#who has no concept of religion beyond 'jesus died for my sins which means i shouldnt lie to my abuela about taking an extra empanada'

[kraviolis]

Belos: I’m going to raise Luz as my daughter and ensure that she remains pure and loyal to me.

Also Belos: I’m going to let the 7-years-old clone of my brother take care of her I’m sure he’ll be able to do that.

you joke but thats LITERALLY his entire thought process at first. he's so isolated and arrogant that he couldnt possibly comprehend the idea that luz wouldnt see him as her father despite the fact he literally told hunter he was going to be her older brother and never once encouraged hunter to see him as anything but an uncle.

i attribute this to the fact that philip is an orphan who only ever knew his blood brother as his only caretaker, so he sorta took having a brother for granted and didn't realize that was something you could want rather than something that just Is.

(also caleb was the only person philip ever truly knew + loved and even well into his 300s he never once picked up a child psychology book and realized that Perhaps His Worldview Was Skewed Because Of That.)

he literally like. could not comprehend the idea that you could even choose your own family outside of like. being adopted by someone. thats the other thing with him being so annoyingly christian in this AU, he was taught that your blood family (esp yr parents) is always the most important thing in your life & you should always be grateful to them no matter what.

(this is another factor into why he keeps making grimwalkers. in his own twisted viewpoint, it's him giving caleb another chance. and another. and another-- at least in this specific characterization of him.)

philip thought that him adopting luz would mean she would immediately be eternally grateful to him and call him father and the whole nine yards. but he forget to actually express that expectation until it was too late (aka until he heard her call him uncle for the first time)

honestly, hes not MAD about it. he's just sorta :( about it bcus hes not actually insane and can still logically think like "she did say she had just lost her real father to an illness its perfectly reasonable for her to not want to replace him" (he doesnt think it outloud but he also enjoys living thru her vicariously

but also later on as she gets older it gets to a point where he's like "ok its been years now why isnt she trying to replace him yet" bcus he thinks its a normal + healthy part of the grieving process to replace the person you lost (figuratively or, in his case, Literally)

#qna #anonymous #little lamb au #toh #also luz is sort of catholic in this AU bcus she was raised like that #as in camila + manny would take her to church on sundays and she did sunday school sometimes and they'd encourage her to pray #but they never like. enforced it on her. it was more of a cultural thing for all three of them than a spiritual thing. #but belos is DELIGHTED when he hears baby luz praying out loud before bed on her first night in the castle #he tries to casually ask her about it like 'what is this God can you explain it to him' #but then as he listens to her little five year old explanation of God and Jesus she drops enough hints to make him realize #'Oh Good Lord She's Fucking CATHOLIC?' #'god truly is testing me by guiding this lamb into my care but no matter. no child is beyond redemption' #cue belos trying to push her more towards protestantism by attempting to have religious debates with a fucking. five year old #who has no concept of religion beyond 'jesus died for my sins which means i shouldnt lie to my abuela about taking an extra empanada' #sorry i love belos forgetting that religion exists up until luz arrives in the demon realm #and then he realizes Oh Fuck Thats Right. Im Doing This For God & Jesus Not Just For Fun #and then suddenly remembers everything his pastor from 400 years ago ever said to him

[hamliet]

Unless a Grain of Wheat Falls and It Dies...

Or, why I am pretty optimistic about the fates of Jean, Connie, Gabi, and all titanized people this chapter, which is also an excuse for me to talk about SnK’s allusions to Russian literature. 

There are strikingly parallel ideas The Brothers Karamazov and Attack on Titan, as well as parallel plot points and imagery to the point where if it isn’t deliberate, it’s uncanny. (NB: before people yell at me about comparing a Japanese and Russian work, Isayama has used Russian names since the start of SnK--Shiganshina is a Russian name.) In particular, there are narrative allusions to a portion of the novel known as “The Grand Inquisitor,” which is a short story within a novel. The central thesis of “The Grand Inquisitor” is as follows: 

nothing has ever been more insupportable for a man and a human society than freedom. 

This parable is told within the story by Ivan Karamazov, a character whose intellectuality is his gift and his curse. He tells his brother Alyosha that the motivation for creating this parable is precisely the evils done to children (oh look, a major SnK theme) and specifically cites an example which was unfortunately taken from real life in Russia and which Isayama has an uncanny parallel:

I want to see with my own eyes the hind lie down with the lion and the victim rise up and embrace his murderer. I want to be there when every one suddenly understands what it has all been for. All the religions of the world are built on this longing, and I am a believer. But then there are the children, and what am I to do about them? That's a question I can't answer... If all must suffer to pay for the eternal harmony, what have children to do with it, tell me, please? ... if it is really true that they must share responsibility for all their fathers' crimes, such a truth is not of this world and is beyond my comprehension. Some jester will say, perhaps, that the child would have grown up and have sinned, but you see he didn't grow up, he was torn to pieces by the dogs, at eight years old...

... How are you going to atone for them? Is it possible? ... What do I care for a hell for oppressors? What good can hell do, since those children have already been tortured? ... I want to forgive. I want to embrace. I don't want more suffering. And if the sufferings of children go to swell the sum of sufferings which was necessary to pay for truth, then I protest that the truth is not worth such a price. ... too high a price is asked for harmony; it's beyond our means to pay so much to enter on it... It's not God that I don't accept, Alyosha, only I most respectfully return Him the ticket.”

The actual parable of “The Grand Inquisitor” is Ivan’s answer to Alyosha’s question about Ivan’s lines above. Ivan tells a story about how freedom is actually what dooms humanity: it is the curse. (Alyosha does not believe this.) Jesus comes back to earth and is promptly arrested, because his existence and return threaten the wellbeing of society. To be happy, one cannot be free, but one or two strong people in society should be free and bear the burden for everyone else (you can see the parallels to King Fritz/the Reisses). 

Nothing is more seductive for man than his freedom of conscience, but nothing is a greater cause of suffering... all his life he loved humanity, and suddenly his eyes were opened, and he saw that it is no great moral blessedness to attain perfection and freedom, if at the same time one gains the conviction that millions of God's creatures have been created as a mockery, that they will never be capable of using their freedom...

This is SnK’s thesis: to be free, there will be suffering. It is part of human nature, and yet to not have it is to be lost. But SnK, despite its explorations of human darkness and monstrosity, has a higher view of humanity than does Ivan. SnK’s view is more alongside Alyosha’s, who says what is honestly the truth about not just the Reisses, but Eren now:

"Who are these keepers of the mystery who have taken some curse upon themselves for the happiness of mankind? .... It's simple lust of power, of filthy earthly gain, of domination—something like a universal serfdom with them as masters—that's all they stand for.”

Mikasa is akin to the Christ figure in the story, akin to Alyosha: Christ is constantly asked to speak, asked to act, and he does not until the very last moment, when he kisses the Grand Inquisitor on the lips. After the story is over, Alyosha then does likewise to Ivan. 

Not to mention when Alyosha worries about Ivan’s mental state, he then answers with this:

“Listen, Alyosha,” Ivan began in a resolute voice, “if I am really able to care for the sticky little leaves I shall only love them, remembering you. It's enough for me that you are somewhere here, and I shan't lose my desire for life yet.”

A simple leaf can save a life. A leaf can save the world. A leaf, grown from a tree that started as a seed falling to the ground, dead, only to grow life from that death. Alyosha himself notes SnK’s central thesis of chapter 137 in the (very long) novel’s final pages:

...some good, sacred memory, preserved from childhood, is perhaps the best education. If a man carries many such memories with him into life, he is safe to the end of his days, and if one has only one good memory left in one's heart, even that may sometime be the means of saving us.

There’s a lot more to this, but this is the epigraph to The Brothers Karamazov, the central thesis of the entire novel:

"Verily, verily, I say unto you, except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit." -John 12:24

Suffering can grow great fruit in an individual life, and by giving something up, by even death, something beautiful can come. Through cruelty, you can find life. 

This is not just a long-running theme in SnK, but a pattern in its plot. Often those who surrender then receive exactly what they had surrendered (but admittedly, not always, like Erwin). 

Mikasa accepted Eren’s loss, and got him back.

Mikasa let Armin go, and got him back.

Falco gave up hope of survival, and got another chance: 

Hange was going to die alone, feeling guilty for having failed her comrades, but saw everyone again, and they told her well done: 

Historia gave up being free, but now we know she will be.

Levi gave up on his revenge, and then got it. Annie thought she would never see her dad again, but she did. For Mikasa, accepting that she has to kill the boy she loves coincides not just with her acceptance of her love, but with the acceptance and knowledge that he loves her:

It always comes with sacrifice, increasingly hard sacrifice, but usually the seeds that are dropped grow and bloom. 

This chapter, everyone surrendered their hearts. They let their dreams fall to the ground, and I honestly think the story will allow it to plant life. Yes, the world as a whole is saved and that is enough to make thematic sense, but it works even better if the very people who were titanized this chapter also bloom again. They chose to trust Mikasa, Levi, Falco, and Pieck to finish the task.

The characters giving up their lives only to get them back make sense, and give Mikasa’s sacrifice of Eren. For Mikasa, Eren was her world, and she gave it up when she had lost everyone else. She had nothing left, and she still did it. I would hope she’d be narratively rewarded beyond just the world being saved, because Mikasa has always been motivated by her personal relationships.

Moving on from Mikasa: Connie’s mom has been kept alive and the concept of turning mindless titans back to humans was already brought up specifically in relation to her:

Connie giving up on his mother a dozenish chapters ago only to get her back now--not through sacrificing a child, but through saving the entire world--would fit the themes and patterns of SnK.

Thirdly, Gabi should not die. She’s Eren with positive development, and cannot meet the same end. Even people who are skeptical of every titan being saved seem to agree that she’ll be fine. It’s possible she’s the only one saved, but imo, not likely. 

See, the only shifter characters who are going to have the option of self-sacrifice are Falco and maaaaaybe Armin. The others look like they’re about to die right here and now, never mind choosing someone to save: the mindless titans are ripping at their napes. Armin also looks to be in bad shape. 

Yet Armin cannot narratively commit suicide; two chapters ago he was still screaming at himself for being useless and thinking he would be better off dead. He’s already tried the heroic sacrifice, too, so why would it work this time around? It does not work for his arc. Falco dying for Gabi was the plan without any freedom from the titan curse; it’s more powerful if ending the curse changes things, rather than forcing him to make the same choice that Reiner has always been trying to make: a heroic suicide. It could happen; it’s just not as narratively strong.

As for whether the worldbuilding rules, we know that mindless titans are not truly dead nor entirely mindless; they just don’t have freedom. Ymir’s case of getting herself back after decades shows that they aren’t quite dead or absorbed. They still have consciousness that can be awoken; Ymir described it as being in a long “nightmare.” Dina still went looking for Grisha. Connie’s mom remembered and recognized Connie, telling him “welcome home.” There is plenty of evidence that there are parts of these people that are still in there even if they are forced to become monsters (oh hey, it’s an Eren parallel; he was conscious of it and had choices while mindless titans do not, but the parallel remains).

#snk 138 #snk meta #aot 138 #aot meta #mikasa ackerman #eremika #eren jaeger #armin arlert #the brothers karamazov #gabi braun #connie springer #jean kirchstein #ymir #falco grice #galco #reiner braun #annie leonhart #levi ackerman #historia reiss

[onaf]

Of Dogs and Children

Believers in Christ have their hang-ups, their own theological baggage when it comes to the faith. This doesn’t always come in the form of outright denial of the core tenets of the Christian religion. But it can mean there are teachings that are quick to be absorbed mentally, yet slow to penetrate the heart.

For me, one of the most difficult things to understand at heart about Christ is how He condescends to sinners like myself. When I read Matthew 11: 28-30, Christ’s character takes on a peculiar timbre:

“Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

To some, this may be an inconsequential passage. But I wonder how one can think that! What is easier for me to understand is that Christ - the One through whom the universe was created - has authority to judge the living and the dead. It isn’t hard for me to accept how He performed miracles, for what is difficult for the Christ? Theophanies? Old Testament prophecies about Jesus? Awesome!

But a Christ that is lowly? A savior that is gentle when with but one word He could annihilate all that is unholy (namely myself)? A King to whom I am - by rights - condemned forever, but gave Himself as a ransom for me? More food for thought from Hebrews 4:14-16...

“Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”

I think many of us can understand that God would be a righteous judge against ungodliness, that He has wrath against sin, that He wields great power, and that He is holy. But I hope I’m not alone in finding His closeness to the downtrodden, the fallen, and the broken as being really hard to wrap my mind around!

This is a deeply practical problem. You can’t divorce theological conviction from how you live your daily life. Finding Christ’s meekness a difficult concept to absorb, I sometimes lean toward an imbalanced life. Without meditating enough on Christ’s mercy and sympathy to the struggles of a wicked man like myself, I gravitate more toward what I believe I do understand: my wretchedness.

What do you get when you have a believer who understands that he is a sinner deserving of eternal judgement but struggles to accept that he is a recipient of mercy? Though his heart yearns for Christ and His righteousness, a lie makes the honest truths seem beyond reach. The lie is: your redemption is insignificant.

A heart in this condition is divided. The honest hope of this man is truly in Christ, and his salvation has been secured already by the grace of God. But a pernicious untruth has craned the neck of this believer to look inward at the remaining filthiness of sin and to believe this to be the most accurate representation of his state. The Spirit-led part of his heart hopes for the Kingdom of God, but - since his focus has been on the irredeemable sin of his flesh - he has been convinced that the honest hopes of his heart are actually born of self-deception. It is a confusion of the highest order, one that prevents a Christian from living out his true calling with his undivided attention - and a confusion with which I am well-acquainted.

In short, instead of believing that I am a child of God by grace, a fallen part of me condemns me as if I was not. So, in my weaker moments, my heart resorts to an unholy compromise: that perhaps I am welcome in the house of God, but only as a dog. I may be in the dining room, but I only lay on the floor and eat the crumbs from the table while others more worthy garner God’s more rapt attention.

Matthew 15:24-28 says...

“He answered, ‘I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.’ But she came and knelt before Him, saying, ‘Lord, help me.’ And He answered, ‘It is not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.’ She said ‘Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.’ Then Jesus answered her, ‘O woman, great is your faith! Be it done for you as you desire.’ And her daughter was healed instantly.”

There’s a theme there that I grabbed onto a long time ago. I knew that I had been bought with a price, the Lord wouldn’t let me forget that. But my heart refused to unfocus from my sinful nature. It instead used this passage in Matthew and keep me where I didn’t belong. The mistake in my thinking was that Christ redeemed me who was dead in my trespasses and sins (Eph. 2:1) and made me a dog - a second rate, quasi-Christian. For the hopeless, going from being dead to being a dog isn’t that bad of a deal. Unless you know better, it’s a great deal. From being cast into outer darkness to at least being in your gracious masters’ dining room is a worthy trade! Everyone knows, however, a dog has no share in the inheritance of the master's children.

But this falls short of what the Bible teaches. To settle for being a dog is a tragedy when, in reality, you’ve been adopted as a son or daughter! The obsession with relegating oneself to the station of a cur is to, in reality, choose to disbelieve the promises of God. It is a tacit allegation of dishonesty on God’s part - saying that He is either not that mighty to save or that your sin makes you an exception to the redemptive rule. This is faithlessness hidden under the veil of fake piety.

Consider the following:

“For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”  Luke 19:10

“There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.”  Romans 8:1-2

But most importantly, this:

“What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died - more than that, who was raised - who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, ‘For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.’ No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”  Romans 8:31-39

To say to your own soul that the best God did for you was to bring you from death to a grudgingly-awarded spot on the floor in His general vicinity (with the unspoken threat of expulsion for the slightest mistake) is to do violence to His mighty ability to bring about your salvation (Zeph. 3:17). Why does my heart insist on its own harm by attempting to shackle God’s redemptive work?

One of the greatest resources I’ve encountered lately in dealing with this struggle is found in The Bruised Reed, by the Puritan Richard Sibbes. A great quote here:

“If Christ should not be merciful to our weaknesses, He should not have a people to serve Him. Suppose therefore we are very weak, yet so long as we are not found amongst malicious opposers and underminers of God’s truth, let us not give way to despairing thoughts; we have a merciful Saviour.” (pg. 58)

Even to those who are in Christ but find themselves in sin - as we do all too often - there is hope. Sibbes continues:

“What course shall such take to recover their peace? They must condemn themselves sharply, and yet cast themselves upon God’s mercy in Christ, as at their first conversion. And now they must embrace Christ the more firmly, as they see more need in themselves; and let them remember the mildness of Christ here, that He will not quench the smoking flax.” (pg. 60)

Through these struggles, I have learned some things:

Christ is indeed lowly enough in heart so as to understand our weakness and not despise it.

The redemption that true believers find in Him is no lie, it is not done by half measures - since it is with the death and resurrection of Christ’s whole body that we have been purchased. Thus, the redemption is total, to be fully seen in due time.

To doubt one’s standing with God after being redeemed by Christ is to accuse Him of being less than He is. Do you believe Him to be an effective Savior? Then you must trust that He is qualified to save!

When a sinner is saved by grace, it is to no small and insignificant station. Consider the following:

“For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, ‘Abba! Father!’ The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.”  Romans 8:15-17

Where, then, is there room for God’s children to act as though they are just dogs at the dining room table?

#Christianity church puritan puritans salvation doubt bible scripture dogs children despair hope Jesus Christ

[ochibuogwu5]

JESUS CHRIST CRUCIFIED ON THE CROSS OF CALVARY IS THE ONLY MEANS OF HUMAN SALVATION IN THIS ENTIRE UNIVERSE

JESUS CHRIST CRUCIFIED ON THE CROSS OF CALVARY AS THE ATONEMENT OF HUMAN SIN SI THE ONLY MEANS OF HUMAN SALVATION:

Jesus Christ Crucified on the Cross of Calvary *as the atonement for human sin/flesh* Is The Only Connection/Mediator between Human Being & God; The Creator of all human beings and the Universe!!!

  "For there [is only] one God, and [only] one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus, Who gave Himself as a ransom for all [people, a fact that was] attested to at the right and proper time." (1 Timothy 2:5-6 ampc)

  "Jesus said to him, I am the Way and the Truth and the Life; no one comes to the Father except by (through) Me." (John 14:6 ampc)

  While every other religion/ideology/philosophy/channel/method leads to eternal death(hell-fire)

  This is not a human ideology/judgement/decision/philosophy/pronouncement but the judgement of God thus

"While he was still speaking, behold, a shining cloud [composed of light] overshadowed them, and a voice from the cloud said, This is My Son, My Beloved, with Whom I am [and have always been] delighted. Listen(follow/obey) to Him!" (Matthew 17:5 ampc)

  "But as it concerns the Son, He(God the Father) says to Him, *Your throne, O God, is forever and ever (to the ages of the ages), and the scepter of Your kingdom is a scepter of absolute righteousness* (of justice and straightforwardness).

 9. You have loved righteousness [You have delighted in integrity, virtue, and uprightness in purpose, thought, and action] and You have hated lawlessness (injustice and iniquity). Therefore *God, [even] Your God (Godhead)*, has *anointed You with the oil of exultant joy and gladness above and beyond Your companions.*

 10 And [further], *You, Lord, did lay the foundation of the earth in the beginning, and the heavens are the works of Your hands.*

 11 They will perish, but You remain and continue permanently; they will all grow old and wear out like a garment.

 12 Like a mantle [thrown about one’s self] You will roll them up, and they will be changed and replaced by others. But You remain the same, and Your years will never end nor come to failure.

 13 Besides, to which of the angels has He ever said, Sit at My right hand [associated with Me in My royal dignity] till I make your enemies a stool for your feet?

 14 Are not the angels all ministering spirits (servants) sent out in the service [of God for the assistance] of those who are to inherit salvation?" (Hebrews 1:8-14 ampc)

  Then Peter who was an eye-witness when God the Father pronounced this eternal choice, decision and judgement of HIS re-affirmed this judgment and decision of the Father thus

 "For we were not following cleverly devised stories when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ (the Messiah), but we were eyewitnesses of His majesty (grandeur, authority of sovereign power).

 17 For when He was invested with honor and glory from God the Father and a voice was borne to Him by the [splendid] Majestic Glory [in the bright cloud that overshadowed Him, saying], This is My beloved Son in Whom I am well pleased and delight,

 18 We [actually] heard this voice borne out of heaven, for we were together with Him on the holy mountain" (2 Peter 1:16-18 ampc)

  Repent from sin/unbelief/any other channel or religion/philosophy that you are using as a means to get access to the God who created all human being and this universe; then surrender your life inside the crucified life of Jesus Christ on the Cross of Calvary so that He can replace that old-life/nature/flesh you inherited from Adam's disobedience WITH HIS NEW CREATION LIFE RELEASED ON THE CROSS AFTER HE SAID "IT IS FINISHED" (John 19:30)

  It is this NEW CREATION LIFE ALONE that can begin to live a consistent and progressive holy, pure, pleasing and acceptable lifestyle to GOD THE FATHER, fresh every second on this earthly sojourn till eternity by faith (every second; we agree afresh in our hearts/mind/mouth that our old-life died with Jesus on the Cross permanently and became replaced by the COMPLETE NEW LIFE OF JESUS CHRIST which He used to live on this earth from conception till ascension without sin/disobedience to the perfect-will of His Father hence this SAME LIFE is now living through our mortal-bodies in every/any sector/phase/circumstance of this earthly living that we are currently engaging by the Power of His Holy Spirit)

thus

 "For God took the sinless Christ and poured into him our sins. Then, in exchange, He poured God’s goodness(ETERNAL LIFE) into us!" (2 Corinthians 5:21 TLB)

 therefore anybody who has believed that this *exchange on Calvary happened in his/her own life will boldly declare every second of his/her earthly life both in deeds, words, actions, decisions and lifestyle whether privately or publicly thus

 "For I(put your full-name here) through the Law [under the operation of the curse of the Law] have [in Christ’s death for me] myself died to the Law and all the Law’s demands upon me, so that I may [henceforth] live to and for God.

 20 I(put your full-name here) have been crucified with Christ [in Him I have shared His crucifixion]; it is no longer I who live, but Christ (the Messiah) lives in me; and the life I now live in the body I live by faith in (by adherence to and reliance on and complete trust in) the Son of God, Who loved me and gave Himself up for me.

 21 [Therefore, I do not treat God’s gracious gift as something of minor importance and defeat its very purpose]; I do not set aside and invalidate and frustrate and nullify the grace (unmerited favor/ETERNAL LIFE) of God. For if justification (righteousness, acquittal from guilt) comes through [observing the ritual of] the Law, then Christ (the Messiah) died groundlessly and to no purpose and in vain. [His death was then wholly superfluous.]"

(Galatians 2:19-21 ampc)

  AND understanding the VALUE OF THIS EXCHANGE ON THE CROSS OF CALVARY FURTHER will always manifest this lifestyle in deeds and words thus

"But far be it from me to glory [in anything or anyone] except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ (the Messiah) through Whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world!"

(Galatians 6:14 ampc)

  " *From now on* let no person trouble me [by making it necessary for me to vindicate my apostolic authority and the divine truth of my Gospel], for *I bear on my body the [brand] marks of the Lord Jesus* [the wounds, scars, and other outward evidence of persecutions—these testify to His ownership of me]!"

(Galatians 6:17 ampc)

  This is why Jesus defined our every second agreement with our position inside His Crucified body on the Cross even after being born-again as the only means of being His genuine disciple/follower thus

"And He said to all, If any person wills to come after Me, let him deny himself [disown himself, forget, lose sight of himself and his own interests, refuse and give up himself] and *take up his cross daily and follow Me* [cleave steadfastly to Me, conform wholly to My example in living and, if need be, in dying also].

 24 For whoever would preserve his life and save it will lose and destroy it, but whoever loses his life for My sake, he will preserve and save it [from the penalty of eternal death]."

(Luke 9:23-24 ampc)

  NOTE:

Unless a human being *sees/accepts within his/her mindset/heart that he/she died with Jesus on the Cross of Calvary when Jesus was crucified about 2021 years ago*; such a person *cannot receive or manifest this New Creation Lifestyle*; no matter how many *sinners prayers that you say when you encounter a new preacher* or fasting and prayers that you engage or family-cleansing/deliverance that all the prayer-warriors in this universe can conduct in your family or how many hands of anointed men/women of God that were laid upon you or theological studies that you have/undergo or religious titles/activities that you engage e.t.c.

 You will still be *struggling with sin because the flesh; who is the producer of any type of sinful-products (lies, fornication, anger, fear-of-death, bitterness, jealousy, greed e.t.c.) has not *been uprooted and replaced*

  The only remedy for uprooting this producer(the flesh) which we inherited from Adam's disobedience not because of any sin that we committed by ourselves is *death with Jesus on the Cross of Calvary* and it is not biological death or wearing a crucifix/cross but by *a consistent heart to heart agreement of seeing yourself dead with Jesus on the Cross and replaced with His New Life of Resurrection* just as it is only those children of Israel who *gazed consistently upon the molded bronze serpent were healed while those who were trying to kill the snakes that bite them or heal themselves with their own medicine/logic died in the wilderness* thus

"And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert [on a pole], so must [so it is necessary that] the Son of Man be lifted up [on the cross],

 15 In order that everyone who believes in Him [who cleaves to Him, trusts Him, and relies on Him] may not perish, but have eternal life and [actually] live forever!" (John 3:14-15 ampc)

 MANIFESTING LIKE JESUS CHRIST WHILE ON EARTH:

what do we need to do in order to manifest the *power that Jesus expressed while on earth* since He now lives through our mortal bodies ?

 Just remain conformed(agree within your mind, free-will, emotions, heart, mouth, deeds, thoughts, decisions and actions) to your personal death with Jesus on the Cross of Calvary by faith (whether physical, mental and spiritual engagements in a deliberate daily study of the Holy Bible to see how Jesus handled all the issues of life both in the old and new testament as well as prayers) then the Power of His Resurrection(the Holy Spirit Power and lifestyle; fruits, gifts and services) will flow through your mortal-body effortlessly and endlessly thus

"That I may *know him*, and the *power of his resurrection*, and the *fellowship of his sufferings*, being *made conformable unto his death*;" (Philippians 3:10 KJV)

 AND

 " *Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus*, that the *life also of Jesus* might be *made manifest in our body* ". (2 Corinthians 4:10 KJV)

Abbah Father, your word declared that no human being can come to Jesus Christ You Son unless You draw him/her to Jesus by the outpouring of your Holy Spirit revelation hence we implore You to reveal the reality of Jesus death on the Cross and His resurrection upon all human being in this our generation much more than we can write, think, pray or imagine in Jesus name. Amen.

[littlemisssquiggles]

Pinehead Headcanons: Oscar the New Year Baby

I’ve talked one or two times about Oscar’s birthday and what his potential birth date and astrological sign might be. In this past, this squiggle meister was banking on the theory of Oscar being revealed as a Taurus sign with his birthday falling within the Easter month of April, making him an Easter baby.

While April 21st  is still one of my choices for Oscar’s official birthday, recently I’ve considered a second option for Oscar’s birthday. I know there are one or two Pineheads hoping that Oscar is actually a Christmas baby. For Oscar to be born around Christmas, that would make him a Capricorn sign.

Just like last time, I checked out the characteristics of the Capricorn-born personality and, while not nearly as on the nose as the Taurus personality (at least in my opinion), the Capricorn personality can apply to Oscar as well:

Has a maturity beyond her or her years

Tends to be very much into reading

Often finds comfort in those that are older or more advanced

Mild-tempered but will express disapprovals or annoyance often

Usually has hand-selected few friends

(RNJR will be Oscar’s Inner Circle and you can’t tell me otherwise, dagnabbit!)

Capricorn is also another Earth Sign like Taurus. Part of my reasoning for jumping on the Oscar is a Taurus bandwagon is because like most RWBY theories, I pegged earth to be Oscar’s signature element given his former farm hand upbringing and earth-based colour scheme. So I like that the Capricorn sign still fits in with this concept. According to TheZodiaccity.com, Earth horoscopes are:

Not the fondest of change or new situations, but will do what is necessary.

Are prone to feeling “not good enough”

They appreciate honesty and truth, although they hate to hear it

Can be stubborn, but in the sense of staying true to themselves and goals

Their inner, deep feelings can remain a mystery until you dig it out of them

Extremely driven and focused, with a desire to ultimately succeed

Highly sensual…for the right person

It is also mentioned that Capricorn are most compatible with Scorpios. Ruby is a confirmed Scorpio so that fits nicely with this hunch. 

“…The Capricorn man is quiet and reserved but very intelligent and practical. They make excellent and stable lovers and partners.”

Quiet and reserved but very intelligent and practical. Yep! Sounds like our precious freckled farm boy.

If Oscar is a Capricorn-born, this fits with all those Pineheads wishing for him to be born on Christmas. The Capricorn birthday falls between December 22nd and January 20th.

If I had a second choice for Oscar’s astrological sign, it would be Capricorn. Capricorn is my second choice for Oscar’s sign and what I like about the Capricorn birthday is that two important holidays fall within this sign: Christmas and New Year’s. 

I still wish to believe that Oscar was born on a holiday just to share that cohesiveness with Ruby who was born on Halloween, according to the CRWBY.

Let’s consider Christmas first. Technically you can say that Ozma and the Wizards of Light are the ‘Jesus’ equivalent in the RWBY-Verse. Christ, (according to the Roman Catholic religion I was raised under) was born on Christmas Day to be the saviour of the world who was ultimately crucified and died on the cross for our sins. He was also brought back to life.

Technically that’s not too far from Ozma’s story, minus a few details. Ozma was a valiant warrior of light who ultimately died of sickness. The God of Light resurrected Ozma so that he may save humanity from falling in to complete anarchy and risk their world being completely wiped out by the Gods on the proclaimed Judgement Day should the Brothers ever be summoned back to Remnant via the gifts they left to humanity.

Oscar is the current incarnation of Ozma (and by my headcanon, his one true incarnate as the personification of his original form resurrected in Modern Remnant buuuuut…that’s still up for debate). As one of the Wizards of Light, Oscar is tasked with protecting humanity and ensuring its survival. When you consider the Christ reference, making Oscar’s birthday Christmas Day doesn’t sound too bad. It actually fits quite well.

And unlike Easter, which official date changes with each year, Christmas is a fixed date. It is always December 25th just as how Halloween is always October 31st.

So for the folks who wish for Oscar to be born on Christmas Day, there’s your justification if you needed one. Oscar the Christmas baby is a nice idea.

However; that’s not the title of this Pinehead headcanon of mine, now is it?  I like the idea of Oscar being born on Christmas Day, I really do. But I actually have another idea that fits just as good or even better.

How about, instead of Oscar being a Christmas baby or even an Easter baby, what if…Oscar is a New Year’s baby. Imagine if…Oscar is Baby New Year.  

Why is Oscar being Baby New Year perfect ?

New Year’s Day is another fixed date like Christmas. It’s always January 1st.

January 1st falls before January 20th which would still make Oscar a Capricorn sign.

 A common term for Oscar within the Pinehead community is ‘baby’ due to him being the ‘baby’ of the heroes as their newest, youngest member.  Baby = Baby New Year.

Baby New Year symbolizes the ‘birth’ of the next year and the ‘passing’ of the prior year; in other words, a ‘rebirth’. This point fits with the theme of reincarnation being a part of Oscar’s story as a Wizard of Light.

According to Wikipedia, the myth most associated with Baby New Year is that he is a baby at the beginning of his year, however he quickly ages until he is elderly (like Father Time) at the end of his year. At this point, Baby New Year hands his duties to the next Baby New Year while he either dies or remains in this state and retires.  I really like this titbit because it reminds me of how the Ozma cycle works. When a Wizard of Light dies, his memories, powers and responsibilities are passed on to his next chosen successor while the soul of the previous Wizard becomes a part of the persona that will ultimately be fused with the soul of current Wizard during the Merge.

Again, as much as I like Oscar the Christmas baby and as much as I’ve always vouched for him being an Easter baby, Oscar the Baby New Year Pinehead headcanon is slowly winning me over.

Plus…as a New Year’s baby, I like the idea of their being a tradition in Oscar’s household where he actually gets two birthday parties in a sense. One on the Eve of his birthday (since it’s New Year’s Eve) and one on his actual birthday which is New Years’ Day.

I also love the idea of their being another birthday tradition for Oscar, where he always got kisses at midnight on New Year’s Eve since it would be his birthday. Like as the New Year countdown starts, Oscar’s female relatives used to kiss him on the cheek and the amount of kisses he got correlated with how old he was going to be that year with the final kiss being at midnight on the dot, marking the New Year and his birthday.

Picture…a birthday like that with Oscar and the heroes.

Picture it. 11: 45, New Year’s Eve. 15 minutes before Oscar turns 15. So as the countdown starts, for every minute that passes, Oscar gets a kiss on the cheek from all the girls on the team with the final kiss---the fifteenth kiss coming from Ruby. But…she doesn’t just kiss him on the cheek.

Like imagine…Maria, Nora, Yang, Blake, Weiss---each kissing Oscar on both cheeks. And for the sake of this hunch of mine, what if…and this is a super mega big ‘if’…General Ironwood does something incredibly sweet for Oscar on beseech from Ruby and has Oscar’s Aunt Em flown out from Mistral to be in Atlas in time for Oscar’s birthday (and the beginning of the New Year).

I know it’s very unlikely but again; for the sake of this theory, let’s say… Aunt Em is present for when her nephew is about to turn 15 and gets to give her two kisses during the countdown.

This leaves Ruby Rose with her two kisses including the last one. Although Ruby insisted that the fifteenth kiss should go to Em, Em gave Ruby her blessing since she is the one technically looking out for Oscar in her place while he’s in Atlas and training to become a huntsman. So in Em’s eyes, the final kiss should come from Ruby. Think of it like a passing of the torch sort of deal from one woman who cared for Oscar to another.

So as the minutes countdown, Ruby kisses Oscar twice on both cheeks as expected. However at midnight, for the final kiss…she does something unexpected. She leans in and kisses Oscar square on the lips. It’s a quick kiss but it’s enough to render Oscar speechless and blushing like crazy. Same for Ruby. Though she composes herself a lot better than Oscar so she could say to the freckled farm boy with great big smile “Happy New Year and Happy Birthday!”

Tell me that doesn’t sound like a cute concept. Since V5, I have mainly maintained my headcanon of Oscar being an Easter Baby. I have kept this theory alive and strong. But now. Now I think I’ll have to make that my second choice. Oscar being Baby New Year sounds too perfect.

Not to mention that guys….do you know what the birthstone and lucky colour for Capricorns are?

Ruby and Red. 

I mean…if the shoe fits then wear it right?

To my beloved Oscar the Easter-born Taurus theory:  you’ve been a terrific Pinehead headcanon. One I still hold dear to my heart. But at this moment you will have to settle for second place since Oscar the New Year’s had won me.

I know I said once upon a time in a galaxy far, far away that until the CRWBY confirms Oscar’s birthday, I will celebrate it as April 21st cause of Easter.

I change my mind. From henceforth, until the CRWBY Writers confirm Oscar’s birthday, this squiggle meister shall treat and celebrate New Year’s Day (inclusive of New Year’s Eve) as Oscar’s fanon birthday. 

Oscar is Baby New Year by the power invested in my Pinehead headcanons and you can’t tell me otherwise until Miles and Kerry say no-no.

More Squiggles’ RWBY Content

 ~LittleMissSquiggles (2019)

#rwby #oscar pine #ruby rose #oscar and ruby #rwby rosegarden #rwby rosebuds #rwby theories #squiggles' pinehead headcanons #pinehead headcanons

[danajune]

Abort mission?

I can’t let something like what’s happening across our country right now go by without addressing it.  There are Christians on both sides of this issue.  I cannot and will not pretend I have The Answer.  I can’t even pretend I have An Answer.  But what I do have are some thoughts, so here we go.

Should abortion be illegal?  Is abortion murder?  Are there circumstances under which abortion is biblically permissible?

In short: I don’t know.  To say the bible is black and white on this is to assume more than we know.  Abortion is not in the bible.  Infanticide is--already born human babies being killed is a topic central to several important biblical events (*cough*Jesus’s birth*cough).

First, I encourage you to look into these laws before you agree with them.  Several states have now made having a miscarriage a criminal event where one must prove they’re innocent.  Women are forced to carry even mostly non-viable fetuses (if most of the baby’s cells are dead) to term and to give birth in conditions life-threatening to her and her child.  These are blanket laws that are being abused to keep the powerful in power.

Anyway.  To the controversial stuff.

Do the cells in a body constitute a person?  That’s up for debate.  Many people cite Jeremiah 1:5 as evidence: “Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you.”  But the very verse says before I formed you; God knows us long before our parents and grandparents are even alive because God exists beyond our timeline.  Is that the reasoning behind anti-contraceptive beliefs?  I don’t think so; if you want to take that to a reasonable extreme, abstinence is a form of birth control and how can someone sin by not having sex?

I don’t want to go into my beliefs on sex and contraception (even though I believe they’re both incredibly relevant to this topic) and get off track, so let’s steer back.

My knowledge of anatomy is really quite limited.  I don’t know gestational stages.  But what I do know is that the new laws prohibit abortion to an extreme degree: not only before women usually know when they’re pregnant, but Missouri has banned abortion from the moment of conception.  It’s hard to make an analogy to this: even saying we don’t count eating eggs as butchering chickens doesn’t fit because chickens aren’t people.  At what point does that clump of cells become a baby?

To be honest with you, I believe that’s not for me to decide.

Should abortion be illegal?

It’s pretty clear that God’s ways are higher than man’s ways and also that man’s law will always be at odds with God’s law.  Is cheating on your partner illegal?  Not at all.  Is it against God’s law?  Very clearly.

We have to remember that if we want the state to stay out of our church, we as a church have to stay out of the state.  When Christians demand that our laws become the laws of the nation and that our religion becomes the religion of the nation, how are we better than the kings of old, the very kings that Jesus stood against?  But I digress.

I keep coming back to John 8:3-11.

The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group and said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. In the Law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?”  They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him.

But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground.

At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”

“No one, sir,” she said.

“Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”

So many notable things in there.  Leaders forcing a broken woman to stand trial, bragging of their power over her.  It’s heartbreaking.

The leaders took the law of Moses--the law that the prophet Moses gave them, the law that the man who met on a mountaintop with God brought to them, the laws that had been in place for thousands of years.  Those are the laws that they were using--not even twisting, just using--to condemn this woman.

I want you to pay attention to the word “caught.”  This word has two meanings: you can be caught, like caught with your hand in the cookie jar, or caught, like fish caught in a net.

People get confused about which meaning we use in Galatians 6:1.  

Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you who live by the Spirit should restore that person gently. But watch yourselves, or you also may be tempted.

This is the NIV translation.  Some versions say “if someone is caught doing something wrong;” which is a mistranslation of the word “caught.”  Most earlier translations use the word “overtaken.”  If someone is overtaken in any wrongdoing.  If someone is caught up in sin.  If someone is unable to break the cycle of their sin.

Not if someone commits one wrong act.

It’s not our job to point out what other people are doing wrong.  In Romans 2, Paul warns us not to judge other people, saying that God will judge us in the same way.

Imagine: an eleven year old girl is raped by her father.  As she’s underweight, pregnancy will threaten her life and the life of her child.  Several weeks after it’s discovered that she’s pregnant, she has a partial miscarriage.

We refuse to remove the rest of the fetus, which will not survive outside of the womb.  The girl dies of sepsis.

Now there are two dead children.

If we really want to talk about law and which law we need to worry about, we only need to look  a little earlier in Galatians:

For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

-Galatians 5:14

#abortion #rape #tw #trigger warning #pregnancy

[ccfurryguy]

What I learned about God

Since I was neither a pastor or a philosopher, my take on God might seem unprofessional. As a layman thinker my take on God will seem simple to some, but since many who might read this may also be of similar learning, perhaps my insight on the Almighty might have some revelation.

In this world of diversity, we see a lot of people who have different views on God as well as names they believe are his name. Just as there are so many different cultures and races, we also have an assortment of beliefs or lack thereof.

The God I believe in is the one that comes from the Bible; his living word. Some skeptics are willing to say that the Bible is just a fabrication of fallible men and shouldn’t be taken as holy scripture and written through inspiration from God to man. It shouldn’t be a surprise or a shock that people should doubt the bible, despite the fact that it is one of the oldest, most accurate, and best selling book in all of history. Despite this, many still will say that the word of God is nothing but human imagination.

I find that odd cause when I often tell people how the Bible to me is also a source of earthly wisdom, they scoff at the notion as well. When one reads the Bible, even if they are not a believer, the words are alien to our form of thought. There is a great deal that scripture conflicts with what we think or believe such as the concept of forgiving those that hurt us. Jesus himself said, “for if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.” (Matthew 6:14, Mark 11:25, John 20:23 NIV). Scripture tells us that instead of being bitter and hateful to those who are against us, we should, in fact, forgive them. How on earth can an earthly man consider such a thing? How could fallible men write about something that other fallible men couldn’t comprehend or consider ridiculous? Such a contradiction should be obvious to anyone who tries to read the Bible: If it is not wise to us, then it must be of God. For is it not written: “For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom…” (1 Corinthians 1:25 NIV). So if the bible contradicts human wisdom, perhaps it is of a wisdom not of this world, hm?

The truth of the matter is that we all believe in God. Deep down there is that part of us that acknowledges something greater than ourselves. Even an Agnostic or Atheist believes enough in God to attempt to dismiss him. The problem is that our beliefs are as diversified as the cultures, races, nationalities and gender orientation this world carries. We still, however, carry that one tidbit that is ingrained into your psyche: We all acknowledge in some degree to a creator.

This doesn’t necessarily mean that what everyone perceives God is true. Our various religions and beliefs all differ and how we see the world beyond us ranges from the sublime to the strange. Some people believe we all just become reunited with some abstract godhead and become one with the universe. Others believe we just reincarnate and how we lived our past life determines what our new life becomes.

As for me, I see my faith in God a bit differently. Like I showed before when I compare what the bible says about how we should worship God and conduct our lives, some will see that as stupid. The reason why so many people can’t or won’t understand the bible is cause it doesn’t follow our current way of thinking in this earthly world. Maybe that’s why I feel like the God of the Bible is true—because maybe God, who sees all and knows all, thinks in ways we can’t fathom in our earthly intelligence. Maybe cause God is something more than just an abstract force or being, he might know something more than our linear thinking minds can grasp.

God’s Holiness

A lot of argument can be heard regarding certain subjects in the bible. For instance, there was a story in 2nd Samuel about a man named Uzzah. Now according to the story, King David was taking the ark of the covenant, which was the holiest relic to the Jews. Now while they were transporting the ark, The cart it was carried in started to wobble and the ark was about to fall. Uzzah, reached out to grab the ark and kept it in the cart; however, God was angry with Uzzah and he smote him dead for touching the ark. David didn’t like that either and this story tends to see God as rather petty and mean for smiting someone who was just trying to prevent the ark from falling off and being damaged. So why did God do this?

The answer that came to me in my walk comes in the power of God’s holiness. Holiness describes the aspect of God where he is the ultimate embodiment of moral and physical purity. You can wash, disinfect, bleach and scour yourself until your raw and bleeding, and it would not be close to the level of purity that God contains.

Think of Holiness as the sun, a massive burning ball of churning hydrogen in the middle of space. The sun’s light and heat warm and illuminates the earth with life-giving power, which symbolizes the holy energy from God. However, That light and warmth when you get to close to it can wind up both blinding and utterly destroying anyone or anything that comes too close. God is so holy and pure that coming in contact with anything that possesses a shred of that holiness would be destroyed by it. This, in my opinion, is why Uzzah died, not because of his concern for the ark, but because God’s holiness could not be handled without being killed by it.

Moses’ interactions with God are a good example of God’s holiness and its effect on sinful mortals. When God first visited Moses as a burning bush, God told him, “Draw not nigh hither: put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground.” (Exodus 3:5). God openly warns Moses not to come near because his holy presence would do Moses harm. Further on, when Moses was receiving the Ten Commandments, God himself was to come down to write on the stone slabs. When Moses seemed excited to see God face-to-face, God warned instead, “Thou canst not see my face: for there shall no man see me, and live.” (Exodus 33:20) Another proof that God could not be seen by mortal eyes without being consequences.

So many would imagine God is being arrogant about not being seen or touched by others, that not being able to see him didn’t make him feel real. The reality of it shows that God is actually doing it for our benefit; rather than having us destroyed by his presence. Of course, that would change somewhat later on, as I will talk about in the next chapter.

God’s Omnipotence and Omnipresence

Omnipotence basically means “All-powerful”, which states that he can do anything. If you really sit back and think of what that means, It really makes you think about who God really is.

As a student of animation, I see God as an artist, and the canvas he paints on is our existence. God exists outside of the canvas and paints upon it, creating and fabricating a beautiful work of art. He is not bound to the confines of that canvas, and the Canvas cannot dictate to God what he should or shouldn’t paint.

“In the Beginning, you laid the foundations of the earth” (Psalms 102:25) Which tells us how God was the creator of the Earth. However in the book of Job “For his eyes are upon the ways of man, and he seeth all his goings.” (Job 34:21). Also in Proverbs, “For the ways of man are before the eyes of the Lord…” (Proverbs 5:21)

The same goes for God in our universe. He exists outside of the scope of time, space, and existence—primarily because he created them. Because he created it, he can tell it what to do and not the other way around. We cannot dictate to God that we should have been born as Brad Pitt anymore than a fly can tell God it wants to be a man. If God can do whatever he wants to what he creates, then that gives me a good idea about what makes God all-powerful.

This also has the benefit of his Omnipresence, which is the concept that he can be everywhere and anywhere in the universe. It falls back to the same analogy as the canvas. Since God created all of the universes from his perch in heaven, it stands to reason that he also sees and exists in the same space. He can look at that canvas and see the stars and planets, even the minute details of Earth and the creatures that dwell on it. Every brushstroke that he made is there for him to enjoy.

God’s Omniscience

Time to us seems linear and static. We currently exist, and we remember memories of the past and look towards the future. Sometimes we see the future with uncertainty and dread. We are born, lived and eventually die. Such is the nature of Time to us.

As I mentioned in the previous section, I describe as best I can how God sees existence like an artist paints on a canvas. God, in the same way, sees Time somewhat differently than we do since he exists out of time—I mean, he did create time after all. “‘I am the Alpha and the Omega’ says the Lord God, ‘who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty.’” (Revelation 1:8) Through this, we see that God states that from the beginning of creation to the end, he is always going to be there since he exists outside the time he created.

Imagine if you will a flipbook: one of those old paper books that when you thumb through them rapidly, creates the illusion of movement. Now imagine that flipbook as depicting your entire life, from birth to death. We as finite beings in that flipbook can only perceive them now and remember what was. We cannot look forward to the end of the book. God, however, existing outside of that flipbook, can. In fact, he probably sees it more as taking the flipbook apart and laying out the individual frames all in a neat orderly set and can see everything from beginning to end.

God once spoke to the Prophet Jeremiah, “Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee…”(Jeremiah 1:5 KJV) This can only be possible that God would have an awareness of time that only a being that exists outside of time could have. And if God could do this for one of his children, that means he knows all of us before we were born—He loved us even before we ever were born, and he knows when we will live and when we will die. One who meditates on such a statement must also wonder what an intimate depth God knows about us, as well as makes us aware that God knows what we are going to do in our lives. That is why God loves us so much.

Since God who exists outside of time can see the flow of time in our lives, can he not see the beginning and the end of our world? Though my analogy may seem simple, It makes me think of just how different God perceives all of existence from his God-eye view than from our short-sighted senses. “He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart, yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.” (Ecclesiastes 3:11)

#biblestudy

[worldnewsinpictures]

Do it. Fuck you. Fuck you. You useless piece of shit. You absolute waste of space and air. You uneducated, ignorant, idiotic dumb swine, youre an absolute embarrassment to humanity and all life as a whole. The magnitude of your failure just now is so indescribably massive that one hundred years into the future your name will be used as moniker of evil for heretics. Even if all of humanity put together their collective intelligence there is no conceivable way they could have thought up a way to fuck up on the unimaginable scale you just did. When Jesus died for our sins, he must not have seen the sacrilegious act we just witnessed you performing, because if he did he would have forsaken humanity long ago so that your birth may have never become reality. After you die, your skeleton will be displayed in a museum after being scientifically researched so that all future generations may learn not to generate your bone structure, because every tiny detail anyone may have in common with you degrades them to a useless piece of trash and a burden to society. No wonder your father questioned whether or not your were truly his son, for you'd have to not be a waste of carbon matter for anyone to love you like a family member. Your birth made it so that mankind is worse of in every way you can possibly imagine, and you have made it so that society can never really recover into a state of organization. Everything has forever fallen into a bewildering chaos, through which unrecognizable core, you can only find misfortune. I would say the apocalypse is upon us but this is merely the closest word humans have for the sheer scale of horror that is now reality. You have forever condemned everyone you love and know into an eternal state of suffering, worse than any human concept of hell. You are such an unholy being, that if you step within a one hundred foot radius of a holy place or a place that has ever been deemed important by anyone, your distorted sac religious soul will ruin whatever meaning it ever had beyond repair. You are an idiotic, shiteating, dumbass ape and no one has ever loved you. Rhodes Island would have been better off if you'd never joined us. You are a lying, backstabbing, cowardly useless piece of shit and I hate you with every single part of my being. Even this worlds finest writers and poets from throughout the ages could never hope to accurately describe the scale on which you just fucked up, and how incredibly idiotic you are. Anyone that believes in any religion out there should now realize that they have been wrong this entire time, for if divine beings were real, they would never have allowed a being such as you to stain the earth and this universe. In the future there will be horror stories made about you, with the scariest part of them being that the reader has to realize that such an indescribable monster actually exists, and that the horrific events from the movie have actually taken place in the same world that they live in right now. You are the absolute embodiment of everything that has ever been wrong on this earth, yet you manage to make it so that that is only a small part of the evil that is your being. Never in the history of mankind has there been anyone that could have predicted such an eldrich abomination, but here you are. Its hard to believe that I am seeing such an incredible failure with my own eyes, but here I am, so unfortunately I cannot deny your existence. Even if I did my very best, my vocabulary is not able to describe the sheer magnitude of the idiotic mistake that is you. Even if time travel some day will be invented, there still would not be a single soul willing to go back in time to before this moment to fix history, because having to witness such incredible horrors if they failed would have to many mental and physical drawbacks that not even the bravest soul in history would be willing to risk it. I cannot imagine the pure dread your mother must have felt when she had to carry a baby for nine months and then giving birth to such a wretched monster as you. Not a single word of the incoherent, illogical rambling you may be wanting to do to defend yourself or apologize would ever be able to make up for what you just did. The countries of the world would have wanted to make laws preventing such a terrible event like this from ever happening again, but sadly this is not possible since your horrific actions just now have shattered every form of order this world once had, making concepts such as laws irrelevant. Right from the moment I first set my eyes on you I knew you were an absolute abomination of everything that is wrong with humanity. I was hoping I would have been able to prevent your evil from being released upon this world by tagging along and keeping my eye on you, but it is clear to me now that not even the greatest efforts would have been able to prevent a terrible event in this scale from occurring. You are the worst human being, or even just being in general, that I have ever had the misfortune of witnessing. Events like the infected plague apparently only happened with the goal of teaching humanity to survive such a horrible event as the one you just created, but not even mankinds greatest trials were able to even slightly prepare anyone for the insufferable evil you have just created. If you ever had them, your children would be preemptively killed to protect this universe from the possibility of anyone in your bloodline being even half as bad as you are, except you will never be able to have children, because not a single human being will ever want to come within a hundred mile radius of you and anything you have ever touched. You are a colossal disappointment not only to your parents, but to your ancestors and entire bloodline. The disgusting mistake that you have just made is so incredibly terrible that everyone who would ever be to hear about it would spontaneously feel an indescribable mixture of immense anger, fear and anxiety that emotionally and physically they would never truly be the same ever again. The sheer scale of your mistake, if ever to be materialized, would not only surpass the size of the world, but it would reach far beyond the edges of the known, and almost certainly the unknown universe. I could sit here and write paragraphs, nay, books describing your immense failure, yet even if I were to dedicate my life to describing the reality of what has just gone down here, and I would spend every moment of it until my heart stops beating working as hard and efficiently as possible, yet there is not even a snowballs chance in hell that I would be able to come close to transcribing the absolute shitshow you have just released upon the world. You are an irresponsible, idiotic, disgusting, unloved, horrible excuse for a living being whos soul contains less humanity than every ginger in history combined. The absolute disgust I feel when thinking about anything that has even a slight resemblance to anything that might have to do with you and your unholy actions is so incredibly great that when I am honest about it I think that even I do not posses a consciousness great enough to comprehend my own feelings about it. When people of Columbia fought to break free from Lungmen, countless soldiers fought and lost their lives in favor of a chance at a better future for their children, they did not give their lives to have you fuck the world up beyond repair to the degree that you are doing right now. Honestly, even when technology advances and studies on the subject become more and more accurate, I do not think humanity will ever truly be able to understand what your failure actually means for the universe. My hate for you and everything you stand for is so much deeper than the depths of Shambala that you could probably take the entire Lungmen population down there and back up around twenty million times before you would have sunk to the end of my hate, and honestly, I do not want to exaggerate, but I think that that insult was low balling it such a massive amount that all mountains in this world combined would not be able to stack up to this imprecise judgement in light of the fact that when being honest, my hate is almost certainly bottomless. There is no one in this world that has ever loved you, and especially after what you just did, no one will ever love you in the future either. There is no hope that your idiotic behavior and especially your crooked soul will ever change for the better, and in fact quite the opposite might be true. By making the mistake that you just did, you have shown me that you are so incredibly hopeless that you will only devolve into a more idiotic and wretched creature than you already are. The only possible way in which your future would be brighter than the black hole your existence currently is would exclusively be because there is absolutely no conceivable way that you would even be able to sink lower than the pathetic place your current failure has put you in.... Got an opinion about this? See what others are saying.... See MORE -> https://worldnewsinpictures.com/do-it #FuckFuck #FuckFuckYou #YouThe #YouTheEven #Jesus #JesusAfter #JesusAfterYour #YouYou #YouYouYou #Island #IslandYou #IslandYouEven #YouNever #YouNeverIts #EvenNot #EvenNotThe #YouEvents #YouEventsYou #TheYou #TheYouThe #Columbia #ColumbiaLungmen #ColumbiaLungmenHonestly #Lungmen #LungmenThere #LungmenThereThere #GotSee #GotSeeSee #useless #absolute

[cpdevos]

7/21/20 Fleeing Temptation/Living in Freedom From Sin pt. 2 (Margarette, Maria, and Lili)

Hi everyone!

Today's devo is part 2 of our discussion on fleeing from temptation and living in freedom from sin. If you haven't checked out part 1 of this series, definitely go read that one as well! Maria, Margarette, and I will each be providing our input, advice, and experiences with these issues.  --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Maria:

Romans 6:1-2

1 What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? 2 By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?

God is perfect and holy. This verse touches on something we’ve probably thought about at some point: that if we sin, it’s okay since God will always forgive us and give us grace. Isn’t the whole point of Jesus that He takes our sin away? Paul raises this question as something logical to wonder. BUT, our hearts are not in the right place when we think this. Why would we choose to continue to sin, knowing it hurts us and takes us further from God, who is perfect and loves us? Paul rebukes this way of thinking, saying that we have died to sin by choosing to follow Jesus.

We are naturally prone to sin as human beings. But God redeems us from our life of sin! However, we cannot continue to live as we had before knowing God. If God is our priority, our lives will change to reflect Him better. We all struggle with sinning, but going to God through prayer and his Word, and having a community of believers for accountability are some ways I think can help us turn from it. We aren’t perfect and God does give us grace! But we should realize that taking advantage of that grace and refusing to repent isn’t the way to live as Christians. Grace and truth go hand in hand -- I’ll leave you with this quote by Randy Alcorn: “Any concept of grace that makes us feel more comfortable about sinning is not biblical grace. God’s grace never encourages us to live in sin; on the contrary, it empowers us to say no to sin and yes to truth.”

Margarette:

When we decided to write about the topic of sin + temptation, I felt unqualified...and I kind of still do. But, I just hope that I can at least share my perspective and a few things I’ve learned / realized over time.

We all fall prey to sins and temptations, and furthermore, we all struggle with being free from sin and temptation. Sin is usually a topic that we try to stay away from, at least when it comes to diving deeper and admitting your sins to other people or to God. In fact, we sometimes even push off admitting it to ourselves. I think part of my struggles stem from growing up in such a conservative environment (church, family, friends, etc.). I usually put up a front because I’m embarrassed that I don’t have my life together when it seems like everyone else is thriving. Of course, society also encourages a lot of these temptations--everyday, we consume so much media and often, our forms of online entertainment (movies, Youtube, TV shows, social apps) have bad themes (violence, romance, anti-religion, etc.).

I think being honest with yourself is a very important first step to freeing yourself from all the burdens of sin. We all need to take time and actually think about why we make certain choices and where our beliefs lie. Is God not so much greater than any of these earthly temptations? Like Maria wrote in her response: Why would we choose to continue to sin, knowing it hurts us and takes us further from God, who is perfect and loves us?

1 Peter 2:24 -- “He himself bore our sins” in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; “by his wounds you have been healed.”

This verse is pretty powerful, and it made me really rethink the implications of our sins. Jesus saved us from sin with his death on the cross and if we believe in Jesus Christ, we need to start acting like it. We are called to follow in Jesus' footsteps in living a more pure and holy life.

I’ll always remember the ABC acronym that Paster To taught: Admit, Believe, Confess. This might also sound familiar because we sang about it in the “Ride of your Life” VBS song:

A: Admit to God that you’re a sinner and repent

B: Believe that Jesus is God’s own son

C: Confess your faith in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord

When we talk about repenting from our sins, it seems like such an easy task...but what about when we try to actively turn away from sin? I encourage you to reflect on something you're struggling with and just take the time to bring it to God (maybe remember your ABCs while you're at it).

Lili:

Hello! This topic of temptation and being enslaved to sin is familiar in both an unpleasant and good way for me. It's good because it is a reminder of God's mercy to me, but it also a reminder of how I was consumed by my sin. I've experienced temptations of many kinds, but today I'm just gonna be giving you a shorter version of my hardest and most significant battle with temptation and sin. There was a pretty long period when I struggled with having impure and lustful thoughts. This went on pretty much everyday for about 3 or 4 years, so you can imagine how much I clung on to this sin and how it just became harder to want to let go of it. Every time I'd fall into that sin, I'd tell God I was sorry and asked Him to forgive me, knowing full well that I was going to do it again anyways. I was stuck, and I felt so much shame and guilt from this hidden sin that I couldn't tell anyone about because I couldn't and didn't want to explain what I was going through. I hate keeping things to myself, and this weighed heavily on me because I was dealing with this problem alone. I would pray for God to help me to control my thoughts, but at the same time, I wasn't willing to give up my sin because it gave me pleasure and temporary satisfaction. It was also relatively easy to hide it because it was all going on inside my head, while it was really destroying me on the inside. It really felt like a battle was going on in my head because while I felt the Holy Spirit nudging me to let go of my sin, my own will fought against those nudges because I didn't want to let it go.

After a few years of this and also after feeling convicted from hearing a number of sermons, Bible passages, and other resources talking about fleeing from sin and temptation, I knew I wanted this to end, but I didn't know how to tell anyone about my problem. I was scared of being so vulnerable, and that was part of the reason it took so long to admit it. Thankfully, I was truly convicted when I read a Christian article about temptation and how we must expose our sin. I believe it was the Holy Spirit pushing me to tell someone I trusted about it because I still can't believe I had the guts to expose my sin. Once I told that person, I felt SO free! It was one of the most wonderful feelings I've experienced because I felt like my burden had been lifted when I came out of hiding. I've heard the analogy of how sin prospers in the dark, but once it's brought into the light, it loses its power, and I felt like that was what happened when I confessed my sin. Of course, it still wasn't and isn't easy to fight off that temptation, but I am happy to say that for the most part, I've moved on from that sad and broken season in my life. It is by the grace of God that I have been freed from that life.

A couple of things that I found helpful in fighting my temptation was reciting verses and praying. When I was tempted to have those impure thoughts, I would sometimes instead fill my mind with God's truth. One verse that I would often remind myself of was 1 Corinthians 10:13 - "No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to humanity. God is faithful, and He will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation He will also provide a way of escape so that you are able to bear it." It reminded me that I didn't have to be controlled by my temptation and that God could help me control myself from giving into temptation. Prayer is another thing that was helpful for me, because I was asking God to keep my mind from anything impure, and I have experienced Him truly working in me and taking my mind from what was impure to something better. And as I mentioned earlier, talking with someone about it also helps because you have someone to shoulder that burden with you and to keep you accountable. It's definitely scary, but so worth it if you talk with someone you trust who will be understanding and safe to talk to about it. From my own experience, it truly was a huge step for me to find freedom from my habitual sin. But as I was going through that time, I feel like God was slowly planting seeds in my mind which eventually led me to want to let my sin go. With help from the Holy Spirit and hearing from God through a number of different sources (messages, Bible passages, etc.), I was eventually ready to let go of the sin and experience His grace and forgiveness.  

To wrap this all up, I'd just like to say that if you are experiencing temptation or are struggling with sin, I'd highly recommend memorizing scripture, praying for God's strength to overcome the temptation, and talking with other Christian brothers and sisters (if you need someone to confide in, feel free to message me! I'd be happy to provide a listening ear and support). As Moses mentioned in the last devo, we’re going to be dealing with temptation our entire lives through all of the different stages of life we’re in. Just because I got out of that one phase of temptation in my life (which I still struggle with from time to time) doesn’t mean that I’m going to be temptation-free for the rest of my life. It will be an ongoing struggle for us, but I hope we all remember that God is faithful and that He has provided us with so much to help us combat sin and temptation. Our temptations are strong, but our God is even stronger. If you have any other tips/suggestions on how you fight against sin/temptation, feel free to respond to this email with your thoughts!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thanks for reading, and we hope you found both parts of this devo encouraging :)

Pray to end, Maria, Margarette, Lili

#summer2020 #freedom #temptation #lili #maria #margarette

[black-sheep-blues]

Negative Cognitions

Upfront: This is a Journal Entry and it’s long AF.

I started reading Getting Past Your Past: Take Control of Your Life with Self-Help Techniques from EMDR Therapy by Francine Shapiro, PhD. (The developer of EMDR therapy).

I picked it up because a few very close friends of mine have C-PTSD and EMDR has been helpful. I wanted to learn more about it and C-PTSD. Well it’s blindsided me a couple of times by teaching me things about myself. Which is good, but dang, kind of hard to deal with. 

It’s a good book, and I could ramble about it for a while, so let me just get where I’m going. 

I reached page 84 and she talked about replacing negative cognitions with positive ones. Shouldn’t be that world-shaking. But it was. Because I looked at the list of examples and almost every single negative had been taught to me by the church. I hadn’t randomly picked up these ideas, I had been told they were the truth. (And “The Truth” was the most important element of my religion). 

 To be clear, I began leaving fundamentalism a while ago, “came out” to my devout family as agnostic-ish with a christian bias a couple years later, and finally mostly left religion all together within the last six months. Family still doesn’t know.

I knew I had some messed up ideas i needed to untangle, but i didn’t expect this book to so clearly point out these toxic ideas that should have been so obvious.

Lets look at the list, shall we? The list is broken into three categories, and the one that caught my attention was “Responsibility” or the idea that “I am or did something wrong.”

1. I don’t deserve love (replace with I deserve love; I can have love)

This was a core teaching. This was part of our Gospel or “Good News” sales pitch. We as humans were sinful, wicked, filthy, depraved. We deserved to go to a literal, firey hell for torment for all eternity, simply because we were born with a sin nature. (Every human is born flawed, rebellious towards God, and deserving of hell because of it). Because we are so unloveable, that is supposed to make God’s sacrifice and acceptance of those who believe in him, so much more wonderful and amazing. But really…

REMINDER: WE DESERVE LOVE

2. I am a bad person (replace with I am a good [loving] person)

This ties in to that last bit of doctrine. If we weren’t terrible people, we wouldn’t need god to save us from ourselves/his wrath. I firmly believed for 20 something years that I was wicked. I deserved hell as much as a murderer did because "For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it.” [James 2:10 ESV] I’d had fights with my siblings, I’d cheated on a spelling test (then immediately told on myself), I’d disobeyed authority-but even if I hadn’t done all of that, I was still deserving of hell because I believed I was born with a Sin Nature-basically the idea that I was born broken, at odds with god, and needed Jesus to save me from his wrath. I believed all of this (at least the general concepts) by the time I was four years old.

REMINDER: WE ARE GOOD PEOPLE

3. I am Terrible (replace with: I am fine as I am)

This basically falls under the last two points, but it’s worth noting that I didn’t believe I was fine as I was until I was about twenty-two.

REMINDER: WE ARE FINE AS WE ARE

4. I am Worthless (replace with: I am worthwhile, I am worthy)

I was taught that every good, kind, generous, selfless thing I did, if it was without Jesus, it was as worthless as “used menstrual rags.”  ([Isaiah 64:6]-and I’m not saying this is the “proper interpretation” but it is what I was taught for 20+ years)

My particular brand of Christianity was heavily focused on the sovereignty (full, absolute, utter control down to minute details) of God. It was set up as a contrast. My worthlessness and wretchedness were a device to show just how utterly glorious God was, and how worthy he was of worship. I was so dirty, his holiness shone even brighter. We also believed that after we were “saved” that God looked at us and instead of seeing our nastiness, he would see Jesus who was pure. So even when we’re saved we aren’t worthy, we aren’t cleaned up, Jesus sticks up for us.

Fortunately, my family didn’t enact this theology much. We believed it devoutly, but it wasn’t really expressed practically aside from inner shame. Once I started breaking out, with the help of some very supportive friends, I was able to grasp the idea that I am valuable fairly easily.

REMINDER: WE ARE WORTHWHILE 

5. I am Shameful (replace with: I am honorable) 

Christianity and its relationship to shame deserves its own series of posts.

It’s a little painful to think about honestly. Being ashamed of something was a constant state of being. Something I’d done, something I should’ve done, something I’d thought. Motive checking was constant.

I did this nice thing, but did I really do it for the right reasons or do I need to pray for forgiveness? After all, the action isn’t what mattered, it was your motives. Unless you broke a rule, or sinned. Then the motive was pretty much irrelevant. Weird how it worked that way.

Shame still shows up everywhere for me. I have to correct myself, and remind myself that I haven’t done anything wrong, I have nothing to be ashamed of all. The. Time.  

REMINDER: WE ARE HONORABLE

6. I’m Not Good Enough (replace with: I’m fine)

Remember when I talked about motive checking? Most of the time, I could find a flaw in my motives for being nice/good/kind etc. Looking back, those flaws weren’t flaws, they were me being human, and even then, I think a lot of the flaws I found within myself were perceived because I ultimately believed I was wicked, depraved and worthless at my core. So, when I doubted that my motives where genuine (and by genuine, I don’t mean simply wanting to help people, I mean “am I doing this to bring glory to God”) I was inclined to find fault in myself.

This theology was also a core component of the Gospel (The one thing all Christians would say the agree on, the only thing that supposedly mattered, yet, they would still fight over multiple minor issues but anyway…) The Gospel or “Good News” is that God is awesome and created all of us. He deserves all worship and glory. Humans screwed it up in a literal Garden of Eden when they disobeyed God’s one rule. Because of this, we all have a sin nature and are damned to hell unless we believe that Jesus (Who is God) died on the cross for our sins/sin nature, and rose from the dead.

So, the core element of not being good enough: it was repeatedly emphasized that we could not save ourselves. We could never do enough good things to make up for being born wicked. We would never be good enough. Everything we did was tainted by sin, even after we were “saved.” Everything we did was constantly messed up or twisted, but Jesus’ death/resurrection had covered it, so God would reluctantly put up with us.

REMINDER: WE ARE FINE AS WE ARE

7. I Deserve Only Bad Things (replace with: I Deserve Good Things)

--I was literally told not to question God over bad things that happen in my life because no matter what happened, it was better than I deserved. Because of my Sin Nature, I deserved Hell.

I don’t know if it was ever said directly to someone in the midst of a crisis, but it was preached that directly from the pulpit.

Some denominations went so far as to say if bad things happened to you, it was your fault for not having enough faith. Mine just said that you had no right to be angry if bad things happened because a) God was in control so don’t doubt him, and b) you deserved hell anyway so really, this is a good deal.

Yes. It is fucked up.

But that’s how I grew up. It all made sense ‘till it didn’t.

REMINDER: WE DESERVE GOOD THINGS

8. I am Insignificant (replace with: I am Significant)

*heavy sigh*

So, this one is rough too. It holds together two really conflicting ideas. So, the central premise and sales pitch is that God loves us and wants a personal relationship with us, but that’s hindered by our Sin Nature and that’s where Jesus comes in right? He sacrifices himself to pay for our sin and then we get a benevolent, wise best friend. And when you start out your life believing that, you can see it and feel it everywhere.

Even with the personal aspect of the “relationship” my own insignificance was also key. My life was not my own. It belonged to god. I remember learning that beyond food, clothes and shelter, there were no real “needs.” Maslow’s hierarchy of needs? Ridiculous worldly wisdom. After all, God will supply all your needs [Philippians 4:19], so we don’t need to worry about anything (and bonus interpretation, anxiety is sinful) Matthew 6: 25-33 was used as well to shame. “The Gentiles seek after these things.” (and in our group, that meant “the world” aka unbelievers). A different section of Philippians 4 also had Paul talking about how he learned to be content in any situation, so if he could do it, we needed to be able to also.

Picking out these random verses is sometimes called “cherry picking” and it’s a crappy way to understand what the author was trying to say. It’s like me grabbing the EMDR book and finding two sentences that support what I already believe and then proclaiming them as God’s truth. But that’s what happened a lot of times. And it honestly ruined the Bible for me. I haven’t been able to look at it apart from the verses that were used to shame and control and manipulate me. Maybe one day I can appreciate it as an ancient work, but I’m not there yet.

Anyway, back to insignificance. Not being allowed to have needs translated to me having no concept of self-care or self-regulation. Example: I am an introvert who pushed myself to be extroverted because that’s what a lot of “good” Christians looked like. Not that it’s bad to stretch yourself, but I did it with no concern or awareness of myself. I went to a party at my spouse’s work a few years ago. I knew my spouse and that was it. There were well over 100 people there. After about an hour and a half I was quietly begging to leave because I found myself ready to cry. No one had been cruel, nothing unusual had happened, but I had passed some unknown stress point. I did cry on the way home, and then at home and for a good chunk of the night. I was exhausted and overwhelmed. And then I was ashamed for not being “normal.”

Looking back on that, I now know I had done zero mental prep to go, I had not communicated to my spouse how nervous I was to be around so many people I didn’t know. I didn’t have a plan to calm myself down if I did panic, and I had no idea that I should plan something just for me after doing something stressful like that. That’s just one example. I know now that self-care is a thing. I know to pay attention to my intuition, to my worries, to my body. This was brand new. I was told “the heart is deceitful and desperately wicked” (Jeremiah 17:9) My intuition, reasoning, and desires were all twisted by sin so I couldn’t trust them. I had to trust god and my authority.  (Never mind that Psalm 37:4 says God will give you the desires of your heart, but, ya know. That meant If you prayed, god would make sure your desires matched what he wanted you to do).

Being told that needs are sinful and wicked is a little damaging, and made for a rough transition into self sufficient adulthood.

But now I know. I am significant.

REMINDER: WE MATTER

9.  I am a Disappointment (replace with: I am okay just the way I am)

So.

Yeah. This is probably my #1 issue now.

It was wielded as a threat. “Don’t grieve the Lord” “Don’t disappoint God with your choices.”

And it was a weighty indictment because god had freaking died for me. And gave me a great life. And I would selfishly ignore all of that and do…whatever it was I was being chastised for? Sometimes it was mass sermons directed at a couple thousand college students. We would be disappointing god by: Flirting, breaking rules, having an “attitude,” getting bad grades, being late to class, being late to work, breaking dress code, not doing devotions, not doing devotions enough, not praying enough, being too prideful in your grades, putting schoolwork above god, not evangelizing enough, having sinful thoughts, procrastinating…you get the idea. It was ultimately a control mechanism to bring us into line, but in the moment, it was a big deal. I loved god. Being accused of throwing such a huge sacrifice in his face was demoralizing. And shaming. They didn’t even have to preach it all of the time. I was good at policing myself.

This one carries over into my post-fundamentalist cult-y life though.

I don’t particularly believe that I’m ok the way I am.

I have vaginismus, so PiV sex is nearly impossible. I don’t feel okay about that usually.

I’m agnostic with a heavy leaning toward atheism. My family, the people I grew up around will not think I’m ok, and I’m so used to needing their approval to be ok with god, that not having their approval now makes it hard to function. Bonus, I was a Bible major preparing to be a professional evangelist- a missionary. So. My entire life’s plan has gone to shit.

I’m bisexual, and my family and the people I grew up around within the last couple of years have talked to me about my friends’ choices to be gay, so. That’ll be a winner.

But at the same time, I’m okay with myself. I am who I am. I believe what I believe and I will love whoever I want to love. I need to not take on the assumed disappointments of others. But, that’s easier said than done.

REMINDER: WE ARE FINE JUST THE WAY WE ARE

10. I Deserve To Die (replace with: I Deserve to Live)

If you’ve made it this far, you’ll recognize this to tie back to the “I deserve eternal punishment via torment in Hell” idea. I didn’t usually think in terms of death like this, but what struck me about this example was the replacement.

I deserve to live.

I had never once thought that in my life.

There are a few more on the list, but these are the big ones.

The author makes the statement that,

“Although we may know realistically that these negative cognitions are not true, they put in words the way we feel-and it’s the feeling you have about yourself in different circumstances that ultimately controls your life.” [p83)

Here’s to therapy homework & to feelings lining up with what we know to be true.

We Deserve Love

We Are Good People

We are Fine as We Are

We are Worthwhile

We are Honorable

We Deserve Good Things

We are Significant

We are Good Just the Way We Are

-Cheers

#emdr therapy #emdr #cptsd #journal #therapy #therapy homework #ex christian #atheish #unlearn #vaginismus #no shame #hell anxiety #goodwithoutgod

[ah17hh]

you useless piece of crap via /r/emojipasta

you useless piece of crap

You 👆 useless 👩🏻 piece 🧩 of shit 💩. You 👆 absolute 💯 waste 😵 of space ⭐⚫ and air 🌬. You 👆 uneducated, ignorant 👌, idiotic 😜 dumb 🤪 swine 🐽😂, you’re an absolute 💯 embarrassment 😣 to humanity 🕴 and all 🤠 life 💓 as a whole 🕳. The magnitude 🔍 of your 👉 failure 🥴🤠 just now is so indescribably massive 🐘 that one ☝🏻 hundred 💯 years 📅 into the future 👨🏼 your 👉 name 🏷 will be used ♦ as moniker of evil 😈 for heretics. Even 🌃 if all 💪 of humanity 🕴 put 👏 together 👮‍♂️🐕 their collective intelligence 🧐 there is no 🚫 conceivable way ↕ they could have thought 🤔 up ☝ a way ↕ to fuck 🤬 up ⬆ on the unimaginable scale ⚖ you 👉🏻 just did. When 💕💦😩 Jesus 🧑 died 🐕🔫 for our sins 🧼, he 🧒 must 🔒 not have seen 👁 the sacrilegious act 🎭 we just witnessed 👀🙈 you 👉🏻 performing ➕👉, because if he 🧒 did he 👨 would have forsaken humanity 🧒 long 🍆 ago 👶🏽 so that your 👉 birth 👑 may ♦ have never 🚫 become 🔜 reality 💯. After 2️⃣ you 👆 die ☠, your 👉 skeleton 💀 will be displayed 💻 in a museum after 👀 being scientifically 👨‍🔬 researched 🔍 so that all 😳 future 👨🏼 generations 👶👪 may 🌼🌷🌹 learn 👨‍🏫 not to generate 👶👪 your 👉 bone ☠ structure, because every ☝ tiny 👌🏾 detail 📝📓🤝 anyone 👩 may 🌼🌷🌹 have in common ♦ with you 👉🏻 degrades 😭👌 them to a useless 👩🏻 piece 🧩 of trash 💕😘💗 and a burden to society 🗺. No 🚫 wonder ❓🤔 your 👉 father 👨🏻 questioned ❓ whether 💮 or not your 👉 were truly 💯 his 👋 son 🌞, for you'd have to not be a waste 😵 of carbon matter for anyone 👤 to love ❤ you 👆 like 👍 a family 👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 member 👱‍♂️. Your 👉 birth 👑 made 🗿 it so that mankind 👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 is worse ❌🚫 of in every 🤩 way ↕ you 👆 can possibly 🪓🙅🏻 imagine 🧠, and you 👆 have made 👉 it so that society 🗺 can never ❌ really ✅ recover into a state 🇺🇸 of organization 😡. Everything 😂 has forever 🕐🕔🕤 fallen 💨 into a bewildering chaos, through which unrecognizable core ⤴, you 👆 can only find 🔍 misfortune. I 👁 would say 💬 the apocalypse 🕔 is upon 👦 us 🇨🇳 but 🍑 this is merely 👌 the closest 🈴 word 🆔 humans 🕴 have for the sheer scale 🐍 of horror 👿👻🍆 that is now reality 💯. You 👆 have forever ♾ condemned everyone 👍 you 👆 love 😍 and know 🧠 into an eternal 🌋🆎💅🏿 state 🇺🇸 of suffering 😷, worse 🤩😘 than any human 🕴 concept 🧬 of hell 🔥. You 👆 are such an unholy 🚫🙌🏻 being, that if you 👆 step 🦶 within 🤞👏 a one ☝ hundred 💯 foot 👣 radius of a holy 👕 place 🏞🌆🌳 or a place 🏞🌆🌳 that has ever 😳 been deemed important ✨ by anyone 👩, your 👉 distorted 😜 sac religious 🙏 soul 👻 will ruin ❌ whatever ♂ meaning 😏 it ever 😳 had beyond ⏩ repair 🏗. You 👆 are an idiotic 😜, shiteating, dumbass 🙈💖✨ ape 🦧 and no 🚫 one ☝ has ever 😳 loved 💕 you 👉🏻. Rhodes Island 🏖 would have been better 👌 off if you'd never ❌ joined 🤩 us 🚶🏻🚶🏼. You 👆 are a lying 🤫, backstabbing, cowardly 🐮 useless 👩🏻 piece 🧩 of shit 💩 and I 👁 hate 😡 you 👉🏻 with every 👏 single 🕑 part 🍆 of my being. Even 🌃 this worlds 🌎 finest 👌 writers ✍ and poets 😍 from throughout 🤯 the ages 🤠👴🏿 could never ❌ hope 🕊 to accurately ☑ describe 🗣 the scale 🐍 on which you 👆 just fucked 🤿 up ⬆, and how incredibly 😚🤪 idiotic 😜 you 👆 are. Anyone 👤 that believes 🙅🏻 in any religion ⛪🕌🕍 out there should now realize 🤯 that they have been wrong 😡 this entire 👏 time ⏰, for if divine 😇 beings ❓ were real 💯, they would never ❌ have allowed 👮🏻‍♂️ a being such as you 👆 to stain 😷 the earth 🌍 and this universe ✨. In the future 📡 there will be horror 😱😳 stories 📖 made 🐧 about you 👉🏻, with the scariest part 🍆 of them being that the reader 📖 has to realize 🤯 that such an indescribable monster 😈 actually exists 💁, and that the horrific events 🎫 from the movie 🎬 have actually taken place 🏆 in the same world 🌎 that they live 🐙 in right ✔ now. You 👉🏻 are the absolute 💯 embodiment of everything 😂 that has ever 😳 been wrong ❌ on this earth 🌎, yet 🎩👓👍 you 👉🏻 manage 👩🏿‍🍳 to make 🛠 it so that that is only a small 🤏❌ part 🎛 of the evil 😈 that is your 👉 being. Never ❌ in the history 👨‍🏫 of mankind 👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 has there been anyone 👩 that could have predicted such an eldrich abomination, but 😳 here you 👆 are. It’s hard 😤 to believe 💭 that I ☝ am seeing 👁 such an incredible 😯‼❗ failure 🥴🤠 with my own eyes 👁, but 🍑 here I ☝ am, so unfortunately 😔 I 👁 cannot ❌ deny ❎ your 👉 existence 💁. Even 🌃 if I 👁 did my very 💯 best 👌, my vocabulary is not able 💪 to describe 🗣 the sheer magnitude 🤯 of the idiotic 😜 mistake 😱 that is you 👆. Even 🌃 if time ⏰ travel ✈⛴🛳 some day 📆 will be invented 💰, there still 👏 would not be a single 🕑 soul 👻 willing 😷 to go 💨 back 🔙 in time ⏰ to before 😂 this moment 😳 to fix 🛠🔩 history 🚫, because having to witness 🕴 such incredible 👀 horrors 😱 if they failed 😔 would have to many 💯 mental 🤯 and physical 👅🔭🔬 drawbacks that not even 🌃 the bravest soul 👼🏼 in history 📚 would be willing 😏 to risk 🙅‍♀️ it. I 👁 cannot 🙅‍♂️ imagine 💭 the pure 🏳 dread 💦 your 👉 mother 👪 must 🤜 have felt when 🤔 she 👩🏽 had to carry ✊🏻 a baby 👶 for nine ⏰ months 📆 and then giving 👉 birth 👑 to such a wretched 😫 monster 😈 as you 👉🏻. Not a single 🕑 word 🆔 of the incoherent, illogical rambling you 👉🏻 may ♦ be wanting 🏃 to do to defend 🛡 yourself or apologize 🙍‍♂️ would ever 😳 be able 💪 to make 🔨 up ☝ for what you 👆 just did. The countries 🇺🇸 of the world 🌎 would have wanted 😍 to make 🛠 laws 🇺🇸 preventing such a terrible 🧠🤏 event 🎫 like 👍 this from ever 😠 happening 😱 again ❌😬, but 🍑 sadly 😞 this is not possible ☠ since 💦 your 👉 horrific actions 🎭 just now have shattered every 👏 form 🎹 of order 📑 this world 🌍🌎🌏 once had, making 🛠 concepts 🤓🥳🤩 such as laws 🇺🇸 irrelevant 📉. Right ✔ from the moment 😳 I 👁 first 💜🔮 set 🌃 my eyes 👁 on you 👉🏻 I 👁 knew 🤔 you 👆 were an absolute 💯 abomination of everything 🤔 that is wrong ❌ with humanity 🕴. I 👁 was hoping 🙏 I 👁 would have been able 👍🏻 to prevent 🙅‍♂️ your 👉 evil 😈 from being released 🎥 upon 👦 this world 🌎 by tagging along ↩ and keeping ✊ my eye 👁 on you 👆, but 😳 it is clear 🤭 to me now that not even 🌃 the greatest ❤ efforts 😥😫😪 would have been able 💪 to prevent 🙅🏻‍♀️❌⛔ a terrible 🧠🤏 event ❗ in this scale 🐍 from occurring. You 👉🏻 are the worst 😡 human 🧒 being, or even 💅 just being in general 🐧, that I ☝ have ever 😳 had the misfortune of witnessing 👀. Events ❗ like 👍 the infected ☣ plague 🐀 apparently 💢 only happened 🌚 with the goal 💕💦😫 of teaching 👩‍🏫 humanity 🧒 to survive 🙏🏼😩😭 such a horrible 🤮 event 🎉 as the one 1️⃣ you 👉🏻 just created 🧚‍♀️, but 🍑 not even 🌃 mankind’s greatest 📈 trials 🇮🇹 were able 💪 to even 🌃 slightly 🙂 prepare 👓📖📚 anyone 👩 for the insufferable evil 👿 you 👆 have just created 💯. If you 👆 ever 😠 had them, your 👉 children 👶 would be preemptively killed 💀 to protect 👒 this universe ✨ from the possibility 🙀🍆 of anyone 👩 in your 👉 bloodline 💉 being even 🌃 half 1️⃣➗2️⃣ as bad 📉 as you 👆 are, except 👋 you 👆 will never ❌ be able 💪 to have children 👶, because not a single 🕑 human 🕴 being will ever 😠 want ⚠ to come ☔ within 🤞👏 a hundred 💯 mile 🛣 radius of you 👆 and anything 😨 you 👆 have ever 😠 touched 🤚. You 👆 are a colossal disappointment not only to your 👉 parents 👫, but 😳 to your 👉 ancestors 👻 and entire 🇺🇸 bloodline 💉. The disgusting 🤢 mistake 😱 that you 👆 have just made 🗿 is so incredibly 👀 terrible 🤮 that everyone 👍 who would ever 😠 be to hear 👂 about it would spontaneously feel an indescribable mixture 🧁 of immense 😱 anger 😤😡, fear 😱 and anxiety 😖 that emotionally 💟 and physically 👅🔭🔬 they would never ❌ truly 💯 be the same ever 😳 again 🔁. The sheer scale ⚖ of your 👉 mistake ✨🧚, if ever 😳 to be materialized, would not only surpass the size ⬇ of the world 🌎, but 🍑❓ it would reach ✋ far 🌌 beyond 🧑🏼 the edges 🍆 of the known 🧠, and almost 🤔😔💭 certainly 🧂 the unknown 🎇 universe 🌎🌍🌏. I 👁 could sit 🏚 here and write ✍ paragraphs 😩😭😓, nay ‼, books 📖 describing 🗣 your 👉 immense 😱 failure 🥴🤠, yet 😏 even 💅 if I 👁 were to dedicate 🏀 my life 👤 to describing 🗣 the reality 💯 of what has just gone 👱🏻💪🏾 down ⬇ here, and I 👁 would spend 😵 every 👏 moment 😳 of it until my heart ❤ stops 🛑 beating 💓 working 🏗 as hard 😤 and efficiently as possible 🔝, yet 🎩👓👍 there is not even 💅 a snowballs chance 🎲 in hell 👺 that I ☝ would be able 💪 to come ☔ close 🤞🏻 to transcribing the absolute ⚱ shitshow you 👆 have just released 🐢➡🌊 upon ↙ the world 🌏💫. You 👆 are an irresponsible, idiotic 🤪, disgusting 🤮, unloved, horrible 😠 excuse 👣 for a living being who’s soul 👻 contains 🗞 less ➖ humanity 🕴 than every 👏 ginger 🍞 in history 🚫 combined. The absolute 💯 disgust 🤮 I 👁 feel when 🤔 thinking 🤔 about anything 🌌 that has even 🌃 a slight 🙁 resemblance 💁‍♂️ to anything 🌌 that might 🤔 have to do with you 👉🏻 and your 👉 unholy 🚫🙌🏻 actions 🎭 is so incredibly 😚🤪 great 😁👍 that when ❓ I 👁 am honest 💯 about it I 👁 think 🤔 that even 🌃 I 👁 do not posses 👨‍👨‍👦‍👦 a consciousness 🧠 great 🤔❓ enough 👅 to comprehend 🤔 my own feelings about it. When ❓ people 👥 of Columbia fought 🤼‍♂️👩‍🚒🤼‍♀️ to break 💔 free 🆓 from Lungmen, countless 🧛‍♀️⛔ soldiers 🙍‍♂️ fought 👈🏿💢🗡 and lost 🏳 their lives 💓 in favor 😏 of a chance 🎲 at a better 👌 future 👨🏼 for their children 👶, they did not give 👉 their lives 👤 to have you 👆 fuck 🖕 the world 🌍🌎🌏 up ☝ beyond ⏩ repair 🙌 to the degree 🎓 that you 👆 are dosin right ✔ now. Honestly 😇, even 💅 when 💕💦😩 technology 🔬 advances 😍😇 and studies 📿⛪ on the subject 🔥💥❄ become 🦋 more and more accurate ☑, I 👁 do not think 🤔 humanity 🧒 will ever 😠 truly 💯 be able 💪 to understand 🤔 what your 👉 failure 💀 actually means 😏 for the universe 😱🌌🙌. My hate 😲😠 for you 👉🏻 and everything 🤔 you 👉🏻 stand 🚹 for is so much 💯 deeper 💦 than the depths ❤ of Shambala that you 👆 could probably 😕 take 👊 the entire 👏 Lungmen population 👥 down 👇 there and back 🔙 up ☝ around 🔁 twenty 💓 million 💯 times ⌛ before ⬅ you 👆 would have sunk 💥 to the end 🔚 of my hate 😲😠, and honestly 😇, I ☝ do not want 😍 to exaggerate, but 🍑 I ☝ think 🤔 that that i ☝

Submitted July 31, 2020 at 04:37PM by iiGalacticBeast via reddit https://ift.tt/2Xg0syN

#IFTTT #reddit

[achristianviews-blog]

INSIGHT INTO BIBLE TRUTH #247 Do Jews, Christians, and Muslims Worship the Same God? by David Vaughn Elliott Is the god of the Muslims and the Jews the same as the Christian God? Do Jews, Christians, and Muslims worship the same God? At the outset, let me clarify that this Insight is written by a Christian for Christians. It is not about how to witness to your Muslim neighbor, how to foster peace and harmony, etc. Rather, it is for us Christians to gain an understanding of the issues that are involved in today's widely-discussed question for which even Pope Francis has offered an opinion. It is commonly agreed that there are three major monotheistic religions in the world: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. All three originated in the Middle East. All three claim roots in Abraham. We can only guess what Abraham's views of God were before God began dealing with him, but we know there was idolatry in his family. Joshua stated it clearly: "From ancient times your fathers lived beyond the River, namely, Terah, the father of Abraham and the father of Nahor, and they served other gods" (Josh. 24:2). The Bible dedicates a mere eleven chapters to the history of the world before Abraham. With Abraham, the record becomes quite detailed. The "God of Abraham" is mentioned in the Bible from Genesis to Acts. Outside of Genesis, Abraham is mentioned over 100 times from Exodus to 1 Peter. The blessed abode of the dead is termed "Abraham's bosom." Very few individuals in history are as outstanding as Abraham. Do Jews, Christians, and Muslims worship the God of Abraham? Seeking for a Meaningful Question The common question these days asks for a yes/no answer. Does this result in a meaningful response? I think not. The present-day tendency to simply want a "yes" or "no" answer opens the door to preconceived judgments. "Yes" means you lack conviction or knowledge. Or it means you are loving and nonjudgmental. "No" means you are a bigot and suffering from islamophobia. Or it means you are firm in your faith. It's all in the mindset of the questioner as well as the responder. A simple "yes" or "no" provides little useful information. It's not just a problem of unhelpful answers; the question itself is a bad question. The question assumes that there could be more than one God. But the three religions reject that concept. The three are in agreement that there is only one true God and that He is the one they each worship. Therefore, a more meaningful question would be: Do Jews, Christians, and Muslims have the same understanding of the nature of the one true God? Or: Do the three religions attribute the same characteristics to God? However, we are still left with yes/no replies. More meaningful questions could be something like these: In what ways do Jews, Christians, and Muslims agree regarding the nature of the one God? In what ways do they differ? What is the importance of these differences? More complicated? Yes. More enlightening? Yes. Whether the questions are worded this way or some other way, what we need are some facts. Begin or End with Abraham? Before proceeding, let's examine the common idea that there are three major Abrahamic religions in the world, three religions that have their basis in Abraham. Upon examination, it might be more accurate to consider that these three religions did not start with Abraham. Rather they started with Adam and their sameness ends with Abraham. Actually, we could start before Adam, before the creation. All three religions, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, believe that there is one eternal God who is the all-knowing and all-powerful Creator of the universe. When I say "all three religions believe," I am referring to those who are orthodox, traditional, conservative, or whatever term you want to use. We are concerned here with the accepted historical views of the three religions. From Abraham, the three religions diverge. Islam connects to Abraham through his first son, Ismael, who was born to Abraham's Egyptian slave Hagar. Islam teaches that Ismael was the son whom Abraham nearly sacrificed, and it further says that Abraham and Ismael built the Kaaba in Mecca. It believes that Mohammed was a descendent of Ismael. Judaism, on the other hand, connects to Abraham through his son Isaac, who was born to Abraham's wife Sarah well after she reached menopause. Judaism teaches that the Jewish people who descended from Isaac and Jacob are the people of God. On the other hand, Christianity connects to Abraham through his physical descendent Jesus, teaching that physical ancestry is important only up to that point. Since Jesus, Christianity says that "if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s descendants, heirs according to promise" (Gal. 3:29). Physical lineage no longer matters. Thus, even though the three religions are said to claim Abraham as father, they reach Abraham through three different individuals: Ismael, Isaac, and Jesus. And the God of the three religions? Is he the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob? Is he the God of Abraham and Jesus? Or is he the God of Abraham and Ismael? As indicated, all three believe in the one, eternal, all-powerful, all-knowing, Creator and Ruler of the universe, who is both merciful and Judge of the living and the dead, and who has revealed himself to mankind. Differences in the Concept of God It is surely the resurgence of Islam that has brought this issue to the forefront of world attention, and the question is most often asked with Islam and Christianity in view. That there are many similarities has already been detailed, and no proofs are needed. But what of differences? A good question would be: What are some of the important differences in the conception of God as found in the Quran and in the New Testament? In what ways, if any, do they contradict each other? Let's examine these issues. NT: "Grace to you and peace from God our Father" (1 Cor. 1:3). (God is called "Father" 272 times in the NT.) Quran: (No quote available. God is not called "Father" once in the Quran. Islam's 99 names for God does not include "Father.") NT: " 'And I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to Me,' says the Lord Almighty" (2 Cor. 6:18). Quran: "Allah... they falsely, having no knowledge, attribute to Him sons and daughters. Praise and glory be to Him! [for He is] above what they attribute to Him!" (6:100). NT: "God is love... We love, because He first loved us" (1 John 4:16, 19). Quran: "Allah loves those who turn to Him constantly and He loves those who keep themselves pure and clean" (2:222). Quran: "If ye do love Allah, Follow me: Allah will love you" (3:31). NT: "God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us" (Rom. 5:8). Quran: "Allah loveth not transgressors" (2:190). "Allah loveth not those who do wrong" (3:57). NT: "The scribes and the Pharisees began to reason, saying, 'Who is this man who speaks blasphemies? Who can forgive sins, but God alone?' But Jesus... said, 'so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins,'—He said to the paralytic—'I say to you, get up, and pick up your stretcher and go home' " (Luke 5:21-24). Quran: "And who can forgive sins except Allah?" (3:135). NT: "Jesus, the Apostle and High Priest of our confession... Christ appeared as a high priest... through His own blood, He entered the holy place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption" (Heb. 3:1; 9:11-12). Quran: "Christ the son of Mary was no more than an Apostle" (5:78). NT: "Jesus said to him, 'I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me' " (John 14:6). NT: "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit" (Matt. 28:19). Quran: "O People of the Book! Commit no excesses in your religion: Nor say of Allah aught but the truth. Christ Jesus the son of Mary was [no more than] a messenger of Allah... Say not "Trinity": desist: it will be better for you: for Allah is one Allah: Glory be to Him: [far exalted is He] above having a son" (4:171). NT: "And when He again brings the firstborn into the world, He says, 'And let all the angels of God worship Him' " (Heb. 1:6). Quran: "O People of the Book! come to common terms as between us and you: That we worship none but Allah" (3:64). Quran: "Take not, with Allah, another object of worship, lest thou shouldst be thrown into Hell" (17:39). NT: "Now when all the people were baptized, Jesus was also baptized, and while He was praying, heaven was opened, and the Holy Spirit descended upon Him in bodily form like a dove, and a voice came out of heaven, 'You are My beloved Son, in You I am well-pleased' " (Luke 3:21-22). Quran: "The Christians call Christ the son of Allah. That is a saying from their mouth; [in this] they but imitate what the unbelievers of old used to say. Allah's curse be on them: how they are deluded away from the Truth!" (9:30). NT: "By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him" (1 John 4:9). Quran: "They say: '[Allah] Most Gracious has begotten a son!' Indeed ye have put forth a thing most monstrous!" (19:88-92). NT: "His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by Him all things were created"(Col. 1:13-16). Quran: "He to whom belongs the dominion of the heavens and the earth: no son has He begotten, nor has He a partner in His dominion: it is He who created all things, and ordered them in due proportions" (25:2). NT: "God has made Him both Lord and Christ—this Jesus whom you crucified" (Acts 2:36). Quran: "They take their priests and their anchorites to be their lords in derogation of Allah, and [they take as their Lord] Christ the son of Mary; yet they were commanded to worship but One Allah: there is no god but He" (9:31). NT: "Jesus said to him, 'I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me' " (John 14:6). NT: "For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus" (1 Tim. 2:5). Quran: (no quote, no mediator between man and God.) NT: "Who is the liar but the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist,the one who denies the Father and the Son. Whoever denies the Son does not have the Father; the one who confesses the Son has the Father also" (1 John 2:22-23). Quran: "They do blaspheme who say: 'Allah is Christ the son of Mary'... They do blaspheme who say: Allah is one of three in a Trinity: For there is no god except One God. If they desist not from their word (of blasphemy), verily a grievous penalty will befall the blasphemers among them" (Quran 5:75-76). NT: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.He was in the beginning with God... And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth" (John 1:1, 2, 14). Quran: "Praise be to Allah, who begets no son, and has no partner in [His] dominion" (17:111). NT: "So that all will honor the Son even as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him" (John 5:23). Quran: "Is it not that they say, from their own invention, 'Allah has begotten children'? but they are liars!" (37:151-52). You likely have noticed that the majority of the texts quoted have to do with Jesus. Yes. If views of Jesus are not included in the "same God" question, it is a poor question. A yes/no response is of little more value than the famed question, "Have you stopped beating your wife yet?" We "all" know that Jews and Muslims on the one hand and Christians on the other hand are divided on the issue of the divinity of Jesus. Since Christians claim that Jesus on earth was God in the flesh, any discussion of "same God" must include Jesus. And once Jesus is included, there remains no question whether Muslims and Christians have incompatible views of God. In their most sacred texts, each one condemns the other. Briefly consider the following: "You believe that God is one. You do well; the demons also believe, and shudder"(1). As for the sufficiency of belief in God, Scripture also says: "Whoever denies the Son does not have the Father"(2). And Jesus said, "No one comes to the Father but through Me"(3). Far more is involved than if certain people happen to worship the same God. Jesus once quoted God as saying, "In vain they worship me"(4). Putting these texts all together: No matter what God you believe in and no matter what God you worship, you do not "have" God the Father nor can you "come to" God the Father except through Jesus! Any religion which denies that Jesus is the only begotten Son of God worships in vain. The question that's not only worth answering but demands an answer is this: "What do you believe about Jesus? Who's son is he?" (1) James 2:19; (2) 1 John 2:23; (3) John 14:6; (4) Matt. 15:9. Scripture quotations taken from the NASB. Quran quotations taken from translation by Abdullah Yusuf Ali. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

[johnjankovic]

BLITZKRIEG

Then there will issue from the stock which had remained barren for so long, proceeding from the 50th degree, one who will renew the whole Christian Church. A great place will be established, with union and concord between some of the children of opposite ideas, who have been separated by diverse realms. And such will be the peace that the instigator and promoter of military factions, born of the diversity of religions, will remain chained to the deepest pit. And the kingdom of the Furious One, who counterfeits the sage, will be united.

Nostradamus, Epistle to King Henry II

A luminary’s life as in narratology presupposes an ending worthy of himself or of a protagonist, amnesia issues from an anemic ending, memorability from the opposite, an otherwise good story fails should its coda be infelicitous to the mythos’ style, or be it that its banality dulls the senses enough to swiftly forget what was written in spite of what perhaps may have been authored with assiduous thought. In the main, an epilogue in real life or not must jar the witness or reader lest she neither think on nor talk of, if unworthy of remembrance, the ending itself. For example, a really fine book converts an ending into some climacteric which edifies the reader as in Victor Hugo’s Hunchback of Notre-Dame where he writes, evoking love’s transcendence beyond mortality, ‘Quand on voulut le détacher du squelette qu’il embrassait il tomba en poussière’. Playwright William Shakespeare discovers tragedy alone to be the single panacea for a vendetta between two houses fraught with bloodshed, ‘For never was a story of more woe than this of Juliet and her Romeo’. Robert Sherwood’s character Myra in the film noir screenplay of Waterloo Bridge steps into an oncoming truck, years later a bereaved gentleman reads wistfully in a voice-over sequence a missive from his late inamorata, ‘I loved you, I’ve never loved anyone else, that’s the truth Roy, I never shall’.

Seeming ethereal, and something that recalls fatalism whose leitmotif typically expresses an abrupt departure of some kind by a beloved character, endings ought to eclipse their beginnings if only to teach a lesson based upon dramatic loss. Gleaned from another one of the author’s dearest films, Father O’Malley in 1944’s Going My Way shuffles off screen onto his next parish in the dark of Christmas Eve to disappear from the merrymaking and mellifluous sounds of Saint Dominic’s Church after forever changing the lives of its churchgoers for the better. Such it is that in fiction as in life no matter how treasured a person their value typically cannot be ascertained until deprivation reveals it, this is the queerness of the human condition and yet an important one to understand that without loss no lesson worth knowing can ever be learned which is oddly true with many of life’s vicissitudes. Loss epitomizes the genesis of empathy, it is the quintessential impetus to the solicitude for the welfare of others, and the meaning of life generally issues from it, from an acute and sudden emptiness in time and space, from the enigmatic loss of control to disrupt nature’s determinism, and from where the dialectic between love and loss is finally known.

The concept of love must be entertained to fully appreciate this intimation of loss wherein fondness greatly increases only after the fact. To begin, ‘Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love’ (1 John 4:8). The idea is not a panegyric to divinity but a cosmological truth, alas society in its infinite wisdom vulgarizes its usage to indifferently describe eros when its impression upon man or woman beggars description and makes meretricious any sort of explanation behind it. Here the author speaks of courtship, not the love of a parent nor sibling nor even the false kind of an evening’s diversion, for the latter is nothing other than a knee-jerk conquest at variance with the snug feeling from the arousal of ecstasy for another and not at all for oneself whose act binds two persons together ‘so that the two will become one flesh’ (1 Corinthians 6:16). The said emotion can be so remarkably intense, so mysterious, so heady, so otherworldly, that in absentia its toll may provoke suicide as in the literary, thespian, or cinematographic instances of star-crossed lovers above, a fact no less of how humans experience the world much differently than the animal kingdom animated by self-preservation.

In the chronicle of time has loss been wed to love in legends, tales, and folklore from which the epitome in some form or another entails sacrifice. ‘Greater love has no one than this’, Jesus imparted to the Apostles the night of his seizure, ‘that he lay down his life for his friends’ (John 15:13). The modest imitation of such selflessness in the vineyard of life includes austerity of a husband foregoing his wants and needs to pleasure and please his wife or vice versa, the asceticism of a mother to nurture her child’s growth, the stoicism from a suitor apostatizing love if it means his soulmate shall be better for it, or the repudiation of material things to serve the needy. The eudaemonism of sacrifice, to do for others more than for thyself, carries with it great weight in Christian theology, an attribute so contrary to the ethics of atheists and agnostics who confound humans with primates in their defence of sin and vice. The loss of self becomes the loftiest reaches of enlightenment as Jesus sermonizes, ‘For whoever would save his life would lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it’ (Matthew 16:24-25). Saint Augustine who enlarges upon this sacrifice of incurvatus in se observes how it outwardly manifests through the appearance of unalloyed love for a wife, husband, offspring, sibling, parent, friend, or neighbour.

For the Apostles their discipleship ended with the literal imitation of Jesus’ sacrifice whose act colours the identity of a true Christian for it is anticipated our pain shall heal rather than victimize another. The irrationality of it, far different than paganism’s cultic or ritual offerings to appease a deity as ransom, testifies to the superiority of a principled man versus the hedonism of the uncouth, to the reason why humans are not merely animals, or to the fact his self originates in the image of Father. What escapes Christian dilettantes is how, on the subject of the Crucifixion and persecution of the apostles thereafter, the crux of the doctrine pivots on sufferance. ‘If any man would come after me’, Jesus said, ‘let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me’ (Mark 8:34; Matthew 10:38; Luke 14:27; Matthew 16:24). A fellowship of twelve brothers, however agonizing it would later be, bespoke this omnipotent truth that the Church woefully communicates to its patrons today.

The word ‘sacrifice’, antagonistic to if not obsolete verbiage in a liberal culture of instant sexual gratification and material consumption which paints Jesus as a puritanical killjoy, occurs 271 times in the bible as a thanksgiving to Father, an atonement, or disavowal of selfish pleasure. The term has fallen into disuse or worse has become anathema, stigmatized by the egocentrism of the stupid, by the profligacy of spendthrifts, or by the superficiality of glamorous lifestyles hawked by tabloids, even war sacrifice from patriotism grates on the vox populi. Society derides the virtues of self-denial and abstinence, these are not only absurd by normative groupthink but commonly accepted as wrong, a true microcosm of how estranged people are from goodness. Jesus died for our sins (1 Corinthians 15:3), as much as he laid down a messianic template (John 13:14-15), however a great many Christians sensationalize the former believing themselves inoculated against comeuppance from sin if they partake in churchgoing, and belittle the latter in virtue of their arrogance and cupidity.

Widespread aversion to pain abreast of freewheeling promiscuity and gluttony have transformed sacrifice to embody the meekness of a hapless fool, a characteristic more craven than intrepid. This same narrative idolizes the Resurrection with passing regard for the Passion and Crucifixion as the theological ascendency of patripassianism suggests Jesus was not crucified at all but instead it was God. No man could be brutally scourged, disfigured, crucified, and skewered nor should any semblance of it be expected from armchair Christians, hitherto their cowardice remains unbecoming of our family. Were it not for the bloodletting and bloodsport by the Pharisees, for a memorable ending, for such ghastly torture, for an unforeseen departure, the world would believe Jesus an agitator and charlatan insofar as nothing would be reaped if it were unsown and such that the Son spoke to his disciples, ‘[U]nless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a seed; but if it dies, it bears much fruit’ (John 12:24). It is said 53 minutes from where there rings 53 bells such a seed shall be planted once more.

#Son #Father