#like David's rants in the Psalms

[anniflamma]

Here is my "hate" post on Micah from The Prince's Psalm.

I just want to rant, I guess!

Just to be clear, I don't hate Micah. Actually, I freaking love how he was written, how he affected David so much throughout the story, and the tragic, yet genius way to use parallelism between the relationships David had with him and Jonathan.

So at the start of David's childhood, he was desperate to find a friend that wouldn't smother him like his family does due to their overprotectiveness. So when he met Micah, he mistook Micah's disinterest in him as respect. So in David's perspective, he thinks that Micah was the first person who respected David as an independent person, but as the reader, we know that was the opposite. Eventually, they became friends, and after the bear attack and David saved Micah from the animal, it was then they both realized they loved each other romantically.

So Micah's treatment of David change and started to become more similar to how his family treats him. And I was really confused at the start why Micah started to "look down" on David. Like, he just saw him kill a bear with only a spear… ALONE! How could he come to the conclusion that David is weak and needs protection?!

Well, it's because Micah started to become aware of the fact that they are in a queer relationship. And well, the only representation he knew about was the heteronormative ones. That one is the man and one is the woman, and there were expected roles for each one. So the dreams they had when they were younger, about them together becoming warriors and fighting the enemies together, became something uncomfortable for Micah. And that is why he started to avoid David and eventually just straight up ghosting him.

Once he came back after a year, he pretends nothing happened and never mentions it. David tries to initiate intimacy, but Micah rejects him, and understandably David takes it that Micah doesn't like him anymore. However, they eventually actually sit down and talk to each other, and it goes not very well.

Micah proceeds to blabbering out that there are expectations of himself as a man, and he needed to become a warrior, get a wife and have kids. When David tries to argue back and just wants to set boundaries in their relationship, like David wants to be seen as equal to Micah, that he wants to have some type of commitment that they are together, Micah answers him with this line:

"We are not boys anymore."

Then he continues with that he loves David, and yeah, he still will get a wife and get children, but he will still be "together" with David in secrecy. Of course, this breaks David's heart, but David forgives him anyway because he loves him.

And I'm gonna say it! I really like this scene. It's brief, heck, in the book, Micah is in it really brief! And I actually really wanted more time with these two... :(

After their rough conversation, they were intimate one last time. I believe that Micah loved David. He was content and wished he could stay with David.

I think that social expectations and maybe even a type of internalized homophobia buckled him down, which made him drift away.

I freaking loved how Micah was written! But… Then it happened. That scene that made me hate him.

For some freaking reason, Micah just outed David to David's brothers, simply to win a petty argument! I was aghast! I was ready to bring up my fork! That was the moment when I was like, "I don't care for Micah…". Then he died, and I didn't shed a tear… But I did cry when David found out. That was really sad. 😟

There, I think I'll take a pause, 'cause I don't really know what's the point of this post. I just want to talk about The Prince's Psalm, I guess!

#UM SPOILERS #Micah is literary those gay men who's in a straight marriage and wants David to be happy to be only his side piece #I wrote this simply by memory so maybe there will be some stuff incorrect here I dunno #This is not really a hate post of Micah #the prince's psalm #david x micah #I probably will make some fanarts of Micah... #flamma's thoughts

[dfroza]

Today’s reading from the ancient books of Proverbs and Psalms

for march 29 of 2024 with Proverbs 29 and Psalm 29, accompanied by Psalm 11 for the 11th day of Astronomical Spring and Psalm 89 for day 89 of the year (with the consummate book of 150 Psalms in its 1st revolution this year)

[Proverbs 29]

The one who remains defiant after repeated reprimands

will suddenly be shattered, and there will be no remedy for him.

When just leaders are in power, the citizens celebrate;

but when evil people gain control, their joys become moans.

An adult who loves wisdom and follows its ways gives his parents joy,

but one who hangs out with women of the street will lose everything.

A king brings stability to a land with his justice,

but one who makes unjust demands brings it to ruin.

The one who flatters his friend

is laying a trap that will catch his friend’s feet.

An evil person is sure to be trapped by his sin,

but a man who lives right is free to sing and be glad.

The just get involved with the poor and know their issues,

but the wicked cannot comprehend such concerns.

Mockers stir up a city and inflame passions,

but the wise know how to put out the fire and ease tensions.

When the wise go to court against a fool,

there will be ranting and raving but no resolution.

Bloodthirsty men despise those who are honest,

but the just find a way to help them.

A fool does not think before he unleashes his temper,

but a wise man holds back and remains quiet.

When it is known that a ruler listens to the words of liars,

soon he will have only scoundrels for advisors.

A poor man and his oppressor have this in common:

the Eternal created them and provides both with light and life.

The king who is fair in his treatment of the poor

will see his dynasty continue forever.

Corporal punishment and correction produce wisdom,

but a child left to follow his own willful way shames his mother.

When evil people are free to flourish, sin is on the rise,

but the just will surely see their destruction.

If you discipline your children, they will make your life easier

and refresh your soul.

Where there is no vision from God, the people run wild,

but those who adhere to God’s instruction know genuine happiness.

Words are not enough to correct a servant;

even if he understands, he will not respond.

Have you ever met someone who is overly eager to talk?

There is more hope for a fool than for him.

If you indulge your servant from early in life,

in the end it won’t go well for either of you.

A hot-head provokes quarrels,

and one mastered by anger commits all kinds of sins.

A person’s pride brings him down,

but one of humble spirit has a firm hold on honor and respect.

Anyone who teams up with a thief must despise his own life,

for he is bound by an oath to tell the truth and yet refuses.

If you fear other people, you are walking into a dangerous trap;

but if you trust in the Eternal, you will be safe.

Many people vie for special treatment from a ruler,

yet genuine justice proceeds from the Eternal.

The right-living are disgusted by the actions of the unjust;

likewise, the wicked are disgusted by the ways of the righteous.

The Book of Proverbs, Chapter 29 (The Voice)

[Psalm 29]

A song of David.

Give all credit to the Eternal, O heavenly creatures;

give praise to Him for His glory and power.

Give to the Eternal the glory due His name;

worship Him with lavish displays of sacred splendor.

The voice of the Eternal echoes over the great waters;

God’s magnificence roars like thunder.

The Eternal’s presence hovers over all the waters.

His voice explodes in great power over the earth.

His voice is both regal and grand.

The Eternal’s voice shatters the cedars;

His power splinters the great cedars of Lebanon.

He speaks, and Lebanon leaps like a young calf;

Sirion jumps like a wild, youthful ox.

The voice of the Eternal cuts through with flames of fire.

The voice of the Eternal rumbles through the wilderness

with great quakes;

He causes Kadesh to tremble.

The Eternal’s voice brings life from the doe’s womb;

His voice strips the forest bare,

and all the people in the temple declare, “Glory!”

The Eternal is enthroned over the great flood;

His reign is unending.

We ask You, Eternal One, to give strength to Your people;

Eternal One, bless them with the gift of peace.

The Book of Psalms, Poem 29 (The Voice)

[Psalm 11]

For the worship leader. A song of David.

I am already in the soft embrace of the Eternal,

so why do you beckon me to leave, saying,

“Fly like a bird to the mountains.

Look! The wicked approach with bows bent,

sneaking around in the shadows,

setting their arrows against their bowstrings to pierce everyone whose heart is pure.

If the foundations are crumbling,

is there hope for the righteous?”

But the Eternal has not moved; He remains in His holy temple.

He sits squarely on His heavenly throne.

He observes the sons of Adam and daughters of Eve, examining us within and without,

exploring every fiber of our beings.

The Eternal searches the hearts of those who are good,

but He despises all those who can’t get enough of perversion and violence.

If you are evil, He will rain hot lava over your head,

will fill your cup with burning wind and liquid fire to scorch your insides.

The Eternal is right in all His ways;

He cherishes all that is upright.

Those who do what is right in His eyes will see His face.

The Book of Psalms, Poem 11 (The Voice)

A note from The Voice translation:

Psalm 11 is a Davidic psalm expressing trust in the Eternal as a refuge and fortress for those who do what is right. David spent many years struggling first with Saul, then with the neighboring nations, and finally against the rebellion led by his son Absalom.

[Psalm 89]

A contemplative song of Ethan the Ezrahite.

I will sing of Your unfailing love, Eternal One, forever.

I will speak of Your faithfulness to all generations.

I will tell how Your unfailing love will always stand strong;

and how Your faithfulness is established in the heavens above.

You said, “I have made a covenant with My chosen one.

I made My servant, David, this promise:

‘I will establish your dynasty

so that you and your descendants will always be secure.

Your rule will continue for generations to come.’”

[pause]

Let the heavens join in praising the wonderful works of the Eternal.

The holy ones have gathered, singing of Your faithfulness.

For there is no one above who compares to the Eternal,

not one of heaven’s creatures is like Him in the least.

In the council of holy ones, God is lifted high and feared;

His presence overwhelms all who are near Him.

O Eternal God, Commander of heaven’s armies,

who is mighty like You?

You are completely faithful; that’s why we trust You.

The ocean waters are at Your command.

When violent waves rise up, You still them.

You defeated Rahab, that ancient monster of chaos,

and left it lifeless.

You routed Your enemies and scattered them by Your great arm of power.

Everything in the sky above and the earth below are Yours.

The world and all it contains are Yours, for You created them all.

Everything was created by You—the north, the south—

the mountains of Tabor and Hermon echo joyously the song of Your name.

Your arm is strong.

Your grip is powerful.

Your right hand is raised up high.

Your rule is rooted deeply in justice and righteousness—

unfailing love and truth lead from the way ahead of You.

How happy are those who have learned how to praise You;

those who journey through life by the light of Your face.

Every hour of the day, they rejoice at the sound of Your name.

They are lifted up and encouraged by Your righteousness.

For You are the beauty of their strength.

On account of Your favor, our strength, our horn, is increased.

For our shield of protection comes from the Eternal,

and the Holy One of Israel has given us our king.

Long ago You spoke through a vision to Your faithful followers, saying,

“I have given help to a warrior;

I have chosen a hero from among My people.

I have found David, My servant.

With My holy oil, I have anointed him king.

My strong hand will stay with him and sustain him, regardless of trial or foe.

My mighty arm will be his strength and shield.

The deceit of his enemies will not outwit him.

The wicked will not defeat him.

I will pound his enemies right in front of him.

I will strike down all those who hate him.

My faithfulness and unfailing love will never leave him;

through My name, strength and power will be his.

I will extend his rule over the oceans,

his right hand will control the rivers.

He will cry out to Me, ‘You are my Father,

my God, and the Rock of my salvation!’

I will make him My firstborn;

no earthly king shall be greater.

My unfailing love will always be with him, protecting him;

My covenant with him will never be broken.

I will ensure his family’s future forever;

his dynasty will last as long as the heavens.

If his children turn away from Me and forsake My law,

if they refuse to walk according to My judgments,

If they disobey My instructions

and ignore My commandments,

Then I will use the rod to punish their sins

and stripes to deal with their iniquity.

And yet My unfailing love of him will remain steadfast and strong.

I will not be unfaithful to My promise.

I will not violate My covenant,

nor will I alter even one word of what My lips have spoken.

These words I have pledged in My holiness once and for all,

and I will not lie to David.

As long as the sun lights the day before Me, his descendants will continue to rule.

His kingdom will last forever.

His dynasty will stand firm for all time like the moon,

the faithful witness that stands watch in the night sky.”

[pause]

But what now? You have turned Your back and walked away!

Your full fury burns against Your anointed king.

You made a covenant with Your servant, then renounced it,

casting his sacred crown into the dust.

You have broken down the walls that protected Your servant;

his defenses are reduced to a pile of rubble.

Strangers now plunder all that he has left;

he has become a laughingstock among his neighbors.

You have made his adversaries strong.

His enemies celebrate their victory.

You have dulled the blade of his sword,

and You have not helped him stand strong in the battle.

You have brought his days of splendor to an abrupt end;

You have toppled his throne;

it sits in the dust.

You have cut short the days of his youth

and have covered him with shame and despair.

[pause]

How long must we endure, O Eternal One?

Will You hide Yourself forever?

How long will Your wrath burn like fire?

Remember my days are numbered.

Have You created the children of Adam to live futile lives?

Death waits at the gate; who can escape and live?

Does the grave hold exceptions for any of us?

Who can deliver us from the power of the grave?

[pause]

O Lord, where is the unfailing love You showed in times past?

And where is the proof of Your faithfulness to David?

Remember how Your servants are ridiculed, O Lord;

how I carry within me the insults of so many peoples.

Your enemies are mocking me, O Eternal One,

mocking every step Your anointed one made.

Praise the Eternal always. Amen. Amen.

The Book of Psalms, Poem 89 (The Voice)

A note from The Voice translation:

Psalm 89 begins on a note of praise and ends with a lament. The heart of this psalm recalls God’s choice of David as king and God’s covenant with him to establish an eternal dynasty (2 Samuel 7).

[dailyaudiobible]

9/2/2023 DAB Transcript pt1

Ecclesiastes 1:1-3:22, 2 Corinthians 6:1-13, Psalm 46:1-11, Proverbs 22:15

Today is the second day of the month of September, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian. It is wonderful to be here with you today as we get ourselves moved into this brand-new month. And even as we're moving into this month, we’re ending a week. So, it's always transition, isn’t it? And speaking of transitions, we concluded the book of Job, yesterday, which means we have to transition into some new territory. Kinda sticking in the same kind of theme.

Introduction to the Book of Ecclesiastes:

Today, we’ll move into the book of Ecclesiastes. And both Job and Ecclesiastes, this as well as Proverbs and the Song of Solomon and some of the Psalms, these are part of a grouping of books that are known as wisdom literature. So, this book that we’re about to read Ecclesiastes, traditionally has been kind of connected with Solomon. And there’s scholarly debate about this for lots of reasons. There’s scholarly debate about lots of things for lots of reasons. But the book probably was originally with Solomon and was translated and updated and…and that still happens today, as we translate and modernize the language as time goes forward. But we know that Solomon was considered to be an incredibly wise man, in fact, the wisest man in the world. And we've read about his reign and how he kind of sat at the apex of ancient Israel's civilization. He was at the top; everything went downhill after Solomon. And Solomon went downhill before the end of his life. But we read of Solomon, and he was a very powerful, very wealthy man of his time. He was very much in demand, audiences with him were being pursued from leaders from throughout the known world of the time. And he was able to do whatever his heart desired to pursue, no matter what he dreamed up. Like, that, he was the king with all of the power, at a time when Israel was very powerful. So, nothing was off-limits to the king and his dad, King David, had unified Israel and brought them to a place of authority and prominence and power and peace. So, Solomon had incredible resources at his disposal. He had a thousand of the most beautiful women in all of the world as wives and concubines. He had a royalty, he wore a crown upon his head, he had unbelievable power, and he had the wisdom of God. And so, as we go into this book Ecclesiastes, knowing who we’re talking about here. All of a sudden, we start reading Ecclesiastes and everything seems out of character. How could a person who has it all come to these conclusions. Like, we might read Ecclesiastes, and think okay, this is what Solomon has to say at the end of his life, this is going to be a memoir of greatness, it's more of a depressing and hopeless rant. But if we’ll stay with it and look underneath it all, go below the surface, Ecclesiastes gives us this very thoughtful, very penetrating look into the human heart. Because we’re all pursuing things, right, dreams and goals in our lives, and there's always somebody to look at as if they have what we wanted, and they got it easy and we’re clawing and scratching for anything. It’s real easy to get into this comparison thing and begin to think if I just had the resources, if I just had the knowledge, if I just had the right partner, if I just, if I could just get my life and all of its pieces in alignment. But no matter what we get in alignment there's always going to be somebody that's doing way better. But with Solomon here, we’re looking at a guy who, it would be hard to find an example of someone who has more. King Solomon has the power of life and death in his hand, unbelievable wealth there's no shortage of resource for anything that he could desire to do. He has all of these wives and women that have been sourced the most beautiful women, like he has, this is a person who we can look at from a human perspective and say okay, that's the top of the pile, there isn't any higher to go in the, in the human experience. Very, very, very few people experience that. We’re always able to say, if I just had that, life will be better. If I could do this, life would be better. What if we got it all though? What if we actually got it all, then what? This is what Ecclesiastes exposes and explores. Solomon had pursued whatever he wanted, achieved whatever he set his hand to, and then later in his life the beautiful harem of women from all over the world that he loved, ended up seducing his heart away from God and into idolatry.

[itsyourchoicedevotionals]

Corner Of Barely Possible And Impossible

“Listen! I Myself will move against him…” Isaiah 37:7NLT “ Behold, I will send a blast upon him…” KJV “Listen! When he hears a certain report, I will make him…” NIV “I’ll arrange it so that he’ll get…” MES “Behold, I will put a spirit in him so that he will hear a rumor…” AMPC

The backstory of this verse is— Assyria’s king had devastated nation after nation. He proudly announced to Israel— ‘you’re next.’ He had come to destroy them. In his proud rantings, he mocked Almighty God as a mere idol. Now flaunting his power, he declared, he’d prove to all— how powerful he was. King Hezekiah has sent this message to Isaiah the prophet, asking him to ask God for help. Our text is God’s response. Five translations, all say God will move directly on the Assyrian king, changing the course of history. For a grand finale Yahweh sent in ONE angel, just ONE, and killed 185,000 soldiers, see Isaiah 37:36, which is equal to wiping out the entire population of Knoxville Tennessee. Stop and think about that for a minute.

Throughout the scriptures from Pharaoh and the Israelites in Exodus to Judges with Gideon, on to the exploits of King David, Jehoshaphat with a vast army of several nations against him —Yahweh had always shown up, intervening in the affairs of Israel. The last time anyone —modern-day— has seen God’s hand move on behalf of HIs people was in the Six Day War 1967. Although many would like to attribute this to Israeli preemptive strategies, Yahweh showed up.’Rumors’ were told of multiplied thousands of angels, visible, in the air with the airplanes.

We in the USA are in trouble in every way— politically, spiritually, nationally. If the current fake President continues, he will deliver us into the New World Order as a third world nation by 2023. With the fake Congress we’re almost there. These facts have been of grave concern to me in prayer. The elected President, his family and cabinet have also been a matter of prayer.

November 2020 the Lord promised me, Isaiah 33:10NLT “But the LORD says: “Now I will stand up. Now I will show my power and might.” Often I ask God— ‘is ‘now’ in human time or God time?’ A few days later the Lord promised me Psalm 33:10-11NLT “The LORD frustrates the plans of the nations and thwarts all their schemes. But the LORD’s plans stand firm forever; his intentions can never be shaken.” These are two very powerful promises from the Lord.

This morning the Lord began to speak to me about His upcoming intervention in our nation. We’re not finished with seeing what God can do in a nation. He’s going to show up in power, as He did in the various examples I’ve cited from the scriptures. Holy Spirit said He’s intervened— always —when there was no way out, every attempt of people had failed and everything was impossible. Can you agree, we’re there at the corner of barely possible and impossible?

In my personal experience with prayer and promises God never answered any prayer early. Each time, I’ve waited until the very last second. Often I’ve waited until everything appeared over,  defeated.

Although He also highlighted the 185,000 dead soldiers, —I’m not sure what to expect. The one thing I do know is PRAY because I’ve got His promise— “I Myself will move…” Will you pray with me for God’s plans to come to pass. They have to be way better than the future which is being proposed to us by our leaders. It’s your choice. You choose.

LET’S PRAY: Our Father which are in heaven, hallowed be Your name forever. Come kingdom of God here on earth. Be done Will of God on earth as it is in heaven. Let no living being mistake what Your hand does for something else. Glorify Yourself in all the earth, in the name of Jesus Chris I pray.

by Debbie Veilleux Copyright 2022 You have my permission to reblog this devotional for others. Please keep my name with this devotional, as author. Thank you.

#Jesus Christ #lord of lords #Word of God #Holy Spirit #God #it's your choice #devotional #possible #impossible #corner #speak #intervention #power #love #hope #faith

[qui-qui-quee]

Personal Rant

I really really hate how easily people can make fun of Christians and use them as an emotional punching bag or satirical prop, going as far as mocking our God, our beliefs, and our practices in their words, their stories, their jokes, but when you do the same for other religions, it’s culturally insensitive, racist, and downright bad and a lot of people will start mobs just to go after you  or talk crap about you for making fun of them (even if they have zero connection to the religion or culture in question).

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not here asking for a free pass to crap on other religions. That’s not what I’m saying here. In the end, I don’t even know who to blame for society’s treatment of us anymore. The people who mock us nonstop? Or the people who touted our faith and weaponized it as a tool for oppression, colonialism and abuse, thus marking us for I-don’t-know-how-long once others started catching on to the inconsistency in behavior.

It hurts you know? It hurts when I see people, sometimes people I care about, use or talk about our faith so flippantly as if we don’t matter, our way of life doesn’t matter, and our beliefs are ripe for easy picking. And then they go about assuming our beliefs are somehow inherently oppressive, violent, etc etc. 

Bruh, you have no idea what you’re saying. Maybe you were hurt by some folks who called themselves Christians (understatement of the millennium probably) I get it and I absolutely empathize with you, but don’t throw the entire faith under the bus because of sucky people. Yeah, I get that history doesn’t do Christians any favors either, but you know that? That just proves a great lesson of Christianity: People are inherently sucky, no matter what worldview they ascribe to. That’s why the Gospel is so powerful.

Somehow, when it comes to other religions, it looks much easier for people to separate a person from their ascribed religion. If there’s a bad Muslim, that’s ok. Islam is still valid and ought to be respected. If there’s a bad Hindu, that’s fine, the person is bad, we continue to respect Hinduism. But when it comes to Christians, “Nope. Christians will always be inherently bad and any example of bad Christians proves that point, so let’s just mock them cuz they deserve it anyway. But let’s be kind to the Christian individuals who agree with our beliefs about certain topics but insult those that don’t because they’re immediately oppressive and hurtful and harmful by believing differently.”

And you know what? They’re half-right in that a lot of us probably deserve the mockery! At least from the Western point of view, which makes this even more painful to think about. Cuz those who truly understand what Christianity is about and trying their very best to be ambassadors of Christ and be obedient to God out of love for Him, find themselves caught in the fray. They’re the baby that gets thrown out with the bathwater.

We’ve become a scapegoat for society (then again, we probably always were) and a part of me wishes something was done about it already.

#qooky rambles #this is a rant #please treat it as a rant #not as something to debate on #like David's rants in the Psalms

[avatardoggo]

reading the book of job and psalms and seeing how king david and job both bring their problems to God. how KD tells God everything and all he’s feeling even though God already knows all of this. how job expresses his pain and hurt to God how raw his devastation is. emo king david would go on rants about how he’s being hunted, he’s all alone, no one to turn to, how “day abs night i have only tears for food” (psalms 42:3) and at the end of it all king david goes yk what? despite all this “i will put my hope in God” just wow like 😨😦🤯. so tell God everything even though He knows it all. He wants to hear how you’re feeling. just remember at the end to give Him your trust and heart.

#don’t know where all this came from i was just thinking about the similarities between job and king david #when i was going to sleep last night #i’ve been having a rough week so this is mostly a post for me #christians on tumblr #king david #the book of job

[lilacandladybugs]

I was thinking about the election and different ways that we can respond to it. You don't have to agree with this of course this is just kind of me shouting my thoughts into the void because I’m too traumatized to go to Bible study so instead I just tell my little atheist Tumblr following lmao hey guys ily thanks for listening to me rant occasionally i hope you’re all doing ok~

TLDR: Psalm 139:11-12 “If I say, “Surely the darkness will overwhelm me, and the light around me will be night,” even the darkness is not dark to You, and the night is as bright as day.”

Long version: 

Anyway my philosophy professor talked about how Stoicism as a philosophy is becoming popular again because the core tenet of Stoicism is that things can't hurt you, only your response to things can. For a lot of people this is comforting because it kind of combats the feeling of helplessness that can come from something as big and untouchable as the election. Maybe you can't control the event, but you can control your response to it.

I personally find this far less encouraging than I find it invalidating. The idea that comes with humans being the only moral actors in the world (which is an adjacent nietzschian philosophy) is that events themselves don't actually contain any meaning, actions in and of themselves don't have moral value apart from the moral values that humans assign them. Morality and value begins and ends with humanity. So natural disasters, death of loved ones, or doing bad things to other people aren't bad in and of themselves but because we perceive them as bad.

But to me, it seems like things are just really sucky sometimes. It seems like everything on the earth wants to be alive, and everything grieves when things die. There’s videos of chimpanzees crying over the loss of their friends, and empathizing with their caregiver who had a miscarriage. There’s videos of birds calling out and looking for their dead mates and of elephants returning to the graves of their lost relatives. It seems to me like the entire earth groans with the weight of grief. It seems like everything that’s alive cries out and sobs as one in this deep mourning. And it seems like it shouldn’t be this way. I just can’t accept that this is the best possible universe, the best way that everything could be. I can’t believe that these universal values come from only humans, coming from nowhere, moving toward nothing.

If things have inherent value, and value that comes outside of us, then the reason we’re hurt by bad things isn’t because we’re weak. It’s because bad things happened to us. The election isn’t scary because we’re scared, it’s scary because we’re afraid of the ways it could hurt us, hurt our loved ones. It’s scary because it’s evil. It’s this real legitimate external fear with a badness that comes from outside of us, that isn’t just as a result of human invention or imagination. Other people’s actions can be good or bad, evil or wonderful. Things people do can hurt because actions mean something.

In Christian philosophy/theology, this external source of meaning is God. Things are good because God is good, and when I say God is good I don’t mean he contains this character trait goodness but that he IS the definition of goodness and everything that contains this character trait “good” is called good because in a way it looks like him. So things that are good and wonderful are that way because they were made that way, they were written into the very fabric of the universe.

While in Stoicism we are told to simply not look at things that make us sad because they have no real value or power beyond what we give them, the Bible would let us grieve, because God is grieving. God grieves death along with all of creation. 

But we also don’t have to carry the weight of the world. We aren’t expected to be able to save the world. That responsibility falls on God. If we believe he is who he says he is, we can rely on that promise. That no matter what happens he is in control. He is in charge. And in the end his purpose will be served one way of another.

This is why Isaiah 55 is my favorite book of the Bible, it goes like this;

“For My thoughts are not your thoughts,

Nor are your ways My ways,” declares the Lord.

9“For as the heavens are higher than the earth,

So are My ways higher than your ways

And My thoughts than your thoughts. [So he doesn’t just say that his thoughts are different from ours because he’s going to do what he wants even if it’s bad, but that he has plans to bless us that are better than we could ever think to ask for, they’re as much higher as the heavens are higher than the earth <3]

For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven,

And do not return there without watering the earth

And making it produce and sprout,

And providing seed to the sower and bread to the eater;

So will My word be which goes out of My mouth; It will not return to Me empty, Without accomplishing what I desire, And without succeeding in the purpose for which I sent it.

For you will go out with joy

And be led in peace; The mountains and the hills will break into shouts of joy before you, And all the trees of the field will clap their hands. 13 Instead of the thorn bush, the juniper will come up, And instead of the stinging nettle, the myrtle will come up; And [f]it will be a [g]memorial to the Lord, An everlasting sign which will not be eliminated.”

In Psalm 139:11-12, David says, “If I say, “Surely the darkness will overwhelm me, and the light around me will be night,” even the darkness is not dark to You, and the night is as bright as day.”

In the knowledge that God is in control, even when horrible things happen, we can rest in the knowledge that God will do what he wants, and that in the end we will have peace in heaven.

In Job 41 God said, “Can you draw out Leviathan (we think a big animal like an alligator) with a fish hook, or press down his tongue with a cord? Can you put a rope in his nose or pierce his jaw with a hook? Can you fill his skin with harpoons, or his head with fishing spears? Lay your hand on him and remember that battle, you will not do it again! Will you be laid low even at the sight of him?

No one is so fierce that he dares to arouse him; Who then is he that can stand before me? Who has given to me that I should repay him? Whatever is under the whole earth is mine.”

Anyway if you made it this far kudos! Let me know if you have any thoughts or questions. 

May you be led forth in peace~

#religion #religion tw #grief #grief tw #trump tw #elections #elections tw #christianity #christianity tw #eslyea

[pamphletstoinspire]

See Your Neighbor With the Eyes of Jesus

Last Sunday’s Gospel (September 22nd) ended with a warning from Jesus: “You cannot serve both God and mammon.” This Sunday (September 29th), we read about a man who thought he could.

Gospel (Read Lk 16:19-31)

St. Luke told us in last Sunday’s reading that Jesus had some bracing words to say about money to the Pharisees who gathered to hear Him. However, St. Luke tells us “The Pharisees, who were lovers of money, … scoffed at Him” (16:14). Perhaps because of this hardness of heart, Jesus tells them yet another story. He gives them another opportunity to hear the truth.

Jesus begins His story with, “There was a rich man.” There can be no missing that this parable is intended for men who were “lovers of money.” They should be all ears. The rich man lived like a king, with fine clothing and sumptuous feasting “every day.” We should remember that in Jesus’ day, the Jews thought that wealth was a sign of God’s blessing; likewise, poverty and adversity must be a sign of God’s disapproval. There was a poor, sick man, Lazarus, who lay at the rich man’s door. Why was he lying there? Was he too sick and weak to do anything else? Was he hoping that by positioning himself in such an obvious spot—the door—he would stand a much better chance of being seen by the rich man and receiving some help from him?

It is worth noting that this poor, sick man has a name—Lazarus. He is the only person in any of Jesus’ parables to be named. In Hebrew, his name means “God is my help.” What a name! He is poor and sick, but he has the dignity of a name. He is an icon of all the poor of human history who have chosen to put their faith in God. They trust Him to save them even in all their terrible adversity. Perhaps this is why Lazarus is described as one “who would gladly have eaten his fill of the scraps that fell from the rich man’s table.” We do not find him bitterly ranting against the rich man. There is no resentful demand for justice and redistribution of wealth. No, Lazarus knew that God was his true help in life, and He could be trusted. His fate did not depend on this indifferent rich man.

“When the poor man died, he was carried away by the angels to the bosom of Abraham.” His faith in God, Who was his help, was well rewarded. The rich man died, too, but he went to the netherworld, a place of torment. How surprised the Pharisees listening to Jesus must have been to hear this reversal in the story. The rich man, seeing Abraham and Lazarus by his side, cried out for the kind of mercy he had never been willing to show the poor man on his doorstep. Abraham reminded him that he had “received what was good” in his lifetime (and had never shared it). Lazarus had received “what was bad” (and had never lost his faith in God). Now, the tables are turned. Of course, this kind of reversal is one of the bedrock truths about human existence that Jesus taught the crowds who followed Him at the very beginning of His ministry. Recall that the Sermon on the Mount begins with the beatitudes (see Mt 5:1-12). In each of them, Jesus makes clear how foolish it is to live for only what we can see and grasp in this life; our time here is really a preparation for eternity (i.e., “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven”). The rich man found himself in Hades, not because he was rich, but because he had lost this perspective.

Abraham explains why he can’t grant the rich man’s request for help: “Between us and you a great chasm is established to prevent anyone from crossing who might wish to go from our side to yours or from your side to ours.” What does this mean? A note from the Ignatius Catholic Study Bible(pgs 138-139) will help:

“Hades (the netherworld or realm of the dead) refers to a waiting place where the deceased souls of the wicked are retained until the Last Judgment (Rev 20:13). Here it stands opposite Abraham’s presence, where the righteous souls of the Old Testament era waited patiently for Christ to open the gates of heaven (Eph. 4:8-10). The sinners languish in the grip of torment. It is separated from the abode of the righteous by a permanent, unbridgeable gulf that permits no traffic to pass between them (see CCC 633).”

The rich man then pleads for Lazarus to warn his brothers to avoid “this place of torment.” Because the rich man is in the place of the wicked, we must presume that this request doesn’t come from mercy, because he had none. Most likely it was pride in his family’s name and reputation that made him want his brothers to avoid torment. Notice that his concern was not that his brothers learn to love God and live charitably with their neighbors, as instructed by the Law of Moses. It was only that they avoid torment.

Abraham wisely answered: “They have Moses and the prophets. Let them listen to them.” Had the rich man simply lived the law of love of God and neighbor, the heart of the covenant God had made with His people through Moses and preached by all the prophets sent to them when they didn’t, he would have found himself in the bosom of Abraham, too. He had, sadly, been deaf to that law. Now, however, he is convinced that “if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.” Abraham knew better: “If they will not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded if someone should rise from the dead.” These are prophetic words, of course. In the first instance, when Jesus raised another man named Lazarus, from the dead, it only further hardened the hearts of those who had rejected Jesus as Israel’s Messiah. The religious elites sought to put both JesusandLazarus to death as a result (see Jn 11:45-53; 12:9-11). After Jesus’ Resurrection, the apostles preached the Gospel to the Jews in Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria. Again, the religious elites rejected it. Even the miracle of resurrection cannot change a heart that has fully hardened itself against listening to God.

The message Jesus had for the “lovers of money” was simple: Don’t let money blind you to those in need. Use your gift of wealth to love God will all your heart and your neighbor as yourself. What we choose in this life will be what we receive in the next. If we choose ourselves, we get only ourselves. If we choose to believe that “God is my help,” we get Him!

Possible response: Lord Jesus, help me keep my eyes open to see my neighbor who might need my help today.

First Reading (Read Amos 6:1a, 4-7)

Amos was a prophet who lived in the 8thcentury B.C. He was sent by God to warn the rich and disobedient in Israel, the ten northern tribes that had broken away from the royal throne of David. In vivid language he describes their self-indulgence, yet “they are not made ill by the collapse of Joseph.” In other words, they were completely indifferent to the fact that they and their fellow Jews had lost the faith, violated the covenant, and stood on the brink of destruction. Their luxuries had blinded them to the tragic spiritual state of their souls and their nation. They lived only for themselves. Consequently, the Lord vowed that “they shall be the first to go into exile, and their wanton revelry shall be done away with.” They would, in God’s just judgment, lose everything but themselves—the very definition of hell.

Possible response: Heavenly Father, I live in a culture that loves luxury and self-indulgence. Strengthen me against its taint.

Psalm (Read Ps 146:7-10)

This psalm reveals the meaning of the name “Lazarus”—“God is my help.” It describes in detail the confidence of those who trust in the Lord to liberate, heal, lift up those bowed down, protect strangers, and sustain the needy. The one who lives this faith, like Lazarus in our Gospel, is “blessed.” He “secures justice for the oppressed, gives food to the hungry.” Those who trust in God’s generosity show generosity to others themselves. The rich man in the parable should have known, from this psalm, as well as from the writings of Amos and all the prophets, that this is the way a faithful Jew lives the covenant God made with His people. He had chosen a different way, the way of the wicked, which God “thwarts.” The way Lazarus chose is the way that sings, “Praise the Lord, my soul!”

Possible response: The psalm is, itself, a response to our other readings. Read it again prayerfully to make it your own.

Second Reading (Read 1 Tim 6:11-16)

We need to know the context of our epistle reading to understand its full force. In verses not included today (see 6:6-10), St. Paul writes to St. Timothy, the young bishop of Ephesus, about how to best serve as a shepherd to the flock entrusted to him. The whole epistle gives a wide variety of instructions about how to be a good pastor. In this, St. Paul touches on the subject of money: “Those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and hurtful desires that plunge men into ruin.” This is exactly the kind of teaching we would expect from an apostle charged with communicating Jesus’ Gospel to the world. St. Paul goes on with another sober warning: “For the love of money is the root of all evils; it is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced their hearts with many pangs.”

Now begins our reading: “But you, man of God, pursue righteousness.” Our passage contains the antidote to love of money, which is love of virtue. Here, St. Paul urges St. Timothy to “lay hold of eternal life.” This is the heavenly perspective that will keep love of money in check. This is the life the rich man in the Gospel ignored, the life of “righteousness, devotion, faith, love, patience, and gentleness.”

Why should we be willing to live this way? Because we know that “God is [our] help,” as the name “Lazarus” says, and that we are awaiting “the appearance of our Lord Jesus Christ…To Him be honor and eternal power. Amen.”

Possible response: St. Paul, pray that I can mortify love of money in me whenever it appears; help me protect my heart from its “many pangs.”

BY: GAYLE SOMERS

From: https://www.pamphletstoinspire.com/

#see your neighbor with the eyes of Jesus

[shewrites-sometimes]

Chapter One: Esther (Part 1)

Jesus once said, "You don't understand what I am doing, but someday you will." That's exactly how I felt when the little pink plus sign appeared on the pregnancy test.

Shit.

It was one time. The one time I give into Cullen, God gives me a baby.

I picked up my phone and called Cullen. He picked up on the last ring.

"Hey, wanna chill for a bit tonight?" He asked. I could hear him popping gum in his mouth.

I knew what "chill" meant in his vocabulary. No. No more chilling with Cullen. I had to tell him about the baby, but this was big news. I had to ease into the announcement.

"I'm pregnant." I blurted.

"What!" He shouted into my ear.

I winced and held the phone away from my ear while he went on a curse word-laced mini rant. I waited until he was finished yelling before bringing the phone back to my ear.

"I don't want a kid." He huffed.

"Tell me about it."

"I can take you to a clin-"

"No." I shut down the idea as fast as it had arrived.

There was silence for a long time. I sat down on the toilet lid and shook the pregnancy test, willing the plus sign of misfortune to get out of my life. But it was too late. We had done the deed. The damage was irreversible.

"I have to get ready for church." I told him before hanging up the call. I buried my head in my hands, willing myself not to cry. I couldn't cry.

A knock on the door startled me back into reality. "Esther? Are you okay in there, Honey?" Mom's voice was so soft and filled with concern on the other side of the door that it made my heart break.

"I'm fine." I flushed the toilet and dropped the test into the trash. I would tell them. Just not today.

Mom stopped me at the door and held my head in her hands. She studied my face. I forced an innocent look onto my face, but she could always tell when something was wrong wit me.

"Are you okay, Honey? You look a little sick."

*You have no idea.*

I gave her a smile. "I'm fine, Mom. Just a little tired." I pulled her hands from my face and pushed past her.

It felt like I was in the all clear when she suddenly remembered something.

"Oh, by the way, I invited Cullen and his parents over after church."

Awesome.

I gave her an awkward smile and thumbs up before disappearing into my room and shutting the door.

I collapsed onto my bed and couldn't hold the tears back any longer. I sobbed onto my pillow for a good five minutes before pulling it away and seeing that it was soaked with tears.

I still couldn't believe it. How could this happen? I was seventeen. This couldn't possibly be happening to me. I was always the role model. The one who never made mistakes. The one everyone looked up to. And now what was I? A whore. That's what everyone would call me.

"Ten minutes!" Mom called.

I took one last deep breath before forcing myself to sit up and wipe my tears away. No one had to know. At least not yet. I figured I would be able to wait a couple of weeks before ruining my relationship with my parents forever. Yes. I could do that.

I walked to my closet and picked out my most modest church outfit for when I had to face Cullen. My eyes were still puffy from crying when I swiped on my mascara, but there was nothing I could do about that now. I grabbed my purse on the way out.

My parents, who were having an intense conversation about some Psalm, hardly noticed me when I slipped past them through the door and went to the car. In fact, they hardly noticed me for the entire car ride, to which I was eternally grateful.

We arrived to church twenty minutes early, like usual. I snagged our usual seats in the second pew while my parents spoke with some of their friends. Normally I would have been there, too, but i just couldn't bring myself to talk to anyone.

Instead, I took my notebook out of my purse and tried to focus on the notes I had taken last week about Daniel. I started to highlight phrases that Pastor David had said that were important to me.

"Did you know that excessive highlighting isn't all that effective?"

I stopped and realized I had highlighted almost the entire page. I groaned in frustration.

"Someone's not having a good day." I turned to see my friend, Jesse, leaning over the back of the pew studying my notes intently.

If only you knew.

I shut the notebook, suddenly embarrassed.

"What's going on?" He asked. "You're not talking to anybody."

"If one of your friends did something bad - like really bad - would you still be their friend?"

"Like what kind of bad?" He asked, jumping over the pew and sitting down next to me.

"Well, not criminal-bad, but bad sin-wise."

"The way I see it, we all make mistakes. Wasn't that the whole point of Jesus dying on the cross? 'Cause if not wow do we have something to tell Pastor David." He teased.

I sighed. He didn't understand. He was going to abandon me. "Okay," was all I could say.

Before Jesse could ask any questions, church started and his mom called him back over to their pew. People started shuffling in the doors, their voices and footsteps echoing throughout the room.

Pastor David began making his rounds, greeting everyone who came in with a few kind words and a charismatic smile. Just the sight of him made me giddy. I had had the silliest crush on him when I was younger. I even announced to him at one of our barbecues that I would marry him one day. He thought I was the cutest thing.

"Good morning." He said to be as he walked by.

"Good morning." I did my best to imitate his wide grin, but it only made me feel awkward. Pastor David made his way up to the pulpit, gripping the podium sides in his hands. His grin was so large it almost looked goofy.

"How's everyone doing today?" He asked the church. He got a round of yeses and yeahs, and someone even whooped. The whole church laughed.

This is what I needed. Church. These people weren't so bad. They weren't the monsters I had built them up to be in my mind. They wouldn't judge me.

"Good, I'm feeling pretty good today as well. Now, onto today's sermon. In the next coming weeks we're going to be closely examining each of the Seven Deadly Sins. We're going to be starting this week with lust.

This should be fun. At least Cullen has to sit through it, too.

"Lust is described as a usually intense or unbridled sexual desire. Now, why is lust bad, you may ask?"

Beside me, my phone buzzed. I flipped it over and read a text from Jesse: I'm lusting for a hamburger right about now.

I covered my mouth to stifle a giggle. I replied, It's 10AM, way too early for a hamburger.

Him: You don't know my life.

Apparently Jesse had been paying at least a little bit of attention to the sermon, because he stopped replying just before we were told to open up our hymn books to page 51. I see stood up, hymn book in hand, ready to sing, but couldn't help to look back at Jesse, who had a faint smile on his face.

Church continued like this for another two hours. Pastor David preaching about lust, Jesse and I texting, singing hymns, and occasionally taking notes, not that I wanted to, but because my friends and I always compared them afterwards.

We sang one last hymn before we prayed, took Communion, and we dismissed.

I hurried up to pack my things and meet my friends outside. They were already in the middle of a game of soccer with some of the smaller kids when I reached them. I sat down under a tree near where they were playing.

"Why don't you come join us?" Jesse shouted in my direction.

I shook my head and took out my notes. "No, thanks, I have some stuff to go over." Even though I had already gone over everything in my notebook numerous times.

I flipped over to today's notes. My stomach growled, interrupting my train of thought. How could I have possibly been so hungry? Oh, that's right, I skipped breakfast and bought the pregnancy test instead.

After every church ceremony, Pastor David and a few other people were in charge of a huge lunch. I usually didn't eat at these things but my hunger was demanding my attention.

I walked to the back of the line. The person in front of me handed me a plastic cup.

I reached out to grab it. "Thank --" Cullen gave me an unfriendly smile. "...you." I finished.

"You're welcome." He replied.

When I came to the punchbowl, I drowned a whole cupful of the stuff, hoping I didn't have a red mustache afterward. I refilled my cup.

Cullen handed me a plate, which he had already put salad on. "Be careful not to gain too much weight." His voice was so low that I thought I had imagined it, but the small smile on his lips told me otherwise.

The thing about Cullen was that he was really sweet and caring -- when he wanted something from you. And the thing is that he was so good at manipulation, you could never tell when he was being sincere. In fact, I wasn't even sure he had ever been sincere about anything as long as he'd be alive. I was pretty sure that his entire life was one manipulation after the next.

I took a deep breath and held back my anger. He wouldn't see me mad at him. I wouldn't give him the satisfaction. I was the bigger person here.

"Esther!" Cullen's mom, Jen, who had been in line in front of Cullen this whole time, had just noticed I was standing there. "Honey, you're glowing!"

I choked. Cullen's face went pale.

"What?" I croaked out.

"I mean, you've always been so beautiful, but you look absolutely radiant today."

Cullen looked noticeably relieved, and I'm sure I did, too. I put on a smile. "Thank you so much. You're too kind."

She shot me a smile and moved up in line.

I got the rest of my food -- macaroni salad and a cheeseburger -- and joined my friends back near the tree. They were comparing notes now. I sat down and chowed down on my burger. I didn't bother opening my notebook, I had inadvertently memorized everything I had written down.

"What, are you eating for two or something?" My friend, Lydia, joked.

I choked on my burger. A drink of punch washed it down. My friends had never seen me eat so much before, which made sense. I'd always been self conscious about my weight.

"So, what did Cullen say to you?" My other friend, Sabella, asked, giddy with excitement. She knew I had had a crush on Cullen since seventh grade. Looking back, it had turned out to be a huge waste of my time -- and my future.

I shrugged nonchalantly and took another bite of burger. Now I remembered why I never ate at these things. The meat was practically raw on the inside. Would that hurt the baby? Was it even old enough to get hurt yet?

Now Lydia and Sabella both knew something was up with me. Up until three weeks ago all I ever talked about with them was Cullen. Jesse, however, could not have looked less interested. He was still adding onto his notes.

"Something happened between you guys." Lydia blurted out. Sabella nodded her head in agreement.

I shrugged. "I just realized he's not that great is all. It's not a big deal."

After five more minutes of this awful conversation, Mom called my name, signaling it was time to go. I said goodbye to my friends and stuff led the rest of my plate in a garbage can.

Unfortunately, my parents no longer had anything to talk about, which meant they focused on me.

"What's wrong, Honey?" Dad asked, looking at me through the rear view mirror.

I forced a small smile. "Oh, I'm fine. That burger just isn't sitting right on my stomach is all." I gave my belly a light pat. Dad stared at me for a moment too long, and I didn't think he bought it, but he let the subject drop anyway.

We got home a whole three minutes faster than Cullen's family. I used my free time to run to the bathroom and puke my guts out.

By the time I was finished cleaning up, the bell rang. I answered it and led the Smiths to the family room and kept them entertained while my parents were preparing hor d'oeuvres. Luckily Cullen's dad, George, was a talker.

"So, Esther, how's school going?" He asked.

"I'm doing really well this year. All of my teachers are so great at helping me." I replied with the best fake smile I could muster. Like most kids, I hated to talk about school.

Just as my parents were coming in with the food, Jen excused herself to go to the bathroom. Now it was my parents' turn to ask Cullen questions. And there wasn't anything going good for him in school. I reveled in his squirming when my parents asked him about his GPA.

Suddenly there was a shriek -- yes, a shriek -- of joy coming from the bathroom. All of is shot up when Jen came running in with a pregnancy test in her hand.

"Congratulations!" Jen almost knocked Mom down trying to hug her.

My eyes went wide with shock. Cullen gave me a look that said it all: you idiot.

Tagging: @seas-reading-nook

#finding faith #chapter one #writing #my writing #am writing

[roman-catholic-mass-readings]

13th June >> Mass Readings (Europe, Africa, New Zealand, Australia & Canada)   for Wednesday of the Tenth Week in Ordinary Time

 or

Saint Antony of Padua, Priest, Doctor. Wednesday of the Tenth Week in Ordinary Time

(Liturgical Colour: White) First Reading 1 Kings 18:20-39 Elijah vanquishes the priests of Baal Ahab called all Israel together and assembled the prophets on Mount Carmel. Elijah stepped out in front of all the people. ‘How long’ he said ‘do you mean to hobble first on one leg then on the other? If the Lord is God, follow him; if Baal, follow him.’ But the people never said a word. Elijah then said to them, ‘I, I alone, am left as a prophet of the Lord, while the prophets of Baal are four hundred and fifty. Let two bulls be given us; let them choose one for themselves, dismember it and lay it on the wood, but not set fire to it. I in my turn will prepare the other bull, but not set fire to it. You must call on the name of your god, and I shall call on the name of mine; the god who answers with fire, is God indeed.’ The people all answered, ‘Agreed!’ Elijah then said to the prophets of Baal, ‘Choose one bull and begin, for there are more of you. Call on the name of your god but light no fire.’ They took the bull and prepared it, and from morning to midday they called on the name of Baal. ‘O Baal, answer us!’ they cried, but there was no voice, no answer, as they performed their hobbling dance round the altar they had made. Midday came, and Elijah mocked them. ‘Call louder,’ he said ‘for he is a god: he is preoccupied or he is busy, or he has gone on a journey; perhaps he is asleep and will wake up.’ So they shouted louder and gashed themselves, as their custom was, with swords and spears until the blood flowed down them. Midday passed, and they ranted on until the time the offering is presented; but there was no voice, no answer, no attention given to them.    Then Elijah said to all the people, ‘Come closer to me’, and all the people came closer to him. He repaired the altar of the Lord which had been broken down. Elijah took twelve stones, corresponding to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, to whom the word of the Lord had come, ‘Israel shall be your name’, and built an altar in the name of the Lord. Round the altar he dug a trench of a size to hold two measures of seed. He then arranged the wood, dismembered the bull, and laid it on the wood. Then he said, ‘Fill four jars with water and pour it on the holocaust and on the wood’; this they did. He said, ‘Do it a second time’; they did it a second time. He said, ‘Do it a third time’; they did it a third time. The water flowed round the altar and the trench itself was full of water. At the time when the offering is presented, Elijah the prophet stepped forward. ‘O Lord, God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel,’ he said ‘let them know today that you are God in Israel, and that I am your servant, that I have done all these things at your command. Answer me, O Lord, answer me, so that this people may know that you, the Lord, are God and are winning back their hearts.’    Then the fire of the Lord fell and consumed the holocaust and wood and licked up the water in the trench. When all the people saw this they fell on their faces. ‘The Lord is God,’ they cried, ‘the Lord is God.’ The Word of the Lord R/ Thanks be to God. Responsorial Psalm Psalm 15(16):1-2,4-5,8,11 R/ Save me, Lord, I take refuge in you. Preserve me, God, I take refuge in you.    I say to the Lord: ‘You are my God.’ R/ Save me, Lord, I take refuge in you. Those who choose other gods increase their sorrows.    Never will I offer their offerings of blood.    Never will I take their name upon my lips. R/ Save me, Lord, I take refuge in you. O Lord, it is you who are my portion and cup;    it is you yourself who are my prize. I keep the Lord ever in my sight:    since he is at my right hand, I shall stand firm. R/ Save me, Lord, I take refuge in you. You will show me the path of life,    the fullness of joy in your presence,    at your right hand happiness for ever. R/ Save me, Lord, I take refuge in you. Gospel Acclamation Psalm 118:27 Alleluia, alleluia! Make me grasp the way of your precepts, and I will muse on your wonders. Alleluia! Or: Psalm 24:4,5 Alleluia, alleluia! Teach me your paths, my God, make me walk in your truth. Alleluia! Gospel Matthew 5:17-19 I have not come to abolish the Law and the Prophets but to complete them Jesus said to his disciples: ‘Do not imagine that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets. I have come not to abolish but to complete them. I tell you solemnly, till heaven and earth disappear, not one dot, not one little stroke, shall disappear from the Law until its purpose is achieved. Therefore, the man who infringes even one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be considered the least in the kingdom of heaven; but the man who keeps them and teaches them will be considered great in the kingdom of heaven.’ The Gospel of the Lord R/ Praise to you Lord Jesus Christ. —————————-

Saint Antony of Padua, Priest, Doctor

(Liturgical Colour: White) First Reading Isaiah 61:1-3 He has sent me to proclaim a year of favour from the Lord The spirit of the Lord has been given to me, for the Lord has anointed me. He has sent me to bring good news to the poor, to bind up hearts that are broken; to proclaim liberty to captives, freedom to those in prison; to proclaim a year of favour from the Lord, a day of vengeance for our God, to comfort all those who mourn and to give them for ashes a garland; for mourning robe the oil of gladness, for despondency, praise. The Word of the Lord R/ Thanks be to God. Responsorial Psalm Psalm 88(89):2-5,21-22,25,27 R/ I will sing for ever of your love, O Lord. I will sing for ever of your love, O Lord;    through all ages my mouth will proclaim your truth. Of this I am sure, that your love lasts for ever,    that your truth is firmly established as the heavens. R/ I will sing for ever of your love, O Lord. ‘I have made a covenant with my chosen one;    I have sworn to David my servant: I will establish your dynasty for ever    and set up your throne through all ages. R/ I will sing for ever of your love, O Lord. ‘I have found David my servant    and with my holy oil anointed him. My hand shall always be with him    and my arm shall make him strong. R/ I will sing for ever of your love, O Lord. ‘My truth and my love shall be with him;    by my name his might shall be exalted. He will say to me: “You are my father,    my God, the rock who saves me.”’ R/ I will sing for ever of your love, O Lord. Gospel Acclamation Luke 4:17 Alleluia, alleluia! The Lord has sent me to bring the good news to the poor, to proclaim liberty to captives. Alleluia! Gospel Luke 10:1-9 Your peace will rest on that man The Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them out ahead of him, in pairs, to all the towns and places he himself was to visit. He said to them, ‘The harvest is rich but the labourers are few, so ask the Lord of the harvest to send labourers to his harvest. Start off now, but remember, I am sending you out like lambs among wolves. Carry no purse, no haversack, no sandals. Salute no one on the road. Whatever house you go into, let your first words be, “Peace to this house!” And if a man of peace lives there, your peace will go and rest on him; if not, it will come back to you. Stay in the same house, taking what food and drink they have to offer, for the labourer deserves his wages; do not move from house to house. Whenever you go into a town where they make you welcome, eat what is set before you. Cure those in it who are sick, and say, “The kingdom of God is very near to you.”’ The Gospel of the Lord R/ Praise to you Lord Jesus Christ.

[dailyaudiobiblechronological]

6/19/21 DAB Chronological Transcription

Ecclesiastes 1-6

It's the 19th day of June. Welcome to Daily Audio Bible Chronological. I'm Jill. It's wonderful to be here with you today as we turn the page together and we're opening our hearts and our ears and our eyes and our beings to receive all that. God would speak to us today through his word as we go through it in chronological order. So today, a little bit of a curve ball. We're starting a brand new book. We're not finished with a lot of the other ones, but this is the difference in going through the Bible as we know it, we are going through in chronological order as best as historians can tell. So we're starting Ecclesiastes today and we're going to be reading chapters one through six and we're reading in the New Living translation. So glad that you're here with me. I'm so happy to be here with you, I am on this journey together with you. This is my first time traveling through the Bible in chronological order. So I hope you're learning as much as I am. I've got my notebook here. I always take notes of the things that stuck out. I highlight the scriptures and then I go jot them down. And sometimes I feel like I'm writing a book. But this is how we grow in our understanding and knowledge of the word together. Ecclesiastes Chapter one in the New Living translation.

Commentary:

I'm going to summarize today's reading from the God of Your Story, because like the reading said, there's nothing new under the sun. It's already all...it's, it's all already been said. So I'll just repeat what's already been written so that it's not like chasing the wind here today. Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon Proverbs and some of the Psalms are all a part of a grouping of books known as Wisdom Literature. Solomon was known as the wisest man in the world. He was the most powerful and wealthy man of his time and was able to pursue whatever his heart desired. No matter what he dreamed of, nothing was off limits to him. As King David successor, Solomon had enormous resources at his disposal, a thousand of the most beautiful women in the world as wives and concubines, royalty power and the wisdom of God for the words of a man who had it all, Ecclesiastes can seem out of character. We might expect a memoire of greatness from a man like Solomon. Ecclesiastes, on the other hand, can read like nothing more than a depressing and hopeless rant. If we'll look below the surface, though, this book is actually a stark and deeply penetrating look into the human heart. We all pursue dreams and goals in our lives, but very few of us ever get to do whatever we want, whenever we want. We're always able to say, if I only had that life would be better. If I could only do this, life would be better. There always seems to be something new to chase, but what if we did get it all? Ecclesiastes exposes the reality of those notions. Solomon had pursued and achieved everything he ever set his hand to do. But later in his life, his harem of beautiful women seduced him into idolatry. Ecclesiastes contains the musings of an older man looking back over his endeavors and finding them meaningless without God. A perfect next step. Following all that, Job gave us to consider, let us allow the Holy Spirit to reveal to each of us what we've pursued in exchange for the promise of life. Expecting in return what only God can get. Like Solomon, we may find that there is a time for every purpose under heaven and that perhaps we've been chasing the wind. The book of Ecclesiastes will show us that we can gain everything and still be empty, and that a life full of achievements cannot replace relationship with God, the true source of life. It continues on. We continue to experience Solomon's observations on the futile experiences of life on Earth. He seems willing to speak the things we certainly feel at times, but would never say because they feel incongruent with our favorite versus a victory and prosperity. When we understand that these words are coming from the pen of a person who had achieved success, pleasure and power beyond our wildest dreams, we begin to understand that we're being given cautionary wisdom. Solomon makes many observations throughout Ecclesiastes, but he also states his conclusion. Ponder carefully some of the conclusions that we encountered just today. I observed that most people are motivated to success because they envy their neighbors. But this too is meaningless. Like chasing the wind. Too much activity gives you restless dreams. Too many words makes you a fool. Talk is cheap, like daydreams and other useless activities. Fear God. Instead, those who love money will never have enough. How meaningless to think that wealth brings true happiness to. Enjoy your work and accept your lot in life. This is indeed a gift from God. God keeps such people so busy enjoying life that they take no time to brood over the past. Enjoy what you have rather than desiring what you don't have. Just dreaming about nice things is meaningless, like chasing the wind.

Prayer: 

Father, may we heed the words of caution from today's reading, may we find contentment in our intimacy, our relationship, our fearing you, and not in things of this. And once again, we thank you for this reminder, for this caution, for these words of wisdom that we most certainly identify with and that we should take to heart. As we stop chasing the wind for meaningless things and we sit and bask in the glory of the sun in the name of the father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Announcements: 

Daily Audio Bible. That's the place to go, check it out, that's home base. Take a look at the website. Just meander around there and see what's up, what's happening. There's some resources there to check out. There is a prayer wall if you'd like to post your prayer request there. There are people willing and waiting to pray for you. You can download the app, take a look there as well. There's also a prayer wall on the app right at your fingertips if you would like to partner with the Daily Audio Bible we thank you so much for your partnership. This could not keep running without you. That's the plain and simple truth. And we are immensely grateful for every yes. If you are giving by email, it's DAB P.O. Box one nine nine six Springhill, Tennessee, three seven one seven four. Or you can give just by the touch of a button at the top of your mobile phone. Just hit the give icon or the gift icon on the website as well. Once again, thank you. If you have a prayer request, if you have a praise report and you would like to call in and ask for prayer or you would like to call in and pray for someone that's previously called in, you can do so by calling eight hundred five eight three two one six four. Or you can hit that red circle button on your mobile phone as well. Speak clearly into the phone hit submit and turn that dial chronological and send that off to the right channel. We appreciate that. We have the long walk. It's coming up and we will talk about that and get you introduced and get you set up for it starting next week. That's exciting. You can want to mark that down on your calendar. That's it for me today. I'm Jill. We'll turn the page together tomorrow. Look forward to it. Until then, love one another.

Community Prayer Line: 

Good morning, dear beloved family. My message today is Zaina in London. I think that Zaina in London. And thank you so much for sharing your message. You sent this on the 15th of June. And Happy Belated Birthday. So I could almost share the same story your daughter shared. And and I also didn't tell my mom until I was 19. And up to then I held her hostage and thinking that she because she left, that's why everything terrible happened to me and also happened to my brother. And the saving grace is that at that point when I was telling her all of that, I was studying the Bible to really commit myself to following following God's path. And so I was able to look and see. My mom had no way of determining that such things would happen to me, or my brother because she cannot tell- she couldn't tell the future. Right. So I this is coming from a doctor's standpoint. I pray that you recognize that during that time you are going through so much. And yes, we always said parents should not leave their children, blah, blah, blah, but you were hiding. So how can a hiding person be able to see the future? So I pray you forgive yourself. I love you. This is Fill My Cup from California. I love you family.

Hello Daily Audio Bible Chronological. This is Nathan Basar from Bloomington, Illinois. Hope everyone's doing fine. Hey I was listening to the June 15th commentary by Jill. I don't know how you squeezed it in those minutes that you loaded that commentary up and gave us a point of reflection upon our own lives about where we are at in the steps we need to take to heal within, because that's how wounds heal with it. So kinda remind me of a story. I love going to Estes Park, Colorado, thousand plus miles from my home, that's my happy spot. But a few years ago, there was a bear who wandered into a famous hotel that's out there and the person from behind the desk videotaped it. And here comes this black bear. I think it was a black or brown bear. Just came wandering into the hotel, which is busy and it just kind of made its way into the lobby and climbed up on the couch, looked out the window, just kind of meandered around and just walked out the front door. So it's not so uncommon that doors are open out there. Just a fresh breeze, beautiful, crisp air. And I thought, well, you know, if they'd kept the door closed the bear wouldn't have come in. So. So this is my point. We often keep our doors open to things that don't help us, that might do us more harm. And maybe it's time to get a new door, a fresher outlook, a new approach to heal those wounds from inside because we all have those wounds. How's your front door? Are you leaving it open? Are you exposed to further problems, further trauma? Time to step forward into what God calls us to do. Embrace your journey.

Hello, everybody. Susan from Canada: God's Yellow Flower calling in. And today I'd like to speak with Zana or Ina from London, whose daughter was sexually molested at five years old. And the same thing happened to me when I was five years old. But, you know, I couldn't talk to anybody about it till I was 40. And God led me to a place where I could see that there was a problem. But your daughter has opened up to you about it in her 20s. And I just praise God for that, that instead of feeling guilty, you can praise God that she has told you about it and that you can use this time to bring healing to her heart and soul through the words of our Lord and savior, Jesus Christ. And I pray, Lord God, that you would just fill Zana's mind with the words that she needs to bring healing to her daughter. I pray that she would just realize that leaving when her daughter was young was the best decision she could make at the time and not to feel guilty about it. And I pray Lord God for the daughter, that she would be completely healed of all the psychological and physical damage that that occurs at such a young age. Oh, God, I hate evil in this world, as you do. In Jesus name. Amen.

[dfroza]

Today’s reading from the ancient books of Proverbs and Psalms

for february 29 of 2024 with Proverbs 29 and Psalm 29, accompanied by Psalm 71 for the 71st day of Astronomical Winter and Psalm 60 for day 60 of the year (with the consummate book of 150 Psalms in its 1st revolution this year)

[Proverbs 29]

The one who remains defiant after repeated reprimands

will suddenly be shattered, and there will be no remedy for him.

When just leaders are in power, the citizens celebrate;

but when evil people gain control, their joys become moans.

An adult who loves wisdom and follows its ways gives his parents joy,

but one who hangs out with women of the street will lose everything.

A king brings stability to a land with his justice,

but one who makes unjust demands brings it to ruin.

The one who flatters his friend

is laying a trap that will catch his friend’s feet.

An evil person is sure to be trapped by his sin,

but a man who lives right is free to sing and be glad.

The just get involved with the poor and know their issues,

but the wicked cannot comprehend such concerns.

Mockers stir up a city and inflame passions,

but the wise know how to put out the fire and ease tensions.

When the wise go to court against a fool,

there will be ranting and raving but no resolution.

Bloodthirsty men despise those who are honest,

but the just find a way to help them.

A fool does not think before he unleashes his temper,

but a wise man holds back and remains quiet.

When it is known that a ruler listens to the words of liars,

soon he will have only scoundrels for advisors.

A poor man and his oppressor have this in common:

the Eternal created them and provides both with light and life.

The king who is fair in his treatment of the poor

will see his dynasty continue forever.

Corporal punishment and correction produce wisdom,

but a child left to follow his own willful way shames his mother.

When evil people are free to flourish, sin is on the rise,

but the just will surely see their destruction.

If you discipline your children, they will make your life easier

and refresh your soul.

Where there is no vision from God, the people run wild,

but those who adhere to God’s instruction know genuine happiness.

Words are not enough to correct a servant;

even if he understands, he will not respond.

Have you ever met someone who is overly eager to talk?

There is more hope for a fool than for him.

If you indulge your servant from early in life,

in the end it won’t go well for either of you.

A hot-head provokes quarrels,

and one mastered by anger commits all kinds of sins.

A person’s pride brings him down,

but one of humble spirit has a firm hold on honor and respect.

Anyone who teams up with a thief must despise his own life,

for he is bound by an oath to tell the truth and yet refuses.

If you fear other people, you are walking into a dangerous trap;

but if you trust in the Eternal, you will be safe.

Many people vie for special treatment from a ruler,

yet genuine justice proceeds from the Eternal.

The right-living are disgusted by the actions of the unjust;

likewise, the wicked are disgusted by the ways of the righteous.

The Book of Proverbs, Chapter 29 (The Voice)

[Psalm 29]

A song of David.

Give all credit to the Eternal, O heavenly creatures;

give praise to Him for His glory and power.

Give to the Eternal the glory due His name;

worship Him with lavish displays of sacred splendor.

The voice of the Eternal echoes over the great waters;

God’s magnificence roars like thunder.

The Eternal’s presence hovers over all the waters.

His voice explodes in great power over the earth.

His voice is both regal and grand.

The Eternal’s voice shatters the cedars;

His power splinters the great cedars of Lebanon.

He speaks, and Lebanon leaps like a young calf;

Sirion jumps like a wild, youthful ox.

The voice of the Eternal cuts through with flames of fire.

The voice of the Eternal rumbles through the wilderness

with great quakes;

He causes Kadesh to tremble.

The Eternal’s voice brings life from the doe’s womb;

His voice strips the forest bare,

and all the people in the temple declare, “Glory!”

The Eternal is enthroned over the great flood;

His reign is unending.

We ask You, Eternal One, to give strength to Your people;

Eternal One, bless them with the gift of peace.

The Book of Psalms, Poem 29 (The Voice)

[Psalm 71]

I have found shelter in You, Eternal One;

I count on You to shield me always from humiliation and disgrace.

Rescue and save me in Your justice.

Turn Your ear to me, and hurry to deliver me from my enemies.

Be my rock of refuge where I can always hide.

You have given the order to keep me safe;

You are my solid ground—my rock and my fortress.

Save me from the power of sinful people, O my God,

from the grip of unjust and cruel men.

For You are my hope, Eternal One;

You, Lord, have been the source of my confidence since I was young.

I have leaned upon You since I came into this world;

I have relied on You since You took me safely from my mother’s body,

So I will ever praise You.

Many find me a mystery,

but You are my rock and my shelter—my soul’s asylum.

My mouth overflows with praise to You

and proclaims Your magnificence all day long.

Do not set me aside when I am old;

do not abandon me when I am worn out.

For my enemies often voice evil against me;

those who desire to kill me plot together in secret.

They say, “God has abandoned him;

let’s go after him right now and seize him.

There’s no one around to rescue him.”

God, stay close by me.

Come quick, O my God, and help me!

May my enemies be covered in shame and then die;

may those who seek to harm me

be overwhelmed with contempt and disgrace.

But I will keep hope alive,

and my praise to You will grow exponentially.

I will bear witness to Your merciful acts;

throughout the day I will speak of all the ways You deliver,

although, I admit, I do not know the entirety of either.

I will come with stories of Your great acts, my Lord, the Eternal.

I will remind them of Your justice, only Yours.

You have taught me since I was young, O God,

and I still proclaim the wonderful things You have done.

Now as I grow old and my hair turns gray,

I ask that You not abandon me, O God.

Allow me to share with the generation to come

about Your power;

Let me speak about Your strength and wonders

to all those yet to be born.

God, Your justice stretches to the heavens,

You who have done mighty things!

Who is like You, O God?

You have made me see hard times: I’ve experienced many miserable days,

but You will restore me again.

You will raise me up

from the deep pit.

You will greatly increase my status

and be my comfort once again.

I will praise You with music played on a harp

because You have been faithful, O my God.

I will sing praises to You with the lyre,

O Holy One of Israel.

I will shout for joy

as I sing Your praises;

my soul will celebrate because You have rescued me.

All day long I will declare how Your justice saved me,

for those who have plotted to bring me harm

are now ashamed and humiliated.

The Book of Psalms, Poem 71 (The Voice)

[Psalm 60]

For the worship leader. A prayer of David after his victory over the Arameans, Joab’s return, and the striking down of 12,000 Edomites in the valley of Salt. A song for instruction to the tune “A Lily Reminds Us.”

God, You have turned away from us;

You have shattered us into a million tiny pieces;

You have boiled with anger.

Now put us back together, and refresh us with Your mercy.

You have made the earth shake; You have cracked it open effortlessly.

Heal the fissures in the earth, for it is unsteady.

You have caused Your people to suffer;

You have provided us with wine that makes us stagger.

You have unfurled a banner for those who revere You,

a signal to gather in safety out of the enemy’s reach.

[pause]

So that Your treasured ones may be saved,

rescue us with Your right hand, and answer our pleas!

God’s voice has been heard in His holy sanctuary:

“I will celebrate; I will allocate Shechem

and the Succoth Valley to My people.

Gilead belongs to Me, and so does Manasseh;

Ephraim is the helmet that protects My head;

Judah is the scepter through which I rule;

Moab is the washpot in which I rinse My feet.

I will throw My shoe over Edom in conquest;

prepare for My victory, Philistia. Cry out because of Me!”

But who will take me into the fortified city?

Who will lead me into Edom?

Have You not turned Your back on us, O God?

Will You stay away and not accompany our armies, O God?

Help us against our enemy; we need Your help!

It’s useless to trust in the hand of man for liberation.

Only through God can we be successful.

It is God alone who will defeat our enemies and bring us victory!

The Book of Psalms, Poem 60 (The Voice)

[dailyaudiobible]

9/2/2022 DAB Transcript

Ecclesiastes 1:1-3:22, 2 Corinthians 6:1-13, Psalm 46:1-11, Proverbs 22:15

Today is the second day of September, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian and it is wonderful to be here with you, as we continue moving into this brand-new month in front of us. And this brand-new month has brought us to a brand-new book.

Introduction to the Book of Ecclesiastes:

So, yesterday we concluded the book of Job, which brings us to the threshold and we will begin today, the book of Ecclesiastes. And just by way of reminders, both Job and Ecclesiastes, as well as Proverbs and Song of Solomon, some of the Psalms, these are a part of a grouping of books known as wisdom literature. This is the genre that they are written in. So, as strange as it's going to seem as we begin the book of Ecclesiastes that we are studying wisdom, to think about the ways that we define things. In some cases, we could say that is wisdom and we would be making a definition. We could also say that is not wisdom and therefore make a definition of wisdom by it not being something. Or for that matter, even with the Lord. We could say God is like and then make some sort of metaphor description that says more than just a definition. Or you could say God is not like and then make a definition by subtraction. So, not like to get this all muddy and convoluted but like with wisdom, we could say all the things that wisdom are and it be true. We could also say everything that wisdom is not and it still be true, in defining what wisdom is. In Ecclesiastes, we have a little bit of that going on. And by the way, the…the sort of affirming what something is or defining it by what it is not, this is called apophatic and cataphatic ways of looking at things. The apophatic way being sort of the subtraction, the negation. Saying that something is not like this other thing. In many ways we have this kind of view in the book of Ecclesiastes, it’s just interwoven into a life. In this case, the life of Israel's third King, King Solomon. And it should be said, that there are raging debates among scholars and have been for a long time about who wrote the book of Ecclesiastes. It is generally attributed to King Solomon. This has been debated for a very long time. I personally like to read it as if it's from Solomon or about Solomon because it kind of book ends his life. We see Solomon arising to the throne of Israel and his humility before God and asking for wisdom and his rise to power and his unbelievable development of the land of Israel. The Bible speaks of him as the wisest man in the world his wisdom is still famous today. But we also know from the Scriptures that the latter years of his reign, he did not finish well. He was seduced away into complete idolatry. So, it’s easy to wonder like, what happened to this guy, things were going so swimmingly, it was perfect, he brought Israel to climax in their culture like, what happened? Well, we could say, well he was seduced away by his many, many wives. But maybe it's even deeper than that. Solomon's known to be the wisest man in the world. So, he should see through some of this stuff, we would think. He was powerful, he was a king, he had the power of life and death in his hands. He was wealthy, one of the most wealthy people in the world at that time. So, what we’re looking at, is a person that has peace all around him provided by his father, King David. He has all of the resources his heart could desire. He has anything that he wants, like nothing, pretty much, nothing is off-limits to him. So, in some ways, Ecclesiastes is almost a dark memoir, a look back at what has been accomplished and realizing its chasing the wind, it's meaningless. Like, if we had the memoir of Solomon, we would think it would be full of his greatness, his epic greatness and the greatness that Israel achieved during his time. Ecclesiastes reads a little more depressing than that, and in some ways, it just looks hopeless and like he's just a, just a rant. But if we’ll look below the surface, we’ll find that he's not really saying things that we haven’t thought or that we don't say ourselves, especially when we're feeling hopeless. It’s just, everybody has goals and dreams, everybody pursues things, everybody achieves things, but not very many people in the world, there are people in the world, but not very many people in the world, have the resource and the energy to do whatever they want. Like, they can do whatever they want, whenever they want pretty much. We, most of us, on the other hand have to work really hard to achieve certain things and it's much less than the people who have unlimited resources. And then we start thinking, through comparison, if I could just have that, my life would be complete. If I had the ability to do whatever I want, whenever I want, I would be overjoyed and full of happiness. It would be amazing. But what we read from the book of Ecclesiastes is…is the perspective of a person who has had every advantage, every resource, everything, he’s the king of Israel. He has developed the land; he has lots and lots of gold. He has lots and lots of glory. He has lots and lots of girls. Like, he has everything that he desires. And so, to have this person live their life and then kind of reflect back and be honest about the experience, that's helpful because most of us aren’t going to achieve that, but we spend our entire lives in pursuit of it. So, what we ultimately find from the teacher in Ecclesiastes is that you can gain the whole world and lose your soul, that you can have everything and still be empty inside, that you can achieve whatever you set your hands to do, and it's still not be enough. It's meaningless without God. A human being, no matter their wealth or power cannot make meaning that lasts, there are voids within us that no matter what we try to cram into those holes in our lives and fill them with, it doesn't last. We can run and chase life as hard as we can and realize that we’re creating experiences, but life is lived in relationship with God. We were made this way, He is the source, the true source of life. And so, Ecclesiastes gives is this rare view, and we’ll start reading this book and if you’ve never read Ecclesiastes before, it can be like what is, this is the Bible? This is in the Bible? And the answer is, of course it is. We all feel this way, we just don't usually have an example like a person who has every resource and every strength and every power available to them. So, it gives us a perspective on what it might look like if we actually got everything that we claim that we want. And so, with that we begin Ecclesiastes 1, 2, and 3 today.

Prayer:

Father, we love You, we thank You for Your word. We thank You for this new territory that we are entering into, as we move into the book of Ecclesiastes, it feels so different than so many of the other portions of Scripture. And it's intriguing to consider what wisdom looks like if you've tried everything and done it all. Very, very few of us, have those experiences in our lives and yet You are giving us the wisdom from it, because almost all of us pursue any kind of comfort we can get our hands on. And so often, we are ignoring You, the comforter. So, may we learn the deep wisdom from the book of Ecclesiastes. We pray in the name of Jesus, we ask. Amen.

Announcements:

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And if you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, if this has been life-giving to you, if being around the Global Campfire together, brings good news then thank you for your partnership. There is a link on the homepage at dailyaudiobible.com. If you are using the app, you can press the Give button, in the upper right-hand corner or the mailing address is P.O. Box 1996 Springhill, Tennessee 37174.

And as always, if you have a prayer request or encouragement, you can hit the Hotline button in the app, that's the little red button up at the top, or you can dial 877-942-4253.

And that's it for today, I'm Brian, I love you and I'll be waiting for you here, tomorrow.

Prayer and Encouragements:

Good morning, it’s Graced Filled Decastro here. It’s the 30th of August and I am just here listening; I’ve just finished listening to Kingdom Seeker Daniel. His testimony about his bride returning home. Oh, my goodness, praise God, hallelujah. I am so thankful and grateful to God for this restoration. I was thinking about you guys this morning, whilst I was listening to Brian. You were very heavily on my mind. And so, when I heard your voice towards the ending of the prayers that were coming through, I was just like, you know, oh my Gosh, please tell me this is what I want to hear, this is what I want to hear. And yes, you did. So, I am celebrating with you, my brother. And also, happy, happy, happy birthday. This truly has been a blessed birthday for you and God is good, He is merciful, He is kind and He, He does answer our prayers. He really does. I just wanna send a shout to Brian and family, thank you for doing what you do. This is such an amazing platform and I feel so grateful every single morning, that I’m blessed to open my eyes and listen to the DAB, the prayer requests, the testimonies, they’re amazing. I’m running out of time now guys. Have a wonderful, blessed day. Take care. Love you. Bye Bye.

Hello Daily Audio Bible, this is David from Houston, Texas. I’m calling today because I would like to request prayers for myself. On the 28th of August I decided to re-dedicate my life to Jesus. And I don’t know if this has been like the 10th time over in my, almost 40 years of living, that I’ve gone through this part. And somehow, I always fall back into sin, and I get away from the Lord. But I’m praying this time around that you know, and I’m seeking prayers from the community, this time around, I have to change position this time in my life. And I’m going to pursue Jesus like I’ve never before. And this will be the final time in my life, where I have to go through a re-dedication process. This time that I stick with Jesus. Thank you.

Hey Daily Audio Bible family, this is Billy from Montgomery with A Trinity Stone. I wanted to put a prayer request out there for Margo from Liberia, West Africa. Margo I just want to let you know that was a tragic, tragic thing that happened to the four-year-old child. Absolute travesty. I really don’t even know what to say other than we’re gonna keep you covered in prayer. Because I think you do need to finish your work over there, sounds like it’s very important. But it’s just a travesty, total tragic, tragic thing that happened. We just want to let you know we’re keeping you covered up in prayer over here. And want to let you know we’re washing you with the blood of Jesus. That’s all we can do over here is just a tragic, tragic thing that happened. And that is it. I just wanted to let you know that Margo. And we love you. And love to all you guys too, out there in DAB land. I will talk to you guys later. Bye

Hi DAB family, this is Natalie from North Carolina. I found the DAB community last year, January 1st. And almost finished out the year but life got a little crazy and I fell off the wagon a little bit. I actually, just recently started listening to this year’s series. I am coming to you all for prayers. It’s been a little tough lately. My husband travels for work. I have two little ones at home. And I work full time. We don’t really have any family or friends that I can rely on nearby. And I’ve just been feeling very overwhelmed a little lonely. So, I just was hoping to come to ya’ll for some prayers. And I just thank you all for this amazing community. It always helps, listening to Brian every day. And I look forward to it. Thank you.

Hello Daily Audio Bible family. I am calling in response to a prayer request that was sent in on the August 31st reading by, he said his name was Anonymous. He said his wife had symptoms of long COVID and that she was stuck in the house. And she can’t drive because of those symptoms. And that he was having a tough time separating himself from the world. I just wanted to just encourage you. I don’t quite understand, you know, quite understand the symptoms of long COVID but I know the feeling of being stuck inside and losing joy. And so, Lord, I just pray right now for his wife, Lord God, that You will just come into that home right now and just give her peace and joy, Lord Jesus. Restore to her the joy of her salvation, Lord God. And I thank You for healing every symptom that she has, Lord Jesus, and that no symptoms will remain, Lord God. That all these doctor appointments she won’t have to go to anymore because You are going to touch her body and make her whole and healed, in Jesus’s name. And Lord, I pray for him as well, Lord, we all waiver through the back and forth between the world and following You, Lord Jesus. Nobody is above that, Lord God. And Lord, I pray right now to just give him strength and direction, Lord Jesus, that he is not alone in this walk, Lord God, but he always has somebody to reach out to and that is You and the Daily Audio Bible family. So, Lord, I pray right now to just give them both strength, peace and joy, Lord God, and restore the love that they have for each other, Lord Jesus. Lord, we know that You’re in the miracle working business, and nothing is too hard for You, Lord Jesus. So, now we consider it done and in Jesus’s name. I hope everything is good and I can’t wait to hear for an update.

Hey everybody, it’s Margo in Liberia. And I just want to say such a heartfelt thank you to everyone that has been praying for me. Those of you that have called in and those that haven’t. I have felt many prayers. And I’m so grateful to know that I’m not alone in this. The day I called in I just, you know, I felt like I might never feel okay again. You know that grief where you just feel like you can’t even breath. And I heard your prayers, those of you that called in, and it’s amazing how comforting it is to know that someone else feels pain alongside you. Somebody that doesn’t even know you. And I’m just so grateful for this family. And I have felt your prayers. I feel as though the shock is just finally wearing off and that’s such a relief. The grief continues but at least that shock is wearing off. The little girl’s name was Winnie. I just want to share that, and she was a little darling, such a little darling. Little Winnie. Thank you for thinking of her, thank you that she meant something to you, even though you never met her. Thank you that you agree with me that this death is unjust and unfair. Thank you for being my brothers and sisters in walking beside me in this. I’m really, really grateful. Okay, bye for now.

[automatismoateo]

Something off my chest...just a rant via /r/atheism

Submitted May 08, 2021 at 06:56PM by CaptainBirthday (Via reddit https://ift.tt/3b9PrGc) Something off my chest...just a rant

Total atheist here pro LGBTQ.pro science. Some of my friends are liberal christians and they try to get me to take a second look at the Bible and not let the bad "christians" ruin it for me. Sorry not sorry-- my issue is the source material ....not the fandom.

So many liberal christians are lightning quick to say the Bible has been mistranslated and manipulated but they don't pause to consider that the majority of these shenanigans are to make it look BETTER.

The oldest and most reliable texts are still a book that commands stoning gays and atheists and even your own wife if you believe she isn't a virgin on your wedding night, outright genocide, winks at and condones slavery, treats women like cattle (on a good day, often it's worse) and Jesus shows up right on cue to say in Matthew 5 that all of this is absolutely fine and not one "jot or tittle" should be changed.

The rules change for sure and Jesus moves the bar up quite a bit but while things are different...he and the writers of the New Testament never actually say the old way was wrong or anything less than perfect.

The gospel story is essentially saying that man could not live up to gods law so Jesus had to die and take the punishment for us. Stop there...man couldn't live up to gods law---laws like stoning people for being gay. Man failed to enforce holy laws like this so Jesus came.

David says in Psalms that he meditates day and night on God's law. At the time of David writing this, there is no new testament so all he has is the law. Laws like how to sell your daughters as slaves (Exodus 20) and how to cut off your wife's hand if she injures a man's testes trying to save YOUR life (Deuteronomy 25 and 21)

So David, presumably a rapist (Bathsheba) who circumcises corpses for trophies, is called a man after God's own heart and has hundreds of wives and kills Bathsheba's husband so he can have her too.

The new testament doubles down on anti homosexual attitudes (Romans) and introduces hell to the story as a great motivator for loving God, this awesome character.

Yes you can cherry pick. Yes people have biases, but the absolute con of modern Christianity has no power on me. The slant goes both ways. Jesus is supposed to be God. If this is true in ANY way, then Jesus is guilty of laying out these laws. If Jesus really did break up a stoning for the woman caught in adultery, it's amazing the BALLS he has because the only reason they're doing it in the first place is because he/god commanded it in the first place and on dozens of occasions in the Books of the law, which by the way--Jesus never criticizes.

In the end you can say it was a different time and people were primitive but I got some questions for you:

When did genocide and slavery become wrong or were they always wrong?

Does god command these things and condone them in the Bible?

Was it good to do these things because God commanded it? If so, morality is relative and there's no real right or wrong in an objective sense.

One more for free-- stop saying we don't know what the original copies said. I see people on FB all the time saying that King James or someone else changed things.

King James lives in the 1500s. The Old Testament manuscripts are virtually Xeroxed for centuries leading up to this. New testament texts have some wonkiness for sure but the overwhelming majority of these were actually tweaked to make Jesus and his teachings appear BETTER.

Six years of seminary and 25 years of church y'all. I walked away from a lucrative (compared to a real job anyway) career in church and have a customer service job because I refuse to lie to children, others or myself about a disgusting book that should only be used for it's historic and aesthetic/poetic influence on the English language and art.

God is not real, and if there is a god, it's not the one in the Bible, and if you actually understand the Bible--this is very, very good news.

I love posts about this liberal Jesus who "hung out" with sex workers and was down with LGBTQ and BLM and I love those memes and posts because it pisses off Christians. But if you believe Jesus was real and was God, he commanded LGBTQ people to be murdered with rocks like a rabid dog in the street.

Your only move here is to say that Jesus wasn't god or somehow all the verses you don't like are fake and all the ones you do are real. Or that you have a super secret psychic connection to God and he divvies it up for you....or maybe as a long stretch you believe that God has improved and gotten with the times. If god got better over time then he wasn't god.

Everything you just read is my personal opinion, not any of my friends or family, just my own. And it has cost me everything...but along the way I have made a couple of friends and a wife and I can look myself in the mirror and not feel like a fraud trying to live a comfy life of pretending the Bible isn't dripping with ignorance, hate, lies-- and blood.

I know there are very progressive churches who are affirming to women and LGBT but they are doing so in SPITE of and not because of , the Bible which at best could support a kind of love the sinner hate the sin platitude.

The Ex Christians who are LGBTQ don't need a church to forgive them and "accept" them. They don't need to be forgiven. The backwards ass churches across America should be the ones seeking forgiveness for their war on culture and science that has made everything from Civil Rights to evolution, abortion access, pornography, and many other issues--as slow as it has been while secular countries have been far out in front for decades.

Rant over. Free your mind and other body parts. Be happy with life we know we have and love everyone. Treat everyone with kindness and humility. Run from religion and anything else that has all the answers. Question every thing.

P.S. I would love your comments but please don't hit me with the "it was a different time" or you can't compare modern society with ancient society. You can and you should. That's how we HAVE a modern society. And while people were more primitive back in the day, God is Eternal so he shouldn't be struggling with why slavery is wrong or stoning your wife, marrying 10 year olds or a million other things. If he can make animals talk and part the sea he can definitely tell people about the room temperature morality that would far exceed the one he props up in his word.

So choose God ain't real Gods real but the Bible isn't Gods real and the parts of the bible you like are real by sheer chance. Everything you dont like in the bible was out there by an outsider and corrupted, which is just what I said above with more steps lol.

Genocide. Slavery. Rape. Incest. Extreme patriarchy .child brides. Ethnic cleansing. Fairy tales. That's what the Bible is.

Change my mind

#reddit

[justjesusthoughts-blog]

Evidence for God

There is overwhelming evidence that God not only exists, but that the words he gave us through the Bible are true and inspired by him. In the following, I will lay out some of the main points of evidence for God and Christianity, but I will still barely even scratch the surface. You will find that the more you look into evidence for God, the more you will discover.  

Martyrs- When Jesus walked the earth, he gained many followers, and he even had 12 close ones called his "disciples" who followed him everywhere he went and learned from him. They, along with many others, including people who were not his followers, were with Jesus when he died. They witnessed him being nailed to a cross, they saw him take his last breath, they watched as the soldier stabbed him in his heart to make sure he was dead, and they buried him. Three days later, these same people watched in complete shock and awe as the same Jesus walked amongst them, performing miracles and showing off the holes in his hands, feet, and sides. Thousands of people who witnessed his death gave eyewitness accounts to the writers of the gospel that they saw Jesus with their own eyes just days after he was killed. Not only this, but most of his disciples, and many of his family members, friends, and followers were murdered later on because of their belief that Jesus was God in the flesh and that he came to bring forgiveness to anyone who would turn from their sinful ways and follow him. Even in the face of painful deaths, torture, ridicule, isolation, and excruciating pain, hundreds of people did not waver in their beliefs or take back what they had said. Think about this: if these people were lying, and just trying to trick people into believing something for their own gain, why would they die for it? There's no way all of them were crazy. The only explanation could be that they truly saw Jesus die, they saw him resurrected, and these things convinced them beyond a shadow of a doubt that everything Jesus had said was true. He was the son of God, and his message of forgiveness was so important that they would rather die than give up on telling people about it.

2.

The Bible's Consistency- Have you ever played the game "telephone"? The game starts with one person whispering a word or phrase in the ear of the person next to them and then that person whispers it in the ear of the person next to them, and when you get to the end of the circle the last person tries to repeat the original word or phrase. After being passed around so many times, it is usually so twisted and changed that it hardly even matches the original. If the Bible was conceived from human minds, this is what you may expect it to be like. Inconsistent, with conflicting views and stories, which would make it completely unreliable. But this is in fact the opposite of what we see in the Bible. The Bible contains 66 different books, written by 40 different authors over the span of 1,500 years. It wasn't put together into one book until recently. As a result, many of the authors never read each other's books or even met each other. They all claim to have received their words from God. The Bible never once contradicts itself. Not. Once. Even different accounts of the same event may present different details of the same story, but they never disprove the other by contradicting the other. There is one common, unifying theme throughout: of God's vast power and greatness, and of his love for the people he created which ultimately results in him sending his own son to die to save us.  

3.

Prophecies: R.C. Sproul once said, "The very dimension of the shear fulfillment of prophecy in the Old Testament scriptures should be enough to convince anyone that we are dealing with a supernatural piece of literature... God himself has planted within the scriptures an internal consistency that bears witness that this is his Word." The Bible contains about 2,500 prophecies (predictions) about future events such as the life and death of Jesus Christ, the end times, and important historical events. The only prophecies that have not been fulfilled are the ones that are about the end of the world, about 500 of them. The other 2,000 have all been fulfilled to the letter. The Bible not only backs this up, but scores of other historical records as well. The odds of all of these prophecies being fulfilled by chance without any errors is less than 1 in 10 to the 2,000th power. So basically, the chance of these coming true by chance and not divine intervention is next to impossible. Here's an example:

Some 400 years before crucifixion was invented, both Israel's King David and the prophet Zechariah described the Messiah's (Jesus's) death in words that perfectly depict that mode of execution. Further, they said that the body would be pierced and that none of the bones would be broken, contrary to customary procedure in cases of crucifixion (Psalm 22 and 34:20; Zechariah 12:10). Again, historians and New Testament writers confirm the fulfillment: Jesus of Nazareth died on a Roman cross, and his extraordinarily quick death eliminated the need for the usual breaking of bones. A spear was thrust into his side to verify that he was, indeed, dead.

For examples of a few more of them, go to http://www.reasons.org/articles/articles/fulfilled-prophecy-evidence-for-the-reliability-of-the-bible.

You can also Google biblical prophecies and see examples of many others.  

4.

Jesus was who he said he was- The ex-atheist turned Christian C.S. Lewis once said, “I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.” One of the arguments for Jesus being the son of God and not just a great teacher is this: that the only three options for us to believe is that Jesus was either a liar, a lunatic, or he was who he said he was. Those are the only three options, considering that Christians and atheists alike cannot deny at least the existence of Jesus based on historical evidence. If he was a liar, he would not have been able to do the things he did. Eyewitnesses reported Jesus performing many miracles: healing people they had known their whole lives who were blind, deaf, and paralyzed, calming a storm, multiplying a few fish and a couple loaves of bread into enough to feed 10,000 people, and even bringing people back to life who had been dead for days. A liar also probably wouldn't allow himself to be tortured and die if he was just trying to trick people. Add to these the fact that he himself resurrected from the dead, and it's pretty easy to tell that he wasn't just trying to fool people into thinking he was God. Second, he could not be a lunatic. Thousands of people would not follow a lunatic or someone who was not what he said he was. Look at Jesus's words and you can see that what he says are not the rantings of a madman. He was intelligent, he was consistent in his teachings, and his teachings make sense in light of the person he claimed to be: God. Not only that but his followers later were tortured and died for what they believed. That many people just don’t die for the random teachings of a madman- what he said they believed to be true based on what they witnessed and saw in him. 

5.

History does not contradict the Bible, but reinforces it- The more historical records and artifacts that are found, the more confidence we find in the Bible being true. Nothing that has been found has contradicted the Bible, but agrees with what the Bible says. Not even atheists dispute the historical accuracy of the Bible. Here are just a few of many examples (again, you can find tons of examples just by googling):

-A common flood story: In Genesis, the Bible tells of a great flood that wiped out almost all of mankind and animals. This has been proven scientifically, and also historically. Other cultures, such as the Mesopotamians, the Greeks, and the Egyptians all have records of a great flood in primordial times. Even Native American cultures have legends about a great flood. The reality of a great flood occurring at this time is also now supported by fossil evidence.

-In Genesis, the story of the tower of Babel tells how in the beginning of the world, all the people spoke one language but God confused their language and created many others. Ancient Sumerian and Babylonian tablets have records of this event occurring.  

-The Bible's records of the Kings who ruled in certain countries and times have been shown to be completely accurate. In addition, the Bible chronicles many battles, wars, and the downfalls of many civilizations which have likewise been recorded in other sources.

While this alone doesn't prove that the Bible was divinely inspired, it does add more depth to the reliability of the Bible. The more reliable we can find the Bible about historical things, the more we can count on the reliability of other things. For example, think about the story of the Boy Who Cried Wolf. He told the townspeople there was a wolf about to devour their sheep several times when there wasn't a wolf in sight. Then, when there was actually a wolf about to kill all their sheep, they did not believe him because he had lied so many times before. If the Bible was wrong about historical events, we would not be able to confidently say that it was right about other events, like the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, because people would be able to point to that and say, "Well it was wrong about this battle or this king's reign so how can we trust anything it says?" It's like if there was a weatherman who was accurate 100% of the time. Suppose he told us it was going to snow in Southern California in the middle of July. We might think that's crazy or outrageous, but if he had been right about other seemingly impossible predictions before, we would be more likely to believe him. 

6.

The Bible predicts many scientific findings YEARS before they were discovered- The Bible talks about many scientific things that were not discovered until centuries later. However, it does not predict even one thing that is inaccurate. Many other religions, books, and cultures have predicted future scientific discoveries but none with the accuracy of the Bible. If a human were to predict future scientific advancements you would expect that they would be wrong a lot, probably more times than they were right. But what we see with the accuracy of the Bible is exactly what you would expect if it were inspired by God himself- it contains no errors. Here are a few examples of many:

-The Bible says the earth is round; for years it was believed the earth was flat. Isaiah 40:22 says, "It is he who sits above the circle of the earth."

-The Bible says that the earth hangs in space: "He stretches out the north over empty space, He hangs the earth on nothing." -Job 26:7. It was widely believed at this time that the earth was supported by something. Other cultures believed the earth sat on the back of a turtle or an elephant, while others believed gods like Atlas held it up.  

-Job 38:16 talks about "the springs of the sea." Until the 1970's, scientists believed the ocean was fed by rivers and rain. It wasn't until we were able to create the technology in the 70's to explores the depths of the ocean that we found out the ocean is fed by underground springs.

-Blood is the source of life and health: "For the life of the flesh is in the blood" (Leviticus 17:11), and "For the life of every creature is its blood, its blood its life" (Leviticus 17:14). At this time, people with all kinds of medical conditions were usually treated by being "bled" to get rid of whatever was infecting them and making them sick. Now we know that blood is essential for life and that we must have enough of it to stay alive and functioning.

-The Bible also contains many instructions to the ancient Hebrews about sanitary laws that were not discovered until much later. For example, God warns against drinking out of stagnant pools of water, which we now know cause diseases like cholera. He also instructs them to bury their feces and to bury it away from their camps. Soldiers were even dying in World War I due to keeping their waste too close to them, so the Bible was way ahead of its time in this. This also shows us that even when we may not understand God's commands or see the point in them, God sees the bigger picture and ultimately has our best interests at heart. 

7.

Personally, one of the most compelling aspects of Christianity is in the sheer complexity of our universe. If we were even a fraction of an inch closer to the sun, we would burn up. If we were a fraction of an inch further we would freeze. We are sitting on a ball, covered in 70% water with a core of magma and lava, spinning at thousands of miles an hour and yet we don't fall off. I see God in the beauty of nature and in the variety. There's caterpillars with their tiny little legs and their antennae for sensing and then there's massive elephants with trunks that act like an arm to reach to the tops of trees for food and to reach down to drink from pools of water. Then there's humans, the most complex and remarkable creatures of all. We have thousands of nerves for sensing the world around us, and we have more nerve endings in the places we need them like our hands. We have all these systems in place inside our bodies to maintain homeostasis like our blood buffering system. God could have created us like the plants to eat: he could have created us so that all we have to do is stand in the sun and get our energy. But he created all kinds of different foods for our enjoyment and creativity. He gave us feelings, which we aren't always thankful for but don't they make life worth living? That feeling you get when you see someone you love that you haven't seen in a while. That feeling you get on a still, quiet morning watching the sun rise before the rest of the world is up. That high you get when you do something daring, the peace you feel when you're in nature, the love you feel when you look at your kids or your spouse or your friends. God is present in everything around us. There's no way something this spectacular arrived out of nothing, and I think deep down we all know that. The problem of a God arises when we realize that the presence of an all-powerful, all-knowing, righteous, perfect God means that we have someone to answer to at the end of our lives. That we can't just live our lives the way we want to and get away with it in the end. But the good news is that God doesn't exist just to judge us or give us a bunch of rules to follow that we can never accomplish. God gives us rules to live by because he loves us. Think about it, if a parent let their child run around and play in a busy street all the time, the kid might love it. No rules, no one to answer to, just complete freedom. But that's not loving the child. If a parent truly loves their child they will set boundaries and tell them to play in safe areas because they don't want them to be hit by a passing car. Even if the child doesn't understand it, it is up to the parent to do what is best for the child because he or she loves their child. And it is up to the child to follow the rules because even if they don't understand the rules, they trust that a loving parent knows better than they do and that the rules their parent is setting is for their own good. In the same way, God sets rules for us. He tells us not to be jealous of those around us, because he knows jealousy is going to make us dissatisfied with our own lives and cause us to not be thankful for all the ways he has blessed us. He commands us to take care of the poor and the widows because he wants all his people to be taken care of. He commands us to love him with all our hearts, souls, and minds because he knows that ultimately, we can never be fully satisfied by anything but a relationship with him. And God doesn't expect us to be perfect either. He knows we will mess up, but lucky for us his forgiveness never runs out. He sent Jesus to die the death we deserve so that we can stand blameless and pure before him. He doesn't seek to take from us, but rather to give. He doesn't want to take our freedom from us, he wants to set us free from the weight of sin. He wants to provide us with the joy, peace, security, ultimate acceptance, and sense of purpose that we can only get from him. He only asks that we stop running from him and instead run to him, turning from our old selves so that he can make us new. He wants you so desperately, but he loves you so much that he gives you the free will to choose him for yourself.

#evidenceforgod #god is real #evidenceforchristianity #evidenceforjesus #jesuschrist #jesus #jesussaves #god #godisgood #iloveyou

[icechuksblog]

Former presidential aide, Reno Omokri who is behind the release of the controverisal Amaechi tapes, has just written an article where he described Tolu Ogunlesi, one of President Buhari's media aides as a 'low budget' Lai Mohammed. According to him, 'I could not believe how Tolu Ogunlesi stabbed me in the back, and not just at any time, but during my most trying time in office, when I was set up for something I was innocent of (my then boss asked me never to discuss that particular episode in public), it was precisely Tolu Ogunlesi that drove the knife deepest in my heart'. See his full post below... Many Nigerians would have by now heard my #AmaechiTapes. Let me assure Nigerians that they are genuine, un-doctored and reflect the private thinking of not just Rotimi Amaechi, but even many leading members of the selfish elite that imposed an inept and nepotistic leader on Nigeria. If you have paid attention to the whole saga, you would know that Rotimi Amaechi himself has not said anything with regards to the tapes. He has sponsored various faceless and known minions to try to muddy the waters, but he himself has not said anything about the tapes. Rotimi Amaechi and his ilk know that Buhari will bring Nigeria to ruins if he wins a second term. They know that in 2014 when Goodluck Jonathan was President, Aliko Dangote’s net worth was $25 billion, but by 2017, Dangote was worth less than half of that, at $12.4 billion. That is not the end of the story. Forbes released its latest rich list on Wednesday January 9, 2019 and Dangote is now worth $10.3 billion. He has shed 60% of his 2014 worth. No wonder he rejected his appointment into Buhari’s Re-Election Campaign Council. These guys know the truth, including Bola Tinubu, but greed, personal aggrandizement, lust for power and inordinate ambition will not let them speak that truth publicly. I actually implemented my plan like a military operation. I set up the Buhari Presidency because I know exactly how they operate. The engine of the Buhari government is propaganda and I anticipated them. I knew if I released the full #AmaechiTapes, they would say it was fake. So, I started with a 7 second sneak peak and pretended that was all I had. And like a fish to its bait, the Presidency, through Tolu Ogunlesi, admitted that the voice is actually Amaechi, but they claimed that it was from 2014, and that Mr. Amaechi was referring to former President Jonathan. Tolu swallowed my bait, hook, line and sinker and then some more. Tolu had been sidelined for years at the Villa and he sensed that this was his time to shine and earn his pay and perhaps betray his real boss, El-Rufai, by worming his way into the hearts of the two-man cabal now controlling Nigeria from behind the scenes. And so on the same day that Mr. Ogunlesi made a fool of himself, I released the full audio which cleared any doubt as to which President, Rotimi Amaechi was referring to. In a state of panic and confusion, Mr. Ogunlesi then made a 180-degree turn. No longer was it from 2014. No! The new line is that it was doctored. And so I released Part 2 and they claimed it was edited out of context. I give them kudos for coming up with creative excuses. That I give them. But let me now take some time to address the character known as Tolu Ogunlesi. Tolu is someone I know very well. This is someone who would see me when I was in office as SA to former President Jonathan and would kiss my behind, calling me ‘oga’ and boss in front of witnesses like Dr. Andrew Okolie and others. I actually even invited Tolu to review one of my books, Shunpiking: No Shortcuts to God (it never happened and Mrs. Omotayo Omotosho reviewed it).This was a fellow who would call me and ask me to speak to Reuben Abati about following him on Twitter, which I accomplished even though Reuben Abati warned me about him (I should have listened). Tolu would talk with me on phone and we would exchange banters about beautiful women, like Bianca Ojukwu (not in a disrespectful way). I even preached the word of God to Tolu when he took to Twitter to insult and castigate Bishop David Oyedepo, Senior pastor and founder of the Living Faith Christian Church International. In December 2011, Tolu had gone on a rant insulting the man of God because he slapped a witch who said she was “a witch for Jesus”, and I called him and appealed to him to respect the mantle of God over Bishop Oyedepo, to which Tolu responded to me thus ‘let Oyedepo go and die for our sins like Jesus Christ’. I kid you not! In fact, one of the themes of the Jonathan years, the term ‘breath of fresh air’ was actually coined by Tolu, and it was used on the back cover of one of the books I wrote to promote the Jonathan administration, with credit duly given to Tolu. I actually thought Tolu Ogunlesi was my friend and I looked forward to leading him to Christ as I have done with Senator Ben Murray-Bruce. I would call Tolu to rub minds with him about media strategy and we would discuss as friends. I passed on a sensitive document to him so he could help me dispel fake news. I had so much confidence in him, because I thought he was a gentleman. But boy, I was in for a rude shock. I could not believe how Tolu Ogunlesi stabbed me in the back, and not just at any time, but during my most trying time in office, when I was set up for something I was innocent of (my then boss asked me never to discuss that particular episode in public), it was precisely Tolu Ogunlesi that drove the knife deepest in my heart. It was actually the most trying period of my life, when I thought my world was collapsing. If I did not have the love of God, I may have sunk into manic depression. I expected help or at least compassion from my so-called friend, but the most vicious blow of that dark period of my life was struck by no less a person than Tolu who I had looked to for friendship. I never knew that Tolu was gunning for my job, which he now has. With friends like Tolu, you do not need enemies! If you are not a friend to a person, be bold enough to tell them to their face instead of pretending and then choosing their most vulnerable moment to stab them in the back and backbite them to oblivion. I do not know why people engage in eye service. There is no one on earth important enough to pretend to. No one! What Tolu Ogunlesi did to me, he also did to His Excellency, Atiku Abubakar. Most people do not know that Tolu Ogunlesi was Atiku Abubakar’s media strategist between 2012 and 2014 before Tolu betrayed Atiku Abubakar.Atiku Abubakar was extremely financially generous to Tolu Ogunlesi. Tolu knows I am a meticulous record keeper and I challenge him to deny this and he will know my reputation for record keeping is not a myth. Atiku Abubakar housed Tolu at the most expensive hotel in Abuja, Transcorp Hilton, were Tolu and others I would not now name regularly met to fashion out strategies for an Atiku Presidency in 2015. But unknown to Atiku at that time, Tolu was an agent of Nasir El-Rufai, a mortal and implacable enemy of Atiku Abubakar. You see, the most consistent trait in the character of Tolu Ogunlesi is serial betrayal. And this is the reason he is treated like a leper at Aso Rock Presidential Villa today. As a matter of fact, Bashir Ahmad, the Personal Assistant to President Buhari on New Media, who is supposed to be under Tolu, has more access to the President than does Tolu. I mean who would trust a betrayer who is only loyal to his stomach? Let me inform Tolu that my sources at the Villa are probably even better than his. If he thinks I am bluffing, I refer him to a meeting at the Villa chaired by Laolu Akande, the spokesman to Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, and whose agenda was on how to discredit me because of the grief I was causing the Buhari administration.At that meeting, Mr Arukaino Umukoro, SA to the President on Communication and Projects said ‘everybody needs a friend like Reno’. Why was that said about me? Because I am known for my loyalty. In the rain and in the sun, I am for my friends, no shaking, not ever! Is there any human being on earth, including his wife that can say that about Tolu? If there is such a person, then I pity the fool!But suffice to say that he is treated with scorn and disdain at the Presidential Villa because he was brought in by Nasir El-Rufai. El-Rufai is seen as over ambitious by the cabal, so Tolu Ogunlesi, coming from him is considered a mole. Ever the betrayer, Tolu tried to ditch El-Rufai and attach himself to the Aso Rock cabal, who do not like El-Rufai one bit. He struggled, unsuccessfully, to worm himself into the hearts of the cabal and kitchen cabinet members. But they still do not trust him. Bashir who is a PA got an office space right at the Villa, Tolu did not. For months, Tolu Ogunlesi roamed around frustrated until at the intervention of Babachiir Lawal, the former and disgraced Secretary to the Government of the Federation, he got an office space at the new Federal Secretariat complex. Since Tolu Ogunlesi does not know the meaning of friendship, let me educate him -a friend is someone who is for you. A friend is not for what you are for (that is a colleague). A friend is not against what you are against (that is a comrade). No. A friend is just for you, in good times and bad times. If there is one thing Tolu Ogunlesi, his real boss, Nasir El-Rufai, and Rotimi Amaechi have in common, it is serial betrayal. They have no loyalty in them besides the loyalty to their stomach! Let me end this piece by quoting a verse from The Holy Bible:“For it is not an enemy who taunts me— then I could bear it; it is not an adversary who deals insolently with me— then I could hide from him. But it is you, a man, my equal, my companion, my familiar friend.”-Psalm 55:12-13.And finally, someone should please tell that sidelined riff-raff of a presidential assistant NEVER to compare himself to me. There is a big difference between the sickly looking mercenary and I. Principles control my loyalty while opportunity controls his loyalty. My God is in heaven, his god is his belly.

http://icechuks2.blogspot.com/2019/01/amaechitapes-reno-omokri-describes-tolu.html

#http://icechuks2.blogspot.com/2019/01/amaechitapes-reno-omokri-describes-tolu.html AmaechiTapes: Re