a beautiful soul, but few had seen it.

She pushed him onto his back in the weeds, throwing her full weight. She knew she was kind of clumsy in most respects, but it didn’t really stop her. He seemed to like that about her anyway. Like he had to hold her steady. She had him out of his belt and suspenders in what felt like seconds and hiked up her own skirt. He got a desperate grip on her, and she wanted it to go fast, like a freight train. They were out in nature. He stayed beneath her the whole time, talking to her, telling her things in his deep, comforting voice. He was some kind of elegant man. When Arthur finished, his eyes were closed and his head stretched back so she could see the cords and the muscles in his neck. She touched them as he came, and she thought about how long she’d known him as nothing more than a friend and the parts that had changed between them and the parts that had stayed the same.

“Maybe we could go to St. Denis after this,” she said when it was done. They had crawled into their tent now, and he had his arm around her and one of his hands piecing through her hair. “Like on a date.”

“You wanna go on a date with me in St. Denis?” said Arthur, smiling with his eyes closed.

“Sure. We could see one of them moving picture shows.”

“That would be nice.”

“You think Dutch is gonna want us to do something?” she said. She had her hand on his chest, which rose and fell in even fashion. “Didn't you say something about a poker game on a river boat? Seems like it’s time.”

Arthur sighed. She looked up to try and guess what he was thinking.

“What’s wrong?” she said.

“Nothing,” he said. “I just don’t really feel like thinking about river boat poker games right now.”

“I’m sorry,” she said.

“Don’t be sorry.” He looked at her. “We should go to sleep, Miss Gaskill. I wanna get going early tomorrow.”

“Okay,” she said. She reached past him to turn down the lantern. “But it ain’t gonna be Miss Gaskill much longer, remember.” She kissed him on the cheekbone.

Arthur seemed confounded by this, but pleasantly so. “You’re right,” he said.

They both looked up then, as they could hear the wind picking up outside and rustling against their tent. It was only wind, but for some reason, it surprised them. They waited. The wind held steady and then died down and then picked up and held steady agin. They looked back at one another and then nestled in.

“Goodnight, Arthur Morgan," said Mary Beth.

“Goodnight, Miss Gaskill.”

“You are a damn cheater, John Marston."

They were sitting around the table with Lawrence and Lizette, playing blackjack for pennies. Jack was already upstairs sleeping. It was a little after nine o’clock.

“That’s a lie,” said John, collecting the pot. “I’ve never once cheated at cards. That was always Arthur’s thing.”

“Oh, please,” said Abigail. “Like he never taught you.”

John laughed at this. “Believe me, he tried. He used to make me sit for hours. Him teaching, me listening. But I wasn’t no good from the start. Just too honest, I guess.”

She shoved him, laughing.

“I think you’re both pretty damn good,” said Lawrence, cleaning his glasses with a delicate yellow handkerchief. “At least you’re giving me a run for my money, and I’m quite good.”

“Not a lot to do but play cards when you’re camping in the wilderness,” said Abigail, straightening her ponytail. “Even the women learn gambling.”

“It’s a valuable skill,” said Lizette, in earnest. “Especially for a woman. Nobody would ever suspect it.”

John gathered up the cards then, his turn to deal. The kettle hissed from the kitchen. Lawrence got up to take it off the fire. He poured the tea and offered a little rum to go with it. They all said yes. “What what was it you said about Arthur?” He was pouring the tea into four neat and pretty porcelain tea cups. They had a very lovely blue filigree. “That cheating cards was his thing?”

“I don’t think he does it much no more,” said John, shuffling, “but when we was younger, like real young, he used to pull the wool over every fool gambler’s eyes in town. A real hustler. He can count cards, memorize the order of a deck, predict when they’ll turn up in a pile, and he also has some sleight of hand.”

“Like magic?” said Lizette.

“Yes, ma’am. It used to be one of his true specialties, always an ace up his sleeve.” John laughed to himself.

Lawrence passed around the tea cups. “It must take a great deal of intelligence to hold the ordering of an entire deck of cards in one’s mind. He sounds formidable.”

“I never thought about it like that,” said John, scratching at the scruff on his chin, “but he always was sort of like that. Smart, you know? He hides it pretty well.”

“Too well,” said Abigail. “It ain’t right. A man shouldn’t have to hide.”

John sighed, started dealing the cards. “No, he shouldn’t.”

“You know, when we first met Arthur,” said Lawrence, sitting down and sipping his tea, “he and Mary Beth were posing as married grain farmers who had been robbed.”

“No shit,” said John. Abigail cleared her throat, socked him above the knee. “I mean, uh, tell us about that.”

Lawrence smiled. He liked them. They were a very young couple, they tried hard, and their boy was extremely well-behaved. “Well, Mary Beth came to our door flailing, saying her husband had been beaten up and they'd been robbed of their wagon, full of corn. They were looking for a place to stay.”

“Corn?” said John.

“That sounds like Mary Beth’s idea. She plays a pretty good hysterical wife.”

“That, she did,” said Lawrence. “Of course your man Arthur, he’s no corn farmer. I could tell by his guns and his demeanor alone. But like you two, they were charming and polite, and they seemed in love. It’s hard to distrust people like that. Though Arthur did have a gunshot wound—more like a graze in his arm that I stitched up for him. I still am not sure how he got it.”

Abigail was red in the cheeks. She was smiling down into her porcelain cup. The idea of seeming in love made her both self-conscious but also relieved. “I’m sure it was nothing,” she said. She sipped her tea. “Arthur's a tough specimen, and he's had a lot worse.”

This seemed to concern Lawrence, but Lawrence said nothing.

“So you was in the war?” said John, gesturing to the Union kepi hanging by the door. “Arthur said you was from Illinois. I am, too. Though I don’t really remember it the way I should.”

“Yes,” said Lawrence. “I was born in a city called Rockford.”

"What did you do in the war?" said Abigail.

"I was a medic," said Lawrence, adjusting his glasses. "I was no innocent, but I never saw true battle."

“What you saw might’ve been a fair bit worse than battle,” said Abigail. “Nursing wounds ain’t no picnic.”

Lawrence seemed to find this very interesting. “No, Mrs. Marston. It isn’t.”

She blushed again. “Just Abigail. Please.”

“Have you nursed many wounds, Abigail?” he said. Then he shifted in his seat a little. He seemed pensive. Lizette reached for his hand. He squeezed it once and smiled at her, then he took a long drink of his tea.

"More than my fair share, I reckon."

“You said something before, about that. It bothered me.”

“Oh?” she said. She looked at John, mortified, then back at Lawrence. “I—I’m sorry. I didn't mean it—to be a bother—”

“No, no. I didn't mean it like that,” said Lawrence. “I'm very sorry. I just meant—you said that Arthur’s had a lot worse. That’s what bothered me."

"Oh."

"We've looked after them now, a couple times. Him and Mary Beth. They seem okay, but I get the sense they're always running. We care about them. What did you mean by that? What happened to Arthur?”

Abigail felt John taking her hand under the table. She was embarrassed. "I—"

“You should ask him,” said John, stepping in. “He’ll tell you.”

Lawrence smiled, impressed. He nodded. “I’ll do that,” he said. “And I’m very sorry again, Abigail. I didn’t mean to make you feel like you'd done something wrong, or to put you on the spot.”

She looked up at him. He was a very nice man. She was not used to someone being so concerned, and certainly not a stranger. “It’s fine," she said. "I’m just—I don’t like makin a fool of myself. For obvious reasons. Maybe I'm a little too touchy.”

“You’re perfect,” said Lizette. She placed her little palm on Abigail’s cheek. “Do not be so nervous, child.”

“Thank you,” said Abigail. "I appreciate that."

Just then, they heard the rustling of a horse outside. Abigail and John both perked up, glancing at one another. Then they looked at Lawrence who was still deep in thought.

“I thought they wasn’t coming till tomorrow,” said Abigail.

“Perhaps they’re early?” said Lizette.

“Could be,” said Lawrence, surfacing. He pushed back from the table, slowly. He seemed to gather his thoughts, and then he seemed to quickly disengage and went to the door. He picked up his shotgun. They all waited until they heard knocking.

Lawrence cracked the door open, left the chain pulled, his usual approach. John was standing between the front door and the kitchen table, a little like an attack dog. It was just habit. Abigail and Lizette just sat, waiting. “Can I help you?” said Lawrence.

But the voice, right away—it was familiar. “Yes, is this the Winterson establishment?”

“Hosea?” said Abigail. She smiled, got up from the table. “It’s okay. It’s just Hosea.”

Lawrence glanced at her, then back at John, who nodded, then back to the man through the door. “Hosea?” he said.

"That’s me. I’m here for the wedding.”

Lawrence closed the door and dropped the chain. He set his shotgun down on the floor beside the door jamb. Then he opened the door again, all the way this time. Hosea stepped inside, removed his hat. He was alone, and he was a sight to see.

Abigail rushed to him. She hugged him, tight. He smelled like the cold air outside and just like Hosea. “You came,” she said.

“Of course I came,” said Hosea. “You think I’d miss Arthur’s wedding? Where are they?"

"They ain't here yet," said Abigail. "They're coming tomorrow."

"Good."

“Where’s Dutch?” said John. “I thought Arthur sent for you both.”

On the other side of the room, the clock made its low chime. It was ten o’clock. “No Dutch,” said Hosea. He and Abigail parted and he smiled at John, a little strained. “Not this time, son.” Hosea approached Lawrence then, held his hand out in a steadfast, very upright fashion. “Lawrence Winterson, I assume.”

“Yes, sir. You're not the minister, are you?”

“No,” said Hosea, smiling. They shook. “No, I’m just a friend. A very old friend. My name is Hosea Matthews.”

“Well, it’s wonderful to have you, Mr. Matthews. Come in, come in. We’ll show you to your room.”

“Thank you, good sir. The ride was long, and I’m quite tired.”

“Of course.”

Lizette went with them both upstairs. She insisted on turning down the linens for each of her guests. While they were gone, John and Abigail stood by the table where the cards were all scattered about with the abandoned tea cups. They both looked at the cards, and then Abigail looked at John. “What’s wrong?” she said.

“Nothing,” said John. He seemed pissed off. He went out to the porch, his boots heavy on the wooden floors.

She followed him out, closing the door behind them. It was cooler outside, so she tightened her shawl. He lit a cigarette, gave it to her. Then he lit one for himself. They stood and smoked for a while. She awaited him nervously, wishing she could just read his damn mind. She knew something was wrong.

Eventually, he shook his head and looked down at his hand, holding the cigarette. “Jesus Christ."

"What's wrong?"

"You heard Hosea. Not this time.”

“What?”

“Dutch isn’t coming. Not this time.”

“Oh," she said, almost relieved. "So what?"

“So, when the hell is Arthur ever gonna get married again?”

Abigail took a long, deep breath. She tossed her cigarette to the wood and stamped it out with the toe of her boot. She was trying to see the reason in it. Truth be told, she didn't hold as much faith in Dutch as those boys did. Hosea, yes. But not Dutch, and she wasn't surprised. “I see what you mean," she said, trying to be kind. "But maybe...maybe he didn’t wanna leave the camp unguarded. Or maybe he was afraid of bringing danger, John. I mean, he ain’t exactly low profile as far as criminals is concerned, and you saw what he did to Colm O'Driscoll. Try not to jump to the worst possible conclusion until we know what's going on, if you can.”

John stepped out to the edge of the porch. It was getting windy. You could see it coming across, blowing the long grasses and hear it rustling through the trees. It seemed to mildly disturb the horses. A lonesome hound wandered across the lawn then. It was a strange sight and it sort of startled Abigail. The hound had big, floppy ears. It went over to sniff at something on the lawn, but it was disinterested in the two of them. It disappeared into the darkness, like a ghost, keeping its watch.

“You think Swanson’ll make it?” said Abigail.

John finished his cigarette, looked back to her. He them seemed to soften. He came over and took her hand again, just for a moment. He looked down at her knuckles. Her bones were delicate. Compared to his, they were like little works of art. “I hope so,” he said.

“If not, we’ll all just go to Valentine,” she said. "They got a nice church there, with plenty of pews."

He smiled. He gave her back her hand. “You always know how to look on the bright side, Abbie.”

She got bashful from this. She really tried.

Meanwhile, Reverend Swanson slept in the church that night back in St. Denis. Sister Calderón had offered him a cot, but he wanted to sleep in the pews where it was cold. He stared up at the ceiling, which was unadorned but beautifully constructed. He had his hands folded together, resting on his chest. He lie very still. He heard many strange noises in the church that night—like mice, and there were bats up in the belfry. It was windy, too, and the wind had come on quickly, and it was blowing against the building, sounding like ghosts, whistling and rattling the window panes. At some point, Swanson found the courage to close his eyes, and to dream. Once, he had been a great minister. He could command entire rooms. Entire congregations of good, god-fearing people. It had been Swanson, in fact, who had counseled Dutch on the art of passionate oration long ago. Of course, Dutch was a different kind of minister, but still.

[steveezekiel]

FINDING GRACE TO HELP IN THE TIME OF NEED 2

17. Therefore, it was necessary for him to be made in every respect like us, his brothers and sisters, so that He could be our merciful and faithful High Priest before God. Then He could offer a sacrifice that would take away the sins of the people.

18. Since He Himself has gone through suffering and testing, HE IS ABLE TO HELP US WHEN WE ARE BEING TESTED."

Hebrews 2:17,18 (NLT)

• The Bible says in the time of trials and persecutions, we should turn to Jesus, look to Him for help?

15. “For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin.

16. LET US THEREFORE COME BOLDLY TO THE THRONE OF GRACE, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”

Hebrews 4:15,16 (NKJV)

- If you have accepted Jesus as your Savior and Lord, you are born again, then you are not left alone to fend for yourself.

15. “If you love Me, keep My commandments.

16. “AND I WILL PRAY THE FATHER, and He will give you another HELPER [comforter], that He may abide with you forever—

17. “the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you.

18. “I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.

John 14:15-18 (NKJV)

- Jesus did promise to ask God the Father to give every believer another HELPER like Him in the person of the Holy Spirit, which He has fulfilled (Acts 2:1-4; Romans 8:9,14).

- But He said something in verse 15 of that passage, John Chapter 14, "If you love Me, keep My commandments.”

- Many who claim that they are Believers in Him are not keeping or obeying His commandments.

- You cannot be wallowing in sin, compromising your faith, living like unbelievers, AND still want Jesus to be there for you when you are being oppressed (Roman 6:1,2).

- The devil will have an access to your life if you have his properties, sins, in your life.

- God will forgive unintentional errors, mistakes and any sin, but for a professed Christian to leave habitually in the sin is unacceptable to God (1 John 1:9; 1 Peter 1:14-16).

• And if you are having a material need or whatever need in your Life, you do not need to compromise you stand in Christ—the word of God.

- Christian living should be centered, basically lived by the principles of the Word of God.

- If everything you do, things about your life generally does not based on the principles of the Word of God, the Bible, there would be distress and confusion about what you should do when challenges come or persecutions arose (Mark 4:16,17).

- The Word of God is the guide for Christian living, and if your life is not built on it; when there is a shaking or turmoil, you may not be able to stand (Matthew 7:24-27).

- When you live by the principles of the Bible, it means you are living by Faith, because Faith is an act of obedience to the Word of God—either the written Word or the Word impressed in your heart by the Holy Spirit on the inside of you (Romans 8:14; Hebrews 11:7,8).

- Whatever the problem may BE, it is not new, and Jesus is ready to help, give solution to it—if you come to Him through His Word.

“If you abide in Me, AND MY WORDS ABIDE IN YOU, you will ask what you desire, AND IT SHALL BE DONE FOR YOU.”

John 15:7 (NKJV)

“No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, WHO WILL NOT ALLOW YOU TO BE TEMPTED BEYOND WHAT YOU ARE ABLE, BUT WITH THE TEMPTATION WILL ALSO MAKE THE WAY OF ESCAPE, that you may be able to bear it.”

1 Corinthians 10:13 (NKJV)

• Every problem of life can be solved through God’s Word.

- When you live by the principles of the Word, you give God an opportunity to help in whatever need that may have come your way.

- The only thing that can incapacitate God in the matter of your life is, when you refused to agree with the terms of His Word.

- God can only help you so far, only to a limited degree, if you do not live by the principles of His Word.

- We have a High Priest, Jesus Christ, who is merciful, faithful, and can sympathize with our weaknesses; but He would not be able to help if we do not agree to walk in the light of his Word (John 14:15; 15:14).

“You are My friends if you do whatever I command you.”

John 15:14 (NKJV)

• You will not fail in Jesus' name.

Peace!

[skystonedclouds]

The Parable of The Talent.

- Source Desiring God.

For the longest time I didn’t understand the parable of the talent (Matthew 25:14-30). In the parable three men with different amounts of talents have to give an account to God. It just seemed a bit scary to my flesh. The last man who was punished had said “I was afraid because I knew you were a hard man” (Luke 19:21). 

We don’t have time to read the whole thing, but here is the idea: This is the parable of the talents, where five talents are given to one person, two are given to another, and one is given to the last person. The one with one talent buries it, and he gives a reason for why he buried it: “I knew you were a hard master, so I didn’t risk losing the talent that you gave me. Here is your talent. I just buried it”. All we are told is that the master apportioned the amounts “to each according to his ability”.

I don’t think Jesus accepts that assessment of himself by that man whom he gave the one talent to. He doesn’t accept that he was a hard master. I think the translators are right to make verse 26 a question: “You knew that I reap where I have not sown and gather where I scattered no seed?”. That’s a question. What Jesus is saying is, “If you really believe that, you would have acted differently. You are a fool if you thought I was a hard man. It was a foolish thing to do. In fact, you didn’t know that I was a hard man. I’m not a hard master. I do not demand obedience from people to whom I have given no grace.”

I think that’s the interpretation of “you reap where you did not sow.” At the last judgment, it will be plain to all the world that all disobedience is in spite of much truth and much grace. God has sown his seeds everywhere like in the parable of the seeds. He laid out seeds everywhere but for one reason of another (the devil, trials, etc) the plants did not grow. God is not reaping where he does not sow because he has sown his seeds everywhere even in the bad soil. 

Paul gives the principle in 2 Corinthians 8:12. He says, “For if the readiness [to give, to be generous] is there, it is acceptable according to what a person has, not according to what he does not have.” That’s a flat-out contradiction of what the man said who buried the one talent. Jesus does not demand fruit where he has not sown seed. He only wants him to use what he has been given which is any light, truth or talents. The man may not have as many talents as others but he is only required to use what he does possess. 

The real picture of the master in this parable is found in Matthew 25:21 and Matthew 25:23, where he is thrilled with the first two servants. He gave them more than they had started with out of the abundance of his love.  He says to both of them exuberantly, “Well done, good and faithful servants.” Then he adds something, and this is why I said it’s exuberant. He doesn’t say, “Enter into the loyal workforce of your master — I’m recruiting really effective slaves.”

What does he say? He says at the last day, “Enter into the joy of your master.” That’s not a hard master. That is a happy master, eager to include the workers in the joy of his house, where he’s happy — not his field, where he’s making demands. 

Is he a hard master? But wait. Listen to this: “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:28–30). The man did not see the love of God. He assumed things about the character of the Almighty. It could have been from misinterpretations or false information. 

In this parable, Jesus clearly wants us to ponder the less talented servant. He doesn’t give us many specifics, but let’s consider one possible reason why the one-talent servant was distrustful and resentful toward his master and so didn’t invest his talent. The servant considered the master unjust, so he distrusted his master. Why did he think this way? Nothing else in the parable points to the master’s unfairness. It appears that something in the servant was fueling this perception of the master. What was it? It could be anything from jealousy of social skills, to jealousy of beauty, to jealousy of talents and so on. Being given less talents when others have been given more talents can appear unfair to a proud heart. The reason I don’t have to look far is because I see how my own pride responds to more talented servants. I am tempted to covet the talents others have and wonder why my Master didn’t give me more talents.

The way it typically manifests in me is discouragement and self-pity. Emotionally, I feel like a loser. And, to be honest, there are times I fantasize about moving to a quiet cabin somewhere in the woods to escape the pressures that expose my lesser talents and just read books. I wouldn’t have to be reminded of my lack of social abilities or grace if I lived alone. You know what that is? It’s a sinful, talent-burying fantasy. All that feeling bad about myself, it’s all about me. It’s a form of self-worship. I stop caring about others so I can focus on my own pride breaking down. Gone is love for my Master. Gone is love for anyone else. Gone is the wonder over the grace that I received anything from the Master at all. Gone is the realization that even one talent is a huge amount and way more than I deserve. All my love for God or others just diminish as my pride comes tumbling down.

The master gave the servant fewer talents and that meant fewer opportunities and less capacity for the servant to distinguish himself and therefore he saw the master as a hard, unjust man. So he buried his talent and indulged his own wickedness. He buried what he did receive in talents so he could live a life of fear or self protectiveness. Pride infects all of us sinful servants no matter how many talents we have or think we have. This parable he warns less talented servants to beware of the way pride can dangerously warp our perspective.

Side note.

A similar thing happened with Moses. Moses refused a calling from God. It came with a list of excuses that would be normal excuses. Moses is basically like “Oh I cannot prophesy for you because I am slow to speak, I am not a smooth speaker, I am not a charmer, I have no art of persuasion in me”. Basically “I have no been given this talent”. 

God basically says “I will be with you”. Moses is like “Nooooo I don’t wanna do it I don’t currently have the gift for it. I think you forgot to give me this gift so it must not be my true calling or I would be eloquent and it would be easy!”. It says in (Exodus 4:14) “Then the Lord’s *anger* burned against Moses and he said, “What about your brother, Aaron the Levite? I know he can speak well. He is already on his way to meet you, and he will be glad to see you “(Exodus 4:14). God was angry that Moses did not trust him since his mouth was formed by Him. God knew his limitations better than anyone and came to fulfill it’s place. In the end God was so gracious he let Moses’s brother help him. He sent him assistance to help him in his lack of faith. 

What must be done? As always if this happens we must repent and believe. 

Repent of pride. This parable shows us less talented servants the spiritual danger of pride. When we are wise if we stay alert to the ways self-pity and discouragement It might feel like we need comfort, when what we really need is to repent.

Trust the Master. Our Master is not unfair in his apportionment of talents. He has wise purposes, and if we know our Bibles well, we know that God’s purposes are often far different than our perceptions of them. The ones with less talents well less is asked of them. He does not reap where he does not sow. God is a loving master who lavishes rewards and love. Trust him (Proverbs 3:5–6). 

C.S. Lewis said, “Christ is hard to satisfy and easy to please,” which simply means (and I think that’s right) his standards are infinitely high — he is God — but oh how ready he is to say, “well done” to a faithful, imperfect servant. He’s gracious. He’s God, so his standards are infinite. But he’s gracious, so he loves to say, “Well done.” He loves when we trust Him and use their little talents with their whole heart. He does not reap where he does not sow as he sows everywhere.

My sources which 99% is copy pasted from (with minor edits)... 

Hardmasterandinstrusivethoughts.

Itsnotatalentshow.