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officialyourdailyinspiration · 3 years

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Devotional Hours Within the Bible

by J.R. Miller

Israel Often Reproved (Amos 4:4-13)

Amos probably was a Judean. He was a small farmer and shepherd. He cultivated a few sycamore trees whose fruit was lightly esteemed. He owned a little flock of sheep, sheep of a peculiar breed which yielded an excellent kind of wool. He pastured his sheep in the wilderness of Judea.

Bethel, the ecclesiastical capital of the Northern Kingdom, was the principal scene of his preaching. "Go to Bethel and sin!" cried the prophet. Bethel was their place of worship - but every time they came there, they sinned because their worship was sin. Instead of bowing before the true God and adoring Him, they bowed before idols and gave them the honor which belonged to God alone. The more devout they were, therefore, the more they dishonored the Lord. Their great zeal, as shown in their sacrifices and tithes and free-will offerings, only multiplied their sin and heaped up sorer judgment against them. "Go to Bethel and sin; go to Gilgal and sin yet more. Bring your sacrifices every morning, your tithes every three years. Burn leavened bread as a thank offering and brag about your freewill offerings - boast about them, you Israelites, for this is what you love to do!" declares the Sovereign LORD." Amos 4:5-6

Their religion was all a pious farce, and the more there was of it - the more of an abomination it was unto God. God cannot be pleased with mere forms of worship and with ceremonials. The more we multiply these, the more do we grieve Him - if our heart is not in them. We may say we have no idols now in our churches; but are we sure of this? Do we truly worship God in our church services? When we sing the hymns, are our hearts fixed upon God? When we pray, are we really talking to God? When we confess sins, is the confession sincere? When we sit in God's house, are we truly in God's presence, breathing out our heart's love and worship to Him? If not, what or whom are we adoring, praising, worshiping? Empty religious forms - must have some idol at the heart of them.

The prophet told them very plainly what was in their hearts. "This is what you love to do!" You love this! You love to make a great display in your religion. This display of piety - is just to your taste. You like to cover up your sins - with forms of worship, appearing as saints before the world, though in secret cherishing and practicing all manner of wickedness!

This is God's own picture of these ancient 'worshipers'. We need to look honestly at it - to see if it is OUR picture. God looks at the heart! No external appearances are of any value - unless they are genuine expressions of what is in the heart! Pirate ships carry reputable flags to cover their dishonorable character. Religious hypocrisy often puts at its masthead, the colors of devout saintliness. But God cannot be deceived.

Someone told of past sorrows, sorrows which were sent with blessing, messengers bringing good in their hands - but which were rejected, turned away, resented as enemies, though they came as friends. When we sin against God - He sends penalties. Suffering always follows sin - but these penalties come to us really as friends, to save us from sinning again. God had sent penalties to the people of Israel - but they had not minded them. "I gave you empty stomachs in every city and lack of bread in every town - yet you have not returned to Me," declares Jehovah." The Lord had not let them alone in their sins. He had not merely allowed them to go on in their evil ways, without any effort to save them. In these verses we learn of judgment after judgment which God says He sent upon His people.

First there was "empty stomachs" - famine, lack of bread. Next He had withheld rain from their land. To make it yet more clear to them that the hand of God was in this withholding, He had caused it to rain in one place and not in another, so that while on one piece of ground everything was green and fresh, on another piece near by - all life was withered and dead. Then He had sent blasting and mildew, hot winds and blight, to destroy what the drought had left.

After these, He had sent palmer-worms to eat up the vineyards and gardens which were watered by artificial means and thus escaped the previous judgments. Having thus destroyed their gardens and crops and vineyards, He had then sent a plague upon the people themselves, sweeping away many of them. War had followed pestilence, and their young men had been slain. After all these terrible things, an earthquake had come, overthrowing and destroying many.

There are lessons here, which we must not lose. We must not misinterpret God. No doubt some of these people, when pursued by trouble, said that God was hard and cruel and unkind - to send so many losses and sufferings upon them. So it seemed. But here we are permitted to look into God's heart - and see a motive of love in all these sore troubles which He sent upon His people. They had gone far away from Him, and He would bring them back again. One affliction failed, and then He sent another and another and another. These sore troubles were all God's angels of love sent to try to save God's children. We ought to fix this lesson in our hearts, for some time we may need its light.

One came to a pastor with sore complainings against God. He had been most unkind, even cruel, he said. The pastor listened to a recital of a long series of bitter experiences - disappointments, sufferings, hardships. It certainly seemed that if these were God's doings - they were strange expressions of love. But the pastor questioned a little further, as gently as he could, and he learned that his friend had not been living near God during the time of these troubles, and had not been brought nearer to Him through the things which had seemed so hard - he had indeed been drifting farther away all the while, out into the wintry cold of unbelief and rebelliousness .

We may not interpret providences, saying that the history of this friend was the same as that of these ancient people, whom God had chastened to save - but who only went farther away from Him. Yet there is no doubt that the design of God in all His severe dealings with His children is the same - to bring back those who have wandered, or to bring still nearer those who are already near to Him. It is always love, never anger, that comes in the messengers of divine chastening .

"Yet have you not returned unto Me! says the Lord." After each recital of judgment, comes this same sad refrain. God had sent famine to bring them back. "Yet have you not returned unto Me!" He had withheld rain. "Yet have you not returned unto Me!" He had smitten their grain with blasting and mildew, and the palmer - worm had eaten up their vineyards and gardens. "Yet have you not returned unto Me!" He had sent pestilence and war, with terrible loss and devastation. "Yet have you not returned unto Me!" Earthquakes had caused terror over the land, laying much of it in ruin. "Yet have you not returned unto Me!"

This recurring refrain is infinitely pathetic. It sounds like the sob of God's breaking heart. It tells of wonderful love in Him for His people - in spite of all their sin; of love that forbears and waits and pleads and suffers on, never wearying in its efforts to save. It tells, too, of love's sorrow - when the erring do not return. It speaks of divine disappointment when even sore judgments fail to bring back the sinning children. It is a wonderful revealing of the heart of God. No one who catches its meaning, can ever again say that God is cruel or unkind in sending troubles upon His people. He wants to save them - not to hurt or destroy them. We learn, too, what we should always do when any chastening falls upon us; we should get nearer to God! No matter how holy our lives may be, there is yet a holier holiness, a nearer nearness, attainable. If we are conscious of specific sins - we should put them away. We disappoint and grieve God when in any chastening, we do not return unto Him.

God reminds the people of how mercifully He had dealt with them. "You were as a brand plucked out of the burning ." This is a striking figure. In the overthrow, probably by an earthquake, some seem to have perished. Those who escaped were almost destroyed, coming out of the overthrow injured, barely saved. They were like a brand, a piece of wood, which has passed through the fire, and has been plucked out, not burned up altogether - but scorched and blackened, partly burned, bearing the marks of the fire upon it. The picture is very suggestive. Sin is a fire. Wherever it touches it burns, scorches, wastes, consumes the beauty. Secret sin is like hidden, smoldering fire, which, unseen - yet eats away the life's substance and defaces the divine image that is on it.

What fire does to the trees when it sweeps through the forests, blackening them, destroying their leaves and all their greenness; sin does to the lives about which its flames flow. We all know lives, once lovely - but now scorched and blackened by sin. If sin is like a fire, human lives are like trees which the fire consumes. Every one of us has been hurt by this fire. Unless plucked out by some hand of love - our lives shall be utterly destroyed by the flames of sin which roll over all this world. But the burning brand may be saved.

A gardener saw one day in a pile of burning rubbish, a piece of root that was blackened and scorched, partly charred. But he plucked it out and, taking it away, he planted it, and it grew. It proved to be the root of a valuable species of grapevine, and in a few years the vine springing from it covered a large arbor and in the autumn days hung full of rich purple clusters. Saved lives are brands plucked from the burning. Thousands of them shine now in blessedness, redeemed from destruction, clothed in beauty, covered with the fruits of righteousness and holiness!

#Devotional Hours Within the Bible #Israel often Reproved #Amos 4:4-13 #J.R. Miller #May 18 #2021

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youthful4ever · 4 years

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10 Financial Principles That Are Biblical

by George Fooshee

Some people mash cans, crunch bottles or shred newspapers and magazines to further the cause of modern ecology. As owner and manager of a collection agency for 17 years, I believe in preserving the nation's natural and human resources too-particularly from a personal finance perspective.

There are ten financial principles found in God's Word to counsel and to help "recycle" many people, especially Christians, who have been all but mashed, crunched or shredded by the miseries of indebtedness and poor money management.

To put it plainly, I've seen firsthand the full spectrum of financial woes that can hopelessly trap people in a society victimized by the credit-card, "buy-now-pay-later" syndrome.

As a bill collector, my business is to try to collect accounts that creditors have been unsuccessful in collecting. Daily, I see people in deep financial trouble. Thousands in this country have got themselves into financial messes that can lead to more serious consequences.

For years all of my personal financial counseling ended in failure. Then I discovered God's mighty Word and His ten financial principles. Financial counseling became a matter of revealing these principles and allowing financially troubled persons to choose whether to obey them or not. These principles reveal God's instructions to His children for conducting their financial affairs.

I believe that one of the major themes of the Bible is obedience to the Lord. These financial principles are real, and obedience to them demonstrates that Christians are trusting God in another area of their lives.

God is Source

The first principle is that God is the source of everything. Philippians 4:19 says, "My God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus." Proverbs 8:20,21 adds, "I lead in the way of righteousness, in the midst of the paths of judgment: that I may cause those that love me to inherit substance; and I will fill their treasures."

And 2 Corinthians 9:8 says: "And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work." Whenever we need money or possessions, prayer is the answer. Look to the Lord, because He will provide it-according to His will.

Giving Essential

The second principle is that of giving. Luke 6:38, a key verse, says, "Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give unto your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again." According to Deuteronomy 14:23, one purpose of tithing was to teach the people of Israel to put God first in their lives.

I find there are a couple of ways I can put God first daily. One is to have a quiet time. If I am unwilling to meet the Lord each morning when I get up, that means I'm putting somebody else or something else before the Lord.

For example, how many people have thought seriously about not taking the daily newspaper? The man who is unwilling to cancel a newspaper subscription, which is keeping him from reading the Word of God, may often be the same man who is having trouble making the payments on the TV set that is keeping him from doing the things that would help him grow closer to the Lord. So it can be a vicious cycle. And with TV commercials by the dozens exhorting him to buy, spend, charge and go, is it any wonder that thousands of people are so molded by the world?

Having a quiet time is one way a person can put God first. I believe another is to commit a tenth of his income-right off the top-to the Lord's work. Proverbs 3:9, reads: "Honour the Lord with thy substance, and with the firstfruits of all thine increase: so shall thy barns be filled with plenty, and thy presses shall burst with new wine."

Live On Margin

The third principle is that of living on a margin. Everyone ought to live on a margin-a physical margin, a spiritual margin, a time margin and a financial margin. Living on a margin simply means allowing room for things to happen.

There are really only three ways a person can arrive anyplace. He can arrive early, on time or late. I used to aim at arriving right on time, and I consistently arrived five minutes late. That's because I allowed no margin.

Those precious minutes add up. Think of the cumulative effort, on health alone, of continually spending 15 minutes hurrying to be five minutes late. I swim three times a week at the YMCA to stay in shape, and I try to eat right and keep my weight down, since I want to serve the Lord and therefore don't want to die of a heart attack. But 15 minutes of hurrying three times each day for 15 years adds up to nearly six months of 24-hour days when I'm under unnecessary tension, just hurrying to be late. And tension is a leading cause of heart attacks. How ridiculous! But the Lord led me to operate on a time margin-planning to arrive early rather than hurrying to be late.

Bible Backs Saving

The fourth financial principle concerns saving money-setting something aside for a rainy day. Proverbs 21:20 says, "There is treasure to be desired and oil in the dwelling of the wise; but a foolish man spendeth it up." And Proverbs 22:3emphasizes, "A prudent man foreseeth the evil, and hideth himself: but the simple pass on, and are punished."

For a simple example, if a couple with an income of $12,000 a year would save $1000 of it each of those years and let this money earn 6 percent interest, compounded annually, they would have $24,672.56 at the end of a 15-year period.

If at the end of 15 years of saving faithfully, a son or daughter is ready for college or the family needs to move into a bigger house or wants to serve the Lord on a full-time basis, the couple can start to withdraw their savings. They can withdraw $2000 a year for 10 years and still have $15,322.17, or slightly more than they set aside. Isn't this making your money work for you? God has a reason for the principle of saving money.

Keep Out of Debt

The fifth principle is to keep out of unnecessary debt and thus avoid the debt trap. Borrowing for a house or car is one thing but taking on financial obligations one can't keep-buying beyond the ability to pay-is another. Psalm 37:21 says "the wicked borroweth, and payeth not again." The minute a person goes into debt, he loses a portion of his freedom. As Proverbs 22:7 says, "The rich ruleth over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender."

Suppose this same young couple with the $12,000 annual income had decided that instead of saving $1000 a year, they would go into debt for $1000 to buy some furniture. And suppose they continue to increase their indebtedness by $1000 during each of the 15 years, without paying back one cent. With 10 percent interest, compounded annually, on the increase in debt, the couple's debt would have been an astronomical $34,949.74. The debt on $1000 alone for that same period, without any repayment, would have been $4177.21.

Too many people think you can buy now and pay later. That isn't true. I've found that easy credit now makes people uneasy later. Usually a person pays more for the use of borrowed money than he gets in interest for saving it.

Secret of Contentment

The sixth principle is being content with what one has. Hebrews 13:5 puts it succinctly: "Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee."

One area where people often first become discontent involves the old automobile. Too many persons trade or sell their cars before they are used up. There's a big difference between fixing up the old junk heap to drive three more years and buying a new car. Many salesmen make the slick remark, "You just make that easy monthly payment." There is seldom anything easy about that monthly payment. It seems to get harder to make all the time. Second Corinthians 6:10 is so beautiful to apply here. It reads: "As sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things."

My friends in the automobile business tell me that most cars are good for more miles than most people put on them. Just because a car has over 100,000 miles doesn't mean a person has to get rid of it. Look at some of the buses, trucks and cars still going strong, especially in countries outside North America. They are cars of the same age and mileage that other people junked years ago.

A worthwhile saying to remember on contentment is this: "Use it up, wear it out, make it do, do without."

Keep Records, Budget

The seventh principle is that of keeping records and making a budget. God's Word says, "Buy the truth, and sell it not; also wisdom, and instruction, and understanding" (Prov. 23:23). "Through wisdom is an house builded; and by understanding it is established: and by knowledge shall the chambers be filled with all precious and pleasant riches" (24:3,4).

If someone were to tell me that he's going to run his business without keeping any records, I would say this is downright stupid. And it is even worse for one who really wants to be a good steward of the Lord's money.

I started my children on a three-category budget when they started school. Every week I distributed the allowance-$1.50-.50 cents each for depositing in separate calling card boxes designated "save," "church," "spend." The kids had a visual control system. If there was no money in there, they had no money to spend. Making a budget won't be that simple, but the idea is the same.

A man I know to whom I have given financial counsel thought he was doing great because he had to borrow only $300 in the last eight months. When I asked him how he managed to get along so well, he admitted he had sold his week of vacation for $500 and had some overtime pay.

I figured that the fellow was actually spending $175 per month more than he was making during the eight-month period, despite the one-time windfall of getting rid of his vacation and working overtime. A year from now, at his present rate of overspending, he would owe $2100 more, with interest adding to his debt totaling more than $30 each month.

By keeping good records, having a plan and being honest with oneself, a person won't get into financial trouble. I seldom see financially successful people who don't keep good records.

It's the same with my own business cars. I cut all my salesmen back 15 percent and made a little budget. The salesmen follow a monthly plan and know what the limit is. They are staying within the budget without a reduction in sales. It's just a matter of being more efficient with what one has.

Don't Cosign

The eighth principle is, don't cosign. God says in Proverbs 27:13 to exercise extreme caution in cosigning. The advice infers that the world's poorest credit risk is the man who agrees to pay a stranger's debt. When a person cosigns a note, he is the one who is really borrowing the money. The reason a person needs a cosigner is because the lender is unwilling to lend that money to the person requesting the loan.

Work Hard

The ninth principle is that of hard work. The Scriptures spell it out: "In all labour there is profit: but the talk of the lips tendeth only to penury [poverty]" (Prov. 14:23). "He that tilleth his land shall have plenty of bread: but he that followeth after vain persons shall have poverty enough" (28:19).

It is important to work. "In the beginning God created" (Gen. 1:1). Even God is at work. This is a principle throughout the Bible. Many times I find that people in financial trouble aren't really working hard. I have often discovered in counseling young men in real financial trouble that they are "tooling" around too much of the time and putting 2000 miles a month on the car. I advise them to take a second job. This increases their income and decreases their expenses and it keeps them from misusing or frittering away their time.

Seek Godly Counsel

The last principle is that of seeking godly counsel. Psalm 1:1 declares, "Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly." A person needing financial advice should not go to someone who makes his living selling the very thing he's contemplating buying. "Without counsel purposes are disappointed: but in the multitude of counsellors they are established" (Prov. 15:22).

Before buying a house, purchasing a car or just borrowing money, pray about it and seek the counsel of godly people. They can keep you from making a lot of mistakes. The reason so many persons don't seek counsel is that they don't want to be told by someone an intended action is unsound-they just like to do what they want anyway.

Above all, don't sign anything until you check the deal thoroughly first. Don't be hurried into any deal. The worst deal in the world is often the one in which a person is rushed into signing-capitulating to a relentless salesman's chance-of-a-lifetime-offer pressure tactics. The best offer in the world can wait.

These are the ten biblical financial principles: God is the source; give first; live on a margin; save money; keep out of debt; be content with what you have; keep records; don't cosign; work hard and seek godly counsel.

As one learns to follow these eternal principles in his personal finances, he will know the joy that comes from trusting and obeying God.

#https://www.backtothebible.org/post/10-financial-principles-that-are-biblical

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brexitplease · 4 years

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“Hello World”...

We are now in the Brexit Era - and gearing up for a period of independent decision making - and accountability!

Time for this Blog to shift gears - and look critically at what the Brexit-Era means. To that end I offer this as a contribution to the discussions, from within the PM’s office:

Former diplomat David Frost is Boris Johnson’s Europe adviser and delivered this speech yesterday (Feb 17th) at ULB Brussels University.

“ THANK you much everyone for that very kind introduction. It is a really huge pleasure to be here at your university. I would like to say thank you also to the Institute for hosting me, and your distinguished President, Ramona Coman, for being kind enough to host me here tonight. Your institute here has really made a huge contribution to the study of European politics and European integration – and long may that continue.

“My aim tonight is to try to explain a bit better why people like me think as we do – how we see the world and why we think Britain is better off out of the European Union.And I want also to give you a bit of insight about how that might influence the British positioning in the negotiation that are to come. Let us go back once again in history, though this time not quote so far as to Charles the Bold. Instead, to the title of my lecture reflections on the Revolutions in Europe.So in 1790 Edmund Burke, one of my country’s great political philosophers, wrote a pamphlet that is justly famous, in the UK in any case called Reflections on the Revolution in France. And my title echoes that tonight. It is not just history, that work is highly relevant today and indeed lots of modern British Conservatives politicians who would consider themselves to be intellectual heirs of Burke.

“Tonight I want to give you some reflections on the revolutions, plural, in Europe – because I actually think we are looking at not one revolution but two revolutions, both in governments and simultaneous.So, the first is the creation of the European Union itself – the greatest revolution in European governance since 1648. A new governmental system overlaid on an old one, purportedly a Europe of nation states, but in reality the paradigm of a new system of transnational collective governance. The second revolution is of course the reaction to the first – the reappearance on the political scene not just of national feeling but also of the wish for national decision-making and the revival of the nation state. Brexit is the most obvious example for that, but who can deny that we see something a bit like it in different forms across the whole Continent of Europe? I don’t think it is right to dismiss this just as a reaction to austerity or economic problems or a passing phase, or something to be ‘seen off’ over time. I believe it is something deeper.

if you can’t change policies by voting, as you increasingly can’t in this situation – then opposition becomes expressed as opposition to the system itself

“Actually, I don’t find it surprising – if you can’t change policies by voting, as you increasingly can’t in this situation – then opposition becomes expressed as opposition to the system itself.

“Brexit was surely above all a revolt against a system – against as it were, an ‘authorised version’ of European politics, against a system in which there is only one way to do politics and one policy choice to be made in many cases and against a politics in which the key texts are as hard to read for the average citizen as the Latin Bible was at the time of Charles the Bold. So, I want to explain why I moved in my own lifetime, my own professional experience, from supporting the first revolution that I talked about to moving to support the second. I want to begin my explanation by turning back to Burke. He had a very particular attitude to government.

‘In Reflections he wrote: ‘The state ought not to be considered as nothing better than a partnership agreement in a trade of pepper and coffee, calico or tobacco, or some other such low concern, It is to be looked on with reverence … It is a partnership in all science; a partnership in all art; a partnership in every virtue, and in all perfection.’ This is of course exactly how the EU began in a way – ‘a partnership agreement in a trade … or some other such low concern’, not of pepper and coffee, but coal and steel, and then much more. The question is – did it make the shift, did the EU make that shift to being ‘looked on with reverence … a partnership in every virtue, and in all perfection?’ Well, I think in much of Europe it arguably did, in a way. Coal and steel were the engines of war; and the sources of power and resource. Managing them collectively meant that, on the European continent, doing this had more profound political implications straight away. It was a noble project. And post-war British leaders such as Attlee and Churchill certainly understood this but didn’t feel the same moral force behind it as people in France and Germany.

“But in Britain, I think the answer is different – it didn’t, the EU for most, make that shift. I think Burke understood why. Burke’s argument was essentially that the abstract foundations of the French Revolution ignored the complexities of human nature and of human society. The state, to Burke, was more of an organic creation, entwined with custom, of tradition and spirit. I think in Britain, the EU’s institutions to be honest never felt like that. They were more abstract, they were more technocratic, they were more disconnected from or indeed actively hostile to national feeling. So in a country like Britain where institutions just evolved and where governance is pretty deep-rooted in historical precedent, it was always going to feel a bit unnatural to a lot of people to be governed by an organisation whose institutions seemed created by design not than by evolution, and which vested authority outside the country elsewhere. I think that is why the slogan of the Leave campaign in 2016 ‘Take Back Control’ became such a powerful slogan and had such resonance .

“Now if I am honest, much of this still does not seem to me to be understood here in Brussels and in large parts of the EU. I think one of the reasons why people here failed to see Brexit coming and often still see it as some kind of horrific, unforeseeable natural disaster is that – like the meteorite that wiped out the dinosaurs – is at root, they were unable to take British Euroscepticism seriously, but saw it as some kind of irrational false consciousness and fundamentally wrong way of looking at the world. I think that is also why so many commentators seem to find it odd for someone of my background to support Brexit. I recognise I am unusual in doing that. Media profiles regularly say I am ‘one of the few Brexit-voting diplomats’. (Actually, there are a few more of us, but it’s not for me to identify who they are!) Even last month, a former Perm Rep, a former British Permanent Representative in Brussels and one of the architects of the constitution and the Lisbon Treaty, Lord John Kerr, whom I worked for many years and for whom I have huge respect even though I am profoundly disagreeing with him, said in the Financial Times of me ‘that he’ll be extremely diligent in doing what he is told’, as if no member of the UK foreign service could possibly have the same view of the European Union as our current Prime Minister without having been instructed to do so. In real life my story is completely different.

“I began my time in Brussels in 1993, as, I guess, a typical pro-European. That view did not long survive my exposure to the institutions here in Brussels and I rapidly became a persistent private critic of them. Yet in public I had to spend most of my life in the Justus Lipsius building, or if not there in the FCO’s Europe Directorate. I spent a number of years in both. I wasn’t the only critic of the union – I recall a secret drink in 2005 with a couple of colleagues in a Foreign Office back room when the Dutch voted against the European Constitution – but it was definitely a minority taste amongst my colleagues. In short, I too was experiencing in daily life a form of cognitive dissonance if you like about the value of my work. It was this that eventually drove me out of the foreign service in 2013 – and then back as an adviser to the now Prime Minister in 2016.

‘Returning once again to lead the Brexit negotiations in 2019, it was a relief to be able to be clear about what I thought and to have a government that was aligned to it – and for me, to help finally take the UK out of the EU too. My doubts about British membership of the EU came principally from the fact that I could see Britain was never going to be genuinely committed to the project of turning the EU from a ‘partnership agreement in trade’ to an ‘object of reverence’. Indeed, not only were the EU’s institutions abstract and distant in Britain, we were never really in my view committed to the same goals at all. Some people try to question this now, and argue that Britain had in many way found the sweet spot in the Union – the ideal mix between economic integration and political absenteeism – only to then carelessly cast it aside in 2016 without really thinking about it. I don’t think this is entirely realistic or

I think Britain was more like a guest who has had enough of a party and wants to find a way of slipping out.

entirely fair. Instead, I think Britain was more like a guest who has had enough of a party and wants to find a way of slipping out. By 2016 we had already found our way to the hallway without anyone really noticing at the party. It was only when we picked up our coat and waved goodbye that it felt like people said ‘oh, are you going?’ as if they haven’t realised what had been happening. The tactical problem with this approach was obviously time-inconsistency: so nobody knew whether a deal with Britain would stick or whether we were really willing to invest in the contacts and all the underpinning of relationships that make them work over time. The strategic problem was that it made it all too clear we never knew what we really wanted to achieve, other than stop other countries doing things that they wanted to do. So given this background I actually find it bizarre that so many people can have told themselves some version of ‘Britain is winning the arguments’ or, I heard this quite recently, that ‘the EU is in many ways a British project’. It plainly is not and it is surely a genuine form of false consciousness to think that it is.

“Brexit is a re-establishment of underlying reality, in my view, not some sort of freakish divergence from it. And one reason why ‘take back control’ as the slogan was so powerful was that that was part of it – we had clearly lost that control. So much for the politics. What about the economics?

“It’s clear that many in Britain more or less unenthusiastically went along with the EU for mainly economic rather than political reasons. It is this group who they now fear the economic consequences of leaving. Indeed for many it seems to be a simple fact, rather than a prediction, that Brexit is going to do economic harm. They include it seems Michel Barnier, who said in Belfast that Brexit was ‘always a matter of damage limitation’. I believe this is wrong and I will explain why. There have been many economic studies of Brexit in the last few years, including famously the 2018 studies from the British Government and from the Bank of England. The iron of those studies seems to have entered the soul of Britain’s political class, in a kind of distorted form. Speculative predictions about the economy in 15 years’ time have become in many minds an unarguable depiction of inevitable reality next year. I am reminded of Keynes’s remark that practical men who believe themselves exempt from any intellectual influence ‘are usually the slaves of some defunct economist’. As you may have guessed, I would question some of the specifics of all those studies. This probably isn’t the moment to go into the detail – maybe I will get a chance in the future to do so. But, in brief, all these studies exaggerate – in my view – the impact of non-tariff barriers they exaggerate customs costs, in some cases by orders of magnitude. Even more importantly, they also assume that this unproven decline in trade will have implausible large effects on Britain’s productivity.

“Yet there is at least as much evidence that the relationship is the other way around – that it is actually productivity which drives trade. The claims that trade drives productivity are often in fact based on the very specific experience of emerging countries opening up to world markets, beginning to trade on global terms after a period of authoritarian or communist government – these are transitions that involve a huge improvement in the institutional framework and which make big productivity improvements almost inevitable. And I think the relevance of such experiences drawn from that for the UK, a high-income economy which has been extremely open for over a century, seems highly limited to me.

“I also note that many Brexit studies seem very keen to ignore or minimise any of the upsides, whether these be connected to expanded trade with the rest of the world or regulatory change – often assuming the smallest possible impacts from such changes while insisting on the largest possible effects through changes in our relationship with the EU. Finally, all of these studies imply to me a fantastic ability to predict the micro-detail of the economy over a long period which I simply just don’t buy.

“There is obviously a one-off cost from the introduction of friction at a customs and regulatory border, but I am simply not convinced it is on anything like the scale or with the effects these studies suggest. In any case, we aim to manage it down as far as we can through modern customs facilitation arrangements – and I am convinced that other factors will outweigh it. Indeed if we have learned anything on economics from the last few years, and in particular from the British economy refusal to behave as people predicted after the referendum, it is that modern advanced economies are hugely complex and adaptive systems, capable of responding in ways which we do not foresee, and finding solutions which we did not expect.

“So all this explains why the British government is confident in the strategy we have chosen. We are clear that we want the Canada-Free Trade Agreement-type relationship which the EU has so often said is on offer – even if the EU itself now seems to be experiencing some doubts about that, unfortunately. If those doubts persist, we are ready to trade on Australia-style terms if we can’t agree a Canada type FTA. We understand the trade-offs involved – people sometimes say we don’t but we do – and we will be setting out in written form next week actually how we see the shape of the future relationship in more detail. But I do not rest my case on Brexit entirely on looking at the numbers. There is a deeper point involved here once again.

We believe sovereignty is meaningful

“I made the point just now that some of the studies of the benefits of trade were really studies of the benefits of good institutions and good politics. That in my view is where the gains of Brexit are going to come. Some argue that sovereignty is a meaningless construct in the modern world, that what matters is sharing it to gain more influence over others. So we take the opposite view. We believe sovereignty is meaningful and what it enables us to do is to set our rules for our own benefit. Sovereignty is about the ability to get your own rules right in a way that suits our own conditions. Much of the debate about will Britain diverge from the EU I think misses this point. We are clear – and the PM was clear in the speech he gave in Greenwich in London that we are not going to be a low-standard economy. That’s clear. But it is perfectly possible to have high standards, and indeed similar or better standards to those prevailing in the EU, without our laws and regulations necessarily doing exactly the same thing. One obvious example I think is the ability to support our own agriculture to promote environmental goods relevant to our own countryside, and to produce crops that reflect our own climate, rather than being forced to work with rules designed for growing conditions in central France. I struggle to see why this is so controversial.

“The proposition that we will not wish to diverge, that we would wish not to change our rules, is the same thing as the rules governing us, on 31 December this year, are the most perfect rules that can be designed and need never be changed. That is self-evidently absurd. I think we should dismiss the ‘divergence’ phantasm from sensible political debate.

“I think looking forward, we are going to have a huge advantage over the EU – the ability to set regulations for new sectors, the new ideas, and new conditions – quicker than the EU can, and based on sound science not fear of the future. I have no doubt that we will be able to encourage new investment and new ideas in this way – particularly given our plans to boost spend on scientific research, attract scientists and make Britain the best country in the world to do science. There are other broader advantages to running your own affairs. One obvious one is that it is much easier to get people involved in taking decisions. Another, less obvious advantage, is the ability to change those decisions.

“My experience of the EU is that it has extreme difficulty in reversing bad decisions it takes. Yet every state gets things wrong. That’s clear. Course correction is, therefore, an important part of good government. Britain will be able to experiment, correct mistakes and improve. The EU is going to find this much, much more difficult. I am confident that these political economy factors really matter. In an age of huge change, being able to anticipate to adapt, and to encourage really counts. Brexit is about a medium-term belief in that reality that this is true – that even if there is a short-run cost, it will be overwhelmed rapidly by the huge gains of having your own policy regimes in certain areas.

“It’s a personal view, but I also believe it is good for a country and its people to have its fate in its own hands and for their own decisions to matter. When I look round Europe, by and large it’s the smaller countries, who know they must swim in the waves that others make, seem to have higher quality decision making –they can’t afford not to. Being responsible for your own policies produces better outcomes. So, that is why, once again, we approach the upcoming negotiations in a pretty, confident fashion. We aren’t frightened by suggestions there is going to be friction, there is going to be greater barriers. We know that and have factored this in and we look further forward – to the gains of the future.

“Finally, that is also why we are not prepared to compromise on some fundamentals of our negotiating position. One of those fundamentals is that we are negotiating as one country. To return again to Burke, his conception of the state was and is one that allows for differences, for different habits, and for different customs. It is one which means that our own multi-state union in the UK has grown in different ways across the EU – each playing unique roles in its historical development. It is actually rather fashionable at the moment amongst some to run down that state which has been very successful historically. We cannot be complacent about the Union in the UK, but I nevertheless believe that all parts of the UK are going to survive and thrive together as one country. In particular, I am clear that I am negotiating on behalf of Northern Ireland as for every other part of the UK.

...we bring to the negotiations not some clever tactical positioning but the fundamentals of what it means to be an independent country

“A second fundamental is that we bring to the negotiations not some clever tactical positioning but the fundamentals of what it means to be an independent country. It is central to our vision that we must have the ability to set laws that suit us – to claim the right that every other non-EU country in the world has. So to think that we might accept EU supervision on so-called level playing field issues simply fails to see the point of what we are doing. That isn’t a simple negotiating position which might move under pressure – it is the point of the whole project. That’s also why we are not going to extend the transition period beyond the end of this year. At the end of this year, we would recover our political and economic independence in full – why would we want to postpone it? That is the point of Brexit.

“In short, we only want what other independent countries have. To underline this I want to finish with a thought experiment. Boris Johnson’s speech in Greenwich a couple of weeks ago set out a record of consistently high standards of regulation and behaviour in the UK, in many cases better than EU norms or practice. So, how would you feel if the UK demanded that, to protect ourselves, the EU must dynamically harmonise with our national laws set in Westminster and the decisions of our own regulators and courts? Now I assume, many in the EU would simply dismiss the suggestion out of hand. But perhaps the more thoughtful would say that such an approach would compromise the EU’s sovereign legal order; that there would be no democratic legitimacy in the EU for the decisions which the UK would take and to which the EU would be bound; and that such decisions are so fundamental to the way the population of a territory feels bound into the legitimacy of its government, that this structure would be simply unsustainable: at some point democratic consent would snap – dramatically and finally.

“So however amusing and however tempting it would be for us to run these arguments in reverse, the reasons we would not do so and will not do so is that these arguments of our more thoughtful people on the EU side would have very significant force. The reason we expect – for example – to have open and fair competition provisions is based on FTA precedent is not that we are looking for a minimalist outcome on competition law. It is that the model of an FTA and the precedents that exist in actual agreed FTAs are the most appropriate ones for the relationship of sovereign countries in highly sensitive areas relating to how their jurisdictions are governed and how their populations give consent to it. So if it is true, as we hear from our friends in the Commission and the 27, that the EU wants a durable and sustainable relationship in this highly sensitive area, the only way forward is to build on the approach we want of a relationship of equals.I do believe this needs to be internalised on the EU side. I do think the EU needs to understand, I mean genuinely understand, not just say it, that countries geographically in Europe can, if they choose it, be independent countries. Independence does not mean a limited degree of freedom in return for accepting some of the norms of the central power. It means – independence – just that.

“I recognise that some in Brussels might be uncomfortable with that – but the EU must, if it is to achieve what it wants in the world, find a way of relating to its neighbours as friends and genuinely sovereign equals. So let me conclude.

‘Michel Barnier said in Belfast in other week that ‘Not one single person has ever convinced me of the added value of Brexit’. So, Michel, I hope I will convince you when you read this to see things differently – and maybe even think that a Britain doing things differently might be good for Europe as well as for Britain. And in concluding, I draw inspiration from three sources in believing we are going to get a good conclusion in negotiations this year.

“First, we can do this quickly. We are always told we don’t have enough time. But we should take inspiration, I think, from the original Treaty of Rome back in 1957. This was negotiated and signed in just under 9 months – surely we can do as well as that as well as our great predecessors, with all the advantages we have got now?

“Second source of inspiration is from President De Gaulle. I know that Michel is a great admirer of Charles de Gaulle. He probably doesn’t know that I am as well. De Gaulle, was the man who believed in a Europe of nations. He was the man who always behaved as if his country was a great country even when it seemed to have fallen very low, and thus made it become a great country yet again. That has been an inspiration to me, and those who think like me, in the low moments of the last three years.

“And last, source of inspiration once again from Edmund Burke, who gave a famous speech to the electors of Bristol in 1780, and he urged his voters to ‘applaud us when we run, console us when we fall, cheer us when we recover!’ in 2016 we ran; in 2018, we fell; so cheer us now as we in Britain recover, and go on, I am sure, to great things. Thank you very much.”

Thoughts, anyone?

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tocxmply-archive · 4 years

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' don't do that. don't shut me out. ' --- @hakune ---

fuck my life.

it almost comes out loud, and perhaps it did so under his breath --- jaw now tight as his shoulders stiffen in equal tension, a hand holding his door’s knob so hard that the knuckles are growing white; if only he’d been faster with sneaking inside, by some ten seconds or so, he wouldn’t have gotten caught. it’s like some things never change, really... only now he’s not sixteen anymore nor burning up bibles, he’s not attempting to return home at ungodly hours whilst dodging the parental looks of DISAPPOINTMENT and JUDGEMENT --- instead, it’s Steve’s gaze he so desperately does not want to meet. it’s his boyfriend he so frantically wanted to avoid for a day or two. feeling just as super suicidal.

but, of course, odds are not in his favor; why would odds ever be in his favor, he’s one of those persons who was born to trip on his own feet. in a way, he ought to have known better... Steve usually goes running around this time, it’s his own fault for being so tired so sore, so numb, so aching all over that he didn’t even stop to think that waiting at the car for a while longer might have been smarter; two things he has never been good at: stopping to think and being smart. and now it’s the whole old story of dealing with the consequences of your actions.

for a moment, even, he does contemplate rushing within his apartment and be done with it and think of a mildly acceptable excuse later; that he didn’t hear it, that he was dying to go to the bathroom, that he was preparing a surprise and didn’t want anyone to see it. this won’t work with Steve, however... Officer Rogers is obstinate enough, and will stop at nothing before he’s reached the bottom of this case. as is, he can already hear the footsteps approaching... till the broader, slightly taller frame is right behind him --- first, turning him around as gently as he’s handling a crystal glass [you’re not crystal, you’re not even glass; all you amount to is cheap, dirty plastic] and, then, just as softly, slipping two fingers under his chin to make him look up. who did this to you?

‘ ...walked into a door. ‘

poor excuse that comes all too easily, and feeble attempt at a smile that reaches his bruised lips almost as fast; bruises on the lips, bruises on his face, on his neck, some others concealed by the expensive, designer clothing that currently is little more than a crumpled, disheveled mess --- a couple buttons missing on his shirt, a large stain at the side of his jeans [he won’t bother washing them, just shove in the trash and buy anew; setting them on fire also sounds DELIGHTFUL]. an excuse that will get him nowhere and it’s already confirmed by the glint of impatience shining in ocean-blue eyes that regard him so intensely it’s as though they’re x-raying his soul; god, please don’t... you don’t wanna look at that. it’s for your own good. the pretty lies, the ugly truth. don't do that. don't shut me out.

‘ listen... let’s talk later, okay? really don’t feel well right now, i’m gonna lie down for a bit. ‘ i wanna drink until i ache / i wanna make a big mistake. everything will look better later and, with some luck, the topic won’t ever be brought up again; with some luck, he’s still skilled enough at IGNORING calls and texts and pretending he’s not home. leaning in for a brief instant, those same bruised lips find their counterpart and leave a kiss there, that will hopefully convey everything his words fail at; if i stop lying i’ll just disappoint you. Bucky turns then, sparing no second glance, enters and closes the door behind him --- promptly slumping back against it with a mix of sigh and sob so loud it is likely heard by the other side of the Atlantic. the walls are paper thin.

i wish i wasn't such a narcissist i wish i didn't really kiss the mirror when i'm on my own oh god̷... i̛'m̨ ͝gónna ͟d͠ie al̷o̴n̡e̷

#suicide mention cw #hakune #ᵛᵉʳˢᵉ ★ ʷᵉᵃʳ ʸᵒᵘʳ ʰᵉᵃʳᵗ ᵒᶰ ʸᵒᵘʳ ᶜʰᵉᵉᵏ #anyway you knew this one was coming at one point or the other #sure as winter

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distractedhistotech · 5 years

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Before MSA + 1: Lessons

Vivi had been learning about various religions since she was a kid. It came with having a theology professor for a father. She didn’t really bother to sit in on lessons much anymore, but she was curious about Arthur Kingsman and wanted to see how he’d react to the lessons.

His reactions were…honestly a bit concerning.

“I’m confused. Isn’t Christianity the one true religion?” asked Arthur.

Vivi tried very hard not to stare. Was-was he serious?

“Do you mean Catholicism, Baptism, Methodist, Protestant, or Lutheran?” countered Hiro.

Arthur blinked. “Uh, are those all different names for Christianity?”

“They are all different types of Christianity,” explained Hiro. “They all have different ideas as to how the scriptures are to be interpreted and how to practice their faith. No proof exists as to which is the ‘correct’ version.”

Arthur blinked. “The oldest?”

“That would be Roman Catholicism for simplicity’s sake.” Yeah, it was probably too soon to talk about The Gathering. “You don’t practice Catholicism. Your community did not practice Catholicism.” Hiro crossed his arms. “In fact, I’d say your elders were trying to come up with a new form of Christianity based on whatever occurred to them.”

Oh crap. Arthur was raised by a cult, wasn’t he?

“God told The Prophet that humanity was corrupting his followers so we had to isolate the true believers to keep them pure,” explained Arthur.

Yeah, definitely a cult.

“Wouldn’t God rather have his prophet spread his word to the masses and save those who were simply misled?” countered Hiro. “That is the standard pattern in the Bible, often with the prophets suffering to fulfill their goal. Yet, there are also signs of divine favor being placed upon them. A sort of combined blessing and test to see if they were worthy. Was your prophet ever visibly tested? Did he ever show any signs of powers that could not be explained logically or scientifically?”

Arthur opened his mouth, paused, and went still. “He, uh, he got arrested a couple of times for…stuff?”

“It couldn’t have been his religion,” reasoned Hiro. “We have a separation of church and state, and the Constitution allows for religious freedom. You could say that you believed a flying spaghetti monster created the universe and that pirates are his chosen prophets; it would be completely legal.”

Arthur made a face. “Who would believe that?”

“The Church of the Flying Spaghetti is just a bunch of people who make fun of people who think if schools are going to teach people about evolution, they should teach about intelligent design too,” Vivi provided helpfully.

Arthur blinked. “I have no idea what you just said.”

“The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster is a fake religion that acknowledges that it is fake,” explained Hiro. “Evolution is the very long process of one species becoming another over generations of random, favorable mutations adding up. It takes thousands of years so no one has actually witnessed it happening, and scientists rely on the fossil record to support the theory and determine what species evolved from previously. Intelligent design is the theory that God or a similar entity created the various species on the planet with a plan in mind for each one.” Hiro paused. “Out of curiosity if you had to choose between evolution and intelligent design, which would you believe in?”

“Intelligent design,” said Arthur.

Oh, this poor boy.

“Do you know how dog breeds work?” asked Hiro.

Arthur blinked in surprise at the sudden change in topic. “Uh, they only breed dogs with the traits they want?”

Hiro nodded. “And eventually the traits make them a distinct breed, a sort of artificial evolution. Now, what if a higher power, one that could live for millenia, did that with the species on Earth to make us along with all the animals we are familiar with?”

And now Arthur looked like his mind had been blown. “Is that what happened?”

Hiro shrugged. “I have no idea. These are all theories that cannot be proven unless someone figures out time travel.”

“…I’m so confused,” Arthur finally said.

Hiro nodded. “Religion is confusing. We wouldn’t have so many wars over it if it was clear cut. It’s really too bad.”

“Hey, uh, maybe we should end for today,” suggested Vivi. “It kind of looks like Arthur’s brain is about to explode.”

Hiro studied Arthur and decided Vivi was right. “All right. I do believe that is enough for the first day.” He pushed a book over to Arthur. “Your homework is to read the chapter detailing the different ways Christianity is practiced around the world. If you feel up to it, perhaps read the chapters on Judaism and Islam.” Hiro paused. “And if it is possible, try to find out why your prophet was arrested. It’s always a good idea to verify another person’s claims if possible.”

Vivi nodded. “Yeah, you’d be surprised what some people will lie about.”

Arthur looked like he wanted to argue about something but instead picked up the book. “Yes sir.”

Hiro nodded and checked his watch. “Now, your uncle should be here momentarily, and I have papers that I need to grade. Would you be all right left alone with Vivi and Ben?”

Arthur gave Hiro a shocked look. “But she’s a girl!”

“Hey!” What the heck was that supposed to mean?!

“Please explain to Vivi and me why that is a problem,” Hiro patiently requested.

“It’s improper for a boy and girl to be left alone unless they’re close relatives,” answered Arthur.

Oh, ugh, that was another cult thing, wasn’t it?

“You won’t be alone. Ben will be here to keep an eye on you,” said Hiro.

Said dog was sleeping between Vivi and Arthur and showed no signs that he’d paid any attention to the lesson.

“Besides, most people honestly don’t care if boys and girls spend time together,” continued Hiro. “Why I see it all the time, and it never causes any problems.”

Arthur looked between Hiro and Vivi. “Um…”

“If it would make you more comfortable, Vivi can find something else to do,” said Hiro. “However, I think it would do you some good to interact with children closer to your own age. You will be starting school within a few months after all.”

Arthur winced. “Y-Yes sir.”

Hiro smiled, because while it was small, it was still a step in the right direction. “Good. Come fetch me if your uncle wants to have a word, but otherwise I wish you a pleasant rest of the day.”

And then Hiro left and Vivi was alone with Arthur. That had been what she wanted so she could talk to Arthur, but well…she wasn’t sure she should. The poor boy kind of reminded her of the abused puppies shown in ASCPA commercials, like, like…

Like no one had ever loved or cared for him and he didn’t know how to react when someone did.

“Wanna pet Ben?” asked Vivi.

Arthur blinked. “Huh?”

Vivi started petting Ben. His tail wagged. “He likes to be pet, and it makes you feel better. Try it.”

Arthur hesitantly placed a hand between Ben’s ears and started scratching. Ben moved his head and licked Arthur’s other hand, causing him to jump a little. When Ben failed to do anything else Arthur returned to giving the happy dog scratches.

“It’s nice, right?” asked Vivi.

Arthur nodded. It was oddly relaxing. After a little while, Ben lifted his head and looked towards the door. A moment later there was a knock, and Lance opened the door. He studied them for a moment. “You ready to go?”

Arthur quickly grabbed the books and stood. “Yes sir!” He quickly walked over to the door.

“Bye Arthur! See you soon!” called Vivi.

Arthur winced but stayed silent as he and Lance went to Lance’s truck. He glanced as Lance started it up and waited for Lance to say something about what he’d walked in on.

“So, you like dogs?” asked Lance.

“I, uh, maybe? We didn’t have dogs. We were forbidden from having pets,” explained Arthur.

Lance rolled his eyes. “Figures. Seemed comfortable with that dog. What’s his name again?”

“Ben.”

“Ben’s a pretty big dog. I imagine you’d have been panickin’ if you didn’t at least like dogs,” continued Lance.

Arthur nodded nervously.

“Now, I would not have a problem if you got a smaller pet, but our apartment is probably too small for a dog, ‘specially one that big.”

What.

“And if you never had a pet before, you ought to start small. Maybe a gerbil or a hamster.”

“Are you offering to get me a pet?” Arthur questioned is disbelief.

Lance made a thinking sound. “Maybe once you settle down a bit more. A pet is a lot of responsibility, and right now you oughta focus on learning to live in…the outside world.” Lance had wanted to say the ‘real world’, but he thought Arthur might take offense.

Arthur was still surprised. “And you’re all right with that?”

Lance shrugged. “I sometimes consider getting somethin’ myself. Then I remember how busy I am,” he muttered. “Wouldn’t know what to get either. Not exactly the most…social person.”

Arthur nodded. He didn’t have many social skills either. It was different from Lance though. Whereas Lance just seemed to be stoic and blunt, Arthur worried about what everyone would think about him if he did even one thing wrong.

He was pretty sure he was doing a lot of things wrong.

…

Arthur wondered if he’d ever get the hang of this new life.

#Arthur Kingsman #Vivi Yukino #Mr. Yukino #Mystery the not-Dog #Lance Kingsman #religion #lessons #talk of cults #Arthur's had a messed up life

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joshchristvevo · 6 years

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She Has Upheld Justice

Or: Why YHWH’s Definition of Justice Has a Bit More To Do with Promiscuous Widows Than Your Congressman Might Have You Believe

[[The following is the incredibly rough draft of a piece that I will probably have published one day within a larger work. There are a lot of ideas expressed here that aren’t fully fleshed out or expressed in full detail. This entire essay/prose poem is copyrighted to myself.]]

People get so surprised, I think, when I tell them that there’s a story in the Bible where a girl disguises herself as a prostitute and has sex with her father-in-law. They don’t expect that to be in there. They’re even more surprised when they find out that she’s the hero. That at the end of her story she is applauded for what she’s done. That later she gets a mention as the ancestor of Christ.

Her name’s Tamar, and you can read her story in Genesis 38, but I’ll follow the text pretty closely here while I tell it. You see, there’s this guy Judah, and he’s the son of Israel, the ancestor and namesake of the people of Israel. Judah’s not the firstborn, but due to some earlier mishaps and events his older brothers have been disinherited and Judah is the heir now. So Judah goes out and finds a Canaanite woman and marries her – which was a big no-no for the day – and he and this woman, Shua, have three sons.

The oldest son grows up and marries a Canaanite girl – like father, like son – and this girl is Tamar. Trouble is, this oldest son is actually a terrible person, so God strikes him dead. This creates a problem for Tamar – women in ancient Israelite society weren’t legally allowed to own property unless they were tied to a man in some way (usually their fathers during the earlier part of their life, and then their husband during the later part). Not being tied to a man was also bad in other ways: there was no one to defend Tamar if she were in trouble, and the way that home economics functioned in that day meant that, if a person of any gender wanted to survive, they needed at least one other person living with them to divide tasks with. Life in ancient Israel was really complex and tough.

Luckily Israelite law allowed a clearly designated loophole to this aforementioned rule in order to protect women in Tamar’s circumstances: if a widow bore the son of a brother of her dead husband, that son would be legally considered the dead husband’s child and rightful heir. Problem solved. The widow is no longer “untied” to a man (my words, not the Bible’s). Through this process, Tamar could be redeemed – that is, restored to a state of legal and social freedom.

Unfortunately for Tamar, however, the second-oldest brother isn’t a very good redeemer. Actually, he’s a really bad one. He explicitly does not want to be a redeemer. He marries her, certainly, but in one of the most sexually explicit passages in the Bible we learn that whenever they have sex, he just pulls out and climaxes on the ground.

God doesn’t like this very much. The second brother also dies.

Judah, apparently not understanding that his sons are just horrible people, assumes Tamar is bad luck and sends her away (destitute) instead of letting her try again with his youngest son.

Fast forward some time later and Judah is traveling with a friend. They visit a small town and there by the town gate Judah spies a beautiful woman with a veiled face – a cult prostitute. Within the context of ancient Near Eastern society, these were women employed by the cult of a fertility goddess. You could pay to have sex with them, for a price, and in return you’d receive some serious blessings from the fertility goddess.

Maybe Judah was a little worried about the state of his fertility given the recent deaths of his two sons. Maybe he just thought she had nice boobs. We aren’t told for sure. He has sex with her though, and this is a pretty big red flag to be honest. The whole point of the Bible’s overarching story until now has been that Judah’s family has a contract with YHWH and YHWH is supposed to be the source of all their fertility. Judah’s not just cheating on his wife right now, but also on his family’s personal deity. He’s actually breaking divine contract. Not good.

Perhaps just as bad, Judah’s a bad john. He doesn’t have any money on him.

“Give me your staff and your signet ring as collateral,” the cult prostitute says, still veiled this whole time. “You can have them back when you return to me with the money.”

Judah goes back home and comes back with the cash, but the cult prostitute is gone and so are his staff and signet ring.

“Where’s the cult prostitute who sits by the town gate?” Judah asks the people of this small town.

“We haven’t got any cult prostitutes here,” the people reply, bewildered.

Judah goes back home utterly confused, and lifted of his staff and signet ring – important symbols of his authority as head of his household.

Some time later, he hears upsetting news: Tamar has been found. Pregnant.

Judah is suddenly filled with righteous indignation. “Not with any son of mine!” he probably says to himself, all smug. He orders that she must be brought and put to death – the proper fate for a woman guilty of an extramarital affair in Israelite society.

Tamar is brought before him.

“Do you want to tell me who the father is?” Judah asks her.

“The father, my lord, is the man who left these with me,” she says – and displays Judah’s own staff and signet ring.

Judah tears his robe and cries out:

“She has upheld justice better than me!”

“Upheld justice”? In my Bible? It’s more likely than you think.

The story of Tamar presents a tough challenge to the popular modern conception that the God of the Bible advocates for the punishment of women who have sketchy sex. (More on that later.) But it also offered a challenge to ancient Israelites in their own society.

Think about it: Judah is the son of Israel, founder of Israel. Judah’s own name is where we get the word Judaism from. He’s the ancestor of many notable Biblical characters, including King David and eventually Jesus. But who is the woman through whom he begets these great figures? Tamar.

Tamar, who tricks him into having sex with her. Tamar, who can’t keep a man. Tamar, who is a Canaanite! One of the most enduring narrative threads throughout the Bible is the struggle between Israel and the Canaanites! Not only is there a struggle for resources with them both living in the same area, but the Canaanites are just straight up sketchy people – among the rituals the Bible describes them as practicing, having sex with prostitutes to get fertility blessings is honestly one of the less disturbing ones.

Judah ought to be the hero here! He’s far better qualified! But what does he do in the story? He makes shady deals with Canaanites. He refuses to act as redeemer for a disenfranchised woman! He cheats on both his wife and his God and breaks a contract with said God!!!

As for Tamar?

“She has upheld justice better than me.”

You see, the Bible doesn’t really treat justice the way our modern society does. The word used here for it is the Hebrew word tzedakah, and though it’s often translated as “righteousness”, the more proper way to translate it is “social justice”. Within a Biblical context, tzedakah is the ongoing process by which people, both on an individual and national level, ensure that others are treated fairly and receive the same privileges and benefits as everyone else. YHWH is always described as a champion for tzedakah, and commands his people to do the same. Our modern concept of “human rights”? That comes from the Bible’s description of tzedakah. You want to be a “righteous person” according to the Bible’s standard? You uphold tzedakah.

And the trouble is, tzedakah never really has anything to do with punishing. No one’s ever described in the Bible as upholding tzedakah because they executed a murderer, or stoned an adulteress, or railed publicly against people with different religious beliefs, or used tax money to bomb another country.

The Bible’s definition of justice hardly ever focuses on punishing – even though it does make it clear that there are actions YHWH disapproves of and that people who do those actions should be punished.

But whenever the Bible talks about justice, it talks about it not in terms of taking away, but in terms of giving.

To really get into the ways that the Bible, and specifically YHWH, describes social justice, we’ve gotta get into the Torah (the first five books of the Bible), specifically the Book of Deuteronomy. A lot of scholars will tell you that the Book of Deuteronomy describes YHWH’s view of justice this way: if you’re a good person, YHWH gives you good things, and if you’re a sinner, YHWH takes things away. By this model, then, we should expect that people who are happy and successful and rich are the people who do what YHWH wants and whom YHWH has rewarded for such. Alternatively, we could then assume that people who are sad, who are unsuccessful, who are poor, are just that way because they aren’t good people and haven’t done what YHWH wants them to. You could say, in effect, that they haven’t earned the right to be successful. Sound familiar?

The problem is that if you project that view onto Deuteronomy, and therefore onto the rest of the entire Bible, it won’t actually have a leg to stand on. Scholars who purport this view that Deuteronomy says this are basing this view on a standalone chapter toward the end of Deuteronomy, in which YHWH tells Israel that if they follow his commandments, he will give them some pretty sweet blessings, but if they don’t, then he’ll curse them with this long laundry list of totally bad things.

So what’s the trouble? Well, even me describing this chapter this way already completely divorces it from any relevant context in the story. First off, it divorces it from its narrative context – the whole point of Deuteronomy so far has been that YHWH, through Moses, is preparing the people of Israel to actually enter their homeland of Canaan again after the whole slavery-in-Egypt incident (if you don’t know what I’m talking about, put this down real quick and either go read the first 15 chapters of Exodus or watch The Prince of Egypt.) In addition, the entire Torah so far has been about the covenant (or contract) YHWH has been making with Israel since he first started talking with their ancestor Abraham back in Genesis 12 – a covenant contract which in essence boils down to “If you do what I say, you can live in the land of Canaan.” So this whole blessings and curses business? Well, if you read the blessings yourself (they’re in Deuteronomy 28), you’ll notice that they all have to do with living in the land of Canaan. Especially within an ancient Near Eastern context, you could basically condense all those blessings down to “If you do what I say, not only will you live in the land of Canaan, but the land will be really great and fertile and you’ll be able to grow, like, so much food.” The curses, which make up the rest of the chapter after the blessings, are pretty easy to understand then once you take this into consideration and also read up a bit on how siege warfare works: YHWH describes a lot of curses that sound really gross and strange but actually in context are things that these people would have recognized as the effects of a devastating war. Essentially, then, the curses are all just saying, “If you don’t do what I say, not only will life in the land of Canaan not be really cushy, but I won’t let you stay there – you’ll leave one way or another, either on your own or being dragged away by foreign invaders.” If Israel breaks the contract, it’s not YHWH’s job to keep them safe from enemies anymore. They’d be on their own, and the ancient Near East is not a friendly place.

Second, describing this chapter of Deuteronomy this way also divorces it from its legal context – the Torah’s description of tzedakah and YHWH’s contract with Israel. See, the way the Torah describes YHWH’s contract with Israel, it seems that the bulk of YHWH’s terms for Israel boil down to “do these specific rituals to worship me, and uphold tzedakah”. Roughly half of the commands YHWH gives Israel revolve around the particular ways they are (and aren’t) supposed to worship him; the other half revolves around YHWH’s definition and command of justice. This first category isn’t so important to the issue I’m discussing, but is interesting on its own and a lot has been written about it. The second category is what I’d like to explore.

Within the context of the Torah, and especially within Deuteronomy, the process of tzedakah, social justice, can be described as the process of lifting up those in society who don’t have the same opportunities and privileges you do. The Bible’s word for these sort of marginalized, desperate people is often translated “the poor”, and the Bible often concretizes these people into three easily distinguishable categories: the widows, the orphans, and the aliens (i.e. foreigners). (Cf Exodus 22:22, Deuteronomy 16:11-14, 26:12, etc.)

Why are these categories notable?

The widow, in ancient Israelite society, was any woman who, like Tamar who we met earlier, didn’t belong to the household of any particular man, in this case because her husband had died. We’ve touched already on why this was such a huge issue in this society.

The orphan was equal to the widow in terms of social status. In this context, an orphan was a person of any age who didn’t belong to a household. Like a widow, this meant you had no rights, because rights and blessings were passed down within the family estate – without that, you had nothing. (I say an orphan can be any age here, but technically speaking in order to be put in a position in which you’ve lost your entire household, you’ve likely got to be pretty young, at least at the time of the disaster.) Also, remember earlier, when I said that due to the structuring of Israelite society and the harshness of life in Israel, it was impossible to survive alone? That was assuming you’re a strong, able-bodied adult man. Try being a child. Without charity, you’d be dead within a month.

The alien was in a similar position to the widow and the orphan – as a foreigner, you wouldn’t have ties to any Israelite household which you could rely on for food, financial support, and legal rights and protections. Like the widow and the orphan, the alien would have been out on the street, alone and afraid and completely destitute, with no clear sign of where their next meal would come from or where they could find relief if they were bothered by a summer storm or a band of thieves.

These people had absolutely no rights in ancient Israelite society, and no means to survive.

And the thing is: YHWH absolutely loves these people. In the parts of the Torah where he isn’t specifying how he is to be worshipped, he just can’t stop gushing about these people. There are a ton of laws given specifically to ensure that these people, the poor and disenfranchised and destitute on the edge of society, are looked after and provided for and redeemed.

Deuteronomy 10:18-19 says, “He restores the rights of the orphan and the widow, and he shows love to the alien by giving him food and a cloak. You also must show love to the alien, for aliens were you in the land of Egypt.”

One of the Bible’s most startling claims is that the all-powerful God who moves heaven and earth is deeply invested in the lives of those who lack provision in society.

This is because, at his core, YHWH is a God of Love.

In Exodus 33 and 34, the prophet Moses seeks to see YHWH face to face. YHWH agrees, but explains that he is too powerful for Moses to see him and survive, so he will only show Moses a tiny glimpse of him as he passes Mount Sinai. So Moses goes up Mount Sinai, but does he see anything? No.

Instead, in order to glimpse YHWH’s true form, Moses is blasted with a list of YHWH’s core defining characteristics, in one of the most beautiful poems in the Bible in my opinion:

“YHWH! YHWH!

A God who loves intimately and is full of favor!

Who takes a long time to get angry!

Overflowing with mercy and honest faithfulness!

Who keeps mercy for thousands,

Who accepts guilt and rebellion and failure,

But who never acquits freely,

Visiting the fathers’ guilt on their children,

and their children’s children,

to the third and fourth generations!”

This poem is repeated and quoted often throughout the rest of the Bible in order to describe YHWH. We’ll explore it more in-depth in a moment, but for now what I want you to take away from it is that YHWH is a God of Love – slow to anger and quick to forgive and devoted to his people. This love, it seems, extends even to the marginalized, the poor, the needy.

Just because YHWH is slow to anger doesn’t mean that he never gets angry. Once we leave the Torah we find countless places in the books of the Prophets in which YHWH expresses his extreme rage against the Israelites. They are not upholding tzedakah, he says!

But when YHWH is railing against the injustice in Israel through his prophets, it never seems to be about the individual, small-scale failings of the people.

It’s never the fault of that sinful Sarah down the street,

or that girl Rahab who lives in the tenement housing,

or the dude who begs on the street corner for handouts.

It’s never that the widow didn’t try hard enough to improve her situation,

or that the orphan didn’t look hard enough for a job,

or that the alien should have just stayed where he came from.

When YHWH says in Exodus 34 that he visits “the fathers’ guilt on their children” – a lot of ink has been spilled over that, but I’ve never seen anyone point out the obvious fact that both “fathers” and “children” are plural. After all, YHWH says in Ezekiel 18:20 that “The soul that sins – it shall be put to death. The son must not carry the guilt of the father...” Guilt is not genetically transmittable on the individual level. When a father sins, his son has nothing to do with it. But when fathers sin – when an entire generation of a people group takes part in a rebellion against the will and love of YHWH – well, they will be lucky if the effects of that sin have dissipated by the third or fourth generation.

That’s why when YHWH denounces the sin of Israel through the prophets, he consistently always addresses the leading generations, the rich, the wealthy, the upper class, and the people in power. And his indictments are not that they have let too much go unpunished – his constant grief against the upper class of Israel is that they have let too many go unhelped.

They have neglected the poor. (Isaiah 10:1-2)

They have oppressed the widow. (Jeremiah 22:3)

They have abandoned the cause of the orphan. (Psalm 94:6)

They have abused the alien. (Ezekiel 22:7)

In a moment of superb righteous indignation

the prophet Micah asks,

“What do you think YHWH requires from you?”

All YHWH requires is that you

“Seek justice,

Love Mercy,

And Walk in Humility with your God.”

The contractual commands of the Torah to uphold tzedakah, to practice justice, are not a command to see how many whores and sinners can be stoned to death.

They are a command to take care of the people who otherwise won’t be taken care of.

They are a command to notice the everyday problems and struggles of those who have less than you do.

They are a command to redeem.

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woodworkingpastor · 5 years

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Resurrected to Love Matthew 28:1-10 Easter Sunday, April 21, 2019

Call to Worship

Alleluia! Christ is risen!

He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

Worthy is Christ, the Lamb who was slain! Alleluia!

He gives us new life and hope through his resurrection! Alleluia!

Rejoice then, even in your distress.

We shall be counted worthy when Christ appears.

God has claimed us as his own.

God has called us from our darkness into the light of his day.

Alleluia! Christ is risen!

He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

Prayer of Invocation

May this declaration of our faith resound not only in these walls but also touch the lives of all we meet and forever be the truth of which we speak. Your love, once sown in a garden, tended for your own people, neglected and rejected, now spreads its sweet perfume in this place and wherever it is shown. Amen.

Easter is one of those times of the year when we expect to find familiar traditions and predictable pieces. Some of these are serious, others, much less so.

If you read the comic strip Sally Forth, you know of the annual Easter storyline of Hilary’s determination to hide her chocolate Easter bunny from her mother, Sally, who always finds it and bites the ears off.

Families are a great source of Easter traditions. Some of you are here today because celebrating Easter with your family is of great importance; a few of our church family are not here today for the very same reason. Most of us will likely enjoy a family dinner at some point today.

Our faith tradition is another significant source for the familiarity of this day. I’m fairly certain that I’ve only sung the hymn Christ the Lord is risen today on Easter Sunday, and I don’t believe I’ve ever planned an Easter service without that hymn. We make Maundy Thursday and Good Friday such a priority because those two holy days define our faith practice in the Church of the Brethren in fundamental ways. We really aren’t Brethren without the meaning of those two events in our lives.

But a closer look at the Resurrection texts reveals that beneath a veneer of familiarity these texts are fundamentally disruptive. What life looks like after Jesus’ resurrection is very different than what life looked like prior to the resurrection. We ought to feel the tension that exists when we come seeking our most treasured traditions and patterns and instead find something that upsets every established pattern of living. The way we interact with God and the way we interact with one another has been turned upside down.

Can we hear the disruption that resurrection creates? How would we have reacted if we had been Mary Magdalene, or the other Mary, or one of the disciples? Would we have figured it out?

Matthew 28 has a very inauspicious beginning. Mary Magalene and the other Mary are doing something that nearly all of us have done—they are honoring a dead friend. Even in death they are concerned for Jesus’ body. But I want you to consider a question: have you really thought about the details in the text? We read the Scripture together a moment ago:

What were you thinking when it got to the part about the earthquake, and the angel, and the guards becoming like dead men? Are these just fanciful details like we’d expect in a fairy tale or science fiction story?

Whether you’re sitting in the seat you occupy each Sunday, or you’re here today because it is Easter, what are you thinking when you hear these words? Do you believe they actually happened?

What explains the fact that after the women met Jesus and took word back to the disciples, a movement began that continues in unbroken line right up to this day?

We are here because of these verses! But what are you thinking?

It’s an important question, because we often slip into theological error when we think about God. As with many errors, we do so with the best of intentions. But well-intended errors remain errors nonetheless. We have a habit of thinking that God is somewhat distant, is mostly removed from being an active consideration in our life and in our choices until we’re in trouble, and who wants us to be happy. This understanding of God allows us to do things like read this passage about Jesus’ resurrection and be largely unmoved. But the resurrection of Jesus is not a “traditional” or “spiritually comforting” event; it is the biggest and final and most disruptive of acts from a God who specializes in disruptive acts. Throughout the pages of the Bible God is constantly creating something out of nothing and bringing life out of death.

In the creation texts of Genesis 1 and 2, the first detail we learn in both creation accounts is that when God began to work, there was nothing. The universe is not made from scraps left over from projects, it is created ex nihilo, out of nothing. Life came that teemed with abundance and was good. Humans came along and were declared very good.

Later, God announced that there would be an entire nation of people to be God’s special people. So where does God go—to one of the nations of the earth? No. God appears to Abraham and Sarah, senior citizens who were beyond childbearing years. To this couple who could not longer have children, a child came, 10 years after the promise. Talk about disruptive!

As this story continues, the Hebrew people became slaves in Egypt. But God brought them out of slavery, leading this ragtag group of people out from the soul-crushing oppression of the most powerful empire of the day.

And if you’re more interested in something a bit less “miraculous,” when the people were in exile in Babylon, God sent word that not all was lost. God’s Spirit accompanied them to Babylon; faithful living would be found in the routines of life—building homes, getting married, having babies. The “disruption” of life would be encountered through doing all the things people of faith do, just in a new place, giving testimony to their allegiance to a different king.

What these Easter verses represent is that the old ways of understanding and relating to the world around us have not just changed, they have been transformed. What follows the earthquake and the angel and the relocated stone and the passed-out guards will be unlike what has come before.

Amidst the familiarity of faith and family, can we hear that?

The women did. Mary Magdalene and the other Mary didn’t know much that morning, but that is no great discredit to them; no one knew much of anything yet. I doubt in these first barely-dawn moments of the day that they could have done anything more than give a report of what they saw. But that was enough. It turns out that their instincts were correct. You know those situations where nearly every indication is that circumstances are pointing in one way, but it doesn’t quite add up to you. That’s the women on resurrection morning.

In their rush to tell the disciples what they’ve seen, they encounter Jesus and they stop to worship him. This is not a resuscitated Jesus who had been revived from the flogging and the torture of crucifixion; this is not a hallucination of Jesus who “appears” to them in their distraught state; this is not a story about Jesus that some concoct years after the fact for who-knows-what purpose. The Biblical account—and the unbroken line of followers all the way down to our day—gives witness to the bodily resurrection of Jesus.

Based on what they see, they worship Jesus. Their first act after encountering the risen Lord is to declare their allegiance. Jesus has been shown to be worthy over every aspect of their lives, they fall at his feet and declare that they will follow him, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary are the first to pledge their lives to the Jesus way.

Earlier in the Gospel of Matthew, we were told what the Jesus way would look like. It’s in the Lord’s Prayer: “your kingdom come, your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.” Now Jesus shows us a piece of what that looks like: he tells the women, “go and tell my brothers…” The disciples who have misunderstood Jesus, argued with Jesus, and in the end denied and abandoned Jesus are still brothers. God doesn’t only bring new life out of nothingness; he does more than enable babies to be born from barren wombs and create entire nations out of slave populations. Jesus does more than give a “spiritual experience” designed to make us feel better about ourselves or give us strength to get through a difficult time. Jesus brings life from death. Out of the brokenness of our lives and relationships, a new way of living and being and interacting is born. Jesus died for our sins according to the Scriptures and asks us to lay down our lives to follow Him.

And all of this is done in plain sight, in the face of the powers of the day. The Jewish authorities wanted Jesus killed because the kingdom of God was too disruptive for the delicate power-sharing arrangement they had negotiated with Rome. The Romans carried out the execution and then believed the lie that was told to cover up what had actually happened. Faith is not something to be sequestered away in a portion of our lives, designed to help us get through the rough patches and take us to heaven when we die; resurrection faith in Jesus is the alternative life that is offered to us, in place of a system where the rich, the powerful, the unscrupulous, the abusers, and the manipulators, and the liars have sway. In this community we can tell others that Jesus is alive because we’ve encountered the details and believed the testimony and fallen at the feet of Jesus.

So when you hear this text this morning, what are you thinking? Is this just a fanciful story akin to a fairy tale or science fiction thriller? Is it more disruptive than you were hoping for—does it push you beyond the place where you are comfortable? Or are you ready to let Jesus’ story become your story and open your life to the divine disruption that Jesus brings?

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oodlyenough · 7 years

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fic: tall flat white

~2k, coffee shop AU (really). Rhys, Fiona & Sasha, gen with a lil bit of one-sided Rhys/Sasha because that’s who I am as a person. also on AO3

entirely the result of a joke conversation with @shinyopals about how to transport a character like handsome jack into something as mundane as a coffee shop and now here we are, 2k words later. also shoutout to this monstrosity.

Fiona was, without a doubt, the worst customer Rhys had ever known.

“Hey,” she announced, a bit too familiar for someone who was, inevitably, about to do something that would jeopardize his job.

He sighed.

“Can I get a….” She leaned heavily across the counter to scan the menu, legs stretched out straight behind her, balanced on the tips of her boots. “Grande vanilla bean frappucino with heavy cream, no ice, no water, no whip, matcha powder, extra caramel drizzle, extra chocolate chips with two shots espresso in a venti cup?”

Rhys narrowed his eyes. “Come on. You don’t actually want that.”

“Sure I do,” said Fiona, with a voice that did nothing to convince him of her sincerity. She slapped a handful of change onto the counter. “Chop chop!”

He scooped the change into his palm. “Hey, this is twenty cents short—”

But she’d already flitted around to wait for her drink at the other side of the counter, so he sighed and dug the missing dimes out of his own pocket instead. Grabbing a cup from the stack, he Sharpied her absurd order on the side along with her name, intentionally misspelled with a Ph in the precise way he knew she hated.

Fiona rifled through the stack of CDs on display, seemingly oblivious to the way her methods left them askew and in need of rearranging.

“Oh yeah,” she called casually, “I left my umbrella here the other day.”

“No, you didn’t.” “Yes I did,” she insisted, the mischievous sparkle in her eyes belying the innocence in her voice. “Did anyone turn it in? It was black, hooked handle, button to open it—” “You’re describing the world’s most generic umbrella. I’ve seen that stupid ‘lifehack’—” “My umbrella’s not creative enough for you? Don’t insult my umbrella.” The sound of the blender drowned out his sigh. “When did you say you left it here?” “Saturday.” At least she’d done that much research. “The big rain storm. Obviously.”

“You weren’t in on Saturday.” “How would you know?” “I was working.” Fiona snorted. “What, all day?”

The truthful answer to that was yes, actually: an excruciating open-to-close shift, for which he had only been paid approximately half. The rest was an off-the-books and probably-illegal favour for the manager that Rhys was really hoping paid off in two months when the next rung on the corporate ladder finally had an opening.

But telling Fiona that didn’t feel like much of a win, so instead he said, “No one turned in any umbrellas, Fiona, better luck next rainstorm,” and plunked her drink on the counter in front of her.

Fiona wrinkled her nose in a pout, which turned to a scowl as she picked up her cup and saw the spelling of her name. Rhys smirked and used a rag to wipe the ring of condensation off the counter, looking to the door just in time to see it open.

Fiona was easily the worst customer Rhys had ever known, but without a doubt the best part of Fiona the customer was that her appearances sometimes guest-starred her younger sister, Sasha.

This, it seemed, was one such lucky visit.

Sasha was beautiful, cool, and brimming with resentment for anyone or anything that might accurately be deemed ‘The Man’, which may or may not include Rhys depending on her mood but absolutely always included his place of employment. She walked through the door, slipped the hood off her head, hooked her headphones around her neck and gravitated across the shop to her sister.

“Hey, Fi,” she said, and then, catching sight of him, added a nod of acknowledgment. “Rhys.”

“Hey,” he croaked. “Hi.”

Fiona’s eyes narrowed suspiciously in his direction.

He cleared his throat. “Uh, hey, so, Sasha, can I get you something?”

She shook her head, the bundle of dreads tied behind her head wobbling as she did so. “I’m good.” She held up a paper coffee cup of her own, emblazoned with the logo of the rival indie cafe down the street. “Fair trade,” she added, a little more pointedly than was probably necessary.

“We’re fair trade,” he said, reflexively and a little bit pathetically, but Sasha only raised an eyebrow.

“Mmm, I know you say that,” she said, almost on the border of pitying before she nudged Fiona with her elbow. “So, I may have committed some light vandalism.”

Fiona’s eyes lit up as much as Rhys’ heart sank.

“Tell me everything,” said Fiona.

“Please tell me it wasn’t here,” said Rhys.

Sasha’s grin turned wicked, the family resemblance between her and Fiona suddenly striking.

“In the parking lot. I may have noticed a certain expensive car with a certain bumper sticker containing a certain slogan for a certain politician, and my keys and I may have tried to redecorate. A little.”

Fiona laughed and gave Sasha an exuberant high-five; Rhys groaned and rubbed his eyes with his thumb and forefinger.

“That’s my manager’s car,” he moaned.

Fiona laughed harder at that. “Of course it is.”

Unbothered, Sasha took a sip of her competitor-brand coffee. “Your manager seems like a dick.”

Rhys opened his mouth, considered that there was no contribution he could make to this discussion that wouldn’t jeopardize either his job or Sasha’s esteem, and shut it again.

“Oh, he is a dick,” agreed Fiona. “Like, I bet he’s killed a man.” Rhys rolled his eyes. “What?”

“Have you seen his face? That’s the face of a man who’s watched the life leave someone’s eyes.”

“That’s ridiculous.” “What happened to the guy who used to own this place, eh? Didn’t he disappear?” She wiggled her fingers mysteriously. “I’m just sayin’.” She took a slurp of her frappucino and reached across the counter, slapping Rhys’ arm with enthusiasm. “Oh, oh, tell her what he said about the pipelines.”

It was difficult to ignore Sasha’s expectant gaze.

“I… need to get back to work,” Rhys said lamely. “Yeah, hey, speaking of,” said Fiona, waving her half-finished drink, “this isn’t lactose free, is it?” “You didn’t order lactose free.”

“Sure I did.”

“No, you didn’t! And you barely even paid for the first—” “The customer is always right, Rhys,” she sing-songed. “That’s somewhere in your corporate handbook or personal bible or whatever, right?” She pulled back her half-empty drink as he reached for it. “I’ll keep this one, though. You know.” She sucked noisily on the straw. “Wouldn’t wanna waste it.”

Rhys glared at her, but grabbed an empty cup and started over anyway. “You’re going to get me fired.”

“I’d be doing you a favour,” said Fiona. She pulled the container of sugar packets towards her, arranging several into a tiny house of cards he’d have to rearrange later. “You still putting in hours for free?”

But Sasha was paying attention now, staring at him critically. “They’ve got you working for free? Why would you do that?”

“That’s not… strictly speaking, that’s not, exactly, what—”

“Because he’s a spineless kiss-ass,” Fiona explained, knocking over her sugar tower with one finger.

Sasha put a hand on her hip. “That’s stupid. You don’t owe them anything.”

Having Sasha’s righteous fury aimed in his defense was a little rewarding, if also a little embarrassing.

Fiona, of course, was there to ruin it.

“Oh, but Sash, it’s all about playing the game!” She placed a theatrical hand over her chest. “If he works hard enough and long enough for his douchebag boss maybe one day, seven years from now, he might finally get to be assistant to the regional manager of a soulless franchised multinational coffee chain.” She screwed her face up like she was crying and wiped away an imaginary tear. “Every little boy’s dream.”

Rhys set her new drink down on the counter with enough force that some spilled out the lid. “Very funny.”

“That’s... sad,” said Sasha, looking at him with an expression closer to pity than he would have liked. “You can do better than this place. Aren’t you a techie or something?”

Rhys was not entirely sure whether or not he ought to be flattered, let alone whether or not he was.

“Hey now, easy, Sash, don’t make the delusions of grandeur any worse.” Fiona grabbed at her second drink happily, tossing the now-empty original into the garbage.

Before he could respond to the insult, or even demand she clean up the wreckage of sugar packets she’d left behind, Fiona reached into her pocket and began waving a folded piece of paper between two fingers.

“By the way,” she announced, dropping her voice to a more conspiratory volume. “I may have a copy of next week’s AI design test.”

“What? You’re not even in that class.”

Fiona shrugged elusively. “I know people.” She dangled the paper in front of his face as he tidied the sugar. “You want it?”

He did. AI Design was his hardest class, and his grades were slipping. But he looked at the paper, then looked at Sasha, and then said, “No.”

“Liar.”

“No, no, I don’t, I’m—reformed,” he insisted, unable to stop another furtive glance in Sasha’s direction. Sasha, engrossed in tapping away on her phone, her back against the counter, didn’t notice.

Fiona did. Her eyes went wide with recognition, Rhys felt the colour drain from his face, and Fiona’s eyebrows knit together in a disgusted glare.

Oblivious, Sasha broke the tension by standing up straight and tucking her phone into the pocket of her jeans. “Oh, hey, Fi, gotta run, August’s got some new gear to show me.” She slid the headphones looped around her neck back over her ears and raised a hand to wave casually at Rhys. “Good luck with your murder boss.”

Rhys managed a feeble and silent wave of his own.

Fiona cleared her throat. The angry expression of a second ago had been replaced by a look of false innocence as she sucked on the straw of her drink and waved the paper back and forth between two fingers. He reached for the paper, but Fiona snatched it away, holding out an empty palm instead.

With a defeated groan, Rhys moved to the counter, stuffed an assortment of pastries into a bag, and then thrust the bag into Fiona’s open palm.

“You’re going to get me fired and you’re going to get me expelled,” he complained, but the malice was wearing thin.

Ill-gotten food and drink in one hand, Fiona flashed a self-satisfied smile, winked, and tucked the paper into his apron pocket. “Always a pleasure doing business with you.”

#shinyopals #tales from the borderlands #rhys the company man #fiona the con artist #sasha the kid sister #oodlyenough i write fic #baby's first coffee shop au lmfao

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heyeulalie · 4 years

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Delivered

Hey y’all.

(I decided I am allowed to say this now because I am, officially, a Texas resident! Yeeeehaw.)

So, as you may have gathered from my last monster entry, a lot has changed in a short amount of time and I’m still reeling from it all a bit.

After I quit the nanny job I started delivering food with Uber. I know it might sound like a bit of a career downgrade (My parents and friends from home seemed concerned, to say the least.) But it’s been flexible and paying surprisingly well and I’ve actually been enjoying traipsing around the city and finding new restaurants and neighborhoods.

I felt like God was telling me to use my gifts and talents and have been trying to figure out what that all means. I ended up applying for a graphic design internship and was accepted. It seemed like it would be good experience, but it is unpaid, so I knew I needed to do something flexible for money in the meantime.

A few funny food delivery things have happened so far:

-I almost ran over a pack of wild chickens (?!) hanging out in front of a suburban McDonalds.

- Franz, my new favorite customer, wrote me a note saying I was a hero for delivering his food during the pandemic. I do not feel remotely heroic but it did make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

-I asked a guy hanging out in front of an apartment if he was Alex. He looked at me blankly then said, “Yes?”. I handed him a bag full of tacos and he ran off with it. It turns out he was not at all the customer I was trying to find. I was mad at myself for not being more careful but part of me felt a little happy for other Alex that ended up with surprise tacos.

-I passed a giant field of sunflowers right at dusk, as I was headed home. It was so beautiful I just stopped and sat there for awhile. I would have never even seen it had I not been wandering around in circles down back streets all day.

-I was particularly hungry one day while waiting to pick up food at a delicious-smelling Mediterranean restaurant. Then, out of nowhere, the manager appeared and gave me free baklava. I almost cried with joy.

I would say that the main downside is that this job transition has great potential to reek havoc on my diet, but I’ve been trying to restrain myself and also pack a healthy lunch for myself. We’ll see how all this goes.

I went on one date with someone from a dating site. He was nice, he had a good job, he was a Christian. On paper he was everything I said I wanted but something was just off. I realized, perhaps a little late, I was still aching from everything that had happened with my ex. I did want to meet new people but I was not quite ready to delve into the reality of potentially being up for even more rejection.

I took a couple days off from the dating sites completely and just spent some time with God. I realized I wasn’t even all that mad at my ex, but I was harboring some anger toward God for allowing the whole situation to unfold the way that it did. Couldn’t have God just brought the right person into my life instead of bringing my ex?

More than that, I realized I was mad at God because there were some very specific things that I felt like He had told me that just were not happening. I was at a point of not even wanting to follow God anymore because I didn’t want to get back in that place of waiting for God to do something that was seemingly never going to happen.

For some reason, over the weekend, I ended up watching a message from my old church in Florida.

The message was about lies, and how the enemy can come in with lies that sound like truths that put us under a burden, erode at our hearts and eventually make us want to turn away from God. The pastor even mentioned how the enemy can twist scripture to deceive. Sometimes we put burdens on ourselves because we believe things that aren’t true, and think that burden is from God, and then resent God for the burden, that was never even ours to carry.

I finally realized that some things that I had been believing for my life specifically that I thought had been instruction from God was not actually from God at all. It wasn’t setting me free, but it was keeping me in bondage, and I was so happy and so relieved to finally be able to release it.

I walked through a time a few years ago where there was a lot that was happening supernaturally. I was having dreams where I would get specific information about people or events, and then those things would turn out to be true. I thought that just because this stuff was supernatural that it was all from God. I’m sure some of it was, but I’m realizing now that the enemy got in there too and was trying to mislead me and get me stuck.

I think the thing I really needed, and still need to learn, is discernment. I think I’ve always felt a little shy about testing things with God. The Bible talks about how we shouldn’t test God, and there is so much in there about living by faith, about trusting in God and not our own understanding, and about not being unbelieving, but believing. But then there’s 1 Thessalonians 5:

“20 Do not treat prophecies with contempt 21 but test them all; hold on to what is good, 22 reject every kind of evil.”

And 1 John 4:

“Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2 By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, 3 and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God.”

I like how this verse continues, too:

“4 Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. “

Even when we miss it, even when we get it wrong, God is still in us, God is still for us, and God is greater than anything and everything. We have already overcome every deception if we are in Christ, because Christ has already overcome everything.

I’ve also been thinking about Hebrews 5:

“11 We have much to say about this, but it is hard to make it clear to you because you no longer try to understand. 12 In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! 13 Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. 14 But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.”

The mark of spiritual maturity is being able to distinguish good from evil. God wants us to be able to tell the difference. There are things we learn as we grow in Him.

I’m grateful that God delivered me from some major stuff that was holding me back over the weekend. (And here I thought that I was the delivery girl ;) )

Now I’m sort of standing on the precipice of all this new freedom in Him. It’s great! I feel so happy! But where do I go and what to do now?

I’m just thinking about this and just praying for real wisdom and discernment moving forward. I feel like so much has changed recently and there have been a lot of different paths to potentially go down that I’m really going to need God’s help in all of this.

For the first time in a long time I really feel released to date to actually look to find my husband.

I feel like God’s also showed me that I’ve still been looking for the wrong things in men. I’ve been looking at the outer stuff - what they do for work, what kinds of movies they like, if they remind me of my old atheist friends, if they SAY they’re a Christian, but I’m not really looking at their hearts. I feel like God really wants me to start looking at people based on the internal stuff.Are they loving? Are they kind? Gentle? Patient? Faithful? Joyful? Peaceful? It’s a bit of a paradigm shift for me, but a needed one.

Also God has continually been showing me that there is stuff from my past that I need to let go of. He showed me, that, growing up, I tried to take on almost an entirely false identity to fit in with a group friends. I realized that I’ve been resenting the things about me that are feminine because they were things that separated me from that friend group (which was almost all male). I wanted guys to like me and think I was cool. Anyway, a lot of that person I became isn’t really who I am at my core and if I end up marrying someone based on that false identity of who I think I am it’s going to be a bad match because I’m going to have to pretend for my whole life.

God is also showing me that there are old friendships I still have to loosen my grip on a bit. I don’t know if I have to completely let them go but I realize that they still have a bigger place of influence on my life than they should. There are parts of me that are STILL holding on to my past for comfort and security instead of just completely free falling into God’s arms, which is what I need to do.

Phew. So on the outside I might be bringing you your McDonald’s order, but there’s a lot going on under the surface of things. I’m still just processing all of this.

Also, here’s yet another change that is potentially quite good. A girl at my church let me know about a job opening where she works. It’s a position that is full time with benefits and sounds like something I would actually enjoy doing. I just went through two interviews with them. We’ll see what happens. I still just wonder what God is doing with all of this. It seems like this opportunity might be from God but man sometimes, again, I’m just having trouble discerning everything.

I do feel like I’m supposed to be writing, so I know I need to keep up with this.

Hopefully these entries will get shorter and easier to actually read as I’m actually able to keep up with it more.

That’s all for now!

Love,

Eulalie

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mrlnsfrt · 5 years

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For The Sake of the Mission - Part 2

In Matthew 24 the disciples ask Jesus about the signs of His coming and the end of the age.

“Tell us, when will these things be? And what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?” (Matthew 24:3b NKJV)

Matthew 24-25 records Jesus’ answer. Jesus describes a few signs but mostly focuses on how His followers ought to watch because no one knows the day or the hour of His second coming.

“Watch therefore, for you do not know what hour your Lord is coming.” (Matthew 24:42 NKJV)

One of the key aspects of keeping watch is how we ought to live and the parable of the talents (Matthew 25:14-30) portrays this well.

“For the kingdom of heaven is like a man traveling to a far country, who called his own servants and delivered his goods to them.” -Matthew 25:14 NKJV

I have a whole post on the parable of the talents entitled “Talented” and also a mini series on this parable (first episode here) . Personally I really enjoyed reading Christ’s Object Lessons chapter 25 which is all about the parable of the talents. The main point I wish to make about this parable is that the Master delivered His goods to His servants. The master here represents God and we are His servants. He entrusts us with, talents (resources), which should not be buried, but rather should be invested. That is we are to use what Jesus gives us and He will give us more, but if we bury/neglect/fail to invest what He has given us we will miss out on the rewards.

Practical Application

What are my resources?

What has God given me?

First and foremost God has given me life. I am alive today and that is a gift from God. One way to measure life is time. God has given you life and if you think of life as time you will have a clearer awareness of how you’re investing or wasting your life.

Example:

Here is an example that comes to mind. I have two small children, a 7 year old and a 5 year old. They are very much interested in my time. I clearly see my children as a great priority in my life. So do I invest time into my children? Do I schedule time to spend with them, looking them in the eye, listening to them, talking to them, doing something together with them? Or do I spend the bulk of my time, when I am around them, telling them to be quiet, to find something to do, to go somewhere else, etc. If I am not investing that time into my children what am I doing during that time? Am I in front of a screen? Are the contents of that screen more valuable then my children? 5 years from now, when I look back, 10 years from now, will I fondly remember the contents of that screen, or the memories I made with my children? Which activity is a better investment of my time?

You schedule appointments, work, etc. Do you schedule time to play with your kids? Do you guard that time and give them your full attention?

But this is not a post on parenting, nor is this a post against screens, after all, you’re reading this on a screen. What I mean is that you, and I, can be more aware of how we are investing our time. Schedule a time for screens and schedule a time for relationships, and keep the two separate so that you can get the most out of both. That way your screen time will be more productive/enjoyable (guilt-free), and your relationship time will be more meaningful.

Now, how can you apply this to your mission?

Don’t wait to have free time to dedicate it to God, schedule time to spend with God. Schedule your daily devotions, and be intentional about creating opportunities to share with others. This can take many forms, it can be volunteering for an existing ministry, creating a new ministry, or simply making yourself available to those around you. Can your friends and family members count on you to be there for them then they need to talk? Are you willing to listen and to offer to pray with them? All this takes time. Your time is a gift from God, make sure you are investing your time not only in activities that will help you grow (personal prayer, Bible study) but also sharing opportunities where you share with others what God has taught you.

Time is something we all have and we relate to it differently depending on where we are in life. All other points, the use of all other resources/gifts are related to time.

Individuality

I do not believe that it is by mere chance that we are all different. We each have strengths and weaknesses, we all have scars, we all have different life experiences, we have different backgrounds, we look and sound and think differently. This means we are each fine tuned to do something for God. He can use use, He can use you, the way you are and where you are right now to bless someone. You are better equipped to reach certain people than anyone else. This can be because of your age, your scars (mistakes you made in the past but overcame by the power of God), your gender, your ethnicity. All your attributes that shut certain doors also open other doors. You can reach people who would not be willing to talk to someone like me. Just like I can reach some people who would not be willing to talk to someone like you.

So stop wishing you were different or had a different set of skills, and begin using the skill set you have. Instead of being discouraged because of the resources, or qualities, or training you lack, look at what you have and how you can use it to disciple someone else.

Resources

So what are your resources?

To find out make a list. List your life experiences, education, talents, gifts, abilities. Then make a list of things you’re good at, things you enjoy, things you care about. Then look at the list and think about how you ca use these things to help someone else. How can you bless someone, how can you draw them closer to Jesus? Pray over your list. If you’re not good at listing what you’re good at, ask those around you, they can tell you what you’re good at.

Other resources include, money, possessions, and even influence. Who are the people you have influence over? Your kids, siblings, little cousins, big cousins, your grand-kids, your followers on social media, your students, co-workers, classmates, friends, neighbors, etc. Do you own an instrument, do you play it? Are you a graphic designer, do you enjoy photography? Do you have a camera, a microphone, a hobby, how can you use it for the glory of God? Do you cook, bake, have a garden, enjoy exercise, are you a good listener, a storyteller, do you write, do you want to start a blog a podcast? Use your creativity, dedicate this to prayer. What is God calling you to do?

Who are your friends and acquaintances, what does your church have to offer, who can you partner up with, what ministry do you believe in that you can help support financially and in other ways.

Highest Point of Contribution

Before Greg McKeown the author of the New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller, Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less, wrote an article for the Harvard Business Review in which he mentions the benefit of asking ourselves three questions.

“What am I deeply passionate about?”

“What taps my talent?”

“What meets a significant need in the world?”

The idea is that the point(s) where the answers to all these three questions intersect would be our “absolute highest point of contribution.” (source)

I believe these three questions can be very helpful regarding our personal mission. Jesus calls all His followers to make disciples, as I explained on my previous post. These three questions help clarify how I can most effectively make disciples. We are each called to make disciples, but we can accomplish this differently according to the equipping and enabling of the Holy Spirit. The three questions help us see what God is calling and equipping us to do for His mission.

Breaking it down

What can I do?

Just like Jesus’ disciples were to begin their work where they were. So every one of Christ's followers is to begin where she is. Where you are may feel like the hardest and most unpromising field, it probably felt like that to the disciples too, but that does not mean that the hard and unpromising field is to be passed by.

We ought to begin in our own families may. Is there anyone in your family who might be hungry for sympathy, starving for the bread of life. Are there children in your family who can be trained for Christ. Are there unbelievers around us? Next door? “Let us do faithfully the work that is nearest. Then let our efforts be extended as far as God's hand may lead the way.” (The Desire of Ages p822) Sharing the gospel is not always easy and may appear to be restricted by circumstances at times; but, wherever you are, if you go about it with faith and diligence it will be felt to the uttermost parts of the earth.

Think about the work of Jesus while He was here on earth.His ministry appeared to be confined to a narrow field, but multitudes from all lands heard His message. “God often uses the simplest means to accomplish the greatest results.” (ibid.) Isn’t it amazing how every part of God’s work depends on every other part, as a wheel within a wheel, all acting in harmony? It’s amazing to consider how “the humblest worker, moved by the Holy Spirit, will touch invisible chords, whose vibrations will ring to the ends of the earth, and make melody through eternal ages.” (ibid)

How do I begin?

Always begin with prayer. You need to turn to God for wisdom, guidance, and strength/power.

Reaching strangers can be intimidating, start with those closest to you, people you are already in contact with. Ask God and think of creative ways to bless those you already know.

As you gain experience begin to consider who else you can reach and how you can expand your personal mission field.

Look at how you can partner with others in order to do more for the gospel. What ministries can you support or join? Be creative, do some research, pray and ask God for guidance in this.

What is my goal?

My goal is to be faithful to what God has called me to do. You goal is to be faithful to God today. Ministry is a journey taken one step at a time, one day at a time. Don’t push it for tomorrow, don’t get overwhelmed by thinking about a lifetime of ministry, rather focus on being faithful to what God is calling you to do today. When you are following God you will be growing daily. ministry brings growth, not for yourself, but rather for the sake of the mission.

Ministry is very simple, just don’t quit. If you know God is calling you, stick with it. The success comes form God not form you, your part is to not quit and to continually lean on Him to supply all your needs, for the sake of His mission. To quit is to doubt God and His love for those who do not know Him. You may be tired, you may be burned out, you may need to switch gears and re-evaluate your approach. You may need to spend some time fasting and praying and listening to God in order to find out His will. But one thing is for certain, God wants you in ministry, in one way or another. You may be called to different ministries at different points in your life but you are always called to ministry.

Don’t assume that just because you’re involved that you’re doing what God calls you to do. It is worthwhile pausing and reevaluating your calling, your ministry, and what God is calling you to do. Sometimes God will transition you to a different ministry. Sometimes you will fail but in the process learn things that will lead to the success of your next endeavor. Make sure to set aside time to listen to God and to evaluate your calling and your mission.

What are you waiting for?

Christ's followers have been redeemed for service. Our Lord teaches that the true object of life is ministry. Christ Himself was a worker, and to all His followers He gives the law of service—service to God and to their fellow men. Here Christ has presented to the world a higher conception of life than they had ever known. By living to minister for others, man is brought into connection with Christ. The law of service becomes the connecting link which binds us to God and to our fellow men. Christ’s Object Lessons p326

#mission #talents #life #practical

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artlang-gr · 6 years

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Η Ελληνική “Proficiency Mania”

The Greek Proficiency Mania

When people come to Fullspate and confess that they are thinking of doing a proficiency exam in English we often tell them to sit down, take a deep breath and think again. In Greece, where we are based, hundreds of thousands of families are absolutely sure that their kids MUST get the proficiency. Little Nick and Maria down the road got the proficiency, so it becomes a matter of family pride to prove that their kids are just as good. Unfortunately, the chances are that these parents know almost nothing about either the content or the aims of the proficiency exam. Perhaps if they understood a bit more about the proficiency exam, and a bit more about how kids can improve their English, there wouldn't be this nationwide panic. (Hey! Shouldn't schools be doing more to inform parents?)

Let's not forget the aims of the proficiency exams. The new European framework for these exams states that language learners at this level (the top level - level 5) should be "approaching the linguistic competence of an educated native speaker." Let's put that in block capitals: APPROACHING THE LINGUISTIC COMPETENCE OF AN EDUCATED NATIVE SPEAKER. And by the way, we're not talking here about hip-hop, break dance, emo, iPod English. We're talking about the sophisticated English used in seminars and tutorials at university.

Similarly, the handbook for the Cambridge proficiency tells us that candidates should be able to handle abstract ideas and concepts in a mature way, and they should be able to "advise and talk about complex, sensitive or contentious issues, understanding colloquial references." Does that sound like you, or do you think you need to carry on with your general education a bit more before you attain that level of intellectual maturity?

In a nutshell:

1. If you want to teach English, your priority should be to do a degree in English at university. One of the proficiency-level (C2) certificates would be a useful addition to your portfolio, but still there is no need to rush things.

2. The certificate might be an essential qualification for a job, but if it is really necessary, you don't want to take the exam more than one or two years before you apply for the job. An employer that really wants you to be a fluent English speaker will not be satisfied with a ten-year-old certificate.

3. Should you try to run before you can walk? What's the big rush? Enjoy walking first, and when you feel confident you can start a gentle jog.

4. Use it or lose it. Unless you are going to do a degree in English or get a humble job in the office of an English firm at the age of 18 you are probably not going to use the language much until you finish university in your early 20's and then get your military service out of the way. By that time you will have forgotten so many of those lovely proficiency words and phrases that you spent so many long hours back in your teens trying to remember (words like "exacerbate", "ameliorate", "procrastinate", and "obfuscate"). Isn't it a shame to sacrifice so much of your youth learning stuff that you are going to forget before you really need it?

5. High school students in Greece are unbelievably overburdened with extra lessons in the evenings at what we call cramming schools (where they try to quickly cram as much information as possible into the very limited space between your ears). University students have much more free time, and because they should have a clearer idea of what they are actually going to do with their English they should be more motivated to sit down and learn the 50 or 60,000 words and phrases which top-notch proficiency candidates ought to know.

6. Where are the poets and the painters of modern Greece? If teenagers had more free time, it might be possible for a few more of them to discover that they have a talent for things like poetry and painting.

Does that mean I should just drop out of the cramming school and play more footy in the street with those guys my mum calls 'losers'? Definitely not. The point is not to turn your back on your education, but to find enjoyable things to do to maintain and improve your English language skills without worrying (before there is any real need) about exams that almost half the candidates will fail.

Fun stuff to do out of school

Instead of panicking to get the proficiency when you don't need it, our advice is: chill out. The overwhelming majority of kids in their mid-teens don't need anything more than the FCE with an A or a B or a clear pass in some other B2 exam like the ECCE. If you have a good B2 certificate in English at that age, you have all you need to start to understand and appreciate movies, lyrics, websites and books in English ON YOUR OWN. Find a subject you are interested in, like wargames, lovemetal, body art, bikes, web design or whatever, and start reading lots of stuff in English and finding places on the internet where people chat about that kind of stuff in English. Without doing a single multiple choice question your English will improve, and if you really do have to do another exam in the future it will be a piece of cake.

IELTS: the way forward

If you are really stubborn and insist on doing another exam now, we advise you to do the IELTS. This is the grooviest exam on the market at the moment. And what's one of the best things about it? Check this out: EVERYBODY GETS A CERTIFICATE. Each section begins with slightly easier questions and they become progressively harder. When you get your certificate it will give you a mark from 1 to 9. If you get a 7.5 or 8 you are on the same level as someone with the ECPE (or Cambridge CPE). And guess what: no grammar or vocabulary questions!!! They just check how good you are at doing the things you will actually have to do in real-life English-speaking situations: reading, writing, listening and speaking - which is exactly what you ought to have to do in a good test of English.

It is also worth noting that if you want to go to a British university they would prefer you to do the IELTS exam. Different departments will demand different scores depending on how good they think your English needs to be to do those particular courses. To do an engineering course you might only need a score of 6.5. To do psychology or philosophy, where you need to be more articulate, they would demand at least 7.5.

Bad proficiency results in Greece

Given its glorious past, the education results in Greece ought to be among the best in the world. However, in the EFL business at C2/proficiency level they definitely aren't. In 2009 while countries like Holland, South Africa, Italy, Poland, Ukrane, Sri Lanka and Latvia had 75% or more of their candidates pass the ECPE exam, in Greece only 56% passed (although Greeks can console themselves that they are better than the Vietnamese, of which only 53% passed, and the Turks, who got only 43% of their candidates through the ECPE). The results for the Cambridge CPE are slightly worse. In 2010 one in two candidates came away from that exam empty-handed.

Why the system in Greece has been failing

Costas Gabrielatos has written some very insightful articles about the poor performance of EFL candidates in Greece. Here we pick out a number of points he makes which we think are absolutely spot on.

Although it might be tempting to blame the results on the age of the candidates - saying they are too young - Costas reminds us that the fault lies elsewhere. The surprising fact is that 14- to 15-year-olds have a better success rate than older candidates. If age is not a factor, what is responsible for the failure rate?

A lack of preparation

One problem is that students simply haven't done enough preparatory work to bring them up to the required level. "In other words, most Greek learners sit for the CPE when they should be sitting for the CAE" (the advanced exam).

The exam-obsession syndrome

However, Costas gives less emphasis to the quantity of preparation than to its quality. There are some approaches to English language teaching in Greece which are misguided and which directly contribute to the failure of students. A major problem is the obsession with exam practice. Instead of concentrating first and foremost on improving the students' level of English, too many teachers waste far too much classroom time ploughing through countless practice tests. These teachers seem to believe that the more practice tests a student does, the more likely she is to succeed.

Costas advocates an alternative approach: a student's command of the language should be brought up to the required level before she begins intensive preparation for the exam. If a student is already a proficient user of the language, exam preparation will simply be a matter of becoming familiar with the tasks required, practising different approaches to tackling the exercises, identifying pitfalls and managing their time effectively.

The vocabulary list syndrome

Another dubious practice is the fixation with vocabulary lists. Words are readily taken out of context, put in lists with the translations to the right and set for homework. Insufficient attention is paid to collocations, fixed phrases and the kinds of examples of good usage that are the benchmark for more successful language-learners. We would add that the craze for companions in Greece is another symptom of this malaise - they divert the student's attention away from the way new items of vocabulary were used in the texts and dialogues that they have studied, and they discourage students from developing useful note taking skills.

The coursebook-as-Bible syndrome

The way coursebooks are used is another problem. Students are taken through books from cover to cover without much thought being given to the limitations of the books, their omissions or relevance to the students. As Costas points out, as a consequence "learners don't usually deal with topics or do tasks that are within their interests and needs; instead they are taken through a series of loosely related or even unrelated exercises."

The compartmentalisation syndrome

Costas also highlights what he calls the "compartmentalisation syndrome." "Learners do 'vocabulary' or 'listening' or 'speaking' as if those areas of language were unrelated. There seems to be little integration of the different aspects of the understanding and use of language."

Costas' conclusion is sobering. Assuming that the fault does not lie with an innate inability of Greek students to learn foreign languages well, there must be something wrong with what teachers and schools are doing. "Perhaps we would be wise to reassess our perception of exam preparation and language teaching/learning."

Πηγή: fullspate

#proficiency #english language #english #articles #άρθρα #news #νέα

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giftofshewbread · 6 years

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The Threat from Within

By Steve Schmutzer

Jesus instructed us to “…. be wise as serpents and harmless as doves” (Matt. 10:16). So why are so many Christians “….as dumb as hammers and dangerous as dynamite” instead?

I know – it’s a loaded question and it’ll evoke some reactions. So let me explain myself, and I’ll start by outlining what Jesus was trying to say.

In this Matthew passage, Jesus is sending out His 12 disciples for ministry. He’s taught them a lot, He’s been an example to them, and now it’s their turn to show what they’ve learned. The context is the earliest frontiers of The Great Commission, and Jesus uses figures of speech to make a key point.

He draws upon the reputations of two familiar animals: the snake and the dove. The first is regarded as wary and quick to perceive danger and escape it. The second is gentle and poses no threat. In effect, Jesus was illustrating the ideal practices of His kingdom’s work. Shrewdness and innocence combine in the most effective messengers of the Gospel.

The bigger view is this: these attributes enable believers to conduct themselves responsibly in a hostile world. Jesus uses another analogy from the animal kingdom to underscore this. In the first part of this same verse He says, “Look, I am sending you out like sheep among wolves….” His fuller point was clear: “Hey, you’re targets and the world wants your destruction. Therefore, be careful, be smart, and stay out of trouble.” That’s my paraphrase, but you get the drift.

One important element that’s easy to miss in this passage is Jesus did not want His followers to be like the wolves. The wolves oppose the Gospel. The wolves are bent on causing harm, silencing the truth, creating confusion, and imposing their agenda. The wolves embrace every unscrupulous tactic to dilute and disrupt the life-changing veracity of God’s Word.

It’s no surprise that the wolves try to blend in with the sheep as part of their strategy to destroy the flock. Paul had this very point in mind when he wrote his farewell to the Ephesians in Acts 20:28-30. He warned them that “savage wolves” would come, and he specifically stated some of them would come “….from your own number.” In other words, Paul was drawing attention to the threat from within.

Jesus sent out his disciples into an aggressive and unfriendly world that was filled with wolves, and Paul warned the church of the wolves within their own ranks. What’s the difference here? Not much, I’m afraid. Against the appeals of Scripture, a good deal of the church has “conformed to this world” in stunning fashion instead.

This brings me back to my “hammer and dynamite” assessment. I’m dismayed at some of the foolish and damaging claims I’ve encountered from “Christians” lately. Here’s just a sampling:

“Christians that do not support a two-state solution in Israel do not show the love of God.”

“The study of prophecy distracts from the important things we should be focused on.”

“This world would be a better place if more Christians would vote for democrats.”

It pains me to admit that a couple of these comments have come from established church leaders – which proves Paul’s point from Acts and highlights the peril of our times.

While the Bible makes it clear that matters of Christian faith clearly expose the wolves, I offer that politics may do the same thing. This applies to the wolves in the church as well as the wolves in the world. Really, both packs are one and the same since they each contend with eternal truth and with Bible-based values. They just hunt in two different territories.

We’ll start with politics which seems to be the more controversial of the two themes. Let’s briefly glance at some political agendas which callously cross the grain of the Bible.

For starters, God was shown the exit door and Israel got the cold shoulder at the 2012 Democratic National Convention. A motion was made to omit God and any reference to Jerusalem as the capital of Israel from the democratic platform. Things got awkward when the motion was loudly supported. Embarrassed on live TV, the DNC leaders waffled and America watched as God and Israel got booed.

Barack Obama’s “two state” peace plan – AKA the “Kerry Plan” – was intent on dividing the land of Israel and enforcing the country’s pre-1967 boundaries. One of its key provisions was the permanent division of Jerusalem.

Strong anti-Israel views show up in the left’s base too. A 2016 Pew Research Poll disclosed that liberal Democrats sympathize more with the Palestinians than with Israel. That’s a big change from 2001 when this same group favored Israel 48 to 10 percent.

What about some of the social issues? Under Obama, same-sex marriage gained national legitimacy and the White House was bathed in the colors of the gay rainbow to celebrate this occasion. It’s no secret that abortion finds its staunchest supporters within rank and file liberals, and it’s the left that unrelentingly presses for increasing entitlements that weaken a nation. They also covet the lawless standards of open borders, sanctuary cities, and illegal amnesty. And don’t even get me started on the militant feminist and transgender ambitions of liberals which seem to dominate headlines these days.

Believe it or not, I have no partisan “dog in the hunt” here. I’m a registered Independent who’s just calling it the way it is.

Now, let me shift gears and see if the Bible has anything to say about all this. We’ll start with Israel. The Bible declares the Jews have been supernaturally regathered in the land of Israel by God’s design, and it states this process will continue beyond the present time (Ezek. 20:33-38; 22:17-22). The rebirth of national Israel is a prophetic event (Isaiah 66:8) which affirms God’s commitment to His chosen people.

According to the Scriptures, a time’s coming when God will put the people of earth on trial for how they treated the Jews and for how they tried to divide up the land of Israel (Joel 3:2). A two-state solution may conform to the world’s wishes, but it violates God’s terms and He will judge those who demand it.

In no uncertain language, the Word of God reinforces the straightforward fact that God has not forgotten the Jews or regretted His unconditional promises to them (Genesis 13:15; Romans 11:1-12). These are among the clearest prophecies in God’s Word, and the only way to derive a position from them that’s not there in the first place is by claiming God doesn’t mean what He says.

Where do I even start on the myriad social dysfunctions around which the left defines itself? The Bible takes a strong stance against the sin of homosexuality (Gen. 18 and 19; Lev. 18:22; 1 Cor. 6:9-10; Rom. 1:26-28). It is crystal clear that efforts to legitimize and promote the gay lifestyle fly in the face of God. The Scriptures state that human life, from conception, is sacred (Psalms 139:13-16; Jer. 1:5), that law and order is essential for nations (Rom. 13:1-7), that personal responsibility is expected (Prov. 20:4; 2 Thess. 3:10; 1 Tim. 5:8), and that men and women were created different from one another (Gen. 5:2; Eph. 5:22-25; Rom. 1:26-27) no matter how much our culture wants to neutralize gender distinctions.

It’s not that committed liberals don’t understand the principles of ethics and virtue, but rather—they don’t want them! They’ve become a well-defined faction of the world’s wolves which wage a constant war against Biblical standards.

I feel I should make a point at this juncture. I am growing in my conviction that valid concerns stalk those who claim to be in the faith, yet choose to identify with the left. This dilemma is especially true as the left radically moves toward a militant-socialist agenda which actively suppresses the teachings and practices of God’s Word.

I’ve talked to enough dumb sheep to know plenty of them haven’t given sufficient thought to these matters as they ought to. They still perceive the left as “more tolerant” than the right. They think CNN tells the truth, and they voted for Hillary simply because “It was time for a woman to be President.”

Basically, these people aren’t really thinking at all. They sound like the world because they’re “of it.” They’ve bought into the basics of globalism “hook, line, and sinker,” and they feel self-righteous for having done so.

Enough about politics. Now – concerning matters of faith, how do the wolves reveal themselves in the church? The short answer is this: the same way matters of faith reveal the wolves in the world. As I’ve indicated, they are the same creatures in both places. But, are there any specific hallmarks of the wolves that Paul warned the Ephesian congregants about?

I believe Jesus sheds some light on this question because He also mentioned the wolves in the pews and pulpits. He warned, “Beware of false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits….” (Matt. 7:15-16).

Aha! Here’s a big clue. Jesus says we can recognize them by their fruits – those are the things they do and say.

Said another way, the wolves in the church will make the sort of choices that the wolves in the world make. They will hold to the world’s ideals, and insofar as the doctrines and standards of Scripture are concerned, they will oppose these sacred matters the same way the wolves in the world do.

And so I sigh when so-called “Christians” join with the mainstream media to challenge the Bible’s clear values. I cringe when these “ravenous wolves” enthusiastically march in gay parades under the claim of “unity and Christian love,” or when they hum and buzz with the mystics to empty their minds and “receive new revelations.”

I gasp at their affront to Almighty God when they insist other religions “….just have a different view of the same God we serve.” I feel a righteous anger when they murmur their thinly-veiled dislike of the Jews and when they applaud the “bravery of the Palestinians against their oppressors.”

I have no doubt that the Word of God is under attack – inside our churches! Because the Bible changes lives when it’s properly studied and applied, “deceiving spirits” (1 Tim. 4:1) are presently working overtime through “ravenous wolves” to blur the lines between what is right and wrong, to mock the importance of Biblical prophecy (2 Pet. 3:4), and to elevate any person or message that affirms the things they most want to hear (2 Tim. 4:3).

I feel one of the reasons the world will not believe the rapture has actually taken place when it does, is because so many “Christians” will still be found in the churches they’d always attended. I believe this fact will further feed the unprecedented deception of that time. The circumstances of these wolves who are left behind will be used to argue that the Bible does not really mean what it says.

In closing, Jesus urges us to be wary, to be careful, and to be harmless and innocent. An effective faith is one that recognizes the dangers of the threat from within.

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coloringpagekidsblog-blog · 7 years

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Coloring Products For Kids

In a child's ages, parents do each possible attempt to create the child bloom in real method. Coloring pages is a commonly used practice by parents at home or teachers in school to impart understanding of the alphabets, animal, monuments, fruits, vegetables, amounts etc.. Kids love coloring activities and they can even learn a whole lot through fun activities & colour. Colors are fascinating and attract kids that's the reason the environment of preschool sessions or play schools includes colors to produce the toddlers or kids cherish and contented. Research shows that the kid in ancient age learns so the knowledge ought to be impeccable that needs to be imparted to children.

Which are the most popular coloring pages for kids?

Utilizing colors could be a superb way to inculcate the nature, trees, water bodies, along with other surroundings. By make use of nature you are able to introduce your own kids and colors, children learn through fun activities. It is also possible to organize a visit to the nearest zoo, to make your ones comprehend the creature. Earth coloring worksheets or pages or action books could be the alternative for preschool teachers and parents. Alphabets drawing worksheets drawing worksheets, Food drawing worksheets and many more are available online in printable coloring pages format.

Entertaining activity-how to draw action

Draw pictures of alphabets, animals, cartoons, numbers, leaves, etc. is one other way to impart understanding in a kid of various living or non living things in the world. It invokes the creativity within a child; make use of paper and vibrant colours to start such drawing activities with your children and make certain to occupy an outdoor location such as gardens, roofs, or patio etc..

Good Parenting at Coloring Book for Kids preschool point

A parenting that is good should think about the understanding about child's preschool period. Based on studies period of child's life span is very important to communicate consciousness. In every country, children often start school when they are just 3 years old and invest in their school's kindergarten or school section before they begin Year 1 - tier - in the age of five or six. When it comes to learning, parents can help with number awareness - as understanding the value and place of numbers, being able to recite from one to 10 is not the same. Talk to your kid about quantities, for example, five is larger than two. Focus on counting; board games and playing dominoes, like Snakes and Ladders, will instruct children how to count while making it fun.

While teaching them the Word of God at the exact same time, searching for a means to keep your child occupied? Christian coloring pages for children are a great tool you can use to do exactly that. As your children colour pictures of characters or Bible stories, it will help reinforce their knowledge of the Bible and of God.

The easiest way to get a good deal of pages for your children to color would be to print out them online. There are loads. Just look for "Christian coloring pages" or "Biblical coloring pages" on your favourite search engine, and you will come across a lot of results.

There are so many unique pictures available that you may have better success using particular terms like "Jesus healing the blind man coloring page" or "Tower of Babel coloring page," as illustrations. This is even a Sunday School lesson at church or a great idea if you're searching to compliment. In a picture that reflects the Bible story you're teaching them, you can let your children colour in these scenarios. After they are done coloring, their picture can be taped by them in their own bedroom, which will enable them remember that specific Bible story.

Alternatively, you could use coloring pages that you give to your child while he or she does something great, such as states thank you, gives a glow, or aids out before being requested. Does it benefit them by giving them an activity they'll enjoy doing, but it also demonstrates to them that it is great to do things that please the Lord.

Websites are not the only place you can get coloring pages. You can find activity books and coloring pages in your In or local bookstore some arts and crafts stores. Because it enables them to observe the arrangement of events, giving your kid a book of Bible stories is great.

Christian bookstores usually also have reproducible coloring books or individual pages from which you can create copies so that precisely the same story picture can be colored in by more than 1 child. This is particularly useful when you want to present to color while the lesson is being taught by you.

Coloring is such a great action that most children love. It gives them chance coordination of hands, as well as a host of other matters. Having coloring books for your kid could be one of the things that you could have. If you are going to get a coloring book for your child, here are some of the Things You Want to consider:

1. Theme - coloring books have types of themes. It might be based like those of even others, creatures, vehicles, or Disney characters. When you're selecting this kind of books for the child, keep in mind that it's a way they could express their imagination rather than by expressing their feelings. So, 1 way you may make him feel brand new, is by simply choosing the one which is appropriate for taste.

2. Complexity - only know your child's degree when it's all about coloring. Coloring books give coloring that is big spaces which make it easier for kids. Their degree of abilities for coloring will surely increase after the kid gets older and also the difficulty about the book. So, if you would like your child select. Don't frustrate them about getting books with one or small images with tons of written instructions.

Coloring books are all of the buzz of late. It's apparent that it revolves round crayons or pencils and coloring pages. But, it is simply coloring? How do something like staying inside the lines be a benefit to me personally?

I was raised during the time of doodle art - ? You have a bunch of markers and elaborate line drawings on numerous themes. I would spend hours coloring these in! Little did I know then that coloring pages were a benefit to my well-being.

Well they were and still are now for people of all ages.

People are creating the adult coloring books bestsellers on Amazon! At the time of this writing, eight of the top twenty books on the bestsellers list, are coloring books for adults. There has to be something behind this increase in interest.

Coloring books' topics are intricate and based more about images, not your childhood counterparts which comprised farm animals heroes, and bunnies. You'd expect to see psychedelic patterns reminiscent of art type pages patterns, dream images including mermaids, dragons, goddesses and angels, and ancient designs of spiritual and religious character.

The fascination, and how do they help you?

The action of applying colored media to complex line drawings is an advantage to comfort and anxiety reduction. You are in a position to place the world aside for the moment and focus on the craft of coloring.

Studies have demonstrates that stress levels dropped. They did note that doodling had no impact on stress. The focus on coloring and shifting the brain allows that blocking of anxiety at the present time. Coloring doesn't have a demand for thought processes and you are able to acquire within your self, isolated from commotion anxiety, and distractions such as listening to music.

The insistent, low-stress, and "no brainer" act of colour lends itself to comfort. The calming effects not only helps to reduce stress levels, but can help to bring you back.

The wonderful part is that anyone can get it done will no skill setup required! Grab a crayon and you are ready to go. You may make it even more enjoyable and have grandkids color or your children with you. Depending upon the age of the ones They could possibly be interested in the coloring books, others still needing to colour flower arrangement that is pretty, astronaut, or a cow.

This suddenly passed my thoughts: When did sport really begin while we were searching though the bookstore shelves looking for skateboarding books for children? From my readings, it began with boards made from timber as the very first of its type, in the 1950s. When browsing was at its peak skateboarding made its way from the market. Hence skateboarders were surfers. And the rest is history, so they say.

However, skateboarding is more than a game or Simply an activity, since it boasts of Advantages to adults and children alike, including the following:

1. It may be considered as an alternative exercise for children who find exercise boring. Truth is, your adrenaline is kicking up high and when you're on board, you won't even recognize the time spent performing the action. Just like a traditional exercise, this is a fantastic way to fight with obesity and diabetes which are now starting to hit on children due to absence of bodily exertion.

2. It can be a means to satisfy new friends and build relationships. Because a great deal of children nowadays are pretty much into it, it's more fun if you share the sport with other children on the block. You may share tips and tricks on how to improve your abilities.

3. It teaches your child the value of patience, discipline, attention, balance, and sportsmanship. You'll have to learn the fundamentals and exercise a whole lot since to learn the art of skateboarding instructs your kid important values that are essential in achievement against the challenges of life.

4. According to studies, it aids in balancing some states instead of simply taking medications for it. Skateboarding teaches kids to concentrate or focus as we have mentioned.

5. It's among the pleasures that are least expensive since all you have to do is purchase a skateboard. Skateboard isn't as costly as one thinks. Prices depend on caliber and size of the board. Your kid does not have to go far to enjoy the sport. Children can play around your neighborhood.

But what if your child isn't a sport? Easy. Publish the game to them by buying fun and friendly skateboarding books. Okay, I know what you are thinking: What if your kids are not book fanatics too? Fact is, your kid doesn't have to enjoy the book as well to be a bookworm. These book authors understand that kids have short attention span, so they have made it certain that the publication is for the young ones.

Coloring pages are a easy and simple way to keep kids entertained and content while they are learning. The internet is the best medium for locating and generating products . Coloring pages are now available in electronic form e.g. pdf documents. Just find order the solution and print the webpages out. It's the use of this internet - simple and affordable.

The option is to purchase books in a store or order the coloring book on the web. If you order the publication online, it may take ages to receive it. You have to wait for the product. It is received by you within minutes of purchase, if you purchase a coloring product in digital form. After your payment is made, an email is sent to you and contains your buy.

Digital coloring pages are much more affordable than coloring books that are expensive. Whereas conventional products only allow each page to be colored, you can print pages over and over again. You can decide what pages to print. There are pages children will like and pages that they will not wish to colour. Digital coloring books give you the choice of which pages to print and volume of webpages.

There is less wasted paper, and that means you are doing your bit for the environment if you are printing pages you want. You don't have to store coloring books. All of the books are saved on your computer or storage device such as a DVD. The internet has made things easier for us, which is one example of this.

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adamgilruth238-blog · 7 years

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Pop & Contemporary, Christian Rock, Appreciation & Praise, Kid's & More.

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