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In this episode, my son Jack joins me to examine The Consolation of Philosophy by Boethius, a Roman scholar living just after the fall of the Roman Empire in 476 CE. A renaissance man before the Renaissance, Boethius translated Greek philosophers like Aristotle and Plato, served as a trusted aide to the Gothic king Theodoric in Ravenna, and was a mathematician, astronomer, and family man whose sons became consuls in their early 20s. Despite his Christian faith, tensions with the Arian Theodoric led to his imprisonment and brutal execution at 44. This tragedy tarnished Theodoric's rule, but Boethius' legacy shaped medieval thought, preserving Greek philosophy and influencing giants like Chaucer, Dante, Aquinas, and Shakespeare.Written in a cell awaiting death, The Consolation of Philosophy is a profound dialogue between Boethius and Lady Philosophy. Divided into five books, it blends prose (prosa) and poetry (metrea), offering wisdom through a narrative arc. Book One introduces Boethius' despair; Book Two explores Fortune's fickleness; Book Three seeks the highest Good; Book Four tackles the problem of evil; and Book Five reconciles divine foreknowledge with free will. The poems, rich with mythological and Biblical imagery, provide emotional breaks and reinforce the prose's insights. As C.S. Lewis noted, this work was beloved by educated Europeans for centuries.Boethius weaves Neoplatonism, Stoicism, and Aristotelian ideas into a Christian framework. Lady Philosophy echoes Plato's belief in innate knowledge, urging Boethius to “dream of your origin,” and champions philosopher-kings. Stoic themes emerge as she declares the mind free despite bodily exile, while Aristotle's Unmoved Mover aligns with Boethius' God. The concept of exile as a spiritual crisis resonates, connecting Boethius to figures like Odysseus and Dante.Jack and I discuss whether this is a satire, and how much both of us love Boethius as a character in his own novel.The Ignatius Press edition, translated by Scott Goins and Barbara Wyman, shines with clear prose, excellent footnotes, and quality paper—perfect for annotating. This book demands a reread and sparks a reading list including Chaucer, Milton, and C.S. Lewis' The Discarded Image. Join us! I think this book is for everyone, but even if you think, "Maybe not for me," you'll know what it's about and why it matters.This is a year-long challenge! Join me next week for Sun Tzu's The Art of War and The Tao Te Ching from Lao Tzu.LINKTed Gioia/The Honest Broker's 12-Month Immersive Humanities Course (paywalled!)My Amazon Book List (NOT an affiliate link)CONNECTTo read more of my writing, visit my Substack - https://www.cheryldrury.substack.com.Follow me on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/cldrury/ LISTENSpotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/5GpySInw1e8IqNQvXow7Lv?si=9ebd5508daa245bdApple Podcasts - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/crack-the-book/id1749793321 Captivate -
Denary Novels, Book Four — Continuing saga of the 10-volume international historical mystery and suspense thriller series titled Denary Novels by Mark Vinet, which are heavily immersed in World history with connections to North America. Get FREE access to this novel’s accompanying visuals, including maps, charts, timelines, photos, illustrations, and diagrams at https://patreon.com/markvinet Watch this Novel's official Video trailer at https://youtu.be/7UR-QElFmag THE MOURNING SUN by Mark Vinet (Denary Novel featured in this episode) is available in Large Print at https://amzn.to/3EkJ7Kh DENARY Novels at https://amzn.to/3j0dAFH DENARY Stories at https://amzn.to/3PGJ6FV LISTEN to this podcast's theme music & Get FREE access to this novel’s accompanying visuals, including maps, charts, timelines, photos, illustrations, and diagrams at https://patreon.com/markvinet Watch this audiobook's official Video trailer at https://youtu.be/7UR-QElFmag This podcast's theme music is available on CD at https://amzn.to/3Ck80rX ENJOY Ad-Free content, Bonus episodes, and Extra materials when joining our growing community on https://patreon.com/markvinet SUPPORT this channel by purchasing any product on Amazon using this FREE entry LINK https://amzn.to/3POlrUD (Amazon gives us credit at NO extra charge to you). Mark Vinet's HISTORICAL JESUS podcast at https://parthenonpodcast.com/historical-jesus Mark's TIMELINE Video channel: https://youtube.com/c/TIMELINE_MarkVinet Website: https://markvinet.com/podcast Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mark.vinet.9 Twitter: https://twitter.com/MarkVinet_HNA Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/denarynovels Mark's books: https://amzn.to/3k8qrGM See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Denary Novels, Book Four — Continuing saga of the 10-volume international historical mystery and suspense thriller series titled Denary Novels by Mark Vinet, which are heavily immersed in World history with connections to North America. Get FREE access to this novel’s accompanying visuals, including maps, charts, timelines, photos, illustrations, and diagrams at https://patreon.com/markvinet Watch this Novel's official Video trailer at https://youtu.be/7UR-QElFmag THE MOURNING SUN by Mark Vinet (Denary Novel featured in this episode) is available in Large Print at https://amzn.to/3EkJ7Kh DENARY Novels at https://amzn.to/3j0dAFH DENARY Stories at https://amzn.to/3PGJ6FV LISTEN to this podcast's theme music & Get FREE access to this novel’s accompanying visuals, including maps, charts, timelines, photos, illustrations, and diagrams at https://patreon.com/markvinet Watch this audiobook's official Video trailer at https://youtu.be/7UR-QElFmag This podcast's theme music is available on CD at https://amzn.to/3Ck80rX ENJOY Ad-Free content, Bonus episodes, and Extra materials when joining our growing community on https://patreon.com/markvinet SUPPORT this channel by purchasing any product on Amazon using this FREE entry LINK https://amzn.to/3POlrUD (Amazon gives us credit at NO extra charge to you). Mark Vinet's HISTORICAL JESUS podcast at https://parthenonpodcast.com/historical-jesus Mark's TIMELINE Video channel: https://youtube.com/c/TIMELINE_MarkVinet Website: https://markvinet.com/podcast Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mark.vinet.9 Twitter: https://twitter.com/MarkVinet_HNA Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/denarynovels Mark's books: https://amzn.to/3k8qrGM See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
This week's featured story comes from the Windward Ho! The Pirate's Code (Book Four) collection. It's called "Episode One: What's Right in Front of Us." As Val, boatswain of the Windward crew, reacclimatizes herself to regular life in her normal home, she begins to observe a few mysterious happenings. Who is leaving top-of-the-line tools on her desk? What is that strange smell she keeps noticing? And is any of this related to her life as a pirate? If you enjoyed that story, there are hundreds and hundreds more where that came from. Try a Sparkle subscription now - for free. Go to www.sparklestories.com and click the button at the top that says “Start Free Trial,” then you can listen to our giant library as much as you like, anytime you like. Each week on the Sparkle Stories Podcast, we share a free story from one of our original story series! For many many many more stories like this one, visit the Sparkle website: www.sparklestories.com Questions? Ideas? Requests? Email us! info@sparklestories.com Enjoy!
Denary Novels, Book Four — Continuing saga of the 10-volume international historical mystery and suspense thriller series titled Denary Novels by Mark Vinet, which are heavily immersed in World history with connections to North America. Get FREE access to this novel’s accompanying visuals, including maps, charts, timelines, photos, illustrations, and diagrams at https://patreon.com/markvinet Watch this Novel's official Video trailer at https://youtu.be/7UR-QElFmag THE MOURNING SUN by Mark Vinet (Denary Novel featured in this episode) is available in Large Print at https://amzn.to/3EkJ7Kh DENARY Novels at https://amzn.to/3j0dAFH DENARY Stories at https://amzn.to/3PGJ6FV LISTEN to this podcast's theme music & Get FREE access to this novel’s accompanying visuals, including maps, charts, timelines, photos, illustrations, and diagrams at https://patreon.com/markvinet Watch this audiobook's official Video trailer at https://youtu.be/7UR-QElFmag This podcast's theme music is available on CD at https://amzn.to/3Ck80rX ENJOY Ad-Free content, Bonus episodes, and Extra materials when joining our growing community on https://patreon.com/markvinet SUPPORT this channel by purchasing any product on Amazon using this FREE entry LINK https://amzn.to/3POlrUD (Amazon gives us credit at NO extra charge to you). Mark Vinet's HISTORICAL JESUS podcast at https://parthenonpodcast.com/historical-jesus Mark's TIMELINE Video channel: https://youtube.com/c/TIMELINE_MarkVinet Website: https://markvinet.com/podcast Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mark.vinet.9 Twitter: https://twitter.com/MarkVinet_HNA Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/denarynovels Mark's books: https://amzn.to/3k8qrGM See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Denary Novels, Book Four — Continuing saga of the 10-volume international historical mystery and suspense thriller series titled Denary Novels by Mark Vinet, which are heavily immersed in World history with connections to North America. Get FREE access to this novel’s accompanying visuals, including maps, charts, timelines, photos, illustrations, and diagrams at https://patreon.com/markvinet Watch this Novel's official Video trailer at https://youtu.be/7UR-QElFmag THE MOURNING SUN by Mark Vinet (Denary Novel featured in this episode) is available in Large Print at https://amzn.to/3EkJ7Kh DENARY Novels at https://amzn.to/3j0dAFH DENARY Stories at https://amzn.to/3PGJ6FV LISTEN to this podcast's theme music & Get FREE access to this novel’s accompanying visuals, including maps, charts, timelines, photos, illustrations, and diagrams at https://patreon.com/markvinet Watch this audiobook's official Video trailer at https://youtu.be/7UR-QElFmag This podcast's theme music is available on CD at https://amzn.to/3Ck80rX ENJOY Ad-Free content, Bonus episodes, and Extra materials when joining our growing community on https://patreon.com/markvinet SUPPORT this channel by purchasing any product on Amazon using this FREE entry LINK https://amzn.to/3POlrUD (Amazon gives us credit at NO extra charge to you). Mark Vinet's HISTORICAL JESUS podcast at https://parthenonpodcast.com/historical-jesus Mark's TIMELINE Video channel: https://youtube.com/c/TIMELINE_MarkVinet Website: https://markvinet.com/podcast Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mark.vinet.9 Twitter: https://twitter.com/MarkVinet_HNA Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/denarynovels Mark's books: https://amzn.to/3k8qrGM See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Denary Novels, Book Four — Continuing saga of the 10-volume international historical mystery and suspense thriller series titled Denary Novels by Mark Vinet, which are heavily immersed in World history with connections to North America. Get FREE access to this novel’s accompanying visuals, including maps, charts, timelines, photos, illustrations, and diagrams at https://patreon.com/markvinet Watch this Novel's official Video trailer at https://youtu.be/7UR-QElFmag THE MOURNING SUN by Mark Vinet (Denary Novel featured in this episode) is available in Large Print at https://amzn.to/3EkJ7Kh DENARY Novels at https://amzn.to/3j0dAFH DENARY Stories at https://amzn.to/3PGJ6FV LISTEN to this podcast's theme music & Get FREE access to this novel’s accompanying visuals, including maps, charts, timelines, photos, illustrations, and diagrams at https://patreon.com/markvinet Watch this audiobook's official Video trailer at https://youtu.be/7UR-QElFmag This podcast's theme music is available on CD at https://amzn.to/3Ck80rX ENJOY Ad-Free content, Bonus episodes, and Extra materials when joining our growing community on https://patreon.com/markvinet SUPPORT this channel by purchasing any product on Amazon using this FREE entry LINK https://amzn.to/3POlrUD (Amazon gives us credit at NO extra charge to you). Mark Vinet's HISTORICAL JESUS podcast at https://parthenonpodcast.com/historical-jesus Mark's TIMELINE Video channel: https://youtube.com/c/TIMELINE_MarkVinet Website: https://markvinet.com/podcast Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mark.vinet.9 Twitter: https://twitter.com/MarkVinet_HNA Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/denarynovels Mark's books: https://amzn.to/3k8qrGM See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Denary Novels, Book Four — Continuing saga of the 10-volume international historical mystery and suspense thriller series titled Denary Novels by Mark Vinet, which are heavily immersed in World history with connections to North America. Get FREE access to this novel’s accompanying visuals, including maps, charts, timelines, photos, illustrations, and diagrams at https://patreon.com/markvinet Watch this Novel's official Video trailer at https://youtu.be/7UR-QElFmag THE MOURNING SUN by Mark Vinet (Denary Novel featured in this episode) is available in Large Print at https://amzn.to/3EkJ7Kh DENARY Novels at https://amzn.to/3j0dAFH DENARY Stories at https://amzn.to/3PGJ6FV LISTEN to this podcast's theme music & Get FREE access to this novel’s accompanying visuals, including maps, charts, timelines, photos, illustrations, and diagrams at https://patreon.com/markvinet Watch this audiobook's official Video trailer at https://youtu.be/7UR-QElFmag This podcast's theme music is available on CD at https://amzn.to/3Ck80rX ENJOY Ad-Free content, Bonus episodes, and Extra materials when joining our growing community on https://patreon.com/markvinet SUPPORT this channel by purchasing any product on Amazon using this FREE entry LINK https://amzn.to/3POlrUD (Amazon gives us credit at NO extra charge to you). Mark Vinet's HISTORICAL JESUS podcast at https://parthenonpodcast.com/historical-jesus Mark's TIMELINE Video channel: https://youtube.com/c/TIMELINE_MarkVinet Website: https://markvinet.com/podcast Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mark.vinet.9 Twitter: https://twitter.com/MarkVinet_HNA Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/denarynovels Mark's books: https://amzn.to/3k8qrGM See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Denary Novels, Book Four — Continuing saga of the 10-volume international historical mystery and suspense thriller series titled Denary Novels by Mark Vinet, which are heavily immersed in World history with connections to North America. Get FREE access to this novel’s accompanying visuals, including maps, charts, timelines, photos, illustrations, and diagrams at https://patreon.com/markvinet Watch this Novel's official Video trailer at https://youtu.be/7UR-QElFmag THE MOURNING SUN by Mark Vinet (Denary Novel featured in this episode) is available in Large Print at https://amzn.to/3EkJ7Kh DENARY Novels at https://amzn.to/3j0dAFH DENARY Stories at https://amzn.to/3PGJ6FV LISTEN to this podcast's theme music & Get FREE access to this novel’s accompanying visuals, including maps, charts, timelines, photos, illustrations, and diagrams at https://patreon.com/markvinet Watch this audiobook's official Video trailer at https://youtu.be/7UR-QElFmag This podcast's theme music is available on CD at https://amzn.to/3Ck80rX ENJOY Ad-Free content, Bonus episodes, and Extra materials when joining our growing community on https://patreon.com/markvinet SUPPORT this channel by purchasing any product on Amazon using this FREE entry LINK https://amzn.to/3POlrUD (Amazon gives us credit at NO extra charge to you). Mark Vinet's HISTORICAL JESUS podcast at https://parthenonpodcast.com/historical-jesus Mark's TIMELINE Video channel: https://youtube.com/c/TIMELINE_MarkVinet Website: https://markvinet.com/podcast Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mark.vinet.9 Twitter: https://twitter.com/MarkVinet_HNA Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/denarynovels Mark's books: https://amzn.to/3k8qrGM See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Denary Novels, Book Four — Continuing saga of the 10-volume international historical mystery and suspense thriller series titled Denary Novels by Mark Vinet, which are heavily immersed in World history with connections to North America. Get FREE access to this novel’s accompanying visuals, including maps, charts, timelines, photos, illustrations, and diagrams at https://patreon.com/markvinet Watch this Novel's official Video trailer at https://youtu.be/7UR-QElFmag THE MOURNING SUN by Mark Vinet (Denary Novel featured in this episode) is available in Large Print at https://amzn.to/3EkJ7Kh DENARY Novels at https://amzn.to/3j0dAFH DENARY Stories at https://amzn.to/3PGJ6FV LISTEN to this podcast's theme music & Get FREE access to this novel’s accompanying visuals, including maps, charts, timelines, photos, illustrations, and diagrams at https://patreon.com/markvinet Watch this audiobook's official Video trailer at https://youtu.be/7UR-QElFmag This podcast's theme music is available on CD at https://amzn.to/3Ck80rX ENJOY Ad-Free content, Bonus episodes, and Extra materials when joining our growing community on https://patreon.com/markvinet SUPPORT this channel by purchasing any product on Amazon using this FREE entry LINK https://amzn.to/3POlrUD (Amazon gives us credit at NO extra charge to you). Mark Vinet's HISTORICAL JESUS podcast at https://parthenonpodcast.com/historical-jesus Mark's TIMELINE Video channel: https://youtube.com/c/TIMELINE_MarkVinet Website: https://markvinet.com/podcast Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mark.vinet.9 Twitter: https://twitter.com/MarkVinet_HNA Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/denarynovels Mark's books: https://amzn.to/3k8qrGM See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Denary Novels, Book Four — Continuing saga of the 10-volume international historical mystery and suspense thriller series titled Denary Novels by Mark Vinet, which are heavily immersed in World history with connections to North America. Get FREE access to this novel’s accompanying visuals, including maps, charts, timelines, photos, illustrations, and diagrams at https://patreon.com/markvinet Watch this Novel's official Video trailer at https://youtu.be/7UR-QElFmag THE MOURNING SUN by Mark Vinet (Denary Novel featured in this episode) is available in Large Print at https://amzn.to/3EkJ7Kh DENARY Novels at https://amzn.to/3j0dAFH DENARY Stories at https://amzn.to/3PGJ6FV LISTEN to this podcast's theme music & Get FREE access to this novel’s accompanying visuals, including maps, charts, timelines, photos, illustrations, and diagrams at https://patreon.com/markvinet Watch this audiobook's official Video trailer at https://youtu.be/7UR-QElFmag This podcast's theme music is available on CD at https://amzn.to/3Ck80rX ENJOY Ad-Free content, Bonus episodes, and Extra materials when joining our growing community on https://patreon.com/markvinet SUPPORT this channel by purchasing any product on Amazon using this FREE entry LINK https://amzn.to/3POlrUD (Amazon gives us credit at NO extra charge to you). Mark Vinet's HISTORICAL JESUS podcast at https://parthenonpodcast.com/historical-jesus Mark's TIMELINE Video channel: https://youtube.com/c/TIMELINE_MarkVinet Website: https://markvinet.com/podcast Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mark.vinet.9 Twitter: https://twitter.com/MarkVinet_HNA Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/denarynovels Mark's books: https://amzn.to/3k8qrGM See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Denary Novels, Book Four — Continuing saga of the 10-volume international historical mystery and suspense thriller series titled Denary Novels by Mark Vinet, which are heavily immersed in World history with connections to North America. Get FREE access to this novel’s accompanying visuals, including maps, charts, timelines, photos, illustrations, and diagrams at https://patreon.com/markvinet Watch this Novel's official Video trailer at https://youtu.be/7UR-QElFmag THE MOURNING SUN by Mark Vinet (Denary Novel featured in this episode) is available in Large Print at https://amzn.to/3EkJ7Kh DENARY Novels at https://amzn.to/3j0dAFH DENARY Stories at https://amzn.to/3PGJ6FV LISTEN to this podcast's theme music & Get FREE access to this novel’s accompanying visuals, including maps, charts, timelines, photos, illustrations, and diagrams at https://patreon.com/markvinet Watch this audiobook's official Video trailer at https://youtu.be/7UR-QElFmag This podcast's theme music is available on CD at https://amzn.to/3Ck80rX ENJOY Ad-Free content, Bonus episodes, and Extra materials when joining our growing community on https://patreon.com/markvinet SUPPORT this channel by purchasing any product on Amazon using this FREE entry LINK https://amzn.to/3POlrUD (Amazon gives us credit at NO extra charge to you). Mark Vinet's HISTORICAL JESUS podcast at https://parthenonpodcast.com/historical-jesus Mark's TIMELINE Video channel: https://youtube.com/c/TIMELINE_MarkVinet Website: https://markvinet.com/podcast Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mark.vinet.9 Twitter: https://twitter.com/MarkVinet_HNA Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/denarynovels Mark's books: https://amzn.to/3k8qrGM See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Denary Novels, Book Four — Continuing saga of the 10-volume international historical mystery and suspense thriller series titled Denary Novels by Mark Vinet, which are heavily immersed in World history with connections to North America. Get FREE access to this novel’s accompanying visuals, including maps, charts, timelines, photos, illustrations, and diagrams at https://patreon.com/markvinet Watch this Novel's official Video trailer at https://youtu.be/7UR-QElFmag THE MOURNING SUN by Mark Vinet (Denary Novel featured in this episode) is available in Large Print at https://amzn.to/3EkJ7Kh DENARY Novels at https://amzn.to/3j0dAFH DENARY Stories at https://amzn.to/3PGJ6FV LISTEN to this podcast's theme music & Get FREE access to this novel’s accompanying visuals, including maps, charts, timelines, photos, illustrations, and diagrams at https://patreon.com/markvinet Watch this audiobook's official Video trailer at https://youtu.be/7UR-QElFmag This podcast's theme music is available on CD at https://amzn.to/3Ck80rX ENJOY Ad-Free content, Bonus episodes, and Extra materials when joining our growing community on https://patreon.com/markvinet SUPPORT this channel by purchasing any product on Amazon using this FREE entry LINK https://amzn.to/3POlrUD (Amazon gives us credit at NO extra charge to you). Mark Vinet's HISTORICAL JESUS podcast at https://parthenonpodcast.com/historical-jesus Mark's TIMELINE Video channel: https://youtube.com/c/TIMELINE_MarkVinet Website: https://markvinet.com/podcast Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mark.vinet.9 Twitter: https://twitter.com/MarkVinet_HNA Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/denarynovels Books: https://amzn.to/3k8qrGM See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
In this week's episode, we take a look at professional development for writers, and examine both the benefits and the pitfalls. We also take a look at my advertising results for March 2025. This week's coupon code will get you 50% off the audiobook of Dragonskull: Curse of the Orcs, Book #4 in the Dragonskull series (as excellently narrated by Brad Wills), at my Payhip store: ORCCURSE50 The coupon code is valid through April 25, 2025. So if you need a new audiobook for spring, we've got you covered! TRANSCRIPT 00:00:00 Introduction and Writing Updates Hello, everyone. Welcome to Episode 246 of The Pulp Writer Show. My name is Jonathan Moeller. Today is April 4, 2025, and today we are looking at professional development for writers. Before we get to our main topic, we'll have Coupon of the Week, an update on my current writing and audiobook projects, Question of the Week, and then a look back at how my various ads performed for March 2025. So let's start off with Coupon of the Week. This week's coupon code will get you 50% off the audiobook of Dragonskull: Curse of the Orcs, Book Four in the Dragonskull series (as excellently narrated by Brad Wills) at my Payhip store. That coupon code is ORCCURSE50. As always, you can find the coupon code and the links to my store in the show notes. This coupon code is valid through April 25th, 2025. So if you need a new audiobook for spring, we have got you covered. Now for an update on my current writing projects. I'm very pleased to report that the rough draft of Shield of Battle is done, 102,800 words written in 22 days. That will be the second to last book in the Shield War series. If all goes well, I'm still hoping to have that out and edited and published before the end of the month. I'm now working on a currently untitled short story that newsletter subscribers will get for free in ebook form when Shield of Battle comes out. So this might be a great time to sign up for my new release newsletter. I am also 10,000 words into Ghost in the Corruption and that will be my main project after Shield of Battle is out. Recording is still underway for Shield of Deception and Ghost in the Assembly. That is Brad Wills and Hollis McCarthy narrating, respectively. So I am looking forward to having those audiobooks out for you to listen to and then Shield the Battle and Ghost in the Corruption available for you to read, but I just have to get back to work on them. 00:01:48 Question of the Week Now it's time for Question of the Week. Question of the Week is intended to inspire enjoyable discussions of interesting topics. This week's question, what games (if any) are you currently playing? No wrong answers, including “I don't play video games”. The inspiration for this question was that the fact that Nintendo was having this big Switch 2 announcement on April 2, which is amusing to me personally on a meta level because people have been speculating wildly about a Switch successor for years. Baseless Switch 2 rumors have been a clickfarm industry for years. Probably Nintendo had to have it on April 2 so no one would think it was a really elaborate April Fool's Day joke. Justin says: Online it would be World of Warcraft Classic. Otherwise, it is Conquest of the New World. Like me, my games are old and dated. I can relate to Justin because I'm currently playing a game that was first made in 1994, but more on that later. Sam says: Currently dancing between two games, my long-term love game, Final Fantasy 14 and Dragon Age: the Veilguard. The Veilguard was a massive disappointment for me, unfortunately, but it still has its reasonably okay points, but man, the developers dropped the ball in the worst way since Cyberpunk's disastrous release. That's interesting because I've actually encountered a couple different people who have played Dragon Age: Veilguard and they either love it or hate it. There is just no in-between. So that does seem to be the kind of game where you either love the thing or you just hate it. Todd says: Enjoying No Man's Sky, waiting for Light No Fire. Continuing to grind World of Warcraft retail. Recently played the re-release of Half Life. Today, I also installed Lands of Lore, gotta love Patrick Stewart as King Richard! I had forgotten that Patrick Stewart voiced King Richard back in the ‘90s in the Lands of Lore game. His most famous video game part (I think) is playing Emperor Uriel Septim in the Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. JKM says: Monster Hunter Wilds and Star Citizen. Jesse says: Been doing an on and off run on Enshrouded. The story hasn't hugely gripped me as yet, but the mechanics are fun if you like Breath of the Wilds-esque world exploration. Michael says: I'm currently playing Star Traders: Frontiers, which is a 2D indie space trading/exploration/crew management game in a vaguely Dune-like setting. It has turn based squad combat in Darkest Dungeon style too. Originally a mobile game but mechanics are surprisingly deep. It's good fun. Randy says: Wizardry Remaster. Ironic because I didn't play the original. For myself, I am kind of alternating between three current games. I am playing the Master of Magic remake on the PC and I'm determined to finally beat a campaign at that. I am still playing Iratus: Lord of the Dead and drawing closer to the final level. And when I'm really tired and don't want to do anything else that requires a lot of brain power, I still fire up some Starfield and go really mess up the day of some procedurally generated space pirates. So watch my website and Facebook for Question of the Week if you want to have your comment read on the show as well. 00:04:39 Ad Results for March 2025 Now let's look at how my ads for my books did in March 2025, which is interesting because I changed things up a fair bit for ads in March. The reason I did this is because the economy isn't great and not likely to improve for several years. I saw someone arguing that all the policy decisions in the Covid era will have a 15 year economic hangover into which we're only five years, and I think that argument might have some merit to it. So because of that, I thought it might be prudent to move some older series into Kindle Unlimited. So I did that with the Demonsouled books and with Cloak Games, though not with Cloak Mage, which will remain wide as new books come out. I might do it with Silent Order as well, but I haven't decided. My thinking is that as people are looking to economize, subscription services will probably offer better value than direct book sales. So let's see how we did. For Facebook ads, I did Cloak Games/Cloak Mage and The Ghosts. For Games/Cloak Mage, I got $4.14 back for every $1 spent, with 10% of the profit coming from the audiobooks. For The Ghosts, I got back $8.73 for every dollar spent, with 6% of the profit coming from the audiobooks. Obviously the total for The Ghosts might be inflated because of Ghosts in the Assembly, which did well. Thanks, everyone! Without Ghosts in the Assembly, The Ghosts still would've done $3.68 for every dollar spent, with 15% for the profit coming from the audiobooks. So still pretty good. For Amazon ads, I mostly focused on Half-Elven Thief. Remember that for an Amazon ad to be successful, it needs to get a sale or a complete Kindle Unlimited read for every six to eight clicks. So for Half-Elven Thief, I got back $3.41 for every $1 spent, with a sale or a complete KU read for every 0.84 clicks, which is a really good result. However, it was not all roses in Amazon ads because I gave up on advertising Stealth and Spells Online: Creation. I've realized I fundamentally misunderstood what readers in the LitRPG actually want. I'm still going to finish the series this summer with the final book. I am 75,000 words into it as of this recording, but I don't think I'm going to advertise the series anymore. For Demonsouled, I did a combined Facebook/Amazon ads campaign and for a combined campaign like that, it's easiest just to track the return. So for Demonsouled, I got back $2.53 for every dollar spent on Facebook and Amazon ads. So that was pretty close to how it did in February. I also did some BookBub ad campaigns for The Ghosts and Sevenfold Sword on Apple. For The Ghosts, we got back $9.24 for every dollar I spent and for Sevenfold Sword, I got back $6.76 back for every dollar spent. So those are some very good results. Finally, I've begun experimenting with BookBub ads for Google Play. I tried out Sevenfold Sword first and for Sevenfold Sword on Google Play with BookBub ads, we got back $3.86 for every dollar. So that is a promising beginning and I might try more experiments with BookBub ads and Google Play in May. So a good month all in all. Thanks for reading, everyone. Hopefully I'll have more new books for you soon. 00:07:46 Main Topic: Professional Development So our main topic this week will be part three of our series on writing adjacent activities, and that is professional development. As I mentioned on past episodes, I'm working on a new podcast series on what I call writing adjacent activities. What do I mean by this? I'm talking about the tasks that seem like they're a part of the writing process but really belong in a different category. These tasks are important, but they can also be a pitfall if you spend too much time on them or don't use that time correctly. In this series, we'll focus on a few of these tasks and how they can benefit or hinder your writing process, even though they seem like good uses of time and may in fact be beneficial in proper amounts. In this episode, we'll talk about professional development for writers. Those working in education, healthcare, or the corporate world will be very familiar with this concept. For those who aren't familiar with professional development, let's explain what it is. What is professional development and what is it for writers specifically? Professional development generally means gaining skills or knowledge that can help someone stay current in their field and grow in their work. In some fields like teaching or healthcare, professional development is required and must be done regularly. Some examples of typical professional development tasks include learning a new programming language, attending conferences, and reading professional journals. Writers have many of these same opportunities. Ther are a slew of conferences, workshops, webinars, videos, courses, and books available for writers to hone their craft, pick up marketing skills, and learn the ever evolving technical skills needed to self-publish and have an online presence. Some of these options, especially conferences and retreats, can be very expensive and time consuming while others are free and quick to consume, such as blog posts or podcast episodes. How can you benefit from professional development? There are five ways. #1: You can learn information and techniques that can help you improve your writing. An example would be a workshop session presenting data on when readers typically give up when starting a new book, which can help you think about how your book is structured. #2: You can learn about technology and software that can make your work more efficient or look more professional. An example of this would be tutorials on how to use formatting software to turn Word documents into a formatted ebook. #3: In-person professional development can help you network with others in your field. For example, if one of your priorities is being added to group promotion, meeting other authors at a workshop or a conference could lead to more promising leads than just emailing people. #4: You can keep up with the constant changes in the field and adjust your strategies and plans accordingly. For example, Amazon's policies for KDP change constantly, sometimes monthly, it feels like. Writing blogs and podcasts can often explain these changes in a practical way that's more efficient than trying to parse long legal documents yourself. #5: Finally, and fifthly, some people find professional development motivational or it helps them to feel more excited about their work. An example is a phenomenon called the post conference high, when someone returns from a conference with a high level of excitement and a list of plans a mile long. It's easy to get bogged down in the day-to-day tasks of work and sometimes professional development can shake things up in a positive way. So professional development can be a good thing, but there are ways it can hinder your writing process. So we'll look at four ways that professional development can get in the way of you actually sitting down and getting some writing done. #1: One of the downsides of being a writer is that professional development must be self-funded or you must pursue your own scholarships or grants for it, which are pretty limited compared to professional development in other fields. It is quite easy to spend tens of thousands of dollars on it each year, so each opportunity must be carefully considered. It's important not to spend money without a clear plan for how to turn it into action and without researching less expensive (but still effective) options that might serve your purposes. It's also important to look carefully to see if you can find lower cost options before registering for something. For example, instead of going to a weeklong residential bootcamp to learn WordPress, you could find a community education class or a LinkedIn Learning class (which many libraries provide to their patrons). Do you need a full course offered by another author or are you only interested in one portion of it and can learn that information from a YouTube channel? There is a lot of nonsense on the Internet of course, but one of the advantages of living in the modern era is that there is an abundance of good free information. You just have to find it. My podcast transcriptionist has something that she likes to call the Two Buck Chuck Principle. It is named after the store brand of wine from Trader Joe's. That's way back when it was $2 a bottle, hence the popular nickname for it. Many people refuse to stray from this cheapest available option at the store because they find it meets their alcohol related needs and refuse to buy more expensive bottles. The point of this principle is that like those Trader Joe's shoppers, my podcast transcriptionist will search for the free and low cost option for something first and then see what is missing from them that a more expensive option offers before buying the more expensive option. For example, if you're just starting out as a writer, you may be tempted to pay $3,000 or $4,000 for consulting sessions about advertising strategies because you read a convincing testimonial. Realistically, if you only have one or two books with only a handful of reviews and you're not willing to throw thousands of additional dollars on a professional style ad campaign, this would be severe overkill. Applying the Two Buck Chuck Principle to this person's ad spending, it would make more sense to learn the basics first through webinars and blog posts on the topic. Something like Brian Cohen's Five Day Amazon Ad Challenge would teach the basics of using the interface and some strategies that keep a rookie from overspending or straying from their target audience. Once a writer has a few years of sales and several books in the same series, then perhaps it might be wise to progress to something more advanced and expensive, like hiring a consultant. For most professional development, if you're paying money, you're either paying for being in a physical location or you're paying for the time someone else took to assemble and present the knowledge for you (in the case of a conference or workshop, both). For the latter, you can usually apply this Two Buck Chuck Principle by taking the time to assemble the knowledge yourself or find others who have through blogs, podcasts, and lower cost books. Someone like Joanna Penn or David Gaughran provides a wealth of sensible advice through these types of much lower cost options. #2: Professional development, like many other writing adjacent activities, can give you the illusion of progress. Knowing about something and actually doing it are very different things. You have to have a specific plan for how you will implement your professional development. The sooner you start after completing your professional development activity, the more likely you are to benefit from it. Even five minutes a day working on it helps keep the knowledge fresh and gives you the confidence to continue. #3: The number of available options for professional development can be paralyzing and it can be easy to feel like you have to do it all. The fear of missing out is a very real phenomenon, but it's necessary to combat it by being intentional with your time. Start by making your goals for the next year and then seeing what professional development you need to further those goals. For example, if creating video content is not part of your goals for the year, then it doesn't make sense to watch webinars on creating Instagram Reels or TikTok videos, even if you feel like it might be useful or you have a fear of missing out on the information. Your professional development, your goals, and your output all need to be in harmony in order to progress as a writer. I have talked before about how a certain degree of tunnel vision is necessary to write at the pace that I do. Because I want to publish frequently, I often ignore conference and workshop opportunities because travel actively hinders my main goal of getting down as many words as possible each day. #4: Professional development can take up so much time that it keeps you from the priority of writers, which is actually writing. Like the other writing adjacent activities out there, they expand to the size you'll allow. Planning your professional development goals for the year when you've created your writing goals can help you be disciplined in choosing the activities that will serve you best and fit with the time you can give them. For example, if your goal is to set up an author website in May, you can allocate a little block of time each day for that month to watching tutorials, reading instructions, checking out other author sites for inspiration, and testing out the software. You wouldn't want to attend a three week intensive writing retreat in May because that would likely derail your progress on your other goal. So finally, what do I personally do for professional development? What has helped me? I think the biggest help I had in terms of writing advice was a book called Billion Dollar Outlines by David Farland. It's well worth reading and a good look at story structure and understanding story structure that I think would be very helpful if you're struggling to finish an outline and write a book. Most of my professional development since then has been aimed towards the goal of trying to sell as many books as possible. So I took the Self-Publishing Formula course on advertising for Facebook, which was very helpful. I read a couple of different books on Facebook advertising, which was helpful. What was really helpful was a course on Photoshop I took in 2020 and 2021 that really increased my Photoshop skills and gave me the ability to do my own covers, which is very helpful because you often have to book a cover designer out well in advance. So that was very useful. And beyond that, I keep an eye on the various writing podcasts and Facebook groups. I don't really participate in the Facebook groups because that can be a huge time sink. Arguing with random people over the internet is not a productive use of time, but it is a good way to keep an eye on news within the indie author space and what people are doing and what trends you can expect to see. So that's what I do. In short, professional development, like so many other writing adjacent activities, is a good thing that can hinder your progress if it's not done with intentionality and clear goals. As I said earlier in the podcast, your professional development, your goals, and your output all need to be harmonized in order to progress as a writer. So that is it for this week. Thank you for listening to the Pulp Writer Show. I hope you found the show useful. And a quick note of thanks to my podcast transcriptionist for helping me to pull together the research for this episode. A reminder that you can listen to all the back episodes on https://thepulpwritershow.com. If you enjoyed the podcast, please leave your review on your podcasting platform of choice. Stay safe and stay healthy and see you all next week.
Denary Novels, Book Four — Continuing saga of the 10-volume international historical mystery and suspense thriller series titled Denary Novels by Mark Vinet, which are heavily immersed in World history with connections to North America. Get FREE access to this novel’s accompanying visuals, including maps, charts, timelines, photos, illustrations, and diagrams at https://patreon.com/markvinet Watch this Novel's official Video trailer at https://youtu.be/7UR-QElFmag THE MOURNING SUN by Mark Vinet (Denary Novel featured in this episode) is available in Large Print at https://amzn.to/3EkJ7Kh DENARY Novels at https://amzn.to/3j0dAFH DENARY Stories at https://amzn.to/3PGJ6FV LISTEN to this podcast's theme music & Get FREE access to this novel’s accompanying visuals, including maps, charts, timelines, photos, illustrations, and diagrams at https://patreon.com/markvinet Watch this audiobook's official Video trailer at https://youtu.be/7UR-QElFmag This podcast's theme music is available on CD at https://amzn.to/3Ck80rX ENJOY Ad-Free content, Bonus episodes, and Extra materials when joining our growing community on https://patreon.com/markvinet SUPPORT this channel by purchasing any product on Amazon using this FREE entry LINK https://amzn.to/3POlrUD (Amazon gives us credit at NO extra charge to you). Mark Vinet's HISTORICAL JESUS podcast at https://parthenonpodcast.com/historical-jesus Mark's TIMELINE Video channel: https://youtube.com/c/TIMELINE_MarkVinet Website: https://markvinet.com/podcast Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mark.vinet.9 Twitter: https://twitter.com/MarkVinet_HNA Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/denarynovels Books: https://amzn.to/3k8qrGM See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Book Four is upon us, and it is with mixed feelings, both excited and sad, that we launch into the final segments of Finnegans Wake. Helping us along the way is fan-favourite WAKE veteran, internationally-acclaimed author, Lucy "old rubberskin" Brazier, who helps us get into a typically ribald discussion of Simlish, Instagram thots, tortoise dreams, terrible superhero names, fan fiction, and a plan for a Biddy the Hen statue in Phoenix Park. Come for the reading, stay for our brutal takedown of the Oxford World's Classic: it's more fun than a sailor on a horse!This week's readers: Lucy Brazier, Toby Malone, TJ YoungProgress: 613 pages complete, 15 pages to go; 97.61% read.Contextual NotesBrancusi's Whirligig https://www.themorgan.org/exhibitions/online/ulysses/brancusis-symbol-joyce AO3 James Joyce Fanfic: https://archiveofourown.org/tags/Finnegans%20Wake%20-%20James%20Joyce/works Finnegans Wake and Spongebob Fanfic: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9436142 Mutt and Jeff https://www.loc.gov/exhibitions/comic-art/about-this-exhibition/early-years-1890s-to-1920s/mutt-and-jeff-an-unlikely-pair/Three Castles Burning on early houses: https://threecastlesburning.libsyn.com/the-dawning-of-the-day-last-orders-at-the-early-house Lucy Brazier's website https://portergirl.com/Finnegans What?: Finnegans Wake - A guide by an idiot https://www.amazon.ca/Finnegans-What-Wake-guide-idiot/dp/1092156100/Lucy on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/brazierlucy/Lucy on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/@lucybrazierauthor/Lucy on Twitter https://twitter.com/@portergirl100/If Movies Ended When Someone Said the Title: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5DMndH8QiI4If Movies Ended When Someone Said the Title Part 2 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zzMsbdAQRg4&t=0s If Movies Ended When Someone Said the Title 3 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yT41rqh-Udk For early drops, community and show notes, join us at our free Patreon, at patreon.com/wakepod, or check out our Linktree, at https://linktr.ee/wake.pod. We welcome comments from everyone: even, nay, especially, the dreaded purists. Come and "um actually" us!
Denary Novels, Book Four — Continuing saga of the 10-volume international historical mystery and suspense thriller series titled Denary Novels by Mark Vinet, which are heavily immersed in World history with connections to North America. Get FREE access to this novel’s accompanying visuals, including maps, charts, timelines, photos, illustrations, and diagrams at https://patreon.com/markvinet Watch this Novel's official Video trailer at https://youtu.be/7UR-QElFmag THE MOURNING SUN by Mark Vinet (Denary Novel featured in this episode) is available in Large Print at https://amzn.to/3EkJ7Kh DENARY Novels at https://amzn.to/3j0dAFH DENARY Stories at https://amzn.to/3PGJ6FV LISTEN to this podcast's theme music & Get FREE access to this novel’s accompanying visuals, including maps, charts, timelines, photos, illustrations, and diagrams at https://patreon.com/markvinet Watch this audiobook's official Video trailer at https://youtu.be/7UR-QElFmag This podcast's theme music is available on CD at https://amzn.to/3Ck80rX ENJOY Ad-Free content, Bonus episodes, and Extra materials when joining our growing community on https://patreon.com/markvinet SUPPORT this channel by purchasing any product on Amazon using this FREE entry LINK https://amzn.to/3POlrUD (Amazon gives us credit at NO extra charge to you). Mark Vinet's HISTORICAL JESUS podcast at https://parthenonpodcast.com/historical-jesus Mark's TIMELINE Video channel: https://youtube.com/c/TIMELINE_MarkVinet Website: https://markvinet.com/podcast Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mark.vinet.9 Twitter: https://twitter.com/MarkVinet_HNA Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/denarynovels Books: https://amzn.to/3k8qrGM See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Denary Novels, Book Four — Continuing saga of the 10-volume international historical mystery and suspense thriller series titled Denary Novels by Mark Vinet, which are heavily immersed in World history with connections to North America. Get FREE access to this novel’s accompanying visuals, including maps, charts, timelines, photos, illustrations, and diagrams at https://patreon.com/markvinet Watch this Novel's official Video trailer at https://youtu.be/7UR-QElFmag THE MOURNING SUN by Mark Vinet (Denary Novel featured in this episode) is available in Large Print at https://amzn.to/3EkJ7Kh DENARY Novels at https://amzn.to/3j0dAFH DENARY Stories at https://amzn.to/3PGJ6FV LISTEN to this podcast's theme music & Get FREE access to this novel’s accompanying visuals, including maps, charts, timelines, photos, illustrations, and diagrams at https://patreon.com/markvinet Watch this audiobook's official Video trailer at https://youtu.be/7UR-QElFmag This podcast's theme music is available on CD at https://amzn.to/3Ck80rX ENJOY Ad-Free content, Bonus episodes, and Extra materials when joining our growing community on https://patreon.com/markvinet SUPPORT this channel by purchasing any product on Amazon using this FREE entry LINK https://amzn.to/3POlrUD (Amazon gives us credit at NO extra charge to you). Mark Vinet's HISTORICAL JESUS podcast is available at https://parthenonpodcast.com/historical-jesus Mark's TIMELINE Video channel: https://youtube.com/c/TIMELINE_MarkVinet Website: https://markvinet.com/podcast Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mark.vinet.9 Twitter: https://twitter.com/MarkVinet_HNA Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/denarynovels Books: https://amzn.to/3k8qrGM See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Denary Novels, Book Four — Continuing saga of the 10-volume international historical mystery and suspense thriller series titled Denary Novels by Mark Vinet, which are heavily immersed in World history with connections to North America. Get FREE access to this novel’s accompanying visuals, including maps, charts, timelines, photos, illustrations, and diagrams at https://patreon.com/markvinet Watch this Novel's official Video trailer at https://youtu.be/7UR-QElFmag THE MOURNING SUN by Mark Vinet (Denary Novel featured in this episode) is available in Large Print at https://amzn.to/3EkJ7Kh DENARY Novels at https://amzn.to/3j0dAFH DENARY Stories at https://amzn.to/3PGJ6FV LISTEN to this podcast's theme music & Get FREE access to this novel’s accompanying visuals, including maps, charts, timelines, photos, illustrations, and diagrams at https://patreon.com/markvinet Watch this audiobook's official Video trailer at https://youtu.be/7UR-QElFmag This podcast's theme music is available on CD at https://amzn.to/3Ck80rX ENJOY Ad-Free content, Bonus episodes, and Extra materials when joining our growing community on https://patreon.com/markvinet SUPPORT this channel by purchasing any product on Amazon using this FREE entry LINK https://amzn.to/3POlrUD (Amazon gives us credit at NO extra charge to you). Mark Vinet's HISTORICAL JESUS podcast is available at https://parthenonpodcast.com/historical-jesus Mark's TIMELINE Video channel: https://youtube.com/c/TIMELINE_MarkVinet Website: https://markvinet.com/podcast Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mark.vinet.9 Twitter: https://twitter.com/MarkVinet_HNA Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/denarynovels Books: https://amzn.to/3k8qrGM See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Denary Novels, Book Four — Continuing saga of the 10-volume international historical mystery and suspense thriller series titled Denary Novels by Mark Vinet, which are heavily immersed in World history with connections to North America. Get FREE access to this novel’s accompanying visuals, including maps, charts, timelines, photos, illustrations, and diagrams at https://patreon.com/markvinet Watch this Novel's official Video trailer at https://youtu.be/7UR-QElFmag THE MOURNING SUN by Mark Vinet (Denary Novel featured in this episode) is available in Large Print at https://amzn.to/3EkJ7Kh DENARY Novels at https://amzn.to/3j0dAFH DENARY Stories at https://amzn.to/3PGJ6FV LISTEN to this podcast's theme music & Get FREE access to this novel’s accompanying visuals, including maps, charts, timelines, photos, illustrations, and diagrams at https://patreon.com/markvinet Watch this audiobook's official Video trailer at https://youtu.be/7UR-QElFmag This podcast's theme music is available on CD at https://amzn.to/3Ck80rX ENJOY Ad-Free content, Bonus episodes, and Extra materials when joining our growing community on https://patreon.com/markvinet SUPPORT this channel by purchasing any product on Amazon using this FREE entry LINK https://amzn.to/3POlrUD (Amazon gives us credit at NO extra charge to you). Mark Vinet's HISTORICAL JESUS podcast is available at https://parthenonpodcast.com/historical-jesus Mark's TIMELINE Video channel: https://youtube.com/c/TIMELINE_MarkVinet Website: https://markvinet.com/podcast Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mark.vinet.9 Twitter: https://twitter.com/MarkVinet_HNA Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/denarynovels Books: https://amzn.to/3k8qrGM See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
A special bonus episode where we discuss our thoughts on the upcoming Seven Havens series and respond to listener feedback from Book Four of Korra.
Denary Novels, Book Four — Continuing saga of the 10-volume international historical mystery and suspense thriller series titled Denary Novels by Mark Vinet, which are heavily immersed in World history with connections to North America. Get FREE access to this novel’s accompanying visuals, including maps, charts, timelines, photos, illustrations, and diagrams at https://patreon.com/markvinet Watch this Novel's official Video trailer at https://youtu.be/7UR-QElFmag THE MOURNING SUN by Mark Vinet (Denary Novel featured in this episode) is available in Large Print at https://amzn.to/3EkJ7Kh DENARY Novels at https://amzn.to/3j0dAFH DENARY Stories at https://amzn.to/3PGJ6FV LISTEN to this podcast's theme music & Get FREE access to this novel’s accompanying visuals, including maps, charts, timelines, photos, illustrations, and diagrams at https://patreon.com/markvinet Watch this audiobook's official Video trailer at https://youtu.be/7UR-QElFmag This podcast's theme music is available on CD at https://amzn.to/3Ck80rX ENJOY Ad-Free content, Bonus episodes, and Extra materials when joining our growing community on https://patreon.com/markvinet SUPPORT this channel by purchasing any product on Amazon using this FREE entry LINK https://amzn.to/3POlrUD (Amazon gives us credit at NO extra charge to you). Mark Vinet's HISTORICAL JESUS podcast is available at https://parthenonpodcast.com/historical-jesus Mark's TIMELINE Video channel: https://youtube.com/c/TIMELINE_MarkVinet Website: https://markvinet.com/podcast Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mark.vinet.9 Twitter: https://twitter.com/MarkVinet_HNA Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/denarynovels Books: https://amzn.to/3k8qrGM See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Denary Novels, Book Four — Continuing saga of the 10-volume international historical mystery and suspense thriller series titled Denary Novels by Mark Vinet, which are heavily immersed in World history with connections to North America. Get FREE access to this novel’s accompanying visuals, including maps, charts, timelines, photos, illustrations, and diagrams at https://patreon.com/markvinet Watch this Novel's official Video trailer at https://youtu.be/7UR-QElFmag THE MOURNING SUN by Mark Vinet (Denary Novel featured in this episode) is available in Large Print at https://amzn.to/3EkJ7Kh DENARY Novels at https://amzn.to/3j0dAFH DENARY Stories at https://amzn.to/3PGJ6FV LISTEN to this podcast's theme music & Get FREE access to this novel’s accompanying visuals, including maps, charts, timelines, photos, illustrations, and diagrams at https://patreon.com/markvinet Watch this audiobook's official Video trailer at https://youtu.be/7UR-QElFmag This podcast's theme music is available on CD at https://amzn.to/3Ck80rX ENJOY Ad-Free content, Bonus episodes, and Extra materials when joining our growing community on https://patreon.com/markvinet SUPPORT this channel by purchasing any product on Amazon using this FREE entry LINK https://amzn.to/3POlrUD (Amazon gives us credit at NO extra charge to you). Mark Vinet's HISTORICAL JESUS podcast is available at https://parthenonpodcast.com/historical-jesus Mark's TIMELINE Video channel: https://youtube.com/c/TIMELINE_MarkVinet Website: https://markvinet.com/podcast Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mark.vinet.9 Twitter: https://twitter.com/MarkVinet_HNA Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/denarynovels Books: https://amzn.to/3k8qrGM See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Denary Novels, Book Four — Continuing saga of the 10-volume international historical mystery and suspense thriller series titled Denary Novels by Mark Vinet, which are heavily immersed in World history with connections to North America. Get FREE access to this novel’s accompanying visuals, including maps, charts, timelines, photos, illustrations, and diagrams at https://patreon.com/markvinet Watch this Novel's official Video trailer at https://youtu.be/7UR-QElFmag THE MOURNING SUN by Mark Vinet (Denary Novel featured in this episode) is available in Large Print at https://amzn.to/3EkJ7Kh DENARY Novels at https://amzn.to/3j0dAFH DENARY Stories at https://amzn.to/3PGJ6FV LISTEN to this podcast's theme music & Get FREE access to this novel’s accompanying visuals, including maps, charts, timelines, photos, illustrations, and diagrams at https://patreon.com/markvinet Watch this audiobook's official Video trailer at https://youtu.be/7UR-QElFmag This podcast's theme music is available on CD at https://amzn.to/3Ck80rX ENJOY Ad-Free content, Bonus episodes, and Extra materials when joining our growing community on https://patreon.com/markvinet SUPPORT this channel by purchasing any product on Amazon using this FREE entry LINK https://amzn.to/3POlrUD (Amazon gives us credit at NO extra charge to you). Mark Vinet's HISTORICAL JESUS podcast is available at https://parthenonpodcast.com/historical-jesus Mark's TIMELINE Video channel: https://youtube.com/c/TIMELINE_MarkVinet Website: https://markvinet.com/podcast Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mark.vinet.9 Twitter: https://twitter.com/MarkVinet_HNA Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/denarynovels Books: https://amzn.to/3k8qrGM See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Denary Novels, Book Four — Continuing saga of the 10-volume international historical mystery and suspense thriller series titled Denary Novels by Mark Vinet, which are heavily immersed in World history with connections to North America. Get FREE access to this novel’s accompanying visuals, including maps, charts, timelines, photos, illustrations, and diagrams at https://patreon.com/markvinet Watch this Novel's official Video trailer at https://youtu.be/7UR-QElFmag THE MOURNING SUN by Mark Vinet (Denary Novel featured in this episode) is available in Large Print at https://amzn.to/3EkJ7Kh DENARY Novels at https://amzn.to/3j0dAFH DENARY Stories at https://amzn.to/3PGJ6FV LISTEN to this podcast's theme music & Get FREE access to this novel’s accompanying visuals, including maps, charts, timelines, photos, illustrations, and diagrams at https://patreon.com/markvinet Watch this audiobook's official Video trailer at https://youtu.be/7UR-QElFmag This podcast's theme music is available on CD at https://amzn.to/3Ck80rX ENJOY Ad-Free content, Bonus episodes, and Extra materials when joining our growing community on https://patreon.com/markvinet SUPPORT this channel by purchasing any product on Amazon using this FREE entry LINK https://amzn.to/3POlrUD (Amazon gives us credit at NO extra charge to you). Mark Vinet's HISTORICAL JESUS podcast is available at https://parthenonpodcast.com/historical-jesus Mark's TIMELINE Video channel: https://youtube.com/c/TIMELINE_MarkVinet Website: https://markvinet.com/podcast Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mark.vinet.9 Twitter: https://twitter.com/MarkVinet_HNA Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/denarynovels Books: https://amzn.to/3k8qrGM See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Denary Novels, Book Four — Continuing saga of the 10-volume international historical mystery and suspense thriller series titled Denary Novels by Mark Vinet, which are heavily immersed in World history with connections to North America. Get FREE access to this novel’s accompanying visuals, including maps, charts, timelines, photos, illustrations, and diagrams at https://patreon.com/markvinet Watch this Novel's official Video trailer at https://youtu.be/7UR-QElFmag THE MOURNING SUN by Mark Vinet (Denary Novel featured in this episode) is available in Large Print at https://amzn.to/3EkJ7Kh DENARY Novels at https://amzn.to/3j0dAFH DENARY Stories at https://amzn.to/3PGJ6FV LISTEN to this podcast's theme music & Get FREE access to this novel’s accompanying visuals, including maps, charts, timelines, photos, illustrations, and diagrams at https://patreon.com/markvinet Watch this audiobook's official Video trailer at https://youtu.be/7UR-QElFmag This podcast's theme music is available on CD at https://amzn.to/3Ck80rX ENJOY Ad-Free content, Bonus episodes, and Extra materials when joining our growing community on https://patreon.com/markvinet SUPPORT this channel by purchasing any product on Amazon using this FREE entry LINK https://amzn.to/3POlrUD (Amazon gives us credit at NO extra charge to you). Mark Vinet's HISTORICAL JESUS podcast is available at https://parthenonpodcast.com/historical-jesus Mark's TIMELINE Video channel: https://youtube.com/c/TIMELINE_MarkVinet Website: https://markvinet.com/podcast Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mark.vinet.9 Twitter: https://twitter.com/MarkVinet_HNA Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/denarynovels Books: https://amzn.to/3k8qrGM See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Denary Novels, Book Four — Continuing saga of the 10-volume international historical mystery and suspense thriller series titled Denary Novels by Mark Vinet, which are heavily immersed in World history with connections to North America. Get FREE access to this novel’s accompanying visuals, including maps, charts, timelines, photos, illustrations, and diagrams at https://patreon.com/markvinet Watch this Novel's official Video trailer at https://youtu.be/7UR-QElFmag THE MOURNING SUN by Mark Vinet (Denary Novel featured in this episode) is available in Large Print at https://amzn.to/3EkJ7Kh DENARY Novels at https://amzn.to/3j0dAFH DENARY Stories at https://amzn.to/3PGJ6FV LISTEN to this podcast's theme music & Get FREE access to this novel’s accompanying visuals, including maps, charts, timelines, photos, illustrations, and diagrams at https://patreon.com/markvinet Watch this audiobook's official Video trailer at https://youtu.be/7UR-QElFmag This podcast's theme music is available on CD at https://amzn.to/3Ck80rX ENJOY Ad-Free content, Bonus episodes, and Extra materials when joining our growing community on https://patreon.com/markvinet SUPPORT this channel by purchasing any product on Amazon using this FREE entry LINK https://amzn.to/3POlrUD (Amazon gives us credit at NO extra charge to you). Mark Vinet's HISTORICAL JESUS podcast is available at https://parthenonpodcast.com/historical-jesus Mark's TIMELINE Video channel: https://youtube.com/c/TIMELINE_MarkVinet Website: https://markvinet.com/podcast Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mark.vinet.9 Twitter: https://twitter.com/MarkVinet_HNA Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/denarynovels Books: https://amzn.to/3k8qrGM See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Many of you have asked me to produce audio versions of each of the Denary Historical Books I have authored—a 10-volume international historical mystery and suspense thriller series titled Denary Novels. Since my Denary books are heavily immersed in history and connected with North America, I’ve decided to present the entire series in podcast form, for FREE. In other words, every episode designated with the word EXTRA is fully dedicated to the audio version of Denary Novels, starting of course, with the first book in the series. When one is finished, then I simply move on to the next Book. Those of you who are not fond of historical fiction, can simply skip these EXTRA episodes and continue enjoying my regular History of North America shows. I do, however, hope you will join me on this exciting literary adventure which continues with Book Four, titled The Mourning Sun. Get FREE access to this novel’s accompanying visuals, including maps, charts, timelines, photos, illustrations, and diagrams at https://patreon.com/markvinet Watch Book Four’s official Video trailer at https://youtu.be/Caj4Uy7Ku2E THE MOURNING SUN by Mark Vinet (Denary Novel featured in this episode) is available in Large Print at https://amzn.to/3EkJ7Kh DENARY Novels by Mark Vinet are available in Large Print at https://amzn.to/3j0dAFH ENJOY Ad-Free content, Bonus episodes, and Extra materials when joining our growing community on https://patreon.com/markvinet SUPPORT this channel by purchasing any product on Amazon using this FREE entry LINK https://amzn.to/3POlrUD (Amazon gives us credit at NO extra charge to you). Mark Vinet's HISTORICAL JESUS podcast is available at https://parthenonpodcast.com/historical-jesus Mark's TIMELINE Video channel: https://youtube.com/c/TIMELINE_MarkVinet Website: https://markvinet.com/podcast Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mark.vinet.9 Twitter: https://twitter.com/MarkVinet_HNA Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/denarynovels Books: https://amzn.to/3k8qrGM See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
The Book of Psalms is so long that it is split into five separate books.This is where Book Four begins.Some believe that these are some of the oldest psalms and that they were written by the Old Testament ancient, Moses.If that is the case, this would make them some of the oldest writing in the Bible.The transience of life, God's shield of invincibility and his praiseworthiness all take central stage in these enduring songs.Written and produced by Chas BayfieldMusic by Michael Auld and Jon Hawkins MusicCover Art by Lisa Goff
AT OUR AGE: Kick butt WOMEN AUTHORS I am always thrilled when I find women who are bucking the system in their 60's and older. I feel this way because two women, Rosalind Severin McClean and Patt O'Neil are very different writers. Yet they are women of a certain age in their 60's and seventies. They have chosen the literary paths to share tales, poetry, idea. In turn they show the world that us seniors still have a lot to offer. Ms. McClean has four titles of note: OCEANS of THOUGHTS Book one, Two and Three. Her latest publicatio, Book Four, is a charming and adventurous children's book: The Little Pianist. The illustrations are colorful, eye-catching and will keep the attention of toddlers to young readers. Perfect holiday gift and the family can help read along to the young children . At first glance, one would think that Patt O'Neil's genre is Westerns. Not so. She has a natural talent for story telling. Taking us to places as varied as Venice and Cornwall, readers get a flavor of intrigues and mystery. Her two recent works are collections of short stories: TWO SIDES of the SAME COIN: In-between stories of SHERLOCK HOLMES and John WATSON. Two Sides of the Same Coin: In-between stories of Sherlock Holmes and John H. Watson: O'Neil, P. A.: 9798859789276: Amazon.com: Books https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CJLLK862 TALES OF THE SOUTHWEST is set in an epic genre from the 1880's to present day. Readers will taste the difference between water starved deserts, steep canyons unforgiving heat and as Patt O'Neil told me, people share the traits of moving through challenges, issues and problems until they all resolve in their best manner. Such is the storyteller Patt O'Neil taking us into the depths of imagination, strife and history Tales of the Southwest - Kindle edition by Green, John Franklin, O'Neil, P.A., Pyles, James, Balcom, Gabriella, Crowley, Jay, Hartshorn, Edward C.. Literature & Fiction Kindle eBooks @ Amazon.com. https://www.amazon.com/Tales-Southwest-John-Franklin-Green-ebook/dp/B07Z9QDV9B Discover Tales of the Southwest - Kindle edition by Green, John Franklin, O'Neil, P.A., Pyles, James, Balcom, Gabriella, Crowley, Jay, Hartshorn, Edward C.. Literature & Fiction Kindle eBooks @ Amazon.com. https://www.amazon.com/Tales-Southwest-John-Franklin-Green-ebook/dp/B07Z9QDV9B Adventure Two Sides of the Same Coin: In-between stories of Sherlock Holmes and John H. Watson: O'Neil, P. A.: 9798859789276: Amazon.com: Books https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CJLLK862 Guidance Rosalind Severin McClean, Author ruthmcclean2@gmail.com Twitter: oceansthoughts2 Youtube: Oceans of Thoughts Spotify: Oceans of Thoughts Oceans of Thoughts Book One on GoodReads Oceans of Thoughts Book Two on GoodReads Oceans of Thoughts Book Three on GoodReads MERCI valerie@allinourminds.com
It's time to put Goblet of Fire in the rear-view mirror as we conduct our ceremonial book wrap episode, featuring our 7-Word Chapter Summary redo, 7 Word Book Summary, and more MuggleMail than you can shake a non-plot-holed Portkey at! Join Andrew, Eric, Laura and Micah for this fun-filled episode catching up with all that our listeners have had to say recently. Next week we will be hosting an Order of the Phoenix movie watch commentary and on the following show we'll begin Book 5 chapter-by-chapter with new segments! Micah is back from a visit to Scotland! He tells us what he did over there. Andrew and Micah interview actor Joel Meyers, who currently plays Albus Severus Potter in Broadway's Cursed Child! Revisiting our Goblet of Fire 7 Word Chapter Summaries. Book Four 7-Word Summary: Resurrection for Voldemort awakens old echoes past. Two listeners point out that the return Portkey mystery is not a plot-hole, but was part of Voldemort's plan to stay hidden while alive. Is the Dark Mark on the arms of Death Eaters the best kept secret on the part of the dark side from the Ministry? A listener compares Voldemort's return ritual with Barty Crouch Jr.'s specific method for his father's end, and underscores BCJr's daddy issues. Do the Death Eaters keep their D.E. robes nearby in case Voldemort returns? Do they ever wash them? A listener asks, which characters will be the hardest to replace on the HBO Max show, given their film adaptation counterparts? Shakespeare references, snakelike features, and low-security portraits are the topics of more Muggle Mail! Quizzitch: in the United States, Harry Potter and the order of the phoenix movie was the 5th highest grossing film of 2007 domestically. name at least 2 films that year which earned more money. Visit MuggleCast.com for episode transcripts, social media links, our full episode archive, our favorite episodes, and to contact us! Coming up on Bonus MuggleCast, we react to the release of Harry Potter: Quidditch World Champions after playing it this week! For twice-monthly Bonus MuggleCast, as well as other great benefits, including the chance to co-host the show, a new physical gift every year, and a video message from one of the four of us visit Patreon.com/MuggleCast! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
It's another big everything-changes-forever epic as Mark Waid hits “Terminal Velocity.” The discovery of the Speed Force as the source of superspeed in the DC Universe is transforming Wally West emotionally and physically, and his future with Linda Park is at stake. True love conquers all (sorry for the spoiler), but they won't necessarily live happily ever as they have to pick up the pieces after the fairytale ending. We'll discuss Wally's often-frustrating tendency to keep his loved ones in the dark and debate whether it matters that the villain of the piece is a bit generic. Because comic fans need to rank things, we'll also weigh in on whether “Terminal Velocity” or “The Return of Barry Allen” is the highlight of the run. All this plus Mirror Master and some kind of Lovecraftian monster, too! Discussed in this episode: Flash #0 and 95-105, plus Flash Annual #8 (1996). Support this podcast at patreon.com/ironageofcomics
Psalm 106 is a chapter in the Book of Psalms that reflects on the history of Israel and the repeated acts of disobedience by the people, contrasting these with God's enduring mercy and forgiveness. This psalm is a communal confession, recalling the nation's sins while simultaneously praising God's unfailing love and patience. Structure and Themes 1.Introduction and Praise (Verses 1-5): •The psalm begins with a call to praise the Lord, emphasizing His goodness and enduring love. The psalmist asks who can proclaim the mighty acts of the Lord or fully declare His praise, acknowledging the blessedness of those who uphold justice and righteousness. 2.Confession of Sins (Verses 6-43): •This section recounts various instances of Israel's disobedience from the time of their ancestors in Egypt to the period of the Judges. The psalmist confesses that “we have sinned, even as our ancestors did” and details a series of rebellions, including: •The rebellion at the Red Sea. •The craving for food in the desert and the resulting plague. •The worship of the golden calf at Mount Horeb. •The rebellion at Kadesh Barnea, leading to the refusal to enter the Promised Land. •The mingling with pagan nations and the adoption of their idolatrous practices. Despite these continual acts of rebellion, God repeatedly showed mercy, sometimes after severe punishment or when His people were delivered into the hands of their enemies. 3.God's Mercy and Deliverance (Verses 44-46): •The psalm highlights God's mercy, stating that He “took note of their distress when He heard their cry” and remembered His covenant. Despite their unfaithfulness, God had compassion on them and caused their captors to show mercy. 4.Conclusion and Prayer (Verses 47-48): •The psalm concludes with a prayer for salvation, asking God to gather His people from among the nations so that they may give thanks to His holy name and glory in His praise. The final verse is a doxology, a short hymn of praise, which ends Book Four of the Psalms with “Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting. Let all the people say, ‘Amen!' Praise the Lord.” Key Messages •God's Faithfulness: Despite Israel's repeated failures, God's steadfast love and mercy remain constant. He is patient and slow to anger, forgiving His people when they turn back to Him. •Human Sinfulness: The psalm provides a sobering reminder of human nature's tendency towards sin and disobedience, even in the face of God's miraculous deeds and guidance. •The Importance of Remembrance: By recalling the history of Israel's sins and God's responses, the psalm encourages believers to remember their past, learn from it, and remain faithful to God. •Communal Confession: The collective nature of the confession in Psalm 106 underlines the importance of community in worship, repentance, and seeking God's forgiveness. Relevance Today Psalm 106 remains relevant today as it resonates with the themes of confession, repentance, and divine mercy. It serves as a reminder of the importance of acknowledging one's wrongdoings and seeking God's forgiveness, trusting in His unwavering love and faithfulness. The psalm also encourages believers to praise God for His continual grace, even when they fall short of His expectations.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/sendme-radio--732966/support.
This week Adam Minihan returns to discuss Book Four of the Odyssey with Father Bonaventure, OP - a Dominican Friar of the Province of St. Joseph. The out our website for a 50+ page guide to the Odyssey.23. What happens in book four?Telemachus arrives in Sparta to find King Menelaus hosting a “double-wedding feast;” as Menelaus' daughter is marrying the son of Achilles, and Menelaus' son is marrying a girl from Sparta (4.04). Telemachus and Nestor's son, Pisistratus, are received warmly (4.68). Though a gracious host, Menelaus still mourns for his brother, Agamemnon (4.103), and for all the men lost in the Trojan war, especially Odysseus (4.120). Menelaus and Helen recognize Telemachus by his likeness to his father (4.131, 158).The next day, Menelaus tells Telemachus of his journey home from Troy (4.391). He and his men were stuck on the island of Pharos (4.396). After wrestling Proteus, the Old Man of the Sea, he is told he failed to offer sacrifices to the deathless gods before leaving Troy (4.530); and now for penance, he must return to Egypt and make a “splendid sacrifice” (4.535). Menelaus asks about the fate of his comrades, and Proteus tells him the stories of little Ajax, Agamemnon, and Odysseus—the last of which is held captive by the sea nymph Calypso (4.627). Menelaus did as the Old Man of the Sea said, and he then returned home to Sparta (4.657). The narrative shifts to Queen Penelope in Ithaca (4.703). The suitors, led by Antinous, discover Telemachus has taken a ship to Pylos (4.711), and they elect to send out their own ship to ambush him (4.753). Penelope is told Telemachus is gone and that the suitors plan to murder him (4.784). Eurycleia, the old nurse, tells Penelope she helped Telemachus prepare for his departure, and advises the queen to pray to Athena (4.836). Penelope prays to Athena, and Athena sends a phantom of Penelope's sister to reassure the queen Telemachus is safe (4.930). The book ends with the suitors setting sail to ambush Telemachus (4.947). 24. What do we observe about the character of Menelaus?Notice that Menelaus agrees to welcome Telemachus and Pisistratus by first recalling all the hospitality he received on his journey home (4.38). He displays a certain gratitude and dare we say humility in passing on what he has received. A similar disposition is found in his piety of not wanting to be compared to Zeus (4.87). The pious but somber Menelaus declares: “So I rule all this wealth with no great joy,” as he recalls the death of his brother, Agamemnon (4.103). Moreover, he seems to lament the entire Trojan war, stating he would have rather stayed home with the wealth he had and the friends he lost at Troy—note, however, the implications of this statement regarding his wife, Helen (4.108).Check out the rest of the guide at thegreatbookspodcast.com.
Meg Gardiner is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of sixteen novels. Her thrillers have won the Edgar Award and been summer reading picks by the Today show and O, the Oprah Magazine. In August 2022 Heat 2, coauthored with Michael Mann, debuted at #1 on the New York Times bestseller list. Shadowheart is the 4th novel in her Unsub Series. A former lawyer and three-time Jeopardy! champion, Gardiner lives in Austin, Texas. #podcast #author #interview #authors #SpiesLiesandPrivateEyesPodcast #authorsontheair #podcast #podcaster #authors #authorsofig #authorsofinstagram #authorinterview #writingcommunity #authorsontheair #suspensebooks #authorssupportingauthors #thrillerbooks #suspense #wip #writers#writersinspiration #books #bookrecommendations #bookaddict #bookaddicted #bookaddiction #bibliophile #read #amreading #lovetoread #terrencemccauley #terrencemccauleybooks #blackstone #thrillers #Chicago63 #MegGardiner #ShadowHeart
On October 3, 2004, I preached my first sermon as a candidate for Northwest Baptist Churchs next Senior Pastor. Northwest was considered one of the most dysfunctional churches within the Rocky Mountain district, and although I knew this about the church, there was no way I could fully appreciate just how dysfunctional it really was. So, a very green and 30-year-old version of the pastor that stands before you today preached a sermon on boasting in the Cross of Christ before a congregation with a median age of somewhere in the 60s; my sermon text was from Galatians 6:11-18 and the title of my sermon was, Boasting in the Cross. On October 17th the congregation of Northwest Baptist Church voted to call me as their Senior Pastor. Because I was unsure about moving our family from Pennsylvania to Colorado, I needed more time to pray about it before agreeing to serve as the Senior Pastor of that little church in Denver. Earlier that day, just after the church service at Calvary Baptist Church where I was presently served on the pastoral staff, Bob and Shirley White had given me a gift for Clergy Appreciation Month. I only opened the wrapping paper so that I could thank Bob and Shirley; the gift was a book, and the title of that book was, God as He Longs for You to See Him, by Chip Ingram. I left the book in my office, which was only across the parking lot from where we lived at the time (a house we affectionately nicknamed: Little House on the Parking Lot). Because I needed time to pray, I walked across the parking lot and into my office at Calvary Baptist Church to be alone with the Lord. As I sat down, the book that Bob and Shirley White had given was there in front of my face. As I began to pray, I asked God to give me some indication as to what He wanted me to do; as I was praying, I opened Chip Ingrams book and noticed that Bob and Shirley had written a note on the inside cover: To our dear Christian brother, Keith, who has inspired us through his messages to see and know God as He really is. We love you and may God bless you, Roi Maw, and Nathan. Bob and Shirley White; October 16, 2004. Bob and Shirleys little note also served as Gods way to encourage me to say yes to Northwest Baptist Church; but also served to encourage me to say yes to Meadowbrookes call to become your pastor oddly enough, on the first week of October nearly 14 years to the day that I read Bob and Shirleys note for the first time. I am still convinced as I was twenty years ago, that the best that I can give you is the God of the Bible. I could try to cater to felt needs, but all that really ends up being is a guessing game, and besides, what would that do anyway? I am not going to look at Ephesians 2:19-22 in sequential order like I normally do with a scripture passage but will look at these verses in the order a builder would build a building. We are a Jesus Called Community When it came to the structure of a building, before anything could be built, the cornerstone had to be laid. It was the first stone laid because the dimensions and shape of the rest of the building were dependent upon the shape and size of the cornerstone. If the cornerstone was off, so the rest of the building would be off! If there was anything wrong with the cornerstone such as its dimensions, the way it was cut, or its integrity as the toughest and strongest of the stones used in the building, the structure would be compromised. In the ancient East, the cornerstone was the most expensive of all the stones used in a building because it was the most important part of the building. When it comes to the nature of the Church, Paul says that Jesus Christ is the cornerstone (v. 20b). Against the backdrop of the Temple of Artemis in Ephesus, stood another temple. Only the temple Paul referred to was living, organic, and holy. Today, it is still being built and it will continue to be built with Jesus as the cornerstone until He is finished building and beatifying His Church. We, the Church, are the great wonder of all of heaven and it is concerning our salvation that we are told: angels long to look (1 Pet. 1:12). Think about who you are Church! In Jesus, we are blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places (1:3). In Jesus, we were chosen before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless (v. 4). Through Jesus, we have been adopted as sons and daughters (v. 5). In Jesus, we have redemption through His blood (vv. 7-8). In Jesus, we have obtained an inheritance from God that no one can destroy (v. 11). In Jesus, we are sealed by the Holy Spirit that no one can break (v. 13). We were chosen, redeemed, and sealed all to the praise of the glory of God (vv. 6, 12, 14); which means that the Ephesian Church displayed a glory even greater than the power of 300 billion suns! The prophets and the apostles, through the Scriptures, pointed to Jesus: The prophets point towards Jesus and the apostles point back to Jesus. Long before the birth of Jesus, the prophet Isaiah declared: Therefore this is what the Lord Godsays: Behold, I am laying a stone in Zion, a tested stone, A precious cornerstone for the foundation, firmly placed. The one who believes in it will not be disturbed (Isa. 28:16). Concerning Jesus, the apostle Peter wrote, And coming to Him as to a living stone which has been rejected by people, but is choice and precious in the sight of God, you also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices that are acceptable to God through Jesus Christ (1 Pet. 2:4-5). As the cornerstone, Jesus is Gods final and most perfect revelation of Himself: God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom He also made the world (Heb. 1:1-2). As we have learned in the previous verses, it is because of Christ and through Christ that both Jew and Gentile can become one new people group through faith in Him alone. It is through Jesus that we now have access to God the Father (2:18). If you are a Christian, then Jesus is your cornerstone! Think for a moment of what that means. Jesus is the cornerstone because He is the Christ (Isa. 9:6-7). Jesus is the Christ because He is the Great I AM who is the Bread of Life (John 6:35-51), the Light of the World (8:12; 9:5), the Door for His Sheep (10:7-9), the Good Shepherd (10:11-14), the Resurrection and the Life (11:25), and the True Vine (15:1). Jesus is the cornerstone because only He could claim to be, the Way, the Truth, and the Life (14:6). If you are a Christian, then Jesus is your cornerstone by which the entirety of your life is being shaped by Him, and as He is shaping you, so too He is shaping all who truly belong to Him. We are a Word Formed Community The prophets and the apostles represent the Word of God, from Genesis to Revelation, that we as the temple of God (household) are being built upon. From Genesis to Revelation the Bible claims at least 3,000 times to be The Word of the Lord. And, in all its 66 books and the hundreds of years and many different contributors who were guided by the Holy Spirit, it is without error. In a very real sense, we are a people of the Book, but not just any old book! Consider some of the things that the Bible claims about itself: The law of the Lord is perfect, refreshing the soul. The statutes of the Lord are trustworthy, making wise the simple. The precepts of the Lord are right, giving joy to the heart. The commands of the Lord are radiant, giving light to the eyes. The fear of the Lord is pure, enduring forever. The decrees of the Lord are firm, and all of them are righteous. They are more precious than gold, than much pure gold; they are sweeter than honey, than honey from the honeycomb. By them your servant is warned; in keeping them there is great reward (Ps. 19:7-11). All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work (2 Tim. 3:16-17). The Old Testament and the New Testament are not two separate books nor are they two separate volumes. The Old Testament and New Testament are one book, one story, with one theme: Jesus! This is why Jesus said of Himself, Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them (Matt. 5:17); Jesus is Gods Yes to all Gods promises (2 Cor. 1:20). Jesus commanded His disciples after His resurrection and before His ascension: Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age (Matt. 28:19-20). Do not miss that He commanded us to teach all that He has commanded. The foundation on which Gods people must stand has always been on the Word of God. Our greatest need is to know God and to be known by Him. The way to know God is through His word, for it is the primary means by which He has revealed Himself. Every time you open your Bible and read the words contained in it, you hear the same voice that was powerful enough to create billions of suns like ours or greater; God has given us a book with His words in it to move and shape us as His people. The words of that Book bear the authority of the Living God and have the supernatural ability through the power of Gods Spirit to speak into your real needs, or as Hebrews 4:12 testifies: For the word of God is living and active, and sharper than any two-edged sword, even penetrating as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. You, my dear Christian, must allow your heart to be saturated by it, and the only way to do that is to open your Bible and allow God to speak into your life through His Holy Word, for that is the principle means by which He speaks to His people. Now, permit me to briefly say a word about the preaching of Gods Word as it relates to Gods people: On this side of eternity, God has ordained the preaching of His word as the primary agent for supernatural transformation. This is why we read in the Bible: How then are they to call on Him in whom they have not believed? How are they to believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how are they to hear without a preacher. So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ (Rom. 10:14, 17). If Romans 10 is not enough for you, consider 1 Corinthians 1:23-24, But we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength. God has ordained the preaching of His Word to be one of the principle means to equip and strengthen His people for service in His name to the nations. When the proclamation of Gods Word is done responsibly by those who honestly labored over His Word through careful study and prayer then I believe what John Calvin once said is true every time we gather on a Sunday morning: God has so chosen to anoint the lips and tongues of His speakers that when they speak the voice of Jesus comes out (Calvin, Institutes, Book Four). This is why the apostle Paul instructed Timothy who was called to the Ephesian Church as their pastor: In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give you this charge: Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encouragewith great patience and careful instruction. For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. (2 Tim. 4:1-4) When we gather under the preaching of Gods Word, there is a God-ordained and supernatural work that Gods people subject themselves to. There are things that happen under the preaching of Gods word during corporate worship that cannot be explained but it is the work only God is able to perform through the authority of His Word proclaimed by the power of His Holy Spirit performed that will often blow your felt needs to ashes so that Gods word is able to address your real needs. We are a In-it-together Community Paul will address what it is that God is doing with His people in the verses and chapters to follow, so I will keep this brief. All I want you to see in verses 19 and 21-22 is this: God has always had a plan for your holiness and blamelessness in Christ, Christian. Through Jesus, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of Gods household (v. 19). God is committed to the very thing He has purposed to do in and through you when He set His affection upon you and chose you before the foundation of the world; His purpose in choosing you is that you would be, holy and blameless before Him (Eph. 1:4). When you were dead in your offenses and sins, God made you alive and every other Christian, alive together with Christ. Why did He do it? Paul tells us in Ephesians 2:10, For we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them. You were dead! You were an enemy of God! Now you are Gods child! Now you are, of Gods household in whom the whole building, being fitted together, is growing into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit (vv. 20-21). What does this mean? It means that because you are in Christ, God is for you and not against you! It means, that He who began a good work among you will complete it by the day of Christ Jesus (Phil. 1:6)! It means that no matter how used up you were, no matter how damaged you were, no matter how ugly your sins were He is making you more and more holy and more and more blameless! Listen. And the way that God is doing it is with Jesus as your cornerstone being built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets. In Ephesus there was a more glorious and more beautiful temple that made the great temple of Artemis look like a dung heap! It is a temple that continues to be built today and it is the place where the demonic fear because it is a living temple where the Spirit of God dwells; those who are far and near make up that temple. Meadowbrooke Church, we are also a part of that temple. It is because the preeminent Jesus is our cornerstone, and the foundation of His Church is the inspired teaching of the apostles and the prophets, the best and lasting gift I can give you is not a feeble attempt to cater to your felt needs, but the God of the Bible through the faithful preaching and teaching of His Word. So, on that note, I leave you with the words of a beautiful Hymn about a beautifying Bride: The church's one foundationIs Jesus Christ her Lord;She is his new creationBy water and the Word.From heaven he came and sought herTo be his holy bride;With his own blood he bought her,And for her life he died. Elect from every nation,Yet one o'er all the earth;Her charter of salvation,One Lord, one faith, one birth;One holy name she blesses,Partakes one holy food,And to one hope she presses,With every grace endued. The church shall never perish!Her dear Lord to defend,to guide, sustain, and cherish,is with her to the end;though there be those that hate her,and false sons in her pale,against the foe or traitorshe ever shall prevail. Mid toil and tribulation,And tumult of her war,She waits the consummationOf peace forevermore;Till, with the vision glorious,Her longing eyes are blest,And the great church victoriousShall be the church at rest. Yet she on earth hath unionWith God the Three in One,And mystic sweet communionWith those whose rest is won.O happy ones and holy!Lord, give us grace that weLike them, the meek and lowly,On high may dwell with thee.
On October 3, 2004, I preached my first sermon as a candidate for Northwest Baptist Churchs next Senior Pastor. Northwest was considered one of the most dysfunctional churches within the Rocky Mountain district, and although I knew this about the church, there was no way I could fully appreciate just how dysfunctional it really was. So, a very green and 30-year-old version of the pastor that stands before you today preached a sermon on boasting in the Cross of Christ before a congregation with a median age of somewhere in the 60s; my sermon text was from Galatians 6:11-18 and the title of my sermon was, Boasting in the Cross. On October 17th the congregation of Northwest Baptist Church voted to call me as their Senior Pastor. Because I was unsure about moving our family from Pennsylvania to Colorado, I needed more time to pray about it before agreeing to serve as the Senior Pastor of that little church in Denver. Earlier that day, just after the church service at Calvary Baptist Church where I was presently served on the pastoral staff, Bob and Shirley White had given me a gift for Clergy Appreciation Month. I only opened the wrapping paper so that I could thank Bob and Shirley; the gift was a book, and the title of that book was, God as He Longs for You to See Him, by Chip Ingram. I left the book in my office, which was only across the parking lot from where we lived at the time (a house we affectionately nicknamed: Little House on the Parking Lot). Because I needed time to pray, I walked across the parking lot and into my office at Calvary Baptist Church to be alone with the Lord. As I sat down, the book that Bob and Shirley White had given was there in front of my face. As I began to pray, I asked God to give me some indication as to what He wanted me to do; as I was praying, I opened Chip Ingrams book and noticed that Bob and Shirley had written a note on the inside cover: To our dear Christian brother, Keith, who has inspired us through his messages to see and know God as He really is. We love you and may God bless you, Roi Maw, and Nathan. Bob and Shirley White; October 16, 2004. Bob and Shirleys little note also served as Gods way to encourage me to say yes to Northwest Baptist Church; but also served to encourage me to say yes to Meadowbrookes call to become your pastor oddly enough, on the first week of October nearly 14 years to the day that I read Bob and Shirleys note for the first time. I am still convinced as I was twenty years ago, that the best that I can give you is the God of the Bible. I could try to cater to felt needs, but all that really ends up being is a guessing game, and besides, what would that do anyway? I am not going to look at Ephesians 2:19-22 in sequential order like I normally do with a scripture passage but will look at these verses in the order a builder would build a building. We are a Jesus Called Community When it came to the structure of a building, before anything could be built, the cornerstone had to be laid. It was the first stone laid because the dimensions and shape of the rest of the building were dependent upon the shape and size of the cornerstone. If the cornerstone was off, so the rest of the building would be off! If there was anything wrong with the cornerstone such as its dimensions, the way it was cut, or its integrity as the toughest and strongest of the stones used in the building, the structure would be compromised. In the ancient East, the cornerstone was the most expensive of all the stones used in a building because it was the most important part of the building. When it comes to the nature of the Church, Paul says that Jesus Christ is the cornerstone (v. 20b). Against the backdrop of the Temple of Artemis in Ephesus, stood another temple. Only the temple Paul referred to was living, organic, and holy. Today, it is still being built and it will continue to be built with Jesus as the cornerstone until He is finished building and beatifying His Church. We, the Church, are the great wonder of all of heaven and it is concerning our salvation that we are told: angels long to look (1 Pet. 1:12). Think about who you are Church! In Jesus, we are blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places (1:3). In Jesus, we were chosen before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless (v. 4). Through Jesus, we have been adopted as sons and daughters (v. 5). In Jesus, we have redemption through His blood (vv. 7-8). In Jesus, we have obtained an inheritance from God that no one can destroy (v. 11). In Jesus, we are sealed by the Holy Spirit that no one can break (v. 13). We were chosen, redeemed, and sealed all to the praise of the glory of God (vv. 6, 12, 14); which means that the Ephesian Church displayed a glory even greater than the power of 300 billion suns! The prophets and the apostles, through the Scriptures, pointed to Jesus: The prophets point towards Jesus and the apostles point back to Jesus. Long before the birth of Jesus, the prophet Isaiah declared: Therefore this is what the Lord Godsays: Behold, I am laying a stone in Zion, a tested stone, A precious cornerstone for the foundation, firmly placed. The one who believes in it will not be disturbed (Isa. 28:16). Concerning Jesus, the apostle Peter wrote, And coming to Him as to a living stone which has been rejected by people, but is choice and precious in the sight of God, you also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices that are acceptable to God through Jesus Christ (1 Pet. 2:4-5). As the cornerstone, Jesus is Gods final and most perfect revelation of Himself: God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom He also made the world (Heb. 1:1-2). As we have learned in the previous verses, it is because of Christ and through Christ that both Jew and Gentile can become one new people group through faith in Him alone. It is through Jesus that we now have access to God the Father (2:18). If you are a Christian, then Jesus is your cornerstone! Think for a moment of what that means. Jesus is the cornerstone because He is the Christ (Isa. 9:6-7). Jesus is the Christ because He is the Great I AM who is the Bread of Life (John 6:35-51), the Light of the World (8:12; 9:5), the Door for His Sheep (10:7-9), the Good Shepherd (10:11-14), the Resurrection and the Life (11:25), and the True Vine (15:1). Jesus is the cornerstone because only He could claim to be, the Way, the Truth, and the Life (14:6). If you are a Christian, then Jesus is your cornerstone by which the entirety of your life is being shaped by Him, and as He is shaping you, so too He is shaping all who truly belong to Him. We are a Word Formed Community The prophets and the apostles represent the Word of God, from Genesis to Revelation, that we as the temple of God (household) are being built upon. From Genesis to Revelation the Bible claims at least 3,000 times to be The Word of the Lord. And, in all its 66 books and the hundreds of years and many different contributors who were guided by the Holy Spirit, it is without error. In a very real sense, we are a people of the Book, but not just any old book! Consider some of the things that the Bible claims about itself: The law of the Lord is perfect, refreshing the soul. The statutes of the Lord are trustworthy, making wise the simple. The precepts of the Lord are right, giving joy to the heart. The commands of the Lord are radiant, giving light to the eyes. The fear of the Lord is pure, enduring forever. The decrees of the Lord are firm, and all of them are righteous. They are more precious than gold, than much pure gold; they are sweeter than honey, than honey from the honeycomb. By them your servant is warned; in keeping them there is great reward (Ps. 19:7-11). All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work (2 Tim. 3:16-17). The Old Testament and the New Testament are not two separate books nor are they two separate volumes. The Old Testament and New Testament are one book, one story, with one theme: Jesus! This is why Jesus said of Himself, Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them (Matt. 5:17); Jesus is Gods Yes to all Gods promises (2 Cor. 1:20). Jesus commanded His disciples after His resurrection and before His ascension: Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age (Matt. 28:19-20). Do not miss that He commanded us to teach all that He has commanded. The foundation on which Gods people must stand has always been on the Word of God. Our greatest need is to know God and to be known by Him. The way to know God is through His word, for it is the primary means by which He has revealed Himself. Every time you open your Bible and read the words contained in it, you hear the same voice that was powerful enough to create billions of suns like ours or greater; God has given us a book with His words in it to move and shape us as His people. The words of that Book bear the authority of the Living God and have the supernatural ability through the power of Gods Spirit to speak into your real needs, or as Hebrews 4:12 testifies: For the word of God is living and active, and sharper than any two-edged sword, even penetrating as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. You, my dear Christian, must allow your heart to be saturated by it, and the only way to do that is to open your Bible and allow God to speak into your life through His Holy Word, for that is the principle means by which He speaks to His people. Now, permit me to briefly say a word about the preaching of Gods Word as it relates to Gods people: On this side of eternity, God has ordained the preaching of His word as the primary agent for supernatural transformation. This is why we read in the Bible: How then are they to call on Him in whom they have not believed? How are they to believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how are they to hear without a preacher. So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ (Rom. 10:14, 17). If Romans 10 is not enough for you, consider 1 Corinthians 1:23-24, But we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength. God has ordained the preaching of His Word to be one of the principle means to equip and strengthen His people for service in His name to the nations. When the proclamation of Gods Word is done responsibly by those who honestly labored over His Word through careful study and prayer then I believe what John Calvin once said is true every time we gather on a Sunday morning: God has so chosen to anoint the lips and tongues of His speakers that when they speak the voice of Jesus comes out (Calvin, Institutes, Book Four). This is why the apostle Paul instructed Timothy who was called to the Ephesian Church as their pastor: In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give you this charge: Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encouragewith great patience and careful instruction. For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. (2 Tim. 4:1-4) When we gather under the preaching of Gods Word, there is a God-ordained and supernatural work that Gods people subject themselves to. There are things that happen under the preaching of Gods word during corporate worship that cannot be explained but it is the work only God is able to perform through the authority of His Word proclaimed by the power of His Holy Spirit performed that will often blow your felt needs to ashes so that Gods word is able to address your real needs. We are a In-it-together Community Paul will address what it is that God is doing with His people in the verses and chapters to follow, so I will keep this brief. All I want you to see in verses 19 and 21-22 is this: God has always had a plan for your holiness and blamelessness in Christ, Christian. Through Jesus, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of Gods household (v. 19). God is committed to the very thing He has purposed to do in and through you when He set His affection upon you and chose you before the foundation of the world; His purpose in choosing you is that you would be, holy and blameless before Him (Eph. 1:4). When you were dead in your offenses and sins, God made you alive and every other Christian, alive together with Christ. Why did He do it? Paul tells us in Ephesians 2:10, For we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them. You were dead! You were an enemy of God! Now you are Gods child! Now you are, of Gods household in whom the whole building, being fitted together, is growing into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit (vv. 20-21). What does this mean? It means that because you are in Christ, God is for you and not against you! It means, that He who began a good work among you will complete it by the day of Christ Jesus (Phil. 1:6)! It means that no matter how used up you were, no matter how damaged you were, no matter how ugly your sins were He is making you more and more holy and more and more blameless! Listen. And the way that God is doing it is with Jesus as your cornerstone being built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets. In Ephesus there was a more glorious and more beautiful temple that made the great temple of Artemis look like a dung heap! It is a temple that continues to be built today and it is the place where the demonic fear because it is a living temple where the Spirit of God dwells; those who are far and near make up that temple. Meadowbrooke Church, we are also a part of that temple. It is because the preeminent Jesus is our cornerstone, and the foundation of His Church is the inspired teaching of the apostles and the prophets, the best and lasting gift I can give you is not a feeble attempt to cater to your felt needs, but the God of the Bible through the faithful preaching and teaching of His Word. So, on that note, I leave you with the words of a beautiful Hymn about a beautifying Bride: The church's one foundationIs Jesus Christ her Lord;She is his new creationBy water and the Word.From heaven he came and sought herTo be his holy bride;With his own blood he bought her,And for her life he died. Elect from every nation,Yet one o'er all the earth;Her charter of salvation,One Lord, one faith, one birth;One holy name she blesses,Partakes one holy food,And to one hope she presses,With every grace endued. The church shall never perish!Her dear Lord to defend,to guide, sustain, and cherish,is with her to the end;though there be those that hate her,and false sons in her pale,against the foe or traitorshe ever shall prevail. Mid toil and tribulation,And tumult of her war,She waits the consummationOf peace forevermore;Till, with the vision glorious,Her longing eyes are blest,And the great church victoriousShall be the church at rest. Yet she on earth hath unionWith God the Three in One,And mystic sweet communionWith those whose rest is won.O happy ones and holy!Lord, give us grace that weLike them, the meek and lowly,On high may dwell with thee.
Welcome back to our podcast, Reading With Ryan! Join Pastor Ryan and Sean as they discuss "Reappearing Church: The Hope for Renewal in the Rise of Our Post-Christian Culture" by Mark Sayers!Sign up for the True Hope Weekly so you don't miss each months upcoming book:https://www.truehopechurch.org/weeklyVisit our Website:https://www.truehopechurch.orgStay in touch with us:Instagram | Facebook | Spotify - True Hope Church
Psalms and Wisdom: Psalm 90 Psalm 90 (Listen) Book Four From Everlasting to Everlasting A Prayer of Moses, the man of God. 90 Lord, you have been our dwelling place1 in all generations.2 Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God. 3 You return man to dust and say, “Return, O children of man!”24 For a thousand years in your sight are but as yesterday when it is past, or as a watch in the night. 5 You sweep them away as with a flood; they are like a dream, like grass that is renewed in the morning:6 in the morning it flourishes and is renewed; in the evening it fades and withers. 7 For we are brought to an end by your anger; by your wrath we are dismayed.8 You have set our iniquities before you, our secret sins in the light of your presence. 9 For all our days pass away under your wrath; we bring our years to an end like a sigh.10 The years of our life are seventy, or even by reason of strength eighty; yet their span3 is but toil and trouble; they are soon gone, and we fly away.11 Who considers the power of your anger, and your wrath according to the fear of you? 12 So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.13 Return, O LORD! How long? Have pity on your servants!14 Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.15 Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us, and for as many years as we have seen evil.16 Let your work be shown to your servants, and your glorious power to their children.17 Let the favor4 of the Lord our God be upon us, and establish the work of our hands upon us; yes, establish the work of our hands! Footnotes [1] 90:1 Some Hebrew manuscripts (compare Septuagint) our refuge [2] 90:3 Or of Adam [3] 90:10 Or pride [4] 90:17 Or beauty (ESV) Pentateuch and History: Job 42:7–17 Job 42:7–17 (Listen) The Lord Rebukes Job's Friends 7 After the LORD had spoken these words to Job, the LORD said to Eliphaz the Temanite: “My anger burns against you and against your two friends, for you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has. 8 Now therefore take seven bulls and seven rams and go to my servant Job and offer up a burnt offering for yourselves. And my servant Job shall pray for you, for I will accept his prayer not to deal with you according to your folly. For you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has.” 9 So Eliphaz the Temanite and Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite went and did what the LORD had told them, and the LORD accepted Job's prayer. The Lord Restores Job's Fortunes 10 And the LORD restored the fortunes of Job, when he had prayed for his friends. And the LORD gave Job twice as much as he had before. 11 Then came to him all his brothers and sisters and all who had known him before, and ate bread with him in his house. And they showed him sympathy and comforted him for all the evil1 that the LORD had brought upon him. And each of them gave him a piece of money2 and a ring of gold. 12 And the LORD blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning. And he had 14,000 sheep, 6,000 camels, 1,000 yoke of oxen, and 1,000 female donkeys. 13 He had also seven sons and three daughters. 14 And he called the name of the first daughter Jemimah, and the name of the second Keziah, and the name of the third Keren-happuch. 15 And in all the land there were no women so beautiful as Job's daughters. And their father gave them an inheritance among their brothers. 16 And after this Job lived 140 years, and saw his sons, and his sons' sons, four generations. 17 And Job died, an old man, and full of days. Footnotes [1] 42:11 Or disaster [2] 42:11 Hebrew a qesitah; a unit of money of unknown value (ESV) Chronicles and Prophets: Isaiah 66 Isaiah 66 (Listen) The Humble and Contrite in Spirit 66 Thus says the LORD: “Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool; what is the house that you would build for me, and what is the place of my rest?2 All these things my hand has made, and so all these things came to be, declares the LORD. But this is the one to whom I will look: he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word. 3 “He who slaughters an ox is like one who kills a man; he who sacrifices a lamb, like one who breaks a dog's neck; he who presents a grain offering, like one who offers pig's blood; he who makes a memorial offering of frankincense, like one who blesses an idol. These have chosen their own ways, and their soul delights in their abominations;4 I also will choose harsh treatment for them and bring their fears upon them, because when I called, no one answered, when I spoke, they did not listen; but they did what was evil in my eyes and chose that in which I did not delight.” 5 Hear the word of the LORD, you who tremble at his word: “Your brothers who hate you and cast you out for my name's sake have said, ‘Let the LORD be glorified, that we may see your joy'; but it is they who shall be put to shame. 6 “The sound of an uproar from the city! A sound from the temple! The sound of the LORD, rendering recompense to his enemies! Rejoice with Jerusalem 7 “Before she was in labor she gave birth; before her pain came upon her she delivered a son.8 Who has heard such a thing? Who has seen such things? Shall a land be born in one day? Shall a nation be brought forth in one moment? For as soon as Zion was in labor she brought forth her children.9 Shall I bring to the point of birth and not cause to bring forth?” says the LORD; “shall I, who cause to bring forth, shut the womb?” says your God. 10 “Rejoice with Jerusalem, and be glad for her, all you who love her; rejoice with her in joy, all you who mourn over her;11 that you may nurse and be satisfied from her consoling breast; that you may drink deeply with delight from her glorious abundance.”1 12 For thus says the LORD: “Behold, I will extend peace to her like a river, and the glory of the nations like an overflowing stream; and you shall nurse, you shall be carried upon her hip, and bounced upon her knees.13 As one whom his mother comforts, so I will comfort you; you shall be comforted in Jerusalem.14 You shall see, and your heart shall rejoice; your bones shall flourish like the grass; and the hand of the LORD shall be known to his servants, and he shall show his indignation against his enemies. Final Judgment and Glory of the Lord 15 “For behold, the LORD will come in fire, and his chariots like the whirlwind, to render his anger in fury, and his rebuke with flames of fire.16 For by fire will the LORD enter into judgment, and by his sword, with all flesh; and those slain by the LORD shall be many. 17 “Those who sanctify and purify themselves to go into the gardens, following one in the midst, eating pig's flesh and the abomination and mice, shall come to an end together, declares the LORD. 18 “For I know2 their works and their thoughts, and the time is coming3 to gather all nations and tongues. And they shall come and shall see my glory, 19 and I will set a sign among them. And from them I will send survivors to the nations, to Tarshish, Pul, and Lud, who draw the bow, to Tubal and Javan, to the coastlands far away, that have not heard my fame or seen my glory. And they shall declare my glory among the nations. 20 And they shall bring all your brothers from all the nations as an offering to the LORD, on horses and in chariots and in litters and on mules and on dromedaries, to my holy mountain Jerusalem, says the LORD, just as the Israelites bring their grain offering in a clean vessel to the house of the LORD. 21 And some of them also I will take for priests and for Levites, says the LORD. 22 “For as the new heavens and the new earth that I make shall remain before me, says the LORD, so shall your offspring and your name remain.23 From new moon to new moon, and from Sabbath to Sabbath, all flesh shall come to worship before me, declares the LORD. 24 “And they shall go out and look on the dead bodies of the men who have rebelled against me. For their worm shall not die, their fire shall not be quenched, and they shall be an abhorrence to all flesh.” Footnotes [1] 66:11 Or breast [2] 66:18 Septuagint, Syriac; Hebrew lacks know [3] 66:18 Hebrew and it is coming (ESV) Gospels and Epistles: Revelation 22:6–21 Revelation 22:6–21 (Listen) Jesus Is Coming 6 And he said to me, “These words are trustworthy and true. And the Lord, the God of the spirits of the prophets, has sent his angel to show his servants what must soon take place.” 7 “And behold, I am coming soon. Blessed is the one who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book.” 8 I, John, am the one who heard and saw these things. And when I heard and saw them, I fell down to worship at the feet of the angel who showed them to me, 9 but he said to me, “You must not do that! I am a fellow servant with you and your brothers the prophets, and with those who keep the words of this book. Worship God.” 10 And he said to me, “Do not seal up the words of the prophecy of this book, for the time is near. 11 Let the evildoer still do evil, and the filthy still be filthy, and the righteous still do right, and the holy still be holy.” 12 “Behold, I am coming soon, bringing my recompense with me, to repay each one for what he has done. 13 I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.” 14 Blessed are those who wash their robes,1 so that they may have the right to the tree of life and that they may enter the city by the gates. 15 Outside are the dogs and sorcerers and the sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood. 16 “I, Jesus, have sent my angel to testify to you about these things for the churches. I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star.” 17 The Spirit and the Bride say, “Come.” And let the one who hears say, “Come.” And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who desires take the water of life without price. 18 I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book, 19 and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book. 20 He who testifies to these things says, “Surely I am coming soon.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus! 21 The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all.2 Amen. Footnotes [1] 22:14 Some manuscripts do his commandments [2] 22:21 Some manuscripts all the saints (ESV)
Morning: Exodus 14:13–14; Psalm 46:1–2; Psalm 90:1; Psalm 91:1; Psalm 91:4; Proverbs 1:33; Zechariah 2:8; Matthew 14:27; Luke 24:38–39; Colossians 3:3; 2 Timothy 1:12 “Whoever listens to me will dwell secure and will be at ease, without dread of disaster.” Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations.—He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty.—His faithfulness is a shield and buckler. Your life is hidden with Christ in God.—He who touches you touches the apple of his eye.—“Fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the Lord…. The Lord will fight for you, and you have only to be silent.”—God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear. Jesus spoke to them, saying, “Take heart; it is I. Do not be afraid.”—“Why are you troubled, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Touch me, and see. For a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.”—I know whom I have believed, and I am convinced that he is able to guard until that Day what has been entrusted to me. Exodus 14:13–14 (Listen) 13 And Moses said to the people, “Fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the LORD, which he will work for you today. For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall never see again. 14 The LORD will fight for you, and you have only to be silent.” (ESV) Psalm 46:1–2 (Listen) God Is Our Fortress To the choirmaster. Of the Sons of Korah. According to Alamoth.1 A Song. 46 God is our refuge and strength, a very present2 help in trouble.2 Therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way, though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea, Footnotes [1] 46:1 Probably a musical or liturgical term [2] 46:1 Or well proved (ESV) Psalm 90:1 (Listen) Book Four From Everlasting to Everlasting A Prayer of Moses, the man of God. 90 Lord, you have been our dwelling place1 in all generations. Footnotes [1] 90:1 Some Hebrew manuscripts (compare Septuagint) our refuge (ESV) Psalm 91:1 (Listen) My Refuge and My Fortress 91 He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty. (ESV) Psalm 91:4 (Listen) 4 He will cover you with his pinions, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness is a shield and buckler. (ESV) Proverbs 1:33 (Listen) 33 but whoever listens to me will dwell secure and will be at ease, without dread of disaster.” (ESV) Zechariah 2:8 (Listen) 8 For thus said the LORD of hosts, after his glory sent me1 to the nations who plundered you, for he who touches you touches the apple of his eye: Footnotes [1] 2:8 Or he sent me after glory (ESV) Matthew 14:27 (Listen) 27 But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, “Take heart; it is I. Do not be afraid.” (ESV) Luke 24:38–39 (Listen) 38 And he said to them, “Why are you troubled, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? 39 See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Touch me, and see. For a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.” (ESV) Colossians 3:3 (Listen) 3 For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. (ESV) 2 Timothy 1:12 (Listen) 12 which is why I suffer as I do. But I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed, and I am convinced that he is able to guard until that day what has been entrusted to me.1 Footnotes [1] 1:12 Or what I have entrusted to him; Greek my deposit (ESV) Evening: Matthew 26:64; John 18:36; 1 Corinthians 15:25; 1 Corinthians 15:57; Ephesians 1:20–23; 1 Timothy 6:15; Hebrews 10:12–13 “My kingdom is not of this world.” But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet.—“From now on you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power and coming on the clouds of heaven.”—He must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. Thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.—He raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.—which he will display at the proper time—he who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords. Matthew 26:64 (Listen) 64 Jesus said to him, “You have said so. But I tell you, from now on you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power and coming on the clouds of heaven.” (ESV) John 18:36 (Listen) 36 Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world.” (ESV) 1 Corinthians 15:25 (Listen) 25 For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. (ESV) 1 Corinthians 15:57 (Listen) 57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. (ESV) Ephesians 1:20–23 (Listen) 20 that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, 21 far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. 22 And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, 23 which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all. (ESV) 1 Timothy 6:15 (Listen) 15 which he will display at the proper time—he who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, (ESV) Hebrews 10:12–13 (Listen) 12 But when Christ1 had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, 13 waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet. Footnotes [1] 10:12 Greek this one (ESV)
Proper 27 First Psalm: Psalm 87; Psalm 90 Psalm 87 (Listen) Glorious Things of You Are Spoken A Psalm of the Sons of Korah. A Song. 87 On the holy mount stands the city he founded;2 the LORD loves the gates of Zion more than all the dwelling places of Jacob.3 Glorious things of you are spoken, O city of God. Selah 4 Among those who know me I mention Rahab and Babylon; behold, Philistia and Tyre, with Cush1— “This one was born there,” they say.5 And of Zion it shall be said, “This one and that one were born in her”; for the Most High himself will establish her.6 The LORD records as he registers the peoples, “This one was born there.” Selah 7 Singers and dancers alike say, “All my springs are in you.” Footnotes [1] 87:4 Probably Nubia (ESV) Psalm 90 (Listen) Book Four From Everlasting to Everlasting A Prayer of Moses, the man of God. 90 Lord, you have been our dwelling place1 in all generations.2 Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God. 3 You return man to dust and say, “Return, O children of man!”24 For a thousand years in your sight are but as yesterday when it is past, or as a watch in the night. 5 You sweep them away as with a flood; they are like a dream, like grass that is renewed in the morning:6 in the morning it flourishes and is renewed; in the evening it fades and withers. 7 For we are brought to an end by your anger; by your wrath we are dismayed.8 You have set our iniquities before you, our secret sins in the light of your presence. 9 For all our days pass away under your wrath; we bring our years to an end like a sigh.10 The years of our life are seventy, or even by reason of strength eighty; yet their span3 is but toil and trouble; they are soon gone, and we fly away.11 Who considers the power of your anger, and your wrath according to the fear of you? 12 So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.13 Return, O LORD! How long? Have pity on your servants!14 Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.15 Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us, and for as many years as we have seen evil.16 Let your work be shown to your servants, and your glorious power to their children.17 Let the favor4 of the Lord our God be upon us, and establish the work of our hands upon us; yes, establish the work of our hands! Footnotes [1] 90:1 Some Hebrew manuscripts (compare Septuagint) our refuge [2] 90:3 Or of Adam [3] 90:10 Or pride [4] 90:17 Or beauty (ESV) Second Psalm: Psalm 136 Psalm 136 (Listen) His Steadfast Love Endures Forever 136 Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever.2 Give thanks to the God of gods, for his steadfast love endures forever.3 Give thanks to the Lord of lords, for his steadfast love endures forever; 4 to him who alone does great wonders, for his steadfast love endures forever;5 to him who by understanding made the heavens, for his steadfast love endures forever;6 to him who spread out the earth above the waters, for his steadfast love endures forever;7 to him who made the great lights, for his steadfast love endures forever;8 the sun to rule over the day, for his steadfast love endures forever;9 the moon and stars to rule over the night, for his steadfast love endures forever; 10 to him who struck down the firstborn of Egypt, for his steadfast love endures forever;11 and brought Israel out from among them, for his steadfast love endures forever;12 with a strong hand and an outstretched arm, for his steadfast love endures forever;13 to him who divided the Red Sea in two, for his steadfast love endures forever;14 and made Israel pass through the midst of it, for his steadfast love endures forever;15 but overthrew1 Pharaoh and his host in the Red Sea, for his steadfast love endures forever;16 to him who led his people through the wilderness, for his steadfast love endures forever; 17 to him who struck down great kings, for his steadfast love endures forever;18 and killed mighty kings, for his steadfast love endures forever;19 Sihon, king of the Amorites, for his steadfast love endures forever;20 and Og, king of Bashan, for his steadfast love endures forever;21 and gave their land as a heritage, for his steadfast love endures forever;22 a heritage to Israel his servant, for his steadfast love endures forever. 23 It is he who remembered us in our low estate, for his steadfast love endures forever;24 and rescued us from our foes, for his steadfast love endures forever;25 he who gives food to all flesh, for his steadfast love endures forever. 26 Give thanks to the God of heaven, for his steadfast love endures forever. Footnotes [1] 136:15 Hebrew shook off (ESV) Old Testament: 1 Maccabees 2:1-28 New Testament: Revelation 20:1–6 Revelation 20:1–6 (Listen) The Thousand Years 20 Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding in his hand the key to the bottomless pit1 and a great chain. 2 And he seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years, 3 and threw him into the pit, and shut it and sealed it over him, so that he might not deceive the nations any longer, until the thousand years were ended. After that he must be released for a little while. 4 Then I saw thrones, and seated on them were those to whom the authority to judge was committed. Also I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus and for the word of God, and those who had not worshiped the beast or its image and had not received its mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. 5 The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended. This is the first resurrection. 6 Blessed and holy is the one who shares in the first resurrection! Over such the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ, and they will reign with him for a thousand years. Footnotes [1] 20:1 Greek the abyss; also verse 3 (ESV) Gospel: Matthew 16:21–28 Matthew 16:21–28 (Listen) Jesus Foretells His Death and Resurrection 21 From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised. 22 And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, “Far be it from you, Lord!1 This shall never happen to you.” 23 But he turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance2 to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.” Take Up Your Cross and Follow Jesus 24 Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 25 For whoever would save his life3 will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. 26 For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul? 27 For the Son of Man is going to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay each person according to what he has done. 28 Truly, I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.” Footnotes [1] 16:22 Or “[May God be] merciful to you, Lord!” [2] 16:23 Greek stumbling block [3] 16:25 The same Greek word can mean either soul or life, depending on the context; twice in this verse and twice in verse 26 (ESV)
Psalms and Wisdom: Psalm 90 Psalm 90 (Listen) Book Four From Everlasting to Everlasting A Prayer of Moses, the man of God. 90 Lord, you have been our dwelling place1 in all generations.2 Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God. 3 You return man to dust and say, “Return, O children of man!”24 For a thousand years in your sight are but as yesterday when it is past, or as a watch in the night. 5 You sweep them away as with a flood; they are like a dream, like grass that is renewed in the morning:6 in the morning it flourishes and is renewed; in the evening it fades and withers. 7 For we are brought to an end by your anger; by your wrath we are dismayed.8 You have set our iniquities before you, our secret sins in the light of your presence. 9 For all our days pass away under your wrath; we bring our years to an end like a sigh.10 The years of our life are seventy, or even by reason of strength eighty; yet their span3 is but toil and trouble; they are soon gone, and we fly away.11 Who considers the power of your anger, and your wrath according to the fear of you? 12 So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.13 Return, O LORD! How long? Have pity on your servants!14 Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.15 Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us, and for as many years as we have seen evil.16 Let your work be shown to your servants, and your glorious power to their children.17 Let the favor4 of the Lord our God be upon us, and establish the work of our hands upon us; yes, establish the work of our hands! Footnotes [1] 90:1 Some Hebrew manuscripts (compare Septuagint) our refuge [2] 90:3 Or of Adam [3] 90:10 Or pride [4] 90:17 Or beauty (ESV) Pentateuch and History: 1 Kings 22:1–40 1 Kings 22:1–40 (Listen) Ahab and the False Prophets 22 For three years Syria and Israel continued without war. 2 But in the third year Jehoshaphat the king of Judah came down to the king of Israel. 3 And the king of Israel said to his servants, “Do you know that Ramoth-gilead belongs to us, and we keep quiet and do not take it out of the hand of the king of Syria?” 4 And he said to Jehoshaphat, “Will you go with me to battle at Ramoth-gilead?” And Jehoshaphat said to the king of Israel, “I am as you are, my people as your people, my horses as your horses.” 5 And Jehoshaphat said to the king of Israel, “Inquire first for the word of the LORD.” 6 Then the king of Israel gathered the prophets together, about four hundred men, and said to them, “Shall I go to battle against Ramoth-gilead, or shall I refrain?” And they said, “Go up, for the Lord will give it into the hand of the king.” 7 But Jehoshaphat said, “Is there not here another prophet of the LORD of whom we may inquire?” 8 And the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, “There is yet one man by whom we may inquire of the LORD, Micaiah the son of Imlah, but I hate him, for he never prophesies good concerning me, but evil.” And Jehoshaphat said, “Let not the king say so.” 9 Then the king of Israel summoned an officer and said, “Bring quickly Micaiah the son of Imlah.” 10 Now the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat the king of Judah were sitting on their thrones, arrayed in their robes, at the threshing floor at the entrance of the gate of Samaria, and all the prophets were prophesying before them. 11 And Zedekiah the son of Chenaanah made for himself horns of iron and said, “Thus says the LORD, ‘With these you shall push the Syrians until they are destroyed.'” 12 And all the prophets prophesied so and said, “Go up to Ramoth-gilead and triumph; the LORD will give it into the hand of the king.” Micaiah Prophesies Against Ahab 13 And the messenger who went to summon Micaiah said to him, “Behold, the words of the prophets with one accord are favorable to the king. Let your word be like the word of one of them, and speak favorably.” 14 But Micaiah said, “As the LORD lives, what the LORD says to me, that I will speak.” 15 And when he had come to the king, the king said to him, “Micaiah, shall we go to Ramoth-gilead to battle, or shall we refrain?” And he answered him, “Go up and triumph; the LORD will give it into the hand of the king.” 16 But the king said to him, “How many times shall I make you swear that you speak to me nothing but the truth in the name of the LORD?” 17 And he said, “I saw all Israel scattered on the mountains, as sheep that have no shepherd. And the LORD said, ‘These have no master; let each return to his home in peace.'” 18 And the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, “Did I not tell you that he would not prophesy good concerning me, but evil?” 19 And Micaiah said, “Therefore hear the word of the LORD: I saw the LORD sitting on his throne, and all the host of heaven standing beside him on his right hand and on his left; 20 and the LORD said, ‘Who will entice Ahab, that he may go up and fall at Ramoth-gilead?' And one said one thing, and another said another. 21 Then a spirit came forward and stood before the LORD, saying, ‘I will entice him.' 22 And the LORD said to him, ‘By what means?' And he said, ‘I will go out, and will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets.' And he said, ‘You are to entice him, and you shall succeed; go out and do so.' 23 Now therefore behold, the LORD has put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these your prophets; the LORD has declared disaster for you.” 24 Then Zedekiah the son of Chenaanah came near and struck Micaiah on the cheek and said, “How did the Spirit of the LORD go from me to speak to you?” 25 And Micaiah said, “Behold, you shall see on that day when you go into an inner chamber to hide yourself.” 26 And the king of Israel said, “Seize Micaiah, and take him back to Amon the governor of the city and to Joash the king's son, 27 and say, ‘Thus says the king, “Put this fellow in prison and feed him meager rations of bread and water, until I come in peace.”'” 28 And Micaiah said, “If you return in peace, the LORD has not spoken by me.” And he said, “Hear, all you peoples!” Ahab Killed in Battle 29 So the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat the king of Judah went up to Ramoth-gilead. 30 And the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, “I will disguise myself and go into battle, but you wear your robes.” And the king of Israel disguised himself and went into battle. 31 Now the king of Syria had commanded the thirty-two captains of his chariots, “Fight with neither small nor great, but only with the king of Israel.” 32 And when the captains of the chariots saw Jehoshaphat, they said, “It is surely the king of Israel.” So they turned to fight against him. And Jehoshaphat cried out. 33 And when the captains of the chariots saw that it was not the king of Israel, they turned back from pursuing him. 34 But a certain man drew his bow at random1 and struck the king of Israel between the scale armor and the breastplate. Therefore he said to the driver of his chariot, “Turn around and carry me out of the battle, for I am wounded.” 35 And the battle continued that day, and the king was propped up in his chariot facing the Syrians, until at evening he died. And the blood of the wound flowed into the bottom of the chariot. 36 And about sunset a cry went through the army, “Every man to his city, and every man to his country!” 37 So the king died, and was brought to Samaria. And they buried the king in Samaria. 38 And they washed the chariot by the pool of Samaria, and the dogs licked up his blood, and the prostitutes washed themselves in it, according to the word of the LORD that he had spoken. 39 Now the rest of the acts of Ahab and all that he did, and the ivory house that he built and all the cities that he built, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel? 40 So Ahab slept with his fathers, and Ahaziah his son reigned in his place. Footnotes [1] 22:34 Hebrew in his innocence (ESV) Chronicles and Prophets: Zechariah 3 Zechariah 3 (Listen) A Vision of Joshua the High Priest 3 Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the LORD, and Satan1 standing at his right hand to accuse him. 2 And the LORD said to Satan, “The LORD rebuke you, O Satan! The LORD who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you! Is not this a brand2 plucked from the fire?” 3 Now Joshua was standing before the angel, clothed with filthy garments. 4 And the angel said to those who were standing before him, “Remove the filthy garments from him.” And to him he said, “Behold, I have taken your iniquity away from you, and I will clothe you with pure vestments.” 5 And I said, “Let them put a clean turban on his head.” So they put a clean turban on his head and clothed him with garments. And the angel of the LORD was standing by. 6 And the angel of the LORD solemnly assured Joshua, 7 “Thus says the LORD of hosts: If you will walk in my ways and keep my charge, then you shall rule my house and have charge of my courts, and I will give you the right of access among those who are standing here. 8 Hear now, O Joshua the high priest, you and your friends who sit before you, for they are men who are a sign: behold, I will bring my servant the Branch. 9 For behold, on the stone that I have set before Joshua, on a single stone with seven eyes,3 I will engrave its inscription, declares the LORD of hosts, and I will remove the iniquity of this land in a single day. 10 In that day, declares the LORD of hosts, every one of you will invite his neighbor to come under his vine and under his fig tree.” Footnotes [1] 3:1 Hebrew the Accuser or the Adversary [2] 3:2 That is, a burning stick [3] 3:9 Or facets (ESV) Gospels and Epistles: James 3:13–18 James 3:13–18 (Listen) Wisdom from Above 13 Who is wise and understanding among you? By his good conduct let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom. 14 But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth. 15 This is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. 16 For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice. 17 But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere. 18 And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace. (ESV)
Old Testament: Isaiah 29–30 Isaiah 29–30 (Listen) The Siege of Jerusalem 29 Ah, Ariel, Ariel, the city where David encamped! Add year to year; let the feasts run their round.2 Yet I will distress Ariel, and there shall be moaning and lamentation, and she shall be to me like an Ariel.13 And I will encamp against you all around, and will besiege you with towers and I will raise siegeworks against you.4 And you will be brought low; from the earth you shall speak, and from the dust your speech will be bowed down; your voice shall come from the ground like the voice of a ghost, and from the dust your speech shall whisper. 5 But the multitude of your foreign foes shall be like small dust, and the multitude of the ruthless like passing chaff. And in an instant, suddenly,6 you will be visited by the LORD of hosts with thunder and with earthquake and great noise, with whirlwind and tempest, and the flame of a devouring fire.7 And the multitude of all the nations that fight against Ariel, all that fight against her and her stronghold and distress her, shall be like a dream, a vision of the night.8 As when a hungry man dreams, and behold, he is eating, and awakes with his hunger not satisfied, or as when a thirsty man dreams, and behold, he is drinking, and awakes faint, with his thirst not quenched, so shall the multitude of all the nations be that fight against Mount Zion. 9 Astonish yourselves2 and be astonished; blind yourselves and be blind! Be drunk,3 but not with wine; stagger,4 but not with strong drink!10 For the LORD has poured out upon you a spirit of deep sleep, and has closed your eyes (the prophets), and covered your heads (the seers). 11 And the vision of all this has become to you like the words of a book that is sealed. When men give it to one who can read, saying, “Read this,” he says, “I cannot, for it is sealed.” 12 And when they give the book to one who cannot read, saying, “Read this,” he says, “I cannot read.” 13 And the Lord said: “Because this people draw near with their mouth and honor me with their lips, while their hearts are far from me, and their fear of me is a commandment taught by men,14 therefore, behold, I will again do wonderful things with this people, with wonder upon wonder; and the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the discernment of their discerning men shall be hidden.” 15 Ah, you who hide deep from the LORD your counsel, whose deeds are in the dark, and who say, “Who sees us? Who knows us?”16 You turn things upside down! Shall the potter be regarded as the clay, that the thing made should say of its maker, “He did not make me”; or the thing formed say of him who formed it, “He has no understanding”? 17 Is it not yet a very little while until Lebanon shall be turned into a fruitful field, and the fruitful field shall be regarded as a forest?18 In that day the deaf shall hear the words of a book, and out of their gloom and darkness the eyes of the blind shall see.19 The meek shall obtain fresh joy in the LORD, and the poor among mankind shall exult in the Holy One of Israel.20 For the ruthless shall come to nothing and the scoffer cease, and all who watch to do evil shall be cut off,21 who by a word make a man out to be an offender, and lay a snare for him who reproves in the gate, and with an empty plea turn aside him who is in the right. 22 Therefore thus says the LORD, who redeemed Abraham, concerning the house of Jacob: “Jacob shall no more be ashamed, no more shall his face grow pale.23 For when he sees his children, the work of my hands, in his midst, they will sanctify my name; they will sanctify the Holy One of Jacob and will stand in awe of the God of Israel.24 And those who go astray in spirit will come to understanding, and those who murmur will accept instruction.” Do Not Go Down to Egypt 30 “Ah, stubborn children,” declares the LORD, “who carry out a plan, but not mine, and who make an alliance,5 but not of my Spirit, that they may add sin to sin;2 who set out to go down to Egypt, without asking for my direction, to take refuge in the protection of Pharaoh and to seek shelter in the shadow of Egypt!3 Therefore shall the protection of Pharaoh turn to your shame, and the shelter in the shadow of Egypt to your humiliation.4 For though his officials are at Zoan and his envoys reach Hanes,5 everyone comes to shame through a people that cannot profit them, that brings neither help nor profit, but shame and disgrace.” 6 An oracle on the beasts of the Negeb. Through a land of trouble and anguish, from where come the lioness and the lion, the adder and the flying fiery serpent, they carry their riches on the backs of donkeys, and their treasures on the humps of camels, to a people that cannot profit them.7 Egypt's help is worthless and empty; therefore I have called her “Rahab who sits still.” A Rebellious People 8 And now, go, write it before them on a tablet and inscribe it in a book, that it may be for the time to come as a witness forever.69 For they are a rebellious people, lying children, children unwilling to hear the instruction of the LORD;10 who say to the seers, “Do not see,” and to the prophets, “Do not prophesy to us what is right; speak to us smooth things, prophesy illusions,11 leave the way, turn aside from the path, let us hear no more about the Holy One of Israel.”12 Therefore thus says the Holy One of Israel, “Because you despise this word and trust in oppression and perverseness and rely on them,13 therefore this iniquity shall be to you like a breach in a high wall, bulging out and about to collapse, whose breaking comes suddenly, in an instant;14 and its breaking is like that of a potter's vessel that is smashed so ruthlessly that among its fragments not a shard is found with which to take fire from the hearth, or to dip up water out of the cistern.” 15 For thus said the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel, “In returning7 and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your strength.” But you were unwilling, 16 and you said, “No! We will flee upon horses”; therefore you shall flee away; and, “We will ride upon swift steeds”; therefore your pursuers shall be swift.17 A thousand shall flee at the threat of one; at the threat of five you shall flee, till you are left like a flagstaff on the top of a mountain, like a signal on a hill. The Lord Will Be Gracious 18 Therefore the LORD waits to be gracious to you, and therefore he exalts himself to show mercy to you. For the LORD is a God of justice; blessed are all those who wait for him. 19 For a people shall dwell in Zion, in Jerusalem; you shall weep no more. He will surely be gracious to you at the sound of your cry. As soon as he hears it, he answers you. 20 And though the Lord give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet your Teacher will not hide himself anymore, but your eyes shall see your Teacher. 21 And your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, “This is the way, walk in it,” when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left. 22 Then you will defile your carved idols overlaid with silver and your gold-plated metal images. You will scatter them as unclean things. You will say to them, “Be gone!” 23 And he will give rain for the seed with which you sow the ground, and bread, the produce of the ground, which will be rich and plenteous. In that day your livestock will graze in large pastures, 24 and the oxen and the donkeys that work the ground will eat seasoned fodder, which has been winnowed with shovel and fork. 25 And on every lofty mountain and every high hill there will be brooks running with water, in the day of the great slaughter, when the towers fall. 26 Moreover, the light of the moon will be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun will be sevenfold, as the light of seven days, in the day when the LORD binds up the brokenness of his people, and heals the wounds inflicted by his blow. 27 Behold, the name of the LORD comes from afar, burning with his anger, and in thick rising smoke;8 his lips are full of fury, and his tongue is like a devouring fire;28 his breath is like an overflowing stream that reaches up to the neck; to sift the nations with the sieve of destruction, and to place on the jaws of the peoples a bridle that leads astray. 29 You shall have a song as in the night when a holy feast is kept, and gladness of heart, as when one sets out to the sound of the flute to go to the mountain of the LORD, to the Rock of Israel. 30 And the LORD will cause his majestic voice to be heard and the descending blow of his arm to be seen, in furious anger and a flame of devouring fire, with a cloudburst and storm and hailstones. 31 The Assyrians will be terror-stricken at the voice of the LORD, when he strikes with his rod. 32 And every stroke of the appointed staff that the LORD lays on them will be to the sound of tambourines and lyres. Battling with brandished arm, he will fight with them. 33 For a burning place9 has long been prepared; indeed, for the king it is made ready, its pyre made deep and wide, with fire and wood in abundance; the breath of the LORD, like a stream of sulfur, kindles it. Footnotes [1] 29:2 Ariel could mean lion of God, or hero (2 Samuel 23:20), or altar hearth (Ezekiel 43:15–16) [2] 29:9 Or Linger awhile [3] 29:9 Or They are drunk [4] 29:9 Or they stagger [5] 30:1 Hebrew who weave a web [6] 30:8 Some Hebrew manuscripts, Syriac, Targum, Vulgate, and Greek versions; Masoretic Text forever and ever [7] 30:15 Or repentance [8] 30:27 Hebrew in weight of uplifted clouds [9] 30:33 Or For Topheth (ESV) Psalm: Psalm 90 Psalm 90 (Listen) Book Four From Everlasting to Everlasting A Prayer of Moses, the man of God. 90 Lord, you have been our dwelling place1 in all generations.2 Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God. 3 You return man to dust and say, “Return, O children of man!”24 For a thousand years in your sight are but as yesterday when it is past, or as a watch in the night. 5 You sweep them away as with a flood; they are like a dream, like grass that is renewed in the morning:6 in the morning it flourishes and is renewed; in the evening it fades and withers. 7 For we are brought to an end by your anger; by your wrath we are dismayed.8 You have set our iniquities before you, our secret sins in the light of your presence. 9 For all our days pass away under your wrath; we bring our years to an end like a sigh.10 The years of our life are seventy, or even by reason of strength eighty; yet their span3 is but toil and trouble; they are soon gone, and we fly away.11 Who considers the power of your anger, and your wrath according to the fear of you? 12 So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.13 Return, O LORD! How long? Have pity on your servants!14 Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.15 Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us, and for as many years as we have seen evil.16 Let your work be shown to your servants, and your glorious power to their children.17 Let the favor4 of the Lord our God be upon us, and establish the work of our hands upon us; yes, establish the work of our hands! Footnotes [1] 90:1 Some Hebrew manuscripts (compare Septuagint) our refuge [2] 90:3 Or of Adam [3] 90:10 Or pride [4] 90:17 Or beauty (ESV) New Testament: Acts 14 Acts 14 (Listen) Paul and Barnabas at Iconium 14 Now at Iconium they entered together into the Jewish synagogue and spoke in such a way that a great number of both Jews and Greeks believed. 2 But the unbelieving Jews stirred up the Gentiles and poisoned their minds against the brothers.1 3 So they remained for a long time, speaking boldly for the Lord, who bore witness to the word of his grace, granting signs and wonders to be done by their hands. 4 But the people of the city were divided; some sided with the Jews and some with the apostles. 5 When an attempt was made by both Gentiles and Jews, with their rulers, to mistreat them and to stone them, 6 they learned of it and fled to Lystra and Derbe, cities of Lycaonia, and to the surrounding country, 7 and there they continued to preach the gospel. Paul and Barnabas at Lystra 8 Now at Lystra there was a man sitting who could not use his feet. He was crippled from birth and had never walked. 9 He listened to Paul speaking. And Paul, looking intently at him and seeing that he had faith to be made well,2 10 said in a loud voice, “Stand upright on your feet.” And he sprang up and began walking. 11 And when the crow
Old Testament: Isaiah 29–30 Isaiah 29–30 (Listen) The Siege of Jerusalem 29 Ah, Ariel, Ariel, the city where David encamped! Add year to year; let the feasts run their round.2 Yet I will distress Ariel, and there shall be moaning and lamentation, and she shall be to me like an Ariel.13 And I will encamp against you all around, and will besiege you with towers and I will raise siegeworks against you.4 And you will be brought low; from the earth you shall speak, and from the dust your speech will be bowed down; your voice shall come from the ground like the voice of a ghost, and from the dust your speech shall whisper. 5 But the multitude of your foreign foes shall be like small dust, and the multitude of the ruthless like passing chaff. And in an instant, suddenly,6 you will be visited by the LORD of hosts with thunder and with earthquake and great noise, with whirlwind and tempest, and the flame of a devouring fire.7 And the multitude of all the nations that fight against Ariel, all that fight against her and her stronghold and distress her, shall be like a dream, a vision of the night.8 As when a hungry man dreams, and behold, he is eating, and awakes with his hunger not satisfied, or as when a thirsty man dreams, and behold, he is drinking, and awakes faint, with his thirst not quenched, so shall the multitude of all the nations be that fight against Mount Zion. 9 Astonish yourselves2 and be astonished; blind yourselves and be blind! Be drunk,3 but not with wine; stagger,4 but not with strong drink!10 For the LORD has poured out upon you a spirit of deep sleep, and has closed your eyes (the prophets), and covered your heads (the seers). 11 And the vision of all this has become to you like the words of a book that is sealed. When men give it to one who can read, saying, “Read this,” he says, “I cannot, for it is sealed.” 12 And when they give the book to one who cannot read, saying, “Read this,” he says, “I cannot read.” 13 And the Lord said: “Because this people draw near with their mouth and honor me with their lips, while their hearts are far from me, and their fear of me is a commandment taught by men,14 therefore, behold, I will again do wonderful things with this people, with wonder upon wonder; and the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the discernment of their discerning men shall be hidden.” 15 Ah, you who hide deep from the LORD your counsel, whose deeds are in the dark, and who say, “Who sees us? Who knows us?”16 You turn things upside down! Shall the potter be regarded as the clay, that the thing made should say of its maker, “He did not make me”; or the thing formed say of him who formed it, “He has no understanding”? 17 Is it not yet a very little while until Lebanon shall be turned into a fruitful field, and the fruitful field shall be regarded as a forest?18 In that day the deaf shall hear the words of a book, and out of their gloom and darkness the eyes of the blind shall see.19 The meek shall obtain fresh joy in the LORD, and the poor among mankind shall exult in the Holy One of Israel.20 For the ruthless shall come to nothing and the scoffer cease, and all who watch to do evil shall be cut off,21 who by a word make a man out to be an offender, and lay a snare for him who reproves in the gate, and with an empty plea turn aside him who is in the right. 22 Therefore thus says the LORD, who redeemed Abraham, concerning the house of Jacob: “Jacob shall no more be ashamed, no more shall his face grow pale.23 For when he sees his children, the work of my hands, in his midst, they will sanctify my name; they will sanctify the Holy One of Jacob and will stand in awe of the God of Israel.24 And those who go astray in spirit will come to understanding, and those who murmur will accept instruction.” Do Not Go Down to Egypt 30 “Ah, stubborn children,” declares the LORD, “who carry out a plan, but not mine, and who make an alliance,5 but not of my Spirit, that they may add sin to sin;2 who set out to go down to Egypt, without asking for my direction, to take refuge in the protection of Pharaoh and to seek shelter in the shadow of Egypt!3 Therefore shall the protection of Pharaoh turn to your shame, and the shelter in the shadow of Egypt to your humiliation.4 For though his officials are at Zoan and his envoys reach Hanes,5 everyone comes to shame through a people that cannot profit them, that brings neither help nor profit, but shame and disgrace.” 6 An oracle on the beasts of the Negeb. Through a land of trouble and anguish, from where come the lioness and the lion, the adder and the flying fiery serpent, they carry their riches on the backs of donkeys, and their treasures on the humps of camels, to a people that cannot profit them.7 Egypt's help is worthless and empty; therefore I have called her “Rahab who sits still.” A Rebellious People 8 And now, go, write it before them on a tablet and inscribe it in a book, that it may be for the time to come as a witness forever.69 For they are a rebellious people, lying children, children unwilling to hear the instruction of the LORD;10 who say to the seers, “Do not see,” and to the prophets, “Do not prophesy to us what is right; speak to us smooth things, prophesy illusions,11 leave the way, turn aside from the path, let us hear no more about the Holy One of Israel.”12 Therefore thus says the Holy One of Israel, “Because you despise this word and trust in oppression and perverseness and rely on them,13 therefore this iniquity shall be to you like a breach in a high wall, bulging out and about to collapse, whose breaking comes suddenly, in an instant;14 and its breaking is like that of a potter's vessel that is smashed so ruthlessly that among its fragments not a shard is found with which to take fire from the hearth, or to dip up water out of the cistern.” 15 For thus said the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel, “In returning7 and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your strength.” But you were unwilling, 16 and you said, “No! We will flee upon horses”; therefore you shall flee away; and, “We will ride upon swift steeds”; therefore your pursuers shall be swift.17 A thousand shall flee at the threat of one; at the threat of five you shall flee, till you are left like a flagstaff on the top of a mountain, like a signal on a hill. The Lord Will Be Gracious 18 Therefore the LORD waits to be gracious to you, and therefore he exalts himself to show mercy to you. For the LORD is a God of justice; blessed are all those who wait for him. 19 For a people shall dwell in Zion, in Jerusalem; you shall weep no more. He will surely be gracious to you at the sound of your cry. As soon as he hears it, he answers you. 20 And though the Lord give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet your Teacher will not hide himself anymore, but your eyes shall see your Teacher. 21 And your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, “This is the way, walk in it,” when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left. 22 Then you will defile your carved idols overlaid with silver and your gold-plated metal images. You will scatter them as unclean things. You will say to them, “Be gone!” 23 And he will give rain for the seed with which you sow the ground, and bread, the produce of the ground, which will be rich and plenteous. In that day your livestock will graze in large pastures, 24 and the oxen and the donkeys that work the ground will eat seasoned fodder, which has been winnowed with shovel and fork. 25 And on every lofty mountain and every high hill there will be brooks running with water, in the day of the great slaughter, when the towers fall. 26 Moreover, the light of the moon will be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun will be sevenfold, as the light of seven days, in the day when the LORD binds up the brokenness of his people, and heals the wounds inflicted by his blow. 27 Behold, the name of the LORD comes from afar, burning with his anger, and in thick rising smoke;8 his lips are full of fury, and his tongue is like a devouring fire;28 his breath is like an overflowing stream that reaches up to the neck; to sift the nations with the sieve of destruction, and to place on the jaws of the peoples a bridle that leads astray. 29 You shall have a song as in the night when a holy feast is kept, and gladness of heart, as when one sets out to the sound of the flute to go to the mountain of the LORD, to the Rock of Israel. 30 And the LORD will cause his majestic voice to be heard and the descending blow of his arm to be seen, in furious anger and a flame of devouring fire, with a cloudburst and storm and hailstones. 31 The Assyrians will be terror-stricken at the voice of the LORD, when he strikes with his rod. 32 And every stroke of the appointed staff that the LORD lays on them will be to the sound of tambourines and lyres. Battling with brandished arm, he will fight with them. 33 For a burning place9 has long been prepared; indeed, for the king it is made ready, its pyre made deep and wide, with fire and wood in abundance; the breath of the LORD, like a stream of sulfur, kindles it. Footnotes [1] 29:2 Ariel could mean lion of God, or hero (2 Samuel 23:20), or altar hearth (Ezekiel 43:15–16) [2] 29:9 Or Linger awhile [3] 29:9 Or They are drunk [4] 29:9 Or they stagger [5] 30:1 Hebrew who weave a web [6] 30:8 Some Hebrew manuscripts, Syriac, Targum, Vulgate, and Greek versions; Masoretic Text forever and ever [7] 30:15 Or repentance [8] 30:27 Hebrew in weight of uplifted clouds [9] 30:33 Or For Topheth (ESV) New Testament: Hebrews 13:1–19 Hebrews 13:1–19 (Listen) Sacrifices Pleasing to God 13 Let brotherly love continue. 2 Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares. 3 Remember those who are in prison, as though in prison with them, and those who are mistreated, since you also are in the body. 4 Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous. 5 Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” 6 So we can confidently say, “The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?” 7 Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God. Consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith. 8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. 9 Do not be led away by diverse and strange teachings, for it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not by foods, which have not benefited those devoted to them. 10 We have an altar from which those who serve the tent1 have no right to eat. 11 For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the holy places by the high priest as a sacrifice for sin are burned outside the camp. 12 So Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood. 13 Therefore let us go to him outside the camp and bear the reproach he endured. 14 For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come. 15 Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name. 16 Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God. 17 Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you. 18 Pray for us, for we are sure that we have a clear conscience, desiring to act honorably in all things. 19 I urge you the more earnestly to do this in order that I may be restored to you the sooner. Footnotes [1] 13:10 Or tabernacle (ESV) Psalm: Psalm 90 Psalm 90 (Listen) Book Four From Everlasting to Everlasting A Prayer of Moses, the man of God. 90 Lord, you have been our dwelling place1 in all generations.2 Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God. 3 You return man to dust and say, “Return, O children of man!”24 For a thousand years in your sight are but as yesterday when it is past, or as a watch in the night. 5 You sweep them away as with a flood; they are like a dream, like grass that is renewed in the morning:6 in the morning it flourishes and is renewed; in the evening it fades and withers. 7 For we are brought to an end by your anger; by your wrath we are dismayed.8 You have set our iniquities before you, our secret sins in the light of your presence. 9 For all our days pass away under your wrath; we bring our years to an end like a sigh.10 The years of our life are seventy, or even by reason of strength eighty; yet their span3 is but toil and trouble; they are soon gone, and we fly away.11 Who considers the power of your anger, and your wrath according to the fear of you? 12 So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.13 Return, O LORD! How long? Have pity on your servants!14 Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.15 Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us,
With family: 1 Kings 9; Ephesians 6 1 Kings 9 (Listen) The Lord Appears to Solomon 9 As soon as Solomon had finished building the house of the LORD and the king's house and all that Solomon desired to build, 2 the LORD appeared to Solomon a second time, as he had appeared to him at Gibeon. 3 And the LORD said to him, “I have heard your prayer and your plea, which you have made before me. I have consecrated this house that you have built, by putting my name there forever. My eyes and my heart will be there for all time. 4 And as for you, if you will walk before me, as David your father walked, with integrity of heart and uprightness, doing according to all that I have commanded you, and keeping my statutes and my rules, 5 then I will establish your royal throne over Israel forever, as I promised David your father, saying, ‘You shall not lack a man on the throne of Israel.' 6 But if you turn aside from following me, you or your children, and do not keep my commandments and my statutes that I have set before you, but go and serve other gods and worship them, 7 then I will cut off Israel from the land that I have given them, and the house that I have consecrated for my name I will cast out of my sight, and Israel will become a proverb and a byword among all peoples. 8 And this house will become a heap of ruins.1 Everyone passing by it will be astonished and will hiss, and they will say, ‘Why has the LORD done thus to this land and to this house?' 9 Then they will say, ‘Because they abandoned the LORD their God who brought their fathers out of the land of Egypt and laid hold on other gods and worshiped them and served them. Therefore the LORD has brought all this disaster on them.'” Solomon's Other Acts 10 At the end of twenty years, in which Solomon had built the two houses, the house of the LORD and the king's house, 11 and Hiram king of Tyre had supplied Solomon with cedar and cypress timber and gold, as much as he desired, King Solomon gave to Hiram twenty cities in the land of Galilee. 12 But when Hiram came from Tyre to see the cities that Solomon had given him, they did not please him. 13 Therefore he said, “What kind of cities are these that you have given me, my brother?” So they are called the land of Cabul to this day. 14 Hiram had sent to the king 120 talents2 of gold. 15 And this is the account of the forced labor that King Solomon drafted to build the house of the LORD and his own house and the Millo and the wall of Jerusalem and Hazor and Megiddo and Gezer 16 (Pharaoh king of Egypt had gone up and captured Gezer and burned it with fire, and had killed the Canaanites who lived in the city, and had given it as dowry to his daughter, Solomon's wife; 17 so Solomon rebuilt Gezer) and Lower Beth-horon 18 and Baalath and Tamar in the wilderness, in the land of Judah,3 19 and all the store cities that Solomon had, and the cities for his chariots, and the cities for his horsemen, and whatever Solomon desired to build in Jerusalem, in Lebanon, and in all the land of his dominion. 20 All the people who were left of the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, who were not of the people of Israel—21 their descendants who were left after them in the land, whom the people of Israel were unable to devote to destruction4—these Solomon drafted to be slaves, and so they are to this day. 22 But of the people of Israel Solomon made no slaves. They were the soldiers, they were his officials, his commanders, his captains, his chariot commanders and his horsemen. 23 These were the chief officers who were over Solomon's work: 550 who had charge of the people who carried on the work. 24 But Pharaoh's daughter went up from the city of David to her own house that Solomon had built for her. Then he built the Millo. 25 Three times a year Solomon used to offer up burnt offerings and peace offerings on the altar that he built to the LORD, making offerings with it5 before the LORD. So he finished the house. 26 King Solomon built a fleet of ships at Ezion-geber, which is near Eloth on the shore of the Red Sea, in the land of Edom. 27 And Hiram sent with the fleet his servants, seamen who were familiar with the sea, together with the servants of Solomon. 28 And they went to Ophir and brought from there gold, 420 talents, and they brought it to King Solomon. Footnotes [1] 9:8 Syriac, Old Latin; Hebrew will become high [2] 9:14 A talent was about 75 pounds or 34 kilograms [3] 9:18 Hebrew lacks of Judah [4] 9:21 That is, set apart (devote) as an offering to the Lord (for destruction) [5] 9:25 Septuagint lacks with it (ESV) Ephesians 6 (Listen) Children and Parents 6 Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. 2 “Honor your father and mother” (this is the first commandment with a promise), 3 “that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land.” 4 Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. Bondservants and Masters 5 Bondservants,1 obey your earthly masters2 with fear and trembling, with a sincere heart, as you would Christ, 6 not by the way of eye-service, as people-pleasers, but as bondservants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart, 7 rendering service with a good will as to the Lord and not to man, 8 knowing that whatever good anyone does, this he will receive back from the Lord, whether he is a bondservant or is free. 9 Masters, do the same to them, and stop your threatening, knowing that he who is both their Master3 and yours is in heaven, and that there is no partiality with him. The Whole Armor of God 10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. 11 Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. 12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. 13 Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. 14 Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, 15 and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. 16 In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; 17 and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, 18 praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints, 19 and also for me, that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel, 20 for which I am an ambassador in chains, that I may declare it boldly, as I ought to speak. Final Greetings 21 So that you also may know how I am and what I am doing, Tychicus the beloved brother and faithful minister in the Lord will tell you everything. 22 I have sent him to you for this very purpose, that you may know how we are, and that he may encourage your hearts. 23 Peace be to the brothers,4 and love with faith, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 24 Grace be with all who love our Lord Jesus Christ with love incorruptible. Footnotes [1] 6:5 For the contextual rendering of the Greek word doulos, see Preface; also verse 6; likewise for bondservant in verse 8 [2] 6:5 Or your masters according to the flesh [3] 6:9 Greek Lord [4] 6:23 Or brothers and sisters (ESV) In private: Psalm 90; Ezekiel 39 Psalm 90 (Listen) Book Four From Everlasting to Everlasting A Prayer of Moses, the man of God. 90 Lord, you have been our dwelling place1 in all generations.2 Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God. 3 You return man to dust and say, “Return, O children of man!”24 For a thousand years in your sight are but as yesterday when it is past, or as a watch in the night. 5 You sweep them away as with a flood; they are like a dream, like grass that is renewed in the morning:6 in the morning it flourishes and is renewed; in the evening it fades and withers. 7 For we are brought to an end by your anger; by your wrath we are dismayed.8 You have set our iniquities before you, our secret sins in the light of your presence. 9 For all our days pass away under your wrath; we bring our years to an end like a sigh.10 The years of our life are seventy, or even by reason of strength eighty; yet their span3 is but toil and trouble; they are soon gone, and we fly away.11 Who considers the power of your anger, and your wrath according to the fear of you? 12 So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.13 Return, O LORD! How long? Have pity on your servants!14 Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.15 Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us, and for as many years as we have seen evil.16 Let your work be shown to your servants, and your glorious power to their children.17 Let the favor4 of the Lord our God be upon us, and establish the work of our hands upon us; yes, establish the work of our hands! Footnotes [1] 90:1 Some Hebrew manuscripts (compare Septuagint) our refuge [2] 90:3 Or of Adam [3] 90:10 Or pride [4] 90:17 Or beauty (ESV) Ezekiel 39 (Listen) 39 “And you, son of man, prophesy against Gog and say, Thus says the Lord GOD: Behold, I am against you, O Gog, chief prince of Meshech1 and Tubal. 2 And I will turn you about and drive you forward,2 and bring you up from the uttermost parts of the north, and lead you against the mountains of Israel. 3 Then I will strike your bow from your left hand, and will make your arrows drop out of your right hand. 4 You shall fall on the mountains of Israel, you and all your hordes and the peoples who are with you. I will give you to birds of prey of every sort and to the beasts of the field to be devoured. 5 You shall fall in the open field, for I have spoken, declares the Lord GOD. 6 I will send fire on Magog and on those who dwell securely in the coastlands, and they shall know that I am the LORD. 7 “And my holy name I will make known in the midst of my people Israel, and I will not let my holy name be profaned anymore. And the nations shall know that I am the LORD, the Holy One in Israel. 8 Behold, it is coming and it will be brought about, declares the Lord GOD. That is the day of which I have spoken. 9 “Then those who dwell in the cities of Israel will go out and make fires of the weapons and burn them, shields and bucklers, bow and arrows, clubs3 and spears; and they will make fires of them for seven years, 10 so that they will not need to take wood out of the field or cut down any out of the forests, for they will make their fires of the weapons. They will seize the spoil of those who despoiled them, and plunder those who plundered them, declares the Lord GOD. 11 “On that day I will give to Gog a place for burial in Israel, the Valley of the Travelers, east of the sea. It will block the travelers, for there Gog and all his multitude will be buried. It will be called the Valley of Hamon-gog.4 12 For seven months the house of Israel will be burying them, in order to cleanse the land. 13 All the people of the land will bury them, and it will bring them renown on the day that I show my glory, declares the Lord GOD. 14 They will set apart men to travel through the land regularly and bury those travelers remaining on the face of the land, so as to cleanse it. At5 the end of seven months they will make their search. 15 And when these travel through the land and anyone sees a human bone, then he shall set up a sign by it, till the buriers have buried it in the Valley of Hamon-gog. 16 (Hamonah6 is also the name of the city.) Thus shall they cleanse the land. 17 “As for you, son of man, thus says the Lord GOD: Speak to the birds of every sort and to all beasts of the field: ‘Assemble and come, gather from all around to the sacrificial feast that I am preparing for you, a great sacrificial feast on the mountains of Israel, and you shall eat flesh and drink blood. 18 You shall eat the flesh of the mighty, and drink the blood of the princes of the earth—of rams, of lambs, and of he-goats, of bulls, all of them fat beasts of Bashan. 19 And you shall eat fat till you are filled, and drink blood till you are drunk, at the sacrificial feast that I am preparing for you. 20 And you shall be filled at my table with horses and charioteers, with mighty men and all kinds of warriors,' declares the Lord GOD. 21 “And I will set my glory among the nations, and all the nations shall see my judgment that I have executed, and my hand that I have laid on them. 22 The house of Israel shall know that I am the LORD their God, from that day forward. 23 And the nations shall know that the house of Israel went into captivity for their iniquity, because they dealt so treacherously with me that I hid my face from them and gave them into the hand of their adversaries, and they all fell by the sword. 24 I dealt with them according to their uncleanness and their transgressions, and hid my face from them. The Lord Will Restore Israel 25 “Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: Now I will restore the fortunes of Jacob and have mercy on the whole house of Israel, and I will be jealous for my holy name. 26 They shall forget their shame and all the treachery they have practiced against me, when they dwell securely in their land with none to make them afraid, 27 when I have brought them back from the peoples and gathered them from their enemies' lands, and through them have vindicated my holiness in the sight of many nations. 28 Then they shall know that I am the LORD their God, because I sent them into exile among the nations and then assembled them into their own land. I will leave none of them remaining among the nations anymore. 29 And I will not hide my face anymore from them, when I pour out my Spirit upon the house of Israel, declares the Lord GOD.” Footnotes [1] 39:1 Or Gog, prince of Rosh, Meshech [2] 39:2 Or and drag you along [3] 39:9 Or javelins [4] 39:11 Hamon-gog means the multitude of Gog [5] 39:14 Or Until [6] 39:16 Hamonah means multitude (ESV)
Proper 20 First Psalm: Psalm 87; Psalm 90 Psalm 87 (Listen) Glorious Things of You Are Spoken A Psalm of the Sons of Korah. A Song. 87 On the holy mount stands the city he founded;2 the LORD loves the gates of Zion more than all the dwelling places of Jacob.3 Glorious things of you are spoken, O city of God. Selah 4 Among those who know me I mention Rahab and Babylon; behold, Philistia and Tyre, with Cush1— “This one was born there,” they say.5 And of Zion it shall be said, “This one and that one were born in her”; for the Most High himself will establish her.6 The LORD records as he registers the peoples, “This one was born there.” Selah 7 Singers and dancers alike say, “All my springs are in you.” Footnotes [1] 87:4 Probably Nubia (ESV) Psalm 90 (Listen) Book Four From Everlasting to Everlasting A Prayer of Moses, the man of God. 90 Lord, you have been our dwelling place1 in all generations.2 Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God. 3 You return man to dust and say, “Return, O children of man!”24 For a thousand years in your sight are but as yesterday when it is past, or as a watch in the night. 5 You sweep them away as with a flood; they are like a dream, like grass that is renewed in the morning:6 in the morning it flourishes and is renewed; in the evening it fades and withers. 7 For we are brought to an end by your anger; by your wrath we are dismayed.8 You have set our iniquities before you, our secret sins in the light of your presence. 9 For all our days pass away under your wrath; we bring our years to an end like a sigh.10 The years of our life are seventy, or even by reason of strength eighty; yet their span3 is but toil and trouble; they are soon gone, and we fly away.11 Who considers the power of your anger, and your wrath according to the fear of you? 12 So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.13 Return, O LORD! How long? Have pity on your servants!14 Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.15 Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us, and for as many years as we have seen evil.16 Let your work be shown to your servants, and your glorious power to their children.17 Let the favor4 of the Lord our God be upon us, and establish the work of our hands upon us; yes, establish the work of our hands! Footnotes [1] 90:1 Some Hebrew manuscripts (compare Septuagint) our refuge [2] 90:3 Or of Adam [3] 90:10 Or pride [4] 90:17 Or beauty (ESV) Second Psalm: Psalm 136 Psalm 136 (Listen) His Steadfast Love Endures Forever 136 Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever.2 Give thanks to the God of gods, for his steadfast love endures forever.3 Give thanks to the Lord of lords, for his steadfast love endures forever; 4 to him who alone does great wonders, for his steadfast love endures forever;5 to him who by understanding made the heavens, for his steadfast love endures forever;6 to him who spread out the earth above the waters, for his steadfast love endures forever;7 to him who made the great lights, for his steadfast love endures forever;8 the sun to rule over the day, for his steadfast love endures forever;9 the moon and stars to rule over the night, for his steadfast love endures forever; 10 to him who struck down the firstborn of Egypt, for his steadfast love endures forever;11 and brought Israel out from among them, for his steadfast love endures forever;12 with a strong hand and an outstretched arm, for his steadfast love endures forever;13 to him who divided the Red Sea in two, for his steadfast love endures forever;14 and made Israel pass through the midst of it, for his steadfast love endures forever;15 but overthrew1 Pharaoh and his host in the Red Sea, for his steadfast love endures forever;16 to him who led his people through the wilderness, for his steadfast love endures forever; 17 to him who struck down great kings, for his steadfast love endures forever;18 and killed mighty kings, for his steadfast love endures forever;19 Sihon, king of the Amorites, for his steadfast love endures forever;20 and Og, king of Bashan, for his steadfast love endures forever;21 and gave their land as a heritage, for his steadfast love endures forever;22 a heritage to Israel his servant, for his steadfast love endures forever. 23 It is he who remembered us in our low estate, for his steadfast love endures forever;24 and rescued us from our foes, for his steadfast love endures forever;25 he who gives food to all flesh, for his steadfast love endures forever. 26 Give thanks to the God of heaven, for his steadfast love endures forever. Footnotes [1] 136:15 Hebrew shook off (ESV) Old Testament: 2 Kings 11:1–20 2 Kings 11:1–20 (Listen) Athaliah Reigns in Judah 11 Now when Athaliah the mother of Ahaziah saw that her son was dead, she arose and destroyed all the royal family. 2 But Jehosheba, the daughter of King Joram, sister of Ahaziah, took Joash the son of Ahaziah and stole him away from among the king's sons who were being put to death, and she put1 him and his nurse in a bedroom. Thus they2 hid him from Athaliah, so that he was not put to death. 3 And he remained with her six years, hidden in the house of the LORD, while Athaliah reigned over the land. Joash Anointed King in Judah 4 But in the seventh year Jehoiada sent and brought the captains of the Carites and of the guards, and had them come to him in the house of the LORD. And he made a covenant with them and put them under oath in the house of the LORD, and he showed them the king's son. 5 And he commanded them, “This is the thing that you shall do: one third of you, those who come off duty on the Sabbath and guard the king's house 6 (another third being at the gate Sur and a third at the gate behind the guards) shall guard the palace.3 7 And the two divisions of you, which come on duty in force on the Sabbath and guard the house of the LORD on behalf of the king, 8 shall surround the king, each with his weapons in his hand. And whoever approaches the ranks is to be put to death. Be with the king when he goes out and when he comes in.” 9 The captains did according to all that Jehoiada the priest commanded, and they each brought his men who were to go off duty on the Sabbath, with those who were to come on duty on the Sabbath, and came to Jehoiada the priest. 10 And the priest gave to the captains the spears and shields that had been King David's, which were in the house of the LORD. 11 And the guards stood, every man with his weapons in his hand, from the south side of the house to the north side of the house, around the altar and the house on behalf of the king. 12 Then he brought out the king's son and put the crown on him and gave him the testimony. And they proclaimed him king and anointed him, and they clapped their hands and said, “Long live the king!” 13 When Athaliah heard the noise of the guard and of the people, she went into the house of the LORD to the people. 14 And when she looked, there was the king standing by the pillar, according to the custom, and the captains and the trumpeters beside the king, and all the people of the land rejoicing and blowing trumpets. And Athaliah tore her clothes and cried, “Treason! Treason!” 15 Then Jehoiada the priest commanded the captains who were set over the army, “Bring her out between the ranks, and put to death with the sword anyone who follows her.” For the priest said, “Let her not be put to death in the house of the LORD.” 16 So they laid hands on her; and she went through the horses' entrance to the king's house, and there she was put to death. 17 And Jehoiada made a covenant between the LORD and the king and people, that they should be the LORD's people, and also between the king and the people. 18 Then all the people of the land went to the house of Baal and tore it down; his altars and his images they broke in pieces, and they killed Mattan the priest of Baal before the altars. And the priest posted watchmen over the house of the LORD. 19 And he took the captains, the Carites, the guards, and all the people of the land, and they brought the king down from the house of the LORD, marching through the gate of the guards to the king's house. And he took his seat on the throne of the kings. 20 So all the people of the land rejoiced, and the city was quiet after Athaliah had been put to death with the sword at the king's house. Footnotes [1] 11:2 Compare 2 Chronicles 22:11; Hebrew lacks and she put [2] 11:2 Septuagint, Syriac, Vulgate (compare 2 Chronicles 22:11) she [3] 11:6 The meaning of the Hebrew word is uncertain (ESV) New Testament: 1 Corinthians 7:10–24 1 Corinthians 7:10–24 (Listen) 10 To the married I give this charge (not I, but the Lord): the wife should not separate from her husband 11 (but if she does, she should remain unmarried or else be reconciled to her husband), and the husband should not divorce his wife. 12 To the rest I say (I, not the Lord) that if any brother has a wife who is an unbeliever, and she consents to live with him, he should not divorce her. 13 If any woman has a husband who is an unbeliever, and he consents to live with her, she should not divorce him. 14 For the unbelieving husband is made holy because of his wife, and the unbelieving wife is made holy because of her husband. Otherwise your children would be unclean, but as it is, they are holy. 15 But if the unbelieving partner separates, let it be so. In such cases the brother or sister is not enslaved. God has called you1 to peace. 16 For how do you know, wife, whether you will save your husband? Or how do you know, husband, whether you will save your wife? Live as You Are Called 17 Only let each person lead the life2 that the Lord has assigned to him, and to which God has called him. This is my rule in all the churches. 18 Was anyone at the time of his call already circumcised? Let him not seek to remove the marks of circumcision. Was anyone at the time of his call uncircumcised? Let him not seek circumcision. 19 For neither circumcision counts for anything nor uncircumcision, but keeping the commandments of God. 20 Each one should remain in the condition in which he was called. 21 Were you a bondservant3 when called? Do not be concerned about it. (But if you can gain your freedom, avail yourself of the opportunity.) 22 For he who was called in the Lord as a bondservant is a freedman of the Lord. Likewise he who was free when called is a bondservant of Christ. 23 You were bought with a price; do not become bondservants of men. 24 So, brothers,4 in whatever condition each was called, there let him remain with God. Footnotes [1] 7:15 Some manuscripts us [2] 7:17 Or each person walk in the way [3] 7:21 For the contextual rendering of the Greek word doulos, see Preface; also verses 22 (twice), 23 [4] 7:24 Or brothers and sisters; also verse 29 (ESV) Gospel: Matthew 6:19–24 Matthew 6:19–24 (Listen) Lay Up Treasures in Heaven 19 “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust1 destroy and where thieves break in and steal, 20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. 22 “The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, 23 but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness! 24 “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.2 Footnotes [1] 6:19 Or worm; also verse 20 [2] 6:24 Greek mammon, a Semitic word for money or possessions (ESV)
Psalms 90–95 Psalms 90–95 (Listen) Book Four From Everlasting to Everlasting A Prayer of Moses, the man of God. 90 Lord, you have been our dwelling place1 in all generations.2 Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God. 3 You return man to dust and say, “Return, O children of man!”24 For a thousand years in your sight are but as yesterday when it is past, or as a watch in the night. 5 You sweep them away as with a flood; they are like a dream, like grass that is renewed in the morning:6 in the morning it flourishes and is renewed; in the evening it fades and withers. 7 For we are brought to an end by your anger; by your wrath we are dismayed.8 You have set our iniquities before you, our secret sins in the light of your presence. 9 For all our days pass away under your wrath; we bring our years to an end like a sigh.10 The years of our life are seventy, or even by reason of strength eighty; yet their span3 is but toil and trouble; they are soon gone, and we fly away.11 Who considers the power of your anger, and your wrath according to the fear of you? 12 So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.13 Return, O LORD! How long? Have pity on your servants!14 Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.15 Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us, and for as many years as we have seen evil.16 Let your work be shown to your servants, and your glorious power to their children.17 Let the favor4 of the Lord our God be upon us, and establish the work of our hands upon us; yes, establish the work of our hands! My Refuge and My Fortress 91 He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty.2 I will say5 to the LORD, “My refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.” 3 For he will deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the deadly pestilence.4 He will cover you with his pinions, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness is a shield and buckler.5 You will not fear the terror of the night, nor the arrow that flies by day,6 nor the pestilence that stalks in darkness, nor the destruction that wastes at noonday. 7 A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you.8 You will only look with your eyes and see the recompense of the wicked. 9 Because you have made the LORD your dwelling place— the Most High, who is my refuge6—10 no evil shall be allowed to befall you, no plague come near your tent. 11 For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways.12 On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.13 You will tread on the lion and the adder; the young lion and the serpent you will trample underfoot. 14 “Because he holds fast to me in love, I will deliver him; I will protect him, because he knows my name.15 When he calls to me, I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will rescue him and honor him.16 With long life I will satisfy him and show him my salvation.” How Great Are Your Works A Psalm. A Song for the Sabbath. 92 It is good to give thanks to the LORD, to sing praises to your name, O Most High;2 to declare your steadfast love in the morning, and your faithfulness by night,3 to the music of the lute and the harp, to the melody of the lyre.4 For you, O LORD, have made me glad by your work; at the works of your hands I sing for joy. 5 How great are your works, O LORD! Your thoughts are very deep!6 The stupid man cannot know; the fool cannot understand this:7 that though the wicked sprout like grass and all evildoers flourish, they are doomed to destruction forever;8 but you, O LORD, are on high forever.9 For behold, your enemies, O LORD, for behold, your enemies shall perish; all evildoers shall be scattered. 10 But you have exalted my horn like that of the wild ox; you have poured over me7 fresh oil.11 My eyes have seen the downfall of my enemies; my ears have heard the doom of my evil assailants. 12 The righteous flourish like the palm tree and grow like a cedar in Lebanon.13 They are planted in the house of the LORD; they flourish in the courts of our God.14 They still bear fruit in old age; they are ever full of sap and green,15 to declare that the LORD is upright; he is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in him. The Lord Reigns 93 The LORD reigns; he is robed in majesty; the LORD is robed; he has put on strength as his belt. Yes, the world is established; it shall never be moved.2 Your throne is established from of old; you are from everlasting. 3 The floods have lifted up, O LORD, the floods have lifted up their voice; the floods lift up their roaring.4 Mightier than the thunders of many waters, mightier than the waves of the sea, the LORD on high is mighty! 5 Your decrees are very trustworthy; holiness befits your house, O LORD, forevermore. The Lord Will Not Forsake His People 94 O LORD, God of vengeance, O God of vengeance, shine forth!2 Rise up, O judge of the earth; repay to the proud what they deserve!3 O LORD, how long shall the wicked, how long shall the wicked exult?4 They pour out their arrogant words; all the evildoers boast.5 They crush your people, O LORD, and afflict your heritage.6 They kill the widow and the sojourner, and murder the fatherless;7 and they say, “The LORD does not see; the God of Jacob does not perceive.” 8 Understand, O dullest of the people! Fools, when will you be wise?9 He who planted the ear, does he not hear? He who formed the eye, does he not see?10 He who disciplines the nations, does he not rebuke? He who teaches man knowledge—11 the LORD—knows the thoughts of man, that they are but a breath.8 12 Blessed is the man whom you discipline, O LORD, and whom you teach out of your law,13 to give him rest from days of trouble, until a pit is dug for the wicked.14 For the LORD will not forsake his people; he will not abandon his heritage;15 for justice will return to the righteous, and all the upright in heart will follow it. 16 Who rises up for me against the wicked? Who stands up for me against evildoers?17 If the LORD had not been my help, my soul would soon have lived in the land of silence.18 When I thought, “My foot slips,” your steadfast love, O LORD, held me up.19 When the cares of my heart are many, your consolations cheer my soul.20 Can wicked rulers be allied with you, those who frame9 injustice by statute?21 They band together against the life of the righteous and condemn the innocent to death.1022 But the LORD has become my stronghold, and my God the rock of my refuge.23 He will bring back on them their iniquity and wipe them out for their wickedness; the LORD our God will wipe them out. Let Us Sing Songs of Praise 95 Oh come, let us sing to the LORD; let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation!2 Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving; let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise!3 For the LORD is a great God, and a great King above all gods.4 In his hand are the depths of the earth; the heights of the mountains are his also.5 The sea is his, for he made it, and his hands formed the dry land. 6 Oh come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the LORD, our Maker!7 For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. Today, if you hear his voice,8 do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah, as on the day at Massah in the wilderness,9 when your fathers put me to the test and put me to the proof, though they had seen my work.10 For forty years I loathed that generation and said, “They are a people who go astray in their heart, and they have not known my ways.”11 Therefore I swore in my wrath, “They shall not enter my rest.” Footnotes [1] 90:1 Some Hebrew manuscripts (compare Septuagint) our refuge [2] 90:3 Or of Adam [3] 90:10 Or pride [4] 90:17 Or beauty [5] 91:2 Septuagint He will say [6] 91:9 Or For you, O Lord, are my refuge! You have made the Most High your dwelling place [7] 92:10 Compare Syriac; the meaning of the Hebrew is uncertain [8] 94:11 Septuagint they are futile [9] 94:20 Or fashion [10] 94:21 Hebrew condemn innocent blood (ESV)
Morning: Psalms 90–92 Psalms 90–92 (Listen) Book Four From Everlasting to Everlasting A Prayer of Moses, the man of God. 90 Lord, you have been our dwelling place1 in all generations.2 Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God. 3 You return man to dust and say, “Return, O children of man!”24 For a thousand years in your sight are but as yesterday when it is past, or as a watch in the night. 5 You sweep them away as with a flood; they are like a dream, like grass that is renewed in the morning:6 in the morning it flourishes and is renewed; in the evening it fades and withers. 7 For we are brought to an end by your anger; by your wrath we are dismayed.8 You have set our iniquities before you, our secret sins in the light of your presence. 9 For all our days pass away under your wrath; we bring our years to an end like a sigh.10 The years of our life are seventy, or even by reason of strength eighty; yet their span3 is but toil and trouble; they are soon gone, and we fly away.11 Who considers the power of your anger, and your wrath according to the fear of you? 12 So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.13 Return, O LORD! How long? Have pity on your servants!14 Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.15 Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us, and for as many years as we have seen evil.16 Let your work be shown to your servants, and your glorious power to their children.17 Let the favor4 of the Lord our God be upon us, and establish the work of our hands upon us; yes, establish the work of our hands! My Refuge and My Fortress 91 He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty.2 I will say5 to the LORD, “My refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.” 3 For he will deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the deadly pestilence.4 He will cover you with his pinions, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness is a shield and buckler.5 You will not fear the terror of the night, nor the arrow that flies by day,6 nor the pestilence that stalks in darkness, nor the destruction that wastes at noonday. 7 A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you.8 You will only look with your eyes and see the recompense of the wicked. 9 Because you have made the LORD your dwelling place— the Most High, who is my refuge6—10 no evil shall be allowed to befall you, no plague come near your tent. 11 For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways.12 On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.13 You will tread on the lion and the adder; the young lion and the serpent you will trample underfoot. 14 “Because he holds fast to me in love, I will deliver him; I will protect him, because he knows my name.15 When he calls to me, I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will rescue him and honor him.16 With long life I will satisfy him and show him my salvation.” How Great Are Your Works A Psalm. A Song for the Sabbath. 92 It is good to give thanks to the LORD, to sing praises to your name, O Most High;2 to declare your steadfast love in the morning, and your faithfulness by night,3 to the music of the lute and the harp, to the melody of the lyre.4 For you, O LORD, have made me glad by your work; at the works of your hands I sing for joy. 5 How great are your works, O LORD! Your thoughts are very deep!6 The stupid man cannot know; the fool cannot understand this:7 that though the wicked sprout like grass and all evildoers flourish, they are doomed to destruction forever;8 but you, O LORD, are on high forever.9 For behold, your enemies, O LORD, for behold, your enemies shall perish; all evildoers shall be scattered. 10 But you have exalted my horn like that of the wild ox; you have poured over me7 fresh oil.11 My eyes have seen the downfall of my enemies; my ears have heard the doom of my evil assailants. 12 The righteous flourish like the palm tree and grow like a cedar in Lebanon.13 They are planted in the house of the LORD; they flourish in the courts of our God.14 They still bear fruit in old age; they are ever full of sap and green,15 to declare that the LORD is upright; he is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in him. Footnotes [1] 90:1 Some Hebrew manuscripts (compare Septuagint) our refuge [2] 90:3 Or of Adam [3] 90:10 Or pride [4] 90:17 Or beauty [5] 91:2 Septuagint He will say [6] 91:9 Or For you, O Lord, are my refuge! You have made the Most High your dwelling place [7] 92:10 Compare Syriac; the meaning of the Hebrew is uncertain (ESV) Evening: Romans 11:1–21 Romans 11:1–21 (Listen) The Remnant of Israel 11 I ask, then, has God rejected his people? By no means! For I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham,1 a member of the tribe of Benjamin. 2 God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew. Do you not know what the Scripture says of Elijah, how he appeals to God against Israel? 3 “Lord, they have killed your prophets, they have demolished your altars, and I alone am left, and they seek my life.” 4 But what is God's reply to him? “I have kept for myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal.” 5 So too at the present time there is a remnant, chosen by grace. 6 But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works; otherwise grace would no longer be grace. 7 What then? Israel failed to obtain what it was seeking. The elect obtained it, but the rest were hardened, 8 as it is written, “God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes that would not see and ears that would not hear, down to this very day.” 9 And David says, “Let their table become a snare and a trap, a stumbling block and a retribution for them;10 let their eyes be darkened so that they cannot see, and bend their backs forever.” Gentiles Grafted In 11 So I ask, did they stumble in order that they might fall? By no means! Rather, through their trespass salvation has come to the Gentiles, so as to make Israel jealous. 12 Now if their trespass means riches for the world, and if their failure means riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their full inclusion2 mean! 13 Now I am speaking to you Gentiles. Inasmuch then as I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry 14 in order somehow to make my fellow Jews jealous, and thus save some of them. 15 For if their rejection means the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance mean but life from the dead? 16 If the dough offered as firstfruits is holy, so is the whole lump, and if the root is holy, so are the branches. 17 But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, although a wild olive shoot, were grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing root3 of the olive tree, 18 do not be arrogant toward the branches. If you are, remember it is not you who support the root, but the root that supports you. 19 Then you will say, “Branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in.” 20 That is true. They were broken off because of their unbelief, but you stand fast through faith. So do not become proud, but fear. 21 For if God did not spare the natural branches, neither will he spare you. Footnotes [1] 11:1 Or one of the offspring of Abraham [2] 11:12 Greek their fullness [3] 11:17 Greek root of richness; some manuscripts richness (ESV)
Alright, it's time for the Nancy Ray Book Club 2023 edition, and in these episodes I'm gonna share my three biggest takeaways from the books that I'm reading. I keep a pace of about a book a month, and it's usually the last episode of the month that you'll find me sharing about that current book on my list. Today I'm gonna be giving an honest review of Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mere Mortals by Oliver Burkeman. For the full show notes, head to nancyray.com/podcast/183. Resources from this episode: The Work & Play Weekly Checklist (Free Download!) The Work & Play Patreon 2023 Book Club Four Thousand Weeks, Oliver Burkeman Affiliate links have been used in this post! I do receive a commission when you choose to purchase through these links, and that helps me keep this podcast up and running—I truly appreciate when you choose to use them!
Still Hear Book Series Kermit Zarley pt 2 As everyone who listens to these programs know, I firmly believe we are living in the last of the last days before the return of Jesus to this earth. I can't help but look at the news we see every night on the television and relate it to Bible Prophecy. Our guest today, Kermit Zarley, has had a very interesting past, one that has been blessed by God, for sure. He is an expert on Bible Prophecy and has been studying the Bible for the last 50 years. What has he been doing in that 50 years? Kermit Zarley spent 30 years, full time, on the PGA Tour and afterwards, on the Senior/Champions Tour. In those 30 years, he won 5 tournaments and was runner-up 17 times! He also co-founded and led the PGA Tour Bible Study, which still thrives today, 55 years later. Now retired, Kermit is a “pioneering author of books on biblical studies,” with 9 books published (and his first book, “The Gospel,” was endorsed by non-other than Billy Graham. Praise God)! Kermit is now writing a 12-book series on Bible prophecy entitled, “Still Here,” with four of these books already published. This is part two of a great two part interview! Book Two is “Warrior From Heaven” and it was published in 2009 and is about Jesus, our “warrior King” delivering the nation of Israel at His Second Coming… Book Three is a little more current, published in 2020, titled, “Moses Predicted COVID-19.” Let me ask you, “did Moses predict COVID-19?” Should we be eating Kosher from this point on in an effort to keep ourselves and our families healthy? Book Four is an interesting book, titled, “Bible Predicts Trump Fall” and was published last year in 2022. From what I've read, you were not a “Trump fan” from the start. What did you see in the man that caused you to feel that way? You were writing these things extensively on your blog while Donald Trump was president. So these were not “hindsight” taking events that already occurred and then writing them down. How was your blog being received by fellow believers while this was going on? Can you share some of the Bible scriptures you shared about Donald Trump that applied to him while he was president? This book series is supposed to be a twelve book series. What is the next book in the series titled and when do you believe it will be published? When you see the huge, natural disasters happening, many in places that have not had to deal with things on this level before; and you see the “wars and rumors of wars” going on – mainly between China, Russia, Iran and the United States; inflation and crime out of control; the breakdown of social norms, etc., What is your opinion on what the short term future holds for this nation and for the world? Kermit shares his contact information and a very special offer for YOU (our listeners)! I'll put links to all of this in the show notes below. Folks, as we stated in the beginning, there can be no doubt we are living in the last day. Jesus return is immanent. Things are only going to get worse before they ever get better. We can see it happening every single...
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