#and live freely i shall. the work is not over and the road ahead is long going ever on and on. but how joyous it is that it goes on at all. | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

kiyodu · 3 years

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The Letters of Vincent van Gogh (Part I)

Quotes I Enjoy:

• Admire as much as you can, most people don't admire enough.

• That does not mean there are no old women, only that a woman does not grow old as long as she loves and is loved.

• Seek only light and freedom and do not immerse yourself too deeply in the worldly mire.

• Sorrow is better than joy -- and even in mirth the heart is sad -- and it is better to go to the house of mourning than to the house of feasts, for by the sadness of the countenance the heart is made better.

• Our life is a pilgrim's progress. I once saw a very beautiful picture, it was a landscape at evening. In the distance on the right hand side a row of hills appearing blue in the evening mist. Above those hills the splendor of the sunset, the grey clouds with their linings of silver and gold and purple. The landscape is a plain or heath covered with grass and heather, here and there the white stem of a birch tree and its yellow leaves, for it was in Autumn.

Through the landscape a road leads to a high mountain, far far away. On the top of that mountain a city whereon the setting sun casts a glory. On the road walks a pilgrim, staff in hand. He has been walking for a good long while already and he is very tired. And now he meets a woman, a figure in black that makes one think of St. Paul's word: 'As being sorrowful yet always rejoicing.' That Angel of God has been placed there to encourage the pilgrims and to answer their questions.

And the pilgrim asks her: "Does the road go up hill then all the way?"

And the answer is: "Yes to the very end." And he asks again: "And will the journey take all day long?" And the answer is: "From morn till night my friend."

And the pilgrim goes on sorrowful yet always rejoicing, sorrowful because it is so far off and the road so long. Hopeful as he looks up to the eternal city far away, resplendent in the evening glow and he thinks of two old sayings, he has heard long ago, the one is:

There must much strife be striven

There must much suffering be suffered

There must much prayer be prayed

And then the end will be peace.

and the other:

The water comes up to the lips

But higher comes it not.

• Our life we might compare it to a journey, we go from the place where we were born to a far off haven. Our earlier life might be compared to sailing on a river, but very soon the waves become higher, the wind more violent, we are at sea almost before we are aware of it -- and the prayer from the heart ariseth to God: Protect me o God, for my bark is so small and Thy sea is so great. The heart of man is very much like the sea, it has its storms, it has its tides and in its depths it has its pearls too.

The heart that seeks for God and for a Godly life has more storms than any other.

• It is dear to you, too, that 'sorrowful, yet always rejoicing', keep it in mind, for it is a good text and a good cloak to wear in the storm of life, keep it in mind at this time now that have been going through so much. And be careful, for though what you have been through is no small thing, yet as far as I can see there is something still greater ahead.

• One of these days I shall make a start with Streckfuss's Algemene Geshiedenis (General History), or rather I have started it already. It isn't easy, but I certainly hope that taking it one step at a time and doing the best one can will pay off. But it will take time - many testify to that, and not just Corot alone: "It took only forty years' work, thought and attention."

• I have been thinking about what we were discussing, and the saying sprang to mind: 'We are today what we were yesterday.' That does not mean one must stand still and may not try to improve oneself; on the contrary, it is a compelling reason for doing so and for being glad to do so. But to be true to the saying, one must not backslide, and once one has started to look at things freely and openly one must not face about or stray.

• There once was a man who went to church and asked, 'Can it be that my ardour has decieved me, that I have taken a wrong turning and managed things badly? If only I could be rid of this doubt and know for certain I shall come out victorious and succeed in the end.'

And then a voice answered him, 'And if you were certain, what would you do then? Act now as if you were certain and you will not be disappointed.' Then the man went on his way, not unbelieving but believing, and returned to his work no longer doubting or wavering.

• We have talked a good deal about our duty and how we may attain the right goal, and we have properly concluded that our first objective must be to find a specific position and a profession to which we can wholly devote ourselves. And I believe that we also agreed on this point, viz (in other words). that one must pay particular attention to the end, and that a victory gained after a whole life of work and effort is better than one gained with greater dispatch.

• Anyone who leads an upright life and experiences real difficulty and disappointment and yet is not crushed by them is worth more than one for whom everything has always been plain sailing and who has known nothing but relative prosperity.

• Let us but go forth quietly, testing everything and holding fast to what is good, and trying all the time to learn more of what is useful and adds to our experience. Weemoed (melancholy) may be a good experience, provided we write it as two words: wee (woe), which is in every man, each of us having reason enough, but it must be allied to moed (courage), and the more the better, for it is good to be someone who never despairs.

• If only we try to live righteously, we shall fare well, even though we are bound to encounter genuine sadness and real disappointments and shall probably commit real mistakes and do things that are wrong, but it is certainly better to be ardent in spirit, even though one makes more mistakes, than narrow-minded and over-cautious.

• It is good to love as many things as one can, for therein lies true strength, and those who much, do much and accomplish much, and whatever is done with love is done well.

• Better to say but a few words, but filled with meaning, than to speak many that are but idle sounds and as easy to utter as they are useless.

• Love is the best and the noblest thing in the human heart, especially when it is tested by life as gold is tested by fire. Happy is he who has loved much, and is sure of himself, and although he may have wavered and doubted, he has kept that divine spark alive and returned to what was in the beginning and ever shall be.

If only one keeps loving faithfully what is truly worth loving and does not squander one's love on trivial and insignificant and meaningless things then one will gradually obtain more light and grow stronger.

• The sooner one tries to become accomplished in a certain position in life and a certain field and adopts a relatively independent way of thinking and acting, and the more one keeps to set rules, the stronger in character one will grow, and that does not mean becoming narrow-minded.

It is a wise thing to do this, because life is short and time passes quickly. If one is accomplished in one single thing, understanding one single thing well, then one has insight into and knowledge of many other things into the bargain.

• It's as well to go out into the world from time to time and mix with other people (and sometimes one feels, in fact, obliged and called upon to do so) - or it may simply be one way 'Of throwing oneself into work unreservedly and with all one's strength' - but one who prefers to be quietly alone with his work and seems to need very few friends will go safest in the world and among people.

• One should never feel secure just because one has no difficulties or cares or handicaps, and one should never be too easy-going. Even in the politest circles and the bet surroundings and circumstances one should retain something of the original character of a Robinson Crusoe or of a primitive man, for otherwise one cannot be rooted in oneself, and one must never let the fire in one's soul die, for the time will inevitably come when it will be needed.

• He who chooses poverty for himself and loves it possesses a great treasure and will hear the voice of his conscience address him ever more clearly. He who hears that voice, which is God's greatest gift, in his innermost being and follows it, finds in it a friend at last, and he is never alone!

• It is good to go on believing that everything is more miraculous than one can ever begin to understand, for that is the truth; it is good to remain sensitive and humble and tender-hearted even though one may have to hide one's feelings, as is often necessary. It is good to be well versed in the things that are hidden from the wise and the learned of this world, but that are revealed as if by nature to the poor and the simple, to women and little children.

For what can one learn which is better than that which God has given by nature to every human soul and which goes on living and loving, hoping and believing, in the depth of every soul, unless we wantonly destroy it.

• The need is for nothing less than the infinite and the miraculous, and a man does well to be satisfied with nothing less, and not to feel easy until he has gained it.

That is what all great men have acknowledged in their works, all those who have thought a little more deeply and searched and worked and loved a little more than the rest, who have plumbed the depths of the sea of life. Plumb the depths, that is what we too must do if we want to make a catch, and if we sometimes have to work the whole night through without catch.

• So let us go forward quietly, each on his own path, forever making for the light, 'life up your hearts', and in the knowledge that we are as others are and that others are as we are and that it is right to love one another in the best possible way, believing all things, hoping for all things and enduring all things, and never falling. And not being too troubled by our weaknesses, for even he who has none, has one weakness, namely that he none, and anyone who believes himself to be consummately wise would do well to be foolish all over again.

#the letters of vincent van gogh

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basicsofislam · 4 years

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ISLAM 101: 5 PILLARS OF ISLAM: ALMS AND CHARITY: VIRTUES OF ZAKAT:

DID ZAKAT EXIST IN RELIGIONS PRIOR TO ISLAM?

Past prophets have also been under obligation to take humankind by the hand and show all the roads leading to physical and spiritual ascension; thus, they too have shown the precious path of zakat as part of a primordial effort to diminish class differences in societies and to provide a judicious and blissful lifestyle remote from detrimental excessiveness. By virtue of providing examples of previous Prophetic applications, the Qur’an does much to put the accent on this mission. Following a brief reference in the Qur’an to the prophets Abraham, Isaac and Jacob comes the following declaration:

And We made them leaders to guide people in accordance with Our command: We inspired in them acts of virtue, the establishment of salat and payment of zakat. They were worshippers of Us. (Anbiya 21:73)

In reference to Prophet Ishmael, the matchless significance of salat and zakat as the primordial existence of alms as an essential component of worship is underlined from early on: “He used to enjoin his people salat and zakat, and was acceptable in the sight of his Lord” (Maryam 19:55).

Salat and zakat, in actual fact, are the common denominators of all monotheistic religions, where salat and zakat, after belief in the Oneness of God, form the very core of worship. In fact, salat and zakat are, or at least were, essential characteristics of all of the great religions of the world, those guided by a long line of prophets sent by God since the dawn of humankind, despite the fact that current forms of worship in some faith communities may vary in outward appearance. In support of this, the Qur’an, adamantly states:

They were ordered no more than to worship God with sincere devotion, to honestly establish salat and give zakat. And that is the Standard Religion.” (Bayyina 98:5)

The following verse, which provides insight into how the people of Midian first received teachings of Prophet Jethro (Shuayb) teachings about obligatory zakat, bears testimony to its practice in preceding times:

In sarcasm, they said, “O Jethro! Does your salat command you that we should abandon what our forefathers worshipped or that we should cease doing what we like with our property? Conversely, you are pleasant and right- minded.” (Hud 11:87)

The Midians’ apprehension at being compelled to cease doing what they liked with their properties denotes, almost certainly, a remonstration againstzakat. The people of the Midian, who evidently had complete appreciation for the altruistic Jethro, still could not get themselves to accept or follow Jethro’s brave attempts to encourage them to perform proper salat or give zakat; branding him instead as an instigator, and a rebel. As is the usual case with similar public dissentions, the people of Midian had a ready scapegoat for giving full vent to their frustrations about the obligation of zakatwhich was, as can be seen, salat itself.

Even though the Qur’an does not explain, literally, whether or not each prophet carried the duty of imposing zakat, it is highly possible to argue for its primordial existence through the i d e a l notion of peace, the humane spirit of assistance and support represented and accentuated by each Messenger, beginning with the Prophet Adam, and the Qur’anic references discussed above.

In addition, despite having their initial contents altered, the Torah and the Bible still include many passages which support the proposition that zakatactually predates Islam. As no revelations prior to Muhammad %(upon whom be peace) have survived to this day in their original forms, a fact supported even among Jewish and Christian scholars, the sole, authoritative point of reference in this argument remains the Qur’an itself. Additionally, it is worth noting that the Qur’an stresses zakat was enjoined as a duty on Jews and Christians, as well, not just on Muslims, as the textual references to the Qur’an which are included below will clearly demonstrate. Likewise, an analysis of the Torah and the Bible provides fascinating similarities and conformities with Islam’s all-embracing concept of zakat.

CAN YOU PROVIDE INFORMATION ABOUT

ZAKAT

IN JUDAISM?

The Qur’an generally tends to speak of the Jews as somewhat “skaters on thin ice,” underlining their preponderantly neglectful attitude concerning their religious responsibilities and periodically provides us a detailed account of what exactly those responsibilities were:

And (remember) when We made a covenant with the Children of Israel, We said; “Serve none but God, show kindness to your parents and to your relatives, to the orphans and the needy; speak kindly to humankind, establish the prayer and pay the zakat. But with the exception of a few, you turned away and paid no heed. (Baqara 2:83)

Zakat along with salat is sternly recommended as a requirement for divine acquittal for their transgressions:

God made a covenant of old with the Children of Israel, and We raised among them twelve chieftains, and God said: “I am with you. If you establishsalat and pay the zakat, and believe in My Messengers and support them, and lend to God a goodly loan, surely I shall remit your sins, and surely I shall admit you into gardens beneath which rivers flow. Whosoever among you disbelieves after this has gone astray from a straight path.” (Maida 5:12)

And in spite of undergoing multiple amendments, the current text of the Torah still grants us glimpses of the spirit of zakat, grounded on the relations between the rich and the poor:

Jehovah has not despised or been disgusted with the plight of the oppressed one. He has not hidden His face from that person. Jehovah heard when that oppressed person cried out to Him for help. (Psalms 22:24)

When you help the poor (needy) (lowly) (depressed) you lend to Jehovah. He will pay you back. (Proverbs 19:17)

He who oppresses the poor reproaches his Maker. He who has mercy for the poor honors his Maker. (Proverbs 14:31)

This is what you must do whenever there are poor Israelites in one of your cities in the land that Jehovah your God is giving you. Be generous to these poor people. Freely lend them as much as they need. Never be hardhearted and stingy with them. When the seventh year, the year when payments on debts are canceled, is near, you might be stingy toward poor Israelites and give them nothing. Be careful not to think these worthless thoughts. The poor will complain to Jehovah about you, and you will be condemned for your sin. Give the poor what they need, because then Jehovah will make you successful in everything you do. (Deutoronomy 15:7-12)

He who gives to the poor will not lack. But he who hides his eyes will have many curses. (Proverbs 28:27)

And if you give yourself to the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted, then your light will rise in darkness and your gloom will be like midday. (Isaiah 58:10)

He who gets ahead by oppressing the poor and giving to the rich will certainly suffer loss. (Proverbs 22:16)

It is certainly easy, by and large, to draw a connection between the above verses and many Qur’anic passages, not to mention the conspicuously striking similarities between some. It is these considerable parallels that lead us to the conclusion that the ideas and instructions all stem from the same source, God, and that the essential issues concerning humankind have, quite surprisingly, undergone very little change despite human’s apparent weakness as a transmitter over time.

One further point deserves mention. The above quotations gathered from the Torah, as well as the upcoming Biblical passages, are from current versions of the texts which have, as is widely accepted and was noted above, been partially or predominantly altered, though the exact extent and manner in which such changes have been brought to these ancient scriptures is a matter for debate. A tentative and prudent approach to the current versions is thus the correct attitude, as recommended wisely by the Prophet Muhammad (upon whom be peace) himself:

When the People of the Book utter a narration, do not agree nor disagree with them, but say, “We only believe in God and His Messengers.” This way, concurrence is avoided if they speak lies, and denial is avoided provided that they speak the truth.48

IS THERE INFORMATION ABOUT

ZAKAT

IN CHRISTIANITY?

The situation in Christianity is no different, for the Prophet Jesus, while still in the cradle, utters the duties obliged onto him by God in the following manner:

(Whereupon) he (the baby) spoke out: “I am indeed a servant of God. He has given me the Scripture and has appointed me a prophet. And He has made me blessed whereever I may be and has commanded me to pray and to give alms to the poor as long as I live. And (He) has made me dutiful to my mother and has not made me oppressive, wicked. So peace be upon me the day I was born and the day that I die and the day that I shall be raised up to life (again).” (Maryam 19:30-33)

Considering the fact that the Bible predominantly focuses on ethical issues, a jurisprudential adherence to the Torah, so to speak, was a social necessity. Nonetheless, there are copious Biblical verses which themselves allude to zakat and sadaqa. The following passages may throw light on this discussion; of course, the possible alterations to these passages must be kept in mind:

Be careful! Do not display your righteousness (good works) before men to be noticed by them. If you do, you will have no reward with your heavenly Father. Do not loudly announce it when you give to the poor. The hypocrites do this in the houses of worship and on the streets. They do this to be praised by men. Believe me, they have already been paid in full. When you give charity, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing. (Matthew 6:1-3)

He looked at him and was afraid. “What is it, Lord?” he replied. The angel said: “God hears your prayers and sees your gifts of mercy. (Acts 10:4)

He said: Cornelius, your prayer is heard and your gifts of mercy are noticed in the sight of God. (Acts 10:31)

Jesus then replied: “If you wish to be complete, go sell your possessions and give the money to the poor. You will have wealth in heaven. Then follow me!” But hearing these words, the young man went away grieving, for he was very wealthy. Jesus said to his disciples: “Truly I tell you, it is hard for a man with much money to go into the kingdom of heaven. Again I say, it is eas ier for a camel to go through a needle’s eye, than for a man with much money to go into the kingdom of God.” (Matthew 19:21-24)

Sell your possessions and give to charity. Make yourselves purses that do not get old, a treasure in heaven where moth and rest cannot corrupt and thieves cannot steal. (Luke 12:33)

And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, I gain nothing. (Corinthians 13:3)

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! You tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have left undone the weightier matters of the law: justice, mercy and faith. You should do both and leave nothing undone. (Matthew 23:23)

It is thus quite possible to, again, draw connections between the Qur’an and Hadith, on the one hand, and many Biblical passages. The level of conspicuous similarities between the above texts accentuates their unity of origin. Adopting this approach in scrutinizing the Torah and the Bible will, undeniably, offer us much more evidence culminating in the very same conclusion.

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concreation · 4 years

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Hold up, Milk-Drinker

Intro

"Hold up, milk drinker," the guard laughed. "What's your business with all this… merchandise?"

M'Sava pulled up the corners of his mouth, an affect he had been told by a caravaneer would soothe men-folk. Speaking past his teeth, "M'Sava… eh… This one… eh… this one has heard tell of the Man-Mane's Potluck, of the dances and the swords and the sweet smells of…" M'Sava trailed off, a new expression upon the guard's face, one which M'Sava had not encountered yet from a man. It seemed to accentuate the hard features of his mouth, to make him even less like the Ohmes from his homeland.

Finally the guard spoke, motioning to the closed city gates behind him. "Well, cat, as you can see, it is night, and the festival begins during the day, so you'll have to wait outside. Preferably where I won't see you or have to smell you." The guard hissed, the sound invading M'Sava's ears.

M'Sava took a step backward, trying to process this strange behaviour. Men seemed so quick, yet so hard, like cones falling from jungle trees. He closed his eyes, going through his lessons, back to Khaanin'fa's teaching, 'a hard deal is like a soft deal, just curdled.' At the time, this of course had made no sense, and M'Sava still wondered if it had even made sense to her. But wisdom could be pulled out of anything, and he figured now was as good a time as any.

"M'Sava's friend! Let this one uncurdle you with the gift of the moons!" M'Sava went to his camel, J'Mashe'ra, pulling a small bowl from its pack.

"Oh no no cat, we'll not have any of that in here, begone!" The guard brandished his sword, he hissed again, and shooed M'Sava away.

Confused, M'Sava turned back down the road. To the south, the sandy desert across the bay reminded him of home, and he led his camel slowly around the bay, searching the sands for a good spot to set up his tent. He turned several times next to a tall palm, before settling into a small dune, laying out his carpet and raising his tent. During his strange journey, this process had soothed him, reminding him of home. Pulling a slip of paper from his camel's pack, he took it within his tent to study quietly. Every night he pulled another slip of paper from the pack, so regularly that J'Mashe'ra seemed to anticipate it once the tent was up. Tonight's paper read simply, "Don't eat too much darling", in his mother's austere handwriting. M'Sava smiled at this, having scarcely had anything to eat since leaving home. The men and mer who had been willing to have conversations with him were more interested in trade, or skooma, than in enjoying a meal together. He looked to the moons and wondered if his mother saw the same moons. Of course not, he thought, but maybe him seeing them would be enough for her. She wouldn't have let that guard treat him like that, but then, he had headed for the Potluck on his own partly to learn to be independent from the memory of her. He snuggled into the dune, content that he was making some progress. He thought ahead to the next day, and what fun he would have at the Potluck. Sleep took him quickly, as it always had.

"Ahem, Khajiit! Awaken please, I aim to do business!" An angular face poked past the entry flap of M'Sava's tent, golden eyes peering into the darkness.

M'Sava awoke with a start, letting out a soft hiss before climbing to his feet, again aware of where he was. Light poured in above the stranger's head, and M'Sava began to realize that he had overslept. "No no, this one is no caravaner, this one must go to the city!"

"Ah, a shame, I was hoping for a little moon sugar for some experiments, I know you Khajiit always have some, isn't that so?"

M'Sava frowned, finally looking the intrusive Altmer in the eye. He was young, at least for a mer, and seemed out of place, for his head looked to have been bared to the sun for too long, leaving an orange sunburn. "This one really must be going, the Potluck may already have begun!"

Now the Altmer frowned, pulling his head out of the tent, and called from outside, "I am patient Khajiit, but I must have some moon sugar!"

M'Sava frowned. Men and mer alike considered him barbaric, but their tastes were truly barbaric. It was as though they could not see the subtleties of moon sugar, the holiness of it. It was all corrupted to them. He thought of another piece of wisdom from Khaanin'fa's teaching, "To lick the self completely clean is to have a clean outside and a dirty inside. This is why one should lick themself half clean, to achieve balance." Why did he think of these things?

Finally, M'Sava had rolled up his carpet and taken down most of his tent from within. He went to his camel, but stopped when he noticed that same Altmer, standing over a body a little way up the road. The body was hooded, but M'Sava could see that same golden skin poke through the robes. Fear gripped him, for he had heard tales of powerful Altmer wizards, wizards who might not take kindly to being told no. This scene also stood between him and the Potluck. He pulled the bowl from his camel's pack again, and slowly moved toward the young Altmer. "Say… M'Sava could part with some sugar… This one offers it freely!"

The Altmer turned, a glow fading from his eyes. "Oh lovely! And for free? You Khajiit are inscrutable!" M'Sava handed off the bowl, and the Altmer put it in a pouch hidden within his robe. It seemed he had many pouches hidden away, and his movement caused much clinking and bubbling. "Now Khajiit, you say your name is Emshava? A pleasure to make your acquaintance! I am Loviril. Many pardons about our pursuer here, he did not appreciate my being so candid about my search for your sugar. You say you're headed to the Potluck? For I am as well! Shall we travel together? Your pack beast appears thirsty! Shall I provide?"

The barrage of questions took M'Sava aback, so much so that he did not try to correct the poor pronunciation of his name. "Ehhh… Why not?"

Loviril went to J'Mashe'ra, and, producing a small vial from his robe, fed the camel a few drops. He giggled excitedly at the soft lips on his hand, and pulled another small vial from his robes, smearing it full of spittle. He turned to M'Sava, and smiled, full and bright. "Well, off we are then?"

Curious, M’Sava went to his camel, who seemed lively and cheerful, or at least more cheerful than it had been other mornings. He pulled the reins, and the camel went along much easier than it had before. M’Sava was curiously grateful, but he still gave the dead body a wide berth, especially after noticing the green tinge working its way through her veins. Loviril spoke loudly, "Ah, apologies for that little incident, can't have anyone taking my business the wrong way, can we?"

M'Sava gulped, careful to avoid looking at Loviril too much. His father had been like this, with questions he didn't know the answer to. They made the rest of the way to the city uneventfully, though as the sounds of music and market bustle billowed over the walls, he began to be more excited about the Potluck instead.

The same guard that had driven him away the night before was just exchanging keys with the new shift, and grinned mischievously as M'Sava and Loviril passed. "Don't bring in anything you shouldn't Khajiit!" The other guards looked curious, but the first guard laughed again, leaving them to wonder.

As they made their way through the gates and into the first hold of the city, Loviril took his leave. "If I see you again, N'shaza, may it be in happy times!"

M'Shava shook his head ruefully, his tail twitching at again being called the wrong name. He led his camel through the market, his nose overwhelmed at the smells of many foods, spices, and the sweaty men and mer who dominated the market. The smell of sweat was terrible to M'Sava, it was like these people pissed when it was hot.

"Oy, cat!" called a nearby fish merchant, "how about some dried fish eh? Or maybe, fresh? That sounds good doesn't it? Here kitty!" The merchant laughed, her belly shaking, the greenish stains on her shirt heaving. Her fish was decidedly not fresh, a fact clear from the fact that in the packed market, her stall had plenty of space.

M'Sava avoided her gaze as he passed her stall, and she called out in a lower voice, "do not think you can avoid what is to come Khajiit, the past repeats itself."

M'Sava furrowed his brows, pressing on without looking behind. She continued her mongering, but soon he could no longer hear her, just the sounds of the Potluck market. He would stop every once in a while to sample something, and give something feom his pack. The spices and food he had brought with him were of great interest to those he passed, as they were usually expensive in High Rock. M'Sava relished this, as the strangers he had met on the road did not seem nearly as happy to see a Khajiit. And to trade rather than pay, with no bartering or finagling, was like being at home with his clan. His mother had told him, "M'Sava, this one will do anything for you, but don't forget to do everything for this one!" He laughed softly to himself, remembering that he hadn't known at the time whether or not she had meant it.

He had worked his way up through the first keep and was passing into the second when a burst of darkness caught his eye, a Suthay like him on a nearby rooftop with most of his face concealed by a dark mask, but for his mouth, which held a rotten fish. He stopped, but the other Khajiit was gone as quickly as he had appeared.

Shuddering with shame, M'Sava heard the sounds of swords, and came back into himself. He saw the radiant glow of the singing before he saw the actual performers, but when he got closer and could see the dance, he fell back, afraid. The sound cut the air, his ears confused. The song seemed not to come from the swords, but from within his own head, to leap and parry and break, then reform, just as the sword-dancers did. The crowd around him seemed just as enthralled, swaying as one to the bizarre rhythm of the swords.

And suddenly M'Sava felt a small, cool bottle pressed into his hand, and felt a rush of air as another dancer, no Redguard, but a Dagi-raht, danced through the crowd, gifting small bottles of what M'Sava knew from old experiences was skooma. She was one second here, then another second there, her dark clothing glinting with purples and golds, vicious laughter clashing with the sound of the swords. She landed blithely between the dancers, stark against the reds and browns of the dancers' garb, and threw a handful of soul gems into the air. The gems were caught up in the waves of tonal magic in the air, and they began to dance to the rhythm of the swords, trails of soul magic following and tangling together.

The dagi-raht disappeared again, and the soul magic began to extend out through the sword dance into the crowd, compelling them to drink their bottles. As the wave of magic pushed through M'Sava's chest, he lifted the bottle to his mouth, something he had not done in years, but as he did he saw that same suthay from earlier, rotten fish hanging from his mouth and perched atop a nearby rooftop. He cleared his thoughts with a shake, and stowed the small bottle in a pouch.

The dancers had halted their performance, and abruptly the soul gems rained down on the crowd. A child began to cry and calls for guards rang out. M'Sava tried to hurry away, not wanting to be associated with the strange khajiit who had disrupted the dance, but Loviril stood behind him, empty bottle of skooma in hand.

"Fascinating! Simply fascinating!" Loviril smiled widely at M'Sava, his pupils wide and glistening. "How did you manage to resist the urge Maba? What magic have you got hidden away my friend?"

M'Sava tried to push past him, growling, "this one is M'Sava, and nothing else, elf! Allow this one through!"

Loviril maintained his smile, but his eyes grew darker. "The skooma has not taken hold of me yet, Khajiit, and I must know your secrets. Reveal them to me and I shall depart from you with dignity."

M'Sava hissed lightly, and pressed his palm to Loviril's chest. "Move."

Loviril sighed, "very well khajiit, but I warn you that our next meeting will be much less cordial. A good day to you, and may greater knowledge find its way to you." He turned, chugged another potion from within his robe, and set off for the third keep.

M'Sava scowled, as he was also planning to head there. He lingered, but ducked into an alley at the sight of guards approaching. They seemed more interested in the now rowdy crowd than anything else, though he was beginning to learn that men and mer could change in an instant. These people who were so enthralled with the sword dance not a minute ago had been corrupted much more than any Khajiit beggar under Sheggorath. Truly he did not understand how they could allow themselves to fall victim to another’s whims so easily.

An Alfiq refined in the same purples and golds as the Dagi-raht dancer pranced across the alley further in. M’Sava hesitated, then followed, his curiosity overtaking his excitement for the Potluck. His grandmother had told him, “ Little Sava, do not trust the alfiq, they are tricksters, and rely on the good nature of others to cast their evil magics! Now, be a good kitten and bring this one her sugar!” His grandmother had been an Alfiq herself, but he had not met many others, though he did not doubt her words as he could apply them squarely to her as well. This Alfiq seemed to jump and twist erratically, little pockets of magic holding it aloft, then pushing it hard into the dirt of the alley, though it did not cry out in pain. If it knew that it was being followed, it did not give any indication of such. M’Sava slowed his pace as he passed a pile of food scraps from a tavern, containing the rotted out shell of a dreugh. Flies had found it first, and had laid enormous eggs, some of which had burst, leaving rapidly drying sticky white residue all over the dirt of the alley. The smell of rotting fish returned to M’Sava’s nostrils, and he breathed deeply. His stomach growled, and he realized how long it had been since he had eaten.

“Hey now!” called the Alfiq ahead of him, now facing him, though relaxing on a resplendent pillow, which had not been there before. “You’ve got to focus! Get your mind back to where it should be… On me!”

M’Sava was startled, as he had not expected the alfiq’s voice to be quite so gravelled, yet so… songlike. “What do you mean, alfiq? Is this some sort of spell? Begone if you plan to cast magics on this one!”

“Ha! Haha! Hahahaha! Foolish mortal! Silly mortal! It would be no fun, no fun at all to place a charm on you. Though a hex… nay, maybe later. Ooh, or maybe a melon spell! No no, focus Sheg!” The alfiq shook its head, and appeared to refocus its gaze on M’Sava. “This is my Potluck, and you have brought something in which I did not plan for! You, a khajiit, who refuses to drink freely given skooma! Unbridled chaos, wanton destruction of minds and souls, an overabundance of cheese, aye! Yes! More! But it’s almost like you’re competing with me, seeing who can show the more madness! It’s unacceptable! Or is it too acceptable? Who’s to say? I am!”

M’Sava took a step back, the smell of the rotten dreugh calling him and the alfiq confusing him. “No!” cried the alfiq. “You are too small, too mortal to be the cause of your own madness. You will resist, and become the more mad, so that your cause will show itself to me. And if no cause is shown, I will destroy you. It is not time for Jyggy. Or I’ll turn you into a footstool!” An alfiq-shaped portal then opened in the side of the alley, and the alfiq was gone in a flash.

M’Sava turned heel and ran back to the square where the sword-dance had been, and turned again toward the third keep of the city, a guard ordering him to halt. The guard gave chase, but M’Sava was too fast for him, and managed to lose him in the milling crowd just inside the third keep. He breathed a sigh of relief, but it caught in his throat as he saw that same suthay staring down at him from one of the now much more ornate houses. A small chunk of rotten fish fell from his mouth, flopping onto the cobbled stone below him, but no one in the crowd seemed to notice, enthralled as they were with the riches of the city being disposed of. Nobles were tossing drakes down into the crowd, some with great force, some from chamber pots, with some in neat packages. There was a mad scramble to pick up as much coin as possible, with dresses held high being used as improvised scoops, and old wheelbarrows piled with gold. The nobles above laughed, and their bards played what were probably glorious hymns from high windows, though with so many different songs and the frenzied clinking of coin, the scene seemed far from sacred. M’Sava looked up, finding his stalker again had vanished.

The clattering of sounds and the smell of so many sweating peasants rushed into M’Sava, knocking him off balance for a moment, his tail reacting faster than his mind. Growing anxious, he began to bound on all fours like a senche. The bursting energy of the Potluck was starting to grow in him now. He had not seen his camel since the entrance to the second keep, and now that he was in the third keep, he had also forgotten that he had planned to gift the man-mane with his grandmother’s moon sugar. He bounded over the backs of the crowd, unintentionally tearing their clothing and flesh, though he did not notice the blood and viscera on his claws. He rushed on until the crowd was gone, and the city seemed to calm around him. His anxiety left him, but he felt something wet in his mouth. Worried that he was drooling, he swallowed, but whatever was in his mouth resisted, moving the opposite direction of his swallowing. He stood up again, and gingerly pulled an enormous slug out of his mouth. It raised its front at him, its eye stalks moving independently to take him in.

“Hello little one,” he cooed. “What were you doing in there? Waiting to warn this one that he should or should not drink the skooma, eh? This one knows you Sheggorath, and this one will not obey!” M’Sava had grown tired of this madness, and had decided to confront it head-on. He felt a clarity that he had not felt since arriving. This thing, this aspect of his madness could not be real, and neither could the suthay on the rooftops. He had simply overreacted, because he had been too excited. It had happened before, but he had grown so much, even since yesterday, and he would not allow it to continue.

The slug oozed out of his grasp, a small puddle plopping onto the cobblestone below. M’Sava laughed. He had defeated his madness! Free at last!

But now, a sound both soft and heavy, gentle but harsh, as a gargantuan arachne emerged over the roofs of the mansions around M’Sava. The torso of Namiira hung limply before him, obscuring his view of the road before him. Pus dripping from her head, her spider body crouched above so that she could rest her head on the cool cobblestones. She croaked, bubbles forming in her throat, “my champion. How quickly you forget your place. It has not even been an age. And yet you come here. To the abode of an enemy. You do not follow your baseness. My gift to you is squandered. Why do you hunger? Where is my ring?”

M’Sava crumpled to the ground. He had forgotten. He was older than he remembered. It felt as though a different M’Sava had received his ring, a different M’Sava had worn and used it, and a different M’Sava had forgotten it. But there it was, on his finger. And oh, he was so hungry. It had been months since he had eaten.

“There you are my champion. Now. Eat.” Namiira pulled up from the road, and light and colour returned to the world.

M’Sava rushed through the empty streets, higher and higher, his ears popping every so often and his chest heaving. The architecture around him grew more and more fantastical, the magic of the bretons and the Direnni history made manifest. He ignored all this, these empty mansions, for riches would not sate his hunger. He had to reach the king. He had to complete the Potluck.

The lone guard at the gate frowned at the cat rushing toward her. The Potluck did not go this high up, why would it come up here? Unless… was this cat some sort of assassin? It certainly wasn’t approaching with any degree of stealth. She lowered her spear and ordered the cat to stop.

M’Sava could see the guard and her little spear, but he did not fear her. He rushed headlong into her spear, and he heard her cry out as the spear appeared not through his back, but back out through his belly, near where it had entered, and poked up into her head. He fell over from the pain, though he was in better shape than the guard at least, who lay quite dead before him. It had been quite some time since he had killed, and the hunger poured into his mind, and out his mouth came more slugs and spiders. They roped their way to her open head, and pulled him downward, until his jaws were around her, and he fed.

His energy returned, and his wound healed, M’Sava continued into the castle. The courtyard was empty of life, as were the halls, though books and scrolls covered every available surface, and magically, some otherwise unavailable surfaces. The stairs had once been wide, but were now narrowed with books. M’Sava, his hunger unfulfilled by the guard, continued up and through the narrow passages between stacks of books. The man-mane would be the solution to his hunger. M’Sava understood now. How could he have been so blind! The Potluck, the whole city! It was like a miniature plane of the Shimmering Isles! Of course Sheggorath ran this place. A Potluck? What could be more mad? And these piles of books? Madness! M’Sava finally felt right here, he had resolved his madness! He would find the man-mane, and the source of the Potluck, and restore it all to The Void!

But the castle seemed much larger from the inside. He started to wonder if he was lost, though he had not stopped climbing stairs since he entered, so how could he be? He paused a moment to look behind him, and there was the alfiq. He languished lazily, as though M’Sava had not just been on that step. “Greetings khajiit! It’s me again, old Sheggorath! Or should I say not young Sheggorath, compared to your eminence! Hehe!”

M’Sava sat, resting his back against an unsteady pile of texts, apparently organized by variety of skin cover. “What is it Adversary? Do you come to taunt, to gloat against this poor khajiit?” He reached his hand out to Sheggorath, scratching behind his ears.

“Don’t think I don’t know how absolutely degrading a real alfiq would find this behaviour, Champion of Namiira! Though I do prefer it to our previous conversation, so don’t stop or you’ll be a sweet-roll in no time, being fought over by children at a birthday party!”

M’Sava continued stroking the alfiq’s neck. “Er… Right. This one has figured out your game Sheggorath, and M’Sava will have no part in it. This one wanted you to know this after he met with your man-mane, your champion, but you’ll know it now.” He prepared to extend his claws, to tear out the alfiq’s throat, but Sheggorath looked confused.

“Me champion? Me man-mane? Nay, this man, this place, they do not belong to me. I prefer to do the fishy-stick below, with the common rabble. And they prefer me! It’s a path of least resistance, if you will, or even if you won’t! Hahaha!

“Now, go on, don’t let me stop you! See to this king, and give him Sheggorath’s regards!” And Sheggorath was gone.

M’Sava was unsure for what felt like the hundredth time today, though this uncertainty seemed much more deadly than any before. If the man-mane was not a servant of Sheggorath, why would he allow his town to be taken up in this way every year? Why fill his castle with so many books if he were not totally mad? Why have his castle be so damned confusing?

Determined, M’Sava continued upward, travelling for an hour, then another, then another. Bells below rang out, but they seemed quieter every hour, so M’Sava took this as a sign of progress. The dusty tomes also did not seem to grow any more or less dusty, but he kept noticing new and intriguing works on topics for which he had neither the context nor the capacity to understand. Only his hunger drove him ever upward, or he would have stopped to sample the literature, to delve into its secrets.

Finally, after several hours of climbing, he reached a platform with no books, papers, or scrolls of any kind. And here sat Loviril, hovering naked above the platform, Daedric runes carved into the floor, walls, his body covered in them. Even the air around him had been carved into, runes floating and congealing neatly before the elf. His back was turned to M’Sava, but he called out to him just the same. “Hello, Champion of Namiira, please do not make too much noise in my library, I am learning.”

A chill ran up M’Sava’s spine. This was not what he had expected. This was a mer corrupted. This creature was dark, but not evil. Loviril was cold, but piercing. M’Sava stood still for what he thought was eternity. He wondered if Loviril had forgotten he was there.

“No, M’Sava, I have not forgotten you. You have done this to yourself. Your dream has lasted for longer than its dreamer. You have not left this world, this Mundus, as you should have. And I have watched you enter this city, as I have watched all things in this city. And I have learned. But you have not learned anything. You have regressed. You have rotted away. Your knowledge has festered. There is a wound on you, but rather than allow it to scab over, you have picked and picked, you are your obsession, nothing more.”

Suddenly Loviril was upon M’Sava, a potion being poured into his agape mouth before he could react. The bottle was a deep jade, and the potion burned, grey vapour filling the air around him. He could not move.

Loviril’s voice changed, dropping several registers, the timbre becoming older and lilting. “I would understand you, Champion of Namiira. She cannot bring you here and expect to defeat me. But I can give you an understanding of yourself that she never could, infant. We will exchange in this way, for I am the master of knowledge, and your master is a master of fading away.”

Loviril sprinkled M’Sava’s grandmother’s bowl of moon sugar across M’Sava’s face, and began to eat.

#elder scrolls #fanfic #cw eating #cw cannibalism

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disappearingground · 5 years

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The Jenny Lewis Experience

The New York Times July 24, 2014

A version of this article appears in print on July 27, 2014, Page 18 of the Sunday Magazine with the headline: The Jenny Lewis Experience.

By Jeff Himmelman

“They’d put the ‘Do Not Disturb’ sign on,” Jenny Lewis said. We were sitting in a restaurant in Laurel Canyon, not far from her home, and she was describing her early childhood with parents who made their living performing as an itinerant Sonny-and-Cher-style lounge act called Love’s Way. “We lived in hotels,” she said. “My sister and I, they would just keep us in the hotel room, and they’d go down and play.” When Lewis was born in 1976, her parents were doing a stand at the Sands. They split up when she was 3, and her mother — herself the daughter of a dancer and a vaudeville performer — took Jenny and her sister to Van Nuys, in the San Fernando Valley, where she worked as a waitress and struggled to keep her family afloat. “We were on welfare,” Lewis said, before describing the day their fortunes changed, when an agent picked young Jenny out of a crowd at her preschool. “I think mostly because I was a redhead,” she said. “And I was a weird little kid, a weird little tomboy.”

She soon landed her first commercial, for Jell-O, and came under the wing of Iris Burton, an eminent children’s agent who represented River and Joaquin Phoenix and Fred Savage. Lewis started working steadily in commercials, television (“The Golden Girls,” “Growing Pains,” “Mr. Belvedere”) and film (“The Wizard,” “Troop Beverly Hills,” “Pleasantville”), living the surreal and somewhat communal life of a child star in the ‘80s. She spent her days being tutored on set and her evenings at places like Alphy’s Soda Pop Club in Hollywood, which catered exclusively to kids in the industry. At a party there when Lewis was 10, the actor Corey Haim handed her a cassette tape with Run-D.M.C. on one side and the Beastie Boys on the other. “There have been a couple of cassette tapes that have changed my life,” she said, “and that was the first one” — the tape that got her hooked on hip-hop, which eventually led her to songwriting.

I asked Lewis when she first fully realized the role she played in her family, the depth of their dependence on her. “Eight years old,” she said. “I remember the moment. That’s a pretty big thing for a kid to realize. And I remember the power in that.” By the time she was 14 or 15, with nobody to answer to, she could be as wild as she liked as long as she showed up to work and hit her marks. “I was up for it, honestly,” she said. “I loved the work and I loved the people, and it kind of prepped me for what I do now.”

What Lewis does now, the music she makes, is hard to characterize. She is often compared with Joni Mitchell and Emmylou Harris, and there is a kind of timelessness to the way she writes and sings. But the throwback stuff doesn’t quite capture her. Among some music fans — including many other well-known musicians — Lewis is considered a kind of indie goddess, a stylish performer who defies genre and salts her songs with a sly and off-kilter intelligence. Her first band, Rilo Kiley, signed a major-label deal with Warner Bros. Records in 2005; her first side project, the Postal Service, led by Ben Gibbard of Death Cab for Cutie, sold more than a million copies of its debut; and she has released two well-received solo records since then. Next week, she will release a third, “The Voyager,” her first solo effort in six years. It has been a battle to get it out. Among other things, she has dealt with the death of her father, writer’s block and bouts of insomnia so severe and debilitating that she said they left her almost unable to function for nearly two years.

You’d never guess that from meeting her, though. She talks like a true child of L.A. — the “bro"s and “dude"s flow freely, without affectation — and her go-to traveling costume is a vintage Adidas track suit, Adidas shell-top sneakers and, on the day I first met her, hot-pink lipstick and oversize sunglasses. She lives with her longtime boyfriend and collaborator, the musician Johnathan Rice, up a long canyon road in the hills that separate the San Fernando Valley from downtown Los Angeles. Her house (called “Mint Chip” for its brown-and-light-green exterior) is set into the hillside, looking out over a ravine. There is a rehearsal space with a drum kit, a P.A. and some vintage gear, an old piano in the living room and a vinyl edition of James Taylor’s “Sweet Baby James” propped up beside the fireplace. Beyond the small pool in the back yard there’s a windowed gazebo that Rice uses as his songwriting space. Whatever you are imagining of the California light and the laid-back lifestyle: yes.

Historically, nearby Laurel Canyon has been synonymous with a certain kind of lush ‘60s acoustic-and-multipart-harmony sound, but Lewis’s musical roots spring from the ‘90s and the smart indie rock of Elliott Smith and Pavement. When she was 20 or so, her acting career wasn’t where she wanted it to be, and she saw that she needed to make a change. “I was the best friend,” she said. “I was the friend, forever. I wanted the big, juicy roles, and they didn’t come to me.” (She read for the part of Bunny in the Coen brothers’ film “The Big Lebowski,” for one, but didn’t get it.) She had known Blake Sennett, another former child actor, since she was 17, and they began writing together and eventually formed Rilo Kiley.

She and Sennett dated and broke up and kept playing together. The relationship was always fraught (Gibbard remembers Lewis screaming at Sennett over the phone during the first Postal Service tour), but Lewis said it gave her the confidence she needed to become a real songwriter. “Through my partnership with Blake, I found a voice within myself that I didn’t know I had,” she said. “It sounds kind of cheesy, but I figured out who I was.” From the first lines of the first song on Rilo Kiley’s debut record, a track called “Go Ahead,” you can hear the DNA of the musician Lewis has become nearly 15 years later — a floating, distinct voice, an unpredictable melody, a wryly subverted rhyme.

The link between songwriting and autobiography is a tantalizing but tenuous one, and Lewis prefers to preserve as much mystery as she can. But she affirms that she has never written anything more personal than “Better Son/Daughter,” one of the strongest tracks off Rilo Kiley’s second record, “The Execution of All Things.” The song is about waking up in the morning and being unable to open your eyes or get out of bed: “And your mother’s still calling you, insane and high/Swearing it’s different this time.” Eventually it opens into an anthem of wounded fortitude, the kind you can imagine cars full of young women screaming along to. The actress Anne Hathaway, one of Lewis’s close friends, told me that she still turns to that song whenever she’s struggling. “It’s become almost like a prayer,” she said.

Outside whatever veiled references she makes in her music, Lewis doesn’t talk much about her mother. She acknowledged that it was a “difficult relationship” and that she didn’t have a “traditional upbringing,” but that was about it. At one point, I referred to a report in The Boston Globe in 1992, when Lewis was 16, noting that she owned a house in Sherman Oaks and a townhouse in North Hollywood. “We lost all of that,” she said, with a blankness I hadn’t seen from her before. I asked her why. “We just lost ‘em,” she said. “I achieved a lot as a child, I supported my family, but in the end we lost it all.”

In 2004, Rilo Kiley toured with Coldplay, but Lewis was still scraping by, living in a small apartment in Silver Lake with an Iranian rockabilly musician she found on Craigslist. In her bedroom, when she wasn’t on tour, she wrote the songs that would become “Rabbit Fur Coat,” her first solo record. The idea for it came from Conor Oberst, the songwriter (also known as the frontman of Bright Eyes) who helped form Saddle Creek Records, which had put out “The Execution of All Things.” “I encouraged her,” Oberst told me. “You know, why don’t you step away from this thing that is obviously causing you a lot of distress and make a record on your own?” Sennett had already made a solo record, which upset Lewis. “I was so jealous if someone else got Blake’s musical attention,” she told me. “I was shattered by it.” She made “Rabbit Fur Coat,” she said, in part to prove that “I can do it too on my own — I don’t need you.”

The songs on “Rabbit Fur Coat” are ethereal and haunted, rooted in deep Southern and gospel-inflected melodic traditions. On the record’s title track, Lewis’s lyrics again invite comparison with her family life:

Let’s move ahead 20 years, shall we? She was waitressing on welfare, we were living in the valley A lady says to my ma, “You treat your girl as your spouse You can live in a mansion house.”

And so we did, and I became a hundred-thousand-dollar kid . . . But I’m not bitter about it I’ve packed up my things and let them have at it And the fortune faded, as fortunes often do And so did that mansion house

Where my ma is now, I don’t know She was living in her car, I was living on the road And I hear she’s putting stuff up her nose . . .

After the record was done, Lewis went on tour with Rilo Kiley. When the band played the Showbox in Seattle in 2005, Gibbard picked her up after sound check. They’d become friends during the Postal Service tour a few years earlier. As they drove around in Gibbard’s car, Lewis played the new songs for him. “I just remember, all hyperbole aside, being completely blown away,” Gibbard said. “It was undoubtedly the best thing that she had done.” The press shared Gibbard’s reaction, and Lewis got more attention on her own than Rilo Kiley had ever gotten as a band. “Everything was so easy for the first time,” she said. “It just unfolded so naturally. And then going out on the road and touring was the most fun I’ve ever had on tour. There was no tension for the first time.” Rilo Kiley would put out one more record, but it soon became clear that it would be their last.

“I want to show you something,” Lewis said. We were talking in her kitchen about her second solo release, “Acid Tongue,” which she recorded over three weeks in 2008 at the legendary Sound City Studios in Van Nuys. The record had a bunch of special guests on it — Elvis Costello, Chris Robinson of the Black Crowes — but the most meaningful one was Lewis’s dad, who died in 2010. In the living room, she pointed out a glass vitrine on top of the piano that held one of her father’s chromatic bass harmonicas. Before the “Acid Tongue” sessions, she hadn’t spoken to her father in years, but she felt comfortable enough with the musical family she had created around her — Rilo Kiley’s drummer, Jason Boesel; Johnathan Rice; some other musicians from the Laurel Canyon set — that she thought she could handle having him around. He played on the track “Jack Killed Mom,” and the reunion helped Lewis forgive him for leaving the family all those years ago. “He was playing lounges in Alaska,” Lewis said of when she tracked him down and asked him to play on the album. “That’s why I never saw him. It was not a malicious thing. My dad was a savant. He never drove a car, he never had a bank account,” she said. “I don’t even know if he realized that he wasn’t around, you know? I think he was just playing his gigs, trying to make a living.”

“Acid Tongue” was also a step toward recording everything all at once, live, to an analog tape machine — instead of in pieces to a computer. It’s a process that Lewis has developed a devotion to, and one that the songwriter and producer Ryan Adams would push to an extreme on “The Voyager.” (After “Acid Tongue,” Lewis and Rice released “I’m Having Fun Now” in 2010, an underrated duo record that failed to get the kind of traction they hoped for.) For the last few years, Lewis had been sitting on many of the songs that would make up “The Voyager,” battling insomnia and struggling to get them down. She ran into Adams in Los Angeles and told him she had some songs she was working on, and he invited her to come by his studio, Pax-Am, on the Sunset Strip. She played a few of the tunes for him on her acoustic guitar.

‘My dad was a savant,’ Lewis said. ‘He never drove a car, he never had a bank account. I don’t even know if he realized that he wasn’t around, you know?’

“My initial impression was there were some really minimal but necessary things that had to happen,” Adams told me. “I could tell that she had sat with them a little too long.” (Lewis agrees: “I was like: ‘Dude, go for it. Help me.’ ”) On the first song that they worked on together, “She’s Not Me,” they changed the key to relax Lewis’s voice, and then Adams and his production partner, Mike Viola, strapped on electric guitars and rolled through the full song, three times, with Lewis playing and singing live with a backing band. Adams pronounced the track finished for the time being and said they would move on, without even listening back to what they’d done. “For Jenny, revisionism wouldn’t have worked,” Adams said. “The version she would play on the couch in the control room, we would just stand there, like, ‘Wow, this is classic songwriting.’ Every time. So that was sort of my mission. How do we get an ‘unmind’ vibe here and then go back later and look at these beautiful raw takes and just splash a little bit of watercolor on them.” Lewis ended up recording the bulk of the record with Adams over 10 days. (She worked on the single, “Just One of the Guys,” separately with Beck before she and Adams went into the studio together.)

“The Voyager” is an older and more direct record than her previous two. Her characters are still drinking and doing blow and cheating on each other, but there is a kind of weariness to it all. One line in particular has caught the early attention of some of her many female fans, during the bridge of “Just One of the Guys”: “There’s only one difference between you and me/When I look at myself all I can see/I’m just another lady without a baby.” She has been hesitant to acknowledge what that line specifically means to her. “I wanted to communicate some very basic things,” she told me, without saying what they were. She was already starting to regret having talked about some of her other struggles while making the record, including open discussion of the insomnia that plagued her. “Now everyone’s asking me about insomnia, which I’m terrified is going to happen to me again,” she said. “You can’t think about it too much, and everyone’s asking me about it, and I’m like, ‘I’m fine, I’m fine.’ But, [expletive], am I not going to get to sleep again?” You could hear the fear in her voice. “It’s my fault for putting it out there,” she said.

The video for “Just One of the Guys,” which got more than a million views in its first 24 hours online, was made with the actresses (and Lewis’s friends) Anne Hathaway, Brie Larson, Kristen Stewart and Tennessee Thomas. It’s an entertaining video, part Robert Palmer, part Beastie Boys, with the women spending half the time playing a sleek female backing band and then switching into male roles, clowning around in Lewis-inspired Adidas track suits and fake mustaches. Lewis, as herself, holds up a positive pregnancy test, to which Lewis-in-drag-and-fake-goatee responds, “It’s not [expletive] mine.” When she gets to the “just another lady without a baby” line, she smiles at the camera and then dances. It’s a house of mirrors, a romp through emotionally treacherous terrain.

When I visited Lewis in June, she and Rice (she calls him “Rico”) showed me an early cut of the video in the bedroom of their house, with Lewis calling out “bra shot” whenever we caught a glimpse of her cleavage. Driving down the hill toward dinner later, we got to talking, if somewhat obliquely, about the expectations of her female fans and the sexuality that is inseparable from who she is and the music she makes. She didn’t like to talk about feminism, she said, and in particular the trend of women criticizing one another for not being feminist enough: “What does it matter what I think of Lana Del Rey?” In the months before the release of “The Voyager,” Lewis has taken to wearing airbrushed suits for her live shows, rather than the sexier get-ups she used to wear onstage; she has said she feels “androgynous” these days and wants her costume to reflect that. But not always. As we made our way down the ravine, she told a story about the day President Obama came to visit a compound not far from Mint Chip. She wanted to go out for a run, but a Secret Service member stopped her and told her she needed an ID if she wanted to get back through the security cordon. “I was like, ‘Dude, I’m wearing short shorts,’ ” Lewis said. " ‘You’ll remember me.’ ”

After recording and touring mostly with men in the early days, Lewis now consistently seeks out women for her band and even tried to put together an all-female crew for the “Just One of the Guys” video, which she also directed. She said her desire to work largely with women was a response to the dissolution of her relationship with her mom. “The more I surround myself with women, the easier it is to reconcile my past in a way.” It seems to be serving a kind of psychic need, to replace the female relationship that once dominated her life with a kind of surrogate family of her choosing, a family that has stood behind her through the struggles of the last few years.

“I’m happy to see her making records,” Beck told me. “I just feel like music needs her. It needs someone doing what she’s doing. She’s got a special voice, as a writer, and then as a musician. She’s this great combination of so many things.” Conor Oberst shares that view, describing Lewis as one of the most important songwriters and performers in contemporary music. “Go see her play,” Oberst said. “Because we should all feel lucky to be around while she’s doing her magic.”

On a night in early June, at a sold-out show at the 9:30 Club in Washington, Lewis had her magic all lined up and ready to go. Backstage, she was relaxed, joking with her band and casually doing her makeup in the mirror on the wall. Just before show time, one band member disappeared, but Lewis was unperturbed. “It’s O.K.,” she said with a smile when he showed up, apologizing, just as they were about to go on. “You made it!” She took a sip of red wine out of a plastic cup and then walked up the steps to the stage.

‘I just feel like music needs her,’ Beck said. ‘It needs someone doing what she’s doing. She’s got a special voice, as a writer, and then as a musician.’

To watch Lewis perform live is to understand what Beck and Oberst and other musicians admire in her. “She turns into this other person on stage,” Gibbard said, “this unbelievably powerful performer” — and it’s true. Lewis is both a natural and a pro. Throughout the night, she had big middle-aged guys and teenage girls — “teeny little chickens,” as she called them later — singing along to every word. During the encore, Lewis sang the ballad “Acid Tongue” accompanied only by her acoustic guitar and the rest of her band grouped around a microphone behind her. “To be lonely is a habit,” Lewis sang, her voice ringing out in the near-silent room, “like smoking or taking drugs, and I’ve quit them both. . . . " The audience and her band belted along with her as she finished the line: “But man was it rough.”

It was one of those lovely moments you hope for in live music, when everything in the room connects. But it was also a kind of emblem of where Lewis has been and of where she is now. She has overcome all kinds of obstacles to get here, often with great style, but it hasn’t always been pretty. Whatever demons stole her sleep for these last few years, they’ve surely been with her forever, in one form or another. But they are also what gives such depth and soul to what she does. “I’m not looking for a cure,” Lewis sang, and as she stood in the spotlight at the 9:30 Club, nobody there would have thought she needed one.

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pamphletstoinspire · 5 years

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The Hard Road To Jerusalem (Mark 10:32-45)

“Poverty is true riches. So precious is poverty that God’s only-begotten Son came on earth in search of it. In heaven he had superabundance of all goods. Nothing was lacking there but poverty.” – St. Anthony of Padua

Mark 10:32-45: They were on the road, going up to Jerusalem; Jesus was walking on ahead of them; they were in a daze, and those who followed were apprehensive. Once more taking the Twelve aside he began to tell them what was going to happen to him: ‘Now we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man is about to be handed over to the chief priests and the scribes. They will condemn him to death and will hand him over to the pagans, who will mock him and spit at him and scourge him and put him to death; and after three days he will rise again.’

James and John, the sons of Zebedee, approached him. ‘Master,’ they said to him ‘we want you to do us a favour.’ He said to them, ‘What is it you want me to do for you?’ They said to him, ‘Allow us to sit one at your right hand and the other at your left in your glory.’ ‘You do not know what you are asking,’ Jesus said to them. ‘Can you drink the cup that I must drink, or be baptised with the baptism with which I must be baptised?’ They replied, ‘We can.’ Jesus said to them, ‘The cup that I must drink you shall drink, and with the baptism with which I must be baptised you shall be baptised, but as for seats at my right hand or my left, these are not mine to grant; they belong to those to whom they have been allotted.’

When the other ten heard this they began to feel indignant with James and John, so Jesus called them to him and said to them, ‘You know that among the pagans their so-called rulers lord it over them, and their great men make their authority felt. This is not to happen among you. No; anyone who wants to become great among you must be your servant, and anyone who wants to be first among you must be slave to all. For the Son of Man himself did not come to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.’

Christ the Lord

Few times does Jesus so clearly contrast the world’s standard with his own standard. He is the Lord, the Eternal King of Kings, and yet he puts all his power, all his wisdom, all his energy, and all his talents at the service of those he rules. He seeks nothing for himself. Most men and women of this world do just the opposite. They put all their gifts at the service of themselves, often to the point of treating those around them unjustly. Thinking that we deserve comfort and honor, we demand it whenever we can – from the waiter at the restaurant, to the telephone operator, to our siblings, to those who work under our supervision. “My will be done!” is the world’s motto; “Thy will be done!” is Christ’s. Jesus the Lord serves others; he gives his life for their sakes (especially on the cross and in the Eucharist), and he calls us to do the same.

This ethos is most eloquently displayed in Christ’s repeated prediction of his Passion. In this passage, he goes into more detail about his coming fate. In fact, he gives a play-by-play account of what will happen to him – the unjust condemnation, the physical torture, the mockery…. He knows what awaits him in Jerusalem. And yet, he freely marches towards that ignominious encounter, almost with an eager determination. This shows that everything he will suffer will be suffered willingly, not for any benefit to him, but for you and me and for all our brothers and sisters in the human race – past, present, and future. Jesus lived and died for their sake. He had no personal items on his agenda; he came to serve and to give his life for others. That’s the law that ruled this King’s conquest, and the same law ought to rule the lives of all his followers.

Christ the Teacher

Notwithstanding their selfish ambition, James and John truly want to be as close to Christ as possible. They trusted him enough to approach him with their petition. Jesus recognizes this, and he tells them a precious secret: to be close to him requires suffering with him. Jesus’ “cup” and “baptism” refer to the self-offering he makes in order to reestablish friendship between mankind and God, a self-offering which culminates in his passion and death, which he has just predicted to his apostles for the third time. To be near to him, to enter into an intimate union of hearts with him, requires joining him on the cross. To embrace Christ is to embrace the cross, to retrace in the circumstances of our own lives the steps he took on the way to Calvary. As he put it in another passage, “For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it” (Mt 16:25). He saved the world through his obedience to the Father’s will, which caused him untold suffering before he won his Kingdom. If we would be his disciples, we can expect much of the same – both the painful suffering (which even non-Christians can’t avoid in this life), and also the victory.

Christ the Friend

Sometimes we think that the apostles were born saints. Passages like this one disprove such an idea. First, James and John expose their selfish thirst for glory (though it is certainly mixed with a sincere desire to be as close to the Lord as possible). Then the others show their envy and jealously by becoming indignant when they hear about it. This kind of interpersonal friction and conflict, as petty as it may seem, was present among the first group of disciples, just as it is among today’s disciples, and will be among tomorrow’s. And Jesus lives right in the middle of it. How odd of God to lower himself so far that he mediates such trivial squabbles! And yet, that is the lesson of the Incarnation: Jesus wants to live in friendship with us, even if it means putting up with (and helping us overcome) our childish shenanigans. Nothing we can do will alter the love and devotion of this unique Friend.

Christ in My Life

My heart is still divided, Lord. I know and I believe that a meaningful, happy life entails self-giving, even to the point of self-sacrifice, but in my daily actions I still fall into self-centeredness. I take offense so easily; I am so preoccupied with how I feel and what I want… Teach me, Lord, to follow in your footsteps, to drink your cup…

If you send me suffering, if you permit troubles in my life, it’s only because you know that they can bring me closer to you. They chisel away at my pride, my arrogance, my self-satisfied vanity – at everything that keeps me from hearing your voice and seeing your face clearly. Send me all the crosses you can, Lord, but only if you promise to help me bear them…

Teach me to walk with you, Lord. I am surrounded by a world that doesn’t believe, by a culture that seeks happiness in sin. Keep me on your path, and make me your good ambassador to others who are searching…

#mark 10: 32-45

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love-god-forever · 6 years

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What Does Christ Mean? Is It Right For Paul to Call Himself Christ?

By Xiaoming,China

Confusions Filled My Heart

The sky was grey and the rain was falling steadily. I was poring over the scriptures at my desk. The minutes ticked by, but my confusions weren’t resolved. In the Scripture Paul said, “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain” (Philippians 1:21). This quite bewildered me: Paul was a man, and an apostle sent by the Lord to preach the gospel. Then, how could he call himself Christ? The Lord Jesus humbly and secretly came to earth, and as the redeeming Lamb, He took on the sins of man and saved man from the cross.

Thus, the Lord Jesus is the supreme Savior and the only Lord in our hearts. Why did Paul say he was Christ? The Lord Jesus didn’t say that Paul was Christ after He left, and moreover, the Holy Spirit never testified that either. Paul also said, “For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwells no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not. … O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” (Romans 7:18, 24). It showed that Paul, like us, was a man that was corrupted by Satan and bound by the sinful nature, and he also needed the salvation of Christ. Then, how could he say he was Christ? What exactly is “Christ”? I was bewildered by this. I felt dimly it was wrong that Paul called himself Christ, but I couldn’t explain clearly. To make it clear, I began to search various kinds of spiritual books. In addition, I consulted the pastors and elders, but their opinions were roughly the same, “Jesus is Christ,” and “Christ is the anointed One.” Except these words, they couldn’t give me more details. For this, I often prayed to the Lord, asking Him to lead me so that I could understand this aspect of truth.

The Fog of Confusion Was Dispelled Gradually

Thank the Lord for His mercy and care. I had the fortune to get a book of truth from my friend, which cleared my mind of doubt inch by inch.

The book says, “The incarnate God is called Christ, and Christ is the flesh donned by the Spirit of God. This flesh is unlike any man that is of the flesh. This difference is because Christ is not of flesh and blood but is the incarnation of the Spirit. He has both a normal humanity and a complete divinity. His divinity is not possessed by any man. His normal humanity sustains all His normal activities in the flesh, while His divinity carries out the work of God Himself. Be it His humanity or divinity, both submit to the will of the heavenly Father. The substance of Christ is the Spirit, that is, the divinity. Therefore, His substance is that of God Himself; this substance will not interrupt His own work…. And since God becomes flesh, He works in the identity of His flesh; since He comes in the flesh, He then finishes in the flesh the work that He ought to do. Be it the Spirit of God or be it Christ, both are God Himself, and He does the work that He ought to do and performs the ministry that He ought to perform” (“The Substance of Christ Is Obedience to the Will of the Heavenly Father”).

After reading these words, I was very excited. Is this not the answer for which I had been looking for a long time? It turned out that the appellation “Christ” is that of the incarnate God, and is a special word used by God when He comes on earth. Christ is the manifestation of God, and is the flesh in which God’s spirit is clothed as the Son of man, to carry out God’s work. So Christ is God Himself on earth. In other words, Christ is born with divine substance, and this flesh can’t be replaced by anyone. This flesh is inherent and inborn, and no man can become Christ halfway through his faith in the Lord. Only the flesh born with the substance of divinity can be called Christ. As creatures, we cannot freely put the word “Christ” on ourselves.

I thought of when the Lord Jesus was born, there were visions that proved Jesus’ identity and unusualness. At night, in the field of Bethlehem, an angel brought the shepherds good tidings of the birth of the Lord Jesus. In addition, the three Magus followed the stars and came to Bethlehem. They saw the baby Jesus in the manger and offered the most precious sacrifices to Him. Also in Jerusalem an old Christian called Simeon met Joseph and Mary who brought in the child Jesus into the temple. Instantly moved by the Holy Spirit, he took the child up and blessed God, and said, “For my eyes have seen your salvation, Which you have prepared before the face of all people; A light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of your people Israel” (Luke 2:30-32). When the Lord Jesus was baptized in the Jordan, the Spirit of God like a dove descended upon Him, and a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” (Matthew 3:17). Furthermore, Matthew 16:15-17 records, “He said to them, But whom say you that I am? And Simon Peter answered and said, You are the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus answered and said to him, Blessed are you, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood has not revealed it to you, but my Father which is in heaven.” These all are testimonies of the Holy Spirit. The Lord Jesus had the divine substance from His birth, and was the incarnate God Himself, and Christ. It is not that He became Christ after the Holy Spirit descended on Him. And those who have believed in the Lord for years and have the merits of preaching the gospel can never become Christ. No matter how one loves the Lord, how loyal he is to the Lord, how he works and preaches for the Lord, or expends himself for the Lord, or even if he martyrs for the Lord, he cannot become Christ.

Man Cannot Be on Par With Christ

As I continued reading, I saw another two passages, “The flesh worn by the Spirit of God is God’s own flesh. The Spirit of God is supreme; He is almighty, holy, and righteous. So likewise, His flesh is also supreme, almighty, holy, and righteous. … The Spirit of God is holy, and thus His flesh is incorruptible by Satan; His flesh is of a different essence than the flesh of man. … Despite the fact that man and Christ dwell within the same space, it is only man who is dominated, used, and entrapped by Satan. By contrast, Christ is eternally impervious to Satan’s corruption, because Satan will never be capable of ascending to the place of the most high, and will never be able to draw near to God” (“A Very Serious Problem: Betrayal (2)”).

“The words of God incarnate initiate a new age, guide the whole of mankind, reveal mysteries, and show man the direction ahead in a new age. The enlightenment obtained by man is but simple practice or knowledge. It cannot guide the whole of mankind into a new age or reveal the mystery of God Himself. God, after all, is God, and man is man. God has the substance of God, and man has the substance of man.”

From these words, I became clearer in this: From the outside, Christ is an ordinary person, but His flesh is the flesh that God’s spirit is realized in, and is different from anyone that is of the flesh. Although Christ lives together with man, He cannot be corrupted or approached by Satan, while we humans can be corrupted and used by Satan. Christ possesses God’s authority, power, almightiness and wisdom, so Christ can end the old age and open a new age when He works. He can directly express the truth to save us humans from Satan’s influence of darkness and bring us to a beautiful destination. This cannot be achieved or replaced by anyone. Rather, we humans are the creatures being corrupted by Satan. We don’t possess the divine substance of Christ. Consequently, we cannot express the truth but can merely corporate with God’s work and perform our duty, and help and support others. These cannot achieve the result of purifying or saving people. Therefore, no one can replace Christ or become Christ.

Just like the Lord Jesus, on the outside He was an ordinary man, but He could carry out God’s work. When He began to work, He brought the Age of Grace and ended the Age of Law. He expressed the way of repentance, “Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand,” delivered man from the bondage of the law, and at last was nailed to the cross to finish the work of redeeming man. Then we are qualified to come before God to pray in the name of the Lord Jesus so that we can be forgiven of our sins, gain spiritual peace and joy, and enjoy God’s grace and blessings. The work the Lord Jesus did is the work of saving all mankind, of which no one is capable. His work has proved that He is Christ, and the incarnate God Himself. Yet those who accept God’s entrustment and then are used by God can perform their duty to the utmost and complete their mission only on the path that God has opened and in the sphere of God’s work in that age. No matter how much work people do, they cannot end the old age or open a new age, much less express the truth and replace Christ to work. For example, the disciples of the Lord Jesus spread and witness the Lord’s salvation on the basis of His work and words. No matter how they worked, preached, trekked, expended, suffered, bore the cross, or even if they were martyred, their substance was still of man, not Christ. This is the fact that cannot be denied.

The Absurdity of Paul’s Opinion

After having this knowledge, I thought of Paul. After being struck down on the road to Damascus, he was used by the Lord Jesus to preach the gospel. By his gifts, eloquence and profound knowledge of the law, Paul brought many gentiles before God. During his preaching, he was put into prison many times, suffered whippings, and was on the edge of death. However, no matter how great work he had done or how much bitterness he had endured, he was still a man corrupted by Satan. He could only perform the mission of an apostle on the way that the Lord Jesus had opened up for him. But he thought that he was able to suffer hardship and after suffering a lot, he could become Christ. His opinion was so absurd! It showed that he didn’t know that Christ’s substance is the incarnate God Himself, nor did he know that he was a corrupted man. Thus, he said these absurd words, “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain” (Philippians 1:21). Now I have finally realized that Paul isn’t Christ but a corrupted man, and that he could never become Christ. He said he was Christ as he lived, which was so arrogant, and was also an expression of lacking reason.

Relief in the Heart

Thank God for His enlightenment and leading. By now, I finally have had some knowledge of the appellation of “Christ.” Also, I have known that Paul isn’t Christ, nor are other apostles, but only God’s incarnate flesh is Christ. We stand in the place of a created being to obey and worship Christ, this is what we should do. All the glory be to God. Amen!

#Lord Jesus #gospel #incarnation #Christian

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dfroza · 3 years

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will you open up?

“If there is a block in our relationship, it is not with us, for we carry you in our hearts with great love, yet you still withhold your affections from us. So I speak to you as our children. Make room in your hearts for us as we have done for you.”

Today’s reading of the Scriptures from the New Testament is the 6th chapter of the Letter of 2nd Corinthians:

Now, since we are God’s coworkers, we beg you not to take God’s marvelous grace for granted, allowing it to have no effect on your lives. For he says,

I listened to you at the time of my favor.

And the day when you needed salvation,

I came to your aid.

So can’t you see? Now is the time to respond to his favor! Now is the day of salvation! We will not place obstacles in anyone’s way that hinder them from coming to salvation so that our ministry will not be discredited. Yet, as God’s servants, we prove ourselves authentic in every way. For example:

We have great endurance in hardships and in persecutions. We don’t lose courage in a time of stress and calamity.

We’ve been beaten many times, imprisoned, and found ourselves in the midst of riots. We’ve endured many troubles, had sleepless nights, and gone hungry.

We have proved ourselves by our lifestyles of purity, by our spiritual insights, by our patience, and by showing kindness, by the Spirit of holiness and by our uncritical love for you.

We commend ourselves to you by our truthful teachings, by the power of God working through us, and with the mighty weapons of righteousness—a sword in one hand and a shield in the other.

Amid honor or dishonor, slander or praise—even when we are treated as deceivers and imposters—we remain steadfast and true.

We are unknown nobodies whom everyone knows. We are frequently at death’s door, yet here we are, still alive! We have been severely punished yet not executed.

We may suffer, yet in every season we are always found rejoicing. We may be poor, yet we bestow great riches on many. We seem to have nothing, yet in reality we possess all things.

My friends at Corinth, our hearts are wide open to you and we speak freely, holding nothing back from you. If there is a block in our relationship, it is not with us, for we carry you in our hearts with great love, yet you still withhold your affections from us. So I speak to you as our children. Make room in your hearts for us as we have done for you.

Don’t continue to team up with unbelievers in mismatched alliances, for what partnership is there between righteousness and rebellion? Who could mingle light with darkness? What harmony can there be between Christ and Satan? Or what does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? What friendship does God’s temple have with demons? For indeed, we are the temple of the living God, just as God has said:

I will make my home in them and walk among them.

I will be their God, and they will be my people.

For this reason,

“Come out from among them and be separate,” says the Lord.

“Touch nothing that is unclean, and I will embrace you.

I will be a true Father to you,

and you will be my beloved sons and daughters,”

says the Lord Yahweh Almighty.

The Letter of 2nd Corinthians, Chapter 6 (The Passion Translation)

A note from The Voice translation:

The most important partnership in life is marriage. There are other kinds of union, but the union of husband and wife transcends any other. God created sexual intimacy as a unique gift to marriage. Its purpose goes beyond pleasure and procreation. As a man and a woman join their bodies together, the Spirit does a unique work of binding these two individuals as one person. But the involvement of the Spirit is not possible when a believer is intimate with a nonbeliever. They are not filled with the same Spirit and cannot experience the fullness God intends. Paul’s instructions are practical, simple, and clear.

Today’s paired chapter of the Testaments is the 57th chapter of the book (scroll) of Isaiah that warns of idolatry:

[Never Tired of Trying New Religions]

Meanwhile, right-living people die

and no one gives them a thought.

God-fearing people are carted off

and no one even notices.

The right-living people are out of their misery,

they’re finally at rest.

They lived well and with dignity

and now they’re finally at peace.

* * *

“But you, children of a witch, come here!

Sons of a slut, daughters of a whore.

What business do you have taunting,

sneering, and sticking out your tongue?

Do you have any idea what wretches you’ve turned out to be?

A race of rebels, a generation of liars.

You satisfy your lust any place you find some shade

and fornicate at whim.

You kill your children at any convenient spot—

any cave or crevasse will do.

You take stones from the creek

and set up your sex-and-religion shrines.

You’ve chosen your fate.

Your worship will be your doom.

You’ve climbed a high mountain

to practice your foul sex-and-death religion.

Behind closed doors

you assemble your precious gods and goddesses.

Deserting me, you’ve gone all out, stripped down

and made your bed your place of worship.

You’ve climbed into bed with the ‘sacred’ whores

and loved every minute of it,

adoring every curve of their naked bodies.

You anoint your king-god with ointments

and lavish perfumes on yourselves.

You send scouts to search out the latest in religion,

send them all the way to hell and back.

You wear yourselves out trying the new and the different,

and never see what a waste it all is.

You’ve always found strength for the latest fad,

never got tired of trying new religions.

“Who talked you into the pursuit of this nonsense,

leaving me high and dry,

forgetting you ever knew me?

Because I don’t yell and make a scene,

do you think I don’t exist?

I’ll go over, detail by detail, all your ‘righteous’ attempts at religion,

and expose the absurdity of it all.

Go ahead, cry for help to your collection of no-gods:

A good wind will blow them away.

They’re smoke, nothing but smoke.

“But anyone who runs to me for help

will inherit the land,

will end up owning my holy mountain!”

* * *

Someone says: “Build, build! Make a road!

Clear the way, remove the rocks

from the road my people will travel.”

A Message from the high and towering God,

who lives in Eternity,

whose name is Holy:

“I live in the high and holy places,

but also with the low-spirited, the spirit-crushed,

And what I do is put new spirit in them,

get them up and on their feet again.

For I’m not going to haul people into court endlessly,

I’m not going to be angry forever.

Otherwise, people would lose heart.

These souls I created would tire out and give up.

I was angry, good and angry, because of Israel’s sins.

I struck him hard and turned away in anger,

while he kept at his stubborn, willful ways.

When I looked again and saw what he was doing,

I decided to heal him, lead him, and comfort him,

creating a new language of praise for the mourners.

Peace to the far-off, peace to the near-at-hand,” says God—

“and yes, I will heal them.

But the wicked are storm-battered seas

that can’t quiet down.

The waves stir up garbage and mud.

There’s no peace,” God says, “for the wicked.”

The Book (Scroll) of Isaiah, Chapter 57 (The Message)

A link to my personal reading of the Scriptures for Wednesday, August 4 of 2021 with a paired chapter from each Testament of the Bible along with Today’s Proverbs and Psalms

A post by John Parsons about worship:

In our Torah reading for this week (i.e., parashat Re'eh) it is written: “You shall not worship the LORD your God in that way” (Deut. 12:4), which here refers to Canaanite practices of idolatry that were based on mystery and superstition. Unlike these religious cults that were based on vain speculations, however, the Jews were duty-bound to carry out God’s will as expressed by the truth of divine revelation. Our father Abraham was given revelation of Torah (Gen. 26:5) and at Sinai moral truth was enshrined in the Ten Commandments (Exod. 24:12; Deut. 5:22). A basic assumption of Torah therefore is that “ought implies can,” or that we are genuinely responsible to know and to do moral truth. Unlike the ancient “mystery religions” that abandoned themselves by “celebrating” the lower nature, the Torah insists on overruling our base impulses and finding peace in the midst of the struggle to walk in righteousness. Therefore we do not understand the Hebrew word "shalom" (שָׁלוֹם), or “peace,” to simply mean the absence of strife, but rather "wholeness," "completeness," "healing" -- the integration of the heart and mind that comes through catharsis and personal struggle (Gen. 32:28). Faith does not mean passivity, but protest -- “arguing” for (and even sometimes arguing with) heaven, reminding God of his promises, lamenting over the divine absence; finding courage to oppose the status quo, and repeatedly appealing to heaven “be’khol levaveinu” (בְּכָל־לְבָבֵנוּ) -- with all our hearts -- precisely because we believe that our prayers can affect even the divine decrees... True faith confesses to “move mountains into the sea” (Mark 11:23) and refuses to let go of God until it receives the promised blessing to become “Israel” (Gen. 32:26). [Hebrew for Christians]

and another about the choices we make:

Our Torah reading this week begins with the word re'eh (ראה), "you see," which is in the grammatical singular, but then goes on in the grammatical plural: “I am setting before you (plural) this day a blessing and a curse” (Deut. 11:26). This teaches us, first of all, that our individual choices have consequences for which we are responsible, and that those consequences will affect those around us, for either good or bad. This is the basic principle of bechirah chofshit (בחירה חופשית), or the freedom to make real choices...

The sages add that the phrase re'eh anochi (ראה אנכי), the first two words of the portion, can be read as "You see the ‘I," referring to the ego that can be either a blessing or a curse. The blessing comes when the "I" hears the message of heaven and seeks to yield to God's will, whereas the curse comes when the "I " does not listen but goes its own way. The word blessing is therefore connected with focused listening, but the curse occurs when we no longer listen but "stray from the way." How you listen, then, determines the path you will take, either of righteousness and blessing or unrighteousness and trouble...

In connection with how our hearing affects those in our lives - either by bringing blessing to them or trouble - we read in Proverbs 22:6: "Train up your child in the way he will go, and when he is old he not depart from it." This applies first to the parents who must take the time to learn Torah and then to carefully teach their children (Deut. 6:7), yielding blessing, so that it may be well with them, and that they will do what is right in the eyes of heaven. [Hebrew for Christians]

8.3.21 • Facebook

Today’s message (Days of Praise) from the Institute for Creation Research

August 4, 2021

The Lord God of Heaven

“Thus saith Cyrus king of Persia, The LORD God of heaven hath given me all the kingdoms of the earth; and he hath charged me to build him an house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah.” (Ezra 1:2)

It is noteworthy that the words of this verse are almost the same as in the last verse of 2 Chronicles. This is an indication that Ezra the scribe (who wrote the book of Ezra) was also the compiler and editor of the two books of Chronicles.

Even more noteworthy is the fact that the great emperor Cyrus seemed to acknowledge that the God of Israel was not just a tribal god, as many have claimed, but the Lord God of heaven—that is, Jehovah Elohim—recognizing Him as both Creator and Redeemer of the world. The Persians were largely followers of Zoroaster, but his religious system did bear some resemblance to the true monotheism of Israel.

But Cyrus had been called, and even named, by God, long before he was born (Isaiah 44:28–45:6). When he conquered Babylon, the prophet Daniel was there (Daniel 6:28). The Jewish historian Josephus wrote that Daniel even became prime minister under Cyrus and was able to read Isaiah’s remarkable prophecy to him, thus influencing him to send the Jews back to Jerusalem.

There have also been other Gentile rulers who acknowledged God, even before Christ came. Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, once hating God, finally was forced to confess that He was “the most High” and “King of heaven” (Daniel 4:34, 37). Another was the Queen of Sheba, who recognized “the LORD thy God” (again Jehovah Elohim, 1 Kings 10:9). Then there was the king of Nineveh and Assyria, who believed in God at the preaching of Jonah (Jonah 3:6-10). In fact, in the ages to come “the kings of the earth” will all “bring their glory and honour” to the Lord in the holy city (Revelation 21:24). HMM

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elleywestbrook · 4 years

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Rirkrit Tiravanija

FAC Post exploring the Relational art practice of Tiravanija.

Relational art/relational aesthetics is a fine art practice defined by French art critic Nicolas Bourriaud as "a set of artistic practices which take as their theoretical and practical point of departure the whole of human relations and their social context, rather than an independent and private space."

The artist, in this case Rirkrit Tiravanija, is viewed as the "catalyst" in relational art, rather than being at the centre. He facilitates conviviality, social engagement and community often around the serving of food.

Below is an interview with Rirkrit, Its interesting to hear from the artist about his intention.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptbhV4HgMr0

Personally, the idea that this is art is revolutionary to my mind, being new the concepts of Fine Art. It inspires me and I haven’t stopped planning, dreaming, thinking about how I can work in this way.

It would combine my frustration with the lack of social justice in the UK, my need to do something about it, my fear that as a middle aged woman with a tiny voice that I will not be heard and my wanting to make a difference with a deep seated need to create. Plus I can cook, I crave company, find people fascinating and can’t think of a better way to spend an afternoon than chatting and hearing stories. The stories of life.

My dreams include a large scale airy place as an informal gallery, with great food served daily and hospitably in the centre around trestle tables. Pay as you can afford, no judgement, just welcome and the hope to facilitate community. In my dream there are artists/ makers studios- again pay as you can afford, with spontaneous collectives springing up. No separation between art/work/people/community but a hub that evolves and responds freely to each new thing. I would call that art now. I won’t drone on but it really excites me. Of course money to start this thing would be an artistic endeavour in itself...well a creative one.

Pop up. A van equipped with a kitchen, guerilla feeding of an unsuspecting audience, I would drive it to find the homeless here and refugees in Northern France, treat them to the best not the crumbs from our table but food to make your mouth water. Board games, laughs, love and acceptance. Caring. I would call that art too. I’d love to film it and show people with high fences the life they are missing out on, Bigger tables, generosity of spirit and a welcome to a life they deserve to live. How wonderful to turn up to a financial district and feed the bankers also...no barriers just community, eroding a little of the boxes we have walled ourselves into.

Anyway my mind continues to embrace the possibilities and collaborations.

I am, again, missing Tuesday at college, FAC day’ due to a Covid test and awaiting the results, so the performance piece of relational art we have planned involving the serving of ginger coffee will have to go ahead without me but I shall do it at home and continue to dream. Its extremely frustrating - it was our version of ‘a Tiravanija’!

*Whilst researching ‘Salt Road’ for another project I have come across this, which for the reasons of simplicity of recall I am putting here. Relational Art is very probably something I will return to, if not through my degree, then in the future.*

https://www.saltroad.org.uk/relational-art/

Relational art or relational aesthetics is a mode or tendency in visual art practice originally observed and highlighted by French art critic Nicolas Bourriaud, who defined the approach as “a set of artistic practices which take as their theoretical and practical point of departure the whole of human relations and their social context, rather than an independent and private space.” The artist is a “catalyst” in relational art, through engagement practice to co-create works and change perspectives rather than being at the centre of the art-making process.

Salt road delivers relational projects with partner galleries agencies and artists with communities on issue based environmental and social contexts.

The Treeline program has a series of engaged projects which engages people to creatively respond to ecological systems, bringing climate change issues to the front of people’s minds.

Green man festival photobooth work. 2017

I have found it a little challenging to get my head around a social setting and hospitality, with intent, being an arworkt. I don’t disagree, but I think I embraced it during this project merely because I am an extremely social and hospitable person. We keep bandying around the phrase (or versions of it) ‘It is art because I say it is’. When we embarked upon the Sydney Nolan Trust part of this Module I was very new to Fine Art, having just moved over from CDC. The two courses are very different in terms of culture and I was accepting of everything thrown at me because I hadn’t quite assimilated to the Fine Art culture and thought I was playing catch up. So this attitude of ‘It is Art because...’ was just one of the things that I thought I would come to understand, and in the meantime I would crack on because, well, it was enjoyable. Now I am questioning it more, and comfortable flagging up that I may not be totally on board with it.

However looking through the interpretation that Salt Road attributes to relational art I can totally get on board with. It’s a bit of a relief and something of a light bulb moment. Look beyond, pootle about in a subject for a while and assimilate yourself with the culture, all will become clear.

The more I look into Jaime and the Salt Road partnership the more I want to know and possibly be involved with. Having a manifesto of aims that totally benefits the community and the environment is extremely appealing to me and it is geographically so local to Hereford.

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the-voice-of-hell · 4 years

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The Septagram

- Previous - First -

PART THREE:

JEALOUSY

”...Shall not all these take up a parable against him,

and a taunting proverb against him, and say,

‘Woe to him that increaseth that which is not his!’

How long? and to him that ladeth himself with thick clay!

Shall they not rise up suddenly that shall bite thee, and awake

that shall vex thee, and thou shalt be for booties unto them?

Because thou hast spoiled many nations, all the remnant of

the people shall spoil thee; because of men's blood, and for

the violence of the land, of the city, and of all that dwell therein.

Woe to him that coveteth an evil covetousness to his house,

that he may set his nest on high, that he may be delivered

from the power of evil!

Thou hast consulted shame to thy house by cutting off

many people, and hast sinned against thy soul.

For the stone shall cry out of the wall, and

the beam out of the timber shall answer it.

‘Woe to him that buildeth a town with blood,

and establisheth a city by iniquity!’”

-This One is About Bezos

***

Bymaan looked down from her castle and saw a caravan of mortals driving slowly down the highway, their vehicles burdened with too many people and possessions to make speed. Her expression softened like water, long heavily darkened lashes dipping tenderly at the corners.

“They want to flee us.”

“Some are your subjects, some are not. Would you like to make the power of your bond known to those with the mark?”

“No, Abalaam! There may yet be a use for your wrath, but not yet.”

“What would you have of me? If you let them travel freely, you will have no subjects left to rule.” He had compressed himself into a specific human form, and garbed himself in one of their uniforms. He was the size of a child beside her.

“I’ll always have you, dear,” she said, tousling his hair.

He flinched away. “In seriousness, Your Highness.”

“They will not find it easy to pass those roads. Your brother has made the sharp vines thick upon them. But if they so desire, they can leave us.”

“I detest it.”

“I will go to them, encourage them to accept our glory.” She looked down at him affectionately. “Try not to let your detestation consume you while I’m gone.”

“As you command.”

“Thank you!” She turned and dropped from the precipice all the way to the lowest cracks in the upthrust earth. Pink light still glowed there - a portal to Hell. She took a gilt white horn from the chains at her hip and sounded a call.

The ground rumbled and the crack opened wider. A galloping sound began to rise, and a great camel leapt out of the hole. It landed at her feet and cocked its head, taking measure of its queen. Then it grew to nearly twenty feet tall, all of its tack and bridle and decorative accoutrement growing in like. It bellowed like a brass band gone mad before settling down into soft huffs. She touched its face.

“So cute.”

It made a creepy smile, lower teeth jutting, and she laughed. She mounted the beast and rapped its sides lightly with her knees. It sprang all the way over the block, then into the trees farther down the hill in the next bound, then all the way to the Interstate on the next. She turned it toward the tail lights of the caravan, rode toward them.

The great beast made the road wobble and crack in its wake, running fast enough to catch up to the cars easily. She rapped it again and it leapt over the entire caravan, landing in the road ahead of it and turning to face them.

The cars skidded and crashed and ground to a halt. The camel snuffled at one of the cars, its head as large as the biggest man inside, and honked almost like human laughter. Bymaan held out her huge white arms as if to embrace the people and smiled with shining red lips. “My subjects, rejoice! Your Queen is come.”

***

Maddy paced the living room, her sneakers slapping the hardwood. Grandma was upstairs trying to sleep, but Maddy could never. Kevin gave up standing and slouched into a chair.

“C’mon, kiddo. Jason will prob’ly be fine.”

“I can’t! God! You’re so bad at that. Comforting.”

“Because I don’t make impossible reassurances like your dad? But that way you know I’m telling the truth.”

“It doesn’t work for me.” She shook her head and worked her hands in the air, overcome with anxiety. “I’m doing it! I’m going to do it.”

“Don’t take our car, Maddy. What if we need it?”

“I’m gonna take it!”

“You’ve been saying that for an hour and you still haven’t.”

She whipped around to look at him with wild large eyes. She still hadn’t fixed her mascara from the morning. “That’s it! Give me the keys, Uncle Kevin.”

“I don’t have them and I’m not going to tell you where they are wh-”

She stormed off to the garage. Inside, she flicked on the light and grabbed the keys off a pegboard right beside the switch.

Kevin hustled up to the door, looking in at her. “How did you know they were..?”

She set the garage door to open, unlocked the car with a button, and got in.

Kevin hustled in, getting in front of the SUV before the garage door was high enough for her to drive out. “Don’t do it, Maddy! It’s not safe out there!”

“That’s why I have to do it! Out of the way, Uncle!”

He didn’t know what to do when suddenly she relented, turned off the car engine. He was still standing with his arms at his sides like a bird distracted mid takeoff when a voice came from behind.

“What’s all the hubbub, Bub?”

He spun around. “Jase! Oh thank God!”

“Do you get to say that when you got the Mark of the Beast, brother?”

Kevin was still reeling from his brother’s arrival and didn’t have a chance to get angry before Jason slapped him on the arm affectionately.

“Just kidding. Hiii Snookums!” He received his daughter with a big hug.

“Why’d you take so long, Daddy?”

“The Prius broke down. Isn’t that just the way?”

“Awww!” She didn’t believe it was that simple, but let it go. She set the garage door closing and put the key back on the rack.

Jason was the first one back into the house, followed quickly by his brother and daughter. He went to the kitchen for a beer. “I’m getting a drink. Anyone else want one?”

“We’re almost out.”

“Better get some more tomorrow, then.”

“Alright, fine.”

“Me too, Daddy.”

Jason came back with three cans and passed them around. He settled onto a couch by Maddy and Kevin was already sitting across from it on a chair.

“So car trouble, huh?”

“Just like that. Some stuff out there’s looking a little hairy, hehe.” He choked back a more maniacal-sounding laugh at the realization of a possible double meaning, then sipped more beer.

“What’s going on, Daddy?”

“Well Princess, it’s like this. I kinda thought maybe when those nonsense people ran over the house it was just, y’know, some kinda wacky thing going on. But it turns out that crazy hoodoo stuff is real. I won’t candy coat it - there’s demons and stuff.”

“Oh no.” She was spaced out. She’d come to that belief on the evidence of her own senses and reason already, but could understand how her dad would think she was still in denial. “Did they try to get you?”

“I hid from ‘em real good. Just...” He shook his head and drank more.

“What?” A quaver rose in her voice.

Kevin finally chimed in. “What is it, Jase? Really?”

“Nothing. Nothing! It was just kinda spooky. But I’ll tell you what. There’s not that many of them. That wacky parade from this morning just lit out of here. Not a lot of ‘em left behind. We should be able to drive right by them.”

Kevin shook his head. “No. Way. You don’t know what’s out there, bro. Maybe the parade is on its way back, maybe there’s monsters you don’t even know about that’ll get in the way.”

“Kev, we can cross those bridges when we come to them. Do you wanna be here when your new president comes to collect taxes? You wanna see what that looks like? Anyway, the parade was heading south. We take I-90 east through Snoqualmie, bing bang boom. Long gone.”

“You really think so Daddy?”

“I do. And before we leave, we can track down some guns - for just in case.”

Kevin shook his head.

“Kevin, I’m not leaving you and Mom here.”

“You do what you need to do, I will too.”

The tension in the air was thick, but everyone was too tired to do anything about it. They all naturally looked toward the TV - the usual go-to in life for awkward family moments. It was off.

Jason picked up the remote from the coffee table.

“Why not?”

“It’ll just be-”

“The Emergency Broadcast System. This is not a test. If--”

The TV displayed a red screen with wobbly yellow and white text saying go here, do that - all while playing a horrible tone. Jason muted it and looked at the settings. “I remember they shut off cell towers, especially on the south side, right? Wonder if we have internet, or if the cable box will let us get around this screen and see some other TV channels. Maybe it’s just on local...”

Kevin waved a hand dismissively. “I don’t care. Just keep it down unless you figure something out.”

“Honey?”

Maddy took the remote from him and went into the smart TV apps. She tried to bring up Youtube, but it bounced for lack of signal. Then she went into internet settings, connected to the wifi, and started over.

The home page sprang to life with recommendations - all jaw-grindingly banal or obnoxious, as usual. But the news recommendations were dominated by streams about the local situation. It was, of course, international news.

But they kept seeing a weird face in the thumbnails. It was a white woman with a tall chin and thick makeup, darkish red hair around her face, some kind of shiny hat on, bare shoulders. She was smiling.

“What the hell’s that got to do with…?” Jason went quiet as they all read the descriptions. ‘Demon Queen Announces Occupation.’ ‘Who is Baimon?’ ‘Giant Woman Seizes Seattle.’

Maddy considered clicking a news channel, but noticed one more thumbnail of the lady in the general recs, as a trending video with a lot of views. She clicked it.

A young woman appeared on the video - not the one from the news. She was on a street or bridge of some kind, at night. The streetlights were on and some car lights reflected or flashed in the corners of the screen. She was taking a video in selfie mode.

“Hiii, I’m Ja’nice and I’m with Queen Bymaan, who is a giant demon lady, and wants to say hello to the world.”

She turned the phone enough to accommodate someone else in the frame. It was that white woman’s face, as big next to the lady as a polar bear’s head would be - maybe bigger. The camera wobbled trying to acquire the ideal shot, and brought in glimpses of details. The giantess was crouching to get close, was wearing a metal crown, and was generally dressed like a prostitute from a barbarian movie.

She smiled nervously and looked at the lady. “Oh wow, nice. Is it doing..?”

“Yes, Your Majesty. What did you want to say?”

“Right. Hi everybody! I’m Bymaan, the new queen of this realm - a colony of Exalted Lucifer’s Empire of Hell. I know it doesn’t feel great to be invaded, but we’re just taking over this land, from the mountains to the water to the forests around it. I know your empire is vast, so surely you can spare a slice for some fallen angels on the rise? If you attempt to take it back, we’ll be forced to seize the whole country, and you don’t want that.”

The woman wielding the cell phone camera came back like a professional interviewer. “Wow, that’s really intense. But that’s not all you wanted to say, right? When you showed up you were talking about…?”

“Oh, thanks!” Her smile was massive, her teeth tall and white. “Love! I wanted to talk about love. My master Lucifer’s sins included love for humanity - a sin many of us share. So let me say that you’re all so beautiful and interesting! Really, it’s a great pleasure to walk among you and anyone who wants to live here, to be my subject? All are welcome!”

The interviewer looked sheisty and made a duck face, sticking out her pursed lips. The Queen looked confused for a moment, then leaned in and gave her a quick kiss. The woman busted up laughing and the phone shook furiously.

“What? Was that not…?”

Maddy looked at Kevin and Jason, eyes bulging in fear and stress.

Jason put his big hand on her shoulder comfortingly. But he also looked at Kevin. Both of them were looking at Kevin, expectant.

“At least she’s prettier than I expected.” He looked timid.

Jason jumped up and put him in a headlock, knocking over the chair. “What the hell were you thinking, bro?! You’re fuckin’ nuts! God DAMN it!”

“Daddy, no!”

The video stabilized and the men paused their ruckus to look again.

The interviewer said, “I’m sorry, it’s just a little embarrassing to get kissed like that, on camera and all.”

“I’m sorry.”

“No problem, Your Highness. Any other news for the people? You gonna, I dunno, invest in tourism? Take over Amazon?”

“Yes and yes! But first we have to secure the realm. So I have to go back to work.”

“Secure the realm? What’s that mean for us?”

“Ah yes. You can return to your homes if you like, take a chance on a new government. I’d really appreciate it. But it also means my advance legions will be drawing back to The Septagram soon, save for some sentries to guard the new borderlands. My legions will need homes, so any houses that you do not return to? They’ll be gifted to my demonic host. Just letting you know! I hope we can all come to live in peace and love, humanity. Farewell!”

She stood to her full height. Her body was shaped like a perfect pear, with thighs the size of people. She was nearly naked, with gold chains holding in place the flimsiest covering for her naughty parts. The demon queen walked without shame between parked cars and mounted a giant camel. She waved to the camera, then bounded off the bridge. The force of it shook the cars and dropped the interviewer to her ass.

The video ended. Recommendations popped up on the darkened last frames, for a makeup tutorial and some funny animal videos. Jason went back to pummelling his brother.

***

The cops started tossing the building, but Iphigenia had declined to join in. She had said she’d leave with them when they were ready, but in a quiet, mumbling voice. Distracted, and not getting better anytime soon.

Jelly Sue was enthralling. Ippy didn’t feel love or lust like anything she recalled feeling before. It was something else. She told herself she wanted to help the girl out, treat her nice, keep her safe. But she felt it too strong, too fast. At least some small part of her was questioning that, but she was just happy to feel anything positive at all. It was far less creepy than feeling proud of killing dozens of people.

She walked Jelly Sue around her apartment, trying to figure out some way to clean her up that didn’t involve a big bath or shower. The cops would surely be done before she got finished with that, pushing them to move on. Jelly walked behind her with a clip-clop of her shoes. Ippy kept looking back to her, feeling her face run hot, and turning away. She focused on her self-appointed task, but couldn’t think straight.

Ippy came to the bathroom, Jelly close behind. “Maybe we should just go ahead. Who cares about those dudes?” The bathroom light scattered a few cockroaches and showed them ancient tiles and lead wall paint.

“I don’t know. Who?”

“Heehee, it’s an expression, Jelly.” Ippy realized there was no shower curtain - just dresses hanging on the shower rod. Half were in dust slips. She glanced to them, then to Jelly’s cotton-wrapped body, then back. “We’ll just put a dress on you for now. How would you like that?”

“You can put a dress on me. I wear a lot of dresses.”

“I bet you do, pretty girl.” Ippy took down one of the covered dresses. The cover only reached about halfway down the skirt, so she took the cover off, rolled the top of the dress around her arm, and started slapping at it. The dust was more oily than it looked at first, and mixed with the sweat on her hands and arms to make dark streaks. A cockroach fell out and scuttled across the floor.

Iphigenia felt a surprising sense of horror come over her. She trembled, ran past Jelly Sue back into the living room. The dress was still wrapped around her arm and she shook it off in frustration. “Nooo. I hate this!”

Jelly’s voice from behind her, “Sorry.”

She spun around to look at the girl. “You don’t have to be sorry. You’re perfect. I’m just...” She looked at her arms. Her sleeves were spattered with gore, her arms shiny with oily crunge. “I’m fucking disgusting.”

“It’s OK.”

Ippy really didn’t want to cry in front of the girl but she did anyway, so suddenly she didn’t know what was happening.

Jelly came toward her with small even steps, clip clop. Her face was nearly expressionless, she was raising her arms like a zombie. Ippy couldn’t see her very well through the tears, which made the dim lamp lights blossom spider legs.

Jelly wrapped her arms around Ippy, patted her back in a slow rhythm. “It’s OK, Ippy. You’re gonna be OK.”

Iphigenia let her arms fall from her chest, but didn’t have the strength to raise them and return the embrace. She buried her head in her shoulder and sobbed. Then the spider lights broke apart into vermiform lightning and dashed from her eyes, leaving her in darkness.

Ippy woke up to weak daylight falling across her face and sharp pain in her shins. She was still standing, propped up by the doll woman. Her face was caressed by silky ringlets on one side, losing moisture into padded cotton on the other, and stinging with salt where it touched the air.

She fell down and grabbed her shins, overwhelmed by weird sensations. She was in a grody apartment. She was covered in filth. It was brighter. It was daytime now for sure. And her shins hurt for literally falling asleep on her feet for who knows how long.

Victorian boots covered in white dust and loose gauzy wraps. Ippy looked up at the young woman standing there. Jelly Sue. The emotion she felt before passing out had drained, leaving her in some kind of cold reality. It was a moment of lucidity.

Where was Jelly’s family? How long had she been trapped here? Why was she so impassive and quiet? What could Ippy do to help her? She got practical again, easily. She had been in a practical mode for survival for days and days, so it came into her by default.

The pain subsided enough for her to stand up again. Jelly followed her movements with that impassive, perfect face. Ippy snatched the dress off the floor, looking inside for roaches, shaking it out and beating on it vigorously. She held her breath against the dust cloud, angling her filthy hands to leave the least marks on the silky pink dress.

Then she turned to Jelly and held up the prize. “We won’t be very clean, but it’ll make you look nicer at a glance. I mean,” some of the heat came back to her face, “You look perfect no matter what, but it’ll make you look less dirty at a casual glance.”

Jelly nodded. Her hair bounced.

“C’mere.” Ippy put the dress over the lady, who accommodated by raising her arms a bit when necessary, and then zipped her in. She walked in a circle, appraising her work. “I’m gonna wash my hands and then come right back for you, OK?”

Park opened the apartment door and Jelly shot him a blank look. He shuddered. “Ah, whoa, huh. Where’s Iphigenia?” He heard the water, answering his question, and gazed that way. It was like he was embarrassed, like he’d seen Jelly naked, but he didn’t know why it felt like that.

“She’s washing her hands and she’s going to come back for me.”

“Nice, nice. Me and Sergeant Infante are done, so...”

“So… Sew buttons.”

Park looked at her. She was still staring blankly at him, until Ippy came back from the kitchen.

“Hey Detective. Everyone raring to go?”

“Yeah. What did you… get… done here?”

“Not much. We’ll be downstairs soon.”

“OK. See you.” He ducked out.

Ippy came to Jelly Sue and cocked her head to consider her presentation. She didn’t want to take off her weird wrappings yet, in case there was a situation under there needing medical attention. But they stood out - did not look like a shirt. She held out her hand and Jelly took it, and she led her out to the hall, then into apartment 3-B.

The naked angel had indeed left behind spotless clothing, which hung on a coat rack near the door. Ippy took the coat and put it on her, then rolled up the sleeves. They were far too long, but the black silk lining revealed on the sleeves, the lintless dark wool, and the strange metal badges and bangles, it looked fun and kicky. She realized why. Together with her big hair, the presentation looked like something Janet Jackson would have worn in the late eighties. She smiled and laughed out loud, just a little.

Jelly smiled and laughed too, then went quiet and blank, staring right at her.

“Uh… heh. You have a pretty laugh.”

“Thank you,” said Jelly Sue.

But is she In. Con. Trol.? Ippy wondered

***

Thurston and Clark figured out that the earthquake hadn’t caused any damage outside of the places where the towers rose, which made things easier. They were able to hide in buildings or stash people in them as they tried to gather all the leftover people of Seattle.

Late in the night, news spread through their people stash about Queen Bymaan’s overture for peaceful colonization of the Puget Sound region and the talk began anew - should they just accept the new situation, or keep to their plans of flight? But the idea of having a bunch of goat demons for neighbors pushed the consensus toward the latter.

By the next day they’d gathered close to two thousand people in a new-style condo on Eastlake. It had a facade like a bunch of stacked shoe boxes and a plaza with quasi-maritime design on the roof. They could only do so much running around and people started to bed down in purloined living spaces, even though it was daytime.

Clark slept peacefully but Thurston did not. There wasn’t a good way to shut out the daylight in the apartment - the venetian blinds were too thin and the windows to large to improvise covers for. Also, he couldn’t sleep comfortably with a blindfold around his face.

In frustration, he took a walk up to the plaza. He was nearly alone there, on that uncomfortable expanse of weather-treated mustard yellow wood. Just a few other people lurked in far corners, smoking.

One of the smokers spat their cigarette in shock and tried to hide behind the bench at the edge of the roof. Thurston had spent all night running toward trouble, trying to keep Clark from being too daring with his newfound energy. He hustled to the edge of the building and looked out.

The condos rose just above the edge of an elevated stretch of Interstate 5. A camel rode there, saddled by the Queen herself. They were larger than life, larger than he’d expected even from the internet video.

There was no point in hiding so he stood there, staring. Maybe she had been out all night working as well, because she paid no heed to the little people on his rooftop, riding up the highway a little further before leaping off into the puffy trees of Capitol Hill. He saw her emerge from the canopy again as the camel leapt impossible distances with each bound. They were heading toward the citadel that had risen from Volunteer Park.

Now I know where she resides. Then, with his attention to the south, he beheld a vast crowd of ants advancing through the city streets. The advance army had returned, and were going door to door.

***

#The Septagram

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tpanan · 5 years

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My Sunday Daily Blessings

July 14, 2019

Be still quiet your heart and mind, the LORD is here, loving you talking to you...........

Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Lectionary: 105

First Reading: Deuteronomy 30: 1-14

Moses said to the people: "If only you would heed the voice of the LORD, your God, and keep his commandments and statutes that are written in this book of the law, when you return to the LORD, your God, with all your heart and all your soul.

"For this command that I enjoin on you today is not too mysterious and remote for you. It is not up in the sky, that you should say, 'Who will go up in the sky to get it for us and tell us of it, that we may carry it out?'

Nor is it across the sea, that you should say, 'Who will cross the sea to get it for us and tell us of it, that we may carry it out?' No, it is something very near to you, already in your mouths and in your hearts; you have only to carry it out."

Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 69: 14, 17, 30-31, 33-34, 36, 37

"Turn to the LORD in your need, and you will love."

Second Reading: Colossians 1: 15-20

Christ Jesus is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For in him were created all things in heaven and on earth, the visible and the invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers; all things were created through him and for him.

He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. He is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things he himself might be preeminent.

For in him all the fullness was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile all things for him, making peace by the blood of his cross through him, whether those on earth or those in heaven.

Verse before the Gospel: John 6: 63c, 68c

Alleluia, Alleluia.

"Your words, Lord, are Spirit and life; you have the words of everlasting life."

Alleluia, Alleluia.

Gospel: Luke 10: 25-37

There was a scholar of the law who stood up to test Jesus and said, "Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?" Jesus said to him, "What is written in the law? How do you read it?"

He said in reply, "You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your being, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself."

He replied to him, "You have answered correctly; do this and you will live." But because he wished to justify himself, he said to Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?"

Jesus replied, "A man fell victim to robbers as he went down from Jerusalem to Jericho. They stripped and beat him and went off leaving him half-dead. A priest happened to be going down that road, but when he saw him, he passed by on the opposite side. Likewise a Levite came to the place, and when he saw him, he passed by on the opposite side. But a Samaritan traveler who came upon him was moved with compassion at the sight. He approached the victim, poured oil and wine over his wounds and bandaged them. Then he lifted him up on his own animal, took him to an inn, and cared for him. The next day he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper with the instruction, 'Take care of him. If you spend more than what I have given you, I shall repay you on my way back.' Which of these three, in your opinion, was neighbor to the robbers' victim?"

He answered, "The one who treated him with mercy." Jesus said to him, "Go and do likewise."

**Meditation:

If God is all-loving and compassionate, then why is there so much suffering and evil in this world? Many agnostics refuse to believe in God because of this seemingly imponderable problem. If God is love then evil and suffering must be eliminated in all its forms. What is God's answer to this human dilemma? Jesus' parable about a highway robbery gives us a helpful hint. Jesus told this dramatic story in response to a devout Jew who wanted to understand how to apply God's great commandment of love to his everyday life circumstances. In so many words this religious-minded Jew said: "I want to love God as best as I can and I want to love my neighbor as well. But how do I know that I am fulfilling my duty to love my neighbor as myself?"

Jesus must have smiled when he heard this man challenge him to explain one's duty towards their neighbor. For the Jewish believer the law of love was plain and simple: "treat your neighbor as you would treat yourself." The real issue for this believer was the correct definition of who is "my neighbor".

He understood "neighbor" to mean one's fellow Jew who belonged to the same covenant which God made with the people of Israel. Up to a certain point, Jesus agreed with this sincere expert but, at the same time, he challenged him to see that God's view of neighbor went far beyond his narrow definition.

God's love and mercy extends to all Jesus told a parable to show how wide God's love and mercy is towards every fellow human being. Jesus' story of a brutal highway robbery was all too familiar to his audience. The road from Jerusalem to Jericho went through a narrow winding valley surrounded by steep rocky cliffs. Many wealthy Jews from Jerusalem had winter homes in Jerico. This narrow highway was dangerous and notorious for its robbers who could easily ambush their victim and escape into the hills. No one in his right mind would think of traveling through this dangerous highway alone. It was far safer to travel with others for protection and defense.

Our prejudice gets in the way of mercy So why did the religious leaders refuse to give any help when they saw a half-dead victim lying by the roadside? Didn't they recognize that this victim was their neighbor? And why did a Samaritan, an outsider who was despised by the Jews, treat this victim with special care at his own expense as he would care for his own family? Who was the real neighbor who showed brotherly compassion and mercy? Jesus makes the supposed villain, the despised Samaritan, the merciful one as an example for the status conscious Jews. Why didn't the priest and Levite stop to help? The priest probably didn't want to risk the possibility of ritual impurity. His piety got in the way of charity. The Levite approached close to the victim, but stopped short of actually helping him. Perhaps he feared that bandits were using a decoy to ambush him. The Levite put personal safety ahead of saving his neighbor.

God expects us to be merciful as he is merciful What does Jesus' story tell us about true love for one's neighbor? First, we must be willing to help even if others brought trouble on themselves through their own fault or negligence. Second, our love and concern to help others in need must be practical. Good intentions and showing pity, or emphathizing with others, are not enough. And lastly, our love for others must be as wide and as inclusive as God's love. God excludes no one from his care and concern. God's love is unconditional. So we must be ready to do good to others for their sake, just as God is good to us.

Jesus not only taught God's way of love, but he showed how far God was willing to go to share in our suffering and to restore us to wholeness of life and happiness. Jesus overcame sin, suffering, and death through his victory on the cross. His death brought us freedom from slavery to sin and the promise of everlasting life with God. He willingly shared in our suffering to bring us to the source of true healing and freedom from sin and oppression. True compassion not only identifies and emphathizes with the one who is in pain, but takes that pain on oneself in order to bring freedom and restoration.

The cross shows us God's perfect love and forgiveness Jesus truly identified with our plight, and he took the burden of our sinful condition upon himself. He showed us the depths of God's love and compassion, by sharing in our suffering and by offering his life as an atoning sacrifice for our sins upon the cross. His suffering is redemptive because it brings us healing and restoration and the fulness of eternal life. God offers us true freedom from every form of oppression, sin, and suffering. And that way is through the cross of Jesus Christ. Are you ready to embrace the cross of Christ, to suffer for his sake, and to lay down your life out of love for your neighbor?

Sources:

Lectionary for Mass for Use in the Dioceses of the United States, second typical edition, Copyright © 2001, 1998, 1997, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine; Psalm refrain © 1968, 1981, 1997, International Committee on English in the Liturgy, Inc. All rights reserved. Neither this work nor any part of it may be reproduced, distributed, performed or displayed in any medium, including electronic or digital, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

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thegreenhorseman · 5 years

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Facebook is an enormous social platform that connects millions of people globally. It serves as a way to reconnect with old friends, stay in touch with long distant ones, and it even serves as a way to meet new friends in some cases. It is a commonplace that allows for social networking and opens doors for people. It allows some people to maintain their privacy and helps some quiet others branch out to the rest of the world.

Facebook has even aided the growth of my relationship. My boyfriend and I met at a kickboxing/martial arts school 7 years ago. Thanks to Facebook we were able to connect outside of class without the awkward “can I have your number” line. It gave us time to get to know one another before choosing to go on our first date.

We are also given the ability to find our mutual connections with people which can be very useful in getting a second opinion about a person you just met. Perhaps your friend Becky knows this person and can give you her experiences.

…or perhaps you want to get to know your colleagues better. You can do that too.

Facebook has helped guide our decisions on which businesses to support…

Scenario: Your friend Matt said he got food poisoning from that restaurant and a few others did as well. Best to avoid that place.

…But everyone’s raving about that new restaurant down the road including your coworker Diane!

Sure Google has done a lot for business reviews but Facebook holds its own for sure.

Scenario: You want work done on your house. You’ve looked at Google and came across a number of businesses. You get a few quotes and become overwhelmed at who to choose. This is an excellent time to go to your friends on Facebook. Chances are you know someone that had a wonderful (or terrible) experience with a business and that helps you make your decision.

You want real opinions from people you trust. Word of mouth referrals are the most powerful in business.

Facebook has helped spread the word about missing persons and escaped convicts. It has helped get people diagnosed with odd health issues that went unnoticed.

Time – How Posting A Facebook Picture Saved a 3 Year Old’s Sight

Facebook’s networking abilities encourage people to join groups and attend live events in their own communities.

Concerts, Festivals, Parties, Sales (especially tack sales), and horse shows too. This is how I got involved with mounted archery in the first place.

The marketplace has been phenomenal in cleaning out the unwanted junk from our homes. “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure” rings true. I have used the marketplace a number of times with both good and bad experiences. We now have the opportunity to review our transactions with others to weed out the dishonest ones. The “mutual friends” feature can even potentially help us make decisions on whether to do business with someone.

The fencing (the white tape in the background) and both blankets were found on Facebook.

Facebook has been extraordinary for helping this Green Horseman on a budget. I have found the PVC tubes, fencing, fence posts, tack, blankets, all for a fraction of what I would have paid new. Saving that money allowed me to get ahead of schedule in providing the best facility and care for my boys.

Facebook has done quite a bit of good and it also has its skeletons. Wherever you go there will always be crazy people who want to do harm. That happens on Craigslist, Facebook, and anywhere you look.

In the end I believe Facebook wants to do good.

For years, Facebook has had a policy banning the sale of animals. Though it offers no reasoning in the policies I believe it came from a good place in preventing animal abuse and animal wrongdoing. It also seems to be coming from the pressuring of activist groups who don’t believe animals should be kept as pets in the first place (I’m talking about you, PETA!).

I believe a good home is one that enriches the animal’s life as much as it does the human. My animals have freedom, know they are loved and respected, and above all, my animals live stress-free knowing they always have shelter and food available to them. To say they shouldn’t be kept is outlandish.

I believe Facebook’s policy came from a good place but I strongly believe it does more harm than good…especially in the horse industry.

Many groups exist within the horse world to buy/sell horse supplies, tack, blankets, apparel, etc. It is also used to advertise horses in need of homes. Some horses are being adopted out by rescue groups, others are being offered privately. Some horses are competition level and some are being rehomed because a person simply cannot afford to keep up the cost of owning a horse. There is one thing these horses have in common.

They are in need of new homes. They need the RIGHT homes. A horse cannot simply be “pulled from the shelf as is” and be the right fit for someone. A horse needs the right person with the right skill level, the right situation, and the right timing. A person needs the right horse, the right training level, the right price point, and the right timing. It’s not always as simple as a neighbor saying “hey I need to sell my horse…want it?” It is our responsibility as horse owners and lovers to match the right horse to the right human. A person might visit 30 horses before they find the right one.

RIGHT?

We live in a country (United States) where nearly 100,000 horses are shipped over the borders to slaughter every year. Most of these horses are in good condition and are good horses. These slaughtered horses failed to find homes when they needed them. They are horses that got lost looking for THEIR right people. Zeno Bay and VaiVia were discarded because their humans failed to find them the right humans. We don’t know about their past but we are thankful they survived….and they survived because of the networking and rallying done all on Facebook!

VaiVia and Zeno Bay get to enjoy their lives because of the donors of Unbridled Thoroughbred Foundation and the rallying done on Facebook.

Shall we rewind for a moment and revisit the last section…

These slaughtered horses failed to find the homes they needed when they needed them. They are horses that got lost looking for their right people.

Imagine if Facebook allowed us to post these horses freely without trying to find loopholes or tricky wording. We may go through a transition period at first…but just imagine finding YOUR UNICORN. Horses may have a chance to find the right situation once and for all.

More horses would find the person. More people would find the right horse. Fewer horses would find themselves in situations where their people could not find a home for them.

Maybe the perfect horse is currently living states away or across the country; Facebook could make that networking much easier.

Maybe you’re involved with a niche riding discipline and want a horse pre-trained for it (mounted archery, endurance, barrels, etc). Facebook’s groups could help find that horse near or far.

Maybe you are into a specific breed (OTTB? Morgans? Mustangs?). Again, Facebook can help search within that narrow window while reaching a larger group.

Anyone who says “It’s a Small World After All” must not realize just how small the equestrian world is. Equestrians have connections all around the globe. Even little ole’ me knows horsepeople in Idaho, California, Nevada, Florida, etc. The connections and reputations made in the horse world run deep. It’s possible that if you’re looking at purchasing a horse (and they are on Facebook) they may have some mutual connections that can speak to the person’s care and training of the horse in question.

If I were considering purchasing a horse I would LOVE to know more about the person. The trainer’s style of horsemanship and training philosophies might differ from mine and I’d want to know that. If sales were openly allowed on Facebook it might help to know who among my friends knows the seller.

Most importantly selling horses on Facebook helps our rescue groups in more ways than one. Rescue groups can find homes more easily for their current residents. By adopting out their horses they make room for the next ones in need of safety.

By allowing sales on Facebook it might prevent some horses from ever needing rescue in the first place.

The downsides of allowing horse sales on Facebook are the same with any sale of horses anywhere. Selling horses can be a tricky business. Horses act differently with different handlers and horse keeping styles. Sales and trades go south. Some sellers are dishonest and might drug their horses.

This isn’t a reason to ban the sale of horses. It’s going to happen wherever the sales take place. In the end, horses need to find the right homes and Facebook makes for a perfect outlet in order to do so.

My argument is not likely to go anywhere. I am nothing more than plankton among the open sea that is the internet and this will not likely ever pass the eyes of any decision-maker for Facebook. I write this argument for us regardless because the message needs to be out there. Horses need homes and the current rules, though placed with good intentions, do more harm than good.

An Open Letter to Facebook Facebook is an enormous social platform that connects millions of people globally. It serves as a way to reconnect with old friends, stay in touch with long distant ones, and it even serves as a way to meet new friends in some cases.

#equine #Facebook #Horse #horselover #Horses #TheGreenHorseman

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basicsofislam · 5 years

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ISLAM 101: ALMS AND CHARITY: VIRTUES OF ZAKAT: Part 9

DID ZAKAT EXIST IN RELIGIONS PRIOR TO ISLAM?

Salat and Zakat, in actual fact, are the common denominators of all monotheistic religions, where salat and zakat, after belief in the Oneness of God, form the very core of worship. In fact, salat and zakat are, or at least were, essential characteristics of all of the great religions of the world, those guided by a long line of prophets sent by God since the dawn of humankind, despite the fact that current forms of worship in some faith communities may vary in outward appearance. In support of this, the Qur’an, adamantly states:

They were ordered no more than to worship God with sincere devotion, to honestly establish salat and give zakat. And that is the Standard Religion.” (Bayyina 98:5)

The Midians’ apprehension at being compelled to cease doing what they liked with their properties denotes, almost certainly, a remonstration against zakat. The people of the Midian, who evidently had a complete appreciation for the altruistic Jethro, still could not get themselves to accept or follow Jethro’s brave attempts to encourage them to perform proper salat or give zakat; branding him instead as an instigator, and a rebel. As is the usual case with similar public dissensions, the people of Midian had a ready scapegoat for giving full vent to their frustrations about the obligation of zakat which was, as can be seen, salat itself.

Even though the Qur’an does not explain, literally, whether or not each prophet carried the duty of imposing zakat, it is highly possible to argue for its primordial existence through the ideal notion of peace, the humane spirit of assistance and support represented and accentuated by each Messenger, beginning with the Prophet Adam, and the Qur’anic references discussed above.

In addition, despite having their initial contents altered, the Torah and the Bible still include many passages which support the proposition that zakat actually predates Islam. As no revelations prior to Muhammad %(upon whom be peace) have survived to this day in their original forms, a fact supported even among Jewish and Christian scholars, the sole, authoritative point of reference in this argument remains the Qur’an itself. Additionally, it is worth noting that the Qur’an stresses zakat was enjoined as a duty on Jews and Christians, as well, not just on Muslims, as the textual references to the Qur’an which are included below will clearly demonstrate. Likewise, an analysis of the Torah and the Bible provides fascinating similarities and conformities with Islam’s all-embracing concept of zakat.

ZAKAT IN JUDAISM

Zakat along with salat is sternly recommended as a requirement for divine acquittal for their transgressions:

God made a covenant of old with the Children of Israel, and We raised among them twelve chieftains, and God said: “I am with you. If you establish salat and pay the zakat, and believe in My Messengers and support them, and lend to God a goodly loan, surely I shall remit your sins, and surely I shall admit you into gardens beneath which rivers flow. Whosoever among you disbelieves after this has gone astray from a straight path.” (Maida 5:12)

And in spite of undergoing multiple amendments, the current text of the Torah still grants us glimpses of the spirit of zakat, grounded on the relations between the rich and the poor:

When you help the poor (needy) (lowly) (depressed) you lend to Jehovah. He will pay you back. (Proverbs 19:17)

He who oppresses the poor reproaches his Maker. He who has mercy for the poor honors his Maker. (Proverbs 14:31)

He who gives to the poor will not lack. But he who hides his eyes will have many curses. (Proverbs 28:27)

And if you give yourself to the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted, then your light will rise in the darkness and your gloom will be like midday. (Isaiah 58:10)

He who gets ahead by oppressing the poor and giving to the rich will certainly suffer loss. (Proverbs 22:16)

One further point deserves mention. The above quotations gathered from the Torah, as well as the upcoming Biblical passages, are from current versions of the texts which have, as is widely accepted and as noted above, been partially or predominantly altered, though the exact extent and manner in which such changes have been brought to these ancient scriptures is a matter for debate. A tentative and prudent approach to the current versions is thus the correct attitude, as recommended wisely by the Prophet Muhammad (upon whom be peace) himself:

ZAKAT IN CHRISTIANITY

The situation in Christianity is no different, for the Prophet Jesus, while still in the cradle, utters the duties obliged onto him by God in the following manner:

(Whereupon) he (the baby) spoke out: “I am indeed a servant of God. He has given me the Scripture and has appointed me a prophet. And He has made me blessed wherever I may be and has commanded me to pray and to give alms to the poor as long as I live. And (He) has made me dutiful to my mother and has not made me oppressive, wicked. So peace be upon me the day I was born and the day that I die and the day that I shall be raised up to life (again).” (Maryam 19:30-33)

He looked at him and was afraid. “What is it, Lord?” he replied. The angel said: “God hears your prayers and sees your gifts of mercy. (Acts 10:4)

He said: Cornelius, your prayer is heard and your gifts of mercy are noticed in the sight of God. (Acts 10:31)

Jesus then replied: “If you wish to be complete, go sell your possessions and give the money to the poor. You will have wealth in heaven. Then follow me!” But hearing these words, the young man went away grieving, for he was very wealthy. Jesus said to his disciples: “Truly I tell you, it is hard for a man with much money to go into the kingdom of heaven. Again I say, it is easier for a camel to go through a needle’s eye, than for a man with much money to go into the kingdom of God.” (Matthew 19:21-24)

Sell your possessions and give to charity. Make yourselves purses that do not get old, a treasure in heaven where moth and rust cannot corrupt and thieves cannot steal. (Luke 12:33)

And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, I gain nothing. (Corinthians 13:3)

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! You tithe mint and dill and cumin and have left undone the weightier matters of the law: justice, mercy, and faith. You should do both and leave nothing undone. (Matthew 23:23)

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bharatiyamedia-blog · 5 years

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England vs Sri Lanka dwell rating over Match 27 ODI 46 50 updates

http://tinyurl.com/y25leeo9 So, that’s the finish of the sport! That is in all probability the upset of the event, not less than until now although. Nevertheless, will this victory see Sri Lanka go energy to energy and the way a lot will this have an effect on England? Nicely, we’ll know within the coming future. On the 22nd although, we have now Four completely different groups batting it out. Sure, it’s a double header, the primary recreation sees India taking up Afghanistan in Southampton, that recreation will start at 1030 native (0930 GMT). The opposite recreation is a cracking one as West Indies lock horns in opposition to New Zealand in Manchester at 0130 native (1230 GMT). Until then, take care and goodbye! Victorious Sri Lanka skipper, Dimuth Karunaratne says they misplaced the toss and typically they had been below strain whereas typically they had been dominating. Tells when batting they knew it was a troublesome wicket and had been seeking to get 250-270 however misplaced wickets. Credit Mathews for his innings and ended up with a superb whole. Tells it was a staff effort as Malinga acquired wickets together with Dhananjaya. Says Root’s wicket was the turning level of the sport and knew how good he’s. Tells he fortunately they acquired his wicket at a important juncture. England skipper, Eoin Morgan says they had been good with the ball however the lack of considerable partnership did the injury. Says dropping this recreation was extra irritating than stunning. They knew it was going to be powerful to win all video games within the event however they wished to do this. Says they simply must mud themselves off and are available stronger within the subsequent recreation. Reckons it’s a lengthy event. Says Australia is a troublesome opponent and taking them on on the dwelling of cricket shall be a superb problem. For his good bowling show, LASITH MALINGA IS NAMED THE MAN OF THE MATCH – Malinga says that when Stokes was dropped they had been fearful as they knew how good a participant he’s. Says they saved bowling inventory balls even when couple of these went for boundaries in direction of the tip they didn’t fear. The plan was to take care of good line and size and blend it up with the variations with out freely giving any unfastened deliveries. Tells they’re a assured facet and wish to take the momentum from this going ahead. Earlier within the day, the Lankans had been put into bat and had been bundled out for 232. Archer and Wooden had been the celebs for England. Nevertheless, that proved to be sufficient ultimately, Ben Stokes’ unbeaten 82 went in useless and Malinga emerged because the hero for at this time with a four-fer. Who was the star with the ball for Sri Lanka? Nicely, while you take a look at the figures, it’s important to inform, it’s Lasith Malinga who ended with a four-fer and 4 massive wickets of Bairstow, Root, Buttler and Vince. Nevertheless, credit score must be given to all of the Lankan bowlers right here. Everyone was extraordinarily disciplined and by no means gave something away. Udana and Dhananajaya had been additionally essential as they took 5 amongst them. Nuwan Pradeep additionally had a wicket to his title and possibly the one which mattered essentially the most, the final one. Defending 232, you want early wickets and Sri Lanka did handle to ship each the openers again within the hut fairly early on. Root and Morgan then steadied the ship with a fifty run stand. The latter fell however then Stokes joined Root and the 2 added one more 50-plus run stand. England had been on high then however Sri Lanka didn’t allow them to run away with the sport. They saved bowling tight and by no means let England rating freely and that tight bowling lastly paid off. They acquired Root and Buttler in fast succession. Moeen Ali and Archer threw it away after they wanted to bat sensibly. Stokes was the lone man combating and at one stage, it appeared like, he would win the sport for them however Wooden couldn’t negotiate the one ball he needed to of Nuwan Pradeep. WHAT A GAME! WHAT A GAME THIS WAS! Wow! What number of of you will thought that Sri Lanka would win this recreation after posting 232? Absolutely, certainly not many! I by no means felt that they had an opportunity. Nevertheless, they’ve risen in opposition to all odds and have come out on high in a recreation they needed to win. 46.6 overs (zero Run) OUT! EDGED AND TAKEN! Wooden cannot negotiate it! He has nicked it behind to the keeper. Jubilation scenes on the market because the Lankan gamers are working throughout the bottom in happiness. Pradeep bowls the proper Check match line. It’s on a size and round off, Wooden performs inside the road, the ball kisses the skin edge and goes into the arms of the keeper. The Lankan gamers enchantment and the umpire raises the finger. SRI LANKA WIN THE GAME BY 20 RUNS! 46.5 overs (1 Run) Very full once more, Stokes works it by means of mid-wicket and takes one. As soon as once more, Wooden has one ball to face. 46.Four overs (zero Run) A low full toss exterior off, Stokes jams it by means of covers. He thinks of two however then doesn’t even take one. 46.three overs (Four Runs) FOUR MORE! Unreal stuff from Stokes. He’s doing all of it by his personal! 22 in 21 now. Sport evenly poised once more. The slower one on center, Stokes goes down on one knee and manages to pull it previous quick superb leg for a boundary. 46.2 overs (Four Runs) FOUR! High, high shot! Stokes has managed to search out the hole! 26 wanted in 22 now. One other low full toss exterior off, Stokes shuffles throughout and whips it previous mid-wicket. It’s away from lengthy on and it trickles over the fence. 46.1 overs (zero Run) Extraordinarily full, good ball to start with! Stokes whips it to mid on. Who will bowl now? Thisara Perera, Nuwan Pradeep or a big gamble with a spinner? It’ll be Nuwan Pradeep. 45.6 overs (zero Run) Wooden does! Udana lands it on a size and round off, Wooden crops his entrance foot ahead and defends it onto the bottom. 30 wanted in 4. 45.5 overs (1 Run) Takes the one does Stokes! Wooden has one ball to play out. Full and out of doors off, that is jammed by means of covers for one. 45.Four overs (2 Runs) Pretty, pretty working and likewise good batting by Stokes. It is a very sluggish ball on center, Stokes works it in direction of mid-wicket with very gentle arms. They take one, then go for the second. Wooden slips whereas turning again however nonetheless manages to make it in. 45.three overs (zero Run) Stokes as soon as once more makes use of his ft however this time doesn’t get to the pitch of the ball. Defends it. Smart batting. 45.2 overs (6 Runs) SIX! BANG! Consecutive biggies for Stokes! 33 wanted in 28 now. It is a highly effective stroke. He dances down the monitor, will get to the pitch of it and clobbers it over the lengthy off fence for a biggie. 200 up for England. 45.1 overs (6 Runs) SIX! BOOM! That’s proper out of the center and it clears the fence with ease. Udana goes full, proper within the zone for Stokes. He tonks it over the lengthy on fence for a biggie. 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fevie168 · 6 years

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Thursday (October 18): "The kingdom of God has come near to you"

Scripture: Luke 10:1-9 (alternate reading: Luke 11:42-46)

1 After this the Lord appointed seventy others, and sent them on ahead of him, two by two, into every town and place where he himself was about to come. 2 And he said to them, "The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; pray therefore the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. 3 Go your way; behold, I send you out as lambs in the midst of wolves. 4 Carry no purse, no bag, no sandals; and salute no one on the road. 5 Whatever house you enter, first say, `Peace be to this house!' 6 And if a son of peace is there, your peace shall rest upon him; but if not, it shall return to you. 7 And remain in the same house, eating and drinking what they provide, for the laborer deserves his wages; do not go from house to house. 8 Whenever you enter a town and they receive you, eat what is set before you; 9 heal the sick in it and say to them, `The kingdom of God has come near to you.'

Meditation: What kind of harvest does the Lord want us to reap today for his kingdom? When Jesus commissioned seventy of his disciples to go on mission, he gave them a vision of a vast field that is ready to be harvested for the kingdom of God. Jesus frequently used the image of a harvest to convey the coming of God's reign on earth. The harvest is the fruition of much labor and growth - beginning with the sowing of seeds, then growth to maturity, and finally the reaping of fruit for the harvest.

God's word grows like a seed within us In like manner, the word of God is sown in the hearts of receptive men and women who hear his word, accept it with trust and obedience, and then share the abundant fruit of God's word in their lives with others. The harvest Jesus had in mind was not only the gathering in of the people of Israel, but all the peoples (and nations) of the world. John the Evangelist tells us that "God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life" (John 3:16).

Be a sower of God's word of peace and mercy What does Jesus mean when he says his disciples must be "lambs in the midst of wolves"? The prophet Isaiah foretold a time when wolves and lambs will dwell in peace (Isaiah 11:6 and 65:25). This certainly refers to the second coming of the Lord Jesus when all will be united under the Lordship of Jesus after he has put down his enemies and established the reign of God over the heavens and the earth. In the meantime, the disciples must expect opposition and persecution from those who would oppose the Gospel. Jesus came to lay down his life for us, as our sacrificial lamb, to atone for our sins and the sins of the world. We, in turn, must be willing to offer our lives with gratitude and humble service for our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.

We are called to speak and witness in God's name What is the significance of Jesus appointing seventy disciples to the ministry of the word? Seventy was a significant number in biblical times. Moses chose seventy elders to help him in the task of leading the people through the wilderness. The Jewish Sanhedrin, the governing council for the nation of Israel, was composed of seventy members. In Jesus' times seventy was held to be the number of nations throughout the world. Jesus commissioned the seventy to a two-fold task - to speak in his name and to act with his power.

Jesus gave his disciples instructions for how they were to carry out their ministry. They must go and serve as people without guile, full of charity (selfless giving in love) and peace, and simplicity. They must give their full attention to the proclamation of God's kingdom and not be diverted by other lesser things. They must travel light - only take what was essential and leave behind whatever would distract them - in order to concentrate on the task of speaking the word of the God. They must do their work, not for what they can get out of it, but for what they can give freely to others, without expecting reward or payment. "Poverty of spirit" frees us from greed and preoccupation with possessions and makes ample room for God's provision. The Lord Jesus wants his disciples to be dependent on him and not on themselves.

God gives us his life-giving word that we may have abundant life in him. He wills to work in and through each of us for his glory. God shares his word with us and he commissions us to speak it boldly and plainly to others. Do you witness the truth and joy of the Gospel by word and example to those around you?

"Lord Jesus, may the joy and truth of the Gospel transform my life that I may witness it to those around me. Grant that I may spread your truth and merciful love wherever I go."

Psalm 145:10-13,17-18

10 All your works shall give thanks to you, O LORD, and all your saints shall bless you! 11 They shall speak of the glory of your kingdom, and tell of your power, 12 to make known to the sons of men your mighty deeds, and the glorious splendor of your kingdom. 13 Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and your dominion endures throughout all generations. The LORD is faithful in all his words, and gracious in all his deeds. 17 The LORD is just in all his ways, and kind in all his doings. 18 The LORD is near to all who call upon him, to all who call upon him in truth.

Daily Quote from the early church fathers: Jesus the Good Shepherd changes wolves into sheep, by Cyril of Alexandria (376-444 AD)

"How then does [Jesus] command the holy apostles, who are innocent men and 'sheep,' to seek the company of wolves, and go to them of their own will? Is not the danger apparent? Are they not set up as ready prey for their attacks? How can a sheep prevail over a wolf? How can one so peaceful conquer the savageness of beasts of prey? 'Yes,' he says, 'for they all have me as their Shepherd: small and great, people and princes, teachers and students. I will be with you, help you, and deliver you from all evil. I will tame the savage beasts. I will change wolves into sheep, and I will make the persecutors become the helpers of the persecuted. I will make those who wrong my ministers to be sharers in their pious designs. I make and unmake all things, and nothing can resist my will.'" (excerpt from COMMENTARY ON LUKE, HOMILY 61)

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