Podcasts about both joseph

Timestamps (9:22) - Johnny Gosh Final Thoughts (17:00) - Fetish Crimes In this episode of the True Crime Society Podcast, we are going to discuss two separate cases involving fetish-related deaths. Californian wife and mom-of-three Michaela Rylaarsdam (31) has been arrested and charged over the death of Michael Dale (55) in 2023.  It is alleged his death happened following a consensual BDSM session that Michael paid for.  Michaela is alleged to have wrapped Michael in saran wrap, at his request.   She allegedly filmed OnlyFans content as he lay dying beside her. Brendan Banfield has been accused of murdering his wife Christine in 2023.  It is alleged that Brendan worked with the family au-pair Juliana Peres Magalhaes to conduct the crime.   Brendan and Juliana made an account on a fetish website and tried to set up a man named Joseph Ryan to come into their home.   The plan was that Joseph would assault Christine as part of a role-play and that her death would occur as part of that scenario.  Both Joseph and Christine ended up being killed. Also, Stephanie reveals some exciting news in this episode! Blog for this episode Check us out on: Instagram - For the latest crime news and updates Patreon - For exclusive ad-free content and weekly bonus episodes! This episode is sponsored by Nutrafol -  Start your hair growth journey with Nutrafol. For a limited time, Nutrafol is offering our listeners $10 off your first month's subscription and free shipping when you go to Nutrafol.com and enter the promo code TCS

Wake Up! Genesis 42:1-38Joseph's testing of his brothers was a pivotal part of God's plan to channel His blessing through Abraham's descendants. These tests were necessary to ensure the brothers' faithfulness before they could share in the blessing of becoming a great nation in Egypt. Joseph's subtle methods encouraged the brothers to acknowledge their guilt for their actions against him and demonstrate genuine change. This scene reflects a reversal of earlier events: Joseph, once oppressed, now wielded authority to test his brothers. By accusing them of being spies and imprisoning them, Joseph created circumstances that mirrored their treatment of him. The pressure was deliberate, aimed at awakening their consciences and prompting them to recognize God's hand in their situation. Both Joseph's intentional testing and the brothers' realization that God was addressing their past sins, shows His providential hand in preparing them for their role in His greater plan.

Wake Up! Genesis 42:1-38 Joseph's testing of his brothers was a pivotal part of God's plan to channel His blessing through Abraham's descendants. These tests were necessary to ensure the brothers' faithfulness before they could share in the blessing of becoming a great nation in Egypt. Joseph's subtle methods encouraged the brothers to acknowledge their guilt for their actions against him and demonstrate genuine change. This scene reflects a reversal of earlier events: Joseph, once oppressed, now wielded authority to test his brothers. By accusing them of being spies and imprisoning them, Joseph created circumstances that mirrored their treatment of him. The pressure was deliberate, aimed at awakening their consciences and prompting them to recognize God's hand in their situation.  Both Joseph's intentional testing and the brothers' realization that God was addressing their past sins, shows His providential hand in preparing them for their role in His greater plan.

Both Joseph's from Old and new testament led through visions in Dreams.

Both Joseph and Jesus, beloved sons, suffered unjustly. Lessons and hope from Genesis 37:1-11.

In today's episode, Tom visits the Tenement Museum on the Lower East Side to walk through the reconstructed two-room apartment of an African-American couple, Joseph and Rachel Moore, who lived in 1870 on Laurens Street in today's Soho neighborhood.Both Joseph and Rachel moved to New York when they were about 20 years old, in the late 1840s and 1850s. They married, worked, raised a family – and they shared their small apartment with another family to help cover costs. Their home has been recreated in the Tenement Museum's newest exhibit, “A Union of Hope: 1869.” The exhibit reimagines what their apartment may have looked like – and it also explores life in the Eighth Ward of Manhattan, and, specifically, within the black community of the turbulent and dangerous decades of the 1850s and 60s.This is the first time the museum has recreated the apartment of a black family – although, as you'll hear, the museum's founders had long planned for it. And the exhibit is also the first time the museum has recreated an apartment that wasn't housed in one of their buildings on the Lower East Side, but in another neighborhood. So, just who were Joseph and Rachel Moore? And how and why did the Tenement Museum choose to put them at the center of their new exhibit?  FURTHER LISTENING:Tales from a Tenement: Three Families Under One Roof (episode #246)Nuyorican: The Great Puerto Rican Migration to New York (episode #384)The Deadly Draft Riots of 1863 Seneca Village and New York's Forgotten Black Communities

God is keeping the Hebrew patriarch Joseph in the news because he IS a type of the Messiah. In fact, says Jerusalem Channel presenter Christine Darg, there are many amazing parallels between Joseph, son of Jacob, and Jesus, Yeshua, son of David. Both Joseph and Jesus were vindicated and exalted by God, but no parallel is as poignant as their tears!

Another European Ryder Cup, another "surprising" loss for Team USA. In this episode, Garrett offers some analysis of Europe's 16.5-11.5 victory in Rome as well as a few big-picture takeaways. First he is joined by Joseph LaMagna, a Fried Egg Golf contributor and the author of the Finding the Edge newsletter, to perform an autopsy of the U.S. team's performance. For a discussion of the European squad's successful week, Garrett brings on Ben Coley (39:38), the deputy head of content at sportinglife.com. Both Joseph and Ben touch on players who thrived at Marco Simone, players who faltered, and the strategic decisions that led to Sunday's result. 

We begin the new series with Mary and Joseph losing Jesus. Both Joseph and Mary were eyewitnesses to the miracle of God in sandals - and still lost Jesus. A dozen years after the angel visits they were confused by the human/Divine relationship Jesus was living in their own house. 2,000 years later, so are we. But the key to finding Jesus is clear as 12 year old Jesus is our model: spend time with God's word - where else would I be?

When Jesus says, -Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age,- we are taken back to the birth of Christ, because his name would be Immanuel, God with us -Matthew 1-23-. --Both Joseph and Mary name him Jesus, the same name was Joshua the son of Nun, -Yahweh is Salvation,- because Yahweh would save his people from their sins -Matthew 1-21- Luke 1-31-.--Jesus does not ascend to heaven right after the last verse of Matthew because this takes place in the Galilee -Matthew 28-10, 16-. Whereas, his ascension to heaven took place near Bethany, just outside of Jerusalem, where a cloud received him -Acts 1-9-11-.--Daniel 7-9-10 describes the Ancient of Days, God the Father- whereas, Daniel 7-13-14 foretells the Kingdom being given to the Son of Man. In Luke 22-66-71, Jesus reveals who he really is to the Jewish Sanhedrin- Israel's Messiah, the Son of God. But they reject him.--All three persons of the Godhead are involved in the conception of Jesus. The Father sends his Son, and the Holy Spirit creates the human nature of Jesus from the substance of the virgin Mary by an act of parthenogenesis, and the Son unites himself with that true human nature at the moment of conception -John 1-1-3, 14-.--All three persons of the Godhead are present at Jesus' baptism- The Father speaks from heaven, the Spirit comes down, and the Son is baptized -Matthew 3-16-17- Mark 1-10-11- Luke 3-21-22- John 1-29-33-.--And all three persons of the Godhead are at work at the end of Matthew- The Father has given the Holy Spirit in power to the God-Man, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God IN POWER -Matthew 28-18-19- Romans 1-4-. And he sends out his army, the church.

When Jesus says, -Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age,- we are taken back to the birth of Christ, because his name would be Immanuel, God with us -Matthew 1-23-. --Both Joseph and Mary name him Jesus, the same name was Joshua the son of Nun, -Yahweh is Salvation,- because Yahweh would save his people from their sins -Matthew 1-21- Luke 1-31-.--Jesus does not ascend to heaven right after the last verse of Matthew because this takes place in the Galilee -Matthew 28-10, 16-. Whereas, his ascension to heaven took place near Bethany, just outside of Jerusalem, where a cloud received him -Acts 1-9-11-.--Daniel 7-9-10 describes the Ancient of Days, God the Father- whereas, Daniel 7-13-14 foretells the Kingdom being given to the Son of Man. In Luke 22-66-71, Jesus reveals who he really is to the Jewish Sanhedrin- Israel's Messiah, the Son of God. But they reject him.--All three persons of the Godhead are involved in the conception of Jesus. The Father sends his Son, and the Holy Spirit creates the human nature of Jesus from the substance of the virgin Mary by an act of parthenogenesis, and the Son unites himself with that true human nature at the moment of conception -John 1-1-3, 14-.--All three persons of the Godhead are present at Jesus' baptism- The Father speaks from heaven, the Spirit comes down, and the Son is baptized -Matthew 3-16-17- Mark 1-10-11- Luke 3-21-22- John 1-29-33-.--And all three persons of the Godhead are at work at the end of Matthew- The Father has given the Holy Spirit in power to the God-Man, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God IN POWER -Matthew 28-18-19- Romans 1-4-. And he sends out his army, the church.

When Jesus says, "Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age," we are taken back to the birth of Christ, because his name would be Immanuel, God with us (Matthew 1:23). Both Joseph and Mary name him Jesus, the same name was Joshua the son of Nun, "Yahweh is Salvation," because Yahweh would save his people from their sins (Matthew 1:21; Luke 1:31).Jesus does not ascend to heaven right after the last verse of Matthew because this takes place in the Galilee (Matthew 28:10, 16). Whereas, his ascension to heaven took place near Bethany, just outside of Jerusalem, where a cloud received him (Acts 1:9-11).Daniel 7:9-10 describes the Ancient of Days, God the Father; whereas, Daniel 7:13-14 foretells the Kingdom being given to the Son of Man. In Luke 22:66-71, Jesus reveals who he really is to the Jewish Sanhedrin: Israel's Messiah, the Son of God. But they reject him.All three persons of the Godhead are involved in the conception of Jesus. The Father sends his Son, and the Holy Spirit creates the human nature of Jesus from the substance of the virgin Mary by an act of parthenogenesis, and the Son unites himself with that true human nature at the moment of conception (John 1:1-3, 14).All three persons of the Godhead are present at Jesus' baptism: The Father speaks from heaven, the Spirit comes down, and the Son is baptized (Matthew 3:16-17; Mark 1:10-11; Luke 3:21-22; John 1:29-33).And all three persons of the Godhead are at work at the end of Matthew: The Father has given the Holy Spirit in power to the God-Man, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God IN POWER (Matthew 28:18-19; Romans 1:4). And he sends out his army, the church.

Both Joseph and Daniel are examples of people in the Scriptures who are gifted with the Holy Spirit to interpret dreams. This lines up well with Jesus' parables and his expectations that some would understand them and others wouldn't. Check it out on today's episode of JXN Cloud!

We begin the new series with Mary and Joseph losing Jesus. Both Joseph and Mary were eyewitnesses - and still lost God in sandals. Just over a decade after the angel visits they were confused by the human/Divine relationship Jesus was living in their own house. 2,000 years later, so are we.

On Easter, we will look at Jesus' resurrection through the latter part of Joseph's story of redemption. Both Joseph and Jesus chose to save those who betrayed them. As we celebrate the resurrection, our focus will be on the way Jesus uses what was intended as evil for good.

  Update: Provision for David’s House (Audio) Eve Brast - 4/4/21 Eve said: The Lord instructed us to update the David’s House page. Recently, the owner of David’s House has given a deadline of May 2nd for the purchase of David’s house before the house would be put on the market. The Lord had me come across the information that had been sent out to everyone in larger UBM of where to send donations for David’s house and I was reminded of the original dream revelation shared below.  After the first and only time we mentioned the revelation below of an offering for David’s house the donations of the saints had fallen off mostly because it was "out of sight, out of mind".  We came to believe that maybe the Lord would provide for the rest of what was needed for the purchase of the house through the GCR. But Father showed me in another dream this morning that this other way was not the method that He chose to use for this but His original command below. Because of this, the Lord had been impressing me that we needed to bring this up before the saints again as a reminder that this is how He has ordained for the provision for the purchase of the house. But I was uncertain that I was hearing clearly from the Lord and didn’t want to get into works to bring to pass what we were having faith for. I believe that one of the reasons for this is because He desires to bless our listeners for their sacrificial gifts to bless David. David has sacrificed his life and the majority of all his resources, continually, over the lifetime of this UBM ministry that the Lord gave him in order to meet the needs of all the brethren. 1 Ch 29:1-9   And David the king said unto all the assembly, Solomon my son, whom alone God hath chosen, is yet young and tender, and the work is great; for the palace is not for man, but for Jehovah God. 2 Now I have prepared with all my might for the house of my God the gold for the things of gold, and the silver for the things of silver, and the brass for the things of brass, the iron for the things of iron, and wood for the things of wood; onyx stones, and stones to be set, stones for inlaid work, and of divers colors, and all manner of precious stones, and marble stones in abundance. 3 Moreover also, because I have set my affection on the house of my God, seeing that I have a treasure of mine own of gold and silver, I give it unto the house of my God, over and above all that I have prepared for the holy house, 4 even three thousand talents of gold, of the gold of Ophir, and seven thousand talents of refined silver, wherewith to overlay the walls of the houses; 5 of gold for the things of gold, and of silver for the things of silver, and for all manner of work to be made by the hands of artificers. Who then offereth willingly to consecrate himself this day unto Jehovah? 6 Then the princes of the fathers houses , and the princes of the tribes of Israel, and the captains of thousands and of hundreds, with the rulers over the king's work, offered willingly; 7 and they gave for the service of the house of God of gold five thousand talents and ten thousand darics, and of silver ten thousand talents, and of brass eighteen thousand talents, and of iron a hundred thousand talents. 8 And they with whom precious stones were found gave them to the treasure of the house of Jehovah, under the hand of Jehiel the Gershonite. 9 Then the people rejoiced, for that they offered willingly, because with a perfect heart they offered willingly to Jehovah: and David the king also rejoiced with great joy.  This original method is what God desires to use for the sake of His people.   I Have Prepared With All My Might for the House of My God Eve Brast - 4/2/21 (David’s notes in red) I dreamed that David was merged with President Trump and was sitting in front of me and slightly to the right. (His head was larger than normal and it was Trump’s face that predominated his appearance even though they were merged together.) (We have been expecting that the David Man-child reformers will come to power parallel to Cyrus Trump conquering Babylon. Daniel was promoted over Babylon on the night that Cyrus conquered Babylon.  They became parallel!) David was telling me all about the GCR and how it was going to solve so many financial issues for people and for the financial situation for his house as well. Then the voice of the Lord spoke from above and behind me saying something like, “It shall not be so with David’s house.” I can’t remember everything He said but I understood, in the dream, that the GCR was not going to happen in time for the deadline of the purchase of his house.  (The first deadline was 4-1-21 when the GCR was touted to come but that day came and went and it didn't happen and now we know why but we cant tell anyone yet.)  Then I woke up. I was pondering the dream this morning when Missy received a confirmation of this correction. The trust in the GCR for the provision was the ‘Ishmael'. The original plan and promise, 'the Isaac' was that the saints of God in UBM would provide for the purchase of David’s house according to the dream revelation in the original broadcast here: Provision for David’s House Eve Brast - 12/8/19 (David’s notes in red) (I am a little apprehensive because I have never asked anyone for money but I will share Eve’s revelations in obedience to the Lord’s Word.)  Eve said, I had asked Father to give me a dream or a Word concerning how David would be able to purchase His house that he is currently in after our meeting on Thanksgiving. David shared a Word I had received from the Lord on 11/26/19 concerning Father’s provision for the purchase of his house which He had promised to him. The owner was going to sell the house but was offering David the first chance to buy it and has checked back with him several times. Then the dream and Word below is what The Lord gave me.  Here is a portion of that Word on 11/26/19. I asked Father concerning some of David's questions… then I asked “What about David's house?” And Father said, (Speaking to David) “Do not be anxious or troubled concerning the house. I have desired it for My dwelling place. I will not allow it to be sold to another, though they may try. It will not succeed. I will provide for the purchase.” I asked for a confirmation of this word with a couple of quarters that I keep on my nightstand that rarely come up all heads and I got 2 heads for confirmation. Then I asked for a random word by faith and my finger was on Psalm 33:13,(9-22 for context): 9 For he spake, and it was done; He commanded, and it stood fast. 10 Jehovah bringeth the counsel of the nations to nought; He maketh the thoughts of the peoples to be of no effect. 11 The counsel of Jehovah standeth fast for ever, (Notice the confirmation three times that what Father promised He would do.) The thoughts of his heart to all generations. 12 Blessed is the nation whose God is Jehovah, The people whom he hath chosen for his own inheritance. 13 Jehovah looketh from heaven; He beholdeth all the sons of men; 14 From the place of his habitation he looketh forth Upon all the inhabitants of the earth, 15 He that fashioneth the hearts of them all, That considereth all their works. 16 There is no king saved by the multitude of a host: A mighty man is not delivered by great strength. 17 A horse is a vain thing for safety; Neither doth he deliver any by his great power. 18 Behold, the eye of Jehovah is upon them that fear him, Upon them that hope in his lovingkindness; 19 To deliver their soul from death, And to keep them alive in famine. 20 Our soul hath waited for Jehovah: He is our help and our shield. 21 For our heart shall rejoice in him, Because we have trusted in his holy name. 22 Let thy lovingkindness, O Jehovah, be upon us, According as we have hoped in thee. 11/30/19 I dreamed that I and my oldest (first-born) son Noah, who was 9 years old in the dream, were going on a mission field trip with local and larger UBM. (I believe that I and Noah represent the corporate body of the first-fruits. We are representing the whole of the corporate UBM body also.)(The first-born of the Bride has the 9 fruits of the Spirit.  David as a type of the Man-child is God’s first-born Son in this text. Psa 89:27  I also will make him my first-born, The highest of the kings of the earth.)  (I literally got this same word when I asked for a random word in real life for Noah 3 years ago.) We were all going to this huge multi-story white marble mansion that was not more than 3 stories. (Our Father's house). It was very bright outside as the sun shone down on us and upon the mansion as we were approaching it. (The three stories represent three levels of maturity) Isa. 60:1-5, 1 (Addressing the Bride, Father says,) Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of Jehovah is risen upon thee. 2 For, behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the peoples; but Jehovah will arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee. 3 And nations shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising. (First God manifests the glory to the Bride and then He brings His people out of Babylonish captivity to come under the Bride as it was originally in the time of David.) 4 Lift up thine eyes round about, and see: they all gather themselves together, they come to thee; thy sons shall come from far, and thy daughters shall be carried in the arms. 5 Then thou shalt see and be radiant, and thy heart shall thrill and be enlarged; because the abundance of the sea shall be turned unto thee, the wealth of the nations shall come unto thee. (Jer 3:14-17  Return, O backsliding children, saith Jehovah; for I am a husband unto you: and I will take you one of a city, and two of a family, and I will bring you to Zion.  15  And I will give you shepherds (the Man-child reformer body) according to my heart, who shall feed you with knowledge and understanding.  16  And it shall come to pass, when ye are multiplied and increased in the land, in those days, saith Jehovah, they shall say no more, The ark of the covenant of Jehovah; neither shall it come to mind; neither shall they remember it; neither shall they miss it; neither shall it be made any more.  17  At that time they shall call Jerusalem the throne of Jehovah (Notice Jerusalem is the Bride and now she is the throne of the Lord along with their King David, representing the Man-child, who was caught up to the throne in Rev.12. Rev 3:21  He that overcometh, I will give to him to sit down with me in my throne, as I also overcame, and sat down with my Father in his throne. And then we see the nations of God’s people come to the Bride and Man-child to be under their rule as it was in David’s time.); and all the nations shall be gathered unto it, to the name of Jehovah, to Jerusalem: neither shall they walk any more after the stubbornness of their evil heart.) (Notice the “Name" of the Lord is synonymous with the Bride and Hebrew word name means, "nature, character and authority”. This speaks of the Brides maturity.) When we got inside and my eyes were adjusted, I saw beautiful, polished marble floors throughout and a large grand staircase with cherrywood banisters curving up to the 2nd floor. There were elegant crystal chandeliers and many, many rooms. (John 14: 2-4, 2  In my Father's house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I come again, and will receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. 4 And whither I go, ye know the way.)  The rooms that I saw were furnished with antique cherrywood furniture and antique maroon Persian rugs of different designs.  (This is a type of the house of God at the beginning which we should have never departed from to go into captivity in Babylon.) Isa. 46:9-13, 9 Remember the former things of old: for I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me; 10 declaring the end from the beginning (Notice that this glorious house of God which represents His people in the beginning will also be in the end.), and from ancient times things that are not yet done; saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure; 11 calling a ravenous bird from the east, the man of my counsel (Cyrus, a type of Trump to conquer Babylon) from a far country; yea, I have spoken, I will also bring it to pass; I have purposed, I will also do it. 12 Hearken unto me, ye stout-hearted, that are far from righteousness: 13 I bring near my righteousness, it shall not be far off, and my salvation shall not tarry; and I will place salvation in Zion for Israel my glory.  Jer. 6:16,Thus saith Jehovah, Stand ye in the ways and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way; and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls: ... There were also many beautiful rooms with large libraries with shelves and shelves of books from floor to ceiling and large antique fireplaces with vigorous fires burning. (In God’s original house there is much knowledge available to His children but they have followed after Babylonian religion.). (Studying the Word of God will burn up the flesh.) There were many study desks made of cherrywood and beautiful antique upholstered tapestry couches and chairs for sitting and reading or studying. 2Ti. 2:15 KJV, Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. Jos.1:8, This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth, but thou shalt meditate thereon day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success. Ezr. 7:10, For Ezra had set his heart to study the Law of the LORD, and to do it and to teach his statutes and rules in Israel. 1Th 4:11, and that ye study to be quiet, and to do your own business, and to work with your hands, even as we charged you; To the right of us past the foyer was a large kitchen that looked similar to a kitchen in a high end restaurant it was all stainless steel and there were many round tables beyond that for people to eat at. (In Fathers house all hunger and thirst for truth is met. Jesus, who is the Word is also our bread as He said in John 6:35-51, 35 Jesus said unto them.  I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall not hunger, and he that believeth on me shall never thirst. 36 But I said unto you, that ye have seen me, and yet believe not. 37 All that which the Father giveth me shall come unto me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.) David led us all up the grand staircase to the second floor. When we got to the top I realized that it was a children’s cancer hospital. (God’s children are living under the curse of death, which is like a cancer in our souls.)  There were many patient rooms. But I didn’t see any nurses or doctors. We were the ones who were there to minister the Word and healing to the children and their families. (His house has the cure because His disciples have the “Bread of Life."). We all paired off into twos. Noah and I paired up and then we all went around ministering to the sick children and their families. (Noah and I are representing the whole of the corporate UBM body also.) Mar. 6:7-15, 7 And he calleth unto him the twelve, and began to send them forth by two and two; and he gave them authority over the unclean spirits; 8 and he charged them that they should take nothing for their journey, save a staff only; no bread, no wallet, no money in their purse; 9 but to go shod with sandals: and said he , put not on two coats. 10 And he said unto them, Wheresoever ye enter into a house, there abide till ye depart thence. 11 And whatsoever place shall not receive you, and they hear you not, as ye go forth thence, shake off the dust that is under your feet for a testimony unto them. 12 And they went out, and preached that men should repent. 13 And they cast out many demons, and anointed with oil many that were sick, and healed them. When we had visited and ministered to everyone, we followed David back down the stairs and gathered over near the large kitchen.  There was a commotion in the kitchen amongst the kitchen staff and the chefs that prepared the food and served it to the sick children and their families, but I couldn’t make sense of it.  I saw the CEO of the hospital, who was dressed in a suit and white dress shirt, come into the kitchen to hear the complaints of the chefs and staff. He was an older man with grey hair. (The Chief Executive Officer represents the Father who is over all His house.)  David was quietly talking with the men in our group when I heard the CEO say,  “Okay. No problem. I’ll take care of it.“  Then He called David over to the kitchen with a large beckoning motion of his right arm.  David humbly and quietly slipped over to the CEO's right side, kind of looking down with his hands in his pockets as if uncomfortable with the attention being called to him. (Humility is a requirement in order to serve the Father and His kingdom and people. Pro. 29:23 A man's pride shall bring him low; But he that is of a lowly spirit shall obtain honor. Pro. 15:33, The fear of Jehovah is the instruction of wisdom; And before honor goeth humility.) I then noticed that David was wearing the same suit as the CEO. (Representing Heavenly works of the Father) The CEO put his right arm around David’s shoulder and gave him a squeeze and smile of approval and told the distraught chefs that, “David will take care of it.“ (John 14:12 Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto the Father.) I went over closer so that I could hear what all the fuss was about. I heard the chefs telling David that they were out of loaves of bread to feed to the sick children. (The chefs represent ministers in Father’s house who prepare spiritual food for His children.  In much of Father’s house they have no bread to make his children healthy and mature.) There was a large, deep, metal serving pan on one of the counters and I watched David place his hands on both sides of the pan. He bowed his head and closed his eyes and prayed and blessed it. Then suddenly it was filled to the top with many loaves of bread. (Jesus multiplied the fishes and the loaves and so does the Man-child body of our day) (2 Co. 9:10 And he that supplieth seed to the sower and bread for food, shall supply and multiply your seed for sowing, and increase the fruits of your righteousness:  Ecc. 11:1-2, 1 Cast thy bread upon the waters; for thou shalt find it after many days. 2 Give a portion to seven, yea, even unto eight; for thou knowest not what evil shall be upon the earth. ) As David multiplied the loaves representing the Word, everyone let out a gasp of astonishment and there was a brief silence before the entire kitchen staff erupted into exclamations of wonderment and praises to God. (The chefs in much of God’s house do not have the bread or Word to feed God’s children to bring them into the image of Christ, but David is meeting their needs by multiplying the bread. Jesus also multiplied the wine. The bread and wine are the body and blood of Christ and we need both. Jesus said it was essential that eat this bread for eternal life. John 6:47 Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth hath eternal life. 48 I am the bread of life. 49 Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. 50 This is the bread which cometh down out of heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die. 51 I am the living bread which came down out of heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: yea and the bread which I will give is my flesh, for the life of the world.  52  The Jews therefore strove one with another, saying, How can this man give us his flesh to eat? (Jesus was the Word made flesh) 53  Jesus therefore said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, ye have not life in yourselves.)  They were so happy that they had enough bread now to feed the children in the hospital. (We have fought Satan and his helpers to get the bread multiplied just as they have fought to take it down. The fullness of the bread or Word will cause the children to feel their hunger is being satisfied. This fullness is who Jesus is. It is the seed that manifests Him.) David tried to slip away quietly while everyone marveled at the miracle that had just taken place, but the CEO called David back over to his side and announced to everyone that he was presenting a reward to David for his faithful mission work at the children’s cancer hospital. (Isa. 33:15-17, 15 He that walketh righteously, and speaketh uprightly; he that despiseth the gain of oppressions, that shaketh his hands from taking a bribe, that stoppeth his ears from hearing of blood, and shutteth his eyes from looking upon evil: 16 He shall dwell on high; his place of defence shall be the munitions of rocks; his bread shall be given him; his waters shall be sure. 17 Thine eyes shall see the king in his beauty: they shall behold a land that reacheth afar.) All of UBM and the kitchen staff of the hospital gathered around to watch David be presented with his reward. (Its a reward of time restored. It is also a retirement party for David’s old man.) The CEO brought out a small, polished, blonde wooden box that was lighted inside. It had a clear glass display on the front of it. Inside was an open faced golden pocket watch with a golden chain and a golden crucifixion spike attached to the other end of the chain. (In many companies its customary on retirement to give the retiree a gold watch. This one has a crucifixion to go with it.  Jesus retired his old man WITH the crucifixion spike. The spike represents staying on the cross. The time of the old man's works is over at crucifixion.  Rewarded for a time of crucifixion is, "I will restore unto you the years that... my great army which I sent among you.”)  Joel 2: 23-27, 23 Be glad then, ye children of Zion, and rejoice in Jehovah your God; for he giveth you the former rain in just measure, and he causeth to come down for you the rain, the former rain and the latter rain, in the first month . 24 And the floors shall be full of wheat, and the vats shall overflow with new wine and oil. 25 And I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten, the canker-worm, and the caterpillar, and the palmer-worm, my great army which I sent among you. (These enemies are given to crucify us but all that the crucifiers stole God will multiply back.) 26 And ye shall eat in plenty and be satisfied, and shall praise the name of Jehovah your God, that hath dealt wondrously with you; and my people shall never be put to shame. 27 And ye shall know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I am Jehovah your God, and there is none else; and my people shall never be put to shame.  We received this text twice recently. Isa. 22: 20-25, 20 And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will call my servant Eliakim (meaning: "whom God will raise up” pointing to a resurrection. He is a type of the crucified Man-child who takes the place of the apostate leaders) the son of Hilkiah: 21 and I will clothe him with thy robe, and strengthen him with thy girdle, and I will commit thy government into his hand; and he shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to the house of Judah. 22 And the key of the house of David will I lay upon his shoulder; and he shall open, and none shall shut; and he shall shut, and none shall open. 23 And I will fasten him as a nail in a sure place; and he shall be for a throne of glory to his father's house. 24 And they shall hang upon him all the glory of his father's house, the offspring and the issue, every small vessel, from the cups even to all the flagons. 25 In that day, saith Jehovah of hosts, shall the nail that was fastened in a sure place give way; and it shall be hewn down, and fall; and the burden that was upon it shall be cut off; for Jehovah hath spoken it. (When Jesus was "cut off" He was taken from the cross and the nail had to "give way". Then resurrection catching up to the throne came as a type for Jesus in the Man-child David’s of our day.) The time piece hung at the back of the display box to the right as the chain dipped around over to the left where the spike hung attached.  (The left is who used the spike on Jesus and the Man-child of our day but Judas, a factious leftist, also died at this time by his own hand.) David was smiling and looking down a lot because he felt uncomfortable being openly recognized for his ministry work and slipped the reward into his pocket. Mat. 6:1-4, 1 Take heed that ye do not your righteousness before men, to be seen of them: else ye have no reward with your Father who is in heaven. 2 When therefore thou doest alms, sound not a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory of men. Verily I say unto you, They have received their reward. 3 But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth: 4 that thine alms may be in secret: and thy Father who seeth in secret shall recompense thee.  (I do feel uncomfortable about this but the Lord ordered that Eve present this to you and I am obeying.) We all proceeded out of the beautiful marble building, down the white steps, and onto the large stone paved area where there were outdoor tables and chairs. (Preparing for the coming marriage feast of the seven day tribulation.) David was then called to go with the CEO to discuss his next plans for David and UBM. (Concerning the crucifixion of David here, Angelica just had a dream that I died and was placed in a room and she received in the dream this represented a tomb but then she knew I was not there, meaning a resurrection happened.) I noticed that David left his journal and pen on one of the tables. So I went over and picked it up and began reading some of the prayers David had written to the Lord. It was like reading the Psalms. I read about sufferings and griefs and trials and the many prayers for his family and the sheep he cared for and then I read his prayer concerning his house. (This represents a spiritual memorial for David) In the dream I was praying for the Lord to please provide for David when a voice above and behind me said, ”Tell everyone in all of UBM to take up a collection for the purchase of David's house.” (Father told Eve to tell you this so I am just letting her say it in obedience.  I have never taken up a collection for myself or had anyone else take up a collection for me so this feels quite awkward. However I am not doing it, the Lord through Eve is.) (I know that David would never do something like this in real life out of greed or personal ambition. He has preached against the filthy lucre of the apostate church leaders for years. And has never let his own personal needs be known or taken an offering or received UBM money. He has given to everyone. He will only share this out of obedience to the Father.  A couple of months ago I learned that the owners of the house that the Lord promised to David, and which he is renting, wanted to sell it, but were giving him first choice to purchase it.  (When the owner told me this I knew it was time to buy it so by faith I told them I would buy it. Here is a little background on this house. The man and wife who rented this house before me asked me if I would come look at it with them.  So I did walk with them through the house as the realtor was showing it to them.  I said privately to the Lord as I walked, “Lord I like this place.  Could you get me something like this?”  I didn't tell them that I did this but after they got the house they were informed by the Lord that I was to own the house and they told quite a few people this but I didn’t know it. I was renting a house a few miles away. When I first saw that previous house, the Lord said, "call them".  I said Lord that house is for sale, not rent. (The Lord had told us to only rent until our own houses were provided.)  He said again, "call them". So I called the realtor who said they only wanted to sell it.  I said, "I dont care if you keep it for sale, it wont sell until I am supposed to leave.”  I said this because I had already asked the Lord to let me only rent this house until I was to leave for the house He has chosen for me to own, which is the one I am in now.  So they agreed to rent it to me. The owner thought he had the house sold seven times in a row.  Each time I told him the Lord told me the house would not sell and each time he thought it was a sure thing. My wife wanted to go find another place but I told her that we didn't need to worry, the house would not sell. After about the third time the owner said to me, "Wow, you have a pretty good record of being right.”  I said, “Its not me, its the Lord". He was a Methodist and really didn't know the Lord would talk to us. After that he would ask me every time and I would tell him the same thing until the 8th time when I felt differently in my spirit so I asked the Lord if it was my time to go to my house and reached in my pocket and pulled out 3 coins and they were all heads for YES. So I called across town to one of our studies and asked them to get a confirmation so 5 of them threw coins on the floor and they all came up heads. 8 heads in all for the 8th time.  The house sold and the couple who were renting my future house had already invited me to come stay with them. When they decided to leave I took over the rent and am still here. Like they told everyone, "God said David was to have the house". :o)  Its not a fancy house but its the only one on this mountain and its quiet woodsey with lots of wildlife, just like I like it. We have a prayer and Bible meeting here with a few of us 6 days a week and win a lot of battles for our country and the Church by Father’s grace.  Since the owners were wanting to sell now, I was wondering if David might have to move again so I asked the Father to give me a word by faith at random concerning the house situation and my finger was on Psa. 68:16, Why look ye askance, ye high mountains, At the mountain which God hath desired for his abode? Yea, Jehovah will dwell in it for ever.) (In this case the house of David is on a mountain even as king David’s was.)   Then I was reminded of another Psalm. Psa. 132:1-18, 1 Jehovah, remember for David All his affliction; 2 How he sware unto Jehovah, And vowed unto the Mighty One of Jacob: 3 Surely I will not come into the tabernacle of my house, Nor go up into my bed; 4 I will not give sleep to mine eyes, Or slumber to mine eyelids; 5 Until I find out a place for Jehovah, A tabernacle for the Mighty One of Jacob.  6 Lo, we heard of it in Ephrathah: We found it in the field of the wood. 7 We will go into his tabernacles; We will worship at his footstool. 8 Arise, O Jehovah, into thy resting-place; Thou, and the ark of thy strength. 9 Let thy priest be clothed with righteousness; And let thy saints shout for joy. 10 For thy servant David's sake Turn not away the face of thine anointed. 11 Jehovah hath sworn unto David in truth; He will not turn from it: Of the fruit of thy body will I set upon thy throne. 12 If thy children will keep my covenant And my testimony that I shall teach them, Their children also shall sit upon thy throne for evermore. 13 For Jehovah hath chosen Zion; He hath desired it for his habitation. 14 This is my resting-place for ever: Here will I dwell; for I have desired it. 15 I will abundantly bless her provision: I will satisfy her poor with bread. 16 Her priests also will I clothe with salvation; And her saints shall shout aloud for joy. 17 There will I make the horn of David to bud: I have ordained a lamp for mine anointed. 18 His enemies will I clothe with shame; But upon himself shall his crown flourish.  (I received by faith at random, "Jehovah will build thee a house” in, 1Ch 17:9-10  And I will appoint a place for my people Israel, and will plant them, that they may dwell in their own place, and be moved no more; neither shall the children of wickedness waste them any more, as at the first,  10  and as from the day that I commanded judges to be over my people Israel; and I will subdue all thine enemies. Moreover I tell thee that Jehovah will build thee a house.) (The few of us who knew about this situation were praying for the financial provision needed.)  So in the dream I called All of UBM together and announced the collection that the Lord had spoken concerning David’s house. (It is in obedience to this portion of the dream, that we are sharing this with larger UBM. Father is wanting to use us all in His purpose for this situation, that His will be fulfilled. It is purely out of obedience that we share this and not for any other reason.) And we all gave sacrificially as much as we could both small amounts of money and large. I woke up as I was looking at the large woven basket of donations that we had all taken up and we were all excited to present it to David when he returned from his meeting with the CEO. (I believe the woven basket represents our combined and interwoven efforts to bless David with the funds needed for the purchase of his house.) (This could represent spiritual resurrection and being caught up to the throne?) I asked for a text by faith at random for this dream and my finger was on “my steps “ in Psalms 17:5, a prayer of David, (1-15), 1 Hear the right, O Jehovah, attend unto my cry; Give ear unto my prayer, that goeth not out of feigned lips. 2 Let my sentence come forth from thy presence; Let thine eyes look upon equity. 3 Thou hast proved my heart; thou hast visited me in the night; Thou hast tried me, and findest nothing; I am purposed that my mouth shall not transgress. 4 As for the works of men, by the word of thy lips I have kept me from the ways of the violent. 5 My steps have held fast to thy paths, My feet have not slipped. 6 I have called upon thee, for thou wilt answer me, O God: Incline thine ear unto me, and hear my speech. 7 Show thy marvellous lovingkindness, O thou that savest by thy right hand them that take refuge in thee From those that rise up against them. 8 Keep me as the apple of the eye; Hide me under the shadow of thy wings, 9 From the wicked that oppress me, My deadly enemies, that compass me about. 10 They are inclosed in their own fat: With their mouth they speak proudly. 11 They have now compassed us in our steps; They set their eyes to cast us down to the earth. 12 He is like a lion that is greedy of his prey, And as it were a young lion lurking in secret places. 13 Arise, O Jehovah, Confront him, cast him down: Deliver my soul from the wicked by thy sword; 14 From men by thy hand, O Jehovah, From men of the world, whose portion is in this life, And whose belly thou fillest with thy treasure: They are satisfied with children, And leave the rest of their substance to their babes. 15 As for me, I shall behold thy face in righteousness; I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with beholding thy form. I asked for a word by faith at random for the part of the dream where Father spoke to me and said, “Tell all of UBM to take up a collection for the purchase of David’s house.” And my finger was on, “hast commanded” in Psa. 119:4, Thou hast commanded us thy precepts, That we should observe them diligently. I asked for a couple of words by faith at random for the gold watch with the spike and received, Eze. 44:18 (in context 15-18), 15 But the priests the Levites, the sons of Zadok, that kept the charge of my sanctuary when the children of Israel went astray from me, they shall come near to me to minister unto me; and they shall stand before me to offer unto me the fat and the blood, saith the Lord Jehovah: 16 they shall enter into my sanctuary, and they shall come near to my table, to minister unto me, and they shall keep my charge. 17 And it shall be that, when they enter in at the gates of the inner court, they shall be clothed with linen garments; and no wool shall come upon them, while they minister in the gates of the inner court, and within. 18 They shall have linen tires upon their heads, and shall have linen breeches upon their loins; they shall not gird themselves with anything that causeth’sweat. (Their works will not be those of the flesh) The other was Rev. 2:24-28, my finger was on the phrase, “I cast upon you none other burden”,(This could well mean that this burden of sacrifice will be enough for the righteous.)24 But to you I say, to the rest that are in Thyatira, as many as have not this teaching, who know not the deep things of Satan, as they are wont to say; I cast upon you none other burden. 25 Nevertheless that which ye have, hold fast till I come. 26 And he that overcometh, and he that keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give authority over the nations: 27 and he shall rule them with a rod of iron, as the vessels of the potter are broken to shivers; as I also have received of my Father: 28 and I will give him the morning star.  I asked for a word concerning the chefs running out of bread to feed the children and then David having to multiply the bread for the children (We have been preparing to multiply the bread around the world and it is starting with two revivals that we know of. And the old order Babylonish leaders are falling.) and received by faith at random, Dan. 5:26, finger on “Mene," 24-29, 24 Then was the part of the hand sent from before him, and this writing was inscribed. 25 And this is the writing that was inscribed: MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN. 26 This is the interpretation of the thing: MENE; God hath numbered thy kingdom, and brought it to an end; 27 TEKEL; thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting. 28 PERES; thy kingdom is divided, and given to the Medes and Persians. 29 Then commanded Belshazzar, and they clothed Daniel with purple, and put a chain of gold about his neck, and made proclamation concerning him, that he should be the third ruler in the kingdom. (That night Cyrus (Trump) conquered Babylon.) I asked Father for a couple of random words concerning David’s “meeting" with the CEO to discuss future plans and received, Acts 9:11, with my finger on the phrase, “The street called Straight” 11 And the Lord said unto him, Arise, and go to the street which is called Straight, and inquire in the house of Judas for one named Saul, a man of Tarsus: for behold, he prayeth; ... he is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name before the Gentiles and kings, and the children of Israel: 16 for I will show him how many things he must suffer for my name's sake. The other was Acts 5:25, finger on “standing”, And there came one and told them, Behold, the men whom ye put in the prison are in the temple standing and teaching the people. (Like Joseph and Jesus, a type of the end time David Man-child’s, they came out of prison to minister in God’s anointing.) I pray everyone will be obedient to give what the Father puts upon your heart to contribute to this effort and His purposes that He has revealed in these revelations. Note From David   Hi Saints,  So you see that the Lord showed us prophetically and then confirmed it to us that we were to take up a collection for David’s House. This of course will be a temporary offering and will discontinued as soon as possible.   Thank you so much for your gift for this house which is used for a prayer and Bible study meeting 6 days a week. We also host visitors and minister to locals here as often as we can. This is our ministry office. It is not a fancy house but very simple.  None of the rent, utilities, internet, vehicles or legal insurance, or other costs have been born by the ministry but by me personally who receive no money from the ministry.  Other ministries claim all of this cost belongs to the ministry, yet I have born this cost along with a few who support me. Now I will continue to bear the costs except there will be no rent. This has suited me well all these years and I would not have changed a thing if the Lord had not intervened with dreams and words and direction from Him concerning His support for this house. Thank you so much for your help.  :o).  Love from your servant in Christ, David            You can send a check or money order written to David Eells, marked “For David’s House” here:  UBM  P.O. Box 231616 Montgomery, AL 36123, USA Please send your email address too so we can thank you. Here's how easy it is: Log into your account at PayPal.com. select "Pay or send money" and choose whether you're paying for goods or services or sending money to friends and family. Enter the recipient's email address, mobile number or name and click "Next" Enter the amount and click "continue".   10 : $10.00 USD - monthly 20 : $20.00 USD - monthly 30 : $30.00 USD - monthly 40 : $40.00 USD - monthly 50 : $50.00 USD - monthly 75 : $75.00 USD - monthly 100 : $100.00 USD - monthly 150 : $150.00 USD - monthly 200 : $200.00 USD - monthly 250 : $250.00 USD - monthly       Please read the note above for simple instructions on how to give without any service fee for you or us. Monthly Gift Amount       POTUS David Receives Two Houses Eve Brast - 1st week of Jan. 2020 (David’s notes in red) I dreamed that David (Representing the David Man-child body) and I (representing the Bride) were touring a house in a city. (David’s house) It was a three story house (Spiritually not physically) located on one of the main city streets. The local UBM brethren were also there touring with us. (This is the current UBM house Representing the larger UBM Bride body who are touring or passing through as sojourners, where the Bride is being matured.) The realtor lady was showing us the house. It was so clean and fully furnished in an elegant modern style. I remember that the couches were all white. (The resting place of the Bride is holy) I remember thinking and whispering to David, "This is the house I've always wanted.”  (The Bride desires the holy house ruled by the David Man-child body as King David ruled over Jerusalem that John was told was the Bride in Revelation.)  David took a white piece of paper and wrote, "$175,000" on it and handed it to the realtor. He asked her if the owners would take $175,000 for it and she was happy and said, "I'll ask them. I don't think it will be a problem." She acted like the sale was a done deal. (Amazingly, This is the price the Lord told us to offer the realtor lady for my house. This could be a physical aspect to this spiritual dream as a sign to us.  This is very unusual.) David said, "Okay, Great." And then we all walked out of that house onto the sidewalk. We walked about a block up the city street to a large mansion. (Representing our ministry to the world)  The sun shone on everything in the city and all the houses and buildings were made of white white brick or stone. Even the sidewalks were white.  As we were walking the sun was shining on all of us. I looked to my right a little ahead of me and saw Merle walking with us. (Another relative coming in) He looked over at David and said something with a big smile on his face. He looked so free and David said something back to him. His wife, Missy, was walking behind me and also joined in their conversation. We were all happy and excited. When we entered the mansion there was a fairly large entry way and beyond that was a very large living room that opened to the left of the entry way. The sun shone on everything in the city and all the houses and buildings were made of white white brick or stone. Even the sidewalks were white. (Knowing the rest of the dream, this is our "white house" but represents our expanded ministry and administration and not just one building.)  It was so large that it had high open ceilings . You could see the 2 support pillars and all the beams and rafters. All the lighting was like track lighting along the rafters and beams. (The temple of Solomon also had 2 pillars. Jachin and Boaz) (Jachin means "Yah establishes" and Boaz means “strength”.  It is the Lord in us that has the strength to establish us.) To the right of the entry way was a large kitchen with a dining area at the far back corner. On the side of the kitchen closest to the entry way was a children's kitchen. Everything was small and their size. There were 2 little blonde (Meaning submitted to the Son/Sun) girls and a blonde boy (sisters and brother) practicing making meals in the children's kitchen. (Teaching the "little sister" how to prepare the spiritual food for others.) (This is what We have been told by the Lord we will do; Get the gospel out to the world in a huge way.) The carpet in this area was evergreen in color and there was a staircase from the children's kitchen area that led up to the second and third floors. (Evergreen is the color of eternal life) (The third floor is the highest level of maturity, representing spirit, soul, and body) We went up to the second floor where all the bedrooms were. There was a children's play area and I had brought a box of old vintage toys for the children to play with. So I unpacked the box and placed the toys in the play area. The children were so excited because they had never seen these toys before. (Representing revealing the ancient paths to the younger Christians and them desiring them.) Then we went up to the third floor where there was a huge bath area. (For cleansing of the body) It was like an upscale spa with walk-in showers and massage tables and chairs. And over to my right was a large tiled patio with sliding glass doors. Outside on this patio was a large, tall, yellow water slide. There was a woman out there supervising all the children riding on the slide. There were these clear, plastic dolphins that each child would sit on to ride down the slide. The lady would also hand the children white towels to dry themselves with. (We will be able to minister the water of the Word and the importance of sanctification to the elect children of God.) I looked up at the high raftered ceilings above the bath area and saw the most beautiful floral hangings draping down. They smelled heavenly and were the most beautiful flowers I'd ever seen. (A sacrifice of a sweet smell is our sanctification and cleansing ourselves to the Lord.) Then we all went back down to the living room area and stood next to one of the support pillars. David looked to be in his thirties. (Thirty is the age at which one can enter public ministry. David, Joseph, and Jesus were thirty and the Man-child will be anointed at thirty spiritually.) There were secret service details (Angels) and men in hard hats installing surveillance cameras and monitors throughout the house. (Psa 91:10-12 There shall no evil befall thee, Neither shall any plague come nigh thy tent. 11 For he will give his angels charge over thee, To keep thee in all thy ways. 12  They shall bear thee up in their hands, Lest thou dash thy foot against a stone.)   David was now the President. (The david’s will rule in the spiritual realm like P. Trump will in the natural but the spiritual makes it possible for the natural.  Rev 5:10  and madest them to be unto our God a kingdom and priests; and they reign upon the earth. Rev 2:26  And he that overcometh, and he that keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give authority over the nations. Heb 2:6-8  But one hath somewhere testified, saying, What is man, that thou art mindful of him? Or the son of man, that thou visitest him?  7  Thou madest him a little lower than the angels; Thou crownedst him (Man) with glory and honor, And didst set him over the works of thy hands:  8  Thou didst put all things in subjection under his feet. For in that he subjected all things unto him, he left nothing that is not subject to him. (Both Joseph and Daniel, types of the Man-child, were second only to the King on his throne representing God. The David Man-child body will rule in the earth, confirmed in other dreams - See: Our Limitless Authority in Christ and Death and Resurrection of the David’s) David said, something like, "That's not really necessary." But the secret service guys insisted. (The angels watch over our safety.). I said to David, "Well, You ARE the President of the United States."  He said something about the price of the mansion costing, "$850,000,000”.  (Possibly representing the overall ministry worth)  And I said, "Well that's a drop in the bucket since you have billions of dollars.” (Billions will come in for the Kingdom work and ministry, providing for refugees, and getting the gospel to the world. In my mind in the dream I knew it was about 8 Billion.) (In 2007 Father gave me in a vision a billion dollars to take care of His children in refuge. More recently we asked for more and He said He would give 1.6 billion. So we asked for more to provide for His people and reach the world with the gospel since we are supporting hundreds of missionaries in dangerous lands with money and literature.  I asked for “exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think” and we get this dream. Eph 3:20  Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us.) David said, "Yeah. Well, I guess you're right.”   Then I woke up. I asked Father for a word for this dream by faith at random and my finger was on, "the Jews gathered" in Est. 9:2, (in context 1-5) 1 Now in the twelfth month, which is the month Adar, on the thirteenth day of the same, when the king's commandment and his decree drew near to be put in execution, on the day that the enemies of the Jews hoped to have rule over them, (whereas it was turned to the contrary, that the Jews had rule over them that hated them,)(As a direct result of Mordecai, the Man-child, and Esther, the Brides, intercession.) 2 the Jews gathered themselves together in their cities throughout all the provinces of the king Ahasuerus, to lay hand on such as sought their hurt: and no man could withstand them; for the fear of them was fallen upon all the peoples. 3 And all the princes of the provinces, and the satraps, and the governors, and they that did the king's business, helped the Jews; because the fear of Mordecai was fallen upon them. 4 For Mordecai was great in the king's house, and his fame went forth throughout all the provinces; for the man Mordecai waxed greater and greater. 5 And the Jews smote all their enemies with the stroke of the sword, and with slaughter and destruction, and did what they would unto them that hated them.      Select Language Afrikaans Albanian Amharic Arabic Armenian Azerbaijani Basque Belarusian Bengali Bosnian Bulgarian Catalan Cebuano Chichewa Chinese (Simplified) Chinese (Traditional) Corsican Croatian Czech Danish Dutch Esperanto Estonian Filipino Finnish French Frisian Galician Georgian German Greek Gujarati Haitian Creole Hausa Hawaiian Hebrew Hindi Hmong Hungarian Icelandic Igbo Indonesian Irish Italian Japanese Javanese Kannada Kazakh Khmer Kinyarwanda Korean Kurdish (Kurmanji) Kyrgyz Lao Latin Latvian Lithuanian Luxembourgish Macedonian Malagasy Malay Malayalam Maltese Maori Marathi Mongolian Myanmar (Burmese) Nepali Norwegian Odia (Oriya) Pashto Persian Polish Portuguese Punjabi Romanian Russian Samoan Scots Gaelic Serbian Sesotho Shona Sindhi Sinhala Slovak Slovenian Somali Spanish Sundanese Swahili Swedish Tajik Tamil Tatar Telugu Thai Turkish Turkmen Ukrainian Urdu Uyghur Uzbek Vietnamese Welsh Xhosa Yiddish Yoruba Zulu Powered by Translate Printer-friendly version

Ben and Shiloh review the sections that speak primarily to and about Oliver Cowdery. Oliver has a rich history before and after coming into the LDS narrative as a scribe to Joseph in penning the Book of Mormon. In these sections we find an incredibly supportive, compassionate, and encouraging God that is patient, merciful, and forgiving. God speaks to His children not just through their own language but according to the context of their cultural, religious, and personal understandings. Both Joseph and Oliver were (or had been) engrossed in what we would see today as a “magical” worldview of experiencing God where imbuing random objects with divine power (e.g., stones, handkerchiefs, walking sticks, etc.) were not abnormal. Whereas Joseph had found a rock while digging a well that he used as a “seer stone” to assist in translation of the Book of Mormon, Oliver had had previous successful experiences before meeting Joseph in dousing (i.e., “witching”) with a stick. God does not reject these abilities and worldviews that were commonly understood and known to Joseph and Oliver, but, rather, He incorporates their worldview and focuses their own interests and talents on His own purposes. How does God do the same for us today? God encourages Oliver’s endeavors and gives him what was originally called the “gift of the rod” (as written in the 1833 Book of Commandments) but that was later recorded in subsequent publications of Section 8 as the “gift of Aaron” after 1835. God also blesses Oliver with many revelatory moments, and we learn much of how to recognize God’s love and promptings for our lives through Oliver’s experiences.

(In preparation for today you may like to take out some candles to light during this devotional. This will be a meditative and reflective devotional with some readings and questions throughout.)Good morning KICL!Last Sunday was the first Sunday of Advent, the season when we as Christians are awaiting the birth of Christ. Advent means arrival. It is good to take the time to really meditate upon the fact that over 2000 years ago God came to earth from heaven in the form of a human being, his own son, Jesus Christ, Emmanuel - God With Us. Think about it: God became a man! He did it because He loves us—and that's what we should celebrate as Christmas approaches. Take time between now and Christmas to reflect on this great truth.If we had been together as a congregation we would have lit the first purple candle last Sunday, which signifies leading our hearts to Hope. The purple colour of the candle represents royalty, repentance, and fasting. The first week of Advent is for reflecting on what it must have been like to feel the depth of Father God's silence during the period between the Old Testament and New. We ponder the prophecies about the promised Messiah. We aim to begin this season with a mindset that creates hope in our hearts.“For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be upon his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”Read Isaiah 9:6 In this Scripture we find the message and meaning of Christmas. Isaiah the prophet gave five awe-inspiring names of our Lord that encourage us, excite us and fill us with hope at this Christmas season.1. Wonderful. When He did His many miracles, the Scripture says, “The people wondered.” (Luke 11:14)2. Counselor. The officers said, “No one ever spoke like this man!” (John 7:46)3. Mighty God. He is the God-Man. He said that He and the Father are one. (John 10:30)4. Everlasting Father. It was by Him, the living Word, that all things were created. He is the designer of the whole universe. (John 1:3; Hebrews 11:3)5. Prince of Peace. There will never be lasting peace on earth until He comes again to reign in righteousness. But He is also the Prince of Peace in other ways. None can have peace with God apart from Him and the peace that He made through the blood of His cross. (Colossians 1:20)The full meaning of these words from Isaiah should give us enough strength, hope, and joy to face any crisis, endure any sorrow and meet any temptation. Q: How has Jesus shown you recently that He is “Wonderful, Counselor … the Prince of Peace”? Do you need God's love in your life?TODAY, the Second Sunday of Advent, we light the Hope candle and then a second purple candle signifying Preparation. First, hope blooms as we realise the prophecies about the Messiah are true. Then we begin to prepare our hearts to receive the Lord Jesus. Imagine how Joseph must have rushed to prepare the crude stable for Mary and the soon-to-be-born Jesus. Often we may rush in this season also, preparing gifts, food, and plans, or we travel to see our relatives and friends. However, this rushing or busy-ness is likely going to feature somewhat less due to our restrictions and precautions from Covid-19. So this year in 2020, this can help us to slow down and reflect on Joseph and Mary's preparation for the birth in a new way, let us pause and read the words of Isaiah:A voice cries: “In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be lifted up and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.” (Isaiah 40:3-5)Q: As you prepare for Christmas, are you seeking to follow God's call in your life? May we focus on how we can follow the lead of Mary and Joseph in responding to God.Because Joseph her husband was faithful to the law, and yet did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly. But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”Read Matthew 1:19-21 We're given just a little glimpse of Mary and Joseph before Jesus was born. They lived in the hill country of Galilee. Joseph was a religious man. Mary gives every evidence of having a thorough knowledge of the Scriptures, even though she was a teenager. The Bible teaches that God was so pleased with her that He chose her to be the mother of Jesus. Mary and Joseph weren't married, and yet Mary became pregnant.If you are a husband you could try and put yourself in Joseph's place—imagine his thoughts, his aspirations about the girl to whom he was engaged. Yet Joseph decided to break the engagement privately. While he was thinking about these things, God's angel appeared to him in a dream to give Joseph an explanation of the situation. All Joseph's suspicions were put away. He accepted what God had said through the angel, and he was immediately married to Mary.Both Joseph and Mary followed the call and plan of God, and through their obedience the way was prepared for Christ to come and bless us.Q: Are you seeking to follow God's call on your life? Are you actively responding to Him?A Prayer for PreparationHoly God, we praise you for the hope you give us. As we move into the second week of Advent, we prepare our hearts to receive you. Just as Mary and Joseph journeyed to Bethlehem over rough terrain, so our lives lead us down rocky paths at times. Yet we know that you are our Counselor, you are Mighty, you are Holy, and you are Peace, so we ask in the name of Jesus that you make yourself manifest amongst us. Bring your presence and prepare our hearts to be a dwelling place for you.Have a good week friends,Beth(I would like to give some credit to the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association for inspiration from their Advent notes).

In Luke 3 we see John the baptizer preaching. We see this in verses 1-20. Notice how much more detail Luke gives to John. We will see the detail of Luke’s gospel. In verses 21-22 Jesus is baptized. We see the genealogy of Jesus in verses 23-38. This is different than the account in Matthew. In Today in the Word, December 2016, Dr. Rydelic writes: “The Gospel of Matthew tells the virgin-birth story from the perspective of Joseph, Jesus’ adoptive and legal father. The Gospel of Luke, on the other hand, recounts the birth of Jesus from Mary’s perspective, including Jesus’ physical descent from His mother. Both Joseph and Mary were of the house of David but descended from two different sons of David.” I can share more about that if anyone is interested. Dr. Rydelnic shared more in an article in which I quoted from.

For more notes and resources check out Douglas' website.Hebrew words:Yosef (Joseph, pronounced "yo-SAFE") -- may He add / increaseKetoneth passim -- special tunic (outer garment), in Genesis 37:3Ha'arets (pronounced hah-AR-ets) -- the earth / land, as in Genesis 41:57.Further study:Passages the podcast covered or referred to:Genesis 11:27ff (Abraham cycle), 25:19ff (Isaac cycle), 37:2ff (Jacob cycle -- which focuses on Joseph)Numbers 12, Acts 2 -- dreams/visions. This has nothing to do with self-fulfillment, as in the "American dream." Hebrews 11 in fact emphasizes the opposite. Faithfulness is the focus, not fulfillment.2 Samuel 13:18 illuminates Genesis 37:3 -- the special robe was probably a long-sleeved garment, suitable for those privileged not to be involved in manual labor.Genesis 48:12 -- Joseph is the one who will bow before his father, not his father before him (as in 37:10). Moreover, his mother, by the time the family came to Egypt, had died. So his dreams are partially accurate. For a NT parallel, see the vision of Agabus concerning Paul's arrest. The vision of Acts 21:11 is only partially accurate. He was bound, but not with his own belt; and he was handed over, but to the Gentiles, not the Jews.Genesis 37:3, 41:57, 42:21-22, 39:6 (see parallel in 29:17), 45:1-15, 50:14-26.The theme of deception and non-recognition is also very common throughout Genesis (ch. 12, 18, 19, 20, 27, 38, etc).Messianic parallels:Both Joseph and Jesus were shepherds -- Joseph literally, and Jesus the "Good Shepherd."Both were rescued from death and taken into Egypt.Both lived the lives of servants.Both began their public ministries at about the age of 30. (And both spend about 20 years in relative obscurity before this time.)Both resisted temptation.Both were filled with the Spirit of God, and were given knowledge of the future.Both quickly gained the confidence of others.Each tested others in order to find out their true character.Each was sold for the price of a slave (30 pieces of silver).Each was falsely accused, and accepted his fate (silent before his accusers) without protest.Each was condemned along with two other prisoners.Each was "dead" to his father.Joseph was held for two years, and freed in the third; Jesus was "held" for two days, and freed (risen) on the third.They both gave bread to those who came to them.Both "arose" to new life.At first, neither was recognized by his brothers.Each saved his people, and in fact the world.Each was returned to his father.Each became "lord."Each was concerned for unity among his brothers.This does not exhaust the parallels. See the excerpt from the excellent piece by Andrew Wilson (scroll all the way down).Advanced: the age of Joseph.110 was the ideal age for a virtuous Egyptian. (Ancient societies often had actual ages and idealized ages.)Abraham lived to 175 = 7 x 52; Isaac lived to 180 = 5 x 62; Jacob lived to 147 = 3 x 72. Joseph lived to 52 + 62 + 72 -- in a sense, "summing up" his predecessors' lives.For more on the symbolism of biblical ages in Genesis, consult the articles linked to the notes provided with OT Podcast 3 (Noah).For more on Genesis as the introduction to the entire word of God, and for special analysis of chapters 1-11, please see my book, Origins, to be published in 2018.Some things we learn about God:Providence often operates through unfair circumstances. We must strive to be open to there being a "bigger picture" and, like Joseph, not give in to bitterness.Often God lets us wait. With the Lord, we may be "inconvenienced" not just for minutes, hours, or days, but for years and even decades! In the meantime, he is working out his will.In the lives of the earlier patriarchs, God intervenes more directly, speaking to them, sending angels, etc. With Joseph we see a more subtle -- yet comprehensive -- view of God's working and providence. God controls but does not force events, permitting things to happen more than causing them to happen. This resonates much more with the experience of the majority in biblical history -- and with you and me!The Word of God -- the Hebrew scriptures -- testify of the Christ to come.For kids (devotional -- best for three or more children):Dramatize the life of Joseph.Read parts of chapter 37. Choose one child to be "Joseph." Be sure to dress him up in a special robe.Act out the capture and sale of Joseph to the Midianites. One child plays Joseph; the others, his jealous brothers. Father and mother can play the parts of the slave traders. Make sure you have a good "pit" in which to hold Joseph as his fate is discussed.Read parts of chapter 39 (age appropriate). Then act out his imprisonment at the hands of Potiphar.Finally, read excerpts from the chapters 42 onward. Have all the brothers bow down to Joseph. Make sure Joseph has forgiven his siblings. Enjoy the drama!For less drama and more discussion, read about the lives of Joseph (Genesis 37+) and Daniel (Daniel 1 and 6). Compare and contrast. Ask which one's life you would rather have, and why.Key verses:37:3 -- Jacob's favoritism towards his son Joseph, compounding the resentment his brothers felt towards him.37:18, 39:17 and 40:23 -- Life is often unfair; however, this does not mean that God is unfair.39:10 -- Joseph's refusal to give in to sexual temptation.50:20 -- God's providence operating even in our hardships (and others' evil plans).Next lesson: Moses

Many Christians have little sense of God's calling and little expectation of being used in a significant way. Every believer has a general calling to be witnesses and make disciples, and a specific calling unique to them. But do we understand and embrace it, especially when it changes our plans and requires deep trust? Both Joseph and Mary exemplify an immediate willingness to follow God's calling, despite the huge challenges and changes that presented. They show that God can use anyone in a significant way, and their joy and peace shows that living in God's will is the ultimate place of contentment.

Subscribe to the Quran Talk podcast: https://apple.co/2lLnsFE Check out video notes: https://qurantalk.podbean.com/ Quran translation on iOS: https://apple.co/2C1YGXj Join us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/QuranStudy19/ Additional Resources: http://www.masjidtucson.org Contact: qurantalk (at) gmail (dot) com [12:7] In Joseph and his brothers there are lessons for the seekers. Dream #1 - Humility  When Joseph was explaining his dream to his father Jacob, there is a slight subtlety that is in the verse that is showing Joseph’s humility. The verse reads: [12:4] Recall that Joseph said to his father, "O my father, I saw eleven planets, and the sun, and the moon; I saw them prostrating before me.” Notice that Joseph didn’t say:  "O my father, I saw eleven planets, and the sun, and the moon prostrating before me.” This repeating of “I saw” appears to be a hesitation in telling his father what he saw, and shows Joseph’s humility even at a young age, that despite what he witnessed in his dream he was not boasting.  And think who was Joseph’s father? Jacob (Israel) one of God’s prophets, who was among the most righteous. The thought of telling his own father a prophet of God that in his dream he saw the solar system prostrating before him he was apprehensive to tell him. As children, it is easier to be humble. [16:78] GOD brought you out of your mothers' bellies knowing nothing, and He gave you the hearing, the eyesight, and the brains, that you may be appreciative. As children, everyone seems bigger than us, smarter than us, more accomplished and respected than us. But what happens when we become older?   Dream #2 - Arrogance When Joseph was in prison we see the following interaction he had with his prison mates [12:36] Two young men were in the prison with him. One of them said, "I saw (in my dream) that I was making wine," and the other said, "I saw myself carrying bread on my head, from which the birds were eating. Inform us of the interpretation of these dreams. We see that you are righteous." [12:37] He said, "If any food is provided to you, I can inform you about it before you receive it. This is some of the knowledge bestowed upon me by my Lord. I have forsaken the religion of people who do not believe in GOD, and with regard to the Hereafter, they are really disbelievers. [12:38] "And I followed instead the religion of my ancestors, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. We never set up any idols beside GOD. Such is the blessing from GOD upon us and upon the people, but most people are unappreciative. [12:39] "O my prison mates, are several gods better, or GOD alone, the One, the Supreme? [12:40] "You do not worship beside Him except innovations that you have made up, you and your parents. GOD has never authorized such idols. All ruling belongs to GOD, and He has ruled that you shall not worship except Him. This is the perfect religion, but most people do not know. [12:41] "O my prison mates, one of you will be the wine butler for his lord, while the other will be crucified— the birds will eat from his head. This settles the matter about which you have inquired." [12:42] He then said to the one to be saved "Remember me at your lord." Thus, the devil caused him to forget his Lord, and, consequently, he remained in prison a few more years. [61:2] O you who believe, why do you say what you do not do? [61:3] Most abominable in the sight of GOD is that you say what you do not do. [47:30] If we will, we can expose them for you, so that you can recognize them just by looking at them. However, you can recognize them by the way they talk. GOD is fully aware of all your works. [3:159] It was mercy from GOD that you became compassionate towards them. Had you been harsh and mean-hearted, they would have abandoned you. Therefore, you shall pardon them and ask forgiveness for them, and consult them. Once you make a decision, carry out your plan, and trust in GOD. GOD loves those who trust in Him.* [20:114] Most Exalted is GOD, the only true King. Do not rush into uttering the Quran before it is revealed to you, and say, "My Lord, increase my knowledge."   Dream #3 - Confidence  The King's Dream  [12:43] The king said, "I saw seven fat cows being devoured by seven skinny cows, and seven green spikes (of wheat), and others shriveled. O my elders, advise me regarding my dream, if you know how to interpret the dreams." [12:44] They said, "Nonsense dreams. When it comes to the interpretation of dreams, we are not knowledgeable." [12:45] The one who was saved (from the prison) said, now that he finally remembered, "I can tell you its interpretation, so send me (to Joseph).”  Joseph Interprets the King's Dream  [12:46] "Joseph my friend, inform us about seven fat cows being devoured by seven skinny cows, and seven green spikes, and others shriveled. I wish to go back with some information for the people." [12:47] He said, "What you cultivate during the next seven years, when the time of harvest comes, leave the grains in their spikes, except for what you eat. [12:48] "After that, seven years of drought will come, which will consume most of what you stored for them. [12:49] "After that, a year will come that brings relief for the people, and they will, once again, press juice." [12:50] The king said, "Bring him to me." When the (king’s) messenger came to him, he (Joseph) said, "Go back to your lord and ask him to investigate the women who cut their hands. My Lord is fully aware of their schemes." [12:51] (The king) said (to the women), "What do you know about the incident when you tried to seduce Joseph?" They said, "GOD forbid; we did not know of anything evil committed by him." The wife of the governor said, "Now the truth has prevailed. I am the one who tried to seduce him, and he was the truthful one. [12:52] "I hope that he will realize that I never betrayed him in his absence, for GOD does not bless the schemes of the betrayers. [12:53] "I do not claim innocence for myself. The self is an advocate of vice, except for those who have attained mercy from my Lord. My Lord is Forgiver, Most Merciful." Joseph Attains Prominence [12:54] The king said, "Bring him (Joseph) to me, so I can hire him to work for me." When he talked with him, he said, "Today, you have a prominent position with us." [12:55] He said, "Make me the treasurer, for I am experienced in this area and knowledgeable." [12:56] We thus established Joseph on earth, ruling as he wished. We shower our mercy upon whomever we will, and we never fail to recompense the righteous.   From lack of confidence to arrogance to confidence   Mistake confidence vs. competence  Notice Joseph didn’t lecture the people asking him about the dream: he was straightforward, he asked them to investigate even before he agreed to leave; then he said “make me treasurer   *****************INCREASE FAITH THROUGH TRAGEDY***************** Jacob sensed Joseph’s greatness via the dream Jacob sensed the brother’s plot via their words [12:5] He said, "My son, do not tell your brothers about your dream, lest they plot and scheme against you. Surely, the devil is man's worst enemy. Jacob sensed the brothers were lying about Joseph [12:11] They said, "Our father, why do you not trust us with Joseph? We will take good care of him (wish him well). [12:12] "Send him with us tomorrow to run and play. We will protect him." 12 12 6 وَإِنَّا And indeed, we wa-innā ا ن ن 12 12 7 لَهُ for him lahu ل 12 12 8 لَحَافِظُونَ (will) surely (be) guardians." laḥāfiẓūna ح ف ظ   [12:13] He said, "I worry lest you go away with him, then the wolf may devour him while you are not watching him." [12:17] They said, "Our father, we went racing with each other, leaving Joseph with our equipment, and the wolf devoured him. You will never believe us, even if we were telling the truth." [12:18] They produced his shirt with fake blood on it. Shirt wasn’t torn just had fake blood on it [12:18 con’t] He said, "Indeed, you have conspired with each other to commit a certain scheme. All I can do is resort to a quiet (فَصَبْرٌ جَمِيلٌ  / Jameel / beautiful) patience. May GOD help me in the face of your conspiracy.”   Post-traumatic stress vs. Post-traumatic growth [12:63] When they returned to their father, they said, "Our father, we can no longer get any provisions, unless you send our brother with us. We will take good care of him." 12 63 14 وَإِنَّا And indeed, we wa-innā ا ن ن 12 63 15 لَهُ for him lahu ل 12 63 16 لَحَافِظُونَ (will) surely (be) guardians." laḥāfiẓūna ح ف ظ   [12:64] He said, "Shall I trust you with him, as I trusted you with his brother before that? GOD is the best Protector (حَافِظًا), and, of all the merciful ones, He is the Most Merciful." [12:65] When they opened their bags, they found their goods returned to them. They said, "Our father, what more can we ask for? Here are our goods returned to us. We can thus provide for our family, protect our brother, and receive one more camel-load. This is certainly a profitable deal." [12:66] He said, "I will not send him with you, unless you give me a solemn pledge before GOD that you will bring him back, unless you are utterly overwhelmed." When they gave him their solemn pledge, he said, "GOD is witnessing everything we say." [12:83] He said, "Indeed, you have conspired to carry out a certain scheme. Quiet (فَصَبْرٌ جَمِيلٌ  / jameel / beautiful) patience is my only recourse. May GOD bring them all back to me. He is the Omniscient, Most Wise.” [12:84] He turned away from them, saying, "I am grieving over Joseph." His eyes turned white from grieving so much; he was truly sad. [12:85] They said, "By GOD, you will keep on grieving over Joseph until you become ill, or until you die." [12:86] He said, "I simply complain to GOD about my dilemma and grief, for I know from GOD what you do not know. [12:87] "O my sons, go fetch Joseph and his brother, and never despair of GOD's grace. None despairs of GOD's grace except the disbelieving people." [12:110] Just when the messengers despair, and think that they had been rejected, our victory comes to them. We then save whomever we choose, while our retribution for the guilty people is unavoidable. Many people when they suffer a tragedy they will renounce God and move away from faith [12:106] The majority of those who believe in GOD do not do so without committing idol worship.         ********************VALUE******************** How much was Joseph valued by Jacob? Maybe a little too much based on how he was towards his other kids and also from the years of grieving   How much was he valued by his brothers at the beginning of the story? = Envy [12:9] "Let us kill Joseph, or banish him, that you may get some attention from your father. Afterwards, you can be righteous people."   How much was Joseph valued by the caravan? = Greed [12:19] A caravan passed by, and soon sent their waterer. He let down his bucket, then said, "How lucky! There is a boy here!" They took him along as merchandise, and GOD was fully aware of what they did. [12:20] They sold him for a cheap price— a few Dirhams—for they did not have any need for him.   How much was he valued by the governor? = Child [12:21] The one who bought him in Egypt said to his wife, "Take good care of him. Maybe he can help us, or maybe we can adopt him." We thus established Joseph on earth, and we taught him the interpretation of dreams. GOD's command is always done, but most people do not know.   How much was he valued by the governor’s wife? = Lust She wanted to use him only for her own needs not for his well being. [12:32] She said, "This is the one you blamed me for falling in love with. I did indeed try to seduce him, and he refused. Unless he does what I command him to do, he will surely go to prison, and will be debased."   How much was he valued by the king? = Gluttony How much was he valued by his brother’s when they were suffering from famine?   How much did Joseph value his own soul? [12:33] He said, "My Lord, the prison is better than giving in to them. Unless You divert their scheming from me, I may desire them and behave like the ignorant ones." When God sees value in something its value will be recognized universally eventually. All the people against Joseph eventually saw the value he provided including for generations to come His brother’s The governor and his wife The king The Children of Israel who were saved from the famine       ********************SHIRT******************** There is an object in the story of Joseph that is repeatedly brought up This object only occurs in Sura Joesph and is mentioned six times in three different contexts? (12:18, 12:25, 12:26, 12:27, 12:28, 12:93) قَمِيصِهِ = qamees = shirt   Shirt #1 [12:17] They said, "Our father, we went racing with each other, leaving Joseph with our equipment, and the wolf devoured him. You will never believe us, even if we were telling the truth.” [12:18] They produced his shirt with fake blood on it. He said, "Indeed, you have conspired with each other to commit a certain scheme. All I can do is resort to a quiet patience. May GOD help me in the face of your conspiracy.”   Joseph’s garment was stolen from him and used as fabricated evidence against him in an attempt to trick his father to think that he was dead. Shirt #2 [12:23] The lady of the house where he lived tried to seduce him. She closed the doors and said, "I am all yours." He said, "May GOD protect me. He is my Lord, who gave me a good home. The transgressors never succeed." [12:24] She almost succumbed to him, and he almost succumbed to her, if it were not that he saw a proof from his Lord. We thus diverted evil and sin away from him, for he was one of our devoted servants. [12:25] The two of them raced towards the door, and, in the process, she tore his shirt (quamis) from the back. They found her husband at the door. She said, "What should be the punishment for one who wanted to molest your wife, except imprisonment or a painful punishment?" [12:26] He said, "She is the one who tried to seduce me." A witness from her family suggested: "If his shirt (quamis) is torn from the front, then she is telling the truth and he is a liar. [12:27] "And if his shirt (quamis) is torn from the back, then she lied, and he is telling the truth." [12:28] When her husband saw that his shirt (quamis) was torn from the back, he said, "This is a woman's scheme. Indeed, your scheming is formidable. His shirt was ripped, but not taken and it was used as evidence in favor of his innocence Shirt #3 [12:93] "Take this shirt (qamis) of mine; when you throw it on my father's face, his vision will be restored. Bring your whole family and come back to me.” [12:94] Even before the caravan arrived, their father said, "I can sense the smell of Joseph. Will someone enlighten me?" [12:95] They said, "By GOD, you are still in your old confusion." [12:96] When the bearer of good news arrived, he threw (the shirt) on his face, whereupon his vision was restored. He said, "Did I not tell you that I knew from GOD what you did not know?” Joseph willfully provides his shirt off his back Joseph’s shirt that was once used as evidence for his fabricated death is now used as evidence that he is still alive.  I believe the shirt in the history of Joseph symbolizes the things in this world: Both Joseph brother’s and the governor’s wife valued Joseph for what was on the outside, The attention he was getting from his father The lust for his appearance The value he provided by being able to provide them provisions And for they were willing to take from him Our possessions can cause people to be envious to the point that they will attack us over it [12:17] They said, "Our father, we went racing with each other, leaving Joseph with our equipment, and the wolf devoured him. You will never believe us, even if we were telling the truth.” [12:25] The two of them raced towards the door, and, in the process, she tore his garment from the back. They found her husband at the door. She said, "What should be the punishment for one who wanted to molest your wife, except imprisonment or a painful punishment?” The Arabic definition for the word for “hoarding” “al-taka-thoor” means the continuous quest for more but Jacob and Joseph valued Joseph for what was on the inside Jacob didn’t know if the hardship and pain that Joseph endured throughout his life had caused him to grow closer to God or to revert away from God. Or did Joseph get caught up by the vanities of this world. [12:65] When they opened their bags, they found their goods returned to them. They said, "Our father, what more can we ask for? Here are our goods returned to us. We can thus provide for our family, protect our brother, and receive one more camel-load. This is certainly a profitable deal." [12:66] He said, "I will not send him with you, unless you give me a solemn pledge before GOD that you will bring him back, unless you are utterly overwhelmed." When they gave him their solemn pledge, he said, "GOD is witnessing everything we say.” [12:67] And he said, "O my sons, do not enter from one door; enter through separate doors. However, I cannot save you from anything that is predetermined by GOD. To GOD belongs all judgments. I trust in Him, and in Him shall all the trusters put their trust." Joseph spent his whole life fighting and when he won he took his own shirt off his back and gave it to reassure his father Jacob already knew that Joseph was alive [12:87] "O my sons, go fetch Joseph and his brother, and never despair of GOD's grace. None despairs of GOD's grace except the disbelieving people." So the shirt was not meant to let Jacob know that he was alive I see this as symbolism to show to Jacob that he did not fall into the vanities of this world. [12:20] They sold him for a cheap price— a few Dirhams—for they did not have any need for him (zaheed). Only place in the Quran this word is used. It means to signify that what Joseph valued unlike many of the other people in the story was not of this world, but for the Hereafter at His Lord. [12:6] "Your Lord has thus blessed you, and has given you good news through your dream. He has perfected His blessings upon you and upon the family of Jacob, as He did for your ancestors Abraham and Isaac before that. Your Lord is Omniscient, Most Wise.” [12:100] He raised his parents upon the throne. They fell prostrate before him. He said, "O my father, this is the fulfillment of my old dream. My Lord has made it come true. He has blessed me (hasan = He was good to me), delivered me from the prison, and brought you from the desert, after the devil had driven a wedge between me and my brothers. My Lord is Most Kind towards whomever He wills. He is the Knower, the Most Wise."

Resisting Temptation Both Joseph and Potiphar's wife were tempted. Both Joseph and Potiphar's wife are in pursuit of their heart's greatest desire. But as the story is told from each perspective, the writer reveals that not all affections are equal; some desires will destroy and others will bring life. We are surprised to discover in the actions of Joseph that our ability to resist temptation is not really a matter of self-denial, but rather knowing and cherishing a far superior satisfaction that eclipses all others.

Message #317 The Foundations of the Gospel, Part V - Acts 13:23-41 Sunday, April 1 2018 Context summary: Paul reviews Israel's history from the Passover (Exodus 12), to whom the Passover foreshadowed, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29). "For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us." (1 Corinthians 5:7b) What was John the baptist's message? (Acts 13:24) John the baptist called all to "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!" (Matthew 3:2) John was a fulfillment of Isaiah 40:3 (NKJV) The voice of one crying in the wilderness: "Prepare the way of the LORD; Make straight in the desert a highway for our God." (See also Matthew 3:3 and John 1:23) John pointed to the long awaited Messiah, identified to him by God. See Matthew 3:16-17 and John 1:29-34. Also 1 Corinthians 2 regarding how these things are revealed to us by the Holy Spirit. Application? We are called to call all to repentance (to turn away from sin), and point people to Jesus as John did. We've been given the ministry of reconciliation (2 Corinthians 5:18-21). Old Testament Scriptures which foretold of the Messiah's suffering and mission (Psalm 22, Isaiah 53, and Zechariah 12:10. The Messiah would be despised and rejected (Isaiah 53:3, fulfilled in Matthew 27), and would die in the company of the wicked (Isaiah 53:9a, fulfilled in Matthew 27:38), but be buried in among the wealthy (Isaiah 53:9b, fulfilled in Matthew 27:57-60). Both Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus would work together to take the body of Jesus down from the cross and prepare his body for burial. Then they laid Jesus' body in the tomb (John 19:38-42). What was the promise made to the fathers which Jesus' resurrection fulfilled? (Acts 13:32) Answer is found in Acts 3:24-26 (NKJV) 24 "Yes, and all the prophets, from Samuel and those who follow, as many as have spoken, have also foretold these days. 25 "You are sons of the prophets, and of the covenant which God made with our fathers, saying to Abraham, ['And in your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed.'] 26 "To you first, God, having raised up His Servant Jesus, sent Him to bless you, in turning away every one [of you] from your iniquities." This promise to bless all the families of the earth through the seed of Abraham pointed to the risen Christ. The blessing was in turning us away from our sin. Foretold in Genesis 12:3; Genesis 22:18; Genesis 26:4 The glory of Jesus' resurrection and blessings tied to God raising Christ from the dead. Christ's resurrection is the guarantee of our own (1 Thessalonians 4:14 and 2 Corinthians 4:14) Christ's resurrection provides us an eternal High Priest who always prays for us (Romans 8:34 and Hebrews 7:23-25) Christ's resurrection justified all who believe in Him (Romans 4:25) Christ's resurrection is the affirmation of Jesus' claims to being the Son of God (Romans 1:4; see John 5, especially verse18 and John 10, especially verse 33) Christ's resurrection provides believers a living hope and a glorious inheritance to look forward to and live in light of (1 Peter 1:3-4 and Ephesians 1:11-12) Application? By being joined to the risen Christ, believers live fruitful lives (Romans 7:4 and John 15) Warning? Christ's resurrection declares whom God will judge the world through. Acts 17:30-31 (NKJV) 30 "Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent, 31 "because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead." Calvary Chapel Reston Station 1950 Isaac Newton Sq. Reston, VA 20195 (703) 834-8100 http://www.calvaryreston.org/

Message #317 The Foundations of the Gospel, Part V - Acts 13:23-41 Sunday, April 1 2018 Context summary: Paul reviews Israel's history from the Passover (Exodus 12), to whom the Passover foreshadowed, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29). "For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us." (1 Corinthians 5:7b) What was John the baptist's message? (Acts 13:24) John the baptist called all to "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!" (Matthew 3:2) John was a fulfillment of Isaiah 40:3 (NKJV) The voice of one crying in the wilderness: "Prepare the way of the LORD; Make straight in the desert a highway for our God." (See also Matthew 3:3 and John 1:23) John pointed to the long awaited Messiah, identified to him by God. See Matthew 3:16-17 and John 1:29-34. Also 1 Corinthians 2 regarding how these things are revealed to us by the Holy Spirit. Application? We are called to call all to repentance (to turn away from sin), and point people to Jesus as John did. We've been given the ministry of reconciliation (2 Corinthians 5:18-21). Old Testament Scriptures which foretold of the Messiah's suffering and mission (Psalm 22, Isaiah 53, and Zechariah 12:10. The Messiah would be despised and rejected (Isaiah 53:3, fulfilled in Matthew 27), and would die in the company of the wicked (Isaiah 53:9a, fulfilled in Matthew 27:38), but be buried in among the wealthy (Isaiah 53:9b, fulfilled in Matthew 27:57-60). Both Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus would work together to take the body of Jesus down from the cross and prepare his body for burial. Then they laid Jesus' body in the tomb (John 19:38-42). What was the promise made to the fathers which Jesus' resurrection fulfilled? (Acts 13:32) Answer is found in Acts 3:24-26 (NKJV) 24 "Yes, and all the prophets, from Samuel and those who follow, as many as have spoken, have also foretold these days. 25 "You are sons of the prophets, and of the covenant which God made with our fathers, saying to Abraham, ['And in your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed.'] 26 "To you first, God, having raised up His Servant Jesus, sent Him to bless you, in turning away every one [of you] from your iniquities." This promise to bless all the families of the earth through the seed of Abraham pointed to the risen Christ. The blessing was in turning us away from our sin. Foretold in Genesis 12:3; Genesis 22:18; Genesis 26:4 The glory of Jesus' resurrection and blessings tied to God raising Christ from the dead. Christ's resurrection is the guarantee of our own (1 Thessalonians 4:14 and 2 Corinthians 4:14) Christ's resurrection provides us an eternal High Priest who always prays for us (Romans 8:34 and Hebrews 7:23-25) Christ's resurrection justified all who believe in Him (Romans 4:25) Christ's resurrection is the affirmation of Jesus' claims to being the Son of God (Romans 1:4; see John 5, especially verse18 and John 10, especially verse 33) Christ's resurrection provides believers a living hope and a glorious inheritance to look forward to and live in light of (1 Peter 1:3-4 and Ephesians 1:11-12) Application? By being joined to the risen Christ, believers live fruitful lives (Romans 7:4 and John 15) Warning? Christ's resurrection declares whom God will judge the world through. Acts 17:30-31 (NKJV) 30 "Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent, 31 "because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead." Calvary Chapel Reston Station 1950 Isaac Newton Sq. Reston, VA 20195 (703) 834-8100 http://www.calvaryreston.org/

It is Monday. Do you know what that means? Well, outside of the fact that you have five full days of sitting next to that jerk in the cubicle next to you, it also means the Relatively Speaking Podcast is back refreshed from a weekend of resting on its laurels. After starting the show to remember the lives of two of sports' recently deceased athletes, the discussion turns into other somber -- but not that somber -- turn of events in sports. Les Miles was fired from LSU. What's next for the program? Both Joseph and Jared agree that the Tigers aren't going to get a better coach than the man who eats grass. Paul Pierce is coming back for another NBA season, but he stinks. Chris Bosh is unlikely to ever play another game in the NBA due to blood clotting. This is sad, but it is important people realize that him playing basketball is not worth the very real risk of him dying. Joseph and Jared also send out heartfelt apologies to Trevor Siemian, who they said was the worst quarterback in the NFL. Using hindsight, we now know that the honor should have gone to Ryan SixPicktrick. Other NFL news and happenings are discussed. It is well worth your valuable time to hear the guys' hot-takes. One of them includes the decision to play a wide receiver at quarterback. Bad Tweets is about John Elway and small sample sizes. As for Absurd Questions: Your life will forever be changed after listening to that segment. Slight hyperbole, it is worth noting, might apply to that statement. You can follow the guys on Twitter, but only if you search for them.

It is Monday. Do you know what that means? Well, outside of the fact that you have five full days of sitting next to that jerk in the cubicle next to you, it also means the Relatively Speaking Podcast is back refreshed from a weekend of resting on its laurels. After starting the show to remember the lives of two of sports' recently deceased athletes, the discussion turns into other somber -- but not that somber -- turn of events in sports. Les Miles was fired from LSU. What's next for the program? Both Joseph and Jared agree that the Tigers aren't going to get a better coach than the man who eats grass. Paul Pierce is coming back for another NBA season, but he stinks. Chris Bosh is unlikely to ever play another game in the NBA due to blood clotting. This is sad, but it is important people realize that him playing basketball is not worth the very real risk of him dying. Joseph and Jared also send out heartfelt apologies to Trevor Siemian, who they said was the worst quarterback in the NFL. Using hindsight, we now know that the honor should have gone to Ryan SixPicktrick. Other NFL news and happenings are discussed. It is well worth your valuable time to hear the guys' hot-takes. One of them includes the decision to play a wide receiver at quarterback. Bad Tweets is about John Elway and small sample sizes. As for Absurd Questions: Your life will forever be changed after listening to that segment. Slight hyperbole, it is worth noting, might apply to that statement. You can follow the guys on Twitter, but only if you search for them.

Laura Martin. Photo courtesy of Laura Martin. Episode 6 features Laura Martin, expert parent, mom blogger at Joseph at Home, and the Director of Parent Communication and Engagement at Graham’s Foundation—a non-profit organization that supports parents of premature infants. During the episode, Laura shares her son Joseph’s story of prematurity and survival including his near fatal bout of late-onset NEC and the multitude of life-long complications that have resulted. She discusses: The extremely premature birth of her twin sons, Joseph and Campbell, at 24 weeks—four months early, and Campbell’s passing at 23 days of life, How Joseph developed late-onset NEC and lost two-thirds of his small intestine, Several of Joseph’s secondary diagnoses including Short Bowel Syndrome, Auditory Neuropathy Spectrum Disorder, Eosinophilic Esophagitis, and multiple food allergies—all resulting from NEC, How hers and her family’s experience with prematurity led to her work at Graham’s Foundation, Her personal blog where she documents her daily life as an expert parent of a child with special needs. Copyright © 2015 The Morgan Leary Vaughan Fund, Inc. This episode was produced in part by the TeacherCast Educational Broadcasting Network. [powerpress] STEPHANIE VAUGHAN, HOST: Welcome to Episode 6 of Speaking of NEC—a free, audio podcast series about Necrotizing Enterocolitis. Produced by The Morgan Leary Vaughan Fund, and funded by The Petit Family Foundation, Speaking of NEC is a series of one-on-one conversations with relevant NEC experts—neonatologists, clinicians and researchers—that highlights current prevention, diagnosis, and treatment strategies for NEC, and the search for a cure. For more information about this podcast series or The Morgan Leary Vaughan Fund, visit our website at morgansfund.org. Hello, my name is Stephanie Vaughan. Welcome to the show. I’m the Co-founder and President of The Morgan Leary Vaughan Fund. NEC is the leading cause of Short Bowel Syndrome or Short Gut Syndrome. The amount and location of intestine lost can result in life-long medical complications. Up to now, we’ve discussed NEC and its most common complication from the perspective of the neonatologist or surgeon. However, I feel that it is equally important to share the parent’s perspective. I’m privileged to have one such expert parent as my guest today. Laura Martin is the mom blogger at Joseph at Home, and the Director of Parent Communication and Engagement at Graham’s Foundation. She is also the parent of a fellow surgical NEC survivor. Laura will share with me today her son Joseph’s story of prematurity and survival including his near fatal bout of late-onset NEC and the multitude of life-long complications that have resulted. During our conversation, she will discuss in varying degrees: The extremely premature birth of her twin sons, Joseph and Campbell, at 24 weeks—four months early, and Campbell’s passing at 23 days of life, How Joseph developed late-onset NEC and lost two-thirds of his small intestine, Several of Joseph’s secondary diagnoses including Short Bowel Syndrome, Auditory Neuropathy Spectrum Disorder, Eosinophilic Esophagitis, and multiple food allergies—all resulting from NEC, How hers and her family’s experience with prematurity led to her work at Graham’s Foundation, Her personal blog where she documents her daily life as the parent of a child with special needs. With that in mind, let me introduce my guest today. This is Laura. Hi, how are you? LAURA MARTIN, GUEST: Hey, good. How are you? STEPHANIE: Good. Thank you for joining us. And Laura is a blogger at Joseph at Home and the Director of Parent Communication and Engagement at Graham’s Foundation. So I will let you introduce yourself and talk to me a little bit about your experience with prematurity and Necrotizing Enterocolitis. LAURA: Yeah. Our twin boys were born at 24 weeks gestation on Halloween morning in 2009. It came as a big surprise. It had been a perfectly clean, normal pregnancy. I had just had an appointment three days before, woke up with a dull backache about midnight. And Joseph was born first at 7:41 and his twin brother Campbell at 7:42. No rhyme or reason for the prematurity. It just happened. Campbell, unfortunately lost his battle to prematurity after 23 days of life. He just had a lot of complications from prematurity that he just couldn’t have overcome. Joseph went on to spend 228 days in the neonatal intensive care unit before he came home. He is now five and a half. He just started kindergarten. But it’s been a long journey to get here. We were two days from coming home when he was 5 and a half months old. He was about eight weeks adjusted. We had everything set up at home. We had oxygen. We had G-tube equipment. We had everything. We were ready. His room was ready. All of the clothes were washed. Two days before discharge, we got a call from the NICU that he was gray and bloated. And they were putting him on a ventilator. Let me back up a little bit. A few days prior to that, he had been showing some signs of infection. But nobody really knew what it was. He just had vaccines. He was running a little bit of fever. We contributed it to that. This pushed discharge back a little bit. But just two days before the initial discharge, when they called and said he’s gray and bloated, and they were putting him on a ventilator. You need to get here immediately. Our world kind of turned upside down, because we thought we were two days from home. And here we were not knowing what was going to happen. This was a Saturday, the day before Palm Sunday, 2010. And we didn’t know what was going to happen. The doctors kind of watched him throughout the Saturday, were taking X-rays every few hours. A little bit after lunch that day, one nurse practitioner came and said, his X-ray looks a little bit like NEC. Do you know what that is? And we said, of course, we know what that is. We’ve been in the NICU five and a half months. But he’s eight weeks adjusted. Why would be looking at NEC? We’ve been told once you get to your due date, you cross that off your list of things to worry about. And so, as the day went on, the night went on, it became very evident that he had Necrotizing Enterocolitis. They had seen this one other time in the NICU with a baby this old. He went through Saturday night. Things were not looking good. And on Sunday morning, the surgeon came to us and said, I’m going to take him to the OR. I’m going to open him up. And I’m going to see what happens. We don’t know what we’re going to find. So, on Palm Sunday, 2010, the surgeon took him to the OR. He was gone for several hours and came back halfway through surgery and sat us down in a room and said, here’s what I found. He has 41 centimeters (16 inches) of salvageable intestine. He said, he has 28 centimeters (11 inches) below his stomach, and he has 13 (5 inches) above his colon. Everything else in the middle is completely gangrenous. He said, we can take out the gangrenous intestine. And he’ll have two stomas for a while. Then we’ll go back in and reconnect. But he also looked at us and said, we don’t know what life for him is going to be like. It’s probably going to be very rocky. He may die before the age of two waiting on a liver transplant, because he’s going to be TPN dependent. If you want to close him up and let him go, I’ll respect your wishes. And, of course, we looked at him and said, no way, we’ve gotten this far. We’ve already lost one kid. We’re not doing this again. Go in there. Do what you have to do and save his life. So he went back. He was gone for several hours, came back to us. We saw Joseph, and it was amazing. Even though he had stomas, and he had just lost two thirds of his small intestine, he looked so much better than he had right before he went, because the infection was gone. A few days after that, they went in and placed a central line, because he was, of course, totally TPN dependent. He already had a G-tube before NEC, because of aspiration to his lungs. So we were fortunate with that that he already had the G-tube. But, as the weeks wore on, they were able to slowly decrease TPN, increase feeds, and decided after four weeks, he was ready for intestine reconnect, which was shocking. Nobody expected after four weeks he would be ready for intestine reconnect. So four weeks later, they went in, reconnected the intestines, told us we would probably be in another two to three months. He again amazed everybody—came off TPN very quickly, increased G-tube feeds to the point that they pulled his port before he came home. He never came home with a central line. And four weeks after his reconnect surgery, he came home—after 220 days in the NICU. STEPHANIE: That’s amazing. LAURA: So that’s how NEC came to be. Again, the hospital had seen one case of that. And it had been years and years and years. And people say, are you sure it’s NEC? Are you sure it was NEC? Yes, pathology confirmed that it was NEC. But who knows? Who knows why he had it at five and a half months old. STEPHANIE: Right, right. So just to back up, I’m curious what you knew about NEC before his surgery. You know, you had said that you had been in the NICU for now almost five months. And he reached his due date, so you were crossing it off the list. So I’m just curious, in general terms, what you knew up to that point. LAURA: NEC was one of those things that I remember learning about really early on in our NICU stay. Having 24-week twins, we knew that it was a very rocky journey. They both had less than 50% chance of survival. But my husband and I were the type that we wanted to know everything. We wanted to know what are things we have to look out for. What are things we need to be worried about? What are things that we don’t have to worry about? And it was within the first 24 to 48 hours that the nurse said there’s a thing called Necrotizing Enterocolitis. It doesn’t happen a lot. But it’s one of these things we watch for. We stay on top of it. So we knew about it from the beginning, but we had always been told that once you reach the gestational due date, you didn’t have to worry about it anymore. And while that is so true 99.999% of the time, there is a very small chance that it can happen later. And it’s almost one of those things I wish we had never been told—oh, yeah, you don’t have to worry about it when you hit 40 weeks. Because we did—we had completely crossed it off Right. So we know about it. And we knew what the warning signs were. We knew what to look for. Yet, again, when we look back on it, he had some of these warning signs two to three days before he got really, really sick. But why would—none of us thought it could be NEC. We thought, well, he’s had some GI issues. He has the feeding tube. He’s had his vaccines. It could be any other bug he’s picked up. He’s still in the NICU. But we knew what it was, but it was still just a huge shock that—I mean, he was 13 pounds at that point. He was a big kid, you know, for being in the NICU. STEPHANIE: Right, right. So he came home now, you said, four weeks after he had been reconnected. So talk to me a little bit about, I guess, those first days and first months when he was coming home—you know, again, sort of thinking from the perspective of things that we want to let parents and caregivers know, questions to ask, sort of things to look out for—so anything that you want to talk about, you know, his transition home and getting settled. LAURA: Yeah, he came home on complete continuous feeds via G-tube. So he was on feeds 24 hours a day because, of course, having NEC left him with short bowel syndrome. So he had a lot of dumping episodes, where it was out of control at times. We couldn’t really go anywhere because of the dumping syndrome. As the days went on, the weeks went on, the months went on, that got a little bit better. We were in and out of GI every 8 to 12 weeks, just checking in, making sure he was gaining weight. But a lot of doctors also didn’t really know what to do because he wasn’t TPN dependent. A lot of kids who come home with short bowel syndrome are TPN dependent. But here you have this kid who has only a third of his small intestine, but for the most part he’s tolerating formula well. He’s tolerating G-tube feeds. He’s gaining weight. He’s not going to need a port. Everybody was convinced he would have to have his port put back in. He never did. So that was actually, to be honest, a frustration for the first several years, is finding doctors who understood that, yeah, he is doing well. But he’s also not doing well. He only has a third of his small intestine. His weight gain is very slow. He still has periods of severe pain even today, from school. He still has periods where his belly is very distended. It took some time to find doctors who really wanted to help and say, yes, there really is still a problem here—with a kid who only has a third of his small intestine. That first year that he was home, he was rehospitalized five or six times, most of those with a GI bug. If he got any sort of stomach bug, we were in the hospital, because his body just couldn’t handle it. And so we were back in. Usually it would lead to a respiratory infection. He would spend a good week, 10 days, in the hospital. That was the first year. After that, I quit my job teaching, because we knew he had to stay home. He had to be healthy. And he had to grow. And as he’s gotten bigger, he’s gotten healthier. He has not been in the hospital for a GI bug in 3 and 1/2, 4 years. It’s been awhile. STEPHANIE: Oh, that’s great. LAURA: Yeah, now his body can tolerate it. You know, it’s not pleasant still. But we know what to do. But, as he’s gotten bigger, it’s gotten better. So, yeah, that was the first few years out of the hospital. STEPHANIE: We don’t have nearly the after-effects, but I remember Morgan’s transition home was pretty chaotic. LAURA: Yeah. STEPHANIE: His brother came home after 85 days, and I’m guessing was a much simpler transition, even just holding him in hands-on care and changing diapers. Morgan was very traumatized, I think, from being in the hospital and having the surgery. And we saw a big, big difference between him and his brother. So it was very scary as a parent that even simple things that you have to do was traumatizing to him. LAURA: Right. And then they can’t communicate with you to tell you that. And that’s what was so hard to watch early on, was you knew he was hurting. You knew he was in pain. But I didn’t know what to do to help, you know. So that was hard. Yeah. STEPHANIE: So, I guess, now that he’s getting a little bit older—you said he started kindergarten. That’s great. So how is he doing, I guess, developmentally? And are you seeing anything—you know, secondary diagnoses, I guess, maybe, strictly because of NEC or because of the short bowel or other issues that he’s having? LAURA: Yeah, he has several things that are going on. He did just start kindergarten. He’s in a special needs kindergarten. As a result—well, when he had NEC, he had to receive Gentamicin, which of course is an ototoxic drug. And the surgeon said, if we give this to him, he will probably lose all of his hearing. But if we don’t give this to him, he’s not going to live. Well, of course, it was a no-brainer decision. Before that, he had not passed his newborn hearing screening. But a lot of preemies don’t. So we kind of thought, well, we’ll get out of the NICU, he’ll pass it. He never did. While he was still in the NICU—this was in between NEC and the reconnect surgery—he was diagnosed with Auditory Neuropathy Spectrum Disorder, which is a hearing loss that comes and goes. It’s almost like you’re trying to tune a radio and there’s static. And that was what his hearing was like. So he received his first cochlear implant when he was three—three months after he turned three—because his hearing was rapidly deteriorating in his left ear. Just, not even two weeks ago, he received his second cochlear implant in his right ear. And we always go back to say, his hearing probably would have never been that great. But it’s definitely a lot worse post-NEC, because he had to receive the Gentamicin, the ototoxic drug, in order to kill the bacteria. Some other things that he has—July of 2014, he was diagnosed with Eosinophilic Esophagitis, which has been in question for several years. And we could not get the GI doctor to agree to do an endoscopy. He hated to do the endoscopy, because it meant putting him under sedation. Due to asthma, he didn’t want to do that. But at the same time, we’re battling with this increased amount of food allergies, knowing that that has to be a problem. Finally, they agreed to do the endoscopy. And it was clear that he had Eosinophilic Esophagitis. As a result of that, he has 15 food allergies. I’m happy to list them all if you want. But it includes all of the top 8 plus beef, chicken, rice, potatoes, watermelon, strawberry, pineapple, and a whole slew of medications. And I always tell people asking—it’s hard to know whether he would have had that regardless. Probably not. But having the Short Bowel Syndrome made it worse. He would not have had Short Bowel Syndrome if he didn’t have Necrotizing Enterocolitis. So to me it’s all sort of related. STEPHANIE: Right. Right. There’s definitely a domino effect. LAURA: It’s a domino effect. One thing has led to the other, which has led to the other. So it’s hard to know, some days, if you’re battling GI issues because of Short Bowel Syndrome. Or are you battling GI issues because of the Eosinophilic Esophagitis? Or are the white blood cells growing because he’s eating something he’s allergic to? Is there a new allergy? So some days we really struggle knowing what is what. And then you’ll have periods where he does great. And he’s like a normal kid. He does still have a G-tube. We were told he would lose the G-tube by two. But here we are almost six, and we still have the G-tube. Many days I wish we didn’t. But there are many days we couldn’t do without it. And if he doesn’t feel like eating or he’s in pain, we have the G-tube. And it’s literally been a lifesaver. And if he’s been sick, we can always get fluids in him. I would love to see it go. But I don’t see it going any time in the future. He doesn’t know life without it. He’s had it since he was four months old. To him it’s second nature. He gets his G-tube feeds at school. He gets them at home. They travel with us. But it’s truly a lifesaver for him. But it helps him gain weight. It’s what helps him actually be on the growth chart as a short-bowel kid. Many short-bowel kids, I think, are failure-to-thrive. He has never even been remotely considered failure-to-thrive, which is huge. So, yeah, there’s a lot of complications as a result—what I feel like, had he not had NEC, wouldn’t have led to X, Y, and Z probably. He does have development delays. But a lot of it is that he spent so much time in the hospital. Then there was the hearing issue, but he could not get a cochlear implant because he wasn’t healthy enough to have surgery. So it was just sort of this domino effect, and a spiral of getting out of it, and getting him healthy enough to be able to have surgery. And then you’re trying to catch up. You’re trying to catch up with language, fine motor, gross motor, it all, as well. But the kid we were told would never walk or talk, walked into kindergarten last week. So there’s so many things to be thankful for, and so many things that he’s doing so well on, that those are the days you really have to hold onto on the days he’s feeling really, really bad. You have to know that he’s going to get through it. Life will turn around, and it will get better. It’s just going to be interesting to see as he continues to grow, how much of this is just going to continue to get better. Will there be a decline at some point? We don’t know. Nobody really thought he would even make it to this point. STEPHANIE: Now, I’m just curious, sort of, personally, but also as a fellow parent of a NEC baby, have you talked to him at all about being in the NICU? Has any of that come up yet? I mean, I know he’s still sort of young. But I’m just curious. LAURA: Yeah, he knows he was in the hospital. When we drive by the hospital where he was born, he’ll say, that’s where I was born. That’s where my sister was born. He has seen pictures. He’s seen videos. But I don’t think he quite cognitively wraps his head around it. When he had a cochlear implant put in 10 days ago, it was at the hospital where he had NEC. And so we were able to kind of say, you were in the hospital here when we are a baby. A couple of the nurses stopped by to see him—they took care of you when you were a baby. But the cognition is just not quite there too. He sees his pictures. And he’ll say, I was very sick. And, yes, you were very sick—because he knows that his baby pictures look very different from his sister who was born full term. So he knows. He knows he has a G-tube. She does not. And so he’s starting to really realize those differences. STEPHANIE: Right. Yeah, I don’t think we’ve quite reached that yet. Shaymus deals with asthma. So he gets his puffs and he has, you know, different things. But I don’t think they’ve really lined up and taken notes on, you know, your picture has this. And my picture has that. Or you have this and I have that. But, yeah, sort of, it’ll be interesting to talk to them about it when they start to ask. Like, they just figured out that they’re twins this year. LAURA: Oh, that’s so funny. And my husband and I have talked about it. Gee, at what point in their life are they going to realize everything that they went through as a baby. And all these odds that were stacked against them. And all the times that they shouldn’t have lived. And will they be teenagers? Will they be adults? Will it be when they have their own children? My husband and I talk about this a lot. It’s just going to be interesting to see at what point do they kind of go, oh, wow, yeah, that really was what mom and dad went through and what I went through. It’s just fascinating. STEPHANIE: Yeah. So I would also like to let you talk about the work that you’ve done now because of having preemies and Joseph’s diagnosis. So you are the Director of Parent Communication and Engagement at Graham’s Foundation. So I’m happy to let you plug them away, and also to talk about your blog, which is Joseph at Home. LAURA: Yeah, I'll start with Graham’s Foundation first. I started working for them, gosh, about three and a half years ago in a different capacity. And it was one of those things that I was staying home with Joseph. And I was trying to figure out a way that I could give back to the preemie community. But I knew I couldn’t go into the NICU, because here I was with this child who got sick easily. And I knew that that couldn’t happen. So I started working for Graham’s Foundation, which was such a great outlet to be able to connect with other preemie parents, and sort of share stories—share stories with families who lost their child, with families who went through a long-term NICU stay, families who went through a short-term NICU stay. People will say, well I was only in the NICU 10 days. You were in seven and a half months. One day is one day too long for anybody to be in the NICU. And that’s what I always say to people. Nobody should have to go there. And if I can provide any sort of “it’s going to be OK,” I would love to do that. And so now, I serve as the Director of Parent Communication and Engagement. I do a lot of the writing for the blog for Graham’s Foundation, which is something we’re really trying to get off the ground. And through that, I also serve as a NEC mentor. So if parents come across our website and are looking to talk with someone who has experienced NEC, in no way am I a medical professional but I'm able to say: This is what we experienced. This is what we’re experiencing now. These are some questions you might be able to ask the doctor. And it’s been really nice to connect with people. Also, being five years out, to say, I promise you are going to get through this. When you’re dealing with, all along, doctor’s appointments, and you feel like you’ve got 18,000 things going on in one week. I’m here to tell you that I promise you, it gets better. The appointments get less and less and less. And it’s been so nice to connect with parents, and to offer that support from home, while I can still stay home with my kids and be able to work from home. And then also I have my personal blog, josephathome.com, which I started when I found I was pregnant with twins. I didn’t even share the blog address with anybody. My husband and I thought, oh, this will be great. We’ll update it. We’ll send it to friends and family. So as the pregnancy rocked along, I would sort of update it. I could never send out to anybody. And then when they were born Halloween morning, 2009, at 24 weeks gestation, I knew I didn’t have the energy to tell the same story over and over and over about what was happening. The texts were too long to send the information of what was going on. We had two of them, and I just couldn’t do it. And I was, like, oh, I’ve got this blog. This will be a great way to update people, so the long days of sitting in a hospital, my husband worked on our family tree. And I worked on the blog. That is just what we each sort of did to take our mind off of what was going on. And it was a great way, if somebody asked me a question, I would just say, read the blog. It’s on the blog. Just read the blog. I could share pictures—it just—because I wasn’t really in the mood to talk. We would talk to family, immediate family, and share with them what was going on. But it was just—it was so draining to tell the same story over and over and over. And if I just wanted to get something out there quickly, I would put it up. So, when Joseph came home, and I thought, well, I’ll keep it going. We’ll see what happens. It’ll probably die by the wayside. Well, five and a half years later—it’s almost six years later—it’s still going. And I write a lot now just about, of course, about prematurity, but also raising a special needs child and what that looks like, because we’re in this short-bowel world. We’re in the eosinophilic world. We’re in this hearing-loss world. We’re in the cochlear-implant world. We’re in the vision-impaired world. We’re in the mild cerebral palsy world, food-allergy world. And it’s just been nice to be able to connect with other parents and just to write about our real life and what it’s like. What it’s like. How do we deal with insurance? How do we deal with medical supplies? How do we travel? How do we do this, that, and the other? And it’s just a great outlet, too, just for venting, you know. And if I don’t want to talk about it, I can write about it. So we’ll see where it goes. It’s been a really nice outlet. But it’s also a great way to show Joseph, hey, this is where you started. This is where you are now. And it’s almost like a scrapbook, really, of his entire life, because it started the day he was born, and has everything. I just hit my—over 1,100 entries on it. STEPHANIE: That’s great. I commend you on that. I attempted, when I first came home from the hospital, to start recording things. And, I think, honestly, it was just too hard. I sort of thought to myself, I don’t want to remember this piece of it, so I sort of stopped. And I had scraps of paper where I would write down stats every day. You know, they gained this, and literally had, like, a pile two inches thick, by the time they came home, of daily weights and charts and things. Yeah, I mean, I’ve seen many of your posts. And I think they’re great. And I think it’s a great outlet. And, again, sort of that you’re not alone. And, you know, people are better off than you. People are worse off than you. And everybody’s sort of on their own journey. And I know preemie parents tend to minimize amongst other people, but your struggle is really your struggle and your family’s struggle. And no one should have to struggle. LAURA: No. And that’s what I’ve always said to people is, somebody out there always has something worse going on. Like, on Joseph’s worst day, somebody else has something worse going on. And that’s what I always say to people is, yeah, this is just our life in a little nutshell. But we’re so thankful for what we have. And, again, it could always be worse. You can just turn on the news every day and see that. But if it’s just, you know, if it can help one parent to say—and even sometimes I think people don’t like to say, well, this is not fair. You know what, sometimes it’s not fair. And it’s OK to say that and have a little pity party and then move on. And I enjoy being able to say to people sometimes. STEPHANIE: That’s great. So, I guess, is there anything else that you would want to mention if you had somebody in your position, however many years back, thinking to ask the doctors about, or transitioning home—coming home—how you sought out your specialists, if you’re not getting the answers that you think you should, how you proceeded, any sort of big-sisterly advice. LAURA: Yeah, I know, really. I think the big thing is to trust your instincts if you know that there’s something not right. We’ve gone through our fair share of doctors. Because if I feel like my child’s not getting the care that they need—and any parent would feel this way—I’m not going to settle for mediocre. I’m not going to settle for “he’s going to be fine” when you know in your heart that there’s still a problem. We were having some issues last year around the whole eosinophilic diagnosis. And I felt like we had run out of options where we live. And so I reached out to a doctor eight hours away. And he said, if you’re willing to travel, I’m willing to see him. I said, of course, we’re willing to travel. And so we did. He got us in. And we made the trip. And it was so nice to just connect with somebody who was a specialist in that field of Short Bowel Syndrome, to be able to say, yeah, he’s doing OK. I see that there are some problems. But you’re doing the right thing. And I think that’s become sort of my mantra is, don’t stop until you have the answers that you need. And there may not be answers. But I am not going to rest until I know that we have the answers we need. Like, we’re having some eosinophilic issues, so we’re working on getting into a top eosinophilic clinic. I don’t care how far we have to travel, because that’s what Joseph needs and it’s what’s best for him. And that’s what matters. It matters him feeling good. It matters him being healthy. It matters him growing. And he deserves to have the best life absolutely possible. And that’s what I would tell somebody if you’re just coming home. If you feel like something is not right, keep going and keep going and keep going. Yes, it’s exhausting. I think there are many days I’m asleep before my head even hits the pillow. But you have to do what’s best for your kid, because they can’t do it for themselves. You are their advocate. And that’s one thing that the NICU nurses taught us really, really early on—is you have to advocate for your child. Nobody else is going to do it for you. They can’t do it for themselves. You just have to keep going. And, again, it’s hard. You may hit brick walls here and there. Because goodness knows we’ve had our fair share with doctors. And it’s OK with doctors to speak your mind and say, you know, I don’t think you’re right on this. I think there’s more to it. You may upset them a little bit, because there’s no doubt I’ve upset a few. But it’s OK. It’s OK. Yes, they’re doctors. But they don’t have all the answers. You’re the parent. You live with your child day in and day out. You know their idiosyncrasies. You know what’s right and what’s wrong with them. And I think standing up for yourself is so important. And that’s what I would tell somebody coming out. You can’t be shy when it comes to advocating for your child who has special needs. STEPHANIE: I would agree. Yeah, we’re transitioning through preschool. And the boys were kindergarten eligible this year. But they’re actually being given an extra year of pre-K. And we had sort of that, uh, I’m not sure about this. I’m really not sure about it. I’m really not sure about it. And in the end they saw that—their teachers agreed with us. And the educational system agreed that, yeah, they’re a little bit immature. And probably going to kindergarten isn’t the best idea for them. And they really need the extra year. You know, they’re smart. Yes. But good enough isn’t good enough. We don’t want them to sort of eke by. We want to give them the best opportunities that they can have. So I agree with you wholeheartedly. LAURA: And it’s tough as a parent. I’ve had this conversation with a lot of people. My husband’s a teacher. I’m a teacher also. I’m not teaching right now. Hopefully one day I will be again. But it’s hard as a parent. It’s hard as a parent-teacher to have a child who has special needs and who needs that IEP (Individualized Education Program). It’s tough to sit on that end of the table as a parent. I mean, I’ve sat on the other end of the table as a teacher countless times. But, as a parent, it’s a tough pill to swallow, to say—and we know—I mean, Joseph started kindergarten. But we know full well he may need to repeat kindergarten. And while that’s tough to say, it’s a reality. We hope that he does great. But he may need to repeat. And if that’s what’s best for him, then that’s going to be what’s best for him. It’s tough to sit in an IEP meeting and hear how far behind he is. Or these are all the goals. And up to 21 pages now of his IEP. But it’s what he needs. And it’s what’s best for him. But I always go back to the day when one of our favorite NICU nurses—this was a long time ago—said, you know, one day he’s going to pull out a picture of him with all those tubes and wires and on a ventilator and say, see, mom, you remember this. And I have to think back to that, because, yes, it’s hard. And I kind of want to wallow in self-pity about, oh, I wish he was just in a regular ed class. He shouldn’t even be here. And that’s what I have to remind myself is, we had many days where we weren’t even sure we would see pre-K. And I know you’re the same way. We weren’t even sure he would see kindergarten. But here we are. And let’s just make the most of it. He’s loving every second of it. And that’s what matters. And so, being a preemie parent, as you know, it’s a journey that I never expected. But at the same time, I’m grateful for it, because it’s opened my eyes to a whole new area of life. STEPHANIE: Right. Well, I really appreciate you talking to me. And I think you’ve given some great advice—preemie parents or not, and NECs parents or not—on advocating for your child, and in every facet. So I really appreciate your time. And thank you so much. And if there’s anything else that you want to add, feel free. LAURA: If anyone wants to contact me personally, I’m happy to answer questions if there’s something that anybody wants to know more about. STEPHANIE: So great. Thank you. Thank you so much. LAURA: Thank you. STEPHANIE: For more information about Laura or to follow her blog, visit: josephathome.com. A direct link can also be found in this episode’s show notes. You can also email Laura directly at: laura [at] grahamsfoundation [dot] org. In closing, I’d like to share a few thoughts about today’s conversation with Laura. According to Dr. Besner, with whom I spoke about Short Bowel Syndrome in Episode 1, “if we estimate that a newborn baby has approximately 200 centimeters (78.74 inches) of intestine, they have to be left with at least 40 centimeters (15.75 inches) in order to be able to nourish themselves and get off TPN.” As a result of his bout with NEC, Joseph had only one centimeter (0.4 inches) more remaining. So first, I would like to take a moment to celebrate Joseph’s survival, courage, and strength. And that of his family. Both Joseph and his parents have shown remarkable resiliency while dealing with the daily effects of his bout with NEC. Second, I would like to reiterate that I strongly believe that a cure for NEC, once found, will have a far reaching impact not only on Gastroenterology (the digestive system and its disorders) as a whole, but also all of the patients like Joseph, and families like Laura’s. Show your support for our smallest and most fragile babies, those who have the greatest risk for developing NEC. Show your support for continued research in NEC. And join our effort to raise awareness about, and funds for research in NEC by making a donation to Morgan’s Fund at morgansfund.org/donate. If you’ve had a personal experience with NEC and would like to share your story, or have a question or topic that you’d like to hear addressed on our show, e-mail us at feedback@morgansfund.org. We’d love to hear from you! Copyright © 2015 The Morgan Leary Vaughan Fund, Inc. The opinions expressed in Speaking of NEC: Necrotizing Enterocolitis (the Podcast series) and by The Morgan Leary Vaughan Fund are published for educational and informational purposes only, and are not intended as a diagnosis, treatment or as a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis and treatment. Please consult a local physician or other health care professional for your specific health care and/or medical needs or concerns. The Podcast series does not endorse or recommend any commercial products, medical treatments, pharmaceuticals, brand names, processes, or services, or the use of any trade, firm, or corporation name is for the information and education of the viewing public, and the mention of any of the above on the Site does not constitute an endorsement, recommendation, or favoring by The Morgan Leary Vaughan Fund.

Birth and Infancy of Jesus (1344.1) 122:0.1 IT WILL hardly be possible fully to explain the many reasons which led to the selection of Palestine as the land for Michael’s bestowal, and especially as to just why the family of Joseph and Mary should have been chosen as the immediate setting for the appearance of this Son of God on Urantia. (1344.2) 122:0.2 After a study of the special report on the status of segregated worlds prepared by the Melchizedeks, in counsel with Gabriel, Michael finally chose Urantia as the planet whereon to enact his final bestowal. Subsequent to this decision Gabriel made a personal visit to Urantia, and, as a result of his study of human groups and his survey of the spiritual, intellectual, racial, and geographic features of the world and its peoples, he decided that the Hebrews possessed those relative advantages which warranted their selection as the bestowal race. Upon Michael’s approval of this decision, Gabriel appointed and dispatched to Urantia the Family Commission of Twelve — selected from among the higher orders of universe personalities — which was intrusted with the task of making an investigation of Jewish family life. When this commission ended its labors, Gabriel was present on Urantia and received the report nominating three prospective unions as being, in the opinion of the commission, equally favorable as bestowal families for Michael’s projected incarnation. (1344.3) 122:0.3 From the three couples nominated, Gabriel made the personal choice of Joseph and Mary, subsequently making his personal appearance to Mary, at which time he imparted to her the glad tidings that she had been selected to become the earth mother of the bestowal child. 1. Joseph and Mary (1344.4) 122:1.1 Joseph, the human father of Jesus (Joshua ben Joseph), was a Hebrew of the Hebrews, albeit he carried many non-Jewish racial strains which had been added to his ancestral tree from time to time by the female lines of his progenitors. The ancestry of the father of Jesus went back to the days of Abraham and through this venerable patriarch to the earlier lines of inheritance leading to the Sumerians and Nodites and, through the southern tribes of the ancient blue man, to Andon and Fonta. David and Solomon were not in the direct line of Joseph’s ancestry, neither did Joseph’s lineage go directly back to Adam. Joseph’s immediate ancestors were mechanics — builders, carpenters, masons, and smiths. Joseph himself was a carpenter and later a contractor. His family belonged to a long and illustrious line of the nobility of the common people, accentuated ever and anon by the appearance of unusual individuals who had distinguished themselves in connection with the evolution of religion on Urantia. (1345.1) 122:1.2 Mary, the earth mother of Jesus, was a descendant of a long line of unique ancestors embracing many of the most remarkable women in the racial history of Urantia. Although Mary was an average woman of her day and generation, possessing a fairly normal temperament, she reckoned among her ancestors such well-known women as Annon, Tamar, Ruth, Bathsheba, Ansie, Cloa, Eve, Enta, and Ratta. No Jewish woman of that day had a more illustrious lineage of common progenitors or one extending back to more auspicious beginnings. Mary’s ancestry, like Joseph’s, was characterized by the predominance of strong but average individuals, relieved now and then by numerous outstanding personalities in the march of civilization and the progressive evolution of religion. Racially considered, it is hardly proper to regard Mary as a Jewess. In culture and belief she was a Jew, but in hereditary endowment she was more a composite of Syrian, Hittite, Phoenician, Greek, and Egyptian stocks, her racial inheritance being more general than that of Joseph. (1345.2) 122:1.3 Of all couples living in Palestine at about the time of Michael’s projected bestowal, Joseph and Mary possessed the most ideal combination of widespread racial connections and superior average of personality endowments. It was the plan of Michael to appear on earth as an average man, that the common people might understand him and receive him; wherefore Gabriel selected just such persons as Joseph and Mary to become the bestowal parents. 2. Gabriel Appears to Elizabeth (1345.3) 122:2.1 Jesus’ lifework on Urantia was really begun by John the Baptist. Zacharias, John’s father, belonged to the Jewish priesthood, while his mother, Elizabeth, was a member of the more prosperous branch of the same large family group to which Mary the mother of Jesus also belonged. Zacharias and Elizabeth, though they had been married many years, were childless. (1345.4) 122:2.2 It was late in the month of June, 8 B.C., about three months after the marriage of Joseph and Mary, that Gabriel appeared to Elizabeth at noontide one day, just as he later made his presence known to Mary. Said Gabriel: (1345.5) 122:2.3 “While your husband, Zacharias, stands before the altar in Jerusalem, and while the assembled people pray for the coming of a deliverer, I, Gabriel, have come to announce that you will shortly bear a son who shall be the forerunner of this divine teacher, and you shall call your son John. He will grow up dedicated to the Lord your God, and when he has come to full years, he will gladden your heart because he will turn many souls to God, and he will also proclaim the coming of the soul-healer of your people and the spirit-liberator of all mankind. Your kinswoman Mary shall be the mother of this child of promise, and I will also appear to her.” (1345.6) 122:2.4 This vision greatly frightened Elizabeth. After Gabriel’s departure she turned this experience over in her mind, long pondering the sayings of the majestic visitor, but did not speak of the revelation to anyone save her husband until her subsequent visit with Mary in early February of the following year. (1345.7) 122:2.5 For five months, however, Elizabeth withheld her secret even from her husband. Upon her disclosure of the story of Gabriel’s visit, Zacharias was very skeptical and for weeks doubted the entire experience, only consenting halfheartedly to believe in Gabriel’s visit to his wife when he could no longer question that she was expectant with child. Zacharias was very much perplexed regarding the prospective motherhood of Elizabeth, but he did not doubt the integrity of his wife, notwithstanding his own advanced age. It was not until about six weeks before John’s birth that Zacharias, as the result of an impressive dream, became fully convinced that Elizabeth was to become the mother of a son of destiny, one who was to prepare the way for the coming of the Messiah. (1346.1) 122:2.6 Gabriel appeared to Mary about the middle of November, 8 B.C., while she was at work in her Nazareth home. Later on, after Mary knew without doubt that she was to become a mother, she persuaded Joseph to let her journey to the City of Judah, four miles west of Jerusalem, in the hills, to visit Elizabeth. Gabriel had informed each of these mothers-to-be of his appearance to the other. Naturally they were anxious to get together, compare experiences, and talk over the probable futures of their sons. Mary remained with her distant cousin for three weeks. Elizabeth did much to strengthen Mary’s faith in the vision of Gabriel, so that she returned home more fully dedicated to the call to mother the child of destiny whom she was so soon to present to the world as a helpless babe, an average and normal infant of the realm. (1346.2) 122:2.7 John was born in the City of Judah, March 25, 7 B.C. Zacharias and Elizabeth rejoiced greatly in the realization that a son had come to them as Gabriel had promised, and when on the eighth day they presented the child for circumcision, they formally christened him John, as they had been directed aforetime. Already had a nephew of Zacharias departed for Nazareth, carrying the message of Elizabeth to Mary proclaiming that a son had been born to her and that his name was to be John. (1346.3) 122:2.8 From his earliest infancy John was judiciously impressed by his parents with the idea that he was to grow up to become a spiritual leader and religious teacher. And the soil of John’s heart was ever responsive to the sowing of such suggestive seeds. Even as a child he was found frequently at the temple during the seasons of his father’s service, and he was tremendously impressed with the significance of all that he saw. 3. Gabriel’s Announcement to Mary (1346.4) 122:3.1 One evening about sundown, before Joseph had returned home, Gabriel appeared to Mary by the side of a low stone table and, after she had recovered her composure, said: “I come at the bidding of one who is my Master and whom you shall love and nurture. To you, Mary, I bring glad tidings when I announce that the conception within you is ordained by heaven, and that in due time you will become the mother of a son; you shall call him Joshua, and he shall inaugurate the kingdom of heaven on earth and among men. Speak not of this matter save to Joseph and to Elizabeth, your kinswoman, to whom I have also appeared, and who shall presently also bear a son, whose name shall be John, and who will prepare the way for the message of deliverance which your son shall proclaim to men with great power and deep conviction. And doubt not my word, Mary, for this home has been chosen as the mortal habitat of the child of destiny. My benediction rests upon you, the power of the Most Highs will strengthen you, and the Lord of all the earth shall overshadow you.” (1346.5) 122:3.2 Mary pondered this visitation secretly in her heart for many weeks until of a certainty she knew she was with child, before she dared to disclose these unusual events to her husband. When Joseph heard all about this, although he had great confidence in Mary, he was much troubled and could not sleep for many nights. At first Joseph had doubts about the Gabriel visitation. Then when he became well-nigh persuaded that Mary had really heard the voice and beheld the form of the divine messenger, he was torn in mind as he pondered how such things could be. How could the offspring of human beings be a child of divine destiny? Never could Joseph reconcile these conflicting ideas until, after several weeks of thought, both he and Mary reached the conclusion that they had been chosen to become the parents of the Messiah, though it had hardly been the Jewish concept that the expected deliverer was to be of divine nature. Upon arriving at this momentous conclusion, Mary hastened to depart for a visit with Elizabeth. (1347.1) 122:3.3 Upon her return, Mary went to visit her parents, Joachim and Hannah. Her two brothers and two sisters, as well as her parents, were always very skeptical about the divine mission of Jesus, though, of course, at this time they knew nothing of the Gabriel visitation. But Mary did confide to her sister Salome that she thought her son was destined to become a great teacher. (1347.2) 122:3.4 Gabriel’s announcement to Mary was made the day following the conception of Jesus and was the only event of supernatural occurrence connected with her entire experience of carrying and bearing the child of promise. 4. Joseph’s Dream (1347.3) 122:4.1 Joseph did not become reconciled to the idea that Mary was to become the mother of an extraordinary child until after he had experienced a very impressive dream. In this dream a brilliant celestial messenger appeared to him and, among other things, said: “Joseph, I appear by command of Him who now reigns on high, and I am directed to instruct you concerning the son whom Mary shall bear, and who shall become a great light in the world. In him will be life, and his life shall become the light of mankind. He shall first come to his own people, but they will hardly receive him; but to as many as shall receive him to them will he reveal that they are the children of God.” After this experience Joseph never again wholly doubted Mary’s story of Gabriel’s visit and of the promise that the unborn child was to become a divine messenger to the world. (1347.4) 122:4.2 In all these visitations nothing was said about the house of David. Nothing was ever intimated about Jesus’ becoming a “deliverer of the Jews,” not even that he was to be the long-expected Messiah. Jesus was not such a Messiah as the Jews had anticipated, but he was the world’s deliverer. His mission was to all races and peoples, not to any one group. (1347.5) 122:4.3 Joseph was not of the line of King David. Mary had more of the Davidic ancestry than Joseph. True, Joseph did go to the City of David, Bethlehem, to be registered for the Roman census, but that was because, six generations previously, Joseph’s paternal ancestor of that generation, being an orphan, was adopted by one Zadoc, who was a direct descendant of David; hence was Joseph also accounted as of the “house of David.” (1347.6) 122:4.4 Most of the so-called Messianic prophecies of the Old Testament were made to apply to Jesus long after his life had been lived on earth. For centuries the Hebrew prophets had proclaimed the coming of a deliverer, and these promises had been construed by successive generations as referring to a new Jewish ruler who would sit upon the throne of David and, by the reputed miraculous methods of Moses, proceed to establish the Jews in Palestine as a powerful nation, free from all foreign domination. Again, many figurative passages found throughout the Hebrew scriptures were subsequently misapplied to the life mission of Jesus. Many Old Testament sayings were so distorted as to appear to fit some episode of the Master’s earth life. Jesus himself onetime publicly denied any connection with the royal house of David. Even the passage, “a maiden shall bear a son,” was made to read, “a virgin shall bear a son.” This was also true of the many genealogies of both Joseph and Mary which were constructed subsequent to Michael’s career on earth. Many of these lineages contain much of the Master’s ancestry, but on the whole they are not genuine and may not be depended upon as factual. The early followers of Jesus all too often succumbed to the temptation to make all the olden prophetic utterances appear to find fulfillment in the life of their Lord and Master. 5. Jesus’ Earth Parents (1348.1) 122:5.1 Joseph was a mild-mannered man, extremely conscientious, and in every way faithful to the religious conventions and practices of his people. He talked little but thought much. The sorry plight of the Jewish people caused Joseph much sadness. As a youth, among his eight brothers and sisters, he had been more cheerful, but in the earlier years of married life (during Jesus’ childhood) he was subject to periods of mild spiritual discouragement. These temperamental manifestations were greatly improved just before his untimely death and after the economic condition of his family had been enhanced by his advancement from the rank of carpenter to the role of a prosperous contractor. (1348.2) 122:5.2 Mary’s temperament was quite opposite to that of her husband. She was usually cheerful, was very rarely downcast, and possessed an ever-sunny disposition. Mary indulged in free and frequent expression of her emotional feelings and was never observed to be sorrowful until after the sudden death of Joseph. And she had hardly recovered from this shock when she had thrust upon her the anxieties and questionings aroused by the extraordinary career of her eldest son, which was so rapidly unfolding before her astonished gaze. But throughout all this unusual experience Mary was composed, courageous, and fairly wise in her relationship with her strange and little-understood first-born son and his surviving brothers and sisters. (1348.3) 122:5.3 Jesus derived much of his unusual gentleness and marvelous sympathetic understanding of human nature from his father; he inherited his gift as a great teacher and his tremendous capacity for righteous indignation from his mother. In emotional reactions to his adult-life environment, Jesus was at one time like his father, meditative and worshipful, sometimes characterized by apparent sadness; but more often he drove forward in the manner of his mother’s optimistic and determined disposition. All in all, Mary’s temperament tended to dominate the career of the divine Son as he grew up and swung into the momentous strides of his adult life. In some particulars Jesus was a blending of his parents’ traits; in other respects he exhibited the traits of one in contrast with those of the other. (1348.4) 122:5.4 From Joseph Jesus secured his strict training in the usages of the Jewish ceremonials and his unusual acquaintance with the Hebrew scriptures; from Mary he derived a broader viewpoint of religious life and a more liberal concept of personal spiritual freedom. (1349.1) 122:5.5 The families of both Joseph and Mary were well educated for their time. Joseph and Mary were educated far above the average for their day and station in life. He was a thinker; she was a planner, expert in adaptation and practical in immediate execution. Joseph was a black-eyed brunet; Mary, a brown-eyed well-nigh blond type. (1349.2) 122:5.6 Had Joseph lived, he undoubtedly would have become a firm believer in the divine mission of his eldest son. Mary alternated between believing and doubting, being greatly influenced by the position taken by her other children and by her friends and relatives, but always was she steadied in her final attitude by the memory of Gabriel’s appearance to her immediately after the child was conceived. (1349.3) 122:5.7 Mary was an expert weaver and more than averagely skilled in most of the household arts of that day; she was a good housekeeper and a superior homemaker. Both Joseph and Mary were good teachers, and they saw to it that their children were well versed in the learning of that day. (1349.4) 122:5.8 When Joseph was a young man, he was employed by Mary’s father in the work of building an addition to his house, and it was when Mary brought Joseph a cup of water, during a noontime meal, that the courtship of the pair who were destined to become the parents of Jesus really began. (1349.5) 122:5.9 Joseph and Mary were married, in accordance with Jewish custom, at Mary’s home in the environs of Nazareth when Joseph was twenty-one years old. This marriage concluded a normal courtship of almost two years’ duration. Shortly thereafter they moved into their new home in Nazareth, which had been built by Joseph with the assistance of two of his brothers. The house was located near the foot of the near-by elevated land which so charmingly overlooked the surrounding countryside. In this home, especially prepared, these young and expectant parents had thought to welcome the child of promise, little realizing that this momentous event of a universe was to transpire while they would be absent from home in Bethlehem of Judea. (1349.6) 122:5.10 The larger part of Joseph’s family became believers in the teachings of Jesus, but very few of Mary’s people ever believed in him until after he departed from this world. Joseph leaned more toward the spiritual concept of the expected Messiah, but Mary and her family, especially her father, held to the idea of the Messiah as a temporal deliverer and political ruler. Mary’s ancestors had been prominently identified with the Maccabean activities of the then but recent times. (1349.7) 122:5.11 Joseph held vigorously to the Eastern, or Babylonian, views of the Jewish religion; Mary leaned strongly toward the more liberal and broader Western, or Hellenistic, interpretation of the law and the prophets. 6. The Home at Nazareth (1349.8) 122:6.1 The home of Jesus was not far from the high hill in the northerly part of Nazareth, some distance from the village spring, which was in the eastern section of the town. Jesus’ family dwelt in the outskirts of the city, and this made it all the easier for him subsequently to enjoy frequent strolls in the country and to make trips up to the top of this near-by highland, the highest of all the hills of southern Galilee save the Mount Tabor range to the east and the hill of Nain, which was about the same height. Their home was located a little to the south and east of the southern promontory of this hill and about midway between the base of this elevation and the road leading out of Nazareth toward Cana. Aside from climbing the hill, Jesus’ favorite stroll was to follow a narrow trail winding about the base of the hill in a northeasterly direction to a point where it joined the road to Sepphoris. (1350.1) 122:6.2 The home of Joseph and Mary was a one-room stone structure with a flat roof and an adjoining building for housing the animals. The furniture consisted of a low stone table, earthenware and stone dishes and pots, a loom, a lampstand, several small stools, and mats for sleeping on the stone floor. In the back yard, near the animal annex, was the shelter which covered the oven and the mill for grinding grain. It required two persons to operate this type of mill, one to grind and another to feed the grain. As a small boy Jesus often fed grain to this mill while his mother turned the grinder. (1350.2) 122:6.3 In later years, as the family grew in size, they would all squat about the enlarged stone table to enjoy their meals, helping themselves from a common dish, or pot, of food. During the winter, at the evening meal the table would be lighted by a small, flat clay lamp, which was filled with olive oil. After the birth of Martha, Joseph built an addition to this house, a large room, which was used as a carpenter shop during the day and as a sleeping room at night. 7. The Trip to Bethlehem (1350.3) 122:7.1 In the month of March, 8 B.C. (the month Joseph and Mary were married), Caesar Augustus decreed that all inhabitants of the Roman Empire should be numbered, that a census should be made which could be used for effecting better taxation. The Jews had always been greatly prejudiced against any attempt to “number the people,” and this, in connection with the serious domestic difficulties of Herod, King of Judea, had conspired to cause the postponement of the taking of this census in the Jewish kingdom for one year. Throughout all the Roman Empire this census was registered in the year 8 B.C., except in the Palestinian kingdom of Herod, where it was taken in 7 B.C., one year later. (1350.4) 122:7.2 It was not necessary that Mary should go to Bethlehem for enrollment — Joseph was authorized to register for his family — but Mary, being an adventurous and aggressive person, insisted on accompanying him. She feared being left alone lest the child be born while Joseph was away, and again, Bethlehem being not far from the City of Judah, Mary foresaw a possible pleasurable visit with her kinswoman Elizabeth. (1350.5) 122:7.3 Joseph virtually forbade Mary to accompany him, but it was of no avail; when the food was packed for the trip of three or four days, she prepared double rations and made ready for the journey. But before they actually set forth, Joseph was reconciled to Mary’s going along, and they cheerfully departed from Nazareth at the break of day. (1350.6) 122:7.4 Joseph and Mary were poor, and since they had only one beast of burden, Mary, being large with child, rode on the animal with the provisions while Joseph walked, leading the beast. The building and furnishing of a home had been a great drain on Joseph since he had also to contribute to the support of his parents, as his father had been recently disabled. And so this Jewish couple went forth from their humble home early on the morning of August 18, 7 B.C., on their journey to Bethlehem. (1351.1) 122:7.5 Their first day of travel carried them around the foothills of Mount Gilboa, where they camped for the night by the river Jordan and engaged in many speculations as to what sort of a son would be born to them, Joseph adhering to the concept of a spiritual teacher and Mary holding to the idea of a Jewish Messiah, a deliverer of the Hebrew nation. (1351.2) 122:7.6 Bright and early the morning of August 19, Joseph and Mary were again on their way. They partook of their noontide meal at the foot of Mount Sartaba, overlooking the Jordan valley, and journeyed on, making Jericho for the night, where they stopped at an inn on the highway in the outskirts of the city. Following the evening meal and after much discussion concerning the oppressiveness of Roman rule, Herod, the census enrollment, and the comparative influence of Jerusalem and Alexandria as centers of Jewish learning and culture, the Nazareth travelers retired for the night’s rest. Early in the morning of August 20 they resumed their journey, reaching Jerusalem before noon, visiting the temple, and going on to their destination, arriving at Bethlehem in midafternoon. (1351.3) 122:7.7 The inn was overcrowded, and Joseph accordingly sought lodgings with distant relatives, but every room in Bethlehem was filled to overflowing. On returning to the courtyard of the inn, he was informed that the caravan stables, hewn out of the side of the rock and situated just below the inn, had been cleared of animals and cleaned up for the reception of lodgers. Leaving the donkey in the courtyard, Joseph shouldered their bags of clothing and provisions and with Mary descended the stone steps to their lodgings below. They found themselves located in what had been a grain storage room to the front of the stalls and mangers. Tent curtains had been hung, and they counted themselves fortunate to have such comfortable quarters. (1351.4) 122:7.8 Joseph had thought to go out at once and enroll, but Mary was weary; she was considerably distressed and besought him to remain by her side, which he did. 8. The Birth of Jesus (1351.5) 122:8.1 All that night Mary was restless so that neither of them slept much. By the break of day the pangs of childbirth were well in evidence, and at noon, August 21, 7 B.C., with the help and kind ministrations of women fellow travelers, Mary was delivered of a male child. Jesus of Nazareth was born into the world, was wrapped in the clothes which Mary had brought along for such a possible contingency, and laid in a near-by manger. (1351.6) 122:8.2 In just the same manner as all babies before that day and since have come into the world, the promised child was born; and on the eighth day, according to the Jewish practice, he was circumcised and formally named Joshua (Jesus). (1351.7) 122:8.3 The next day after the birth of Jesus, Joseph made his enrollment. Meeting a man they had talked with two nights previously at Jericho, Joseph was taken by him to a well-to-do friend who had a room at the inn, and who said he would gladly exchange quarters with the Nazareth couple. That afternoon they moved up to the inn, where they lived for almost three weeks until they found lodgings in the home of a distant relative of Joseph. (1351.8) 122:8.4 The second day after the birth of Jesus, Mary sent word to Elizabeth that her child had come and received word in return inviting Joseph up to Jerusalem to talk over all their affairs with Zacharias. The following week Joseph went to Jerusalem to confer with Zacharias. Both Zacharias and Elizabeth had become possessed with the sincere conviction that Jesus was indeed to become the Jewish deliverer, the Messiah, and that their son John was to be his chief of aides, his right-hand man of destiny. And since Mary held these same ideas, it was not difficult to prevail upon Joseph to remain in Bethlehem, the City of David, so that Jesus might grow up to become the successor of David on the throne of all Israel. Accordingly, they remained in Bethlehem more than a year, Joseph meantime working some at his carpenter’s trade. (1352.1) 122:8.5 At the noontide birth of Jesus the seraphim of Urantia, assembled under their directors, did sing anthems of glory over the Bethlehem manger, but these utterances of praise were not heard by human ears. No shepherds nor any other mortal creatures came to pay homage to the babe of Bethlehem until the day of the arrival of certain priests from Ur, who were sent down from Jerusalem by Zacharias. (1352.2) 122:8.6 These priests from Mesopotamia had been told sometime before by a strange religious teacher of their country that he had had a dream in which he was informed that “the light of life” was about to appear on earth as a babe and among the Jews. And thither went these three teachers looking for this “light of life.” After many weeks of futile search in Jerusalem, they were about to return to Ur when Zacharias met them and disclosed his belief that Jesus was the object of their quest and sent them on to Bethlehem, where they found the babe and left their gifts with Mary, his earth mother. The babe was almost three weeks old at the time of their visit. (1352.3) 122:8.7 These wise men saw no star to guide them to Bethlehem. The beautiful legend of the star of Bethlehem originated in this way: Jesus was born August 21 at noon, 7 B.C. On May 29, 7 B.C., there occurred an extraordinary conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn in the constellation of Pisces. And it is a remarkable astronomic fact that similar conjunctions occurred on September 29 and December 5 of the same year. Upon the basis of these extraordinary but wholly natural events the well-meaning zealots of the succeeding generation constructed the appealing legend of the star of Bethlehem and the adoring Magi led thereby to the manger, where they beheld and worshiped the newborn babe. Oriental and near-Oriental minds delight in fairy stories, and they are continually spinning such beautiful myths about the lives of their religious leaders and political heroes. In the absence of printing, when most human knowledge was passed by word of mouth from one generation to another, it was very easy for myths to become traditions and for traditions eventually to become accepted as facts. 9. The Presentation in the Temple (1352.4) 122:9.1 Moses had taught the Jews that every first-born son belonged to the Lord, and that, in lieu of his sacrifice as was the custom among the heathen nations, such a son might live provided his parents would redeem him by the payment of five shekels to any authorized priest. There was also a Mosaic ordinance which directed that a mother, after the passing of a certain period of time, should present herself (or have someone make the proper sacrifice for her) at the temple for purification. It was customary to perform both of these ceremonies at the same time. Accordingly, Joseph and Mary went up to the temple at Jerusalem in person to present Jesus to the priests and effect his redemption and also to make the proper sacrifice to insure Mary’s ceremonial purification from the alleged uncleanness of childbirth. (1353.1) 122:9.2 There lingered constantly about the courts of the temple two remarkable characters, Simeon a singer and Anna a poetess. Simeon was a Judean, but Anna was a Galilean. This couple were frequently in each other’s company, and both were intimates of the priest Zacharias, who had confided the secret of John and Jesus to them. Both Simeon and Anna longed for the coming of the Messiah, and their confidence in Zacharias led them to believe that Jesus was the expected deliverer of the Jewish people. (1353.2) 122:9.3 Zacharias knew the day Joseph and Mary were expected to appear at the temple with Jesus, and he had prearranged with Simeon and Anna to indicate, by the salute of his upraised hand, which one in the procession of first-born children was Jesus. (1353.3) 122:9.4 For this occasion Anna had written a poem which Simeon proceeded to sing, much to the astonishment of Joseph, Mary, and all who were assembled in the temple courts. And this was their hymn of the redemption of the first-born son: (1353.4) 122:9.5 Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, (1353.5) 122:9.6 For he has visited us and wrought redemption for his people; (1353.6) 122:9.7 He has raised up a horn of salvation for all of us (1353.7) 122:9.8 In the house of his servant David. (1353.8) 122:9.9 Even as he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets — (1353.9) 122:9.10 Salvation from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us; (1353.10) 122:9.11 To show mercy to our fathers, and remember his holy covenant — (1353.11) 122:9.12 The oath which he swore to Abraham our father, (1353.12) 122:9.13 To grant us that we, being delivered

When you’re in the middle of a story, it’s easy to become discouraged because you don’t see how issues will get resolved. Both Joseph and his family were in the middle of a big story when he disclosed himself to his brothers. He was living proof that God brings hope when you think the future will be grim and impossible. In today’s teaching we discover how we can act in hope even though we don’t know how our stories will play out on earth.

Gerry and I moved to Ventura in July 1984. We were warmly welcomed to the Our Lady of the Assumption Parish by Msgr. Mulcahy and quickly signed the kids up for Sunday School. That was actually our first opportunity to get involved, as I volunteered to be a Sunday School teacher. Our three children, Marcellla, Joseph and Jason all attended OLA school as well as St. Bonaventure High School. We volunteered in many ways throughout that time from Room parents, Class Mom and Fall Festival Food chair at the school to music ministry, lectoring and church environment for the Parish. Two and a half years ago our blessings were increased with the birth of our grandson, Nathan. He lives in Oxnard with Marcella and her husband, David. Both Joseph and Jason continue to live locally after graduating from college. A year ago Gerry retired after 30 years in the fire service as a Fire Captain for the City of Glendale. God has been so good to us that we feel strongly how important it is to give back. Sharing our talents is SO easy! We always receive back so much more than we could ever give. Every day we thank God for our many blessings; sharing our time, talent and treasure is an almost effortless way to express that thanks.