Paul Preaches in Athens
16 While Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was moved in him to see the city given to worshipping of images. 17 Then he disputed in the synagogue with the jews, and with the devout persons, And in the market daily with them that came unto him. 18 Certain Philosophers of the Epicures, and of the Stoyckes disputed with him. And some there were which said: what will this babbler say. Other said: he seemeth to be a tidings bringer of new devils, because he preached unto them Iesus, and the resurrection, 19 and they took him, and brought him into Marce street saying: may we not know what is this new doctrine whereof thou speakest. 20 For thou bringest strange tidings to our ears. We would know therefore what these things mean. 21 For all the Athenians and strangers which were there gave themselves to nothing else, but either to tell or to hear new tidings.
22 Paul stood in the midst of Marce street and said, ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are somewhat superstitious. 23 For as I passed by and beheld the manner how ye worship your goddes, I found an altar wherein was written: unto the unknown God. Whom ye then ignorantly worship, him shew I unto you: 24 God that made the world, and all that are in it, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, he dwelleth not in temples made with hands 25 neither is worshipped with men's hands, as though he needed of any thing. Forasmuch as he giveth to all men life and breath every where, 26 and hath made of one blood all nations of men, for to dwell on all the face of the earth. And hath assigned times appointed before, And the ends of their inhabitation, 27 that they should seek God, if they might feel and find him, though he be not far from every one of us. 28 For in him we live, move, and have our being, as certain of your own poets said. For we are also his generation. 29 Forasmuch then as we are the generation of God, we ought not to think that the godhead is like unto gold, silver, or stone, graven by craft and imagination of man. 30 And the time of this ignorance God regarded not: but now he biddeth all men everywhere repent, 31 because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world according to righteousness, by that man, whom he hath appointed, and hath given faith to all men, after that he had raised him from death.
32 When they heard of the resurrection from death, some mocked, and other said: we will hear thee again of this matter. 33 So Paul departed from among them. 34 Certain men clave unto Paul and believed, among the which was Dionysius a senator, and a woman named Damaris, and other with them.
— Acts 17:16-34 | Tyndale New Testament (TYN)
Holy Bible, Tyndale New Testament (written in olde English), copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. All rights reserved.
Cross References: Genesis 1:1; Deuteronomy 4:7; Deuteronomy 10:14; Deuteronomy 30:20; Deuteronomy 32:8; 2 Kings 19:18; Job 12:10; Job 12:23; Job 22:2; Psalm 9:8; Psalm 96:13; Isaiah 40:18; Isaiah 45:4; Jeremiah 23:23; Jeremiah 38:16; Mark 1:27; Luke 24:47; John 4:22; Acts 2:10; Acts 4:2; Acts 5:42; Acts 9:20; Acts 13:43; Acts 14:16; Acts 17:15; Acts 18:1; Acts 23:19; Acts 25:19; 1 Corinthians 15:12
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Sermon for Resurrection of Our Lord (4/9/23)
Primary Text | Colossians 3:1-4
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Dear People of God,
God has done the thing we cannot do. He has raised our Lord Christ from the dead. This changes everything. He has reprogrammed the world. Death, devil, and sin have lost their power. These our great enemies are trampled underfoot. By the resurrection of our Lord Christ we have been made new. The scriptures say, “When you were buried with [Christ] in baptism, you were also raised with him through faith in the power of God who raised him from the dead” (Col. 2:12). So on that cross when Christ died, you also died. That means your death died. Your sin died. Your whole being died. Nothing remained alive. Just as Christ on that cross became a cold, dead body. So did you. But with the resurrection of Christ in his body you also have been raised from the dead. Together with Christ you have been made alive. And now your “life is hidden with Christ in God” (Col. 3:3). It is a hidden thing at this time. You cannot see it with your eyes. You only have it with your ears and in faith. For the time being, we still exist in this old, dying world. So we will experience its decay. However, that is not the only or the most important reality. For now that you are joined to the life of the risen Christ—you will never die. Now I say that, and I mean it. You will never die. This remains hidden, it is a matter of faith. I cannot prove it to you. If we look at our bodies as we have them now, we know our time is ticking. Life goes fast, and before we know it, we will be in the ground. Even now we suffer and die as is the way of the present world.
The only thing that tells us there’s anything more to life is something that comes to our ears, a simple promise of God. All we have to go off of is a word spoken. Through that promise, through that word, the Holy Spirit creates faith, which enables us to trust the promise, and when we trust it, the promise is indeed ours. Christ himself is the assurance that God’s promise is trustworthy. That Christ is raised. And because he is raised, we too have been raised. To those who are perishing, this little word is not enough, will never be enough. But to those who are being saved, this word is the power of God (1 Cor. 1:18). The resurrection of Christ from the dead tells us that God is faithful. God is faithful even when people call God a liar. God is faithful even when we don’t believe it. God is faithful even when our troubles in this world overwhelm us. You have died. Your life is hidden with the risen Christ in God. Nothing can undo that. God has hidden you with Christ, which means you are protected and preserved from this failing world. It is as if God has found a lost, precious coin and has tucked you in his coat pocket for safekeeping. He won’t let anyone take you away from him. Not sin. Not death. Not the devil. Not even yourself. He won’t lose this precious coin, this coin that is you.
St. Paul says, “When Christ who is your life is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory” (Col. 3:4). Then the world will know God does not lie. Christ is your life. Do not think of it as the old life filled with its miseries. This is a new life we are talking about, dear people. One you have not fully understood and fully experienced yet. It is filled with bliss; it is a life that blossoms with joy beyond measure. When Christ is revealed you will get the whole kebab. You heard me right, you will get the whole kebab—when Christ is revealed you will get the whole kebab. You do, however, have a taste of it now in the Lord’s Supper. There, Christ, who is your life, gives you his body and blood to refresh you and strengthen you. Also, in the absolution. For when you hear the word of God’s forgiveness through faith in Jesus Christ you are raised from the dead. You also receive a taste in all the blessings that God grants you as you live life here and now. All of these blessings are glimpses of the future that Christ has already prepared for you. He is risen. And he will make sure to keep you with him into eternal life. The bodily resurrection of Christ is all about life, life in its fullest, and that is God’s radical good news that he has made yours.
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Bingqiu roleswap where disciple Shen Yuan knows he's gay, and figures out that he has a big huge crush on his handsome Shizun, but also concludes nearly at once that he's not going to be drawing Luo Binghe's eye any time soon. Firstly, Luo Binghe is notoriously straight. Secondly, even if he weren't, he wouldn't go for his scrawny untalented nerd of a disciple! Shen Yuan's not bad looking, not before or after transmigrating, but he's neither a beautiful nor a hot manly man, and he assumes if Luo Binghe were into dudes he'd be into the same kinds of twunks that Shen Yuan likes. Guys on his own level, etc etc.
Plus Luo Binghe hated the original disciple Shen, and only started to warm up to the transmigrated version after Shen Yuan got injured in front of him trying to stop the other disciples on the peak from killing a small animal. For some reason, Luo Binghe brought Shen Yuan medicine. He got even nicer after Shen Yuan distracted the skinner demon by trying to convince it to take his skin instead of Luo Binghe's, and then again when Shen Yuan successfully fought off a demon invader -- though initially when Luo Binghe volunteered him for that job, he thought it was an assassination attempt. His heart was in his throat when Luo Binghe nearly took a poisoned blow for him, but luckily he reacted more quickly and got hit by the thorns instead. His heavenly demon blood took care of the poison, and he managed to convince everyone that he narrowly avoided getting cut at all.
Shen Yuan's careful not to read anything into it when Luo Binghe finds out about his, erm, uncomfortable dormitory situation and moves him into the side room, or when he completely messes up trying to make dinner and Luo Binghe takes over cooking and bans him from the kitchen (he swears he's not actually that bad at cooking, he just never had to use a kitchen without a microwave or an electric hot plate before...)
After all, it's not like Luo Binghe is cooking for him, he's just making food he likes and letting Shen Yuan eat it too! Because he's nice! He's way nicer than the book gave him credit for being, see, clearly Shen Yuan was correct in signing up for his defense squad, "top ten worst villains of all time" his ass that poll was nonsense...
Unfortunately, though, the plot's still gotta plot. Shen Yuan is heartbroken when the Immortal Alliance Conference rolls around and his shizun stabs him and throws him down into the Endless Abyss. Heartbroken, but not surprised. After all, it was always going to go this way, wasn't it?
But at least, now that it's done, he has some agency in how he reacts to it. He's changed the story enough that he doesn't need to go get revenge. Maybe Luo Binghe's still the villain of his story, maybe that was inevitable, but some heroes let the villains get away. Don't they? It's all part of that noble, breaking the cycle of abuse type stuff. He can be that kind of hero. He can let it go. As long as he avoids Luo Binghe altogether, it should be fine, right? It's not like he's obligated to turn people into human sticks. He asked the system, he's definitely not!
Technically he's not even required to conquer the demon realms. He just has to get out of the Abyss and the be sufficiently cool and/or tragic. Conquest is just one means of doing that, and not even Shen Yuan's preferred, since he doesn't exactly want to rule over anybody. Going around the demon realms beating up some jackasses and rescuing some damsels in distress and becoming sworn brothers with Shang Qinghua, one of the current demon kings, is suitable. He definitely doesn't want to marry any of the damsels he encounters (thank fuck the system lets him off the hook for that!)
But eventually he has to go back to the human world. Not only is it mandated by the system, but he also misses living there. The demonic realms are in many ways better than expected, plus a lot of the monsters are really cool, but he misses the weather and plants and the people he's more accustomed to being around.
He misses Qing Jing Peak, if he's being honest with himself. Shizun's cooking and the bamboo forest and the crisp mountain breezes, the comforts of home.
Not that he can actually go back there in specific. Of course not. If he did that, Luo Binghe would try to kill him, or else the system would try and make him kill Luo Binghe. Bad ideas all around. No, he can't go back to Qing Jing Peak, but he can go find someplace nicer than the demon realms at least. He just has to keep a low profile, which shouldn't be hard since the original goods did that even while actively scheming to kill his former master!
Except.
Everywhere he goes, suddenly Luo Binghe is also there?!
Good thing Shen Yuan thought to take a page out of the book of Luo Binghe's actual love interest, Liu Mingyan, and start wearing a veil. He just didn't want any randos who might have seen him at the Immortal Alliance Conference or on any of the other missions his shizun sent him on to recognize him. But one minute he's investigating a strange case in Jinlan City, and the next the streets are full of Huan Hua cultivators (Shen Yuan has no intention of joining them, that's the path the original took to getting revenge! He doesn't want revenge!), and then Luo Binghe and Sect Leader MBJ and Peak Lord SHL show up, and SY is ducking down alleys and hiding behind columns, just trying to stay out of the way until the lockdown on Jinlan lifts and he can leave.
Except...
Luo Binghe really isn't acting like himself?
He looks like he hasn't been eating or sleeping well. There are dark circles around his eyes, and something almost melancholy in his countenance. And he's dressed entirely in white, none of the usual Qing Jing greens and blues anywhere to be seen. Of even greater concern, he's being reckless. Shen Yuan can't stop himself from rushing out when he sees his former shizun get infected by a sower demon.
Luckily, it's been some years since the last time they saw one another. Shen Yuan's gained a few inches in height, so he's almost at eye-level with his old master now, and though he's still more slender than bulky he's picked up some totally new styles from training the demon realms. He doesn't move the same way he used to. With that, plus the veil, it's enough for him to quickly swallow back his words as he grabs Luo Binghe and quickly administers a cure for the sower infection.
Well, he has one of course. He wouldn't need it himself, heavenly demon blood and all, but his time running around playing hero in the demon realms meant he rescued a lot of humans from such fates. Which is hard to do if you don't have a cure to their afflictions, but between him and Shang Qinghua, sourcing such things was almost easy.
Luo Binghe looks at him like he's just seen a ghost. The other Cang Qiong sect members are alarmed by SY suddenly accosting one of their own and of course find him suspicious, so he runs away right after, and then he has to lose Sha Hualing's pursuit in the city.
But what else could he do? He manages to evade the system's attempts to railroad him into meeting Gongyi Xiao, avoids the rest of the Cang Qiong crowd, and drops some of the cure through the current Qian Cao peak lord's window to get the incident sorted out. Then he flees and puts a good amount of distance between himself, Jinlan City, and every righteous sect he can think of.
The only problem is that after this point, Luo Binghe is everywhere.
Any time Shen Yuan stays in one place for longer than a few days, Qing Jing disciples start turning up. Any time he takes a job hunting some cool-sounding monster or pursuing some interesting tome of knowledge, the better to satisfy the system, it seems like Luo Binghe has selected and gone after the exact same target! Which is especially annoying because back when SY was a disciple, Luo Binghe was always assigning him to do this stuff. Since when does his chronic homebody master have an interesting in six-tailed scorpion lemurs or ancient spiritual kilns?
What's weirder, though, are the rumors.
It seems like any time SY stops at some well-populated place and asks for the latest gossip, he has to hear about how the Qing Jing peak lord lost his beloved disciple during the Immortal Alliance Conference, and mourned like a widow, and now wanders the earth in search of solace for his grief. Seeking something, possibly even the ghost of his dear disciple.
What nonsense! Luo Binghe threw SY into the Abyss himself. He had to do it, it was the plot! And also his obligation as a righteous cultivator, confronted with a "dangerous" half-demon. Does it sting? Yes it stings! That's why SY wouldn't just forget it! Despite logically knowing it's pointless, is there some part of him that wishes his master would have chosen differently? That thinks he should have known that no matter what kind of power Shen Yuan had, he would never use it to hurt people recklessly, or harm innocents, or especially not harm... well. It's pointless, his blood condemned him, and if there is some part of Luo Binghe which regrets what happened, it's doubtless just that he unwittingly harbored a monster for so long.
Which is fine and Shen Yuan would leave it at that, if the guy would just let him!
But no. Instead he has to deal with Luo Binghe turning up and asking him questions, trying to get him to talk (SY has no hope of disguising his voice, if he says anything he's not even sure it won't crack as he comes perilously close to tears instead, so he just stays silent), and then asking for his name, asking if he's mute, asking about his background, his sect, his kin. Is his a righteous cultivator? Where did he get that sword? (NOT Xin Mo, thanks, he used that thing once and then tossed it back into the Abyss before the portal finished closing behind him -- he knows a poisoned chalice when he sees one, although knowing the plot twist about that sword from the novel sure helped.) Where did he learn those forms? Is he... does he have a safe place to go home to? Someone to tend his injuries? Make sure he eats his meals?
SY, of course, stays silent. But it's difficult. Not only because Luo Binghe asks, but because he still looks... bad. Sunken, sorrowful, desperate almost. Shen Yuan can't figure out if he knows or not. Maybe he's unsure, maybe he's looking for SY to give him a sign, so that he can figure him out and then flip a switch and try to finish the job he started.
That can't happen. If they fight, SY will win, and he doesn't want to hurt Luo Binghe.
But even if Luo Binghe's not a heavenly demon, he is a highly accomplished cultivator, and it seems he's got his own breaking points to reach. Eventually he corners SY and gets a hand on his veil, and for a moment SY is sure he's going to rip it off, see his face, and confront him all "I knew it was you, you twisted evil demon, you won't escape justice a second time" and he feels a deep, icy terror close around his lungs--
Luo Binghe lets go of the veil before he can lift it.
But then something even worse happens. Because Shen Yuan's handsome, peerless, noble master breaks down. He falls to his knees, begging forgiveness, sobbing, clutching at his head like he's being driven to madness.
It all spills out of him, then. How he pushed his own dearest disciple into the Abyss, which obviously SY already knew, but also how he was apparently qi-deviating the whole time, and his senses could not differentiate between one kind of demonic "threat" and another. How he realized what he'd done only after he regained his senses hours later, and rushed back to the place where the tear to the Abyss had opened, but could not find a way in after the one he lost. How he had betrayed and thrown away the only person who cared about him, and couldn't even explain that he hadn't intended to. How he would accept anything, any punishment, hatred, penance, or revenge, if only he could see his disciple's face once more.
SY is stunned.
Apparently, Luo Binghe hadn't rejected him for his demon blood?
Not only that, but beforehand, he seemed to have valued Shen Yuan a lot more than Shen Yuan would have credited.
Is it a trick? Is he lying? SY would have guessed so, would have assumed that Luo Binghe's plan was to lull him into complacency only to turn on him once he finally had confirmation. But somehow, he just... doesn't think this is an insincere display. His old master is too cool for this stuff! He has too much dignity to just throw it away on a scheme! There are other ways to get what he wants.
Even if it is a lie, Shen Yuan is tired of running. He's the hero. He won't actually lose, and if it comes to it, it's still in his hands to decide if he wants to spare Luo Binghe or not (he does, of course he does, even if this whole spiel is an act). Plus he's got a backup plant body in one of Shang Qinghua's greenhouses if all goes to shit.
He takes the veil off himself.
Luo Binghe, teary-eyed, stares at him as if his face is the most beautiful he's ever seen.
Shen Yuan nearly puts the veil back on. His cheeks heat up. Dear Shizun, aren't you an immortal master? A noble peak lord? Isn't it your calling to vanquish demons? Get up off the dirty ground right this minute! Where did your dignity go? Shen Yuan did not spend all those nights doing the laundry to watch his teacher dirty his knees for no good reason!
There's a quaver in Luo Binghe's voice as he points out that Shen Yuan was terrible at doing laundry. Luo Binghe had to redo it the day after, all the time.
Shen Yuan chides at him that he should have made one of the other disciples do it then.
Luo Binghe just laughs, and stays on the ground, until finally Shen Yuan has to physically pull him up. Muttering about how he's being ridiculous, what's he crying for, why's he been moping so much, doesn't he know that handsome face should never look so bereft? Then he realizes what he's saying and shuts his mouth, but Luo Binghe just looks happy for the first time in years. Since the Abyss. How is it possible that SY, who actually had to slog through that awful place, can still smile more than Luo Binghe, who didn't?
They're standing so close. Holding on to one another. Almost as if... as if the scene's tone is... well...
Oh what the hell!
Shen Yuan closes the last little bit of distance between them, and kisses Luo Binghe.
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Can you write about when the reader passes out and gojo gets a little anxious cuz before he was stressed about reading stuff online and hes a little worried but then she gets up and everything’s fine? Please
you wince when you come to, the lights of your bedroom blinding you.
“sweetheart, hey, you okay?” satoru immediately pulls you close as soon as as you regain consciousness. your head pounds, and your stomach rumbles—overall you don’t feel well at all.
“satoru—why—”
his lips form into a thin line. “you passed out. you freaking passed out on me right after i arrived home.” he let out a frustrated sigh, and only now you see how worried he is as he soothingly runs his fingers on your hair. “you know, that might be a sign of terminal illness—”
your eyes widen. “what?!”
“they said when you suddenly faint out of nowhere, it can be a sign for stage three of cancer!”
“who is ‘they’?!”
“this.” he shows you the bright screen of his phone with such serious expression it almost convinces you. and the more you read the article, the more your heart move to your throat.
“b-but… i—” if you hadn’t just woken up, you would know that the article is honestly irrelevant to your situation. “satoru… i don’t want to die…”
“—!!! no! of course not! i won’t let you! i’ll raise you from the dead myself if i have to!”
and much later, you suddenly remember what made you pass out in the first place—
you were waiting for satoru to come home so you can have dinner together, but he said he had to wait in a long line to get his favorite mochi’s new flavor… and you were incredibly starving as you waited for him that you passed out🤦🏻♀️
“you…” you are so exasperated, but then your husband sheepishly pushes the mochi box to you, trying to appease you.
“have some…?”
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