#but i think it’s a testament to understanding like 20-somethings

[averywiseanimatedcat]

I’ve yet to see anyone talk about this:

The verse on the matchbox being highlighted so obviously stuck out to me. Neil is clever. He did this for some reason. I looked into this a while ago but only just got round to writing it out because I’ve been sick and had the time to hyper fixate on researching something I didn’t need to…

So buckle up because Job 41 is a parallel of the minisode scene when God is talking to Job. But I think the whole of Job 41 relates heavily to Crowleys character and his storyline because it’s about a sea snake.

Full warning this post is long, but it’s all important I promise.

Disclaimer you have to read if you’re gonna comment about me being wrong in my interpretation of Job 41: I am someone who doesn’t believe it’s possible to perfectly understand the bible. I’m not presenting anything as fact because there’s looottts of different interpretations of literally everything in the bible. This is my interpretation of the chapter. I don’t care if you think I’m wrong cause you have a double degree in know it all religious studies. Disclaimer over.

So where does the verse come from?

Job 41:19

‘Out of his mouth go burning lamps, and sparks of fire leap out’

This verse is part of Gods description of a leviathan that takes up most of the second part of chapter 41 in the book of Job. If you want to read the entire chapter before reading this I’ll paste it at the bottom of the post. It’s from the King James version. You can also just google it.

But what’s a leviathan? Glad you asked. I spent to long looking it up.

Leviathans. The general consensus is that the creature referred to in Job 41 is some kind of sea monster. The Hebrew word that translates to Leviathan (Livyatan) appears six times in the Old Testament. One of them is in Job 41. The word is derived from the root Iwy or ‘ twist, coil’ and means ‘the sinuous one.’ So I think we can establish that this creature is at least indicated to be snake-like. It could be a crocodile, a whale, a dragon, a snake, or just an indescribable monster. But we have no modern reference because this creature doesn’t exist in modern times if it ever existed at all. So for the purpose of relating it to the show, I think its important to note that one of the interpretations is that the leviathan is a snake like creature or a sea serpent Iike what’s shown in this beautiful piece of art.

The Destruction of Leviathan by Gustave Doré (1865)

Now, these two verses from the first part of Job 41 are important,

Job 41:10

None is so fierce that dare stir him up: who then is able to stand before me?

Job 41:4

Will he make a covenant with thee? Will thou take him for a servent forever?

Prior to chapter 41 Job, has been questioning God about the mysteries of creation. God responds by chastising Job for questioning him and describing how Job would not be able to subdue the great leviathan and make him his servant, so why does he think he has a right to question god?

And in our minisode Job comes back from talking to god and says:

“I think the point was, if you want answers, come back when you can make a whale.”

What’s happening when Azirpahale and Crowley come across God talking to Job is exactly what’s happening in Job 41. I also noted that in the minisode Job said God talked alot about whales. Which is funny, because it seemed random at the time, but one interpretation of the ‘leviathan’ is that it’s some kind of whale.

So that scene in the minsode is based off of Job 41! Amazing. But I don’t think the connections end there…

The more obvious potential reference to Crowley in Job 41 is how God describes the leviathan being able to spit fire. The verse on the matchbox comes from this part of the chapter.

Job 41:19

Out of his mouth go burning lamps, and sparks of fire leap out

Job 41:20

Out of his nostrils goeth smoke, as out of a seething pot or caldron

Job 41:21

His breath kindleth coals, and flames goeth out of his mouth

We know Crowley has the ability to summon fire. He summoned that giant sun thing that shoots fireballs to smite goats at the start of the minisode, then he sets fire to the house before saving Job’s children. So leviathan/sea serpent spits fire, our fav snake from Eden can summon fire. Fire is also just quite central to his storyline with the bookshop fire, the road/his Bentley setting fire, Heaven trying to burn Aziraphale with fire and the bombing of the church when he saves Aziraphales books.

But there’s some less obvious connections in Job 41 to Crowley. There’sa few interesting verses here that seem to relate to Crowley

Job 41:4

Will he make a covenant with thee? wilt thou take him for a servant for ever?

God isn’t talking about killing the leviathan, he’s talking about enslaving it

Job 41:24

His heart is firm as a stone: yea, as hard as a piece of nether millstone

Nether millstones, according to my googling, are millstones obviously, but it’s also a phrase that indicates something that is tough and unyielding, unlikely to submit. It’s describing the leviathan being unyielding to negotiations. God also says this about the leviathan,

Job 41:29

Darts are counted as stubble: he laughter at the shaking of a spear

I couldn’t help but think all these verses are very Crowley sounding. He is stubborn and willfull, unable to be controlled and won’t submit to servitude. He (both actually and metaphorically) laughed in hell's face when he and Aziraphale were body doubling and the holy water didn’t destroy him.

Crowleys wilfulness and refusal to be subjugated is the reason he fell in the first place. It’s the reason he fell out with Hell as well, he refuses to fully go along with either side. He believes in autonomy and freedom. He said no to Aziraphale because he cannot return to a life he perceives as slavery, especially as Aziraphales ‘second in command’. He doesn’t want to be under anyones command or to command anyone. It’s so against his very nature to return that the suggestion was ridiculous to him. And this chapter of Job is a parallel in that God uses the leviathan as an example because it’s ridiculous to imagine a giant sea monster being enslaved by a human to do his bidding. Just like in the minisode how it’s ridiculous to tell Job to make whales before he can ask God anything.

But that’s the point. That’s the whole conflict of the show, Gods ridiculous answer to everything is that it’s ‘ineffable’ and therefore you can’t ask questions.

I also think it’s also fitting that the leviathan is perceived to be a monster that must be slain or enslaved.

And it makes me think of how Crowley has always been labelled as evil because he fell. I think of how, at heart, he is truly gentle and kind, he’s a starmaker. But his fall, his appearance, his desire to be autonomous and his grey moral campus make him feared and a target. He’s a boat rocker, he keeps asking questions even when he gets told ridiculous answers and that’s the problem for those in power. It makes me think of this quote

“Draw a monster. Why is it a monster?”

-Daughter by Janice Lee.

So in conclusion, not only is Job 41 the chapter that would’ve inspired the scene where Job is talking to god, I think Crowley represents the leviathan being discussed in Job 41.

So do I think this has any meaning/hint to season 3?

I don’t think there’s a direct hint. But it reminded me that Crowleys character is truly unrelenting. He’s a nether millstone. And he won’t give up that easily. He absolutely won’t submit to anyone, and he’s shown time and time again that his blustering about running away disappears as soon as someone or something he cares about is in danger (ie Aziraphale). And the second coming will also threaten his creation (the universe) so I’m really hoping we will see so much more of Crowleys power and history in S3.

I’m really happy I looked into this, because I could be completely off the deep end with this analysis but it actually wouldn’t even matter because this universe Terry and Neil’s created is built around it being transposable. You can put any lens you want on it. And I had fun deep diving into Job 41. I never thought I’d ever say I had fun reading the bible but Neil you did it. Sneaky buggar.

Full chapter of Job 41:

41 Canst thou draw out leviathan with an hook? or his tongue with a cord which thou lettest down?

2 Canst thou put an hook into his nose? or bore his jaw through with a thorn?

3 Will he make many supplications unto thee? will he speak soft words unto thee?

4 Will he make a covenant with thee? wilt thou take him for a servant for ever?

5 Wilt thou play with him as with a bird? or wilt thou bind him for thy maidens?

6 Shall the companions make a banquet of him? shall they part him among the merchants?

7 Canst thou fill his skin with barbed irons? or his head with fish spears?

8 Lay thine hand upon him, remember the battle, do no more.

9 Behold, the hope of him is in vain: shall not one be cast down even at the sight of him?

10 None is so fierce that dare stir him up: who then is able to stand before me?

11 Who hath prevented me, that I should repay him? whatsoever is under the whole heaven is mine.

12 I will not conceal his parts, nor his power, nor his comely proportion.

13 Who can discover the face of his garment? or who can come to him with his double bridle?

14 Who can open the doors of his face? his teeth are terrible round about.

15 His scales are his pride, shut up together as with a close seal.

16 One is so near to another, that no air can come between them.

17 They are joined one to another, they stick together, that they cannot be sundered.

18 By his neesings a light doth shine, and his eyes are like the eyelids of the morning.

19 Out of his mouth go burning lamps, and sparks of fire leap out.

20 Out of his nostrils goeth smoke, as out of a seething pot or caldron.

21 His breath kindleth coals, and a flame goeth out of his mouth.

22 In his neck remaineth strength, and sorrow is turned into joy before him.

23 The flakes of his flesh are joined together: they are firm in themselves; they cannot be moved.

24 His heart is as firm as a stone; yea, as hard as a piece of the nether millstone.

25 When he raiseth up himself, the mighty are afraid: by reason of breakings they purify themselves.

26 The sword of him that layeth at him cannot hold: the spear, the dart, nor the habergeon.

27 He esteemeth iron as straw, and brass as rotten wood.

28 The arrow cannot make him flee: slingstones are turned with him into stubble.

29 Darts are counted as stubble: he laugheth at the shaking of a spear.

30 Sharp stones are under him: he spreadeth sharp pointed things upon the mire.

31 He maketh the deep to boil like a pot: he maketh the sea like a pot of ointment.

32 He maketh a path to shine after him; one would think the deep to be hoary.

33 Upon earth there is not his like, who is made without fear.

34 He beholdeth all high things: he is a king over all the children of pride.

#good omens #crowley #good omens analysis #aziracrow #aziraphale #crowly x aziraphale #good omens s2 #good omens season 2 #ineffable husbands

[ghostflowerhotpotch]

Has it ever occurred to you that since Gwen hasn’t had a mother figure for the majority of her life and from the beginning of ATSV its kinda shown she’s been craving that type of guidance or even affection when she sees Jess for the first time, do you think that once the dust is settled between her and Miles and she finally gets to properly introduce herself to his parents, do you think that Rio can not replace Gwen’s mother but atleast fill in that gap in some way where she’s able to get some of the guidance she’s been looking for. Idk I just feel like the dynamic between the two could be interesting once they both get along with each other, hopefully this makes sense to answer.

Ohh this is interesting.

Now, hope you don't mind, but Gwen and Jess situation is something I wanted to talk about for a while, so, I will use your comment to talk about this.

I will do the Rio part too, but knowing myself, there is a chance that would end in a second post because I talk too much.

Let's go!

Now, do I think is this a joke? Yes, but I also think Gwen means it.

And look, this is not to say that you necessarily need to have two parents to raise a kid, I personally believe that one parent, if they provide the necessary attention and care to the child or children, could be an amazing parent and not let their kids feel like they are missing anything.

However, as discussed on this post, I mentioned why while George isn't a bad dad, sadly he is not the best parent for Gwen.

And here I also discussed why Gwen's mental health is a bit of a mess.

But to not sent people to do homework, let's give the cliff-notes version.

George is trying to be a good father, however between his job and his refusal to understand nuance, he has accidentally pushed Gwen away; even if maybe this could have been resolved if she talked to him in a normal situation, the fact that he did what he did in the beginning shows she was scared for a reason.

So that means Gwen has a gaping hole in what a role model and parent should be, since she needs more support. Of couse her Spidey identity is important to her (in fact she leans too much into it,) and having no one to help her on that complicated path doesn't make the situation any easier.

Enters Jessica Drew.

You know I found extremely telling that when Gwen sees Miguel, she is cracking jokes and not really taking his professionalism crap seriously; yet when Jess comes kicking ass with her motorcycle and she looks at her like she has seen the light.

Perhaps it had to do with her realizing this failed artist is more problematic than she expected, or the fact that Miguel was quickly disposed of by something she saw from a mile away; while Jess came putting the bad guy on a grinder and maneuvering a bike like nobody's business. Needless to say, Gwen is DEFINITELY impressed.

Once again, this plays almost like this is a dream come true for Gwen.

She hides it well for most of the movie as well as the previous one, but the reality is that underneath that cool exterior, this is a teenage mess with so much angst she is giving my teen self a run for their money.

Just like she craves companionship in the form of Miles as well as other spiders, she probably wants someone who can tell her everything is going to be okay or what they should do. Again, we may forget sometimes, especially with superhero movies where protagonists need to be competent despite their age most of the time; but Gwen is 16, 17 at the most; and has been handling this stress and turmoil for at least 3 years. That's a lot.

Top it with her dad not being able to emotionally support her, and the fact that she wants a mom becomes less a possible commentary about not nuclear families, and more of a likely possibility because the first 20 minutes of the movie gave us LOTS of material to show how mess up this is.

I think is a testament to the situation that she doesn't default to Peter B or Noir in the first movie, nor Miguel; she only seems to be interested in learning from someone when she sees Jess.

Is funny, but is also very painful to hear for me, as if you ask me she said it completely straight, and this just shows how much help she needs.

Granted Gwen said that accidentally and probably wouldn't have said it if thought about it first, but the fact that it slipped says a lot.

She desperately wants someone like Jess in her life, and to top it off, she probably wants that person as a maternal figure; probably someone to ask about techniques for defeating baddies and also who could talk about feelings without this person defaulting to work as a copy mechanism.

Feel free to call me crazy for getting so work up about a joke, but if I am honest other interactions really make me sell this idea for me.

Now let's talk Jess.

Literally what other reaction she was going to have.

We really never hear a definitive answer to the question, but I also think Jess didn't think too hard about it for a reason.

I am planning to go through some scenes of Gwen and Jess to dig deeper into their mentor/not-mom situation, but let's start with this.

Do I think Jess should have adopted Gwen? No, not at all.

Look I am a sucker for found family and adoption tropes, and I would had love nothing more than for Jess to give one dirty look at Gwen's dad, tell her she would be there for her, and take her away to a good home. That is not what happened, and I don't blame her.

She is on her way to having her own kid, she needs to be spider-woman and to top it all off, she seems to be kind of a second in command in a really big operation, where your boss is your friend who is also way too into his job and she probably is still there partially to make sure Miguel doesn't completely lose it. She has a lot on her plate as it is, adopting a traumatized teenager is a lot of work that shouldn't really be her job.

Do I think that means she has no responsibilities to Gwen? No, not really.

And this is largely why.

Okay, I will try to not go over every moment with them, as this is more about explaining their situation than a deep dive of every instance of their relationship, but this is a good kicker for the situation.

Jess immediately takes an interest in Gwen for the organization, now while I can understand that she based this purely on her abilities, I think a part of it was the comment Gwen made earlier. I think she sees in her someone who needs a steady hand and some support.

As a mentor.

This is going a bit ahead on the post, but let's establish that 1) This exists, and 2) Jessica got that idea EXTREMELY quick all things considered.

Here is where the responsibility part actually kicks in.

No, Jess doesn't have any responsibility to Mother Gwen in any way, regardless if Gwen needs one or not (she does,) but the moment she not only started to argue for her to have a spot in the organization, to take her in when the things in her universe technically imploded (which they are marginally responsible considering they came to clean this means and they only did it thanks to Gwen,) She implicitly accepted to look after her.

Okay here is where we need to talk a bit about tropes.

When you have protagonists that are teens or kids with powers, is inevitable that they will need to deal with dangerous stuff that no sane adult would let a real kid do, but is fiction so you kind of have to suck it.

This is a trope that I found kind of lazy even when I was part of the age demographic; which is why stuff like The Owl House with Eda was refreshing.

She was also a Mentor who was also not very responsible as a guardian, but she ended up growing into one, and even if she failed to protect her apprentice, she did try her damnest to do it.

Jess is not Eda, and she doesn't need to be, except that this story has proven to be aware that they are still teens.

Jess clearly recognizes this isn't fair for Gwen. We also see something like this in the first movie, with Peter B worried about Miles can or can't handle, while still letting them do stuff you wouldn't catch me letting my little sister get away with; they know that there are somethings someone at that age shouldn't just be handling on their own.

And Jess isn't exactly ice-cold about Gwen.

Jess took interest in Gwen's potential quickly, she looked after her, and quickly went to try to calm her down and support her during a very high tense and stressful moment. Even here is Gwen the one who ultimately moves away, not Jess, proving she could had try to stay close to ensure she was okay.

And this is something that shows that it kind of sticks.

While considerably harsher here than in her introduction scene, Jess is showing that despite her annoyance with Gwen, she still likes her. She never thought her relationship with Miles shouldn't be a reason not to have her on the team; she trusted a mission in the universe despite that, and also calls Gwen her star pupil, which I don't was sarcasm.

She also gives her an hour to fix this, which even if not much, is more than she could have given her.

I am not saying that Jess didn't look after Gwen, or didn't care about her beyond what she could do for the organization, however, it wasn't what Gwen needed.

Let's circle back to responsibility,

Jess is aware of what happened with her dad, she knows what Gwen lost, and she can probably imagine that a kid that lost her identity and her world like that on just one night can't be doing okay; yet nothing shows me she ever did anything about it.

Here is the thing, Jess doesn't need to be Gwen's mom, but she can't just insist to have her and be her mentor, and don't think about checking on her in something other than her kicking-ass abilities. Even if she doesn't want to deal with it, she should have either seen how to make her father see reason, or lock her in the room with the spider-man psych.

Considering how things go in this movie, neither thing happens.

And it feels more painfully obvious when you see how much Gwen tries to appeal to her emotionally.

In a vaccum, none of these are a big deal, but the more I think about it the more heartbreaking this is for me to watch.

This is why I find these to be such a big deal: Gwen doesn't like to do emotional shit.

I know, I probably repeated that more times than I can count; but let that sink in contrast to what's going on.

After Peter died, she decided to not have any friends because she couldn't deal with the grief, with Miles only getting past that rule because they are both spiders plus chemistry. And even then, when you see Miles asking if she is going to talk to her dad, she decided to crack a joke and brush the idea as swiftly as possible.

When her dad tells her about the break in the spider-woman case, she tries to brush it off with false enthusiasm at first, and then when she gives a more honest response is more out of bubbling annoyance that truly her trusting him with something.

She isn't baring her heart open in these moments though, let's not have it twisted; however, she is trying to use emotion as a way to appeal to Jess, which is not her first move with most people in general. Even when she is not actively giving her an in-depth explanation, in each of those moments she is giving the emotional context as to why this is so hard.

"You never got too close to someone?" -> "This person is important to me and this is hard for me, wasn't it for you?"

"But my gut says-" -> "I know this looks bad, and I can't explain how, but this isn't right, trust me."

"Tell him he is wrong!" -> I don't really need to explain this one, do it?

She continuously looks up to Jess to hear her out, and to understand what she is going through; she sees her and expects someone who can connect with her on that level and care about it.

But that's not what Jess does, because she is not her mom, she is her mentor.

For the most part, when Gwen tries to appeal to Jess emotionally speaking, Jessica shuts that idea down fast.

Now, I am going to preface this by clarifying that in real life, a mentor would probably check emotionally on the kid they are mentoring if only for the fact that when you are in charge of a kid, you should look after them. Fiction however is another ballpark, and technically speaking, a mentor shouldn't need to be doing something that is the job of the family.

A good mentor would probably understand their apprentice position and listen, since regardless of your years of experience, you can't just underestimate people or you will inevitably be surpassed. However, Jess isn't trying to be anything like that; she wants to teach Gwen her way, and her way says that emotions are kind of on the way. So regardless if it isn't what Gwen needs, she will insist on that.

I think there can be a way to accept emotions but also don't let them cloud your decisions, yet again, Jess is not interested in that, and I Gwen actually have normal, supportive parents (or even just one,) I wouldn't be so hung up about this. But she doesn't and Jess knows this.

Superhero or not, Gwen is just a teen, and shouldn't need to be living this, especially because I freaking doubt this is a canon event or something; with the resources they have, and the people they have on board, I can't believe there isn't a way they could have talk to Captain Stacy and made him see reason.

But they didn't, because they are more worried about spider-man duties than whatever is going on to the person under the mask, and for them, this is just what comes with the territory so you have the suck it up. Even if this is perfectly avoidable once you think of it.

That's something that I had been thinking about a lot while doing my post on the organization as well as the one with Gwen falling in Mumbatthan. The spiders are stronger together, and in general working as a team gives them not only better chances at saving people, but also helping with the stress they have and being there for each other. That isn't the goal of the organization though.

Miguel's mission is to preserve the canon and to put people from other dimensions back into their respective ones, anything else is probably secondary to him. Sure, if someone asks for help from another Spider I don't think he would stand in the way; except if it is a canon event, which in that case, he will probably say to people to suck it up.

The pain they have, the trauma they are suffering, while being together helps it was never the end goal to help with that, and there is no regard in avoiding said pain. This is a job first and foremost, which is the attitude Jess has.

Gwen is not her kid, or even a young student, she is a coworker; one that she needs to guide a bit, but her subordinate at the end of the day.

Sometimes the waters get muddier, on both sides if I am honest.

I will touch a bit on other scenes, but I wanted to bring up this one in particular because there is something that feels a bit more mother-daughter than it probably has any right to show.

Now I will be the first to admit this may be a me thing, I can be very formal in real life and that goes double with people who are older than me and in a position of power over me, the only exception to that rule is my current boss because he is the mythical creature of being a manager who remembers employees are people too.

Gwen is not like that, she jokes and doesn't give too much of a shit regardless if you are Miguel or a bad guy. However there is something in the way Gwen acts that feels she wouldn't be phrasing stuff like this if it was Miguel on the other side; again, back to her using emotion as a first resource rather than as a lashing effect of her anger.

Jess, while being kind of no-nonsense overall, is also not the most formal, because this is the spider society and Miguel had the bad luck to be the only straight-laced one while everybody else tries to be a comedian for the most part. But there is a way that she talks to Gwen that for me feels kind of like her not fully keeping this professional either.

I can't fully put it into words, so feel free to not make seriously on this one, but there is something about the way Jess is commenting on the situation that reminds me more of a mom than any of my bosses.

Then we have scenes like this.

I am sorry but this part really first like is a discussion between mother and daughter, even with contexts the way the scene delivers gives that energy.

This isn't exactly wrong by itself, nor is it truly that surprising. The boss I mentioned before had also mentioned off-topic that me and my other coworker (who is a couple of years older than me,) are almost like his kids, and we share an age range. However he doesn't try to parent us really, and even if some of the comments are very much 'now listen to me kids' he quickly remembers we are adults and would drop topics or decisions we made that I know wouldn't be his reaction has been one of the kids that are actually kids.

It probably has more to do with the way they talk and see people younger than them that any parental feelings, and none of this is really inappropriate.

Nonetheless, the fact that Gwen craves that motherly bond makes these interactions hurt all the more for me.

Gwen may not be under the illusion that Jess is her mom, but she's subconsciously looking up to her, and the fact that Jess acts like this, even if by accident, just feels into that mentality. The mentality Gwen has that maybe Jess will listen this time, that she will take into account her feelings and her opinion in her decisions; but she continues to not do that.

For the most part.

Is a bit hard to see with the resolution I have, but when Gwen is kicking and screaming while been taken by the machine, Jess's gaze goes in another direction.

I am sorry if this is feeling repetitive, I know this post is a long one (which is funny how this post created another 2 just so those topics wouldn't be here.)

What I am trying to say with all of this, is despite Jess' insistence this is just work, that Gwen is just her pupil and she can only do so much; Jess continues to have a soft stop for Gwen that let's her get away with things. Is kind of ironic how Miguel said Gwen was a liability for her feelings for Miles, yet couldn't even consider how feelings in general would get in the way, considering Jess assigned this mission to Gwen (which then she fumbled the bag and led to the Spot becoming an actual menace,) give her a second chance, and then apparently let her go.

(It is possible she is looking for where Gwen is going to tell Miguel, but I doubt it.)

I fully believe that by the third film, Jess will probably end up either switching sides or just letting Gwen do what she wants, and even if is the first scenario I think it would be via Gwen that happens.

But to wrap things up, if Captain Stacy is not enough as a parent for Gwen because he can't do that role properly, Jess isn't good enough as a parent for Gwen because she doesn't want that role, regardless of if she sometimes kind of acts like it.

I think their relationship is fascinating, and I would love to explore more of this connection in some way; if only because the complicated nature of it makes it all the more interesting for me, but in a nutshell, is this:

Jess: I wanted an apprentice, you wanted a mom. Gwen: Well I guess we are both disappointed.

(Sorry I couldn't help myself, OOF I wish I could draw well enough for this.)

Now, with my thoughts on Rio, I could probably put them on this post because is not that long, but it will probably feel off with all this commentary I had been making, so it would be in another one.

If you got this far, congrats on your patience, and thank you for reading!

#atsv files #across the spiderverse #atsv #gwen stacy #jessica drew #spider-woman #analysis

[topazshadowwolf]

GoopTales: Part 20 Grilled Cheese

Lyra to the rescue! And a certain guardian gets the rest he badly needs.

Domestic fluff!

Parts: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20(you are here)/34

AO3: Ch 1 (1-4), Ch 2 (4-8), Ch 3 (9-12), Ch 4 (13-16) Ch 5 (17-19), Ch 6 (20-23), Ch 7 (24-27), Ch 8 (28-31), Ch 9 (32-34)

---

Lyra folded her arms as she looked at the other guardian, who looked back up at her with an eyelight so fuzzy it could barely be seen. Nightmare sat on the bed, the boys surrounding him and clinging to him protectively. They could sense she was angry. She shouldn’t be angry, but she was. 

Actually, no, she had the right to be angry about this. It was wrong to deny that she should feel this way when she could have prevented this. They had agreed to start dating, to begin forming a relationship, yet he still would rather act independently to the point that he looked like a wilted plant. Nightmare clearly did not understand how it hurt her to see him like that.

There was no reason for him to look so tired and run down when she was just a phone call away. No. When she could have been here all along! There were so many things she could and wanted to say if the children were not here in the room. She would even grab him by that coat, pull him onto his feet, and plant one kiss he wouldn't be forgetting anytime soon if it would make him understand that she cares! Unfortunately, that would be highly inappropriate to do around children so young.

Besides, she also needed to understand this was all still so new to Nightmare. The dark guardian was still adjusting to having someone he could turn to for help. He has had allies before, but not in the role of Lyra. Her help had no strings attached; no deals needed to be made save for being there when she needed him. Which… was something she was not used to as well. Remembering she had not called on his help yet did act as the water to cool her anger. Considering that he is not used to this, she was just as much to blame for his condition by not being more insistent or checking in on him.

That was it; she was putting her foot down.

“I am not going to be leaving when this is done,” She stated flatly, glaring down at him.

“Lyra,” Nightmare started, and Lyra had enough.

“I do not want to hear it. I know that they are your…,” She looked at the children who stared up at her in their fuzzy pajamas. She needed to be mindful of the words she used around them. “Responsibility. But, I am insisting, no, demanding you let me help.”

“Thank you,” Nightmare signed and smiled at her, and that surprised her.

“No argument this time?” She asked while tilting her head.

“I was going to ask you to stay,” Nightmare said, then stood and looked at the boys. “I admit defeat. They are indeed my responsibility, but it was one I will now accept that I was not ready for.”

He looked back at her, and she sighed, feeling her anger settle further. Well, at least that is sorted out. “Good… Now, to bed with you,” She said.

“aren’t you going to give him a good night kiss?” Killer asked with a big smile. She suspected that one knew what he was doing at this point.

“I do not think that will be,” Nightmare started, but no, Lyra would not let this moment slide. Now, she couldn’t place the kind of kiss she wanted with the young audience they currently had. But she could get away with a nice little peck on the head.

Leaning over, she gave Nightmare a small kiss on the top of his skull and grinned as he froze. His face got that adorable blush she loved so much. “There, now, bed.”

“Be good for Lyra,” Nightmare said quietly to the boys while staring at the floor. Oh, who would have suspected that the dark guardian, who was so bold and confident at most times, could be turned into someone so bashful with a single kiss? It will be a secret of his she will keep, as it is actually a sorrowful testament to how unaccustomed he is to affection. 

Once he could, he looked up at Lyra, “and… thank you.”

“we will!” Replied Killer.

“don’t worry, mr. night! we will be on our bestest behavior!” Cross added.

“It is just best, Cross. Best means that you will be excelling and unable to do any better,” Nightmare gently corrected before yawning. He made his way out the door, tendrils dragging on the floor behind him. The poor dear truly was exhausted, and yet, here he was, still doing what he could for the boys. It was rather endearing how devoted of a father figure he was, even if he will deny it.

Dust was becoming fidgety as he watched Nightmare leave. Thankfully, Ferrous walked over, and the small boy started to pet the dog. It seemed to calm Dust enough that he looked back at her without so much nervousness. 

Lyra looked at the group and hummed. “Alright, I am about to make dinner. Can I trust you four to play quietly in here while Mr. Night sleeps?”

Cross raised his hand, and she chuckled at how cute that was. Killer’s hand shot up shortly after, and she nodded. “Alright, Cross first, what is it?”

“can i help make dinner?” Cross asked.

“me too! that’s what i wanted to ask!” Killer added.

“wasn’t it your ‘helping’ that made mr. night call a babysitter?” Horror asked with a frown.

“that’s because i was helping by myself. this time, she will be there!” Killer answered.

“Alright, why don’t you all come with me instead? You can either help or play quietly in the kitchen while I work on dinner,” Lyra replied. That seemed to appease them, and they followed her as they left the room. At one point, she glanced back to do a quick head count… Killer… Cross… Horror…

Looking further down the hall, she saw Dust standing still as he stared in the direction of Nightmare’s bedroom. Lyra stopped and turned fully; the others stopped and followed her gaze back to the little skeleton clinging to his dog while staring at Nightmare’s door. “Wait here,” she told the others as she made her way to Dust. She knelt down near the young skeleton and asked, “Child, what is wrong?”

“if i say i’m not hungry, can i go take a nap with mr. night…?,” There were tears in the boy’s sockets. Nightmare had said that Dust, as an adult, tended to hang around him more than the others, especially on ‘bad days.’ Considering the child’s past and the peace and safety Nightmare has likely been providing Dust’s younger self, that shadow behavior appears to have turned into clinginess.

“I think Mr. Night would like you to have dinner to keep your body strong and healthy. Do you not agree?” She asked.

Dust looked at the ground and nodded.

“How about this? Since we both know Mr. Night would want you to have dinner, you come with me and eat first. If you are tired after you eat and promise to be quiet and sleep, I see no reason why you could not go nap with him,” Lyra compromised. “Does that sound fair?”

That seemed to do the trick, and the child nodded. “ferrous, too?”

“Ah…” Oh dear… would Nightmare want the dog in his bed? “Well, we will see. Maybe Ferrous will want some outside time after dinner instead.”

“oh… okay,” Dust replied and looked at the dog as he petted him.

Lyra stood and offered a hand to Dust. He looked at the hand for a moment, then reached up and put his tiny hand in hers. Together, they walked over to the others and then down the hall. Killer insisted on holding her other hand, which led to Horror holding Killer’s free hand and Cross holding Dust’s free hand.

Once the children were all gathered again, they continued to the kitchen. Along the way, she had asked them what they wanted for dinner. After some discussion amongst each other, they had decided on tomato soup and grilled cheese, or three out of four did. Dust was quiet and just shrugged when asked if that was okay. Based on things said, they had tomato soup once already, so he knew what that was. But the complaint from Killer about how long it had been since he had a grilled cheese hinted that was why Dust was so quiet. It may be new food for him, but it shouldn’t be too hard on him if he still has some sensitivity after all this time.

She had each child help make their sandwich after she had doctored the canned soup, so it was the best it could be. They stood on the stool two at a time and flipped their sandwiches when she said so. Then, once the food was ready, she plated the grilled cheeses and poured the tomato soup into mugs while telling the boys to go sit. They sat at the table and ate, looking as pleased as possible.

“thank you for helping, ma’am,” Horror then said.

“You are welcome,” Lyra smiled.

“mr. night was very happy to see you! i think… we caused him too much trouble,” Killer sighed and looked down at his crumb-filled plate. “we didn’t mean to be trouble, ms. lyra.”

“I know you did not, and so does Mr. Night. I warned him, though, that four children is a lot of responsibility for anyone to take on without prior experience with raising one,” She picked up a napkin and handed it to Killer. “I am sure he was doing well for a while there, but now he has me to help him.”

“he came home hurt a few times,” Dust said quietly, and that startled her.

“Hurt?” She asked.

“uh huh, and we don’t know why, ms. Lyra,” Cross confirmed, then frowned. “he would go out to buy groceries or something but reappear later and say that he will try again later. he said they didn’t have what he was looking for or stuff like that and for us to play quietly. but we could see he was hurt.”

Nightmare… why did you wait so long? But she knew why. It wasn’t just stubbornness but the fact he was not used to turning to others for help. Sure, he had his henchmen, but they were not usually so dependent on him. Still, he does care for them and sees them as his responsibility.

He forgets she is willing to share in that, even when they are rambunctious adults.

“ms. lyra?” Dust spoke up, and she looked over at the child. “may i go take a nap now?”

“Are the rest of you tired?” She asked.

“nu-uh! i’m not ready for bed yet!” Killer replied.

“can we play for a while longer?” Cross asked.

“i’m not tired yet, either,” Horror added.

“Alright, wait here at the table. I will be right back,” she said before scooping up Dust. The child clung to her and nuzzled his face against her shoulder. In silence, they made their way to Nightmare’s room, and she quietly knocked. When there was no reply, she walked in and over to the large bed, one clearly made for a king. 

That was Nightmare, a fan of the finer things in life.

It appears he had changed into pajamas but didn’t get any further than opening his covers and lying down before passing out. Nightmare was sleeping on his stomach, which made sense with the tentacles attached to his back. One of which was hanging off the bed and touching the floor. With care to not wake the sleeping guardian or disrupt Dust in her arms, she used her foot to lift the tendril up part of the way, then reached with a hand to grab it and place it on the bed.

She then placed Dust on the bed next to Nightmare. The child crawled closer and snuggled up to Nightmare’s shoulder. The dark skeleton shifted a little but did not wake. The tentacle closest to Dust moved and curled around the child protectively. Lyra smiled before tucking them both in under the blankets. Leaning over, she gave Dust a kiss on the head, then gave one more “goodnight kiss” to the sleeping guardian. With them settled, she left the room so they could sleep peacefully.

She now had three others to attend to, plus the pets. Ferrous followed her down the hall as she walked, reminding her with his presence of all the responsibilities she now had. Nightmare might have wanted her to wake him after ten minutes, but she wasn’t going to do that. It has been close to an hour, and he still needed rest. He can trust her to care for the boys and their animals, but if he genuinely believed she was going to wake him so soon, then he was sorely mistaken. Lyra was going to make sure he got the rest he needed.

Once he has his needed rest, then they can share this workload.

---

next

#GoopTales #This really is mostly sweet sweet fluff #:3c #The Fluff will continue for a while #I hope those who know my writing style understand what that means #Nightmare!sans #dadmare #more goodnight kisses! #cross!sans #killer!sans #horror!sans #dust!sans #Sci is still working on the reversal #it is taking a while to make #FuzzyNight #Lyra!toriel #Balance!toriel

[cloama]

I want to talk about Barbie (2023) but not really in conversation with anyone so I think it’ll be a trickle of thoughts about my theatre experience.

For instance, while the theatre was packed with mothers and daughters, I was seated next to a tween boy who was not excited for the movie. He damn near passed out laughing during several scenes. He didn’t finish any of his snacks. He didn’t go to the bathroom.

None of the children in the theater went to the bathroom, which you’ll know if the true testament of a a movie’s success. Nobody moved, honey.

The monologue has been critiqued as baby’s first feminism but I don’t know what y’all wanted from a megacorp. I’m still surprised it even got in there. One of the moms in the theater stood the up and clapped bc apparently she needed some of that second wave feminism. Everyone’s politics isn’t where yours is. It always starts somewhere. Again do not know why people are complaining. This is nothing compared to Marvel’s not infamous girl power moment where they all just stood there. Also the speech while very Plan but heartfelt, coming from America Ferrara just carries a couple extra layers for me personally as she was one of the first actresses of my generation who was a chubby teen girl who was allowed to be a real person.

Also it’s not just the monologue. It’s wishing it was as easy as pulling your fellow people into the back of the van and reprogramming them with facts. In a world where facts literally don’t matter anymore, it felt like science fiction. I don’t know y’all, I just got a lot out of that script. Like if your gonna do a giant advertisement movie, this is about as good as it gets. And it didn’t feel icky like a dove ad. Similar to the mist recent Dungeons and Dragons, it felt like playing.

The Ken stuff was fun but we have to discuss the MASTERFUL use of Matchbox 20’s Push, which is about the rare disempowered man who wishes to get a leg up on his female partner who appears to be emotionally hurting him in their relationship. I need time. Bc Greta? Noah? They were crazy for that one. Absolutely mad. Ken comparing his struggle with Barbie’s boundaries to a man whose actually being hurt bc Ken is a doll and that’s about as far as his understanding goes [see: horses]. Reader, I died laughing. I think I was the only one in the theater that this bit really worked for. It was a stroke of genius and seems to be going unnoticed.

The acafans have been surprisingly quiet about this movie, all the merch and the orchestrated resurgence of Barbie. Make no mistake, this is fandom. Star Wars fans were allowed to buy their books, dolls, and bumper stickers in peace but the idea that a movie will make some people want to buy a 20 dollar doll or some pink pants is stressing people out. Would love everyone to step back and breathe. They’re always going to try to sell us something. They’re selling us something most of y’all have been buying.

I think I am less bothered by the capitalistic effects because for once I didn’t totally hate the experience of being sold something. Probably because I’m not buying anything and while I live a pink life, I’m not actually a Barbie girl. What I am is an early educator and dolls, dramatic play are a huge part of development.

What I also am, apparently, is a Barbie movie script defender because above all else, that script was tight as fresh box braids. A hilarious straight forward comedy. It should be a celebration of putting money behind talent but it’s a reminder of why writers need to be fairly compensated. This movie marks the end of summer, representing so many things. It’s complicated. Pink and complicated.

#gotta update my letterboxed #also I know we’re allowed to engage with movies as a viewers but the strike has me kinda sour on new stuff #so this is the last word on Barbie #I’ll talk about it again when I rewatch it in the future

[feedingtheflockministry]

Traveling 3,000 miles to meet the Messiah

The year was 1970, and the post-Woodstock hippie movement swept America. Searching for meaning in his life, a young hippie named Mitch Glaser, along with a friend, dropped out of college in Connecticut and hitchhiked across the country to San Francisco.

Their journey was about more than just a change of venue. Mitch, only 17 years old at the time, sought answers he wasn’t finding in his Jewish roots.

Growing up in a traditional Jewish home in New York City, he regularly attended synagogue and observed traditional holidays like Yom Kippur and Passover. Mitch was proud of his heritage, but something was missing.

He was entrenched in religion, but never felt connected to God. Questions surfaced like, “What is the meaning of life?” So the scraggly bearded youth headed west, bringing only what he could carry on his back, in hopes of finding answers.

In California, Mitch and a few other friends built a houseboat, living for free by “borrowing” utilities from their neighbors, and delved into the hippie lifestyle. Meanwhile, Mitch still strongly identified himself as a Jew. Today, about 5 million Jews live in the United States. Less than 20 percent regularly attend synagogue.

Eventually, a building inspector condemned the houseboat. Shortly after, a Jewish friend named Joan visited. After spending time with some Christians, Joan had come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, and couldn’t wait to share her discovery.

“She preached heavily to us about the end times,” Mitch says. “I thought she was absolutely nuts.”

It was as if Joan were turning her back on her roots.

“I said, ‘Of course I’m not a Christian. I’m Jewish,’” he remembers.

As a Jew, Mitch’s attitudes toward Christianity were largely shaped by his grandparents’ history in Europe. To them, Christianity was a foreign and hostile religion responsible for horrific events like the Holocaust and the Crusades.

“I was raised to believe Jesus was not only not Jewish, but anti-Jewish,” he said.

Yet Mitch’s friends were drawn by Joan’s personal experience. She made Jesus sound hip – after all, He was a revolutionary. So they decided to visit her Christian friends in Oregon to hear more. Mitch tagged along suspiciously.

“Mitch probably thought we were involved in something dangerous,” Joan remembers.

That night at dinner with the group of Christians, Mitch had an encounter with God. While the owner of the house prayed, Mitch sat with his eyes open. It was strange to him; the man talked out loud to God, as if he knew Him. Mitch could sense a strong presence in the room. He knew it was God.

From then on, Mitch was determined to know this God. So he began reading the Old Testament, something few Jews do outside of the synagogue. He yearned to connect with God like Abraham and Moses did.

At one point, Mitch approached some young, ultra-Orthodox rabbis for help. The spiritual leaders disdained his questions.

“I tried giving traditional Judaism a chance to talk me out of accepting Jesus,” he says. “Instead, by cutting me off, it made me think they were trying to hide something.”

A little while later, Mitch took a job as a counselor at an ecology camp in the Redwood Forest. As he approached a phone booth one night, the moon illuminated something on the ledge where a phone book should have been. It was a copy of the New Testament, which Mitch began reading regularly.

Through his reading he discovered that Jesus was actually Jewish. He celebrated Passover. He fit the descriptions in the Old Testament prophecies. And although Christ’s claims were beginning to make sense to Mitch, believing in Jesus felt like an act of betrayal of his heritage and family. While hiking in the forest one evening, Mitch wrestled with God.

“You don’t understand,” Mitch prayed. “You don’t have a Jewish mother.”

But Jesus did have a Jewish mother, he realized. God understood, and could help him in his new faith. From then on, Mitch’s beliefs solidified. Today he serves as president for Chosen People Ministries, an international Christian outreach to Jewish people.

Jews doubt that Jesus was the Messiah because He wasn’t a military leader, like their tradition expected. Yet Scripture is clear. More than 300 Old Testament references prophesying details about the Messiah were all fulfilled by Jesus.

For a Jewish person to develop faith in Jesus, they need to see Christ as the completion of their roots, says Mitch, not a step away from those roots. Believing in Jesus doesn’t mean you stop being Jewish. In fact, it completes the tradition.

“The irony is that people say you cannot believe in Jesus and be Jewish,” says Joan, who moved to Israel 21 years ago to reconnect with her Jewish heritage. “We have found pertinence to Jewish festivals that we never found before.”

Jews who believe Jesus is the Messiah are called Messianic Jews, or Jewish believers. But terminology can sometimes mislead. “I don’t like labels,” says Joan. “But know two things about me: I am a Jew, and I believe in Yeshua as the Messiah of Israel.”

It was enough for a searching hippie to understand 30 years ago. He found meaning in the Messiah and still serves Him today.

#jewish #jewish synagogue #jews and judaism #jews #testimonies #blog

[dailyaudiobible]

10/3/2023 DAB Transcript pt1

Jeremiah 1:1-2:30, Philippians 4:1-23, Psalm 75:1-10, Proverbs 24:17-20

Today is the third day of October, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian and it's great to be here with you today as we gather around the Global Campfire and move forward together. So, we have moved into a new week. We have moved into a new month. Now, today, because we finished the book of Isaiah yesterday, we’re moving into a new book in the Old Testament. We’ll also be concluding a letter in the New Testament today. So, movement is happening. So, when we get to the New Testament, we’ll finish the book of Philippians.

Introduction to the Book of Jeremiah:

But now, here at the beginning in the Old Testament, we have reached the beginning of the book of Jeremiah, which is a part of the grouping of books known as the major prophets, just like Isaiah. And Jeremiah is prophesying a couple of decades before and then through the Babylonian attack and conquest. Things that we read about and we're reading in second Kings and second Chronicles, Jeremiah is a prophetic voice during this time. And as with many prophetic voices and prophetic books that are in the Bible, we have these oracles from God. And so, like with Isaiah, we’re jumping around a lot because the things that he had to say were aimed in different directions at different times. So it's not like a linear narrative story; like this happened, then this happen and this happened and this happened. Jeremiah is a book of prophecy so it’s like this as well, but it's intriguing because we…we get a glimpse more into Jeremiah's mindset, and he does not want to be doing some of the things that he's invited to do, especially at the time that he’s invited to do them. And so, there’s an authenticity to Jeremiah that we get to understand and we get to see the frustration of a prophet who thinks nobody is listening and he just wants to be released from the mission. And he wasn't just making it up, Israel had turned her back on God and for more than two decades Jeremiah was one of the only, if not the only voice warning the people that the direction they were going in wasn't going to end anywhere good. They were on the wrong path going in the wrong direction. And this often led Jeremiah to be in conflict with the people. This is a time where there is reasonable prosperity. It doesn't look like there's impending doom. And so, if you know, if business is good but there is a doomsayer, then the doomsayer probably isn't good for business. The business people want people to spend their money right, not be freaked out that something bad is about to happen. And this kind of went up the chain until powerful enough people were just fed up with Jeremiah and all of his interference. So, we’ll watch that even though Jeremiah has frustration and even in tremendous amount of sadness, his loyalty to God remains true. And as it turns out, he was speaking from the Lord and telling the people the truth. Babylon did invade the land in 587 BC. Jerusalem, the holy city, fell. The palace of God that Solomon had made was leveled, completely destroyed. And through it all Jeremiah is there giving words from the Lord to instruct the people how to navigate what is happening and they're not listening. So, with that, we begin one of the most intriguing prophets in the Bible, Jeremiah chapter 1 verse 1 through 2 verse 30 today.

[officialyourdailyinspiration]

I’ve had many young people over the years claim that if I really believed the Bible, I would be obeying all the Old Testament laws!

Though there are more Bibles, study aids, churches, Christian bookstores, television and radio programs, and schools than any other era in history, our young people are incredibly biblically illiterate. Many don’t know what the Bible teaches or that the Bible is the grand narrative pointing to the person and work of Jesus Christ.

As I’ve spoken across America and other parts of the Western world, read research and atheist writings, and answered questions, I’ve noticed a common stumbling block that comes up continually. Most of the younger generations of biblically illiterate young people do not understand the purpose and place of the Old Testament. They’ve never been taught how to properly understand and apply the first thirty-nine books of the Bible, especially the ones dealing with the Mosaic covenant and law.

Because they lack a proper understanding, many in the younger generations will accuse the church of being hypocritical for what they perceive as following some laws and not others.

We hear accusations such as, “So you think homosexuality is wrong, but does that mean we should kill gay people? (Leviticus 20:13)” and “Why do you wear clothes made from two different kinds of fabric since Leviticus 19:19 says not to?” These young people don’t understand the role of the OT because, to them, Christians seem to pick and choose which laws they want to obey. When pastors use Old Testament terminology such as “come to the altar,” “anointing with oil,” or even “the Ten Commandments,” they reinforce in these young minds that Old Testament laws should still apply but that Christians can simply ignore the ones they don’t like.

Now there’s nothing wrong with using Old Testament terminology to communicate truth. After all, the Old Testament is a foreshadowing of what was to come in Jesus Christ and is a vital part of and foundation for our theology. Indeed, New Testament authors not only quoted from the Old Testament and referenced its history, but also frequently pointed their Jewish readers back to Old Testament themes by using words and motifs from the former writings:

"I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present yourself as living sacrifices." (Romans 12:1; see Psalm 50:13–14)

"Seeing then that we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God." (Hebrews 4:14; see Leviticus 21:10–15)

"Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded." (James 4:8; see Psalm 24:4)

What the New Testament writers understood was the importance of knowing your audience. If a writer was penning a letter or a gospel to a largely Gentile audience that didn’t have much knowledge of Jewish customs or the Old Testament, he would avoid using Old Testament terms and motifs or would explain them carefully. If he was writing to a largely Jewish audience, he could easily use references to the temple, sacrifices, priests, or Jewish customs and feasts because his audience would have the foundational knowledge to understand what the writer was communicating.

In a sense, the West used to be a “Jewish” audience. In days gone by, even many unbelievers knew biblical history, believed in a Creator God, and largely believed the Bible had at least some authority. If a pastor referenced something from the Old Testament or used a clichéd phrase with Old Testament connotations, the audience understood what was meant. This is not so anymore. Even many of the younger generations who have grown up in the church do not know the Old Testament except perhaps a few scattered accounts such as “Daniel in the lion’s den” or “David and Goliath.” Essentially the audience is no longer “Jewish” but is “Gentile” in their knowledge and thinking.

So how do we effectively minister to a Gentile audience? Well, first we need to help our audience understand the purpose and place of the Old Testament, particularly the Old Testament law. The Old Testament provides the history that the New Testament is based on. It points out our sinfulness, hopelessness, and desperate need for a Savior.

In Genesis we learn that God created a perfect world, but Adam and Eve chose not to obey God’s command and marred the world by their sin. Their children likewise chose disobedience, as did their children after them. Eventually the world became so wicked that God judged it with a global flood. Only righteous Noah and his family survived. But, just a few generations later, mankind rebelled against God again. Eventually God chose a covenant people, Israel, for himself and gave them his law. They failed to live by it time and time again. This pattern of failing to keep God’s law repeats itself throughout the whole Old Testament. The history of mankind and the nation of Israel clearly show that we cannot keep God’s commands and laws on our own.

With this backdrop, the New Testament teaching of salvation through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ makes sense. Salvation is by faith alone (Ephesians 2:8), in Christ alone (Acts 4:12), because sinful human beings have fallen short of God’s law (Romans 3:23) and can never keep it. So Christ kept it for us (Matthew 5:17). What we could never do on our own, Christ did for us because it’s impossible for us to earn our own salvation (Ephesians 2:9). Throughout the Bible we see the unfolding of God’s plan of salvation that culminates in the person and work of Christ. It’s about Jesus from beginning to end!

The Mosaic Law—the law that was given to the Israelites under the Old Covenant—does the same thing as the history of the Old Testament. It highlights our inability to keep God’s commands. The law served as a “tutor” to lead us to Christ (Galatians 3:24) by showcasing our sinfulness (Romans 3:19) and showing us what sin was (7:7). The Law was also designed to keep Israel completely separate and distinct from her pagan neighbors (Leviticus 20:26). Some laws which seem strange to us—such as not mixing fabrics or types of crops—were designed to emphasize the holiness of God (Leviticus 19:2) and the need for Israel to keep herself separate from her neighbors (something she consistently did not do).

The sacrifice of animals and the priesthood, which were so integral to the Old Covenant, were types and shadows of Christ who was to come (the author of Hebrews lays this out beautifully in his letter). Now that Jesus has come, these types have been completely and utterly fulfilled. We are no longer under this Old Covenant (Romans 6:14). Jesus, through his death, burial, and resurrection, has made the first covenant obsolete (Hebrews 8:13) and has brought us into the New Covenant (Luke 22:20) foretold by the prophet Jeremiah (Jeremiah 31:31). We are no longer bound by the Old Covenant—it has been utterly fulfilled and nailed to the cross. So why don’t Christians advocate stoning homosexuals and ban clothing with more than one fiber? Simply because we aren’t under the Mosaic Law, the Old Covenant, anymore. This doesn’t mean the Mosaic Law holds no value for us. The principles of the Law still offer guidance for believers and many have been carried over (Romans 13:9) and are now part of “the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus” (8:2). The Mosaic Law certainly has great value for New Covenant believers (15:4; 1 Corinthians 10:11) but it is no longer binding to us because we are under a different covenant (Hebrews 8:6–7).

Now some people have argued that if God’s laws can change throughout history, then the Bible cannot be relied upon as an absolute foundation for morality. After all, if putting homosexuals to death was the right thing to do in Old Testament times, but isn’t now, doesn’t that show morality changes with time?

The point is that we don’t get to decide what is moral—God does, and we must submit to him and his law. His revelation to us is the only way we can know what is moral. You see, morality is grounded in the character of God, and God does not change (Hebrews 13:8). But this doesn’t mean rules or punishments can’t change.

The Old Testament, especially the Mosaic Law, seems to be a big stumbling block to younger generations because they aren’t receiving the instruction fundamental to understanding the redemptive history of the Old Testament and how it undergirds the person and work of Jesus. Therefore Christian leaders, pastors, teachers, and parents need to be careful that they’re teaching others how they should view the Old Testament and the Law as Christians under the New Covenant. Don’t avoid using the Old Testament—it forms the basis for our theology—but make sure your audience properly understands how to view it so they can grow in the knowledge of Christ (2 Peter 3:18) and in godliness.

— Ken Ham

[fleurcareil]

South Saskatchewan

Next morning, I was super-efficient in packing up and left sharp at 7.45am (I've become even better at early departures in the Rockies, simply to avoid the crowds 🥴) as I had a long drive to do; over 600km to my next camping spot... Not sure I completely had thought this through when I booked it, but think I was lured by the 1-hour jump back in time when crossing into Saskatchewan, although the actual driving time stays the same of course!! 🤔

First Gmaps direction; turn left in 361km.... love it, those large-distance roads in Canada! 🙃 I was now officially on the Red Coat Trail but different to other provinces, I never saw any plaques or tourist info signs so I still don't really understand what it's about... I presume something with the army traveling west during the new frontier?? Now, it's just endless fields and sky which are pretty in their own right... Although I love my trees and forests, there's something special about this massive expanse of agricultural lands, a testament to human's ability to control the land. I did feel cheated, as the "Land of Living Skies" was yellow-grey both below and above the horizon with smoke turning everything dull... such a shame! On the way, there's really not much to see apart from the rare sunflower field 🤩, modern-day grain stores, cows and surprisingly lots of nodding donkeys that pump oil from the ground!

Close to half-way the province, I veered further south towards the US border onto gravel roads to see Castle Butte, a 200ft-high knoll left in the landscape during the Ice Age (not sure I trust that info, as I thought buttes are of volcanic origin). Looming high above the flat prairie land I tried to climb up it (where other people already were so I was not completely stupid yet) but it got too steep for my non-hiking shoes and then instead of coming down on my butt as I should have, I tried to walk it and ended up running at full speed down the slope... I got really extremely lucky I didn't fall and break any/all body parts!! 😳😳 I did end up semi-twisting both ankles which I still feel 2 weeks later, but instead of complaining I am grateful that that was the worst of it! Phew...

The adventures of the day didn't stop with that because a bit later I ran over and killed a duck! 😫 With lots of dark skid marks on the gravel, I only realized too late that there were 4 full-sized ducks sitting in the middle of the road and although I braked as much I safely could, I had no choice than to go over them and hope they all fit between my wheels... 3 survived (likely with a heart attack!) and one didn't. I've had very little roadkill in the 20+ years driving, and definitely nothing as big as this so that was quite upsetting!

My mood improved however when I arrived at Grasslands National Park, which consists of two blocks some 170km apart; the east block that I visited first protects a vast expanse of badlands, whereas the west block where I was camping that night represents Canada's largest tract of untouched native prairielands (which covered most of North America's central region until the settlers came ranching & farming). I'm trying not to overkill with pictures but both areas were very very pretty and I would urge anyone to make a trip out here!

On the east side, there's a few hikes but it was so hot that I simply drove along the Badlands Parkway with interpretative signs explaining the geology and the natural & human history of the area. The badlands seem at first glance quite monotone but then I discovered flowers, prickly pear cacti, gophers (ground squirrels of which I had already spotted lots on the road) and even a pronghorn antilope!

The clouds pushed by the wind kept changing the light patterns, highlighting in turn different hills, so it was great to sit for a while in a red chair and see the scenery constanly change.

Hot and tired, I made the trek to the other block passing enroute another grain elevator, after which I set up camp on the beautiful prairie without a single tree (with a fence though to protect against the bison)! My pic of the sunset doesn't do it justice, but you can imagine how pretty the sky was, and as this is a dark sky preserve, I stayed up late (after midnight, which doesn't happen often anymore 😜) to watch the Milky Way in its full glory.

The next morning, I had a clear task; prairie dog and bison hunting, which are the two key species of the park. A gopher (top left pic) had already been running all morning around my site (he shouldn't have built his hole next to the firepit), so when I spotted the first prairie dog (top right pic) in one of the park's colonies or "dog towns" I was a bit confused as they looked the same to me! 😂 Turns out the prairie dogs are about twice the size and much more afraid of humans, although they loved eating the dead bugs from my car bumper and tires 😍 which meant that although it was impossible to get up close while walking as the first prairie dog would bark to warn the entire colony and then all disappeared, they had no problem with the car being close to them... funny how humans impact nature in weird ways sometimes!

The bison were more elusive, as they truly don't like people, and although a herd of 500 of them is maintained in the park (with surplus animals being exported to other parks for reintroduction), the enclosed area is so large for them to roam in that they have plenty of places to hide. So I slowly made my way through the park with my binoculars on hand, learning along the way about a homestead that had managed to ranch cattle for a few years but then had to abandon because it was simply too hard to survive on the barren land, the different native grasses that make up the prairieland, a bison rubbing rock and a stone tipi ring, all the while enjoying the views.

And then finally, when I had given up and was enroute to the village to get gas, I first saw a lone bison chugging through the grass, and then at the outermost corner of the enclosure, suddenly there was a group of 40 bison, including a few calves, that were grazing and rolling in the dirt. I promise I could see them much clearer in my binoculars than the little black specks in the picture! 😁

By the time I got to the village a massive rainstorm broke out so good reason to drop by the visitor centre and confirm it was a golden eagle (much bigger than bald eagles) that I had seen on a pole. I first didn't understand the gas "station" set-up as you needed to pull some levers to get it going, but finally managed to fill up the car once more.

That evening, the skies blackened suddenly with a thunderstorm and the wind was so strong that the tent started sliding away (the neighbour's did blow away) so I threw in as many stones I could find, parked my car in front of the tent to form a bit of a windshield and waited it out in the car... no way I was going to stay in the tent on this flat land! Luckily the storm passed quite quickly after which I had a drink with my neighbours to laugh it out, but I did end up sleeping in the car (for the first time and quite comfortably!) as rain came & went with some more lightning in the night.

When I drove off in the morning towards the Alberta border, I finally got the promised Living Skies Land with blue skies and golden fields, seeing the Prairies in all its hues 😊 I also saw another (the same??) herd of bisons on the way out of the park as well as another smaller golden eagle and several antelopes 😍

After a relatively short drive, I arrived at the Cypress Hills Interprovincial Park, which straddles the border between Saskatchewan and Alberta, consisting again of two blocks. Although I had planned again to visit the eastern block first and camp in the western one, a staff member pointed out that I was actually staying in the eastern block so that saved me another 1.5 hours drive! 👍 The park is unfortunately not very natural and has been developed as a resort with mini-golf, golf course, swimming pool etc so I was a bit disappointed. The nature that there is, is being protected because it's on a hill standing 500m above the plains so it was not glaciated and has therefore unique plant life (including trees) that doesn't occur anywhere else in the region but they haven't done a good job at protecting it! I had great internet at a viewpoint so ended up sitting on a bench there for 4 hours booking my next set of accommodations 😃 while occasionally hearing loud grunting lower on the hill which I presume was an angry moose so I didn't have any urge to go explore further!

Next day, I would be driving into Alberta, so this was Saskatchewan for now until I return further north on my way back. Adieu!

Wildlife: 1 coyote & 1 deer (Red Coat Trail), 100+ ground squirrels (gophers), 100+ prairie dogs, 43 bison in the afternoon and 50 bison in the morning, 2 golden eagles, 2 ferruginous hawks, 1 deer, 5 pronghorn antilopes (Grasslands), 3 red-tailed hawks & 3 deer (Cypress Hills)

SUPs: none

Hikes: no real ones, just lots of little sidetrips to viewpoints

Distance driven since the last map (I'm losing track of the weeks 😉 but it's been a while all the way from Sleeping Giant): 1,925 km

[solradguy]

I'm pretty sure I'm a Testament kinnie but I have yet to put in the thought to confirm that lol - 🍚

The thing that made me have that "aw shit I am a kinnie" moment was when I realized that I do like... have a hard time figuring myself out so I tend to examine myself through the lens of my favorite characters. I don't really know how to explain it... Like, I'll see a relatable aspect in a character I enjoy, pick it apart, and examine it from every angle to figure out why exactly I relate to that or why I feel that way. With Sol there are a LOT of things about him that I relate to, more probably than any other character I've ever related to before, honestly.

There isn't really a relatable-aspects threshold or anything for kinning a character, but I guess if you do something similar with Testament and resonate with them on a similar psychological/philosophical way, then you might be a type of fictionkin/otherkin too.

I've read a lot of essays about kin stuff to try to process why tf my brain does this and a good portion of them pointed out how it isn't always a case of wanting to physically become or embody a character. Before I read more about it, I had the impression that people who kinned characters actually wanted to become a character (or saw themselves as the character) in every case. There were essays that talked about using them as a way to analyze or understand themselves similarly to how I've been but it is different for everyone. Some also mentioned how, for them, they were something similar to a reincarnation or manifestation, either physically or mentally, of the character they related to. I think that gets more into dissociative identity disorder (DID) territory though, which I don't know very much about outside of it having some overlap with kinning, so I won't go into that because I'd be talking out of my ass.

Another thing I found comforting about reading these essays though, outside of finding out that a lot more people kin characters than I realized, is that most of the these essays were written by incredibly literate adults whose ages ranged from 20 up to at least one person in their 50s. I thought kinning was something only kids/teenagers did lol

#asks #I don't really want to elaborate exactly how I relate to Sol because I'd have to get into some real- #-personal shit that I don't want to throw out into the public so just take my word for it #I should probably make a tag on my blog for these like otherkin self analyzation posts hmm... #kin tag

[purplesurveys]

1446

1. Do you enjoy being surrounded by neighbors, or would you be more comfortable someplace secluded? I feel like being somewhere secluded would affect me negatively. I like the vibe where I currently live, where I have neighbors but none of us feel the pressure to talk with one another and keep up ties and such.

2. Is there any sibling rivalry between you and your siblings, if you have any? I don’t think it counts as a ‘rivalry’ as it denotes some sort of active competition, but I’m not on speaking terms with my brother due to something he did a few years back.

3. Do you usually root for the good guys or the bad guys? It depends on the character. I usually do find the bad guys irritating which is a testament to their execution, but sometimes there are just villains who are so good at being bad I can’t help but root for them - like Walter White and Gus Fring from Breaking Bad, and to some extent even The Governor from The Walking Dead.

4. Are you allowed to have pets at your house? Yeah, my parents own the place so we have three dogs.

5. Have you ever lived in a trailer park? No.

6. Is there anyone that you know through the internet that you would feel comfortable meeting in person? My circle of internet friends has drastically shrunk over the years and out of the few ones I remain to have, I’d really only be comfortable meeting Aliyah. 

7. Have you ever had a dream involving characters from a game/movie/television show? I rarely remember my dreams but I’m sure that has already occurred before.

8. Do you ever have dreams about people you have never even seen before? Sure. I once had a dream where I had a daughter, even though I’ve never seen whoever that baby girl was before. There was another dream of mine (it was more of a nightmare, though) where I had to witness a loved one getting shot, and I wasn’t familiar with who the perpetrator was.

9. What’s the last thing you wrote down? I had to think of a mock-up for a social media card we were planning to pitch to a client and it was just harder to describe the asset to my associate in words, so I ended up doodling the envisioned material and writing some details on it for her better understanding.

10. Do you remember any phone numbers from years ago that now belong to someone you don’t know? I don’t think so.

11. How often does your household get numbers for the wrong people? Not very often; maybe once every few months. It probably helps that not a lot of people use landline anymore.

12. Have you ever found something strange in your mailbox? We don’t have a mailbox, but generally we’ve never received anything weird.

13. Is there anything specific you need to do within the next week? Just some work-related deadlines I have to accomplish.

14. What was the last movie you got from Netflix [if you use it]? I’m not sure what you mean by ‘got,’ but the last movie I saw was called A Hard Day, but it was the Filipino version coming from the original South Korean film. I watched it with my parents this morning.

15. Are you annoyed by the increase in prices for Netflix? My dad pays the monthly subscription for our family so it doesn’t affect me.

16. Who was the last relative that came to visit you? My grandma and one of my cousins came over for my brother’s birthday.

17. Does your bedding all match? Yep.

18. Are you having company over the weekend? Nopes. I only have friends come over whenever there’s an online concert we wanna watch together, and there’s none of that happening this weekend.

19. Do people come to you a lot with their problems? Not a lot, but my friends will sometimes come to me if they want to rant or need advice on something, yes.

20. Have you/would you ever consider teaching as a career? I don’t think I ever wanted to be a teacher, even as a kid.

21. Are you most comfortable with having short hair or long hair? Ultimately, shorter.

22. Do you usually cut your hair short in the summer? Nah, my schedule when it comes to having my hair trimmed is always random.

23. Are you interested in fantasy movies/shows? No, it’s one of my least favorite genres.

24. Have you ever gone whale-watching? I think we’ve tried it before? but it wasn’t too successful. I was able to see some dolphins, though.

25. What is something that you have a large amount of? K-pop freebies (mostly replicards, stickers, and thank you notes) from all the shops I’ve purchased from over the last few months.

#survey #surveys

[torposopla]

Nobody is saying that but also please explain to me why I keep seeing *pics bellow* from 19y/o blogs?

Women surprise me with the amount of imagination they have, women can write whatever they want to but where is the line between "is ok to explore your dark fantasies" and "maybe you should re think why you find this so alluring"?.

Like I think porn also groomed me in my 20's and I was pretty stupid and this blog in my testament about how much I changed is the past 10 years so I can see what I used to think back in the day.

But it really bothers me right now to navigate some fandoms and see women using this kind of language for very normal things like for example "liking an smell" (now is a "Smell kink" guys).

Not sure if I want my imaginary 2D boyfriend to do all those things to me, I just don't really like it. Like having sex with real men sometimes really sucks and is always horrible when you get physically hurt from the experience... If the imaginary blorbo is doing it... I don't think It would make it better.

I feel very conflicted because I think you can't make a critic without feeling you want to censor this people or that people would think you're a "prude" or to be signaled as "you don't want people to enjoy things", but I really have interest to understand "why?".

All this fantasies exist because they where inspired by something (like porn, very male-gaze porn) and is like so virulent how is contracted, how is encouraged and pushed to be "normal".

#i think i just have a personal vendetta with some of this stuff #this is like one sample and I don't have fuel to elaborate because I'm just baffled #but sometimes I have to see things like this and that's why i'm worried to make community with some fandoms #i'm not a saint but i'm trying to be more self-aware and less shameless in pushing weirdo shit in from of other poor people

[coolksaposts]

Most people understand hope as wishful thinking, as in "I hope something will happen." This is not what the Bible means by hope. The biblical definition of hope is "confident expectation." Hope is a firm assurance regarding things that are unclear and unknown (Romans 8:24-25; Hebrews 11:1, 7). Hope is a fundamental component of the life of the righteous (Proverbs 23:18). Without hope, life loses its meaning (Lamentations 3:18; Job 7:6) and in death there is no hope (Isaiah 38:18; Job 17:15). The righteous who trust or put their hope in God will be helped (Psalm 28:7), and they will not be confounded, put to shame, or disappointed (Isaiah 49:23). The righteous, who have this trustful hope in God, have a general confidence in God’s protection and help (Jeremiah 29:11) and are free from fear and anxiety (Psalm 46:2-3).

The New Testament idea of hope is the recognition that in Christ is found the fulfillment of the Old Testament promises (Matthew 12:21, 1 Peter 1:3). Christian hope is rooted in faith in the divine salvation in Christ (Galatians 5:5). Hope of Christians is brought into being through the presence of the promised Holy Spirit (Romans 8:24-25). It is the future hope of the resurrection of the dead (Acts 23:6), the promises given to Israel (Acts 26:6-7), the redemption of the body and of the whole creation (Romans 8:23-25), eternal glory (Colossians 1:27), eternal life and the inheritance of the saints (Titus 3:5-7), the return of Christ (Titus 2:11-14), transformation into the likeness of Christ (1 John 3:2-3), the salvation of God (1 Timothy 4:10) or simply Christ Himself (1 Timothy 1:1).

The certainty of this blessed future is guaranteed through the indwelling of the Spirit (Romans 8:23-25), Christ in us (Colossians 1:27), and the resurrection of Christ (Acts 2:26). Hope is produced by endurance through suffering (Romans 5:2-5) and is the inspiration behind endurance (1 Thessalonians 1:3; Hebrews 6:11). Those who hope in Christ will see Christ exalted in life and in death (Philippians 1:20). Trustworthy promises from God give us hope (Hebrews 6:18-19), and we may boast in this hope (Hebrews 3:6) and exhibit great boldness in our faith (2 Corinthians 3:12). By contrast, those who do not place their trust in God are said to be without hope (Ephesians 2:12, 1 Thessalonians 4:13).

Along with faith and love, hope is an enduring virtue of the Christian life (1 Corinthians 13:13), and love springs from hope (Colossians 1:4-5). Hope produces joy and peace in believers through the power of the Spirit (Romans 12:12; 15:13). Paul attributes his apostolic calling to the hope of eternal glory (Titus 1:1-2). Hope in the return of Christ is the basis for believers to purify themselves in this life (Titus 2:11-14, 1 John 3:3).

Got Questions.....Whatis the believer's hope?

[spacey-moocom]

⚠️SPOILERS FOR ZELDA OCARINA OF TIME FOR ANYONE PLAYING IT FOR THE FIRST TIME⚠️

Finally beat Ocarina of Time for the first time. (Played on NSO btw) Here’s my thoughts and personal rating:

The game in terms of story is obviously an artistic masterpiece. If you didn’t know that then watch this video: https://youtu.be/GyUcwsjyd8Q?si=nd7AdwU0nIom6UvN

I can’t say more than what’s already been said in that regard except that the only way to enhance your understanding of the story after this video is to play the game. Truly the most tragic Zelda game (imo).

The game is old. It feels old. The camera is ROUGH, the slow dialogue boxes when the only other option is skipping straight to the end are unfortunate, the z-lock combat is occasionally jank (especially when switching between enemies is occasionally prioritized over turning it off), and there’s a sense I have that some of what our “legacy” gamers call “old-school difficulty” is just annoying, unfun bs. Nothing that bad, just mildly frustrating choices, like constantly having to switch boots in the Water Temple. Another example would be in Ganon’s Castle, where, if you’re like me and didn’t get the fire arrows because you’re a silly goose, you literally can’t progress. I never used fire arrows except for two or three rooms in that castle, but the rest of the whole game I managed to avoid them. Especially the Spirit room (I think) though, where you need to shoot a fire arrow into the ceiling. Why? What was the reason? Was it a reference to how you get the fire arrows? Did anyone actually get that without a guide or without trial and error? It’s hard for me to imagine so, and I call bs. But it hardly detracts from the rest of the game.

Obviously the music is fucking iconic. Lost Woods, the Ocarina songs, Sheik’s theme—omfg they popped tf off. Modern recordings in orchestral settings bring out the musicality more imo but that is just a testament to how great the original music is imo.

99% of the dungeon design is undefeated. The puzzles are satisfying, thought-provoking, and creative. Almost every time I needed to google something it turned out that I had just forgotten an option I had or otherwise could’ve come up with the solution myself if I’d thought about it a bit longer. With occasional bs exception, the gameplay in this game is sincerely masterful. I love this game istg

The graphics have that old-school charm and are consistently comprehensible and atmospheric. I never felt confused at what I was looking at in a way that was anything except the camera’s fault. The animations are honestly surprisingly solid for such an old game. Generally, the visual storytelling, style, and aesthetic are just 🤌 I love them

I want to note the final boss fight against Ganon. Dear GOD that fight is INCREDIBLE. The MUSIC. The SETTING. The SOUNDS. The VISUALS. The SCREAM Zelda lets out every time you get hit. There is not a single fight in gaming I’ve had that feels like that fight. The sense of dread Ganon releases just by LOOKING the way it does, the way the SHADOWS cover it’s fucking FACE OH MY GOD. It feels so final. It feels so dramatic. It feels so intense. It feels so animalistically terrifying. I. ADORE. This. Fight.

Overall, my personal rating for OoT is a 23/20. I love the soundtrack, I love the story, and I so, so, SO appreciate what this game did for gaming in years past. The only thing about it is that I just didn’t like the jank. And there is jank. Because it is old. Which made my enjoyment less than it could’ve been. I am desperately praying and hoping for a version of this game made with the game design lessons we learned since the game released. If this game was remade, it would have the potential, to be on par with Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom, in my book. This has been an advertisement for GoodBlood’s Ocarina of Time video.

#ocarina of time #Youtube

[casualjacobwrites]

FFXIV Write 2023 Prompt #20 - Hamper

I like angst and seeing men in emotional pain.

Spoilers for Shadowbringers and Endwalker, specifically around lore concerning the Ascians and the sundering of the worlds. I'm timing this as not long after said sundering took place, before the fall of the Thirteenth.

Text doesn't so much imply Azem/Emet-Selch (Hades) as outright says they were a couple.

Word Count: 1025

Under the depths of an ocean lay the remains of a once glorious city. The skeletal structures of its spires served as testament to the magnificence of a civilization no mortal could remember, yet many among them wept with sorrow for its loss. In time the sea would wear this small remnant away along with the memories of the great world of Etheirys.

Emet-Selch navigated the cold darkness of the waters with ease. Even without his nigh-bottomless reserves of aether he needn't rely on his breath to keep him alive, if he could rightly call himself alive any longer. Once he'd idly wondered when he might choose to return to the star and with whom, but now that choice was beyond him as were the precious souls he had wished to take with him on that final journey. To know at least one of them remained whole should have given him some semblance of comfort, however, it pained him to think of his friend wandering among other restless souls that served to sustain the physical embodiment of their star's will.

It wasn't supposed to happen this way. Zodiark had done his job and done it well. The Convocation brought the world back from the brink and saved their civilization. All that remained was to cull the new life to resurrect the old, to free his comrade from eternal torment. Perhaps together they could have searched for the pieces of their dear friend's soul and life could return to the way it was. Yet, it was not to be for Venat had created Hydaelyn and shattered existence itself for reasons he could not fathom or understand.

Emet-Selch let these thoughts and memories flow over him like the water around him. To focus on them served no purpose other than to remind him of his grief and the difficult task ahead of him and his remaining unsundered peers, Lahabrea and Elidibus. He'd journeyed here to the first of Etheirys's shattered reflections to see if it was suitable to bring about a rejoining, or "the Ardor" as Elidibus called it. Visiting the ruins of Amarout wasn't necessary to his research, but the sight of it inspired him and reminded him of the importance of his work.

At the edge of the city he stumbled upon something peculiar, a faint pulse of aether reminiscent of the sort contained within memory crystals. It was strange how such a thing managed to survive Hydaelyn's sundering and yet there it was. As he grew nearer he was able to ascertain the aether's color, his heart sinking at the all too familiar hue.

In his mind he envisioned a roguish smile alongside the glint of mischief in a pair of green eyes. The same smile and eyes that belonged to the person who had once managed to convince him to leap into an active volcano. Whether it was wishful thinking or aether leaking from the crystal he swore he could hear the sound of a familiar laugh and then a quiet whisper of a name.

Hades.

Emet-Selch steeled himself as he stuck his hand into the loose sand of the seabed. Bringing it up to his face he could see the crystal was cracked and was so fragile it might snap at any moment. Thinking swiftly he began to pull together a restoration and protection spell only for his concentration to fail as a voice began to fill his mind.

I know not whether these words will ever find their way to you. As you are so fond of reminding me, I am given to flights of romantic fancy and so I speak now as if it is a certainty you will hear me.

If you fear I will try to hamper the Convocation or your efforts to forestall the end, then be rest assured I did no such thing. I daresay you know well where I stand. That the seat of Azem is no more is testament enough to my convictions.

No, this message is solely for you. For us. As I said at our last parting, if this is the end, then so be it. We are eternal and yet we choose not to remain forever. Perhaps it should be the same with the star. Yet, even as I say that I also understand well why you chose to follow the Convocation's gruesome plan. There is so much beauty in this world and the thought of losing it is almost unbearable.

A part of me wishes I were a lesser man. That I could be selfish and cast aside all morals and sense of what is right and just if only to be able to stand beside you as you serve as steward to a new world. But a world in which life is thrown away for our own desires is not a world in which I might peacefully exist.

You might never understand my motives or reasoning. There so many things I wish I could tell you, so many secrets I yearn to share. While I have no compelling evidence to support it, deep in my heart I know I will see you again. It may take eons, but on that day I will tell you of the many adventures I have had and the dreams of those I've yet to take. 'Tis a foolish idea, I know, but it is better to imagine that than think of a world in which we are forever apart.

I think my last battle is upon me, and I'm fairly certain my tale is coming to an end. If I'm right, then let my final words be these: I love you, Hades. For as bitter as it ended, the memories of our time together were sweeter by far.

Having at long last imparted its message, the crystal shattered within Emet-Selch's palm. He stared at the pieces for a several minutes before closing his fingers around them and bringing his hand to his chest. He'd thought his tears had all been spent, but the familiar burn in his eyes let him know he had many more to shed.

In the end all he had were memories.

#ffxivwrite #ffxivwrite2023 #CasualJacob's writing

[the-hem]

The Parable of the Persistent Widow. Luke 18:1-8.

What is a widow, according to the Torah? A widow is a person who has lost interest in their soul. In the Parable of the Vineyard, Jesus explains how to obtain awareness of one, a widow is someone who has lost interest in life. In the Torah, Tamar, a widow is told she has to wait for God to decide when her life will take on new meaning:

"So Judah said to his daughter-in-law Tamar, "Wait as a widow in your father's house until my son Shelah grows up," for he feared lest he also die as his brothers did. So Tamar went to live in her father's house. (Gen. 38:11)"

Tamar instead has an affair with a young goat and he emits into her. She returns to life and waits for Mashiach.

Who is the widow in the Parable of the Persistent Widow and how she is she like the one in the Torah?

18 Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. 

2 He said: “In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared what people thought. 3 And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, ‘Grant me justice against my adversary.’

4 “For some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, ‘Even though I don’t fear God or care what people think, 

5 yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won’t eventually come and attack me!’”

6 And the Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says. 7 And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off?

 8 I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?”

A town is a happy person. Unless there is an adversary present, then this widows the town, and then it should naturally seek justice for whatever reproached its happiness.

So who is the Judge in the story, and why is he so stoic towards the idea? The duties of judges are detailed in Shoftim, but for the purposes of the Parable, they exist only because trouble exists. Once Mashiach takes place, there should be much less of a need for judges. Shabbat the ablity to sort reality from fantasy is for persons, Mashiach is for everyone, all at once.

Judges are the mechanism for these, they are the process by which perception becomes reason. This is unique to the human form, and it completely unnatural to us. We require a "crime" a reason to reason, and then a judgement and a sentence that will help us carry out the results of the tribunal. First is the power to veto any process contrary to what is reasonable.

The widow has witnessed something, a transgression, her eyes are open but she is immobilized, so the Judge is going to have to step in.

From 10440, א‎אֶפֶסדדאֶפֶס‎‎, apseddapes=

Ap=eyes open

Sed=

The verb εζομαι (hezomai) means to sit or be seated. It stems from the same PIE root "sed-" as does out English verb "to sit". In the classics this verb was only used for present and imperfect tenses and it and its derivatives alternate with ημαι (hemai) and its derivatives.

Our verb is not used independently in the New Testament but together with the preposition κατα (kata), meaning down from, down upon it forms the verb καθεζομαι (kathezomai), meaning to sit down or be seated down, but with an emphasis on being stationary rather than being seated on a chair: the opposite of Mary who "sat" at home (JOHN 11:20) was not Martha standing or lying down, but Martha on the move outside the house.

The opposite of Jesus who "sat" in the temple (MATTHEW 26:55) was not Jesus standing but Jesus on the move, outside the Temple. Sitting emphasizes immobility and specialization in an economic and cognitive sense, and demonstrates a lack of flexibility, diversification and development. Sitting is what lame people do, and see our article on the proverbial duo the lame and the blind.

da= understanding

pes= corruption

There are two roots with the form פסס (pss) in Biblical Hebrew, and one with the comparable form פשה (psh), which appears to have to do with one of the roots פסס (pss):

The root פשה (pasa) means to spread. It occurs only in Leviticus 13 and 14, and only in connection with leprosy and similar eruptions.

So the widow seems to want an underactive judge to address something of the caliber of an outbreak of leprosy or conditions contributing to the demise of the poor.

The verses after this part, state only the most advanced of men will comprehend how to overcome the crippling effects of the world around them and establish their humanity.

This is found in the gematria for verses 6,7, and 8, which are 14995, אדטטה‎, adetta, which translates as:

Ad=

The masculine noun עד ('ad), also spelled ועד (w'ad), literally meaning advancing time. This word is usually translated with perpetuity or forever: of past time (Job 20:4), but most often future time (Psalm 21:6). In the latter case the form is usually לעד (l'ad), literally for always.

Atta=

The verb אתה ('ata) is spelled the same as, and according to the Masoretes, pronounced slightly different from the masculine second person singular. Were we to stubbornly maintain that the two are connected, this verb would literally mean "to you". In reality it's commonly translated with to come; it's a rate poetic equivalent of the much more common verb בוא (bo').

But still, in order to express a coming, one would first require an awareness of you and me, so this verb is still not far removed from the above.

Our verb occurs about twenty times in the Old Testament, half of which in the Book of Isaiah. It describes bringing water to the thirsty (Isaiah 21:14), the coming of the morning (Isaiah 21:12), the getting together of humanity (Isaiah 41:5), the coming of the future in general (Isaiah 41:23), or a specific person and his policies (Isaiah 41:25), or wild beasts on the prowl (Isaiah 56:9).

Scary things may come (Job 3:25), or years (Job 16:22), or the brood of fools (Job 30:14), or the golden splendor around God (Job 37:22). It may describe the coming of God (Deuteronomy 33:2) or a coming to God (Jeremiah 3:22).

Jesus worries the world is too devolved to develop an interest in the things that will bring complete sentience to the world and happiness along with it. The levels of intelligence needed to solve the problems it has caused just seem too evasive. The result will widow all of us of a really good life if something isn't done.

[yhwhrulz]

A Bible Devotional 26th August 2023

Faith Is A Choice

LUKE 22:67 NASB 67 "If You are the Christ, tell us." But He said to them, "If I tell you, you will not believe;

No one can force anyone to believe anything. Each one of us chooses whether we will believe something, based on our evaluation of the evidence presented to us.

Faith and belief may have different English meanings, but in the New Testament they are different forms of the same Greek word. Believe is the verb and faith is the noun for the same word. (Like think and thought are in English.)

JOHN 20:25 NASB 25 The other disciples therefore were saying to him, "We have seen the Lord!" But he said to them, "Unless I shall see in His hands the imprint of the nails, and put my finger into the place of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe."

Note that Thomas said, "I WILL NOT believe."

Many think seeing miracles would cause people to have faith. But the only ones who believe as a result of seeing miracles are those who choose to accept the miracle as sufficient evidence for them to believe. It is still a choice.

JOHN 12:37 NET 37 Although Jesus had performed so many miraculous signs before them, they still refused to believe in him,

I used to think faith was difficult to pin down with certainty -- something like a feeling or state of being. But now I understand that once we make the decision to believe, we are in faith, no matter how we may feel.

At its heart, faith is always a decision. No one can force you to believe in anything. The choice is yours.

However, we cannot believe or have faith in anything without evidence. We must have evidence that convinces us before we can believe something.

The primary evidence God has given us so that we may have faith in Him is His Word. God is not a liar; He can be trusted. Whatever God says, always comes to pass.

So if someone says they don't have much faith, the solution is for them to see the evidence from God's Word on that subject, then choose to accept what God said as true. Then they will have faith. At that point they may not feel anything, but they have faith.

The primary action of faith toward God is speaking in agreement with God's Word. Jesus said if you had faith you would say. So we express what we believe by the words we speak. And then we stand in that position of faith, regardless of feelings or circumstances.

SAY THIS: Nothing can force me to believe. I must choose to believe.

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