#dubbious

[giftofshewbread]

Toxic Traditions

 :: By Edwin Tan  Published on: February 1, 2023

Some of us still have quite a bit of baggage from our heathen past to contend with after giving our lives to the Lord Jesus Christ. Traditions handed down from our ancestors are part and parcel of this unwelcome package. For those who walk in the Living Word, the enabling and empowerment of the Holy Spirit is more than sufficient for an understanding of the significance of these practices. One thing is for sure; we get it in our heads that there are elements of the fallen nature that have no place in our lives – these run counter to what is stated in the Word of God!

“He answered and said to them, ‘Why do you also transgress the Word of God because of your tradition?'” (Matthew 15:3).)

Bear this in mind; once we have surrendered our lives to Christ, there is no room for impartiality – the Lord is displeased with the double-minded! The insistence that there is no big deal where a needless digression is concerned amounts to a fallacious idiosyncrasy. There are those who think that the Lord would not mind a wee bit of stepping back. Absolute hogwash!

It only gets a whole lot worse when this line of argument dictates a lifestyle. No such thing as getting away with a solitary fling. There is that propensity to have another one at some point, and it just goes on with a string of follow-ups. Just like a little leaven that eventually messes the entire loaf!

Peer pressure would be a popular excuse for caving in. Simply for the sake of pleasing the crowd, there is that keeling over. Herein is the problem: these folks see God as someone who lived up in the heavens and half bothered – whereas the people in their immediate social circle mattered more. A blatant lie from the pit of hell! The root of the problem is that they do not have the time to know the Lord and believe wholeheartedly in His Living Word. These folks have the erroneous assumption that all will be lost should they displease their family, friends and colleagues. There are probably a lot of people with this kind of mindset groping around in the dark.

“Then Jesus said to His disciples, ‘If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it'” (Matthew 16:24-25).

On a personal note, the above-said passages from the Gospel have been my bulwark when challenged with peer pressure. This is especially so during the Lunar New Year, which is celebrated by ethnic Chinese. A lot of the traditions reek of worldliness. There is the emphasis on luck which clearly runs counter to believing in the unfailing promises of our Lord. There is a ubiquitous presence of good fortune’s deity during this season, a figurine that purportedly ushers in luck!

I certainly do not entrust my destiny to lady luck but rest wholeheartedly on the grace and mercy of the Lord. I have in the recent past demonstrated this in gatherings that included some practicing Christians. They would enthusiastically participate in the ‘toss’ – a practice that is supposed to herald an endless flow of good luck. The ‘toss’ involves a salad comprised of uncooked vegetables and raw fish. The participants would stir the large plate with their chopsticks for a little over a minute. Then they would have a loud utterance (luck in Mandarin or dialect) before partaking of this concoction. I stayed away from this, but surprisingly, almost all the participants of this ritual respected my position as a workman of Christ!

“For do I now persuade men, or God? Or do I seek to please men? For if I still pleased men, I would not be a bondservant of Christ” (Galatians 1:10).

At the end of the day, we must sincerely believe what we have been taught. We must put the Word of God into practice with all seriousness and diligence. In this manner, many will see the salt and light in us, that we be effective ambassadors for Christ!

We are, without question, living at the cusp of Daniel’s seventieth week. There is heightened demonic activity as the Tribulation draws close. The adversary and his minions are relentless in their onslaught against all of humanity, especially the Body of believers. The malevolent forces will pounce on every crack and crevice that gives them the upper hand. What might appear to be a harmless practice could serve as a springboard for an all-out spiritual assault.

So there is no place for leaving everything to chance. We have to make up our minds right at this moment, jettisoning the things of the fallen nature and putting on Christ in our lives. In so doing, we deny the enemy that opportunity for devastation and destruction. Not even a fraction of a millimeter to be yielded!

Take to heart what is said in 1 Kings 18:21.

“And Elijah came to all the people, and said, ‘How long will you falter between two options? If the LORD is God, follow Him; but if Baal, follow him.’ But the people answered him not a word.”

For those who are caught in that neither here nor there quagmire, it is time to get serious. Time is indeed running out. That quicksand of half-belief is enough to hold you down while the rest of the Body of Christ gets suddenly and mysteriously taken out of the world at an unspecified moment. The deal is not sealed until every element of unbelief is done away with – earthly traditions included!

“Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ” (Colossians 2:8).

It is time to forget about the perishable things of this fallen planet. Time to focus on an imperishable eternity with Christ.

#traditions #family #religious #pagan #rituals #choices #dubbious #double #minded #fear #pleasing #man #men #women #people #instead #of #God #Jesus #Keeping #Scriptual #basic #philosophy #deceit #powwow #native #mixed #christian #mother #earth

[quantumart713]

Gives you doodle without context and then runs away.

Yes, this Is One of the crazy AUS in my head i was talking about. It started as separate, but i like to fuse them too.

Donflamigo has a completely different course of events, joining another pirate crew when he was a kid and encountering a young Luffy during his thirtys. Rosinate and Donflamigo are part of a pirate duo. In the end they become friends and join Luffy crew.

The Admirals (or ex-marine) have just been taken by Luffy. With various deegre of acceptance.

There's also Sir Crocodile as part of the crew, but he's not present in these doodles. I'm more dubbious if keeping him part of the stable crew.

So yeah. This AU can be summed up in "Luffy adopts some new father figures, each one worst then the last."

#art #one piece #my art #donquixote doflamingo #monkey d. luffy #one piece admirals #akainu #aokiji #kizaru #this AU is probably going to have some major changes because i'm never Happy with my work

[time-variance-archive]

Sorry, I haven't made posts of my own for a while, mainly because I am a bit tired when I come back from work and I don't find the creative energy or the self discipline to do basic ressearches. My next posts include references to Henri Bergson's Time and Free Will, and watching a few more online classes about the Eddas and historical knowledge of the Norse myths.

But recently I got caugh in a very interesting conversation (tw for heavy topics) and while I don't want to include myself in the thread, I want to make my own post it.

I'm not sure where to begin, because violence in fiction is a very complex topic that have been discussed since humans make up stories. I don't have any moral ground to hold there and I think everyone's feelings and opinions on the matter have a value. I am not one of those poeple who scream against "antis" all day, because "anti" is a word that can mean anything and nothing at once (okay, I use it occasionally, always for specific situations like anti-Sylki, anti-Lokius, anti-series... it's just an easy way to name the sides of an argument). I think it's a mere courtesy to respect other poeple's triggers and emotional response, as well as their argumentation.

I think a good text to read on the matter is Aristotle's Poetics, but I am too lazy to look at anything else than the Wikipedia page and my few memories from college.

I think a good part of the "fandom wank" comes from an opposition of a Platonician and an Aristotelian approach of fiction. Some poeple take fiction as a symetrical imitation of the real world while other people read fiction in a more metaphorical way. I don't think any of those sides are better, especially because not all fiction is meant to be consumed the same way. I would say it is not appropriate to watch historical fiction the same way we watch fantasy.

Anyway, sorry if I'm rambling, I'll come to the point discussed here : does Mobius' interrogation methods qualify as torture, and is it appropriate within the narrative of the show ?

As @iamanartichoke said, fiction is subjective to a certain point and I agree. I've been talking about the time loop scene with several poeple in DMs and we confronted our perception of the scene, and how it clashes with the answers of @lucianalight and @tori-artemis.

I think a lot of poeple, me including, percieved the time loop scene as a memory loop, aka, not Loki being repeatedly beated by Sif, but Loki experiencing a memory of being repetedly beaten by Sif. It's not a big nuance, but it changes the whole meaning of the scene.

By putting the emphase on the memory aspect, the scene becomes an introspective moment. What matters here is how Loki reacts to the memory and how it shapes his character journey. After the first loop, Loki mocks the choice of memory, saying "I never thought about it again, because it was just a little fun". It takes him a few loops to come to the realisation he has hurt Sif, and to apologize. Interesting part, his apologies worked, even in a memory, and fake-Sif tells him "you have always been alone and you will always be."

What I understood of this scene is that sometimes, we have to think over and over about a past event to take a lesson from it. I think we've all been Loki there, remembering a morally dubbious deed with fondness or indifference. Wasn't it funny when we pranked the poor math teacher and they lost their temper ? Here, Loki comes to an important realisation : one of the reasons why he's been alone is because he was seeking attention the wrong way. It's only by admitting his wrong that he can take something out of the memory.

Note that my interpretation is purely doylist : the time loop scene serves as a visual metaphor for introspection. This is not an admission that Mobius was right or Loki deserved it, because I am in no way a TVA apologist. My feelings for Mobius are complex and I keep that for another post.

I hope I'm not offending anyone with this post, I am not interested in discourse at all and I have no claim that my interpretation of fiction is more valid than anyone.

@iamanartichoke @lucianalight @tori-artemis @rollychan @acertifiedmoron

#watsonian vs doylist #meta #morality in fiction

[the-archlich]

The Alleged-List-Of-Possible-DW10-Adds-of-Dubbious-Credibility sounds pretty… boring. Like, Wei gets another Cao Cao era adviser, when he's gotten 5 such adds since DW7, and another Cao era general, when that's already filled with them. Why not Cao Zhen? And why Zhuge Jin rather than Ke? Are they going to use Sun Luyu and Lu Kang as Fall of Wu officers, alongside old-man Ding Feng? Because I can see then doing it. Others are boring choices too. With some luck, those aren't the actual adds.

IMO the list is too boring to be trustworthy. It’s mostly just a list of “people who are kind of expected”. I’m sure some of these will turn out to be correct, but that’s because they’re obvious guesses.

I was trying to find “leaks” from DW9 to compare these with because I’m sure there’s a lot of overlap but then I got bored and stopped looking.

[ao3feed-lesmiserables]

Fin de Vers

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/2mE0wFA

by midautumnnightdream

Jean Prouvaire already knew the shape that his end would take. Now it was only the matter of finding the right words.

(The Last Verses of Jean Prouvaire, from his own POV)

Words: 1212, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English

Fandoms: Les Misérables - All Media Types, Les Misérables - Victor Hugo

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Warnings: Major Character Death

Categories: Gen

Characters: Jean "Jehan" Prouvaire, Fannicot (Les Misérables)

Additional Tags: Canon Era, Canonical Character Death, Non-Graphic Violence, On The Barricade, Canon Compliant, everything is pain forever, Jean Prouvaire is a Romantic, more so in the face of death, implied Bahorel/Prouvaire, in which the author made herself cry, Originally Posted on Tumblr, Barricade Day, dubbious Hugo pastiche

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/2mE0wFA

#IFTTT #ao3feed #fanfic #les miserables #les mis

[the-archlich]

Of course you got bored! What other reaction can be to the boring Alleged-List-Of-Possible-DW10-Adds-of-Dubbious-Credibility of boredom. I feel bored just writing about it… ZZZZZZZZZ

Doesn’t really give a whole lot to talk about, does it?