#need her in a way that is concerning to christ our savior

[anyataylorjoys]

Katherine Pierce in Season 1, episode 13: Children of the Damned 

[lesfeldickbiblestudy]

  Through the Bible with Les Feldick LESSON 3 * PART 4 * BOOK 60 ISAIAH 2:3 – 42:6 - PART 2 We’d like to welcome you to an informal Bible study. We don’t claim to have all the answers. And I don’t apologize when people call sometimes and I just have to say, "I don’t know." There are a lot of things the Scripture does not tell us. There are a lot of things, of course, that I cannot comprehend, but we’re just depending on the Holy Spirit to give us enlightenment and to be able to compare Scripture with Scripture. That’s all I ask people to do. Don’t go by what I say, but compare Scripture with Scripture and if you disagree with me, I always think of an old pastor friend of mine who used to say this, "Well, it’s a free country, you can be wrong if you want to be." But no, if you disagree that doesn’t mean you’re wrong, but on the other hand if you disagree, all I ask is that you search the Scriptures and, hopefully, you’ll see where I’m coming from. Also remember, you must rightly divide the Word as Paul was inspired to write. If we’re talking about things in this Grace Age, then you need to be looking for those answers in Paul’s writings, since the risen Lord gave him to the Gentile Body of Christ for our instructions. (Romans 11:13, Acts 9:15, Ephesians 3:2 and many others) All right, for this last half hour this afternoon, we’re going to jump all the way up to Isaiah chapter 40 and from here we’re even going to jump on up into the New Testament, because I don’t like to stay in the Old Testament too long because after all this is all background. This is for what Paul calls "our learning," but the very doctrines by which we are to be saved and walk the Christian life have to come from Paul’s epistles as I mentioned before. All right, Isaiah chapter 40 verse 1 and if you’ve ever listened to Handel’s Messiah this will just jump off the page won’t it? Isaiah 40:1 "Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God." Well, who are God’s people? Israel. See, this is what we have to constantly remind folks of - that God is dealing only with the nation of Israel so far as the promises are concerned. He deals with the Gentile world only in judgment because of their treatment of His people. Now, never forget that. Certainly He deals with Babylon. Surely He deals with Moab. He deals with Syria. He deals with Egypt, but never with the promises of these things like He does with Israel. Isaiah 40:1-2a "Comfort ye, comfort ye my people (Israel) saith your God. 2. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished,…" Now, you know it’s amazing, Jerusalem by name is supposed to be the city of what? Peace. Has it been? Never. It’s been in turmoil for as many thousand years as its existence, but the peace of Jerusalem is in the future. You’ve heard me say it; you’ve heard others say it, "Pray daily for the peace of Jerusalem," because the peace of Jerusalem will come about when? When Christ returns at His Second Coming! And my, if ever there’s a time when believers should be praying that the Lord will come quickly, it’s today. Oh, I dread to think what the world’s going to see in the next 20 years. Now, I’m going to share these things with people because I read them with my own eyes. A Muslim imam right here in America made this statement not too long ago that by 2020, now that’s not very long, that’s only 16 more years, that by 2020 they expect a Muslim president in the White House and a Muslim majority in Congress. Imagine! We can see it coming unless something puts the brakes on it. All right, so pray for the peace of Jerusalem, the soon return of our Lord and Savior. Isaiah 40:2b "…that her warfare is accomplished, and that her iniquity is pardoned: for she hath received of the LORD’s hand double for all her (what?) sin." You know, I think I’ve shared it with this audience a long time ago – a couple of years ago one of the major call in talk shows in Tel Aviv, in Israel, had one of their major Rabbi’s as their guest on the talk show.

He made the statement that Israel’s problems are usually the result of their sin. And what happened? The phone lines got jammed with angry Israelites who maintain that had nothing to do with it. It isn’t sin! They cannot see it, but the Scripture is full of it. It’s man’s sin that brings on all of his problems and Israel in particular. All right, so "Jerusalem has actually received double her problems because of Israel’s sin." Isaiah 40:3 "The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the LORD, make straight in the desert a highway for our God." Who is it referring to? John the Baptist. He’s a prophesied Old Testament prophet, and that’s why I have made the statement and it shakes people up – that the four Gospel’s are just an extension of all this. It begins with the appearance of this promised Old Testament prophet, John the Baptist, quoting what he’s going to be crying. And so Christ’s earthly ministry is just an extension of all this. Nothing has changed. They’re still under the Temple worship. Never does Jesus tell anybody to stop keeping the Law. He never tells the Jew to stop sacrificial worship. It’s just the same, the only difference is that the promised King is in their midst promising the Kingdom if they would just believe it. Now, I’m going to come to this in a few moments. The Kingdom was available. He was there to offer it. Now, I know the first question that comes up, "Well, then He couldn’t have been crucified." Well, leave that with God’s Sovereignty. He makes a valid offer that they could have the King and the Kingdom and in His Omnipotence, in His Sovereignty, He could have brought about the crucifixion any way He wanted. But the valid offer to Israel was – it’s right out in front of you. It’s yours if you can believe it. But that was their problem. They couldn’t. Isaiah 40:4 "Every valley shall be exalted. (John the Baptist continuing on) and every mountain and hill shall be made low: the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain."Now, that’s all symbolic language of what the King and this glorious Kingdom would accomplish for the nation of Israel. Isaiah 40:5a "And the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together:…" Now, it’s just like the Mosaic Law, now let me show you. Keep your hand in Isaiah. Jump all the way up to Romans. Now, I didn’t intend to do this, so I have to feel this is the leading of the Spirit for one reason or another. But jump up to Romans chapter 3, you’ve got the same analogy, that yes, God is dealing with Israel, but it’s not stopping at Israel’s borders. It’s going to the whole world. Romans 3:19 "Now we know (Paul writes) that what things soever the law saith, (Now, that’s referring to the Ten Commandments.) it saith to them who are under the law; (and who was that? Israel, the Jew! But it doesn’t stop there) that every mouth may be stopped, (not just in Israel) and all the world may become guilty before God." You see the language? Yes, the Law was given to Israel. Only Israel was put under the system of the Law, but the moral Law condemned the whole human race. Nobody is exempt from Israel’s moral Law. And to this very day, what makes man a sinner? Well, he’s born in sin, that’s not the answer I want. But what determines his sin? He breaks the Law. It’s Israel’s Law, but nevertheless it is universal in its condemnation. Romans 3:20 "Therefore by the deeds of the law (or the keeping of the Ten Commandments, whether it’s Israel or it’s the rest of the world) shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law (the Ten Commandments, God’s moral law for the whole human race) is the knowledge of sin." Now, I’ve given this simple illustration over the last forty years of teaching. If you had an intersection back before the population grew and it’s out there in the boondocks and people who are in the area go through that intersection, they don’t need a stop sign. There’s not that much traffic. But, all of a sudden, because of increased traffic, the powers that be put up stop signs.

Now, what does that stop sign require? That people stop. If someone drives through it, the law has every reason to stop the individual and give him a ticket. And the individual may say, "Hey, I’ve been driving through this intersection for years. I’ve never stopped." But, now you do because there’s a stop sign. What’s the stop sign? Law! Have I made my point? When the Law says stop, then you’d better stop. But until the stop sign was there, there was no breaking of the Law. All right, now, it’s the same way with the Ten Commandments. Once the Ten Commandments were made known to the human race, there was no debating with God as to what sin was. He covered all aspects. All right, now then, back to Isaiah chapter 40. It’s the same thing; that all of this was given primarily to Israel, but it has an effect upon the whole human race with none excepted. Isaiah 40:6 "The voice said, ‘Cry. And he said, What shall I cry? All flesh is as grass, and the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field:" Here is the temporariness of all this. Life is short. It’s temporary. Isaiah 40:7 "The grass withereth, the flower fadeth; because the spirit of the LORD bloweth upon it; surely the people is grass." (or were like grass.) Another portion of Scripture puts that analogy that as the grass springs up in the morning and it’s clipped in the afternoon, that’s life. It’s so temporal; temporary. Isaiah 40:8-9 "The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand for ever. 9. O Zion, (Now, we come back to God dealing with His people) that bringest good tidings, get thee up into the high mountain; O Jerusalem, that bringest good tidings, lift it up, thy voice with strength; lift it up, be not afraid; to say unto the cities of Judah, (what?) Behold your God!" Why? He’s going to be coming in the flesh, and every eye will see Him. Isaiah 40:10-11a "Behold, the Lord God will come with a strong hand, and his arm shall rule for him; behold, his reward is with him, and his work is before him. 11. He shall feed his flock (Israel) like a shepherd: he shall gather the lambs with his arms,…" All right now, for sake of time, I’m going to bring you all the way over to chapter 42. Now, 41 is a good chapter to read in your spare time. It, again, shows the omnipotence, the greatness, and the glory of Israel’s God. But now in chapter 42 verse 1: Isaiah 42:1a "Behold my servant,…" Now, remember, Mark’s Gospel is a total revelation of the servant-hood of Christ. You remember the four Gospels are delineated by four different views of Christ. Matthew depicts Him as the King. Mark depicts Him as the Servant. Luke depicts Him as the Son of Man. John depicts Him as the Son of God. Here we have the servant-hood of Christ. Isaiah 42:1 "Behold, my servant, whom I uphold; mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth; I have put my spirit upon him: (Now, it’s a reference to the Messiah, to Jesus of Nazareth.) he shall bring forth judgment (or rule, or government, not just to Israel but who else?) to the Gentiles." Now, when we go in a little bit to the book of Matthew, we see that Jesus makes it so plain that He was not sent but to the lost sheep of Israel. They were not to have anything to do with Gentiles. It didn’t mean that God had cast the Gentiles out of His mind, but it had to be in His own order of things. Israel had to first have the King and the Kingdom and under that scenario every Jew could become a priest of Jehovah as Exodus 19 puts it. Or, every Jew could become a missionary or an evangelist to bring the Gentiles to a knowledge of God’s salvation. God hasn’t cast the Gentiles out of His thinking, but it had to be according to His design. And that was going to be left up to Israel whether to accept it or reject it. It’s always based on that opportunity of choice. Israel is constantly left with choices. Just like you and I are as we looked at several tapings back. We’re constantly faced with choices. And because of those choices, we can end up either blessed or in a bad straight.

All right, so here we see that God is going to bring forth judgment or rule to the Gentiles. Now, I’m going to bring you in again, for sake of time, down to verse 6. Isaiah 42:6 "I the LORD (Jehovah) have called you in righteousness, (Now, we’re dealing with the nation, Israel.) and will hold thy hand, will keep thee and give thee for a covenant of the people, (a relationship between Israel and the God of Abraham and the covenant promises) for (what purpose?) a light of the Gentiles." Now, that’s plain English! That was Israel’s purpose – to be a light to the Gentile world! Now, you jump up into Christ’s earthly ministry, what did Jesus tell the Twelve? "You are the light of the world." Well, who were the Twelve representatives of? Israel! "You are the salt of the earth." Who was? Israel, because of all these covenant promises. Okay, now I think I can move all the way up to Matthew. Now, let’s just jump and finish our few minutes in the New Testament because I don’t want someone to call and say, "Les, you’re spending too much time in the Old Testament," because they will. Now, let’s jump up to Matthew. This is a review of things I’ve said before. I may be getting older but I still remember what I’ve said before. And I’ve said this a ton of times. Matthew chapter 9 verse 35. It’s in Christ’s earthly ministry now. He’s just beginning the three years. Matthew 9:35a "And Jesus went about all the cities and villages, (that is of Israel) teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom,…" Good news! What was good news? The King is coming! This glorious Kingdom is finally available. They’ve been waiting 2000 years and here it is. The Gospel of the Kingdom, and He associated with that since He was God and He had the power of God. Matthew 9:35b "…and healing every sickness and every disease among the people." Now, chapter 10, in the first five verses, He has the twelve disciples named. That is He called them. The Twelve are now brought together and He’s ready to begin His ministry with them. Now, verse 5, and it’s a verse that a lot of people don’t like. They’ve called to tell me that their pastor says, "That doesn’t mean what it says. Doesn’t say what it means. They don’t believe it." Well, I beg to differ. It says exactly what it means because He’s now on covenant ground, that God made between Himself and Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and the prophets; that Israel would first have to have the Kingdom before they could evangelize the Gentile world. Matthew 10:5-6 "These twelve Jesus sent forth, and commanded them, saying, Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans, enter you not:" (That was a command. Why? Next verse:) 6. But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel." Why? Israel has to be brought the Kingdom first and then the King could come and then Israel could evangelize. Do you get the picture? That was the way it was supposed to be. Matthew 10:7 And as ye go, preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is (what?) at hand." Why? The King is in their midst! He’s there! Now, I know. Don’t think I don’t know – He had to go the way of the Cross. But that’s beside the point. Israel is put on trial – can they believe who He is? Can they believe the promises? As a result, what happened? They lost that opportunity to evangelize the Gentile world. They dropped the ball is the expression I usually use. They lost that opportunity of being the evangelists. Consequently, you come all the way through three years of His earthly ministry, you come through the early chapters of Acts and it culminates with Acts chapter 7, and that’s seven years after Pentecost. That’s a good way to remember it. Acts chapter 7, you can almost figure about a year per chapter here, and so seven years after Pentecost, Peter and the Eleven have been preaching their hearts out and still only a small remnant of Jews will accept Jesus of Nazareth as the King. And, remember, the requirement was they all had to. So, the Nation is falling through the cracks in unbelief.

But God sends one more time, Stephen, not one of the Twelve, but now He sends Stephen to address the Nation. He does it through the religious leaders, so he’s confronted by the High Priest, and he says in verse 1: Acts 7:1 "Then said the high priest, Are these things so?" In other words, all the things that they claimed Stephen and the Twelve had been saying. All right, now then, Stephen begins his whole long dissertation of how God had brought about the nation of Israel and how He had prepared them for these days, the coming of their Messiah. But, in their unbelief, now bring it down to verse 51, this is Stephen speaking, a man full of the Holy Spirit, remember, and he accuses the religious leaders of Israel: Acts 7:51 "Ye stiff necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your father did, so do ye." Oh, they were circumcised in the flesh, but spiritually not at all. Well, that’s what we’ve been seeing in Isaiah. Rather than giving into the leading of the Holy Spirit, what had they been doing? Worshipping idols. Now, we’ll make the point in our next taping that when they went into those 70 years of captivity, God broke their idolatry. The Jew never again practiced idolatry after that 70 years, but up until then they were steeped in it, steeped in idolatry. All right, so now this is what Stephen is reminding them of, that they constantly resisted the wooing of the Holy Spirit. All right verse 52: Acts 7:52 "Which of the prophets (Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel, all of them) have not your fathers persecuted? And they have slain (or killed) them who showed before (or prophesied) the coming of the Just One; of whom you have now been betrayers and murderers" So, really, the Jews in the practice of their religion were no different than the Mohammedans are today. If you don’t like what we preach, if you don’t want to agree with us we’ll kill you. Well, the Jews were the same way – they killed the prophets, they killed those who tried to bring Israel back out of their idolatry. It’s nothing new. All right, so Stephen, of course, is put to death, and he was the last real trumpet sound of God dealing with the nation of Israel. All right, but now look; what does God have to do? Something totally different. Israel, as a nation, has dropped the ball. They want nothing to do with this Jesus of Nazareth. All right, now look what God does. He saves old Saul of Tarsus on the road to Damascus. Jump up with me to Acts chapter 9 verse 15, and when you deal with people who don’t understand this let them read this verse. I just talked to a fellow early this morning and I told him the same thing, he said, "Les, I go back to my people and they ridicule me. They want nothing to do with Paul." And I said, "Well, try this approach. Take them into Acts chapter 9 verse 15 and let them read it." But they have to understand that, all the way up until this time, God has been dealing with Israel. He hasn’t even tried to deal with the Gentiles. He’s been dealing with Israel so that they would be the vehicle, but Israel will not. Now, look what he says: Acts 9:15a "But the LORD, said unto him, (that is Ananias, that believing Jew up there in Damascus) go thy way: for he (this Saul of Tarsus) is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name before (what people?) the Gentiles,…" You want to remember that up until this time that was a dirty word in the hearing of a Jew, but God has now designated this man who is going to be kept providentially from any contact with the Twelve in Jerusalem until he has received all of these new revelations of things that had been kept secret in the mind of God. Oh, God knew it was going to turn out this way. He wasn’t taken by surprise, and if I had the time…maybe we do. Can we go back quickly to Acts chapter 15? We’ll have to do this quickly. Acts chapter 15 where we have that Jerusalem Counsel and Peter and the Eleven have been confronting Paul about his going to the Gentiles, and they thought they

had to be proselytes of Israel, but they finally agreed that Paul has a commission all his own. So, then, James the moderator – I’ve got to do this quickly now. Acts 15:13-16a "And after they had held their peace, James answered, saying, Men and brethren, listen unto me: 14. Simon (Peter) hath declared how God at the first did visit the Gentiles, to take out of them (the Gentiles) a people for his name. 15. And to this agree the words of the prophets; for it is written, (now watch this verse 16) 16. After this (After He’s called out a people for His name. That’s us in this Church Age) I will return, and will build, again, the tabernacle of David, which is fallen down:…"

[idratherdreamofjune]

@sunheart wrote in her tags on another post:

Genuinely hate being alive ... I completely understand on so many levels why you would hate being a woman. Its horrible. And then as a Christian there's this whole really ugly dynamic- that i know is probably a lie i just haven't worked out how yet- that we're the 2nd best. The afterthought. The mediocre option. Almost everything in life men are better at and it's hard to believe it's just cultural-  math logic leadership writing cooking writing physical activities on and on, and women are good at being Nice :)   Which ok i like being nice   but it's like that's my only option   I feel like any other impact i might wish to have upon the world   will be paltry in comparison to what i could do   if only i was a man.   I feel incompetent. Irrational. Emotional. Obnoxious.   I feel like I'm supposed to be a plaything for the beings that were *actually* created to be in harmony with God   like I'm not supposed to have a connection with God-  only through my husband   which what does that make me as a single childless bitch?   I can't even fulfill the main point of my existence. Jesus interacted with women but did he care about them like he did the men? David and John were named his favorites not Deborah or Hannah. And like i said i'm sure none of that's true but i don't know how and it feels awful. hate it.

   Hopefully others have shared encouragement on this already, but just in case I wanted to give some thoughts. Please know that if I sound riled at all (and I’m going to try to avoid that) I’m not upset at anyone who feels this way but am deeply upset by the enemy’s lies that so many are hurt by. As a younger believer I did struggle with some of these questions myself, and for a long time it was difficult to reconcile these concerns with the promises that God loves me.

   Your instincts are right - it is a lie that women are second best. And before I go any further let me also agree that yes, we are physically weaker than men and have other weaknesses too. But since when has weakness meant that someone is any way “less than” others? Men have weaknesses too, just different ones. That’s the nature of humanity: every person is a mixed bag of strengths and weaknesses. I’ve never heard before that men are better at cooking?? My dad literally struggles to cook a hotdog in the microwave and has never touched a grill in his life. And okay men may (possibly, not sure on this one either) be inherently better at math, but which gender is drastically underrepresented in the nursing field? I suspect there are fewer male teachers, too, though not as huge a disparity. Men are more prone to recklessness and violence - part of the reason married men live longer (gotta get that stable influence). Again yes men are physically stronger but have you watched ballet dancers (oooh i mean ballerinas, sorry there’re so few ballerinos that I forgot to differentiate) or female gymnasts? Nothing “less than” there! The famous Proverbs 31 woman is a good insight into Biblical support of female abilities and value: “strength and dignity are her clothing”, “she opens her mouth with wisdom, and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue.” “Let her works praise her in the gates.” (The gates were essentially the city hall or forum of ancient Israel.)

   Going back to the beginning - women were created second, true. But did God not know His own plan? He was always going to create women. And the really amazing thing that I learned in the last couple of years is that, when God says He’s going to make Adam “a helper” (Hebrew ”ezer”), that’s the same word that is used to describe God’s actions for His people throughout the Old Testament: - Exodus 18:4 “The God of my father was my help.” - 1 Samuel 7:12 “Ebenezer” means “rock of help” and is a memorial of Yaweh’s help. - Psalm 30:10 “Hear, O Lord, and be merciful to me! O Lord, be my helper!” - Psalm 115:11 “You who fear the Lord, trust in the Lord, He is their help and their shield” - Psalm 121:2 “My help comes from the Lord” - Hosea 13:9 “‘You are against Me, against your helper.’“

It is a common word for “help” used in other settings, yes, but the fact that it’s used of God illustrates that this is no poor or second-rate role. Helping - aiding - supporting - incredibly important! In fact this article I just found puts it this way:

In two cases it refers to the first woman, Eve, in Genesis 2. Three times it refers to powerful nations Israel called on for help when besieged. In the sixteen remaining cases the word refers to God as our help. He is the one who comes alongside us in our helplessness. That's the meaning of ezer. Because God is not subordinate to his creatures, any idea that an ezer-helper is inferior is untenable. In his book Man and Woman: One in Christ, Philip Payne puts it this way: "The noun used here [ezer] throughout the Old Testament does not suggest 'helper' as in 'servant,' but help, savior, rescuer, protector.'

   Moving on to the New Testament, and the topic of John, who is known as “the disciple whom Jesus loved”. John is the one who wrote the book which tells us that (under the direction of the Holy Spirit, yes) and he only uses that wording as a title, in place of his name. Nowhere does it say he was the favorite disciple, or even most loved, just that he was loved. To me it seems more as if John is saying “Jesus loved me! Can you believe it?!” It has a feeling of awe and thankfulness as opposed to superiority.

  Getting into marriage specifically, I do believe that a wife should be under the headship of her husband ...mainly in the sense of letting him have the last word on decisions and plans. This is in part due to differing areas of strength, and in part because in some situations it’s better to have a family leader - most groups of humans need a leader, and following an assigned (or picked) leader does not make one inferior. All that being said, a wife should be able to provide input, advice, and feedback to her husband, who should take into strong consideration his wife’s needs, insights, and concerns (Ephesians 5:25-29).

   The lie that women cannot be connected to God outside of their husband is refuted not only by all the vibrantly faithful single or windowed Christian ladies of history (Amy Carmichael, Gladys Aylward, Mary Slessor, and Elisabeth Elliot are some of my favorites) but also Scripture itself. When Christ spoke with the divorced Samaritan woman the disciples were shocked not because she was a Samaritan but because she was a woman (John 4:27; she was shocked on both counts - John 4:9) - I hope they got used to it because Jesus spoke with women a lot. Despite the culture of the time, Jesus clearly had very warm and caring direct relationships with Martha and Mary, Mary Magdalene, and other women. Anna the Prophetess in the temple had been widowed for decades and was serving God alone “night and day” (Luke 2:37). Incredibly, in a culture where women were looked down upon, the Lord chose women to be the first to discover the empty tomb, and Mary Magdalene to be the first to see the risen Christ! I love that passage so much (John 20:11-18).

   Another example is when Jesus stopped on His way to heal Jairus’ daughter (i.e. He put aside a powerful man’s urgent request) to lovingly interact with the woman who’d suffered bleeding for years - a terribly personal and female problem (Mark 5:21-35).

   To try to wrap up, I’ll return to David in the OT, who was a “man after God’s own heart”. But again, it doesn’t say that he was actually a favorite - it does say David was chosen by God though, to lead Israel and establish the family from which Jesus would ultimately come. You know who else was chosen? Esther - “for such a time as this”. Once she realizes the task she must complete, she tells Mordecai how it’s going to go, and “Mordecai then went away and did everything Esther had ordered him.” Esther gets a book named after her and is remembered in the holiday of Purim to this day. Also note that Esther was married to an unbeliever. Likewise Ruth was chosen, as a young foreign widow, to be part of the Messiah’s kingly line. As an aside, my favorite thing about Ruth’s story (besides all the faith and beauty of it) is the simultaneous deep respect and protectiveness Boaz shows towards her (okay enough mush). Anyhow what it comes down to is that God chooses and loves both men and women, and both have a place (singly and married) in His plans and kingdom. See also Galatians 3:28 “ There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”

   This post has all over the place, and I probably forgot a bunch of things I wanted to add (if anything else comes to mind I’ll add it later), but I hope it’s been encouraging. Yes I’ve struggled with some aspects of how women are portrayed in the Bible, but what I shared above, plus the love and blessings I’ve known as a single woman are more than enough evidence that we are known and loved. If anything is unclear or anyone has any questions please speak out/send an ask! Anon asks are on too. Also if anyone wants to add or amend anything do so without hesitation!!

[dog-day-morning]

The word of God tells us we shall suffer for the cause of Christ, he who seeks a greater reward must attain a greater faith. Unto whom much is given that much more is required. You wanna eat that whole caramel cake, you crave that sweet tea, you pursue that woman in a nightclub hoping to get her in a compromised position, face down tail up because face it, we're not willing to bow down to the will of God, but we’re so happy, and ready to give in to that round mound of doo doo brown. The 3 Hebrew boys Meshach, Shadrach, and Abednego went into the fiery furnace defying Nebuchadnezzar's declaration to worship him. These men had the inspiration, strength, and courage to say, even if He doesn't deliver us, we know that He can. That kind of faith is called perfected faith. We can be lazy because we refuse to work with what God gave us before the day of calamity comes to devour us. Tribulation is kicking into high gear, and many of God’s people are none the wiser. There are people who were working 3 jobs before, and after this pandemic became a global concern who know what is on the horizon. You don't need an Issachar spirit to discern the times; read the Bible. He also said to the crowds, “When you see a cloud rising in the west, you say at once, ‘A shower is coming.’ And so it happens. And when you see the south wind blowing, you say, ‘There will be scorching heat,’ and it happens. You hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of earth and sky, but why do you not know how to interpret the present time? The gov't has pulled back on unemployment benefits forcing many to find a job. The 2 righteous servants in the parable of the 3 servants increased the wealth of their employer who trusted 3 men with different amounts of talents [money], and the 1 who didn't work diligently for his master inherited weeping, and gnashing of teeth. God invested in us, and He expected a greater return from this major investment. Jesus was the greatest financial venture ever made. The Father placed His faith in His Son who in turn gave Him many more sons that walk amongst us waiting for the Day of Judgment. This investment which supersedes all, but are intertwined will never decrease, and forever increase. The 144,000 isn't a spiritually inspired interpretation based on mine, and Mima getting the Holy Ghost or having an encounter with the Holy Spirit to speak in tongues. Sit down grandma, your Depends are leaking brown stuff that reeks of formaldehyde, and raw chitlins. God is looking for a righteous Nation to worship Him not themselves. These men, and boys who represent the 12 tribes of Israel have never been defiled by women, and hopefully not by men either. You lucky mother You can take the word literally or as a misinterpretation. Those who don't believe in the written word who believe that God's word isn't infallible aren't all to blame for this heresy. Those who originally interpreted the King James Bible added to, and took from are suffering for a misleading interpretation. The prophetic which God didn't let man corrupt altogether has pretty much played out verbatim. We may be dying to a world that is trying to kill our faith that God has no intention of doing until He finds His true worshippers, and He’ll never destroy one's faith in Him. Winter is coming and you and I must be prepared. We must live like today is our last without being caught up in fear. I'm suffering from a form of laziness called jackass. God shall supply all your needs, but faith without works is dead. The ant has the intuition to work throughout the Summer knowing that Winter is coming. A lot of these drones won't live to see the finished product. Ant mounds look like the Pyramids of Giza that secure the Queen, but where is the King? They serve the one who gives life that sustains the colony, she is their goddess, but what happens if the Queen dies? There's more than one Queen serving the colony who can breed an entire colony independent of one other. fulfilling their role while working together in unison with the others who all serve a greater purpose. This

is a major element that drives the Kingdome of heaven. Christ is just like His Father In the Kingdome that includes the Holy Spirit which they will pour upon all flesh again soon. There are no cowards or sinners in the Kingdome. The angels are not as drones, they are blessed warriors.

Revelation 21:8

8 But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.

1 Corinthians 6:8-10

8 Nay, ye do wrong, and defraud, and that your brethren.

9 Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind,

10 Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.

Alkebulan we need to wake up and get right. Black American's of the tribes of Judah, Gad, Reuben, and Issachar you need to aim at my forehead, and scatter my scatter brained grey matter all over the pavement. When Joe Biden told a radio podcaster if you don't vote for me you're not Black, he must be color blind. This vaccine that suspiciously looks like the Mark of Whodunnit. They can plant a microchip in your arm that can track your every move, financial transaction, and possibly your dreams while you sleep. Some Walmart stores are refusing to take cash when you check out; they only take debit, and credit cards. These are signs that we’re living in the End Times. The Last Days. I'm looking at this as a sign to get the hell outta this city, and decompose. What in God's name am I afraid of? Jesus took a beat down like a man on a mission.. You're not weak or simping if you gave your life for a people you fed, healed, gave sight to, preached to, taught them a new way to live, pray, love, told them about a Kingdome greater than Jerusalem, and you didn't kill anybody in the process knowing what they were going to do to your physical body in an almost retarded like bid to destroy their salvation. I've done none of that; my bad. Stop looking for men, especially zaddy to deliver us. “If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.” Some of us foolheartedly called Bill Clinton the first Black president when he's not, never can, or will be to me in any sense, Barack wasn't either. Thomas Jefferson, the third elected president, who served two terms between 1801 and 1809 was described as the “son of a half-breed Indian squaw (Black) and a Virginia mulatto father (Black).” Abraham Lincoln, the nation’s 16th president, served between 1861, and 1865. Lincoln had very dark skin, and coarse hair and his mother allegedly came from an Ethiopian tribe. His heritage fueled so much controversy that Lincoln was nicknamed “Abraham Africanus the First” by his presidential opponents and cartoons were drawn depicting him as a Negro. Warren Harding, Calvin Coolidge, Dwight David Eisenhower, and the scourge of the South Andrew Jackson were all n**gahs. I’ll see you come Hanukkah you self-hating black, Uncle Ruckus’s. I don't celebrate Thanksgiving, why should I be overjoyed about the genocide, and enslavement of God's people? Christmas is what it is. Hopefully you will celebrate this holiday season together fulfilling God's prophetic word. I can't unless you kill me. The Christmas holiday is as pagan as Joel Osteen is at scamming. David Duke, you might wanna go to ancestry.com, and take a DNA test. You might be 30% Swahili. By the looks of those big, gorilla nostrals you had before that rhinoplasty. You, and Bull Connor may be related to Idi Amin. Your biggest shame is your greatest blessing. Personally you can kiss the skid marks in the middle of my skid marks after I take a fresh dump. Conservative, political pundits, and wannabes whose names I won't mention, but one in particular who looks like he smoked 23 blunts in 15min. with no filter. Please keep him in California, and let him drown with his zaddy, and pancaked tail, bowed hipped women. Use your lips as a floatation device dude. These people are ashamed of the God who has blessed many, and plenty. These people suffer, hopefully not always, from the white savior or white zaddy complex. The truth isn't in any of them, that's why they're so adept at lying when making bold-faced statements before the public that opposes their previous opinion like people don’t have YouTube or google. I’ll Bing a factoid or Yahoo that mother to get the truth I may even pay for it, gimme a dollar. My inability to walk amongst men as a man has stagnated my propensity to live That's BS, my Apostle said something this past Sunday that's stuck on my forehead. YOU'RE LAZY!!! I am what I am, a pain in the rear end. This has gone on way too long. Sometimes

I feel as though God wants me to kill myself because the PO PO won’t. I would feel better if my natural family would stab me in the neck, not my back, with a piece of diseased, pork, spare rib from a boar hog, and let me die from a rare form of trichinosis. The people have spoken while I’m playing Jay, and Silent Bob. Father, get me outta here. Elohim, 9/16/2021

[traumacatholic]

Reflections for Advent with the Church Fathers #7

Maximus of Turin, Homily 60 , 3-4

How can we successfully convey the spiritual need for attention to the soul and not just the body in today’s appearance-obsessed society? It’s easy. The body will only last about one hundred years in a best-case scenario, but the soul lasts for all eternity. Who among us does not prepare as much as possible for an important event by cleaning up and putting on his or her nicest clothes? No one would want to look bad in front of others. We should prepare our soul in the same way, multiplied by eternity, so it will be clean and ready to participate in the feast of all feasts, the awarding of all awardings, the evening of all evenings, and the endless banquet, without making a poor impression on the other guests and particularly on the Lord of the house.

Let us therefore purify our heart, our conscience, and our spirit many days ahead of time, and thus cleansed and spotless let us prepare to receive the immaculate Lord who is coming. As he was born of the Immaculate Virgin, so too may his servants be immaculate to celebrate his birth! Indeed, anyone who is dirty and tainted on that day neither is concerned with the Nativity of Christ nor desires him. Such a man may well participate bodily in the feast of the Lord, but spiritually he is quite distant from the Savior; nor is it possible for an impure man and a holy man, an avaricious man and a merciful man, a corrupt man and a pure man to be together without the one offending the other, proving himself all the more unworthy the less he is aware of his unworthiness. Indeed, he causes insult though wishing to be courteous, like the man in the Gospel invited to the feast of the saints who dared to attend the wedding without a wedding garment (see Mt 22:1-14): while all the other guests radiated with justice, faith, and chastity, he alone—with an unclean conscience—was spurned by all the others for the repugnance he caused; and the more the sanctity of the holy guests shone, the more the insolence of his sins was revealed.

Source: Advent and Christmas with the Church Fathers by United States Conference of Catholic Bishops

[in-christalone]

Former homosexual is such an insult. I'm sorry that you have been caused to think like that. God loves everyone and love isn't a sin. If you went through conversion therapy than what they taught you is all just brain washing. Be true to yourself, if you were experimenting that is fine but former homosexual is an insult.

Hello friend! I’m so glad you sent this message in, you’re giving me a chance to explain in my own words what my conversion from a homosexual lifestyle to one of Christianity is like, thank you for that!

Being a person who is same sex attracted is not a sin. YOU are not a sin, a sinner, yes (as I am too, the worst kind) but you as a person, having same sex attractions, are not a sin.

What is sin?

Sin is cosmic treason against a Holy, Righteous God - Jonathan Edwards

We are not sinners because we sin. We sin because we are sinners. - R.C Sproul

Unfortunately the lgbt community (including myself at one point) had the thought since we are gay, we are therefore a sin. As such there’s no hope for redemption. So why not have fun while we live?

However, the actions/thoughts we do/have are sins.

God created the universe, Heavens, earth, animals, and He created us. He is our Creator! The whole world is proof of His existence, the Grand Canyon is proof of the flood for example! Sodom and Gomorrah to this day is still preserved in sulfur from God destroying the city for its wicked rebellion.

When Adam and Eve sinned, they fell into rebellion against God. We have inherited their sinful nature as we all come from them (they were the first humans, all humanity comes from them)

We have all sinned and fallen short to the glory of God. We’ve all broken the law of God and like the criminals of the Law that we are, we all deserve to be in hell for our transgressions and sins.

This isn’t the end though! We have hope!

There remains hope for the sinner! God is faithful and so merciful to forgive sinners!

He has provided only One way for a sinner to be forgiven of their sins, that’s only through Jesus Christ.

Right after The Fall, God told Adam and Eve in Genesis 3:15 His plan of redemption for humanity. We can be washed clean of our sins.

Our hearts are the problem, the Bible says;

The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it? —Jeremiah 17:9

But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander. These are what defile a person.. -Matthew 15:18-20

Where is our hope if this is the condition of our heart? How can we, who hate God, even come to love Him and His Law?

We can’t do it alone. God says in the Bible;

“I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.”— ‭‭Ezekiel‬ ‭36:26-27‬ ‭

‬‬The Holy Spirit (which they text refers to) had always existed! He just has a new role now than in the Old Testament era.

The Holy Spirit is put within and only the believer. The Spirit convicts and causes the believer to repent of their sins, first comes spiritual rebirth, then the sinner is a believer and has received forgiveness of sins!

If we are guilty, how do we become free?

In order for a convicted criminal to walk free from their crimes, someone must pay.

We owe our lives to Jesus Christ for His death. His blood shed for our atonement, and equally important, He has taken the wrath of God, something we all deserve, and taken it all upon Himself when He suffered and died on the cross.

Only Jesus (Whom is God) lived a perfect, sinless life as a human, only Jesus was able to pay for our forgiveness of sins, only Jesus has taken the wrath of God for us, and only Jesus has defeated death once and for all.

This is all said to prove this Scripture;

“Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

‭‭John‬ ‭14:6‬ ‭‬‬

Jesus Christ is the promised Messiah of God through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus we have a perfect, sinless Savior. The Lamb of God slaughtered for our sins and resurrected for the promise of eternal life. Sin cannot be forgiven excepted by sacrifice.. This is why Jesus is the only way to heaven. As long as he has sacrificed himself for guilty centers, and had drunk the full cup of God’s wrath, and has been resurrected for the promise of eternal life.

In order to inherit eternal salvation, one must repent of their sinful living, and place all their hope in Jesus as their Savior.

——

Former homosexual is not an insult to me, it’s a hope that God has placed in me. That I am no longer bound by my past, that I now have hope in Jesus Christ who has redeemed me!

I have never been through conversion therapy, though I really do appreciate your concern, I don’t support conversion therapy in any way, shape or form.

I don’t believe in the hyper focus of one sin when we are all sinners, in need of God’s grace..

I would further challenge you to re-think “love is love”. If such is true, we would then have to accept anyone who feels love for say, their sibling, a young teenager and an adult, or even beastality. There must be a line drawn somewhere when it comes to the romantic type of love.

God created man and woman to be together in a family not to suppress us, but to help us live abundant lives, in fact, once we are adopted into the family of God, then we begin to see that the same is said for everyone of Gods Laws.

A family must have a mother and father influence.

Heather Barwick, whom was raised by two mothers, expresses her childhood, trauma, homosexuality, and deep desire for the father figure she never had in her life.

Heather writes, “I’m not saying that you can’t be good parents. You can. I had one of the best. I’m also not saying that being raised by straight parents means everything will turn out okay. We know there are so many different ways that the family unit can break down and cause kids to suffer: divorce, abandonment, infidelity, abuse, death, etc. But by and large, the best and most successful family structure is one in which kids are being raised by both their mother and father.”

Being same sex attracted is a temptation and therefore not a sin, but when one gives into temptation, they produce sin.

Anyone can be redeemed in Christ Jesus.

Thank you so much for allowing me to speak on this, I really appreciate the opportunity you’ve given me to share more about myself and what God has done in my life.

I have joy in my life, and am no longer held by fear of death. God has set me free, He loves you and desires to set you free as well 💛

[kira-ani-mcgrath]

I've little interest in Frozen stuff but I've seen bits and pieces of this Hans stuff you've mentioned on and off and I'm curious about something. When you say someone is acting un-Christlike by saying a character is irredeemable, what is it you exactly mean? Because sometimes yea, it can be narratively unsatisfying to randomly redeem a character in a story. Example: People debating if it would be narratively satisfying if Azula got redeemed. It's got nothing to do with worldview imo.

For context, this ask comes in the wake of this post.

I’m posting this reply publicly so I can refer back to it if needed in the future. I received a similar ask [hopefully that link works] on the heels of this post, which I answered privately without saving a copy of my response, and it would have been useful if I’d saved and/or posted it. Thus, here we are.

I want to make something 100% unquestionably clear to anyone who follows me or reads my posts: whenever I criticize someone labeling Hans “unredeemable”/“irredeemable” it is ALWAYS in the context of someone declaring him un/irredeemable because of what he has done.

It is NEVER people saying they don’t think Disney should redeem him because they’re worried WDAS will do a terrible job of it. It is NEVER people saying they don’t want him redeemed in an unsatisfying manner (i.e.: “BTW he’s good now, he changed off-screen and now he’s back like nothing bad happened.”). It is NEVER people saying that his redemption may not fit well into a particular scenario. It confuses me that people are interpreting my words this way, because if I were to express concern about the way a character’s actual or potential redemption were handled, I would never do it by labeling the character irredeemable or saying the character shouldn’t be redeemed at all, full stop. I would include the nuances I am referring to, such as “The character shouldn’t be redeemed off-screen,” or “The character shouldn’t be redeemed in this movie.” Therefore, if I am saying people shouldn’t call a character irredeemable, I’m not referring to specific cases such as “The character shouldn’t be redeemed by this creative team,” or, “The character shouldn’t be redeemed in this manner.” I am referring to a much larger picture.

I am criticizing people who say Hans is evil, malicious, unfeeling, manipulative, abusive, a villain, a sociopath, and/or a murder, and therefore he can never and should never be redeemed. I am criticizing people who don’t want Hans redeemed because they have a personal grudge against the character. I am criticizing people who think that once a character crosses a particular line (and apparently this line is unique for Hans, based on what he actually did compared to every other “bad guy” in fictional history), the character is now 100% bad and can never be good in any way ever again.

A Christian should never think this way. There is no unforgivable sin (besides attributing works of the Holy Spirit to Satan, as some of the Pharisees did). We are to love our enemies and desire what is best for them - to be saved, redeemed - and yet I see people with the word “Christian” in their bio bragging about how much they hate Hans because he was so terrible to Anna and Elsa, rejoicing that Hans remains unredeemed in canon, cheering when Anna punches Hans in Frozen, laughing when the Frozen Fever snowball crashes into him, agreeing with Elsa calling him an “unredeemable monster” and approving of her destroying his snow-figure in Frozen II. I see those who say they belong to Christ - the Savior who took on every sin imaginable - saying that Hans is simply too mean, too horrible, too evil to be redeemed. I hope this is obvious, but there should be no such thing as “too [x] for redemption” to the Christian. There is never anyone, real or fictional, beyond salvation and redemption. [The only exception I could think of would be a fictional world where the rules are the antithesis to Christianity - then you could say a character is irredeemable because the very nature of that universe doesn’t allow for the character’s redemption. But that certainly doesn’t apply to Frozen.]

Now to address the Azula example brought up at the end. I’m not an A:TLA fan, but I did watch the entire show and I see the occasional meta cross my dash now and then. I’m not familiar with any debates as you have referenced, so I’m just going to give my own examples to hopefully add some extra clarity to my position.

First, I fail to see how a well-done redemption arc could ever be “narratively unsatisfying,” particularly for the Christian. If it’s well-written and you see the steps the character takes, their failings and their successes, I would think that'd be quite a satisfying story. So what is the actual issue when debating characters’ redemptions? I believe it’s concerns of quality, characterization, and actions.

Given where we see Azula at the end of her fight with Zuko in the finale, it would certainly be unsatisfying if she was chilling in Iroh’s tea shop with everyone in the final moments of the series. Likewise, I would not want to see a Hans redemption where we are re-introduced to Hans and he’s completely apologetic and ready to right any wrongs. In fact, I am put-off by fanfics that start with Hans having already repented, changed, etc., from his canon actions and self. I want to see the process of change, so that it is satisfying when he finally makes the right decision.

Given the existing three seasons of A:TLA, people are free to debate on whether or not room could have been made for an Azula redemption arc. Given the current Frozen material, people are free to debate on whether or not room could have been made for a Hans redemption arc.

Had there been further canon A:TLA material, and there was an Azula redemption arc done as well as Zuko’s (such as described in this Twitter thread), I would have found that very narratively satisfying. Now, others may not like how that theoretical redemption was handled, plotted, etc. That’s perfectly fine. Likewise, people may have certain ways they don’t want a theoretical Hans redemption handled, plotted, etc. Again, perfectly fine. One can disagree on the way a redemption arc was/might be handled without dismissing the redemption altogether.

People may want Azula to remain unredeemed because they believe she would choose to be so. That’s fine (though others are allowed to disagree). For example, if she were to maintain that she did nothing wrong and reject any help Zuko and Iroh offered, then she would remain unredeemed. Alternatively, she could realize that what she did was wrong, but then go the opposite direction and believe she doesn’t deserve anything good, so she would reject love and help at every turn for the rest of her life, and thus remain unredeemed. However, I have never seen anyone call a character “irredeemable” and mean that they believe the character would actively choose to reject offers of redemption.

People may say Azula or Hans shouldn’t be redeemed because it would be out-of-character. From an unbeliever’s perspective, that may be correct, as they think certain traits as immutable. However, that’s wrong from a Christian perspective, as anyone can change if enabled by the grace of God. In fictional worlds that don’t have any Christianity, you simply use an imperfect archetype to play a pivotal role in the character’s transformation (i.e., Uncle Iroh to Zuko).

People may not be against an Azula or Hans redemption in and of itself, but think it makes the most narrative sense to leave the characters unredeemed - whether it be because there wasn’t enough time in canon, or there’s other characters to focus on, or some other behind-the-fourth-wall reason. That doesn’t make the characters irredeemable, it just means that’s the way the story currently stands. There’s no reason that story can’t change in the future.

However, if people are saying Azula shouldn’t be redeemed at all because what she did was too wrong, then that is un-Christ-like. Likewise, saying Hans is irredeemable because what he did was too wrong is indisputably un-Christ-like. Now, of course, I can’t expect unbelievers to act Christ-like, so it doesn’t surprise me when I see them express such sentiments. However, when a Christian argues against redemption on these grounds, I absolutely question why. You claim to stand on the Word of God, but declare there are actions too heinous to be forgiven and characters that don’t deserve redemption? God rebuked a man for his desire to see people punished instead of forgiven [Jonah], forgave adultery and murder [David], and transformed a man from persecuting to teaching the Church [Saul/Paul]. Yet you put your stamp of approval on a lack of redemption for a character because of the actions of that character? Further sanctification is needed, whether in love for the lost or in fully surrendering all to Christ. A lack of redemption should only serve as a warning of what happens to those who reject truth, love, and forgiveness - because, as we know, not everyone will be saved. A Christian should never be against redemption because they personally hate the character, or think the character is unforgivable, or believe the character doesn’t “deserve” it, or any other reason antithetical to who Christ is and what He has done.

[godsporncollection]

Saturday Morning Session

(personal commentary in italics) (sorry for how inconsistent i am at this, i’m trying new medication, so my focus comes and goes unpredictably, but i didn’t want this to take weeks)

Russel M Nelson -  strengthen your testimony (?)

"I understand better what he meant when he said 'behold, i will hasten my work in this time.'" 

Y'all have been strengthening your testimonies and i, and your children, thank you. did that inclusion of "your children" feel off to anyone else?

I can see the work on the temple outside my window and that makes me think about how we need to remove the old debris from our lives. I too think of the temple as 'old debris' that should be removed from my life.

"the gospel is a message of joy" I cannot roll my eyes hard enough

that was short. what was the topic? blab for a five minutes?

Dieter F. Uchdorf - god is Among Us

I had to move lots when I was a kid because there was a war on. i thought about the missionaries who came to the country of their enemies to bring us the gospel.

i was a kid in a war-torn country > missionaries > god has not forgotten us > we will be heirs of god > how could we complain when we have that? > the atonement > mistakes are okay, just gotta keep repenting.

what would jesus teach if he was among us today? the same thing he's always taught. "the savior always teaches timeless truths, to everyone, a message of hope and belonging, a testament that god has not abandoned his children that god is Among Us."

jesus says to love one another and to be full of charity towards all men. i would like to see it.

anyone else feel like these talks are just. empty? like, they're not feeling it either?

if jesus came into your home today, he would see into your heart and i'm gonna waste a couple more minutes by expanding on that. one look into his eyes and we would be forever changed by the realization that god is Among Us.

back to me, i wish i could go back and tell myself to stay on the right track because god is Among Us, so i'm gonna tell you instead. god is Among Us.

"line upon line" *gag*

god is Among Us

Joy D Jones - abuse is wrong unless you use it to teach kids about the gospel

"have you ever wondered why we call 'primary' 'primary'?" as someone who understands how language works, no.

because kids are importanter than everything else

god trusts us to be nice to our kids; that means no abuse, even if we're angry. whoever needed this reminder should be shot.

hey, maybe you can "combat the evils of abuse" by not fucking raising your kids in an abusive cult!

analogy of a kid who fell out of bed because he "didn't get far enough in" = he wasn't indoctrinated enough, with awkward collage of pics of kids for a minute.

eyring said to get 'em while they're young

love all the pics of black people that try to say "see? we don't think black people are inherently evil (anymore)!"

analogy of a soldier in boot camp. drill seargants are mean, but that was necessary because apparantly it's the only way this guy can learn how to hide. also, apparently this guy is "our friend". not my friend, thanks.

"how can we do the same for our children?" don't fucking act like a drill seargent to your kids! ffs

"wouldn't we rather have them sweat in the safe learning environment of the home than bleed on the battlefields of life?" first of all, fuck you. second, dramatic much? third, fuck you, kids shouldn't have to learn about life in a hostile environment. does this woman have kids? are they okay? fucking hell, five kids were raised by a woman with this mentality. what a bitch.

"eternity is the wrong thing to be wrong about." i got news for you. of course, if i ever spoke to this machine, that topic wouldn't be my top priority.

I need a fucking drink.

Jan Eric Newman - teaching the gospel is good, but you can't force a testimony on others

anecdote about a local old woman getting birthday gifts. she taught us some good things when we were growing up, so thanks, sister davis.

another teacher, at college, was a "master teacher." he loved me and the lord. he taught me to learn doctrine on my own and that "changed me forever."

just sayin', if you're taught how to learn on your own, but didn't exercise enough critical thought to gtfo of this cult, maybe the teacher wasn't the best.

it's good to have good teachers.

the ancient nephites and lamanites had good teachers, and "there was no contention among them!"

"how can we teach more like the savior and help others become more deeply converted?" nope, nope. nope.

1st, "learn all you can about the master teacher hismelf." so, we're sticking with the term "master teacher." cool. doesn't sound weird at all.

ask yourself questions about how he taught, then do that.

read "teaching in the savoir's way."

2nd, use bullshit stories. oh, no, it's a story about how somebody is grateful for the pandemic because her adult child read the BoM for the first time during it. she said it had made "literal miracles."

3rd, "remember that conversion must come from within." guess jan and "joy" should have compared notes before speaking.

"children inheret many things, but a testimony is not one of them. we can't give our children a testimony any more than we can make a seed grow; but we can provide a nourishing environment, with good soil, free of thorns that would choke the word."

Gary E. Stevenson - kindness

story about a study where rabbits were fed a high-fat diet, but those under the care of a loving researcher didn't gain as much weight.

only christians can intuitively understand that this means there's a reason to be kind to others.

jesus said love one another.

addressing primary kids - be kind. here's a story about a kid who stopped being a bully because the bullied kid said it hurt.

to the teens - social media makes bullying worse, clearly satan is using social media against your generation. do what you can t make these spaces safer. if you're a bully, "stop it."

to the adults- "we have a primary responsibility to set a tone and be role models of kindness (get wrecked "joy"), inclusion and civility."

from ballard- "i have never heard members of this church to be anything but loving, kind, tolerant and benevolent to our friends and neighbors of other faiths." k, but, like, you know it's not just a difference of religious belief that’s the problem, right?

i'm heartbroken to hear about prejudice against blackasianlatino people or of any other group. i love how that section was really only about race, with a blanket "any other group" thrown in as an afterthought so they can't be accused of being homophobic.

in the winter of 1838, jo smith was in prison and why do you think that happened, gary?

church members were driven from their homes and the residents of a town across the river gave them food and shelter. that generosity saved the lives of many of them.

god is a compassionate care-giver.

Gerrit W. Gong - disjointed anecdotes of human experiences, idk

i miss my dad. he was adventurous, except regarding food.

i saw a guy be mean to a lady selling ice cream. he smashed all of her cones. the image of her trying to salvage the cones haunts me to this day.

story of the good samaritan.

be like christ this easter.

"we recieve inspiration as we counsel together, listening to each person, including each sister and the spirit."

does this guy have a topic?

he’s is just giving a list of random human experiences and parables.

*displays a lack of understanding of instagram.*

he's listing something throughout this, like, he keeps counting, but i have no idea what and his voice is making my adhd medication run away, so i'm not listening to this again.

Henry B. Eyring - temple worthiness

today i'm feeling light and hope, like the first day i went to the salt lake temple

i'm an oblivious fucker who didn't notice my name being pinned on me, so i thought the woman who greeted me was an angel because she knew my name.

thought he could remember being in the temple before, but a voice that was not his own (that's how you know it's true and not something he just told himself) told him he was remembering heaven.

confused "holiness to the lord" with "this is a holy place." i know both phrases use the word 'holy', but like, those contexts mean separate things.

i also had this feeling during my wedding in the logan temple.

i think henry should get checked out, he suffers from frequent hallucinations and it's good to know how your brain works differently from others when in a leadership position.

during my wedding, i had a vision of a house and the officiant said to live in a way that you can walk away easily. a year later, my father in law bought the exact house and my wife and i lived in the guest house for ten years. then i got the call to move somewhere else on assignment from the church and we walked away easily.

scripture from jesus about temples.

if you're unworthy in the temple, you won't be "able to see, by the power of the holy ghost, the spiritual teaching of the savior that we can recieve in the temple."

"when we are worthy to recieve such teaching, there can grow, through our temple experience, hope, joy, and optimism throughout our lives. that hope, joy, and optimism are available only through accepting the ordinances performed in holy temples."

i forgot how simple a baptism is, so i'm gonna tell you how amazed (and a little concerned) i was when my youngest daughter stayed to do baptism for the dead for all of the names on the list that day. maybe i'm just super comfortable in the water, but that doesn't sound hard, actually. i used to almost enjoy doing those.

quotes the primary song 'i love to see the temple.'

remember to be worthy so you can live with your family forever.

[kelyon]

Golden Rings 10: A Favor

The Storybrooke sequel to Golden Cuffs

Rumple deals with the Savior

Read on AO3

He frowns at the parchment in his hands. The twittering bluebird that delivered the message flaps its wings to get away from the window as quickly as it can. The clever animal must sense that the Dark One is in a mood to throw firebolts. 

“How bad is it?” His wife gets up from the dining room table. She stands beside him in a patch of sunlight by the uncurtained window.

He slides his arm around her waist. After a year of marriage the gesture is automatic. Touching her is as natural as breathing. 

“It is all of our nightmares come to life!” He says the words lightly, as though that will diminish the truth of them.

Belle takes the letter and reads it for herself. “Princess Ella is having twins?” She reads further. “And she thinks you’ll want to take both babies? But the deal was only for her first-born. She would know that if she had read the contract before she signed it! ”

Softly, Rumpelstiltskin drifts away from her. He walks a slow circle around the dining room. Though he never thought much about the castle, he has lived there for hundreds of years. Soon he will never see this place again. He married Belle here. It is his home. It is their home. 

“Do you know what really annoys me?” 

Belle looks up from the letter. “What, Rumple?”

“In the message,” he takes the parchment back, “the cinder-girl says that a dwarf heard a second heartbeat in her womb. A dwarf. How would a dwarf know to listen for that kind of thing? Dwarves are hatched, fully-grown, from eggs.” He paces back and forth across the room. “In the entire history of time, fewer than a hundred dwarves have ever come out from their mines to interact with the above-ground. How in any hell would one of them be knowledgeable about the pregnancy of a human woman?” He shakes his head. “It’s sloppy. By acting like I believe such a ruse, I will look an utter fool.”

“Then you shouldn’t go!”

The words come out as a cry, and Belle’s hand covers her mouth. Her eyes are wide. She is shocked that she would allow such a thought to escape her lips. He knows that she would take it back if she could. 

But the words have already been spoken. They hang in the air between husband and wife like a barrier.

He goes to her, without hesitation. He breaks the barrier of her words. He takes her hand away from her mouth, kisses her fingers, then her lips. There is nothing she can do or say to him that she will ever need to take back. He loves her, and her love for him is his only certainty. 

 When they pull apart, Belle’s cheeks are wet with tears.

“I’m sorry,” she whispers. She shakes her head and lowers her eyes. Rumpelstiltskin holds her in his arms and lets her cry. 

“It’s all right,” he murmurs. He rocks her gently, swaying from side to side. It’s almost like they’re dancing. The last dance they will ever share in this world. 

He cannot fault her for not wanting to be abandoned. When he is gone, she will be vulnerable, even with all their best precautions in place. There is still a risk, and Belle is right to be mindful of her own safety. He needs to be near her in order for her to be protected.

“I thought I could be brave enough,” she murmurs. “But I can’t.” She puts her hands on his chest and takes a deep breath. “I can’t let them do this to you!”

Stunned, Rumpelstiltskin looks at his wife. Gently, he brings his hands up to her face. There is nothing but honesty in her eyes. He sees her so clearly, his Belle, his beloved. This tiny, fragile, mortal woman is more fearful for his comfort than her own survival.

“Me?” he whispers. “Belle, what about you?”

“They’re going to put you in a cage, Rumple! A cage with no magic! You’ll be powerless! Those people could do anything to you! They could hurt you or--”

“You’re the only person who can hurt me, Belle,” he assures her. “You are the mistress of the dagger. Nothing anyone else does to me matters.”

Her breath shakes. “I just wish--”

“Shh.” He pulls her close, holds her tight. “No wishing. Wishing is how little cinder-Ella got into the position she’s in. Wishing is wanting something without putting in the work to get it, and we know better than that. After all, my love, all magic--”

“Comes at a price,” she finishes it with him. “I know.” 

Her hands go up to his face. She traces his lines and his scales, rubs her palms against his sharp jaw, his cheekbones. He closes his eyes and rests against her touch. Belle runs a finger up the edge of his nose and over his eyebrows. She cups his cheeks in her soft hands. By the end of it, both of them are breathing more easily.

“When will the Savior be born, Rumple? When will the curse be cast?”

“By tradition, the announcements are made in the royal mother’s sixth month of pregnancy. That was just a few days ago. Snow White is about as far along as the ash-girl.”

“So three months,” she says. “For three months, you’ll be in prison and I’ll be pretending.”

“It will keep us safe.” He takes her hands, kisses her ring. “You will be safe from Regina and everyone else will be safe from me. Whoever wants to find me will know exactly where I am. They’ll see me beaten, and will have no reason to fear me.”

“But we won’t see each other for three months.”

He embraces her again, kisses her forehead. “Three months, and twenty-eight years.” 

Belle shudders. “Tell me you don’t have to leave right now.”

He squeezes her, and shakes his head. “Tomorrow night, the letter said. At the stroke of midnight. I think the princess thought that was clever.”

Belle scoffs.

Rumpelstiltskin tilts her chin up so that she’s looking at him. “I am yours forever, sweetheart. But for this plan to work, I must play my part. I must be all the darkness mothers tell tales of to frighten children. I must steal babes and trick maidens and be vanquished by heroes who are oh-so-very-good and clever. I must be every evil thing they think I am. And then, Belle, in order to win--I must lose.”

****

Rumpelstiltskin came out of the darkness to the sound of a frantic banging and a woman’s voice:

“Oh my God! Are you alright?”

Belle. His eyes stung and his head hurt. He couldn’t say what he wanted to say. Sweetheart, don’t worry about me…

But Belle’s voice kept shouting, almost screaming. It came from some distance away, even more than through the fog of his unconsciousness. It was like she was in another room. Once again, they were separated by a locked door.

He was lying on the ground. The floor, inside somewhere. A wooden floor. 

It was dark. When he tried to open his eyes, lights streamed in through the windows. Orange, electric lights. Street lights. Storybrooke.

“The door’s locked, but I’ve got my new key!” Belle’s voice cried. But it wasn’t Belle on the other side of the door to Gold’s shop. “I’m coming in!”

Rumpelstiltskin raised his head for a moment, but then the pain flashed like lightning and he sunk back to the ground.

“Oh, Jesus!” Mrs. Gold opened the door and turned on the lights. He winced at the brightness. Eyes closed, he heard the crunch of broken glass under her gray suede boots. “Oh Jesus Christ, Mr. Gold! What happened? Are you okay?”

She knelt on the floor beside him, touching his face and chest frantically. Like she was trying to assure herself that he was real, that he was breathing. Her touch was warm on his skin. Belle was always so warm... 

“Christ, Mr. Gold, you’re bleeding! Can you talk to me? Please talk to me!”

Obedient to his wife, Rumpelstiltskin opened his mouth and made a noise. It was mostly a groan, but it was enough to calm her a little. 

“Can you open your eyes?”

Her concerned face blocked the light, so it was easier to do what she asked. Slowly, Rumpelstiltskin sat up. He pushed himself backward with his good leg, until he was leaning against one of the glass counters. 

“I’m all right,” he whispered.

“Bullshit! You’re bleeding. And you were clearly knocked out! What happened? Who did this to you?”

“I did it to myself,” he breathed. True, his assailant had sprayed his face with some noxious chemical potion. Blinded, he had flailed back into a display. But he hadn’t gotten the cut on his head until he tried to lunge forward and his ankle had given out on him. He had fallen onto the corner of a chess board on the counter.

It could have been worse. The girl could have bashed him in the head with the brick she had used to break the window. His mortal skull could have shattered just like the glass. He could have bled out on the shop floor without ever seeing the curse broken. He could have died without ever seeing Belle again, without ever finding Bae...

“Oh my God.” Tears rolled down Mrs. Gold’s cheeks. Why would she cry for him? Gold had never been anything but awful to her, and Rumpelstiltskin hadn’t been much better. 

“Check the safe,” he said, mostly as a way to get her away from him for a moment. He needed to think.

“Jesus, were you robbed?” Mrs. Gold scrambled to her feet and hurried to the back wall of the shop. Framed paintings crowded every inch of wall space. One picture swung open on a hinge. Behind it, a metal safe door was also open. When she spoke again, her tone was less teary.

“You were robbed by an idiot,” she said. “They left the key in the lock. And they locked the side door on the way out!” Rumpelstiltskin heard the rustling of papers. “They left all the cash too. It looks like the only thing missing is--”

“A contract,” he finished. Where was that cane? A moment’s reprieve had given him time to come up with a plan. But he couldn’t enact it on the floor. “Ashley Boyd’s contract.”

Mrs. Gold scoffed. “Are you kidding me? Are you fucking kidding me? That stupid bitch!” Slamming the safe closed, Mrs. Gold stormed through the curtain into the back room of the pawn shop. 

“What are you doing?” he called weakly. 

“Getting the first aid kit!”

Rumpelstiltskin leaned his head back against the display case. Right. Gold kept a good stock of medical supplies in his house, his car, and the shop. Bandages, burn ointments, medical scissors. Considering what Gold liked to do with his wife, it was best to be prepared for injuries. 

Mrs. Gold reappeared with a white metal box in her hands. Kneeling beside him, she opened it. She put on a pair of rubber gloves before she began to clean the cut on his forehead.

He let her. It was the first time he had allowed Mrs. Gold to touch him. The first time anyone had touched him, since the last time he had seen Belle.

“I can’t believe that sneaky little skank!” Her touch was gentle, but her words were furious. “You’re saving her by taking that baby off her hands! And this is how she repays you? She thinks she can weasel out of a deal with you? Unbelievable!”

Rumpelstiltskin closed his eyes again. “The girl said something about changing her life.”

“Ruining her life is more like it!” Mrs. Gold huffed. “Ashley Boyd thinks she can be a mother? She’s too stupid and irresponsible. She’s always wanted some fucking fairy godmother to solve all her problems for her. You just know she got pregnant on purpose.” Mrs. Gold squeezed a paste out of a white tube and spread it over his skin. Careful to brush his hair out of the way first, she adhered a plastic bandage to his scalp. “She wanted Sean to marry her, so she decided to trap him. And when his father found out, he came to you to take care of it. You found some family to adopt the baby and got Ashley to sign the contract. But now she wants out of it? Why? What reason could she possibly have for wanting a fucking baby?”

Snapping the metal lid shut on the box, Mrs. Gold stormed back into the other room to put away the first aid kit.  

“Something must have changed,” Rumpelstiltskin said when she returned. Gingerly, he brought his hand up to the bandage. “I suspect Ashley spoke to someone who convinced her that she was stronger than she thought.” Despite the pain, he found himself grinning. “Someone who made her believe in the possibility of a happy ending.”

Mrs. Gold handed him the cane and helped him stand up. “Who would do that?”

“The same person I’m going to talk to in the morning.”

****

Technically, an unauthorized roommate was a violation of the lease on the studio apartment that Mary Margaret Blanchard rented from Gold. But that didn’t matter to Rumpelstiltskin. It was convenient for him that Emma Swan had taken to living with the woman she didn’t know was her mother. It made her easy to find. 

When Snow White answered the door, the former princess went even paler than normal. She had never seemed afraid of him before, even when he looked his most inhuman. Of course, to the people of Storybrooke, Gold was more of a monster than the Dark One could ever be. 

“Is Emma Swan here?”

Mary Margaret Blanchard looked over to the side of the room before speaking. It looked like she was trying to be discreet about having a guest, while simultaneously advertising the fact for all to see. Well, that was to be expected. Snow White had never been known for her ability to keep a secret. 

Emma came to the door.

“Yeah, I’m here.”

Even in this world, she was a princess. A true princess, someone who had battled and politicked and worked her way to whatever power she had. Emma Swan had been born in a castle, but she had spent her first eighteen years of life in a dozen different foster homes. Gold knew that Henry Mills’ birth mother had had him in jail. She had given birth while handcuffed to a hospital bed. Since then, the woman had made a career as a bail bondsperson. Her job was to find people who were running from their fates and force them to do the right thing--by hook or by crook, as the shepherds used to say when herding sheep back into the fold. 

There was a fire in her green eyes, a vibrant spirit that no one else in this town had. Even if Rumpelstiltskin didn’t know she was the savior, it was obvious there was something special about this woman. From the moment she was born, she’d had to fight. 

And there was nothing a fighter needed more than an opponent. 

“Hi,” Rumpelstiltskin extended his hand out for her to shake. “I’m Mr. Gold, we met briefly when you first came into town.”  

“I remember.”

She wasn’t, exactly, unfriendly. But she spoke with a businesslike brusqueness, a tone that said get to the point more than any actual words. She certainly was her father’s daughter.

“May I speak to you about something? Privately?” He gave a meaningful look to Mary Margaret, who bolted like a rabbit away from her own door. 

“Sure,” Emma said begrudgingly. 

Without asking, Rumpelstiltskin walked in to the apartment. The central room was as neat as a pin, except for a dozen packing boxes in one corner. All of them were opened, half the contents of each box scattered and piled around that section of the room. A knitted blanket was draped over a chair. It was a small blanket, the kind in which a loving mother would wrap a newborn before sending her on a perilous journey. The name Emma was stitched out in royal purple. 

“Moving in?” he asked.

“Yep,” she said, neither denying the obvious nor giving any extra details. “So what can I do for you, Mr. Gold?”

Emma Swan’s natural posture was to keep her back to the wall, her feet apart, and her hands on her hips. Not aggressive, but not one to be pushed over either. She was a rock, as so many heroes were. No force could move her unless she thought it was her idea to move.

“I don’t want to go to the police about this,” he began. “But something has been stolen from me, and I understand you’re good at finding people.”

She cocked an eyebrow. “Where’d you hear that?” 

“There was a write-up about you in the paper,” he answered. “If you were hoping to avoid attention, breaking the ‘Welcome to Storybrooke’ sign on your first night in town wasn’t the best move.”

With a rueful expression, Emma wiped her hands on her trousers. “So what was taken?”

“All due respect, Miss Swan, one of the advantages of you not being the police is a certain level of discretion. Let’s just say it was a precious object and leave it at that. I’m more concerned about who did the taking. Last night, a young girl named Ashley Boyd broke into my shop and opened my safe. She’s also responsible for this.”

 Brushing his hair back, Rumpelstiltskin revealed the cut on his forehead. It had scabbed over, but the wound was still a vivid red. 

Emma frowned. “So that’s breaking and entering, petty burglary, and assault. You’re sure you don’t want to call the cops?”

He looked at the ground, made a show of playing with his cane. He had to make sure Emma underestimated him. “Ashley’s a nice girl. She’s never been in trouble like this before. She’s young, she’s pregnant. She’s just a confused young woman at a bad place in her life. I’m more than willing to forgive and forget, as long as my property is returned.” Rumpelstiltskin looked up at Emma, and mentioned something that hadn’t been published in the paper. “Can you imagine one bad decision leading to a baby being born in jail?”

It was gone in a flash, that flicker of emotion in Emma’s eyes. He would have missed it if he hadn’t been looking for it. Emma’s masks were better than Regina’s, but he had been manipulating people for centuries. He knew how to recognize that moment of decision--often long before the other party knew it. That moment when he knew that they were his.

“Yeah, that’d be terrible,” she muttered, crossing her arms over her chest.

Rumpelstiltskin pressed in. The deal would be finalized before she even knew she was seriously considering it.

“So you’ll help me?”

“I will help her,” Emma said. She was stone again. The Savior had wavered for just a moment, but that moment was all he needed. 

“Grand.” He gave her a smile. Nothing nicer than making people feel good about doing exactly what you wanted them to. 

Before they could say anything more, the apartment door opened.

“Hey, Emma, I think we need to--” Henry Mills stopped talking as soon as he saw that his birth mother wasn’t alone. 

“Hey, Henry.” Rumpelstiltskin’s cheer became more genuine. There was something about Henry Mills that he liked. The boy had an insight and a determination that were rare gifts in a cursed town. Something about him reminded Rumpelstiltskin of Baelfire when he was that age. “How are you?”

“O...kay.” The boy took a step back. His excited features slowly schooled themselves into a cautious non-expression. 

To Rumpelstiltskin’s sorrow, the sudden transformation from excitement to sobriety was also something he had seen in Baelfire. Shrewd children could always identify monsters, no matter how friendly they tried to act.

“Well then.” He made his way to the door, passing by Henry in the process. The boy swiveled so he never had his back turned to the fearsome Mr. Gold. “Give my regards to your mother. And Miss Swan?” He nodded to the Savior before he let her go fulfill her destiny. “Good luck.”

****

    When he got back to the shop, Mrs. Gold was behind the counter, ringing out a customer. 

“Your sister is going to love this! A cute little pin is a great fashion statement. And where else could you find jewelry that looks like a brick wall? It’s so different!” 

She handed a gift bag to the middle-aged woman, who took it with a dubious expression. 

When Mrs. Gold saw that he had walked in the side door, she quickly added. “Of course, it all depends on how you like getting pinned!”

The other woman went pink and barreled out of the shop, her stick-brown hair streaming behind her.

Rumpelstiltskin didn’t talk to Mrs. Gold about how she intimidated people with her innuendo. What else could he expect from her? She did and said what she thought her husband wanted.

“Was everything alright while I was out?”

Mrs. Gold nodded. “No break-ins today, though I did keep a weapon handy.” From the far side of the cash register, she pulled out a flat, heavy wooden paddle. Gold identified it as a cricket bat. Mrs. Gold twirled the handle with practiced deftness. “But now that you’re here, maybe we can put this to better use?” 

He didn’t give her an answer. He didn’t need to. After just a moment of glittering hope, Mrs. Gold lowered her gaze and set the cricket bat aside. 

“Sorry for asking, Mr. Gold. I know that’s not my place.” Still looking down, she knocked her knuckles against the countertop. “I, uh, I just wanted to show you that I’m willing, always. For anything.”

Rumpelstiltskin licked his lips and resisted the urge to reach out to her. He didn’t desire Mrs. Gold, and he wasn’t going to treat her the way she wanted him to. But she looked so helpless now--so small and confused, seeking affection from the only person she had, in the only way she could think of. He wanted to help her, he wanted to comfort her. 

He wanted to hold his wife in his arms and let them comfort each other.

But he didn’t do any of those things. Instead, he took the cricket bat from the counter and put it back in its proper place among the store’s merchandise. Out the front windows, he saw a bright red vintage sports car make its way up Main Street.

“That’s Ruby Lucas’ car,” he said mildly. “But that isn’t Ruby driving.”

Mrs. Gold rushed to the window. “Who is it?” She craned her neck to see, then grinned as she recognized the driver. “A dumb blonde in a ratty sweater, that’s Ashley Boyd alright.” She looked to her husband. “Now that we know where she is, are you going to call Sheriff Graham?”

 Rumpelstiltskin shook his head. “I have every confidence Miss Swan will work things out.”

“She’d better work fast.” Mrs. Gold squinted out the window. “It looks like Miss Too-Good-For-Birth-Control is trying to get out of town.”

“You sound pleased to know that.”

“Idiot’s taking the Widowmaker Highway.” There was a grimness seeping through Mrs. Gold’s vindictive pleasure. “Even in broad daylight, that road is a death trap.” She shook her head, moved away from the window. “If Ashley doesn’t know enough to stay in Storybrooke, she deserves whatever happens to her.”

Despite his better instincts, Rumpelstiltskin decided to keep talking to Mrs. Gold. “Why do you hate her?”

“Huh?” She blinked. 

“Ashley,” he said. “You seem… uniquely unsympathetic to her plight.”

Mrs. Gold pursed her lips in thought. “I mean, she broke in here and knocked you out. I’m not nuts for taking that personally, am I?”

“I suppose not,” he assured her. “But your enmity clearly runs deeper than that.”

Shrugging, she began to wander back to the cash register. “She’s stupid, that’s the main thing. She doesn’t know what she’s doing, so she’s bad at it. That offends me on a professional level.”

Rumpelstiltskin raised his eyebrows. He stayed where he was near the door. “Professional?”

“Well, yeah, it’s…” Mrs. Gold began to search around the counter, less like she had something to do and more like she was finding an excuse to fidget. “I mean, it’s not a secret that  I know a thing or two about a trashy Old Town slut trying to get a better life by marrying someone rich enough to make her problems go away.” Now she looked at him, her face determinedly impassive as she said what she thought was the truth about her own life. “I don’t blame Ashley for wanting Sean to marry her. He’s an idiot too, so they’ll get along well, and his parents will always bail him out if things get too tight. But she didn’t get the job done. He split and she’s trying to avoid the consequences of her failure.”

“She wants to keep the baby,” Rumpelstiltskin said. “That doesn’t sound like avoiding consequences.”

Mrs. Gold shook her head. “Even if she hadn’t made a deal with you, things were never going to work out for that girl. Not so long as she went around thinking that she didn’t have to work for what she wanted to get out of life.”

 She slid her forearms over the glass as she leaned against the counter. The posture displayed her cleavage, but it didn’t seem to be an invitation. Not a pose, just a slump. 

“It was the first lesson you ever taught me, Mr. Gold.” She gave a smile, wistful, nostalgic. “Everything comes at a price.” 

****

Shortly after Ruby’s car had left town, Emma Swan’s yellow Volkswagen rumbled down the road in the opposite direction.

Half an hour later, the Beetle drove past the shop again. Faster than before, it was now heading the same direction as the runaway Ashley. 

Later still, the car raced up the street at a frightening speed. This time, Emma and her passengers made a turn at the hospital.

Rumpelstiltskin smiled and checked his pocket watch. It was almost four in the evening. Gold didn’t normally close the shop so early on Saturdays, but this was a special occasion. 

“I’m going to drop you off at home,” he said to Mrs. Gold. “I’ll be back in time to make supper.”

Mrs. Gold looked up from the small case of rings she had been arranging according to size. “Am I allowed to know where you’re going?”

“The hospital,” he answered with no small amount of pleasure. “I’m going to see if Miss Swan will let me steal Ashley’s baby.”

 ****

Gold was familiar with Storybrooke General Hospital. His physician, Dr. Whale, did his private practice on the third floor of this building. Today, Rumpelstiltskin was heading for the maternity ward. 

When he rounded the corner around the reception desk to the waiting room, he saw Emma talking to a nurse. Henry was there too, patiently sitting in one of the stuffed vinyl chairs. The boy’s feet swung back and forth and didn’t touch the ground.

 “It’s a healthy six pound girl,” the nurse told Emma. “And the mother is doing fine.”

“What lovely news.” He announced his presence. “Excellent work, Miss Swan. Thank you, for bringing me my merchandise.”

Before Emma could react, before she could vent out any of her undoubtedly righteous fury, Rumpelstiltskin slid past her to get to the vending machines, cool as a mountain stream. He took some coins out of his trouser pocket and deposited them into the coffee machine. He had no intention of drinking any coffee, but it would serve a purpose. When Emma saw that he had a styrofoam cup in one hand and the cane in the other, she would see that he was powerless. Just a harmless old cripple. Not a threat at all. 

“You could have mentioned that the precious object Ashley ‘stole’ was her own child.”

Interesting that Emma’s wrath was not the fiery passion of her parents. Prince Charming would have drawn his sword as soon as the Dark One had made his presence known. But  aggression had never done the prince any favors, and maybe Emma knew that posturing would only waste time. Get to the point, was the Savior’s way of doing things. Whatever needs to be done, just do it. 

How delightfully refreshing. 

“You didn’t need to know,” he answered calmly. “All you needed to do was keep Miss Boyd from leaving Storybrooke.”

“She isn’t going to run,” Emma said. “I talked with her today. She wants to stay. She wants to raise her kid.”

“Now, that’s a very heartwarming sentiment.” Rumpelstiltskin brought the cup to his lips to look like he was drinking. “But I have a contract that says that baby is going home with me. I even have a car seat for the wee thing.”

“That’s a lie,” Emma said, correctly. “Consent to adoption papers can’t be signed sooner than seventy-two hours after the birth.”

That was a good strike, but he didn’t let it land. “I also have an envelope filled with more cash than Miss Boyd has ever seen in her life. I find that sort of thing tends to smooth over certain technicalities.”

Her eyes narrowed. “What do you even want with a newborn? Why are you adopting?”

His instinct was to let out an impish giggle from the old world. But he restrained himself just in time. “I’m not,” he said simply. “I’m merely the go-between. I arranged things with a very nice couple. They’ve already adopted one daughter, and were willing to take on a second.”    

“‘Willing?’” Emma repeated the word with exaggerated brightness. “Well, Ashley is more than ‘willing.’ She is eager. She is desperate to keep this baby. And I’m not going to let you stop her from being a mother.”

Rumpelstiltskin grinned. Here it was at last, the declaration of intent. In her own way, Emma Swan had just drawn her sword. Now he could draw his.

“A mother who committed--what did you say earlier? Breaking and entering, petty burglary and assault?”

She clenched her jaw and he went on.

“All I have to do is press charges against the mother, and that baby is going into the foster care system. And that would be a real shame. Did you enjoy your time in the foster system, Emma?“

At that barb, she fought back. “No jury in the world is going to convict a woman who only committed crimes so she could keep her kid.”

He shrugged, dodged the attack. “Maybe.”

Emma pressed in. “And maybe a court of law will think there’s something kind of fishy about a pawnbroker pressuring a teenage girl into placing her baby for adoption for financial compensation. ‘More cash than she’d ever seen in her life,’ isn’t that what you said? Why do you have that much cash, Gold? Do you want a court looking into your business dealings? Or into any other contracts you might have?”

Rumpelstiltskin smiled. Oh, the Savior was magnificent--like a force of nature or a perfectly executed spell. If she was ever actually a threat to him, he might well have something to worry about. 

“I like you, Miss Swan,” he said. “You’re not afraid of me. That’s either cocky or presumptuous, but I find it charming. And I’d like to have you on my side.”

She raised her eyebrows, but didn’t loosen her stance. “So you’ll rip up Ashley’s contract?”

He raised his cup of coffee in a gesture of helplessness. “That’s not what I do. After all, a contract, an agreement between two parties where both of them benefit--that’s the very foundation of a civilized society.”

Emma rolled her eyes. “Yes, what happened today has all been very civilized.”

“And there’s the adoptive family to consider. I’ll have to make things right with them and that won’t be easy. It’s not something I’ll do for nothing.”

Arms still crossed over her chest, Emma stepped closer to him. “Alright, Gold. What will you do it for? What’s your price?”

Rumpelstiltskin gave her a long, slow look. “I don’t know just yet,” he said. “But seeing the lengths you went to for Ashley’s sake is rather inspiring, Miss Swan. You said you were going to help her, and you did. I may be wrong, but I think you have the resources necessary to  help a lot of people.”

“So what’s your point?”

“Help me,” he said with all the sincerity he could while still acting like Gold. “When there comes a time, when I--or one of mine--needs the assistance of Emma Swan, fight for me. The way you did for Ashley. Call it a favor.” 

“A favor, huh?” Emma offered her hand. “Deal.”

He tossed the coffee in the trash to take her hand and shake it. Now he knew how the Savior worked. He knew what she was capable of, and now she owed him a favor. He had won so much--and all he’d had to do was lose. 

“Deal.” 

[orthodoxydaily]

Saints&Reading: Sat., Apr., 24, 2021

LAZARUS ATURDAY

by Archbishop Andrei (Rymarenko)

“In the same way we cry to Thee, O Conqueror of death: Hosanna in the highest, blessed is He Who comes in the name of the Lord” (Troparion (hymn) sung on Lazarus Saturday).

Great is this Holy Day, brothers and sisters! Just think of it, “Conqueror of death”! There have been many conquerors in the history of humanity: many gifted doctors have conquered many sicknesses, many military leaders have conquered tremendous armies, even entire countries. There have been conquerors of space such as the inventors of automobiles, airplanes; conquerors of distance — the inventors of the telephone, telegraph, and so on. But “Conqueror of death” — the whole world does not know of anyone else but Jesus Christ. He alone. Even the so-called “unbelieving world” cannot mention another name. No one among the most prominent people would ever even attempt to make such a claim. But He is, was, and will be — our Savior and our Lord.

During His historical evangelistic life He proved this in three instances: the resurrection of the daughter of Jairus, the resurrection of the son of the widow of Nain, and here in today’s Gospel, the resurrection of Lazarus.

The death of the daughter of Jairus was a recent one. She died while Christ and her father were going to her. Even Christ called it slumber; but the people “laughed Him to scorn, knowing that she was dead. And He put them all out, and took her by the hand, and called, saying, Maid, arise! And her spirit came again, and she arose straightway: and He commanded to give her meat” (Lk. 8:53-55).

In the case of the son of the widow of Nain, death, seemingly stronger, came into its own: the dead man had already been laid on the funeral bier. They had carried him not only from the house, but already through the city gates. In order to touch the bier, the Lord had to stop the carriers. And only then did He say, “Young man, I say unto thee, Arise! And he that was dead sat up, and began to speak. And He delivered him to his mother” (Lk. 7:14-15).

And now Lazarus. The victory of death here was final, one hundred percent. Lazarus had been in the tomb four days already. There was weeping, but no one had any hope of an instantaneous resurrection. Even one of the dead man’s sisters said to the Lord: “I know he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day.” Even the Lord Himself, when He “saw her weeping, and the Jews also weeping which came with her, He groaned in the spirit, and was troubled,” and He wept. Finally He said, “Take ye away the stone.” Here, even the sister of the dead man could not contain herself and said to Him: “Lord, by this time he stinketh: for he hath been dead four days.” So the stone was removed from the tomb where the dead man was lying, and Christ cried with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come forth! And he that was dead came forth bound hand and foot with grave clothes: and his face was bound about with a napkin. Jesus saith unto them, Loose him, and let him go” (Jn. 11:17-44).

Besides physical death, there is mental death. Physical death is visible to everyone, but mental death is usually not noticeable to people. It is felt only by the dead person himself. Bishop Theophan the Recluse said much about this. Sometimes it happens that a sinful thought darts into your mind and awakens a sinful feeling, but the soul catches itself and calls to the Lord in repentance. And the Lord, as with the daughter of Jairus, will as if stretch out His hand and say, “Soul, arise!” And life will return to its joyous flow. But sometimes it happens that we do not catch ourselves in time and sin enters more deeply into our soul (like going out from the house) and the result will be full acceptance of the sin, and turmoil. But also here, by the prayers of our Mother, the Church of Christ, who cries before the Lord for her children, we can be alerted; and the Lord will tell us as He did the son of the widow of Nain: “Soul, I say unto thee, Arise!” This is salvation.

But what shall we do if sin completely enslaves our soul, as if covering it with a tombstone; and so day after day goes by and passions start to exude their sinful stench, just as with Lazarus? What should we do then? Well, then we need confession, the sacrament which Christ established after His Resurrection, when He said to His disciples, “Receive ye the Holy Spirit: Whose so ever sins ye forgive, they are forgiven” (Jn. 20:22-23). See how all this is reflected in the resurrection of Lazarus. Lazarus, on his own, could not go out from the tomb because it was blocked by a stone. He couldn’t even walk, because he was bound hand and foot with funeral bandages. And here Christ said to His disciples, “Loose him.” In application to us, this means that the Lord orders our clergy, who have received in the Sacrament of the Priesthood the gift of the Holy Spirit, to loose our sins. What joy!

And more: death is not the cause but only the result, the consequence of sin. And Christ is, first of all, the Conqueror of sin, and then along with it, the Conqueror of death. So let us triumph: “Hosanna in the highest!”

The Priest Martyr Antipas (92)

A disciple of the holy Apostle John the Theologian (Comm. 26 September), was bishop of the Church of Pergamum during the reign of the emperor Nero (54-68).      During these times by order of the emperor, everyone who would not offer sacrifice to the idols lived under threat of either exile or execution. And then too on the island of Patmos (in the Aegean Sea) was imprisoned the holy Apostle John the Theologian – he to whom the Lord revealed the future judgements of the world and of Holy Church.

 "And to the Angel of the Pergamum Church write: thus sayeth He having the sword sharp of both edges: I do know thine deeds, and that thou dost live there, where doth be the throne of Satan, and that thou dost cleave unto My Name nor didst renounce My faith even in those days, in which My slain faithful witness Antipas was amongst ye, where Satan dwelleth" (Rev. 2: 12-13).

     By his personal example, firm faith and constant preaching about Christ, Saint Antipas began to sway the people of Pergamum from offering sacrifice to idols. The pagan priests reproached the bishop for turning the people away from their ancestral gods, and they demanded that he stop preaching about Christ and instead offer sacrifice to the idols.      Saint Antipas calmly answered, that he was not about to serve the demon-gods, which flee before him who was but a mortal man; rather, it is the Lord Almighty that he worships and would continue to worship – the Creator of all, together with His Only‑Begotten and One-in-Essence Son and Holy Spirit. The pagan priests retorted, that their gods existed from of old, whereas Christ was not from of old and was crucified under Pontius Pilate as a criminal. The saint answered, that the pagan gods were the work of human hands and that everything said about them was filled with iniquities and vices. He steadfastly confessed his faith in the Son of God, incarnated of the MostHoly Virgin.      The enraged pagan priests dragged the PriestMartyr Antipas to the temple of Artemis and threw him into a red-hot copper bullock, wherein usually they cast the sacrifices to the idols. In the red-hot furnace the priest-martyr prayed loudly to God, imploring to accept his soul and to fortify Christians in the faith. He expired to the Lord peacefully, as though asleep (+ c. 68).      Christians by night took the body of the PriestMartyr Antipas, untouched by the fire, and with reverence they buried him at Pergamum. The tomb of the priest-martyr became a font of miracles and of healings from manifold sicknesses. Particular recourse to the PriestMartyr Antipas is made during times of tooth-ache.

All translation©1996-2001 by translator Fr. S. Janos.

John 11:1-45

1 Now a certain man was sick, Lazarus of Bethany, the town of Mary and her sister Martha. 2 It was that Mary who anointed the Lord with fragrant oil and wiped His feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick. 3 Therefore the sisters sent to Him, saying, "Lord, behold, he whom You love is sick." 4 When Jesus heard that, He said, "This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified through it." 5 Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. 6 So, when He heard that he was sick, He stayed two more days in the place where He was. 7 Then after this He said to the disciples, "Let us go to Judea again." 8 The disciples said to Him, "Rabbi, lately the Jews sought to stone You, and are You going there again?" 9 Jesus answered, "Are there not twelve hours in the day? If anyone walks in the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world. 10 But if one walks in the night, he stumbles, because the light is not in him. 11 These things He said, and after that He said to them, "Our friend Lazarus sleeps, but I go that I may wake him up." 12 Then His disciples said, "Lord, if he sleeps he will get well." 13 However, Jesus spoke of his death, but they thought that He was speaking about taking rest in sleep.14 Then Jesus said to them plainly, "Lazarus is dead. 15 And I am glad for your sakes that I was not there, that you may believe. Nevertheless let us go to him. 16 Then Thomas, who is called the Twin, said to his fellow disciples, "Let us also go, that we may die with Him." 17 So when Jesus came, He found that he had already been in the tomb four days. 18 Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, about two miles away. 19 And many of the Jews had joined the women around Martha and Mary, to comfort them concerning their brother. 20 Then Martha, as soon as she heard that Jesus was coming, went and met Him, but Mary was sitting in the house. 21 Now Martha said to Jesus, "Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died. 22 But even now I know that whatever You ask of God, God will give You. 23 Jesus said to her, "Your brother will rise again."24 Martha said to Him, "I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day."25 Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live.26 And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this? 27 She said to Him, "Yes, Lord, I believe that You are the Christ, the Son of God, who is to come into the world." 28 And when she had said these things, she went her way and secretly called Mary her sister, saying, "The Teacher has come and is calling for you." 29 As soon as she heard that, she arose quickly and came to Him. 30 Now Jesus had not yet come into the town, but was in the place where Martha met Him. 31 Then the Jews who were with her in the house, and comforting her, when they saw that Mary rose up quickly and went out, followed her, saying, "She is going to the tomb to weep there." 32 Then, when Mary came where Jesus was, and saw Him, she fell down at His feet, saying to Him, "Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died." 33 Therefore, when Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her weeping, He groaned in the spirit and was troubled. 34 And He said, "Where have you laid him?" They said to Him, "Lord, come and see."35 Jesus wept.36 Then the Jews said, "See how He loved him!" 37 And some of them said, "Could not this Man, who opened the eyes of the blind, also have kept this man from dying?" 38 Then Jesus, again groaning in Himself, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lay against it. 39 Jesus said, "Take away the stone." Martha, the sister of him who was dead, said to Him, "Lord, by this time there is a stench, for he has been dead four days." 40 Jesus said to her, "Did I not say to you that if you would believe you would see the glory of God?" 41 Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead man was lying. And Jesus lifted up His eyes and said, "Father, I thank You that You have heard Me. 42 And I know that You always hear Me, but because of the people who are standing by I said this, that they may believe that You sent Me.43 Now when He had said these things, He cried with a loud voice, "Lazarus, come forth!"44 And he who had died came out bound hand and foot with graveclothes, and his face was wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, "Loose him, and let him go."45Then many of the Jews who had come to Mary, and had seen the things Jesus did, believed in Him.

Hebrews 12:28-13:8

28 Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have grace, by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. 29 For our God is a consuming fire.

1 Let brotherly love continue. 2 Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some have unwittingly entertained angels. 3 Remember the prisoners as if chained with them-those who are mistreated-since you yourselves are in the body also. 4 Marriage is honorable among all, and the bed undefiled; but fornicators and adulterers God will judge. 5 Let your conduct be without covetousness; be content with such things as you have. For He Himself has said, "I will never leave you nor forsake you." 6 So we may boldly say: "The LORD is my helper; I will not fear. What can man do to me?" 7 Remember those who rule over you, who have spoken the word of God to you, whose faith follow, considering the outcome of their conduct. 8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

[rejectedtreasures]

Can the Bible be Trusted even though it was written by Men?

I find the hardest reason to share the gospel with people in this generation in which we are living is because many people don’t believe in the accuracy of the Bible. Many will say it’s been written by men. So I’m going to share why I believe the Bible and know that the Bible is not only accurate but is God’s Word to us.

The men that wrote it has earned my trust. Most of these men suffered for giving us the message written in Scripture. Most of them died for it. Torturous deaths. Why would they die like that for this message? What have they seen that made it worth dying for? What did they experience? Answer: They experienced the real true God of heaven and earth. They knew the truth because God showed them the truth. So when people say the Bible was written by men, I have decided to trust the men that suffered to give us the Lord’s message. Resource: Foxes book of martyrs By: John Fox and The Case for Christ by: Lee Strobel

Israel. When you study the history of Israel, whether through the Bible or secular history, you will find God’s promises coming to pass over and over. Whether it’s good or bad. Our God that created heaven and earth and us for that matter made His self known through Israel and the Jewish people. If you want to know what God is doing, look at Israel. Studying this subject has been the most exciting adventure of my life. I will be doing future articles talking about Israel and the true miracle of it’s existence.

Prophecy. The Bible is full of prophecies. Many of them have already been fulfilled. And many are being fulfilled as I write this article. (May 2021) I remember being a little girl back in the late 80s. My mom and I were discussing how the Antichrist will be able to track everyone on the planet. How every eye will see an event happening in real time at the same time. It was totally mind baffling back then. Now over 30 years later, there is no question how this could happen. I wish my mom was here to see what I see. She also said to me “Heather, when you start hearing about Israel a lot on the news, you know the end is near.” Oh how I treasure her words today. Bible prophecy is coming to pass at a rapid speed. Why all of a sudden you may ask after thousands of years? Jesus told us, when the fig leaves are blossomed you know summer is near. Matthew 24. Israel is back. 73 years now. Israel is the fig tree. It’s time for the return of our Lord❤️

I have a huge book of information that shows what has been found in archeological digs in Israel. (It’s called Zondervan Handbook of Biblical Archaeology by Randall Price with Wayne House.) Archeologists are always in constant pursuit to find the many pieces of treasures that point to places and people of the Bible. I will share in future blogs some amazing finds! Same for scientific evidence. (One reference is Scientific Facts In The Bible by Ray Comfort.) Science has not proven the Bible wrong. The Bible told us things concerning our universe way before a scientist ever did. Like the earth being round (Isaiah 40:22) and hanging on nothing (Job 26:7). We know many things from the Bible that scientists are now learning and seeing through their microscopes and telescopes today. Historical evidence also proves the Bible to be true. The book of Daniel is very exciting to read when it comes to historic world empires and events. I encourage you to take a deep dive in all of the above heaps of evidence. It will change the way you see everything and the way you think about your life and the world you live in.

The religious Jews protected the Scriptures. Before a scribe can even begin to start copying a manuscript or a scroll of the Torah, he must learn 4000 laws that will ensure no mistakes and to honor every Word written. If you’re interested in learning more about how the Words of the Bible was preserved, I encourage you to go to iSOW.org and take the History of the Bible course. I will also write more on this subject in future articles.

My heart. My testimony. My story is a long one with lots of twist and turns. However, when I look back over my life, the Word of God was always staring me right in the face the whole time. Then one day I finally started to dig deeper into what was in the Scriptures. Then my life started to make perfect sense. No more confusion. I knew my purpose. I now know where I came from. Why I’m here. Who I am. And whose I am. And where I’m going after I die. I know what I need and don’t need. What direction to take. How to make decisions. I now know why every thing I did on my own didn’t work out. How to live my life from here on out. That’s why I’m starting to write these articles, hoping I can reach someone, anyone, with the gospel of Jesus. This is where our hope is. Every answer to life’s questions. Our salvation. I’m just a nobody, trying to tell everybody, all about somebody who saved my soul. ❤️ if you don’t know the song, listen to it. Nobody by Casting Crowns.

The Bible has changed a lot of lives. I’ve heard a lot of testimonies. Amazing stories of the Lord through His Holy Spirit reaching down in someone’s heart and drawing them to Him self and changing everything. Rescuing them from addictions and toxic relationships. Toxic thinking. Jesus brings us clarity and direction. Am I saying life becomes perfect? NO. If anything, giving your life to Jesus and following Him sets us up to be hated and rejected. For some it has caused severe persecution, imprisonment and even death. But with anyone that truly has accepted the gospel and has given their life to Christ, because we know that forgiveness from our sins is only found in Him, and He’s our Savior, we know it’s all worth it. For in Him is eternal life!

The devil hates the Word of God. If you really take a look at the hate some have for God’s Word, the Jews, and Christians, you will see it’s such a unreasonable hate that it can only be supernatural and demonic. Satan comes to steal, kill and destroy. He has blinded many to the truth. Many people see God as responsible for all the evil in this world. We have to understand that satan is the god of this world. He will do whatever it takes to keep people from seeing the truth spoken of in God’s Word. Jesus came to set us free from the bondage of sin and the destruction it causes. I’ve heard people say if there is a God, why did He let the Holocaust happen? The answer is, That was satan’s doing. Not God. Satan knew that according to bible prophecy, Israel will become a nation again by the supernatural hand of God. Because He promised it. Satan wanted to kill every Jew so there would be no Israel. He failed. We are in a war folks. Between good and evil. I’m here to tell you to pick the right side. The side that leads to life. Eternal life.

Faithfully His,

Heather Hoffman

[atlantatorchnews]

Dr. King and the KING of Kings

Click here to listen to this message in 30 languages

1 Timothy 6:13-16: “I give thee charge in the sight of God, who quickeneth all things, and before Christ Jesus, who before Pontius Pilate witnessed a good confession; That thou keep this commandment without spot, unrebukable, until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ: Which in his times he shall shew, who is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords; Who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto; whom no man hath seen, nor can see: to whom be honour and power everlasting. Amen.” Revelation 19:16: “And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, King Of Kings, And Lord Of Lords.” This message is important to me because I came to faith in Jesus Christ through the efforts of a white, independent Baptist church in Ocean Springs, Mississippi, that for many years did not accept black members, but in the late ‘70s was led to start a black church while I was in the Air Force and stationed at Kessler Air Force Base in Biloxi, Mississippi, at the age of nineteen. As I interacted with the leaders and members of that church, and even the pastor of the black church plant, I heard some negative things about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. that I had never heard before. Some people tried to discredit him by suggesting that he was not a true minister of the Gospel, and even that he did not have a genuine relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. They viewed him as just a mere social worker, with some even claiming that he was a Communist. Even some of the blacks in that young church did not think too highly of Dr. King. I must admit that I did have concerns and questions about this matter because I was raised in the black Baptist church and the black Pentecostal Holiness church, with my dad being a Baptist preacher and my mother being a Pentecostal preacher, and yet I had never heard a clear presentation of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ on how to be saved until I was nineteen-years-old, and a young man named Michael Lewis, who had gotten saved through this church plant that an all-white independent Baptist church had started, came to my dorm room and showed me what was commonly called the Romans Road to salvation from the book of Romans in the Bible. Up until that point, no one had asked me the question, if I were to die today, where would I go, heaven or hell? Thankfully, the Lord allowed me to keep an independent mind about the matter through all of that, and I came to see Dr. King as God’s man for that particular time in this nation’s history to help deliver both blacks and whites in this country from the ignorance of racism and prejudice. I even learned later that Dr. King tried to get into a white conservative Christian seminary, but he was rejected because of his race. However, based on his words and his life, it seems as though Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. did know the King of Kings — the Lord Jesus Christ. Not only that, but the faith, courage, and fortitude that he showed (and that he inspired others to have) as he led the very dangerous Civil Rights movement speaks of a man who knew Jesus Christ as his Savior and had an abiding faith in God.

According to the book, 

Parting the Waters: America in the King Years

, by historian Taylor Branch: In 1934, when a guest minister at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta made a strong pitch for the salvation of young souls, Martin Luther King Jr. watched his sister rise to make the first profession of faith in Christ. Impulsively, as he later confessed, “I decided that I would not let her get ahead of me, so I was the next.” Also in his book, Strength to Love, Dr. King wrote: “Bound by the chains of his own sin and finiteness, man needs a Saviour (Jesus Christ). Man cannot save himself, for man is not the measure of all things and humanity is not God.” We see here that, contrary to what some thought of King, he did not believe that man could get to Heaven by doing good works. He believed that he and everyone needed a Savior — Jesus Christ. He also said, “Only through an inner spiritual transformation do we gain the strength to fight victoriously the evils of the world in a humble and loving spirit.” That sounds like what Jesus Christ called being “born again” when He told Nicodemus in John 3:3 & 7, “Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God…Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.” As a teenager, King wrote these words in a paper called “The Negro and the Constitution”: “We cannot be truly Christian people so long as we flaunt the central teachings of Jesus: brotherly love and the Golden Rule.” In a sermon at Ebenezer Baptist Church in 1967, King said, “I’ve learned that to be a follower of Jesus Christ means taking up the cross. And my Bible tells me that Good Friday comes before Easter. Before the crown we wear, there is the cross that we must bear.” And, in his famous sermon, “A Knock at Midnight”, Martin Luther King Jr. said, “The church today is challenged to proclaim God’s Son, Jesus Christ, to be the hope of men in all of their complex personal and social problems.” Dr. King certainly spoke as a man who knew Jesus Christ. His core philosophy of love and nonviolence was rooted in the teachings of the King of Kings, Jesus Christ. Dr. King is dead now, and based on his own words and testimony, we can only say that he is in Heaven with the Lord Jesus Christ having served his generation as a Moses in modern times. It is not enough to honor Dr. King alone because evidently it was the power of Jesus Christ, the King of Kings, in his life that caused Dr. King to lead and help both blacks and whites in this nation overcome the ignorance of racism and prejudice. If you truly want to honor Dr. King during this time of remembrance regarding his life, you need to make the decision to trust Jesus Christ as your personal Savior so that you can do great things in your generation as King did in his, for the Bible says, we ‘can do all things through Christ who strengtheneth us.’ If you want to know Jesus Christ as your personal Saviour, please listen closely, and take the following steps before it is eternally too late: First, accept the fact that you are a sinner, and that you have broken God’s law. The Bible says in Ecclesiastes 7:20: “For there is not a just man upon earth that doeth good, and sinneth not.” Romans 3:23: “For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” Second, accept the fact that there is a penalty for sin. The Bible states in Romans 6:23: “For the wages of sin is death…” Third, accept the fact that you are on the road to hell. Jesus Christ said in Matthew 10:28: “And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.” Also, the Bible states in Revelation 21:8: “But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.” Fourth, accept the fact that you cannot do anything to save yourself! The Bible states in Ephesians 2:8,9: “For by grace are ye saved through faith: and that not of yourselves: it is a gift of God. Not of works, lest any man should boast.” Fifth, accept the fact that God loves you more than you love yourself, and that He wants to save you from hell. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” (Jesus Christ, John 3:16). Sixth, with these facts in mind, please repent of your sins, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and pray and ask Him to come into your heart and save you this very moment. The Bible states in the book of Romans 10:9,13: “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.” “For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” Finally, if you are willing to trust Jesus Christ as your Saviour, please pray with me the following prayer: Holy Father God, I realize that I am a sinner and that I have done some bad things in my life. I am sorry for my sins, and I want to turn from my sins. For Jesus Christ sake, please forgive me of my sins. I now believe with all of my heart that Jesus Christ died for me, was buried, and rose again. I want to trust Jesus as my Savior and follow Him as Lord from this day forward. Lord Jesus, please come into my heart and save my soul and change my life today. Amen. If you just trusted Jesus Christ as your Saviour, and you prayed that prayer and meant it from your heart, I declare to you that based upon the Word of God, you are now saved and you are on your way to Heaven. Welcome to the family of God! I want to congratulate you on doing the most important thing in life and that is receiving Jesus Christ as your Lord and Saviour. For more information to help you grow in your new-found faith in Christ, go to Gospel Light Society.com and read “What To Do After You Enter Through the Door”. Jesus Christ said in John 10:9, “I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture.” Believe by faith. Share the faith. And keep the faith! God Bless You!

[pamphletstoinspire]

On Saint Joseph's Interior Life

I to my beloved, and his turning is towards me.

—Cant. vii. 10

The inner life is the true life of a man, and all the splendor and merit exhibited in the visible and sensible actions of the saints have their principle within and their source in the heart, hidden from men and patent to God only. The Royal Prophet was well persuaded of this truth, for, after his panegyric of the surpassing beauty of the Spouse who had won the heart of the Eternal King, he confesses that it is needful to look within, for it is thence that all her glory proceeds: “All the glory of the King’s daughter is from within.”

We may safely affirm that never was there a saint whose life was so interior as was that of Joseph. Duly to honor him, then, it behooves us, with the aid of light from above, to endeavor to penetrate into his soul, there to admire the priceless treasures of grace and the virtues with which God replenished it, especially while his life was “hid with Christ in God.” In considering this interior life of Joseph we may securely take as our guide the pronouncement of Holy Church, and adopt her language concerning him in those hymns composed in offices. Now, what does she say? “Others after a pious death attain to perfect bliss, but thou, O Joseph, while yet living on earth art in the enjoyment of God, like to the saints in Heaven.” And that we may not suppose that there is any exaggeration in such an estimate, the Church reiterates, or rather reinforces, her first utterances, assuring us that in the hidden life of Joseph privileges may be discerned which none of the saints in Paradise enjoy. His lot on earth surpassed even that of the saints in Heaven.

Scripture teaches us that there are two principal ways in which God communicates supernatural light to His dearest friends on earth. The first is through prayer; and the second is by a ray of divine wisdom, with which He graciously enlightens the understanding. Joseph, then, during his whole life had his soul raised in God, “the Father of Lights,” by the highest contemplation; and in the next place, this great God united him to Himself by infusing into his understanding the purest rays of His infinite wisdom. How do we suppose Joseph was interiorly engaged when in his workshop with Jesus at his side? Doubtless he was in silent rapture, but at the same time giving full exterior attention to the work in which his hands were occupied. And how was his mind employed during his journeys? It was contemplating the infinite perfections of God-made-Man, whom he held in his arms or led by his hand. How, also, during his exile, apart from converse with men? His life, in short, was a continual communication with God by means of never-ceasing prayer.

How much we should love to know the nature of this high contemplation of our saint while he held Jesus in his arms! He does not tell us; he speaks not, either because his tongue is unable to describe the greatness of those things which God manifests to him, or because words must cease in the mouth of one whose spirit no longer discourses, since it has found its joy and perfect repose in one idea which occupies and fills it. If fervor of heart should unloose the tongue in contemplation, it will only be, says Saint John Climacus, to form one word. “Master!” exclaimed Magdalen, in the ecstasy which the sight of the risen Savior caused her. “My Lord and my God!” were the sole words which the Apostle Thomas could utter when called to touch the wounds of Jesus. “O Goodness!” was Saint Bruno’s ejaculation when in prayer. Saint Louis, Bishop of Toulouse, spent his time of prayer in saying these three words, “God suffices me”. It needed only the exclamation, “O Charity!” to send Saint Francis of Paula into an ecstasy; scarcely had he uttered it when his spirit was raised above all created things into closest union with God. Thus we may believe that during his continual prayer Joseph could only say “O Jesus, my Son!” and that in pronouncing these words his spirit would enter into the profoundest contemplation of infinite perfections of the God-made-Man.

If the prayer of the contemplative is, as we may say, only one word addressed to God, so also it is but one word that God on His part causes the contemplative soul to hear. Witness what the Evangelist relates of Jesus, who said only “Mary” when making Himself known to her who in her rapture could say only “Master”. In the same way we may imagine the Infant Savior saying only to our contemplative saint, “Joseph, My father,” but in these words accompanied with tender embraces, He says all things to him. As we know that the Eternal Father and His Only Son have for the everlasting ages uttered but one single word, Each to Other, a word which exceeds all discourse, for it comprehends all things, and will continue to utter it forever, a word which never ceases, but is repeated through eternity; so also the earthly father of Jesus and this beloved Son-made-Man spoke few words during the long period of their association, but undoubtedly they treated each other as father and son; and, in saying this, we say what furnishes abundant matter for contemplation, and, indeed, it contains more than we are able to grasp or comprehend; for it would be necessary to penetrate into the very depths of the interior of Joseph’s soul as well as that of our Divine Lord to understand its full signification.

Saint John the Evangelist enjoyed for a brief hour a blissful ecstasy while reclining on the Bosom of the Savior, but how many times did not the Savior Himself take His repose on that of Joseph, and sleep sweetly in his arms! Every kind of divine and human light enclosed in the Heart of the Savior must, in a sense, have been infused into the soul of Joseph, when He thus lovingly reposed in his embrace. “Come ye to Him and be enlightened,” says the Royal Prophet. But how could Joseph approach nearer to Him? He has Him in his arms, resting on his bosom. Jesus, then, does not treat Joseph merely as a friend, to which privilege He admitted His Apostles, communicating to them some of His secrets, but as a father, raising his spirit to understand the highest mysteries; so that, if we are to credit Saint Bernadine, we must place the incomparable Joseph at the head of all the greatest contemplatives, since he lived in a continual state of contemplation, in its most exalted form. His life was, therefore, a life of divine illumination; and, if the Israelites could not endure to look on the face of Moses when he came down from converse with God on the Mount by reason of its dazzling brightness, so we may conceive that the very angels themselves beheld with astonishment the radiance of Joseph’s countenance, when, raising his spirit to God by contemplation, God came to him in resplendent beams of light, imparting to him a thousand extraordinary gifts for the perfect illumination of his soul.

BY: Edward Healy Thompson

[dailyaudiobible]

05/06/2021 DAB Transcript

Ruth 2:1-4:22, John 4:43-54, Psalms 105:16-36, Proverbs 14:26-27

Today is the 6th day of May welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I'm Brian it is great to be here with you at this beautiful time of the year here in the rolling hills of Tennessee. Whether rain or shine it's just a beautiful…yeah…when the seasons transition it’s just a beautiful month. It gets hot here. That's coming. That's how summer is but it’s a beautiful time of year and I trust that it is lovely no matter where you are. And if it's not lovely, we…we have this place, this little oasis around this Global Campfire where there’s always peace. And we can always come here and exhale, right, and just breathe and let the Scriptures wash into our lives. And, so, let's move in that direction. We’re reading from the New International Version this week. We concluded the book of Judges yesterday and turned a page and entered into the book of Ruth, which is where we find ourselves situated today. And it…it's a shorter…it's a shorter book. So, we began it yesterday. We’ll conclude it today. Ruth chapters 2, 3, and 4.

Commentary:

Okay. So, we concluded the book of Ruth today. And yes, a breath of fresh air. What a beautiful ending to a story that was really a very very bitter story in the first place. It’s a story a famine in the land. And we've seen famine in the land of Canaan before, right? That's how the children of Israel, those first-generation children of Jacob ended up in Egypt because there was famine in the land. And Joseph had gone before and there was provision. So, there's famine in the land again and in this case a family, the Elimelek family, they have to go to Moab and the sons of Naomi and Elimelek, they had Moabite wives. Now, Moab basically is on the other side of the Dead Sea. Moab is sort of the territory of modern-day Jordan. In centuries past when the children of Israel were kind of wandering around the wilderness, we remember stories with Moab, like the story of Ballam, sent to curse them and he couldn't. He could only bless them, right, with king Balak. So, there's some history here. Ruth is a Moabite woman who will not leave her Hebrew mother-in-law. I mean on the one hand, it's a noble thing at all to stay with your mother-in-law but she's leaving her country. She's leaving her family. She's leaving her people. She's telling Naomi that “wherever you go, I will go. Your God will be my God. Where you die, I will die. Like your people will be my people.” So, Ruth is, in so many ways, putting her in her life in Naomi's hands because they do go back to her people and she does have to find a way to…to eat. So, she does have to go and…and basically glean from the leftovers anything that she can. And we see this provision is made in the Levitical law, this provision for the foreigners among you, right, the orphans and the widows…like a way for people to still find food. And, so, she's doing this and that's when Boaz comes onto the scene and doesn't take too long before Naomi recognizes what's going on here and what could go on here and how this could be a…this could provide for Ruth because Ruth’s gonna outlive Naomi. And, so, she needs this kind of covering and this kind of protection because she's a foreign woman. So, she mothers Ruth. Naomi mothers Ruth and mentors Ruth and shows her the way to signify to Boaz that she…that she's available. And she guides her through this process with dignity, right? She's not like, “okay Ruth, here's what you do. Boaz is a little bit older. You can seduce him. You’re a younger woman. So, when he has little to drink after the harvest or whatever then you find out where he went to sleep and then you go teach them the ways of the world girl.” That’s just…that…that's not what happened. She signified by laying at his feet. He woke up and responded with dignity and character - the entire process. We see like something finally is through and through done with character and uprightness. And, so, Ruth and Boaz are appropriately married and she has a son, which changes the whole complexion of Naomi's bitter life into joy and brings a child to an elderly father in Boaz and the reputation of Ruth only grows as a faithful, committed, dignified, valiant woman. And as the story goes, as we’re told when we get the genealogy at the very very end, we find that Ruth and Boaz are the great-grandparents of a man who would become king of Israel, David, king David, the author of so many of the Psalms whose story we have not come to yet but we’re about to before too long. And, so, let's just let this story sink into our hearts and minds as we meditate upon it for…well…for as long as we think about it. Character matters. Faithfulness to God matters. Wisdom matters. There is a way to live with honor and when we do tragedy has a way of working itself out. And although weeping may last a night the joy comes in the morning.

Prayer:

Father, we thank You for Your word. We thank You for bringing us to this point where we can read the story of Ruth as we continue to just experience the changing of the seasons. And we ask Holy Spirit, come plant the Scriptures into the depths of our lives so that they can speak to our very identity transforming us, showing us the path ahead. Come Holy Spirit we pray in the name of Jesus. Into all this we pray. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is home base, that is where the Global Campfire is, and that's where it burns, and that's where we gather each and every day. And, so, it's good to be aware of and aware of the different sections.

Check out the Community section. This is where the Prayer Wall lives.

Check out the resources in the Shop. This is where there are definitely resources for the journey that we are on. So, check that out.

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And, as always, if you have a prayer request or encouragement, you can hit the Hotline button in the app. That's the little red button up at the top or you can dial 877-942-4253.

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

Community Prayer and Praise:

Hi, everyone it's Lisa the Encourager. I'm calling to let you all know that I lost my daddy this past Thursday April 29th. And I'm very blessed because I had a wonderful dad, and he was a Christian man and he raised us, all my brothers and sisters up in the Lord and taught us. He was a wonderful example for all of us and I'm so thankful for that. I know everyone doesn't have that. And he had some health concerns and he's overcome a lot over the years. He was 85 and I was blessed to be with him at the time he passed and could look right in his eyes and tell him how much I loved him. And I knew that at that moment he transitioned and was able to be in the open arms of our Savior. And that's a true blessing for me. Although it's been very difficult and I've been very sad, like I said I'm very grateful that I had that opportunity to have a wonderful father. And through this I just want to continue to pray for two of my brothers that have walked away from their beliefs. And I just would ask for your prayers for their Salvation or the reassurance or knowing and knowledge and acceptance of the Lord Jesus Christ. Their names are Daryl and Shane. And I would just pray that you would pray with me for their salvation and renewed faith through this time of our funeral services for our dad or just in life in general. If you could pray for their Salvation, I would greatly appreciate it and just that we’ll have peace as we have the funeral. My mom is transitioning with…

DABber family, this is the Burning Bush that will not be Devoured for the Glory of our God and King. I just got off the phone with family in Chad, central Africa. There is a war there. The president got killed in battle. They’re stranded in the capital city. The borders are closed and so are the airports. Can you please pray. I'm not sure I understood exactly what's going on, but I heard that Boko Haram was also in the mix with the fighting. And this is a Christian family. I pray for all the believers out there, just all the citizens, the innocent people. God, I pray for protection in Jesus’ name. And God I pray for peace in Chad. Oh my God, yeah….

Good morning DAV family this is David from Texas. Ultimately, I just wanted to call in and thank you guys because this is a community that I never had before. Before the pandemic I never had, you know, certain convictions that I…that…that were on my heart. I was raised by a pastor and a very God-fearing woman but, you know, I was just kind of walking through the steps. And…and…and by chance I found this podcast and my life has changed just by going through the Bible in these first couple months of the year…few months of the year. I really…I really pray that you guys…you know…I'm 21 years old, I'm in college, and I'm going through a phase where I'm trying to separate myself from a lot of the habits that I had before. And I pray that you guys, you know, can…can send your prayers out for me and strengthen me in this time because I do feel like I have a calling, you know, to speak to people and help people. But sometimes I struggle with, you know, being a hypocritical Christian, you know, not…not…not in that I'm telling people to do things that I'm not doing, but I don't feel like I can give people advice and speak to people when I'm…I'm still…I'm still kind of living the way that I used to and it's hard to phase out the things that I used to do. So, I thank you guys. Thank you, Brian. You know, this is this is a really great platform. And God bless you guys. Thank you.

Good morning DABbers again. This is B from Ireland. First of all, Brian, Jill, congratulations on China and Ben's baby, Reagan. Congratulations. I pray that Reagan will live in the footsteps of her ancestors, mainly you and Jill, that that baby will grow up in favor and stature before God and man, that that baby would do great exploits for God, do greater things than you and Jill and even China and Ben ever will do, that the generation of blessing that is so evident in the life of your family continues through Reagan the Great in the mighty name of Jesus. Thank you for all you do. Thank you for this platform. It's been a lifesaver. I'm six years in, I think. I started 2016. Is that six years? Yes, I think. And I can't begin to say what Daily Audio Bible has done for me, in me through the work that you're doing. May God continue to bless the work of your hands and the mighty name of Jesus. And I want to use this opportunity to give, you know, a call to all DABberds to give to the Daily Audio Bible ministry however way you can. You know, sacrificially or if it means that you, you know, share your tithes with this ministry because this ministry feeds you every day. So, this is what I do. I don't pay all my tithes to my church. Occasionally I do tithe into this ministry because in a funny way Brian also serves as my pastor. And before I sign out, I want to pray for Rachel a lady who had covid. Oliver, you called. You said your sister Rachel had covid. I pray healing into her body right now in the name of Jesus and restoration in the name of Jesus. The name of Jesus is higher than any other name and at the name of Jesus covid bows.

Hey DAB family this is Sparky from Texas. Monday May 3rd and I wanted to take a minute and pray for a couple people that last Friday was…it hit my heart. Running Bear, I'd like to pray for you and hope that…hope that your healing, your family gets the healing that it needs and sees the love and the Christianity of this community. I'd also like to pray for Norman with the diagnosis and hoping to speak to his family. Let's just go ahead and pray together. Father we come to You and we thank You for Running Bear and both Norman Lord. We ask that You touch their hearts and help them to feel Your healing touch and help them to feel the love of Jesus and the kindness and help them to guide…help guide them to let people see Your light in them Father and to trust You. Father I…I pray for Running Bears family, that he meets the Christian part of our family and the part of You that You told us to be like. Father also pray that You heal Norman in the name of Jesus. There's some powerful things You do Father, and we know that You can heal it. Help to bring his family back together Father and move mountains. You move mountains so much. Father we thank You for everything You do, for every one of us. Amen. I love you guys. Pray for every one of you every time I hear request. I love you all and be blessed.

Hi DAB family my name is Kristen and I'm calling from Oceanside CA and I am a first-time caller, and I was introduced to the DAB family, the DAB community November 2019. And this year is the first year since I was introduced that I have made it a goal to listen every single day. And that has made me so happy and so strong. I am so thankful for the DAB family and I am just overjoyed about Reagan. And I…I love hearing your prayers and I love being able to pray for you. I'm calling to ask for prayer that someone…I…I get spiritual guidance in my life. I don't have many people...I…I have one person that's close to me that believes Jesus died for our sins and that is our heavenly Lord. And it is hard because I need more, and I need to be able to have counsel with someone. I just…I need…you know…I'm praying for a woman to come into my life that I can speak to on a daily basis about the Bible, about Jesus and just…I just need help. Thank you for your prayers.

[godfirstgodalways]

Is polygamy a sin?

Sorry for my late reply and thank you for this. There are many weird stories concerning weird laws the Israelites in the Old Testament followed, but we as Christians now do not need to follow them, because we’re currently in the New Testament and we follow those commands. Our natural ways of thinking and acting can be Biblically traced back to the Old Testament. For example some things we do from instinct like worry and fear is rooted in pride, which is sin....Genesis 2-3 (about Adam and Eve), in the Old Testament. When Jesus came to be our Savior (New Testament), the laws were renewed and we are also renewed. We are encouraged to put our natural ways aside and put on our new selves in Christ.

Ephesians 4:22–24 You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.

According to creation.com....”The Levirate Law in Deuteronomy 25:5–10, [Old Trstament] commands a brother to marry his deceased brother’s childless widow and have children in his brother’s name, makes no exception if the surviving brother is already married. Therefore this command would result in polygamous marriages if the surviving brother was already married, and in practice it often did.” It was allowed at that time, but in this time of modern Christians, there is no law in the The New Testament that condones polygamy. It is a sin. All of the LORD’S commands we are to follow as Christians now.....if any of them are not obeyed is considered sin.

Here is an accurate list of all the commands in the New Testament every Christian must follow https://www.abc.net.au/reslib/201407/r1308729_17984331.pdf (abc.net.au) God bless and stay safe! ♥️

(New Testament) 1 Corinthians 7:2 But since sexual immorality is occurring, each man should have sexual relations with his own wife, and each woman with her own husband.

Ephesians 5:24 Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her

Ephesians 5:33 - However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.

Matthew 19:4-6 - He answered, “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.”

By His Grace, Sheela (via godfirstgodalways)

[mileycyprus-hill]

For Whom the Tiny Bell Tolls

A quickie rdr2 fic about thicc Arthur getting stuck in the mini church. You and Charles have to help him out. 

warnings: none, besides some language 

It was a long and hot day in Leymone, and Arthur’s temper was already rising with the heat.

He’s tired, dog tired. He felt like he hasn’t slept in days on account of the new scams he’s been ordered to run between the Grays and the Braithwaites. Now he’s a deputy? Shit.

He’s busy enough taking Dutch’s orders.

After stealing moonshine from the Braithwaites, shooting up Lemoyne Raiders for it, then dealing with them again at the Rhodes saloon, Arthur was finished. After the “advertising” bit Hosea came up with in Rhodes, he decided to sneak a pour of moonshine in a jar for himself. As a reward.

He wasn’t ready to go back to camp just yet and be sent off on another wild goose chase. He had enough of that with the two Shakespearean teenagers: Beau and Penelope. Running letters for them like he was some royal messenger.

So Arthur decided to sneak off with his horse and ride out. It didn’t take long for him to get turned around and end up in Bayou Nwa. That moonshine was some strong stuff, but it sure made him feel better. He finally felt relaxed and forgot about all of that business Dutch kept pushing on him.

“For which I am a prisoner now,

in Stillwater jail I lie.”

Arthur quietly sings and hums to himself as he lets the moonshine warm his blood.

“...upon a Californy miner,

Unto us he befell.”

The words become lost to him and so he hums atop his mare. She lets out a deep shudder underneath him, calmed by the the rich timbre of his voice.

Pretty soon, the moonshine hits him like a train and he gets proper drunk. The sweet humming of campfire tunes turns into slurred yodeling.

“I asked tha’ gal to give me some!

Mhmmm, mhmmm!

She says wait til the taters is done!

Mhmmm, mhmmm!

I couldn’t wait till the taters was done,

Threw ‘er on the floor and knocked out some,

Mhmmm, mhmmm ha-ha-ha haaa!”

Arthur chortles, holding the nearly empty jar of moonshine in his hand and the reins in the other.

Feeling a familiar tingle in his bladder, he clumsily slides off his horse.

“Stay there, gurl.” Arthur coos to his trusty mare while walking off into the trees to relieve himself.

Leaning on his palm against the tree, Arthur looks to his surroundings. He somewhat recognizes the area. He had been through here before with Dutch and the sheriff when they were investigating the Braithwaites’ private distilleries. Where he is exactly, he has no idea.

But that’s a problem for future Arthur. Right now, he just wants to forget about everything. Drunk or not, he can still shoot a gun and fight if someone gives him trouble. Why, he’s a sheriff’s deputy now!

Something catches his eye nearby.

It looks small, almost like a children’s playhouse.

Arthur buttons himself back up and stumbles over to it, almost falling over his feet. 

He stops himself and sways beside the little building. The white paint on the wood siding is nearly faded. 

“Why...it’s a little church!” He wheezes. He leans forward, placing his hands on his knees as he laughs at the sight of it.

“C’mere gurl!” He calls to his horse. She walks over to him obediently.

“You seein’ this?” He points at the little steeple.

His mare perks her ears forward at him, like she’s listening but obviously not understanding him.

“What is this? Some kinda...church for children?” He chortles.

He squats down on the little porch and lets out another wheezing laugh, “It’s cute!”

He looks through the tiny windows and crawls into the front of the church. Inside, he sees the little pews all in neat rows. A golden cross sits on top a small altar. Kneeling at the front altar, he looks back to the empty pews.

Opening his arms, he shouts, “We are gathered here on this miserable day...to talk about our lord n’ savior!” Arthur chuckles, reciting the sermons of the drunken Reverend Swanson.

“We’re all drunken fools! Fools, in need of forgiveness...and the only way we can get forgiveness...” his voice cracks in his drunken stupor, “...is if we repent. Repent! My friends! Or burn in the fiery pits of Hell!”

Arthur continues laughing until he can no longer breathe. Losing his balance, he falls forward and crushes a pew. The wood splinters and cracks under his heavy weight. He nearly cracks his head from the impact, and the remaining air in his lungs is knocked out of him.

Rolling over onto his back, he giggles, “Joke’s on them. I’m already in Hell!”

The walls around him curve and turn as the room spins. He tries to focus his eyes on the center of the ceiling, but his head keeps spinning. Soon, his eyes grow heavy and he falls into a deep sleep.

His horse stands in front of the church, her ears pricked forward as she lowers her head and listens to his rumbling snores.

———————————

Sitting at camp, you’re startled to find Arthur’s horse walking back alone.

She always knew her way back to your old mare, wherever she was. Arthur and you tamed them from the same wild herd. They were nearly inseparable. One could sniff down the other like a bloodhound.

Walking to Arthur’s horse, you see all of his guns and saddlebags are still on her, so he couldn’t have been robbed. At that sight, you feared the worst: he’d been shot off his horse.

“Oh god,” you whisper. “What happened girl?” You ask while stroking her face.

You had to know what happened. Running to Dutch, you tell him what you saw and beg him to let you look for Arthur. He sends Charles out with you, as he’s the best tracker.

You hardly wait to mount up and lead Arthur’s horse by her reins to follow. Charles catches up with Taima, the pair of you heading to the last place Arthur was seen. Hosea told the pair of you he’d seen him ride up towards Bayou Nwa after their stint at the Rhodes saloon the day before.

After searching for hours, you can’t seem to pin-point where he might have gone.

“There’s too many tracks here,” Charles states calmly, “I can’t pick out which is Arthur’s...they’re all over the place.”

With a nervous breath, you sigh, “We have to keep looking.”

Charles looks up at you, nodding sympathetically at your concern.

A sudden pull nearly takes the reins out of your hand. You look over at Arthur’s horse and watch her elevate her head and nod it repeatedly in a swooping motion. Her ears are pointed forward in attention. She stamps her hooves at the ground and continues pulling at the reins.

“Whoa girl. Easy, easy.” You attempt to calm her, but she snatches her head away and violently pulls the reins from your hands. The dried leather slips from your fingers. Your own horse startles and whinnies at the commotion. Arthur’s quickly horse trots off, as if a gunshot has gone off and startled her.

“Hey! Get back here!” You call.

Charles can only watch as he looks to you in confusion. Turning to him, you huff and shrug.

“C’mon.” You kick your heels and send your horse off to follow her.

Her faded gray coat stands out among the flora of the swamp, making it easy to follow. She slows down to a stop and stamps her hooves again. Stopping your horse beside her, you dismount and notice she’s led you to what looks like a miniature church. 

“What the? Hey, Charles! Come look at this!” 

He hops off his horse and stands by you, shoulder-to-shoulder. The two of you observe the small structure with furrowed brows. Who would build a little thing like this out here? 

Charles leans and whispers in your ear, “Looks like there’s something in there.”

Leaning down, you peer into one of the windows and see a dark mass lying on the floor. A deep snore rumbles out of it. 

“What is it?” you ask in a whispered hush. 

“More like who is it.” Charles responds.

Raising your head at him, you look up with your forehead crinkled and mouth agape in bewilderment. He points back at the snoring beast. 

You sneak over to the open doors at the front of the church and peer inside. 

Oh, Jesus Christ.

Shaking your head and stifling a laugh, you whisper over at Charles who’s still standing and looking through the dirty windows.

“It’s Arthur.”

“What?” he exclaims, stepping over to you and kneeling beside you. 

“Yes! I’d recognize that shirt anywhere.” 

He was wearing the plaid, olive button-down you bought him in Valentine after his fight in the mud. He didn’t have extra clothes with him, so he sent you to buy him a clean shirt and pants while he went to the hotel to take a bath. 

A rough snore escapes Arthur’s lips as he remains in a sleeping huddle on the floor.

The pair of you snicker at the sight of him. 

“Yep, that’s him alright.” Charles laughs softly. 

“For a second, I thought a black bear had wandered in,” you joke.

Suddenly, Arthur stirs at the sound of your voices and wakes up. He might as well be a bear right now because he is in a rough mood. 

“Who’s there?! Leave me alone!” he growls, laying on his back on the pile of broken wood. His words are still slurred from the moonshine. 

“Arthur, it’s us! (Y/N) and Charles.” you call into the church. 

Arthur rolls over with his bloodshot eyes darting open. He tries to blink away the blurry vision before him. Sitting up, his head rushes and he forgets where he’s at. 

Until he tries to stand and hits his head against the ceiling. He falls back down with a heavy thud and groans loudly in pain, breaking another pew. The wood splits like kindling. 

You and Charles wince at the sight of it, but can hardly contain your laughter. You clap your hand over your mouth and giggle into your palm. 

Arthur writhes in pain on the floor and moans, “Aaaaggh, Shuuuut uuup.” He kneels on all fours and tries to hold back the nausea. 

“How the hell’d you get in there?” you ask, trying your best to mask your amusement. 

“I dunno!” Arthur replies, the inflection in his voice rising with his own confusion.

Boy, is he crabby. 

Though, you can hardly blame him. 

Charles calmly asks him with a straight face, “How was the service, Arthur?”

Your cheeks grow red as you snicker a laugh through your nose. You nudge Charles’ shoulder. 

“Yeah...the preacher give a good sermon today?” You ask.

Now Charles lets out a snort, and the two of you can hardly take it anymore. You both rear your heads back and roar in laughter. 

If looks could kill, Arthur would be strangling the both of you right now. His eyes are narrowed in your direction and he grinds his teeth. 

“Shut. Up.” he growls.

The laughter subsides at his glare, but an occasional snort still escapes your noses as you both try to hold yourself together. 

“Sorry, Arthur,” Charles apologizes, “but you gotta admit, it’s pretty funny.” 

“Ha...ha.” Arthur mocks. He sits himself up and looks around the tiny church to see where he can let himself out. The pair of you are blocking the front doorway, and he’s in no mood to even look at you two right now. 

He eyes a small back door and crawls towards it.

Knowing exactly where this will go, you call to him, “Wait, Arthur. Don’t go that way.”

“Why not? I got in here ma’self, I can get out ma’self.” Arthur shouts. 

You give in, “Fine.” Both you and Charles are now laying on your stomachs, watching Arthur. Like naughty children spying on a grumpy old man. 

He manages to push the back door open and crawl through. However, he’s only halfway through before he gets stuck in the doorway. You hear him muttering and cursing as he struggles to crawl out. His broad torso fills the narrow frame. He attempts to pull at the ground outside and inch himself further, but the further he goes, the more his gut is wedged in the frame. All that’s visible to you now is his backside and his muddy boots scraping against the wood floor. 

The struggle stops and you hear a muffled sigh from outside the church walls.

“Shit.”

Charles looks over to you and sends you a tiny smirk which you return. As funny as this situation looks, you do feel embarrassed for Arthur. It’s a good thing it’s only you and Charles are witnessing this. 

Arthur speaks meekly, barely intelligible through the church walls, “Will you help me?”

The two of you stand up and walk to the back of the church. Your faces turn red at the sight of poor Arthur stuck like a bear in a fox hole. It’s enough to make you burst like a squeezed tomato. Tears fill your eyes as you try so hard to stifle your outburst by clapping a hand over your mouth. 

“Oh you poor thing,” you whine through your fingers with hesitated breathing. Your voice rises while struggling to breathe. You know if you let out a breath, it would lead to a burst of laughter that would not end. You calm yourself with a slow, deep breath out your mouth. 

“Just get me outta here, will ya?” Arthur urges. 

“How?” you ask. Again, struggling to maintain your breathing through stifled giggles. You look over to Charles who has his head held down and his hand over his mouth. The smile lines on his cheeks are clearly visible. 

He takes a deep breath, “I got an idea. (Y/N), grab him by his arm. I’ll grab the other one, and we’ll pull on my count.”

You do as Charles orders and place one hand directly above Arthur’s elbow on the meat of his forearm, the other is wrapped around his wrist. Arthur grips your wrist with his massive hand. 

“One...two...three!” 

You both pull but Arthur doesn’t budge. 

You pull again. 

And again.

But no progress. Now you’re worried you’ll just pull his arms out of his sockets. 

“Ugh! This isn't working,” you grunt, letting go of Arthur’s arm. “We gotta push you back in.” 

“What?” Arthur looks up at you. His shaggy hair all disheveled, his eyes bloodshot, cheeks flushed. 

“You’re too wide! You gotta go back in and go through the front.” 

He drops his head in defeat and nods. You and Charles now find a spot on Arthur’s shoulders and push with all your might. He seems to move by a centimeter. 

“Hang on.” you say, and run around the front of the church and crouch in. You kneel behind Arthur’s legs and wrap your hands around an ankle. You feel him tense immediately at your touch. He reeks of sweat and booze and his boots are covered in mud.

“Alright Charles! I’ll pull, you push! On three! Arthur, you count!”

With an exasperated sigh he counts, “One...two...three!”

You pull on his leg with all your strength, squatting on your feet inside the small church. You feel his weight give as he slowly slides through the doorway. You pull harder and harder, putting all of your weight into it. 

Suddenly, the tension is lost, and you fall backwards onto a pew. You nearly break your back on the wood as you land. The wood cracks underneath you. At the same time, you hear a thud from the outside wall. Charles must’ve fallen forward and hit his face directly on the door frame. 

A chorus of painful groans fills the inside of the church. It’s quickly followed by a duet of laughter from you and Charles. 

You let out a deep breath as you calm yourself. Looking to Charles-who’s halfway inside the church on his stomach-you state, “Y’know, I think that’s the first time I’ve seen you laugh, Charles.”

“Never seen anything that funny till now,” he tears up. 

“Glad to help, Charles.” Arthur groans sarcastically, rubbing his face. 

“C’mon,” you chuckle and give him a light smack on the bottom. “Let’s get outta here.” 

You both exit through the front of the church. Arthur winces at the bright midday sun and attempts to stand straight. 

“Think you can get on your horse, Arthur?” you ask. He waves you off and awkwardly mounts his horse. Luckily, she stands perfectly still while he eventually lifts his heavy frame onto the saddle. Once he’s settled, you hand him his worn leather hat. It’s nearly brown from all the swamp mud. 

Charles shakes his head and laughs, “You two take your time. I’lll meet you back at camp.” He pulls on the rein to direct Taima until Arthur stops him.

“Charles?”

“Yeah, Arthur?”

“Don’t tell anyone this.”

Charles smiles, “Okay.” He’s always one to keep a promise. 

Mounting your own horse, you gently tell Arthur, “C’mon, Reverend. I’ll buy you a room and you can get some sleep. I’ll even get you the deluxe package: hot food and a bath.” 

“Okay,” he nods in response. The two of you slowly walk your horses to Saint Denis, where you buy him a room and a bath at the lavish hotel. Helping him up the stairs to the bathroom, you begin to undress him.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa!” he exclaims, a trace of moonshine still in his system. 

“C’mon Arthur, you need a bath.”

“I can do it ma’self! I ain’t no child!” 

After some arguing, and finally some help from one of the working girls, you get Arthur into the tub. You pay the girl for the deluxe bath and help her scrub Arthur down. To which, Arthur soaks up all the attention. 

“Well, lookee here. Two beautiful women...givin’ me a bath!” 

“Ain’t you a charmer?” the woman teases, her bosom nearly spilling out of her corset. 

Rolling your eyes at the continuous flirting between Arthur and the woman, you eventually help him out and dress him in fresh clothes. The woman offers to take his muddy clothes to the launderer for an extra fee, which you accept. 

Arthur nearly rips the top cover off the bed and plops himself down. With a loving chuckle, you pick up his legs and tuck him under the covers. 

His eyelids grow heavy at the feeling of his head on the soft feather pillow. He smells a hint of lavender on the sheet. 

“You’re too good to me, (Y/N).” he mumbles with closed eyes. 

“Only what you deserve.” you reassure him, tucking a stray hair away from his face.  

He quickly falls asleep with a gentle snore. You wait a second to move so you can take in the sight of him, all tucked in like a little boy. At that, you move to the sofa by the bed and lay down, watching Arthur sleep until your own eyelids grow heavy.