#who seem to be posting 24/7 and broadcasting their whole lives

[pro-sipper]

What do proshippers generally believe about shipping real people? Stuff like creator x creator or celebrity x reader?

That it falls under the umbrella of "you should be allowed to write anything you want". Once again, it's not my personal thing. There's no real life pairing I read for, and the whole "blank x reader" is not appealing to me at all.

But I have no problem with people writing that stuff, or knowing it's out there. I saw someone a while back say that it's basically just writing about another character, and I agree with that. No matter how much a creator posts or how open a celebrity seems with their personal life, we're still only seeing a tiny snippet of their lives. We have no clue who they are when the cameras aren't recording because we just don't know them. And whatever someone chooses to write about is mostly stemming from that particular persona that they happen to put on for the world and that's it. It's completely separate from our reality because they're basically just writing about another made up character

The problem I have, and it's what I imagine most proshippers also take issue with, is when people start blurring the lines between fiction and reality. To me, there's a world of difference between posting something on ao3, and speculating on secret relationships in the comments of someone's youtube video. Or between talking about something on tumblr, and tagging the person directly on twitter.

I just don't understand people who condemn rpf and talk about how gross and invasive it is, but think it's funny to tag celebrities on twitter to bring up (what they think is) cringe-worthy fanfic tropes that people have written them into. Or people who print out fanworks to shove into an actor's face at a meet and greet and ask them what they think about it. That's where the lines get crossed, to me.

I think ao3 and tumblr still have an air of mysticism to them. A little secrecy, a little privacy. In the sense that someone in the public eye would have to put in a little work to find this stuff for themselves. They'd have to go to the site and search themselves up to find anything. As opposed to just about anyone in the world being able to force this content in their line of sight with a simple @ on a site like twitter.

So to me the problem isn't that this content exists. The problem is when people don't know how to keep fandom stuff private. Write all the rpf you want but remember at the end of the day these are real people, not your blorbos. You don't know them. It's inappropriate to say these things to them personally (which yes, also includes tagging them on twitter or in the comments of their videos). But it's also inappropriate to run up to them with other people's content just to say "look what these FREAKS wrote about you!!" And I think people either forget or just genuinely don't care about the latter.

[sayitaliano]

Sanremo 2021

Hello everyone! Here you’ll find this year’s Sanremo’s stuff and news (I’ll be uploading this post through all the week). The Festival, that this year will see no public in the theater, will start on tuesday March 2nd at 8:30 pm (it’ll probably have a 5 minutes “anteprima = preview” every night), and end on saturday March 6th, when the final will be broadcasted.

/ Official website / you can find loads of videos and interviews here + the latest news.

Rai’s website dedicated section (here) | youtube playlist

A few minutes show about Sanremo has been broadcasted from saturday February 27th at 8:30 PM to monday March 1st, with interviews and random curiosities (here - PrimaFestival section right below the host Amadeus’ photo. this year it willbe hosted by Giovanna Civitillo -host, dancer, Amadeus’ wife-, Valeria Graci -host/comedian-, Giovanni Vernia -host, comedian-)

I’m not sure if or where the usual Dopofestival, with the analysis of the show at the end of each night, will be broadcasted (here you can find last year program L’Altro Festival)

CasaSanremo- A website about Sanremo and all the artists who will take part, with more infos and interviews (also Italian places and food specialties will be shown). Follow them also on their Social Media Channels, usually they make live video/interviews/shows on FB for example.

On Sorrisi&Canzoni you will find also other infos about Sanremo and every lyrics’s explanation (ofc ask me if you need a translation)

The # on this blog is #sanremo71

To watch it live:

Raiuno -> just click on the first video on the left, or here, to open the Raiuno streaming immediately (I added the whole Rai channels things in case you had troubles connecting directly and wanted to try from there) I’m not sure you have to log in to watch a live, but it’s through just an email or FB btw. You can use an Italian VPN line if the website blocked in your country.

Sanremo LIS (only live) | All this year’s songs LIS (rewatch)

I’ll try to write down some more infos/links through the week.

--> It seems geoblock has been removed for Sanremo this year!

——-

Hosts & Guests + Other Stuff

This years’ host will be Amadeus (who choose the songs taking part into this Sanremo), a TV and radio host. He will be accompanied by Fiorello, another famous Italian host, and probably, as last year, by a different co-host woman each night: Matilda De Angelis (actress, 1st night), Elodie (singer, 2nd  night), Vittoria Ceretti (model, 3rd night), Barbara Palombelli (host/writer, 4th night). On saturday, there might be different co-hosts women. Each night, Achille Lauro (singer, last year Sanremo partecipant) will go on stage and perform. Also the football player Zlatan Ibrahimovic (one night accompanied by coach and former football player Sinisa Mihailovic) will be there every night or so. Some of the one-night guests might be the singers Negramaro, Alessandra Amoroso, Il Volo (on wednesday’s night, they will honor Ennio Morricone), Loredana Bertè, Mahmood (friday’s night), Ornella Vanoni and Francesco Gabbani’s duet (on saturday); sport champions as Alex Schwazer (walker, who will tell his story - he’s been wrongly accused of doping) and Alberto Tomba + Federica Pellegrini (former sky champion and actual swimming champion, on saturday’s night will promote the 2026 Winter OG taking place in Milano and Cortina).

How it works

There will be 26 singers in the Campioni (champs) section and 8 in the Giovani (young/newbies) section. The winner of the competition of the Campioni section will represent Italy at the Eurovision Song Contest: if he/she/them won’t accept, the choice will be another artist, usually the 2nd classified. On the 3rd night, there will be the usual duets night. The Campioni’s singers will perform (with another Italian or foreign artist) a song from the Italian folk/song writer’s collection. As last year, the rank at the end of the 3rd night, will change also the rank after the 2 first nights (votes will be added to the general rank).

Day 1 - co-hosts: Matilda De Angelis, Fiorello. Guests: Achille Lauro, Zlatan Ibrahimović, Loredana Bertè, Alessia Bonari (nurse), Italian Police Marching Band with the saxophonist Stefano Di Battista, Russian gymnast Olg’a Kapranova We’ll listen to 13 Campioni’s songs (in order of performance: Arisa, Colapesce e Di Martino, Aiello, Francesca Michielin e Fedez, Max Gazzè, Irama, Madame, Maneskin, Ghemon, Coma_Cose, Annalisa, Francesco Renga, Fasma) and 4 Giovani’s (Gaudiano, Elena Faggi, Avincola, Folcast). The first two Giovani’s songs classified (Folcast, Gaudiano) will pass to friday’s night’s final. We have a first rank of the 13 Campioni who performed tonight:

Day 2 - co-hosts: Elodie, Fiorello Prob. guests: singers: Achille Lauro, Laura Pausini, Il Volo, Gigliola Cinquetti, Marcella Bella, Fausto Leali, Enzo Avitabile (saxophonist) and Alex Schwazer (walker). The remaining 13 Campioni’s (in order of performance: Orietta Berti, Bugo, Gaia, Lo Stato Sociale, La rappresentante di lista, Malika Ayane, Extraliscio, Ermal Meta, Random, Fulminacci, Willie Peyote, Gio Evan, Irama) and 4 Giovani’s songs (Wrongonyou, Greta Zuccoli, Davide Shorty, Dellai) will be performed tonight. The first two Giovani’s songs classified (Wrongonyou, DavideShorty) will pass to friday’s night’s final. We’ll have another rank of the 13 Campioni who performed tonight, and then one with all the 26 contestants (a mix with day 1′s rank).

**Irama will not take part because of Covid positivity among his staff (he’s negative but he has to be quarantined anyway). Amadeus decided to show the recorded clip of his performance.

Complete rank of the Campioni after 1 play:

1) Ermal Meta 2) Annalisa 3) Irama 4) Malika Ayane 5) Noemi 6) Fasma 7) Francesca Michielin e Fedez 8) Lo Stato Sociale 9) Willie Peyote 10) Francesco Renga 11) Arisa 12) Gaia 13) Fulminacci 14) La Rappresentante di Lista 15) Maneskin 16) Max Gazzè 17) Colapesce Dimartino 18) Coma_Cose 19) Extraliscio feat. Davide Toffolo 20) Madame 21) Gio Evan 22) Orietta Berti 23) Random 24) Bugo 25) Ghemon 26) Aiello Day 3 - co-hosts: Vittoria Ceretti, Fiorello Prob. guests: Achillee Lauro, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Sinisa Mihajlovic, Monica Guerritore (actress), Emma Marrone (singer), Negramaro (will pay homage to the great Italian singer Lucio Dalla after 9 years from his death). All the 26 Campioni singers will perform a “duet” song with guests (or not) from the folk collection. In order of performance:

Noemi - "Prima di andare via" (Neffa) con Neffa

Fulminacci - "Penso positivo" (Jovanotti) con Valerio Lundini e Roy Paci

Francesco Renga - "Una ragione di più" (Ornella Vanoni) con Casadilego

Extraliscio feat. Davide Toffolo - Medley "Rosamunda" (Gabriella Ferri) con Peter Pichler

Fasma - "La fine" (Nesli) con Nesli

Bugo - "Un’avventura" (Lucio Battisti) con i Pinguini Tattici Nucleari

Francesca Michielin e Fedez - Medley (Calcutta – "Del verde", Daniele Silvestri – "Le cose che abbiamo in comune", Jalisse - "Fiumi di parole", "Non amarmi" - Aleandro Baldi e Francesca Alotta, "Felicità" - Al Bano e Romina Power)

Irama - "Cyrano" (Francesco Guccini)

Maneskin - "Amandoti" (Cccp Di Giovanni Lindo Ferretti) con Manuel Agnelli

Random - "Ragazzo fortunato" (Jovanotti) con i The Kolors

Willie Peyote - "Giudizi universali" (Samuele Bersani) con Samuele Bersani

Orietta Berti - "Io che amo solo te" (Sergio Endrigo) con Le Deva

Gio Evan - "Gli anni" (883) con i cantanti di The Voice Senior

Ghemon - Medley "Le ragazze", "Donne", "Acqua e sapone", "La canzone del sole" con i Neri Per Caso

La Rappresentante di Lista - "Splendido splendente" (Donatella Rettore) con Donatella Rettore

Arisa - "Quando" (Pino Daniele) con Michele Bravi

Madame - "Prisencolinensinainciusol" (Adriano Celentano)

Annalisa - "La musica è finita" (Ornella Vanoni) con Federico Poggipollini

Lo Stato Sociale - "Non è per sempre" (Afterhours) con Emanuela Fanelli e Francesco Pannofino

Gaia - "Mi sono innamorato di te" (Luigi Tenco) con Lous And The Yakuza

Colapesce e Dimartino - "Povera patria" (Franco Battiato)

Coma_Cose - "Il mio canto libero" (Lucio Battisti) con Alberto Radius e Mamakass

Max Gazzè - "Del mondo" (Csi Di Giovanni Lindo Ferretti) con Daniele Silvestri e The Magical Mistery Band

Malika Ayane - "Insieme a te non ci sto più" (Caterina Caselli)

Ermal Meta - "Caruso" (Lucio Dalla) con Napoli Mandolin Orchestra

Aiello - "Gianna" (Rino Gaetano) con Vegas Jones

Tonight’s Classification:

1 Ermal Meta – Caruso 2 Orietta Berti – Io che amo solo te 3 Extraliscio con Davide Toffolo –  Medley Rosamunda 4 Willie Peyote – Giudizi universali 5 Arisa – Quando 6 Maneskin – Amandoti 7 Annalisa – La musica è finito 8 Max Gazzè – Del mondo 9 La rappresentante di lista – Splendido splendente 10 Ghemon – L’essere infinito 11 Lo stato sociale – Non è per sempre 12 Gaia – Mi sono innamorato di te 13 Irama – Cyrano 14 Colapesce – Dimartino – Povera patria 15 Fulminacci – Penso positivo 16 Malika Ayane – Insieme a te non ci sto più 17 Noemi – Prima di andare via 18 Madame – Prisencolinensinainciusol 19 Francesco Renga – Una ragione di più 20 Fasma – La fine 21 Francesca Michielin e Fede – E allora felicità 22 Aiello – Gianna 23 Bugo – Un’avventura 24 Gio Evan – Gli anni 25 Random – Ragazzo fortunato 26 Coma_Cose – Il mio canto libero

Top 10 classification after tonight:

1) Ermal Meta 2) Annalisa 3) Willie Peyote 4) Arisa 5) Irama 6) Lo Stato Sociale 7) Malika Ayane 8) Extraliscio feat. Davide Toffolo 9) Orietta Berti 10) Maneskin

Day 4 - co-hosts: Barbara Palombelli, Fiorello, Beatrice Venezi (orchestra maestro) Prob. guests: Achille Lauro, Mahmood, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Matilde Gioli and Alessandra Amoroso. The 26 Campioni’s songs will be performed (in order of appearance: Annalisa, Aiello, Maneskin,, Noemi, Orietta Berti, Colapesce Dimartino, Max Gazzé, Willie Peyote, Malika Ayane, La rappresentante di lista, Madame, Arisa, Coma Cose, Fasma, Lo Stato Sociale, Francesca Michielin e Fedez, Irama, Extraliscio feat Davide Toffolo, Francesco Renga, Gio Evan, Ermal Meta, Bugo, Fulminacci, Gaia, Random). Also, the 4 Giovani’s songs that won on day 1 and 2 (Davide Shorty, Folcast, Gaudiano, Wrongonyou), will  be performed and the 1st classified will be the Giovani’s section winner of the 71 (70+1)° Sanremo’s edition.

GAUDIANO is the winner of the Giovani’s section

The Premio della Critica “Mia Martini” for the Giovani’s section to WRONGONYOU

General ranking of the 26 Campioni’s songs after tonight:

1. Ermal Meta - "Un milione di cose da dirti" 2. Willie Peyote - "Mai dire mai (La locura)" 3. Arisa - "Potevi fare di più" 4. Annalisa - "Dieci" 5. Maneskin - "Zitti e buoni" 6. Irama - "La genesi del tuo colore" 7. La Rappresentante di Lista - "Amare" 8. Colapesce e Dimartino - "Musica leggerissima" 9. Malika Ayane - "Ti piaci così" 10. Noemi - "Glicine" 11. Lo Stato Sociale - "Combat Pop" 12. Orietta Berti - "Quando ti sei innamorato" 13. Extraliscio feat. Davide Toffolo - "Bianca luce nera" 14. Max Gazzè e Trifluoperazina Monstery Band - "Il farmacista" 15. Fulminacci - "Santa Marinella" 16. Gaia – "Cuore amaro" 17. Francesca Michielin e Fedez - "Chiamami per nome" 18. Madame - "Voce" 19. Fasma - "Parlami" 20. Ghemon - "Momento perfetto" 21. Francesco Renga - "Quando trovo te" 22. Coma_Cose - "Fiamme negli occhi" 23. Gio Evan - "Arnica" 24. Bugo - "E invece sì" 25. Random - "Torno a te" 26. Aiello - "Ora"

Day 5 - co-hosts: Fiorello, Giovanna Botteri (reporter), Tecla Insolia and Serena Rossi (actresses). Prob. guests: Achille Lauro, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Ornella Vanoni & Francesco Gabbani (singers - new song together), Riccardo Fogli with Michele Zarrillo and Paolo Vallesi (singers), Umberto Tozzi (singer) and Dardust (musician, producer...). Sports people: Alberto Tomba and Federica Pellegrini. All the 26 Campioni singers will perform again their songs (in order of appearance: Ghemon, Gaia, Irama, Gio Evan, Ermal Meta, Fulminacci, Francesco Renga, Extraliscio ft. Davide Toffolo, Colapesce e Dimartino, Malika Ayane, Fedez e Francesca Michielin, Willie Peyote, Orietta Berti, Arisa, Bugo, Maneskin, Madame, La Rappresentante di Lista, Annalisa, Come Cose, Lo Stato Sociale, Random, Max Gazzè, Noemi, Fasma, Aiello) and after midnight (prob. more like after 2 am.) we’ll know the competition’s first 3 classified and all the special awards winners. the first 3 classified will perform again and get new votes to decide the final standings. The winner will go to the ESC2021 (if there will be).

MANESKIN won the 71st Sanremo!

Final standing:

1. Maneskin

2. Francesca Michielin e Fedez

3. Ermal Meta

4. Colapesce e Dimartino

5. Irama

6. Willie Peyote

7. Annalisa

8. Madame

9. Orietta Berti

10. Arisa

11. La Rappresentante di Lista

12. Extraliscio feat. Davide Toffolo

13. Lo Stato Sociale

14. Noemi

15. Malika Ayane

16. Fulminacci

17. Max Gazzè

18. Fasma

19. Gaia

20. Coma_Cose

21. Ghemon

22. Francesco Renga

23. Gio Evan

24. Bugo

25. Aiello

26. Random

 MANESKIN will take part at the ESC 2021! Other Awards: -premio della Critica Mia Martini: Willie Peyote -premio Sala Stampa Lucio Dalla: Colapesce e Dimartino -premio Sergio Bardotti per il miglior testo: Madame -premio Giancarlo Bigazzi per la miglior composizione musicale: Ermal Meta

Campioni Section (+ lyrics):

Aiello - "Ora"  (video)

Annalisa - "Dieci"  (video)

Arisa - "Potevi fare di più"  (video)

Bugo - "E invece sì"  (video)

Colapesce e Dimartino - "Musica leggerissima"  (video)

Coma_Cose – "Fiamme negli occhi"  (video)

Ermal Meta - "Un milione di cose da dirti"  (video)

Extraliscio feat. Davide Toffolo - "Bianca luce nera"  (video)

Fasma - "Parlami"  (video)

Francesca Michielin e Fedez - "Chiamami per nome"  (video)

Francesco Renga - "Quando trovo te"  (video)

Fulminacci - "Santa Marinella"  (video)

Gaia – "Cuore amaro"  (video)

Ghemon - "Momento perfetto"  (video)

Gio Evan - "Arnica"  (video)

Irama - "La genesi del tuo colore"  (video)

La Rappresentante di Lista - "Amare"  (video)

Lo Stato Sociale - "Combat Pop"  (video)

Madame - "Voce"  (video)

Malika Ayane - "Ti piaci così"  (video)

Maneskin - "Zitti e buoni"  (video)

Max Gazzè e Trifluoperazina Monstery Band - "Il farmacista"  (video)

Noemi - "Glicine"  (video)

Orietta Berti - "Quando ti sei innamorato"  (video)

Random - "Torno a te"  (video)

Willie Peyote - "Mai dire mai (La locura)"  (video)

Giovani Section:

Elena Faggi - "Che ne so"  (video)

Fratelli Dellai - "Io sono Luca"  (video)

Gaudiano - "Polvere da sparo"  (video)

Folcast - "Scopriti"  (video)

Greta Zuccoli - "Ogni cosa sa di te"  (video)

Davide Shorty - "Regina"  (video)

Wrongonyou - "Lezioni di volo"  (video)

Avincola - "Goal!"  (video)

[bloopme911]

Random WandaVision Thoughts

Thoughts about WandaVision I cannot get out of my head, so here you go.

SPOILERS AHEAD. BLOOP. YOU’VE BEEN WARNED. 

1. Wanda and Vision are connected by the stone. 

I went back and watched AOU and pretty much from the moment Vision is on screen, the connection between him and Wanda is obvious. Her reaction to him in particular struck me. She exhaled like she was drawn to him--to the stone. She also said she saw inside his mind before he was brought to life. 

I believe they’re meant to be together, not only b/c of their chemistry together and compassion for one another, but also b/c of that mind stone. It gave him life and awakened her latent powers. It drew them to one another the moment they met. Vision himself even said in Civil War that he didn’t fully understand the stone, or how it works exactly; it’s a mystery to him. That stone is POWERFUL. It “speaks” to Vision, it “has a mind of it’s own”, it’s not a passive player, IMO. 

...more after the kr...

2. Wanda can channel the powers of ALL of the stones in her chaos magic.

This I can’t claim credit for, but I believe it. I saw a theory on ScreenCrush (great YT channel for dummies like me to break things down) that Wanda can not only bend reality to her will, she can channel pretty much all the powers of the five stones. She demonstrates this in many ways -- bringing the butterflies and stork to life, rewinding the turkey until it turned into eggs, planting visions into Avengers heads, controlling the minds of the Sokovian citizens so they would evacuate the city in AOU, etc, etc, etc. 

ScreenCrush theorizes that the stones are all connected, having sprung from the same fabric of the universe, their powers work alone but also together. Inside Wanda. If she concentrates, if she wills it, she can be just as powerful as Thanos was with that Infinity Gauntlet. So yeah, I believe she can trap a whole town under a spell and give Dr. Strange a run for his money across the multiverse, point blank periodt. 

And if she can do that, could she not remake Vision? Pull his atoms back together, reform him, especially if she (somehow) got ahold of the copy Shuri made of his neural network? Why wouldn’t she bring Pietro back to life? I’m not sure...perhaps it could be that it’s simply too painful. Or perhaps she just doesn’t want to put her brother under a spell in a dream world. Vision is Vision, he can handle this, and she may not feel as bad resetting him when he gets too suspicious she might if she had to do that to her brother. I don’t know...time will tell, hopefully.

3. Wanda was an Avenger, training under Black Widow. She got rid of her accent intentionally. 

I see people referencing her “suddenly disappearing” accent a lot. I think she (the character) did this on purpose. In the opening of Civil War, when her accent was first starting to fade, she was being taught to spy by Black Widow and Sam and the gang. It stands to reason that accents and speaking with what TV folks used to call a “non regional diction” or any accent she pleases would be part of that training. 

Since this WandaVision is based on a sitcom reality, if you know how painstakingly they recreated these sitcom eras, plot tropes and all, then you’ll find that not only is Vision’s behavior based on the popular ‘TV Dads’ of each era (Dick Van Dyke, Mike Brady, Ricky Ricardo, etc) but Wanda was also mimicking the way TV wives speak and act during each era. Perfect 50s diction for Ep 1, slightly more relaxed like a Mary Tyler Moore in Ep 2, a bit more broad and (with a lot more physical comedy in her face, she’s so adorable) for the 70s.....the MCU didn’t forget about Wanda’s accent and Elizabeth Olsen isn’t being lazy.

Wanda deliberately got rid of her accent while she was a spy, and she slipped into it when she was thinking of her brother, her home, her childhood lullaby. 

4. “Geraldine” a.k.a. Monica was casing Wanda’s house. 

I noticed that from the moment Monica set foot inside, she covered a lot of ground. She found little ways to check that house out because she’s a trained agent and I think even though she was NAILING the part of the stereotypical 70′s black “foxy” nosy neighbor, she was 100% on a mission that whole time. She went in to get Wanda out, but the pregnancy obviously derailed that. I think she was waiting for an opportunity to gage when she could jog Wanda’s memory and probably also waiting to make sure Wanda would be at home alone before she stopped by. 

She has “no home” in the town, Agnes said, but she is a SWORD trained agent, so she knew how to survive until she could make her move. Unfortunately, Wanda was not having it. She does not want to be saved. “Geraldine”/Monica also said during her crazy work story that she keeps her cool under pressure, which she did during that BONKERS delivery. She even gave Wanda the coaching she needed to get through it despite the house going all Poltergeist around her. 

I only wish that when Wanda was questioning her, she would have been like “I’m Monica Rambeau, I’m here to rescue you.”

5. The townspeople have known all along about both Wanda and Vision’s powers, but they’re only terrified of Wanda. 

Vision used his powers in front of people from day one. Helping Mr. Hart at dinner (notice how IMMEDIATELY after Vision saved him, they left in a hurry? They were terrified. They went there to act out a dinner, not for Mrs. Hart to watch her husband almost die without being able to break character to save him, and Mrs. Hart knew it was Wanda who could make it stop). Speed computing at the office. Obviously the magic show kinda sort doesn’t count but does b/c come on mirrors don’t work like that. Getting the doctor, etc. No, I think the townspeople know Wanda and Vision are Avengers, but there is nothing they can do about it because they are under a spell and they must carry out the FOR THE CHILDREN evil plot. I’ll bet word spread about Wanda choking Mr. Hard, so they def don’t want to piss off Wanda, nor bring the wrath of the nefarious entity controlling them all (most signs point to Mephisto). 

6. Agnes’ witch costume reminds me that there are some tropes in media where evil witches are the wives of the devil (or sell their souls/enter a pact). 

Obviously the Mephisto Comic story line sets this up, but I just love the way they executed it in the show, using the spouse that never appears on screen as a big fat clue.

Agnes may not be evil but she def wants Wanda to have children for her devil husband and she def does not want “Geraldine” disrupting that. Everyone else just seems straight up afraid of Wanda but Agnes knows who is really pulling the strings here. Agnes is terrified of the Big Bad, whereas the townsfolk fear Wanda b/c they know what she’s capable of. They may even believe Wanda is the one controlling them all--and she is--but Agnes knows who’s manipulating Wanda--Ralph, or Mephisto to us.

7. I get the strange impression that the sitcom credits start because Wanda is waking up for the day, and end because for her the day is over... 

...and she’s done concentrating so hard on the sitcom spell. It’s sleep time for REAL-real. If she’s using magic to keep this stage play going constantly, then it stands to reason she will tire even though she’s pretending to live in sitcom world where time works totally differently. I believe the commercials are her dreams, sending her subconscious messages about her past traumas. I also believe dreams could be the way Mephisto called out to her--subconsciously drawing her to Westview.

Fun fact: TV way back in the day used to turn off at a certain time at night. 11pm or midnight, I can’t remember, but the networks STOPPED BROADCASTING at a certain time and there was no such things as 24-hour TV until like the late 80s. 

There are waaaaaaaay more thoughts banging around in my head but this post is pretty long so until the next time I’m wide awake at 4am with the 70′s WandaVision theme song stuck in my head...

[nct-lian]

relationships outside of sm

JENNIE + LIAN: JENLI

so iconic omg like how they do it, i have no idea

they hang out all the time and lian is literally ALWAYS on jennie’s instagram

the two of them once had an instagram story conversation over pigtails

like,, jennie posted a picture of lian’s pigtails for that one bicycle performance on her story and captioned it “pigtail baby” and then lian reposted it on her own story with a picture of jennie’s pigtails, captioning it “pigtail eomma”

speaking of eomma, jennie is genuinely her mother

jennie takes her shopping all the time

and in return, lian buys her food

the interactions these two used to have at award shows were SO CUTE

everyone remembers when jennie pretty much yelled out lian’s name and she just came running over to the members of blackpink after taeyong let her leave :(

i’m crying just thinking about it help

jennie also posted a full on instagram post for lian on her birthday and had such a sweet caption with it

it was something like “my daughter is finally 21 today! i hope she has an amazing day and i can’t wait to see her later tonight to give her a gift :) haneullie, lots of love from jennie eomma”

SPEAKING OF THE GIFT,, jennie bought her a whole ass $9000 necklace from chanel because she knew that lian was looking for more

IM IN TEARS AND SO ARE YOU ADMIT IT RN

jenli kpop bestest duo

dispatch once thought jennie was on a date with a girl but it turned out to just be her walking lian home after going shopping with her so they never posted anything about it

they were embarrassed they got something wrong so i get it

omfg when news came out that lian and jinwoo broke up mama jennie was threatening to punch the shit out of him

KEVIN + LIAN: LIMOON

what i’ve been waiting to write for so long okay here we go

so mf chaotic like there are compilations made of these two that scream “go crazy go stupid”

their time as guest mc’s for inkigayo was probably some of the best kpop content we’d gotten in a long ass time

KEVIN IS CAUTIOUS WHEN LETTING HER MEET HIS MEMBERS

cause she’s such a good friend to him and wtf why would he wanna share

“mine mine mine mine” constant dory vibes 24/7

lian thrives off of calling him by his korean name because she knows it annoys him

he’s constantly teasing her for having bagged milk in toronto so he deserves it

the one time lian and jacob talked to each other they seemed to be getting along too much for kevin’s liking so he really went:

“okay lian isn’t it time for you to go” because he WAS GETTING JEALOUSJCLSJX

their styles are pretty much complete opposites and everytime they take pictures together kevin never forgets to mention how off it all looks

“tf is that why are your clothes so boring”

“okay sNaKe pAnTs” because of that one eric moment on kpop daebak show where he said kevin had pants with snakes on them

ALSO BTW LIANS CLOTHES ARENT FUCKING BORING SHES JUST FANCY LIKE THAT

i’m getting heated let me calm down.

they normally speak in english to each other but since lian seems to be stuttering over her words when she isn’t speaking korean, he mixes in a few korean phrases every now and then to help her out

kevin is arguably the most hype every single time lian performs, like he really thinks there isn’t anything better

LIAN MAKES SURE TO UPDATE HER INSTAGRAM STORY WHENEVER TBZ HAVE A COMEBACK SO NCTZENS GO SUPPORT THEM

LIA + LIAN: LILIA

more lian x the canadian line WOOHOO

lia spent her trainee days really looking up to lian and she’s even mentioned before that she’d love for itzy to get the chance to collab with her for a song

she really has her fingers crossed for that btw

they actually met during an award show when ryujin, chaeryeong and yuna all had to leave because it was past curfew

lian decided to sit next to them and during all the intermissions between performances she, lia and yeji conversed to pass time

they ended up growing a friendship together but lian has a stronger bond with lia

she loves all the girls either way but yk

lia and lian love going to cafes together and taking adorable pictures :(

like whenever lia posts on itzy’s instagram midzeys don’t exactly know whether or not lian would be on it too :0

like lian normally posts all the scenery pictures she gets to keep her instagram pleasing whereas lia posts the pictures the two of them take together

my heart </3

lian treats lia like a whole daughter because it isn’t often she finds girls that are younger than her

*screams in the fact that majority of sm’s female artists are all from 2015 and under*

like when i say lian SPOILS her i’m not joking

she will randomly call lia up like:

“hey i’m gonna get you out of that dungeon, come get some chicken with me”

and then they’ll just hang out together

but only if lian is out of the dungeon herself because wbk she ain’t treated very well </3

EUNWOO + LIAN: WOOLI

their chemistry is fucking insane holy shit

like their acting for past to present was seriously so praised, netizens found it hard to believe it was all just for the show

dating rumours follow these two everywhere,, like everywhere

it’s one of the most popular ships inside ncity when it comes to lian and other idols

i kid you not one tweet said “chanhyeok treated jihye so well in past to present, i’m only wondering how well eunwoo would treat lian 👀”

LIKE STOP PUTTING IDEAS INTO PEOPLES HEADS YOURE KILING ME HERE ISTG

but yeah they do look really good together

and they’re an amazing pair for acting

when eunwoo started working with inyeop for true beauty, he said:

“hyung’s dating my girlfriend” because of the fact that both of them have acted with lian and BOTH of them dated her in the dramas

what a coincidence though

we all cried when we saw chanhyeok and jihye kiss for the first time DONT LIE

EUNWOO FOLLOWS HER ON INSTAGRAM

and they wished each other happy birthday on their instagram stories

there’s actually people who like to think that they dated while filming for past to present andddd they radiate big delulu vibes

like you know liskook shippers? wooli shipped are kinda the same, but not as intense (thank god)

BUT CAN WE BLAME THEM LIKE THEIR CHEMISTRY? THE WAY THEY TALKED TO EACH OTHER? PLEASE

they took a lot of cute pictures together behind the scenes (ノ﹏ヽ)

MOMO + LIAN: LIMO

DANCER DUO DANCER DUO

this ship isn’t actually as popular as we would like it to be, but nonetheless people love limo

a lot of interactions during award shows !!

like for example momo’s fancams always captured her dancing perfectly to lian’s choreo

and lian smiling in momo’s direction

i love them

when lian found out about heechul and momo’s relationship, she asked momo if she was her mom now because of how much of a father figure she considers heechul to be JDFJK

“i mean sure”

they’ve actually done a vlive together before (ᗒᗨᗕ)

it was when lian visited her at the twice dorms and they ended up getting bored so they decided to do a vlive in the living room

THEY PLAYED DARE OR DARE AND LIAN HAD TO DO THE TEARS CHALLENGE (so chan whee) ON MOMOS KARAOKE MACHINE

her throat was dry for the rest of the night

after seeing momo’s hair for the i can’t stop me era, lian actually wanted to cut it like that

but she decided against it because she loves her long hair too much

the two of them met on hit the stage where they competed against each other in a freestyle dance battle

after that they just started casually talking over the phone and became great friends

with the way momo talks about lian, you’d think they’re dating-

“oh, lian- she’s so pretty! i love her a lot!”

and the same goes for lian, she loves talking about momo’s dancing skills

JACKSON + LIAN: JACKLIAN

her dad :/

adopted her with amber liu like a year ago so now she’s just his daughter

supports each other like crazy not even joking

jackson promotes her on instagram and twitter 24/7

THEY HAVE SO MANY INTERACTIONS THANK GOD

lian was once given a ridiculously short dress while attending an award show and jackson gave her his jacket to wear over her legs because she wasn’t provided a blanket :(

(keep in mind, she went there without the members!)

lian added all his music to her playlist :)

once got drunk together and spent like three hours doing karaoke but it’s okay cause it was fun

speaking of getting drunk, jackson’s the cool dad that lets her do whatever she wants

he has his protective moments where he’s like “ma’am where are you going on that short of a dress” but he’s also like “hey wanna go get chicken and soju”

they both appeared on a radio show together as guests and they ruined the whole broadcast because they were too loud

like they kept getting out of their seats to go wave at all the fans outside the window and they were just fighting back and forth about whether or not lian’s extensions look real

according to jackson, they’re “NOT AUTHENTIC ENOUGH- LOVE YOUR HAIR FOR WHAT IT IS, LIANNA HANEUL BAE.” lian’s hair lives matter :/

PLSSS WHEN HYOSEOP AND LIAN STARTED DATING- no

jackson was so proud that his good friend was smooching his other good friend but the protective dad instincts really kicked in

“break her heart and you die no cap”

was surprisingly chill when they broke up though, he was just glad lian didn’t cry

SUNMI + LIAN: SUNLI

SUNMI IS HER MOM OHMYGOD

so many interactions

honestly took lian under wing once she debuted as a soloist

female kpop soloists gotta have each other’s backs in this industry man :(

sunmi calls lian her princess SOBS

lian always hugs sunmi at award shows, like if they’re sitting close together

or if they’re standing next to each other on stage

you bet your ass lian is gripping onto sunmi for dear life

did a photoshoot together for marie claire korea

they’re so hot bro

BUT THEY FIRST MET ON WEEKLY IDOL NOT LONG AFTER LIAN DEBUTED AS A SOLOIST

they were kinda awkward ngl uh

but by the end of it they were besties :DD

and they’ve been besties ever since

lian is the ceo of doing dance covers for sunmi’s songs

cmon lian we’re waiting for tail 👀

sunmi has actually met lian’s grandma </3

like her and lian were hanging out at the dorms while the boys were out on a schedule and her grandma just randomly showed up with homemade food so that was definitely a win

BANG CHAN + LIAN: LICHAN

they’ve been friends for a LOOONGGG time

and chain’s known her since dating back to like, smrookies era when lian was still a red velvet member

like at that time she had no idea he existed, but he was keeping up with her daily :(

chan plays her music on vlives all the time and he always knows the dance moves

like he just dances along in his chair and mumbles the lyrics

we love to see it

a lot of fans ship them together

SURPRISE SURPRSIE AH

only because chan gives off big pining energy

lian only looks at him like “:D” whereas he looks at her like “♡•♡”

kinda sad but

lian promotes him on live so often HVKSVU

“my friend chan is coming back with his group soon, you should check it out! :)”

and the way she just says “my friend chan” LIKE ITS SO OBVIOUSLY A FRIENDZONE BUT HE THINKS ITS ADORABLE

he once got a comment on a vlive to react to lian moments, obviously complying because who wouldn’t

there was this one clip of her saying “my friend chan from stay kids!” and whoever edited the compilation added in squishy noises right after while zooming in on her face

AND CHAN BLUSHED SO HARD NOO

“oh- hahaha, uhh, she’s so cute aw hahahah”

ASHLEY + LIAN: ASHLI

oh god not another lian x mom ship

ASHLEY LOVES LIAN WOAH

like she’s submitted lian’s resume to bm so many times so they could be part of the big tiddie committee together

ashley is constantly, and i mean constantly, reposting all of lian’s posts on her story with captions like “LOOK AT HER GO”

and lian has even discovered all the cool instagram filters because of ashley, and now we get the quality content from her that WE DESERVEEEEE

back when lian’s album came out, all ashley’s story really was was just screenshots of her streaming all the songs and calling them bops

when they first met in person after texting back in forth, ashley spammed her instagram story with pictures of lian that she took without her looking

these two radiate a lot of “YES GIRL WORKKK ITTT TURN THIS WAY OKAYYY POSE POSE POSE” energy

lian’s been featured in one of ashley’s youtube videos and it was when they met for the first time :)

they exchange a lot of gifts through the mail

like lian once found a mug when shopping with doyoung and she thought that it would fit ashley’s taste so she sent it to her apartment

and ever since then they just send random little gifts to each other’s houses

it’s so cute

MATCHING BUCKET HATS THEY HAVE MATCHING BUCKET HATS !!!!!!

ashley talks about lian all the time

she always says that for someone so young, she’s accomplished a lot and she’s really proud of her

they wanna do tiktoks with each other but they never have the time </3

lian spam comments on ashley’s instagram like “WOAH” “OKAYYYY” “YESYESYES”

[ayuuria]

Yashahime Translation: Animedia January 2021 Issue

Please do not repost this translation without my consent! This includes screenshots of any type and amount. If you wish to share this translation, simply link to this post.

For more information regarding the use of my translations, click here.

I do apologize if some of the translations feel awkward. This one was slightly technical so I had to do some research on the side.

Animedia Education Lecture

You think you know but you surprisingly don’t

Working in Anime

— ­Editing Edition –

A corner where we delve into the work of anime production. This time, we ask Nii Kazuhiro of (share) IMAGICA Lab., who handles the editing for “Hanyō no Yashahime”, about editing!

The job of “editing” is vital not just in anime but also in live movies and tv dramas. People who like films may be able to vaguely imagine the burden of having the big role of organizing the scenes. However, exactly what sort of work do they do in anime production? This time, Mr. Nii Kazuhiro of (share) IMAGICA Lab., who oversees the editing of the action packed “Hanyō no Yashahime”, makes an appearance! We had him discuss editing and the special work process unique to “Hanyō no Yashahime”.

Tell us Nii-san! Let’s learn about “Editing”

Q: What kind of job is “Editing”?

It is a job that manages the flow of the whole film by connecting scenes or shots together. For example, how well a signature move in battle or sports is executed is dependent upon the tempo adjustment “editing”. Other things like scenes where shots are divided effectively by the placement of songs or music in an important work, will always have an editor’s hand (adjustment) involved. Even if the animation is created to flow exactly like the storyboard, a lot of times the timing of those scenes is fine-tuned with editing. Timing is just as important as properly moving images after all.

Q. During what phase of the anime production do you work?

Typically in anime, shots are edited at a phase where the color and sound have not yet been added and is completed as each phase in the production moves forward. Editing takes place before the audio work. Basically, it occurs twice: before voice recording and dubbing (translator’s note: Dubbing here does not mean voice over! Dubbing is the phase where they mix the voicing, sound effects, and music together to match the images). There are many works where color is added after dubbing has concluded, but in “Hanyō no Yashahime”, in order to allow for dubbing with the color, colored images are used as materials when editing. Since the images are colored, we can confirm the fine details with the director and production supervisor and then make adjustments.

Q. How does one become an “Editor”?

I entered a vocational school focused on film making and learned not just about editing but film making as a whole such as filming and lighting. There wasn’t any convenient editing software at the time, so I joined my current company that does film production thinking “Editing is something that can’t be self-taught so I want to learn on the job”. If you want to pursue editing, then you should watch as many different types of films as you can. You can’t notice things in production like direction and the camera angle of a shot if you don’t have interest in it, so I think it’s best to study it for the sake of knowledge.

Q. What abilities are needed for “Editing”?

Communication skills are an absolute must. Especially in animation which has a lot of detailed work itineraries and staff members creating it. To ensure that there are no mistakes, you must ask the director or production supervisor on anything you are unsure of. Of course, you can’t keep asking questions on every single shot so there are times where you will need to understand past productions and make decisions yourself. However, being able to muster up the courage and ask when necessary is important. You need communication skills for that purpose.

The “Hanyō no Yashahime” Production Site Packed with Fixations

— Please tell us the details on how you came to oversee the editing in “Hanyō no Yashahime”.

I had the opportunity to work with Director Satō (Teruo) on “Aikatsu Stars!” and he reached out to me. Since the story was connected to “Inuyasha”, which was broadcasted when I was a child, I felt a lot of pressure at first. While I was nervous when I heard the that main staff hadn’t changed much from “Inuyasha”, I felt “That’s all the more reason I have to work hard”.

— In regard to the editing work, did Director Satō make any demands?

I touched on this earlier in my response to “what phase we work” where I discussed how the director requested “Please have the images close to completion before the dubbing, where the music and voicing will be decided finalized, takes place. I would like to have editing done just before the dubbing as well.” This is what makes this so different from other works.

For example, in action scenes when the image is unfinished, it’s hard to understand the small movements or context. Hence, it’s difficult to take a “Maybe make the tempo like this” sort of editing approach. In typical animes, there are a lot of times where the final images solidify after the sound is completed. When that happens, there’s not much room to make edits for the most part.

However, in “Hanyō no Yashahime”, the images are mostly done before the dubbing so we can make adjustments with the director while matching the images with the voice actor’s lines. I thought it was a good idea. This is a trait unique to this work.

— Was there an aspect that you yourself focused on when editing this work?

While it’s a work with a lot of serious developments, what I focus on during those scenes is the “the interval between emotions”. In live film works, for thinking scenes, the actor’s “thinking act” is included so there’s an interval. However, in anime, the movement simply stops and there are no lines, so a lot of times you can’t measure the interval. Nevertheless, those serious scenes are important in “Hanyō no Yashahime” so I think it’s important to have “intervals” which is what I’m careful about. On the other hand, there are comical scenes, so I’m careful not to destroy the tempo. In anime, the tempo can change if it’s off by 6 frames*

*1 frame = 24 frames per second

The Feeling of Fun in Doing “Editing” Work

— In anime editing, does the work’s genre make a difference?

It does. Lately in action and sport (animes), materials included are not just from the storyboard but also from 3D CG as well, so we’re careful to make sure the connection between that and normal image (2D) scenes don’t feel out of place. When I first started, I couldn’t get the hang of it and was at a loss. The 3D CG portion is done by a different production team instead of the animation (drawing) team, so during my edits I couldn’t visualize the complete final form and fumbled as I worked.

In terms of idol anime, there’s “Aikatsu Stars!” that I worked with Director Satō on, but I was still a novice then… In work that’s geared towards children, I focused on making the tempo of the conversation scenes as steady as possible. If the tempo is too fast, it will end with everything being breezed through and a child will become unable to follow. I remember being careful of that.

— Are there times where you have to edit multiple episodes at the same time?

I mainly only work on one episode at a time. It’s just that periodically I have to confirm and make adjustments on a line-by-line basis in another episode at the same time.

— What part of “Editing” do you feel makes the jobs worthwhile?

In anime, images and CG shots that have been completed at each phase of the process are gathered individually as materials for editing. Updating those materials into one new episode and getting to see the finished product first is what “Editing” is. I think this is what makes the job of “Editing” fun the most. I get a sense of responsibility that I’m managing not only the shots but the entire work as a whole. Also, because I’ve seen the production process, I feel happy and simply moved like “That’s amazing” when all the phases are completed and the whole anime is finished. This is when I feel worthwhile as an editor. Also, I don’t think there’s much opportunity to take part in the production of the character movement and camera work in live filming, so I think this is what makes editing anime fun.

— After going through all the work, how do you feel when you watch the broadcasting of the finished version?

I end up watching it from different angles but when I watch it as a regular viewer, I become happy nonetheless. Of course, there are times where I personally think “I should’ve done this” at the little things. Now with social media, I know the viewers’ reactions in real time, so when there was a huge response to episode 1 with Inuyasha and the others, that put pressure on me going forward (laughs).

The Charm of “Hanyō no Yashahime” That You Personally Enjoy

— Of all the episodes that have been broadcasted thus far, which episode left the biggest impression on you?

Episode 3 where the three heroines (Towa, Setsuna, and Moroha) came together. I got to watch the (voice) recording for that episode and the battle scene was really cool. Also, I was able to properly draw the first conversation between the three so that left the biggest impression on me in that sense.

Then there’s episode 7. It’s the episode where you return to the scene of the three of them that at the very beginning of episode 1. The composition of back tracking up to episode 1 left an impression on me, so even as I was editing episode 7, I admired how it felt like the mystery was being revealed or rather feeling like “I see. This is where it connects”.

— By the way, who is your favorite character personally?

Moroha. She’s fundamentally an energetic character, her skills in action scenes are cool, and the way she seems to mimic the movements of her father, Inuyasha, is entertaining as well. While she behaves in a manner that makes you wonder if she had a tragic past, she’s a character whose emotions are easy to read so that’s why she’s my favorite.

— Including upcoming highlights, please give a message to our readers.

Going forward there will be more episodes regarding the three heroine’s past which I think is a highlight. As I was editing a future episode, I felt “We’re approaching the true nature of the story”. Please look forward to the cool action scenes and the episode where the three’s past will become clear.

[onepdumpsterfire]

Summary: Usopp moves to the city after a year since his mom died in a way to feel closer to her. There he looks for a roommate and finds none other than Zoro himself. what fate has in store for them is left for a later date lol

Roommates

Usopp . Zoro

It’s been almost a year since my mom died. She’s been sick for a long time, so I knew this was coming for some time now.

Even so, knowing didn’t stop it from hurting just as much.

Since her funeral, all I’ve done is coop myself up in our house. I’d probably turn into a hermit if it weren’t for my neighbor, Kaya. She came around whenever she had the chance.

That was nice of her considering what she has been going through…

But the more she worried about me, the guiltier I felt.

I know that she can't help but take care of people. Hell, It's why she’s been studying pharmaceutics, but I also know she can do so much more with her life. She could be some big-city doctor or researching to cure cancer!

Wouldn’t that be so much cooler than being stuck in a no-name city, too small to even afford more than the one clinic it has?

In any event, that’s only one of the reasons why I’ve decided to move away for a while. I think some time out of this house would do me some good.

The city that I’m moving to isn’t all that big and a bit further than I’d like it to be, but that’s the point of moving, right?

One way or another, I chose this city because my mom fell in love with it. She used to tell me about how, when she was young, she used to travel all over! She’d seen it all. Every tourist attraction and big-name city, but there was something about this city that just took her breath away. She told me that this place managed to calm her need to be constantly moving. This is also where she got pregnant with me then later she moved back to where she was raised and had me.

As much as she loved it there, she wanted me to go out on my own and find a place that would ‘sate my most wild urges and fuel my deepest desires,’ as cheese-ly as she put it.

At first, I thought she was joking.

I thought that she only liked that place because it’s where she met dad… It’s also why I hated this city.

My father was a coward that ran away as soon as my mom got sick. Though, she never blamed him for it. I never got to as her why, though. Years later, I did ask her if I was right. That she only romanticized this place because she fell in love there. However, she told me that he was only part of the reason why she loved this city so much, and that if I didn’t believe her then I should go find the depth of this city for myself.

I debated with myself for the longest time. Whether this was the right choice, or if I was ready to set foot in the place I used to loath so much. But being here now, I feel so much smaller than I thought I was. I’m nowhere near the heart of the city, but the sheer enormity for this place makes it feel like it’s trying to swallow me whole.

Sure, back home we had a lot of open fields and the horizon was always noticeable, but here the buildings towered over everything. It felt like a tsunami that threatened impact but never collided. The horizon was replaced by millions of stars that fell from the sky and sat just out of reach so that if you got too close thy’d turn into someone else’s day. Someone’s life.

There are so many people here that It almost made it feel lonely. Being surrounded by so many lives yet being so far from them. A mirage in a desert, one could call it. It promises life, but the closer you get the more you realize you could never get close enough.

I guess I was too much of a coward to be as alone as I felt when I first stepped foot here, though, I’ll keep telling myself it’s because the apartments here are too pricey and I only managed to land a job as a gas station attendant. Nevertheless now I’m sitting on the first floor of a fully furnished two-bedroom apartment checking a roommate wanted ad I posted earlier this week.

So far there have been only two people who wanted to move around this area, but one ghosted me after a few messages and the other ended up creeping me out so much that I had to report his account! I just hope the last person that answered my ad isn’t as much of a weirdo as the previous two.

They seem to be a bit curt, but I shouldn’t get too picky. Rent for next month is gonna be due soon, and there is barely anyone who wants to live near this area as is!

I’m sure that they’re nicer in person! I shouldn’t worry. It’s just two days.

Two days.

-2 days later. Thursday 2:30 pm -

When I arrive at the coffee shop, I walk straight to the back of the line. It isn’t that long and I’ve got here thirty minutes early, so I should have time for a drink before they get here.

Should I get something for them too? No, that’d be weird, and it would probably get cold by the time they get here.

The person in front of the line leaves and we all step forward.

Shit.

Someone arrives and lines up behind me.

I didn’t ask for their name! I don’t even know if they’re a boy or a girl!

The next person leaves and we take another step forward.

Is it too late to ask? Would it be weird if I did?

Another step forward

What if they’re a girl? Would they feel uncomfortable living with a guy?

“-ir?”

I did put on the ad I was a dude though…

“-cuse me, sir?”

“Huh?” The barista’s voice brings me back to earth. “Oh, sorry!”

“It’s okay!” her chipper voice rung out, “could you repeat your order? I didn’t quite catch it.”

“O-oh, sorry. Sorry. I didn’t mean to talk out loud. I was lost in thought, I guess... haha ...” I looked up to their hanging menu, more so to look away from her than to figure out what I wanted.

After putting in my order I take a seat at the very back.

Ten minutes later my drink was ready and my anxiety was rising again.

What if they don’t come?

Five minutes later and I sent them a message to let them know I’m here.

Maybe I could’ve phrased it better?

That sounded weird…?

God, is that a typo?

five minutes later

They haven’t answered, but that’s okay! It’s only been five minutes. Can’t expect them to be by their phone 24/7 right?

I’ll play some games on my phone to distract myself. Yeah, that’ll be fine. It’s fine.

I take a big gulp from my drink

I downloaded that new game. My hopes aren’t high for it, though. I found it via a random Facebook ad. Hopefully, it’s not one of those scams that say 90% of people can’t pass level five, but it’s only ‘cus no one lasts long enough to get to level five.

Hmmm… it seems plays well. A bit of a lag but the graphics are awesome! The old-style, pixelated art and bright, neon, solid colors give it a very retro vibe. The ads between levels kind of ruin the experience, though.

Guess they gotta make money somehow, right?

I wonder if they’ll go away if I turn off my data and Wi-Fi.

I shouldn’t just in case the person I’m meeting tries to reach me.

Could be fine for a round or two, though, I’d anxiously suffer through all of it.

I shouldn’t just in-

A sudden scraping sound from the chair opposite of me jolts me from my hypnotic state. “Hey,” a green-haired man in front of me mutteres before taking the seat he pulled out.

Taking in his form as he makes himself comfortable, my mind begins to race. Green dyed hair with roots of black hair showing. Fitted, sleeveless Nike shirt and black basketball shorts paired with a white pair of sneakers.

Oh, god. What’s with the green hair? He looks super buffed. Am I about to be mugged? No, that’s stupid. He wouldn’t have sat- in a cafe, really?

I quickly glance down at my phone for the time.

Exactly 3. Is he super punctual? More than likely a fluke, but impressive nonetheless. What if he’s a perfectionist?

My thoughts continue to swarm around my head, buzzing in an insatiable mob until a humming silence washes over me. Like one of those box televisions from back in the day. Not broadcasting anything in particular, stuck on a blue screen, droning on in silence.

The sudden stillness in my thoughts came so abruptly that it almost gave me whiplash. That aside, I need to focus now and answer him.

“Hey, sorry I didn’t ask for your name-” I left my statement open so that he could fill in the blank“-Zoro”

“R-right, Zoro. My name’s Usopp,” I waved my hands like the gesticulation would somehow help my words form into a coherent sentence, “but you probably already knew that from my ad... Hah..” I gave a quick huff before pushing through my awkward inexperience with ‘interviews’. “I was thinking we could talk and get to know each other before I take you to see the apartment.”

“That’s fine by me,” Zoro relaxed further in his seat. “What do you wanna know?”

Right at home, ain’t he.

~Do you smoke? “No”

~Are you a messy person? “I don't have a lot of things other than clothes.”

Doesn't quite answer the question but ill take it.

~Do you have friends over often? “No”

~What do you do for a living? “I’m a bouncer at a bar near here.”

Explains the muscle.

~Can you pay rent on time? “Yes, actually I brought the first month’s with me. Your ad said that split cost between the both of us plus the utilities would be $487 right?” Zoro dug around his pocket before pulling out a folded wad of cash and handing it to me.

“U-uh yeah,” tentatively I reach over to take the money. “Yeah...” I doubt I can find someone else by the end of the month. Zoro’s my safest bet at getting a roommate before next rent's due. He doesn’t seem so bad, I’m sure we’ll get along just fine.

...I guess this means there’s only one more question to ask.

“Do you wanna see the apartment?”

[let-it-raines]

Catch Me If You Can (30/40)

298 days. That’s how long Killian Jones was away from a baseball field. It’s less than a year, only part of a season for him, but it might as well have lasted a decade as he alternated between physical therapy and spending an excessive amount of time sitting on his couch.

But then he came back and won the World Series.

It’s something no one saw coming, and it’s certainly not something anyone who knows about his arm would predict. Now it’s a new season with new possibilities, and anything could happen. On-field reporter Emma Swan will be there to cover it all even if she is not his biggest fan right now.

Asking her out live on-air will do that.

Rating: Mature

a/n: I am not a fan of the fact that there are only 10 chapters left. Like, not at all. Where did all of this time go? How are we at this point in the story? I feel like I was just writing it!

Anyway, it seems fitting that this chapter posts in a week where a lot of us have gone home to see family because Killian is going home with Emma to meet Ruth😘 Thanks to you all for being you and thanks to @resident-of-storybrooke​ for reading these words for me and checking my facts!

Found on AO3: beginning | current

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Tag list:  @stunningswan​ @eala-captian @galaxyzxstark @xellewoods @mariakov81 @ultraluckycatnd @royalswan @shey-starsfury​ @superchocovian​ @sals86 @iam2307 @ashley-knightingale @karenfrommisthaven @scientificapricot @captswanis4vr @ultimiflos @jamif @idristardis @nikkiemms @resident-of-storybrooke @tiganasummertree @bmbbcs4evr @onceuponaprincessworld @jennjenn615 @mayquita @captainsjedi @teamhook @notoriouscs @kmomof4 @ekr032-blog-blog​ @cs-forlife @andiirivera @jonirobinson64 @qualitycoffeethings​ 

-/-

“Did you know that it’s Friday the thirteenth and a full moon?”

“Thank you, Alec Trebek.”

“No, seriously. That’s what it says on my phone.”

“Love, I know the date.”

“But did you know about the moon thing?”

“I did,” Killian sighs, picking his suitcase up off of the security belt and placing it on the ground while Emma grabs her sneakers. “I read about it the other day, and I am prepared for all of the haunted werewolves to come out to play.”

“Shut up,” Emma laughs before she plops herself down on a bench to tie her shoes.

It’s a little past four thirty in the morning, and JFK is nearly empty of anyone who isn’t traveling in some kind of suit. He and Emma are surrounded by people in black blazers and tailored trousers only traveling with a sleek black suitcase and their briefcase. He and Emma, meanwhile, are both in joggers with t-shirts on (Emma has on his Vandy sweatshirt over hers) and their hair tucked underneath baseball caps.

Emma got in from Detroit late last night, only taking five minutes to kiss him hello and take a quick shower before collapsing on his bed on top of the covers. The only flight they could get so last minute that wasn’t an exuberant amount of money is at the ungodly hour of six in the morning, so Killian insisted that she just stay at his place last night so that they could leave from the same place and save time. Considering they woke up ten minutes before their Uber arrived and could barely brush their teeth before they left, that didn’t exactly work in the whole saving time department.

It doesn’t help that Emma has pretty much been deadweight this entire morning until she started to wake up right before they went through security.

He, on the other hand, is wide awake. Nervous jitters run through his body, his stomach twisting in knots, and for someone who doesn’t get nervous for many things other than baseball, Killian is pretty much a wreck when it comes to meeting Emma’s family. Ruth is the last one, the final piece of the puzzle, and as intimidating as David was to meet, his mother might outrank her.

Killian both wants to spend the entire weekend sucking up to her and thanking her for taking Emma in and giving her the love she’s never had but has always deserved, but that could prove to be a bit much.

Then again, if Ruth hadn’t taken Emma in thirteen years ago, Emma would have never met David. If Emma hadn’t met David, David would have never taken her to the baseball game that truly allowed Emma to fall in love with sports. And if Emma hadn’t done that, he doubts she’d have ever gotten into broadcasting and found her passion there that makes her so damn happy.

The two of them also would never have met, and that thought sends a shiver down his spine.

It’s funny how such little things can change absolutely everything.

Everything.

So, yeah, Killian is most definitely a little nervous to meet Ruth.

“You want to go find some coffee, Swan?” Killian asks Emma as he props his foot up to tie his own sneaker. “I think the two of us are in some desperate need of caffeine.”

“Oh, I don’t know. I don’t think we’ll be able to find a coffee shop in an airport. There are never any coffee places here.”

“I don’t appreciate all of this sarcasm so early this morning.”

She pokes his stomach. “You’re the one who woke me up.”

“We’re going home to meet your family.”

“I don’t see your point.”

“You should.”

“Well,” Emma huffs, standing up and pulling up her pants so that he sees a flash of tanned skin on her stomach, “you should. Onto coffee we go.”

They both grab onto their bags and start walking down the terminal, passing gate after gate and store after store, but everything is black with the lights turned off and bars pulled over the stores. Nothing is open, not even the convenience stores, and the moment Emma realizes this, she stops walking and buries her face in his shoulder.

“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.”

“There are vending machines,” he soothes. “I think they have coffee.”

“But it’s gross coffee,” she wines before wrapping her arms around his stomach. At first, Killian thinks that she’s being affectionate, but then he realizes that she’s using him so that she doesn’t have to stand on her own. He’s not sure he minds either way. “I need real coffee, and I need it in an IV.”

“Okay, Lorelai Gilmore.”

Emma laughs into his shoulder, the vibrations working through his shoulder. “You’re learning. I’m so proud, babe.”

“I might have watched an episode or two.”

Emma’s head pops up then, the bill of her cap hitting him in the chin. “When?”

“While you were gone. It was on Netflix, and it just kind of happened.”

“Good choice, twenty-nine. Good choice.” Emma’s lips brush against the corner of his jaw, and he tugs her a little closer as his hand runs up and down her back while she presses up on her toes to make contact with his lips. “I need a diet coke or something, and then when the stores open, I’m buying the biggest damn cup of coffee in this entire airport.”

“Whatever your heart desires.”

-/-

The flight is only an hour and a half, Emma sleeps the entire time despite them getting her the biggest damn cup of coffee in the airport right before they boarded, and Killian spends his time answering emails before closing out the app so that he won’t see anything else work-related for this entire weekend. It’s a conscious decision, one he’s happy to make, and it’s almost refreshing to know that he doesn’t have anything to worry about for at least a few days.

Well, anything to worry about except for Ruth Nolan and making sure that he can impress her.

-/-

The taxi they get from the airport takes them directly to Ruth’s house, so Emma doesn’t get much time to show him around, only pointing out a few landmarks. They pass the minor league baseball stadium here, the Portland Sea Dogs, and Emma tells him that she’s never actually been despite having such easy access. She was too caught up in everything having to do with New York and getting there that she never really thought about it. He teases her and tells her they’ll have to go to a game, but Emma turns him down by saying that she needs a break from baseball.

He does too.

So that’ll probably be knocked off the itinerary that Killian is sure Mary Margaret has made. Luckily, though, she and David won’t be here until early evening since they both had to be at work and school for half a day, so they’re pretty much free to do whatever they want with Ruth today.

He’s still slightly reeling from his injury and their fight and everything that came from that. He’s not angry or upset, but this is all still such an adjustment. He should be playing. He shouldn’t be here, but it’s his own damn fault that he is. He screwed up on so many levels, and owning up to it all has been a tough pill to swallow.

Hurting the people he loved nearly killed him, and he doesn’t want anyone to hurt because of him ever again.

In the blink of a bleary eye, they’re pulling up to a quaint two-story Victorian home with brown and white details and bright green bushes lining the brick-paved walkway to the front door. It’s a home, undoubtedly, one much the same as all of the ones in the city and yet entirely different in that he can see vibrant green grass and flushed trees that spread out all over the neighborhood. It reminds him of growing up in Ohio, even if they were not the ones to have the spaciously fenced-in backyard, and a little fluttering of his heart takes place as Killian takes it all in.

He’s always kind of wanted a place like this – away from everything.

“So, this is the place?”

“This is the place.”

“It’s nice.”

“Yeah, I’ve always thought so.” Emma hikes her bag up a little higher on her shoulder and turns to look at him, trepidation written across her face. “We can still turn around if you want to. There are hotels around here.”

“We’re going inside, love.” He leans down and quickly brushes his lips over hers. She tastes strongly of coffee just from the little taste that he got. He’d like to kiss her more, to have the privacy of the hotel so he can show her just how much he’s missed her the past few days of her being gone, but they’re not doing that. “Besides, I believe I just saw Ruth peeking her head through the window looking at us, so it’s too late to turn around now.”

“Yeah,” Emma sighs, “I guess it is.”

Emma steps forward and begins moving up the path, Killian following right behind her, and Emma barely gets a chance to knock on the door before it’s swinging open and Ruth is lunging forward to practically smother Emma with a hug.

Damn. Ruth Nolan is a force of nature.

Then again, she was already for being a single mom most of her life and still taking in foster children, especially one as stubborn as Emma. He can’t even begin to imagine.

He fully intends on finding out this weekend. There are a million questions running around in his mind.

“Oh,” Ruth coos, shaking Emma in her embrace. A dog escapes the front door and comes to sniff at Killian’s feet. This must be Wilby. “I have missed you so much. I think I’m going to have to move to New York so I can see you more often. Do you have room in that apartment of yours?”

“Only if the couch is comfortable for you.”

“I think it may kill my back.”

“No, it’ll definitely kill your back. I have no doubt. It kills my back. Killian’s couch is super comfortable, though.”

“Well, I hardly know the man. I don’t think it would be appropriate for me to sleep over in his apartment.”

“Who cares about proper, love?” Killian teases. “I would be remiss to not let a beautiful woman sleep over at my apartment.”

The words slip out of his mouth before he’s able to stop them, and he immediately regrets them. Ruth may not be Emma’s mom, the title something that Emma still struggles with no matter how much she loves Ruth, but she’s very much a mother figure. Yet here he is spewing words that pretty much scream in her face that he doesn’t care about proper and has been fucking Emma for months now. What a smooth start.

The pit in his stomach becomes a heavy, solid weight, one that’s going to have him breaking the wood of the wraparound front porch.

Shit.

But then Ruth is leaning her head back in laughter, her eyes shining brightly as her hair falls off of her shoulders, and that weight lessens a little bit.

“I’m not much of one for proper either,” Ruth says with laughter still on her lips. She releases Emma and steps toward him, wrapping him in a hug as well, even if this one isn’t quite as smothering. It likely helps that he’s larger than Emma. “Hello, sweetie. SoSo, you’re the infamous Killian Jones I’ve been hearing about?”

“From Emma?”

“No, my grandson. He loves you. I think he was probably more devastated about your arm than Emma was.”

“How did you know I was devastated?”

Ruth pulls back from him to look at Emma. “Intuition told me that you’d be upset over the fact that your boyfriend is injured. Mary Margaret gave me all of the other details.”

Emma’s eyes roll. “Of course she did.”

“You know she can’t keep a secret.”

Killian looks over to Emma to see what she’s got to say, thinking that this first meeting is going rather smoothly, but then Ruth’s eyes are snapping back to him and looking him up and down in a way that has him feeling rather naked under her scrutiny.

Obviously, it was wishful thinking for him to assume he was quite out of the woods.

“You’re much more handsome in person than on TV.”

“Thanks,” Killian laughs awkwardly as he reaches up to scratch behind his ear. “I, uh, appreciate that.”

Emma looks over to him with raised brows that are pinched together, probably wondering when he turned into a stumbling fool instead of someone who can charm anyone, and all he can do is shrug is shoulders at her. She shrugs back before squatting down on the porch to scratch behind the dog’s ears.

“Have you eaten breakfast yet, Ruth?” Emma asks, obviously trying to save him. “We’ve had coffee but not food, and we’d love to take you out to breakfast.”

Ruth waves her away. “Nonsense. I’ll cook breakfast for all of us.”

“You really don’t have to do that, Mrs. Nolan.”

She smiles at him. “It’s Ruth, and yes I do. I hear you’re quite the baker, so you can help.”

“Well, who told you that?”

“Mary Margaret. She’s where I get all of my information, don’t you know? Emma and David don’t give me nearly enough.”

“You know, Ruth,” Killian smiles, “I have heard a little bit about the two of them not sharing a lot of information. You practically have to drag it out of them. I would never do such a thing as keeping secrets.”

Emma scoffs but there’s that loving, playful smile. “Too soon, twenty-nine. Too soon.”

Ruth guides them inside and sends Emma off to take their bags to her old room. Killian raises his brow in question to make sure it’s okay for them to share a room, and Emma simply rolls her eyes before taking both of their bags up the stairs while Ruth ushers him into the living room.

It’s just as homey as the outside. Everything is covered in warm colors from the deep brown of the leather couch to the inviting green of the wall. Two windows sit on either side of the stone fireplace where the television is mounted, and that’s when Killian spots the myriad of picture frames on the mantel, as well as on the bookshelf in the corner of the room.

This is exactly what he’s been so excited about.

(Besides getting to spend a weekend away with Emma where she spent the last of her teenager years.)

There are a few photos of David as a child, ones of him alone and then ones of him with both of his parents. Most of them, however, everyone is a tad bit older. Killian knows that it’s so Emma can be included in all of the photos, and his heart swells a bit at the thought of Ruth being that thoughtful so that Emma doesn’t have to feel left out in any way.

A picture of David, Mary Margaret, and Emma sits in the middle of the mantle. David and Mary Margaret look much the same, if not younger than they look now, but with different hairstyles. Killian makes a mental note to tease David about his shoulder-length hair. Emma, though, is definitely a teenager here. Her face is rounder, far less angled, and he can see the tepidness of her smile as she leans into David in the picture.

“Are you looking at how cute I am?” Emma questions as she walks into the room.

Killian turns to look at her and at the shy smile on her face now, and he opens up his arm to let her walk into him so that her arm can wrap around his back while her head rests on his shoulder.

“How old are you here, love?”

“Um, that’s a question I don’t know the answer to.”

“Sixteen,” Ruth supplies, and Killian doesn’t miss the way she’s smiling at the two of them standing there. “That’s from Thanksgiving. Emma still wasn’t too sure about us.”

“I’m still not.”

Killian squeezes her hip. “Liar.”

“Nope, I’m serious. You’ve only just met Ruth, so I don’t think you can judge her character yet.”

“Oh no, darling, I can. She’s promised to tell me stories about you while we cook breakfast, and that’s good enough for me to love her forever.”

Emma groans and dips her head down. “Just let me sulk, and I’ll come to the kitchen when breakfast is ready.”

“Just like when you were a teenager,” Ruth teases.

The morning is mostly spent in the kitchen where they eat waffles and bacon, which is definitely not on his diet but he’s not playing right now anyways, and he gets to listen to Ruth tease Emma all about what she was like as a teenager. Emma’s cheeks are painted red, the embarrassment very clearly there, but she takes it like a champ and smiles and laughs along even when Ruth tells a story about Emma nearly breaking her arm while trying to sneak back into the house after meeting a guy who she wasn’t supposed to be meeting.

“Not my finest moment,” Emma admits as she bites into a piece of bacon. “And definitely not my finest boyfriend.”

The stories continue, and as the day passes on, Killian’s stomach hurts from all of the laughter. Everything about his time here just seems so…perfect. And he knows that there is no such thing as perfect, but the crisp breeze of the air with the sunshine filtering through the leaves of the trees tells him otherwise as the two of them help Ruth with some of her yardwork. Of course, he hasn’t done yardwork in over a decade, so he’s a little rusty. Ruth and Emma make sure to point that out to him every time he cuts a shrub in the wrong way or manages to screw up turning on the lawnmower.

It was complicated, okay?

And Killian definitely wasn’t aware that this is how they’d be spending the first part of their afternoon. It was not at all mentioned in Emma’s pitch of asking him to come here.

Not that he would have ever said no to helping. It’s good to feel useful when he’s been feeling a little useless lately no matter how well he thinks that he’s handling his injury layoff.

It’s decidedly different than the first time around. It likely helps that the injury isn’t as serious and that Killian knows that the end of it is in sight, even if there’s still bits of uncertainty that no one can answer and predict for him. Yet, it also has everything to do with the fact that the people closest to him know exactly what’s going on instead of him letting it all fester inside of him. Honesty is the better policy this time, even if his hand was the slightest bit forced.

Watching Emma easily guide him through Old Port with a beatific smile on her face may help as well.

No, it definitely helps.

She’s such a force of light in his life, even if she doesn’t like admitting that sometimes, but the fact almost seems reinforced after having been apart from her and facing the thoughts of what his life may be like without her in it outside of being someone who he works with.

Frankly, it would be kind of dim. She’s integrated herself so easily into every aspect of his daily routine, and while at first, he thought it really only had to do with her clothes in his closet and her shampoo bottles littering his shower, it’s more in the way that he’ll be sitting with Elsa and look over to see her texting Emma or the way that whenever he wakes up in the morning and she’s not in bed with him, his first thought is to check his phone for a text from her. It’s ridiculous and yet also…not.

She annoys him more than anything or anyone in the world, but he also loves her more than anything. It’s easy in a way that it’s never been before, and Killian wonders if this feeling of fluttering deep in his belly is what he was missing in the past.

They grab a late lunch at a quaint little seafood place, one he can tell is family-owned simply from the atmosphere, and instead of sitting inside, they settle down at one of the umbrella-covered tables outside so that they can have a view of the ocean with the salt-water breeze wafting over them.

He’s missed the water.

Of course, he’s been around it living in Manhattan and traveling to several places around the country that are surrounded by water. Hell, he’s even been back in it in the three years since the accident with Liam. But it’s been a long damn time since he’s sat and simply enjoyed getting to spend time near the water.

During the off-season, he and Emma are going somewhere that’s surrounded by water for at least a week, and they’re not going to let any outside distractions get to them. It’s making plans for the future, and that’s all that he wants right now.

(Some would call it baseball mating season, and while he doesn’t plan on them reproducing anytime soon, they can sure as hell practice.)

They get a call that David and Mary Margaret are nearly there when Emma is showing him some of the lighthouses while using a ridiculous voice that she calls her “tour guide” voice, so they quickly gather their things and start walking back to Ruth’s car since she absolutely cannot wait to see the rest of her family and refuses to have them be at her house before she can get back to her house.

David and Mary Margaret get there first because they are apparently the fastest drivers on the planet today.

And Leo practically tackles Ruth in all of his ten-year-old glory when he sees her.

That’s how Addy and Lucy are with Elsa’s parents too, and Killian imagines that being a grandparent is a hell of a lot of fun since you aren’t in charge of molding a little person into a functioning human being. You just have to give them candy and all of the things their parents don’t want them to have.

Or, at least, that’s what he thinks Ruth does.

(That’s what he does as an uncle and wishes his mom could have done as a grandmother.)

They all eat takeout dinner together from an Italian place that Emma and David swear by, and while it’s certainly not the best thing he’s ever had to eat, it’s pretty damn good. Then again, he’s had so much to eat today that his stomach very well may explode soon. He’ll have to get up and go for a jog in the morning.

But right now, it’s a little past ten at night, he’s been up for over eighteen hours, and all he really wants is to sleep. His body is dragging enough that he imagines he’ll have no trouble falling into a slumber as soon as his head hits the pillow.

He’s wrong.

Because then he sees Emma’s teenage bedroom and sees just how empty it is. It’s absolutely nothing like her apartment in New York full of throw pillows and blankets and every artificial plant known to man with a colorful paintings above her headboard. Everything here is rather…beige.

Emma walks out of the bathroom where she’s been getting ready for bed, and he watches as she rubs lotion up and down her hands and her forearms. “Why that glum look on your face? Are you still trying to figure out better ways to argue with David over soccer? Because that dinner conversation is long over. I thought Leo was going to climb on top of the table and start beating on his chest or something equally ridiculous.”

“Hm, no,” Killian chuckles, opening his knees so that Emma can step into them and his hands can find their spots on her waist, warm flesh against his fingertips.

“Then what?”

He blinks up at her, not entirely sure if now is the right time to ask, but then he sees the glint of his mom’s ring falling against Emma’s chest and is reassured in who he is to Emma. “I can’t help but notice that your room here is not quite as colorful as your room at home.”

Emma sighs, and he squeezes her hip in response so that she looks down at him and smile. “It’s kind of a stupid reason. You don’t want to hear about it.”

“I’d love to know more of your beginnings, Swan.”

“Haven’t you heard enough about them today?”

“There is never enough information, love.”

She smiles and reaches to push his hair back off of his head, her hands a magic touch as they move through the strands there. “I’m not a sentimental person. Or, I wasn’t.” Her right hand leaves his hair to find the chain around her neck. Killian’s heart stutters at that movement. “And I never trusted that I was going to stay in one place for very long, so if I had the chance to decorate my room, I didn’t. I kept everything I owned in a little box that was always ready to go.”

His heart may actually break for Emma in this moment, the sad reality of what she’s telling him something that’s hard for him to take in. He can’t imagine what it must be like for her to have lived that way.

“I think this place worked out for you, though.”

“Yeah, it did.” She smiles again, but Killian can see the twinge of sadness in the corners of her lips. “You sure you still want to know about these beginnings of mine when they’re a little bit sad?”

“Like I’ve said before, love, we make quite the team, sad backstories and all. I do, however, think that you need a little something on these walls of yours.”

“I think all of the home décor stores may be closed.”

Killian winks. “Well, I think I’ll just have to get a little creative then.”

His hand slides around her back to squeeze her ass before he’s pushing Emma back from him and getting up from the bed to walk out the door. Everything is darkened with the lights turned off, and since he doesn’t want to wake up everyone else in the house, he uses the flashlight on his phone and quietly walks down the stairs to find his way to the kitchen where he knows there were sheets of paper in the printer as well as a few pens in a cup right behind it. Emma is on his heels, questioning what the hell it is he’s doing, but he doesn’t tell her until he’s grabbing the paper and a thick blue marker.

“What are you doing?” Emma hisses.

“I’m making you some artwork for your wall.”

“That’s ridiculous.”

“It’s endearing.”

“You say that about every weird thing that you do.”

“Because the weird things are endearing,” he corrects, looking back at her and smiling. “What kind of drawing do you want? I’m pretty talented, if I do say so myself, but it’s been awhile since I’ve drawn anything.”

“Just…do whatever you want. I’m going to fix myself a hot chocolate. Do you want one?”

“Does Ruth have any tea?”

“I’m going to make you the hot chocolate. It’s better than tea.”

Killian rolls his eyes, but he doesn’t protest as he starts sketching out what he can remember of the view of the lighthouse today. It’s rough, definitely not his best work, but considering his original plan was simply going to be writing her name out, it’ll have to do for quick work.

Strange things happen when he’s far past tired.

“Milady,” Killian sighs, picking up the paper as well as a bit of tape before walking the few steps toward Emma as she sits on a barstool at the island with two cups of hot chocolate, her mug piled up with whipped cream and sprinkles of cinnamon, “I present to you your artwork for your wall.”

Emma’s eyes glance over it before glancing up at him with a slight smile on her face. “You’ve got to sign it.”

He taps the corner of the paper where he’s scribbled in his number. “Already done.”

“Ah,” Emma laughs, “how could I have missed that?”

“You were distracted by the beauty of the picture.”

“Exactly.” Emma presses up over the countertop and leans forward to quickly brush her lips over Killian’s, and while a part of him wants to deepen it, he doesn’t want to get carried awhile while here. “Thank you. That is very sweet of you to do.”

“Endearing, right?”

“Sure.” She shakes her head and slides his mug over to him so that he can have some of his hot chocolate. “I hope today hasn’t scarred you for life, especially since you still have to survive tomorrow.”

“It’s been fun, Swan. I’ve been…I think it’s gotten me majorly out of my own head. I needed that. And I liked getting to see you be so happy. My only complaint is that I’m under strict instructions not to make your bed squeak. I don’t like that rule.”

Emma reaches over to slap his shoulder, but he moves it out of the way quick enough that she doesn’t get it. It also causes a slight twinge in his shoulder that reminds him that he needs an ice pack for tonight. He hasn’t gotten to put ice on it all day. So, he turns toward the fridge and opens up the freezer, grabbing one of Ruth’s ice packs, and placing it on top of his shoulder before turning back to Emma whose fingers are tracing over the drawing.

Emotion lodges in his throat again, something that’s been happening quite a lot tonight, and it’s what propels him forward to step behind Emma’s back and wrap his arms around her stomach before resting his chin on top of her head.

“I’m not going anywhere, Emma,” he promises, meaning every word. “Not unless you tell me to go. So, you can plan on hanging paintings and making plans and keeping little trinkets in more places than a box. I love you more than I know how to tell you. That’s not going to change.”

Emma audibly sighs, something that he feels under the palms of his hands, before leaning back into Killian and simply staying in that spot so that he can breathe her in.

“I love you,” she breathes out as her head tilts up so that her lips can move across the underside of his jaw. “Let’s take the hot chocolate upstairs and go to bed.”

“And your picture?”

“Yeah, that too.”

-/-

Killian’s arm tingles, the feeling nearly gone, when he wakes up in the morning and finds Emma’s body pressed around it. This isn’t how they fell asleep, not even close, and he’ll probably never have use of his arm again. It doesn’t seem to matter, though, and he flexes his fingers a bit before nuzzling his nose into the back of Emma’s head in an attempt to get to go back to sleep.

They were up until maybe two in the morning talking, sleep never really coming to either of them no matter how much they both wanted it, and judging from the dim light coming through the blinds on the window, it’s still early yet.

He desperately needs coffee. He’s probably not going to be able to go back to sleep, and he desperately needs coffee.

Slowly, Killian begins to extract his arm from Emma’s grip, stopping when she flinches, and after several careful minutes, he’s able to quietly get off the bed and step out of the room, leaving her door cracked so as not to make any kind of noise. He walks down the hallway and uses the guest bathroom before walking down the stairs and wandering to the kitchen in search of coffee.

To his surprise, David is already there sitting at the kitchen table with his laptop open and a cup of coffee sitting next to him, the smell wafting toward Killian.

“Hey,” Killian greets. David nearly jumps out of his chair and knocks everything over, and Killian can’t help but laugh at the shock on his face. “Did you really not hear me coming down the stairs?”

“I, uh, I – ” David is stuttering, obviously at a loss for words, and Killian can’t quite figure out what’s going on. He doesn’t think Dave is usually this flustered in the mornings. “I wasn’t expecting you or Emma to be up this early.”

Killian shakes out his arm, still trying to wake it up. “Believe me. I wish I wasn’t up. Do you always work this early in the morning on a Saturday?”

“No, I don’t, but my phone wouldn’t stop buzzing with emails this morning, so I came downstairs to see so it wouldn’t wake Mary Margaret up.”

“Ah, I turned off my emails this weekend for that exact reason.”

“You probably shouldn’t have done that.”

“What’s that, mate?” David coughs in response, and Killian steps forward to the table and sits down across from David, confusion running through him as his stomach twists and turns. “Seriously. What?”

David can’t look at him, not really, and that doesn’t help calm any of Killian’s nerves as he tries to figure out what in the world is going on with him this morning.

“I didn’t know this was happening, I swear. I’d have stopped it if I got one whiff of it, but there’s been an article.”

“An article?”

David turns his computer around, and Killian reads a headline that he’s always expected to see and yet has always hoped to avoid.

The Truth Behind Killian Jones: A Story Told by His Father.

“Fucking hell,” he murmurs, his eyes taking in the picture of his father that’s plastered on the screen. Killian hasn’t seen him in years, actual years, and yet he looks exactly the same. “What kind of shit is this?”

“It gets worse.”

“How could it possibly get worse?”

“Look at the journalist.”

Killian’s eyes glance toward the screen again, his gaze finding more words he didn’t want to see.

Walsh Osborne.

As in Emma’s ex, Walsh Osborne who she still works with at ESPN. Though, this article is decidedly not on ESPN’s website.

Holy fucking shit.

Killian’s got to go back to bed. This isn’t real. This is all some kind of messed up nightmare that he’s experiencing, and soon, he’ll wake up and none of it will be real. And yet Killian keeps scrolling through the article, skipping the words to instead look at pictures of himself that Killian hasn’t seen in years. His father shouldn’t have these pictures. Liam should have all of them. And yet, somehow, he doesn’t.

Childhood pictures are nothing, though, at least for right now, when at the bottom of the article are pictures of Killian and Emma standing in the airport yesterday with Emma’s arms wrapped around his waist as well as a picture of them kissing in his car from who knows when. Then there’s one that he knows is from the hallways of Yankee stadium in what was supposed to be a private room.

“Everyone knows about you and Emma,” David tells him. 

This is too much. It’s all too much, and he doesn’t know how to handle the reappearance of his father and the very public reveal of his private relationship.

Fuck.

[themonochromesystem]

ACNH DIRECT RECAP 2/20/2020

There was an animal crossing: new horizons direct today! Here’s the biggest hits from it! Also, this post is very, very long and very in-depth (i spent well over an hour on it) so there is a cut in the beginning to save your dashboard!

btw you can watch the direct for yourself here. And if you enjoy this recap, you might want to join my animal crossing discord server!

First of all, you can pick your island (and further customise the terrain but I’ll get to that later)

And you can pick the northern or southern hemisphere! You’ll be able to experience all four seasons regardless of your pick!

You start off with two villagers! You then get an orientation from Tom Nook, Timmy, and Tommy!

You can pick where your villagers live!!! You can also see the borders of how much space the tents will take up.

BTW we’re only four minutes in to a 27 minute presentation so click the “keep reading”  to see the whole recap!

Facilities

The plaza (the leaf on the map) has Resident Services, which is run by the nooks to provide, well, basic services. They sell tools, flowers, and medicine for wasps! There’s also a crafting table to make more stuff! And it’s open 24/7!!!

Crafting works by learning the recipe, and then gathering the crafting supplies to make it! You just make it at the crafting bench in the top right corner.

You can customize furniture really easily in this game! And, Custom Designs Are Back! (more on that later)

The Airport! It’s also open 24/7 and you can travel to other islands and send letter to your residents here! Also it’s run by the cutest dodo bird

You can have 8 people on one island!

Nook Inc. Special Services

iPhone whomst? I only know the Nook Phone

CEO Tom Nook delivers an Island Broadcast aka morning news to everyone, yall my heart

The Nook Mileage Program is a lot like MEOW Coupons from acnl! Do some tasks to earn miles, to then get rewards! They’re also used to pay off the Getaway Package cost! (yall gonna need 5,000 miles for that btw)

We’ve got tool rings y’all!!!

Wasps, scorpions, and tarantulas are back y’all! Ya know how when you got bit by a tarantula or stung by a scorpion in new leaf you’d just pass out? Well wasps can do that now so #YouCanDieInACNH kldkfjdlfjfhjdffj

These aren’t here for any particular reason, I just thought the mushroom lights were pretty

My boy Wisp is back! It looks like you can collect ghosts in this game (which you could do in older games as a friend informed me)

My other son is also back! 

Apparently you can get lost and need to call a helicopter to take you home? how big are these islands??

You can build a house! and the villagers face omfg thats a great screenie Tom Nook is also supplying loans with no interest or deadlines still! thank god

The secret storage room is also back!

It appears you can change the direction of the flooring at least!

The Happy Home Designer-esque room decorator is here!

Get those snazzy houses! It appears you can have 4 rooms in your house (the main room, one to the left, right, and back)

You can use Nook Miles Tickets to go on Island Tours! You can do things like the acnl island tours, along with picking up some animal friends! There’s multiple islands and it seems to be random every time.

Apparently you can jump over small rivers to escape the tarantulas and scorpions fvbvsjfbvjlsfbvhj

Party Play lets you call residents who live on the same island as you for some local co-op!

Creatures found by the people you’re playing with are stored in the recycle box at resident services!

The Nintendo App finally has a gosh damn use! You can scan qr codes from happy home designer and new leaf! As well as talk to the people you’re playing with!

Part 2 of the Presentation 

Ya’ll you can decide where your new residents will live before-hand! You can invite some residents to live on your island as well!

More Facilities!!! The facilities shown in the direct were: the museum, nook’s cranny, able sisters, the campsite

You can move your house AND the shops and facilities once they’re built it seems!

Town services is supposed to expand into a town hall and ya’ll know what that means!!

ISABELLE!!!

Some other fan favorites will also be visiting the island! These include: Label, Harvey, Celeste, Saharah, Daisy Mae (more on her in a bit), and Kicks!

Celeste can give you a magic wand that lets you select outfits!

Daisy Mae is a new NPC who sells turnips! I speculate she’s the child of Joan, but we don’t know yet.

Fishing Tourneys and Bug Offs are now hosted by CJ and Flick! Flick is my entire aesthetic I love him!!

Free updates are coming with seasonal festivities! My main man Jack is back yall!

Island Customization is expansive! Rip homebrew bc there is no need anymore! We have easy paths, bridges, ramps, river customization, cliff customization, AND you can make your own damn waterfalls! (i’d recommend watching the direct starting at 20:49 to fully grasp this bc it’s a lot)

Happy Birthday to You! 🎶

Additional Info:

1. Up to 8 people can share an island on the same switch system 2. Animal Crossing Amiibo figures and cards are supported! They mentioned add availability to more Amiibos, so maybe the loz and splatoon ones will be added! 3. No more griefing! Only your best friends can use certain tools while visiting your island!  4. Multiplayer sessions appear to each have their own code! 5. Save backups via the Nintendo Cloud thing aren’t supported. Watch at 25:34 for more information! 6. Pocket camp players can get ACNH themed items! Follow the pocket camp twitter for more info!

So thats it! I say, after spending 2 hours making this long ass post lmao

Thanks for reading this far! Like and reblogs are greatly appreciated and follow the ACNH Bathhouse blog for more animal crossing posts! Check out the ACNH discord server for more fun chats about animal crossing and many other games!

Thanks for reading!!

[deejadabbles]

Not Quite Unrequited Yami x Reader Chapter 7

Seven: After Glow

One //// Two //// Three //// Four //// Five //// Six //// Seven

Summary: Yami would do whatever it took to keep his friendship with you intact, even if it meant putting on a smile and pushing his love for you aside. You knew Yugi loved Anzu, but getting over your feelings for him was hard, especially when time made feelings for another best friend arise.

AU where Duel Monsters is just a (vastly popular) card game and Yami and Yugi are twins. This is a fic I’ve already posted this on my AO3 but I wanted to spread the Yu-gi-oh x Reader love here on tumblr.

A.N: This is basically a collection of snippets looking into your relationship with Yami, figured I didn't want six chapters of pinning without giving anything on how the actual relationship goes. If you've made it to this chapter thank you so so much for reading the whole series, I appreciate you sticking around til the end!

“It’s about time !”

Yugi was unsurprisingly completely and utterly ecstatic at hearing the news of the way Yami got to end his birthday. He had waited up for quite a while after returning home to an empty house, wanting his brother to explain why he was later creeping in at 4:23am. So, Yami, of course, gave him the synopted version of the night's events. He was in a dream world simply recounting what all had happened.

A long, long time had been dedicated to kissing and simply holding each other after the confession, but eventually one of you had to bring up the inevitable. “If we don’t stop Yugi will come home and find us like this, it might be a little...awkward.”

He loved the little breathy laugh you ended the statement with and he pulled away from your cheek only to rest his head in the crook of your neck. “I know, but I don’t want to let you go so soon, not now.” His heart and yours echoed a pang of pain just thinking about leaving each other so soon.

“I feel the same way...but you know, our night doesn’t have to end now.”

He looked up at you then, and pushed some hairs away from your face with an understanding smile. “I’m sure we can find something to do with each other in this city.”  

So, the two of you went out into the night together. There honestly wasn’t much to do so late in Domino City on a weekday, but that was okay. The two of you walked through the park hand in hand, got some drinks at a 24-hour café, and discovered a wide-open field close to the edge of town where you two laid under the stars together.

A good, long while passed with the two of you like that. Eventually, though, he felt your breathing getting slower and deeper against his chest, felt your eyelashes fluttering against the skin of his neck; you were falling asleep in his arms. Little wonder why once he checked the time on his phone. He entertained the thought of just laying there like that until morning, falling asleep himself with you wrapped in his arms under a blanket of stars.

“I could even take you back home for breakfast when we finally wake up…” he whispered to himself, entertained with the mental image.

When you didn’t respond he knew you had fallen fully into your slumber. Oh how he wanted to just stay like this until morning...but no, it would not do to have this amazing first night together ruined by a passerby- or heaven forbid a cop who might find your sleeping forms in the field.

With a heavy sigh and an even heavier heart he readjusted his position and started laying gentle kisses on your face. “Time to wake up, my love. I should walk you home for the night.”

The weight in his heart only grew as the two of you walked back to your house. In fact, the only thing that made the whole departure bearable was the knee weakening kiss you gave him on your back porch. Pressing your finger to his lips you said the two of you could spend all day together tomorrow- once you two caught up on sleep of course.

God, he really was head over heels for you.

The recounting of these events led to a now elated Yugi practically bouncing on his bed with excitement. “I was hoping things were finally building to a head between you two tonight! I mean you two were practically taking turns throwing each other longing looks behind the others back all night. So who made the first move?”

Yami put his finger to his lip, giving a little nervous chuckle as he ran back through the memories of the night. “Both of us? I didn’t confess how I felt, but I did initiate the first kiss once a confession was out.”

And what an amazing kiss it had been, that one and all the others that followed all night. Yami couldn’t help the content sigh that escaped his chest as he threw himself onto his bed. He sprawled out on his back beside his brother, looking up at the ceiling with a small smile gracing his lips.

“Man, you’re practically glowing” Yugi chuckled.

“And why wouldn’t I be?” Yami replied in a light tone “Everything is just…perfect.”

It was a hot day and you were glad for the shade outside the Kaiba Corp building where you and Anzu sat, waiting for Yugi, Yami and Jonouchi to return from signing up for the next big Duel Monsters tournament. The line of competitors was finally dwindling, so it shouldn’t be much longer before the boys came out.

“I’m just thankful the tournament lands on the week before I have to leave, this’ll be the last one I see Yugi compete in for a while,” Anzu said, the last words laced in a forlorn sigh.

“Don’t worry, Anzu,” you assured “you’ll be able to see Yugi compete often enough. Actually, Yami and I were talking the other day and we think we can set up some kind of video system with me in the stands, so you can see his duels live even if they aren’t being broadcasted in New York.”

“Really?” she perked up at the thought “that would be great!”

A week or two ago she might have added a gushing comment about how you and Yami were couple of the year, but for your friends, the novelty of you two finally being together had worn off some time ago. Yugi and Anzu were still happy to have another couple in the group of course, while Jonouchi and Honda were just thankful the two of you weren’t as PDA inclined as Yugi and Anzu. The newness of the relationship was slowly starting to settle, for your friends as well as yourself and Yami, though that was hardly a bad thing.

The conversation only went on for a few more minutes before the boys finally returned, all looking quite pleased.

“I assume everything went okay?” Anzu asked.

“Yup! Kaiba actually saw us before we left,” Yugi started in elaboration, casting an amused look towards his brother “he made sure to let Yami know he wasn’t allowed to lose to anyone but him in the tournament.”

Jonouchi chimed in with a scoff “Ha! That smug little creep is gonna have to get through me first! I swear I’m gonna pound him this time around.”

You had to bite your lip to keep from giggling at Jou’s choice in words and were thankfully interrupted by an encouraging phrase from Yami.

“You’ve been improving with every match, I’m sure you’re going to give Kaiba a run for his money, Jonouchi.”

“Yami’s right,” Yugi added, “specially if you start watching Kaiba’s previous matches and start building a strategy now.”

The blonde became an odd mixture of abashed and smug at the praises, scratching his cheek with a very faint blush. Of course, the conversation continued along the Duel Monster’s vein as the five of you walked together. It wasn’t long before everyone had to go their separate ways however. Jou excused himself, having to scamper off to some sibling bonding time over ice cream with his younger sister. Anzu’s shift at work was about to start soon and Yugi wanted to walk her there, leaving you and Yami alone.

Almost the moment the two began to walk away, you felt slim fingers slip through your own and give a gentle squeeze. You let out a chuckle as you turned to Yami, who was looking at you with that gentle smile of his. He didn’t say a word as the two of you started walking again. Though you let him take the lead you knew where he was going, both of you were in need of some alone time where Yami could feel comfortable giving his affections and back home was just the fitting place.

Deciding to test the waters of his PDA limits, you leaned in to rest your head on his upper arm, the position being slightly awkward as you walked, but well worth the extra intimacy. He seemed comfortable with it, even chuckling at the action before starting up another conversation.

“I was reading the benefits page of the contract we signed for the tournament and it looks like finalist can have up to three VIP tickets to give loved ones for the finals. When I get there you’ll be able to sit in the best seats with the best view.”

“Good, I mean, it’s the duty of a number one fan to have the best spot in the house,” you told him with a wink.

“Oh? You’re my number one fan now?” he asked, amused as you two came to a stop in front of the game shop’s back door and faced each other.

“Well of course, I mean,” you looked up at him with the sweetest of expressions on your adorable face “that’s in my job description, you being my boyfriend means I’m naturally your number one supporter. The one who will always cheer you on, run to you and pull you into the warmest hug whether you win or lose, but always believe that you will win, this duel, the next and all the ones after.”

Yami was looking back at you, his gaze going softer and softer the more you spoke, the longer he admired that sweet smile on your face, that adorable tilt of your head. He just couldn’t take it, he leaned in swift and precise, capturing your lips as he brushed his fingers along your cheek. When he broke the kiss he couldn’t bear to look at you, instead simply burying his now warm face in the crook of your neck.

“Stop being so cute” he mumbled against your collarbone, sounding quite flustered.

It was your turn to chuckle “Why would I do that? Being adorable is the surefire way to get you to kiss me after all.”

After taking a moment longer to regain his composure, Yami lifted his head so he was face to face with you, his lips brushing against your cheek before lining up with your own. His face was still a little florid from the effect your adorable nature had on him, but he still had that air of confidence about him.

“Well, you know you don’t have to work hard to get me to kiss you, I always want to do that.”

To validate the claim he pressed his lips to yours again, a slow, languid kiss. One that said he had all the time in the world to kiss you, to hold you close and build up to the passion he had in his heart instead of letting it all loose at once. Humming with content you wrapped your arms around him and the two of you stayed pressed together like that for awhile…until the door to the game shop opened.

“Oh ho! I didn’t realize the two of you were having a moment out here!”

Yami pulled back so quickly you actually stumbled forward a bit. Your face was quite flushed as you looked towards Grandpa Mutou, who of course had a very cheeky grin plastered on his face. Yami said nothing, just averted his eyes with red filling his cheeks, all while still having his hands on your hips.

“I’m just running to the corner market real quick, please don’t let me stop you two,” Grandpa assured as he walked past, ending with a dreamy sigh of “ah, young love.”

“Well,” you started in the wake of the old man’s departure “that was embarrassing.”

“Try living with him and Yugi, I’m fairly certain their main goal in life is to embarrass me by constantly commenting on our relationship.”

“Aw, really?” a small giggle left your lips at the mental image his words conjured.

Yami nodded, took your hand and lead you inside as he proceeded to tell you about the time both men in question spent something close to an hour trying to convince him to propose to you on your one year anniversary.

“This is the last one!” you declared as you set down the final cardboard box in the still barren room.

The only things Yami had managed to set up in his bedroom of the new apartment were his bed and desk. Some boxes of clothes lay open and rifled through, though even those essentials had yet to be put in place over the first night Yami stayed in his new home. Speaking of, as you straightened up and stretched your arms above your head, the man in question came up from behind and wrapped you up in a tight embrace.

“Thank you again for all your help. I know I wouldn’t be moved in so soon without you,” he whispered, placing a sweet kiss on your shoulder.

You let out a little giggle “Of course! If I left all the moving up to you and Jou, you’d still be standing in front of the moving van, wondering how to load the boxes without breaking anything.” In answer, Yami mumbled something as he buried his face in your hair and you couldn’t make out his words. “What did you say?”

After a moment of what you would assume was contemplation, Yami lifted you into his arms, earning a shout of delighted surprise. “I said, maybe I should give you your reward now.”

In the next moment, you found yourself deposited onto his bed with his body hovering over yours. Lips met before you even fully let out a surprised gasp, but the exclamation quickly melted into a content moan. Even after months of being together his kisses, always brimming with such passion and need, still left your chest a fluttering, flustered mess. Your fingers found his hair and his palm held your face while the other supported his position. It was an odd sense of freedom, to be in such a situation in a room that was not part of the Mutou game shop. Of course you loved gramps and the residence you and the twins had played in since you were children, but to know a family member wasn’t bound to just open the door and start giving lectures about ‘being safe’ upon seeing your ‘predicament’ gave a young couple a strong sense of accomplishment.

Of course, that did not mean the new apartment did not come with its own interruptions.

“Yo, Yam, have you see the- WOAH! Aw geeze you love birds couldn’t even close the door first?!”

Yami let out an annoyed grunt as he pulled away from your lips to look at the doorway, a rather scandalized looking Jonouchi occupying the space. “We weren’t going to do anything, Jonouchi” Yami assured, holding back a sigh.

“Hey I don’t know how far you two’ve gotten in your relationship, I just want you to keep your dear old roommates in mind while you, ya know, ‘break in’ the new place.”

“Leave them alone, Jou” Yugi scolded as he passed by, taking a pile of towels to the bathroom “They’re just excited to be out of grandpa’s hair I bet.”

“Yeah yeah, just keep the door closed, k?” with that Jonouchi walked back to the living room- not before sliding Yami’s door ninety percent closed of course.

Your boyfriend let out a sigh, resting his forehead on yours “I’m not sure if him interrupting us is worse than grandpa or not.”

“Well, at least Jonouchi doesn’t make us feel like irresponsible kids” you mused, still playing with Yami’s hair.

He hummed in agreement, his half-lidded eyes unfocused as he thought of something. You stayed like that for quite a few minutes, him enjoying the feeling of your fingers, you content with your position cuddled on the bed. Then he slid his hands under your back and rolled your bodies to switch position, him now lying on his back with you resting against his chest.

“Stay here tonight.”

Surprise by the sudden almost-command, you let out a breathy “What?”

“You should stay here tonight” he shifted his body so that his gaze was more level with yours, and brushed some stray hairs from your face as he continued “We’re going to order a pizza to celebrate being all moved in, but you should spend the night. You don’t have work tomorrow and” he gained a playful little smirk “you can wear some of my clothes for sleepwear.”

Deciding to delve into that playfulness, you replied with a lighthearted “Hm, how can I be sure this isn’t just some ploy to get me into your bed?”

“You’re already in my bed” he answered, unphased and still smirking “besides, is it so wrong of a man to want to cuddle beside his love at night?”

Laughing you buried your face in his chest again, not sure if you were doing it out of embarrassment or not. “Alright, I’ll stay, but only because you know you’re irresistible when you smirk like that.”

“And I promise to be the gentleman you know I am” he sealed the promise with a kiss to the top of your head, his heart doing all its little leaps and thumps inside his chest, ones only you could incite within him.

The frozen treat was a welcome distraction against the hot day. Yes you were quite happy with your usual choice of ice cream, but that didn’t stop you from eyeing the cup clutched in your boyfriend’s hands.

After one too many of these side long glances, his perfect chuckle met your ears “I told you you should have gotten a second scoop of this” he said, not quite scolding not quite exasperated.

“I just didn’t know if I was in the mood for my usual or something new” you replied with the barest hint of a pout.

Yami stopped in his tracks, luckily there were few people traversing the section of park you two were strolling through, so you weren’t in anyone’s way. After finishing a bite of the chocolate filled treat he refilled the spoon and leaned in, bringing the spoon to your lips.

“Here”

Willing to share his food with you, even when you hadn’t asked? Yami was just too good to be true sometimes. You took the offered bite, the delighted smile on your lips quickly giving way to a content hum and lax slump of your shoulders.

“Alright I admit it, you were right, I should have gotten a scoop of my own,” you conceded with a dreamy sigh.

He shook his head in amusement, before giving a quiet, thoughtful hum. Curious, you kept your eyes on him as he looked at you hesitantly, the faintest hint of red dusting his cheeks. This was not uncommon for Yami, he would have some idea on being cute or flirtatious and had to consider it with a flushed face for just a moment before acting on it. Of course, the longer you dated the less it happened, him settling into and getting comfortable with that side of himself the longer he was with you.

So, after that common, moment long hesitation, Yami smirked and leaned in even closer. “I’ll give you have another bite, but I expect something in return.”

God damn, he probably didn’t even realize how husky and sultry his tone was. Still, you managed to keep it cool and smiled, taking on a matching playful air. “Oh? What do you want as payment?”

His fingers grazed your chin, pulling you that last bit closer so your lips met. It was light and didn’t last long, both of you all too aware of the other patrons in the park, but it was still a nice display of affection, simple and sweet.

“For every bite, I expect at least one kiss” he stated when he pulled away.

“You really should have set your price higher, I’d give you all the kisses you want for free, but especially if I get ice cream too! I’ll end up eating all your share.”

With a little ‘humph’ he pulled away and took steps to walk ahead of you “Well in that case, I should give you a limit, or demand more than just one kiss per bite.”

You noticed that he ended his claim by eating a particularly large spoonful at that moment. Giving a dramatic sigh you fell in step beside him again “No fair, you already set your price!”

He shrugged “Changed my mind.”

Laughing you gave him a playful nudge with your elbow and demanded the bite he already owed you from the kiss just now, before conforming to his ‘change of mind’. He obliged, still holding the spoon in his own hands so he could feed you. You got a fantastic chunk of the bits filling the ice cream and couldn’t help the little moan of delight that vibrated in your throat.

You swallowed before opening your eyes again, and were a bit surprised to find a very ‘hot and bothered’ looking Yami. He quickly turned his attention to the path you were walking along, avoiding your gaze as he tried to settle the heavy thumping of his heart. Oh, you simply had to pull that move again sometime soon. Something about the usually cool and confident Yami being a flushed mess because of a little moan just made you quite amused.

Pain was writhing in his chest. It wasn’t even an intense pain, rather, he simply knew the pain was there and that he needed to run from it. Yes, run from pain, that was logical. Still, no matter how fervently he commanded his legs to move, they simply wouldn’t obey. He dreaded what came next. His past, his aggressive tendencies, his moments of questionable morals, the person he tried so hard not to be anymore was catching up, clawing back from the past. And it was taking you from him. You had finally realized that you didn’t want him anymore, that he wasn’t worthy of your love or understanding.

The pain. It was killing him. He knew he needed to say something, remind you that you had seen his past, lived it with him and had accepted him anyway, that he wasn’t that person anymore. That you and Yugi and the others had enabled him to find his true self, grow away from that egotistical boy who took things too far too often.

“I’m different now, you know I am” he pleaded out loud, or at least, he wanted to say it. Instead his voice failed him and no words left his open mouth, just a lost, desperate exhale.

Then you turned away. You turned your back on him and as he moved to give chase the world fell out beneath him and he was falling. Only when darkness consumed him completely did Yami’s eyes snap open and he found himself in the hazy limbo between dreams and the waking world.

A few shuttering breaths and he was fully aware of the fact that it had all been a dream. Correction: nightmare. He ran his hand over his face, hating how cold he still felt inside. It was a dream damn-it, it wasn’t real! You would never do that to him, he knew you wouldn’t…you loved him.

Yami almost jumped when he felt arms coil around him and soft lips place a few tired, lazy kisses over his shoulder. That’s right, you had spent the night again, such an occurrence being more common than not as of late. You let out a little adorable yawn before asking if he was okay in a sleepy, barely there tone.

He turned over within your arms and found himself nose to nose, lips to lips with your beautiful face. “Sorry I woke you, just…just had a bad dream.”

That got your attention, your gaze sobered and you shifted your position to get a better look at him. “Are you okay? Do you want to talk about it?” you asked as you brushed damp strands of blonde hair from his face.

Your touch did wonders on its own, and he let out a cleansing breath of air, leaning into your hand to place light kisses on your palm. Honestly, he didn’t truly need to talk about it, not now. Had he woken up alone in a bed devoid of your loving, calming presences, that would have been cause for concern. But he hadn’t woken alone, proof that his dream was nothing more than a nightmare was right here, stroking his face and giving sweet kisses. All he was missing was you saying out loud that you loved him and would never leave him over who he used to be.

Eventually, he shook his head and assured that it wasn’t worth talking about. You didn’t look convinced, but respected him enough not to push. Instead, you moved to lay on your back, comfortable against the pillows, and patted your chest.

“Come here, I’ll hold you until you fall asleep again. No more bad dreams tonight, I’ll make sure of it.”

Emotion clogged his throat, and he found himself simply gazing at you with so much love, gratitude and adoration that he was sure he looked on the verge of tears. Without hesitation he moved to curl against your side, tucked under your arm, his head resting on your chest. Your heart was beating under his ear, he felt the content sigh that left your chest when he snuggled against you and he was filled with the comforting familiar scent of you.

“I love you so much”

The whisper left his lips before he realized he was on the verge of saying it, but he didn’t even care how close it sounded to a shaking whimper. In response, you nestled even more securely against him, placed your fingers in his hair and started stroking it as you gave a kiss on his temple.

“I love you too, more than anything.”

The crowds cheering roared in his ears and it was all such white noise by now that he could hardly distinguish how many were shouts of support and boos of displeasure at his opponent’s last attack.

“Only 300 life points left, Yami, ready to throw in the towel yet?”

Honestly, he wasn’t sure how long he would have to duel Seto before the man realized that taunts got him nowhere when it came to a Mutou. Still Yami felt heat prickle across the back of his neck as he contemplated his next move. Though the CEO had only managed to summon one of his trademark dragons, the field was still tilted in his favor. No, he closed off that train of doubt with a mental slap.

Yami closed his eyes, let out a calming breath, and reopened them to land on the tokens he always placed before him in every duel. Five cards, representing some of the most important people in his life, their cartoon likeness’ smiling back at him, assuring their support and confidence in his abilities. Though they had the very slightest signs of wear around the corners he had taken meticulous care of them over the years. Two years had passed since you gave him the thoughtful gift, and they were a treasure to him not only because of what they represented during his duels, but because they marked the day the love of his life finally became his.

“Are you going to play your next pathetic card or not, Mutou?”

A moment of silence, then Yami gave that ever so popular smirk “When will you learn, Kaiba, that no card is pathetic in the hands of a master.”

Again the young man couldn’t distinguish the delight and the distaste from the crowd as Seto’s life points dropped to 0. Kaiba did not look pleased, but took his defeat with grace as they met in the center of the platform and shook hands.

“Better be careful, Yami, your fans will want to maul you with their attention after a win like that” the taller man warned after Yami accepted his trophy.

Yami chuckled as he turned around, looking back to his side of the arena “The only fan I care about right now, is my number one fan.”

He missed how Kaiba gave him a look of confusion, then an eye roll as his sights landed on you. There on the sidelines, you waited for him, a proud, knowing smile on your face. He made his way over quickly, knowing security might not be able to hold back the fans and reporters for long. Grabbing your offered hand in his, he made a dash for the competitors only exit, the one that would ensure you two would have a head start on anyone wanting a ‘quick word’ with this championships’ winner.

“Mr. Mutou, wait! You have to give a few words to the press!”

Sighing, he paused in front of the gathered crowd that was granted ringside access. He hated public speaking and truly just wanted to be alone with you right now, but this was all part of being a popular duelist.

“I’ll leave you with just this: Though you must always believe in yourself first and foremost, never neglect the value of surrounding yourself with loved ones who believe in you just as much.”

No one missed the way his eyes flickered to you as he said the final words. Oh, they would have a field day with that little demonstration, but that was also part of being a popular duelist, or his significant other.

Quicker than you could have hoped the two of you were out of there and running through the cityscape outside of the arena. Eventually, you came to a park that was mostly devoid of patrons in the dusk closing of the day. Finally being gloriously alone without locking yourselves in your house, Yami pulled you in and spun you around two quick turns before planting a sweet kiss on your lips.

You giggled into the kiss and again after you parted. Throwing your arms around his neck you smiled up at him, quite pleased that he was in such a playful mood. “Well someone’s walking on cloud nine today.”

He smiled back at you, loving the way the fading rays of sun brightened your eyes and hair and face. He cupped your cheeks in his hands “And why wouldn’t I be? Everything is just” he let out a content sigh “perfect.”

[yeolspuppy]

Chanyeol - ‘’With you’’ (lyrics analysis)

Hi there, everyone who reads my analysis and always waits for my new posts!!!

Today I’m gonna talk about another beautiful song. It’s called ‘’With you’’, is from EXO’s new album (okay why am I saying this, lol everyone knows that).

Anyways, when I’ve read the lyrics of this song, I thought ‘’That’s it. You have to analyze it’’.

So here we will talk about the lyrics of this song. 

As you all know, I have 2 other analyzes about Chanyeol’s self composed song ‘’Heaven’’ and about ‘’Creep’’ (he made a cover of it). We will compare it with ‘’Heaven’’ lyrics as well because to me, ‘’With you’’ is obviously related to it, so I couldn’t ignore it.

There’s so much to say so I don’t even know where to start from but well, LET’S DO IT.

Firstly, befe the album was even released, as we all saw, ‘’With you’’ was the song of Baekhyun’s teaser.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ue5911MOqDc

People can come up with many ideas but I, personally, don’t think it’s just a coincidence. After all, light is Baekhyun’s power.

Next, it’s important, so let’s see what Chanyeol actually said about the song and that way we can also see why it’s feels like ‘’Heaven’’ (Part 2).

(TRANSLATION)

‘‘The genre of this song was my favorite type and I felt comfortable when I listened to it. While writing the lyrics of the song, I thought about the people I love, I thought about fans a lot too. I also thought about the times I’ve spent with the members....’‘ - Chanyeol

It was obvious he wrote it for the members when we listened to his self composed song ‘’Hands’’. When you read the lyrics, it’s clear how he expressed his thoughts, his feelings for the members as they always helped him and supported him.

BUT IN THIS CASE

It’s really hilarious how he said he thought about the members, when the whole song is about a man being deeply in love. Clearly, it’s not about friendship or brotherhood.

Well, unless it’s really about Baekhyun, his member mate, what he said makes real sense.

Since I want people to understand how’s this song related to ‘’Heaven’’, let’s do a little throwback.

This is what Chanyeol said about ‘’Heaven’’.

‘’I’ve written the song as If I was really in love. It’s about the lover who fell from the sky’’. 

PLUS

In order to remember the details, I have watched the live video where Chanyeol talked about ‘’Heaven’’ and it was cute to find out how he kept looking to Baekhyun’s direction while explaining the lyrics. Lol.

Ain’t claiming anything guys, watch the video yourselves, maybe you have another opinion. I just said what I saw.

Baekhyun pointing at himself while singing ‘’Hello angel, you’re like a painting...’’

Baekhyun saying he likes exactly those lyrics.

I don’t know about you guys but it says a lot to me.

By the way, if anyone wants to read the full analysis about it, here is the link.

https://yeolspuppy.tumblr.com/post/154371991400/chanyeols-self-composed-song-heaven-lyrics

Now let’s go back to ‘’With you’’.

~~~~~~~~~~~

No one was surprised anymore when Baekhyun said his favorite song from the album was ‘’With you’’.

Up to now, Chanyeol has always compared his beloved one to the sky, the stars, angels. It’s not what we say, it’s what he says himself in his lyrics.

That’s damn obvious already since we all remember when he was asked to describe Baekhyun with one word, he said ‘’Sky’’, right?

Anyways, to me, ‘’With you’’ is much deeper. This song is much more intimate. It shows how deep, how strong the relationship is with the person he wrote the song about. If you read the lyrics of ‘’Heaven’’, you can see many, really MANY references in the lyrics, so there’s no doubt both songs are about one and the same person. To not assume things, let’s make sure ;)

Not to go far, guys. The first lyrics of these songs are almost the same. So similar. Chanyeol sees his lover, when he looks to the sky, to the stars.

The following sentences as well; Chanyeol’s beloved one resembles everything that shines, resembles the light. And in both songs, Chanyeol mentions

‘‘even if the street lights go out and the moon disappears...’‘

‘‘when the night sky thickens..’‘

It’s still bright because his beloved one is the light and is there to shine for him. As if no matter what happens, Baekhyun is always there to make Chanyeol feel better and solve any problems.

‘‘The whole world is tinded with light

You naturally take my hand and

It’s getting tainted by me...’’

I relate this to Baekhyun’s bright personality. Not only his power is the light, but he, himself is a very bright person, like a little sunshine.

All of the EXO members mostly call him ‘’mood maker’’ because of that. Especially Chanyeol.

I find it very interesting that when the members are asked about who’s the mood maker of the group, they all answer Chanyeol or Baekhyun. And Chanyeol always says it’s Baekhyun. He always says Baekhyun is the one who makes the atmosphere around better, makes everyone feel happy. And I think it’s really cute how we can see the reflection of his words in the lyrics of this song.

Chanyeol has been talking about light since 2014. I hope you all guys remember his old profile picture in Instagram. Here it is.

His most favorite expression I guess.

‘‘Happiness Delight’‘

And what actually is crazy here

If we translate ‘’Happiness De light’’ it basically means ‘’Happiness from light’’.

Think about this.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

And those last sentences are the KEY.

‘‘Sometimes I think that if you look exactly the same as me...’‘

It’s not even a secret for anyone that Baekhyun and Chanyeol are very similar. They have common interests, the same music taste and etc. No wonder that Chanyeol himself said Baekhyun is his soulmate.

Again here. 

A person so similar with him he feels like that person is his reflection in the mirror.

A person he sees everyday.

To make it even more clear (though I don’t know how this can get even more obvious lol)

Let’s do another throwback to 2016.

Here’s one of the most popular interviews of Chanyeol and Baekhyun, something very rare, when they talked about each other. Yes, the VIVI MAGAZINE Interview.

Read the lyrics of the song? Now let’s see what Chanyeol said here about Baekhyun.

‘‘Nothing has changed...’‘ since it’s been long.

‘‘Play games together, work out together, our hobbies go together well...’‘

This just proves it one more time. How close they are and how similar they are, how they do everything together because they match with each other better than with anyone else. And this is what Chanyeol keeps talking about in the lyrics as well.

This is how he talks only about Baekhyun. That says a lot.

To make it as clear as water, let’s see how Chanyeol describes his ideal type.

‘‘Appearance doesn’t matter to me. I prefer someone I can compose with, someone I can cook with, someone who smiles a lot, is honest, someone who has the same music taste as me’‘.

Composing together since decades.

Chanyeol, who invited Baekhyun to cook together, though Baekhyun is not even good at cooking.

Baekhyun who smiles as much as he talks, Baekhyun who’s sincere, honest than anyone else, that’s why he keeps talking about sensitive topics during broadcasts, concerts and so on, making other members feel nervous and awkward, lol.

Back to our interview, guys, the last point. Chanyeol said Baekhyun and him have the same music taste, so they talk about music related topics as well.

That’s not even all.

I think some of you will remember once Chanyeol was asked to describe his ideal type and he said ‘’Someone who would laugh at my jokes’’.

In my opinion, Baekhyun is the only person who always laughs at Chanyeol’s jokes, no matter whether they’re really funny or not. It’s like no one understands their inside jokes. Only two of them.

And even if the other members don’t laugh, they always laugh at each other jokes.

https://twitter.com/chanyeoloving/status/910122800849014785

https://twitter.com/TheEksorcist/status/830391318375387137

And this is what Baekhyun said about Chanyeol during VIVI MAGAZINE Interview.

Their words make even more sense once you see what Baekhyun actually said about ‘’With you’’.

‘‘Love someone so much that you start looking like each other’‘.........?

‘‘Our sense of humor become the same...’‘..........?

This is something I don’t even want to explain in details. Everything is clear for you all I guess. But it is very hilarious that he speaks about people in general AND suddenly switches to ‘’our sense of humor become the same...’’.

As if he’s personally involved in the song.

~~~~

Another lyrics I could not ignore, guys.

Let’s say, this is just my opinion BUT

When I was reading the lyrics, I thought it would be unfair to not mention Chanyeol’s following words from the interview

‘’We chat together with Baekhyun all night till we both forget about time’’.

No comments needed, yeah.

And there it goes.

‘‘We talked all night....How was your day?

You are the best

I’m more brilliant because of you’’

We can see, Chanyeol finds his inspiration in that person. He thinks that person is the best, someone he can learn from and become a better person every day. 

Gotta put this here, at this point.

‘‘Be it drama, and music, acting activities, singing with other artists, it’s always perfect no matter what he does...’‘

Once again, his words about Baekhyun find their reflection in the lyrics.

I don’t know about you guys but the first lines got to my heart so much.

‘‘Find me in your eyes like a habit

Deepening night

I pause for a moment

I want to keep it in my eyes’’.

Through these lyrics we can see it again, the closeness and just how much Chanyeol loves his beloved one. Based on the lyrics, I can say they have been together for a really long time.

Well, 6-7 years is so damn long.

It’s just impossible to write such lyrics without actaully being in love. 

Really beautiful how Chanyeol doesn’t want to let the light disappear, he wants to keep it in his eyes.

Explains why he stares at Baekhyun 24/7.

Sorry for the pics, I couldn’t help myself.

Every line, every lyric of this song is so full of love, I can’t miss any of them. Here Chanyeol talks not only about similar characters, hobbies and feelings but also physicial similarities. It is very interesting in my opinion. Because so many people talked about Chanyeol and Baekhyun looking so similar sometimes that when you look at their pics, at some point, it’s hard to understand whether it’s Chanyeol or Baekhyun.

These lyrics are so important. Chanyeol doesn’t miss anything, he describes his beloved one so well we can literally see that person’s image in our head.

‘‘Even the way you speak, feels like it’s me...’‘

The same lame jokes, the same expressions. We all have seen of that enough, right?

‘‘Every single small thing was me being like you...’‘

When we read these lyrics, we can see that person is someone Chanyeol respects a lot, someone he admires.

This reminds me of all those moments when Chanyeol and Baekhyun burst in laugh together. 

Baekhyun laughs and Chanyeol follows him.

Chanyeol laughs and Baekhyun follows him.

Also here.

They are both on the floor. In their own world. And even here, Chanyeol follows Baekhyun. The moment Baekhyun throws himself on the floor, Chanyeol follows him.

And crazy, but  Chanyeol gets up from the floor as soon as Baekhyun does. (thanks Noel for noticing this).

Chanyeol always does what Baekhyun does.

I think this what exactly he meant by ‘’ ‘‘Every single small thing was me being like you...’‘

Baekhyun is an example for him. Once again we see it.

The last lines of the song are no less sweet than the others. And here I would like to bring ‘’Heaven’’ too

In ‘’Heaven’’ Chanyeol promises to protect his beloved one, to protect that person’s heart so that it won’t be hurt.

And what’s really interesting and beautiful, in ‘’With you’’ , this time he asks that person to promise to stay with him.

I think here Chanyeol means their fame, the scene when he talks about ‘’the lights’’ . 

Means when they’re no more young and popular, when they’re not idols anymore, they’d still be together. (Again, thanks to Noel for this. Ugh her mind).

And the last ‘’Love you’’ is so intimate. It is very special and even more personal than all of the lines together.

Also the fact that Chanyeol and Baekhyun finish the song together. 

Chanyeol says ‘’Love you’’ while Baekhyun still sings. So it comes out like

Baekhyun: Shine on me

Chanyeol: Love you

They say these lines at the same time.

It is very important. And obvious.

Lastly

In my ‘’Heaven’’ analysis, I have also added about the song lines distribution.

Baekhyun sang the most of the song. (44.5%).

And I think it’s extremely cute because let’s look at ‘’With you’’ ‘s line distribution now.

Baekhyun sang, ATTENTION, 47.2% of the song!! 

~~~~~~

Well, let me finish this analysis here. Please remember that this is my opinion, I’m not forcing anyone to accept it. This is just the way I see and feel these lyrics. To me, it was obvious Chanyeol wrote this song for Baekhyun based on the way they both talk about it. It is fine, if your opinion differs. Thanks again! :)

[johnchiarello]

Sunday sermon  7-15-18

Sunday Sermon- 7-15-18  [Video made 7-8-18]

Ezekiel 2:1 And he said unto me, Son of man, stand upon thy feet, and I will speak unto thee.

Ezekiel 2:2 And the spirit entered into me when he spake unto me, and set me upon my feet, that I heard him that spake unto me.

Ezekiel 2:3 And he said unto me, Son of man, I send thee to the children of Israel, to a rebellious nation that hath rebelled against me: they and their fathers have transgressed against me, even unto this very day.

Ezekiel 2:4 For they are impudent children and stiffhearted. I do send thee unto them; and thou shalt say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD.

Ezekiel 2:5 And they, whether they will hear, or whether they will forbear, (for they are a rebellious house,) yet shall know that there hath been a prophet among them.

Sunday Sermon videos-

https://youtu.be/PQVcv5BOlWk

https://www.facebook.com/john.chiarello.5/videos/10204547063754789/

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1eC-MdU_sQjAHXX9CW5FlXjXKjDQyby9H/view?usp=sharing

10 For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater:

11 So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.

Is. 55

 ON VIDEO [Links to all my sites at the bottom of this post]-

Filmed at North beach by the Lexington- good view of a storm rolling in as well-

.Visions

.Prophets

.5- fold ministry

.Jesus comes to his hometown

.See the kids by the Lexington museum!

.Was the gas can a miracle?

.What about a boy being raised from the dead?

.The Son of Man- What are the 3 top titles/offices used to describe Jesus in the gospels?

.What one did Jesus use the most when speaking about himself- and why?

.And the rain came

 NEW [Other videos below]

This Sunday I spoke on the verses from the Catholic mass for this day [7-8-18] and hopefully caught a good view of the storm rolling in on North beach by the Lexington museum [I haven’t reviewed the video yet].

Later today- 7-15-18- I will try and post the video I make today to Youtube- blogger and facebook-

The theme from the readings [Pasted in full at the bottom of this post] was the rejection that the prophets- and even Jesus himself- experienced- from people who knew they were sent from God-

Notice the passage from Ezekiel-

Reading 1

EZ 2:2-5

As the LORD spoke to me, the spirit entered into me and set me on my feet, and I heard the one who was speaking say to me: Son of man, I am sending you to the Israelites, rebels who have rebelled against me; they and their ancestors have revolted against me to this very day. Hard of face and obstinate of heart are they to whom I am sending you.  But you shall say to them: Thus says the LORD GOD!  And whether they heed or resist—for they are a rebellious house— they shall know that a prophet has been among them.

 God tells the prophet that even if they don’t listen to his words- yet they shall know that a prophet was sent.

How can this be?

If people see the true signs of a prophet- if they ‘know’ what he is saying has come from God- then how could they reject it?

We call that sin- meaning when God speaks to humans about repentance it really makes no difference whether they know it is God’s will or not- most people simply don’t want to repent.

We actually see this dynamic from the next reading-

Gospel

MK 6:1-6

Jesus departed from there and came to his native place, accompanied by his disciples.  When the sabbath came he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were astonished.  They said, “Where did this man get all this?  What kind of wisdom has been given him?  What mighty deeds are wrought by his hands!  Is he not the carpenter, the son of Mary, and the brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon?  And are not his sisters here with us?”  And they took offense at him.  Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in his native place and among his own kin and in his own house.”  So he was not able to perform any mighty deed there, apart from curing a few sick people by laying his hands on them. He was amazed at their lack of faith.

 The people of Jesus' hometown recognized he spoke with great wisdom- he was doing miraculous works- yet- they were offended any way.

The common theme from the readings shows us that even if the prophetic gift- and the miracles are real- this in no way means the people will respond in a good way.

Often times the heart gets harder- as in the example of Moses and Pharaoh [Romans 9].

Many good Christians seek the gifts of the Spirit- we often think if the miraculous was released once again- as in the days of the early church- then that will get the job done.

But if we are not humble- walking in obedience- we can be just like the people of Jesus and Ezekiel's day-

They saw God at work- they themselves testified that the wisdom and works had to be from God- yet that made no difference- they still rejected what God wanted to do.

I gave an example of a personal interaction I had with a christian one day- he was into the prophetic movement-

He was following ‘Prophets’ on line- the whole 9 yards.

Then when I shared a miracle God had done- a pretty good one-

He responded in a strange way- he believed that the boy was raised from the dead- but yet responded in a way that seemed strange- for someone who was seeking to see the works of God in a supernatural way.

We can all be guilty of this by the way- asking the Lord to do a great work- use us in a mighty way.

But if the word of the Lord to us is hard- something that we really did not want to hear-

Then we can be just like the people of Nazareth-

We will say ‘Yes- obviously God is doing something- but we know this guy- we are familiar with him- he grew up among us- no- if he were some out of town prophet- then maybe we would listen- but he lives right here’.

They were offended because of familiarity- unable to view people in the Spirit of the Lord- and simply seeing them ‘after the flesh’.

Paul himself warned against this-

2 Corinthians 5:16

Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh: yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more.

 Ok- I covered a bit more on the video- and also made another ‘roll-out’ video the next day- talking about a murder case-

I’ll link that right here- https://youtu.be/kp6bcFRO-yI  https://www.facebook.com/john.chiarello.5/videos/10204549985307826/  because I also covered the 1st chapter of Ezekiel the prophet- and it might be relevant for the teaching.

God bless all- John

  OTHER VIDEOS [These are the videos I upload nightly to my various sites- PAST POSTS below]

7-13-18 the baptism of John- from men or God? A vision from the shepherd of Hermas- https://youtu.be/xIWH50nv-oQ

7-14-18 emergency broadcast- murder- https://youtu.be/Gy-IGth_jas

https://www.facebook.com/john.chiarello.5/videos/10204567484265289/

 Danny- North Bergen https://youtu.be/XrrS8slVJcM

Christ died for you https://youtu.be/EJ7QGnbIk-o

Furman- teaching https://flic.kr/p/Ki7mfZ

Samuel 26 https://www.facebook.com/john.chiarello.5/videos/10204547755292077/

North Bergen-Nick- Danny- https://youtu.be/YgCn_nRhgMI

Sunday Sermon- 2-4-18 https://youtu.be/Rx9we4MV5Sg

Acts 3 https://drive.google.com/file/d/1y8oOxZbkLH_3vEan2lAWgJM_9LA-Ej_2/view?usp=sharing

Sunday sermon  6-24-18 https://flic.kr/p/295DsVD

 Jim ‘Cheech’ an old friend from New Jersey- we had some great times as kids- Jimmy died not too long after we made this video- I haven’t seen Jim in about 30 years- he made a surprise call to Texas 1 day and told me he was back in our old town [North Bergen]- I told him I was just getting ready to make the trip- we hung out for a few weeks- he heard about the Lord and knew how I was a christian years ago. Yet- we were still old friends- this is probably the last video or picture Jimmy took before his death- hopefully his family and friends will see it for good memories-

https://youtu.be/4V2TR6wxWP8

Ephesians 5 https://youtu.be/N3S6h07HSvs

Teaching with Henry- used to be homeless https://flic.kr/p/27VAnuQ

Big Charlie [Homeless friend talks about God] https://1drv.ms/v/s!Aocp2PkNEAGMgWkK32I5pKYoNu8C

North Bergen- White Castle https://youtu.be/Evyz9WmEVuY

Acts 4 https://youtu.be/HC7yA0nFPXc

Teaching with homeless friends https://flic.kr/p/27EVoj8

7-12-18 Real time teaching- God- Philosophy- Law https://youtu.be/7pIl22CU0bg

https://www.facebook.com/john.chiarello.5/videos/10204560530411447/

7-11-18 my Tumblr site was hacked https://youtu.be/IRcUXns8UhE

https://www.facebook.com/john.chiarello.5/videos/10204558518001138/

 7-10-18 Guitar Jason plays imagine- surprise at the end https://youtu.be/8KbhKQNxuGI

https://www.facebook.com/john.chiarello.5/videos/10204554633264022/

 7-9-18 The mystery murder case- where no crime was Committed- but no one knew- until now https://youtu.be/kp6bcFRO-yI  

https://www.facebook.com/john.chiarello.5/videos/10204549985307826/  

7-9-18 Homeless friends- rated R for language https://youtu.be/NHi4zJ1W828

https://youtu.be/NHi4zJ1W828

Galatians 6 https://youtu.be/KbU2ErOh5HE

Bethlehem christians https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Yjz0oR6xvJzZV9nZADj6q3ZZXJJ_AIVN/view?usp=sharing

6-17-18 Sunday sermon https://flic.kr/p/26ec6i1

 PAST POSTS [These are links and parts of my past teachings that relate in some way to today’s post- Verses below]

https://ccoutreach87.com/1st-2nd-corinthians/

https://ccoutreach87.com/the-great-building-of-god/

https://ccoutreach87.com/acts-links/

https://ccoutreach87.com/mark-links/

2ND CORINTHIANS 12- Before I get into a long history discussion with you guys, let’s hit a few verses. Paul says ‘when I was with you, did I gain a profit from you, take advantage of you?’ or ‘when I sent Titus, did he gain a profit from you?’ He then goes on and says the fathers lay up money for the kids, not the other way around. He says he has spent out of his own pocket for them, and he will continue to do so. He says he does all this so people won’t have the excuse ‘he’s just in it for the money’. Notice, Paul himself did not have the common mindset we see in ministry today. Often times financial appeals are made from Paul’s writings in Corinthians, these appeals often say ‘we are not asking for ourselves, but for you’ it is put in a way that says it would be wrong to not take money from people. That in some way not taking an offering would violate scripture. Paul flatly said he did not take money from them for personal use, nor would he. When the modern church uses Paul’s other sayings in this letter to appeal to giving, we need to share ‘the whole counsel of God’ not just a few verses that fit in with what we practice. Now, Paul speaks about being caught up into ‘heaven’ [Gods realm-Paradise] and hearing truths from God that were not lawful for men to speak. He states that God gave him truth that came from Divine revelation. If you skip a few pages over in your bible, you will hit Galatians. In the first chapter he says how after he was converted he did not confer with the other leaders at Jerusalem, but received teaching straight from God. Let’s discuss what revelation is, how we come to know things. The last few centuries of the first millennium of Christian history you had the ‘Holy Roman Empire’ which was a political/religious union of church and state. Under the emperor Charlemagne the territories of the empire were vast. Those who came after him did not have the same control over the regions that were vast. Eventually you had a form of rule arise that was called Feudalism; the sections of the empire that were too far to benefit directly from Rome would simply come under the authority of the local strongman [much like the present dilemma in Afghanistan, I think it’s time to get our boys out of that mess]. People would come under the authority of a ruler and he would lease out land to the citizens and they would benefit from his protection. The citizens were called Vassals and the land was called a Fief. At one point king John of England would do public penance in a disagreement he had with the Pope and all of England would become a Fief under the rule of the Pope. Now, this would eventually lead up to the development of the strong nation states, an independent identifying with your state/region as opposed to being under Rome and the papacy. This type of independence would allow for the 16th century reformation to happen under Luther. If it were not for Frederick the Wise, the regional authority in Germany where Luther lived, he would have never had the protection or freedom to launch his reformation. Luther also had the influence of being a scholar at Wittenberg. Around the 12th-13th centuries you had the first university pop up at the great cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris. The word university simply meant a co-operative effort from two or more people. It applied to many things besides learning. It was also during this time that the church began to develop a system of harmonizing Christian doctrine; she began to do systematic theology. The writings of the Greek philosophers [Aristotle] were rediscovered after centuries of them being hidden, and the great intellectual Saint Thomas Aquinas would wed Aristotle’s ideas with Christian truth. This became known as Scholasticism. Aquinas believed that men could arrive at a true  knowledge of God from pure reason and logic. But man could not know all the truths about God and his nature without ‘special revelation’ [the bible and church tradition]. All Christians did not agree with Aquinas new approach to Christian truth, the very influential bishop Bernard would initially condemn Aquinas over this. Bernard said ‘the faith that believes unto righteousness, believes! It does not doubt’. The Scholastic school taught that the way you arrive at knowledge was thru the continuous questioning and doubting of things until you come to some basic conclusions. These issues would be debated for centuries, and even in the present hour many argue over the issue of Divine revelation versus natural logical reasoning. Tertullian, an early North Afrcian church father, said ‘I believe because it is preposterous, illogical’ he became famous for his saying ‘what does Jerusalem have to do with Athens’ meaning he did not believe that Greek philosophy should have any part with Christian truth. Origen, his contemporary, believed the other way. So the debate rages on. Why talk about this here? Some believers ‘believe’ in a type of knowledge called ‘revelation knowledge’ they mean something different than the historic use of the term. Historically ‘revelation’ meant that which God revealed to us THRU THE BIBLE, not something outside of the bible. For instance, the first canon of scripture put together was by a man called Marcion. His ‘bible’ contained the letters of Paul and parts of :Luke. He believed the revelation God gave Paul was for us today, not the Old Testament or the historical gospels. He was condemned by the church as a heretic. The point being some took Paul’s writings about receiving knowledge from God as an indicator that what God showed Paul was different than what the church got thru the other apostles. In point of fact the things that God revealed to Paul, or to you or me; all truth is consistent, it will not contradict any other part of Gods truth. Paul’s letters are consistent with the gospels, not in contradiction. When believers cling to an idea that their teachers are sharing ‘special revelation’ or a Rhema word that is somehow above the scrutiny of scripture, then they are in dangerous territory. Paul did appeal to his experience with God as a defense of his gospel, but he backed up everything he said with Old Testament scripture. God wasn’t ‘revealing’ things to Paul that were outside of the realm of true knowable ‘truth’. You could examine and test the things Paul was saying, he wasn’t saying ‘because God showed it to me, that’s why I’m correct’. So in today’s church world, we want all the things we learn and believe to be consistent with what the church has believed thru out the centuries. Sure there are always things that are going to be questioned and true reform entails this, but beware of teachers who come to you with ‘revelation knowledge’ or a ‘Rhema word’ that goes against the already revealed word of truth.

MARK 6 Mark 6:52 For they considered not the miracle of the loaves: for their heart was hardened. Mark 6. https://youtu.be/EBjdUk2vKUI Mark 6 https://ccoutreach87.files.wordpress.com/2017/04/3-28-17-mark-6.zip ON VIDEO- .Is it John? .Herod thought so .John spoke to corruption in leadership .I’ll take his head .Why the bread? .Water walker .Not a ghost [phantom] .Not magic .Is he stable? . NEW- [Past posts- verses below] Jesus comes to his hometown- but because they are ‘familiar with him’- he does no mighty work- just heals a few ‘sick folk’. He gives us the famous saying -.Mark 6:4 But Jesus, said unto them, A prophet is not without honour, but in his own country, and among his own kin, and in his own house.

Then we see an interesting thing- as Jesus fame spreads around- word gets to Herod that some prophet is going around- stirring stuff up.Mark 6:14 And king Herod heard of him; (for his name was spread abroad:) And there are many questions about who he really is. ‘is it Elijah come back’? ‘or another prophet’. Herod says ‘no- it’s John the Baptist- he’s come back from the dead’- and he said, That John the Baptist was risen from the dead, and therefore mighty works do shew forth themselves in him.- Mk.16:14b I find this funny in a way. The story of the execution of John is also told in this chapter. It’s kind of famous. Herod had a birthday party- the daughter of his wife does a sensual dance. Herod promises to give her whatever she wants. She asks her mom what she should ask for. Mom says ‘the head of John’- Mark 6:24 And she went forth, and said unto her mother, What shall I ask? And she said, The head of John the Baptist.

Yes- John preached against the corruption he saw in human government. He told Herod- that he was in sin because he married his brother’s wife. And Herod’s wife was not to fond of John’s ‘prophetic calling’. Yet Herod feared John.Mark 6:20 For Herod feared John, knowing that he was a just man and an holy, and observed him; and when he heard him, he did many things, and heard him gladly.

Herod had put him in prison. And now Herod’s wife is going to get what she wants. Yes- she got the head of John- served on a platter- Mark 6:27 And immediately the king sent an executioner, and commanded his head to be brought: and he went and beheaded him in the prison, Mark 6:28 And brought his head in a charger, and gave it to the damsel: and the damsel gave it to her mother.

But it is funny that Herod was so afraid of John- that even after John died- he was still haunting the megalomaniac Mark 6:14 And king Herod heard of him; (for his name was spread abroad:) and he said, That John the Baptist was risen from the dead, and therefore mighty works do shew forth themselves in him. Mark 6:15 Others said, That it is Elias. And others said, That it is a prophet, or as one of the prophets. Mark 6:16 But when Herod heard thereof, he said, It is John, whom I beheaded: he is risen from the dead.

Now- Jesus does the miracle of feeding the 5 thousand- Mark 6:41 And when he had taken the five loaves and the two fishes, he looked up to heaven, and blessed, and brake the loaves, and gave them to his disciples to set before them; and the two fishes divided he among them all. Mark 6:42 And they did all eat, and were filled. Mark 6:43 And they took up twelve baskets full of the fragments, and of the fishes. Mark 6:44 And they that did eat of the loaves were about five thousand men.

On the video I explain why this is significant- in more ways than one. Jesus was building the faith of his men- and this miracle was a big one indeed- I mean feeding 5 thousand- with 5 loaves and 2 fish- yes- that’s pretty good. But notice what happens next.Mark 6:45 And straightway he constrained his disciples to get into the ship, and to go to the other side before unto Bethsaida, while he sent away the people.

Jesus sends his men away- on a boat- He then goes to pray-Mark 6:46 And when he had sent them away, he departed into a mountain to pray.

The seas get rough- his men are scared- and Jesus walks to them on the water- Mark 6:47 And when even was come, the ship was in the midst of the sea, and he alone on the land. Mark 6:48 And he saw them toiling in rowing; for the wind was contrary unto them: and about the fourth watch of the night he cometh unto them, walking upon the sea, and would have passed by them. Mark 6:49 But when they saw him walking upon the sea, they supposed it had been a spirit, and cried out:

They scream- they think they see ‘a Ghost’ [spirit]. The word used in the Creek- Phantasm- is only used one other time in the New Testament. It sort of implies a magical type element- a bit more than the normal word we see when referring to spirit- or ghost. Remember- Jesus did the miracle of feeding the many. Now this miracle is about him- meaning he’s building the faith of his men- about a ‘bodily miracle’ concerning himself. Walking on the water. And its important that they don’t mistake this as some sort of ghost. Because when Jesus rises from the dead- bodily- they will be challenged to believe the true testimony about his Resurrection. Some early sects/cults confused the bodily Resurrection- and actually said Jesus was a phantom. [The Docetists- an offshoot of the Gnostics]. So- when they see Jesus walking- they thinks its a ‘ghost’ and he assures them he is real- his physical body is walking on the water. And notice the rebuke- Mark 6:49 But when they saw him walking upon the sea, they supposed it had been a spirit, and cried out: Mark 6:50 For they all saw him, and were troubled. And immediately he talked with them, and saith unto them, Be of good cheer: it is I; be not afraid. Mark 6:51 And he went up unto them into the ship; and the wind ceased: and they were sore amazed in themselves beyond measure, and wondered. Mark 6:52 For they considered not the miracle of the loaves: for their heart was hardened.

How does this connect to the bread and fish? The multiplying of the bread and fish- if remembered- was a real- physical miracle- of real material stuff. Jesus is the Bread of life. And his walking on the water was not some spiritual magic trick- so to speak. It was also a real- material- physical act. And down the road- when he shows up after 3 days in the grave- make no mistake about it- It is the real- physical- bodily Resurrection of Jesus Christ- come back from the grave. Yes- it was no phantasm that appeared to his followers- He was the real thing. 27 Then saith he to Thomas, Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side: and be not faithless, but believing. John 20. PAST LINKS [verses below] MARK- https://ccoutreach87.com/2017/02/28/jersey-city-ride-mark-1/ https://ccoutreach87.com/2017/03/02/mark-2-north-bergen/ https://ccoutreach87.com/2017/03/04/mark-3-isaiah-61/ https://ccoutreach87.com/2017/03/14/mark-4/ https://ccoutreach87.com/2017/03/27/mark-5/ I quoted from Corinthians- below is my complete commentary- https://ccoutreach87.com/1st-2nd-corinthians/ I mentioned Docetism on today’s video- below are some my past teachings on it- ANTI- CHRIST- [Church Unlimited notes- 2nd- 3rd John] 3John 1:11 Beloved, follow not that which is evil, but that which is good. He that doeth good is of God: but he that doeth evil hath not seen God. https://youtu.be/7dfLhO2HBf8 anti- Christ [2nd, 3rd John] https://ccoutreach87.files.wordpress.com/2016/10/10-23-16-anti-christ-2nd-3rd-jn.zip ON VIDEO [past posts below] .See my Hillary drawing [sorry] .Who is anti-christ? .Some thought Hitler .Apostles relate to the bride .Soteriology .Was John a theological liberal? Mosul .Iraq- Libya .ISIS .Sunni- Shia division .Execution- or human shields- or just murder? .Abortion .Docetism refuted [parts] OBADIAH- Obadiah 1:7 All the men of thy confederacy have brought thee even to the border: the men that were at peace with thee have deceived thee, and prevailed against thee; that they eat thy bread have laid a wound under thee: there is none understanding in him. https://youtu.be/LaG8b0etYK8 Obadiah ON VIDEO- .Peace treaty? .Leaked emails .How to skew the polls .Do I like to lynch Black people? .The 1 dollar cheese story .Homeless stuff .Iran- Yemen- Libya- Syria .The shores of Tripoli .ISIS .Turkey .Britannia ruled the seas- and lost .Mosul NEW- In this small book- 1 chapter- we read of the judgment of God upon Edom. They were a people that felt like they were unstoppable. The alliances they made were their downfall. As I read the book the other night- it made me think about our present situation. Let’s see if I can hit some high points. [parts] NEWS- [Mosul- 3 Americans shot and killed yesterday in Jordan- Wiki leaks reveals real corruption] I mentioned the last few weeks about our actions in Mosul Iraq. The U.S. is backing up the overthrow of this city- for political purposes. I mentioned how the Iraqi troops we are backing are Shia [Muslim division] and some of the population of Mosul are Sunni. Should we be backing up a ‘genocide’- meaning one group [Iraqi Shia] wanting to eliminate another [Sunni]. I saw a report on PBS news- the interviewer brought up the fact that the tanks that are now rolling into Mosul are flying Shia flags. Meaning- they are not there to ‘liberate’ people- but to murder Sunni. [parts]

(738) ACTS 1- Luke, the writer of this book, feels the need to document the ongoing work of Jesus and his revolution. He already wrote a gospel and believes this to be the beginning of the story. In essence, the reality of Jesus and his resurrection are just the start, we have much more to do and become on this journey. Most writers jump to chapter 2. We have churches and music groups called ‘Acts chapter 2’. Why does Luke seem to wait till chapter 2 before getting to ‘the good stuff’? Chapter one records the 40 days of Jesus showing himself alive after his death. Luke feels this singular truth to be important enough to simply stand alone [I do realize the early letters did not have chapter and verse divisions like today]. The real physical fact of Jesus bodily resurrection is without a doubt the foundational truth of the gospel. The outpouring of the Spirit and the whole future of the church depends on the reality of the resurrected Christ. Paul will write the Corinthians and tell them if the resurrection were not true then they are the most miserable of all people. Luke tells us Jesus gave instructions for the Apostles to wait at Jerusalem for the Spirit. They will be witnesses of him to all the surrounding nations after the Spirit empowers them. We also see Peter emerge as the key spokesman for the group. He quotes freely from the Psalms and reads their own history into the book. He sees the prophetic verse from David on ‘let another take his office’ as referring to Judas betrayal and death. They cast lots and choose Matthias as the one to replace Judas. Peter shows the importance of Judas replacement to come from one that was with them thru out the earthly time of Jesus. Someone who saw and witnessed Jesus after the resurrection. Scholars have confused this with the ‘ascension gift Apostles’. Some scholars have taken the truth of the early Apostles having the criteria of being actual witnesses of Jesus, and have said ‘therefore, you have no Apostles today’. Paul will teach in Ephesians that after Jesus ascension on high he gave gifts unto men ‘some Apostles, others Prophets, etc.’ The New Testament clearly speaks of Apostles as an ongoing gift in the church. Barnabas will later be called an Apostles [Acts 14:14] as well as many other references in the original Greek using the same Greek word for Apostle. But here we find Peter seeing the need to replace Judas. Other scholars think Peter might have jumped the gun. They see Paul’s apostleship as the possible person the Lord picked out as the replacement. You do find Paul referring time and again to his Apostolic authority as one ‘born out of due time’ who saw Jesus on the Damascus road. If Paul was simply an ascension gift Apostle, why would he refer time and again to his authority based on being a witness who also saw Jesus? It’s possible that Paul was in this group of ‘Apostles of the Lamb’ who had extra authority based upon their testimony of being eyewitnesses. So in chapter one we see that Jesus appeared for 40 days giving instructions to the early leadership and told them to wait at Jerusalem for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. We see the incarnational purpose of God, Jesus was and continues to be the express image of God to man. He was not some ‘phantom’ like the Docetists will claim, but a very real physical resurrected Lord. Luke begins the early history of the church with this reality being important enough to stand on its own. [parts]

GW BRIDGE- https://youtu.be/70CVdZxFIMg GW bridge ON VIDEO- .Foundation stones .Why Bishops? .Gnostics and Docetism .Dads boat .GOV Christie and hot dogs .Restore the paths .Isaiah and John .Memories of a kid- train tunnel .Robert Moses to blame? .Mayor LaGuardia .The argument for Rome .Church fathers .Mystics .Suicide signs .Apostolic succession .What church is the ‘true church’? .Most amazing intellectual discourse ever? Only if you don’t hear [have to watch to get it- sorry] .Bedrock .I am homeless- can you spare a 5? VERSES- Galatians 2:1 Then fourteen years after I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, and took Titus with me also. Galatians 2:2 And I went up by revelation, and communicated unto them that gospel which I preach among the Gentiles, but privately to them which were of reputation, lest by any means I should run, or had run, in vain. Galatians 2:3 But neither Titus, who was with me, being a Greek, was compelled to be circumcised: Galatians 2:4 And that because of false brethren unawares brought in, who came in privily to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus, that they might [parts]

I mentioned Gnostics as well- below is some past teaching on that-

PLATO

Plato was born in 427 BC- he was the most famous student of Socrates.

He is best known for his theory of Ideas/Forms.

He believed that the material world was an imperfect copy of the Idea world. That is he believed that Ideas exist apart from the construct of the human mind- that they were the perfect forms of the things we see in the material realm.

He could also be referred to as a Realist- because he believed these Ideas actually existed [for real]. Where did he get this from? As we study Philosophy- each one that comes down the line has been influenced in some way by those that preceded them.

There was a famous thinker- Pythagoras [his followers were the Pythagoreans] who taught a concept called the Transmigration of the Soul [a sort of Reincarnation]. They believed that the soul of man went thru various stages- and existed independently of the body.

In Greek thought the soul is immortal- it exists before the body. In Christian teaching the Soul [mind- Spirit] comes into existence when God creates man [the bible says ‘and man BECAME a living soul’- referring to the creation of Adam].

The Greeks saw the soul as preexisting before the natural life.

In the mind of Plato- the body was a receptacle- in this life we recollect the knowledge that comes from the Idea world.

He ascribed Ontological status to ideas themselves.

In Philosophy there are 2 basic ways knowledge comes [we study this in Epistemology- an offshoot of Philosophy- which deals with how we know things].

A Priori knowledge is knowledge obtained independent of experience. A Posteriori is knowledge obtained thru the senses- what we call Empirical evidence.

In Plato’s schema he believed that the knowledge that comes to us from the Formal world [ideas- forms] was A Priori knowledge- that the human mind recalls- and in the present material world- knowledge comes to us from the perfect idea world.

The Greeks believed that all matter was flawed- that the Body was an imperfect vessel- and after death we are released into the perfect world- and free from the material realm.

Christian Tradition does not hold to this view. The Church teaches that the created world is good- not evil. Among Christians there is some confusion about this- because the older versions of the bible [King James] seem to teach that matter [world, flesh] is evil.

Why?

Paul the apostle talks about no good thing being in The Flesh- he talks about the Carnal mind- the apostle John says ‘all that is in the World- the lust of the flesh- the pride of life- is not of the Father but is of the world’.

There are many references like this in the bible- but they are speaking about the sinful nature of man [the flesh] and not about the human body itself [For instance Paul says in Romans ‘present your BODIES as living sacrifices unto God- Holy and acceptable’ in Corinthians ‘your BODY is the temple of the Holy Spirit’- there are many references in scripture that speak of the Body as Holy.

When the bible says ‘satan is the god of this world’ it is not speaking of the earth- which God created- and calls GOOD- but it is speaking of the ‘world’ system- an age of wickedness.

So- at times Christians have confused this- and have held a sort of Dualistic view of matter- that is not the biblical view- but a Gnostic view- that all matter is evil.

Plato saw the unseen world of Ideas as the perfect- pure world.

He taught that in this life we obtain the knowledge of the pure- by reason of recollection- that these pure ideas come to us ‘are recalled’ in this life.

He is famous for founding the first Philosophical school- it was called The Academy- named after a man by the name of Academus.

The land was donated for the school- it was previously used as an Olive Grove- and in honor of the donation- Plato named the school after the donor.

This is why we use the phrase ‘The Groves of Academia’ today.

Plato was actually a nick name- he wrestled in Athens- in a sort of precursor to what would later become the Olympic games- and he was broad shouldered- that’s where his name comes from- Plato means broad shouldered.

So- to sum up- Plato believed that Forms [ideas] were eternal, the cause of all that is. He believed we are born with innate ideas- these are not learned thru sense experience- but exist independently of the mind- and in this bodily life we retrieve [the body is a receptacle] these ideas.

Does the bible teach anything along these lines?

Not exactly.

Christians believe that God himself is infinite- without beginning or end. That wisdom- ideas- ‘forms’ of things do indeed exist- prior to our own life.

But these ideas are not without a Mind- God is Spirit- and he is everywhere [Omnipresent] he knows all tings [Omniscient] – so- in a way- there are indeed ideas- forms- but they come from the ultimate Mind of God.

A good example would be the building of the Tabernacle- and later the Temple- under Moses and King David [his son Solomon actually built it].

God told Moses ‘see that you build it after the Pattern shown to thee in the mount’. In the book of Hebrews we read that the earthly Tabernacle [Temple] was simply an image- a symbol- of heavenly realities.

That God himself had the ‘form’ in his mind- indeed- like Plato taught- the heavenly form is perfect- the earthly expression imperfect.

But these patterns- forms- ideas- are from the Mind of God- they are not Innate in the soul of man- nor does the soul of man exist before his birth. In the past few months I have had several Christian friends tell me that they feel like they existed before this life- a type of reincarnation.

I explained to them that in the Christian faith we do not hold to this view.

But- the bible does tell us that God had a purpose for us- Predetermined- before the ‘foundation of the world’.

Meaning that yes- in the Mind of God- in a way- we did exist- but we did not have actual being [called Ontological status in the field of Philosophy] until we were created by God.

God’s purpose for us was already in the Mind of God before our birth.

The bible says that Christ is made unto us wisdom- we are not Receptacles in the sense that Plato taught.

But yes- in time God reveals to us this Hidden Wisdom- about his love and purpose for us.

And in this life we act out- we fulfil this eternal purpose.

Man [or woman] can never find true happiness- true meaning- until they tap into this purpose. We were created by the hand of God- to bring glory and honor to him- and we in this life can ever find true fulfilment- until we make it back to God. [parts] I talked about Herod on today’s post- Mark 6- below are some of my past teachings on him- The past few weeks I had a few friends ask me about the Dead Sea Scrolls- and a few other questions about the ‘lost books of the bible’ and some other common- and mistaken ideas [like the original sin being Eve had sex with the serpent]. So- I figured I would cover a little Jewish history- which would help in this study of Hebrews- And also hit on a few of these subjects. As we read Hebrews- it helps to also understand some of the history that we don’t have in our bibles [though the Catholic bibles do have some of it in the Apocrypha]. Ok- the ruling empire at the time of Christ was Rome- just prior to the appearance of Jesus- the Roman Emperor- Caesar Augustus- consolidated the Roman Empire under his rule- Rome was ruled by a senate- some famous names from history were in it- Cicero being one. Caesar Augustus was the nephew of Julius Caesar- his real name was Octavian [Octavius]. After the death of Julius Caesar- there were some power struggles that took place- between some other famous people. Marc Antony being one of them [Cleopatra too- he was in love with the girl for sure]. Now- we read about Augustus in the New Testament- and we read in the book of Revelation about the Mark of the Beast- and that those who don’t worship- give homage to the Beast- they will be killed. So- Many Christians would be killed because they would refuse to give homage to Caesar Augustus [meaning son of the Divine]. ‘Wow- how did he get a name like that’ [there was more than one Caesar by the way- as well as more than one Herod- who did play a part in these power struggles- it can get confusing- even to me]. When Octavian defeated Marc Antony at Actium [32 BC]. Herod [The Great] had a problem- he had previously sided with Antony and found himself on the losing side. Yet he was smart- did some ‘brown nosing’ as we say-and patched things up. Herod had 3 sons- who would eventually take positions of authority in the Roman government at the time of Christ. Herod Antipas was over the region that we read about in the New Testament where Jesus did most of his ministry- Galilee. Ok- Octavian claimed deity because of a heavenly sign associated with his rise to power- and this is how he became called ‘Caesar Augustus’. He sort of saw himself as a ‘re-incarnate’- of his great uncle Julius Caesar. ‘John- what in the heck does this have to do with the Dead Sea Scrolls’. Ok- good question. The Jews had various responses to the empires that ruled over them during various times. Alexander the Great instituted Hellenization- a sort of cultural compromise over the people he conquered. They could keep their religious/cultural roots- but would be subservient to Alexander and Greek rule. Some Jewish people rejected any compromise- we call them the Essenes- they moved out of town- so to speak, and lived in what we refer to as the Qumran community. This was a few centuries before the time of Christ- and this was where the Dead Seas Scrolls were found in the 20th century. A Bedouin boy was looking for his goats- threw a rock in a cave right off the Dead Sea- and that’s how we found the scrolls. The scrolls might have been hidden there by the Essenes- Now- when my friends asked me about them- I told them that it’s been a while since I read up on any of this- but to the best of my memory the thing that made them significant was the fact that they were very old manuscripts- from the bible- and they backed up what we had had all along. I did read up this week- and basically had it right. The earliest Hebrew manuscripts of the Old Testament we had previously dated back to around 900- 1000 A.D. These manuscripts went back about 1000 years earlier- and they contained portions from almost every book of the Old testament- and some complete books. The only book missing was Esther. So- this was indeed a very significant find for scholars. But the Scrolls also contain some of the writings from the Essenes themselves- things we never had before- so this too was significant. There were Jews at the time of the first century who tried to ‘get along’ with Rome- and with the person in charge of their region [one of the sons of Herod the Great at the time of Christ]. These are referred to as Herodian’s in the bible. Some wanted a revolution to rid Rome from Jerusalem- these were the Zealots [one of Jesus disciples was in this group]. Some thought if they returned to a legalistic obeisance of the law- that this would bring in a deliverer- like the stories we read about in the Old testament- these were the Pharisees. And some took more of a political compromise- these were the Sadducees. Eventually a war with Rome would be fought [By the way- Josephus- the famous 1st century historian- fought on the side of the Jews in the war- and after Jerusalem was sacked in A.D. 70- he went to Rome and wrote his great works- thinking he would make a case for the Jewish people with the Romans. This is why we have his works today- which are very valuable to scholars]. NOTE- In time I’ll try and cover how we ‘got our bibles’ [called the Canon- meaning Rule/ Measurement]. Frankly- there is a lot of confusion in the general public about conspiracies [like the Catholic Church had some type of plot to keep certain books out]. Or stories about how the Church taught Mary Magdalene was a prostitute so they could discredit her. Actually- we read in the gospels that Jesus cast out ‘spirits’ from a woman who was probably living this type of life- And Jesus had a ministry to the down and out- it is indeed possible that Mary was one of these women- And if true- it would not demean her in any way- That’s how this tradition more than likely developed- But- we don’t know for sure. So a few years back the Church officially said ‘we don’t know’. Ok- Plot? No- just being careful. So there are other misguided beliefs like this- that sincere people have- and over time I hope to get to them. I’ll do one more in keeping with this post. I mentioned above that Caesar Augustus did indeed take the title of ‘son of God’. And some critics of the Church say ‘see- there were all types of religions that had Sons of God’. I watched one show a few years back- and it stated that these religions had ’12 disciples- a leader named Lord and Savior- and he healed and claimed to be God’s Son- and rose from the dead’. Ok- that show was ‘fibbing’ to put it lightly- they went too far [historically speaking] in trying to diminish the Christians claim of Christ by doing this. Now- is there some truth to this at all? Yes- like I just mentioned above- Octavian did indeed claim deity- a ‘son of god’. So- how do we explain this? In the book of Galatians the bible says ‘in the FULLNESS of times God sent forth his Son’. Jesus came at a set time in history- in fulfilment of the Jewish Prophets- to be who he was- and to do what he did. Now- this is not special pleading here- but I find it a masterpiece that God’s Son came at a time when the Roman Empire had one sitting on the throne- who too claimed deity. Yet Jesus was in a region of the lower class- his men were not highly educated- and his followers were people under oppression. Augustus lived in the wealthy and influential capital of ‘the world’- he had all you could ever ask for- he was worshiped as a god. Yet in 3 short centuries- one of the heirs of the empire- Constantine- would have an experience – not with a former Caesar- but with a vison of a Cross- He would convert to Christianity- and declare Christianity to be the religion of the realm. [parts]

VERSES- Mark 6:1 And he went out from thence, and came into his own country; and his disciples follow him. Mark 6:2 And when the sabbath day was come, he began to teach in the synagogue: and many hearing him were astonished, saying, From whence hath this man these things? and what wisdom is this which is given unto him, that even such mighty works are wrought by his hands? Mark 6:3 Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of James, and Joses, and of Juda, and Simon? and are not his sisters here with us? And they were offended at him. Mark 6:4 But Jesus, said unto them, A prophet is not without honour, but in his own country, and among his own kin, and in his own house. Mark 6:5 And he could there do no mighty work, save that he laid his hands upon a few sick folk, and healed them. Mark 6:6 And he marvelled because of their unbelief. And he went round about the villages, teaching. Mark 6:7 And he called unto him the twelve, and began to send them forth by two and two; and gave them power over unclean spirits; Mark 6:8 And commanded them that they should take nothing for their journey, save a staff only; no scrip, no bread, no money in their purse: Mark 6:9 But be shod with sandals; and not put on two coats. Mark 6:10 And he said unto them, In what place soever ye enter into an house, there abide till ye depart from that place. Mark 6:11 And whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear you, when ye depart thence, shake off the dust under your feet for a testimony against them. Verily I say unto you, It shall be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrha in the day of judgment, than for that city. Mark 6:12 And they went out, and preached that men should repent. Mark 6:13 And they cast out many devils, and anointed with oil many that were sick, and healed them. Mark 6:14 And king Herod heard of him; (for his name was spread abroad:) and he said, That John the Baptist was risen from the dead, and therefore mighty works do shew forth themselves in him. Mark 6:15 Others said, That it is Elias. And others said, That it is a prophet, or as one of the prophets. Mark 6:16 But when Herod heard thereof, he said, It is John, whom I beheaded: he is risen from the dead. Mark 6:17 For Herod himself had sent forth and laid hold upon John, and bound him in prison for Herodias’ sake, his brother Philip’s wife: for he had married her. Mark 6:18 For John had said unto Herod, It is not lawful for thee to have thy brother’s wife. Mark 6:19 Therefore Herodias had a quarrel against him, and would have killed him; but she could not: Mark 6:20 For Herod feared John, knowing that he was a just man and an holy, and observed him; and when he heard him, he did many things, and heard him gladly. Mark 6:21 And when a convenient day was come, that Herod on his birthday made a supper to his lords, high captains, and chief estates of Galilee; Mark 6:22 And when the daughter of the said Herodias came in, and danced, and pleased Herod and them that sat with him, the king said unto the damsel, Ask of me whatsoever thou wilt, and I will give it thee. Mark 6:23 And he sware unto her, Whatsoever thou shalt ask of me, I will give it thee, unto the half of my kingdom. Mark 6:24 And she went forth, and said unto her mother, What shall I ask? And she said, The head of John the Baptist. Mark 6:25 And she came in straightway with haste unto the king, and asked, saying, I will that thou give me by and by in a charger the head of John the Baptist. Mark 6:26 And the king was exceeding sorry; yet for his oath’s sake, and for their sakes which sat with him, he would not reject her. Mark 6:27 And immediately the king sent an executioner, and commanded his head to be brought: and he went and beheaded him in the prison, Mark 6:28 And brought his head in a charger, and gave it to the damsel: and the damsel gave it to her mother. Mark 6:29 And when his disciples heard of it, they came and took up his corpse, and laid it in a tomb. Mark 6:30 And the apostles gathered themselves together unto Jesus, and told him all things, both what they had done, and what they had taught. Mark 6:31 And he said unto them, Come ye yourselves apart into a desert place, and rest a while: for there were many coming and going, and they had no leisure so much as to eat. Mark 6:32 And they departed into a desert place by ship privately. Mark 6:33 And the people saw them departing, and many knew him, and ran afoot thither out of all cities, and outwent them, and came together unto him. Mark 6:34 And Jesus, when he came out, saw much people, and was moved with compassion toward them, because they were as sheep not having a shepherd: and he began to teach them many things. Mark 6:35 And when the day was now far spent, his disciples came unto him, and said, This is a desert place, and now the time is far passed: Mark 6:36 Send them away, that they may go into the country round about, and into the villages, and buy themselves bread: for they have nothing to eat. Mark 6:37 He answered and said unto them, Give ye them to eat. And they say unto him, Shall we go and buy two hundred pennyworth of bread, and give them to eat? Mark 6:38 He saith unto them, How many loaves have ye? go and see. And when they knew, they say, Five, and two fishes. Mark 6:39 And he commanded them to make all sit down by companies upon the green grass. Mark 6:40 And they sat down in ranks, by hundreds, and by fifties. Mark 6:41 And when he had taken the five loaves and the two fishes, he looked up to heaven, and blessed, and brake the loaves, and gave them to his disciples to set before them; and the two fishes divided he among them all. Mark 6:42 And they did all eat, and were filled. Mark 6:43 And they took up twelve baskets full of the fragments, and of the fishes. Mark 6:44 And they that did eat of the loaves were about five thousand men. Mark 6:45 And straightway he constrained his disciples to get into the ship, and to go to the other side before unto Bethsaida, while he sent away the people. Mark 6:46 And when he had sent them away, he departed into a mountain to pray. Mark 6:47 And when even was come, the ship was in the midst of the sea, and he alone on the land. Mark 6:48 And he saw them toiling in rowing; for the wind was contrary unto them: and about the fourth watch of the night he cometh unto them, walking upon the sea, and would have passed by them. Mark 6:49 But when they saw him walking upon the sea, they supposed it had been a spirit, and cried out: Mark 6:50 For they all saw him, and were troubled. And immediately he talked with them, and saith unto them, Be of good cheer: it is I; be not afraid. Mark 6:51 And he went up unto them into the ship; and the wind ceased: and they were sore amazed in themselves beyond measure, and wondered. Mark 6:52 For they considered not the miracle of the loaves: for their heart was hardened. Mark 6:53 And when they had passed over, they came into the land of Gennesaret, and drew to the shore. Mark 6:54 And when they were come out of the ship, straightway they knew him, Mark 6:55 And ran through that whole region round about, and began to carry about in beds those that were sick, where they heard he was. Mark 6:56 And whithersoever he entered, into villages, or cities, or country, they laid the sick in the streets, and besought him that they might touch if it were but the border of his garment: and as many as touched him were made whole. Isaiah 50:7 For the Lord GOD will help me; therefore shall I not be confounded: therefore have I set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be ashamed. In Context | Full Chapter | Other Translations Luke 1:17 And he shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elias, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just; to make ready a people prepared for the Lord. In Context | Full Chapter | Other Translations Matthew 12:39 But he answered and said unto them, An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas: In Context | Full Chapter | Other Translations Matthew 16:4 A wicked and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given unto it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas. And he left them, and departed. In Context | Full Chapter | Other Translations Luke 11:29 And when the people were gathered thick together, he began to say, This is an evil generation: they seek a sign; and there shall no sign be given it, but the signof Jonas the prophet. In Context | Full Chapter | Other Translations Luke 11:30 For as Jonas was a sign unto the Ninevites, so shall also the Son of man be to this generation. In Context | Full Chapter | Other Translations John 6:53 Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink hisblood, ye have no life in you. In Context | Full Chapter | Other Translations Matthew 10:25 It is enough for the disciple that he be as his master, and the servant as his lord. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more shall they call them of his household? In Context | Full Chapter | Other Translations Matthew 12:24 But when the Pharisees heard it, they said, This fellow doth not cast out devils, but by Beelzebub the prince of the devils. In Context | Full Chapter | Other Translations Matthew 12:27 And if I by Beelzebub cast out devils, by whom do your children cast them out? therefore they shall be your judges. In Context | Full Chapter | Other Translations Mark 3:22 And the scribes which came down from Jerusalem said, He hath Beelzebub, and by the prince of the devils casteth he out devils. In Context | Full Chapter | Other Translations Luke 11:15 But some of them said, He casteth out devils through Beelzebub the chief of the devils. In Context | Full Chapter | Other Translations Luke 11:18 If Satan also be divided against himself, how shall his kingdom stand? because ye say that I cast out devils through Beelzebub. In Context | Full Chapter | Other Translations Luke 11:19 And if I by Beelzebub cast out devils, by whom do your sons cast them out? therefore shall they be your judges. In Context | Full Chapter | Other Translations Matthew 26:61 And said, This fellow said, I am able to destroy the temple of God, and to build it in three days. In Context | Full Chapter | Other Translations Mark 14:58 We heard him say, I will destroy this temple that is made with hands, and within three days I will build another made without hands. In Context | Full Chapter | Other Translations John 2:19 Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy thistemple, and in three days I will raise it up. In Context | Full Chapter | Other Translations 1Corinthians 15:1 Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; 1Corinthians 15:2 By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain. 1Corinthians 15:3 For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; 1Corinthians 15:4 And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures: 1Corinthians 15:5 And that he was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve: 1Corinthians 15:6 After that, he was seen of above five hundred brethren at once; of whom the greater part remain unto this present, but some are fallen asleep.

http://www.corpuschristioutreachministries.blogspot.com https://www.facebook.com/john.chiarello.5?ref=bookmarks https://ccoutreach87.wordpress.com/ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZ4GsqTEVWRm0HxQTLsifvg

https://plus.google.com/108013627259688810902/posts https://vimeo.com/user37400385 john chiarelloFollow On https://www.linkedin.com/home?trk=hb_logo http://johnchiarello.tumblr.com/ http://ccoutreach.over-blog.com/ Note- Please do me a favor, those who read/like the posts- re-post them on other sites as well as the site you read them on- Thanks- John.#

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)CORINTHIANS 15:1-19 Paul will deal with the greatest threat yet to the Corinthian church, their doubt over the physical resurrection of the body. Various ‘Christian’ groups over the years have doubted the physical resurrection. Now, some have done this out of a sincere attempt at trying to defend the faith! [their view of it] In the 1900’s you had one of the most popular theologians by the name of Rudolf Bultman [most of his career was spent at the University of Marburg, Germany. Much of the higher criticism of the day originated from Germany] He wrote a book called ‘Kerygma and Myth’. What he tried to say was that any modern man living in the 20th century, with all the breakthroughs in science and knowledge, could not ‘literally’ believe the miraculous stories in scripture. Or even the way scripture spoke of heaven and hell and used limited terms to describe spiritual truths. He used the bibles terminology on Cosmology as an example. How could man believe in a Cosmos where ‘heaven is up there, with the stars and all’ and he felt that enlightened man needed to ‘re-tool’ the bible and cleanse it from all these mythical images, but yet keep the spiritual aspects of it. The moral teachings of Christ and stuff like that. So you have had sincere men doubt the truth claims of scripture. The problem with this attempt [higher criticism] is it throws out the baby with the bathwater. The resurrection of Jesus is presented by the apostles as a real event. The fact of this resurrection can also be attested to by examining the historical events of the day. Simply put, there is a ton of proof for the real resurrection of Christ. Bultman and others meant well, but some of the ‘facts’ that they were using were later  proven to be false. Bultman used a model of cosmology that would later be rejected by science. Yet the testimony from scripture would remain sure. Paul told the Corinthian’s that they needed to reject any attempts at spiritualizing the resurrection of Christ. Sometimes believers grasp hold of limited proof’s for certain doctrines. For instance, the New Testament does speak of a spiritual resurrection. In Ephesians Paul says we are presently raised with Christ. In Romans chapter 6 we have all ready been raised with Jesus. This reality does not mean there will be no future resurrection of the saints. In Johns gospel Jesus speaks of the resurrection as being a future real event, as well as a present reality. Those in the graves will hear his voice and be raised from the dead. And those who were presently ‘dead in sins’ would ‘come alive’ [spiritually] when they heard and believed the testimony of Jesus. It is important for the believer to be familiar with the various theories and ideas that theologians and believers have grasped over the years. It is a mistake to simply see all higher learning as ‘liberalism’. There are some very important things that we have learned thru the great intellectuals of the church. But we also need to stick with the ancient traditions as seen in the creeds, as well as the plain testimony of scripture. If Christ ‘be not raised from the dead, then we are of all men most miserable’.

 (1011)CORINTHIANS 15:20-28 here we see the guarantee of mans resurrection based on Christ’s resurrection. ‘As in Adam all die, so in Christ shall ALL be made alive’. Is Paul teaching a form of universalism [all being saved]? He is showing us that all men will someday be raised from the dead. Now, does Paul leave room here for a type of Pre-millennial resurrection? A ‘raising’ of the dead prior to a thousand year literal reign of Jesus. Then another resurrection at the end? Yes he does. If you read Revelation you will see this type of scenario play out. Also Jesus speaks of the resurrection of the just and the unjust. Historically the church has held 3 basic views on this. Pre-millennialism says Jesus returns first [pre] before the literal thousand year rule occurs. ‘Post’ says the thousand year rule is literal, and after that Jesus comes back. Those who held to this view were excited at the turn of the first millennium [1000 ad] they thought it possible for Jesus to have returned after the first thousand years since his death and resurrection. And then you have A-millennial, they spiritualize the thousand year reign spoken of in the book of Revelation as being a symbol of Christ’s present rule and kingdom. Now, today’s most popular form of Pre-millennialism is not historic, it dates back to the 19th century. Today’s form is called ‘Pre-tribulational, Pre-millennial’ this teaching [dispensationalism] says Jesus comes back 2 more times. One is called ‘the rapture’ the other is the second coming [revealing]. The proponents of this form find little [or no] early Christians who believed this. There is one early writing by a Syrian brother who speaks very clearly about a rapture type event. Some think he speaks a little too clearly! The writing is believed to have been a fake. Either way we do have Paul teaching stages involved with the coming of the Lord and the kingdom. It is possible to have 2 future resurrections, this would not mean you need two future ‘second comings’. The first resurrection takes place at Christ’s return. He rules a literal thousand years and ‘the dead are raised again’ at the end of the literal rule on earth [ a literal reading of Revelation]. Also Paul does use the language of Jesus submitting to the Father at the end so ‘God will be all in all’. I feel believers have been confused and at times contradictory while trying to explain the nature of God and the Trinity. I recently read a teaching on the Trinity that tried to compare the Trinity to the nature of the organic church. It seemed confusing to me, they tried to say that just like in the Trinity you have no one ‘being’ having authority over the other, but instead you see all three persons equally submitting to one another [Father, Son and Spirit] so in the church you have equality. Now, I do believe that there is equality in the church, but I felt the example was way off. The New Testament clearly teaches the willful ‘submission’ of the Son to the Father. God [the father] is clearly the one ‘in charge’. Now, I admit it’s difficult and brothers have spent years trying to explain all the ins and outs of this. Here Paul shows us that the Son has willingly submitted to the Father so the father can put all things under him. Then once again at the culmination of the kingdom the Son submits to the father and God receives the glory. We will praise and worship Jesus thru out all eternity, it is his willful submission to the father’s plan that makes this happen. NOTE- Some believers spiritualize the first resurrection spoken of in Revelation, they relate it to those who have been ‘born again’ spiritually. Modern ‘Preterism’ holds to this view.

 (1013)CORINTHIANS 15:29-49 the resurrection body is a real ‘spiritual’ body. Paul describes the natural body [us now] as fleshly and like Adams body. He then describes the promised resurrection body as being like Jesus in his raised state. These verses can be a little confusing. When Paul says the resurrection body is ‘spiritual’ as compared to earthy, is he saying it is not real? No. But you can see how some early sects could use these verses and teach a ‘phantom’ type resurrection [Gnostic, Docetist type groups]. I was once asked by a Catholic believer if the church taught the physical resurrection. I assured the person that both Catholic and Protestant [and Orthodox] expressions of Christianity embrace the real future resurrection of the body. Now, is it the same body? Well, the way Paul describes it is by comparing the planting of seeds. When you plant a seed you don’t simply get a bigger seed! But you get various types of growth, whether it’s a tree or plant or whatever. So Paul says our future bodies will be new and glorious in this way, but if it weren’t really you, then it wouldn’t be a resurrection! So you will come back, but it will be a ‘new you’. Over the years I have studied various theologians [Christian ones] and I have seen the penchant for various groups to focus in on a certain doctrine and to stray somewhat from the faith. Now, they aren’t always cults, some of them are highly knowledgeable Christians who seem to be testing the boundaries of orthodoxy. I like N.T. Wright, the famous Bishop of Durham [Church of England] but you need to be grounded in what you believe before you can really read him. I feel at times he is helpful in bringing new perspectives to things, I have seen some of the things he teaches myself. But there is also a danger of ‘re-thinking’ stuff a little too much. By the way Wright has written on the resurrection and has done a great job at defending the historic churches position. He’s in somewhat of a theological controversy at the moment, some of the strong reformed brothers have come out and challenged his view on Justification. Wright teaches that the historic reformers kind of missed what Paul was saying. Wright ‘extends’ the doctrine to mean ‘a sign/badge of those who are already in Gods covenant community’. The historic reformers taught a more forensic meaning of the doctrine. That justification is primarily saying that God imputes the righteousness of Jesus to the believer. That Jesus took our sins, and we get his righteousness. Now, I feel there is some truth to Wrights view. But I would be careful to throw out the reformed view all together. There certainly is much truth to the reformed view. John Piper [a reformed Baptist] just released a book on the reformed view, Wright has one coming out pretty soon [Wrights is already published overseas, but the states wont get it for a few months]. So, the point is I believe the historic church and the ancient creeds ‘got it right’ on the resurrection. It is real, it will happen to all people some day. Those who have ‘done good’ [wow- these are Jesus actual words when describing the final judgment!] will be ‘raised to life’. Those who have done evil will be raised to face judgment. We can all escape the coming judgment, Jesus died for us. If we believe and accept his death, burial and resurrection, then we will be raised to a new life some day. 378- (I stuck this entry in here because it deals with the ‘baptism for the dead’, I didn’t want you to think that I just skipped over the verse) Let me give a little example of the ‘overriding act of redemption’ trumping any little verse or experience. Paul actually tells the Corinthians ‘if the dead are not raised, then why are you baptizing people in ‘proxy’ for the dead?’ This is tough stuff. Let me give you one way to see this. The ‘baptism for the dead’ seems to have been a real cultural thing that took place in a specific time and setting [like the slavery verses I mentioned earlier]. There seems to have been a concern specifically to the 1st century church that said ‘this new doctrine of Jesus is great, but being its only been around a few years, and you are telling us [Paul] that you must embrace it to be saved. Then we have a problem. A lot of our loved ones never got a chance to hear. How do you expect us to quell these concerns?’ And it’s possible that the ‘baptism’ by proxy [like a father or son getting baptized in the place of the loved one who died] was a 1stcentury cultural thing that grew out of this. The fact that they were doing this does not mean that Paul the Apostle was condoning it. Paul was simply saying ‘if you guys really don’t believe in life after death, then why are you bothering with this rite?’ Its like Paul was using their own cultural thing to show them the inconsistency of their thinking. He wasn’t really teaching the baptism for the dead. [This is my view, Mormons believe different. They do practice this today and they use this verse as justification].

 (1014)CORINTHIANS 15:50-58 Okay, let’s wrap up this chapter. ‘Flesh and blood will not inherit the kingdom’ Paul speaks a little on the nature of the resurrected body. It is real, but not mortal [flesh and blood] without getting lost in the technical aspects of the actual body, Paul does make a distinction between the natural life of man [blood gives life to the mortal man] and the supernatural life of the resurrected body [spiritual life]. Then Paul shows us a mystery [something that was hidden up until the time God reveals it- here thru Paul!] that ‘we shall not all experience death, but we shall all get new bodies’. Paul teaches that some believers will not face natural death, they will be the generation that is alive at Christ’s coming. Paul says this happens at the ‘last trumpet’. For those of you not familiar with some of the silly stuff that passes under the heading of ‘theology’, let me explain some stuff. In the world of ‘dispensationalism’ there is an entire body of teaching that deals with the trumpets in scripture. Basically if Paul is teaching that this event, getting raised from the dead and being transformed, if this takes place at ‘the last trump’ then it is pretty clear that this event is not some type of rapture that takes place 7 years prior to Gods ‘last trump’ [last day, when God wraps things up]. But if you read the portions of scripture that speak about Christ’s return and the resurrection [Thessalonians 4, John 14, Matthew 25] you will see that all these scriptures teach that the resurrection takes place at the end, when Christ returns. So anyway a whole lotta time is spent by the rapture guys to explain that when you are in school, you might say ‘hey, that’s the last bell [trump] before class starts’ and that ‘last bell’ doesn’t mean ‘last bell’, but it means the ‘last bell for now’. It’s kind of silly stuff that preachers do in order to back up their theories. If scriptures ‘last trump’ isn’t really the ‘last trump’ then you can fit the rapture in as a separate event from the second coming. I think doing doctrine like this is silly and hairsplitting. The first century believers who were reading these letters [not all at once, but as they were slowly being penned and sent] simply saw all of the references on the second coming as one event. It’s silly to try and make two separate lists of the New testament verses on Christ’s coming and then place some verses under a rapture heading, and others under a ‘second coming’ heading, especially when the rapture brothers themselves cant agree on which ones belong to which list! Well any way we have a glorious promise of a future resurrection body, the last enemy that Jesus destroys is death. Revelation says ‘death and hell are cast into the lake of fire’ Jesus has power over death, hell and the grave. He will totally eradicate all death some day, Jesus tasted death for every man [Hebrews] so that man does not have to be in bondage under its fear any more.

 [parts]

END NOTES OF POST-

WHAT ARE THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS?

OCTAVIAN- A GOD?

CICERO- MARK ANTONY [or Anthony if you like].

WHO WERE THE ESSENES?

DID THE CHURCH ENGAGE IN A GRAND CONSPIRACY?

    END NOTES [I posted the video for this portion a few days ago- it goes along with Hebrews 7-9 video/post] The past few weeks I had a few friends ask me about the Dead Sea Scrolls- and a few other questions about the ‘lost books of the bible’ and some other common- and mistaken ideas [like the original sin being Eve had sex with the serpent].

So- I figured I would cover a little Jewish history- which would help in this study of Hebrews-

And also hit on a few of these subjects.

As we read Hebrews- it helps to also understand some of the history that we don’t have in our bibles [though the Catholic bibles do have some of it in the Apocrypha].

Ok- the ruling empire at the time of Christ was Rome- just prior to the appearance of Jesus- the Roman Emperor- Caesar Augustus- consolidated the Roman Empire under his rule-

Rome was ruled by a senate- some famous names from history were in it- Cicero being one.

Caesar Augustus was the nephew of Julius Caesar- his real name was Octavian [Octavius].

After the death of Julius Caesar- there were some power struggles that took place- between some other famous people.

Marc Antony being one of them [Cleopatra too- he was in love with the girl for sure].

Now- we read about Augustus in the New Testament- and we read in the book of Revelation about the Mark of the Beast- and that those who don’t worship- give homage to the Beast- they will be killed.

So- Many Christians would be killed because they would refuse to give homage to Caesar Augustus [meaning son of the Divine].

‘Wow- how did he get a name like that’ [there was more than one Caesar by the way- as well as more than one Herod- who did play a part in these power struggles- it can get confusing- even to me].

When Octavian defeated Marc Antony at Actium [32 BC].

Herod [The Great] had a problem- he had previously sided with Antony and found himself on the losing side.

Yet he was smart- did some ‘brown nosing’ as we say-and patched things up.

Herod had 3 sons- who would eventually take positions of authority in the Roman government at the time of Christ.

Herod Antipas was over the region that we read about in the New Testament where Jesus did most of his ministry- Galilee.

Ok- Octavian claimed deity because of a heavenly sign associated with his rise to power- and this is how he became called ‘Caesar Augustus’.

He sort of saw himself as a   ‘re-incarnate’- of his great uncle Julius Caesar.

‘John- what in the heck does this have to do with the Dead Sea Scrolls’.

Ok- good question.

The Jews had various responses to the empires that ruled over them during various times.

Alexander the Great instituted Hellenization- a sort of cultural compromise over the people he conquered.

They could keep their religious/cultural roots- but would be subservient to Alexander and Greek rule.

Some Jewish people rejected any compromise- we call them the Essenes- they moved out of town- so to speak, and lived in what we refer to as the Qumran community.

This was a few centuries before the time of Christ- and this was where the Dead Seas Scrolls were found in the 20th century.

A Bedouin boy was looking for his goats- threw a rock in a cave right off the Dead Sea- and that’s how we found the scrolls.

The scrolls might have been hidden there by the Essenes-

Now- when my friends asked me about them- I told them that it’s been a while since I read up on any of this- but to the best of my memory the thing that made them significant was the fact that they were very old manuscripts- from the bible- and they backed up what we had had all along.

I did read up this week- and basically had it right.

The earliest Hebrew manuscripts of the Old Testament we had previously dated back to around 900- 1000 A.D.

These manuscripts went back about 1000 years earlier- and they contained portions from almost every book of the Old testament- and some complete books.

The only book missing was Esther.

So- this was indeed a very significant find for scholars.

But the Scrolls also contain some of the writings from the Essenes themselves- things we never had before- so this too was significant.

There were Jews at the time of the first century who tried to ‘get along’ with Rome- and with the person in charge of their region [one of the sons of Herod the Great at the time of Christ].

These are referred to as Herodian’s in the bible.

Some wanted a revolution to rid Rome from Jerusalem- these were the Zealots [one of Jesus disciples was in this group].

Some thought if they returned to a legalistic obeisance of the law- that this would bring in a deliverer- like the stories we read about in the Old testament- these were the Pharisees.

And some took more of a political compromise- these were the Sadducees.

Eventually a war with Rome would be fought [By the way- Josephus- the famous 1st century historian- fought on the side of the Jews in the war- and after Jerusalem was sacked in A.D. 70- he went to Rome and wrote his great works- thinking he would make a case for the Jewish people with the Romans. This is why we have his works today- which are very valuable to scholars].

NOTE- In time I’ll try and cover how we ‘got our bibles’ [called the Canon- meaning Rule/ Measurement].

Frankly- there is a lot of confusion in the general public about conspiracies [like the Catholic Church had some type of plot to keep certain books out].

Or stories about how the Church taught Mary Magdalene was a prostitute so they could discredit her.

Actually- we read in the gospels that Jesus cast out ‘spirits’ from a woman who was probably living this type of life-

And Jesus had a ministry to the down and out- it is indeed possible that Mary was one of these women-

And if true- it would not demean her in any way-

That’s how this tradition more than likely developed- But- we don’t know for sure.

So a few years back the Church officially said ‘we don’t know’.

Ok- Plot?

No- just being careful.

So there are other misguided beliefs like this- that sincere people have- and over time I hope to get to them.

I’ll do one more in keeping with this post.

I mentioned above that Caesar Augustus did indeed take the title of ‘son of God’.

And some critics of the Church say ‘see- there were all types of religions that had Sons of God’.

I watched one show a few years back- and it stated that these religions had ’12 disciples- a leader named Lord and Savior- and he healed and claimed to be God’s Son- and rose from the dead’.

Ok- that show was ‘fibbing’ to put it lightly- they went too far [historically speaking] in trying to diminish the Christians claim of Christ by doing this.

Now- is there some truth to this at all?

Yes- like I just mentioned above- Octavian did indeed claim deity- a ‘son of god’.

So- how do we explain this?

In the book of Galatians the bible says ‘in the FULLNESS of times God sent forth his Son’.

Jesus came at a set time in history- in fulfilment of the Jewish Prophets- to be who he was- and to do what he did.

Now- this is not special pleading here- but I find it a masterpiece that God’s Son came at a time when the Roman Empire had one sitting on the throne- who too claimed deity.

Yet Jesus was in a region of the lower class- his men were not highly educated- and his followers were people under oppression.

Augustus lived in the wealthy and influential capital of ‘the world’- he had all you could ever ask for- he was worshiped as a god.

Yet in 3 short centuries- one of the heirs of the empire- Constantine- would have an experience – not with a former Caesar- but with a vison of a Cross-

He would convert to Christianity- and declare Christianity to be the religion of the realm.

He would then ‘convert’ the pagan temples- into churches for these followers of Christ.

So I don’t see the fact that Augustus claimed to be a son of god right before Christ- as some type of discredit to the claims of Christ.

No- I see it as God’s way of pulling the rug out from the oppressor- see? [Oh- by the way- only one of them rose from the dead- can you guess?]

      Psalm 109:1 Hold not thy peace, O God of my praise;

Psalm 109:2 For the mouth of the wicked and the mouth of the deceitful are opened against me: they have spoken against me with a lying tongue.

Psalm 109:3 They compassed me about also with words of hatred; and fought against me without a cause.

Psalm 109:4 For my love they are my adversaries: but I give myself unto prayer.

Psalm 109:5 And they have rewarded me evil for good, and hatred for my love.

Psalm 109:6 Set thou a wicked man over him: and let Satan stand at his right hand.

Psalm 109:7 When he shall be judged, let him be condemned: and let his prayer become sin.

Psalm 109:8 Let his days be few; and let another take his office.

Psalm 109:9 Let his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow.

Psalm 109:10 Let his children be continually vagabonds, and beg: let them seek their bread also out of their desolate places.

Psalm 109:11 Let the extortioner catch all that he hath; and let the strangers spoil his labour.

Psalm 109:12 Let there be none to extend mercy unto him: neither let there be any to favour his fatherless children.

Psalm 109:13 Let his posterity be cut off; and in the generation following let their name be blotted out.

Psalm 109:14 Let the iniquity of his fathers be remembered with the LORD; and let not the sin of his mother be blotted out.

Psalm 109:15 Let them be before the LORD continually, that he may cut off the memory of them from the earth.

Psalm 109:16 Because that he remembered not to shew mercy, but persecuted the poor and needy man, that he might even slay the broken in heart.

Psalm 109:17 As he loved cursing, so let it come unto him: as he delighted not in blessing, so let it be far from him.

Psalm 109:18 As he clothed himself with cursing like as with his garment, so let it come into his bowels like water, and like oil into his bones.

Psalm 109:19 Let it be unto him as the garment which covereth him, and for a girdle wherewith he is girded continually.

Psalm 109:20 Let this be the reward of mine adversaries from the LORD, and of them that speak evil against my soul.

Psalm 109:21 But do thou for me, O GOD the Lord, for thy name’s sake: because thy mercy is good, deliver thou me.

Psalm 109:22 For I am poor and needy, and my heart is wounded within me.

Psalm 109:23 I am gone like the shadow when it declineth: I am tossed up and down as the locust.

Psalm 109:24 My knees are weak through fasting; and my flesh faileth of fatness.

Psalm 109:25 I became also a reproach unto them: when they looked upon me they shaked their heads.

Psalm 109:26 Help me, O LORD my God: O save me according to thy mercy:

Psalm 109:27 That they may know that this is thy hand; that thou, LORD, hast done it.

Psalm 109:28 Let them curse, but bless thou: when they arise, let them be ashamed; but let thy servant rejoice.

Psalm 109:29 Let mine adversaries be clothed with shame, and let them cover themselves with their own confusion, as with a mantle.

Psalm 109:30 I will greatly praise the LORD with my mouth; yea, I will praise him among the multitude.

Psalm 109:31 For he shall stand at the right hand of the poor, to save him from those that condemn his soul.

Psalm 110:1 The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool.

Psalm 110:2 The LORD shall send the rod of thy strength out of Zion: rule thou in the midst of thine enemies.

Psalm 110:3 Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power, in the beauties of holiness from the womb of the morning: thou hast the dew of thy youth.

Psalm 110:4 The LORD hath sworn, and will not repent, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek.

Psalm 110:5 The Lord at thy right hand shall strike through kings in the day of his wrath.

Psalm 110:6 He shall judge among the heathen, he shall fill the places with the dead bodies; he shall wound the heads over many countries.

Psalm 110:7 He shall drink of the brook in the way: therefore shall he lift up the head.

Psalm 111:1 Praise ye the LORD. I will praise the LORD with my whole heart, in the assembly of the upright, and in the congregation.

Psalm 111:2 The works of the LORD are great, sought out of all them that have pleasure therein.

Psalm 111:3 His work is honourable and glorious: and his righteousness endureth for ever.

Psalm 111:4 He hath made his wonderful works to be remembered: the LORD is gracious and full of compassion.

Psalm 111:5 He hath given meat unto them that fear him: he will ever be mindful of his covenant.

Psalm 111:6 He hath shewed his people the power of his works, that he may give them the heritage of the heathen.

Psalm 111:7 The works of his hands are verity and judgment; all his commandments are sure.

Psalm 111:8 They stand fast for ever and ever, and are done in truth and uprightness.

Psalm 111:9 He sent redemption unto his people: he hath commanded his covenant for ever: holy and reverend is his name.

Psalm 111:10 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: a good understanding have all they that do his commandments: his praise endureth for ever.

    HEBREWS 10-13

https://ccoutreach87.files.wordpress.com/2015/05/5-17-15-aristotle-and-the-city-of-god-real-windy.zip

 END NOTES OF POST-

Masada.

Hadrian.

Judaism in transition.

Did they ‘move on’ ?

Who was Elazar ben Yair?

  End notes of chapter-

IS THERE MEANING TO THE ACTUAL ORDER OF BIBLE VERSES?

HOW DID THE SPIRIT ‘TESTIFY’ TO THE FINAL SACRIFICE?

WHY DOES THE WRITER CONTINUE TO SAY THE NEW COVENANT IS HARSHER?

  CHAPTER 10:

 ‘For the law having a SHADOW of good things to come, AND NOT the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect. For then would they not have ceased to be offered? Because that the worshipers once purged should have no more conscience of sins. But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins every year’. Paul shows how the simple fact of ongoing sacrifices in and of itself testifies of the insufficiency of the law. The on going sacrifices were a reminder that the peoples sins were still there. If the sacrifices really worked, then why do it over and over again every year? He will contrast this with the singular sacrifice of Christ. The fact that Jesus did it once shows the superiority of his sacrifice over the law.

 ‘Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me: in burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure. THEN SAID HE, lo, I come to do thy will O God. ABOVE WHEN HE SAID sacrifice and offering…THEN HE SAID, lo, I come to do thy will O God. He taketh away the first that he may establish the second’ Here Paul uses the actual order of the verses in Psalms to prove that the Old law will pass away and a New covenant will replace it. The fact that David [Psalms] says ‘sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared for me’ in this order shows that God always planned on taking away the sacrificial system and replacing it with Christ [or fulfilling it!] So even in the simple prophetic order of these statements Paul sees the Old law passing away and a new one being instituted. Wow again!

 ‘By the which will we are sanctified thru the offering of the Body of Jesus Christ once for all. And every high priest STANDETH daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins: but this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, SAT DOWN on the right hand of God’ The comparison here is that the priests under the law stood, showing their sacrifices were never sufficient, they could never say ‘it is finished’. The fact that they stood while offering sacrifices showed the incompleteness of the system. Jesus sat down. This showed that his sacrifice was once and for all. Now, no where does scripture teach this concept between ‘sitting and standing’. Where does Paul get this stuff from? From ‘revelation’, that is God is supernaturally showing this stuff to Paul as he writes. This is the prophetic element of scripture. While we don’t ‘write scripture’ any more today, there are still lots of hidden meanings that we don’t fully see yet. It is the job of the Holy Spirit to ‘bring to our remembrance all the things that Jesus taught us’ [also all the things about Jesus!] So when you read the Old Testament, look for Jesus! He is there in more ways than you realize.

 ‘For by ONE offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified. Whereof the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us [of what? Of the singularity of Christ’s offering. The fact that the Holy Spirit thru Jeremiah prophesied that God would never remember our sins any more speaks to the truth of the one offering of Christ, we will read ‘if there is no more remembrance, then there is no more sacrifice’] this is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them; and their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin’. Do you see the point Paul is making? It is common for preachers and Christians to read these letters and to simply glean practical truths from them. That’s OK. But like I said in the introduction, when you see these things in context, then you can still make practical application, plus you are seeing the relevance behind the teaching. The practical part of this is ‘wow, God will not bring my sins back up into remembrance before his face!’ Now that’s practical!

 ‘Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest [true holy place, that is Gods presence in the throne room] by the BLOOD OF JESUS, by a new and living way[ the early Christians were at times called ‘the way’] which he hath consecrated for us, thru the veil, that is to say his flesh’ We now have total access to the Father thru the Son. This is the ONLY WAY man can have this access! It is common today to teach a type of pluralism that says ‘all religions will eventually lead us to God’ some will lead straight to hell! Sorry. The only way to the Father is thru the Son. God ordained it to be so. Don’t fight over it, God says ‘come freely’ those who don’t come, they will never GET THERE! Jesus flesh is called the ‘veil’. During the crucifixion the veil of the temple was rent in two from the top to the bottom. Most believers know the significance of this. I would submit to you that when the scripture says ‘the veil was ripped’ that it was not only speaking of the actual veil that was in the temple on that day, but it was also prophetically speaking of the true veil, Jesus Body, that was being torn apart on the Cross.

 The veil of the temple not only restricted access for man coming to God, but it also separated God from the true community of people. The tearing of the veil [Jesus body] not only allowed man to have access to Gods presence in heaven, but it also opened the door for the Spirit of God to tabernacle with men on the day of Pentecost. After the tearing of Jesus flesh [which Jesus is also called the door] it is like a door opened, both letting man into the presence of God, as well as ‘letting’ God tabernacle with men [note- Jesus ‘Emmanuel’ was ‘God with us’ so in a sense God was already tabernacling among men thru Christ, but at Pentecost God ‘spread’ this ‘tabernacling’ to a community with worldwide potential, as Christians would increase thru out the ages, so would Gods presence increase as he dwells in men. Thus the Kingdom starts small, like a little leaven, and before you know it the whole earth is filled with the knowledge of the Lord. It culminates at the second coming of Christ].

 ‘And having an high priest over the house of God [remember, even though in Hebrews Paul speaks of heaven itself as the tabernacle, yet he also told the Jews ‘who’s house are we, if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the end’] let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water [baptism]. Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering [for he is faithful that promised] and let us provoke one another to love and good works: not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is, but exhorting one another…’

 A few things here. First, Paul is exhorting them to ‘get washed in pure water’ [baptism]. Remember, some of the recipients of this letter were believing in the message as Paul preached it as he traveled thru their cities, others were still on the edge. In this chapter it seems as if he is saying ‘some of you who have heard and seen all of these things, it’s time to make the decision to go all the way. Others have made a good profession, you too need to stick with the message’. Now, to those who would ‘revert’ back to the law, after they ‘received’ the truth, Paul says there is only judgment down the road. Even though they heard and the message reached them. Even though Paul presents the gospel in a way that says ‘you are all sanctified’ yet there was always the danger of apostasy. Those who believe you can lose your salvation [Arminians] take these verses and say ‘see, those who were once sanctified, if they sin, they face judgment’. I have actually viewed this chapter in different ways in the past. I never saw it as the Arminians, but I have debated over whether or not Paul was saying ‘now that you are believers, don’t think you can get away with sin, remember there is only one sacrifice, if you keep sinning God will judge you’ [not hell, but chastening]. But I have come to view it more along the lines of ‘those of you who are still in transition, you have made a good profession, Jesus blood has sanctified everyone [in a sense] so if you continue to sin [go back to the old system that taught that continual sin was part of the plan. Remember, the law made provision for continual sinning. This worldview of sin and judgment was unique to the Jewish community of the day.

 It really should have been easier to convert Israel, they already had a ‘Jewish’ world view. But one of the dangers of this world view was they had provision for ongoing sin. The idea of ‘continuing to sin’ was engrained in their culture. Paul is warning them that in Christ the fact that there is only one sacrifice means you cant still live with the worldview of ‘I will continue to sin’] In essence Paul seems to be saying ‘if you continue to sin, and think that the Cross is like the old system, then you are fooling yourselves. The fact that the Cross happened only once means that it is sufficient to truly cleanse you once and for all from your sin’ to those who wanted to keep sinning, because it was fun, Paul says ‘watch out, judgment awaits’. So in keeping with what I showed you in chapter 6, I see this chapter continuing to appeal to Jews, some who have even made an initial profession, but he still had to warn them about going back to their old way of continuing to sin. Remember, there were many who were preaching that the law was still necessary for salvation, Paul is telling them it isn’t.

 ‘For if we sin willfully [something that was expected under the law, that’s why they had all the sacrifices!] after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation which shall devour the adversaries. He that despised Moses law died without mercy under 2 or 3 witnesses: of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace?’ Once again Paul contrasts the severity of the law to the New Covenant. Remember how earlier Paul showed that those who ‘neglect so great a salvation’ have more to worry about than those who rejected ‘the word of angels’ [law] Here Paul again says ‘Those who disrespected the old system died without mercy, how much worse shall it be for those who disrespect the blood of the everlasting covenant’ I see this being directed at those who never fully convert to Christ.

 While Gods discipline is also harsh on believers who continue to live in rebellion [Corinthians] this language is never used of believers. So Paul is saying ‘beware, if you decide to walk away from all that has been presented to you, you will bear a much harsher punishment than those who sinned under the law’. What was the punishment of those who sinned under law? They died. What is the punishment of those who reject so great salvation? Eternal judgment. Let me add a note about ‘not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together’. It is common to use this verse to defend ‘Sunday church’ a lot of times it is used in this way to fight against the house church movement. What is the context here? The Jews already met together regularly before they believed in Christ. They had both temple and synagogue. Paul is simply saying ‘after you convert, keep getting together’ this is not a verse for defending Sunday church! [It is OK  to go to church on Sunday]. ‘For we know him that hath said, vengeance belongeth unto me…the Lord shall judge his people’ In context, remember how I already showed you that ‘his people’ and ‘holy brethren’ and other terms like this in Hebrews can be speaking of 1st century Israel in transition? They were still considered ‘his people’ at the time the gospel was presented to them. Ultimately when they rejected Christ they would lose that designation, but many of the terms in this letter speak to Israel this way. So ‘his people’ can most definitely describe believers. But in context in this letter it more than likely is saying ‘don’t forget Israel, God does judge his people. So don’t think that your natural heritage of ‘being his people’ will get you out of the crunch this time!’

 The Jews were always appealing to their privileged position with God ‘we have Abraham as our father’ they would always appeal to their ‘pure’ orthodox heritage, here Paul says ‘God will judge all of us based on what we do with his Son, even ‘his people’! ‘For ye had compassion of me in my bonds, and took joyfully the spoiling of your goods’ many of the Jews who were embracing Paul’s message did suffer persecution. Historically we know many of them were plundered. They lost their goods! It’s funny, Paul doesn’t say ‘get back what the enemy stole from you’ [though you can!] but he says ‘don’t worry about the loss of your wealth and stuff, you have a better inheritance of eternal things in heaven’. Most modern preaching doesn’t even think about this. We are so consumed with preaching a gospel that says ‘come to Jesus and you will be rich’ that we never even give a second thought to these verses. We will read in the next chapter how Moses ‘forsook the pleasures of Egypt so he could bear reproach with Gods people’. Now I know that when they fled God gave ‘the treasures back’ but the point was Moses went thru a period of leaving all of it behind for a higher calling. Don’t always tell people [to you preachers!] that the wealth of the world is waiting at your doorstep if you receive Christ. They might be on the verge of ‘getting their goods spoiled’ for a season knowing that in heaven they have a better and enduring substance.

 ‘NOW THE JUST SHALL LIVE BY FAITH, but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him’. In the original bible you didn’t have chapter divisions. Sometimes the divisions interfere with the meaning of the text. It is important to see that right before Hebrews 11, Paul makes this famous statement on justification by faith! He will go into chapter 11 with this theme in mind. We often read chapter 11 as believers and see the great stories in it of the heroes of the faith, but this is not the primary reason for the chapter. The main reason is for Paul to make the case of law versus grace. He has just spent 10 chapters explaining the superiority of grace over law. Now he will show Israel that all of the great heroes of the faith PLEASED GOD BY FAITH! He will be laying out a grand overview of the great Old Testament figures and be saying THEY ALL RECEIVED  A GOOD REPORT [JUSTIFIED] BY FAITH.

 It is real important for you to see this as we head into the chapter. When you read it with this in mind, then you begin to focus in on the statements of faith in a different way. While chapter 11 will give all believers a great boost in faith, the primary reason behind it is to say to Israel ‘look, all of our great forefathers [and fore mothers!] pleased God by faith, not the works of the law. Some of them were even law breakers! [Rahab, Samson] yet they were JUSTIFED [pleased God] by faith!’ Well, lets get into the chapter before I preach the whole thing right here.

END NOTES-

IS THERE MEANING TO THE ACTUAL ORDER OF BIBLE VERSES?

HOW DID THE SPIRIT ‘TESTIFY’ TO THE FINAL SACRIFICE?

WHY DOES THE WRITER CONTINUE TO SAY THE NEW COVENANT IS HARSHER?

 If the sacrifices under the law were sufficient- then why did the priests keep offering them?

The writer says that’s proof they ‘didn’t really work’.

But Jesus offered himself once- for all- and that shows us that his death was the final one.

He quotes Psalms 40- and once again- like we saw earlier- he sees the actual order of the verses in this Psalm as having meaning.

‘Sacrifice and offering you do not want’ first

‘But a body you have prepared for me’ second.

He then says ‘see- God took away the first’ [meaning the Old Law covenant is ending]

‘Then- he established the 2nd’ [meaning the Body of Christ being offered].

He then says ‘the Holy Spirit also testifies to this”

How?

He quotes Jeremiah 31-

‘I will make a new deal with the people- not like the old one- in this deal [covenant] I will not REMEMBER their sins any more’-

See?

If God had some new covenant- in which HE would not remember the sins of the people- that shows that in the new deal- there would be no more sacrifices.

Now- he exhorts the reader ‘let us have faith- draw near to God with a clear conscience- having our bodies WASHED WITH PURE WATER’.

Huh?

See- this is an exhortation to COME INTO this covenant- he’s saying ‘believe- and be baptized’.

This letter is not speaking to ALREADY BAPTIZED PERSONS.

We also see- once again- the writer saying that this New Covenant is MUCH HARSHER than the Old.

‘If those under the law disobeyed- and died under 2 or 3 witnesses- how much worse will it be for those who have the light [thru their Old Law- Christ was indeed in there- thru types and images] and reject it.’

‘for if we/you continue to sin- after having these truths revealed- there is no more sacrifice left- but a fearful waiting for judgment’.

In time I’ll develop this more- but in the New Testament letters- written to the Gentile churches- you don’t read stuff like this.

You do see God judging his people [in those letters- meaning Christians].

But you don’t see the New Covenant compared to the Old Covenant in this way- saying ‘it’s much harsher than the old’.

But- to those outside of the covenant- to the ‘unbaptized- unbeliever’ then yes- this warning holds true.

The theme thru out Hebrews is ‘if the first century Jew does not BELIEVE in Christ as the Messiah- then he in effect does disgrace to the Blood of Jesus’-

He will not find repentance any more [under the old system]-

And he will face a stricter punishment then those who rebelled under the law-

[They died physically- but in this new covenant- if you reject Christ- you suffer spiritual death- and the ultimate judgment of God].

One last note- as we study the letters of the New Testament down the road- we see a theme- yes- about how we should view earthly riches/wealth.

Here we read ‘you suffered the loss of your earthly goods- knowing that in heaven you have a more enduring substance’.

The theme is never ‘claim your covenant rights to wealth’.

But ‘the things in this life- material wealth- are nothing to be compared to the spiritual riches we have in Christ’.

And yes- this is true.

Psalm 40:6 Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire; mine ears hast thou opened: burnt offering and sin offering hast thou not required.

Psalm 40:7 Then said I, Lo, I come: in the volume of the book it is written of me,

Psalm 40:8 I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart.

Jeremiah 31:31 Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah:

Jeremiah 31:32 Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the LORD:

Jeremiah 31:33 But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.

Jeremiah 31:34 And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.

  CHAPTER 11: [see commentary on Acts 21]

END NOTES-

JUSTIFIED BY FAITH.

TORTURED- BY FAITH?

REJECTED MONEY- BY FAITH?

THEY ALL WAITED FOR THE CITY- THE CHURCH.

 [parts]

JAMES 1

https://ccoutreach87.files.wordpress.com/2015/05/5-28-15-james-intro-chapter-1.zip

Try and watch this video- I cover lots of stuff that place this letter in context for this study. [ Read acts 10,11,15, Galatians 1-2]

Intro-

This letter was written by James- the brother of Jesus.

He was one of the main church leaders at the church in Jerusalem- we read about him in Acts chapter 15.

This [Acts 15] was the first church council in the history of Christianity.

I already taught the book of Romans written by the apostle Paul.

And as we read the New Testament in context- we can see the reason why James penned this letter- and addressed it to Jewish believers.

Paul was the most influential missionary in the early church- he established most of the gentile churches we read about in the bible [Rome being the exception].

He also wrote most of the letters that make up our New Testament.

His main teaching was Justification by faith.

There was a division we read about in the bible- between some of the Jewish believers at Jerusalem- and the churches Paul was planting [the church council mentioned above- was convened over this issue].

This division was based on the teaching of Paul- and some Jewish believers in Jerusalem accused Paul of rejecting the Mosaic Law.

Paul defended himself in the letters of the New Testament [Romans/Galatians] and even talks about his visits to the leaders at the church in Jerusalem.

Now- in this context- it seems fitting for James- the main church leader of the Jewish brothers- to ‘set the record straight’.

And to write his own letter- showing the importance of GOOD WORKS- and even saying ‘see how a man is justified/saved by works- and not by faith alone’.

The higher critics of Christianity [who you have heard me talk about in recent videos] will teach that James and Paul ‘taught different theologies’.

 I do not agree with them.

But- our bibles are an early collection of the Real Time things that were taking place in the early church.

At the time these men were writing these letters- they were not writing them as a complete canon [book] – but were writing them as you or I would write a letter to another person.

In the wisdom of God- I think it is possible for these men to have seen different aspects of the manifold wisdom of God- and maybe they were not fully seeing the other writer’s point of view.

To me- this would not be a criticism of the canon of scripture- but it would show us that God used these men- thru their experiences- and yes- even disagreements- to write the letters that make up our bibles-

And in time- they would indeed become the official teaching of the church-

Embracing a broad range of Divine Revelation- that in the end- does NOT CONTRADICT itself- but instead makes a complete work- which we call the bible.

This letter is short- and packed with short verses of great wisdom.

It is the only New Testament letter that falls into the category of Wisdom Literature-

Meaning a particular genre’ of writing- like Proverbs in the Old Testament.

Because of this- I am going to post each chapter of the letter during this teaching- for those of you who have never read the bible all the way thru-

I want to challenge you to read these short chapters over the next few weeks.

I will comment and add historical stuff in this teaching- like I did in the other recent studies.

But most of all- read each chapter for yourself- ask God to give you wisdom- and apply the instruction of this letter to your life.

It is a very practical- straight forward teaching that comes to us from the brother of Jesus himself.

As I have been commenting on the other writings that did not make it into our bibles- like the Gnostic gospels-

One of the reasons these extra biblical writings have so much appeal-

Is because they claim to have other teachings- from/about Jesus- that are not in the bible.

For those of us who reject these other writings- as canon-

The letter of James kind of fills the void of ‘we want to know more about what Jesus taught’.

This would be the letter to read- because James grew up with Jesus- in the same home.

He was the oldest sibling of the Holy Family-

And he was not a follower of Jesus until after the resurrection of Christ.

He was one of the witnesses Jesus appeared to after his resurrection [Paul told us this in Corinthians].

So- if anyone has any ‘secret insight’ into the other stuff Jesus taught- it would be James.

END NOTES-

ACTS 10,11,15.

GALATIANS 1,2.

James 1-

James 1:1 James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad, greeting.

James 1:2 My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations;

James 1:3 Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience.

James 1:4 But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.

James 1:5 If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.

James 1:6 But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed.

James 1:7 For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord.

James 1:8 A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.

James 1:9 Let the brother of low degree rejoice in that he is exalted:

James 1:10 But the rich, in that he is made low: because as the flower of the grass he shall pass away.

James 1:11 For the sun is no sooner risen with a burning heat, but it withereth the grass, and the flower thereof falleth, and the grace of the fashion of it perisheth: so also shall the rich man fade away in his ways.

James 1:12 Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him.

James 1:13 Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man:

James 1:14 But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed.

James 1:15 Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.

James 1:16 Do not err, my beloved brethren.

James 1:17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.

James 1:18 Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.

James 1:19 Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath:

James 1:20 For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God.

James 1:21 Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls.

James 1:22 But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.

James 1:23 For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass:

James 1:24 For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was.

James 1:25 But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.

James 1:26 If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man’s religion is vain.

James 1:27 Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.

END NOTES-

ACTS 10,11,15.

GALATIANS 1,2.

Acts 10:1 There was a certain man in Caesarea called Cornelius, a centurion of the band called the Italian band,

Acts 10:2 A devout man, and one that feared God with all his house, which gave much alms to the people, and prayed to God alway.

Acts 10:3 He saw in a vision evidently about the ninth hour of the day an angel of God coming in to him, and saying unto him, Cornelius.

Acts 10:4 And when he looked on him, he was afraid, and said, What is it, Lord? And he said unto him, Thy prayers and thine alms are come up for a memorial before God.

Acts 10:5 And now send men to Joppa, and call for one Simon, whose surname is Peter:

Acts 10:6 He lodgeth with one Simon a tanner, whose house is by the sea side: he shall tell thee what thou oughtest to do.

Acts 10:7 And when the angel which spake unto Cornelius was departed, he called two of his household servants, and a devout soldier of them that waited on him continually;

Acts 10:8 And when he had declared all these things unto them, he sent them to Joppa.

Acts 10:9 On the morrow, as they went on their journey, and drew nigh unto the city, Peter went up upon the housetop to pray about the sixth hour:

Acts 10:10 And he became very hungry, and would have eaten: but while they made ready, he fell into a trance,

Acts 10:11 And saw heaven opened, and a certain vessel descending upon him, as it had been a great sheet knit at the four corners, and let down to the earth:

Acts 10:12 Wherein were all manner of fourfooted beasts of the earth, and wild beasts, and creeping things, and fowls of the air.

Acts 10:13 And there came a voice to him, Rise, Peter; kill, and eat.

Acts 10:14 But Peter said, Not so, Lord; for I have never eaten any thing that is common or unclean.

Acts 10:15 And the voice spake unto him again the second time, What God hath cleansed, that call not thou common.

Acts 10:16 This was done thrice: and the vessel was received up again into heaven.

Acts 10:17 Now while Peter doubted in himself what this vision which he had seen should mean, behold, the men which were sent from Cornelius had made enquiry for Simon’s house, and stood before the gate,

Acts 10:18 And called, and asked whether Simon, which was surnamed Peter, were lodged there.

Acts 10:19 While Peter thought on the vision, the Spirit said unto him, Behold, three men seek thee.

Acts 10:20 Arise therefore, and get thee down, and go with them, doubting nothing: for I have sent them.

Acts 10:21 Then Peter went down to the men which were sent unto him from Cornelius; and said, Behold, I am he whom ye seek: what is the cause wherefore ye are come?

Acts 10:22 And they said, Cornelius the centurion, a just man, and one that feareth God, and of good report among all the nation of the Jews, was warned from God by an holy angel to send for thee into his house, and to hear words of thee.

Acts 10:23 Then called he them in, and lodged them. And on the morrow Peter went away with them, and certain brethren from Joppa accompanied him.

Acts 10:24 And the morrow after they entered into Caesarea. And Cornelius waited for them, and he had called together his kinsmen and near friends.

Acts 10:25 And as Peter was coming in, Cornelius met him, and fell down at his feet, and worshipped him.

Acts 10:26 But Peter took him up, saying, Stand up; I myself also am a man.

Acts 10:27 And as he talked with him, he went in, and found many that were come together.

Acts 10:28 And he said unto them, Ye know how that it is an unlawful thing for a man that is a Jew to keep company, or come unto one of another nation; but God hath shewed me that I should not call any man common or unclean.

Acts 10:29 Therefore came I unto you without gainsaying, as soon as I was sent for: I ask therefore for what intent ye have sent for me?

Acts 10:30 And Cornelius said, Four days ago I was fasting until this hour; and at the ninth hour I prayed in my house, and, behold, a man stood before me in bright clothing,

Acts 10:31 And said, Cornelius, thy prayer is heard, and thine alms are had in remembrance in the sight of God.

Acts 10:32 Send therefore to Joppa, and call hither Simon, whose surname is Peter; he is lodged in the house of one Simon a tanner by the sea side: who, when he cometh, shall speak unto thee.

Acts 10:33 Immediately therefore I sent to thee; and thou hast well done that thou art come. Now therefore are we all here present before God, to hear all things that are commanded thee of God.

Acts 10:34 Then Peter opened his mouth, and said, Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons:

Acts 10:35 But in every nation he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him.

Acts 10:36 The word which God sent unto the children of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ: (he is Lord of all:)

Acts 10:37 That word, I say, ye know, which was published throughout all Judaea, and began from Galilee, after the baptism which John preached;

Acts 10:38 How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him.

Acts 10:39 And we are witnesses of all things which he did both in the land of the Jews, and in Jerusalem; whom they slew and hanged on a tree:

Acts 10:40 Him God raised up the third day, and shewed him openly;

Acts 10:41 Not to all the people, but unto witnesses chosen before God, even to us, who did eat and drink with him after he rose from the dead.

Acts 10:42 And he commanded us to preach unto the people, and to testify that it is he which was ordained of God to be the Judge of quick and dead.

Acts 10:43 To him give all the prophets witness, that through his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins.

Acts 10:44 While Peter yet spake these words, the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the word.

Acts 10:45 And they of the circumcision which believed were astonished, as many as came with Peter, because that on the Gentiles also was poured out the gift of the Holy Ghost.

Acts 10:46 For they heard them speak with tongues, and magnify God. Then answered Peter,

Acts 10:47 Can any man forbid water, that these should not be baptized, which have received the Holy Ghost as well as we?

Acts 10:48 And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of the Lord. Then prayed they him to tarry certain days.

Acts 11:1 And the apostles and brethren that were in Judaea heard that the Gentiles had also received the word of God.

Acts 11:2 And when Peter was come up to Jerusalem, they that were of the circumcision contended with him,

Acts 11:3 Saying, Thou wentest in to men uncircumcised, and didst eat with them.

Acts 11:4 But Peter rehearsed the matter from the beginning, and expounded it by order unto them, saying,

Acts 11:5 I was in the city of Joppa praying: and in a trance I saw a vision, A certain vessel descend, as it had been a great sheet, let down from heaven by four corners; and it came even to me:

Acts 11:6 Upon the which when I had fastened mine eyes, I considered, and saw fourfooted beasts of the earth, and wild beasts, and creeping things, and fowls of the air.

Acts 11:7 And I heard a voice saying unto me, Arise, Peter; slay and eat.

Acts 11:8 But I said, Not so, Lord: for nothing common or unclean hath at any time entered into my mouth.

Acts 11:9 But the voice answered me again from heaven, What God hath cleansed, that call not thou common.

Acts 11:10 And this was done three times: and all were drawn up again into heaven.

Acts 11:11 And, behold, immediately there were three men already come unto the house where I was, sent from Caesarea unto me.

Acts 11:12 And the Spirit bade me go with them, nothing doubting. Moreover these six brethren accompanied me, and we entered into the man’s house:

Acts 11:13 And he shewed us how he had seen an angel in his house, which stood and said unto him, Send men to Joppa, and call for Simon, whose surname is Peter;

Acts 11:14 Who shall tell thee words, whereby thou and all thy house shall be saved.

Acts 11:15 And as I began to speak, the Holy Ghost fell on them, as on us at the beginning.

Acts 11:16 Then remembered I the word of the Lord, how that he said, John indeed baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost.

Acts 11:17 Forasmuch then as God gave them the like gift as he did unto us, who believed on the Lord Jesus Christ; what was I, that I could withstand God?

Acts 11:18 When they heard these things, they held their peace, and glorified God, saying, Then hath God also to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life.

Acts 15:1 And certain men which came down from Judaea taught the brethren, and said, Except ye be circumcised after the manner of Moses, ye cannot be saved.

Acts 15:2 When therefore Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and disputation with them, they determined that Paul and Barnabas, and certain other of them, should go up to Jerusalem unto the apostles and elders about this question.

Acts 15:3 And being brought on their way by the church, they passed through Phenice and Samaria, declaring the conversion of the Gentiles: and they caused great joy unto all the brethren.

Acts 15:4 And when they were come to Jerusalem, they were received of the church, and of the apostles and elders, and they declared all things that God had done with them.

Acts 15:5 But there rose up certain of the sect of the Pharisees which believed, saying, That it was needful to circumcise them, and to command them to keep the law of Moses.

Acts 15:6 And the apostles and elders came together for to consider of this matter.

Acts 15:7 And when there had been much disputing, Peter rose up, and said unto them, Men and brethren, ye know how that a good while ago God made choice among us, that the Gentiles by my mouth should hear the word of the gospel, and believe.

Acts 15:8 And God, which knoweth the hearts, bare them witness, giving them the Holy Ghost, even as he did unto us;

Acts 15:9 And put no difference between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith.

Acts 15:10 Now therefore why tempt ye God, to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear?

Acts 15:11 But we believe that through the grace of the LORD Jesus Christ we shall be saved, even as they.

Acts 15:12 Then all the multitude kept silence, and gave audience to Barnabas and Paul, declaring what miracles and wonders God had wrought among the Gentiles by them.

Acts 15:13 And after they had held their peace, James answered, saying, Men and brethren, hearken unto me:

Acts 15:14 Simeon hath declared how God at the first did visit the Gentiles, to take out of them a people for his name.

Acts 15:15 And to this agree the words of the prophets; as it is written,

Acts 15:16 After this I will return, and will build again the tabernacle of David, which is fallen down; and I will build again the ruins thereof, and I will set it up:

Acts 15:17 That the residue of men might seek after the Lord, and all the Gentiles, upon whom my name is called, saith the Lord, who doeth all these things.

Acts 15:18 Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world.

Acts 15:19 Wherefore my sentence is, that we trouble not them, which from among the Gentiles are turned to God:

Acts 15:20 But that we write unto them, that they abstain from pollutions of idols, and from fornication, and from things strangled, and from blood.

Acts 15:21 For Moses of old time hath in every city them that preach him, being read in the synagogues every sabbath day.

Acts 15:22 Then pleased it the apostles and elders with the whole church, to send chosen men of their own company to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas; namely, Judas surnamed Barsabas and Silas, chief men among the brethren:

Acts 15:23 And they wrote letters by them after this manner; The apostles and elders and brethren send greeting unto the brethren which are of the Gentiles in Antioch and Syria and Cilicia.

Acts 15:24 Forasmuch as we have heard, that certain which went out from us have troubled you with words, subverting your souls, saying, Ye must be circumcised, and keep the law: to whom we gave no such commandment:

Acts 15:25 It seemed good unto us, being assembled with one accord, to send chosen men unto you with our beloved Barnabas and Paul,

 Acts 15:26 Men that have hazarded their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Acts 15:27 We have sent therefore Judas and Silas, who shall also tell you the same things by mouth.

Acts 15:28 For it seemed good to the Holy Ghost, and to us, to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things;

Acts 15:29 That ye abstain from meats offered to idols, and from blood, and from things strangled, and from fornication: from which if ye keep yourselves, ye shall do well. Fare ye well.

Acts 15:30 So when they were dismissed, they came to Antioch: and when they had gathered the multitude together, they delivered the epistle:

Acts 15:31 Which when they had read, they rejoiced for the consolation.

Galatians 1:1 Paul, an apostle, (not of men, neither by man, but by Jesus Christ, and God the Father, who raised him from the dead;)

Galatians 1:2 And all the brethren which are with me, unto the churches of Galatia:

Galatians 1:3 Grace be to you and peace from God the Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ,

Galatians 1:4 Who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father:

Galatians 1:5 To whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

Galatians 1:6 I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel:

Galatians 1:7 Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ.

Galatians 1:8 But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.

Galatians 1:9 As we said before, so say I now again, if any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed.

Galatians 1:10 For do I now persuade men, or God? or do I seek to please men? for if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ.

Galatians 1:11 But I certify you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached of me is not after man.

Galatians 1:12 For I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ.

Galatians 1:13 For ye have heard of my conversation in time past in the Jews’ religion, how that beyond measure I persecuted the church of God, and wasted it:

Galatians 1:14 And profited in the Jews’ religion above many my equals in mine own nation, being more exceedingly zealous of the traditions of my fathers.

Galatians 1:15 But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother’s womb, and called me by his grace,

Galatians 1:16 To reveal his Son in me, that I might preach him among the heathen; immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood:

Galatians 1:17 Neither went I up to Jerusalem to them which were apostles before me; but I went into Arabia, and returned again unto Damascus.

Galatians 1:18 Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to see Peter, and abode with him fifteen days.

Galatians 1:19 But other of the apostles saw I none, save James the Lord’s brother.

Galatians 1:20 Now the things which I write unto you, behold, before God, I lie not.

Galatians 1:21 Afterwards I came into the regions of Syria and Cilicia;

Galatians 1:22 And was unknown by face unto the churches of Judaea which were in Christ:

Galatians 1:23 But they had heard only, That he which persecuted us in times past now preacheth the faith which once he destroyed.

Galatians 1:24 And they glorified God in me.

Galatians 2:1 Then fourteen years after I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, and took Titus with me also.

Galatians 2:2 And I went up by revelation, and communicated unto them that gospel which I preach among the Gentiles, but privately to them which were of reputation, lest by any means I should run, or had run, in vain.

Galatians 2:3 But neither Titus, who was with me, being a Greek, was compelled to be circumcised:

Galatians 2:4 And that because of false brethren unawares brought in, who came in privily to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus, that they might bring us into bondage:

Galatians 2:5 To whom we gave place by subjection, no, not for an hour; that the truth of the gospel might continue with you.

Galatians 2:6 But of these who seemed to be somewhat, (whatsoever they were, it maketh no matter to me: God accepteth no man’s person:) for they who seemed to be somewhat in conference added nothing to me:

Galatians 2:7 But contrariwise, when they saw that the gospel of the uncircumcision was committed unto me, as the gospel of the circumcision was unto Peter;

Galatians 2:8 (For he that wrought effectually in Peter to the apostleship of the circumcision, the same was mighty in me toward the Gentiles:)

Galatians 2:9 And when James, Cephas, and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that was given unto me, they gave to me and Barnabas the right hands of fellowship; that we should go unto the heathen, and they unto the circumcision.

Galatians 2:10 Only they would that we should remember the poor; the same which I also was forward to do.

Galatians 2:11 But when Peter was come to Antioch, I withstood him to the face, because he was to be blamed.

Galatians 2:12 For before that certain came from James, he did eat with the Gentiles: but when they were come, he withdrew and separated himself, fearing them which were of the circumcision.

Galatians 2:13 And the other Jews dissembled likewise with him; insomuch that Barnabas also was carried away with their dissimulation.

Galatians 2:14 But when I saw that they walked not uprightly according to the truth of the gospel, I said unto Peter before them all, If thou, being a Jew, livest after the manner of Gentiles, and not as do the Jews, why compellest thou the Gentiles to live as do the Jews?

Galatians 2:15 We who are Jews by nature, and not sinners of the Gentiles,

Galatians 2:16 Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.

Galatians 2:17 But if, while we seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves also are found sinners, is therefore Christ the minister of sin? God forbid.

Galatians 2:18 For if I build again the things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor.

Galatians 2:19 For I through the law am dead to the law, that I might live unto God.

Galatians 2:20 I am crucified with Christ: neverthless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.

Galatians 2:21 I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.

JAMES 2-

https://ccoutreach87.files.wordpress.com/2015/05/5-29-15-james-2.zip

END NOTES

Genesis 15, 22.

Romans 4.

Galatians 3.

My view on Justification by Works.

 [parts]

ROMANS 8-10

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TDqIktzp8Xc

https://ccoutreach87.files.wordpress.com/2015/02/2-24-15-romans-8-10.zip

 VIDEO- [I cover stuff on the videos that are not in the post- here are a few]

.Council of Trent- what did the Church say?

.Do we get the final say- at the Judgment?

.What are the Catholic virtues- did Paul teach them?

.Augustine, Calvin, Whitfield and Wesley.

.Infusion or Imputation? How bout both!

At the bottom I added some quotes from the Catechism of the Catholic church- to show that the official teaching of the church DOES NOT TEACH SALVATION BY THE LAW- BUT BY CHRIST.

 . REMINDER- This is a commentary I wrote years ago- the videos are new.

.CHAPTER 8- FEW POINTS;

· Did God choose us to believe- or did we choose him?

· When Paul says ‘he makes our bodies alive’ is he only speaking about resurrection?

· Does God use difficulty- or is it to be rebuked?

· Was Paul a ‘hyper- Calvinist’?

(839)ROMAN 8:1-4 ‘There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh [sinful nature] but after the Spirit [new nature]’. Now, having proved the reality of sin and guilt [chapter 7] Paul teaches that those who ‘are in Christ’ are free from condemnation. Why? Because they ‘walk according to the Spirit’ the ‘righteousness of the law is being fulfilled in them’. Having no condemnation isn’t simply a ‘legal function’ of declared righteousness, and Paul didn’t teach it that way! Paul is saying ‘all those who have believed in Jesus and have been legally justified [earlier arguments in chapters 3-4] are now walking [actually acting out] this new nature. Therefore [because you no longer walk according to the flesh] there is no condemnation’! This argument helps bridge the gap between Catholic and Protestant theology, part of the reason for the ongoing schism is over this understanding. After the Reformation the Catholic Church had a Counter Reformation council, the council of Trent. They dealt with a lot of the abuses of the Catholic Church, things that many Catholic leaders were complaining about before the Reformation. They did deal with some issues and reformed somewhat. To the dismay of the more ‘reform minded’ Catholics [with Protestant leanings] they still came down strong on most pre reform doctrines. This made it next to impossible for the schism to be healed. But one area of disagreement was over ‘legal’ versus ‘actual/experiential’ justification. The Catholic position was ‘God can’t declare/say a person is justified until they actually are’ [experientially]. The Protestant side [Luther] said ‘God does justify [legal declaration] a person by faith alone’. Like I taught before, both of these are true. The Catholic view of ‘justification’ is looking ahead towards a future reality [The same way James speaks of justification in a future sense- He uses the example from Genesis 22, when Abraham does a righteous act] while the Protestant view is focusing on the initial legal act of justification [Genesis 15]. Here Paul agrees with both views, he says ‘those who walk after the Spirit [actually living the changed life] have no condemnation’.

 (840)ROMANS 8:5-13 Paul will teach the impossibility of the ‘carnal minds’ ability to submit to Gods law. Those who are ‘in the flesh’ [the unregenerate nature- not simply ‘in the body’. We will get into these distinctions in a minute] can’t submit to God. Society spends so much time and effort trying to get the ‘lost man’ to do what’s right. The prohibition movement [outlawing liquor], the increase in the severity of punishment for crimes dealing with drugs. Making the child kidnappers crime punishable by death. While all these laws are necessary and good [though some debate the wisdom of the kidnapper one, they think the kidnapper might just go ahead and kill the victim if the same punishment applies to both crimes] they have little effect on getting ‘the carnal man to submit’. Paul also says ‘if the Spirit of him who raised up Christ from the dead dwells in you, then he that raised up Christ from the dead shall quicken [make alive] your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwells in you’. Let’s do a little teaching here. Most commentators see this as speaking of the promise of the resurrection ‘your mortal bodies’. I see this more in line with the context of chapter 7. The discussion of ‘mortal bodies’ [your actual body, the flesh- which is different than ‘the fleshly nature’ which refers to the sinful nature] speaks of your actual life now ‘let not sin therefore reign in your mortal bodies’. Also in verse 13 of this chapter the same theme is seen ‘if ye thru the Spirit mortify the deeds of the body ye shall live’. I believe Paul is primarily saying ‘if you are in the Spirit [born of God] the Spirit of life will make alive your physical life in such a way that you will glorify God in your body and spirit, which are Gods’ [Corinthians]. Chapter 12 says your bodies are living sacrifices, holy and acceptable to God. Now later on in this chapter [8] we do see the resurrection, which is called ‘the redemption of the body’ [verse 23] so these two concepts work together. The fact that the believer is ‘training his mortal body’ for God [thru obedience] is sort of a precursor to the resurrection! Now, some believers confuse the resurrection of the body and the work of regeneration in ‘making you alive’ [Ephesians 2]. The work of regeneration brings your dead spirit back to life [born again] when you believe [which is a Divine imputation of faith at the moment of conversion, a sovereign act]. This ‘coming alive’ is purely spiritual. This qualifies you for the future physical resurrection of the body [Ephesians calls this the ‘down payment’, the ‘earnest of our inheritance, until the redemption of the purchased possession’. The word ‘earnest’ here is used in the same way as ‘earnest money’ in a real estate transaction. The fact that we have been ‘sealed’ with the Holy Spirit is our ‘guarantee of future bodily resurrection’]. Bishop N.T. Wright, the bishop of Durham [the church of England- Durham is the 3rd most influential post in the Church of England. Canterbury is at the top] has recently written on the truths of the resurrection of the body. He is an excellent scholar, way way above my league. He has been instrumental in ‘re introducing’ the reality of Christ’s resurrection as well as our future resurrection as a very real Christian belief [and historic truth as well]. I have read some of Wrights stuff and am a little surprised at some of the ideas on ‘soul sleep’ and the immortality of the soul. Bishop Wright seems to side with some of the ideas that certain restorationist groups [7th day Adventists] espouse, that the Catholic Church kind of corrupted the ideas of heaven and the soul by being overly influenced by Greek thought. While it is possible for Bishop Wright to have come to his understanding entirely thru scripture and history, yet I felt it a little strange to see him make these arguments. For the most part I like brother Wright and totally agree with his stance on the future ‘new heavens and new earth’ as the final place of rest [as opposed to dying and going to heaven now, which is a temporary place] but there is the biblical reality of a present ‘heaven’ and this doesn’t only come from Greek thought. I have often used the Christian doctrine of the new heavens and new earth while speaking with the Jehovah’s witnesses, I always agree on the reality of a future kingdom on earth. I simply steer the conversation back to ‘who qualifies for it’ and get straight to the gospel. Well anyway we have a promise of a future resurrection, and also a ‘quickening of the body now’ [God actually using our physical life to glorify him]. These are both great truths!

 (841)ROMANS 8: 14-18 ‘For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the Sons of God’. Many of us are familiar with this verse [I hope!]. We often see it as saying ‘Gods direction in our lives is proof that we are Christians’ true enough. But in context ‘being led by Gods Spirit’ means living the new life thru Christ. The putting to death of the old man and being ‘made alive’ thru Christ is what this is saying. Paul agrees with John [1st John] ‘those that do what is right [led by the Spirit] are of God’. Paul says ‘we have received the Spirit and a natural result of this is crying “Abba, Father”. I don’t want to do too much here, but Paul sees the ‘confession’ and heart cry of the believer as proof, a result of being ‘a habitation of the Spirit’. A sign, if you will, of being born of God is confessing/ praying to the Father. Paul quoted David in chapter 4 ‘for this shall every one that is godly pray unto thee in a time when thou mayest be found’ [Psalms 32- actually Paul quotes a different section from the Psalm, but this theme is consistent with Paul’s view]. Paul knew the reality of ‘the godly calling upon God’ they have an inner cry of ‘Abba, father’. ‘We are heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ’. For many years this has been a popular verse among many believers, often times it is used to say ‘God owns the cattle on a thousand hills’ [which he does] therefore if we are heirs ‘give me some cattle’! [stuff]. Here Paul uses this term in speaking of our identification with Christ’s sufferings. ‘If we suffer with him, we too shall share [joint heir!] in his glory’ [future glorification at the resurrection- we shall see him and be changed in a moment, at the twinkling of an eye. This mortal shall put on immortality]. It’s a symptom of modern American Christianity to view all these scriptures thru a materialistic lens, Paul held to the promise of a future reward [at the resurrection] that enabled him to go thru great difficulty and suffering in this present life. He counted the suffering as a privilege that he shared with Christ.

 (843)ROMANS 8: 19-25 ‘the sufferings of this present time [are you ‘presently’ suffering?] are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us’. Paul compares the difficulty to the reward. The reward here is the future resurrection. Paul did not see suffering as ‘from the devil’ or the reward as something material [monetary stuff! The resurrection body will be ‘material’ – real]. Paul teaches that the whole creation is waiting for this day. Not only will we get a ‘makeover’ but there will be a new heaven and a new earth! The creation itself longs for this [almost as much as Al Gore!] This resurrection is called ‘the redemption of our body’. The next verse says ‘we are saved by hope’. John also says [1st John] that the future reality of the resurrection ‘causes us to be pure in this life’ [every one that has this hope in him purifies himself, even as he is pure]. Why? Because we know God has a purpose for our bodies as well as our spirits! The ‘getting saved by hope’ simply means the future hope of the resurrection ‘encourages’ us to live clean now. Once again ‘saved’ is a neutral term. In can apply to all sorts of things. I always found it funny how when you read certain commentaries, that you see the difficulty Christians have when coming across these types of verses. There’s a verse that says ‘the woman will be saved thru childbearing’ geez, you wouldn’t believe the difficulty some writers have when they come across this stuff. Some teach ‘she will be ‘saved’ thru the birth of a child [Jesus]’ and all sorts of stuff. I think if we simply changed the word ‘saved’ for ‘delivered’ [which are basically the same thing] that maybe this would help. But thank God that we have a future resurrection to look forward to, let this truth ‘deliver’ you from the temptation to think ‘what’s all this suffering worth, why even go thru it?’ Because we have a great promise at the other end!

 (845)ROMANS 8:26-28 ‘Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities’ why does Paul say ‘likewise’? He is saying ‘not only does the future hope of the resurrection sustain us, but also Gods Spirit helps us’! He knows how to make intercession for us in ways that we cannot. I just finished an hour prayer time, not an ‘official’ intercession time [which I do a few times a week now]. But an ‘unofficial’ time where I try and hear what the Spirit is speaking. When you are ‘praying in the Spirit’ [which can include the charismatic expression of tongues] you are depending upon the Spirit to transcend your limited ability to articulate what needs to be said. ‘All things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are ‘the called’ according to his purpose’. A very famous verse indeed. What does it mean? It means what it says! Over the years I have heard so many excuses for trying to get around difficult things. Why do the righteous suffer? Some taught it was because of their ignorance of scripture. Why did the things that happened to Job happen? Some said it was because he ‘feared’ that the things would happen [this group seems to miss the whole underlying reason for the book. Job’s friends are continually looking for a reason thru out the book. The point is, sometimes there is no reasonable explanation. I realize you can pick apart certain statements from Job and come up with ‘reasons’, but the meaning of the book is God is sovereign and we shouldn’t always think we can figure him out or ‘work the system’]. Here Paul says ‘whatever is happening to you right now [even very bad stuff!] will eventually work out for you benefit’. What about Hitler? Did he love God? I don’t believe so. This scripture says ‘to them that love God’. Your only responsibility thru the difficulty is to ‘love God’.

 (846)ROMANS 8:29-30 ‘for whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed into the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: whom he justified, them he also glorified’. Let’s talk a little. When I first became a Christian I began a lifelong study of scripture, where I continually read a certain amount of scripture every day for many years. Over the years I have varied on how fast I should read [that is how many chapters per day and so forth]. But during the early stages I always took these verses to teach predestination in the classical sense. Simply put, that God ‘pre chose’ me [and all whom come to him] before we ‘chose him’. The Fundamental Baptist church I began to attend [a great church with great people!] taught that ‘classic Calvinism’ [predestination] was false doctrine, and they labeled it ‘Hyper Calvinism’. I simply accepted this as fact. But I never forgot the early understanding that I first gleaned thru my own study. I also was very limited in my other readings outside of the scripture. I did study the Great awakenings and Charles Finney. I read some biographies on John Wesley and other great men of God. These men were not Calvinistic in their doctrine [which is fine], as a matter of fact Wesley would eventually disassociate from George Whitefield over this issue. Whitefield was a staunch Calvinist! Over time I came to believe the doctrine again, simply as I focused on the scriptures that teach it. Eventually I picked up some books on church history and realized that Calvinism was [and is] a mainstream belief among many great believers. I personally believe that most of the great theologians in history have accepted this doctrine. Now, for those who reject it, they honestly struggle with these portions of scripture. Just like there are portions of scripture that Calvinists struggle with. To deny this is to be less than honest. The Arminians [Those who deny classic predestination- the term comes from Jacob Arminias, a Calvinist who was writing and studying on the ‘errors’ of ‘arminianism’ and came to embrace the doctrine of free will/choice] usually approach the verses that say ‘he predestined us’ by teaching that Gods predestination speaks only of his foreknowledge of those who would choose him. This is an honest effort to come to terms with the doctrine. To be ‘more honest’ I think this doesn’t adequately deal with the issue. In the above text, as well as many other places in scripture, the idea of ‘Gods foreknowledge and pre choosing’ speak specifically about Gods choice to save us, as opposed to him simply knowing that we would ‘choose right’. The texts that teach predestination teach it in this context. Now the passage above does say ‘those whom he foreknew, he also did predestinate to be conformed into the image of Christ’ here this passage actually does say ‘God predestinated us to be like his Son’. If you left the ‘foreknowledge’ part out, you could read this passage in an Arminian way. But we do have the ‘foreknowledge’ part. So I believe Paul is saying ‘God chose us before we were born, he ‘knew’ ahead of time that he would bring us into his Kingdom. Those whom he foreknew he also predestinated to become like his Son.’ Why? So his Son would be the firstborn among many. God wanted a whole new race of ‘children of God’. Those he predestinated he ‘called’. He drew them to himself. Jesus said ‘all that the Father give to me will come to me, and him that cometh to me I will in no way cast out’. Those who ‘come’ are justified, those who are justified are [present tense] glorified. Gods design and sovereignty speak of it as a ‘finished task’ like it already happened. God lives outside of the dimension of time. I believe in the doctrine of predestination. Many others do as well. You don’t have to believe it if you don’t want to, but I believe scripture teaches it.

 (847)ROMANS 8: 31-39 ‘What shall we say then to these things? [what things? The fact that God predestined us and has guaranteed completion of the purpose he has designed us for!] If God be for us, who can be against us?’ Paul teaches that Christ is the only one with the ‘right’ or authority to pass judgment. If the only person in existence who can ‘officially’ condemn and pass legal judgment has actually died for us for the purpose of ‘freeing us from a state of condemnation’, then who ‘gives a rip’ about others opinions and views of us? Most of us struggle with how others view us. Paul did teach that Elders should have good character and a fine reputation in the community. But there is another type of ‘persona’ that preachers can fall into. A sort of ‘concern’ about what the critics are saying. In this context Paul says ‘If the opinion of the only person in existence whose opinion really matters, is one of “I accept you unconditionally, I declare you free from what others think, you are my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. Ever since I have known you, you have been pleasing in my sight” [all true scriptures by the way] Then who cares what others think! Paul also teaches that nothing can separate us from Christ’s love ‘not tribulation or distress or famine or persecution’ IN all these things we are more than conquerors thru him who loved us. Most times we view this passage from a ‘Calvinistic’ lens. I want you to see the impact of this statement thru a different lens. In the American church we have taught people ‘would a good father not pay the bills of his kids? Would a good father allow his kids to suffer? If you were really partaking of the New Covenant you would have it made’. While I do realize that many well meaning ministers have taught these viewpoints with honest and sincere hearts, I also have seen how this mindset accuses the saints. It basically tells the struggling believer ‘what kind of father do you have? If he really loved you would you be going thru these things’? In essence we are saying ‘tribulation and distress and persecution’ are all signs that ‘you have been separated from Gods love’! Paul blows this false [materialistic] mindset out of the water. He says it is thru these things that we are more than conquerors. It is the ability to look into the face of Pontius Pilate and say ‘you have no power over me, my father has permitted these things to take place. I am here to lay my life down for his glory’. Paul said all these things we are suffering are opportunities to glorify our father. To look into the face of society and say ‘nay, we are more than conqueror’s thru him that loved us’. The early church set the world on fire when they were laying their lives down for the cause, refusing to deny their Lord even at the point of death. They were ‘more than conquerors’.

 ROMANS 9-

.PAUL- SPURGEON- AND DAVE HUNT- DID THEY BELIEVE IN PREDESTINATION?

.HOW DOES PAUL DEFEND AGAINST THE SEEMING ‘UNFAIRNESS’ OF IT?

.WHAT DID THAT RUSSIAN ATHIEST SAY?

 (848)ROMANS 9: 1-8 Paul returns to an earlier theme ‘Christ came, as pertaining to the flesh, in response to the covenants that God made with Israel’ [my paraphrase!] Paul says that natural Israel played a very important role in the coming of Messiah. He was [is] the fulfillment of the prophecies that came as a result of Gods interaction with ‘the commonwealth of Israel’. Now Paul again says ‘they are not all Israel, which are of Israel, but “in Isaac shall thy seed be called’”. Understand something here, Paul is not teaching ‘another’ natural lineage to Christ. The mistake of the worldwide church of God [Herbert Armstrong] which teaches British Israelism, trying to trace the natural lineage of Europeans and saying ‘these are the lost tribes’. Paul is simply saying ‘those who are of the Law, the natural tribe of Israel [Jews] are not automatically counted as ‘the seed’ [children] but those who ‘are of promise’. Paul also uses this in Galatians 3 and 4. ‘Of promise’ is simply saying ‘those who have been born of Gods Spirit [Jew or Gentile] are the children that God promised to Abraham’ he is the father of ‘many nations’. All who would believe. These themes are building upon Paul’s earlier theology in this letter. This letter [Romans] has a little more ‘weight’ than say a pastoral epistle [Timothy, Titus]. Now, I am not saying it is ‘more inspired’ but I want you to see that even in the book of Acts you see Paul place special emphasis on ‘I must make it to Rome’! Paul fully realizes that this letter will be read among the believers and Jews at Rome. Rome is the capitol city of the Empire. He wants the early believers to understand the role and purpose of God for Israel. Paul’s efforts are being seen by some Jewish believers [Jerusalem] as antagonistic. Paul wants to make it clear that he was not trying to start some type of movement that rejected natural Israel. At the same time he wants natural Israel ‘my kinsman according to the flesh’ to receive their Messiah! So in this context Romans is a theological treatise saying ‘God wants to bring both Jew and Gentile together as one new man in Christ [Ephesians]’. When he argues ‘they that are the children of the flesh ARE NOT THE CHILDREN OF GOD[verse 8] but the children of the promise are counted for the seed’ he is simply saying ‘all people, both Jews and Gentiles [which includes all races that are ‘non Jews’ even Arabs!] can partake of this free gift by grace’. The promise is to all who ‘will believe’.

 (849)ROMANS 9:9-23 now we get into predestination. Paul uses the example of Jacob and Esau [I spoke on this in the Genesis study, see chapter 25], he says God chose Jacob over Esau before they were born. He also uses the story of Pharaoh and says God was the one who hardened his heart. Paul says these things show us that God’s mercy and choice are a sovereign act. He specifically says ‘God chose Jacob, not on the basis of any thing he did [or would do!] but because of his own sovereign choice’. Now, this is another one of those arguments where Paul says ‘you will then say to me, how can God find fault? If everyone is simply doing the things he preordained, fulfilling destiny, then how can God justly hold people accountable’? First, I want you to see that this statement, that Paul is putting into the mouths of his opponents, only makes sense from the classic position of predestination. Second, if predestination only spoke of Gods foreknowledge of the choices that people were going to make [like asking Jesus into their heart!] then the obvious response to the argument would be ‘Oh, God chose Jacob because he knew what a good boy he was going to be’. Not only would this be wrong, Jacob [the supplanter] was not a ‘good boy’, but Paul does not use this defense in arguing his case. He simply says ‘who are we to question God? Can the thing formed say to him that formed it “why have you made me like this”? It seems as if Paul’s understanding of predestination was in the Augustinian/Calvinistic Tradition. A few years back a popular author on the west coast, Dave Hunt, wrote a book called ‘what kind of love is this’? He took on the Reformed Faiths understanding of predestination. Dave was a little out of his league in the book. He seemed to not fully grasp the historic understanding of the doctrine. He quoted some stuff from Charles Spurgeon that made it sound like he was not a believer in predestination. Spurgeon did make strong statements against certain ideas that were [are] prevalent in classic Calvinism. Some taught that Christ’s Blood was shed only for the elect. This is called ‘particular redemption’ or from the famous ‘Tulip’ example ‘limited atonement’. Spurgeon did not embrace the idea that Christ’s Blood was not sufficient to cover the sins of the whole world. The problem with Hunt using this true example from Spurgeon, is that he overlooked the other obvious statements from Spurgeon that place him squarely in the Calvinistic camp. Some refer to this as ‘4 point Calvinism’. I myself agree with Spurgeon on this point. The reason I mention this whole thing is to show you that major Christian figures have dealt with these texts and have struggled with the obvious difficulties involved. I think Paul does a little ‘speculative theology’ himself in this chapter. He says ‘what if God willing to show his mercy and wrath permitted certain things’. He gives possible reasons for the seeming ‘unfairness’ of this doctrine. The point I want to stress is Paul never tries to defend it from the classic Arminian understanding, that says ‘God knew the way people were going to choose, and he simply ‘foreordained’ those who would choose right’. To be honest, this argument does answer the question in the minds of many believers, I simply don’t see it to be accurate.

 (851)ROMANS 9:24-29 Paul quotes Hosea and Isaiah to show that God has a purpose for both Jew and Gentile. He uses a few verses from Isaiah 10 and 13 to say ‘except the lord had left us a remnant, no one would be left’. Now, once again we come up against the mindset of always reading ‘saved’ as meaning ‘born again’. In context, God ‘saving’ a remnant simply means ‘he spared them from ruin and total destruction’. There is a verse in Revelation that says ‘the nations of them which are saved shall enjoy the new heavens and earth’. Some commentators will show you how some versions leave out ‘which are saved’ which would leave the text as saying ‘the nations [that are left, remain!] shall walk in it’. This is the context here. Paul is saying God always had a few from Israel that remained, he didn’t utterly wipe them out. Now, this of course fits in with ‘having sins forgiven’, being ‘saved’ or redeemed. There are prophets who say ‘the Lord will turn away ungodliness from Jacob’ [delivered from sin] and ‘the lord comes to those who have turned away from their sin’ speaking of Israel. So I want you to grasp the biblical concept of God saving [sparing] a remnant. The word ‘remnant’ actually speaks of the part of cloth/ material that is ‘left over’ from the whole piece. Jesus also said ‘unless those days were shortened, their would no flesh “be saved”’. Once again meaning ‘no human would survive unless God cut short his wrath’. Paul also uses this language here ‘the lord will do a quick work on the earth and cut it short [shortened!] in righteousness’.

 (853)ROMANS 9: 30-33 ‘What shall we say then? That the Gentiles which followed not after the law of righteousness have attained it, even by faith’.  Paul concludes the chapter by summing up his ‘righteousness by faith’ argument. Natural Israel, who sought to become righteous by law, who were always striving for perfection thru the keeping of the law. They did not attain that which they sought after. Why? Because they sought it ‘not by faith, but by law’. No law could ever make a man righteous. The Gentiles, which were not even looking! They got it. Why? Because they simply believed in the Messiah, it was the best message they ever heard. They were told their whole lives ‘you are separated from Gods promises. You are not included in the commonwealth of Israel’. They never dreamed that the Jewish Messiah would say ��neither do I condemn thee, go and sin no more’. They received Gods righteousness by faith. Israel ‘stumbled’ at the stumbling stone. Jesus is called a precious stone and also a rock of offence. To those who believe, he is great, precious. To those who don’t believe he is this tremendous obstacle. The unbelieving world doesn’t know what to do with him. I was watching Ravi Zacharias the other night. He is a good Christian apologist. He was telling the story of being in Russia and speaking to a large group of Atheists. During his talk they were really aggressive, making motions with their hands and all. He was told ahead of time to be prepared. At the question and answer time a Russian Atheist asked ‘what are you talking about when you say God? I have no idea what you mean by this false concept’. Ravi asked him ‘sir, are you an Atheist?’ He replied yes. ‘What is an Atheist’? Ravi asked. The man responded ‘someone who denies God’. Ravi said ‘what exactly is it that you are denying’? The unbeliever has come up against this ‘rock of offence’. He tries to get around it, to develop all types of systems and philosophies to deny it. The rock is there, you can either ‘fall on it’. That is admit he is who he claims to be. Submit and be ‘broken’. Or it will eventually ‘grind you to powder’. You will pass from the scene and the next crop of Atheists will rise and face the same dilemma. This rock ‘aint going away’.

 ROMANS 10 [On the video I give a broad overview of the doctrine ‘the salvation of the righteous’. I cover many verses not in the post].

.DOES THE BIBLE TEACH ‘A SINNERS PRAYER”?

.DOES THIS CHAPTER SAY ‘THOSE WHO CALLED/ASKED- DID NOT GET IT?

.IS THEIR A ‘RIGHTEOUS MAN’S PRAYER’ THAT BRINGS SALVATION?

. PLEASE- LETS STOP DIVIDING OVER SMALL STUFF-

   VERSES [These are the verses I either quoted or taught from on today’s post]

July 8, 2018

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Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Lectionary: 101

Reading 1

EZ 2:2-5

As the LORD spoke to me, the spirit entered into me and set me on my feet, and I heard the one who was speaking say to me: Son of man, I am sending you to the Israelites, rebels who have rebelled against me; they and their ancestors have revolted against me to this very day. Hard of face and obstinate of heart are they to whom I am sending you.  But you shall say to them: Thus says the LORD GOD!  And whether they heed or resist—for they are a rebellious house— they shall know that a prophet has been among them.

Responsorial Psalm

PS 123:1-2, 2, 3-4

R. (2cd) Our eyes are fixed on the Lord, pleading for his mercy. To you I lift up my eyes who are enthroned in heaven — As the eyes of servants are on the hands of their masters. R. Our eyes are fixed on the Lord, pleading for his mercy. As the eyes of a maid are on the hands of her mistress, So are our eyes on the LORD, our God, till he have pity on us. R. Our eyes are fixed on the Lord, pleading for his mercy. Have pity on us, O LORD, have pity on us, for we are more than sated with contempt; our souls are more than sated with the mockery of the arrogant, with the contempt of the proud. R. Our eyes are fixed on the Lord, pleading for his mercy.

Reading 2

2 COR 12:7-10

Brothers and sisters: That I, Paul, might not become too elated, because of the abundance of the revelations, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, an angel of Satan, to beat me, to keep me from being too elated.  Three times I begged the Lord about this, that it might leave me, but he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.”  I will rather boast most gladly of my weaknesses, in order that the power of Christ may dwell with me.  Therefore, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and constraints, for the sake of Christ; for when I am weak, then I am strong.

Alleluia

CF. LK 4:18

R. Alleluia, alleluia. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, for he sent me to bring glad tidings to the poor. R. Alleluia, alleluia.

Gospel

MK 6:1-6

Jesus departed from there and came to his native place, accompanied by his disciples.  When the sabbath came he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were astonished.  They said, “Where did this man get all this?  What kind of wisdom has been given him?  What mighty deeds are wrought by his hands!  Is he not the carpenter, the son of Mary, and the brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon?  And are not his sisters here with us?”  And they took offense at him.  Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in his native place and among his own kin and in his own house.”  So he was not able to perform any mighty deed there, apart from curing a few sick people by laying his hands on them. He was amazed at their lack of faith.

窗体顶端

 窗体底端

Matthew 13:53-58

 English Standard Version (ESV)

Jesus Rejected at Nazareth

53 And when Jesus had finished these parables, he went away from there, 54 and coming to his hometown he taught them in their synagogue, so that they were astonished, and said, “Where did this man get this wisdom and these mighty works? 55 Is not this the carpenter's son? Is not his mother called Mary? And are not his brothers James and Joseph and Simon and Judas? 56 And are not all his sisters with us? Where then did this man get all these things?” 57 And they took offense at him. But Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in his hometown and in his own household.” 58 And he did not do many mighty works there, because of their unbelief.

Luke 4:14-30

 New International Version (NIV)

Jesus Rejected at Nazareth

14 Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about him spread through the whole countryside. 15 He was teaching in their synagogues, and everyone praised him.

16 He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. He stood up to read, 17 and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written:

18 “The Spirit of the Lord is on me,     because he has anointed me     to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners     and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, 19     to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”[a]

20 Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him.21 He began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”

22 All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his lips. “Isn’t this Joseph’s son?” they asked.

23 Jesus said to them, “Surely you will quote this proverb to me: ‘Physician, heal yourself!’ And you will tell me, ‘Do here in your hometown what we have heard that you did in Capernaum.’”

24 “Truly I tell you,” he continued, “no prophet is accepted in his hometown. 25 I assure you that there were many widows in Israel in Elijah’s time, when the sky was shut for three and a half years and there was a severe famine throughout the land. 26 Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them, but to a widow in Zarephath in the region of Sidon. 27 And there were many in Israel with leprosy[b] in the time of Elisha the prophet, yet not one of them was cleansed—only Naaman the Syrian.”

28 All the people in the synagogue were furious when they heard this.29 They got up, drove him out of the town, and took him to the brow of the hill on which the town was built, in order to throw him off the cliff.30 But he walked right through the crowd and went on his way.

Micah 5:4

And he shall stand and feed in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God; and they shall abide: for now shall he be great unto the ends of the earth.

In Context | Full Chapter | Other Translations

Ephesians 6:13

Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.

In Context | Full Chapter | Other Translations

1 John 2:15

Love not the world, neither the things that are in theworld. If any man love the world, the love of theFather is not in him.

In Context | Full Chapter | Other Translations

1 John 3:1

Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not.

In Context | Full Chapter | Other Translations

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[stone-man-warrior]

December 24, 2020: 4:36 pm:

Thunderbird’s Episode 8: Desperate Intruder

Show: Thunderbirds

Title: Desperate Intruder

Air date: November 18, 1965

Previous episode: 30 Minutes After Noon

Next episode: End of the Road

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

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_California

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disneyland

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Child

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breakup_of_the_Bell_System

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hollywood_Walk_of_Fame

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extortion

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Media_in_Los_Angeles

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

In the previous Thunderbird’s episode, a plan was developed to use the newly acquired Capitol Records Music Media Giant as a command post, base of operations to take over Disneyland for the purpose of harvesting kidnapped children from there, as a source for their use as trained terror soldiers. Amp Guru British Music Industry resultant of 1964 British Invasion (Meet the Beatles) are at the helm of the attacking, powered by British Royalty and the Vatican.

This episode, A Desperate Intruder, expands from there greatly.

For starters, see if you can come to the conclusion that the area where the plot is said to be at that lake in the Sahara Desert, is actually better described as:

“South Caliphate”

You will need to consider much of the story is told with “soiled” details, you might say, as are all of the Thunderbird’s episodes I have watched and written about this past week or so.

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

More later: it’s 5:06 pm.

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

5:31 pm: First, this brief announcement:

Local Update:

A walk to the mailbox revealed some things I was unable to see in the dark this week, it’s too dangerous to go outside, so, I have been taking only one adventure outside this week, at night, I feel safer in the dark.

I can why things are different at Monroe terror cell, there is another different car parked at the Offensive Monroe Surveillance Travel Trailer, a Toyota I think, newish, dark color, part Minivan, part Shoe Box, it was dusk when I went out there, so I could not see it well enough to know more about that.

I can see where the Yard Waist Fire last few days ago was used as a means to make a clear path for the newly installed terror soldiers at Monroe’s to have clear access and clear a viewing angle to my driveway, and provide easy access to hop over the fence there.

I could see where the Monroe terror team has been hiding beneath the deck of that other unfinished house I started to build so long ago.

There have been many attacks here at my house associated with that sword fight at the end of my driveway last week or so, when there were people arranging a net, like a fishing net, at the end of my driveway, up into the trees there. I stopped that from continuing when the heads started to role around on the driveway. I the days the followed, I have encountered a number of intruders in my home, defended, killed the intruders. I mentioned one such encounter at the mailbox a few days ago, I think it was Clyde Baum, whoever it was, is dead now. At least four others also, since the sword fight in the driveway w/net.

It’s cold outside.

There was no mail in the mailbox.

I could hear the sound of one of the exotic birds at Sunflower’s terror cell faintly... I think it’s canned, recorded bird sound, played through a amplifier so that I will write something about it. So, there is the sound of recorded bird sounds from Sunflower terror cell on Russell Road.

There were four deer outside as I took a walk, the usual suspects. That’s good news. They want tortillas, that’s why they hang around my front door, but the tortillas I bought are poisoned, so, no soup for you.

Highly offensive conditions exist at Monroe’s, other neighboring terror cells are in support of that offensive effort.

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

5:58 pm: More about the Thunderbird’s Desperate Intruder:

Remove title.

Think, think, think...

Replace new title: “De S Pirate Intruder: S is For Sword”

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

Some personal knowledge is helpful for seeing what the episode is saying within the plot on the front. I was there when the swordsmen paratroopers landed in Southern California, so, not everyone is going to see what I see in it.

Beyond the weird Hokus Pokus at the start of the episode, is a plan to go on vacation to seek treasure in a deserted lake. They go by air, they bring motor home trailers, in tandem. That translates to the plan to drop many thousands of sword wielding nitrous oxide gas soldiers into Southern California.

That castle “temple” at the bottom of that lake, should be viewed as Disneyland, and that has been reduced to just a small place at the bottom of a lake filled with vast riches in a desert. The idea that it’s a desert is the end result goal of the paratroopers, to go, drop in at Second Point Malibu, goofy foot left backside off the lip and drop in again on big swells. First and third point are also breaking, there waves to be had at Malibu, where all of the movie stars, producers, musicians, entertainment industry HQ is in and around Malibu, so, the plan is to go there, with the swordsmen who dropped in, supported by the Rampart Division that was already hijacked and serves is a outpost field office of operations for British Amp Guru stationed at British High Command Vatican Choir HQ at the Vatican, and House of Lords.

Those double motor homes say much. That is the instruction about the paratrooping terror soldiers who dropped in. They are to land, use a sword to take a vehicle at a traffic light, then go mobile in the vehicle. See that Tin Tin and Brains wound up at a substantial conventional home in the desert where they met that professor, then, they went mobile again. The professor at that moment is the person who lives in that house somewhere nearby Malibu. The house is taken, they stay for awhile, then get back into the pirate ship double motor home on their way to find treasure, with information gained from the homeowner Hollywood executive in Malibu. The plan includes kill & replace of Hollywood executives for taking control of the famous entertainers, and using them as tools to advance Global Domination Under The Cross.

You should see that the fist parts of the Thunderbird’s episode are about rounding up Hollywood entertainment industry hot-shots, torturing them, interrogating them, finding dirt on them, extorting them because they are filthy dirty, getting secrets from them, and access to wealth and power from that effort.

Meanwhile at Disneyland. plans are underway, and have specific means of luring children with the attractions, arrangements that separate the children in attraction lines from their parents, and the Disney security are actually the ones who will be doing the kidnapping, while the parents who are searching for the lost children will be said to be the ones at the park doing the kidnapping of children there, as a basis of operations. See that when Brains goes in the lake the second time, he is on his own, swimming around at Disneyland, see’s a lot of shiny stuff to look at, winds up following a line, is alone at Disneyland Themepark, gets taken by a pirate diver. There are much specifics I could go on about.

There is a column there under the water. It has riches and treasure inside. One dive produces dirt, that is the result of interrogating entertainment industry moguls. The treasure is the dirt that Amp Guru obtains about the people who run Hollywood and the ones who run Disneyland. It’s suggested in the episode that the whole of southern California seems to have little, or no protection at all from attack of the caliber of Amp Guru. That column, I project, will probe later to be a plan to take over the phone company, Bell Telephone, and break it apart in such a way as to gain control of all telephone services by virtue of destroying Bell Telephone, and then being in control of the subsequent aggregate companies that took it’s place. The column with treasure seems to be the seeds planted for the future, will be further explored in subsequent episodes about more detail of how to proceed with destroying Bell Telephone, so that it can be rebuilt the Amp Guru way.

A second dive to the column produces a view of treasure within. It’s not difficult to think about Pirates of the Caribbean Disney attraction at that moment in the episode. Again, I could be more specific there with some personal experience to support this read of the Thunderbird’s episode given interested persons where available to speak with, but I see no signs of such interested persons.

Maybe I’ll add more later... it’s 6:50 pm.

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

More: 7:14 pm:

Those paratroopers into southern California were real, I am not making up any of the reports I write for any other reason than to get some help to come to Oregon, the help I need is because of those paratroopers, and the take over they advance from Britain, by and through Canada, where the paratroopers came from.

Thousands of them.

So, more to say about the Desperate Intruder episode is that the plan you can glean from the episode shows how those paratroopers where instructed to wipe out all of the inhabitants of the Los Angeles County area, which is what they did over time. It looks like a “Top-Down“ approach in every way, physically from the sky, and then in association with other planted operatives already on the ground and strategically placed, to obtain control of the entire US Entertainment industry, and that includes news media networks that control what is seen on television. With control of televised airplay, the British controlled the population, while simultaneously presenting the marching orders to the terror army within range of the broadcasts.

I suspect that the Thunderbird’s episodes served as a double whammy for the advance of the global domination in California with their initial airing in the 1960′s, and re-run airing in the early 1970′s, and that is the time I recall seeing them in color in 1970′s. I do recall black & white older Thunderbird’s episodes from when I was very small, but mostly my recollection, which is not much because they were too creepy to me to watch, is from re-run on “syndicated networks”. In the LA area, the syndicated networks were KCOP 13, KTTV 11, I think KRLA was channel 9, and channel 5 was also “syndicated TV” but I have forgotten what the ID was. Whatever was Channel 5 later became FOX, the current FOX news is made of the remnants of old Channel 5 TV in Los Angeles. I think Thunderbird’s were a re-run on KCOP 13...but am not sure about that. The source of the re-runs could lead to answers to questions that no one has ever asked before.

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

Baby’s On Fire

Brian Eno 1971

Baby's on fire Better throw her in the water Look at her laughing Like a heifer to the slaughter

Baby's on fire And all the laughing boys are bitching Waiting for photos Oh the plot is so bewitching

Rescuers row, row Do your best to change the subject Blow the wind blow, blow Lend some assistance to the object

Photographers snip snap Take your time, she's only burning This kind of experience Is necessary for her learning

If you'll be my flotsam I could be half the man I used to They said, "You were hot stuff And that's what baby's been reduced to"

Juanita and Juan Very clever with maracas Makin' their fortunes Selling second-hand tobaccos

Juan dances at Chico's And when the clients are evicted He empties the ashtrays And pockets all that he's collected

But baby's on fire And all the instruments agree that Her temperature's rising But any idiot would know that

Source: Musixmatch

Songwriters: Brian Eno

Baby’s on Fire lyrics © E.g. Music Ltd., E.g. Music Publr. Ltd., Universal Music Mgb Songs Obo Eg Music Ltd, Universal Music Mgb Songs Obo E G Music, Ltd.

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

8:39 pm:

Once long ago, some terror soldiers attacked here at my home and dropped something. That does not happen often, this one time, one of them dropped a ring. I found the ring in my front driveway not far from where I park my car, the ring was slightly bent when I found it, I may have run it over, it may have been there for a long time. I went to straighten the ring and found that it must be made of some kind of indestructible material. It was very difficult to get the bend out of it such that I could wear it. I managed to get is somewhat round again, and it fits.

I wore the ring for awhile along with other rings I have, but found that when I went to the store at L’il Pantry Market, the cashier would take a hold of my hand and try to take the rings from my fingers real sneaky, along with the change from the purchase transaction back when I used to use cash only to buy stuff. One of those times was a time when Stevie Bell was also at the Li’l Pantry at the exit 58 I-5 6th street store, he did not live across the street back then, was driving a Centurylink Service car, a small car, the kind they use for sending personal computer help to someone’s house for computer tech in-person help. So he was behind me in line this one time, as I was fogged with nitrous gas by the store clerk in front of me who was trying to remove my rings, with change. as Stephan Bell was behind me making sure I don’t go anywhere, he is about 400 pounds of terror soldier, makes a wall wherever he is standing. I got out of there, with what I bought, but it was not easy to get out of the Li’l Pantry that night.

Every once in while I put the rings on to see how the cashiers will respond to the rings. Last time I went to Walgreen’s, I was wearing the rings, and the cashier made a remark to someone on her secret communication device that I had some rings on my fingers. It should not be like that at the store, where the cashiers are so attentive to rings, maybe other jewelry is also a conversation topic for secret terror communication, I don’t know because all of my other jewelry was stolen fro where I had stored it last summer, when the thief dropped a super high-tech flashlight. The thing about the ring and flashlight that is remarkable is that I am pretty sure that both of those items were dropped by the same terror soldier, Juseph Myers of 560 Jackpine, and may have been dropped intentionally to make confusion service suitable for fooling federal investigative fools who insist on trusting the local authorities.

So two items, a not so shiny ring, almost indestructible material with small inscription, and a whiz-bang high-tech flashlight were found here at my home about 10 years apart, I think they both belonged to Juseph Myers, a neighbor that is closely associated with nbc Universal Comcast enough that David Letterman has been known to stay at the Myers home on occasion here on Jackpine. Information I have is that Mr. Letterman’s Head, was last seen inside of one of the mailboxes on Jackpine, just the head, and beard. I don‘t have information about where the other parts of Mr. Letterman may have gone to, but the Myers residence is the first place I would look for that, if US Military were here to help do that.

I put the ring on again after the Walgreen‘s thing sort of scared me away from wearing it, and I have been using it as a Secret Decoder Ring in absence of access to a old box of Cracker Jack’s to get a real one. This one works pretty good... It’s been on the whole time I have been doing the Thunderbird’s reports.

I lost it tonight when I took a walk to the mailbox.

I looked all through the house, it was not in the house.

So, I grabbed that super high tech flashlight, and went outside to search for the indestructible ring.

Took five minutes. It’s a very powerful flashlight.

I found the ring at the place where the terror bastards have been hiding under the deck of that house I started to builds so long ago.... it was right there, exactly at the place where I was pointing the flashlight.

It’s still a little bent though.

[let-it-raines]

Catch Me If You Can (26/40)

298 days. That’s how long Killian Jones was away from a baseball field. It’s less than a year, only part of a season for him, but it might as well have lasted a decade as he alternated between physical therapy and spending an excessive amount of time sitting on his couch.

But then he came back and won the World Series.

It’s something no one saw coming, and it’s certainly not something anyone who knows about his arm would predict. Now it’s a new season with new possibilities, and anything could happen. On-field reporter Emma Swan will be there to cover it all even if she is not his biggest fan right now.

Asking her out live on-air will do that.

Rating: Mature

a/n: So you guys had some pretty big feelings about the last chapter. (I love it.) I think you might also have some about the next few. 🙈❤️

AO3: Beginning | Current

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-/-

Liam has been yelling at him for thirty-two minutes and seventeen seconds.

That might be a little off, his timing incorrect since he didn’t start counting until it’d been going on for quite a few minutes, and he’s only been counting with his head. He doesn’t have a watch on, has no idea where his phone currently is except probably in the locker room, and counting in his head is the only way he’s able to keep track.

The clock on Elsa’s wall is dead. That seems apt.

Counting is very literally the only thing that is keeping him sane right now. It’s also distracting him from the throbbing pain that’s emanating from his shoulder every time he so much as flinches or shifts in the wrong direction.

Killian has felt like an idiot more times than he can count – ironic with how much he’s counting right now, he knows – but he thinks that ignoring his shoulder, ignoring the pain, ignoring the signs, and ignoring every other little thing over the past few months has been the dumbest thing he’s ever done.

This could fuck up his entire career, again, and he ignored it for the idiotic hope that things would simply get better on their own.

Things have obviously not gotten better on their own, and he was pretty much carted off of the field and out of the stadium to the hospital so that he could have an MRI and an X-ray done only to find out that he has tendinitis in the rotator cuff that was injured in the boating accident and already had to have surgery to repair it once before.

Liam is currently yelling at him because he made a joke about how at least it was only tendinitis and not another full tear that would require surgery and being out of the game completely for ten months.

Just four to six weeks this time.

That’s nothing, right?

Except the playoffs start in four weeks, and while he can’t remember the rules of eligibility right off the top of his head since this is something he’s never had to deal with before, he thinks that as long as he doesn’t miss the entire post-season, he could still play in the World Series.

If they make it that far.

Shit.

This is not good.

And his hopes for the World Series really shouldn’t be what’s going on in his head right now when he has another arm injury, which is another derailment for his career.

(He’s only twenty-eight years old. It shouldn’t be like this.)

But focusing on this one thing that he wanted, that he wants, for himself and for his team, is inexplicably both driving him into madness and keeping him sane all at once.

“How could you let all of the signs pass you by, Killian?” Liam huffs, his loafers likely going to run a hole in the linoleum floor of the hospital with how much he’s pacing. “Do you not remember what happened the last time you got injured? The lows that you went through? That’s happening again. You finally got to be happy, got to have things going right for you, and you screwed it up because you didn’t want to admit that there is something wrong with you? How fucking dumb can you be?”

“Liam,” Elsa admonishes from her spot in her office where they’ve all gathered now that he’s been released from all of his tests. It’s kind of feeling like a prison in here. “Now is really not the time to yell at him.”

“I think it’s a pretty damn good time.”

“For fuck’s sake,” Killian groans, twisting in Elsa’s office chair to look at his brother. His arm is throbbing, his medicine not quite taking effect yet but the ice pack helping a bit, and that’s all probably not helping with his level of agitation. “I am twenty-eight years old. I do not need you to yell at me like I am one of your children. ObviouslyObviously, I know that I fucked up. The insane amount of ice on my shoulder that’s pretty much going to stay there for the next month as I sit on my ass proves it.”

“All of this could have been solved if you’d come to a doctor. I’m a doctor. Elsa works in a hospital. You have fantastic health insurance. It’s not…the solution was right there. You should have told Archie too!”

“Liam,” Elsa scolds again, and his brother’s head snaps toward his wife.

“What? What could you possibly have to say? He screwed up.”

“No, you screwed up when you started yelling at him like he’s a child. But certainly not your child when there’s no way in hell you would speak to Addison or Lucy this way. Killian gets it. You can see it written over his face, and if you can’t tell that he didn’t say anything because he was scared of finding out something was going to be wrong with him again, I don’t know what to tell you. Is it dumb? Yes. But you see it happen with patients every single day. People get scared, and the confirmation makes injuries and diseases real for them.”

Damn, Elsa Jones.

“Elsa,” Killian sighs, “thank – ”

“No,” she starts, holding up her hand at him, her voice full of emotion. “Just because I understand you and am defending you doesn’t mean I’m not still mad at you. I’m not going to yell at you like your brother, though.”

Elsa wipes at the few tears that have fallen underneath her eyes, and before Killian can even get up to give her a hug and tell her just how much he loves her, Liam is crossing the room and wrapping her up in his embrace so that his frame dwarfs hers for a few seconds while Killian continues to get to sulk and loathe himself for doing this.

It’s all his fault.

There’s no other way around it. That’s the truth, and there’s no changing it.

What the hell is he going to do? And is this going to keep coming back if he continues to pitch? If he does proper treatment, is it something he can monitor? Is his career really about to be cut in half? What is Al going to think when he tells him? What are any of his teammates going to think? Or the owners? All of the managers?

What about Emma?  

If he’d told her all of those times he wanted to tell her, all of those times he’d meant to tell her when she caught him in pain over the past few months, she would know about his past and would most likely have had enough sense to tell him to go see a doctor since she would have a more frequent look at how he was every day than either Liam or Elsa.

But “if” doesn’t exist.

What has happened, happened. There’s no changing that.

But if he could…no, nope. No. He can’t go there. “If” doesn’t exist.

Elsa phone starts ringing on her desk, Emma’s name popping up on the screen, and Killian’s hands fumble for it so quickly that he nearly drops it onto the ground. But he doesn’t, managing to slide his finger across the phone to answer so that he can hold it up to his ear to talk.

“Hello, beautiful,” he greets and both Elsa and Liam turn to stare him down.  

“Killian?” Her voice is frantic, hoarse, and he has absolutely no idea how she managed to keep on working when he’s sure that her mind was running through all of the worst-case scenarios. She’s got to be pissed at him. He deserves it. Why couldn’t he have found the time to text her before he left? Right. He doesn’t know where his phone is. “Is that you?”

“Aye, love. It’s me. I’m answering Elsa’s phone.”

“SoSo, you’re not dead then?” He opens his mouth to respond but is cut off before he even can. “Because I have pretty much convinced myself that you were dead. It doesn’t even make any sense because you obviously didn’t have something, like, dangerous happen to you while you were playing, but all I’ve known for the past threewo hours waswere that you were hurt. And then my producer walks in the booth and tells me that you’re in the hospital but doesn’t say anything else and…you weren’t answering your phone. No one was. I don’t even know which hospital you’re in. I assumed Mt. Sinai because that’s where Liam works, but I don’t – ”

“Swan,” Killian interrupts as Emma keeps babbling. “Hey, hey, Emma, love. It’s okay. I’m fine. I am at Mt. Sinai. I’ve already had some tests done on my shoulder, and I’m sitting in Elsa’s office so it’s not like I’m laid up in a hospital bed. And I don’t have my phone. It’s in the locker room somewhere, probably, so that’s why I haven’t called you. I’m sorry.”

“How long are you going to be there? Can I come see you? Or should I just go home?”

“Where are you, love?”

“Maybe ten minutes away. I don’t – I got on the subway to go to your apartment first, but then I changed my mind and got off at the one hundred and third street station realizing that you were probably not there.”

“I think you’ve got a future career as a detective if this whole broadcasting thing doesn’t work out for you.” He smiles, even though she can’t see it, and he definitely ignores that look on Elsa and Liam’s faces. He’s had enough judgment from them today even if he deserves all of it. “How’d that go, by the way?”

There’s a loud blare through the phone followed by Emma cursing, and he chuckles to himself. “Can I tell you later? People don’t know how to drive, and I’m probably going to get run over even though I have the damn right of way.”

“Yeah, sure. I’ll text you directions to her office.”

“Thank you. I love you.”

“I love you too,” Killian sighs. “I’ll see you soon.”

The call ends then, and he doesn’t even have time to digest it all before Elsa is speaking again and causing him some serious whiplash.

“What are you going to tell her when she gets here?”

He shrugs, as much as he can at least. “The truth.”

“All of it?”

That familiar sense of guilt settles in him again, pressing down on his shoulders like a ton of bricks, which really isn’t helpful right now when his shoulder is already in so much pain, but this is the situation he’s built for himself.

“What are you guys talking about?” Liam asks, and Killian has to bite his tongue. “Seriously. What?”

“Killian never told Emma about the full extent of the accident,” Elsa explains, rubbing the heels of her hands underneath her eyes. “And I’m guessing he’s been lying to her about how much his shoulder has been hurting too.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah.”

“Fuck,” Killian groans, leaning forward to press his face into the stack of papers on Elsa’s desk, but that hurts his damn shoulder. “She’s going to be so pissed at me.”

“It’s not like you lied about something that’s fundamental to your relationship, though,” Liam says, obviously missing the point because he doesn’t know Emma like Killian knows Emma. “I think she’ll just be pissed like we are.”

“No, no she won’t.” Killian He rolls back in his chair and adjusts the strap that’s holding his ice pack there. “Emma’s got a pretty shitty history with people lying to her or not trusting her with things, and she’s going to be pissed that I did this. I don’t…there’s no way around that. I love her, and I wasn’t honest about the struggles I was going through.”

“It’s going to be fine, sweetie,” Elsa promises, but his mind is already running through worst case scenarios too.

He’s already lost the game again, temporarily at least, and he’s not sure that he can lose anything else.

For years he thought that losing the game would be the only thing possibley of beating him down and having him lose the spark for life that he has. Now he knows that’s not true.

Losing the game would hurt. Losing Emma would kill him.

Killian doesn’t count the ten minutes that it takes Emma to get to the hospital. He doesn’t need to. He feels every second of them. Before he knows it, there’s a timid knock on the door, and then Emma is walking through, her cheeks red and her hair windblown with her eyes widened. She looks like she just ran here instead of taking the train, and the big exhale that she lets out when she makes eye contact with him has him feeling like maybe he ran a marathon too.

Slowly, he stands up from the chair so as not to jostle his arm, and even though he can tell that Emma is a bit hesitant with Liam and Elsa in the room, she walks toward him and wraps her arms around his stomach so that he can feel her over feeling the throbbing in his arm.

“Hey,” he whispers as he rubs his hand up and down her back while his lips press into her forehead. “I’m okay. It’s all okay, love. There’s nothing to worry about.”

“My brain still has me convinced that you’re dead, so give me a minute.”

Killian chuckles. “Okay, okay, I can do that.”

For someone who is so keen on time today, Killian has no idea how long he stands there with Emma’s face buried in his shoulder and his hand on her back. He has no idea.

It’s not long enough though.

Because then Emma is pulling back, the warmth of her body disappearing, and she’s stepping away to wipe out the wrinkles in her dress skirt before moving to hug Liam and Elsa too., almost like she didn’t even realize they were in the room at first.

“So, what happened?” Emma asks. “You said your shoulder? What’s wrong with your shoulder?”

His eyes dart from the green pair to the two sets of blue, pleading for some kind of help in answering her question.

“Liam,” Elsa starts, grabbing onto her husband’s forearm, “why don’t we let them talk? Let’s go get some coffee.”

“You guys can stay,” Emma offers, a sweet, unknowing smile on her face.

“No, it’s fine, sweetie." Elsa nods her head at him, a soft smile on her face as well. “We’ve spent enough time with Killian. We’ll let you guys have this moment. Use my phone to text Liam when you leave, okay?”

“Yeah, Els. That’s fine. I love you guys.”

“Love you too,” Liam answers for them before they’re taking the few steps to the door and walking out of it, letting the wood frame click behind them.

And then he’s left with Emma.

“So, what’s wrong?” she asks again, sitting down in the chair that Elsa has across from her desk while he takes back his seat behind Elsa’s desk. “Did you throw out your shoulder? I know you’re, like, a whole ten months older than me, but I didn’t think you were that much of an old man.”

His chuckle is weak, but he’s thankful that Emma is at least in a bit of a joking mood. Today has been such a big day for her professionally, and he hates that he’s taken away from it.

“I have tendinitis in my rotator cuff.” He’s about to spew out a hell of a lot of information at her, but he doesn’t know how else to do it. The worry etched across Emma’s face certainly doesn’t help. “It’s not a big deal. I’m going to be out for hopefully no more than six weeks as long as I don’t fuck it up again, so I should be able to come back for the Championship Series, not that it matters. I’m in a lot of pain today, but it’s not always so bad.”

“What do you mean it’s not always so bad? Has this been happening more than just today?”

“For a couple of weeks. Maybe a month of two. I don’t – I’m not sure the exact moment that it happened, but it’s gotten worse recently. That day in Boston where we got blown out of the water and I pissed everyone off by being a jackass? That was probably the worst of it on a game day until today.”

“Woah, woah, woah,” Emma sighs, holding her hands up to him as her brows furrow, those little worry lines popping up on her forehead. “You’ve been feeling this for more than today? And you didn’t say anything? Not to me or your family or even Archie? You’re a pitcher, Killian. You’ve been warned about rotator cuff injuries your entire life, and you didn’t think to say something?”

“I was scared.”

“Of what?” she asks before she gets up to pace back and forth in the same path as Liam before her. “All you had to do was say that your shoulder was bothering you, you’re benched for a week or two, and you have time to heal. Then you’re not getting carted off in the middle of games while I’m left sitting in a booth with two assholes who couldn’t care less about you being injured and who made jokes about it while I felt like I could throw up the entire time.”

“Emma – ”

“What?”

“I have something else to tell you.”

Her eyes flicker over him as she crosses her arm over her chest, tugging her dress down and bringing attention to the fact that she’s wearing his mom’s ring around her neck. He’d nearly forgotten about that, only remembered really when his hands absentmindedly reached for it out of habit.

“What do you have to tell me?”

Killian swallows, kind of feeling like he’s going to throw up too. It’s not a big deal. It can’t be. Emma will understand. He’s lying to himself thinking that, but that’s what he has to do.

“When Liam and I were in the boating accident, when I had an open fracture on my arm, I also had a rotator cuff tear. It’s why I didn’t come back at all that season. It’s why I have the small scars on my shoulder.” Emma stops pacing and turns to look at him, worry written all over her face as his own worry constricts his throat. “No one knows about it. Only my family, Archie, and the doctors in Florida who did my surgery. I never told anyone because I didn’t want to be seen as weak. I’d finally gotten myself together, stopping the drinking and the women and every other dumb decision I was making, and there I was having my life torn away from me again. I guess I was so over being pitied and being looked down upon that I rationalized not telling anyone. I thought that if everyone didn’t know, things would be just fine. Life would go on as normal, and that’s all I wanted.”

He takes a breath and tries to figure out what’s going on in Emma’s head, but he can’t tell. There’s no emotion on her face. Absolutely none at all.

“Last season,” Killian continues. “I played with pain. It wasn’t much, and it was really more when I was working my way back than anything. By the time we made it to the Series, I felt fine. This season, not so much. It’s hurt randomly. Sometimes on game days. Sometimes when I’m waking up in the morning or in the middle of the night. Those days I can’t really move it for awhile. I – I know I shouldn’t have ignored the signs, Swan, but I couldn’t have it all taken away from me again. I just couldn’t.”

He’s not even sure if he said everything he needed to say. He’s got no clue. If he had to, he couldn’t even repeat the words that just passed through his lips. But they’re out there, and the bricks on his shoulders don’t feel quite so heavy.

“Every time we’ve talked about the accident,” Emma starts, and he recognizes the change of tone in her voice immediately, “you have never once mentioned that you tore your rotator cuff and that you had to have surgery to repair it. I would get you keeping that from me as a journalist but not as your girlfriend. How many times have we talked about that day, Killian? How often have we discussed it? How often have you sat there and lied to my face about it? And not only it. Every time you’ve been in pain this year, you’ve lied to me. This morning when I asked you what was wrong, you lied to me. In Boston when we were mad at each other, you lied to me. And those are just the times that I know of. I’m sure there are more. I can’t…”

“Swan, I’m sorry, okay?” he pleads. She shakes her head from side to side, and he rises from his the chair to come to the other side of the desk, leaning against the wood so that they’re not separated by it. “I wanted to tell you. I kept telling myself that I would and that maybe I’d work up the courage to say what was going on, but I never could.”

The clench in Emma’s jaw is visible, especially when she turns to the side to look away with another shake of her head. “I am sorry that you have been through so much, that you are still going through so much. I love you. I really do. But it almost makes it worse to me that you’ve known you were keeping something from me and still didn’t tell me. It doesn’t matter what it is. You actively lied to me, and I am not okay with that.”

“I was terrified, Emma. Don’t you get that?”

Her head turns back to him then, green eyes full of tears, and he can barely hear anything over the sound of his heart thumping.

“I think I just…I think I need some time is all.”

“Emma – ”

“No, Killian,” she starts, holding her hand up and stepping backward, “I need time. Because I’ve trusted you with so much of what’s going on in my life, I’ve let myself lean on you and need you more than I have ever let myself need someone else, and you couldn’t bother doing the same. Why couldn’t you bother doing the same? This is the same exact thing that’s happened to me every time I’ve put my heart on the line, and I – I need some time to think.”

“Emma.”

“I’ll call you soon,” she says as she rises from the chair, but he’s not sure that he believes her. “You have Liam and Elsa to take care of you, right?”

“Aye,” he nods, biting his tongue at all of the things he wants to say right now. Emma is fighting between wanting him to be okay and being upset with him. He can tell, and he has to respect her wishes right now. In a few days, it’ll be different. But damn if this doesn’t hurt. “I don’t…I’m sorry. I promise I didn’t mean to hurt you, love. That was not my intention here.”

“I know. That’s what makes this worse.” Emma blinks, her lips pressed together, before silently walking out the door and leaving him sitting there.

Alone.

Fuck.

He knew it was going to happen, and not even that could have prepared him for it.

But all she said was that she needed time, right? She didn’t yell at him saying that they were over, that she was breaking up with him, that she didn’t love him anymore. None of that was mentioned, so there’s hope, right?

There has to be hope.

It doesn’t matter that he didn’t hurt her in the same way that Neal and Walsh hurt her, that he didn’t hurt her the way the foster system did. It doesn’t matter that he didn’t maliciously set out to inflict pain. What matters is that she’s upset with his actions, with his lies, and who is he to try to say what she can be mad about and what she can’t be mad about?

He’s no one.

Only Emma can decide how she feels about things.

He probably deserves all of this for how much of an asshole he is.

“Fuck,” he mutters under his breath as he pinches the bridge of his nose.

And he’s still got to tell his team. And Ariel will have to release a statement and oh shit, Ariel. She’s going to murder him.

She really is.

Killian uses Elsa’s phone to text Liam that he and Emma are finished talking and that he’s going home now. He doesn’t say anything else, doesn’t give any more details. No one needs any. They know where they live, and if all else fails, he will answer their texts from his laptop.

When he gets home fifteen minutes later, though, he sees it sitting on his coffee table and ignores it. He’s really not in the mood to talk to anyone or to do anything. All he wants is to take a shower and wash this damn day away. It’s not like he’s got any deadlines anymore or anything to do.

He can’t even do his job.

And it’s his fault.

How could he have been so stupid?

The moment Killian walks into his bedroom, he sees Emma’s clothes everywhere. She’d brought over a bag of things last night, outfits that she was considering wearing but hadn’t decided on, as well as seemingly everything else she owns. She’s not the neatest person in the world, never has been, but it seems that this morning she was determined to make her mark on every single inch of this room.

She did a damn good job at it.

Killian’s sure that she was planning on cleaning it up when she came back here tonight. They were going to celebrate her tonight. He had a whole dinner prepared that he was going to cook. All of the ingredients are in his fridge as well as Emma’s favorite whiskey and a chocolate and cherry cake that he baked because he knows that she loves those.

They never even got to talk about how it was for her today.

How could he have ruined a day that was so important to her?

And he knows that he’s ruined it. He does. He knows that she’s probably in her apartment right now fielding questions from everyone about what it was like, how she liked it, if she wants to do it again. And she’s fielding questions about how he is and why she’s not with him. He doesn’t know what she’ll say, if she’ll say anything at all, and for as many times as he’s hated himself, he doesn’t think he’s ever hated himself as much as he does right now for upsetting Emma.

This is not how things are supposed to be.

He doesn’t bother picking her clothes up, leaving all of them where they are. That’s something he’ll deal with later. He’s going to take a shower right now, and absolutely nothing is going to stop him.

Except for the yellow and blue sticky notes pressed in a line on his bathroom mirror over where Emma has left her curling iron.

I promise I’m going to clean up my things later. Don’t get all tense about it if you see it all before I do.

Thank you for being such a big supporter of me and “cheering me on.”

We’re both going to kick ass today.

I love you, Killian Jones.

Killian’s stomach twists at the last one, and he carefully pulls it off the mirror so that he can run his fingers over the words there as well as the lipstick mark that she left.

“I love you too, Emma,” he mutters to himself in the silence of the bathroom.