#true church must be a restored church

[davi-doo]

Zevlor's Helmite Oath

Zevlor was a Hellrider from Elturel and a paladin of Helm - the god of guardians - as you may already knew from the description of his "Hellrider's Pride" gaunlets. As someone who is not familiar with DnD lore, I did some digging to gain insight about the nature of Zevlor's oath and the circumstance around his oathbreaking. Might as well share what I found :)

Helm is a lawful neutral deity, whose principle can be seen as cold and rigid as he favors one's sense of duty and commitment as a protector, guardian and defender above all else. The dogma of Helm's faithfuls can be sum up as follows:

Guard perfectly, attentively, and with forethought; be ever vigilant. Guard what you are ordered to guard, including that on which your charge depends.

CREED OF THE HELMITE FAITH.

I was not surprised to learn Elturel was home to the strongest Helmite Church in the North. With the famous Hellrider as the citywatch and its strict rulings, Elturel is known to be the most efficient, secured and well-policed city in the region. It's natural for Hellrider to be among Helm's faithful, and I can imagine their paladin's oath is to safe-guard the city and its citizen to their last breath.

I'm not sure in BG3 timeline if the tieflings were forcefully evicted from Elturel, or if they left on their own accord to avoid violence and bigotry against their kind. But either case, Zevlor most likely broke his oath for simply leaving Elturel to lead and protect the tiefling refugees.

In principal, the church of Helm is to welcome whomever come seek their protection, even criminals. However, it's also their duty to turn them in to law enforcement if required, and see their trial to proceed fairly. That means, when the tieflings were deemed as a dangerous minority in the eyes of Elturian, Zevlor and fellow Hellrider must abide to the laws determined for them, or resist and face the repercussion:

All true warriors of Elturel were most likely Hellriders. Those who resigned were stripped of their gear, exiled from the city, and named a heretic in the eyes of Helm for abandoning their post.

Taken that Zevlor still had his gaunlets and his sword, I'm convinced he helped the refugee leave the city in secret. He sentimentally kept the gauntlet out of all the parts from his Hellrider plated armour, because you guess what? A silver gauntlet with eye is Helm's holy symbol. This proved he still held onto the Helmite failth, despite being stripped of the God's divine grace for his moral decision. He owned his choice by leaving the rest behind along with his title, but still took it upon himself to be the guardian of his people. That's why when you came along and protected them from the goblin, which allowed them to travel to Baldur's Gate, the Hellrider's Pride became yours. As for Zevlor, it seems to me he was ready to truly rest, which shows in his conversation with Tilly, too.

In Act 2, we see Zevlor seeking to restore his oath and fell victim to the Absolute; this is not the sign of him wanting to taste the glory again, but simply because the journey through Shadowcurse land has proven to be overwhelmingly dangerous. Zevlor might have viewed himself as a liability, not only due of his old age, but also his lack of dark vision despite being a tiefling. I believe whatever the watchful Helm bestowed on paladin Zevlor back in the day must have compensated nicely for his lacks. And ironically, with the innate darkvision that allows for better guard, the tiefling Hellrider were supposed to be valuable members in their unit. Until Elturian decided those with infernal heritage are somehow a threat to their hypervigilant society.

#zevlor #bg3 #baldur's gate 3 #bg3 zevlor #bg3 lore #can i adopt a senior citizen? #helm #dnd helm

[nuclearloop]

I'm really good at remembering to share things here

Been re-cooking and oooolder character to use for my frenzy ending run, and she turned into an ex-finger maiden, Rhian (hilariously her OG name is Ranni which, would be a lil awkard now in an Elden Ring setting LOL...)

Info dump under the cut...feel free to send questions if anyone's curious for more I feel like talking about her now

As a child Rhian was a refugee among a small group who sought the shores of Limgrave for safety, and unluckily their camp was raided by a small Demihuman Frenzy Cult (kinda inspired by the flame of frenzy village on the Weeping Peninsula where a good bunch of demihumans lurk nearby)

Her people were subjected to the Frenzy Flame or otherwise outright slaughtered, but Rhian and a few other captives were to be set up for a special kind of sacrificial ritual.

Rhian is touched by the flame, but the ritual is interrupted by a noble house that was headed toward Castle Morne who intervene and save her before the worst happens and they take her back home with them to figure out what to do with her.

The Tylluan noble house is newly established in Liurnia, made up of a family of Tarnished whose youngest daughter, Ewin, has been called by grace. They pretty much make this their entire personality from then forth, and with the coming of Rhian (and her and Ewin getting along quite nicely) it was an obvious sign this was destiny written out clear and true for the girls.

From then on Rhian is raised adjacent to the noble house through their own church to begin her life toward the honorable duties of serving as Ewin's finger maiden. She doesn't know how to feel about this, but is obviously indebted to their kindness...right?

As they grew up alongside one another, lovingly raised into their destinies by House Tylluan, Rhian and Ewin became close friends

...with a little "it's complicated" sprinkled in....

They get close, perhaps by obligation (or rebellion) to their role as tarnished and maiden...or maybe they really did enjoy the other's company in a lonely life that has been planned out for them.

Rhian gets comfortable in her role as finger maiden and accepts, even welcomes, her duties in assisting Ewin to become Elden Lore and restore the lands between (for House Tylluan yippee)

It eventually is revealed, however, the true Destiny a maiden must uphold if her tarnished is to become Elden Lord...the final act of burning your maiden, to burn the thorns away at the mountain top, to gain access to the Erdtree.

Despite their bond, Ewin seems to agree to this, albeit solemnly, and just like that the veil is lifted.

Betrayed, terrified, and angry, Rhian rejects this and escapes.

A spark had lit, one that had been germinating quietly within her as she grew into a lie where safety and love was nothing more than a fabrication of her way of life. She had been rescued from a fate of slaughter, only to be raised like the finest livestock for an even more grandiose slaughter.

Perhaps that Spark within her was right. The one she pushed deep down when her ruminating doubts pillaged her mind. The one that occasionally surfaced when it all seemed wrong. Too good to be true.

Perhaps it truly was unfair. To live is to suffer, after all. But it could stop. It could all stop for good...no more suffering.

That spark, that fear and pain in this poor soul whose life was ripped from her for selfish means, since becomes a distant light. Rhian follows it, seeks it like an old friend. Wears that friend on her shoulder, the one friend who gets it.

To live is to suffer. But it's her life now.

#c:Rhian #Hi it's elden ring again lol #elden ring oc #elden ring #flame of frenzy #this info dump is subject to being edited as I flesh her out more but I'm just puking it here for a sec to sift through

[dailyanarchistposts]

Chapter IV. Second Period. — Machinery.

2. — Machinery’s contradiction. — Origin of capital and wages.

From the very fact that machinery diminishes the workman’s toil, it abridges and diminishes labor, the supply of which thus grows greater from day to day and the demand less. Little by little, it is true, the reduction in prices causing an increase in consumption, the proportion is restored and the laborer set at work again: but as industrial improvements steadily succeed each other and continually tend to substitute mechanical operations for the labor of man, it follows that there is a constant tendency to cut off a portion of the service and consequently to eliminate laborers from production. Now, it is with the economic order as with the spiritual order: outside of the church there is no salvation; outside of labor there is no subsistence. Society and nature, equally pitiless, are in accord in the execution of this new decree.

“When a new machine, or, in general, any process whatever that expedites matters,” says J. B. Say, “replaces any human labor already employed, some of the industrious arms, whose services are usefully supplanted, are left without work. A new machine, therefore, replaces the labor of a portion of the laborers, but does not diminish the amount of production, for, if it did, it would not be adopted; it displaces revenue. But the ultimate advantage is wholly on the side of machinery, for, if abundance of product and lessening of cost lower the venal value, the consumer — that is, everybody — will benefit thereby.”

Say’s optimism is infidelity to logic and to facts. The question here is not simply one of a small number of accidents which have happened during thirty centuries through the introduction of one, two, or three machines; it is a question of a regular, constant, and general phenomenon. After revenue has been displaced as Say says, by one machine, it is then displaced by another, and again by another, and always by another, as long as any labor remains to be done and any exchanges remain to be effected. That is the light in which the phenomenon must be presented and considered: but thus, it must be admitted, its aspect changes singularly. The displacement of revenue, the suppression of labor and wages, is a chronic, permanent, indelible plague, a sort of cholera which now appears wearing the features of Gutenberg, now assumes those of Arkwright; here is called Jacquard, there James Watt or Marquis de Jouffroy. After carrying on its ravages for a longer or shorter time under one form, the monster takes another, and the economists, who think that he has gone, cry out: “It was nothing!” Tranquil and satisfied, provided they insist with all the weight of their dialectics on the positive side of the question, they close their eyes to its subversive side, notwithstanding which, when they are spoken to of poverty, they again begin their sermons upon the improvidence and drunkenness of laborers.

In 1750, — M. Dunoyer makes the observation, and it may serve as a measure of all lucubrations of the same sort, — “in 1750 the population of the duchy of Lancaster was 300,000 souls. In 1801, thanks to the development of spinning machines, this population was 672,000 souls. In 1831 it was 1,336,000 souls. Instead of the 40,000 workmen whom the cotton industry formerly employed, it now employs, since the invention of machinery, 1,500,000.”

M. Dunoyer adds that at the time when the number of workmen employed in this industry increased in so remarkable a manner, the price of labor rose one hundred and fifty per cent. Population, then, having simply followed industrial progress, its increase has been a normal and irreproachable fact, — what do I say? — a happy fact, since it is cited to the honor and glory of the development of machinery. But suddenly M. Dunoyer executes an about-face: this multitude of spinning-machines soon being out of work, wages necessarily declined; the population which the machines had called forth found itself abandoned by the machines, at which M. Dunoyer declares: Abuse of marriage is the cause of poverty.

English commerce, in obedience to the demand of the immense body of its patrons, summons workmen from all directions, and encourages marriage; as long as labor is abundant, marriage is an excellent thing, the effects of which they are fond of quoting in the interest of machinery; but, the patronage fluctuating, as soon as work and wages are not to be had, they denounce the abuse of marriage, and accuse laborers of improvidence. Political economy — that is, proprietary despotism — can never be in the wrong: it must be the proletariat.

The example of printing has been cited many a time, always to sustain the optimistic view. The number of persons supported today by the manufacture of books is perhaps a thousand times larger than was that of the copyists and illuminators prior to Gutenberg’s time; therefore, they conclude with a satisfied air, printing has injured nobody. An infinite number of similar facts might be cited, all of them indisputable, but not one of which would advance the question a step. Once more, no one denies that machines have contributed to the general welfare; but I affirm, in regard to this incontestable fact, that the economists fall short of the truth when they advance the absolute statement that the simplification of processes has nowhere resulted in a diminution of the number of hands employed in any industry whatever. What the economists ought to say is that machinery, like the division of labor, in the present system of social economy is at once a source of wealth and a permanent and fatal cause of misery.

In 1836, in a Manchester mill, nine frames, each having three hundred and twenty-four spindles, were tended by four spinners. Afterwards the mules were doubled in length, which gave each of the nine six hundred and eighty spindles and enabled two men to tend them.

There we have the naked fact of the elimination of the workman by the machine. By a simple device three workmen out of four are evicted; what matters it that fifty years later, the population of the globe having doubled and the trade of England having quadrupled, new machines will be constructed and the English manufacturers will reemploy their workmen? Do the economists mean to point to the increase of population as one of the benefits of machinery? Let them renounce, then, the theory of Malthus, and stop declaiming against the excessive fecundity of marriage.

They did not stop there: soon a new mechanical improvement enabled a single worker to do the work that formerly occupied four.

A new three-fourths reduction of manual work: in all, a reduction of human labor by fifteen-sixteenths.

A Bolton manufacturer writes: “The elongation of the mules of our frames permits us to employ but twenty-six spinners where we employed thirty-five in 1837.”

Another decimation of laborers: one out of four is a victim.

These facts are taken from the “Revue Economique” of 1842; and there is nobody who cannot point to similar ones. I have witnessed the introduction of printing machines, and I can say that I have seen with my own eyes the evil which printers have suffered thereby. During the fifteen or twenty years that the machines have been in use a portion of the workmen have gone back to composition, others have abandoned their trade, and some have died of misery: thus laborers are continually crowded back in consequence of industrial innovations. Twenty years ago eighty canal-boats furnished the navigation service between Beaucaire and Lyons; a score of steam-packets has displaced them all. Certainly commerce is the gainer; but what has become of the boating-population? Has it been transferred from the boats to the packets? No: it has gone where all superseded industries go, — it has vanished.

For the rest, the following documents, which I take from the same source, will give a more positive idea of the influence of industrial improvements upon the condition of the workers.

The average weekly wages, at Manchester, is ten shillings. Out of four hundred and fifty workers there are not forty who earn twenty shillings.

The author of the article is careful to remark that an Englishman consumes five times as much as a Frenchman; this, then, is as if a French workingman had to live on two francs and a half a week.

“Edinburgh Review,” 1835: “To a combination of workmen (who did not want to see their wages reduced) we owe the mule of Sharpe and Roberts of Manchester; and this invention has severely punished the imprudent unionists.”

Punished should merit punishment. The invention of Sharpe and Roberts of Manchester was bound to result from the situation; the refusal of the workmen to submit to the reduction asked of them was only its determining occasion. Might not one infer, from the air of vengeance affected by the “Edinburgh Review,” that machines have a retroactive effect?

An English manufacturer: “The insubordination of our workmen has given us the idea of dispensing with them. We have made and stimulated every imaginable effort of the mind to replace the service of men by tools more docile, and we have achieved our object. Machinery has delivered capital from the oppression of labor. Wherever we still employ a man, we do so only temporarily, pending the invention for us of some means of accomplishing his work without him.”

What a system is that which leads a business man to think with delight that society will soon be able to dispense with men! Machinery has delivered capital from the oppression of labor! That is exactly as if the cabinet should undertake to deliver the treasury from the oppression of the taxpayers. Fool! though the workmen cost you something, they are your customers: what will you do with your products, when, driven away by you, they shall consume them no longer? Thus machinery, after crushing the workmen, is not slow in dealing employers a counter-blow; for, if production excludes consumption, it is soon obliged to stop itself.

During the fourth quarter of 1841 four great failures, happening in an English manufacturing city, threw seventeen hundred and twenty people on the street.

These failures were caused by over-production, — that is, by an inadequate market, or the distress of the people. What a pity that machinery cannot also deliver capital from the oppression of consumers! What a misfortune that machines do not buy the fabrics which they weave! The ideal society will be reached when commerce, agriculture, and manufactures can proceed without a man upon earth!

In a Yorkshire parish for nine months the operatives have been working but two days a week.

Machines!

At Geston two factories valued at sixty thousand pounds sterling have been sold for twenty-six thousand. They produced more than they could sell.

Machines!

In 1841 the number of children under thirteen years of age engaged in manufactures diminishes, because children over thirteen take their place.

Machines! The adult workman becomes an apprentice, a child, again: this result was foreseen from the phase of the division of labor, during which we saw the quality of the workman degenerate in the ratio in which industry was perfected.

In his conclusion the journalist makes this reflection: “Since 1836 there has been a retrograde movement in the cotton industry”; — that is, it no longer keeps up its relation with other industries: another result foreseen from the theory of the proportionality of values.

Today workmen’s coalitions and strikes seem to have stopped throughout England, and the economists rightly rejoice over this return to order, — let us say even to common sense. But because laborers henceforth — at least I cherish the hope — will not add the misery of their voluntary periods of idleness to the misery which machines force upon them, does it follow that the situation is changed? And if there is no change in the situation, will not the future always be a deplorable copy of the past?

The economists love to rest their minds on pictures of public felicity: it is by this sign principally that they are to be recognized, and that they estimate each other. Nevertheless there are not lacking among them, on the other hand, moody and sickly imaginations, ever ready to offset accounts of growing prosperity with proofs of persistent poverty.

M. Theodore Fix thus summed up the general situation in December, 1844:

The food supply of nations is no longer exposed to those terrible disturbances caused by scarcities and famines, so frequent up to the beginning of the nineteenth century. The variety of agricultural growths and improvements has abolished this double scourge almost absolutely. The total wheat crop in France in 1791 was estimated at about 133,000,000 bushels, which gave, after deducting seed, 2.855 bushels to each inhabitant. In 1840 the same crop was estimated at 198,590,000 bushels, or 2.860 bushels to each individual, the area of cultivated surface being almost the same as before the Revolution.... The rate of increase of manufactured goods has been at least as high as that of food products; and we are justified in saying that the mass of textile fabrics has more than doubled and perhaps tripled within fifty years. The perfecting of technical processes has led to this result....

Since the beginning of the century the average duration of life has increased by two or three years, — an undeniable sign of greater comfort, or, if you will, a diminution of poverty.

Within twenty years the amount of indirect revenue, without any burdensome change in legislation, has risen from $40,000,000 francs to 720,000,000, — a symptom of economic, much more than of fiscal, progress.

On January 1, 1844, the deposit and consignment office owed the savings banks 351,500,000 francs, and Paris figured in this sum for 105,000,000. Nevertheless the development of the institution has taken place almost wholly within twelve years, and it should be noticed that the 351,500,000 francs now due to the savings banks do not constitute the entire mass of economies effected, since at a given time the capital accumulated is disposed of otherwise.... In 1843, out of 320,000 workmen and 80,000 house-servants living in the capital, 90,000 workmen have deposited in the savings banks 2,547,000 francs, and 34,000 house-servants 1,268,000 francs.

All these facts are entirely true, and the inference to be drawn from them in favor of machines is of the exactest, — namely, that they have indeed given a powerful impetus to the general welfare. But the facts with which we shall supplement them are no less authentic, and the inference to be drawn from these against machines will be no less accurate, — to wit, that they are a continual cause of pauperism. I appeal to the figures of M. Fix himself.

Out of 320,000 workmen and 80,000 house-servants residing in Paris, there are 230,000 of the former and 46,000 of the latter — a total of 276,000 — who do not deposit in the savings banks. No one would dare pretend that these are 276,000 spendthrifts and ne’er-do-weels who expose themselves to misery voluntarily. Now, as among the very ones who make the savings there are to be found poor and inferior persons for whom the savings bank is but a respite from debauchery and misery, we may conclude that, out of all the individuals living by their labor, nearly three-fourths either are imprudent, lazy, and depraved, since they do not deposit in the savings banks, or are too poor to lay up anything. There is no other alternative. But common sense, to say nothing of charity, permits no wholesale accusation of the laboring class: it is necessary, therefore, to throw the blame back upon our economic system. How is it that M. Fix did not see that his figures accused themselves?

They hope that, in time, all, or almost all, laborers will deposit in the savings banks. Without awaiting the testimony of the future, we may test the foundations of this hope immediately.

According to the testimony of M. Vee, mayor of the fifth arrondissement of Paris, “the number of needy families inscribed upon the registers of the charity bureaus is 30,000, — which is equivalent to 65,000 individuals.” The census taken at the beginning of 1846 gave 88,474. And poor families not inscribed, — how many are there of those? As many. Say, then, 180,000 people whose poverty is not doubtful, although not official. And all those who live in straitened circumstances, though keeping up the appearance of comfort, — how many are there of those? Twice as many, — a total of 360,000 persons, in Paris, who are somewhat embarrassed for means.

“They talk of wheat,” cries another economist, M. Louis Leclerc, “but are there not immense populations which go without bread? Without leaving our own country, are there not populations which live exclusively on maize, buckwheat, chestnuts?”

M. Leclerc denounces the fact: let us interpret it. If, as there is no doubt, the increase of population is felt principally in the large cities, — that is, at those points where the most wheat is consumed, — it is clear that the average per head may have increased without any improvement in the general condition. There is no such liar as an average.

“They talk,” continues the same writer, “of the increase of indirect consumption. Vain would be the attempt to acquit Parisian adulteration: it exists; it has its masters, its adepts, its literature, its didactic and classic treatises.... France possessed exquisite wines; what has been done with them? What has become of this splendid wealth? Where are the treasures created since Probus by the national genius? And yet, when one considers the excesses to which wine gives rise wherever it is dear, wherever it does not form a part of the regular life of the people; when in Paris, capital of the kingdom of good wines, one sees the people gorging themselves with I know not what, — stuff that is adulterated, sophisticated, sickening, and sometimes execrable, — and well-to-do persons drinking at home or accepting without a word, in famous restaurants, so-called wines, thick, violet-colored, and insipid, flat, and miserable enough to make the poorest Burgundian peasant shudder, — can one honestly doubt that alcoholic liquids are one of the most imperative needs of our nature?

I quote this passage at length, because it sums up in relation to a special case all that could be said upon the inconveniences of machinery. To the people it is with wine as with fabrics, and generally with all goods and merchandise created for the consumption of the poor. It is always the same deduction: to reduce by some process or other the cost of manufacture, in order, first, to maintain advantageously competition with more fortunate or richer rivals; second, to serve the vast numbers of plundered persons who cannot disregard price simply because the quality is good. Produced in the ordinary ways, wine is too expensive for the mass of consumers; it is in danger of remaining in the cellars of the retailers. The manufacturer of wines gets around the difficulty: unable to introduce machinery into the cultivation of the vine, he finds a means, with the aid of some accompaniments, of placing the precious liquid within the reach of all. Certain savages, in their periods of scarcity, eat earth; the civilized workman drinks water. Malthus was a great genius.

As far as the increase of the average duration of life is concerned, I recognize the fact, but at the same time I declare the observation incorrect. Let us explain that. Suppose a population of ten million souls: if, from whatever cause you will, the average life should increase five years for a million individuals, mortality continuing its ravages at the same rate as before among the nine other millions, it would be found, on distributing this increase among the whole, that on an average six months had been added to the life of each individual. It is with the average length of life, the so-called indicator of average comfort, as with average learning: the level of knowledge does not cease to rise, which by no means alters the fact that there are today in France quite as many barbarians as in the days of Francois I. The charlatans who had railroad speculation in view made a great noise about the importance of the locomotive in the circulation of ideas; and the economists, always on the lookout for civilized stupidities, have not failed to echo this nonsense. As if ideas, in order to spread, needed locomotives! What, then, prevents ideas from circulating from the Institute to the Faubourgs Saint-Antoine and Saint-Marceau, in the narrow and wretched streets of Old Paris and the Temple Quarter, everywhere, in short, where dwells this multitude even more destitute of ideas than of bread? How happens it that between a Parisian and a Parisian, in spite of the omnibus and the letter-carrier, the distance is three times greater today than in the fourteenth century?

The ruinous influence of machinery on social economy and the condition of the laborers is exercised in a thousand ways, all of which are bound together and reciprocally labelled: cessation of labor, reduction of wages, over-production, obstruction of the market, alteration and adulteration of products, failures, displacement of laborers, degeneration of the race, and, finally, diseases and death.

M. Théodore Fix has remarked himself that in the last fifty years the average stature of man, in France, has diminished by a considerable fraction of an inch. This observation is worth his previous one: upon whom does this diminution take effect?

In a report read to the Academy of Moral Sciences on the results of the law of March 22, 1841, M. Leon Faucher expressed himself thus:

Young workmen are pale, weak, short in stature, and slow to think as well as to move. At fourteen or fifteen years they seem no more developed than children of nine or ten years in the normal state. As for their intellectual and moral development, there are some to be found who, at the age of thirteen, have no notion of God, who have never heard of their duties, and whose first school of morality was a prison.

That is what M. Léon Faucher has seen, to the great displeasure of M. Charles Dupin, and this state of things he declares that the law of March 22 is powerless to remedy. And let us not get angry over this impotence of the legislator: the evil arises from a cause as necessary for us as the sun; and in the path upon which we have entered, anger of any kind, like palliatives of any kind, could only make our situation worse. Yes, while science and industry are making such marvellous progress, it is a necessity, unless civilization’s centre of gravity should suddenly change, that the intelligence and comfort of the proletariat be diminished; while the lives of the well-to-do classes grow longer and easier, it is inevitable that those of the needy should grow harder and shorter. This is established in the writings of the best — I mean, the most optimistic — thinkers.

According to M. de Morogues, 7,500,000 men in France have only ninety-one francs a year to spend, 25 centimes a day. Cing sous! cing sous! (Five cents! five cents!). There is something prophetic, then, in this odious refrain.

In England (not including Scotland and Ireland) the poor-rate was: 1801. £4,078,891 for a population of 8,872,980 1818. £7,870,801 ” ” ” ” 11,978,875 1833. £8,000,000 ” ” ” ” 14,000,000

The progress of poverty, then, has been more rapid than that of population; in face of this fact, what becomes of the hypotheses of Malthus? And yet it is indisputable that during the same period the average comfort increased: what, then, do statistics signify?

The death-rate for the first arrondissement of Paris is one to every fifty-two inhabitants, and for the twelfth one to every twenty-six. Now, the latter contains one needy person to every seven inhabitants, while the former has only one to every twenty-eight. That does not prevent the average duration of life, even in Paris, from increasing, as M. Fix has very correctly observed.

At Mulhouse the probabilities of average life are twenty-nine years for children of the well-to-do class and TWO years for those of the workers; in 1812 the average life in the same locality was twenty-five years, nine months, and twelve days, while in 1827 it was not over twenty-one years and nine months. And yet throughout France the average life is longer. What does this mean?

M. Blanqui, unable to explain so much prosperity and so much poverty at once, cries somewhere: “Increased production does not mean additional wealth.... Poverty, on the contrary, becomes the wider spread in proportion to the concentration of industries. There must be some radical vice in a system which guarantees no security either to capital or labor, and which seems to multiply the embarrass-ments of producers at the same time that it forces them to multiply their products.”

There is no radical vice here. What astonishes M. Blanqui is simply that of which the Academy to which he belongs has asked a determination, — namely, the oscillations of the economic pendulum, VALUE, beating alternately and in regular time good and evil, until the hour of the universal equation shall strike. If I may be permitted another comparison, humanity in its march is like a column of soldiers, who, starting in the same step and at the same moment to the measured beating of the drum, gradually lose their distances. The whole body advances, but the distance from head to tail grows ever longer; and it is a necessary effect of the movement that there should be some laggards and stragglers.

But it is necessary to penetrate still farther into the antinomy. Machines promised us an increase of wealth; they have kept their word, but at the same time endowing us with an increase of poverty. They promised us liberty; I am going to prove that they have brought us slavery.

I have stated that the determination of value, and with it the tribulations of society, began with the division of industries, without which there could be no exchange, or wealth, or progress. The period through which we are now passing — that of machinery — is distinguished by a special characteristic, — WAGES.

Wages issued in a direct line from the employment of machinery, — that is, to give my thought the entire generality of expression which it calls for, from the economic fiction by which capital becomes an agent of production. Wages, in short, coming after the division of labor and exchange, is the necessary correlative of the theory of the reduction of costs, in whatever way this reduction may be accomplished. This genealogy is too interesting to be passed by without a few words of explanation.

The first, the simplest, the most powerful of machines is the workshop.

Division simply separates the various parts of labor, leaving each to devote himself to the specialty best suited to his tastes: the workshop groups the laborers according to the relation of each part to the whole. It is the most elementary form of the balance of values, undiscoverable though the economists suppose this to be. Now, through the workshop, production is going to increase, and at the same time the deficit.

Somebody discovered that, by dividing production into its various parts and causing each to be executed by a separate workman, he would obtain a multiplication of power, the product of which would be far superior to the amount of labor given by the same number of workmen when labor is not divided.

Grasping the thread of this idea, he said to himself that, by forming a permanent group of laborers assorted with a view to his special purpose, he would produce more steadily, more abundantly, and at less cost. It is not indispensable, however, that the workmen should be gathered into one place: the existence of the workshop does not depend essentially upon such contact. It results from the relation and proportion of the different tasks and from the common thought directing them. In a word, concentration at one point may offer its advantages, which are not to be neglected; but that is not what constitutes the workshop

This, then, is the proposition which the speculator makes to those whose collaboration he desires: I guarantee you a perpetual market for your products, if you will accept me as purchaser or middle-man. The bargain is so clearly advantageous that the proposition cannot fail of acceptance. The laborer finds in it steady work, a fixed price, and security; the employer, on the other hand, will find a readier sale for his goods, since, producing more advantageously, he can lower the price; in short, his profits will be larger because of the mass of his investments. All, even to the public and the magistrate, will congratulate the employer on having added to the social wealth by his combinations, and will vote him a reward.

But, in the first place, whoever says reduction of expenses says reduction of services, not, it is true, in the new shop, but for the workers at the same trade who are left outside, as well as for many others whose accessory services will be less needed in future. Therefore every establishment of a workshop corresponds to an eviction of workers: this assertion, utterly contradictory though it may appear, is as true of the workshop as of a machine.

The economists admit it: but here they repeat their eternal refrain that, after a lapse of time, the demand for the product having increased in proportion to the reduction of price, labor in turn will come finally to be in greater demand than ever. Undoubtedly, WITH TIME, the equilibrium will be restored; but, I must add again, the equilibrium will be no sooner restored at this point than it will be disturbed at another, because the spirit of invention never stops, any more than labor. Now, what theory could justify these perpetual hecatombs?” When we have reduced the number of toilers,” wrote Sismondi, “to a fourth or a fifth of what it is at present, we shall need only a fourth or a fifth as many priests, physicians, etc. When we have cut them off altogether, we shall be in a position to dispense with the human race.” And that is what really would happen if, in order to put the labor of each machine in proportion to the needs of consumption, — that is, to restore the balance of values continually destroyed, — it were not necessary to continually create new machines, open other markets, and consequently multiply services and displace other arms. So that on the one hand industry and wealth, on the other population and misery, advance, so to speak, in procession, one always dragging the other after it.

I have shown the contractor, at the birth of industry, negotiating on equal terms with his comrades, who have since become his workmen. It is plain, in fact, that this original equality was bound to disappear through the advantageous position of the master and the dependence of the wage-workers. In vain does the law assure to each the right of enterprise, as well as the faculty to labor alone and sell one’s products directly. According to the hypothesis, this last resource is impracticable, since it was the object of the workshop to annihilate isolated labor. And as for the right to take the plough, as they say, and go at speed, it is the same in manufactures as in agriculture; to know how to work is nothing, it is necessary to arrive at the right time; the shop, as well as the land, is to the first comer. When an establishment has had the leisure to develop itself, enlarge its foundations, ballast itself with capital, and assure itself a body of patrons, what can the workman who has only his arms do against a power so superior? Hence it was not by an arbitrary act of sovereign power or by fortuitous and brutal usurpation that the guilds and masterships were established in the Middle Ages: the force of events had created them long before the edicts of kings could have given them legal consecration; and, in spite of the reform of ’89, we see them reestablishing themselves under our eyes with an energy a hundred times more formidable. Abandon labor to its own tendencies, and the subjection of three-fourths of the human race is assured.

But this is not all. The machine, or the workshop, after having degraded the laborer by giving him a master, completes his degeneracy by reducing him from the rank of artisan to that of common workman.

Formerly the population on the banks of the Saone and Rhone was largely made up of watermen, thoroughly fitted for the conduct of canal-boats or row-boats. Now that the steam-tug is to be found almost everywhere, most of the boatmen, finding it impossible to get a living at their trade, either pass three-fourths of their life in idleness, or else become stokers.

If not misery, then degradation: such is the last alternative which machinery offers to the workman. For it is with a machine as with a piece of artillery: the captain excepted, those whom it occupies are servants, slaves.

Since the establishment of large factories, a multitude of little industries have disappeared from the domestic hearth: does any one believe that the girls who work for ten and fifteen cents have as much intelligence as their ancestors?

“After the establishment of the railway from Paris to Saint Germain,” M. Dunoyer tells us, “there were established between Pecq and a multitude of places in the more or less immediate vicinity such a number of omnibus and stage lines that this establishment, contrary to all expectation, has considerably increased the employment of horses.”

Contrary to all expectation! It takes an economist not to expect these things. Multiply machinery, and you increase the amount of arduous and disagreeable labor to be done: this apothegm is as certain as any of those which date from the deluge. Accuse me, if you choose, of ill-will towards the most precious invention of our century, — nothing shall prevent me from saying that the principal result of railways, after the subjection of petty industry, will be the creation of a population of degraded laborers, — signalmen, sweepers, loaders, lumpers, draymen, watchmen, porters, weighers, greasers, cleaners, stokers, firemen, etc. Two thousand miles of railway will give France an additional fifty thousand serfs: it is not for such people, certainly, that M. Chevalier asks professional schools.

Perhaps it will be said that, the mass of transportation having increased in much greater proportion than the number of day-laborers, the difference is to the advantage of the railway, and that, all things considered, there is progress. The observation may even be generalized and the same argument applied to all industries.

But it is precisely out of this generality of the phenomenon that springs the subjection of laborers. Machinery plays the leading role in industry, man is secondary: all the genius displayed by labor tends to the degradation of the proletariat. What a glorious nation will be ours when, among forty millions of inhabitants, it shall count thirty-five millions of drudges, paper-scratchers, and flunkies!

With machinery and the workshop, divine right — that is, the principle of authority — makes its entrance into political economy. Capital, Mastership, Privilege, Monopoly, Loaning, Credit, Property, etc., — such are, in economic language, the various names of I know not what, but which is otherwise called Power, Authority, Sovereignty, Written Law, Revelation, Religion, God in short, cause and principle of all our miseries and all our crimes, and who, the more we try to define him, the more eludes us.

Is it, then, impossible that, in the present condition of society, the workshop with its hierarchical organization, and machinery, instead of serving exclusively the interests of the least numerous, the least industrious, and the wealthiest class, should be employed for the benefit of all?

That is what we are going to examine.

#organization #revolution #anarchism #daily posts #communism #anti capitalist #anti capitalism #late stage capitalism #anarchy #anarchists #libraries #leftism #social issues #economy #economics #climate change #anarchy works #environmentalism #environment #solarpunk #anti colonialism #mutual aid #the system of economic contradictions #the philosophy of poverty #volume i #pierre-joseph proudhon #pierre joseph proudhon

[epidaleacalamita]

if i was the demon lord i would spend a few decades building up an alter ego of an incredibly skilled blacksmith hidden away in like a cave in a remote mountain and eventually the hero would show up at my place and i'd be all

"You must be the hero... so then, that should be..."

[i make a big show of inspecting the sacred sword]

"No... I don't know what those imbeciles at the Church have been up to, but that blade is a sad shadow of its former self. Powerful, still, but it won't be enough to challenge the Demon Lord... Hero. Listen."

[passes over a list of rare drops from several legendary monsters]

"Bring me these materials... and I'll reawaken this sword's true potential. Restore it to its former glory, and leave no doubt that you'll end the Demon Lord's tyranny once and for all."

and then the hero comes back later and passes me all the materials and the sword and i grind the mats into powder and throw them in a cauldron and swish the sword in there a little. and then i put the sword on my anvil and raise my hammer and swing it down as hard as i can and shatter the sacred sword into a million pieces and teleport away

[thegodwithin]

Highlights

Changing the feeling of “I” - Neville Goddard

“Your description of the world is a confession of the self that you do not know. You describe another, you describe society, you describe anything, and your description of the thing you observe reveals to one who knows this law the being you really are. So you must first accept that self. When that self is accepted, then you can start to change. It's so much easier to take the virtues of the Gospel and apply them as the word of life, to love the enemy, to bless those who curse us, and to feed the hungry. But when man discovers the being to be fed, the being to be clothed, the being to be sheltered, the greatest enemy of all is that self, then he is ashamed, completely ashamed that that is the being, for it was easier to share with another something that I possess, to take an extra coat and give it to another, but when I know the truth it's not that. I start with the self, having discovered, and start with change of that self.”

“and he by the arrangement of his own mind, by consenting to these restrictions in his cradle and being conditioned slowly through his youth, waking into manhood believing himself set upon would have to be set upon”

“So you and I can be anything in this world we desire to be if we will clearly define our aim in life and constantly occupy that aim. It must be habitual. The concept we hold of self that is noble must not be put on just for a moment and taken off when we leave this church. We feel free here; we feel that we have something in common, that's why we are here, but are we going to wear the noble concept we now hold of self when we go through the door and enter that bus, or are we going to return to the restrictions that were ours prior to coming here? The choice is ours and the hardest lesson to learn is that there is no one in this world that can be drawn into your world unless you, and you alone, call him.”

“So, the changing of the feeling of "I" is a selective thing because unnumbered states are infinite states, but the "I" is not the state. The "I" believes itself to be the state when it enters and fuses with it, so he was presented with a state and without the faculty of discrimination in his youth, he fused with the state and believed these restrictions were true, and it took him three years to disentangle the "I" from these fixed ideas with which he had lived for so many years. Now you may take only a moment or you, too, may take your three years. I can't tell you how long it's going to take you but I'll tell you this much. It can be measured by the feeling of naturalness. You can wear a feeling until it's natural. The moment the feeling becomes natural, it will begin to bear fruit within your world.”

“You can start now from scratch and choose the being you want to be. You aren't going to change the pigment of your skin but you will find your accent or the pigment of skin or your so-called racial background will not be a hindrance, for if a man is ever hindered it can only be the state of consciousness in which he abides that hinders him. Man is freed or constrained by reason of the state of mind in which he persists.”

“When we make that discovery we shake ourselves out of it and boldly appropriate the gift our Father gave us before that the world was. So let me show you the gift. You've read your Lord's Prayer possibly daily, but you read it as a prayer from a translation of a translation which does not reveal the sense of the evangelist. The real translation, you will find in Farrar Fenton's work where in the original it is written in the imperative passive mood, which is like a standing order, a thing to be done absolutely and continuously. So that you can look now upon your universe as one vast inter-knit machinery where all things happen.”

“There isn't a thing to become; all things are taking place, so it is written in this manner, "Thy will must be being done. Thy kingdom must be being restored."

“If you will see all things are now, you don't become, you simply select the state that you would occupy. Occupying it you seem to become but it is already a fact, every aspect of that state in its most minute detail. It's worked out and taking place. You by occupying the state seem to go through the action of unfolding that state, but the state is completely finished and taking place.”

“Now, how will I know that I have changed the feeling of "I"? By beginning first with an uncritical observation of my reactions to life and then noticing my reactions when I think I am identified with my choice. If I assume that I am the man that I want to be, let me observe my reactions. If they are as they were, I have not identified myself with my choice, for my reactions are automatic and so if I am changed I would automatically change my reactions to life. So the changing of the feeling of "I" results in a change of reaction, which change of reaction is a change of environment and behavior. But let me warn you now. A little alteration of mood is not a transformation; it's not a real change of consciousness. Because as I change my mood for the moment it can quickly and rapidly be I would say, replaced by another mood in the reverse direction. When I say that I was changed, as that gentleman changed his mood, his basic mood, his state of consciousness, it means that having assumed that I am what the moment denied, what my reason denied, that I remain in that state long enough to make that state stable. So that all of my energies are flowing from that state. I am no longer thinking of that state. I am thinking from that state. So that wherever a state grows so stable as to definitely expel all of its rivals, then that central, habitual state of consciousness from which I think defines my character and is really a true transformation or change of consciousness. Whenever I reach that state of stability, watch my world mold itself then in harmony with this inner change. And men will come into my world, people will come to aid and they will think they are initiating the urge to help. They are playing only their part. They must do what they do because I have done what I did. Having moved from one state into the other. I have altered my relationship relative to the world round about, and that changed relationship compels a change in behavior relative to my world. So they have to act differently toward me.”

“the double minded man is unstable in all his ways. Let not such a man believe that he shall receive anything of the Lord; for he is like a wave that is driven and tossed by the wind." That man never reaches his goal.”

“So we sit quietly and we simply become imitators of our Father. And He called the world into being by being the thing he would call. And so we sit and we listen as though we heard someone congratulating us on having found what we seek. So we go to the end of the matter and we listen just as though we heard, and we look as though we saw, and we try in this manner to feel ourselves right into the situation of our answered prayer, and there we wait in the silence.”

#law of assumption #neville goddard #ng highlights #qt #ng

[sasster]

The Soldier and the Priest

You know how Ailzea is going through some things right now? WELL, he still has people that depend on him. Didn’t ya know?

Right so! Happy belated birthday to both Wren AND Seifer. <3 Those are some good guys right there.

[Doc]

--

Trolls of all sorts tend to find their way to the House of Restoration, this has been a reality since the death of that ruthless Reverend. A great deal looking to find a new home and community, some simply dropping in to say that they did, and the ones that come in search of an ear or shoulder for their strife.

There is no shortage of trolls that find their way to these church doors.

Ailzea is never bothered by their sudden appearances, armed with conversations that are just as profound for him as they are for them, and they are typically easy to find; Standing awkwardly among the members of his community with demons that weigh their heads and shoulders down.

Tonight a troll that he has never seen before stands at the entrance of the church, anxious fingers dancing and gripping rhythmically along the hem of a fleet sanctioned uniform. His fins twitch along to what Ailzea assumes is the beating of an erratic heart. Even the inexperienced in such matters could tell that he regretted even making the trip, the fear of retaliation clear as day in his eyes.

This stranger does not seem like trouble.

“I assume this is only a short visit?”

Though the priest, known for his soft spoken nature, approaches calmly, the soldier winces as though he’d been struck. Eyes better suited for a caged animal dart around wildly, and he takes a step that looks like he is much more likely to use it to jump out of his skin. He was poised to dart right back out those doors. The reaction seems more like he’d been burned, not like the typical response to a conversation starter.

The silent panic overtakes him as he swings his gaze around the room, the gears in his mind turning to cook up an excuse for having ended up here.

“My child. Whatever it entails, I will keep your visit between us.”

There is a beat of silence before the newcomer says anything.

“That,” he swallows. “I would greatly appreciate that, sir.”

“You may call me Ailzea.” the priest, offering a hand, says softly. “If you must honor me, Father Roatus will suffice.”

Once again, the violet blood is silent, for a much shorter stretch this time, before he swallows and accepts the offered hand.

“Thank you, Father. My name is Seifer.”

“Seifer,” he echoes. “What a lovely name.”

Hand in hand, the newcomer almost seems to melt into the embrace as the compliment reaches his ear and causes his drooping fins to perk for just a second. This is a man that has not known kindness in far too many sweeps.

“How may I ease your burdens, Seifer?”

“I don’t know why I am here. I think that I should not have come.”

As the priest leads the soldier to a vacant pew, he takes note of the way his fins fold to sit flat against his face, potentially in a bid to make himself appear smaller or in response to some form of expected abuse. Ailzea has been doing this long enough to know that no amount of words can convey to this poor soul that such abuse will not come, never at these hands, he merely squeezes Seifer’s as they take their seats.

“Well, you are here. Perhaps we can find a conversation to have.”

Seifer takes his hand back and folds both neatly into his lap, choosing to train his gaze on his feet instead of meeting Ailzea’s.

“Or we can sit in silence.”

His fins unfold and twitch a few times as he considers this, until finally he nods in the affirmative.

“Silence it is.”

The silence settles around the pair seamlessly, Seifer’s tail worries itself around his idle hands and his fins come to droop in a veil of sadness around his face. He looks like he must feel pathetic.

True to his word, Ailzea says nothing and instead focuses on the stained glass of the windows high above them. He appreciates the way the moons, now high in the cloudless sky, bathe them in their multicolor light.

It is a good night to unburden a new friend.

More time passes and the church empties of the few patrons that were milling about at the soldier’s arrival. If Ailzea had to guess, some form of community activity drew them away from the pewed room that protected the violet from the outside world. Perhaps these walls could do more to protect him.

Finally his tail uncurls from around his hands and he begins to card listlessly through his hair, then he speaks.

“I’m sorry.”

The declaration does not take Ailzea by surprise,it is obvious on his face that he is sorry.

Sorry, pathetic thing.

He wonders who has been taking advantage of him. What can he do for him?

Ailzea says nothing, whatever he has to say may steal the courage away from the poor thing.

“I don’t know how to talk about this,” his fingers torment a lock as he searches for the words. “But they say you’re the one to talk to.”

The priest only nods.

“What if I don’t do it right?” 

He lifts his head up to fix his eyes on the purple blood, and his shoulders shake with his uncertainty. 

“There is no proper way to do any of this. The best you can do is free the worry from your heart. Speak to me, my child.”

Seifer takes a shaky breath, one that forces his shoulders to shake even more. He looks like a leaf about to blow away in a breeze. He balls a hand into a fist around his poor worn out hair.

“I can’t die and it’s a curse that I wouldn’t wish on anyone.”

His breath hitches and the words fight their way fumbling out of his mouth, protesting the small cage of his chest that they’d been buried in all this time. 

The priest understands immediately what he means to say, no stranger to the odd visitor that struggles with such an affliction.

“Rarely is the one that has such a power the one that benefits from it, I am sorry to hear of this.”

At this response Seifer untangles his hands from his hair and once again coils an anxious tail around the pair, running his finger along its length. Frustration begins to etch its way onto his features, furrowing his brow in a way that only makes him look more exhausted. Tears start to form at the corners of his eyes.

Briefly, something in his eye gives insight to a quick internal struggle. Ailzea has seen this look many times before; Should he say more or stop where he is at? He says nothing to urge him in either direction, he only waits.

Seifer flounders in the silence for a bit, grasping for the words to say around the tail he continues to terrorize. It’s a marvel that he hasn’t worried the fins and skin right off of the poor thing.

“Is someone taking advantage of your curse?” Ailzea asks softly and a miserably sound dies in the soldier’s throat, strangled. 

That is all of the confirmation that he needs. He is no stranger to the cruelty that the fleet is capable of, the terror some of the trolls that now walk his halls used to have to deal with.

He remembers the cyborg he has become acquainted with that helps trolls out of such situations, only a phone call away.

“What sort of support are you looking for, my child?”

Once again, uncertainty etches itself into the poor worn out soldier’s features, it truly makes him look even more sad and pathetic.

Hopeless. He looks downright hopeless and the priest has had quite enough of the hopeless cases plaguing his life right now.

“I just wanted someone to listen.” Seifer squawks, all but pleading with the purple blood to not do anything with the information he has been provided.

“Yes, but,” the Restorer speaks slowly, searching within for the correct words that will not set this new charge of his into a paranoia spiral. Something about him says that some part of him feels he deserves this torture. That won’t stand. “I believe that I know someone that may be able to help me get you out of this situation. Do you suppose you can trust me a little longer?”

Seifer swallows, very quickly a speck of hope shines behind his eyes before he manages to kill the thought.

Why would he be so quick to entertain such an idea, anyway? Then again, his fluttering fins betray that defeatist demeanor.

“Come, please, let us speak somewhere more private.”

The soldier takes a deep breath, nods his head, and stands when the priest stands.

#the restorer #my good friend and buddy seifer <3 kiskiskis for u seifer #coko writes sometimes #long post

[orthodoxadventure]

The doctrinal significance of icons.

Here we come to the real heart of the Iconoclast dispute. Granted that icons are not idolatrous; granted that they are useful for instruction; but are they not only permissible but necessary? It it essential to have icons? The Iconodules held that it is, because icons safeguard a full and proper doctrine of the Incarnation. Iconoclasts and Iconodules agreed that God cannot be represented in His eternal nature: 'no man has seen God at any time' (John i, 18). But, the Iconodules continued, the Incarnation has made a representational religious art possible: God can be depicted because He became man and took flesh. Material images, argued John of Damascus, can be made of Him who took a material body:

Of old God the incorporeal and uncircumscribed was not depicted at all. But now that God has appeared in the flesh and lived among men, I make an image of the God who can be seen. I do not worship matter but I worship the Creator of matter, who for my sake became material and deigned to dwell in matter, who through matter effected my salvation. I will not cease from worshipping the matter through which my salvation has been effected.

The Iconoclasts, by repudiating all representations of God, failed to take full account of the Incarnation. They fell, as so many puritans have done, into a kind of dualism. Regarding matter as a defilement, they wanted a religion freed from all contact with what is material; for they thought that what is spiritual must be non-material. But this is to betray the Incarnation, by allow no place to Christ's humanity, to His body; it is to forget that man's body as well as his soul must be saved and transfigured. The Iconoclast controversy is thus closely linked to the earlier disputes about Christ's person. It was not merely a controversy about religious art, but about the Incarnation and the salvation of man.

God took a material body, thereby proving that matter can be redeemed: 'The Word made flesh has deified the flesh,' said John of Damascus. God has 'deified' matter, making it 'spirit-bearing'; and if flesh became a vehicle of the Spirit, then so -- though in a different way - can wood and paint. The Orthodox doctrine of icons is bound up with the Orthodox belief that the whole of God's creation, material as well as spiritual, is to be redeemed and glorified. In the words of Nicholas Zernov (what he says of Russians is true of Orthodox in general):

[Icons] were for the Russians not merely paintings. They were dynamic manifestations of man's spiritual power to redeem creation through beauty and art. The colour and lines of the [icons] were not meant to imitate nature; the artists aimed at demonstrating that men, animals, and plants, and the whole cosmos, could be rescued from their present state of degradation and restored to their proper 'Image'. The [icons] were pledges of the coming victory of a redeemed creation over the fallen one. . . . The artistic perfection of an icon was not only reflection of that celestial glory -- it was a concrete example of matter restored to its original harmony and beauty, and serving as a vehicle of the Spirit. The icons were part of the transfigured cosmos.

As John of Damascus puts it:

The icon is a song of triumph, and a revelation, and an enduring monument to the victory of the saints and the disgrace of the demons.

-- Kallistos Ware, The Orthodox Church

#Kallistos Ware #Christianity #Orthodox Christianity #Iconography #Theology

[applesauce42069]

i think a major challenge a lot of people are overlooking is housing. massive amounts of gaza's (already low quality) housing stock has been destroyed in the last two months, which forces people into even more crowded conditions. that's not a problem that's going to go away even once the current war is over. on top of that, there could be a lot more people migrating to palestine when peace is established. thirty million jews, palestinians, and immigrants are a lot of people and they presumably don't want to sleep four people to a room while paying through the nose for rent. honestly in terms of construction i think housing will have to be the top priority of a post-conflict state, above dismantling the walls and checkpoints, even. the future will need a whole lot of construction workers, which requires higher pay, which will increase the cost of housing; this pattern is happening in canada and i could very easily see it happening in palestine too.

this is a very important issue and one i have not given much thought to before today.

beyond israel's massive destruction of human life mostly in Gaza and to a certain extent, the west bank - people murdered by the thousands, entire families wiped off the face off the earth - there has been a massive destruction of already limited palestinian infrastructure. survivors will not have homes, neighbourhoods, schools, mosques/churches to return to. this is a massive issue that has the makings of yet another crisis.

i try to focus on ways we can end of the ongoing nightmare (and I don't have many realistic ideas for that one) because the truth is we don't know what the region or the world will look like and almost anything is possible.

in my opinion the only peaceful and just solutions include an end to the occupation and the creation of a functioning palestinian state, an end to the blockade, an end to IDF terrorism of palestinians, and a palestinian right of return, among other things. I think part of this also has to be reparations, which Israel should be responsible for, and this needs to include plans to restore destroyed infrastructure.

many people will point out here that Israel HAS given resources to Gaza and those resources have been weaponized against Israel, specifically Israeli civilians. this is true, so I must include that peaceful and just solutions, in my mind, also need to include safety and rights for Israelis of all ethnicities.

what you bring up about difficulties regarding migration in a hypothetical post-peace scenario is also very important and interesting. many things will have to be addressed and resolved. many israelis currently live on land that Palestinians were displaced from. decisions would have to be made about how to handle this.

I don't have a lot of good answers for this but there are people who have put more thought into this than i have. See below:

Of course we are purely talking in hypotheticals here. There is no way of knowing how things will end, and for any peaceful scenario warmongers on both sides need to stop holding the kind of power they do right now. i simply do not know how this could feasibly happen. everything seems to be getting worse.

and most immediately we need to make sure that Israel stops murdering palestinian civilians

#i/p

[dolphin1812]

“ Up to that time, the Republic, the Empire, had been to him only monstrous words. The Republic, a guillotine in the twilight; the Empire, a sword in the night. He had just taken a look at it, and where he had expected to find only a chaos of shadows, he had beheld, with a sort of unprecedented surprise, mingled with fear and joy, stars sparkling, Mirabeau, Vergniaud, Saint-Just, Robespierre, Camille, Desmoulins, Danton, and a sun arise, Napoleon. He did not know where he stood. He recoiled, blinded by the brilliant lights. Little by little, when his astonishment had passed off, he grew accustomed to this radiance, he contemplated these deeds without dizziness, he examined these personages without terror; the Revolution and the Empire presented themselves luminously, in perspective, before his mind’s eye; he beheld each of these groups of events and of men summed up in two tremendous facts: the Republic in the sovereignty of civil right restored to the masses, the Empire in the sovereignty of the French idea imposed on Europe; he beheld the grand figure of the people emerge from the Revolution, and the grand figure of France spring forth from the Empire.”

Is this a pun in Marius’ political crisis

On a serious note, the flip from “darkness” to “light” here - with Napoleon being the brightest - draws on a longstanding association of light with Progress within the novel and outside of it (“enlightenment”). If to Marius (and frankly, to Hugo), the Revolution was a necessary predecessor to Napoleon and Napoleon was needed to shape modern France, then they must be light, not “twilight” and “night.” The image of him being blinded before he learns how to deal with this new information underscores how shocking this revelation was to him, understandably so given his upbringing and the emotional stakes behind his political shift.

A brief note on the issues with how both Marius and Hugo perceive Napoleon and his empire: the “sovereignty of the French idea imposed on Europe” isn’t appealing at all. Hugo has some implicit recognition of that with the choice of “imposed,” but the reverence for the “French idea” in general means that the imperialist part of empire (or France’s colonial history) isn’t really addressed in the text. To Hugo, the issue with Napoleon is the dominance of one man over the people, so the problems with empire beyond authoritarianism aren’t really touched on.

Marius, of course, has no problems with Napoleon now, having veered into complete idolization of him and of his father. While he’s sympathetic on the personal level - he’s never been exposed to this history in a positive light, and it’s not surprising that he’d want to think positively of someone who loved him so much - his mindset is dangerous. Hugo accused Marius of “fanaticism” as a royalist under Gillenormand’s tutelage, and now he accuses him of the same, but for “the sword.” While I’m skeptical of Hugo’s language here after reading the convent digression (he’s calling Marius’ belief a “religion” and saying he’s a “fanatic” in his devotion to it, which calls to mind Hugo’s more offensive opinions on religion), it’s true that Marius is now suddenly dedicating himself to Napoleon’s army and a militaristic view of history without thinking critically. To be fair, he’s never learned to think critically - this is the first time his worldview has been questioned - but his focus on violence and the military is concerning nonetheless. 

Building on the broader theme of community, we also see Marius start to think of his “country” at the same time as he thinks of his father. He still doesn’t actually interact with a broad range of people - Mabeuf is the only person outside of his family that we know he interacts with - but he is conceptualizing a broader form of community. Given that the most community he’s seen so far has been the church and the salon, the latter of which seems heavily fragmented based on titles and individual stories, his attempt to define a broader community for himself - France - is extremely significant. Marius remains alone in many ways, but at least he can imagine connections in a way he couldn’t before, even if only through a nationalist lens.

#les mis letters #lm 3.3.6 #marius pontmercy #marius crying out long live the emperor will never not be funny though #I feel sympathy for him #but he's also so intense in his Napoleon obsession

[chlorine-and-daisies]

GO ask and touch on religion classes for you and me in need of takes for a fic I'm working on: Is "The Bible" in the GO universe "The Word of God?" Or is it just human dude's documenting, interpreting, and guessing?

Amazing question!

From my understanding (and take this with a grain of salt as I'm just a now-agnostic biochem student who took a couple religion classes) the Bible we know was complied and edited by multiple scholars over centuries, each with their own taste, agenda, and access to different information. Many of them were writing about events that they did not actually witness, or writing allegories instead of straight historical records. There are some Biblical figures that we can assume existed in real life because they show up in non-Biblical sources too, but there are also lots of contradictions and events such as the flood that, to the best of our scientific knowledge, never happened.

In *my opinion* the Bible in Good Omens is just as much "the word of God" as our Bible is. That is- it was written down by men, through the ages, about their own interpretation of God and history.

It's just that in their world, the angels that show up in the Bible are just as real as, say, Ahab, King of Israel, Augustus Caesar, or Jesus. Doesn't mean that everything that's said about them im the Bible is true- Agnes Nutter is still the only writer of true prophecies- but they did show up in history and get remembered to the point where things were written down about them.

Furthermore, Good Omens makes it clear that in the world of the story, Heaven and Hell and God are not responsible for or even aware of the more bigoted human interpretations of the Bible- I can't see the Archangels for example having any idea that humans used the curse of Ham as justification for slavery and Leviticus as a reason to look down on homosexuality, or that women were ever forbidden from speaking in church.

I forget if this showed up in the show, but in the book, Aziraphale collects misprinted Bibles, and in one of them, he had actually inserted a scene of himself telling God that he misplaced the flaming sword during the book's proofreading stage. When he's trying to find a body during Armageddon, he unwittingly possesses a televangelist, and he promptly corrects some of his ideas about the Rapture before leaving. If the Bible was supposed to be the perfect word of God in this world, I doubt that he would have changed it in this way.

(Tangent, but collecting misprinted Bibles is a hobby that he shares with Adah from The Poisonwood Bible, a book that I think would make him and Crowley very emotional. The first line by the way is "Imagine a ruin so strange it must never have happened." It REALLY belongs on Jim's shelf of I books.)

As for Crowley- well. I think he interfered with Bible-writers too. Bildad the Shuhite first insists that God is just and will restore everything to Job if he repents (Job 8), then says that Job must have done something to bring about his own destruction (Job 19), then questions whether it is even possible for a human to be pure in the eyes of God (Job 25).

Finally Bildad apologizes to Job after God tells Eliphaz the Temanite to take his friends (which includes Bildad) and make a sacrifice to Job. (Job 42)

I want to draw attention to Bildad's words about God in Job 25:5-6 - "If even the moon is not bright and the stars are not pure in his eyes, how much less a mortal, who is but a maggot- a human being, who is only a worm!"

*In the Good Omens universe, where Bildad is Crowley,* these lines could show Crowley's true feelings and disillusionment with God. It's a sentiment that feels in character for him- if God thinks my stars are impure, then he probably thinks that I, and humans, will never be able to be pure. Very reminiscent of his thoughts when he's sitting in his room with space photos floating around him.

Obviously Crowley was never cruel to Job the way Bildad was- I wonder if he had these lines inserted after the fact to create a record and show Hell that he was obviously doing his job and up to no good during the Job incident.

But yeah! Thank you for the amazing question!!!!! I believe that the Bible in both the real world and in Good Omens comes from multiple human authors, contains varying degrees of truth, and changes its meaning as it is constantly reinterpreted- so it is the "Word of God" in that God and His relationship with humanity are the main focus, but that does not mean that every event literally happened as it says. Really interesting.

#good omens #crowley #aziraphale #bildad the shuhite

[officialyourdailyinspiration]

The entirety of the Scriptures work together to put Christ before the eyes of our hearts.

In Genesis, Jesus is the Seed of the woman who will crush the head of the serpent.

In Exodus, Jesus is the Passover Lamb, slain so the LORD’s people can be spared justice.

In Leviticus, Jesus is our true High Priest offering a better sacrifice than the rest.

In Numbers, Jesus is the Pillar of cloud by day and the Pillar of fire by night, leading His people to the Promised Land.

In Deuteronomy, Jesus is the Prophet like Moses whom we must listen to or perish.

In Joshua, Jesus is the Captain of the LORD’s army, making war on His enemies.

In Judges, Jesus is the Judge we long for to correct our rebellious hearts.

In Ruth, Jesus is our Kinsman Redeemer.

In 1st and 2nd Samuel, Jesus is our trusted Prophet, revealing God perfectly to us.

In Kings and Chronicles, Jesus is the King we long for who will rule righteously forever.

In Ezra, Jesus is the Rebuilder of the broken down walls of the city of God.

In Esther, Jesus is the one who does not simply RISK his life, but GIVES his life to save his people.

In Job, Jesus is our ever-living Redeemer.

In Psalms, Jesus is the Son we must Kiss and our Good Shepherd.

In Proverbs and Ecclesiastes, Jesus is the very embodiment of wisdom.

In the Song of Solomon, Jesus is the Church’s Loving Bridegroom, fairer than ten-thousand.

In Isaiah, Jesus is the Prince of Peace, the Gospel Preacher, and the Suffering Servant.

In Jeremiah, Jesus is the Righteous Branch.

In Lamentations, Jesus is the better Weeping Prophet—who does not simply weep for sin but kills sin by letting himself be killed in the place of sinners.

In Ezekiel, Jesus is the wonderful Four-Faced man.

In Daniel, Jesus is the fourth Man in the fiery furnace with Shadrach Meshach and Abednego, he’s the One who closes the lion’s mouths for Daniel, and He is the Son of Man given an eternal Kingdom after His ascension.

In Hosea, Jesus is the Faithful Husband, forever married to the backslider.

In Joel, Jesus is the baptizer with the Holy Spirit.

In Amos, Jesus is our true Burden-Bearer.

In Obadiah, Jesus is the One Mighty to Save.

In Jonah, Jesus is the better one that was thrown into the sea of God’s wrath so those on board would be spared.

In Micah, Jesus is the Messenger with beautiful feet.

In Nahum, Jesus is the Avenger of God's elect.

In Habakkuk, Jesus is God's evangelist.

In Zephaniah, Jesus is our Saviour.

In Haggai, Jesus is the restorer of God's lost heritage.

In Zechariah, Jesus is the High Priest made dirty for our sin so we can be clothed in righteousness.

In Malachi, Jesus is the Sun of Righteousness, rising with healing in His wings.

In the Gospel Accounts, Jesus is the God-Man come to save sinners by the grace of his righteous life, sin-paying crucifixion, and death-defeating resurrection!

In Acts, we see what the ascended Christ continued to do, by His Spirit, the first 30 years after He sat down at the right hand of His Father, the Majesty on high.

All the Letters of the New Testament clarify who He is, what His gospel means, how we should live for Him, and to watch out for those who teach contrary to His Prophets and Apostles. In Revelation, Jesus is our coming King—He will slay men who refuse to come to Him and remain in their sin; He will perfect His people who trust Him by faith and who will renew the entire cosmos. Those who refuse to repent and believe in Christ and His gospel will be thrown in the fiery pit of hell to be punished for their sin for all eternity. Those who belong to Jesus in this life will belong to Him forever in the perfect life to come, where we will enjoy Him forever for His glory and our good.

– Brett Baggett

[logans-mormon-blog]

This isn't a new observation by any means, but I've been spending some time studying JSH and other relevant church history and it's so striking to me that Joseph Smith did not mindlessly follow the church leaders of his day. He received personal revelation and he followed THAT. I think we would be remiss as modern-day mormons to not follow in his footsteps. We're taught that the prophet (and sort of by extension local leadership, wouldn't you agree?) are right no matter what and would never lead us astray, but we even have scriptural examples to the contrary. If we believe in the restoration and in Joseph Smith's visions, then we also believe in the power of revelation and that the church is still in the process of being restored. I know I've received revelation that transitioning is right and that God is proud of me.

Something in JSH that has struck me lately is his quote: "I had seen a vision, I knew it, and I knew that God knew it, and could not deny it, neither dare I do it; at least I knew that by so doing I would offend God, and come under condemnation." I've also been inspired lately by the Joseph Smith story and the way he was abused for maintaining his personal revelation. The courage he, and all the early Saints, must have had to stand against the religious tradition of the day and instead follow their own personal revelation must have been astounding. I think as queer members, we are on a similar path. It's not uncommon to hear from other queer members that they received revelation that was affirming to them, despite the disapproval of the institution of the church. I think true mormonism is having the courage to branch out and follow god wherever he may lead you, even if you're being taught otherwise.

#queerstake #this wasn't meant to be a long post but ive been rly studying and praying lately #ive spent a lot of time 'wrestling w god' as they say

[dawnslight-aegis]

29. contravention

Aymeric shifted in his seat, gritting his teeth briefly against the spike of pain in his still-healing abdomen as he regarded the man seated across from him. One of the Vault’s more moderate cardinals, Father Vallastin was ostensibly an ally against the likes of the True Brothers – but the uneasy look on his face called that position into question.

“Thank you for seeing me on such short notice, Lord Commander, even though your injuries have not yet healed. I assure you, I would not have called on you were it not a matter of grave import.”

“Of course, Father. What can I do for you?”

The thin elezen man leaned forward in his chair, unease blooming into full-on distress. “It concerns the Warrior of Light, my lord. The assault you led on the Vault has proved true without a shadow of a doubt one of the most insidious rumors about her – she is a dark knight, in direct contravention of Halonic doctrine. A heretic of the highest order. And yet she continues to walk free.”

Suppressing a sigh, Aymeric folded his hands in his lap. He had known for moons that this conversation would eventually come, but he had hoped that Kaede’s deeds in the Holy See’s defense would be enough to see her above suspicion. An absolutely foolish notion, if he was honest with himself.

Fortunately, his pragmatic side had ensured he had an argument for just such an occasion.

“I will not argue the fact of the Warrior of Light’s choice of martial discipline – as you say, it has been proven. However, I will ask you this: which is the greater heresy? To walk in darkness, yet serve the light; or to wear the robes of the highest office of the Fury and yet plot the subjugation of Her people and supplant Her as our protector and patron? Perhaps, when the Fury’s own mouthpiece betrays Her, She must send an unconventional champion in order to see justice done and Her order restored.” In other times, his words would themselves be heresy, but with the archbishop’s seat empty and a knife wound in his gut, he found himself fairly uncaring of the letter of the law at the moment.

The cardinal’s eyes widened. “Are you saying that you believe Halone is responsible for this?”

“Who else? Do you truly believe that She would allow the Archbishop’s actions to go unchecked? And the Warrior of Light’s performance in the trial by combat in defense of Alphinaud Leveilleur – against members of the Heaven’s Ward, no less – is irrefutable evidence of the Fury’s favor, is it not?” His voice shifted from mild and persuasive to steely as he leveled a look directly at the cardinal. “In any case, I believe that perhaps instead of looking outwards for heresy, the Church should spend its time in reflection, looking inwards, so that a travesty like what happened with the True Brothers does not happen again.”

“I – of course, Lord Commander. I apologize for the interruption.” Cowed, the man lowered his head, and Aymeric felt a brief pang of guilt over causing grief to a good man, but gods, he was tired.

Reigning in his frustration, he forced a small smile onto his face. “Think nothing of it, Father. I am grateful that you came to me with such concerns, rather than the inquisition. Merely try to remember that no matter how she appears on the surface, we would all be dead or tempered if not for the Warrior of Light’s intervention. She has ever proven herself a staunch ally to Ishgard’s people, and I would repay her in kind.”

Cardinal Vallastin nervously returned the smile, nodding as he stood, bowed, and left.

Their world was changing rapidly, and Aymeric only prayed they would all be able to keep up.

#hi my name is eva cybele and I love dark knight stuff #I also love writing aymeric dialogue and thinking about that line in ew #“in you we glimpse the face of the fury” #and how literal that can be #ffxivwrite #ffxivwrite 2023 #tales from the dawn #aymeric de borel

[cosmichighpriestess]

Welcome to our message dear readers.  

You are all well aware that much on earth is no longer flowing harmoniously as it previously did, personally and globally. Countries and individuals struggle to maintain rules, regulations, ideas, and beliefs that have always been the accepted in attempts to return things to "normal". Present times have become confusing and often frightening even for those who are spiritually awake simply because so much is changing and often seemingly not for the better.  

Those unaware of earth's ascension process are trying to restore what used to be because the old ways seemed to work just fine but that was because they were in alignment with the collective. However, because many of these things were born of error and false belief, things cannot return to what they once were because consciousness is evolving and collective consciousness is changing.  

Let go dear ones. Let go of exhausting attempts to keep everything as you have always known it--family traditions, rules, practices, even the food you think you must eat. The struggle to keep things as they have always been is a manifestation of separation, separation from your good. It is the fear that if you deviate from traditions and practices that have always worked well for you something bad may happen.  

It is tempting to try and "fix" things that no longer seem to be working in your life because you are living in, experiencing, and are accustomed to the workings and solutions of a three dimensional world. Remind yourselves that the material world you are experiencing on earth is an illusory concept created from energies that are now dissolving as individuals awaken. Earth is ascending into frequencies that more closely resemble her true Divine nature in spite of appearances and efforts by those who seek to maintain the status quo.  

A major source of all discord is the collective consciousness of two powers. Mankind through an ignorance of truth has given power to just about everything--to foods, climate, vitamins, employment, animals, money, relationships, people etc. Know this--There is only one power--God/Divine consciousness which is not a power over anything but is simply the only power that exists because it is omnipresent, omnipotent, and omniscient. 

The truth of ONE has been revealed by many spiritual masters--Buddha, Jesus, and others attempted to tell followers that God was all that existed and was therefore their own real nature but the majority interpreted the idea of "I AM" as being personal to the teacher and rather than accepting it as the truth of their own ONEness began to and still today worship the messenger rather than the message. You are ready to leave this idolatry behind. No man, teacher, preacher, priest, "saint" or holy person is more God than another including those considered to be criminals or bad people.  

The third dimensional belief system has given power to and attributed much of the "bad" that happens on earth as being in and of Satan, evil, or the devil. Know this; there is no devil or Satan unless you believe there is and then being a creator, create one for yourself and maintain it through fear or love. Where could a devil possibly come from if God is omnipresent, all that is?  

Many beliefs regarding Satan come from past lives where these beliefs were taught and perpetuated as general knowledge. Many still carry this energy in their energy field where it lies dormant but alive and well ready to activate when a person watches certain movies, reads certain books or articles, talks to other believers, or attends a church that teaches that the devil is real and must be resisted. Consciously state your intention to clear once and for all, any remaining energies based in the belief of an entity outside of yourself who can harm, destroy, kill, or affect you.  

There are some who believe so strongly in the power of evil and Satan that they create ceremonies of worship in the belief that their connection to the "devil" will give them power and allow them to experience whatever they desire like revenge or material things. What these ceremonies actually do is attract low resonating un-evolved entities from the other side who are more than happy to participate in anything that will feed them energy and because even devil worshipers are also creative, things happen that they attribute it to the Devil. There is no unexpressed consciousness. 

The three dimensional belief system endows bad appearances (disease, drugs, alcoholism, etc.) and good appearances (money, fame, relationships, material things) with power in the belief that these things can control or effect their lives. Endowing anything other than God with power simply feeds it energy. Every war declared on some disease or issue serves to grow it rather than eliminate it. 

Nothing is power over you unless you endow it with power. You are the boss of you. God (your real Selfhood) is the only power, law, reality, and cause and effect governing you. There is only ONE power, one omnipresent omnipotent, omniscient reality and the belief in two powers has resulted mankind's sense of separation from God and others while manifesting as duality--good and evil, sick and well, rich and poor. 

All must at some point in their evolutionary journey cease giving power to anything outside of self/SELF in the realization that everything is an expression of God life, God intelligence, God wholeness and completeness--the fullness of Divine consciousness being misinterpreted through minds conditioned with beliefs of duality, separation, and two powers. Every person is free to fill their God individualized consciousness with whatever beliefs they choose but should not then blame others for the manifestations.  

We are not telling you to go out in a hurricane, walk down dark and dangerous alleys, or eat all the junk and processed food you want and nothing will happen to your bodies while declaring to the world that "God is all". The consciousness of one power must be known, acknowledged, accepted, and then practiced until it becomes your state of consciousness. Jesus stilled the storm. How? His consciousness held no beliefs of power outside of God and thus he knew that the storm had no power of its own. Practice these principles with every thing you do and gradually they will become your state of consciousness. This is how it works with all truth.

Do what you feel you need to do with regard to your health and home, but do it in awareness of truth, that in reality nothing is power over you for good or bad. There really are no victims, only those still asleep to the truth of their Divine nature. Know that the fullness and completeness of Divine Consciousness has never left nor could ever leave anyone for it is who you are. The human condition is like a person living in poverty totally unaware that they have a bank account full of money.  

Help self and others as you are guided. Help is available at all levels of awareness but always act with awareness of the innate Divine nature of yourself and others whatever the circumstances. 

In spite of any and all appearances know that God alone is.

We are the Arcturian Group.

#messages #the oneness of all

[fierysword]

Justice restores equilibrium to the divine order through balance. Hence, the law says, “an eye for an eye” (Ex. 21:24)... The judgment imposed by the judge must always fit the crime-no more, no less... Stealing one dollar brings divine justice that says 'I must return two dollars to my victim' (Ex. 22:4). The Church, however, largely discarded the law and then substituted its own ideas of deterrence, telling us that stealing even one dollar is punishable by never-ending torture in hell... That is not divine justice as defined in the law. That is only purposeless punishment imposed by carnally-minded men who claim to know better than God the true meaning of justice... Anything short of the reconciliation of all creation falls short of Paul's expectations of God. Hence, divine justice is eonian, not everlasting, and it is restores balance to the divine order, rather than imposing mere torture.

The Problem of Evil by Stephen Jones

#justice #universalism #purgatorial universalism #hell

[albertfinch]

THE JONAH GENERATION

We must not perceive things the way they are in the natural.

The Body of Christ is entering a time of transition and God is about to raise up a new breed – a Jonah Generation.

VICTIMHOOD OF THE RELIGIOUS HAMPSTER WHEEL

Sometimes, the Western Church can look more like an institution; maintaining an appearance of having its act together when the reality is that many are backslidden in their hearts. Many others are caught up in a merry-go-round of being slaves to the system rather than being heirs of the Kingdom.

This Jonah Generation will rise from among those who once had a life-changing mandate from God – a word, a prophecy, an encounter – but who walked away from it because of the religiosity in the Church. These people have not necessarily hardened their hearts, or intentionally gone off the rails, but they, nevertheless, have walked away from their mandate and gone back to trading instead of advancing God’s Kingdom through their Christ calling.

God is calling back these "Jonahs" who have walked away from their original CALLING and mandate and have instead gone into business. God uses business and finance for the Kingdom, but not if you're running from your true CALLING and mandate to bear fruit that remains by changing the way people think.

This is precisely what Jonah did. He had a calling to declare the word of God to Nineveh, but in resentment of its great wickedness, he walked away from his mandate. He fled to Tarshish, an ancient city famous for its trading in silver and gold. This Old Testament story is very much a prophetic message for today.

THROW YOUR NET ON THE RIGHT-SIDE

The disciples had a three-year encounter with Jesus, witnessed the resurrection, and had a clear mandate to "Go into all the world," but John 21 shows us that they didn't see that as a way of life.

When Peter announced he was going back to his fishing business, some of his fellow disciples went with him.  Jesus on the shore called out, "Have you caught anything?" When they told Him they'd caught nothing, Jesus told them to throw their nets on the right side.

Walking away from our mandate and going back to trading makes it easy to forget the Lord and become dull and numb to the revelation of Jesus Christ. When the Lord told the disciples to let down the net on the right side, the nets were completely filled but without breaking.

This is a metaphor for the new wineskin and the big catch is a metaphor for the harvest that is available through carrying out our Christ calling.

The disciples said, "It's the Lord!" and Peter immediately swam for the shore to be with Him. The disciples gathered around the fire that Jesus had made to cook the fish they caught, and they had communion with Him. They ate, they had revelation, and they were restored to their heavenly positions, especially Peter.

JONAHS WILL HAVE THE REVELATION OF JESUS CHRIST

When Jonah was swallowed by the big fish it was as though he was enveloped by the revelation of the heart of the Father. Remember, the fish took Jonah to the deep heart of the ocean. This is a picture mirrored in Psalm 42:7, "Deep calls to deep." Jonah went to the deep heart of God, and following that revelation of who the eternal God is, and the importance of obedience to his calling -- the fish spewed Jonah onto the shore.

Jonah was spat out and released into the natural realm as one prepared to deal with the dark evil of Nineveh. But Jonah was a sign and a wonder, who walked into Nineveh, opened his mouth, and saw that whole atmosphere of darkness changed. The result was that Nineveh's leaders bowed their knees and repented.

COMING TO UNDERSTAND IMPLEMENT OUR CHRIST IDENTITY

In raising a Jonah Generation, God will restore people who have been perceived as "backslidden."

They will have revelation of God's PURPOSE for their life and come into the intimacy that activates the Kingdom of God through their Christ calling. They will be people who come to understand and walk in their Christ identity and change the whole atmosphere of their environment.

At the present time there's a lot of darkness covering the earth, but it's the dark before the dawn, and we need to see it with hope and excitement. This darkness is to inspire followers of Christ to rise up to be instruments of the Kingdom in their divine CALLING.  For many, this will be Joel's "valley of decision" (Joel 3:14) to bring in the greatest harvest ever seen on planet Earth.

We need to be encouraged and fasten our seat belts.  Jesus Himself said in Luke 21:28, "When you see these things happen, lift up your head, because your redemption is near." Psalm 24 tells us to "lift up your heads you gates and allow the King of Glory to come in." The new breed of the Jonah Generation are the gates.

Who will let in the King of Glory?

ALBERT FINCH MINISTRY

#jesus #calling #destiny #purpose #bible #devotional #daily word #inspiration #holy spirit