#Wealth and Poverty from God’s View

[officialyourdailyinspiration]

Wealth and Poverty from God’s View

by J.C. Ryle

Let us never give way to the common idea that people are to be valued according to their income, and that the person who has most money is the one who ought to be the most highly esteemed.

There is no authority for this notion in the Bible. The general teaching of Scripture is flatly opposed to it. “Not many wise, not many mighty, not many noble are called” (1 Cor. 1:26). “Let not the rich man glory in his riches. But let him that glories glory in this, that he knows and understands me” (Jeremiah 9:24). Wealth is no mark of God’s favor. Poverty is no mark of God’s displeasure. Those whom God justifies and glorifies are seldom the rich of this world. If we would measure people as God measures them, we must value them according to their grace.

#J.C. Ryle #Wealth and Poverty from God’s View #The J.C. Ryle Archive

[nadinediary]

The 7 Dating Bare Minimums from 𝒩adine

1. Shared Values + Belief

Values are prioritised characteristics that build who we are as individuals and our belief is what forms our world view and lifestyle. I find it easier to build a relationship with someone when your values and beliefs align. I cannot envision a relationship or even casually date someone who I can't see eye-to-eye on the core attributes that form my life and character.

I can understand being lenient on religious and political beliefs when casually dating although for long term relationships, I need to be on the same topic about religion, politics, children, cheating, etc.

2. Romantic (Considerate)

I personally can not be in a relationship or date a person who can’t exhibit romance. Romance to myself isn’t the flowers (not saying I don’t adore flowers), or the chivalrous actions shown in the rom-coms.

Romance is the small intimate actions that show you’ve been paying close attention to your loved one wants and needs. It’s the considerate small things that may take a little more time but are worth it.

3. Chivalrous

Talking about chivary, don’t get it confused, I love a chivalrous man. The door opening, pulling the seat out, making sure I’ve gotten home safe, I’m quite old fashion when it comes to dating. I love it all.

I find it charming when someone is chivalrous to everyone not just when it pertains to myself. If they see someone needing help and step in, I think that's a great trait to have. I don't want someone who just does things out of attraction but rather because of kindness.

4. Well groomed

Personally a man is most attractive when they are well groomed, actively upkeep themselves and pay great attention to their hygiene. This idea that only women get manicures and pedicures is ridiculous. I know plenty of men that like keeping their cuticle healthy.

Every man that has had the honor of taking me on a date or more, has had a skincare routine (even if it's just a three step routine). They’ve all had beautiful nails and I could tell they cared about cleanliness.

5. Adaptable + Resilient

I‘m a first-generation immigrant who has seen poverty and wealth, I’ve gone from living in the scums of rural Nirobei to the upper class Australian suburban area. This is all because of God’s blessing and my family’s resilience.

I need a partner who is both resilient and adaptable when in situations less than ideal. I’m a strong minded individual and hope the same for my partner.

6. Communicative

We’ve all heard about the importance of communication in relationships but not all communication is healthy.

It's important for your partner to be open to hearing you, a lot of people lack listening skills so it's precious when you find someone who really listens and respects you. Trauma can cause people to close up but there are many different ways to communicate from written to spoken, as long as my partner shows they are communicative I don't care.

7. Generous

I come from a generous family, I’m surrounded by generous people and I myself am always ready to give if someone needs. I could not envision any relationship, friendship or romantic relationship with someone who wasn’t as giving.

Generosity isn’t neglecting yourself for other, it's lifting each other up, know when to say no while being kind to others situations. I don't want a pushover, I want a generous partner.

Sincerely,

𝒩adine.

#dating #black femininity #relationships

[plaudiusplants]

listen. listen. you know i love me a good orpheus and eurydice and that means obviously i love hadestown okay? like we've established that?? okay listen. i love love love the tragedy of it all and my god he looks back because he cannot bear to exist without her for a second longer and i could go on about this forever. but!! I have a different thing to say and it is specifically about hadestown in particular and not other versions of the myths

persephone is complicit!! in hadestown, persephone is complicit in all of it! she complains about how her husband has been changing things and she complains about how he makes others dependent on him for money when he is the one who chose to give money that value in the first place (why do we build the wall? to keep out the enemy, which is poverty. how do we keep out the enemy which is poverty? we build a wall and get paid for it) (actually do they get paid? anyway, another time), but!! she doesn't actually do anything to help the workers out of hadestown either. "well but plaudius that's not her job, she's doing what she can from her position" why yes! that's correct! i do not fault her for not being an underground railroad or something on this literal underground railroad! the thing is, though, when she's smuggling sunlight and rain water and all of that into hadestown and reintroducing herself to the workers (somebody ask me about that sometime, i have Thoughts), she explicitly sells it. she's not just distributing it, she's not a robin hood giving the wealth back to the people, she's a diamond company selling what is incredibly common and freely available. she's aloysius o'hare from o'hare air in the lorax (don't fucking come for me i watched that movie once and thought it diverged too much from the book) selling fucking AIR. "you want stars? i got a skyful. put a quarter in the slot, you'll get an eyeful. you want the moon? yeah i got her too, she's right here waiting in my pay-per-view"

persephone is explicitly profiting off of this! she claims she doesn't like how hades is running the underworld but she is too comfortable in her life to try to begin any real change in her society

#something something internet activism #anyway #hadestown #hade and persephone #hadestown musical #persephone

[pinkandpurple360]

anon who mentioned it makes no sense IMP behave the way they do towards Stolas: I actually forgot about Fizz!

he's an example that I feel has the most in story justification but it's still frustrating how far the writing goes with it

like it makes sense he's touchy about Blitzo and Stolas' "relationship" because he's projecting his own insecurities about him and Ozzie onto it (he just wants to believe #NotAllRoyals treat sleeping with the poor like a fetish). in his case it makes sense why he'd say what he's saying even though he doesn't know Stolas personally; he has his own insecurities that inform his dialogue

but like, the writers have him directly say that "if you think you're superior to anyone then you're no better than any royal" and "sounds like you just hate [Stolas] for being a prince" as though either of those things are good rebuttals. the reality is Stolas has far more wealth and power than Blitzo and he leverages that in his entitlement over imps

In a better show it would be obvious we're supposed to doubt Fizz's statements here and assume they come from a biased standpoint - and maybe even assume Striker has a point that Fizz has had to appease powerful/royal demons like Mammon to get ahead in his career, but the show goes out of its way to list a bunch of good things Stolas did offscreen for Blitzo that mean we're supposed to think Fizz is totally right:

Stolas is 'one of the good ones' as far as royals go, & Striker needs to stop questioning why the system enables him to have imp servants & forces Blitzo to sleep with him for scraps. It's not Stolas' fault after all! They should just let him be rich and exploitative since he'll be miserable otherwise!

This is such a good analysis. Just like with Loona he’s projecting his own relationship, which makes what he’s saying not credible. But the show makes you view them as correct, and to view whoever is brave enough to question stolas’ neglect abuse and selfish behaviour towards them as ‘wrong’.

Fizz basically had ‘he’s doing this to make me better’ battered wife syndrome, but in a surprising turn of events, the abuser was mammon not Asmodeus as we were almost led to believe. That said, the message is that there are some bad apples, but monarchy and imbalances of power should not be questioned, they should not be dismantled, and royal peoples emotional suffering is worse than poverty, because poor people like Blitzø and striker and the unnamed imps in LooLoo land who Blitzø killed, are conniving thieves who are malicious at heart.

His insecurities inform his dialogue, but the show wants you to only view him as correct because stolas shows basic first date level courtesies like laughing at jokes, commenting on Instagram photos. These are not intimate caring gestures, they are politeness you’d give a stranger. And if you see the Instagram, all those comments are horny come ons like “that belt buckle you’re wearing is like the bow on my unwrapped present Blitzy” 😕 are y’all fucking serious.

Fizzs rebuttals were complete shit. He’s the character I favour the most but god, just like moxxie, he really is a purse dog for royalty as a system and a concept, except the members of royalty that are mean to him personally and who Asmodeus disapproves. What’s more, given the fact he’s going to leave imp society behind and become an immortal royal himself, he’s basically just covering his own ass by defending the monarchy as a system. People say Andrealphus and Stella and Paimon are proof that the royalty is corrupt, but no, they are mean simply because they have personally offended stolas, a royal protagonist.

Stolas is one of the worst ones, he is exactly like mammon in how he behaves. Reducing imps to toys for himself in how he yells at, grabs and squeezes and throws them around. He enjoys using his monstrous height for intimidation and leverage, and has had unwilling ‘friends’ and an unwilling wife handed to him on a platter simply as his birthright. He’s entitled to their time and servitude and gets angry when he loses his control over someone. Yet we are supposed to believe these two people are nasty ones because they have abrasive personalities. Probably to protect themselves from people like him who hold all the cards for their lives. He also treats blitzø the same way Andre treats Stella “you are so cute when you are serious” “you are so lucky you’re attractive”

What’s more, is Asmodeus really that great? He still uses intimidation tactics against his staff, he still calls those who aren’t fizzarolli “imp” and his nickname for fizz is like a relative of ‘fire toad’ and very much is the one making decisions in their relationship whether he is well meaning or not. And I’ll always get nervous when he gets angry towards fizz because if he decided to go bad, fizz would have nothing. That’s the reality of power dynamic relationships.

Nobody to this day has cohesively proved striker wrong btw.

#helluva boss critical #royalty and classism

[ottiliere]

oh my goodness your dios.. what a delight to see someone so fully invested in phantom blood dio wow. i am very happy. i love your 3D dios. really makes me want to sculpt him as well

Do it... clay is cheap bake it in the oven paint with 10 dollar set of acrylics your life will never be better. I adore phantom blood Dio so very much... years ago saw someone coin the term “phantom blood purist” and it's so funny I think about it literally every time I enter a Dio cycle. There are many aspects that go into this preference of course, and upon a great amount of time pondering i can say confidently that this is because mainly that:

1) I love history (especially the fin de siècle) and I love thinking about him in relation to Victorian values/etiquette/sociology in general... there's something so special about a society that enabled such a gross disparity of wealth&poverty while being so inherently pretentious that its asinine etiquette rules would completely elude you unless you were raised in an aristocratic family or had access to etiquette books. Dio absolutely read a great amount of these before going to the Joestar mansion btw, even before his father snuffed it I think. God help him he would not be doomed to look like a slovenly ill-bred gamin if and when he needed to manipulate the upper classes. I really can't think of a way for him to have developed these skills enough to outclass Jonathan otherwise. god and like thinking about him as a barrister too with his profligate fashion sense you just KNOW he gets drawn that way into all of the court sketches that go in all the newspapers since everyone loved to read about crime and there were a million papers for this in England alone... he'd get caricatured so bad sometimes and he is NOT happy about this.

2) You can probably tell from my indifference to the rest of the parts (except sbr; I call this the "diego rule") that I'm not the biggest fan of fantastical elements and I'm much more interested in interpersonal conflict/relationships in general... PB is extremely unique to the rest of the series because for five WHOLE chapters absolutely nothing abnormal happens and we just get to see Dio harassing Jonathan and his girlfriend until Jonathan snaps and humiliates him so bad in beating him up that he makes Dio cry. and then Dio kills his dog. Like it's literally just some impoverished child abuse victim bullying a spoiled rich kid who wanted to be his friend because lalala sunshine daisies only knows what "poverty" is from reading Oliver Twist and has no conceptual understanding of what the real-world implications of that are. That was the character development that needed multiple chapters to develop it's so fucking awesome. like yeah I'd read an entire novel of just this alone happening and how it impacts their relationship as adults no vampirism needed. I reread "dio the invader" so frequently I'm surprised the spine of my jojonium copy isn't cracked at the exact endpoint of it. I just adore him interacting with Jonathan so much it's hard to remove him from that… that's his FOIL... all the stories (some "AUs") I make with Dio involve the way he and Jonathan gravitate each other to some degree. we get the clearest view of who he is in the face of someone who is the polar opposite of himself. 🤯

2) This iteration of him is the closest degree of separation he has from his "humanity" (childhood), thus

3) I find him to be the most interesting, endearing, etc., version of him walking around, given that... well. behaviors stem from somewhere... the thematic & active severance of himself from a species he is fundamentally incapable of connecting with due to the way he adapted to help him tolerate his childhood... from his point of view I can't imagine that there is one convincing reason for him to continue being human after given the opportunity to deviate from it (despite likely still being inebriated when he vamped himself — very much an impulsive decision since he had, what, an hour or two to think that through? drunk?). If everyone's underneath him, yes, after the fact the choice seems extremely fitting. Maybe he'll cultivate a vast swathe of worshippers and disciples that obey his every command. Maybe he'll rule the world. And then, maybe, he will start to feel genuinely content for the first time in his life. But probably not. That's the drawback of having something fundamentally missing from within you.

4) He lacks a certain type of introspective awareness that 100 years alone in a box might enable him to develop... he's very animalistic to me and possesses a precarious/immature/nonexistent grasp on his emotions just given the fact that he exhibits enraged outbursts from perceived ego wounds (in both childhood and adulthood) + struggles with alcoholism due to an incapacity to self-soothe any sort of negative emotion that makes it past the self-aggrandizing filter he can't help but see life through; he really isn't in conscious control of anything happening inside of him despite needing control over everything and everyone so he can get exactly what he wants, and deserves, always. PB paints a very dim and pathetic view of his character by allowing us to see when he's most "vulnerable", which is the thing he likely hates being the most, so getting to see scenes where he's walking around publicly intoxicated and disparaging himself for acting like his father (implied: again), who he hates, and attacking men with a wine bottle for evoking the concept of his mother, who he also kind of hates but lacks the cognizant cogency to dissolve whatever cognitive dissonance is causing this mental incongruence, rules. he rules

tl;dr SDC dio is "iconic" but I feel like he misses a lot of the charm he had in part one, removed from the context of the society that had such rigid social boundaries and rules of decorum, in addition to his maladaptive approach to interpersonal relationships, his substance abuse issues, his humbling foil... he's too "cool" for me. In the end SDC dio is simply not my Dio... he is someone else's Dio. And that's okay.

#lucy art #dio brando #ask #jjba #I've said this elsewhere but somewhere out there exists my dio-obsessed doppelganger who only likes him in parts 3/6 and dislikes PB dio + #how he looks in the first part too and if we ever made physical contact the universe would implode like matter on antimatter #though I haven't actually read sdc in many years. which may be part of the problem. but also... I don't need it... jonathan isn't there...! #I did however reread the ending the other day and I forgot that jotaro gives him brain damage so bad he couldn't walk. I almost cried #soooo cute... I wish something similar happened when he was shot in the head before being burned alive #well no I don't because the narrative point was to showcase wow oohhh wow vampire powers wowwww and it worked very well #but araki retconned this in the best way possible so basically life is perfect #(acting really approachable as I dip my toe into a fandom of something I've cherished for years) have you considered dio getting more TBIs?

[basicsofislam]

BASICS OF ISLAM: Fasting: On the Month of Ramadan.Part2

Third Point

One of the many instances of wisdom in fasting from the point of view of man’s social life is as follows:

Human beings have been created differently with regard to their livelihoods. In consequence of this, God Almighty invites the rich to assist the poor, so that through the hunger experienced in fasting, they can truly understand the pains and hunger which the poor suffer. If there were no fasting, many self-indulgent rich would be unable to perceive just how grievous are hunger and poverty and how needy of compassion are those who suffer them.

Compassion for one’s fellow men is an essential part of true thankfulness.

Whoever a person is, there will always be someone poorer than himself in some respect. He is enjoined to be compassionate towards such a person. If he were not himself compelled to suffer hunger, he would be unable give the person – through compassion – the help and assistance he is obliged to offer. And even if he were able, it would be deficient, for he would not have truly experienced hunger himself.

Truly experience hunger yourself.

Become more compassionate towards others.

Fourth Point

One instance of wisdom in fasting in Ramadan with respect to training the instinctual soul is as follows:

The instinctual soul wants to be free and independent, and considers itself to be thus. According to the dictates of its nature, it even desires an imaginary dominicality and to act as it pleases. It does not want to admit that it is being sustained and trained through innumerable bounties. Especially if it possesses worldly wealth and power, and if heedlessness also encourages it, it will devour God’s bounties like a usurping, thieving animal.

Thus, in the month of Ramadan, the instinctual soul of everyone, from the richest to the poorest, may understand that it does not own itself but is totally owned; that it is not free, but is a slave.

It understands that if it receives no command, it may not do the simplest and easiest thing; it cannot even stretch out its hand for water. Its imaginary dominicality is therefore shattered; it performs its worship and begins to offer thanks, its true duty.

Train your soul.

Offer worship and thanks.

Fifth Point

One of the many instances of wisdom in fasting in Ramadan from the point of view of improving the conduct of the instinctual soul and giving up its rebellious habits is as follows:

Due to its heedlessness the human soul forgets itself; it cannot see its utter powerlessness, want, and deficiency and it does not wish to see them. It does not think of just how weak it is, and how subject to transience and to disasters, nor of the fact that it consists merely of flesh and bones, which quickly decay and fall apart.

Simply, it assaults the world as though it possessed a body made of steel and imagined itself to be undying and eternal. It hurls itself on the world with intense greed and voracity, and passionate attachment and love. It is captivated by anything that gives it pleasure or that profits it. Moreover, it forgets its Creator, who sustains it with perfect compassion, and does not think of the consequences of its life and its life in the hereafter. Indeed, it wallows in dissipation and misconduct.

However, fasting in the month of Ramadan awakens even the most heedless and obstinate to their weakness, impotence, and want.

Hunger makes them think of their stomachs and they understand the need therein. They realize how unsound are their weak bodies, and perceive how needy they are for kindness and compassion. So they abandon the soul’s pharaoh-like despotism and recognizing their utter impotence and want, perceive a desire to take refuge at the divine court. They prepare themselves to knock at the door of mercy with the hands of thankfulness – so long as heedlessness has not destroyed their hearts, that is.

Recognize your utter impotence.

Knock at the door of mercy with the hands of thankfulness.

#Allah #guide #islam #quran #muslim #revert #revert islam #convert #convert islam #converthelp #revert help #reverthelp #revert help team #help #islam help #salah #due #prayer #pray #reminder #religion #mohammad #muslimah #hijab #new muslim #new revert #new convert #how to convert to islam #convert to islam #welcome to islam

[cassianus]

"Some think that to enjoy good health is a source of pleasure. But it is not so. For many who have good health have a thousand times wished themselves dead, not being able to bear the insults inflicted upon them....For although we were to become kings and live royally, we should find ourselves compassed about with many troubles and sadnesses....By necessity kings have as many sadnesses as there are waves on the ocean. So, if monarchy is unable to make a life free from grief, then what else could possibly achieve this? Nothing, indeed, in this life" (Homily I8, On the Statues).

Many “claim" health in the "Name of Christ." They regard health as something to which the Christian is naturally entitled. From their point of view, illness betrays a lack of faith. This is the exact opposite of the orthodox teaching as illustrated by the life of the Righteous Job in the Old Testament. St. John Chrysostom says that the saints serve God not because they expect any kind of reward, either spiritual or material, but simply because they love Him: "for the saints know that the greatest reward of all is to be able to love and serve God." Thus, "God, wishing to show that it was not for reward that His saints serve Him, stripped Job of all his wealth, gave him over to poverty, and permitted him to fall into terrible diseases." And Job, who was not living for any reward in this life, still remained faithful to God (Homily I, On the Statues).

Just as healthy people are not without sin, so too, God sometimes allows truly righteous ones to suffer, "as a model for the weak" (St. Basil the Great, The Long Rules). For, as St. John Cassian teaches, "a man is more thoroughly instructed and formed by the example of another" (Institutes).

[isfjwallflower]

~more FILLED WITH SPOILERS good omens s2 thoughts~

i am an ex-christian, i really resonated with crowley’s stance. during s2, much like s1, we got a glance into crowley and aziraphale’s adventures of the past.

during these moments, aziraphale wrestles with the concept of good and evil. heaven lets the demons destroy everything job has. in our victorian episode, aziraphale thinks that elspeth digging up bodies is wrong, only to find out that the income from the bodies would go toward elspeth and wee morag’s survival on the streets. then he learns that these bodies would contribute to the study of anatomy and end up saving lives. aziraphale is clouded by ignorance toward human suffering and poverty.

crowley, on the other hand, makes three important comments on this score. he questions whether poverty gives people more “room” to become good as aziraphale argues on their way to mr dalrymple. he also comments that the rich put tripwire-activated guns and alarms for their graves but that the poor cannot afford them. last of all, crowley instructs aziraphale to give elspeth the NINETY gineas he has on his person so elspeth can make herself a life she thinks is worth living.

With this, crowley seems to have better class consciousness than aziraphale. aziraphale stops by people who are suffering and does a few miracles without sticking around to see if the “good” he has done lasts in the long term or is actually the right thing to do. crowley, on the other hand, understands the impact his actions have on people.

back to what i was saying about my experience as an ex-christian, i am reminded of the seemingly oblivious christian churches that send people out on short-term “mission trips,” which provide little help to communities suffering under poverty. it also reminds me of christians who, despite everything the bible says about helping people in need, have ridiculous amounts of money that they hoard instead of giving it away to people in their communities who suffer with food insecurity, homelessness, etc. he is unaware of his own wealth because he has so much of it, and as an angel, can miracle things into existence without needing to give his time or work into earning to pay for his survival. the rest of heaven seems to think this way as well, which is shown by their not knowing how babies are produced, etc. hell, on the other hand, is comically “evil,” and is more like a poorly functioning office space.

at the end of s2, aziraphale and crowley finally come head-to-head. crowley confesses his feelings for aziraphale, but aziraphale takes the opportunity to replace gabriel. crowley’s thoughts are like mine: how can aziraphale side with heaven again after watching them cause so much pain? how can he, after seeing countless examples of complex moral questions, say that heaven is the “good guys” and hell is the “bad guys.”

but then again, as I was raised in a tight-knit, “don’t talk with or trust anyone who believes different” christian community, i also understand aziraphale. after everything he’s seen, he has been convinced that questioning is wrong, and he knows crowley fell because of it. the general thought i was taught growing up kept me isolated and made me excuse many behaviors, because, after all, we don’t know “god’s ways” and “everything happens for a reason.”

i’ve seen people on the internet with different views like people wanting aziraphale to “fix” heaven so crowley and aziraphale can be there together. but as a former christian, what i know is that stubbornness is written into the christian psyche and that people will refuse to change their minds, no matter what they’ve seen or what they’re told.

#good omens #neil gaiman #go s2 spoilers

[gayleviticus]

not doing a 'ed and al failed when they tried to perform human transmutation. but did you know there's an even more powerful alchemist out there who managed to resurrect himself from the dead?' youth pastor moment here but something ive been thinking abt re fullmetal alchemist 2003 is the biblical Book of Job. (ofc cw christianity/religion)

There's a common thread throughout the Bible that views disaster and misfortune as a punishment for sin - the plagues sent upon Egypt; the plague sent upon Israel because of King David's error; and most significantly, the extremely traumatic exile and captivity of Israel, God's chosen people, because they oppressed the poor and engaged in idolatry. We also see more generally in Deuteronomy blessings promised for keeping God's Law and curses threatened for breaking it, and lots of Proverbs speaks about the ruin that inevitable comes to the wicked and foolish. And of course, in the Christian New Testament, Revelation promises a judgment of the world and wickedness at the apocalypse.

This kind of viewpoint is probably something we associate fairly often w religion (and not just organised religion - new agey law of attraction type stuff is not a radically different concept). Goodness is rewarded, evil is punished. A kind of equivalent exchange concerned primarily with ethics rather than 'hard work' as such, but even then they're not that disconnected; we do, after all, view diligence as a virtue and laziness as a vice.

Now, I don't think this is an inherently 100% wrong notion. The idea that goodness should be rewarded and evil punished is a sympathetic one, and to a certain extent it's true; often being an asshole ends up alienating everyone and making them hate you, and arguably on a mass-scale we see the self-devouring consequences of evil in the way ruthless oppressive capitalism is destroying the world through climate change.

But if we take this notion of divine judgment or karma or equivalent exchange as absolute… well, we end up with some extremely nasty ideas. AIDS was God's punishment on sinful homosexuals, or cancer is a consequence of not praying/believing/thinking positive thoughts enough. Poor people deserve their poverty because they didn't work hard enough and the rich deserve their wealth to do with as they please because it's a divine blessing. If we believe in a rigid one to one correlation between action and consequence then we can't avoid the unfortunate conclusion that victims of war and murder and genocide actually had it coming to them for their sins.

fortunately the Bible isn't absolute on the topic. It has voices that offer a more nuanced, alternative take. One of the most obvious is Jesus, literally God who was executed as a common criminal. Did he deserve to die? Was it a punishment for his sins? No, of course not. So if God himself can get brutally murdered by the state's 'justice' that puts a huge hole in a nice, straightforward theory of 'bad things only happen to bad people'.

But another big example is the Book of Job, which is essentially just the story of Job, a very upstanding guy who loses everything - children, property, his health. And so naturally, when his friends come to visit to comfort him, they assume, of course, that this is some kind of punishment for his sins and that he needs to ask God for forgiveness. Job is adamant he's done nothing wrong, but his friends continue to insist that these things happen for a reason.

Eventually God himself appears, and Job demands an answer - which God refuses, instead displaying his tremendous, terrifying power to argue Job as a mere mortal has no right to argue with him. But crucially, in the end, God states that only Job - who maintained his own righteoussness, and rejected the logic of suffering as punishment, all while refusing to curse God - spoke rightly of him, not his friends. In the end Job is given no clear-cut answer to why he has suffered so, but he is restored to full health and prosperity, and his innocence is vindicated.

so i guess to me fma 03 feels like a similar kind of take to Job, cutting against the grain. It goes into the depths of misfortune and suffering to question a naive, childish notion of equivalent exchange - but also, to find what's valuable in it and preserve it. Equivalent exchange as a way of rejecting reality - or as a pious fiction to constrain and capture the terrifying reality of God - is a lie, but the Elrics find value in it as a driving ethical ideal, and Job maintains that fundamentally the misfortune that has befallen him is not fair.

Neither work descends to cynicism either. Their conclusion is not that life is cruel and capricious and therefore meaningless, but I think actually the opposite; their rejection of absolute equivalent exchange is a compassionate move rejecting the cruel logic that people who suffer had it coming, while also arguing that tragedy doesn't have to mean despair. They're grim, perhaps, but not for the sake of revelling and indulging in it but because sometimes grimness is a necessary antidote to toxic positivity.

Ed and Job's friends also share a similar kind of spiritual sloth I think - a clinging to certain ideas because it makes the world a more palatable place, regardless of the implications or consequences. Ultimately there is comfort in facing the truth and understanding there is no magical defence against sickness and poverty and war and loss - but it can be terrifying too for those who would rather ignore it.

#fma 03 #fma 2003 #fma 03 meta #fma #cw religion #cw christianity #i feel like this is simultaneously really obvious and not worth talking about and also a really bizarre and weird stretch lol

[poorlittleyaoyao]

in which my tarot deck advocates killing Jin Guangshan

I view tarot cards as a fun thought-focusing activity rather than a tool for divination, so when I draw a set of cards that seems random, I look for patterns and try to figure out other situations or people it could apply to, be they real or imaginary.

So today I present to you the cards I drew last night, which thankfully have zero application to my own life but DO give a spot-on reading for Jin Guangyao!

The spread I used is the WTF Spread found here, and oh my god, once I got to the third card, I was CACKLING. Let’s go through it!

(tl;dr the cards say TIME FOR PATRICIDE)

“WHAT THE” (the challenge at hand): Six of Wands upright

The Six of Wands is about accomplishments, success, and recognition. To quote the book that accompanied my deck: “This card indicates that you have approached your goals with strength, perseverance, and focus, and that others are taking notice. [...] With achievement and praise comes the expectation of future greatness. Get ready to take things to the next level.” It’s important to note that Wands as a suit is about creativity, so cleverness/resourcefulness is core to this particular type of success.

A very positive card, but it’s in the “problem” position, which means that the expected recognition has not been forthcoming. For example, maybe your dad still treats you like garbage even though you've gone above and beyond in everything from event planning to war crimes. What else do the cards say?

“ACTUAL” (what is real about the situation?): Two of Swords upright

The Two of Swords warns against avoidance or denial of difficult truths--hence the blindfold over the falcon’s eyes. Swords as a suit is about logic and decisiveness, so this card urges you to look at things objectively and take action. “Many major decisions involve pain, sacrifice, or sadness,” says the book. “Now is not the time to be emotional about your choices.“

JGY understands this--he says as much to NMJ in their final confrontation on the stairs--but he’s still clinging to the hope that JGS will accept him if he shows enough filial piety. Has literally any of that panned out, buddy? The cards say it’s time to face facts.

“FUCK” (what is not real about the situation?): Four of Pentacles reversed

The Four of Pentacles is about materialism--you’ve accumulated wealth, but you’ve alienated yourself from community and interpersonal connection. (So, you know, typical Jin behavior.) When reversed, it implies greed or a debilitating fear of losing wealth or material security. “Learn to set aside the fear, anxiety, and greed, and see wealth as just one facet of a healthy life,” the book advises.

Easier said than done if you grew up in poverty and have a chip on your shoulder! But this card is in the “what’s NOT true” position, reminding JGY that his situation is not as precarious as it was when he was Meng Yao. Maybe JGS is more of a threat than a safeguard.

“?” (where do I need more information?): Six of Cups reversed

Cups cards are about emotions, and the Six of Cups is generally a positive card about happy memories and childhood nostalgia. When it’s reversed, however... “You are clinging to your ideas or identity from the past or there are issues from your past from which you have not moved forward. Use your past as the guide to your future, but focus on the present and laying your foundations for the future.”

GOSH GOLLY, I WONDER HOW THIS COULD POSSIBLY RELATE TO JIN GUANGYAO!

The “more information” sought in this case would be, what course of action would best allow him to avenge honor his mother? It sure would be handy if JGS candidly stated his opinion of Meng Shi where JGY could hear it!

“!” (what can I do?): Knight of Pentacles reversed

Pentacles as a suit isn’t just about wealth; it’s about security. The Knight of Pentacles embodies responsibility and an affectionate sort of sturdiness. “The archetype represented by this knight is the dependable, strong, male protector and provider.” Reversed, it can mean that something--or someone, since court cards are often understood to represent people in your life--is not as dependable as you thought.

JGY had a Knight of Pentacles in NMJ until he didn’t. He had a Knight of Pentacles (but make it EVIL!) in WRH, but that was meant to be temporary. He wanted and expected his father to be the all-time Knight of Pentacles, but JGS never was and never will be. JGY is 2 for 3 on murdering failed Knights of Pentacles. This card says that it’s time to go for 100%.

#new 'Huaisang saves the day by getting JGY to kill his dad sooner' concept: he keeps rigging the shit out of tarot readings #'san-geeeeee let me read for youuuu it's my new hobby!' #'wow I can't believe we got Seven of Swords reversed AGAIN! that's soooo wacky!' #'and the Hierophant reversed too! haha sooooo random! but hey as long as we're here' #'is there a hierarchy you're part of that's oppressing you in some way and maybe you should do some sneaky shit against it?' #'let's draw another card for clarity just for funsies... oh! King of Pentacles reversed!' #'hmmmmm san-ge do you know any rancid narcissists who are shady af and think money gives them absolute power?' #niche textpost content

[poxinox]

Of Cults and Nald’thal

cw mentions of blood

Okay, so you’re writing about a hedonistic sex cult. Why Nald’thal?

My views and research into the Twelve compounded with what we have seen and know of them already in game drew me to them. A twin god of commerce and death is bound to delve into matters of materialism and possibly hedonism. Even within the XIV universe (or any fantasy universe for that matter.), people are going to have vastly different interpretations of deities. There is no wrong or right way for a character to view a god. It’s a great way to build & define a character anyway, it’s just an extension of their worldviews. Sometimes I’m just driven by the ‘aesthetic’ and visuals. The relation to the thaumaturges guild, centralized worship in Ul’dah and so on also help build and inspire my personal lore. My OC is a black mage IC, she was born and raised in and around Ul’dah. I wanted to develop an Elezen away from Gridinia and Ishgard lore.

Their Nald’thal worship is connected to many aspects of their life. Nald’thal’s temple the refuge that pulled her off the streets as an orphan.  Their study of black magic and the guild. Ul’dah being a concentrated place for the mercantile trade, helping them develop into being quite a ruthless businessperson. Also, Nald’thal being a twin god is an allegory that relates to my OC’s own twin brother. (I won’t be extrapolating on that further at this time.)

Okay so what did they do?

My OC’s group was not a deeply organized sect of Nald’thal worship. On the surface one could view it as just an excuse to indulge in hedonistic pleasures under the guise of piety. Which was not an uncommon sentiment among those who got wind of the group. They mostly operated at night, much of their activities secret and inclusion into the group often required being directly acquainted with my OC, and what tales of what happened behind closed doors was often filled claims of immense debauchery and revelry.

Not exactly wrong either. My OC is written to be very sexually open; she views sex as a skillset, an extension of a love language, another form of communication versus a mere act of procreation or sating desire.  You can think of what would go on like a BDSM dungeon mixed a myriad of indulging in other vices. Sex is a form of escapism, but it is also a practice that builds character and encourages self-discovery. Our bodies all tick and react in different ways. A haven of exploring sexuality. All while indulging in hedonistic and material pleasure, claimed to be the fruits of Nald’thal. Being blessed with riches was his gift to his devotees.

There were no specific rites to be performed, many simply encouraged to deliver their personal prayers before the evening began. Though an offering to help fund the group’s activities was often expected. Obviously, vitriol and blasphemy (denying his existence/influence on the world etc.) towards the twin god were never welcomed and very quick way to be excommunicated. This was also a way to keep out people just looking to indulge on the group’s activities without any meaningful contribution. Sometimes an orgy would happen. Other times it would be a relaxing quiet evening among like minded people. Others would find their partner(s) for the evening and find a private spot to spend the night. Personal rituals and ceremonies were developed amongst each other. Some examples: Imbibing wine infused with a drop of another devotee’s blood (willingly given). A scale my OC maintained with various items and liquids, often allegories between life and death, material wealth and the spirit etc.

Who were they?

There is much to explore and expand on here regarding the interpersonal relationships of those involved in the sect. Some of them did come from the upper class of Ul’dah society, but my OC being someone who rose from up deep poverty was open to allowing members from all walks of life into the group. She didn’t tolerate snobbery or that arrogant air the upper crust of society often carried with it. Her main concern was those she was able to trust and not disrupt the group’s activities. While their operations weren’t illegal, moral panic was plenty powerful enough to take down any group, so my OC was immensely careful about who she let in. My OC is a very romantic person, but she is not carried away by the concept of pure monogamy, hence she was always very open and did not view sex as something to only be kept between her and one partner exclusively. So much of those people she let in were often those she had a somewhat romantic relation with or simply were close friends with benefits. Hey, isn't this just repackaged Dionysus/Bacchus worship? Maybe? I will probably return to this thread with updates as I get more specific lore bits and timelines finalized but this is the majority of what I have for this concept.

#final fantasy xiv #xiv #18+ content #ffxiv #nald'thal #worldbuilding #final fantasy #ff14 #elezen

[cheesecake-beech]

Question: it seems the alot of the Despicable Me villains were influenced to become villains due to a negative childhood/past. Gru was basically neglected by him mom, Balthazars show was canceled, Scarlet was possibly living in poverty and had a neglectful family (atleast from her point of view), and let's face it, Vector possibly became a villain mainly cause it was the family buissness and he wanted to live up to his dad's expectations. Granted, there are probably many who became villains cause 'why the fuck not?', like El Macho, (Honestly, if being a villain was a straight up career path, I would TOTALLY be taking that opportunity), but still. Do you think atleast some of the Vicious 6 had traumatic or negative pasts that pushed them to want to become villains? And while we're on the topic, what was your ocs influences to become villains?

UHHHHH KINDA LONG POST SO UH UNDER THE CUT

I Think w some of the vicious 6 it could be both, something might've happened and it could also be a "lol fuck you" to society and to get what they want. To show that they're powerful, Like with Jean I noticed he's obviously somewhat anxious at times, when not out of the field, fidgeting and nail biting which are signs of anxiety, his voice cracks. It could just be he's scared of Belle. Maybe he had developed anxiety after smthing or someone then he developed tech to destroy it and now he's just spooked of Belle lmfao idk 🤷🏽‍♀️🤷🏽‍♀️

Wild Knuckles has probably been thru shit cuz, he old. And god damn how is he not dead this dude immortal like tf. And thats why he brought these dudes together to show that they're BETTER AND MORE SLAY 💅🏽✨✨✨ I'd say these guys probably shared a few things and thats why he was so 🥺 when they just kicked him to the curb

Nunchuck...idefk🧍🏽almost sent to hell then was like "I lived bitch" then became stronger than god :^)

Anyways my ocs? 😩😩😩

Alan Became a villain to make a face for himself, To feel some sense of worth for himself. (before also using his power to shut down brand competitors, did THAT out of petty honestly 🤪) Elliot Became a villain out of rage

and Valerie became a villain because of hatred, she so said fuck it and went with her homies to cause CHAOS.

Alan I'm thinking probably came from a family, of average wealth, his father was probably the money maker and a douche, pretty snarky about it. And I imagine Alan had a difficult time actually getting a job and because of that was probably kicked to the curb all because his dad wanted someone who could make them look good 🧍🏽So they kicked him out. Burned all his stuff. Told him he had no son, unless he made himself a bigger person, a face in this world, then MAYBE he'd let him back into their life. He's very lonely and was probably lost for some while until he found Elliot, which eventually lead them to Valerie. He holds a lot of self loathing, a lot of misery, he just wants to feel something other than hatred and loneliness so he bathes in money.

Valerie was expected to be her mommies and aunts perfect image, to be exactly like them, like some braindead zombie djhfkjdsfhd and she was for years, but every time she stepped out of line she got SOME kind of punishment, and would have to redeem herself in someway, but after just being done with that bullshit she tried to just, y'know walk out. But instead she just got the fking yells n hands pulled out on her. She really tried to save her image she had on them 🤷🏽‍♀️ BUT THEN THAT BITCH RAN. She knows how to run in heels because she slays 💅🏽✨

She holds a lot of resentment, but blowing shit up makes her feel better 🤪🤪🤪

And Elliot, became a villain out of hatred towards literally everyone ✨🕺🏽✨ except his family, this lil dude loved his family with all his big heart 🥺 Wasn't really always a villain, more like an anti-hero? At first? He would fight other crime and even random people for a bounty to bring home to his family, but ig he killed someone he shouldn't have bc one night when he came home and he found his family had been offed. he was just absolutely terrified. Then he was absolutely furious. THATS when he became a full on villain, to take his rage out on absolutely everything. He even built robot droids he calls his babies lol

But one day he stopped after he realizes, maybe this isn't a good way to let out his frustration 🧍🏽(there's more than that tho)

#cheesecake talks #ask box #long post #alan/sizzle #elliot/blaze #valerie/smoke bomb

[vincentcheungteam]

Faithful in Famine

~ 1 ~ "The LORD sends poverty and wealth; he humbles and he exalts." (1 Samuel 2:7)

The sovereignty of God is one of the first things that we should consider when we face lack, poverty, and famine. There are those who place little emphasis on God's sovereignty, and they think that our fascination with it is a matter of private preference. Indeed, some Christians are obsessed with this doctrine for illegitimate reasons. They have a view on the subject, and they do not like to be contradicted. They cannot state a cogent theological reason for making this their chief concern. They are obsessed with it, but they do not know what they are saying or what they are doing. In the same way, some people are obsessed with disputes about the sacraments, some about eschatology, some about covenants, and so on.

Those who accuse us of placing an inordinate amount of emphasis on God's sovereignty must not understand this doctrine very well. If they understood it, they would either forsake their faith in God, showing themselves to be reprobates, or they would rejoice in it with us, and proclaim and defend it with equal vehemence. On the other hand, their accusation of theological imbalance indeed applies to those who are always going on about God's sovereignty as if this is the only teaching in all of Scripture, and who cannot provide a sound reason as to why they give it such emphasis. They exalt the doctrine not because they understand its significance, but it is because they have identified themselves with it. It is a private obsession, and badge of their identity and tradition. They defend this Godcentered doctrine from the perspective of man-centered interests. Thus the danger of false piety is real, and we need to examine ourselves, to see if we truly understand this doctrine.

When we say that God is sovereign, the meaning is that God is king over all his creation. He created the world, he sustains it, and he continues to exercise control over it. It is not enough to say that he can control all of creation. This leaves room for the false doctrine, affirmed by most of the people who claim to believe in his absolute sovereignty, and even by those who call themselves Calvinists, and who supposedly give the doctrine its strongest and purest expression, that there are some things that he does not directly cause, but that he merely permits to occur. This is blasphemy at the deepest level.

We must rather say that God can and God does control all of creation. If God can control all of creation but does not, then it leaves room for billions upon billions of events to be decided and caused by influences other than himself, even if these are somehow controlled by being "permitted" – a strange and self-contradictory doctrine. No matter how hard this perspective is defended, we are left with a God who is in direct control only over the "big picture" of what happens in his creation. This God is different from the God of open theism only in degree. This is not the God of the Bible, but one that man has imagined to satisfy his own standard of what God should be and what he should not be.

The agenda is to distance God from being the direct cause of evil, and this is necessitated by the assumption that to cause evil in the metaphysical sense is to commit evil in the moral sense, a standard that is nowhere found in the Bible, and never successfully defended in the entire history of human thinking. So why has this standard been imposed on Almighty God? Is it not obvious? The underlying principle that forbids God to be the ruler over all things and the cause of all events is not reverence but self-worship. That is, if God must adhere to your standard in order to remain righteous, when he himself has declared no such standard, then in your thinking, he is not God, but you are. You are the one who sets the standard for him.

If we understand the doctrine, then when we say that God is sovereign, it is just another way of saying that God is God. And if he is not God over all, if he does not exercise direct causation over all things, all minds, and all events, then he is not God at all. Thus the idea of permission is only a hidden denial of actual and complete sovereignty, a denial of the true God. And this is why the doctrine of God's sovereignty ought to receive such emphasis.

God's sovereignty applies to things that are pleasant and things that are unpleasant to us. Our verse comes from Hannah's prayer. God had shut her womb, so that at first she bore no children. But she petitioned the Lord for a son, and vowed to offer him to serve the Lord all the days of his life. The Lord granted her request and opened her womb, whom she named Samuel. She brought the boy to Eli as she promised, and uttered this prayer from which our verse is taken. She realized that the Lord could shut up a woman's womb, so that she could not bear children, and afterward he could open it, so that she could bear children. Both are of the Lord.

She says in verse 6, "The LORD brings death and makes alive; he brings down to the grave and raises up." This is clear enough, but lest it eludes some people, let me paraphrase it. It means that God can kill you whenever he wants, and just as easily, he can make you alive again, and raise you from the dead. He can put you into the grave, and he can also bring you back out. He is the author and cause of both death and life. The same applies to poverty and wealth. God can make a person rich, and then take away all his wealth. And God can make a person poor, and afterward make him rich. He is the author and cause of both poverty and prosperity on all levels – the personal, the national, and the global.

This recognition should not lead to despair and grumbling, but to reverence, submission, and gratitude. This is because the exercise of God's sovereignty, whether pleasant or unpleasant to us at the time, is always for the good of his people. Consider the case of Hannah. She was barren, and berated and provoked by another woman because of it. In her plight she petitioned the Lord, who granted her a son. Born out of suffering and prayer, Samuel turned out to be one of the most faithful and powerful prophets in all of biblical history. He brought great honor to her mother, and great blessing to his nation, and also to us, who read about his words and deeds, and who benefit from his ministry to David, out of whom Christ was descended.

~ 2 ~ This is what the LORD Almighty says: "These people say, 'The time has not yet come for the LORD's house to be built.'" Then the word of the LORD came through the prophet Haggai: "Is it a time for you yourselves to be living in your paneled houses, while this house remains a ruin?"

Now this is what the LORD Almighty says: "Give careful thought to your ways. You have planted much, but have harvested little. You eat, but never have enough. You drink, but never have your fill. You put on clothes, but are not warm. You earn wages, only to put them in a purse with holes in it."

This is what the LORD Almighty says: "Give careful thought to your ways. Go up into the mountains and bring down timber and build the house, so that I may take pleasure in it and be honored," says the LORD.

"You expected much, but see, it turned out to be little. What you brought home, I blew away. Why?" declares the LORD Almighty. "Because of my house, which remains a ruin, while each of you is busy with his own house. Therefore, because of you the heavens have withheld their dew and the earth its crops. I called for a drought on the fields and the mountains, on the grain, the new wine, the oil and whatever the ground produces, on men and cattle, and on the labor of your hands." (Haggai 1:2-11)

God's people had returned to their land to rebuild the city. This included the reconstruction of the temple, but they were so busy building their own houses and setting their lives in order that the house of the Lord remained a ruin. They cared more about their individual comfort and stability than the honor of the Lord, who was even the glory of the nation. By the mouth of Haggai, the Lord rebuked the people for their neglect and their wrong focus.

It is true that God does not suffer lack, hunger, or discomfort. And he does not really live in any physical building. One can draw the conclusion, "We need our houses, but the temple can wait. The Lord has need of nothing." But consider God's attitude about the matter. He knew that he needed nothing. The people's neglect did not in any way injure his being. Yet he insisted that his people should give his temple the priority, and he defeated their efforts to restore their own lives while temple construction was postponed. He regarded his honor and his program more important than the comfort and prosperity of his people. Those who have the mind of Christ will also prioritize their lives according to this order.

Because they neglected the Lord, their efforts at improving their own lives were frustrated. This happened not because of some natural order of things, but God actively counteracted their efforts to attain stability and prosperity: "You have planted much, but have harvested little. You eat, but never have enough. You drink, but never have your fill. You put on clothes, but are not warm. You earn wages, only to put them in a purse with holes in it….You expected much, but see, it turned out to be little. What you brought home, I blew away." You may say, "God has no need of anything. He can wait." The Lord can indeed afford to wait, but can you afford to make him wait?

Most church members are freeloaders. They give very little money to the churches that they attend, and many do not give anything at all. This remark is not targeted at the poor, since some of them exhibit sacrifice and generosity that put others to shame. Jesus said that the widow who gave only "two very small copper coins, worth only a fraction of a penny" had put more into the treasury than all the others. He explained, "They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything – all she had to live on." Now, whatever the motive or context, two coins remain two coins, and usually cannot make a financial impact except through extraordinary providence of God, who calls those things which be not as though they were. But he, who understands the economic realities of men, nevertheless esteems faith and devotion more than dollars and cents.

For those people who contribute anything at all, church giving is one of the first things to be cut from the budget when financial difficulty arises, or when they are told that the economy is not well. This is because church giving is considered an unnecessary expense. They would scheme hard to maintain their standard of living. They strive to keep their cars and houses, to keep eating well, and if possible, to keep on having their vacations and other luxuries. Church giving ceases immediately to make room for these. Even their television sets are more valuable than their pastors and the church workers. What, are they to keep watching the games on their small screens? And of course their children's education, which would translate into careers and earnings, is top priority. Let the pastors' children go hungry, and may the church crumble into dust, but no sacrifice is too great to provide a secular education for their own children.

A time of famine is also a time to reassess our priorities. For many people, it uncovers that their faith is a sham. When push comes to shove, they shove God right out of the door. Some things seem to be necessities. Some things are obviously luxuries. And some things seem good in themselves. But there is no excuse for putting anything before the Lord and his work on the earth. In a time of famine, the temptation of self-indulgence persists, and the instinct of self-preservation is aggravated. But only non-Christians are swept away by the lusts of the flesh and the instincts of beasts. As Christians, God has infused life into our souls, and we have been awakened to the realities of heaven and the powers of the world to come. Thus we are well able to overcome forces that hold unbelievers captive.

Where your treasure is, there is your heart also. You confess your faith by your words, but you also demonstrate your true priorities by your actions. You are either vindicated or condemned by them. If you confess the Lord, but contribute nothing to his cause, or if you cut him off whenever your own welfare is threatened, then this betrays that your allegiance belongs to someone or something else. At the very least, it shows that your faith is weak, and that you trust in the method and system of man rather than the providence of God. You profess that he is able to provide, but by your works you deny it. You profess that the Lord is above all, and that he is the love of your life, and that your utmost desire is for his name to be honored among the nations. But when resources are scarce, suddenly your priorities become clear, and the Lord might not even make the list.

What are you to do? Do not stop giving to your church. And if you have not been giving as you should, now is the time to begin. You may plan, save, organize, and rearrange your finances, but whatever you do, you must support the work of the Lord with your money, and you must do it consistently. At a time when the Lord's people forsake him to appease Mammon, you can give voice to the Lord's remnant by your giving and by your testimony. Resist the temptation of self-indulgence. Control the animal instinct of self-preservation. Walk in the spirit, and act from your higher nature. Establish your faith by reading the Scripture and thinking on its promises. Pray for God to strengthen your inner man with might by his Spirit. Stir up the gift that is within you. Then go encourage your brothers.

You can also support your church in other ways, by offering your time and labor. The church needs money to pay its expenses and salaries, and to continue and expand its projects and outreaches. But it also needs personal participation. Ask your church leaders what you can do for the church, then accept your assignments without protest, and carry out your work with joy, as if you are doing it for the Lord, for indeed that is the case. In this way, you will help encourage morale, and your volunteer work will also lower the expenses for the church.

~ 3 ~ "My covenant was with him, a covenant of life and peace, and I gave them to him; this called for reverence and he revered me and stood in awe of my name. True instruction was in his mouth and nothing false was found on his lips. He walked with me in peace and uprightness, and turned many from sin.

"For the lips of a priest ought to preserve knowledge, and from his mouth men should seek instruction – because he is the messenger of the LORD Almighty. But you have turned from the way and by your teaching have caused many to stumble; you have violated the covenant with Levi," says the LORD Almighty. (Malachi 2:5-8)

Even when the economy is poor, we must continue to support our churches and other organizations that promote the cause of Christ. This leads to the question of which churches we ought to support, or whether all churches deserve our support. Based on my own judgment, and on testimonies from brothers around the world, it would seem that it is no exaggeration to say that most churches should die. The world would be a better place, it would seem, if nine out of ten churches would perish today, and there are those who consider my estimate too charitable.

However, since there is no actual tabulation, let us say "many" instead of "most." That is, the cause of the Lord Jesus and the welfare of his people would be better served if many churches would perish. This is, of course, a statement about appearance, since the Lord himself controls and sustains all things, and designs the exact proportion of good and evil to advance his own plan. Thus it is a statement made relative to his precepts and not his decrees. His precepts are what we should consult to guide our daily thinking and behavior.

When resources are scarce, good churches suffer as well as bad churches. Even if you are unaffected by dismal economic conditions, many other people are affected, and whether due to their actual inability or to their fearful and selfish attitude, this translates into a withdrawal of support, and thus financial problems for churches. So it is more important than ever for you to withdraw support from churches that are indeed unfaithful and ineffective, and to redirect it to churches that are fulfilling the Christian mission.

Now is the time to decide if the church that you attend is a good church, and if it deserves the support that you give to it. Of course, it should go without saying that no church is perfect, and you will almost always find something to complain about. If your complaints are petty and personal, then the problem is with you and not the church. You are the one who needs to repent and change. But if the church compromises the gospel of Jesus Christ, or fails to live up to what is required of it in significant ways, and especially if it is confronted with this and fails to repent, then this is a church that deserves to die, and you should consider withdrawing support from it and join yourself to one that truly honors the Lord.

Our passage tells us what God requires from spiritual leaders, and thus from the church, since the church consists of people. They must revere God and stand in awe of his name. This alone might disqualify all of the leaders in your church. True instruction must be in their mouths – they must teach sound doctrines. And "nothing false" must be found on their lips. This is said in contrast to "true instruction," so that it refers to false doctrines or heresies. Thus spiritual leaders must teach sound doctrines, and no false doctrines. This disqualifies not only heretics, but also those who teach nothing at all, or who are not diligent in the ministry of teaching, since it is said that "true instruction" must be found in their mouths.

God commands every person in every place to repent and to believe in Jesus Christ. He requires all men and women to become Christians, and then to grow as Christians, and to serve and worship as Christians. Those whom he has chosen for salvation will obey this command, but those whom he has actively chosen and created for damnation will reject the gospel. It is written of Eli's sons, who sinned against the Lord, that they "did not listen to their father's rebuke, for it was the LORD's will to put them to death" (1 Samuel 2:25). In other words, the Lord does not forgive or punish because of men's response; rather, men embrace or reject the Lord Jesus because of God's foreordination, or God's predetermined plan concerning them. In any case, it is the church's mission to declare the doctrines of the Christian faith to every person and in every place, and then to shepherd and educate those that God adds to the church.

If any church or ministry does not make specific and explicit effort at pursuing this purpose, then it is nothing more than a show of godliness, if even that, and a camouflage for negligence and rebellion. There is no legitimate reason for its existence as a Christian organization. Unless the leadership and the people repent and wholeheartedly commit to the propagation and the establishment of the Christian faith, that church or ministry must die without mercy. It is a waste and a drain on the resources of God's people. It should perish without delay. Anyone who helps it survive shares in its sin, and also incurs the guilt of failing to support faithful churches and ministries.

A church that honors the Lord is one that teaches sound doctrines, and also applies and enforces them. God, by the mouth of Malachi, defines the qualities of a spiritual leader, even one who serves before him as priest. And he states that he is one who walks in peace and uprightness. A Christian minister must exhibit personal holiness and integrity. He must live up to the gospel that he preaches. Then, he must also apply and enforce it when it comes to other people's lives. In the words of our passage, a good minister of Jesus Christ is one who turns many from sin.

A minister who turns people from sin needs to do a number of things. He needs to explain the nature of God, that he is holy and righteous, and that he does not tolerate transgressions. He needs to talk about judgment and hellfire. He needs to talk about sin, and to tell people that they are sinners. Then he needs to talk about God's forgiveness, and that it is found only through faith in Jesus Christ. And if it is found only there, then it is not found anywhere else. Thus all non-Christians remain condemned, without forgiveness, for their many sins, and God will forever punish them in hellfire that cannot be quenched.

Again, to turn someone away from sin, you need to define sin. And sin can be defined only in relation to God and his commandments. Then, you need to explain the evil of sin, of transgressing the laws of God, and the consequences of sin, that of everlasting suffering in hell. Moreover, a true church must enforce what it teaches about sin. It must practice church discipline. This means that it must directly confront those who have sinned, and demand their repentance. If they refuse to repent, they must be expelled from the church. It is again crucial to define sin, so that the private preferences of the leaders are not enforced, but rather the holy precepts of God. Sin must be defined also because so that nothing will be missed. For example, to affirm and spread heresy, to adore images, and to use God's name in vain are sins just as much as murder and adultery.

If the above paragraph alone speaks more clearly and abundantly about sin than your church does over an entire year, if not longer, yours is not a Christian church, but a gathering of demons. You need to confront your church and call the leadership to repent, or you need to take your support to another church, which is not another, since yours is not a church in the first place. You must not support a church that refuses to turn people away from sin, since that should be one of its chief duties. This is not an insignificant difference of opinion – revolt or leave, but do not share in its guilt.

If your church is not founded on the perfection of the Bible, its inerrancy and infallibility, it should die. If your church denies the sovereignty of God, that God is God, it should die. If your church shuns the penal atonement of Christ, that he died a bloody death at the hands of the Jews to pay for the sins of his people, it should die. If your church shrinks from the doctrine of hell, a place that punishes all unbelievers with acute and extreme agony forever, it should die. If your church does not practice church discipline, calling out sinners for their sins, imploring, admonishing, rebuking, threatening them, and expelling those who refuse to repent, it should die.

And if your church endorses abominations like abortion, homosexuality, divorce and remarriage, and other such things, it should die. If your church holds yoga classes, palmistry workshops, and astrology seminars, it should die. Churches are called to fight these things, not to teach and applaud them. Churches are called to confront sinners, and to shame those who refuse to repent, and not to glorify them, or to make them into heroes. God's wrath is poured out upon all those who practice evil, and also on those who approve of these people.

These are only some of the necessary characteristics of a true church, and to fulfill them makes one nothing more than a minimally faithful congregation. It is a description of a normal church. It is how every church should begin and continue, and not some extraordinary spiritual height to be aspired to and attained after many years, if ever. Yes, most churches should probably die. Today. Let it not be your fault that they live one moment longer. Whether any given church survives is God's hands, but your duty is to support those that are good and oppose those that are evil.

Good churches suffer partly because bad churches thrive. Bad churches thrive because people are gullible and rebellious. And people are gullible and rebellious because most of them are not even Christians. They support leaders and churches that tell them what they wish to hear, so that they may appear to seek God, but still believe and behave the same as before. And they are able to get away with this because Christians have failed to declare God's inflexible standard with clarity and boldness.

What you sow, you will also reap. If you support unfaithful churches, they will grow stronger, and you will reap destruction. If you sow fear and compromise, sins and heresies will increase. But if you support faithful churches, those that preach, apply, and enforce the doctrines of Jesus Christ, and if you join them in doing these things, then the Christian faith will thrive and take root, and the harvest will be peace, righteousness, and prosperity.

~ 4 ~ Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. (James 1:2-4)

As Paul was writing his letter to the Philippians, he considered the prospect of death and said, "For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain" (Philippians 1:21). Whether a person thinks this way depends on who he is and what he values. He was a Christian, so that for him to live was to serve Christ, and to die was to be with Christ. Although he was eager to serve Christ by preaching the gospel and strengthening the church, he much preferred the death of the body, so that his soul might ascend to Christ. He was a Christian, so that he had a relationship with Christ. And he valued Christ, so that he desired the presence of his Lord above all else.

Surely this is the correct way to see things. When a Christian fails to think this way, it is because his mind has not yet been renewed. He needs to be taught, not just by men, but by the Lord. And he can be taught, because the life of God is in him. But a non-Christian cannot do it at all, because of who he is and what he values. He is a non-Christian, and so he has no peaceful relation with God, and rather than holding Christ in high esteem, he values the indulgence of the flesh, and other abominable desires and prospects.

The Christian perceives the value of suffering. Now, there is no value in suffering itself. Some people suffer and become bitter. Some people suffer and blaspheme God. Suffering is constructive only when it is dealt by God to a person in a loving manner, for the purpose of training and discipline. In other words, suffering is meaningless in itself, and it is destructive for the reprobates. On the other hand, suffering provides the occasion for Christians to consider their ways, to strengthen their faith, to rekindle their compassion, to renew their resolve to overcome all distractions and temptations, and to express their dependence on God by their worship and persistent petitions. It provides occasion for them to reevaluate their habits and their priorities, and to lay aside every weight that hinders them.

James writes that we should rejoice when we face different kinds of hardship, because the testing of our faith develops perseverance, which in turn is able to lead us to become mature and complete. This can apply only to Christians, because only Christians have faith to be tested in the first place. And only Christians will develop perseverance and other fruits of the Spirit when faith is tested. The students of Christ can rejoice when facing hardship because they want to develop perseverance; they want to become mature and complete. Who we are and what we value distinguish us, and enable us to face hardship with the right attitude and benefit from the suffering.

Job said regarding his ordeal, "When he has tested me, I will come forth as gold" (Job 23:10). This is appropriate in a time of famine, for gold is what people lack in the first place. Job was in a destitute condition, but he recognized a higher treasure. What a blessing it is to have our faith refined and purified. What a blessing it is to have our weaknesses exposed and removed. What a blessing it is to know where we stand with God, and that we stand with God. What a blessing it is to gain self-understanding, to perceive where we have deluded ourselves about the greatness of our faith, if we have indeed deluded ourselves, but also to obtain the assurance that there is a genuine foundation, that God has indeed performed a work in our hearts, so that even though we struggle, we endure, and become stronger because of it.

~ 5 ~ And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:19)

We are confident that Philippians 4:19 applies to us because we know the same God and the same Christ Jesus that the Philippians knew. We have a common faith, and therefore common promises and blessings. Thus it is only right that we are to find consolation and encouragement from it, and it has been used for just this purpose by countless believers as they faced financial hardship and various worries. However, as we embrace this verse as God's word to us in a time of famine, we should be aware that Paul mentions two things before this verse that provide context to his statement.

First, Paul indicates that he has attained the beautiful quality of contentment: "I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through him who gives me strength" (v. 11-13).

Verse 13 is taken out of context even more often than verse 19. When Paul says, "I can do everything through him who gives me strength," he is not talking about self-serving things such as professional exploits or something petty like athletic achievements. This is how many people use the verse. Of course, God can give you strength to achieve these things, but Paul refers to something much more precious. He is saying that, by the strength of Christ, he can remain content whether he is well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. In other words, he has learned to endure hunger and poverty, and to do this with an attitude of contentment. He has the power to suffer with grace and gratitude. Thus Paul writes verse 19 as a person who values the virtue of contentment and realizes the spiritual power it requires to remain in such a state of mind.

Second, the Philippians have repeatedly sent financial support to Paul: "Moreover, as you Philippians know, in the early days of your acquaintance with the gospel, when I set out from Macedonia, not one church shared with me in the matter of giving and receiving, except you only; for even when I was in Thessalonica, you sent me aid again and again when I was in need" (v. 15-16). Paul is writing to a group of Christians who faithfully supported him by sending him money "again and again."

Let these two points temper your sense of entitlement to verse 19. If you are a whiny and ungrateful weakling, you must learn to depend on God's strength to endure suffering, even hunger and poverty. If you are unable to suffer, you should probably not prosper. And if you only think about your own needs, and have no concern about the condition of your church or other ministries that publish the gospel, laying claim to verse 19 would be an act of presumption rather than of faith. These two items do not nullify the verse – it says what it says – but they remind us that it is written within a broader context of a vital Christian life, and life that is alive to God, a life in which God is at work to develop strength, contentment, and sacrifice.

There are two things to note regarding verse 19. It tells us that God will meet all our needs, but it also tells us about the basis and source of his provision.

The basis for God's supply is "Christ Jesus." God blesses us not because of any merit that we have on our own, but because of his sovereign love, so that he sent his Son Jesus Christ to secure for us an everlasting salvation. Paul wrote, "For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich" (2 Corinthians 8:9). Commentators suppose that the statement refers to spiritual wealth, that Jesus suffered the humiliation of his ministry on earth in order to obtain an inheritance for us. However, it would be a mistake to spiritualize the entire inheritance, as if God would grant us material provisions and blessings on a basis other than the work of Christ.

Rather, our inheritance includes the redemption of the body, and not just the soul. And even our present corruptible flesh has become the temple of the Holy Spirit. So the effect of redemption extends to the corporeal realm, and carries ramifications for the present. Jesus taught his disciples to ask for their "daily bread," and instructed them to request the forgiveness of sins in the same prayer. It would be senseless to suppose that forgiveness is granted to us because of Christ, while our daily bread, or material provision, is granted on some other basis. No, all blessings come to us on the basis of Jesus Christ, and we receive these from God because of our affiliation with our Lord. Jesus became poor, so that through his poverty we might become rich in every way.

This in turn provides a foundation for unshakable faith in God's provision. I have no confidence in myself, but I can have absolute confidence that God is pleased with his Son, Jesus Christ, and that he has regard for the work of redemption that he performed. To the extent that I think God favors the Lord Jesus, that is also the measure of my confidence in his provision for me, since that has been secured for all his people in the work of redemption.

Then, the source of God's supply is his "glorious riches." The state of the economy has nothing to do with it. God is neither helped nor hindered by the condition of the world, because he does not depend on it. Here is where faith or unbelief makes all the difference. How is the provision going to come? Will God rain money from above? Perhaps he will, but that is none of your concern. He did not supply for the Israelites out of an abundance of resources in the wilderness, for resources were scarce, which led to much grumbling and rebellion. Rather, he was able to provide because of his command over all of creation. And if the earth does not have what is needed, he can always make it.

Christians are accustomed to the idea that God works through ordinary providence, and indeed God works in such a manner. However, this does not mean that he is limited by a situation that he himself has created. That is, when the economy is poor, it is because God has willed and caused it. But this does not mean that he is now unable to provide for whom he wishes until he reverses the entire scenario.

An implicit deism has poisoned the thinking and the theology of so many believers that it is difficult for them to conceive of God's power as active and present. The doctrine of ordinary providence is an affirmation of God's active and present control over all things in a regular and consistent manner. It is not meant to be a cover for unbelief. Jesus said that God had never stopped working (John 5:17). God can and God does prosper his people regardless of the state of the economy. He will meet the needs of his people according to his glorious riches that is in Christ Jesus.

~ 6 ~ "For I have chosen him, so that he will direct his children and his household after him to keep the way of the LORD by doing what is right and just, so that the LORD will bring about for Abraham what he has promised him." (Genesis 18:19)

A time of crisis provides the head of the house a golden opportunity to teach his family about faith in God. This does not mean that day to day instructions are less important. Indeed, a man who consistently speaks well of the Lord, who faithfully passes on his doctrines, and who persists in obedience to his precepts exhibits beauty and strength that is bound to make a positive impression on the elect members of his family. Nevertheless, how he responds to a crisis situation provides a different kind of opportunity for him to honor the Lord in his word and deed.

There are those who appear pious for long periods. They are able to handle the pressure of time, and can persist in the same type of belief and behavior. But unless they can maintain the same trust in the Lord in a time of great hardship, all it means is that they are talented at being hypocrites for great lengths of time. Thus a worthy legacy of faith is one that has been tested not only by time, but also by the heat of urgent troubles.

Abraham instructed Isaac both by word and by example. Even as he brought Isaac before the alter to be offered to God as a burnt sacrifice, he told him, "God himself will provide." This foreshadowed God's provision of Jesus Christ as a sacrificial lamb to atone for the sins of his people. In any case, the entire experience, which was verbally interpreted by the Lord as he commended Abraham's obedience, must have impressed Isaac with the way that a man should and could place God above all else, even his most beloved son, in order to follow his commands and instructions.

It was an informed and intelligent trust. Abraham knew this God. He knew of his great wisdom, limitless power, and unbreakable promises, so that in order for this God to fulfill his promises, he would have had to raise Isaac from the ashes. Thus he marched toward the alter with Isaac, fully intending to offer him up, and fully expecting to receive him alive again, so that although the Lord stopped him at the last moment, the Scripture states that Abraham indeed symbolically received his son from the dead. In this sense, it made no difference that Isaac was not slain – to Abraham, he was as good as dead, and it was as if God raised him from the ashes and returned his son to him. How Abraham honored God with his faith! And what a gift it was to Isaac, who was able to learn that this kind of faith was right, beautiful, and possible.

Now it is our turn to show our families that we are the children of Abraham, and to honor God before them by an exposition and demonstration of intelligent faith. You have been telling your wife and children that God is faithful, that a man cannot serve both God and Mammon, that the progress of the gospel in this world is more important than our personal comfort, and that as Jesus said, life does not consist of the abundance of possessions. Do you believe any of it? Now is the time to show them.

There are many who say that they have strayed from the faith of their parents because of the hypocrisy that they saw in them. However, only stupid people stumble over the failures of others. Just because some people claim to be Christians but fail to live up to their profession of faith does nothing to show that the Christian faith is false or that Christ is unworthy of their allegiance. In fact, the Christian faith itself insists that there are many such hypocrites. Your children's faith should rest on divine revelation and not on human example, but this does not release you from the duty to honor God before them, and to be before them a picture of what it is like to be a godly man, full of faith, love, knowledge, patience, and all kinds of spiritual graces and virtues.

Some of what you impart to your children will occur naturally in casual conversations and daily events. Of course, examples in themselves teach nothing, but they must be explicitly interpreted. They serve as illustrations and reminders to verbal instructions. In any case, it is necessary to take a more deliberate approach to educate them in the faith. Hold a family meeting and explain the financial situation (or any kind of crisis) to your children in terms that they can understand. If you are afraid that this would traumatize them, let me assure you that your weakness and unbelief, and an overall pathetic attitude, are much more likely to traumatize them than a calm explanation of a problem followed by an exhortation to trust in God.

Then, tell them about the God who controls all of creation and who controls all things for the display of his glory and the good of his people. Pass on to them the promises of God, and the greater importance of faith and integrity over financial stability and career advancement. Follow through with consistent and relentless trust in the Lord, with frequent thanksgiving and petitions. Such a legacy of faith is worth much more than any financial inheritance that you can leave to your children, for whereas earthly riches pass away, in the legacy of faith is an everlasting salvation.

— Vincent Cheung, Sermonettes — Volume 1 (2010), p. 37-52.

[ericcooper153]

Breaking the Cycle of Poverty Through Generous Grace

Part 1: Understanding Financial Stewardship Financial stewardship is more than simply managing money. It involves recognizing that all our possessions, including wealth, are gifts from God and that we are accountable for how we use them. True financial stewardship requires us to use our resources wisely to honor God and help others. Throughout the Bible, we see examples of people who were…

View On WordPress

[lovetheusa]

The Planned Rise of Communism in USA

Cloward and Piven’s eight-point strategy

In the May 2, 1966 issue of The Nation, Richard Andrew Cloward and Frances Fox Piven, two sociology professors at Columbia University, introduced a plan to eliminate poverty by redistribution of wealth in an article entitled “The Weight of the Poor: A strategy to End Poverty.” They envisioned a political crisis that would take complete control of citizens through gradual implementation of Socialism leading to Communism.  

Consider how far we have come to implement their eight-point strategy in our country, state, and county in the following ways: 

Healthcare. Control a nation’s healthcare and you control the people. Obamacare, universal healthcare, single-payer healthcare, the Medicare for All Act: government agencies already control virtually all aspects of healthcare, even infringing on the doctor-patient relationship during the COVID treatment protocols. Single-payer healthcare would give the government control over all healthcare.

Poverty. Increase the level of poverty to reduce or eliminate the middle class since people with limited means are easier to control. Our Federal, state, and local governments continue to enact and enforce restrictions, regulations, fines, and laws that eliminate jobs and our Constitutional rights.

Debt. Increase the debt ceiling to unsustainable levels, then increase taxes to create more poverty.  The Federal debt has dramatically increased with the national debt now over $31 trillion; about 120 percent of our nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). That is over $94,000 per U.S. citizen. California state and local debt exceeds $1.6 trillion and adds another $40,000 to each person’s debt load according to the respected California Policy Center.    

Gun Control. Limit the ability of citizens to defend themselves from the government, creating a police state to control the populace. In California, each legislative session includes the introduction of progressively more drastic Second Amendment restrictions.

Welfare. Use government welfare to take control of every aspect of people’s lives: food, housing, and income. Since 1900 and until the 1960s, welfare was between 0.1 and 2 percent of GDP, and the 1966 introduction of the Cloward and Piven strategy increased it to 4%. If you were to view a graph of welfare spending history since 1900, you would see the mid-1960s increase and then a spike in the 2001 tech bust, the Great Recession of 2008-9, and a huge spike caused by the recent COVID subsidies.

Education. Take control of what children are taught in school and what people read, see, and hear through the media. Critical Race Theory principles have been taught as college courses and their principles and philosophies are entering local school districts all over the country. Nevada County is no exception. Censorship, propaganda, and cultural and historical misinformation also have been forced on all our students.  Government and big tech collusion has been used to censor and control the media narrative, as revealed in release of the Twitter Files.

Religion. Separate people from their religion and ridicule it. Demoralize the family structure, remove God from government platforms and schools, demonize our Judeo-Christian heritage, and introduce the gender identity crisis.

Class Warfare. Divide the people with class and race warfare. Examples include Black Lives Matter, white privilege, white supremacy, Critical Race Theory, and the 1619 Project.

(copied from an article I read. Written 5/26/2023 by Cynthia Hren)

[firstumcschenectady]

“The Beloved Way” based on Acts 2:43-47

This week I had a routine dental appointment. Our dentist, selected carefully by the measure of being covered by our dental insurance, having opening for new patients, and being a woman of color (my first choice when available) turns to have incredible an generic suburban office.

So I'm lying there, having my teeth cleaned, and staring at the florescent lights and ceiling tiles and suddenly I start thinking about the impact of this office on the world. The ways that routine preventative dental care subtly but profoundly impacts peoples' lives. The wonder that is dental care when a tooth is aching, and someone can help. The life-changing reality of dentures. It becomes sort of amazing, thinking about this one small office in the midst of a maze of medical offices, and the difference it makes it people's lives.

It was actually awe-inspiring, maybe because I never before thought about the utter wonder that is a modern, first world dental office and its impact. Wow. The only times I've come close to thinking about this is when I hear from or consider the work of our missionary, Dr. Belinda Forbes whose life work has been in offering dental care in Nicaragua where there are so few dentists that there is only one dentist for every 20,000 people. Listening to Belinda talk about training health volunteers to teach tooth-brushing, and to engage in tooth extraction always reminds me how imperative dental work is, but somehow this all still felt like a revelation to me.

(Dr. Forbes)

Dental work is an imperative part of the kin-mod of God. We can't be holistically well if our teeth ache or if we can't eat good food.

The wonder of all this for me was that this dental office is just there, quietly doing its work of caring for its patients, just like many others in our region, providing imperative care to people, and being a part of building the kingdom of God whether they know it or not. Now, I'm not saying dental care is perfect. Right? Some offices overcharge, some offer subpar care, systemic racism is at play there like everywhere else, and worst of all there are far too many people in our country who can't afford to access dental care. It isn't perfect.

But it is good. And it is a very good starting point for the kind of dental care the kingdom needs. Which is really, really nice because there is no need to start from scratch on that one, just expend access and increase justice.

And, the truth is that there are lot of pieces of our society that are like this – already people all over the place are doing foundationally good work, that matters to other people, and holistic well-being, and the kingdom of God, and …. wow!

When I read from Rev. Dr. King, I'm always struck by the depth of his faith. He had a clear-eyed view of the impacts of racism, poverty, cycles of violence, and the military industrial complex. His analysis of them and the ways they interplay is outstanding. Yet, it was his faith that he brought to his work, and his faith that led his work. He worked from a position of hope. He believed that the people working together could bring change, that love could overpower hate, that the evils of the world wouldn't have the final say. His belief in God extended to belief in people, and our capacity to overcome the brokenness and actually build the beloved community. And he thought we got there by shared nonviolent direct action – which sounds like Jesus to me. It should, right, he was a Christian clergy person with a doctorate from a United Methodist Seminary (just saying). But I've noticed not all Christian clergy people pay a lot of attention to the power of nonviolence in the life of Jesus and his followers.

The Beloved Community was for him a realistic, achievable goal that could be attained by a critical mass of people committed to and trained in the philosophy and methods of nonviolence.

Dr. King’s Beloved Community is a global vision, in which all people can share in the wealth of the earth. In the Beloved Community, poverty, hunger and homelessness will not be tolerated because international standards of human decency will not allow it. Racism and all forms of discrimination, bigotry and prejudice will be replaced by an all-inclusive spirit of sisterhood and brotherhood. In the Beloved Community, international disputes will be resolved by peaceful conflict-resolution and reconciliation of adversaries, instead of military power. Love and trust will triumph over fear and hatred. Peace with justice will prevail over war and military conflict.

Dr. King’s Beloved Community was not devoid of interpersonal, group or international conflict. Instead he recognized that conflict was an inevitable part of human experience. But he believed that conflicts could be resolved peacefully and adversaries could be reconciled through a mutual, determined commitment to nonviolence. No conflict, he believed, need erupt in violence. And all conflicts in The Beloved Community should end with reconciliation of adversaries cooperating together in a spirit of friendship and goodwill.1

I often speak of this as the kingdom of God, but I think it is good to remember there are other ways of talking about it, in including “the beloved community” like Rev. Dr. King said or “the way” the early Christians spoke of.

Rev. Dr. King's philosophy of nonviolence has been broken down to 6 principles, I've shared some of them with you in the past. Today I want to share the 6th:

PRINCIPLE SIX: Nonviolence Believes That the Universe Is on the Side of Justice.

The nonviolent resister has deep faith that justice will eventually win.

Nonviolence believes that God is a God of justice. 2

That's what I mean by being struck by the depth of his faith. He saw the problems, but he believed that God will win.

When I read Acts 2, I'm overwhelmed. The space between the radical nature of the early church in selling all they had and living in complete inter-dependence and the way faith is practiced today seems impossibly far. But it turns out that there are so many things actually going right, things that we may not see or might take for granted, things that need a little bit of adjusting to be better, but are already working for good. There are lots of them, if we look. This week I saw one, I hope this coming week you see two. There is reason for hope, for faith, and there is a lot of need for nonviolent love in this world. Thanks be to God who is our source of hope, faith, and love. Amen

1https://thekingcenter.org/about-tkc/the-king-philosophy/ - “The Beloved Community” accessed January 11, 2024.

2Ibid., Dr. King’s Fundamental Philosophy of Nonviolence.

January 14, 2024

Rev. Sara E. Baron 

First United Methodist Church of Schenectady

 603 State St. Schenectady, NY 12305 

Pronouns: she/her/hers

 http://fumcschenectady.org/ https://www.facebook.com/FUMCSchenectady

#progressive christianity #thinking church #MLK #MLK Sunday #Human Relations Day #fumc schenectady #first umc schenectady #schenectady #umc #sorry about the umc #rev sara e baron