#quote taken from the midnight gospel

[foragergnome]

just be here now.

[thedancemostofall]

Helen Garner on happiness and random stabs of extreme interestingness

What is happiness, anyway? Does anybody know? It’s taken me 80 years to figure out that it’s not a tranquil, sunlit realm at the top of the ladder you’ve spent your whole life hauling yourself up, rung by rung. It’s more like the thing that Christians call grace: you can’t earn it, you can’t strive for it, it’s not a reward for virtue. It exists all right, it will be given to you, but it’s fluid, it’s evasive, it’s out of reach. It’s something you glimpse in the corner of your eye until one day you’re up to your neck in it. And before you’ve had time to take a big gasp and name it, it’s gone.

So I’m not going to spend what’s left of my life hanging round waiting for it. I’m going to settle for small, random stabs of extreme interestingness – moments of intense awareness of the things I’m about to lose, and of gladness that they exist. Things that remind me of other things. Tiny scenes. Words that people choose, their accidentally biblical turns of phrase. Hand-lettered signs, quotes from books, offhand remarks that make me think of dead people, or of living ones I can no longer stand the sight of. I plan to keep writing them down, praising them, arranging them like stepping stones into the dark. Maybe they’ll lead me somewhere good before I shrivel up and blow away.

On a shop window, somewhere up in Coburg: “Halal Meats, All the Fishes and Groceries.”

“Resentment is like taking poison and hoping that someone else will die.”

The under-16s footy coach leaning on the fence and muttering between clenched teeth, “Don’t turn your back on the play.”

The fact that the footy season exists, that it’s coming around again. The poetry of footy journalism: a player who “slides out of the pack like a gymnast’s ribbon”.

A family who, in the Age death notices, salutes their father in two words: “Our champion.”

Twenty minutes into a bout of gardening, when I notice I’m moving very slowly from task to task; when haste and impatience have left me.

One driver to another, on the 59 tram: “Quin. She was heavy drinker, you know? Quin? Of England? She die ressently, you know? She drink every day. That why she live a good age.”

An art critic on Delacroix: “… the deep appeal of violence in life and art, and the place of aggression in any realistic account of human purposes.”

My grandsons, who once curled in my lap and sucked their thumbs, striding down the steps into my kitchen: a room suddenly full of man.

The closing words of an article about a theatre company: “For the loneliness. For the forgiveness.”

Sitting shoulder to shoulder with the murdered man’s mother, leafing through magazines, laughing and sighing over trashy celebrities and pretty, ill-cut Chinese garments you can buy online. How hard she hugs me, when I leave.

Gospel shouters. The fact that Aretha Franklin once walked this earth.

The theatre nurse gripping my hand at the moment the anaesthetic knocks me out.

The surprise of feeling my face soften at the theme music of the Japanese series Midnight Diner.

Realising that I have an enormous vocabulary.

How one of our chooks crouches and shivers and tramples with her feet when I open the gate.

My granddaughter getting a mullet and a job making cocktails and a gig singing jazz in a bar.

Finding a clean hanky in my apron pocket.

Learning how little it takes to please me.

Stuck in traffic on Brunswick Road, listening to Glen Campbell singing By the Time I Get to Phoenix. I know every note, every pause, every beautiful American place-name – Albuquerque, Oklahoma – and the freight of what’s left unsung. Why is he leaving? Why didn’t she believe he would? The singer’s voice hovers over the woman, her door, her work, her bed, while he vanishes down the endless highway – he’s a tail-light, a pin-point, and he’s gone.

https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2023/feb/05/helen-garner-on-happiness-its-taken-me-80-years-to-figure-out-its-not-a-tranquil-sunlit-realm

[troybeecham]

Today, the Church remembers Saint Margaret of Scotland (Scots: Saunt Magret, c. 1045 – 16 November 1093 AD), also known as Margaret of Wessex, English princess and a Scottish queen.

Ora pro nobis.

Margaret was born in exile in the Kingdom of Hungary She was the sister of Edgar Ætheling, the shortly reigned and uncrowned Anglo-Saxon King of England. Margaret and her family returned to the Kingdom of England in 1057 AD, but fled to the Kingdom of Scotland following the Norman conquest of England in 1066 AD. By the end of 1070 AD, Margaret had married King Malcolm III of Scotland, becoming Queen of Scots.

Margaret was the daughter of the English prince Edward the Exile, and granddaughter of Edmund Ironside, King of England. After the Danish conquest of England in 1016 AD, King Canute the Great had the infant Edward exiled to the continent. He was taken first to the court of the Swedish king, Olof Skötkonung, and then to Kiev. As an adult, he travelled to Hungary, where in 1046 AD he supported the successful bid of King Andrew I for the Hungarian crown. King Andrew I was then also known as "Andrew the Catholic" for his extreme aversion to pagans and great loyalty to the Roman Catholic Church.

Still a child, she came to England with the rest of her family when her father, Edward the Exile, was recalled in 1057 as a possible successor to her great-uncle, the childless King Edward the Confessor. Whether from natural or sinister causes, her father died immediately after landing, and Margaret continued to reside at the English court where her brother, Edgar Ætheling, was considered a possible successor to the English throne. When Edward the Confessor died in January 1066, Harold Godwinson was selected as king, possibly because Edgar was considered too young. After Harold's defeat at the Battle of Hastings later that year, Edgar was proclaimed King of England, but when the Normans advanced on London, the Witenagemot presented Edgar to William the Conqueror, who took him to Normandy before returning him to England in 1068 AD, when Edgar, Margaret, Cristina, and their mother Agatha fled north to Northumbria, England.

According to tradition, the widowed Agatha decided to leave Northumbria, England with her children and return to the continent. However, a storm drove their ship north to the Kingdom of Scotland in 1068, where they sought the protection of King Malcolm III. The locus where it is believed that they landed is known today as St Margaret's Hope, near the village of North Queensferry, Fife, Scotland. Margaret's arrival in Scotland, after the failed revolt of the Northumbrian earls, has been heavily romanticized, though Symeon of Durham implied that her first meeting of Malcolm III may not have been until 1070, after William the Conqueror's Harrying of the North.

King Malcolm III was a widower with two sons, Donald and Duncan. He would have been attracted to marrying one of the few remaining members of the Anglo-Saxon royal family. The marriage of Malcolm and Margaret occurred in 1070 AD. Subsequently, Malcolm executed several invasions of Northumberland to support the claim of his new brother-in-law Edgar and to increase his own power. These, however, had little effect save the devastation of the County.

Margaret's biographer Turgot of Durham, Bishop of St. Andrew's, credits her with having a civilizing influence on her husband Malcolm by reading him narratives from the Bible. She instigated religious reform, striving to conform the worship and practices of the Church in Scotland to those of Rome. This she did on the inspiration and with the guidance of Lanfranc, a future Archbishop of Canterbury. She also worked to conform the practices of the Scottish Church to those of the continental Church, which she experienced in her childhood. Due to these achievements, she was considered an exemplar of the "just ruler", and moreover influenced her husband and children, especially her youngest son, the future King David I of Scotland, to be just and holy rulers.

"The chroniclers all agree in depicting Queen Margaret as a strong, pure, noble character, who had very great influence over her husband, and through him over Scottish history, especially in its ecclesiastical aspects. Her religion, which was genuine and intense, was of the newest Roman style; and to her are attributed a number of reforms by which the Church [in] Scotland was considerably modified from the insular and primitive type which down to her time it had exhibited. Among those expressly mentioned are a change in the manner of observing Lent, which thenceforward began as elsewhere on Ash Wednesday and not as previously on the following Monday, and the abolition of the old practice of observing Saturday (Sabbath), not Sunday, as the day of rest from labour. "The later editions of the Encyclopædia Britannica, however, as an example, the Eleventh Edition, remove Skene's opinion that Scottish Catholics formerly rested from work on Saturday, something for which there is no historical evidence. Skene's Celtic Scotland, vol. ii, chap. 8, pp. 348–350, quotes from a contemporary document regarding Margaret's life, but his source says nothing at all of Saturday Sabbath observance, but rather says St. Margaret exhorted the Scots to cease their tendency "to neglect the due observance of the Lord's day."

She attended to charitable works, serving orphans and the poor every day before she ate and washing the feet of the poor in imitation of Christ. She rose at midnight every night to attend the liturgy. She successfully invited the Benedictine Order to establish a monastery in Dunfermline, Fife in 1072 AD, and established ferries at Queensferry and North Berwick to assist pilgrims journeying from south of the Firth of Forth to St. Andrew's in Fife. She used a cave on the banks of the Tower Burn in Dunfermline as a place of devotion and prayer. St. Margaret's Cave, now covered beneath a municipal car park, is open to the public. Among other deeds, Margaret also instigated the restoration of Iona Abbey in Scotland. She is also known to have interceded for the release of fellow English exiles who had been forced into serfdom by the Norman conquest of England.

Margaret was as pious privately as she was publicly. She spent much of her time in prayer, devotional reading, and ecclesiastical embroidery. This apparently had considerable effect on the more uncouth Malcolm, who was illiterate: he so admired her piety that he had her books decorated in gold and silver. One of these, a pocket gospel book with portraits of the Evangelists, is in the Bodleian Library in Oxford, England.

Malcolm was apparently largely ignorant of the long-term effects of Margaret's endeavours, not being especially religious himself. He was content for her to pursue her reforms as she desired, which was a testament to the strength of and affection in their marriage.

Her husband Malcolm III, and their eldest son Edward, were killed in the Battle of Alnwick against the English on 13 November 1093 AD. Her son Edgar was left with the task of informing his mother of their deaths. Not yet 50 years old, Margaret died on 16 November 1093 AD, three days after the deaths of her husband and eldest son. The cause of death was reportedly grief. She was buried before the high altar in Dunfermline Abbey in Fife, Scotland.

O God, you called your servant Margaret to an earthly throne that she might advance your heavenly kingdom, and gave her zeal for your Church and love for-your people: Mercifully grant that we who commemorate her this day may be fruitful in good works, and attain to the glorious crown of your saints; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

Amen.

[pamphletstoinspire]

MENTAL AND EMOTIONAL PARALYSIS: PART 16 MINI-COURSE ON PRAYER BY DAVID TORKINGTON   ​

It is rare that we have the privilege of speaking to a bona fide hermit about our prayer life. I was therefore fortunate to have met a novice who shared with me such a privilege and gave me permission to share what he had learned. This time the novice asks the Hermit about something that was at the time a major stumbling block to his growth in prayer.  

“My big problem is,”  said the novice, “that although I may try and meditate on some of the most profound truths of the faith, they just leave me cold, when I know they ought to be dynamite. Somehow they do not get through to me. It is as if I have built a barrier around myself.”

The State of Mental Paralysis

The hermit explained that to start with the truths of the faith are too big, too enormous, almost too incredible for us to take in effectively. Some years ago, I listened to an astronomer talking on the radio about the more distant stars in the heavens. He said that some were over ten billion light years away. To be quite honest, he could have said a million miles away for all the practical difference it would have made to me. The distances he was talking about, the statistics he was quoting were so vast, so tremendous that I could not take them in. It is exactly the same with the truths of the Faith. Take the central truth, that God is love and that he loves us personally and individually. It is just too much for anyone to take in. I can say it, I can repeat the words, but alone I cannot penetrate or comprehend their meaning. It is the same with our emotions. They can only respond to a stimulus of a certain degree of intensity.

When I first heard of my mother's death I did not react. It was all too much for my emotions to cope with. It is the same with the truths of the faith, at least to begin with. However, with good will and with genuine and continuous effort, come what may, things will gradually begin to change for the better. This state of mental paralysis gradually begins to lift. The slow meditation on the sacred texts suddenly begins to bear fruit, the spiritual understanding begins to stir and the emotions are touched and begin to react. What began as rather dry academic knowledge begins to strike us with an ever-deepening impact. Knowledge begins to turn into love as the love that God has for us begins to register with effect, as we see it embodied in all Jesus said and did. None of us can remain the same when we realize that another loves us. We respond automatically and the emotions are released and we begin to express our love and thanks in return. This is the beginning of real prayer that will grow with depth and intensity as the truth of God's love, alive and active in Jesus is brought home time and time again.

As the impact of the Gospel message explodes with maximum effect, we find that even the most extravagant words that we can call upon do not sufficiently voice the depth of feeling that we experience welling up from within. In the end, the words of thanks, praise, adoration and even the language of love gives way to silence as I have shown, a silence that says more than the most potent man-made means of expression. The slow, meditative penetration of the texts now opens out and envelops the whole being as the believer is ever more deeply absorbed into a silent contemplative gaze upon God. The most powerful and poignant expressions of love are emptied of their meaning in the face of the reality. To quote D.H. Lawrence yet again. “Words join together those who are separate from one another, but in perfect union there is a perfect silence of bliss.”

The Scriptures continually use the symbol of human love as the best possible analogy with which to describe how the love between man and God begins and grows to perfection. That is why the Fathers of the Church and other great spiritual writers use that beautiful love poem from the Old Testament, ‘The Song of Solomon' to describe how our love of God grows and how it finally reaches perfection.  

Towards the Transforming Union

In the beginning of human love words are usually fairly hard to come by; there is an initial embarrassment coping with a first-time love affair. There is usually a certain strain even an artificiality in the way in which we first express ourselves. In subsequent meetings the conversation tends to revolve around getting to know about each other in more detail, finding out about one another’s background, discovering common likes and dislikes.

The spark of love that was there from the beginning is fanned into a flame, and words of explanation give way to the language of love. The closer love draws the two into one, the less there is a need for words. It is enough to be together, to be alone, to be at one with each other in a profound pregnant silence. However, always remember that we are human beings. One day we find praying easy, the next we do not. One day it is Tabor and the next it is Calvary. Nevertheless, if you persevere no matter what, the time will come when you begin prayer and suddenly find that the reality of God’s love is so close and so present to you that all you will want to do is gaze on the glory of God's love forever.

Towards Thesis

I cannot overemphasize enough that this spiritual journey through prayer, as I have been describing it, was practiced from the very beginning by the first generation of Christians who, like us, had not met Christ in person. The first spiritual guides taught from the start that in addition to the prayers said at the third, the sixth and the ninth hour, Christians were taught how to meditate on events in the life of Jesus. In addition to this, they were encouraged to rise at midnight to meditate on the death and Resurrection of Jesus that was traditionally believed to have taken place at midnight.  Today this might be seen as expecting too much, but in those days when most decent people went to bed shortly after sunset and arose at sunrise it was not such a terrible imposition, and for many, it became the favorite time for prayer when all was still and quiet.

The deep and prayerful longing that was strengthened by their daily meditation would lead them on to desire the personal intimacy and eventually the deep union that love ultimately desires. But, this union was now no longer to be found in and with the Jesus who once lived on earth, but in and with Jesus as he is now, risen and glorified.  But further to this their meditation led them on and so must ours, not just into the person of the Risen Lord, but into his acting. By that, I mean into communion with him as he is engrossed in his mystical contemplation of our Father. When experienced in this life this mystical contemplation leads to a union called Divinisation or Theosis by the early Eastern Greek Fathers, and the Transforming Union or the Mystical Marriage by the later Western Mystical writers. I will have more to say about this in the last part of this course when I concentrate on mystical contemplation.

These ideas are developed further in my two major works on prayer – Wisdom from the Western Isles and Wisdom from the Christian Mystics, and Wisdom from Franciscan Italy that shows how deep contemplative prayer grows to perfection in the Life of St Francis of Assisi.

[dailybiblelessons]

Wednesday: Reflection on the Thirty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time

This week's blog post is here. It has a review of Modern English Version, asks the question who should we love as our neighbor, and has more on the theme of love. More information about the two complementary and semi-continuous series is here: Which Series?

Complementary Hebrew Scripture from the Twelve Prophets: Micah 6:1-8

Hear what the Lord says:  Rise, plead your case before the mountains,  and let the hills hear your voice. Hear, you mountains, the controversy of the Lord,  and you enduring foundations of the earth; for the Lord has a controversy with his people,  and he will contend with Israel.

“O my people, what have I done to you?  In what have I wearied you? Answer me! For I brought you up from the land of Egypt,  and redeemed you from the house of slavery; and I sent before you Moses,  Aaron, and Miriam. O my people, remember now what King Balak of Moab devised,  what Balaam son of Beor answered him, and what happened from Shittim to Gilgal,  that you may know the saving acts of the Lord.”

“With what shall I come before the Lord,  and bow myself before God on high? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings,  with calves a year old? Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams,  with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression,  the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?” He has told you, O mortal, what is good;  and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness,  and to walk humbly with your God?

Semi-continuous Hebrew Scripture from the Writings: Ruth 3:8-18

At midnight the man was startled, and turned over, and there, lying at his feet, was a woman! He said, “Who are you?” And she answered, “I am Ruth, your servant; spread your cloak over your servant, for you are next-of-kin.” He said, “May you be blessed by the Lord, my daughter; this last instance of your loyalty is better than the first; you have not gone after young men, whether poor or rich. And now, my daughter, do not be afraid, I will do for you all that you ask, for all the assembly of my people know that you are a worthy woman. But now, though it is true that I am a near kinsman, there is another kinsman more closely related than I. Remain this night, and in the morning, if he will act as next-of-kin for you, good; let him do it. If he is not willing to act as next-of-kin for you, then, as the Lord lives, I will act as next-of-kin for you. Lie down until the morning.”

So she lay at his feet until morning, but got up before one person could recognize another; for he said, “It must not be known that the woman came to the threshing floor.” Then he said, “Bring the cloak you are wearing and hold it out.” So she held it, and he measured out six measures of barley, and put it on her back; then he went into the city. She came to her mother-in-law, who said, “How did things go with you, my daughter?” Then she told her all that the man had done for her, saying, “He gave me these six measures of barley, for he said, ‘Do not go back to your mother-in-law empty-handed.’” She replied, “Wait, my daughter, until you learn how the matter turns out, for the man will not rest, but will settle the matter today.”

Complementary Psalm 51

Have mercy on me, O God,  according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy  blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,  and cleanse me from my sin.

For I know my transgressions,  and my sin is ever before me. Against you, you alone, have I sinned,  and done what is evil in your sight, so that you are justified in your sentence  and blameless when you pass judgment.¹ Indeed, I was born guilty,  a sinner when my mother conceived me.

You desire truth in the inward being;  therefore teach me wisdom in my secret heart. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean;  wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Let me hear joy and gladness;  let the bones that you have crushed rejoice. Hide your face from my sins,  and blot out all my iniquities.

Create in me a clean heart, O God,  and put a new and right spirit within me. Do not cast me away from your presence,  and do not take your holy spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation,  and sustain in me a willing spirit.

Then I will teach transgressors your ways,  and sinners will return to you. Deliver me from bloodshed, O God,  O God of my salvation,  and my tongue will sing aloud of your deliverance.

O Lord, open my lips,  and my mouth will declare your praise. For you have no delight in sacrifice;  if I were to give a burnt offering, you would not be pleased. The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.

Do good to Zion in your good pleasure;  rebuild the walls of Jerusalem, then you will delight in right sacrifices,  in burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings;  then bulls will be offered on your altar.

¹Paul quotes the last part of this verse when writing of God and judgment in Romans 3:1-8.

Semi-continuous Psalm 18:20-30

The Lord rewarded me according to my righteousness;  according to the cleanness of my hands he recompensed me. For I have kept the ways of the Lord,  and have not wickedly departed from my God. For all his ordinances were before me,  and his statutes I did not put away from me. I was blameless before him,  and I kept myself from guilt. Therefore the Lord has recompensed me according to my righteousness,  according to the cleanness of my hands in his sight.

With the loyal you show yourself loyal;  with the blameless you show yourself blameless; with the pure you show yourself pure;  and with the crooked you show yourself perverse. For you deliver a humble people,  but the haughty eyes you bring down. It is you who light my lamp;  the Lord, my God, lights up my darkness. By you I can crush a troop,  and by my God I can leap over a wall. This God—his way is perfect;  the promise of the Lord proves true;  he is a shield for all who take refuge in him.

New Testament Gospel Lesson: John 13:31-35

When he had gone out, Jesus said, “Now the Son of Man has been glorified, and God has been glorified in him. If God has been glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself and will glorify him at once. Little children, I am with you only a little longer. You will look for me; and as I said to the Jews so now I say to you, ‘Where I am going, you cannot come.’ I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

Year B Ordinary 31 Wednesday

Selections from Revised Common Lectionary Daily Readings copyright © 1995 by the Consultation on Common Texts. Unless otherwise indicated, Bible text is from Holy Bible New Revised Standard Version with the Apocryphal / Deuterocanonical Books (NRSV) copyright © 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All right reserved. Footnotes in the Hebrew Scriptures that show where the passage is used in the Christian Scriptures are based on information from the Complete Jewish Bible (Updated) (CJB) by David H. Stern, Copyright © 1998 and 2006 by David H. Stern, used by permission of Messianic Jewish Publishers, www.messianicjewish.net. All rights reserved worldwide. When text is taken from the CJB, the passage ends with (CJB) and the foregoing copyright notice applies. Note: The links in the titles above take you to Amazon, where you can purchase them and benefit The Lectionary Company. Image credit: Detail of Christ's Farewell to His Apostles by Duccio di Buoninsegna, via Wikimedia Commons. This is a public domain image.

[blackkudos]

Brian McKnight

Brian McKnight (born June 5, 1969) is an American R&B singer-songwriter, arranger, producer, and musician. He is a multi-instrumentalist who plays eight instruments including piano, guitar, bass guitar, percussion, trombone, tuba, flugelhorn and trumpet. He is one of the very few leggiero tenors in the pop genre. McKnight is most recognized for his strong falsetto and belting range. McKnight's work has earned him 16 Grammy Awards nominations, though he has never won. He is third only to Morten Lindberg and Snoop Dogg for the record of most Grammy nominations without a win.

Biography

1969–1989: Early life and career beginnings

McKnight was born in Buffalo, New York. His musical career began in childhood when he became a member of his church choir.

1990–1997: Mercury Records

In 1990, McKnight's older brother, Claude McKnight III, and his band, Take 6, signed a record deal with Warner Brothers. This encouraged McKnight to shop his own demo tapes and by the age of 19, he signed his first recording deal with Mercury Records subsidiary, Wing Records. In 1992, Brian McKnight was released, and his self-titled debut album peaked at fifty-eight in the Billboard 200 chart, which primarily featured the ballad (and top twenty single) "One Last Cry". It was followed by two more albums for Mercury, 1995's I Remember You and 1997's Anytime. Anytime, McKnight's final album with Mercury, sold over two million copies and was nominated for a Grammy. The video for "Anytime", directed by Darren Grant, was nominated for Best Male Video at the 1998 MTV Video Music Awards. In 1997, McKnight recorded "Remember the Magic" for Disney World's 25th anniversary.

1997–2003: Motown Records

McKnight signed with Motown in 1998 and released the Christmas album Bethlehem, the first of five albums he released on Motown. In 1999, McKnight released Back at One, his most successful album to date, which eventually went on to sell over 3 million copies. Also "Back at One" is one of four of McKnight's studio albums to reach the Top 10 on the Billboard 200 albums chart, reaching to #7 on October 9, 1999.

2004–2012: Warner Brothers and television/radio career

In 2004, McKnight co-wrote with Australian Soul artist Guy Sebastian the song "Wait", off Sebastian's Beautiful Life album.

In October 2007, McKnight made his Broadway debut in the show Chicago.

From 2006 to 2010 he hosted a radio show, The Brian McKnight Morning Show with Pat Prescott on KTWV The Wave in Los Angeles, CA. The show was briefly simulcast on KHJZ-FM, Smooth Jazz 95.7 The Wave in Houston, TX from 6AM-9AM CST.

On January 26, 2009, McKnight hosted "The Brian McKnight Show" from 7PM-Midnight on 98.7 KISS FM in New York City.

In 2009, he appeared in the second season of Celebrity Apprentice. Each celebrity played to raise money for the charity of his or her choice; McKnight elected to play for Youthville USA.

From September 2009 to May 2010, McKnight served as the media personality and hosted The Brian McKnight Show, a late night talk show billed as a combination of talk and variety, aired in syndication. The show was cancelled on May 29, 2010 after one season.

On March 31, 2011 McKnight sang the National Anthem for MLB Opening Day in Cincinnati, Ohio with his sons Brian, Jr. and Niko. He had previously sung the National Anthem for the 1997 NBA All-Star Game in Cleveland, Ohio, Game 6 of the 2002 World Series in Anaheim, California, near his Los Angeles home, and the 2005 Major League Baseball All-Star Game in Detroit. McKnight has also made numerous other "National Anthem" appearances throughout his career. On October 22, 2012 McKnight sang "God Bless America" in the 7th inning of Game 7 of the National League Champion Series in San Francisco, California.

On April 23, 2012 McKnight posted to YouTube "If You're Ready To Learn", which has been characterized by Billboard as a "filthy jam." Billboard selected this lyric from the work to quote: "Let me show you how your p—y works/Since you didn't bring it to me first." Other media outlets such as MTV, the Toronto Sun, and NewMediaRockstars have also written about McKnight's recent, more adult-oriented efforts. Shortly after the single's release, McKnight and known humor website "Funny or Die" revealed that the single was a collaboration between the two parties. McKnight would later explain that he wrote the parody as a commentary on the state of R&B, which he noted was in a period of degradation overall with famous radio station 98.7 Kiss FM shuttering and hit singles being inferior quality music, among other ailments.

2015: Brian McKnight Music LLC / Kobalt

On August 14, 2015 McKnight released the single "Uh Oh Feeling" as the first track to be taken from his upcoming studio album Better, which will be released on his own label Brian McKnight Music LLC via Kobalt Label Services. "Better" was released on February 26, 2016, the album was followed by positive reviews including fan comments retweeted via McKnight's Twitter profile.

2016: An Evening With Brian McKnight / SoNo Recording Group

On September 23, 2016 McKnight released his first live CD, DVD, and BluRay collection entitled "An Evening With" in partnership with independent recording label The SoNo Recording Group through the Universal Music Group. The concert was recorded in Los Angeles at the historic Saban Theatre. The release includes fourteen songs performed live with his full band plus three newly written and recorded songs. The first single "Everything" reached the top twenty on the national Adult Contemporary charts in September 2016. The CD version of the concert debuted on the Billboard (magazine) R&B chart at number thirteen as a Hot Shot Debut. Also included is a duet with Gino Vannelli on the song "Brothers In The End". The Blu-ray and DVD version of the release premiered on the Billboard (magazine) Music DVD chart at number nine.

Personal life

McKnight was married to former singer and song writer Julie McKnight in 1990. Brian and Julie have 2 children: Brian Jr and Niko. McKnight divorced Julie in 2003.

Religion

Brian McKnight was raised a Seventh-day Adventist. He grew up attending Emmanuel Temple. He also attended Oakwood College (now University), a Seventh-Day Adventist university in Huntsville, Alabama, from 1987–1989. McKnight explains, concerning his musical beginnings in the church:

"I'm the fifth generation of Seventh Day Adventists and the youngest of four brothers. When I was still very small, we formed a gospel quartet. Our models were the great gospel groups, the Swan Silvertones and Mighty Clouds of Joy. The McKnight brothers were serious singers. The reputation went out: these boys could shout. My big brothers—Claude (a part of the gospel group Take 6), Freddie and Michael—man, they were my heroes. Each was a leader in his own right. Outside church, they listened to jazz. Church music thrilled me, but jazz stimulated me."

Discography

Studio

Brian McKnight (1992)

I Remember You (1995)

Anytime (1997)

Back at One (1999)

Superhero (2001)

U Turn (2003)

Gemini (2005)

Ten (2006)

Evolution of a Man (2009)

Just Me (2011)

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An Evening With Brian McKnight (2016)

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[realsuzylmt]

My Gramma Lu...and some Midnight Musings

I miss my Gramma Lu. I miss her little house on the prairie. I miss the memories I had there, growing up. I miss watering flowers, washing her car and exploring the property she lived on. I miss her smell. I even miss her funky old sofa bed, which she ALWAYS called a davenport. I miss how she always asked if we wanted creamed corn or how she'd make me fried spam or even bologna sandwiches. She ALWAYS had cookies and candy and she'd give me her last dollar if I asked for it...even if I was being a total brat and/or she did not have it to spare.

She was a true lady. She would ALWAYS try to make everyone around her as comfortable as possible. She'd obsess over people, asking if you were warm or cool enough or hungry or thirsty and proceeding to tend to your need, whatever it may have been. She would let me, a child, pick the radio station in the car. She'd sing along to songs she didn't understand by artists that she thought were terrible and not by any means honoring what she knew to be music.

She let me drive her car when I was eight years old...on the back roads near her house. She trusted me that much.

She kept a secret barbie stash hidden from my mother, just between her and my sister, until someone FINALLY gave me a barbie for my 11th or 12th birthday and then the whole stash of clothes and doll and such was bequeathed to me as my sister was too old to enjoy it anymore, but it still resided at her house. I was shocked that it had been kept a secret that long and that I had spent that much time and that many nights at her house and had never known of its existence.

She could play the piano wonderfully, even though she didn't think so anymore, because arthritis had taken over her hands and she would constantly comment on how she thought they were ugly and less than functional, telling me of the amazing things that she used to be able to do.

She ADORED Elvis....especially his Gospel music.

She would curse on a Sunday morning on the way to church, when she drove by the dairy and their manure gun wasn't quite aimed well enough and would "...get cow s#it all over..." her car that she had just washed the day before, because keeping up appearances was a must.

She LOVED her flowers. She'd spend so much time watering and nurturing them...and moving the potted ones inside every night and outside every morning.

I wish I had her plastic rain bonnets that she used to wear to protect her hair, because they were brilliant.

I miss doing pin curls for her on a Saturday during times when she couldn't afford the time or money to get into the salon for a permanent...never just a perm, she always called it a permanent.

I'm STILL sorry for the time she let me use one of her fancy glasses/stemware and despite her repeated requests that I be careful, I thought I was being funny and messed around and totally broke it...it looked TOTALLY intentional but was a complete accident. I was mortified. I know she forgave me and that it was around 24 ish years ago now, but it STILL bothers me that I hurt and disrespected her.

She was SO talented and special and loving and kind and giving...she would make the most funny and witty jokes. She could get red wine stains out of the church's communion linens and restore them to their white as snow status again, each week. She used a vernacular that is all but extinct now. She was a "crazy old bat" and the first one to admit it. A real and true kick in the pants. She would call me that and tell me that my grandfather would have thought I was, " a kick in the pants." She was STRONG and SO independent, yet humble and wise enough to admit to needing it and accept help when that time arose. I MISS her. 14 years later and I miss her so badly.

She passed just after I turned 18. I wish I had had more time. I wish I had asked more questions. I wish I had listened more carefully. I love you, Gramma Lu. Thank you for being the best gramma EVER to me.

My one and only biological and amazing grandmother that was alive to know, love, spoil and even spank me.

She was all of the things. She was magical. She never let you forget who Jesus was or how much He meant to her. And she was never afraid to die...even as her body slowly gave up the fight, though her mind was still as feisty as ever....because she looked forward to "...reclining on the breast of Jesus..." as she would say.

So in times like these, when I sit and remember what an amazing human she was, thinking about all that she experienced and trudged through in life whether it was joyful, tragic or just normal...that's how I imagine her...reclined on the breast of Jesus, waiting for us to come join her and the rest of our family and friends.

I'm blessed that God has given me the life He has and I will walk this path as long as He sees fit....but being one day closer to seeing her(and many others) again, brings me great joy. A joy that is indescribable and yet, so painful at the same time.

I heard this quote a long time ago and it still rings true in my heart...."we are not human beings on a spiritual journey, we are spiritual beings on a human journey."

This human journey (for those of you that are still reading, haha, thanks for hanging in) it's HARD and so scary and extremely exciting and beyond amazing and terribly sad at times. It can be any and all of those things. And so many people become overwhelmed with their emotions and do things to numb or tune them out or even worse, shut them off, by choosing to end their human journey.

But this human journey....it's magical. And these feelings we've been given...they are magical...even when uncomfortable, they are magical. So friends, when you are having trouble along your journey, remember that it is only temporary...even if it seems like forever...it isn't. Just hold on, push through and get to the other side of whatever you're walking through...you'll see. You are loved.

Thanks for reading my emotional, existential and somewhat religious midnight musings.

✌, 💕 and 💫, y'all.

[olubode1120]

Bombshell from Bro. Gbile Akanni, read with an open heart and the Lord shall ignite a fire of discontentment in you. *MESSAGE TO MINISTERS OF THE GOSPEL* *IF WE ARE DEPENDING ON THIS BABYLONIAN TRANSACTIONS GOING ON ON OUR PULPITS TODAY, IT MEANS THAT BEFORE OUR EYES , WE WILL LOSE AFRICA TO ISLAM IN OUR TIME...* In one of the Assemblies of God churches, in Aba District, where my late dad pastored in the 1980s, I remember when a young man came very early in the morning and told my father: "Pastor, what did I do to you? Why do you hate me so much? I have been born again for almost 1 year and I have won many people to Christ, but why have you not recommended me to join others to go for missions work in the northern States of the country... " His singlet was torn... And with his zeal, he was crying profusely... My father did not know what to say... The young man kept crying:" Pastor, why are you doing this to me... Why are you doing this to me? " My father told him: "Nna, I know very well that you want to serve God... But you are the only son of your mother and your father is late... If anything happens to you, who will look after your mother and younger ones?... The boy started crying the more... "Pastor, I am the only son and yet I was an arm robber... I am the only son, yet, I was attending meetings in the midnight with native doctors, where many of friends could not wake up alive after diabolically fortifying ourselves against police bullets... " " Pastor, what would have happened to my mother if I had died in one of those armed robbery attacks? Who would have taken care of her? If I risked my life when I was serving Satan, why will I not risk it now that I am serving Jesus Christ? " My father was speechless for almost 30minutes... And it was not long, we saw tears rolling down his eyes... He held the young man and both of them were crying together... How can I forget such scenes that God allowed to play out before my eyes? ... My father recommended him to join some missionaries that came in the area for missions work... The day he was leaving with them, the mother and his younger ones were crying... Knowing that they might not see him again, both live or dead... But I can still remember that excitement on his face... Lord, how can I forget? Brother, let us go to our Bible schools and listen to the conversation of those young men and women who have joined ministry and you will know that many of them have no single passion for the lost... They are just getting ready to rent halls in the city where they will be rolling out posters and handbills, laying greedy hands on people, collecting offering and tithe... That's all in their hearts... Congratulations for your big auditorium... I am happy for your 10th time services... But if heaven cannot find such men in your church,... Young men and women who will say: "Lets go to that village and tell them that Jesus is no more in the grave... Even If we don't have to come back alive... Let it be so..." If you don't have such calibre of members among your congregation, then, sir, with due respect, it's a big shame! .. This end time agenda has no need of you and your kind! A Muslim suicide bomber doesn't need tithe and offering to carry out a bloody assignment, in defence of his faith ... They don't need adverts or media stunts.. But here, we have young men who are in the pulpit, being driven by tithe, offering and honorarium.... If there is no 5star hotel reservation, they will not honour the invitation to preach ... And yet, they are General Overseers... Overseeing passionless men and women who are like them... Where as, their mates in Islam has burnt their school certificates, refused juicy contracts, abandoned wonderful jobs and everyday they are sleeping in the bush and starving for months, receiving trainings, how to carry out terrorist attacks, all in defence of belief... And we are here looking for churches where they will use convoy to come and pick us up from the airport... And you wonder why people feel like vomiting when they hear them calling you a voice in the land... A voice because you went to a program and stole committed members from your host church and you came back and gave them positions in the choir, sowing different uniforms for them every Sunday... None of them can quote any scripture... They have not gone for evangelism for any day, after many years of following you... All of them were members you stole and now you are using juju to keep them from running away... And they are calling you a voice in the land! ... What a ridicule! What a noise! Brother, if this is the generation that will usher in a move of God in our days, then, those who have not forgotten what they saw in the church in the 80s and 90s must not keep quiet in a time like this... The greatest hindrance of revival in our time is not Islam... The pulpit in our time is the greatest enemy of the expected move of God in our days... If not for the decline of truth on the pulpits in our time, long ago, we would have seen what we saw in the days of our fathers... And now we are blaming Muslim fanatics, who are defending with their lives what they believe in... When else are we going to see young men from our churches, after hearing our messages, getting so angry in the spirit that they make up their minds to convert 10 unbelievers to Christianity every month month? And the next place you will see them will be in camps or mountains, preparing, praying for Power? But how can we hear such when the only thing we teach them is about how to be rich and how to suspect detect enemies? I am tired of hearing testimonies of miracle jobs some of our ladies slept with company directors to get... I am tired of seeing car dedications my brothers used fraudulent businesses to buy... When are we going to start dedicating converted souls on our Sunday mornings? Lord, where are all the men that saw what we saw in the days of our fathers? This is not the time to keep quiet... This is not the time to care about who likes or hates you... If there is a time to beg for pulpit, soldier, it is not in a time like this! No pulpit hosted John the Baptist... They preached against him... That He was old fashioned... And that he was envying them who were running 10 times services... That because he doesn't get any like or comment on his Facebook wall, that he is jealous of them that have huge online followership... That because he is not anointed and that is why nobody was hosting him in their churches... But brother, when his time came and he began to roar from the wilderness, those demonic General Overseers who were using marine powers to run ministry knew that indeed, in every generation, God has a breed He is preparing ... Yes, they knew that "there was a man sent from God"... Man of God, if you were sent from God, why are you allowing yourself to be influenced by men who were 'sent from Bible schools' ? Some of the men you are competing with in ministry were 'sent from demonic covens in some parts of Africa' ... If we came from God, let us look more for God... He will soon show up... You are almost getting to the time when members of many 'mega' churches will be secretly and openly coming to you, to hear this gospel from your mouth... Because they would have gotten tired of fake testimonies that leaves them powerless and very vulnerable... Men who have not bowed to baal are very few in our days... Men who have not sold out their souls for mammon are rare to find now that we are here... God depends on you for this end time work... Why are you bothered because someone somewhere is calling you names online? ... Churches are everywhere around us, yet, there is a spiritual famine in Africa... The power of the gospel is suffering bankruptcy in our time... This is not the same gospel the apostles preached... Something has happened to the Word of God in our mouths... We are only showing the form of godliness, but hell has hijacked the power thereof... And in our carnality, we are celebrating strange Fires... Polluted Fire! Moribund Fire! But brother, I know that God will never leave Africa this way! If the pulpit has failed, then,, He will bypass us and go down to the pews... And raise people for Himself... If our pews have become so frozen, He will go outside... He will look for drunkards and prostitutes.... He will get hold of witches and wizards... And those arm robbers on the highways, He will Clean them up and fill them up with Himself and use them mightily in this end time... Yes, if those who came out from Bible schools are now using their certificates to raise only funds, God will bypass them and use those who has not gone to Bible schools... This is the most critical time since the world began... Islam is preparing to take over nations,... They are putting funds together which they will use to buy churches and pay their staff off... Brother, in few years from now, if there is no genuine revival, many of our members today would have become Muslims... You will see many pastors who will convert their churches into mosques, for a huge financial reward... That time is not far... Has it not even started? When a pastor is collecting powers to grow his church from a Muslim native doctor, is that not handing over the Fire to the children of the bond woman? The days we are in is terrible... God knows and that is why He is raising an army that will stand to defend the gospel that was handed over to us, even if they have to lose everything for it... That young man came back from the missions field, after a year, and later joined the Bible school... Became a pastor and God used him to win communities for Jesus... Before my eyes, I saw God using him to sack evil spirits out from villages... His name became a terror in that area, to the point that deities began to complain about how his presence in the community had rendered them powerless... Halaluya ! Those are the kind of testimonies we were hearing everyday in the days of our fathers that we want to be hearing again in our time... But alas, here is Ichabod ! Imagine if every church in every community can boast of 10 of such members! Imagine when many of our followers would have gotten broken enough, by God, that they don't mind what they lose again for God's sake... Terrorists will no more be bombing our churches.. Because they would have known that already our churches are filled with people who are ready to die, anytime for the gospel ... You don't have to waste your bomb on a man who is already dead! But, why they will keep threatening to kill us is because they know that we love our cars and landed properties more than the CHRIST we say that died for us... Prophet Mohammed was not killed on the Cross shamefully, yet, they can die for him publicly... What would have happened if their prophet Mohammed was crucified on the cross? But where are the men and women who claims that Jesus died for them? Oh Sister, it is time to take our Christian life to another level.... It is time to get 'fanatical' about this Kingdom thing... Enough of the prayer topics of: "God give me this and do that for me!" This weekend, take your friends to the next Street and preach the gospel... Next week, continue with it... Why are we ashamed to tell people about the Man that conquered the grave? Why can't we preach about the man that created the heaven and the earth?... Mohammed did not do any single miracle, but his followers are dying for him... He did not raise anybody from the dead... He died and that was his end... Yet, they can give everything to spread his belief... How can we be ashamed of Jesus that spoke to the storm and their was peace? He opened the blind eyes... He interrupted funerals and raised the dead back to life... Is He not enough to tell people about? Did He not do enough to make you let everybody that knows you know that you are not ashamed of the gospel? When will you be done with hiding from your friends when you want to speak in tongues, so that they will not laugh at you? Brother, why are you ashamed of identifying with the Man who is the hope of the whole world? As for me, I am done with religion, till I die.. I cannot stand Christianity by church sticker alone any more ... Jesus did not die for you to only be attending choir rehearsals and changing uniforms every Sunday.... I hope God is not looking at you from heaven now and regretting why He did not let those people that died of accident to replace you since you are useless to Him on earth... Many in the hospital now, with few days to live are begging and crying, if God can give them a little more time, that they will preach this gospel under the rain and sun... And they mean it... Brother, you that is healthy, what will God be saying about you when He sees that they are begging you to go to church? The time is early enough to ask God for mercy and for Him to revive His walk in your life. .. God is looking for people that will risk their lives for Him in our time... Let it not be that He is preparing someone who is at the point of death in the hospital bed to come and replace you.... This is scary... But it is a serious matter! Have you not played so much with the opportunities God has given you? How much longer do we have to be in sin for grace to abound? The Holy Spirit is speaking to you now... He is reminding you of your distance from God... Imagine if you had died in your sins yesterday morning... You would have gone to hell, and stay there, from now till the next 2billion years... And yet, that will be just the beginning #COPied

[dailybiblelessons]

Saturday: Preparation for the Twenty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time

Revised Common Lectionary Proper 16 Roman Catholic Proper 21

Complementary Hebrew Scripture from the Former Prophets: Joshua 22:21-34

Then the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh said in answer to the heads of the families of Israel, “The Lord, God of gods! The Lord, God of gods! He knows; and let Israel itself know! If it was in rebellion or in breach of faith toward the Lord, do not spare us today for building an altar to turn away from following the Lord; or if we did so to offer burnt offerings or grain offerings or offerings of well-being on it, may the Lord himself take vengeance. No! We did it from fear that in time to come your children might say to our children, ‘What have you to do with the Lord, the God of Israel? For the Lord has made the Jordan a boundary between us and you, you Reubenites and Gadites; you have no portion in the Lord.’ So your children might make our children cease to worship the Lord. Therefore we said, ‘Let us now build an altar, not for burnt offering, nor for sacrifice, but to be a witness between us and you, and between the generations after us, that we do perform the service of the Lord in his presence with our burnt offerings and sacrifices and offerings of well-being; so that your children may never say to our children in time to come, “You have no portion in the Lord.”’ And we thought, If this should be said to us or to our descendants in time to come, we could say, ‘Look at this copy of the altar of the Lord, which our ancestors made, not for burnt offerings, nor for sacrifice, but to be a witness between us and you.’ Far be it from us that we should rebel against the Lord, and turn away this day from following the Lord by building an altar for burnt offering, grain offering, or sacrifice, other than the altar of the Lord our God that stands before his tabernacle!”

When the priest Phinehas and the chiefs of the congregation, the heads of the families of Israel who were with him, heard the words that the Reubenites and the Gadites and the Manassites spoke, they were satisfied. The priest Phinehas son of Eleazar said to the Reubenites and the Gadites and the Manassites, “Today we know that the Lord is among us, because you have not committed this treachery against the Lord; now you have saved the Israelites from the hand of the Lord.”

Then the priest Phinehas son of Eleazar and the chiefs returned from the Reubenites and the Gadites in the land of Gilead to the land of Canaan, to the Israelites, and brought back word to them. The report pleased the Israelites; and the Israelites blessed God and spoke no more of making war against them, to destroy the land where the Reubenites and the Gadites were settled. The Reubenites and the Gadites called the altar Witness; “For,” said they, “it is a witness between us that the Lord is God.”

Semi-continuous Hebrew Scripture Lesson from the Former Prophets: 1 Kings 5:1-12¹

Now King Hiram of Tyre sent his servants to Solomon, when he heard that they had anointed him king in place of his father; for Hiram had always been a friend to David. Solomon sent word to Hiram, saying, “You know that my father David could not build a house for the name of the Lord his God because of the warfare with which his enemies surrounded him, until the Lord put them under the soles of his feet. But now the Lord my God has given me rest on every side; there is neither adversary nor misfortune. So I intend to build a house for the name of the Lord my God, as the Lord said to my father David, ‘Your son, whom I will set on your throne in your place, shall build the house for my name.’ Therefore command that cedars from the Lebanon be cut for me. My servants will join your servants, and I will give you whatever wages you set for your servants; for you know that there is no one among us who knows how to cut timber like the Sidonians.”

When Hiram heard the words of Solomon, he rejoiced greatly, and said, “Blessed be the Lord today, who has given to David a wise son to be over this great people.” Hiram sent word to Solomon, “I have heard the message that you have sent to me; I will fulfill all your needs in the matter of cedar and cypress timber. My servants shall bring it down to the sea from the Lebanon; I will make it into rafts to go by sea to the place you indicate. I will have them broken up there for you to take away. And you shall meet my needs by providing food for my household.” So Hiram supplied Solomon's every need for timber of cedar and cypress. Solomon in turn gave Hiram twenty thousand cors of wheat as food for his household, and twenty cors of fine oil. Solomon gave this to Hiram year by year. So the Lord gave Solomon wisdom, as he promised him. There was peace between Hiram and Solomon; and the two of them made a treaty.

¹There is a parallel passage at 2 Chronicles 2:1-16

Complementary Psalm 34:15-22

The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous,  and his ears are open to their cry. The face of the Lord is against evildoers,  to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth. When the righteous cry for help, the Lord hears,  and rescues them from all their troubles. The Lord is near to the brokenhearted,  and saves the crushed in spirit.¹

Many are the afflictions of the righteous,  but the Lord rescues them from them all. He keeps all their bones;  not one of them will be broken.² Evil brings death to the wicked,  and those who hate the righteous will be condemned. The Lord redeems the life of his servants;  none of those who take refuge in him will be condemned.

¹This stanza is quoted in 1 Peter 3:10-12 ²This verse is quoted in John's account of the crucifixion (John 19:36)

Semi-continuous Psalm 84

How lovely is your dwelling place,  O Lord of hosts! My soul longs, indeed it faints  for the courts of the Lord; my heart and my flesh sing for joy  to the living God.

Even the sparrow finds a home,  and the swallow a nest for herself,  where she may lay her young, at your altars, O Lord of hosts,  my King and my God. Happy are those who live in your house,  ever singing your praise. Selah

Happy are those whose strength is in you,  in whose heart are the highways to Zion. As they go through the valley of Baca  they make it a place of springs;  the early rain also covers it with pools. They go from strength to strength;  the God of gods will be seen in Zion.

O Lord God of hosts, hear my prayer;  give ear, O God of Jacob! Selah Behold our shield, O God;  look on the face of your anointed.

For a day in your courts is better  than a thousand elsewhere. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God  than live in the tents of wickedness. For the Lord God is a sun and shield;  he bestows favor and honor. No good thing does the Lord withhold from  those who walk uprightly. O Lord of hosts,  happy is everyone who trusts in you.

New Testament Gospel Lesson: Luke 11:5-13¹

And he said to them, “Suppose one of you has a friend, and you go to him at midnight and say to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread; for a friend of mine has arrived, and I have nothing to set before him.’ And he answers from within, ‘Do not bother me; the door has already been locked, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot get up and give you anything.’ I tell you, even though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, at least because of his persistence he will get up and give him whatever he needs.

“So I say to you, Ask, and it will be given you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened. Is there anyone among you who, if your child asks for a fish, will give a snake instead of a fish? Or if the child asks for an egg, will give a scorpion? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”

¹There is a parallel passage at Matthew 7:7-11

Year B Ordinary 21, RCL Proper 16, Catholic Proper 21 Saturday

Selections from Revised Common Lectionary Daily Readings, copyright © 1995 by the Consultation on Common Texts. Unless otherwise indicated, Bible text is from The New Revised Standard Version, (NRSV) copyright © 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All right reserved. Footnotes in the Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament) that show where the passage is used in the Christian Scriptures (New Testament) from Complete Jewish Bible (CJB) by David H. Stern, Copyright © 1998 and 2006 by David H. Stern, used by permission of Messianic Jewish Publishers, www.messianicjewish.net. All rights reserved worldwide. When text is taken from the CJB, the passage ends with (CJB) and the foregoing copyright notice applies. Parallel passages are as indicated in The Holy Bible Modern English Version (MEV), copyright © 2014 by Military Bible Association. Used by permission. All rights reserved. When text is taken from the MEV, the passage ends with (MEV) and the foregoing copyright notice applies. Image credit: The Light of the World by William Holman Hunt, via Wikimedia Commons. This is a public domain image.

[pamphletstoinspire]

THE PROPHECY OF Zacharias - From The Douay-Rheims Bible - Latin Vulgate

Chapter 11

INTRODUCTION.

Zacharias or Zachariah began to prophesy in the same year as Aggeus, and upon the same occasion. His prophecy is full of mysterious figures and promises of blessings, partly relating to the synagogue and partly to the Church of Christ. Ch. --- He is the "most obscure and longest of the twelve;" (S. Jer.) though Osee wrote the same number of chapters. H. --- Zacharias has been confounded with many others of the same name. Little is known concerning his life. Some have asserted that the ninth and two following chapters were written by Jeremias, in whose name C. xi. 12. is quoted Mat. xxvii. 9. But that is more probably a mistake of transcribers. Zacharias speaks more plainly of the Messias and of the last siege of Jerusalem than the rest, as he live nearer those times. C. --- His name signifies, "the memory of the Lord." S. Jer. --- He appeared only two months after Aggeus, and shewed that the Church should flourish in the synagogue, and much more after the coming of Christ, who would select his first preachers from among the Jews. Yet few of them shall embrace the gospel, in comparison with the Gentiles, though they shall at last be converted. S. Jer. ad Paulin. W.

The additional Notes in this Edition of the New Testament will be marked with the letter A. Such as are taken from various Interpreters and Commentators, will be marked as in the Old Testament. B. Bristow, C. Calmet, Ch. Challoner, D. Du Hamel, E. Estius, J. Jansenius, M. Menochius, Po. Polus, P. Pastorini, T. Tirinus, V. Bible de Vence, W. Worthington, Wi. Witham. — The names of other authors, who may be occasionally consulted, will be given at full length.

Verses are in English and Latin.

HAYDOCK CATHOLIC BIBLE COMMENTARY

This Catholic commentary on the Old Testament, following the Douay-Rheims Bible text, was originally compiled by Catholic priest and biblical scholar Rev. George Leo Haydock (1774-1849). This transcription is based on Haydock's notes as they appear in the 1859 edition of Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary printed by Edward Dunigan and Brother, New York, New York.

TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES

Changes made to the original text for this transcription include the following:

Greek letters. The original text sometimes includes Greek expressions spelled out in Greek letters. In this transcription, those expressions have been transliterated from Greek letters to English letters, put in italics, and underlined. The following substitution scheme has been used: A for Alpha; B for Beta; G for Gamma; D for Delta; E for Epsilon; Z for Zeta; E for Eta; Th for Theta; I for Iota; K for Kappa; L for Lamda; M for Mu; N for Nu; X for Xi; O for Omicron; P for Pi; R for Rho; S for Sigma; T for Tau; U for Upsilon; Ph for Phi; Ch for Chi; Ps for Psi; O for Omega. For example, where the name, Jesus, is spelled out in the original text in Greek letters, Iota-eta-sigma-omicron-upsilon-sigma, it is transliterated in this transcription as, Iesous. Greek diacritical marks have not been represented in this transcription.

Footnotes. The original text indicates footnotes with special characters, including the astrisk (*) and printers' marks, such as the dagger mark, the double dagger mark, the section mark, the parallels mark, and the paragraph mark. In this transcription all these special characters have been replaced by numbers in square brackets, such as [1], [2], [3], etc.

Accent marks. The original text contains some English letters represented with accent marks. In this transcription, those letters have been rendered in this transcription without their accent marks.

Other special characters.

Solid horizontal lines of various lengths that appear in the original text have been represented as a series of consecutive hyphens of approximately the same length, such as ---.

Ligatures, single characters containing two letters united, in the original text in some Latin expressions have been represented in this transcription as separate letters. The ligature formed by uniting A and E is represented as Ae, that of a and e as ae, that of O and E as Oe, and that of o and e as oe.

Monetary sums in the original text represented with a preceding British pound sterling symbol (a stylized L, transected by a short horizontal line) are represented in this transcription with a following pound symbol, l.

The half symbol (1/2) and three-quarters symbol (3/4) in the original text have been represented in this transcription with their decimal equivalent, (.5) and (.75) respectively.

Unreadable text. Places where the transcriber's copy of the original text is unreadable have been indicated in this transcription by an empty set of square brackets, [].

Chapter 11

The destruction of Jerusalem and the temple. God's dealings with the Jews, and their reprobation.

[1] Open thy gates, O Libanus, and let fire devour thy cedars.

Aperi, Libane, portas tuas, et comedat ignis cedros tuas.

[2] Howl, thou fir tree, for the cedar is fallen, for the mighty are laid waste: howl, ye oaks of Basan, because the fenced forest is cut down.

Ulula, abies, quia cecidit cedrus, quoniam magnifici vastati sunt : ululate, quercus Basan, quoniam succisus est saltus munitus.

[3] The voice of the howling of the shepherds, because their glory is laid waste: the voice of the roaring of the lions, because the pride of the Jordan is spoiled.

Vox ululatus pastorum, quia vastata est magnificentia eorum : vox rugitus leonum, quoniam vastata est superbia Jordanis.

[4] Thus saith the Lord my God: Feed the flock of the slaughter,

Haec dicit Dominus Deus meus : Pasce pecora occisionis,

[5] Which they that possessed, slew, and repented not, and they sold them, saying: Blessed be the Lord, we are become rich: and their shepherds spared them not.

quae qui possederant occidebant, et non dolebant, et vendebant ea, dicentes : Benedictus Dominus! divites facti sumus : et pastores eorum non parcebant eis.

[6] And I will no more spare the inhabitants of the land, saith the Lord: behold I will deliver the men, every one into his neighbour's hand, and into the hand of his king: and they shall destroy the land, and I will not deliver it out of their hand.

Et ego non parcam ultra super habitantes terram, dicit Dominus : ecce ego tradam homines, unumquemque in manu proximi sui, et in manu regis sui : et concident terram, et non eruam de manu eorum.

[7] And I will feed the flock of slaughter for this, O ye poor of the flock. And I took unto me two rods, one I called Beauty, and the other I called a Cord, and I fed the flock.

Et pascam pecus occisionis propter hoc, o pauperes gregis! et assumpsi mihi duas virgas : unam vocavi Decorem, et alteram vocavi Funiculum : et pavi gregem.

[8] And I cut off three shepherds in one month, and my soul was straitened in their regard: for their soul also varied in my regard.

Et succidi tres pastores in mense uno, et contracta est anima mea in eis, siquidem et anima eorum variavit in me.

[9] And I said: I will not feed you: that which dieth, let it die: and that which is cut off, let it be cut off: and let the rest devour every one the flesh of his neighbour.

Et dixi : Non pascam vos : quod moritur, moriatur, et quod succiditur, succidatur : et reliqui devorent unusquisque carnem proximi sui.

[10] And I took my rod that was called Beauty, and I cut it asunder to make void my covenant, which I had made with all people.

Et tuli virgam meam quae vocabatur Decus, et abscidi eam, ut irritum facerem foedus meum quod percussi cum omnibus populis.

[11] And it was made void in that day: and so the poor of the flock that keep for me, understood that it is the word of the Lord.

Et in irritum deductum est in die illa : et cognoverunt sic pauperes gregis, qui custodiunt mihi, quia verbum Domini est.

[12] And I said to them: If it be good in your eyes, bring hither my wages: and if not, be quiet. And they weighed for my wages thirty pieces of silver.

Et dixi ad eos : Si bonum est in oculis vestris, afferte mercedem meam : et si non, quiescite. Et appenderunt mercedem meam triginta argenteos.

[13] And the Lord said to me: Cast it to the statuary, a handsome price, that I was prized at by them. And I took the thirty pieces of silver, and I cast them into the house of the Lord to the statuary.

Et dixit Dominus ad me : Projice illud ad statuarium, decorum pretium quo appretiatus sum ab eis. Et tuli triginta argenteos, et projeci illos in domum Domini, ad statuarium.

[14] And I cut off my second rod that was called a Cord, that I might break the brotherhood between Juda and Israel.

Et praecidi virgam meam secundam, quae appellabatur Funiculus, ut dissolverem germanitatem inter Judam et Israel.

[15] And the Lord said to me: Take to thee yet the instruments of a foolish shepherd.

Et dixit Dominus ad me : Adhuc sunt tibi vasa pastoris stulti.

[16] For behold I will raise up a shepherd in the land, who shall not visit what is forsaken, nor seek what is scattered, nor heal what is broken, nor nourish that which standeth, and he shall eat the flesh of the fat ones, and break their hoofs.

Quia ecce ego suscitabo pastorem in terra, qui derelicta non visitabit, dispersum non quaeret, et contritum non sanabit, et id quod stat non enutriet, et carnes pinguium comedet, et ungulas eorum dissolvet.

[17] O shepherd, and idol, that forsaketh the flock: the sword upon his arm and upon his right eye: his arm shall quite wither away, and his right eye shall be utterly darkened.

O pastor, et idolum derelinquens gregem : gladius super brachium ejus, et super oculum dextrum ejus : brachium ejus ariditate siccabitur, et oculus dexter ejus tenebrescens obscurabitur.

Commentary:

Ver. 1. Gates. Josephus (Bel. vii. 12.) relates, that the heavy eastern gates flew open at midnight: and the priests officiating at Pentecost, heard a multitude crying, "Let us go hence." See Tacit. Hist. v. Johanan then declared, "O temple, I know thou wilt so be destroyed," as Zac. foretold, Open, &c. Kimchi, Lyr. &c. C. --- Libanus. So Jerusalem, and more particularly the temple, is called by the prophets, from its height, and from its being built of the cedars of Libanus. Ch. Is. x. 34. Ezec. xvii. S. Jer. --- The destruction of both by Titus is predicted. W. --- Cedars. Thy princes and chief men. Ch. W.

Ver. 2. Fir and oak may signify the cities and towns of the Jews. --- Fenced. Sept. "well planted;" (C.) or "forest, planted all at once." H. --- "The temple was like a fortress." Tacit.

Ver. 3. Pride, or farther banks, covered with shrubs, among which lions dwelt. Jer. l. 44. C.

Ver. 4. Feed, thou Zacharias; (M.) or the prophet announces what God will do. --- Slaughter, whom Herod and his successors, the Zealots, Eleazar, Simon, and John, so cruelly oppressed and brought to ruin. C.

Ver. 6. Hand. This alludes to the last siege of Jerusalem, in which the different factions of the Jews destroyed one another, and they that remained fell into the hands of their king, (that is, of the Roman emperor) of whom they had said, (Jo. xiv. 15.) We have no king but Cæsar. Ch. --- The besieged slew each other daily, so that Vespasian did not hurry. Jos. Bel. v. 2. and vi. 1.

Ver. 7. For this. Christ came to feed his flock. C. --- But the Jews would not receive him. H. --- Sept. read (C.) locnani, as v. 11, "of slaughter into Chanaan, and I," &c. H. --- Two rods, or shepherds' staves, meaning the different ways of God's dealing with his people; the one by sweet means, called the rod of Beauty, the other by bands and punishments, called the Cord. And where both these rods are made of no use or effect by the obstinacy of sinners, the rods are broken, and such sinners are given up to a reprobate sense, as the Jews were. Ch. --- The first denotes God's general providence, as it is most seemly that all should be under him; the second means his particular care of the Jews. W. --- God uses both the crook and the whip, employing both severity and tenderness. Now all proves in vain.

Ver. 8. Month. That is, in a very short time. By these three shepherds probably are meant the latter princes and high priests of the Jews, whose reign was short. Ch. --- Ismael, Joseph, and Ananus, all obtained the dignity in one year; and as they and their predecessors were actuated by avarice, they could not fail being displeasing to God. Galba, Otho, and Vitellius were likewise cut off in little more than a year, when Vespasian succeeded, and his son took Jerusalem. C. --- The Jews pretend that Moses, Aaron, and Mary are here meant. S. Jer. --- But what reference can the prophet have to them?

Ver. 9. Not feed. This is the final sentence. God allowed them thirty-seven years to repent, after the death of Christ.

Ver. 10. All people. Hereupon all fell upon the Jews.

Ver. 11. Poor converted to Christ, (C.) who retired to Pella, (Eus. Hist. iv. 5.) as they had been warned of the impending storm. Mat. xxiv. 1. Lu. xxi. 20.

Ver. 12. Pieces. Sicles are usually understood. About fifty-one livres. The Jews bought the life of Christ for this sum; (C.) thirty pieces. W.

Ver. 13. The statuary.  The Heb. word signifies also a potter, (Ch.) and this seems to be the true meaning. Mat. xxvii. 3. The prophet is ordered to bring, thus to indicate what should be done by the traitor. C. --- Sept. "cast them into the crucible to see if it (the metal) be good, as I have been tried by them." H.

Ver. 14. Israel. The latter remained obstinate, (C.) while Juda, the real "confessor," (H.) embraced the gospel. After the destruction of the temple, the Jewish ceremonies were no longer (C.) observed or tolerated in the Church, as they had been, in order that the synagogue might be buried with honour. S. Aug. H. --- The Jews are rejected. W.

Ver. 15. A foolish shepherd. This was to represent the foolish, that is, the wicked princes and priests that should rule the people, before their utter destruction. Ch. --- Caligula, Claudius, or Nero, monsters of stupidity, may also be meant. To such the Jews preferred to submit: but they soon found out their mistake, when it was too late. Caligula and Nero would be adored in the temple!

Ver. 16. Hoofs, with excessive travelling. C. --- They shew no pity, but are wholly intent on their own pleasures. H.

Ver. 17. Shepherd. Sept. "ye who feed foolish things, forsaking," &c. H. --- Heb. "shepherd of nothing." --- Darkened. Caligula was slain, and had not sense to know what was for this real interest. His wife and only daughter were murdered. See Jos. Ant. xix. 1. Suet. --- His maxim was, "Let them hate, provided they fear;" and he wished the Romans had "all but one neck," that he might cut it off. C. - Antichrist, the destroyer, shall perish. W.

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Bombshell from Bro. Gbile Akanni, read with an open heart and the Lord shall ignite a fire of discontentment in you. *MESSAGE TO MINISTERS OF THE GOSPEL* *IF WE ARE DEPENDING ON THIS BABYLONIAN TRANSACTIONS GOING ON ON OUR PULPITS TODAY, IT MEANS THAT BEFORE OUR EYES , WE WILL LOSE AFRICA TO ISLAM IN OUR TIME...* In one of the Assemblies of God churches, in Aba District, where my late dad pastored in the 1980s, I remember when a young man came very early in the morning and told my father: "Pastor, what did I do to you? Why do you hate me so much? I have been born again for almost 1 year and I have won many people to Christ, but why have you not recommended me to join others to go for missions work in the northern States of the country... " His singlet was torn... And with his zeal, he was crying profusely... My father did not know what to say... The young man kept crying:" Pastor, why are you doing this to me... Why are you doing this to me? " My father told him: "Nna, I know very well that you want to serve God... But you are the only son of your mother and your father is late... If anything happens to you, who will look after your mother and younger ones?... The boy started crying the more... "Pastor, I am the only son and yet I was an arm robber... I am the only son, yet, I was attending meetings in the midnight with native doctors, where many of friends could not wake up alive after diabolically fortifying ourselves against police bullets... " " Pastor, what would have happened to my mother if I had died in one of those armed robbery attacks? Who would have taken care of her? If I risked my life when I was serving Satan, why will I not risk it now that I am serving Jesus Christ? " My father was speechless for almost 30minutes... And it was not long, we saw tears rolling down his eyes... He held the young man and both of them were crying together... How can I forget such scenes that God allowed to play out before my eyes? ... My father recommended him to join some missionaries that came in the area for missions work... The day he was leaving with them, the mother and his younger ones were crying... Knowing that they might not see him again, both live or dead... But I can still remember that excitement on his face... Lord, how can I forget? Brother, let us go to our Bible schools and listen to the conversation of those young men and women who have joined ministry and you will know that many of them have no single passion for the lost... They are just getting ready to rent halls in the city where they will be rolling out posters and handbills, laying greedy hands on people, collecting offering and tithe... That's all in their hearts... Congratulations for your big auditorium... I am happy for your 10th time services... But if heaven cannot find such men in your church,... Young men and women who will say: "Lets go to that village and tell them that Jesus is no more in the grave... Even If we don't have to come back alive... Let it be so..." If you don't have such calibre of members among your congregation, then, sir, with due respect, it's a big shame! .. This end time agenda has no need of you and your kind! A Muslim suicide bomber doesn't need tithe and offering to carry out a bloody assignment, in defence of his faith ... They don't need adverts or media stunts.. But here, we have young men who are in the pulpit, being driven by tithe, offering and honorarium.... If there is no 5star hotel reservation, they will not honour the invitation to preach ... And yet, they are General Overseers... Overseeing passionless men and women who are like them... Where as, their mates in Islam has burnt their school certificates, refused juicy contracts, abandoned wonderful jobs and everyday they are sleeping in the bush and starving for months, receiving trainings, how to carry out terrorist attacks, all in defence of belief... And we are here looking for churches where they will use convoy to come and pick us up from the airport... And you wonder why people feel like vomiting when they hear them calling you a voice in the land... A voice because you went to a program and stole committed members from your host church and you came back and gave them positions in the choir, sowing different uniforms for them every Sunday... None of them can quote any scripture... They have not gone for evangelism for any day, after many years of following you... All of them were members you stole and now you are using juju to keep them from running away... And they are calling you a voice in the land! ... What a ridicule! What a noise! Brother, if this is the generation that will usher in a move of God in our days, then, those who have not forgotten what they saw in the church in the 80s and 90s must not keep quiet in a time like this... The greatest hindrance of revival in our time is not Islam... The pulpit in our time is the greatest enemy of the expected move of God in our days... If not for the decline of truth on the pulpits in our time, long ago, we would have seen what we saw in the days of our fathers... And now we are blaming Muslim fanatics, who are defending with their lives what they believe in... When else are we going to see young men from our churches, after hearing our messages, getting so angry in the spirit that they make up their minds to convert 10 unbelievers to Christianity every month month? And the next place you will see them will be in camps or mountains, preparing, praying for Power? But how can we hear such when the only thing we teach them is about how to be rich and how to suspect detect enemies? I am tired of hearing testimonies of miracle jobs some of our ladies slept with company directors to get... I am tired of seeing car dedications my brothers used fraudulent businesses to buy... When are we going to start dedicating converted souls on our Sunday mornings? Lord, where are all the men that saw what we saw in the days of our fathers? This is not the time to keep quiet... This is not the time to care about who likes or hates you... If there is a time to beg for pulpit, soldier, it is not in a time like this! No pulpit hosted John the Baptist... They preached against him... That He was old fashioned... And that he was envying them who were running 10 times services... That because he doesn't get any like or comment on his Facebook wall, that he is jealous of them that have huge online followership... That because he is not anointed and that is why nobody was hosting him in their churches... But brother, when his time came and he began to roar from the wilderness, those demonic General Overseers who were using marine powers to run ministry knew that indeed, in every generation, God has a breed He is preparing ... Yes, they knew that "there was a man sent from God"... Man of God, if you were sent from God, why are you allowing yourself to be influenced by men who were 'sent from Bible schools' ? Some of the men you are competing with in ministry were 'sent from demonic covens in some parts of Africa' ... If we came from God, let us look more for God... He will soon show up... You are almost getting to the time when members of many 'mega' churches will be secretly and openly coming to you, to hear this gospel from your mouth... Because they would have gotten tired of fake testimonies that leaves them powerless and very vulnerable... Men who have not bowed to baal are very few in our days... Men who have not sold out their souls for mammon are rare to find now that we are here... God depends on you for this end time work... Why are you bothered because someone somewhere is calling you names online? ... Churches are everywhere around us, yet, there is a spiritual famine in Africa... The power of the gospel is suffering bankruptcy in our time... This is not the same gospel the apostles preached... Something has happened to the Word of God in our mouths... We are only showing the form of godliness, but hell has hijacked the power thereof... And in our carnality, we are celebrating strange Fires... Polluted Fire! Moribund Fire! But brother, I know that God will never leave Africa this way! If the pulpit has failed, then,, He will bypass us and go down to the pews... And raise people for Himself... If our pews have become so frozen, He will go outside... He will look for drunkards and prostitutes.... He will get hold of witches and wizards... And those arm robbers on the highways, He will Clean them up and fill them up with Himself and use them mightily in this end time... Yes, if those who came out from Bible schools are now using their certificates to raise only funds, God will bypass them and use those who has not gone to Bible schools... This is the most critical time since the world began... Islam is preparing to take over nations,... They are putting funds together which they will use to buy churches and pay their staff off... Brother, in few years from now, if there is no genuine revival, many of our members today would have become Muslims... You will see many pastors who will convert their churches into mosques, for a huge financial reward... That time is not far... Has it not even started? When a pastor is collecting powers to grow his church from a Muslim native doctor, is that not handing over the Fire to the children of the bond woman? The days we are in is terrible... God knows and that is why He is raising an army that will stand to defend the gospel that was handed over to us, even if they have to lose everything for it... That young man came back from the missions field, after a year, and later joined the Bible school... Became a pastor and God used him to win communities for Jesus... Before my eyes, I saw God using him to sack evil spirits out from villages... His name became a terror in that area, to the point that deities began to complain about how his presence in the community had rendered them powerless... Halaluya ! Those are the kind of testimonies we were hearing everyday in the days of our fathers that we want to be hearing again in our time... But alas, here is Ichabod ! Imagine if every church in every community can boast of 10 of such members! Imagine when many of our followers would have gotten broken enough, by God, that they don't mind what they lose again for God's sake... Terrorists will no more be bombing our churches.. Because they would have known that already our churches are filled with people who are ready to die, anytime for the gospel ... You don't have to waste your bomb on a man who is already dead! But, why they will keep threatening to kill us is because they know that we love our cars and landed properties more than the CHRIST we say that died for us... Prophet Mohammed was not killed on the Cross shamefully, yet, they can die for him publicly... What would have happened if their prophet Mohammed was crucified on the cross? But where are the men and women who claims that Jesus died for them? Oh Sister, it is time to take our Christian life to another level.... It is time to get 'fanatical' about this Kingdom thing... Enough of the prayer topics of: "God give me this and do that for me!" This weekend, take your friends to the next Street and preach the gospel... Next week, continue with it... Why are we ashamed to tell people about the Man that conquered the grave? Why can't we preach about the man that created the heaven and the earth?... Mohammed did not do any single miracle, but his followers are dying for him... He did not raise anybody from the dead... He died and that was his end... Yet, they can give everything to spread his belief... How can we be ashamed of Jesus that spoke to the storm and their was peace? He opened the blind eyes... He interrupted funerals and raised the dead back to life... Is He not enough to tell people about? Did He not do enough to make you let everybody that knows you know that you are not ashamed of the gospel? When will you be done with hiding from your friends when you want to speak in tongues, so that they will not laugh at you? Brother, why are you ashamed of identifying with the Man who is the hope of the whole world? As for me, I am done with religion, till I die.. I cannot stand Christianity by church sticker alone any more ... Jesus did not die for you to only be attending choir rehearsals and changing uniforms every Sunday.... I hope God is not looking at you from heaven now and regretting why He did not let those people that died of accident to replace you since you are useless to Him on earth... Many in the hospital now, with few days to live are begging and crying, if God can give them a little more time, that they will preach this gospel under the rain and sun... And they mean it... Brother, you that is healthy, what will God be saying about you when He sees that they are begging you to go to church? The time is early enough to ask God for mercy and for Him to revive His walk in your life. .. God is looking for people that will risk their lives for Him in our time... Let it not be that He is preparing someone who is at the point of death in the hospital bed to come and replace you.... This is scary... But it is a serious matter! Have you not played so much with the opportunities God has given you? How much longer do we have to be in sin for grace to abound? The Holy Spirit is speaking to you now... He is reminding you of your distance from God... Imagine if you had died in your sins yesterday morning... You would have gone to hell, and stay there, from now till the next 2billion years... And yet, that will be just the beginning #COPied