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wesleyhill · 4 years

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Behold Your God

A homily on Isaiah 40:1-11, preached at Trinity Cathedral, Pittsburgh, on the second Sunday of Advent

It’s been a long time since any of us have been to a theater to watch a performance of a play, but our Old Testament lesson this morning at least gives us the script for one. As I preach this morning, I’d like you to imagine a stage here with a troupe of actors to perform this script. And as you file into your seats to watch the production, I’ll start by handing you the program notes: I’m going to tell you which characters will appear on stage today. In the first place, we have a booming voice coming from off stage, behind the curtain. This is the God of Israel, the Lord who made promises to Abraham and rescued His people from their slavery in Egypt. Then we have a group of prophets, with one of them singled out as being in the wilderness. Next we have the city of Zion, the holy site of Jerusalem, who is portrayed here as a character, as an actor in the story. And then we have the surrounding cities of the kingdom of Judah in the southern part of modern Israel, each of them played by one actor. So our stage is a bit crowded here, but you’ll be able to follow the action once the characters start talking.

I’m going to read the script for this play again this morning in the King James Version, because its poetry here is just magnificent and also because it keeps the second-person plural personal pronoun, which we’ve lost in English today (though we do still have it in Pittsburgh — “yinz”). Also, I’m guessing that if any of you know this portion of the Bible, you know it in the King James Version through Handel’s Messiah, which majestically set it to music.

Listen again to how our lesson begins. And picture the stage very dimly lit.

Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned: for she hath received of the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.

This play begins with the voice of God booming from off stage. God speaks here not just to one person but to the multiple prophets, God’s messengers, who are all milling around on stage. In the background, you can see the wreckage of war. Smoke is wafting upwards from what look to be the smoldering remains of the temple in Jerusalem. When they hear God’s voice, you can see the faces of the prophets slowly looking less despairing, less humiliated. The word they hear from offstage — the word they are given to speak to the city of Zion — is a word of comfort. The war is over. The judgment has passed. And God is now announcing the forgiveness of His people’s sins. The prophets begin to sing in unison.

Then suddenly, from stage right, which is set up to look like the Judean desert, one of the prophets cries out:

Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain: and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.

The rest of the prophets on stage left suddenly burst into motion. They begin moving various props hurriedly. The big hills in the background begin to flatten themselves. The rocks that are strewn all around the stage are cleared away. The deep hole in the stage is filled in, and the actors are able to walk across it. And at the end of all this frenzied motion, a brilliant light, orange like fire, appears, bathing the stage with a bright warm glow.

Then God’s voice again booms from all around: Cry.

Then the prophet in the wilderness on stage right speaks up, even as he covers his face in his hands, as if he is in deep sorrow:

What shall I cry? All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field: the grass withereth, the flower fadeth: because the spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it: surely the people is grass.

The prophet falls to his knees. He is bowed low with the weight of his mortality, his awareness of how feeble and futile and fleeting all human speech is. What good could he possibly do by preaching, in the face of the tragedy of Jerusalem’s sacking?

And then comes the answer:

The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand for ever.

The prophet places his hand over his mouth and bows his head in humility.

And now comes the climax of the drama. All the prophets make a circle around the character of the city of Zion. They cry out in unison:

O Zion, that bringest good tidings, get thee up into the high mountain; O Jerusalem, that bringest good tidings, lift up thy voice with strength; lift it up, be not afraid…

As they shout these instructions, the actor who plays the city of Zion begins to scale a mountain at the back of the stage. When she reaches the top, she looks out over the entire stage, where the actors representing the cities of Judah surrounding Jerusalem appear exhausted and wounded. Their costumes are ragged and smeared with ashes. Their faces are streaked with tears. They have clearly just returned from a long journey, only to find their land in ruins. But as they look up to the mountain where the city of Zion is standing, she raises her voice and shouts with joy:

Behold your God! Behold, the Lord God will come with strong hand, and his arm shall rule for him: behold, his reward is with him, and his work before him. He shall feed his flock like a shepherd: he shall gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young.

At this, all the cities of Judah and all the prophets raise their hands in triumph and shout hallelujah!

And the curtain descends.

What has happened in this drama? I have often taught the script of this play to my students at the seminary where I teach as though it is a drama about Israel’s exiles returning from Babylon. The imagery of the drama is the same imagery that we find in the book of Exodus, in the much earlier story when God leads His people out of Egypt, through the waters of the Red Sea, so I too quickly assumed that God’s people or the prophets were at the center of this drama.

But listen again to what the city of Zion cries out in the play’s final scene: Behold your God! It is God, not His people, who in this drama strides across the desert. If God’s people of old walked toward Mt. Sinai to meet Him in the wilderness on the other side of the Red Sea, here in this drama God walks toward us, to find us where we are, to pardon and heal and embrace us. Here is how one of the drama’s most astute reviewers says it: “The news that Jerusalem is to take to the cities of Judah is not ‘Behold the returning exiles,’ but ‘Behold your God!’… The miraculous road in the wilderness for which mountains are leveled and valleys filled up is before all else ‘a highway for our God.’… What all [flesh] sees is ‘the glory of the Lord’” (James D. Smart, History and Theology in Second Isaiah, p. 46).

This drama is about what happens when people face up to the true reality of human misery and sin and hostility and mortality — and still find hope. Not in themselves, not in their words or movements or fortunes, but in their God, the Lord who rules and comforts and shepherds and carries us when we cannot comfort ourselves.

And this, friends, is why we read this script during Advent, when we are waiting for God to appear again. A few moments ago, Fr. Aidan prayed, “Merciful God, who sent thy messengers the prophets to preach repentance and prepare the way for our salvation: Give us grace to heed their warnings and forsake our sins, that we may greet with joy the coming of Jesus Christ our Redeemer.” We, like the actors in this drama we’ve just heard, are being called today to lift our eyes from the rubble of our lives that we’re standing in and to hear again the word that came to Israel’s prophets. That Word is Jesus Christ our Lord who comes to us again today — and who will come again — with mercy and with hope.

Behold your God!

Amen.

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christianmenatwork · 3 years

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The Power of a Name-Selah62-CMAW159

The power of a name

God gives people names in the Bible very intentionally

The first man was named Adam, which means from the earth one of the first tasks God gave to Adam was to name the animals

God sometimes changes names intentionally

Abram to Abraham

In the original Hebrew language of the Torah, which is the first five books of our Old Testament, the name Abram literally means “exalted father.” The name Abraham, however, contains another unused root word, which roughly means “multitude.” Abraham translated literally, then, means “father of a multitude.” Most modern Bibles that contain footnotes will annotate this literal meaning of the Hebrew in the margin.

Take note of this: the changing of Abraham’s name is a sign from God. By changing his name, the Lord not only confirmed that he would fully carry out the promise that he made to Abraham. He, as well, made Abraham the typological father of faith for all the saints (Jude 3). From the flesh of Abraham, a multitude did come, the Jewish people.

But Abraham is not only the father of a single ethnic nation, he is the spiritual “father of a multitude.” And this faithful multitude, comprised of both Jews and Gentiles, is too large to number (Rev 7:9). Through him, all the nations of the world are blessed (Gen 22:18).

from Jeremy Breland in an article called Abram to Abraham? Why did He do it? | Faith | Walterboro Live

Jesus, in Messianic Judaism often referred to as Yeshua or as I'm learning more and more I believe the correct name is Yahusha

the Lion of Judah and the spotless Lamb, who will crush the head of the serpent and will be a light to the nations. (Isa 42:6) He is the one who, though the builders rejected him, is called the Cornerstone. (Rom 9:30ff; Eph 2:20) He is the one who, though the Father has given him the name above all names, does not seek his own advantage but seeks and saves that which is lost. (Isa 9:6; Phil 2:6; Luke 19:10) His name is forever the Word of God. (John 1:1ff; Rev 19:13) And in the last, all will bend their knee and know him as the King of kings and Lord of lords. (Rev 19:16) - from Jeremy Breland in an article called Abram to Abraham? Why did He do it? | Faith | Walterboro Live

Name vs title

In Bible, when you see God is comes from the Hebrew word Elohim, which is a generic term and can refer to any god, it's not a personal name

YHVH is God's name, translated as LORD with all cap's or Lord Almighty.

Jewish People would not speak that name out of fear they would say it incorrectly, original Hebrew did not have vowel points, just consenants, instead they would use Adonai which means Lord , it's a title not a name, or they woudl say Hashem which simply means the name

I've recently came a Youtube channel called The God Culture that has a series on the Name of God, and he makes a very compelling case that the correct pronunciation is Yahuwa and that the correct name for our Savior is Yahusha The Name of God - Part 1: How To Pronounce YHWH May Surprise You - YouTube and THE NAME OF GOD Series Part 3: The Name of Messiah: How to Pronounce Jesus, Yeshua, Yahusha, Joshua? - YouTube

Recently at my job I've been working with a lot of coworkers I haven't met before and it's remind me how important it is to remember people's names and what a poor job I do at this, so while I've been thinking a lot about names from the Bible, my work application from this is that names are important, and part of loving others at work is learning and remembering the name of your co-workers

My name, David, means Beloved. Do you know the meaning of your name?

If you want to go the extra mile and make a connection with others, you can look up the meaning of someone's name and ask them if they know it, and if they don't share it with them.

Did you know that one day, as a believer, you will receive from God a special hidden name? Rev. 2:17 says "He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes I will give some of the hidden manna to eat. And I will give him a white stone, and on the stone a new name written which no one knows except him who receives it.”"

While you're talking with someone at work about the meaning of their name, you might want to ask them if they are familiar with this verse in Revelation.

James 2:15-17 says "15 If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, 16 and one of you says to them, “Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,” but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit? 17 Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead."

Me buying pizza for co-workers staying late

Top Ten Reasons We Should Evangelize

We strive to love our neighbor as ourselves

From "Proverbs for Business" by Steve Marr, Week 4 Day 2, Ecc 10:10

Jokes or Riddles for Work

What’s the difference between Dubai and Abudabi? - people from Dubai don’t like the Flintstones but the people from Abudabi do

Check out this episode!

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bibleteachingbyolga · 3 years

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My Beloved Toviel,

I have received your most recent letter lamenting your man’s recent fall into sin. These are the letters no angel wishes to receive. He descended slowly into the pit, you report. Too much time given to noises of the world; too little time in quiet communion. The flame grew low; temptation arrived; now he lies in darkness.

I am glad you stood by, ministering to him, even though you admit fumbling a bit. The enemy stood by too, no doubt, hissing accusations, eager to crush his hope and hand him more poison to medicate his sorrows. From our heights, we can still overhear his assaults: “How could you pretend to be a child of God? You will never rise from this. . . . It is useless to go to God. . . . He has forsaken you.” Such lies must be met constantly on the field of battle. His sons will not be so easily snatched from the Father’s hands, no matter how ashamed they feel.

As Wrath Rained Down

Now, in your ministering to your man, I am grateful to hear that you have not downplayed sin to bring comfort to the guilty. It does no good to minimize evil, but rather we direct his gaze beyond his misery to one who hung for sinners upon the cross.

Cross. Toviel, I shudder to even write the word. He entered his own creation, and his people rejected him. And oh, what a rejection.

Do you remember it? When the betrayer led his enemies in the garden that night, we assembled ready to chop off more than just an ear. Twelve legions of our finest soldiers stood armed for war. But we awaited a command that never came. Christ bid us, instead, stand down. His plans — praise be to God — soared higher than ours.

And do you recall the horror you felt as sinful hands grabbed the ark of God and robed his mortal frame in anguish? Eternal strength — now with bloody back and brow — could not reach the hilltop with his cross. As wrath rained down upon him, the fountains of living waters dried up, crying, “I thirst!”

Behold him, the blessed God, half dead, stapled to the tree, accursed. We could not even recognize him as a man. As bait on a hook, he dangled over the mouth of the pit.

He Became Sin

Toviel, ask him why this Shepherd allowed himself to become a mangled mass of tilled flesh and raw wounds. Ask your pit-fallen man how such a Lord came to such a throne. And give our Master’s wounds a voice to reply.

Each gash, each stripe, each bloody pool upon the surface of his flesh, shrieked, in the first place, against sin. All questioning whether God might, in the end, sweep iniquity under the rug — “letting bygones be bygones” — was put to death. The arrows God’s people shot up at the stars fell back to earth upon his mortal frame, bringing heavenly violence upon his human head.

Here, at the most awful and wonderful of places, convened the terrible reunion of all his people’s lies and lusts. In attendance was every itch of their pride; hunched over him stood every sexual fantasy, every shy smile at the failings of others, every lurch for significance apart from God, every neglect of loving God with all and neighbor as himself. For every dare of God’s patience, every abuse of his forbearance, every exchange of his glory for passing pleasures, Christ died. “The Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah 53:6).

Returning to Adam’s nakedness, the Holy One hung below this incredible caption: He became sin. Every filth long-forgotten by his people now emerged from the shadows, climbed from their holes to crawl upon the spotless Lamb. He embraced to his bosom the shame and pollution of their sin, invited the jagged tools of torture and the crushing wrath of his Father that their crimes had aggravated. He was “stricken for the transgression of my people” (Isaiah 53:8).

Here is the offspring God promised the woman — the fangs piercing his heel as he presses down upon the serpent’s skull. Here is Abraham’s ram caught in the thicket, struck by his Father’s flint knife to let Isaacs like your man go free. Here in pitch blackness, in a well so deep, in darkness so mighty, agonizing for every breath, flashes forth righteous anger as God extinguishes upon that horrid candlestick. “He bore the sin of many” (Isaiah 53:12).

His Wounds Speak Love

Yet the cross also manifests another momentous word, a word reverberating with hope, even in the darkest pits: love, Toviel, amazing love. His pierced hands dripped affection. His bloody crown glimmered with purchased grace. His flickering eyes reflected the Wedding Supper of the Lamb. His stapled feet traveled, with undeniable passion, after his wandering sheep. His lacerated back carried sinners from the depths of hell, bringing them safely to his Father.

Bid your man’s troubled soul to remember the cross, as the Lord himself directed them. Remember the blood of the new covenant poured out for his sins. Bid your man drink this sweetest wine to warm his faltering heart. Remember the bread of Christ’s body broken for him; remind him, over and over again, that his Shepherd laid down his life while he was yet a sinner. Here is the holy ground, upon which the best sermons of their most worthy preachers must remove their sandals and bow low in adoration.

Read to His Soul

Satan’s design against your man, of course, bids him to consider his sin more than his Savior; his disease more than the cure; his deformity more than his Redeemer’s beauty. When your man’s eyes fall to the ground, lift them to Christ. It does not honor the physician, nor restore the mortal gash, to stay away and let wounds fester.

Make no mistake: he must hear, “go and sin no more,” but first remind him of his Savior’s very name: “You shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sin” (Matthew 1:21). Bring his guilty soul to God’s glorious book to read:

“There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1).

“As far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us” (Psalm 103:12).

“By a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified” (Hebrews 10:14).

“For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21).

“Now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law. . . the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe” (Romans 3:21–22).

“Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died — more than that, who was raised” (Romans 8:34).

“Christ suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God” (1 Peter 3:18).

Should such words not glow the brighter rather than fade from view before his sin?

Not in Part

Though he lingers in the shadowy world where his children still sigh and groan over real corruption remaining in their flesh, day will break — Sunday followed that Friday. As he perseveres in the faith, your man will soon enter the realm where song flows more natural than speech, where steadfast love overwhelms as the waves do pebbles upon the shore.

There, happiness will ever swell as the lyric becomes more radiant, “Blessed is the man against whom the Lord counts no iniquity” (Psalm 32:2). And his voice will gain more vigor to sing, “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain to receive all glory!”

Direct your man’s fallen gaze to consider him — and keep considering him — who endured from sinners such hostility against himself that he might not grow weary or fainthearted. Let the sight refresh his lips to sing from his heart before his flesh and the devil:

My sin, oh, the bliss of this glorious thought! My sin, not in part, but the whole, Is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more. Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!

Your Dearest Uncle, Gabriel

In The Gabriel Letters, a senior angel (Gabriel) counsels a junior angel (Toviel) on how to assist a human against the temptations of demons and how to bring him home to heaven. This series is inspired by the classic work of C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters.

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quranisgreat · 4 years

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on believing in the lost Scriptures

On the one hand, Allah says (2:136):

Say, "We have believed in Allah and in what was revealed to us and what was revealed to Abraham, Ishmael, Isaac, Jacob, and the Descendants, and in what was given to Moses and Jesus and to the prophets from their Lord. We make no distinction between any of them, and we are Muslims [submitting] to Him." Sahih

On the other hand, humanity does not have access to what was revealed to “Abraham, Ishmael, Isaac, Jacob, and the Descendants“ and we cannot be sure if the present Old and New Testaments are “what was given to Moses and Jesus“. Allah seems to demand us to believe in Scriptures that are simply not around.

And yet, this cannot be true. Allah, as the Alim and Basir, knows what mankind can access and read and the unavailability of (at least some of) the Scripture at the time of Muhammad and in the following generations. Is there a contradiction here? If not, how do we explain this?

One possible explanation is that these Scriptures are not lost at all. If nothing happens in the universe without Allah’s will and permission, His word cannot be lost. In fact, Allah makes a point of this in Hicr 9:

Indeed, it is We who sent down the message [i.e., the Qur’ān], and indeed, We will be its guardian.

Saheeh International

This statement can be taken not only for Quran, but also for the whole of the Scripture. For one thing, the part in brackets is not in the original Quran. Other translators offer the following translations which do not limit the “message” or “reminder” to Quran:

It is certainly We Who have revealed the Reminder, and it is certainly We Who will preserve it. Dr. Mustafa Khattab, the Clear Quran

Indeed, We—We alone—have bestowed the Reminder from on high, and We will most surely preserve it. Fadel Soliman, Bridges’ translation

Lo! We, even We, reveal the Reminder, and lo! We verily are its Guardian. Pickthall

We have, without doubt, sent down the Message; and We will assuredly guard it (from corruption). Yusuf Ali

That is, Allah guards every single word he sends to mankind throughout history, preserving it from human-made changes. Allah’s message will always stay around. Notwithstanding questions regarding their authenticity, the Old and New Testament has similar ayets about Allah’s guarding his word. Moreover, considering the fact that we are decreed to believe in what was revealed to “Abraham, Ishmael, Isaac, Jacob, and the Descendants,” it is justified to believe that Allah makes sure people can access them. His Words are not hidden, that is.

And still, we do not have the manuscripts of “Abraham, Ishmael, Isaac, Jacob“ and we cannot be sure if the modern-day Old and New Testaments are genuinely what is sent to Moses and Jesus.

Here is my assumption:

What was revealed to Abraham, Ishmael, Isaac, Jacob and others are not around as separate manuscripts only in the way Kuran is. The revelations to these prophets are essentially ingrained in subsequent revelations to subsequent prophets. In each newly revealed book, Allah possibly embedded what he already revealed in the way he deemed necessary, keeping what is relevant for the contemporary mankind and leaving out some of His message depending on contemporary conditions.

I said “Here is my assumption” above, but this is not purely my assumption. Quran gives us hints about this possibility.As Allah says in Bakara 106:

We do not abrogate a verse or cause it to be forgotten except that We bring forth [one] better than it or similar to it. Do you not know that Allah is over all things competent?

Sahih

That is, Allah refines and updates His message in each Scripture. For instance, as I wrote years ago, Christians fallaciously started to believe that Jesus was the son of God. With Quran, the most recent and updated book in order, we are reminded of his real status.

What Allah kept:

We know that there are several stories that are both in Bible and Quran, which tell similar stories such as the story of Abraham’s sacrifice. There are, of course, differences in their narrative and events, but the skeleton of the story is the same: upon remembering his promise to Allah, Abraham embarks on a journey to sacrifice his son. Allah sees this and accepts Abaraham’s submission, forgives his son to Abraham and sends a lamb to sacrifice instead (Saffat 100-113).

Repeated stories such as this one are one indicator of the fact that Allah has kept what is relevant for more than one ümmet in his books, but there are stronger indicators of this process of repetition. What is striking is, through ayets, Allah accepts this process of repetition in Quran as well. Allah openly says in several ayets in Quran that there are several revelations that are relevant for Muslims and previous ümmets at the same time.

While some verses are revealed to more than one prophet, making the message valid for more than one prophet, some of his decrees are revealed to all of his prophets and their nations. In what follows, I offer a list of what Allah says he has kept in more than one book.

Allah says in Ala 16-19 the following:

But you prefer the worldly life,

While the Hereafter is better and more enduring.

Indeed, this is in the former scriptures,

The scriptures of Abraham and Moses.

Sahih

In other words, Allah says that the afterlife is “better and more enduring“ as stated in “The scriptures of Abraham and Moses.” This is a basic information that Allah kept in three of the holy books.

Another kept idea is revealed in Nahl 36:

And We certainly sent into every nation a messenger, [saying], "Worship Allah and avoid ṭāghūt."1 And among them were those whom Allah guided, and among them were those upon whom error was [deservedly] decreed. So proceed [i.e., travel] through the earth and observe how was the end of the deniers.

Saheeh International

Allah decreed every nation to worship only Himself through each and every prophet.

Sacrificing animals and fasting are also an obligation in all books and ümmets. Hac 34 states:

And for every [religious] community We have appointed a rite [of sacrifice]1 that they may mention the name of Allah over what He has provided for them of [sacrificial] animals. For your god is one God, so to Him submit. And, [O Muḥammad], give good tidings to the humble [before their Lord]

Saheeh

Rites of sacrifice might vary, but the issue of naming of Allah over the sacrificed animals stays.

Bakara 183 states:

O you who have believed, decreed upon you is fasting as it was decreed upon those before you that you may become righteous -

Saheeh International

In other words, Allah says that fasting was decreed to earlier ümmets through their books and messengers. This decree is relevant for all ümmets.

What Allah changed

Allah probably set new decrees, rules and examples for different ��mmets. Interestingly, there are not many ayets on this. On the contrary, as Allah repeats in several ayets, (here: Azhab 62):

[This is] the established way of Allah with those who passed on before; and you will not find in the way of Allah any change.

Saheeh International

It is thus possible that Quran and the authentic versions of the previous revelations were pretty similar in their content. What is different is possibly that the requirements or Allah’s demands are easier to follow in Quran. As Allah repeats Kamer a few times (here 17):

And We have certainly made the Qur’ān easy for remembrance, so is there any who will remember?

Saheeh International

This makes all the more sense when we consider the fact that changes in the holy reminder can happen as punishment. In Nisa 160-161, Allah says,

For wrongdoing on the part of the Jews, We made unlawful for them [certain] good foods which had been lawful to them, and for their averting from the way of Allah many [people],

And [for] their taking of usury while they had been forbidden from it, and their consuming of the people's wealth unjustly. And We have prepared for the disbelievers among them a painful punishment.

Saheeh International

Allah changed the rules for Jews because of their behavior. Jews averted from Allah’s path took usury and dealt with people’s wealth unfairly; as a result, they are not allowed to eat inherently “good foods” that they were used to able to.

In Enam 146, Allah names the “good foods” that has been made unlawful:

And to those who are Jews We prohibited every animal of uncloven hoof; and of the cattle and the sheep We prohibited to them their fat, except what adheres to their backs or the entrails or what is joined with bone. [By] that We repaid them for their transgression. And indeed, We are truthful.

Saheeh International

By contrast, unlike Jews, Good (or clean) food is lawful for Muslims (Maide 4):

They ask you, [O Muḥammad], what has been made lawful for them. Say, "Lawful for you are [all] good foods and [game caught by] what you have trained of hunting animals1 which you train as Allah has taught you. So eat of what they catch for you, and mention the name of Allah upon it, and fear Allah." Indeed, Allah is swift in account.

Saheeh International

That is, in Allah’s eyes, Muslims are not a punished group, and Quran does not include ayets that were revealed as a result of Allah’s anger at Muslims’ disobedience. Rather, Quran reveals that Allah created a white page for Muslims and allowed the inherently good and clean food for them. That is, Quran is by no means a spiteful revelation (which is within the range of Allah’s revelations depending on people’s aversion), but full of hope. We can trust Allah that He will lead us to the right path if we follow His words; he is also hopeful about Muslims following his path. This becomes all the way more important when we consider the highly negative status of Jews in Quran.

I used the phrase “inherently good foods” above. Allah prohibited inherently good foods to Jews and allowed them to Muslims. What about pork and other haram food in Quran? Why are these considered unlawful for Muslims if Muslims start with a clean, hopeful page in Quran? The answer is, what is unlawful for Muslims is inherently impure, so Allah keeps Muslims clean through his decree. In Maide 4, Allah says:

Say, "I do not find within that which was revealed to me [anything] forbidden to one who would eat it unless it be a dead animal or blood spilled out or the flesh of swine - for indeed, it is impure - or it be [that slaughtered in] disobedience, dedicated to other than Allah.1 But whoever is forced [by necessity], neither desiring [it] nor transgressing [its limit], then indeed, your Lord is Forgiving and Merciful."

Sahih

That is, swine is impure and thus unlawful for Muslims, not because Muslims are being punished through this decree. What looks like a limitation is actually a safety warning against impure animals. As I explained above, the case of Jews is different; they are not allowed to consume clean, pure, “good foods” because of their aversion.

Lastly, many prophets’ stories are retold in Quran. In their attempt to announce Allah’s revelations and lead them to His path, Allah’s prophets led long and eventful lives. It is highly probable that there were also some different rules and decrees for different ümmets or Allah revealed different obligations that was was revealed to Muslims. And yet, what he retells from their lives is the part that complements his Message in Quran and what is relevant for Muslims. In other words, it is possible that consuming “X” was forbidden for Noah’s ümmet and it is now lawful for Muslims. And yet, we are not told about the unlawfulness of “X” in Quran, but Noah’s exemplary submission to Allah. The reason is probably that this exemplary submission is relevant and important for Muslims, and not an old rule invalid for the Muslims such as the “X”. Quran includes only selected material from former books in order to fit and underscore Allah’s latest message.

What I understand is: In short, it is highly possible that Quran includes many ideas from what was revealed to “Abraham, Ishmael, Isaac, Jacob, and the Descendants“. So, through 2:136, Allah probably does not say “believe in the lost messages” but “believe in what these prophets have revealed and they are in Quran anyway”. Allah possibly says that he updates/refines His Word through every book in Quran. Kuran is probably the distillation of Allah’s ouvre of the scripture up to now. It has every important (from Allah’s point of view) message that has been in other prophets’ revelations. What is left out is for our good.

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dfroza · 4 years

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A Time of the end

of the world as it is known.

the birthing pains of its rebirth is seen played out in the scenes that John describes in the book of Revelation

Today’s reading of the Scriptures from the New Testament (New Covenant) is chapter 6:

[Breaking Open the Sealed Scroll]

Then I watched as the Lamb broke open the first of the seven seals. Immediately I heard one of the four living creatures call out with a powerful voice of revelation sounding like thunder, saying, “Come forth!” So I looked, and behold, there was a bright white horse. Its rider had a bow and was given a crown of victory. He rode out as a conqueror ready to conquer.

When he broke open the second seal, I heard the second living creature call out: “Come forth!” And there appeared another horse, red like fiery flames, and its rider was given a great sword and the power to take peace from earth, causing one to put to death another.

Then he broke open the third seal, and I heard the third living creature call out, “Come forth!” And behold, I saw a black horse right in front of me, and its rider was holding measuring scales. And I heard what seemed to be a voice from among the living creatures saying, “A small measure of wheat for a day’s pay, and three measures of barley for a day’s pay, but don’t harm the olive trees producing oil and the vines producing wine.”

When he broke open the fourth seal, I heard the fourth living creature call out, “Come forth!” And behold, I saw a green horse, and its rider’s name was Death, and Death’s Domain followed him. They were given authority over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword, famine, death, and by the wild beasts.

When the Lamb broke open the fifth seal, I saw gathered under the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the Word of God and because they had the testimony of the Lamb. They cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Sovereign Lord, holy and dependable, how long before you judge those who live on the earth and vindicate our blood on them?”

Each one was given a glistening white robe. And they were told to rest a little longer, until the full number was fulfilled of both their fellow servants and brothers and sisters who were going to be killed just as they had been.

And behold! I saw the Lamb break open the sixth seal, which released a powerful earthquake. I saw the sun become pitch black and the full moon become bloodred. The stars fell from heaven to the earth, as a fig tree shaken by a stormy wind sheds its unripe figs. The sky receded with a snap—as a scroll rolls itself up. And every mountain and island was moved from its place. Then the kings of the earth and its great princes and generals, the rich and powerful, and everyone, whether they were slave or free, ran for cover and hid in the caves and among the mountain boulders. They called out to the mountains and the boulders, saying, “Fall on us at once! Hide us quickly from the glorious face of the one seated on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb, for the great day of their wrath has come, and who is able to stand?”

The Book of Revelation, Chapter 6 (The Passion Translation)

Today’s paired chapter of the Testaments is the 17th chapter of 2nd Chronicles that documents the life & times of King Jehoshaphat:

[Jehoshaphat of Judah]

Asa’s son Jehoshaphat was the next king; he started out by working on his defense system against Israel. He put troops in all the fortress cities of Judah and deployed garrisons throughout Judah and in the towns of Ephraim that his father Asa had captured. God was on Jehoshaphat’s side because he stuck to the ways of his father Asa’s early years. He didn’t fool around with the popular Baal religion—he was a seeker and follower of the God of his father and was obedient to him; he wasn’t like Israel. And God secured the kingdom under his rule, gave him a firm grip on it. And everyone in Judah showed their appreciation by bringing gifts. Jehoshaphat ended up very rich and much honored. He was single-minded in following God; and he got rid of the local sex-and-religion shrines.

In the third year of his reign he sent his officials—excellent men, every one of them—Ben-Hail, Obadiah, Zechariah, Nethanel, and Micaiah on a teaching mission to the cities of Judah. They were accompanied by Levites—Shemaiah, Nethaniah, Zebadiah, Asahel, Shemiramoth, Jehonathan, Adonijah, Tobijah, and Tob-Adonijah; the priests Elishama and Jehoram were also in the company. They made a circuit of the towns of Judah, teaching the people and using the Book of The Revelation of God as their text.

There was a strong sense of the fear of God in all the kingdoms around Judah—they didn’t dare go to war against Jehoshaphat. Some Philistines even brought gifts and a load of silver to Jehoshaphat, and the desert bedouin brought flocks—7,700 rams and 7,700 goats. So Jehoshaphat became stronger by the day, and constructed more and more forts and store-cities—an age of prosperity for Judah!

He also had excellent fighting men stationed in Jerusalem. The captains of the military units of Judah, classified according to families, were: Captain Adnah with 300,000 soldiers; his associate Captain Jehohanan with 280,000; his associate Amasiah son of Zicri, a volunteer for God, with 200,000. Officer Eliada represented Benjamin with 200,000 fully equipped with bow and shield; and his associate was Jehozabad with 180,000 armed and ready for battle. These were under the direct command of the king; in addition there were the troops assigned to the fortress cities spread all over Judah.

The Book of 2nd Chronicles, Chapter 17 (The Message)

my personal reading of the Scriptures for Sunday, february 14 of 2021 with a paired chapter from each Testament of the Bible, along with Today’s Psalms and Proverbs

An email from Glenn Jackson:

February 14th

* The "powers" (of the air) are still present; but wherever Christ is preached and believed in, wherever His authority is "established", a limit has been set to their working. This limit is the sign and the promise of their defeat. Primarily this limitation is seen in the continued existence of the Church of Jesus Christ. By her very presence she breaks through that unshaken stability of life under the "powers" which we know and marvel at in ancient civilizations. She is made up of men and women who see through the deception of the Powers, refusing to run after "isms".

Standing within the community of a people or a culture, their very presence is an interrogation, the questioning of the "legitimacy" of the "powers". The "powers" are limited by the very presence of men and women who will no longer let themselves be enslaved, led astray, and intimidated, against whom the program of the "powers”, that is, their effort to separate men and women from God, suffers shipwreck. It is then inevitable that the "powers" should resort to oppression and persecution. But in this very act of desperation their unmasking is repeated and confirmed. They can no longer exist without being forced to uncover their true nature.

...."When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. When He had disarmed the rulers and authorities, He made a public display of them, having triumphed over them through Him".... Colossians 2:13-15 NASB

...."And do not be terrified in even one thing by those who are entrenched in their opposition against you, which failure on your part to be frightened is an indication of such a nature as to present clear evidence to them of utter destruction, also clear evidence of your salvation, and this from God. And the reason why you should not be terrified is because to you that very thing was given graciously as a favor for the sake of Christ and in His behalf, not only to be believing on Him but also to be suffering for His sake and in His behalf, having the same struggle which you saw in me and now hear to be in me".... Philippians 1:28-30 Kenneth Wuest Translation

Today’s message from the Institute for Creation Research

February 14, 2021

The Greatest Love

“And he said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of.” (Genesis 22:2)

There are many types of love in the world—romantic love, marital love, erotic love, brotherly love, maternal love, patriotic love, family love, and love for all kinds of things—pets, food, money, sports, and on and on. But what is the greatest love?

Love is probably the greatest word of the Bible, and, by the principle of first mention of important biblical words, the first time the word “love” occurs should be a key to its use all through the Bible. Rather surprisingly, love is first encountered here in our text, speaking of the love of a father for his son, of Abraham for Isaac, the son of promise. Furthermore, the father is being told by the very God who made the promise to offer his beloved son as a sacrifice!

From the New Testament (see Hebrews 11:17-18), we know that this entire scene is a remarkable type of the heavenly Father and His willingness to offer His own beloved Son in sacrifice for the sin of the world. This tells us that the love of this human father for his human son is an earthly picture of the great eternal love of the Father in heaven for His only begotten Son.

And that means that this love of God the Father for God the Son is the ultimate source of all love, for that love was being exercised before the world began. When Jesus prayed to His Father the night before His sacrificial death, He confirmed this great truth; “for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world,” He prayed (John 17:24). Indeed, “God is love” (1 John 4:8), and the eternal love within the triune Godhead is the fountainhead of all true human love here on Earth. HMM

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madewithonerib · 4 years

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Exodus 9:14-15 | ¹⁴ Otherwise, I will send all MY plagues against you & your officials & your people, so you may know that there is no one like ME in all the earth. ¹⁵ For by this time I could have stretched out MY hand & struck you & your people with a plague to wipe you off the earth.

Genesis 4:26 | ²⁶ And to Seth also a son was born, & he called him Enosh. At that time men began to invoke the name of the LORD.

Genesis 12:6 | ⁶ Abram traveled through the land as far as the site of the Oak of Moreh at Shechem. And at that time the Canaanites were in the land.

Genesis 13:7 | ⁷ And there was discord between the herdsmen of Abram & the herdsmen of Lot. At that time the Canaanites & the Perizzites were also living in the land.

Genesis 21:22 | ²² At that time Abimelech & Phicol the commander of his army said to Abraham, “GOD is with you in all that you do.

Genesis 38:12 | ¹² After a long time Judah’s wife, the daughter of Shua, died. When Judah had finished mourning, he and his friend Hirah the Adullamite went up to his sheepshearers at Timnah.

Genesis 39:5 | ⁵ From the time that he put Joseph in charge of his household and all he owned, the LORD blessed the Egyptian’s household on account of him. The LORD’s blessing was on everything he owned, both in his house and in his field.

Genesis 40:1 | ¹ Some time later, the king’s cupbearer and baker offended their master, the king of Egypt.

Exodus 9:15 | ¹⁵ For by this time I could have stretched out My hand and struck you and your people with a plague to wipe you off the earth.

Exodus 9:24 | ²⁴ The hail fell and the lightning continued flashing through it. The hail was so severe that nothing like it had ever been seen in all the land of Egypt from the time it became a nation.

Exodus 23:15 | ¹⁵ You are to keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread as I commanded you: At the appointed time in the month of Abib you are to eat unleavened bread for 7 days, because that was the month you came out of Egypt. No one may appear before ME empty-handed.

Exodus 34:18 | ¹⁸ You are to keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread. For seven days at the appointed time in the month of Abib, you are to eat unleavened bread as I commanded you. For in the month of Abib you came out of Egypt.

Leviticus 15:25 | ²⁵ When a woman has a discharge of her blood for many days at a time other than her menstrual period, or if it continues beyond her period, she will be unclean all the days of her unclean discharge, just as she is during the days of her menstruation.

Leviticus 16:17 | ¹⁷ No one may be in the Tent of Meeting from the time Aaron goes in to make atonement in the Most Holy Place until he leaves, after he has made atonement for himself, his household, and the whole assembly of Israel.

Leviticus 25:50 | ⁵⁰ He and his purchaser will then count the time from the year he sold himself up to the Year of Jubilee. The price of his sale will be determined by the # of years, based on the daily wages of a hired hand.

Leviticus 26:34 | ³⁴ Then the land shall enjoy its Sabbaths all the days it lies desolate, while you are in the land of your enemies. At that time the land will rest & enjoy its Sabbaths.

Numbers 3:1 | ¹ This is the account of Aaron and Moses at the time the LORD spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai.

Numbers 3:4 | ⁴ Nadab and Abihu, however, died in the presence of the LORD when they offered unauthorized fire before the LORD in the Wilderness of Sinai. And since they had no sons, only Eleazar and Ithamar served as priests during the lifetime of their father Aaron.

Numbers 6:5 | ⁵ For the entire period of his vow of separation, no razor shall pass over his head. He must be holy until the time of his separation to the LORD is complete; he must let the hair of his head grow long.

Numbers 6:8 | ⁸ Throughout the time of his separation, he is holy to the LORD.

Numbers 6:12 | ¹² He must rededicate his time of separation to the LORD & bring a year-old male lamb as a guilt offering. But the preceding days shall not be counted, because his separation was defiled.

Numbers 6:13 | ¹³ Now this is the law of the Nazirite when his time of separation is complete: He must be brought to the entrance to the Tent of Meeting,

Numbers 28:2 | ² “Command the Israelites and say to them: See that you present to ME at its appointed time the food for MY offerings by fire, as a pleasing aroma to ME.

Deuteronomy 2:14 | ¹⁴ The time we spent traveling from Kadesh-barnea until we crossed over the Brook of Zered was 38 years, until that entire generation of fighting men had perished from the camp, as the LORD had sworn to them.

Deuteronomy 2:34 | ³⁴ At that time we captured all his cities & devoted to destruction the people of every city, including women and children. We left no survivors.

Deuteronomy 3:4 | ⁴ At that time we captured all sixty of his cities. There was not a single city we failed to take— the entire region of Argob, the kingdom of Og in Bashan.

Deuteronomy 3:8 | ⁸ At that time we took from the two kings of the Amorites the land across the Jordan, from the Arnon Valley as far as Mount Hermon—

Deuteronomy 3:12 | ¹² So at that time we took possession of this land. To the Reubenites and Gadites I gave the land beyond Aroer along the Arnon Valley, and half the hill country of Gilead, along with its cities.

Deuteronomy 3:18 | ¹⁸ At that time I commanded you: “The LORD your God has given you this land to possess. All your men of valor are to cross over, armed for battle, ahead of your brothers, the Israelites.

Deuteronomy 5:5 | ⁵ At that time I was standing between the LORD and you to declare to you the word of the LORD because you were afraid of the fire and would not go up the mountain. And He said:

Deuteronomy 9:19 | ¹⁹ For I was afraid of the anger & wrath that the LORD had directed against you, enough to destroy you. But the LORD listened to me this time as well.

Deuteronomy 10:1 | ¹ At that time the LORD said to me, “Chisel out two stone tablets like the originals, come up to ME on the mountain, and make an ark of wood.

Deuteronomy 10:8 | ⁸ At that time the LORD set apart the tribe of Levi to carry the ark of the covenant of the LORD, to stand before the LORD to serve HIM, & to pronounce blessings in HIS name, as they do to this day.

Deuteronomy 15:2 | ² This is the manner of remission: Every creditor shall cancel what he has loaned to his neighbor. He is not to collect anything from his neighbor or brother, because the LORD’s time of release has been proclaimed.

Deuteronomy 16:6 | ⁶ You must only offer the Passover sacrifice at the place the LORD your God will choose as a dwelling for HIS Name. Do this in the evening as the sun sets, at the same time you departed from Egypt.

Deuteronomy 16:9 | ⁹ You are to count off seven weeks from the time you first put the sickle to the standing grain.

Deuteronomy 20:19 | ¹⁹ When you lay siege to a city for an extended time while fighting against it to capture it, you must not destroy its trees by putting an ax to them, because you can eat their fruit. You must not cut them down. Are the trees of the field human, that you should besiege them?

Deuteronomy 31:10 | ¹⁰ Then Moses commanded them, “At the end of every seven years, at the appointed time in the year of remission of debt, during the Feast of Tabernacles,

Deuteronomy 31:14 | ¹⁴ Then the LORD said to Moses, “Behold, the time of your death is near. Call Joshua and present yourselves at the Tent of Meeting, so that I may commission him.” So Moses and Joshua went and presented themselves at the Tent of Meeting.

Deuteronomy 32:35 | ³⁵ Vengeance is Mine; I will repay. In due time their foot will slip; for their day of disaster is near, and their doom is coming quickly.”

Deuteronomy 34:8 | ⁸ The Israelites grieved for Moses in the plains of Moab thirty days, until the time of weeping and mourning for Moses came to an end.

Joshua 5:2 | ² At that time the LORD said to Joshua, “Make flint knives and circumcise the sons of Israel once again.”

Joshua 6:26 | ²⁶ At that time Joshua invoked this solemn oath: “Cursed before the LORD is the man who rises up and rebuilds this city, Jericho; at the cost of his firstborn he will lay its foundations; at the cost of his youngest he will set up its gates.”

Joshua 8:30 | ³⁰ At that time Joshua built an altar on Mount Ebal to the LORD, the God of Israel,

Joshua 10:33 | ³³ At that time Horam king of Gezer went to help Lachish, but Joshua struck him down along with his people, leaving no survivors.

Joshua 11:6 | ⁶ Then the LORD said to Joshua, “Do not be afraid of them, for by this time tomorrow I will deliver all of them slain before Israel. You shall hamstring their horses and burn up their chariots.”

Joshua 11:10 | ¹⁰ At that time Joshua turned back and captured Hazor and struck down its king with the sword, because Hazor was formerly the head of all these kingdoms.

Joshua 11:21 | ²¹ At that time Joshua proceeded to eliminate the Anakim from the hill country of Hebron, Debir, and Anab, and from all the hill country of Judah and of Israel. Joshua devoted them to destruction, along with their cities.

Joshua 24:29 | ²⁹ Some time later, Joshua son of Nun, the servant of the LORD, died at the age of 110.

Judges 1:27 | ²⁷ At that time Manasseh failed to drive out the inhabitants of Beth-shean, Taanach, Dor, Ibleam, and Megiddo, or any of their villages; for the Canaanites were determined to dwell in that land. Judges 3:29 | ²⁹ At that time they struck down about ten thousand Moabites, all robust and valiant men. Not one of them escaped.

Judges 10:1 | ¹ After the time of Abimelech, a man of Issachar, Tola son of Puah, the son of Dodo, rose up to save Israel. He lived in Shamir, in the hill country of Ephraim.

Judges 10:14 | ¹⁴ Go and cry out to the gods you have chosen. Let them save you in your time of trouble.”

Judges 12:6 | ⁶ they told him, “Please say Shibboleth.” If he said, “Sibboleth,” because he could not pronounce it correctly, they seized him and killed him at the fords of the Jordan. So at that time 42,000 Ephraimites were killed.

Judges 15:1 | ¹ Later on, at the time of the wheat harvest, Samson took a young goat and went to visit his wife. “I want to go to my wife in her room,” he said. But her father would not let him enter.

Judges 16:4 | ⁴ Some time later, Samson fell in love with a woman in the Valley of Sorek, whose name was Delilah.

Judges 16:15 | ¹⁵ “How can you say, ‘I love you,’” she told him, “when your heart is not with me? This is the third time you have mocked me and failed to reveal to me the source of your great strength!”

Judges 18:1 | ¹ In those days there was no king in Israel, and the tribe of the Danites was looking for territory to occupy. For up to that time they had not come into an inheritance among the tribes of Israel.

Judges 18:31 | ³¹ So they set up for themselves Micah’s graven image, and it was there the whole time the house of God was in Shiloh.

Judges 21:14 | ¹⁴ And at that time the Benjamites returned and were given the women who were spared from Jabesh-gilead. But there were not enough women for all of them.

Ruth 2:14 | ¹⁴ At mealtime Boaz said to her, “Come over here; have some bread and dip it into the vinegar sauce.” So she sat down beside the harvesters, and he offered her roasted grain, and she ate and was satisfied and had some left over.

1 Samuel 1:16 | ¹⁶ Do not take your servant for a wicked woman; for all this time I have been praying out of the depth of my anguish and grief.”

1 Samuel 7:2 | ² And from that day a long time passed, twenty years in all, as the ark remained at Kiriath-jearim. And all the house of Israel mourned and sought after the LORD.

1 Samuel 9:16 | ¹⁶ “At this time tomorrow I will send you a man from the land of Benjamin, and you are to anoint him leader over My people Israel; he will save them from the hand of the Philistines. For I have looked upon My people, because their cry has come to Me.”

1 Samuel 11:9 | ⁹ So they said to the messengers who had come, “Tell the men of Jabesh-gilead: ‘Deliverance will be yours tomorrow by the time the sun is hot.’” And when the messengers relayed this to the men of Jabesh, they rejoiced.

1 Samuel 14:18 | ¹⁸ Then Saul said to Ahijah, “Bring the ark of God.” (For at that time it was with the Israelites.) 1 Samuel 18:19 | ¹⁹ So when it was time to give Saul’s daughter Merab to David, she was given in marriage to Adriel of Meholah.

1 Samuel 18:21 | ²¹ “I will give her to David,” Saul thought, “so that she may be a snare to him, and the hand of the Philistines may be against him.” So Saul said to David, “For a second time now you can be my son-in-law.”

1 Samuel 18:30 | ³⁰ Every time the Philistine commanders came out for battle, David was more successful than all of Saul’s officers, so that his name was highly esteemed.

1 Samuel 20:12 | ¹² and Jonathan said, “By the LORD, the God of Israel, I will sound out my father by this time tomorrow or the next day. If he is favorable toward you, will I not send for you and tell you?

1 Samuel 22:4 | ⁴ So he left them in the care of the king of Moab, and they stayed with him the whole time David was in the stronghold.

1 Samuel 22:15 | ¹⁵ Was that day the first time I inquired of God for him? Far be it from me! Let not the king accuse your servant or any of my father’s household, for your servant knew nothing of this whole affair—not in part or in whole.”

1 Samuel 25:7 | ⁷ Now I hear that it is time for shearing. When your shepherds were with us, we did not harass them, and nothing of theirs was missing the whole time they were in Carmel.

1 Samuel 25:15 | ¹⁵ Yet these men were very good to us. When we were in the field, we were not harassed, and nothing of ours went missing the whole time we lived among them.

2 Samuel 2:1 | ¹ Some time later, David inquired of the LORD, “Should I go up to one of the towns of Judah?” “Go up,” the LORD answered. Then David asked, “Where should I go?” “To Hebron,” replied the LORD.

2 Samuel 2:11 | ¹¹ And the length of time that David was king in Hebron over the house of Judah was seven years and six months.

2 Samuel 3:8 | ⁸ Abner was furious over Ish-bosheth’s accusation. “Am I the head of a dog that belongs to Judah?” he asked. “All this time I have been loyal to the house of your father Saul, to his brothers, and to his friends. I have not delivered you into the hand of David, but now you accuse me of wrongdoing with this woman!

2 Samuel 8:1 | ¹ Some time later, David defeated the Philistines, subdued them, and took Metheg-ammah from the hand of the Philistines.

2 Samuel 10:1 | ¹ Some time later, the king of the Ammonites died and was succeeded by his son Hanun.

2 Samuel 11:1 | ¹ In the spring, at the time when kings march out to war, David sent Joab with his servants and the whole army of Israel. They destroyed the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah, but David remained in Jerusalem.

2 Samuel 11:27 | ²⁷ And when the time of mourning was over, David had her brought to his house, and she became his wife and bore him a son. But the thing that David had done was evil in the sight of the LORD.

2 Samuel 15:1 | ¹ Some time later, Absalom provided for himself a chariot with horses and fifty men to run ahead of him.

2 Samuel 17:7 | ⁷ Hushai replied, “This time the advice of Ahithophel is not sound.”

2 Samuel 19:13 | ¹³ And say to Amasa, ‘Aren’t you my flesh and blood? May God punish me, and ever so severely, if from this time you are not the commander of my army in place of Joab!’”

2 Samuel 21:18 | ¹⁸ Some time later at Gob, there was another battle with the Philistines. At that time Sibbecai the Hushathite killed Saph, one of the descendants of Rapha.

2 Samuel 23:14 | ¹⁴ At that time David was in the stronghold, and the garrison of the Philistines was at Bethlehem.

2 Samuel 24:16 | ¹⁶ But when the angel stretched out his hand to destroy Jerusalem, the LORD relented from the calamity and said to the angel who was destroying the people, “Enough! Withdraw your hand now!” At that time the angel of the LORD was by the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.

1 Kings 1:5 | ⁵ At that time Adonijah, David’s son by Haggith, began to exalt himself, saying, “I will be king!” And he acquired chariots and horsemen and fifty men to run ahead of him.

1 Kings 2:5 | ⁵ Moreover, you know what Joab son of Zeruiah did to me—what he did to Abner son of Ner and Amasa son of Jether, the two commanders of the armies of Israel. He killed them in peacetime to avenge the blood of war. He stained with the blood of war the belt around his waist and the sandals on his feet.

1 Kings 8:1 | ¹ At that time Solomon assembled before him in Jerusalem the elders of Israel—all the tribal heads and family leaders of the Israelites—to bring up the ark of the covenant of the LORD from Zion, the City of David.

1 Kings 8:65 | ⁶⁵ So at that time Solomon and all Israel with him—a great assembly of people from Lebo-hamath to the Brook of Egypt—kept the feast before the LORD our God for seven days and seven more days—fourteen days in all.

1 Kings 11:7 | ⁷ At that time on a hill east of Jerusalem, Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the abomination of Moab and for Molech the abomination of the Ammonites.

1 Kings 14:1 | ¹ At that time Abijah son of Jeroboam became ill,

1 Kings 16:21 | ²¹ At that time the people of Israel were divided: Half of the people supported Tibni son of Ginath as king, and half supported Omri.

1 Kings 18:29 | ²⁹ Midday passed, and they kept on raving until the time of the evening sacrifice. But there was no response, no one answered, no one paid attention.

1 Kings 18:36 | ³⁶ At the time of the evening sacrifice, Elijah the prophet approached the altar and said, “O LORD, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known this day that You are God in Israel and that I am Your servant and have done all these things at Your command.

1 Kings 19:2 | ² So Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah, saying, “May the gods deal with me, and ever so severely, if by this time tomorrow I do not make your life like the lives of those you killed!”

1 Kings 19:7 | ⁷ A second time the angel of the LORD returned and touched him, saying, “Get up and eat, or the journey will be too much for you.”

1 Kings 20:6 | ⁶ But about this time tomorrow I will send my servants to search your palace and the houses of your servants. They will seize and carry away all that is precious to you.’”

1 Kings 20:9 | ⁹ So Ahab answered the messengers of Ben-hadad, “Tell my lord the king, ‘All that you demanded of your servant the first time I will do, but this thing I cannot do.’” So the messengers departed and relayed the message to Ben-hadad.

1 Kings 21:1 | ¹ Some time later, Naboth the Jezreelite happened to own a vineyard in Jezreel next to the palace of Ahab king of Samaria.

1 Kings 22:49 | ⁴⁹ At that time Ahaziah son of Ahab said to Jehoshaphat, “Let my servants sail with your servants,” but Jehoshaphat refused.

2 Kings 3:20 | ²⁰ The next morning, at the time of the morning sacrifice, water suddenly flowed from the direction of Edom and filled the land.

2 Kings 4:16 | ¹⁶ And Elisha declared, “At this time next year, you will hold a son in your arms.” “No, my lord,” she said. “Do not lie to your maidservant, O man of GOD.”

2 Kings 5:2 | ² At this time the Arameans had gone out in bands and had taken a young girl from the land of Israel, and she was serving Naaman’s wife.

2 Kings 6:24 | ²⁴ Some time later, Ben-hadad king of Aram assembled his entire army and marched up to besiege Samaria.

2 Kings 7:1 | ¹ Then Elisha said, “Hear the word of the LORD! This is what the LORD says: ‘About this time tomorrow at the gate of Samaria, a seah of fine flour will sell for a shekel, and two seahs of barley will sell for a shekel.’”

2 Kings 7:18 | ¹⁸ It happened just as the man of God had told the king: “About this time tomorrow at the gate of Samaria, two seahs of barley will sell for a shekel, and a seah of fine flour will sell for a shekel.”

2 Kings 10:6 | ⁶ Then Jehu wrote them a second letter and said: ��If you are on my side, and if you will obey me, then bring the heads of your master’s sons to me at Jezreel by this time tomorrow.” Now the sons of the king, seventy in all, were being brought up by the leading men of the city.

2 Kings 10:36 | ³⁶ So the time of Jehu’s reign over Israel in Samaria was twenty-eight years.

2 Kings 12:17 | ¹⁷ At that time Hazael king of Aram marched up and fought against Gath and captured it. Then he decided to attack Jerusalem.

2 Kings 16:6 | ⁶ At that time Rezin king of Aram recovered Elath for Aram, drove out the men of Judah, and sent the Edomites into Elath, where they live to this day.

2 Kings 18:16 | ¹⁶ At that time Hezekiah stripped the gold with which he had plated the doors and doorposts of the temple of the LORD, and he gave it to the king of Assyria.

2 Kings 20:12 | ¹² At that time Merodach-baladan son of Baladan king of Babylon sent letters and a gift to Hezekiah, for he had heard about Hezekiah’s illness.

2 Kings 20:17 | ¹⁷ The time will surely come when everything in your palace and all that your fathers have stored up until this day will be carried off to Babylon. Nothing will be left, says the LORD.

2 Kings 24:10 | ¹⁰ At that time the servants of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon marched up to Jerusalem, and the city came under siege.

1 Chronicles 11:16 | ¹⁶ At that time David was in the stronghold, and the garrison of the Philistines was at Bethlehem.

1 Chronicles 18:1 | ¹ Some time later, David defeated the Philistines, subdued them, and took Gath and its villages from the hand of the Philistines.

1 Chronicles 19:1 | ¹ Some time later, Nahash king of the Ammonites died and was succeeded by his son.

1 Chronicles 20:1 | ¹ In the spring, at the time when kings march out to war, Joab led out the army and ravaged the land of the Ammonites. He came to Rabbah and besieged it, but David remained in Jerusalem. And Joab attacked Rabbah and demolished it.

1 Chronicles 20:4 | ⁴ Some time later, war broke out with the Philistines at Gezer. At that time Sibbecai the Hushathite killed Sippai, a descendant of the Rephaim, and the Philistines were subdued.

1 Chronicles 21:15 | ¹⁵ Then God sent an angel to destroy Jerusalem, but as the angel was doing so the LORD saw it and relented from the calamity, and He said to the angel who was destroying the people, “Enough! Withdraw your hand now!” At that time the angel of the LORD was standing by the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.

2 Chronicles 5:2 | ² At that time Solomon assembled in Jerusalem the elders of Israel—all the tribal heads and family leaders of the Israelites—to bring up the ark of the covenant of the LORD from Zion, the City of David.

2 Chronicles 7:8 | ⁸ So at that time Solomon and all Israel with him—a very great assembly of people from Lebo-hamath to the Brook of Egypt—kept the feast for seven days.

2 Chronicles 8:12 | ¹² At that time Solomon offered burnt offerings to the LORD on the altar of the LORD he had built in front of the portico.

2 Chronicles 16:10 | ¹⁰ Asa was angry with the seer and put him in prison because he was so enraged over this matter. And at the same time Asa oppressed some of the people.

2 Chronicles 24:4 | ⁴ Some time later, Joash set his heart on repairing the house of the LORD.

2 Chronicles 28:16 | ¹⁶ At that time King Ahaz sent for help from the king of Assyria.

2 Chronicles 28:22 | ²² In the time of his distress, King Ahaz became even more unfaithful to the LORD.

Ezra 4:2 | ² they approached Zerubbabel and the heads of the families, saying, “Let us build with you because, like you, we seek your God and have been sacrificing to Him since the time of King Esar-haddon of Assyria, who brought us here.”

Ezra 5:3 | ³ At that time Tattenai the governor of the region west of the Euphrates, Shethar-bozenai, and their associates went to the Jews and asked, “Who authorized you to rebuild this temple and restore this structure?”

Ezra 5:16 | ¹⁶ So this Sheshbazzar came and laid the foundation of the house of God in Jerusalem, and from that time until now it has been under construction, but is not yet completed.”

Nehemiah 1:11 | ¹¹ O Lord, may Your ear be attentive to the prayer of Your servant and to the prayers of Your servants who delight to revere Your name. Give Your servant success this day, I pray, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man.” (At that time I was the cupbearer to the king.)

Nehemiah 6:1 | ¹ When Sanballat, Tobiah, Geshem the Arab, and the rest of our enemies heard that I had rebuilt the wall and not a gap was left—though to that time I had not yet installed the doors in the gates—

Nehemiah 8:1 | ¹ At that time all the people gathered together at the square before the Water Gate, and they asked Ezra the scribe to bring out the Book of the Law of Moses, which the LORD had commanded for Israel.

Nehemiah 9:27 | ²⁷ So You delivered them into the hands of enemies who oppressed them, and in their time of distress they cried out to You. From heaven You heard them, and in Your great compassion You gave them deliverers who saved them from the hands of their enemies.

Nehemiah 13:1 | ¹ At that time the Book of Moses was read aloud in the hearing of the people, and in it they found the passage stating that no Ammonite or Moabite should ever enter the assembly of God,

Nehemiah 13:6 | ⁶ While all this was happening, I was not in Jerusalem, because I had returned to Artaxerxes king of Babylon in the thirty-second year of his reign. Some time later I obtained leave from the king

Nehemiah 13:21 | ²¹ but I warned them, “Why are you camping in front of the wall? If you do it again, I will lay hands on you.” From that time on, they did not return on the Sabbath.

Esther 2:1 | ¹ Some time later, when the anger of King Xerxes had subsided, he remembered Vashti and what she had done, and what had been decreed against her.

Esther 8:16 | ¹⁶ For the Jews it was a time of light and gladness, of joy and honor. Job 9:3 | ³ If one wished to contend with God, he could not answer Him one time out of a thousand.

Psalm 21:9 | ⁹ YOU will place them in a fiery furnace at the time of YOUR appearing. In HIS wrath the LORD will engulf them, & the fire will consume them.

Psalm 37:19 | ¹⁹ In the time of evil they will not be ashamed, and in the days of famine they will be satisfied.

Psalm 37:39 | ³⁹ The salvation of the righteous is from the LORD; He is their stronghold in time of trouble.

Psalm 69:13 | ¹³ But my prayer to You, O LORD, is for a time of favor. In Your abundant loving devotion, O God, answer me with Your sure salvation.

Psalm 129:1 | ¹ A song of ascents. Many a time they have persecuted me from my youth—let Israel now declare—

Proverbs 25:13 | ¹³ Like the cold of snow in the time of harvest is a trustworthy messenger to those who send him; he refreshes the soul of his masters.

Proverbs 25:19 | ¹⁹ Like a broken tooth or a foot out of joint is confidence in a faithless man in time of trouble.

Song of Solomon 2:7 | ⁷ O daughters of Jerusalem, I adjure you by the gazelles and does of the field: Do not arouse or awaken love until the time is right.

Song of Solomon 3:5 | ⁵ O daughters of Jerusalem, I adjure you by the gazelles and does of the field: Do not arouse or awaken love until the time is right.

Song of Solomon 8:4 | ⁴ O daughters of Jerusalem, I adjure you: Do not arouse or awaken love until the time is right.

Isaiah 7:17 | ¹⁷ The LORD will bring on you and on your people and on the house of your father a time unlike any since the day Ephraim separated from Judah—He will bring the king of Assyria.”

Isaiah 9:7 | ⁷ Of the increase of His government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish and sustain it with justice and righteousness from that time and forevermore. The zeal of the LORD of Hosts will accomplish this.

Isaiah 11:11 | ¹¹ On that day the Lord will extend His hand a second time to recover the remnant of His people from Assyria, from Egypt, from Pathros, from Cush, from Elam, from Shinar, from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea.

Isaiah 18:7 | ⁷ At that time gifts will be brought to the LORD of Hosts—from a people tall and smooth-skinned, from a people widely feared, from a powerful nation of strange speech, whose land is divided by rivers—to Mount Zion, the place of the Name of the LORD of Hosts.

Isaiah 23:15 | ¹⁵ At that time Tyre will be forgotten for seventy years—the span of a king’s life. But at the end of seventy years, it will happen to Tyre as in the song of the harlot:

Isaiah 33:2 | ² O LORD, be gracious to us! We wait for You. Be our strength every morning and our salvation in time of trouble. Isaiah 34:8 | ⁸ For the LORD has a day of vengeance, a time of retribution for Edom’s hostility against Zion.

Isaiah 39:1 | ¹ At that time Merodach-baladan son of Baladan king of Babylon sent letters and a gift to Hezekiah, for he had heard about Hezekiah’s illness and recovery.

Isaiah 39:6 | ⁶ The time will surely come when everything in your palace and all that your fathers have stored up until this day will be carried off to Babylon. Nothing will be left, says the LORD.

Isaiah 49:8 | ⁸ This is what the LORD says: “In the time of favor I will answer You, and in the day of salvation I will help You; I will keep You and appoint You to be a covenant for the people, to restore the land, to apportion its desolate inheritances

Isaiah 60:22 | ²² The least of you will become a thousand, and the smallest a mighty nation. I am the LORD; in its time I will accomplish it quickly.

Isaiah 65:22 | ²² No longer will they build houses for others to inhabit, nor plant for others to eat. For as is the lifetime of a tree, so will be the days of My people, and My chosen ones will fully enjoy the work of their hands.

Jeremiah 2:27 | ²⁷ say to a tree, ‘You are my father,’ and to a stone, ‘You gave me birth.’ For they have turned their backs to Me and not their faces, yet in the time of trouble they beg, ‘Rise up and save us!’

Jeremiah 2:28 | ²⁸ But where are the gods you made for yourselves? Let them rise up in your time of trouble and save you if they can; for your gods are as numerous as your cities, O Judah.

Jeremiah 3:17 | ¹⁷ At that time Jerusalem will be called The Throne of the LORD, and all the nations will be gathered in Jerusalem to honor the name of the LORD. They will no longer follow the stubbornness of their evil hearts.

Jeremiah 4:11 | ¹¹ At that time it will be said to this people and to Jerusalem, “A searing wind from the barren heights in the desert blows toward the daughter of My people, but not to winnow or to sift;

Jeremiah 8:7 | ⁷ Even the stork in the sky knows her appointed seasons. The turtledove, the swift, and the thrush keep their time of migration, but My people do not know the requirements of the LORD.

Jeremiah 8:15 | ¹⁵ We hoped for peace, but no good has come, for a time of healing, but there was only terror.

Jeremiah 10:15 | ¹⁵ They are worthless, a work to be mocked. In the time of their punishment, they will perish.

Jeremiah 10:18 | ¹⁸ For this is what the LORD says: “Behold, at this time I will sling out the inhabitants of the land and bring distress on them so that they may be captured.”

Jeremiah 11:7 | ⁷ For from the time I brought your fathers out of the land of Egypt until today, I strongly warned them again and again, saying, ‘Obey My voice.’

Jeremiah 11:12 | ¹² Then the cities of Judah and the residents of Jerusalem will go and cry out to the gods to which they have been burning incense, but these gods certainly will not save them in their time of disaster.

Jeremiah 11:14 | ¹⁴ As for you, do not pray for these people. Do not raise up a cry or a prayer on their behalf, for I will not be listening when they call out to Me at the time of their disaster.

Jeremiah 14:19 | ¹⁹ Have You rejected Judah completely? Do You despise Zion? Why have You stricken us so that we are beyond healing? We hoped for peace, but no good has come, and for the time of healing, but there was only terror.

Jeremiah 15:11 | ¹¹ The LORD said: “Surely I will deliver you for a good purpose; surely I will intercede with your enemy in your time of trouble, in your time of distress.

Jeremiah 18:23 | ²³ But You, O LORD, know all their deadly plots against me. Do not wipe out their guilt or blot out their sin from Your sight. Let them be overthrown before You; deal with them in the time of Your anger.

Jeremiah 27:7 | ⁷ All nations will serve him and his son and grandson, until the time of his own land comes; then many nations and great kings will enslave him. Jeremiah 30:7 | ⁷ How awful that day will be! None will be like it! It is the time of Jacob’s distress, but he will be saved out of it.

Jeremiah 33:15 | ¹⁵ In those days and at that time I will cause to sprout a Righteous Branch of David, and He will administer justice and righteousness in the land.

Jeremiah 39:10 | ¹⁰ But Nebuzaradan left behind in the land of Judah some of the poor people who had no property, and at that time he gave them vineyards and fields.

Jeremiah 44:17 | ¹⁷ Instead, we will do everything we vowed to do: We will burn incense to the Queen of Heaven & offer drink offerings to her, just as we, our fathers, our kings, & our officials did in the cities of Judah & in the streets of Jerusalem. At that time we had plenty of food & good things, & we saw no disaster.

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naturalhealthgodsway · 4 years

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Stress, Lies, and the Tooth fairy . . .

Easter has come and gone for another year. Along with it, an opportunity to create healthy, memorable experiences came and went for another year. Which opportunity was that you ask? The opportunity to create a trusting, healthy relationship with your children that will aid you in raising them up to be responsible, productive, trustworthy members of society. How can Easter contribute to or detract from your efforts in this regard? I'm glad you asked! My answer however, may have you yelling at me through your screen. I will begin with a story my daughter brought home from elementary school one year. Grade two we believe. Her classmate had arrived, proudly talking about having lost a tooth, but disappointed the tooth fairy hadn't arrived the night before. My daughter turned to her and said there was no such thing as the tooth fairy, that it was probably her Mom or Dad. Her classmate had apparently gotten rather emotional about that and realized she couldn't trust her parents to be truthful with her. You see, many at Easter talk about the Easter Bunny bringing eggs and chocolate for the Easter celebration. For starters as Christians, we shouldn't be celebrating a pagan holiday to a fertility goddess whose depictions include rabbits. We have something far greater to be celebrating at the exact same weekend, and that is Christ's death and Resurrection, the payment for offering us eternal Salvation. This is the part where you yell at me through your screen accusing me of killing all the fun. Instead, I challenge you to consider the Passover celebration, and look up their use of the egg at the Passover Seder, and what it means. Christ is called the Passover Lamb who came to take away the sins of the world. John 1:29 The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. Click To Tweet The egg is often used as an illustration of the Triune God: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. One God, yet three. An egg has three distinct parts: the shell, the white, and the yolk. Three parts but one egg. So do the egg hunts, colour and paint them around the dining room table, but talk about the meanings of the egg. Talk about the life Christ gives us, about His place in the God-head, about how God's Word nourishes and protects us, etc. As women who are not merely single mom's, but also Christian single moms, it behooves us in particular, to always be truthful with our children so that we can build a foundation of openness that our children will draw on when they get older. Do you want to do the "swap a tooth for a coin" routine with your child? Maintain the mystery by having them guess at what they might find in the morning, but be truthful that it is you doing the swap. Don't lie to your child about a fictitious creature being real when they aren't.

As I wrote in a blog article on my author blog back in 2016: As Christians, we all agree that lying is in the list of 10 Commandments that we should not do. But it’s amazing how many Christians are unaware of the fact that God’s view of lying is first seen in the story of Abraham before the Law was given and that His strongest dislike for it is actually seen after the Age of Grace begins in the book of Acts. But once a year, and more often for others such as at Christmas and Easter or when a child loses a tooth, many Christians think it’s OK to lie. They justify it a wide number of ways and accuse people like me of being a kill-joy for pointing out that even positive or benevolent reasons do not justify sin. Scripture tells us to let our yes be yes and our no be no. James 5:12 But above all things, my brethren, swear not, neither by heaven, neither by the earth, neither by any other oath: but let your yea be yea; and your nay, nay; lest ye fall into condemnation. We are told not to lead others astray and to be our brother’s keeper. Matthew 18:6 "If anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him if a large millstone were hung around his neck and he were drowned at the bottom of the sea. We are told not to make promises we won’t or can’t keep to God or to each other. As parents, we need to heed Christ's words in Matthew 5:19 Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. We are teaching our children how to live Godly lives by our examples in everyday life, most notably in the memories we build for them. At Christmas, Easter, and tooth-losing times, we have the opportunity to build trust in our children that what we say is truthful, or to build distrust that we can't always be trusted to be truthful and what else might we be hiding from them? Now you may say you have good reason to keep certain things from your children, but this isn't license to lie to them. Instead, this is license for creativity on your part to only share what is needful for them at the time, age and stage they are in just then. Even God answers our prayers on a need-to-know basis and if we don't need to know an answer to our question, He simply won't give it. He doesn't come up with deceptive scenarios designed to make us think we received an answer, He simply doesn't answer. This is a far better way to handle questions your children don't need answers to than the world's idea of spinning something to say. Young children grow up to become tweenagers and from there to teenagers and then to young adults. Many parents feel disconnected from their older children and often don't understand why. Many children feel distrustful of their parents and that they can't talk to them, often not really sure why. That why began when they were very young. That why began when they were toddlers, kindergartners, in grade 2 and on. Their ability to trust you in mundane times will be tied to being able to trust you in celebratory times. There is no need to build a foundation of distrust, because it will come back to bite you later when you can't connect with your child. Build a trustworthy foundation now. Here at The Christian Single Mother's Stress Coach blog, I want to encourage you to always be truthful with your children at every age and stage they are at. Build that foundation of trust. Include them in your daily planning, your grocery spending, your celebratory spending, etc. Teach them by your example that they are worth your time and effort and that they can trust your word. When they see you following through on your promises to others that you'll be a certain place on time and you actually show up on time, they will trust you to keep your word with them too. When your children see you follow through on your promises to teachers or pastors or bankers, they will rest knowing they can trust you too. When the stories they hear from you about a given situation equal the stories they hear from other classmates' parents about that same situation match, they can rest knowing you are telling the truth. Lying actually causes stress to build in a home. If it used too often for any positive or negative reason, distrust develops and along with that distrust, relationships begin to break down. Cooperation becomes strained. Conversations involving promises risk turning into accusatory arguments. Family members begin to stomp out of dialogues yelling that they can't trust you. This kind of stress tears families apart. If it is allowed to go unchecked, the mental and emotional stress will translate into house and home deteriorating and physical health taking a hit as well. When I talk about injecting peace into your daily routines, communication is part of that. Lying is a sin and listed in the 10 Commandments. Hiding the truth in ways that make others believe something that is not true, is a lie, no matter what form that takes. Click To TweetMaking others believe what is wrong is sin in God's eyes, regardless of our reasons for contributing to the wrong belief. As Christian single moms, we can't afford to have our homes fractured any more than they already are. Let us be truthful in ALL our dealings with our children, and with those we make agreements with so that by our example, our children know they can come to us and trust our word every single time. Read the full article

#breakdown #Christmas #Easter #example #health #lying #nobeno #stress #toothfairy #trustworthy #truthfulness #yesbeyes

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wwwnewunificationchurchcom · 5 years

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(via Beginning at the End of the Unification Church; the "Restoration Backwards Principle" of Salvation Rose: Lady of the Lake of Fire)

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

“…A man met another, who was handsome, intelligent and elegant.

He asked him who he was.

The other said ‘I am the Devil.

’‘But you cannot be,’ said the first man, ‘for the devil is evil and ugly.’‘My friend,’ said Satan, ‘you have been listening to my critics.’

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

A Few Forgotten Facts in the Dicta of Truth

( John 4:44, Mark 6:4, Matthew 13:57 )For my own Father himself testified;

” No prophet is without honour,except in his own house, from his own family,and in his own country…”

Salman Rushdie as the Abdal of St. Francis; the Owl of Islam

There is little doubt of the breadth and scope of his work, which made a huge impact on seekers of Illumination everywhere, especially gratifying for him when his groundbreaking book, “The Sufis”, was published in 1964, and then exposed to an even larger audience when it came out in paperback in 1971.

It was to cause quite an international sensation in it’s claims and calm, clear, exposition of many unknown facts, an exposition that revealed to the world of much about Sufis and Sufism of what had only been guessed at or theorized about as mainly just plain unverified conjecture; by those attempting to explain contemporary Sufism in ordinary religious terms.

His prodigious work ethic, and his studiously written and eruditely exact and careful production of a steady stream of esoteric publications with his own Octagon Press brought to light a huge corpus of material, which he published at an unprecedented rate; all of a depth of expertise and universal scope on such a variety of subject-matters that it was, and still is, unequalled by anyone writing on Sufism to this day; all which he did without any fanfare, and proved all of his loud and ignorant critics wrong, by quietly showing in his actions on his ally; blank paper, that he was well prepared by his predecessors for his globally cosmic mission: that of reaching out to those already prepared, who took his gifts to begin their next steps on the Path.

Indeed, his ability to share and thus help those predestined to receive the real knowledge of the foundation for the Global Unification of all Religions is unsurpassed; the sad truth being that this achievement was about the same Foundation that Rev. Moon was supposed to then set up for Christianity, and which Rev. Moon was to have received from Shah personally, as the current exemplar of the Sufi Elect: which understanding was then completely ignored by the Korean messenger, along with the reality of Islam.

Strangely, even those who began as foes of Islam changed their minds about the followers of the Seal and Envoy of Moses in the 7-10 Crusades, as Christianity was in the position of Canaan and their 7-10 Native Nations and 10 Tribes, these Tribes and Nations which the 7 and 10 Crusades represented numerically: having Islam finally be recognized even by the Templar Knights themselves as having been given the Kingdom

The Templars in their personal relations with Muslims on and off the battlefield could see that these Muslims stood in the position of obviously having become the Second Israel, having been given the land of the Kingdom just as my Father had said.

It was this Reality of which the Crusaders tried to hold back, yet even after taking Jerusalem in the 1st Crusade they realized Islam as the 2nd Israel had replaced the Jews of the 1st Israel, as being appointed by God in the reverting back to the Elder Line of Abraham back going once again to the First Born; Ishmael, which happened after the Jews killed Lord Jesus in the position of Isaac, Abraham's Second Born Son.

Thus Mohammed represented Ishmael, in his Ascension over Jerusalem and Mt. Moriah, as the place of the Rock in Zion in the Night of Power, as Jesus had represented Isaac as the Bridegroom. But the Lamb was called the Sacrificial Lamb by John the Baptist first of all, as in echoing Isaac, from Isaiah 42:2:

“Behold, My Servant, whom I uphold; My chosen one in whom My soul delights.

I have put My Spirit upon Him; He will bring forth justice to the nations.

He will not cry out or raise His voice, Nor make His voice heard in the street….”

Again this is repeated in Matthew, 12:19,

“…He shall not contend, nor cry out, neither shall any man hear his voice in the streets…..”

◊

But this is mentioned because Isaac went with Abraham even when it was quite clear to him that Abraham planned to sacrifice him on the Altar. And Isaac did not struggle, nor try to escape, and was bound without protest. Just like my Father Lord Jesus; he went without protest……

“…..He raised not his voice in the street, but went like a lamb to the slaughter…”

Isaac had also said not a word, even after Abraham tied him to the Altar. Thus the Altar was a sign of the Cross, and the ram caught by his horns that Isaac and Abraham sacrificed instead resembles the “one who wore a “crown of thorns”.

But the problem for the elders of Judah was that in killing Lord Jesus in the position of the Bridegroom we end up with no Isaac: and without Isaac, there could be no Jacob, and thus: no Israel. That is why at the Table, in the Qur’an, it says that anyone who kills a single man it is as if they killed all of mankind. Thus they had actually erased the entire Nation of the 12 Tribes of Israel from the book of life.

This is what my Father really meant when he said

“…Forgive them Father: they know not what they do…”

◊

The Coming of the bride, the Lamb’s wife.

“…For thy Maker is thine husband,

Jehovah of hosts is his name;

and thy Redeemer the Holy One of Israel:

The God of the Whole Earth shall He be called….”

Isaiah 54:5

It is the arrival of the Lady of the Lake of Fire: which shall confound this world

The Sufis, Sayed Idries Shah, and the Design of Providence:

Ibn El-Arabi and the first Real Unificationists.

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The Lovers of God, the Rose of Sharon,

and the fallen Wisdom of Solomon

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

But this knowledge of the widening levels of the Providence was known not just to the Druse; but also once again also to the Sufis; as Sayed Idries Shah makes mention of the same doctrine in what is called “the system” and the technical terms taught in “the school”; as the analogy of the vine and the grapes.

This section can be found in his book “The Sufis” on page 296,

which was published in 1964:

a year before Rev. Moon came to America,

quoting from Lt. Colonel Wilberforce Clarke, an English Sufi.

◊◊◊

The book is called the

“….Awarif el-Maarif….”

( ….‘Gifts of [ Deep } Knowledge’… )

—-written in the 13th century,

and studied by the members of all the orders;

and certainly the 4 Major Orders.

He writes about the parallel Sufic lore to that of the first Assemblies from the 1st and 4th Caliphs after Mohammed; which sees Sufism as a continuum, and as Clarke recorded, used the “wine” allegory to show the gradual development of the Teaching until it became a more or less public manifestation; before retreating back into the Tariks in the 17th century: until now. To wit ( page 296 ),

◊

“This is expressed thus:

◊

“…The seed of Sufism

◊

….was sown in the time of Adam

◊

…..germinated in the time of Noah

◊

…..budded in the time of Abraham,

◊

…..began to develop in the time of Moses

◊

…..reached maturity in the time of Jesus

◊

….produced pure wine in the time of Mohammed….”

◊

This a rather clear indication the 7 levels of the Providence were studied quite closely; long before Sun Myung Moon arrived and claimed “he alone” knew of the 7 levels of the Providence of Salvation. But he did write more knowledgably about the Providence than any man before him, as my Father said of Moon, even as he had once said of John,

“…….Of men born of women, there has not arisen a greater prophet than Rev. Moon:

yet he who is the least in the Kingdom of God is greater than he….”

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

That would be me: the least and the last: in the Kingdom. But I didn’t plan this: it just happened.

————————————————————–

“….I saw Lucifer fall from Heaven as lightning…”

——————————————————

The Sufis; the first Unificationists, had already established the Foundation of Substance on the Prophet’s Foundation of Faith.

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pamphletstoinspire · 7 years

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Articles on Catholic Theology and Teachings - Part 8 - What is the Redemption?

For God so loved the world, as to give his only begotten Son; that whosoever believeth in him, may not perish, but may have life everlasting. --John 3:16

Sin separates us from God

You might hear a Christian say, "Jesus saved us all." What the person is really referring to is something Catholics call the redemption of humanity. Catholics believe that Jesus Christ willingly sacrificed himself on the cross for the redemption of human sins on the behalf of all humanity.

Our beliefs tell us that through one man, Adam, sin entered the world in the form of original sin. Since that time, humans have been cursed with original sin, the results of our first parent’s defiance and rejection of God’s love. Original sin is harbored in every descendant of Adam, the entire human race, from the very moment of conception. It is original sin that weakens the will of man, and creates a tendency in man to embrace evil and selfish passions. Original sin places a barrier between God and us, and the effects of original sin are so devastating that no man, by his own willpower, can overcome the selfishness inherent in original sin.

St. Paul tells us that, "For the wages of sin is death. But the grace of God, life everlasting, in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 6:23)." Sin, both original and personal, separates man from God. Because God is the perfection of all that is holy, just and good he cannot tolerate sinful humanity in the fullness of his presence. Sin places a chasm between man and God that cannot be overcome by human religions, good works without grace, and man’s attempts to "try their best to live a good life." In essence no created person can bridge the gulf of sin between God and man.

God promised the coming of the Messiah to the Jews

We are very fortunate to have a loving and merciful God. No human can reach across the chasm of sin by his own power; fortunately God could. In fact, following the fall of mankind in the Garden of Eden, God began his divine plan to redeem humanity from the suffering of sin. God’s plan of salvation began with the Jewish people, the children of Abraham. Based on Abraham’s faith, love and hope for God, God proclaimed Abraham the father of a new nation, the Jews. As God’s chosen people, they received prophecies and teachings of the Lord from the prophets. Israel was given hope from God, who promised to send a messiah for the redemption of sin. The Jewish prophet Isaiah prophesied the coming of the messiah, the suffering servant, "Because of his affliction he shall see the light in fullness of days; Through his suffering, my servant shall justify many, and their guilt he shall bear. Therefore I will give him his portion among the great, and he shall divide the spoils with the mighty, because he surrendered himself to death and was counted among the wicked; And he shall take away the sins of many, and win pardon for their offenses (Isaiah 53:11-12)."

The ‘Suffering Servant’ fulfills the Jewish law

Jesus Christ, the suffering servant, fulfilled the Jewish prophecies and perfectly upheld the Old Covenant of the Jewish people to the extent that it was perfected in the New Covenant. Christ brought a new perfection to the Jewish law, and this is best explained by Jesus two commandments, "You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments (Matthew 22:37-40)". Jesus both preached and upheld the new spirit of the law with absolute, perfect love for God. He did not abolish the old Jewish covenant but rather fulfilled it and correctly interpreted the Jewish law as only the Messiah could. The Jewish circumcision eventually gave way to Baptism by grace and the sacrifice of animals gave way to the perfect offering of the Sacrifice of the Mass. Christ fulfilled the Passover banquet of the lamb through the ultimate sacrifice of himself, the paschal lamb, for the life of the world. Jesus also fulfilled and perfected the Jewish laws of ritual cleansing, "Hear me, all of you, and understand. Nothing that enters one from outside can defile that person; but the things that come out from within are what defile." Christ’s new teachings of sin are placed in the context of love for God. Christ teaches that sin is not breaking rules and rituals, but the rejection of the perfect divine love of God himself. Only Jesus Christ could have perfectly explained, fulfilled and lived according to the Law.

Jesus Christ Suffered and Died for the redemption of the sinful

God’s love sent Jesus Christ into the world to teach his people the spirit of the law as well as to perfectly atone for the forgiveness of sin. Jesus tells us, "No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. I no longer call you slaves, because a slave does not know what his master is doing. I have called you friends, because I have told you everything I have heard from my Father (John 15:13-15)." He laid his life down, "to serve and to give his life as ransom for many (Mk 10:45)." Indeed, Jesus Christ, true man and true God, willingly accepted the crucifixion at the hands of the Jewish Sanhedrin and Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor. Those who feared and hated him had him crucified for false charges of inciting discord among the Jews and uttering what seemed to the Jewish leaders to be blasphemous words, "Amen, amen, I say to you, before Abraham came to be, I AM (John 8:58)." Thus Jesus testifies that he is God, and that "he who sees me sees the Father also. Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in me? (John 14:8-11)" Christ reveals to the Jews that he not only is the human messiah but also God himself, for "I and the Father are one (John 10:30)." The Jewish leaders, who expected a political messiah, could not accept Jesus' divine words of truth and had him crucified.

Because Jesus Christ was both true God and true Man, he served as the divine and human sacrifice for the atonement of the sins of mankind. His perfect fulfillment of the law, the agony of his Passion, and his death on the cross, paid once and for all for the sins of man. "For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by one man’s obedience many will be made righteous (Romans 5:19)." God’s justice demanded expiation for sins that could not be paid for by any human. Only the perfect, willing and loving sacrifice of the Son of God could atone for sin and bridge the gap between man and God. Jesus himself "by his obedience unto death accomplished the substitution of the suffering Servant, who ‘makes himself an offering for sin,’ when ‘he bore the sin of many,’ and who ‘shall make many to be accounted righteous,’ for ‘he shall bear the iniquities (CCC 615)." Because Christ was truly righteous and truly human, he could sacrifice his life in love for the redemption of all mankind. Thus Christ’s death was an act of the purest love, for his death and resurrection allowed us to die to sin and rise with him in the new life of grace.

Did Jesus die so all humankind could be saved?

Yes, God gave his only son so that all humans, be they believers or unbelievers, could be redeemed by Christ’s sacrifice. Christ did not die for a predestined elect. The Church tells us "Christ died for all men without exception: ‘There is not, never has been, and never will be a single human being for whom Christ did not suffer (CCC 605 and Council of Quiercy)." The Catholic Church does not agree with the Calvinistic doctrine that Jesus died for the salvation of a predestined elect, or that certain people are destined to damnation. Church Tradition preaches in unity with Holy Scripture, "he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey them."

The justice of God demands that no human being can be predestined to hell. God desires all to be saved, but only the individual can reject God’s love and his gift of redemption.

Then all people are guaranteed salvation?

God has given us the gift of free will. The death of Christ on the cross opened the gates of heaven so that all people might be saved, but because of free will we can choose to reject Christ’s free gift of redemption. Christ’s death on the cross cannot force anyone into heaven, and it is conditional. Only those who return the love of Christ and obey his conditions can justify their place in the kingdom of heaven. We call this process justification.

What are the conditions?

Christ preaches that, "No one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit (John 3:2)." We are also told, "[Circumcision] prefigured baptism, which saves you now. It is not a removal of dirt from the body but an appeal to God for a clear conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ (1 Peter 3:21)." St. Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit on Pentecost further explains, "Repent and be baptized every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:38)." St. Peter refers to the gift of grace, the free gift of God imparted on all baptized believers. Grace, merited by Christ’s death on the cross, breaths supernatural life into the soul, cleanses the soul of sin (both original and personal sin) and allows the baptized person to live a life of Christian holiness (provided they do not choose evil over grace by sinning mortally). It is grace that justifies us and allows us to have supernatural faith, hope and charity. "For by grace you are saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, for it is the gift of God (Ephesians 2:8)."

A rich, young man also asks Jesus, "what good must I do to gain eternal life?" Jesus replies, "If you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments (Matthew 19:16-17)." Christ also tell us of his two great commandments, "You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments (Matthew 22:37-40)." Jesus makes it clear that we are justified firstly be the free gift of grace through baptism and secondly by obeying the commandments out of faith, hope and charity. Notice Christ’s exact wording, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." This not only means that we refrain from evil toward our neighbor, but that we obey the positive spirit of Jesus two commandments and the beatitudes he preached at the Sermon on the Plain and the Sermon on the Mount. Not only are baptism, repentance, faith, and obeying the commandments necessary for justification, but also good works for love of God and neighbors.

The love and mercy of God has redeemed humanity, but it is the responsibility of the individual to justify their salvation by responding to Christ’s grace in baptism and obeying his words of truth. How can we know what the truth is? St. Peter says, "Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life (John 6:68)." It is the words of Christ that the Catholic Church preaches, for the "Church of the living God [is] the pillar and foundation of truth (1 Timothy 3:15)."

#catholic theology

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khalix-hyetology · 7 years

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About Marta

My friend @assorted-alvin told me something about Marta that I finally encountered. Basically, if she catches you, she does once or twice say this line: “Your blood shall be the tokens of my virginity.”

Now, there are some ways to interpret this. One sad way is that Marta is not a virgin. She may have been coerced to have sex with Knoth when she was younger. After all he calls her an “intimate” companion since childhood. The loss of one virginity does not signify the loss of the virginity of the spirit, flesh and soul. Marta has reservations on killing people. This is specified by the second letter where Knoth chastises her using rhetoric to show her that her conscience for committing murder is actually sloth (however, I find it interesting that Knoth does not say anytime anything that Marta does is “womanly” considering he was pretty stupid calling Laird possessing “womanly sin”). So, to remain pure in the eyes of “god” Marta, almost in a olden ritualistic way, is offering Blake’s blood in a chalice to show that she is still a virgin: Immaculate in body, soul and spirit. After all, in their gospels they refer to Cain as “uncircumcised” of heart” which pretty much means impure, unclean and completely filthy.

A second way to interpret this is to show that Marta is a virgin in every single way. That she has not have sex with anyone. And the only way to prove her virginity then, without the act of consummation, would still be this ancient ritualistic way of offering the blood of a human sacrifice. The reference to “intimate” companion may just refer to being a close friend. Now, it is true Knoth has the incorrigible habits of a philanderer. Unused dialogues also show that he may have had sex with Val who either is an intersex individual or an eunuch. Also the word catamite is exactly that, a young “male” kept for sexual pleasures. If Val was seen as a male, though they are not really, it still would make sense. However, there is also a large possibility that Knoth didn’t or couldn’t have sex with everyone. If you see his size, his gait — this old man has trouble even walking and pretty much walks with a limp, with slow wobbling steps. The truth is that Knoth also suffers from syphilis perhaps other diseases so it could hurt his performance heavily. There could be some people he didn’t have sex with. Seeing also that Marta, Val, Laird and Nick have no yokemates or sexual partners we know of (though wonder how the latter got Syphilis; it can happen via other ways or they did once have sex), we should take them a bit away from the norm. Of course, Val is not straight and has proven that multiple times. They have interest in almost everyone including Blake and a woman named Ruth.

Seeing that Marta has a large size and strength may have made a patriarchal, incestuous cult generally afraid of her to engage in any form of sex with fear of having themselves being cut down or castrated. Knoth may have also find it beneficial to not sleep with Marta . Rather given her height and weight, may have been given the role of sentinel from a young age. And this would provide use to Temple Gate. Seeing that Laird also uses Nick, a pretty much tall fellow if not taller than Marta, to keep the Scalled in check and is encouraged by Knoth to use violence this logic makes sense. People of the cult avoid Marta like the plague. She even states: “I will thy plague and thy ransom.” So, she seems to feel that she is a colossal figure that acts as a “disinfectant”, as a “bandage to the wound” to people who stray. She sometimes states to Blake, upon catching him: “The stray sheep must be corrected” and “You play the whore in my father’s house.” Basically, being the person to uphold the crooked sense of justice in Temple Gate.

Additionally, Marta pretty much rhymes a lot of what she says. Aside that, later on you can hear about infants being dashed to bits and counting the enemies of “god” as her own enemies: those who rise against “god” (not knowing her “god” is actually Murkoff. Satan inimical Deus indeed). If you don’t rush towards the first encounter and wait, you can hear what she talks about, more or less, and see that they are like rhyming couplets:

“In the Book of Life of The Lamb Slain.”

“A Blade’s baptism for the Spider Eyed Lamb.”

“By the crooked knife, Legion fettered every man chained.”

“Every man that hath a ear, so he may leadeth in captivity.”

“Bleeds false heaven’s fear, beast seeds the cracked city.”

“From seas heaven borne lion dragon leopard.”

“Blasphemous seven horns of the mustard scion shepherd.”

“Here is the patience, and the faith of the saints.”

“The Lamb slain, foundation of the world.”

“And the pain found stained by the nation of the sword.”

“Deceiveth them that dwell on the earth.”

“Bleed the wench before hell after birth.”

“Earthquakes flames thunder.”

“Lake carrion, flayed woman, graves under Savior’s wedding supper.”

“He hath judged the great whore. Writ: Blood, Abram’s worship.”

“That ye may eat the flesh of kings, mighty men and horses.”

“Fore death, and the righteous sing rightly there before him.”

“Temple Gate cuts the whore, bleed a price, the true ascend.”

“The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all amen.”

These are not completely in chronological order and the “4th” one I had to jot down from memory. You can actually see the rhymes and the internal rhymes of these sayings. It also helps build some foundation on Temple Gate’s religion which definitely borrows Christian imagery and some Abrahamic imagery but also reverses them or “perverts” them in a way. The cult is not Christian as it does not respect Christianity or Christian beliefs on any kind, though it would like to believe it is Christian. I am no expert in Christian imagery but I could tell some things were off because we players are meant to see some of those discrepancies without being experts. Why should there be chaos during the savior’s supper? Armageddon is not a wedding feast. Similarly, there is lamb and lion and dragon imageries in Christianity. However, there is no spider-eyed Lamb that I know of.

(There are is a video of Marta’s dialogues. Some of her lines are songs. Personally, it is great the way final game had her just raspily quoting Ezekiel gospel quotes rather just sing. But here is the link if you are interested hearting the Marta dialogues:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMQnl9sUHRg)

If we look at the well known William Blake’s imagery from Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience (wonder if Blake is also an allusion to those things) you will see that Blake talks fondly of the Lamb and that the Tiger burning bright in the night. Blake is in awe of God because he has made the Lamb and he also made the Tiger. William Blake writes:

“Did he smile his work to see? Did he who made the Lamb make thee? Tyger Tyger burning bright, In the forests of the night: What immortal hand or eye, Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?“

So, you can see that Blake likes the Tiger as well and uses it as a symbol to understand God. In that case, there is no need for God to make “spider-eyed lambs” when God has made the Tiger, and as Marta says, Lion, dragon and leopard. The dragon is traditionally I think an antagonistic figure in Christianity. So, Marta may be saying aside Temple Gate the world bears them though she also says slaying the Lamb built the foundation of the world. She also states of becoming this entity that eats the flesh of kings, mighty men and horses: this may be figurative but Laird doesn’t take this figuratively.

Their “religion” is mostly based on bloodshed and the “whore who bears the antichrist” though I don’t think Christianity bases itself on any of these things. Obviously, The Testament of New Ezekiel uses Christian imagery but at the same time it does not follow any true Christian or Abrahamic tenets. The belief that there is a “whore” harbouring the antichrist born from Knoth and Knoth;s flock is also pretty non-viable. Knoth’s flock may have children with disabilities because of the fact they are inbreeding and incestuos like anything. It doesn’t mean the antichrist in any way.

Marta herself shows some aspects of her beliefs when saying these lines and when she is killing people. She pretty much believes there is whore around and Temple Gate must “bleed a price” for the true to “ascend.” Though, she has her doubts. After all she doesn’t seem to believe in “righteous violence.” Yet, she plays the part of the sentinel because her society has no other place for her than to be that. She is too large and strong so perhaps no one wants her as a yokemate. We do not if she mothered any children or took care of them as Val. The only thing her society does is to make her the hound and avenging angel and she has become codependent on Knoth and that society (who wouldn’t, indoctrinated by The Towers and all of that) that gaining another form of freedom may not easily cross her mind.

#Marta #Marta is Queen #meta #The Testament of New Ezekial #Heretics #Val #Knoth #Outlast 2 #long reads

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softupshur · 7 years

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Imperfect Faith: Chapter 3

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When her mother is arrested on Lydia Degan's ranch, a young Marta finds herself amidst the Testament of New Ezekiel in its infancy. As she travels with the other escapees, she watches the church grow, the gospel teachings evolve, and create a close bond with the reverend Sullivan Knoth.

Characters: Marta and Sullivan Knoth

Chapter 3-October 1, 1968:

The members of the testament shuffled around the bus and chattered earlier than usual. They gathered supplies and spoke a hundred miles a minute, but Marta was only now waking up. She searched for Knoth first, but settled on Jasmine, who was one of the few people not preoccupied.

“Miss Jasmine?”

“Oh, good morning, Marta. How are you?”

“Confused. Why is everyone in such a rush?”

Jasmine smiled brightly. “Father Knoth says it is finally safe for us to go out again, so everyone is making an event of it.”

“That’s good,” Marta took the seat beside Jasmine. “Are there plans?”

“It depends on who you ask.” Jasmine looked to the men from the radio. “The men are going out to look for work to build our funds back up. Father Knoth is going to preach, and I’m going to stay with a few of the women to watch after the little ones. We were thinking of going for a picnic in the park. How does that sound?”

Marta didn’t realize herself to be a ‘little one’ until Jasmine’s question. It made her frown. “I’m sure you all will have a nice time.”

“You don’t want to go? I know it might not be much fun with a bunch of ladies and little babies, but I’m sure there will be other kids there, closer to your age.”

Marta shook her head. “Thank you, but I think I’ll do something else.”

“I see…” Jasmine’s voice sank for a moment before she picked it back up. “Well, I know some of the younger couples are going into town. Maybe you’d like to join one of them?”

Marta looked out to the groups of people.

They laughed and chattered amongst themselves, but whenever Marta came to them, there were frowns and silence. Most of the testament avoided Marta when they could. As if looking at the child would bring a curse to them.

Then there was Knoth with his favorite deacon: Henry, the same man who brought Marta to the bus. They talked to one another in hushed tones, but Marta still went to join them.

She stood aside, and waited for them to finish, without a word.

Henry overlooked her and walked by when the conversation ended, but Knoth remained.

“Good morning, Marta. How are you?”

“I’m doing well, Father Knoth,” Marta replied. “How about yourself?”

“Very well. It’s been a long time since we’ve been able to spread our word to the outside. I believe God has presented us this opportunity because more can be saved than we had initially thought possible.”

Marta smiled at the thought. “Is there any way I can help?”

Knoth’s eyes widened slightly. “You wouldn’t rather go to the park with the women?”

Marta shook her head. “No, I’d much rather help the testament.” At first she spoke in confidence, but when Knoth took longer to respond than usual, she continued. “But only if that’s okay. I understand if I’m too young to help.”

“Not at all,” Knoth chuckled. “I was just surprised is all, but if you would like to help, then you are welcome to come along. I think I have a perfect job for you.”

“Really?”

“Yes, but first, let us pray.”

“Yes, Father.”

“Brother Henry, would you please lead us in prayer?”

“Certainly, Father Knoth.”

Henry bowed his head and prayer and began when Knoth and Marta followed suit.

“Our father who art in Heaven, please guide us as we venture out to preach your word this blessed day. Guide the lost and weary to us. Let them see your presence through your prophet Knoth. Give him the right words to say, and bless our flock as they work for our cause. Praise be to the God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Knoth. Amen.”

“Thank you, Henry,” Knoth said of the prayer. “I trust God will indeed be with us today.”

The trio left the bus, and began their walk into town.

As they started out, Knoth handed Marta a stack of brochures he carried. “I would like it if you could help me hand these out. Sometimes they are the only way to get through to the people, a physical reminder of our message. That’s why it is an important job. For once we gained a follower of a man on the streets, finding this on the ground. He took it as a sign and sought us out. Now, he is a valuable member of our testament, and seeks out work today with the others to help our cause.”

The story brought a smile to Marta’s face. “I’m glad that we can help more people. Do you think that a lot will be saved today?”

“I certainly hope so. I would save them all if I could.”

“Well...we can save a lot, right?”

“Perhaps, but we must not get too ahead of ourselves.”

“But we want to save as many as possible, right?”

“We do, but it is not always about saving everyone. Sometimes it is about saving only one person, but even if that is all we can save, we must still take joy. For that means one less soul to the pit. One more person to call a brother or sister.”

“Yes, one is better than none at all...”

“Remember that today, Marta. If we can save just one person: man, woman, or child, then God will rejoice in us. For does the shepherd not rejoice more in retrieving the single lost lamb, over the 99 already found?”

“He does.”

“Then so shall we.”

The rest of walk was made in relative silence, aside from the occasional small talk between Knoth and Henry.

20 minutes later, they found themselves at a block bustling with life. Every store had its doors wide open, and plenty of customers weaved in and out the shops. They passed by buskers and street performers, but there was still an open spot for the reverend, as if it were reserved for him.

He took the area and looked to Henry and Marta for approval before he began his sermon.

“God has spoken to me!”

A businessman quickened his pace.

“And he speaks of his displeasure in us. For since the sacrifice of his only begotten son, man has twisted and perversed his teachings beyond recognition!”

A woman ignores Henry when he tries to give her a brochure, but she does stop and take the one from Marta. She forces a smile for the little girl, but she is quick to be on her way.

“But fear not! In his great mercy, God has given us time to repent! He has not yet abandoned us! For from the book of Deuteronomy Chapter 18, verse 18, ‘I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers. And I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him’. Gather and I shall speak those words to you!”

Marta hands out a few more brochures, but she sees one man throw it in the trashcan when he thinks she is not looking.

“But paradise is still at hand! Even as you all pass by, God is still reaching out!”

A few men are stopped by Knoth’s targeting words. They stop and listen for a few minutes, but when they read through the brochure, they shuffle away, their heads hung low.

Marta smiles when one keeps ahold of his pamphlet.

“He’s in our dreams, calling for us when we sleep. A hushed murmur in the masses, a figure in the distance, a voice in the static…”

A gentleman dressed nicer than the others stops to listen.

Marta expects him to hurry by like the others, but he never turns away. He takes the pamphlet and scans it throughout the sermon.

Only when Knoth steps down does the gentleman speak.

“You hear the voice in the static too?”

“Yes, I do,” Knoth’s voice softened then. For he spoke not as a preacher, but a fellow man. “But its message only became clear when I was at my lowest point.”

The gentleman chuckled. “And here I was thinking I was losing my damn mind. No one has believed me about the static. Even my wife said I was crazy.”

“What did you hear in the voice?” Knoth asked him.

“I was hoping you could tell me.”

“Do you not understand its message?”

He shook his head. “I hear it as clear as we’re talking now, but I don’t know what it is telling me. It speaks in gibberish, but the voice is so clearly human. I wish I knew how to describe it better…”

“Sometimes the holy voices speak to us in tongues that we cannot comprehend, but I believe the voice is what beckoned you to us today. For God was calling out to you to save you from his wrath.”

“I can’t say I’ve ever been a religious man,” he started, before looking Knoth in the eye. “But you’re the first person who didn’t call me crazy for hearing things.”

“Many a great men have been called crazy in their time, have they not?”

“Can’t argue with you there, sir.”

“Please, call me Father Knoth.”

“Then call me Dr. Friedman.”

“Oh, a doctor, are you?”

“A surgeon to be precise. For eight years now, but I don’t know. It’s complicated…”

Knoth put a hand on the gentleman’s shoulder. “Tell me all about it, son.”

Knoth took a seat with Friedman, and Marta looked to Henry for instruction. “Do we keep passing these out?” Marta asked of her dwindling stock of pamphlets.

“We can take a break now. Let them have their space.”

Marta nodded and joined the deacon’s side, allowing Knoth and Friedman their privacy.

“Is this how the sermons usually go?” she asked him.

“Sometimes,” Henry replied.

“How do they go other times?”

“We used to get more people, but that was in a town where we were known. We have to start from scratch now, so it’s inevitable we will not receive as many, but it’s okay. Father Knoth will guide us through this as he always had.”

“What was the biggest sermon you’d ever seen?”

Henry smiled. “The sermon where I was saved. He spoke with such conviction and power that we were all drawn to him that day. He wasn’t like the rest of those preachers who sing Kumbaya and tell you that God loves everyone no matter what. Knoth understood the road to salvation is a perilous one. It’s a harsh truth that many turn their eyes from, but that doesn’t change it. For how could a kind and loving God create a world so harsh and cruel?”

Marta shifted uncomfortably. He spoke the same philosophies as Knoth, but hadn’t Knoth’s sympathy. “But doesn’t God promise us paradise? Wouldn’t he have to be kind if he promises that?”

“He can be, but only those with the strength to follow him. That’s why we must rejoice in the single lost lamb. For if we concern ourselves with wolves…” he shook his head, unable to finish. “Just consider yourself blessed that you are of those 99 sheep who need not be sought out.”

Marta chose not to engage the deacon any further, and he didn’t force her to talk anymore. They merely waited together until Knoth and Friedman had had their time.

Before they returned to their own, Knoth had spoken two more sermons. Some passed by, and others stayed to listen, but Friedman was the only one to join them when they made the journey back.

Nonetheless, Knoth continued to speak excitedly of the testament, and it was at each others side that they walked all the way back.

#I had to research bible verses and tune into former years of baptist church services for this chapter fml #a very Knoth-centric chapter fyi #Marta #Sullivan Knoth #Outlast 2 #writing #fanfiction

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fevie168 · 6 years

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Wednesday (January 2): Christ stands among you

Scripture: John 1:19-28

19 And this is the testimony of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, "Who are you?" 20 He confessed, he did not deny, but confessed, "I am not the Christ." 21 And they asked him, "What then? Are you Elijah?" He said, "I am not." "Are you the prophet?" And he answered, "No." 22 They said to him then, "Who are you? Let us have an answer for those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?" 23 He said, "I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, `Make straight the way of the Lord,' as the prophet Isaiah said." 24 Now they had been sent from the Pharisees. 25 They asked him, "Then why are you baptizing, if you are neither the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the prophet?" 26 John answered them, "I baptize with water; but among you stands one whom you do not know, 27 even he who comes after me, the thong of whose sandal I am not worthy to untie." 28 This took place in Bethany beyond the Jordan, where John was baptizing.

Meditation: Do you recognize the presence of the Lord Jesus in your life? John the Baptist did such a great job of stirring the peoples' expectation of the Messiah's arrival, that many thought he might be the Messiah himself, or at least the great prophet Elijah who was expected to reappear at the Messiah's coming (see Malachi 4:5, Deuteronomy 18:15). John had no mistaken identity. In all humility and sincerity he said he was only a voice bidding people to prepare the way for the coming of the Messiah King.

John points to the Redeemer who comes to save us from sin and death John the Baptist bridges the Old and New Testaments. He is the last of the Old Testament Prophets who points the way to the Messiah. He is the first of the New Testament witnesses and martyrs. He is the herald who prepares the way for Jesus and who announces his mission to the people: Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world! John saw from a distance what the Messiah came to accomplish - our redemption from slavery to sin and our adoption as sons and daughters of God, our heavenly Father. Do you recognize your identity as an adopted child of God and a citizen of God's heavenly kingdom?

John was the greatest of the prophets, yet he lived as a humble and faithful servant of God. He pointed others to Jesus, the Messiah and Savior of the world. The Christian church from the earliest of times has given John many titles which signify his prophetic mission: Witness of the Lord, Trumpet of Heaven, Herald of Christ, Voice of the Word, Precursor of Truth, Friend of the Bridegroom, Crown of the Prophets, Forerunner of the Redeemer, Preparer of Salvation, Light of the Martyrs, and Servant of the Word. Do you point others to Jesus Christ by the testimony of your witness and example?

The Lord reveals his presence to us through the Holy Spirit Luke tells us that when the presence of the Lord Jesus was revealed to Mary (Luke 1:35), and to her cousin Elizabeth (Luke 1:41), and to John the Baptist in the womb of his mother (Luke 1:15,41), and to Zechariah, John's father (Luke 1:67) - they were all filled with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit reveals to us the presence of the Lord Jesus who comes to dwell within us. Ask the Lord Jesus to fill you with the Holy Spirit and to renew in you the gifts of faith, hope, and love, and the boldness and courage to point others to the presence and power of the Lord Jesus.

"Lord Jesus, fill me with your Holy Spirit and make me a herald of your word of truth and grace. Fill me with the joy of the Gospel that I may eagerly point others to you as John did through his life and testimony."

Psalm 98:1-4

1 O sing to the LORD a new song, for he has done marvelous things! His right hand and his holy arm have gotten him victory. 2 The LORD has made known his victory, he has revealed his vindication in the sight of the nations. 3 He has remembered his steadfast love and faithfulness to the house of Israel. All the ends of the earth have seen the victory of our God. 4 Make a joyful noise to the LORD, all the earth; break forth into joyous song and sing praises!

Daily Quote from the early church fathers: John points to the Redeemer, by Gregory the Great (540-604 AD)

"John did not baptize with the Spirit but with water, since he was unable to take away the sins of those being baptized. He washed their bodies with water but not their hearts with pardon. Why did one whose baptism did not forgive sins baptize, except that he was observing his vocation as forerunner? He whose birth foreshadowed greater birth, by his baptizing foreshadowed the Lord who would truly baptize. He whose preaching made him the forerunner of Christ, by baptizing also became his forerunner, using a symbol of the future sacrament. With these other mysteries he makes known the mystery of our Redeemer, declaring that he has stood among people and not been known. The Lord appeared in a human body: he came as God in flesh, visible in his body, invisible in his majesty." (excerpt from FORTY GOSPEL HOMILIES 4)

Tuesday (January 1): "He was called Jesus"

Scripture: Luke 2:16-21

16 And they went with haste, and found Mary and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger. 17 And when they saw it they made known the saying which had been told them concerning this child; 18 and all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them. 19 But Mary kept all these things, pondering them in her heart. 20 And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them. 21 And at the end of eight days, when he was circumcised, he was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb.

Old Testament Reading: Numbers 6:22-27

22 The LORD said to Moses, 23 "Say to Aaron and his sons, Thus you shall bless the people of Israel: you shall say to them, 24 The LORD bless you and keep you: 25 The LORD make his face to shine upon you, and be gracious to you: 26 The LORD lift up his countenance upon you, and give you peace. 27 "So shall they put my name upon the people of Israel, and I will bless them."

Meditation: What's the significance of a name? For the Jewish people the giving of a name had great importance. When a name was given it represented what that person should be in the future. An unknown name meant that someone could not be completely known. To not acknowledge someone's name meant both denial of the person, destruction of their personality, and change in their destiny. A person's name expressed the reality of his or her being at its deepest level. A Jewish male child was named at the time of circumcision, eight days after birth. This rite was instituted by God as an outward sign to single out those who belonged to the chosen people (Genesis 17:10-12). It was a sign of the covenant that God made with Abraham and his posterity.

Jesus - the eternal Son of God who was born of a woman to become our Savior In fulfilment of this precept, Mary's newborn child is given the name Jesus on the eighth day according to the Jewish custom. Joseph and Mary gave the name Jesusbecause that is the name given by God's messenger before Jesus was conceived in Mary's womb (Luke 1:31, Matthew 1:21). This name signifies Jesus' identity and his mission. The literal Hebrew means the Lord saves. Since God alone can forgive sins and free us from death, it is God who, in Jesus his eternal Son became a man to offer up his life as the atoning sacrifice to save his people from their sins (Matthew 1:21). The son that Mary bore is both God and man - the "Word who was God" (John 1:1) and who "became flesh and dwelt among us" (John 1:14). That is why Mary is not only called the mother of the Christ (the Greek word for Messiah in Hebrew) but also the mother of God or Theotokos in Greek which literally means "God bearer."

Jesus - the name above every other name In the birth and naming of this child we see the wondrous design and plan of God in giving us a Savior who would bring us grace (the gift of God's favor), mercy, and freedom from the power of sin and the fear of death. The name Jesus signifies that the very name of God is present in the person of his Son who became man for our salvation. Peter the Apostle exclaimed that there is no other name under heaven given among mortals by which we must be saved (Acts 2:12). In the name of Jesus demons flee, cripples walk, the blind see, the deaf hear, and the dead are raised. His name is exalted far above every other name (Philippians 2:9-11).

The name Jesus is at the heart of all Christian prayer. It is through and in Jesus that we pray to the Father in the power of the Holy Spirit. Many Christians have died with one word on their lips, the name of Jesus. Do you exalt the name of Jesus and pray with confidence in his name?

"Lord Jesus Christ, I exalt your name above every other name. For in you I have pardon, mercy, grace and victory over sin and death. You humbled yourself for my sake and for the sake of all sinners by sharing in our humanity and by dying on the cross. Help me to always praise your holy name and to live for your greater glory."

Psalm 67

1 May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face to shine upon us, [Selah] 2 that your way may be known upon earth, your saving power among all nations. 3 Let the peoples praise you, O God; let all the peoples praise you! 4 Let the nations be glad and sing for joy, for you judge the peoples with equity and guide the nations upon earth. [Selah] 5 Let the peoples praise you, O God; let all the peoples praise you! 6 The earth has yielded its increase; God, our God, has blessed us. 7 God has blessed us; let all the ends of the earth fear him!

Daily Quote from the early church fathers: By Christ's faith, hope, and love we are purified, by Bede the Venerable, 672-735 A.D.

"He therefore received in the flesh the circumcision decreed by the law, although he appeared in the flesh absolutely without any blemish of pollution. He who came in the likeness of sinful flesh (Romans 8:3) - not in sinful flesh - did not turn away from the remedy by which sinful flesh was ordinarily made clean. Similarly, not because of necessity but for the sake of example, he also submitted to the water of baptism, by which he wanted the people of the new law of grace to be washed from the stain of sins... "The reason 'the child who was born to us, the son who was given to us ' (Isaiah 9:6), received the name Jesus (that is, 'Savior') does not need explanation in order to be understood by us, but we need eager and vigilant zeal so that we too may be saved by sharing in his name. Indeed, we read how the angel interprets the name of Jesus: 'He will save his people from their sins' (Matthew 1:21). And without a doubt we believe and hope that the one who saves us from sins is not failing to save us also from the corruptions which happen because of sins, and from death itself, as the psalmist testifies when he says, 'Who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases' (Psalm 103:3). Indeed, with the pardoning of all of our iniquities, all our diseases will be completely healed when, with the appearance of the glory of the resurrection, our last enemy, death, will be destroyed... We read that circumcision was done with knives made of rock (Joshua 5:2), and the rock was Christ (1 Corinthians 10:4). And by Christ's faith, hope and love the hearts of the good are purified not only in baptism but furthermore in every devout action. This daily circumcision of ours (that is, the continual cleansing of our heart) does not cease from always celebrating the sacrament of the eighth day. (excerpt from HOMILIES ON THE GOSPELS 1.11)

Monday (December 31): "The Word became flesh and dwelt among us"

Scripture: John 1:1-18

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God; 3 all things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made. 4 In him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. 6 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7 He came for testimony, to bear witness to the light, that all might believe through him. 8 He was not the light, but came to bear witness to the light. 9 The true light that enlightens every man was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world knew him not. 11 He came to his own home, and his own people received him not. 12 But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God; 13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. 14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth; we have beheld his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father. 15 (John bore witness to him, and cried, "This was he of whom I said, `He who comes after me ranks before me, for he was before me.'") 16 And from his fulness have we all received, grace upon grace. 17 For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18 No one has ever seen God; the only Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he has made him known.

Meditation: Why does John the Evangelist begin his Gospel account with a description of the Word of God and the creation of the universe and humankind? How might the beginning of John's Gospel be linked with the beginning of the first book of Genesis (John 1:1-3 and Genesis 1:1-3)? The "word of God" was a common expression among the Jews. God’s word in the Old Testament Scriptures is an active, creative, and dynamic word. "By the word of the Lord the heavens were made" (Psalm 33:6). "He sends forth his commands to the earth; his word runs swiftly" (Psalm 147:15). "Is not my word like fire, says the Lord, and like a hammer which breaks the rock in pieces" (Jeremiah 23:29)?

The eternal Word leaped down from heaven The writer of the (deutero-canonical) Book of Wisdom addresses God as the one who "made all things by your word" (Wisdom 9:1). God’s word is also equated with his wisdom. "The Lord by wisdom founded the earth" (Proverbs 3:19). The Book of Wisdom describes "wisdom" as God's eternal, creative, and illuminating power. Both "word" and "wisdom" are seen as one and the same. "For while gentle silence enveloped all things, and night in its swift course was now half gone, your all-powerful word leaped from heaven, from the royal throne, into the midst of the land that was doomed, a stern warrior carrying the sharp sword of your authentic command" (deutero-canonical Book of Wisdom 18:14-16).

Truly man and truly God John describes Jesus as God's creative, life-giving and light-giving Word that has come to earth in human form. "God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life" (John 3:16). Jesus is the wisdom and power of God which created the world and sustains it who assumed a human nature in order to accomplish our salvation in it. Jesus became truly man while remaining truly God. "What he was, he remained, and what he was not he assumed" (from an early church antiphon for morning prayer). Jesus Christ is truly the Son of God who, without ceasing to be God and Lord, became a man and our brother. From the time of the Apostles the Christian faith has insisted on the incarnation of God's Son "who has come in the flesh" (1 John 4:2) . Gregory of Nyssa, one of the great early church fathers (330-395 AD) wrote:

Sick, our nature demanded to be healed; fallen, to be raised up; dead, to rise again. We had lost the possession of the good; it was necessary for it to be given back to us. Closed in darkness, it was necessary to bring us the light; captives, we awaited a Savior; prisoners, help; slaves, a liberator. Are these things minor or insignificant? Did they not move God to descend to human nature and visit it, since humanity was in so miserable and unhappy a state?

Christians never cease proclaiming anew the wonder of the Incarnation. The Son of God assumed a human nature in order to accomplish our salvation in it. The Son of God ...worked with human hands; he thought with a human mind. He acted with a human will, and with a human heart he loved. Born of the Virgin Mary, he has truly been made one of us, like to us in all things except sin (Gaudium et Spes).

We become partakers of Christ's divine nature If we are going to behold the glory of God we will do it through Jesus Christ. Jesus became the partaker of our humanity so we could be partakers of his divinity (2 Peter 1:4). God's purpose for us, even from the beginning of his creation, is that we would be fully united with him. When Jesus comes God is made known as the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. By our being united in Jesus, God becomes our Father and we become his sons and daughters. Do you thank the Father for sending his only begotten Son to redeem you and to share with you his glory?

"Almighty God and Father of light, your eternal Word leaped down from heaven in the silent watches of the night. Open our hearts to receive his life and increase our vision with the rising of dawn, that our lives may be filled with his glory and his peace.”

Psalm 96:1-2,11-13

1 O sing to the LORD a new song; sing to the LORD, all the earth! 2 Sing to the LORD, bless his name; tell of his salvation from day to day. 11 Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice; let the sea

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tacitennui · 4 years

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The Joy of the Lord

It has been 10 days since things have ended, and I thought about this person every single day. I thought the sadness would have dissipated by now but it remains.

Something helpful that Natalie told me is that she was affected by a situation for half a year. She only saw this person twice and then they ghosted her. But it put things into perspective for me that there isn’t a need to rush this process. It’s strange - I’ve always wanted to know what heartache felt like. Now I have a glimpse of it. I am sad, and this is still painful, but I am grateful.

I think this person really impacted me and left an impression. A part of me wonders if they are one of the best things that have happened to me this year. I learned so much about what I want from a relationship, what I’m looking for, what I won’t settle for, what I’m like in a relationship, what I need, etc. I am so grateful to this person for teaching me this.

Another thing I am grateful for is that they have an active spiritual walk with the Lord. We spoke about reading the Bible in more reader friendly formats, and he mentioned that he has a set of individually bound books of the Bible. He said that it was good to see how long each book was, and I thought that would help my reading and make it less intimidating.

It’s been 2 days now since I’ve gotten my NT set, and I decided that I would try to read a book a day, or 60 minutes. Whichever is more feasible. I really want to read the entire canon before i turn 30. Today, while reading, I felt the joy of the Lord in the midst of pain and sadness. It made me happy.

I’m sad that a person who have impacted me so much won’t be in my life, but they gave me something truly priceless and unimaginable. A deeper relationship with God is something more precious than a romantic relationshipi. I struggle with my relationship with God - sometimes it feels like it’s non existent, but other times I’m frustrated, it feels rocky, and I’m unsatisfied. I would really like this relationship to be better maintained, as it is my longest relationship with any being. Yes, there’s my family, but to be truly known, to have a Friend, someone that knows my innermost thoughts in a very personal way, that is a relationship I only have with my Creator.

To close, some Christian things that have gotten me through this in the last week:

Songs: -Graves to Gardens

-See a Victory

Scripture:

-Romans 8:38-39 38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,[k]neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

-This passage spoke to me because even though I was heartbroken, it reminded me that God still loved me despite the fact that I was in pain.

-Romans 5:3-5 3 Not only so, but we[a] also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4 perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5 And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.

-I remembered this passage when I was doing a “Waiting in Singleness” series online. This passage was cited and the point the speaker was making is that our character is revealed in our suffering. She used this in the context of waiting - that waiting is also suffering onn its own. After everything ended, I felt like I was suffering in some way, and it was a reminder to persevere and have hope in God’s provision

-Genesis 22:8 8 Abraham answered, “God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” And the two of them went on together.

-This is from the test of Abraham, where God tells him to sacrifice his one and only son, Isaac. It spoke to me because it shows Abraham’s faithfulness and trust in God. He is willing to give up his beloved son because God told him to. It serves as an example for me because I want to be willing to give up my desire for earthly relationships to God, trusting that he will provide me with the right person, and that I don’t want to put earthly relationships ahead of God. I have to trust that God knows what he’s doing.

-Acts 15:36-41 36 Some time later Paul said to Barnabas, “Let us go back and visit the believers in all the towns where we preached the word of the Lord and see how they are doing.” 37 Barnabas wanted to take John, also called Mark, with them, 38 but Paul did not think it wise to take him, because he had deserted them in Pamphylia and had not continued with them in the work. 39 They had such a sharp disagreement that they parted company. Barnabas took Mark and sailed for Cyprus, 40 but Paul chose Silas and left, commended by the believers to the grace of the Lord. 41 He went through Syria and Cilicia, strengthening the churches.

-I looked into Paul and Barnabas because I felt like we were 2 ships passing in the night. We were so similar, but I felt that we were being called towards different things. it reminded me of how Paul and Barnabas separated and had their own respective ministries that impacted different parts of Asia Minor.

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dailychapel · 5 years

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Dear Lord, Thank You for fearfully and wonderfully creating each of us. Thank You for giving us worth in Your eyes. Help us live as the one You uniquely intended us to be. Help us abide instead of strive, living peacefully and joyfully as heirs to Your Kingdom and co-heirs with Christ. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

[Gen 31:25-50 NLT] 25 Laban caught up with Jacob as he was camped in the hill country of Gilead, and he set up his camp not far from Jacob's. 26 "What do you mean by deceiving me like this?" Laban demanded. "How dare you drag my daughters away like prisoners of war? 27 Why did you slip away secretly? Why did you deceive me? And why didn't you say you wanted to leave? I would have given you a farewell feast, with singing and music, accompanied by tambourines and harps. 28 Why didn't you let me kiss my daughters and grandchildren and tell them good-bye? You have acted very foolishly! 29 I could destroy you, but the God of your father appeared to me last night and warned me, 'Leave Jacob alone!' 30 I can understand your feeling that you must go, and your intense longing for your father's home. But why have you stolen my gods?" 31 "I rushed away because I was afraid," Jacob answered. "I thought you would take your daughters from me by force. 32 But as for your gods, see if you can find them, and let the person who has taken them die! And if you find anything else that belongs to you, identify it before all these relatives of ours, and I will give it back!" But Jacob did not know that Rachel had stolen the household idols. 33 Laban went first into Jacob's tent to search there, then into Leah's, and then the tents of the two servant wives--but he found nothing. Finally, he went into Rachel's tent. 34 But Rachel had taken the household idols and hidden them in her camel saddle, and now she was sitting on them. When Laban had thoroughly searched her tent without finding them, 35 she said to her father, "Please, sir, forgive me if I don't get up for you. I'm having my monthly period." So Laban continued his search, but he could not find the household idols. 36 Then Jacob became very angry, and he challenged Laban. "What's my crime?" he demanded. "What have I done wrong to make you chase after me as though I were a criminal? 37 You have rummaged through everything I own. Now show me what you found that belongs to you! Set it out here in front of us, before our relatives, for all to see. Let them judge between us! 38 "For twenty years I have been with you, caring for your flocks. In all that time your sheep and goats never miscarried. In all those years I never used a single ram of yours for food. 39 If any were attacked and killed by wild animals, I never showed you the carcass and asked you to reduce the count of your flock. No, I took the loss myself! You made me pay for every stolen animal, whether it was taken in broad daylight or in the dark of night. 40 "I worked for you through the scorching heat of the day and through cold and sleepless nights. 41 Yes, for twenty years I slaved in your house! I worked for fourteen years earning your two daughters, and then six more years for your flock. And you changed my wages ten times! 42 In fact, if the God of my father had not been on my side--the God of Abraham and the fearsome God of Isaac--you would have sent me away empty-handed. But God has seen your abuse and my hard work. That is why he appeared to you last night and rebuked you!" 43 Then Laban replied to Jacob, "These women are my daughters, these children are my grandchildren, and these flocks are my flocks--in fact, everything you see is mine. But what can I do now about my daughters and their children? 44 So come, let's make a covenant, you and I, and it will be a witness to our commitment." 45 So Jacob took a stone and set it up as a monument. 46 Then he told his family members, "Gather some stones." So they gathered stones and piled them in a heap. Then Jacob and Laban sat down beside the pile of stones to eat a covenant meal. 47 To commemorate the event, Laban called the place Jegar-sahadutha (which means "witness pile" in Aramaic), and Jacob called it Galeed (which means "witness pile" in Hebrew). 48 Then Laban declared, "This pile of stones will stand as a witness to remind us of the covenant we have made today." This explains why it was called Galeed--"Witness Pile." 49 But it was also called Mizpah (which means "watchtower"), for Laban said, "May the LORD keep watch between us to make sure that we keep this covenant when we are out of each other's sight. 50 If you mistreat my daughters or if you marry other wives, God will see it even if no one else does. He is a witness to this covenant between us.

[Psa 78:69-72 NLT] 69 There he built his sanctuary as high as the heavens, as solid and enduring as the earth. 70 He chose his servant David, calling him from the sheep pens. 71 He took David from tending the ewes and lambs and made him the shepherd of Jacob's descendants--God's own people, Israel. 72 He cared for them with a true heart and led them with skillful hands.

[Heb 7:1-28 NLT] 1 This Melchizedek was king of the city of Salem and also a priest of God Most High. When Abraham was returning home after winning a great battle against the kings, Melchizedek met him and blessed him. 2 Then Abraham took a tenth of all he had captured in battle and gave it to Melchizedek. The name Melchizedek means "king of justice," and king of Salem means "king of peace." 3 There is no record of his father or mother or any of his ancestors--no beginning or end to his life. He remains a priest forever, resembling the Son of God. 4 Consider then how great this Melchizedek was. Even Abraham, the great patriarch of Israel, recognized this by giving him a tenth of what he had taken in battle. 5 Now the law of Moses required that the priests, who are descendants of Levi, must collect a tithe from the rest of the people of Israel, who are also descendants of Abraham. 6 But Melchizedek, who was not a descendant of Levi, collected a tenth from Abraham. And Melchizedek placed a blessing upon Abraham, the one who had already received the promises of God. 7 And without question, the person who has the power to give a blessing is greater than the one who is blessed. 8 The priests who collect tithes are men who die, so Melchizedek is greater than they are, because we are told that he lives on. 9 In addition, we might even say that these Levites--the ones who collect the tithe--paid a tithe to Melchizedek when their ancestor Abraham paid a tithe to him. 10 For although Levi wasn't born yet, the seed from which he came was in Abraham's body when Melchizedek collected the tithe from him. 11 So if the priesthood of Levi, on which the law was based, could have achieved the perfection God intended, why did God need to establish a different priesthood, with a priest in the order of Melchizedek instead of the order of Levi and Aaron? 12 And if the priesthood is changed, the law must also be changed to permit it. 13 For the priest we are talking about belongs to a different tribe, whose members have never served at the altar as priests. 14 What I mean is, our Lord came from the tribe of Judah, and Moses never mentioned priests coming from that tribe. 15 This change has been made very clear since a different priest, who is like Melchizedek, has appeared. 16 Jesus became a priest, not by meeting the physical requirement of belonging to the tribe of Levi, but by the power of a life that cannot be destroyed. 17 And the psalmist pointed this out when he prophesied, "You are a priest forever in the order of Melchizedek." 18 Yes, the old requirement about the priesthood was set aside because it was weak and useless. 19 For the law never made anything perfect. But now we have confidence in a better hope, through which we draw near to God. 20 This new system was established with a solemn oath. Aaron's descendants became priests without such an oath, 21 but there was an oath regarding Jesus. For God said to him, "The LORD has taken an oath and will not break his vow: 'You are a priest forever.'" 22 Because of this oath, Jesus is the one who guarantees this better covenant with God. 23 There were many priests under the old system, for death prevented them from remaining in office. 24 But because Jesus lives forever, his priesthood lasts forever. 25 Therefore he is able, once and forever, to save those who come to God through him. He lives forever to intercede with God on their behalf. 26 He is the kind of high priest we need because he is holy and blameless, unstained by sin. He has been set apart from sinners and has been given the highest place of honor in heaven. 27 Unlike those other high priests, he does not need to offer sacrifices every day. They did this for their own sins first and then for the sins of the people. But Jesus did this once for all when he offered himself as the sacrifice for the people's sins. 28 The law appointed high priests who were limited by human weakness. But after the law was given, God appointed his Son with an oath, and his Son has been made the perfect High Priest forever.

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen.

Lord Jesus Christ, send us out with confidence in your word, to tell the world of your saving acts, and bring glory to your name. Amen.

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