#rejecting God

[momentsbeforemass]

Coffee

I have a friend who is very particular. He wants things just so. If something doesn’t meet his standards, he will complain about it. Endlessly.

He has yet to have a decent cup of coffee.

I learned this going to all of the big-name coffee places with him. Then, when none of those measured up, going to all of the most micro-batch, one-off, exclusive coffee roasters you could think of.

It was an amazing tour of the coffee of Chicago. And it was that tour, accompanied by his endless soundtrack of complaints, that showed me what was wrong with the coffee.

Him. He was what was wrong with the coffee.

It wasn’t that he had exquisite taste. It was that he was exquisitely skilled at finding fault.

Because he was busy finding fault, he missed out on some of the best coffee I’ve ever had.

I know this, because I went back to some of those places without him. When I didn’t have someone telling me how awful they were, it turns out they were great.

It easy to laugh at someone who does this to themselves. Piling up preconceived notions and finding fault, until they keep themselves from enjoying…pretty much anything.

But it’s not just the dynamic that we see playing out in today’s Gospel, with its violent rejection of Jesus.

It’s a trap that all too many of us fall into with our relationship with God.

We miss out on God’s best for our lives, because it doesn’t meet our preconceived notions. We keep ourselves from being able to enjoy all that God has given us, because we’re too busy finding fault.

It’s not that God isn’t pouring out His grace upon us. It’s that we are so wrapped up in our ideas about God, about how things have to be, that we aren’t able to receive what God is giving.

When we get stuck like that, it’s easy to blame God.

Even though we’re what’s wrong with the coffee.

When we get stuck like that, the only cure is God’s grace. To ask God to take away our love of fault-finding.

To ask God to give us a desire for Him, not our ideas about Him.

Today’s Readings

[sundaynightservice]

The Wrong Side of Eternity

Outside of heaven

more than regrets, just deserts,

the loss of all hope,

the enveloping darkness

one of the terrible pains.

.

D W Eldred

[quotesfromscripture]

For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs. But you, man of God, flee from all this, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness.

1 Timothy 6:10-11 NIV (2011)

[pirateprincessjess]

When I was a kid my family pretended to get raptured so I would think I was left behind on earth while they all went to heaven.

I was like 8 years old and my sister and mom had gotten really into the Left Behind novels (bible fan fic about the rapture). In the books when the rapture happened the clothes that people were wearing when they got raptured were left behind in neatly folded piles.

One day when I was getting home from school my family decided that they would leave piles of neatly folded clothes around the house, and then hide in the basement.

The intended effect was that I would get home and see the clothes then, think that my family had been raptured and that I wasn’t good enough to get into heaven… or something?

The problem was that I had never read these books, and didn’t really think about the rapture very often. There was no reason that I would see some laundry on the floor and think “The rapture happened and I’ve been abandoned by God! I’ll never see my family again!! Oh nooo!!!!”

I just sat down and watched cartoons and eventually my family got bored and revealed that they were all hiding in the basement.

It’s a good thing I didn’t understand the joke, otherwise that shit would have been traumatic.

[tom4jc]

Matthew 22:5 Ignoring God's Call

But they made light of it and went their ways, one to his own farm, another to his business. Matthew 22:5 Phones usually have caller ID capabilities on them. When a phone call comes in it identifies who is calling. The purpose of the caller ID is to give the owner the ability to choose whether to accept or reject the phone call. Unwanted phone calls are then easily ignored, while ones that a…

[kdmiller55]

Rejection Notice

1 And Samuel said to all Israel, “Behold, I have obeyed your voice in all that you have said to me and have made a king over you. 2 And now, behold, the king walks before you, and I am old and gray; and behold, my sons are with you. I have walked before you from my youth until this day. 3 Here I am; testify against me before the Lord and before his anointed. Whose ox have I taken? Or whose donkey…

[ineed-to-sleep]

Collection of bg3 sketches I've been nibbling at over the month. teehee

[spn2006]

the fact that eric kripke isn't even christian really adds something to the way christianity is depicted on supernatural. because its really not about being christian at all, but about living in america, a country dominated by christianity, and having to decide for yourself how to handle that. faith is huge in supernatural, and the mythology of the show is very bible-centric, but notably, christ is never there. even sam, who starts out revering the angels, who once said he prays every night, doesn't actually call himself a christian or imply that he believes in jesus--the show is steeped in christianity and biblical lore and yet neither sam nor dean are christians. in fact, over and over again the church itself is depicted as a haunted house that sam and dean will only ever enter as strangers, as outsiders. priests, preachers, faith healers, chapels, crypts, etc. are all just iconography that create an intense sense of unease that sam and dean respond to instantly. as a jew, its very relatable. an essential part of living in america when you're not christian is that exact sense of unease, of knowing that the culture of your country has ensured that you'll get knocked over by christianity no matter where you go, that you'll see hundreds of people truly believing they're good people while doing awful things in the name of their god, and you have no choice but to confront that. kripke gets it

[trueconservativepundit]

The Root Of the Fruit

Everywhere in society, the name of our dear Savior is used much more often as a curse word than it’s used in reverence and thankfulness   By Rob Pue, Publisher – Wisconsin Christian News   There is an immutable law of nature and Nature’s God, known as “cause and effect.”  Everything we do — or don’t do — has an effect.  An effect on ourselves, on those close to us, our community at large and even…

[kingdomoftheheavens]

Commands I Can't Keep If God Doesn't Speak to Me

Begins the discussion of entering God's rest TODAY, while Gd is speaking to me--and the consequences of Israel's rejection of God's voice.

If God never speaks to me, it will be impossible for me to keep his commands to keep a soft heart toward his words, to hear and obey him “TODAY“, while I am still hearing him, commands such as this one: Therefore, just as the Holy Spirit says, “Today if you hear His voice,Do not harden your hearts as when they provoked Me,As on the day of trial in the wilderness,Where your fathers put Me to the…

[porter-pumpkim]

Gummigoo realization

Ok so, in the candy kingdom map, caine portrays himself as god, he's likely worshiped in that maps churches

Right before gummigoo got snapped he saw caine face to face

So to gummigoo, he saw gid right before him, and heard God say he had no right to exist on the same Plaine as him, before getting snapped out of the circus

THIS POOR LITTLE GATOR HAD A CRISIS, THOUGHT HE WAS GONNA BE ACCEPTED, THEN HAD GOD TELL HIM TO HIS FACE THAT HE HAD NO RIGHT TO BE HERE!

IF HE REMEMBERS THATS GONNA BE THECWIST CRISIS EVER

[inkskinned]

it just sucks because nothing is ever fucking made for you, and if it is made for you like 75% of the time it gets chopped into little pieces by every person alive because this is the one thing you have, so it has to prove itself to you.

like, a thing can't just be for women. men need to assign it to women. women have to experience "must" or "should" before their hobbies and passions - women are allowed to do silly, passive things like tuck our ankles and titter behind a fan, or something. women are allowed to, they are welcomed to. like the world is a house and we are supposed to be in the kitchen and now we are being given the divine right to enter the living room if we bring chips

because when it becomes for you, or about you, that is when the thing is vile. you should/must wear makeup so you can appear beautiful to men. once you wear makeup for yourself, or because you yourself enjoy putting it on, then you are no longer doing the right thing. there is a reason men hate certain fashion trends. there is a reason men hate things like the pumpkin spice latte - because it's not about them. you are buying it because it is good for you. they degrade your passions and interests. there is a reason women-led fields are largely seen as being "not a real" profession. when you are a good cook, that is because you can provide for him. close your eyes. you're not going to be a chef, be honest. that is a man making food for himself.

bras are made so breasts will be appealing to men. they are rarely about comfort or support. you have given up entirely on the idea of pockets. young girls have to worry about a shorter inseam on their shorts. a girl on instagram gets her septum pierced, and men in the comments are rabid about it - i just want to rip it out of her face. she'd be beautiful without it.

and fucking everything is for them. even the media that is "for you" is for them, eventually. remember "my little pony"? remember how hard it is to convince any executive to believe that little girls are worth selling to? in the media that is for you, you see little ways that you still need to make it accessible for them - the man is always powerful, smart, masculine. he is a man's man. the media usually forgives him. it usually says okay, some men are awful, but hey! gotta love 'em. because if you don't hold their hands and say "this is literally just a story about my lived reality", they shit their pants about it. they demand you put them into the media that's for you.

these are people who are so used to glutting themselves on the world. they are used to having every corner and every dollar and every place of leadership. so you say can i please have one slice of cake, just for myself, please, holy shit. and they fucking weep about it. they say you're being unfair, because some of their one-thousand-slices aren't beautiful, and your singular cake slice doesn't have their name on it. and aren't you being rude by not offering to share?

and honestly. fucking - yeah, man. you were kind of surprised, because the cake is a little basic (you bake at home, you're way past this stuff). but holy shit, it was nice just to be offered cake in the first place. you're used to having to starve. you're used to getting nothing, but going to the party anyway, because you're expected (professionally) to show up. you liked that it is a simple cake, and that it is warm, and mostly: you like that there is, for once, a cake-for-you.

in the real world, outside of metaphor, it feels like fucking being slapped. barbie didn't even say anything particularly unusual; it literally just made factually evident points. there are less women in leadership than men. we can look at that fact objectively. that is a real thing that is happening. and the movie is aware that it has to defend itself! that it has to spend like half an hour just turning to the camera and saying: i know this is hard for you to understand, but this is a real thing that women experience.

it's just - this is that one kid on the playground who thinks its allowed to hog all the toys. he builds this hoard that nobody else is allowed to even look at, or he'll get aggressive. everyone's a little scared of him, so they let it slide, because his daddy gave him the golden touch. he hates when people cry and thinks bullying is cool. he writes boys only! on a big sign and makes all his friends take "alpha male" classes.

and then girls pick up barbies, because there was nothing left for them. and in the void they've been given, with their scraps: they make long, spiraling narratives about how barbie is actually descended from snakes and has given her righteous followers magical (if concerning) powers and can speak 32 languages (2 of which are animal related) and has big plans for infrastructure (beginning with the local interstate). and the boy comes over, and he has a huge fit about how the girls aren't "including" him. he wants to know why the girls aren't making the story about ken.

"we didn't like your story." the girls blink at him. they point to his war stories and the gi joes and the millions of male-led narratives and how still in the modern day men get two-thirds of the speaking roles in movies and they point to men making mediocre shows that don't get lambasted and they point to men encouraging toxic masculinity and they point to men everywhere, men and men and men. and they say: "how is this our fault? you had ken."

"no!" he is already back to screaming and stomping his feet and tearing at his hair and intentionally reminding them that men are holding back thinly concealed violence and he says: "if it's not for me, it's actually sexism."

[carma-tjol]

Show me your worst. I love it all the same.

As long as it's me. As long as it's you.

[quotesfromscripture]

“But Israel has rejected what is morally good;  so an enemy will pursue him.  They enthroned kings without my consent!  They appointed princes without my approval!  They made idols out of their silver and gold,  but they will be destroyed!” 

- Hosea 8:3-4 NET (2014)

[nelkcats]

It's a Match!

Being the King of the Infinite Realms didn't really give you many dating options. There were no candidates who weren't committed or completely sincere, and Danny was feeling sensitive those days so he was frustrated. The Observants telling him to get a partner to create a "better future" and offering horrible options was especially infuriating those days, he wished they would stop meddling in his life.

Sam and Tucker, seeing the halfa's frustration did what any friend would do in such a situation: They created a profile for him on a dating app. Although they didn't notice that when they connected it to Technus' Internet the app started taking "candidates" from other dimensions that had it.

Despite not trusting it much at first, Danny eventually embraced the idea and very quickly connected with "Jason Todd" who claimed to be a zombie. Danny thought it was funny and told him he was a ghost, which Jay obviously didn't believe. Ironically, they matched because of the "I died" jokes on their profiles.

The only problem was when Jason asked to meet (he was absolutely convinced that Danny was either homeless or living on the streets due to his refusal to send pictures from home and wanted to feed him) and Danny didn't know how to tell him that he didn't know what dimension he was in.

[tom4jc]

Nahum 2:13 Will God Have To Be Against You?

“Behold, I am against you,” says the Lord of hosts, “I will burn your chariots in smoke, and the sword shall devour your young lions; I will cut off your prey from the earth, and the voice of your messengers shall be heard no more.” Micah 2:13 The majority of people like it when everyone likes them and is not against them. Having someone against oneself is very difficult. It often turns into a…