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In this week's episode, I take a look at the movies and streaming shows I watched in Winter and Spring 2025. This week's coupon code will get you 25% off the ebook versions of my anthologies at my Payhip store: JUNE25 The coupon code is valid through June 17, 2025. So if you need a new ebook this summer, we've got you covered! TRANSCRIPT 00:00:00 Introduction and Writing Updates   Hello, everyone. Welcome to Episode 252 of The Pulp Writer Show. My name is Jonathan Moeller. Today is May 23rd, 2025, and today we are looking at the movies and streaming shows I watched in Winter and Spring 2025. We missed doing an episode last week for the simple reason that the day before I wanted to record, we had a bad thunderstorm that knocked down large portions of my fence, so my recording time was instead spent on emergency fence repair. However, the situation is under control, so hopefully we'll be back to weekly episodes for the immediate future. And now before we get to our main topics, let's have Coupon of the Week and then a progress update on my current writing projects.   So first up, Coupon of the Week. This week's coupon code will get you 25% off the ebook version of all my short story anthologies at my Payhip store and that is JUNE25. As always, the coupon code and links will be available in the show notes. This coupon code is valid through June the 17th, 2025, so if you need a new ebook for this summer, we have got you covered.   And now an update on my current writing projects. Ghost in the Corruption is finished. It is publishing right now. In fact, I paused the publishing process to record this and so by the time this episode goes live, hopefully Ghost in the Corruption should be available at all ebook stores. My next main project now that Ghost in the Corruption is done will be Shield of Power and as of this recording I am 15,000 words into it. My secondary projects will be Stealth and Spells Online: Final Quest and I'm 97,000 words into that, so hopefully that will come out very shortly after Shield of Power and I'll also be starting Ghost in the Siege, the final book in the Ghost Armor series as another secondary project and I'm currently zero words into that. So that is where I'm at with my current writing projects.   In audiobook news, Ghost in the Assembly (as excellently narrated by Hollis McCarthy) is now out and should be available at all the usual audiobook stores so you can listen to that if you are traveling for the summer. Recording of Shield of Battle (as excellently narrated by Brad Wills) is underway soon. I believe he's starting it this week, so hopefully we will have another audiobook in the Shield War series for you before too much longer. So that's where I'm at with my current writing projects.   00:02:17 Main Topic: Winter/Spring 2025 Movie Roundup   And now let's move on, without any further ado, to our main topic. Summer is almost upon us, which means it's time for my Winter/Spring 2025 Movie Roundup. As usual, the movies and streaming shows are listed in order for my least favorite to my most favorite. The grades are based upon my own thoughts and opinions and are therefore wholly subjective. With all of that said, let's get to the movies and our first entry is MacGruber, which came out in 2010 and in all honesty, this might be objectively the worst movie I have ever seen. The Saturday Night Live MacGruber sketches are a parody of the old MacGyver action show from the ‘80s. And so the movie is essentially the sketch stretched out to make a parody of an ‘80s action movie. It is aggressively dumb and crude. Its only redeeming feature is that the movie knows it's quite stupid and so leans into the stupidity hard. I'll say this in its favor, MacGruber has no pretensions that is a good movie and does not take itself seriously and then runs away hard with that fact. For that he gets a plus, but nothing else. Overall grade: F+   Next up is Down Periscope, which came out in 1996. Now the fundamental question of any movie is the one Russell Crowe shouted at the audience in Gladiator: “Are you not entertained?” Sadly, I was not entertained with Down Periscope. This wanted to be a parody of Cold War era submarine thrillers like The Hunt for Red October, I say wanted because it didn't really succeed. Kelsey Grammer plays Lieutenant Commander Thomas Dodge, an unorthodox US Navy officer who wants command of his own nuclear sub, but he's alienated a few admirals, which is not traditionally a path to career advancement in the military. Dodge gets his chance in a Navy wargame where he has to command a diesel sub against nuclear subs. Sometimes parodies are so good that they become an example of the thing they are parodying (Hot Fuzz and Star Trek: Lower Decks are excellent examples of this phenomenon). The trouble is that the movie takes itself too seriously and just isn't all that funny. A few funny bits, true, but not enough of them. In the end, this was dumb funny but didn't resonate with me the way other dumb funny movies like Dodgeball and Tropic Thunder did. Overall grade: D   Next up is Deadpool and Wolverine, which came out in 2024. Unlike Down Periscope, I was entertained with this movie, though both movies reside on the dumb funny spectrum. Deadpool and Wolverine is basically one long meta in-joke/love letter for the last 30 years of superhero movies. If you've seen enough of those movies, you'll find those movies funny, if occasionally rather tasteless. If you haven't seen enough of those movies, Deadpool and Wolverine will just be incomprehensible. The plot is that Wade Wilson AKA Deadpool gets pulled into some Marvel style multiverse nonsense. To save his universe from destruction, he needs to recruit a Wolverine since in his universe, Wolverine died heroically.   In the process, Deadpool stumbles across the worst Wolverine in the multiverse. Together they have to overcome their mutual dislike and attempt to save Deadpool's universe from destruction at the hands of a rogue branch of the Time Variance Authority. This means the movie can bring in a lot of cameos from past Marvel films. Hugh Jackman's performance really carries the movie on its back. Like I said, this movie is essentially one very long Marvel in-joke. I thought it was funny. I definitely think it can't stand on its own without having seen a sufficient number of the other Marvel movies. Overall grade: C   Our next movie is the Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare, which came out in 2024. This is very loosely (with an emphasis on “very”) based on Operation Postmaster during World War II, when British Special Forces seized some Italian ships that had been supplying parts for German U-boats. It was entertaining to watch but it couldn't quite make up its mind tonally if it was a war thriller or a heist movie about Western desperados recruited into a crew. It kind of tried to do both at the same time, which killed the momentum. Like, the first parts of the movie where the protagonists take out a Nazi patrol boat and then free a prisoner from a base were good thriller stuff, but then the plot fused with the heist stuff and really slowed down through the middle forty percent or so. It was also oddly stylized with a lot of spaghetti western-style music that seemed out of place and some stuff just didn't make sense, like at the end after pulling off the mission, the protagonists were all arrested. That just seems bizarre since if anything, Winston Churchill and a lot of the British wartime leadership were enthusiastic about special operations and probably had too much confidence in the effectiveness of covert operations. So I did enjoy watching this, but I can see why it didn't make a lot of money at the box office. Overall Grade: C   Next up is The Gorge, which came out in 2025. This was a peculiar mix of science fiction, romance, and horror. For the romance part, perhaps shooting zombies together is a good idea for a first date. Before I dig into the movie, a brief rant. In one scene, a character is using a chainsaw with no protective gear whatsoever and she's not fighting zombies or anything in a situation where she has to pick up a chainsaw without preparing first. She's trimming branches to pass time. If you're using a chainsaw, at a minimum you want protective eyewear and headphones. Ideally you'd want chainsaw pants as well to reduce the chance of serious injury if you slip and swing the saw into your leg. Since I became a homeowner, I've used a chainsaw a number of times and believe me, you definitely want good eye and ear protection. This has been your public safety announcement for this movie review.   Anyway, loner former sniper Levi is approached by a high ranking intelligence officer giving him a mysterious job. He needs to guard a tower overlooking a mysterious mist-filled gorge for one year. On the other side of the gorge is another tower, guarded by an elite Lithuanian sniper named Drasa. Like Levi, Drasa has a fair bit of emotional damage and they're officially forbidden to communicate. However, they're both lonely and they soon start communicating over the gorge using telescopes and whiteboard messages. Eventually Levi gets emotionally close enough to Drasa to rig a zipline to cross the gorge and speak with her in person.   Unfortunately, it turns out the gorge is full of twisted creatures that storm out and attack and the job of the two snipers is to keep them contained. If Levi and Drasa want to save their lives, they'll need to unravel the dark secret within the gorge. This movie was interesting and I enjoyed watching it, but it falls apart if you think about it too much (or at all). Like the chainsaw thing I ranted about above. The entire movie runs on that sort of logic. That said, I appreciate how the filmmakers were trying something new instead of something like Deadpool and Wolverine. Additionally, this was an Apple+ movie and it's interesting how Apple's approach to streaming is to just make a whole bunch of random stuff that's totally distinct, from Ted Lasso to Mythic Quest to Severance to The Gorge. It's like, “we have more money than most countries, so we're going to make Ted Lasso because we feel like it.” Then again, Apple+ is apparently losing a billion dollars every year, so maybe they'll eventually change their minds about that approach. Overall Grade: B-   Next up is Click, which came out in 2006. Cross It's a Wonderful Life with A Christmas Carol and the comedic style of Adam Sandler and you end up with Click. Basically Sandler plays Michael Newman, a workaholic architect with a demanding boss and increasingly strained relationship with his wife and children due to his workload. In a fit of exasperation with his situation, he goes to Bed Bath and Beyond, where he encounters an eccentric employee named Morty (played entertainingly by Christopher Walken). Morty gives him a remote control that lets him fast forward through time, which Michael then uses to skip the boring and tedious parts of his life, but he overuses the remote and goes too far into the future and sees the disastrous results of his current life choices. Definitely a story used in A Christmas Carol and It's a Wonderful Life but effectively told and I was entertained (rather on the crude side, though). Overall Grade: B- Next up is Mr. Deeds, which came out in 2002. This was actually one of Adam Sandler's better movies, in my opinion. It was a remake of the ‘30s movie Mr. Deeds Goes To Town. In this new version, Sandler plays Longfellow Deeds, a popular pizzeria owner in a small New Hampshire town. Unbeknownst to Deeds, his uncle is the owner of a major media mega corporation and when he dies, Deeds is his legal heir. When the company's CEO and chief lawyer arrive at the pizzeria to inform him of this fact, Deeds goes to New York and soon finds himself involved in the CEO's sinister machinations. Yet he happens to rescue an attractive woman from a mugger, but there is more to her than meets the eye. The movie was funny and not as crude, well, not quite as crude as some of Sandler's other stuff. It had good story structure and several great lines, my favorite of which was “he was weak and cowardly and wore far too much cologne.”   Sandler's movies, in a strange way, are often very medieval. Like various medieval fables had a savvy peasant outwitting pompous lords, greedy merchants, and corrupt clergymen. The best Adam Sandler protagonist tends to be a good natured everyman who defeats the modern equivalent of medieval authority figures- evil CEOs, arrogant star athletes, sinister bureaucrats and so forth. Overall Grade: B     Next up is House of David, which came out in 2025 and this is basically the story of King David from the Bible told in the format of an epic fantasy TV series. Like if someone wanted to do an epic fantasy series about Conan the Barbarian, it could follow the same stylistic format as this show. And of course Conan and David followed a similar path from adventurer to king. Anyway, if one were to pick a part of the Bible from which to make a movie or TV series, the story of David would be an excellent choice because David's life was so dramatic that it would hardly require any embellishments in the adaptation. The story is in the Books of First and Second Samuel. King Saul is ruling over the Israelites around 1000 BC or so, but has grown arrogant. Consequently, God instructs the prophet Samuel to inform Saul that the kingdom will be taken away from him and given to another. God then dispatches Samuel to anoint David as the new king of Israel. David is a humble shepherd but then enters Saul's service and undertakes feats of daring, starting with defeating the giant Goliath and leading Saul's troops to victory and battle against Israel's numerous enemies. (The Iron Age Middle East was even less peaceful than it is now.) Eventually, Saul's paranoia and madness gets the best of him and he turns on David, who flees into exile. After Saul and his sons are killed in battle with the Philistines. David returns and becomes the acknowledged king after a short civil war with Saul's surviving sons and followers.   If Saul's fatal flaw was his arrogance of pride, David's seems to have been women. While the story of David and Bathsheba is well known, David nonetheless had eight wives (most of them at the same time) and an unknown but undoubtedly large number of concubines. Naturally David's children from his various wives and concubines did not get along and David was almost deposed due to the conflicts between his children. Unlike Saul and later David's son Solomon, David was willing to repent when a prophet of God informed him of wrongdoing and to be fair to David, monogamy was generally not practiced among Early Iron Age Middle Eastern monarchies and dynastic struggles between brothers from different mothers to seize their father's kingdoms were quite common, but enough historical digression.   Back to the show, which covered David's life up to the death of Goliath. I thought it was quite well done. Good performances, good cinematography, excellent battles, good set design and costuming, and a strong soundtrack. All the actors were good, but I really think the standout performances were Stephen Lang as Samuel, Ali Sulaman is King Saul, Ayelet Zurer as Saul's wife Queen Ahinoam, and Davood Ghadami as David's jerkish (but exasperated and well-intentioned) eldest brother Eliab. Martyn Ford just looks extremely formidable as Goliath. You definitely believe no one in their right mind want to fight this guy.   Making fiction of any kind based on sacred religious texts is often tricky because no matter what you do, someone's going to get mad at you. The show has an extensive disclaimer at the beginning of each episode saying that it is fiction inspired by the Bible. That said, House of David doesn't really alter or deviate from the Biblical account, though it expands upon some things for the sake of storytelling. Queen Ahinoam is only mentioned once in the Bible as the wife of Saul, but she has an expanded role in the show and is shown as the one who essentially introduces Saul to the Witch of Endor. Goliath also gets backstory as one of the “Anakim,” a race of giants that lived in Canaan in ancient times, which is something that is only mentioned in passing in the Old Testament. Overall, I enjoyed the show and I hope it gets a second season.   What's interesting, from a larger perspective, is to see how the wheel of history keeps turning. In the 1950s and the 1960s, Biblical epics were a major film genre. The 10 Commandments and Ben Hur with Charlton Heston are probably the ones best remembered today. Eventually, the genre just sort of ran out of gas, much the way superhero movies were in vogue for about 20 years and began running out of steam around 2023 or so. Like, I enjoyed Thunderbolts (which we're going to talk about in a little bit), but it's not going to make a billion dollars the way Marvel stuff often did in the 2010s. The wheel just keeps turning and perhaps has come back around to the popularity of Biblical epics once more. Overall Grade: A   Next up is Chef, which came out in 2014. I actually saw this back in 2021, but I watched it again recently to refresh my memory and here are my thoughts. I quite liked it. It's about a chef named Carl Casper, who's increasingly unhappy with his work after he gets fired over a Twitter war with a writer who criticized his cooking. Carl is out of options and so he starts a food truck and has to both rediscover his love of cooking and reconnect with his ex-wife and 10-year-old son. In Storytelling: How to Write a Novel (my book about writing), I talked about different kinds of conflict. Carl's conflict is an excellent example of an entirely internal conflict. The critic is an external enemy, but he's basically the inciting incident.   Carl's real enemy is his own internal conflict about art versus commerce and a strained relationship with his son. I recommend the movie. It was rated R for bad language, but there's no nudity or explicit sexual content and honestly, if you've ever worked in a restaurant kitchen or a warehouse, you've heard much worse in terms of language. The movie also has an extremely valuable lesson: stay off social media when you're angry. Overall Grade: A     Next up is Thunderbolts, which came out in 2025 and I thought this was pretty good, both very dark and yet with quite a lot of humor to balance the darkness. Former assassin Yelena Belova has been working as a mercenary for the sinister director of the CIA, Valentina de Fontaine (now there's a villain name if there ever was one). Yelena has grown disillusioned with her life and career and is suffering from increasing depression since she never really dealt with the death of her sister. Valentina promises her one last job, only for Yelena to realize that Valentina decided to dispose of all her freelance contractors at once, which includes US Agent and Ghost (previously seen in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier and Antman and the Wasp). In the process of escaping Valentina's trap, Yelena stumbles across a mysterious man who identifies himself as Bob, who has no memory of how he got there, but shows increasingly unusual abilities. Yelena wants to deal with Valentina's betrayal, but it turns out one of Valentina's science projects has gotten out of control and is threatening the world. The movie was well constructed enough that it didn't rely too heavily on previous Marvel continuity. It was there, but you probably wouldn't be lost without it. It almost feels like Marvel looked at the stuff they did the last couple of years and said, okay, a lot of this didn't work, but makes great raw material for new things. It helped that the central conflict was in the end, very human and about the characters, not stopping a generic villain from getting a generic doomsday device. Overall Grade: A   Next up is The Hound of the Baskervilles, which came out in 1988. This is a movie length episode of The Return of Sherlock Holmes television series, which had Jeremy Brett as Sherlock Holmes and Edward Hardwicke as Dr. Watson. The plot deals with Sir Henry Baskerville, the American heir to an English manor set in the Windswept moors of Dartmoor. Apparently there's an ancestral curse laid over the Baskerville estate that manifests in the form of a spectral hound. Local rumors hold that the previous holder of the manor, Sir Charles Baskerville, was killed by the ghostly hound and many of the local people fear it. The local physician, Dr. Mortimer, is so worried about the hound that he comes to Sherlock Holmes for help. Holmes, of course, is skeptical of any supernatural explanation and soon becomes worried that an extremely subtle and sinister murderer is stalking Sir Henry.   Jeremy Brett's version of Holmes is, in my opinion, the best portrayal of the character and Edward Hardwicke's version of Watson is a calm, reliable man of action who sensibly takes a very large revolver with him when going into danger. Definitely worth watching, Overall grade: A   Next up is Sonic the Hedgehog 3, which came out in 2024. The 2020s have been a downer of a decade in many ways, but on the plus side, between Super Mario Brothers and Sonic the Hedgehog, people have finally figured out how to make good video game movies, so we've got that going for us. Sonic 3 was an excellent kids movie, as were the first two in the trilogy. In this one Sonic is living with Knuckles and Tails under the care of their human friends Tom and Maddy, but then a dark secret emerges. The government has been keeping a Superpowered hedgehog named Shadow in stasis and Shadow has broken out. It's up to Sonic, Knuckles, and Tails to save the day.   Meanwhile, Dr. Robotnik is in a funk after his defeat at Sonic's hands in the last movie, but then his long lost grandfather, Gerald Robotnik returns seeking the younger Dr. Robotnik's help in his own sinister plans. Keanu Reeves was great as Shadow (think John Wick if he was a superpowered space hedgehog in a kid's movie). Jim Carrey famously said he would retire from acting unless a golden script came along and apparently that golden script was playing Dr. Ivo Robotnik and his evil grandfather Gerald. To be fair, both the Robotniks were hilarious.   It is amusing that Sonic only exists because in the 1990s, Sega wanted a flagship video game character that won't get them sued by either Nintendo or Disney. It is also amusing that the overall message of the Sonic movies seems to be not to trust the government. Overall Grade: A   Next up is Paddington in Peru, which came out in 2024. This is also an excellent kids' movie. In this installment, Paddington has settled into London with the Brown family and officially become a UK citizen. However, he receives a letter from Peru that his Aunt Lucy has mysteriously disappeared into the jungle. Distraught, Paddington and the Browns set off for Peru at once. Adventures ensue involving mysterious lost treasure, a crazy boat captain, and an order of singing nuns who might not quite be what they appear. Anyway, it's a good kids' movie. I think Paddington 2 was only slightly better because Hugh Grant as the chief villain, crazy actor Phoenix Buchanan, was one of those lightning in the bottle things like Heath Ledger as the Joker in the Dark Knight. Overall Grade: A   Now for the two best things I saw in Winter/Spring 2025. The first of them is Andor Season Two, which came out in 2025. Star Wars kind of has an age range the way Marvel stuff does now. What do I mean by that? In the Marvel comics and some of the TV series like Jessica Jones, they get into some really dark and heavy stuff, very mature themes. The MCU movies can have some darkness to them, but not as much because they're aiming at sort of escapist adventures for the general audience. Then there are kid shows like Spidey and Friends that a relative of mine just loved when he was three. You wouldn't at all feel comfortable showing a 3-year-old Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, but Spidey and Friends is just fine.   Star Wars now kind of has that age range to its stuff and there's nothing wrong with that. Sometimes you want to see a dark meditation upon human nature. Sometimes you need something kid friendly to occupy the kids you're babysitting and sometimes you just want to relax and watch Mando and Baby Yoda mow down some space pirates or something. All that said, Andor Season Two is some of the darkest and the best stuff that Star Wars has ever done. It successfully shifts genres from Escapist Pulp Space Fantasy to a gritty Political/Espionage Thriller. We in the audience know that the emperor is a Sith Lord who can use Evil Space Magic and wants to make himself immortal, but that fact is totally irrelevant to the characters. Even though some of the characters are high ranking in their respective organizations, this is essentially a “ground's eye” view of the Rebellion and life under the Empire.   In some ways, this is like Star Wars' version of Wolf Hall (which we're going to talk about shortly), in that we know how it ends already, but the dramatic tension comes from the harrowing emotional journey the characters undertake on the way to their inevitable destinations. Cassian Andor is now working for the nascent Rebellion under the direction of ruthless spymaster Luthen Rael. Mon Mothma is in the Imperial Senate, covertly funneling money to the Rebellion and realizing just how much the Rebellion will require of her before the end. Syril Karn, the ineffective corporate cop from Season One, has fallen in love with the ruthless secret police supervisor Dedra Meero, but he's unaware that Director Krennic has ordered Meero to manufacture a false flag incident on the planet Gorman so the planet can be strip-mined for resources to build the Death Star and Dedra has decided to use Syril to help accomplish it. All the actors do amazing jobs with their roles. Seriously, this series as actors really should get at least one Emmy. Speaking of Director Krennic, Ben Mendelson returns as Orson Krennic, who is one of my favorite least favorite characters, if you get my drift. Krennic is the oily, treacherous middle manager we've all had to deal with or work for at some point in our lives, and Mendelson plays him excellently. He's a great villain, the sort who is ruthless to his underlings and thinks he can manipulate his superiors right up until Darth Vader starts telekinetically choking him. By contrast, the villain Major Partagaz (played by Anton Lesser) is the middle manager we wish we all had - stern but entirely fair, reasonable, and prizes efficiency and good work while despising office drama. Unfortunately, he works for the Empire's secret police, so all those good qualities are in the service of evil and therefore come to naught. Finally, Episode Eight is one of the most astonishing episodes of TV I've ever seen. It successfully captures the horror of an episode of mass violence and simultaneously has several character arcs reach their tumultuous climax and manages to be shockingly graphic without showing in a lot of actual blood. Andor was originally supposed to be five seasons, but then Peak Streaming collapsed, and so the remaining four seasons were compressed down to one. I think that was actually to the show's benefit because it generates some amazing tension and there's not a wasted moment. Overall Grade: A+   Now for the second of my two favorite things I saw, and that would be Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light, which came out in 2024, but I actually saw it in 2025. This is a dramatization of Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall novels about the rise and fall of Thomas Cromwell, who is King Henry VIII's chief lieutenant during the key years of the English Reformation. The first series came out in 2015, but the nine year gap between this and between the second series and the first series actually works quite well since Thomas Cromwell looks like he ages nine years in a single year (which may be what actually happened given how stressful working for someone like Henry VIII must have been). Anyway, in The Mirror and the Light, Cromwell has successfully arranged the downfall and execution of Anne Boleyn, Henry's previous queen. Though Cromwell is haunted by his actions, Henry still needs a queen to give him a male heir, so he marries Jane Seymour. Cromwell must navigate the deadly politics of the Tudor Court while trying to push his Protestant views of religion, serve his capricious master Henry, fend off rivals for the King's favor, and keep his own head attached to his shoulders in the process. Since Cromwell's mental state is deteriorating due to guilt over Anne's death and the downfall of his former master Cardinal Wolsey and Henry's a fickle and dangerous master at the best of times, this is an enterprise that is doomed to fail. Of course, if you're at all familiar with the history of Henry's reign and the English reformation, you know that Cromwell's story does not have a happy ending. Rather, Wolf Hall is a tragedy about a talented man who didn't walk away from his power until it was too late and he was trapped. Anyway, in my opinion, Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light was just excellent. All the performances were superb. Mark Rylance is great as Cromwell and has some excellent “WTF/I'm SO screwed” expressions as Cromwell's situation grows worse and worse. Bernard Hill played the Duke of Norfolk in the first series, but sadly died before Series Two, so Timothy Spall steps in and he does an excellent job of channeling Hill's portrayal of the Duke as an ambitious, crude-humored thug.   Damien Lewis is amazing as Henry VIII and his performance captures Henry's mixture of charisma, extreme vindictiveness, and astonishing self-absorption. The real Henry was known for being extremely charming even to the end of his life, but the charm was mixed with a volcanic temper that worsened as Henry aged and may have been exacerbated by a severe head injury. Lewis's performance can shift from that charm to the deadly fury in a heartbeat. The show rather cleverly portrays Henry's growing obesity and deteriorating health by having Lewis wear a lot of big puffy coats and limp with an impressively regal walking stick.   Overall, I would say this and Andor were the best thing I saw in Winter/Spring 2025. I wouldn't say that Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light is an accurate historical reputation. In real life, Cromwell was rather more thuggish and grasping (though far more competent than his rivals and his master) and of necessity the plot simplifies historical events, but it's just a superb historical drama. Overall Grade: A+ As a final note, I should say that of all the 2024 and 2025 movies mentioned here, the only one that actually saw in the theater was Thunderbolts, and I hadn't actually planned to see it in theaters, but a family member unexpectedly bought tickets for it, so I went along. Which I suppose is the movie industry's biggest problem right now. The home viewing experience is often vastly superior to going to the theater. The theater has the big screen and snacks, but at home you can have a pretty nice setup and you can pause whatever you want, go to the bathroom, and you can get snacks for much more cheaply. That's just much more comfortable than the movie theater.   Additionally, going to the theater has the same serious problem as booking a flight in that you're an enclosed space with complete strangers for several hours, which means you're potentially in a trust fall with idiots. All it takes is one person behaving badly or trying to bring their fake service dog to ruin or even cancel a flight, and the theater experience has much of the same problem, especially since the standards for acceptable public behavior have dropped so much from a combination of widespread smartphone adoption and COVID. The difference between the movie industry and the airline industry is that if you absolutely have to get from New York to Los Angeles in a single day, you have no choice but to book a flight and hope for the best. But if you want to see a movie and are willing to exercise some patience, you just have to wait a few months for it to turn up on streaming. I'm not sure how the movie industry can battle that, but sadly, it is much easier to identify problems than to solve them.   So that is it for this week. Thank you for listening to The Pulp Writer Show. I hope you found the show useful. A reminder that you can listen to all the back episodes at https://thepulpwritershow.com. If you enjoyed the podcast, please leave a review on your podcasting platform of choice. Stay safe, stay healthy, and see you all next week.

Mark 11:1-11 As they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage and Bethany at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two of his disciples, 2 saying to them, “Go to the village ahead of you, and just as you enter it, you will find a colt tied there, which no one has ever ridden. Untie it and bring it here. 3 If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you doing this?' say, ‘The Lord needs it and will send it back here shortly.'” 4 They went and found a colt outside in the street, tied at a doorway. As they untied it, 5 some people standing there asked, “What are you doing, untying that colt?” 6 They answered as Jesus had told them to, and the people let them go. 7 When they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks over it, he sat on it. 8 Many people spread their cloaks on the road, while others spread branches they had cut in the fields. 9 Those who went ahead and those who followed shouted, “Hosanna!” “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” 10 “Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David!” “Hosanna in the highest heaven!” 11 Jesus entered Jerusalem and went into the temple courts. He looked around at everything, but since it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the Twelve. FROM THE SERMON Cherubim - creatures with human heads, animal bodies, and often wings. They were guardians, standing outside of temples and other sacred spaces to serve as a warning. The Garden Genesis 3:22 - Humanity in its sinfulness is no threat to God, but a threat to itself and creation. Genesis 3:24 - The Cherubim guard the entrance to Eden for our own protection. From the book: The Garden, the Curtain, and the Cross "It is wonderful to live with Him, but because of your sin you can't come in." The Curtain The account of building Solomon's Temple - 1 Kings 6, 2 Chronicles 3 Garden Iconography in the Temple: Carved with trees, flowers, and fruit (1 Kings 6:18, 29) Golden lampstand (Menorah) represents a tree (Exodus 25) The CURTAIN is covered in Cherubim Palm Sunday Mark 11:11 - Jesus visits the temple, remembers the garden, and sees the curtain. Discussion Questions Share a time when you or someone you know failed to heed a warning (funny or serious). What does the garden narrative in scripture (Genesis 2 and 3) tell us about God's design and intentions for humanity? How does the temple (or the tabernacle before it) point back to Eden? (Some examples were shared during the sermon, but there are more ways that weren't discussed as well!) Why would God have instructed the creation of the tabernacle and temple in a way that would reference and remind people of the Garden of Eden? How do you think Jewish people felt when they saw the curtain covered with Cherubim blocking the way to the Most Holy Place? When Jesus rode into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, the beginning of the week of his death, he went into the temple and looked around (Mark 11:11). What thoughts do you think went through his mind, knowing that his death was soon approaching? One way we worship God is by loving and caring for those who bear His image. What are some ways you could join others or your family in doing that this week to prepare to celebrate the resurrection on Easter?

MARATO DEMENTS SKYRUNNING, CROSS ITÁLICA Y TOP4 FRONTALES TRAIL RUNNING. Mayayo en Radio Trail.Nuestro podcast RADIO TRAIL para la web CARRERASDEMONTANA repasa hoy con Mayayo lo mejor de las carreras del finde en Marató dels Dements y Cross Itálica, así como el top4 frontales trail running y montaña con +1.200 lumenes.https://go.ivoox.com/rf/136028632Marató del Dements 2024 acogió la final de la Skyrunner world Series tras 21 carreras de montaña por medio mundo, que coronó a Roberto de Lorenzi y Anastasia Rubitova como campeones de la temporadaCross Itálica 2024 acogió el Campeonato España Cross Clubes con 11 modalidades en liza y casi 3.000 inscritos en total. La victoria fue para Bilbao Atletismo en senior femenino y Playas Castellón en masculino, brillando tambien un Cárnicas Serrano que firmó bronce en las unas y plata en los otros. Finalmente, repasamos el top4 frontales trail running y montaña por Mayayo donde destacamos hoy el MoontLight bright as day 1.300 lumens y recordamos sus tres grandes rivales: Silva Free 1200 XSRaidlight Ultralight 1200Black Diamond Distance 1500Más info en nuestra web: CARRERASDEMONTANA.COMNuestros videos en: YOUTUBE.COM/MOXIGENO#carrerasdemontaña#radiotrailConviértete en un seguidor de este podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/radio-trail-carreras-de-montana-mayayo--4373839/support.

MARATO DEMENTS SKYRUNNING, CROSS ITÁLICA Y TOP4 FRONTALES TRAIL RUNNING. Mayayo en Radio Trail. Nuestro podcast RADIO TRAIL para la web CARRERASDEMONTANA repasa hoy con Mayayo lo mejor de las carreras del finde en Marató dels Dements y Cross Itálica, así como el top4 frontales trail running y montaña con +1.200 lumenes. Marató del Dements 2024 acogió la final de la Skyrunner world Series tras 21 carreras de montaña por medio mundo, que coronó a Roberto de Lorenzi y Anastasia Rubitova como campeones de la temporada Cross Itálica 2024 acogió el Campeonato España Cross Clubes con 11 modalidades en liza y casi 3.000 inscritos en total. La victoria fue para Bilbao Atletismo en senior femenino y Playas Castellón en masculino, brillando tambien un Cárnicas Serrano que firmó bronce en las unas y plata en los otros. Finalmente, repasamos el top4 frontales trail running y montaña por Mayayo donde destacamos hoy el MoontLight bright as day 1.300 lumens y recordamos sus tres grandes rivales: Silva Free 1200 XS Raidlight Ultralight 1200 Black Diamond Distance 1500 Más info en nuestra web: CARRERASDEMONTANA-COM Nuestros videos en: YOUTUBE.COM/MOXIGENO #carrerasdemontaña #radiotrail

The post The Cross – It's Testimony and Effect | September 29, 2024 appeared first on Lakemount Worship Centre.

The Sixth Word from the Cross: "It is finished"

God is a Trinity in that He is One God in three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. In his book, Delighting in the Trinity, Michael Reeves wrote of the Trinity: If the Trinity were something we could shave off God, we would not be relieving him of some irksome weight; we would be shearing him of precisely what is so delightful about him. For God is triune, and it is as triune that he is so good and desirable.[1] Fed Sanders in his book, The Deep Things of God, wrote: God is eternally Trinity, because triunity belongs to his very nature. Things like creation and redemption are things God does, and he would still be God if he had not done them. But Trinity is who God is, and without being the Trinity, he would not be God. God minus creation would still be God, but God minus Father, Son, and Holy Spirit would not be God. So when we praise God for being our creator and redeemer, we are praising him for what he does. But behind what God does is the greater glory of who he is: behind his act is his being.[2] To appreciate the glory of the King who was born on the first Christmas, you must understand what it is that sets the God of the Bible apart from every cult and religion is that the God in the Bible is One God in Three (Trinity) Persons. What this means is that there was never a time when Jesus was created because there was never a time when He was not the Son. What happened that never happened before and never will happen again is in the angels announcement to Mary: behold, you will conceive in your womb and give birth to a son, and you shall name Him Jesus (Luke 1:31)? What happened that was new was God the Son took on human flesh by being conceived in the womb of a virgin. What was new was that God the Son also became the Son of Mary (Luke 1:31, 35). Represented in the Christ Child was, the union of undiminished deity and perfect humanity forever in one person. The message of advent is simply this: The plan was always for a King to reign in Israel over all the nations. In passages like Isaiah 44:6-8, Yahweh was to be King over Israel. We are told in verse 6, This is what Yahweh says, He who is the King of Israel and his Redeemer, Yahweh of armies: I am the first and I am the last, and there is no God besides Me. In 2 Samuel 7:13, we read of how king David was promised that a very human descendant of his would reign as king forever: He shall build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. Both Isaiah 44:6-8 and 2 Samuel 7:13 come together in the promise of Isaiah 9:6-7, For a Child will be born to us, a Son will be given to us; And the government will rest on His shoulders; And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. There will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace On the throne of David and over his kingdom, To establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness From then on and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of armies will accomplish this. (Isaiah 9:67) The glorious reality of the Trinity is that the Son was always the King of Isaiah 44 and Isaiah 9, and the incarnation allowed Him to be all of Isaiah 44:6-8 and Isaiah 9:6-7 while at the same time becoming the Son of David (2 Sam. 7:8-17) through the virgin birth (Luke 1:26-38). Jesus is the Means for Our Redemption (vv. 4-8) The book of Revelation was written to suffering Christians who needed encouragement. There was much that John suffered because of his association with Jesus, and although he most likely was not martyred for his faith, many of his friends were. If you believe that the purpose of the book of Revelation is primarily about how the world will end, you have missed the point of the book entirely. We are told why it was written in its opening verses: The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show to His bondservants, the things which must soon take place (v. 1). When you are in a season of long-term suffering, it is easy to grow weary believing that there will be no end to such suffering. The book of Revelation was written to encourage suffering Christians that their suffering had an expiration date while their salvation would remain nonperishable. Before we are told about what is coming, John first tells us what has already happened. In just three short verses, the apostle lists for us seven reasons why we can be confident that our suffering is not how our story will end: John to the seven churches that are in Asia: Grace to you and peace from Him who is, and who was, and who is to come, and from the seven spirits who are before His throne, and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To Him who loves us and released us from our sins by His bloodand He made us into a kingdom, priests to His God and Fatherto Him be the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen. (Rev. 1:46) The grace and peace of verse 4 is from three persons. The One, who is, and who is to come is God the Father, the seven spirits is a reference to the Holy Spirit,[3] and, the grace and peace that is for the Christian is from Jesus Christ. Seven is an important number in the Bible, especially in the book of Revelation and its use is symbolic of fullness. In these opening verses, John lists seven ways Jesus birth, life, death, and resurrection benefits the Christian: Jesus is a faithful witness in the way He lived, died, and rose from the grave. His life is our example, and we are to look to Him as we, run with endurance the race that is set before us looking only at Jesus, the originator and perfector of the faith (Heb. 12:1-2). Jesus is the first born of the dead in that he suffered and died, but He did not stay dead. Jesus conquered death, which means that our death will eventually lead to a resurrection too. Jesus is the ruler of the kings of the earth in that He is sovereign over all earthly powers to the point that no king can destroy what Jesus loves and treasures. Jesus loves us and His love for His Church is not fleeting, fragile, or conditional. Jesus released us from our sins by His blood in that He shed His blood on a cross of wood by becoming a curse for us to free us from the curse of sin in perpetuity. Jesus made us into a kingdom in that the citizenship of the Christian is in the realm of Jesus kingdom. Jesus made us into priests who were once alienated from God, are now reconciled to God, and called to participate in the mission of God as His ambassadors. Because God the Father so loved the world, He sent Jesus the Son who completed all that was needed for our redemption, through the power of the Holy Spirit. Because we are recipients of the first advent of Christs coming, we now long for the second advent of His coming which, according to verses 8-9 is as good as done: Behold, He is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him; and all the tribes of the earth will mourn over Him. So it is to be. Amen. I am the Alpha and the Omega, says the Lord God, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty (Rev. 1:78). This is why the angel was able to announce to lowly shepherds that the birth of Jesus was good news: Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the people; for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord (Luke 2:1011). So, we rejoice with the hymn writer who wrote of Jesus: He makes the rebel a priest and a king, He has bought us and taught us this new song to sing: Unto Him who has loved us and washed us from sin, Unto Him be the glory forever. Amen.[4] Jesus is the Glory of Our Redemption (vv. 9-16) In Revelation 1:9-16, John sees the glory of the One who was laid in a manger on the first Christmas, what he lists for us are nine characteristics of Jesus glory that come together in Him being fully God and fully manjust as the number 7 symbolizes fullness or completeness, the number 9 symbolizes perfection. Here are the nine things John sees in a Jesus who, because of the incarnation now is fully God and fully Man for the rest of eternity: Jesus stands in the middle of the seven lampstands. The lampstand John sees was like the menorah used in Solomons temple that symbolized the seven days of creation. It was one lampstand with seven lamps. Remember that seven symbolizes fullness; the seven churches are both seven literal churches that symbolize the global Church. Jesus is both Lord of the Church and the center of the Church because He purchased her with His blood. He is the groom, and the Church is His Bride. In the manger was laid the groom of the Church! Jesus is clothed in a robe wearing a golden sash. The clothing Jesus is wearing when John sees Him is that of both a High Priest and a King. Jesus stands in the midst of His Church as the King and He stands serving as the High Priest whose perfect sacrifice was Himself for the atonement for sins, sins we are guilty of. The one laid in a manger was born to die for sinners: Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law, having become a curse for usfor it is written: Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree (Gal. 3:13). Jesus head and hair are white like white wool. Jesuss head and hair are white because before He was born in flesh, he was for all eternity the Ancient of Days spoken of by the prophet Daniel, I kept looking Until thrones were set up, And the Ancient of Days took His seat; His garment was white as snow, And the hair of His head like pure wool (Dan. 7:9). The one laid in a manger is the Ancient of Days who stands as the groom, High Priest of His Church because He is Him who is, Holy, holy, holy Jesus eyes are like a flame of fire. What is the point? Christian, you are the Church, and although you may be weary and tired the Groom of the Church does not grow weary or tired! The One laid in a manger sees you and sees all that is wrong in the world; His eyes are like a flame of fire because the judgment He will bring will make all that is wrong in our world right and good, for when He comes, he will come to make His blessings flow as far as the curse is found. Jesus feet are like burnished and glowing bronze. His feet of bronze symbolize the strength of Jesus as both King and Savior who will crush His enemies, of which the first enemy was death. He is Lord of His Church who stands in the midst of His Bride which means that NO ONE can remove His lampstands from Him; the One whose feet are like burnished bronze is He who declared: My sheep listen to My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; and I give them eternal life, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand (John 10:2728). Jesus voice is like the sound of many waters. Like the continuous waves of the ocean or the roar of Niagara Falls to the tenth power the cries of the infant child from Marys womb on the first Christmas to the triumphant cry from the Cross: It is finished! is the voice of the Ancient of Days; when He speaks creation happens, demons flee, the lame walk, the sick are cured, and the dead become the living! The voice that John heard is the voice of omnipotent power and absolute authority. Jesus holds in His right hand the seven stars. Whoever or whatever the seven stars are, the point is that Jesus holds them in His right hand, which is the hand of strength. The point is that there is only One King of kings and One Lord of lords; it was a reminder that although Rome had her emperor who sentenced John to Patmos, there is only One true Sovereign! Jesus is sovereign over empires, He is sovereign over the cosmos, He is sovereign over life and death! The One laid in the manger, is the One, before all things, and in Him all things hold together (Col. 1:17). From Jesus mouth comes a sharp two-edged sword. The sharp two-edged sword is symbolic of the life and power of Christs Word. What comes out of the mouth of King Jesus is, living and active, and sharper than any two-edge sword (Heb. 4:12). Philip Hughes said of the sword John saw come out of Jesus mouth: The sword which is the Lords word has two edges [so] it never fails to cut. If it does not cut with the edge of salvation, it cuts with the edge of condemnation; for the word of redemption to all who believe is at the same time the word of destruction to those who refuse to believe.[5] Jesus face is like the sun shining in its strength. In the face of Christ, John sees what we must see in Jesus: To have Him shine upon you as your savior and redeemer who was born to live the life you could never live to die a death that you deserved to die is to have the face of God shine upon you. In the face of Jesus is the union of undiminished deity and perfect humanity forever in one person. What John saw in Revelation 1:4-18 was, is, and forever will remain the only version of Jesus that exists. The Jesus that John saw and experienced was not a Jesus who became the Son of God through the virgin birth, but He has always been the Son of God! It is this Jesus the prophet Jeremiah wrote about hundreds of years before the Christ Child was laid in a manger on the first Christmas: Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, When I will raise up for David a righteous Branch; And He will reign as king and act wisely and do justice and righteousness in the land. In His days Judah will be saved, And Israel will live securely; And this is His name by which He will be called, Yahweh Our Righteousness. (Jer. 23:56). To worship any other Jesus besides this Jesus is to embrace a version of Jesus who cannot save! Conclusion: Jesus is the Goal of Our Redemption (vv. 17-18) After John experiences this Jesus, we are told that he, fell at His feet like a dead man. I am not sure if that means John had a heart attack or what, but what I do know is that Jesus placed his right hand on the apostle and said something that should now be clearer to you than when you first arrived this morning: Do not be afraid; I am the first and the last, and the living One; and I was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys to death and of Hades (vv. 17-18). What does all this mean? What it means is this: the child born to Mary was, is, and forever will be fully God and fully Man who was born to save sinners like you and me. The Jesus of Revelation 1:4-18 took on human flesh and was born on the very first Christmas. If the manger could speak to all in attendance as it held the One identified as the Ancient of Days, the Prince of Peace, and Yahweh our Righteousness it would say, If you were a hundred times worse than you are. Your sins would be no match for His mercy.[6] Amen. [1] Michael Reeves, Delighting in the Trinity (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic; 2012); p. 9. [2] Fred Sanders, The Deep Things of God (Wheaton, IL: Crossway; 2017); p. 75 [3] The number seven is symbolic of fullness and is used here as a reference to the fullness of the Holy Spirits work in the lives of Gods people (see Isa. 11:2; Rev. 3:1; 4:5; 5:6). [4] Joel R. Beeke, Revelation (Grand Rapids, MI: Reformation Heritage Books; 2016); p. 26. [5] Ibid. pp. 46-7. [6] Tim Keller.

God is a Trinity in that He is One God in three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. In his book, Delighting in the Trinity, Michael Reeves wrote of the Trinity: If the Trinity were something we could shave off God, we would not be relieving him of some irksome weight; we would be shearing him of precisely what is so delightful about him. For God is triune, and it is as triune that he is so good and desirable.[1] Fed Sanders in his book, The Deep Things of God, wrote: God is eternally Trinity, because triunity belongs to his very nature. Things like creation and redemption are things God does, and he would still be God if he had not done them. But Trinity is who God is, and without being the Trinity, he would not be God. God minus creation would still be God, but God minus Father, Son, and Holy Spirit would not be God. So when we praise God for being our creator and redeemer, we are praising him for what he does. But behind what God does is the greater glory of who he is: behind his act is his being.[2] To appreciate the glory of the King who was born on the first Christmas, you must understand what it is that sets the God of the Bible apart from every cult and religion is that the God in the Bible is One God in Three (Trinity) Persons. What this means is that there was never a time when Jesus was created because there was never a time when He was not the Son. What happened that never happened before and never will happen again is in the angels announcement to Mary: behold, you will conceive in your womb and give birth to a son, and you shall name Him Jesus (Luke 1:31)? What happened that was new was God the Son took on human flesh by being conceived in the womb of a virgin. What was new was that God the Son also became the Son of Mary (Luke 1:31, 35). Represented in the Christ Child was, the union of undiminished deity and perfect humanity forever in one person. The message of advent is simply this: The plan was always for a King to reign in Israel over all the nations. In passages like Isaiah 44:6-8, Yahweh was to be King over Israel. We are told in verse 6, This is what Yahweh says, He who is the King of Israel and his Redeemer, Yahweh of armies: I am the first and I am the last, and there is no God besides Me. In 2 Samuel 7:13, we read of how king David was promised that a very human descendant of his would reign as king forever: He shall build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. Both Isaiah 44:6-8 and 2 Samuel 7:13 come together in the promise of Isaiah 9:6-7, For a Child will be born to us, a Son will be given to us; And the government will rest on His shoulders; And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. There will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace On the throne of David and over his kingdom, To establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness From then on and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of armies will accomplish this. (Isaiah 9:67) The glorious reality of the Trinity is that the Son was always the King of Isaiah 44 and Isaiah 9, and the incarnation allowed Him to be all of Isaiah 44:6-8 and Isaiah 9:6-7 while at the same time becoming the Son of David (2 Sam. 7:8-17) through the virgin birth (Luke 1:26-38). Jesus is the Means for Our Redemption (vv. 4-8) The book of Revelation was written to suffering Christians who needed encouragement. There was much that John suffered because of his association with Jesus, and although he most likely was not martyred for his faith, many of his friends were. If you believe that the purpose of the book of Revelation is primarily about how the world will end, you have missed the point of the book entirely. We are told why it was written in its opening verses: The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show to His bondservants, the things which must soon take place (v. 1). When you are in a season of long-term suffering, it is easy to grow weary believing that there will be no end to such suffering. The book of Revelation was written to encourage suffering Christians that their suffering had an expiration date while their salvation would remain nonperishable. Before we are told about what is coming, John first tells us what has already happened. In just three short verses, the apostle lists for us seven reasons why we can be confident that our suffering is not how our story will end: John to the seven churches that are in Asia: Grace to you and peace from Him who is, and who was, and who is to come, and from the seven spirits who are before His throne, and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To Him who loves us and released us from our sins by His bloodand He made us into a kingdom, priests to His God and Fatherto Him be the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen. (Rev. 1:46) The grace and peace of verse 4 is from three persons. The One, who is, and who is to come is God the Father, the seven spirits is a reference to the Holy Spirit,[3] and, the grace and peace that is for the Christian is from Jesus Christ. Seven is an important number in the Bible, especially in the book of Revelation and its use is symbolic of fullness. In these opening verses, John lists seven ways Jesus birth, life, death, and resurrection benefits the Christian: Jesus is a faithful witness in the way He lived, died, and rose from the grave. His life is our example, and we are to look to Him as we, run with endurance the race that is set before us looking only at Jesus, the originator and perfector of the faith (Heb. 12:1-2). Jesus is the first born of the dead in that he suffered and died, but He did not stay dead. Jesus conquered death, which means that our death will eventually lead to a resurrection too. Jesus is the ruler of the kings of the earth in that He is sovereign over all earthly powers to the point that no king can destroy what Jesus loves and treasures. Jesus loves us and His love for His Church is not fleeting, fragile, or conditional. Jesus released us from our sins by His blood in that He shed His blood on a cross of wood by becoming a curse for us to free us from the curse of sin in perpetuity. Jesus made us into a kingdom in that the citizenship of the Christian is in the realm of Jesus kingdom. Jesus made us into priests who were once alienated from God, are now reconciled to God, and called to participate in the mission of God as His ambassadors. Because God the Father so loved the world, He sent Jesus the Son who completed all that was needed for our redemption, through the power of the Holy Spirit. Because we are recipients of the first advent of Christs coming, we now long for the second advent of His coming which, according to verses 8-9 is as good as done: Behold, He is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him; and all the tribes of the earth will mourn over Him. So it is to be. Amen. I am the Alpha and the Omega, says the Lord God, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty (Rev. 1:78). This is why the angel was able to announce to lowly shepherds that the birth of Jesus was good news: Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the people; for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord (Luke 2:1011). So, we rejoice with the hymn writer who wrote of Jesus: He makes the rebel a priest and a king, He has bought us and taught us this new song to sing: Unto Him who has loved us and washed us from sin, Unto Him be the glory forever. Amen.[4] Jesus is the Glory of Our Redemption (vv. 9-16) In Revelation 1:9-16, John sees the glory of the One who was laid in a manger on the first Christmas, what he lists for us are nine characteristics of Jesus glory that come together in Him being fully God and fully manjust as the number 7 symbolizes fullness or completeness, the number 9 symbolizes perfection. Here are the nine things John sees in a Jesus who, because of the incarnation now is fully God and fully Man for the rest of eternity: Jesus stands in the middle of the seven lampstands. The lampstand John sees was like the menorah used in Solomons temple that symbolized the seven days of creation. It was one lampstand with seven lamps. Remember that seven symbolizes fullness; the seven churches are both seven literal churches that symbolize the global Church. Jesus is both Lord of the Church and the center of the Church because He purchased her with His blood. He is the groom, and the Church is His Bride. In the manger was laid the groom of the Church! Jesus is clothed in a robe wearing a golden sash. The clothing Jesus is wearing when John sees Him is that of both a High Priest and a King. Jesus stands in the midst of His Church as the King and He stands serving as the High Priest whose perfect sacrifice was Himself for the atonement for sins, sins we are guilty of. The one laid in a manger was born to die for sinners: Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law, having become a curse for usfor it is written: Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree (Gal. 3:13). Jesus head and hair are white like white wool. Jesuss head and hair are white because before He was born in flesh, he was for all eternity the Ancient of Days spoken of by the prophet Daniel, I kept looking Until thrones were set up, And the Ancient of Days took His seat; His garment was white as snow, And the hair of His head like pure wool (Dan. 7:9). The one laid in a manger is the Ancient of Days who stands as the groom, High Priest of His Church because He is Him who is, Holy, holy, holy Jesus eyes are like a flame of fire. What is the point? Christian, you are the Church, and although you may be weary and tired the Groom of the Church does not grow weary or tired! The One laid in a manger sees you and sees all that is wrong in the world; His eyes are like a flame of fire because the judgment He will bring will make all that is wrong in our world right and good, for when He comes, he will come to make His blessings flow as far as the curse is found. Jesus feet are like burnished and glowing bronze. His feet of bronze symbolize the strength of Jesus as both King and Savior who will crush His enemies, of which the first enemy was death. He is Lord of His Church who stands in the midst of His Bride which means that NO ONE can remove His lampstands from Him; the One whose feet are like burnished bronze is He who declared: My sheep listen to My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; and I give them eternal life, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand (John 10:2728). Jesus voice is like the sound of many waters. Like the continuous waves of the ocean or the roar of Niagara Falls to the tenth power the cries of the infant child from Marys womb on the first Christmas to the triumphant cry from the Cross: It is finished! is the voice of the Ancient of Days; when He speaks creation happens, demons flee, the lame walk, the sick are cured, and the dead become the living! The voice that John heard is the voice of omnipotent power and absolute authority. Jesus holds in His right hand the seven stars. Whoever or whatever the seven stars are, the point is that Jesus holds them in His right hand, which is the hand of strength. The point is that there is only One King of kings and One Lord of lords; it was a reminder that although Rome had her emperor who sentenced John to Patmos, there is only One true Sovereign! Jesus is sovereign over empires, He is sovereign over the cosmos, He is sovereign over life and death! The One laid in the manger, is the One, before all things, and in Him all things hold together (Col. 1:17). From Jesus mouth comes a sharp two-edged sword. The sharp two-edged sword is symbolic of the life and power of Christs Word. What comes out of the mouth of King Jesus is, living and active, and sharper than any two-edge sword (Heb. 4:12). Philip Hughes said of the sword John saw come out of Jesus mouth: The sword which is the Lords word has two edges [so] it never fails to cut. If it does not cut with the edge of salvation, it cuts with the edge of condemnation; for the word of redemption to all who believe is at the same time the word of destruction to those who refuse to believe.[5] Jesus face is like the sun shining in its strength. In the face of Christ, John sees what we must see in Jesus: To have Him shine upon you as your savior and redeemer who was born to live the life you could never live to die a death that you deserved to die is to have the face of God shine upon you. In the face of Jesus is the union of undiminished deity and perfect humanity forever in one person. What John saw in Revelation 1:4-18 was, is, and forever will remain the only version of Jesus that exists. The Jesus that John saw and experienced was not a Jesus who became the Son of God through the virgin birth, but He has always been the Son of God! It is this Jesus the prophet Jeremiah wrote about hundreds of years before the Christ Child was laid in a manger on the first Christmas: Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, When I will raise up for David a righteous Branch; And He will reign as king and act wisely and do justice and righteousness in the land. In His days Judah will be saved, And Israel will live securely; And this is His name by which He will be called, Yahweh Our Righteousness. (Jer. 23:56). To worship any other Jesus besides this Jesus is to embrace a version of Jesus who cannot save! Conclusion: Jesus is the Goal of Our Redemption (vv. 17-18) After John experiences this Jesus, we are told that he, fell at His feet like a dead man. I am not sure if that means John had a heart attack or what, but what I do know is that Jesus placed his right hand on the apostle and said something that should now be clearer to you than when you first arrived this morning: Do not be afraid; I am the first and the last, and the living One; and I was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys to death and of Hades (vv. 17-18). What does all this mean? What it means is this: the child born to Mary was, is, and forever will be fully God and fully Man who was born to save sinners like you and me. The Jesus of Revelation 1:4-18 took on human flesh and was born on the very first Christmas. If the manger could speak to all in attendance as it held the One identified as the Ancient of Days, the Prince of Peace, and Yahweh our Righteousness it would say, If you were a hundred times worse than you are. Your sins would be no match for His mercy.[6] Amen. [1] Michael Reeves, Delighting in the Trinity (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic; 2012); p. 9. [2] Fred Sanders, The Deep Things of God (Wheaton, IL: Crossway; 2017); p. 75 [3] The number seven is symbolic of fullness and is used here as a reference to the fullness of the Holy Spirits work in the lives of Gods people (see Isa. 11:2; Rev. 3:1; 4:5; 5:6). [4] Joel R. Beeke, Revelation (Grand Rapids, MI: Reformation Heritage Books; 2016); p. 26. [5] Ibid. pp. 46-7. [6] Tim Keller.

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ANDREU BLANES TRIUNFADOR 2022. De la Orientación al Oro Sierre Zinal y plata mundial montaña Tailandia. Radio Trail Mayayo. Andreu Blanes se formó como corredor de Orientación de elite desde Onil, en Valencia. En 2021 firmó ya plara Mundil junior en este deporte y hasta hoy sus dos séptimos puestos en Escocia 2015 y Letonia 2018 son los mayores logros españoles. En asfalto compite tambien a gran nivel internacional. Así, en la Media Maratón Valencia 2021 logró un hito al reventar con 1h02.52 en su segundo asaslto a esta distancia un histórico record valenciano que llevaba 27 años en vigor. En el Cross Country ha brillado tambien a gran altura: El pasado finde firmó oro en Campeonato España Clubes con Cárnicas Serrano, entrando como cuarto español en una cita tan exigente como Cross Atapuerca. Ningua sorpresa, tras firmas 5º absoluto en Cpto España indivivudal Enero 2022 Sin embargo, este 2022 no fue fácil pues a partir de Marzo las secuelas de la tercera dosis de vacuna Covid le impideron competir al máximo durante meses, obligándolo a sufrir en citas como 10k Zaragoza. Desde all, mientras seguía compitiendo en orientación y explorando el corss y las carreras de motaña. Andreuí abrió un proyecto personal, trabajando durante tres años para ser olímpico con España en los ultimos Juegos . No pudo ser...pero se quedó a las puertas. En las carreras de montaña ya dejó claro su talento entrando primero en meta del Cpto España federaciones 2020 en Ibiza. Sin ebmargo, no pudo competir en la Copa Naciones 2021 por su compromiso con Valencia. Este 2022 ha dado nuevos pasos en la montaña para firmas grandes triunfos munduales. Primero en AGO22 retornó del covid firmando un descomunal oro en la Sierre Zinal, por delante de Kipngeno, Mamu, Jornet u Osanz, entre otros. Hace unas semanas, Andreu lideró al equipo español hasta la plata en el Mundial Montaña Classic Tailandia, entrando sexto absoluto, con Oriol Cardona octavo y Alex García 15º sellando una medalla histórica superando a Italia y cediendo solo ante la todopoderosa Uganda (1-2-4) Ahora, para no ser menos, Andreu se prepara para disputar el Cross Itálica el 20NOV que pueda abrirle las puertas del Campeonato Europa C ross 2022 de Diciembre. Orientación, Cross country, asfalto, 3.000m obstáculos o carreras de montaña, Todo un portento por su capacidad de brillar en cada disciplina a base de ilusión, talento y trabajo sin complejos. Conócelo a fondo con Mayayo en este Radio Trail donde pasamos 50min de charla repasando toda su historia. Más info en https://www.carrerasdemontana.com Nuestro videos de trail y montaña en https://youtube.com/moxigeno

ANDREU BLANES TRIUNFADOR 2022. De la Orientación al Oro Sierre Zinal y plata mundial montaña Tailandia. Radio Trail Mayayo. Andreu Blanes se formó como corredor de Orientación de elite desde Onil, en Valencia. En 2021 firmó ya plara Mundil junior en este deporte y hasta hoy sus dos séptimos puestos en Escocia 2015 y Letonia 2018 son los mayores logros españoles. En asfalto compite tambien a gran nivel internacional. Así, en la Media Maratón Valencia 2021 logró un hito al reventar con 1h02.52 en su segundo asaslto a esta distancia un histórico record valenciano que llevaba 27 años en vigor. En el Cross Country ha brillado tambien a gran altura: El pasado finde firmó oro en Campeonato España Clubes con Cárnicas Serrano, entrando como cuarto español en una cita tan exigente como Cross Atapuerca. Ningua sorpresa, tras firmas 5º absoluto en Cpto España indivivudal Enero 2022 Sin embargo, este 2022 no fue fácil pues a partir de Marzo las secuelas de la tercera dosis de vacuna Covid le impideron competir al máximo durante meses, obligándolo a sufrir en citas como 10k Zaragoza. Desde all, mientras seguía compitiendo en orientación y explorando el corss y las carreras de motaña. Andreuí abrió un proyecto personal, trabajando durante tres años para ser olímpico con España en los ultimos Juegos . No pudo ser...pero se quedó a las puertas. En las carreras de montaña ya dejó claro su talento entrando primero en meta del Cpto España federaciones 2020 en Ibiza. Sin ebmargo, no pudo competir en la Copa Naciones 2021 por su compromiso con Valencia. Este 2022 ha dado nuevos pasos en la montaña para firmas grandes triunfos munduales. Primero en AGO22 retornó del covid firmando un descomunal oro en la Sierre Zinal, por delante de Kipngeno, Mamu, Jornet u Osanz, entre otros. Hace unas semanas, Andreu lideró al equipo español hasta la plata en el Mundial Montaña Classic Tailandia, entrando sexto absoluto, con Oriol Cardona octavo y Alex García 15º sellando una medalla histórica superando a Italia y cediendo solo ante la todopoderosa Uganda (1-2-4) Ahora, para no ser menos, Andreu se prepara para disputar el Cross Itálica el 20NOV que pueda abrirle las puertas del Campeonato Europa C ross 2022 de Diciembre. Orientación, Cross country, asfalto, 3.000m obstáculos o carreras de montaña, Todo un portento por su capacidad de brillar en cada disciplina a base de ilusión, talento y trabajo sin complejos. Conócelo a fondo con Mayayo en este Radio Trail donde pasamos 50min de charla repasando toda su historia. Más info en https://www.carrerasdemontana.comNuestro videos de trail y montaña en https://youtube.com/moxigeno

7 Sayings from the Cross: It is Finished - Bro. Rick Evans

For those who aren't physically able to: Hike IT, Forge IT, Climb IT, Cross IT, or Ascend IT, Luke 5 Adventures can make IT possible. On this episode we are joined by the team from Luke 5 Adventures; Kevin Schwieger- Founder and President Whitney Blackston- Vice President Tricia Cartner- Volunteer Coordinator. We get to hear how this adventure began, some stories of some of their hikes, and how you can partner with them in this incredible organization. For more info and to connect with Luke 5 Adventures, visit their website www.Luke5adventures.com We would love to hear from you, email us at thestoriedoutdoors@gmail.com Music Written and Recorded by: Brad Hill

God dealt with SIN and SICKNESS in the same way, because they are connected together. Likewise, FORGIVENESS and HEALING often go together in the Bible, which is consistent in declaring that Jesus bore our sins and our sicknesses on the Cross (Psalm 103:1-3, Isaiah 53:3-5,10-12, 1Peter 2:24). Sin and sickness belong together, because sickness is part of the curse of sin, so Jesus had to deal with them together. Jesus was (1) made sin with our sinfulness, so that we might be made the righteousness of God, and also (2) He was made sick with our sicknesses, so that we might live in Divine Health. Jesus came to give us a full salvation of abundant and eternal life, so on the Cross He did not just pay for our forgiveness, He also paid for our abundant life (which includes health). He had to overcome our sin, and its curse (sickness), if He was to accomplish a perfect work of Atonement on the Cross (Galatians 3:13-14). Sin and sickness are connected together by their very nature, and so there is no remedy for either sin or sickness except for the Cross. When Jesus said on the Cross: “It is finished!” = “Paid in Full” (John 19:30), He declared that He has paid for our forgiveness and our healing. Both Forgiveness and Healing come to us on the same basis - the Atonement of Christ. One application of this is that our ability to receive healing depends on how close we walk with the Lord, which requires us receiving His forgiveness and cleansing (James 5:14-16). To understand the dynamics of how this works, Derek explains the difference between Positional or Relationship Truth, which is unconditional, and Experiential or Fellowship Truth, which is conditional, and operates according to the principle of reciprocity. Derek shares examples in the Bible of forgiveness and healing going together (Luke 5:22-25, Mark 5:34, John 5:14). Finally, he shows that there is one sin above all others that will prevent you from receiving from God - unforgiveness (Mark 11:24-26, Matthew 6:12, 18:34-35). Forgive them from the heart (from your will), that is, make it your quality decision to forgive them (Matthew 18:35). Pull all bitterness out of your heart by its roots!

God dealt with SIN and SICKNESS in the same way, because they are connected together. Likewise, FORGIVENESS and HEALING often go together in the Bible, which is consistent in declaring that Jesus bore our sins and our sicknesses on the Cross (Psalm 103:1-3, Isaiah 53:3-5,10-12, 1Peter 2:24). Sin and sickness belong together, because sickness is part of the curse of sin, so Jesus had to deal with them together. Jesus was (1) made sin with our sinfulness, so that we might be made the righteousness of God, and also (2) He was made sick with our sicknesses, so that we might live in Divine Health. Jesus came to give us a full salvation of abundant and eternal life, so on the Cross He did not just pay for our forgiveness, He also paid for our abundant life (which includes health). He had to overcome our sin, and its curse (sickness), if He was to accomplish a perfect work of Atonement on the Cross (Galatians 3:13-14). Sin and sickness are connected together by their very nature, and so there is no remedy for either sin or sickness except for the Cross. When Jesus said on the Cross: “It is finished!” = “Paid in Full” (John 19:30), He declared that He has paid for our forgiveness and our healing. Both Forgiveness and Healing come to us on the same basis - the Atonement of Christ. One application of this is that our ability to receive healing depends on how close we walk with the Lord, which requires us receiving His forgiveness and cleansing (James 5:14-16). To understand the dynamics of how this works, Derek explains the difference between Positional or Relationship Truth, which is unconditional, and Experiential or Fellowship Truth, which is conditional, and operates according to the principle of reciprocity. Derek shares examples in the Bible of forgiveness and healing going together (Luke 5:22-25, Mark 5:34, John 5:14). Finally, he shows that there is one sin above all others that will prevent you from receiving from God - unforgiveness (Mark 11:24-26, Matthew 6:12, 18:34-35). Forgive them from the heart (from your will), that is, make it your quality decision to forgive them (Matthew 18:35). Pull all bitterness out of your heart by its roots!

God dealt with SIN and SICKNESS in the same way, because they are connected together. Likewise, FORGIVENESS and HEALING often go together in the Bible, which is consistent in declaring that Jesus bore our sins and our sicknesses on the Cross (Psalm 103:1-3, Isaiah 53:3-5,10-12, 1Peter 2:24). Sin and sickness belong together, because sickness is part of the curse of sin, so Jesus had to deal with them together. Jesus was (1) made sin with our sinfulness, so that we might be made the righteousness of God, and also (2) He was made sick with our sicknesses, so that we might live in Divine Health. Jesus came to give us a full salvation of abundant and eternal life, so on the Cross He did not just pay for our forgiveness, He also paid for our abundant life (which includes health). He had to overcome our sin, and its curse (sickness), if He was to accomplish a perfect work of Atonement on the Cross (Galatians 3:13-14). Sin and sickness are connected together by their very nature, and so there is no remedy for either sin or sickness except for the Cross. When Jesus said on the Cross: “It is finished!” = “Paid in Full” (John 19:30), He declared that He has paid for our forgiveness and our healing. Both Forgiveness and Healing come to us on the same basis - the Atonement of Christ. One application of this is that our ability to receive healing depends on how close we walk with the Lord, which requires us receiving His forgiveness and cleansing (James 5:14-16). To understand the dynamics of how this works, Derek explains the difference between Positional or Relationship Truth, which is unconditional, and Experiential or Fellowship Truth, which is conditional, and operates according to the principle of reciprocity. Derek shares examples in the Bible of forgiveness and healing going together (Luke 5:22-25, Mark 5:34, John 5:14). Finally, he shows that there is one sin above all others that will prevent you from receiving from God - unforgiveness (Mark 11:24-26, Matthew 6:12, 18:34-35). Forgive them from the heart (from your will), that is, make it your quality decision to forgive them (Matthew 18:35). Pull all bitterness out of your heart by its roots!

Today's Reading: 1 Kings 19:11-12 Daily Lectionary: Joshua 23:1-16; Acts 12:1-25 And after the earthquake a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire. And after the fire the sound of a low whisper. (1 Kings 19:12) In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. Elijah is hiding in a cave waiting to die. He forgot how to be disappointed, because he forgot how to hope. That's bad. Hopelessness is not natural. We were created to hope. God made us to worship Him, to fear, love, and trust in Him. Children are born trusting in their parents' voices. They look at the world in wonder and pretend to be the things we've long given up on. Hope only goes away painfully--by having it beaten and crushed and kicked until it's ground down to nothing. One of the hardest things in the world is to see children who aren't disappointed by their parents anymore. Elijah is hiding in a cave, not because he doesn't believe God exists, but because he doesn't think he can depend on God. The reason so many of us have given up hope is that we look for God in places He isn't. It's a trick the devil uses to grind down hope. Even fallen sinful man loves to put hope in the wrong thing. It's called an idol. So Satan points us to where God isn't and asks why He isn't there. That makes more sense than we want to admit. God is not in the power of the fire or the earthquake. The small whispering word doesn't seem too impressive. I cannot by my own reason or strength believe that God works in mercy and not in power. That has to come from somewhere else. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the low whispering Word of Christ. And He still speaks. What are you doing here? Why are you hiding? Why are you afraid? You're not as alone as you think. God would not limit Himself to your good days or your good attitude. He passes by Elijah, whispering words of peace and hope, and He passes by you, too. Not to rush past, but to dive into the valley of the shadow of death, that hope would live where there rightly should be none. There were great earthquakes and sham trials by firelight that pierced the darkness where they accused our Lord of blasphemy and worse, as Peter hid in the courtyard. There was wind that blew as it wished, and the gale of the crowd who cried for His death. But the words worth hearing were whispered from a Cross: "It is finished." He has died for you. The sun came back to the sky, the earth stopped shaking, but it's still finished. Hope. For Christ is risen. In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. To hope grown dim, to hearts turned cold Speak tongues of fire and make us bold To shine Your Word of saving grace Into each dark and loveless place. ("Lord Jesus Christ, with Us Abide" LSB 585, st.3) Audio Reflections Speaker: Pastor Duane Bamsch

On the Cross: IT. IS. FINISHED. Pastor James McDonald

Words from the Cross “It is Finished” John 19:28–42 After all, how few the utterances—how long the silences—of that awful half-day! (C. J. Vaughan) Charles Haddon Spurgeon observed that it “would need all the other words that ever were spoken, or ever can be spoken, to explain this one word. It is altogether immeasurable. It is high; I cannot attain to it. It is deep; I cannot fathom it.” Why would we say this phrase changes everything? What did it mean to them? What is Finished? 1. The sacrificial system. There is no longer needed any more sacrifice for sin. The law has been perfectly kept. Our debt to the holiness and justice of God has been paid in full. 2. Jesus’ suffering for our sin. Physical Emotional John 1:11 He came unto his own, and his own received him not. Isaiah 53:12 Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors. Spiritual 2 Corinthians 5:21 For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. 3. The plan of God to pay for our sins and provide us perfect righteousness. He was crucified, not is still being crucified. It is finished, not Jesus is finished. He will rise from the grave. He will ascend to Heaven. He will come back. What God completed on the cross, you have nothing to contribute. We can rejoice that “It is finished”

Jesus cry out His 6th word from the Cross: "It is Finished!" What is the "it"? When did "it" begin? Fr. Steve explores some the Jewish history of the Passover and why Jesus would cry out these words.    

In a “Got Questions” commentary, they write that: Hebrews 9:11-18 confirms the symbolism of blood as [the life force] and applies Leviticus 17:11 to the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 12 states clearly that the Old Testament blood sacrifices were temporary and only atoned for sin partially and for a short time, hence the need to repeat the sacrifices yearly. But when Christ entered the Most Holy Place, He did so to offer His Own Blood once for all time, making future sacrifices unnecessary. This is what Jesus meant by His dying words on the Cross: “It is finished!” Never again would the blood of bulls and goats cleanse men temporarily from their sin, for Jesus Christ the Perfect and Sinless Lamb of God shed His Own Blood in forever payment for sin’s death and then by way of His Glorious Resurrection Power He has guaranteed Eternal Life to all who will believe in Him for Salvation’s Security.In this Podcast, we continue to review the earthly ritual of the “cutting of the covenant” named so because it caused the blood to flow, while giving the Scriptural fulfillment Jesus Christ accomplished in the Heavenly Covenant by shedding His Own Perfect and Sinless Blood on mankind’s behalf.Support the show (http://www.agapelightministries.com/tp40/Application.asp?app=Donate&ID=39635)

'Robes, Trees & Nails' - Simon of Cyrene - The parallels of The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil and The Cross - It's the law that kills Jesus - Did Jesus wear priestly robes?   www.cwicmedia.com www.facebook.com/cwicmedia   'It Is Finished' Part 2 Come Follow Me for Individuals and Families

19 April 2019 Good Friday Sixth Word from the Cross "It is finished." 16 Minutes 32 Seconds

The Cross: It's Not What You Think

The work on the Cross - It is finished!

The Cross “… It is written, Messiah (Christ) will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and REPENTANCE and FORGIVENESS of sins will be preached in His name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem..” Luke 24 V 46-48 REPENTANCE & FORGIVENESS of SINS The Cross – Explodes the Myth of Religion – Religion, put Him on the Cross The Cross ..end of every human effort to right with God –Gal 2:21 “If righteousness came by law” Religion, baptism, reformation, good works or rituals, …can never take away sin…only blood Titus 3 V 5 / Ephesians 2 V 8,9 / Gal 2 :16 “ we are not justified by works…” The Cross – Exposes the Heart of Humanity – There’s a lesson here (my heart –Jeremiah 17 V 9) It was for ENVEY that He was delivered up, …Caiaphas ”Expedient that He dies for the people” They mocked Him, they shamed Him,…the violently cried “crucify Him !” they choose Barabbas The human race (that I am part of) – crucified their own Creator … a revelation of our nature The Cross – Expresses the Heart of God Every Divine Attribute is on display at the cross - Oh what Grace, …what Mercy, Undeserving Love , Deepest Compassion, The Cross Leads Sinners to Repentance – A Change of Mind, a Change of Thinking and a Change in Direction Acts 17:30 “God now commands all men, everywhere to repent…” Self Evaluation – Repentance requires an honest evaluation of my own heart (Luke 23:48) Change of Mind – a change of thinking, turning away from sin, to God Realignment – my thoughts brought into agreement with God’s thoughts A Criminal’s heart was changed at the Cross (Dying Thief) A Covetous man was smitten by his own guilt at the Cross (Judas Iscariot) A Roman Centurion’s mind was realigned at the Cross …”Truly ..the Son of God” A Religious Man’s heart was changed (Nicodemus) at the Cross….with boldness & courage…he took the body down from the cross and gave him an honorable burial … associating himself publically with Christ cost Nicodemus his position To understand the Cross is to be changed forever - Those who get to cross – are never the same again

The Song of Songs has some awfully sensual langauge in it. Spicy Language. In fact spices are mentioned over 40 times across 16 books of the Old and New Testament. Jesus himself enjoys giving sensual experiences to people. What is going on here? Is there a whole side of the bible we have been missing? What about the Cross? It turns out that after the Cross, one of the primary images of the scriptures is the Table. Come join us as we learn how to live in the space between the Cross and the Table - as people able to delight in physical senses because we first delight in the giver of all good gifts!