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The Day We Stopped Feeling AloneIn this episode of A Time in the Word, we explore the life of Joseph—a man who experienced betrayal, rejection, slavery, false accusation, and imprisonment. Humanly speaking, Joseph had every reason to feel abandoned and alone.Yet throughout his story, one truth is repeated again and again:"The Lord was with Joseph."Joseph's life is a powerful testimony to God's grace, favor, and faithful presence. Even in the pit, the prison, and the forgotten places, God never left him.Join us as we discover that our circumstances do not determine God's presence. The same God who walked with Joseph walks with His people today.If you have ever felt isolated, forgotten, or abandoned, this message will remind you that God is with you—even in the loneliest places of life.Key Scripture: Genesis 39Main Truth: We are never truly alone when God is with us.
In this episode of Living in Step with the Holy Spirit, Bruce Downes reflects on Ezekiel 37 and the valley of dry bones.There are seasons when life looks fine on the outside, but inside something feels dry. We keep going, meet responsibilities, pray, serve, and show up, yet beneath the surface our hearts may feel weary, flat, discouraged, or drained.The vision of Ezekiel is deliberately confronting. The valley is full of bones, and they are very dry. Humanly speaking, there is no future there. But God asks Ezekiel, “Can these bones live?”That question is not only about bones. It is about hope. It is about whether the Holy Spirit can still bring life to the places we have quietly given up on.Bruce reminds us that the bones did not restore themselves and the valley did not fix itself. Life came when the breath of God entered what was dead.Today's invitation is to bring the dry place in your life before God, not with pressure or demand, but with openness. The same Spirit who raised Christ from the dead has not lost His power.Watch today's devotional here: BruceDownes.orgTo receive the Living in Step with the Holy Spirit eBook, visit: [https://brucedownes.org/ec/liswths_ebook/]
Today's and tomorrow's chapters in Isaiah (24 & 25) contain a powerful message about the climax of human history, yet they are not very often quoted. Chapter 24 ends with “for the LORD of hosts reigns on Mount Zion and Jerusalem and his glory will be before his elders.” The next chapter begins with the reaction of the righteous, “O LORD, you are my God, I will exalt your name for you have done wonderful things …” Humanly fortified cities have become ruins, never to be rebuilt (v.2) and the “cities of ruthless nations will fear you.” [v.3] God has “been a stronghold to the poor … to the needy in his distress” [v.4]Then a glorious scene opens up, “On this mountain the LORD of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food … he will swallow up death forever and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from all faces … Behold this is our God, we have waited for him … “ [v.6,8,9]. But go back, we jumped over nearly all of Ch. 24 – it speaks of what is to happen before this time of wonder and joy on the earth. It is an extremely frightening picture! Is it about to happen? The chapter started, “Behold the LORD will empty the earth and make it desolate …”The next verse indicates that all the buyers, sellers, lenders, borrowers, creditors and debtors will suffer. Verse 3 says, “The earth shall be utterly empty and utterly plundered; for the LORD has spoken this word”. Then we read “the earth lies defiled under its inhabitants” [v.5], “its inhabitants suffer for their guilt” [v.6] and then follows details of the ways in which they will suffer.Reading further – “The earth is utterly broken … is violently shaken … its transgression lies heavily upon it and it falls and will not rise again” [v.19,20]. This is symbolic language of the heavens and the earth (rulers and people) that now exist being destroyed. But later in Isaiah we will come across a wonderful vision, for God says, “For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth, and the former things shall not be remembered or come into mind. But be glad and rejoice forever in that which I create; for behold I create Jerusalem to be a joy … my chosen shall long enjoy the work of their hands.” [Ch.65 v.17,18,22] Will you behold these things?
Read Online“Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be handed over to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death and hand him over to the Gentiles who will mock him, spit upon him, scourge him, and put him to death, but after three days he will rise.” Mark 10:33–34How often do we fail to grasp the suffering of others, consumed instead by our own concerns? This was the struggle of the Twelve as Jesus prepared to endure His Passion. Today's Gospel presents the third time Jesus clearly told them about His Passion and Death, yet they still didn't get it.After Jesus revealed His Passion for the first time, “Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.” In the presence of the other disciples, Jesus responded, “Get behind me, Satan. You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do” (cf. Mark 8:31–33). The second time Jesus revealed His Passion they “did not understand the saying, and they were afraid to question him.” Instead, they engaged in a childish conversation, “discussing among themselves on the way who was the greatest” (cf. Mark 9:30–37).Today's Gospel, presenting the third time Jesus revealed His Passion, depicts a similar scenario. Jesus is very explicit: In Jerusalem, He “will be handed over to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death and hand him over to the Gentiles who will mock him, spit upon him, scourge him, and put him to death, but after three days he will rise.” Once again, despite the seriousness of Jesus' revelation, James and John immediately ask Jesus, “Grant that in your glory we may sit one at your right and the other at your left” (Mark 10:37). The Apostles were so consumed with their own ambitions that they failed to grasp the gravity of Jesus' words and were unable to offer Him the charity of empathy.Fortunately for them—and for us—Jesus had perfect patience. He understood their weaknesses and showed mercy. Humanly speaking, the disciples could have offered Him the charity of human empathy and compassion, walking more firmly with Jesus toward His agony and death, but they were unprepared and unable to do so.While the Apostles failed to console Jesus, His mother consoled His Sacred Heart. With her Immaculate Heart in perfect union with His, the Blessed Mother modeled perfect empathy as she pondered her Son's life in her heart and stood faithfully at the foot of the Cross. She walked with Jesus every step of the way. Her love consoled Him even as the Twelve failed to do so. The Blessed Mother teaches us how to accompany, with love and presence, those who suffer.We must see ourselves in the Apostles, listening to Jesus share news of His Passion. As we consider their apathy and lack of understanding, we should seek the grace of a loving and empathetic heart by seeing our Lord present in those around us, especially family, who carry heavy burdens. This grace will enable us to be attentive to those burdens and better imitate our Blessed Mother who consoled the heart of her Son. Though the Apostles initially failed in this mission, they were learning and growing. Empowered by the Holy Spirit, they would later console others by sharing Christ's love and proclaiming His Passion with courage, especially as they lived it. Reflect today on Jesus' interaction with His Apostles. Learn from their shortcomings and be grateful for Jesus' patience. Pray for the grace of an empathetic heart, for this virtue enables us to console the Heart of Christ by sharing in His Passion with attentiveness and compassion. In doing so, we imitate the perfect love of the Blessed Mother, who teaches us how to truly love. My patient Lord, though You desire to fully share Your life and Passion with me, I often fail to be attentive and to see You in those around me. Grant me the grace to meet You in Your sufferings, and fill my heart with the charity of human empathy, especially for those I am called to love. May I learn from the weakness of the Apostles and the perfect love of Your Blessed Mother, imitating her unwavering love for You and for all. Jesus, I trust in You.Image: Jesus and his Disciples on the Sea of Galilee By Carl Oesterley Source: Free RSS feed from catholic-daily-reflections.com — Copyright © 2026 My Catholic Life! Inc. All rights reserved. This content is provided solely for personal, non-commercial use. Redistribution, republication, or commercial use — including use within apps with advertising — is strictly prohibited without written permission.
The CEO of Humanly which just raised $25M for its AI hiring software stops by to talk about the new funding, what's next and how they are using AI to help you hire. LINK: https://www.hrtechnologywire.com/press-releases/humanly-raises-25m-series-b-to-help-companies-hire-faster-retain-and-stay-fully-staffed Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
In just 350 years, Christianity spread from a small, unimpressive band of ordinary men on the edge of the Roman Empire to millions of believers across the empire itself. Humanly speaking, it made no sense. The disciples lacked power, education, influence, and status. Yet the church grew with astonishing speed, just as Jesus promised it would. Christ declared that he would build his church, that the gates of hell would not prevail against it, and that his witnesses would carry the gospel to the ends of the earth. Acts shows us that this explosive growth was no accident—it was the fulfillment of Christ's promise that: the gospel is unstoppable.
THIS WEEK IN REC TECH is sponsored by https://www.dalia.co/ SEATTLE — May 21, 2026 — Humanly, the AI hiring platform for hourly, frontline, and high-volume recruiting, today announced $25 million in Series B funding. https://hrtechfeed.com/humanly-raises-25m-series-b-to-help-companies-hire-faster-retain-and-stay-fully-staffed/ NEW YORK — Saile, a physician-founded workforce platform targeting the bureaucratic bottlenecks of healthcare staffing, has emerged from stealth mode with $2.2 million in pre-seed funding. https://hrtechfeed.com/healthcare-staffing-platform-lands-2-2m/ LONDON — RemotePass, the global employment, payroll, and spend platform, has raised $17.4 million in Series B funding led by the EBRD Venture Capital, with participation from 500 other investors https://hrtechfeed.com/eor-platform-raises-17-4m-series-b/ MINNEAPOLIS — Match2, the platform powering the Universal Candidate Profile™, today announced its integration with the Phenom Marketplace… This partnership brings Match2's Universal Candidate Profile™, Direct Talent Network™ (DTN), and Talent Connector™ platform into the Phenom hiring ecosystem https://hrtechfeed.com/match2-joins-phenom-marketplace/ Contrario announced its official launch. The platform helps companies at every stage hire faster by combining expert recruiters with AI agents that take on the operational work. https://hrtechfeed.com/new-hr-tech-contrario-juicebox/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Matthew 19:23-26 (from the Archive)New Living Translation23 Then Jesus said to his disciples, “I tell you the truth, it is very hard for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. 24 I'll say it again—it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of God!”25 The disciples were astounded. “Then who in the world can be saved?” they asked.26 Jesus looked at them intently and said, “Humanly speaking, it is impossible. But with God everything is possible.”Music: "Rest in the Shadow" by Julian & Melissa Wiggins,Used with permission.
I just got back from the Customer Alpha event that was part of the broader FTT Embedded Finance, Payments, and Future Identity event, put on by VC Innovations. It was the first time I've spoken publicly about my concept of THE UN-WOW, focusing our efforts more on everyday mundane experiences rather than transformative metamorphic experiences. There is more to it than that, so stay tuned for updates as I work on a book on THE UN-WOW. While in London, I was able to go to the Tate Modern Art Museum. This was quite the shift after visiting museums in Florence with all of the Renaissance representational art. One of the interesting differences between the two is that the art in Florence often was made for patrons who were commissioning artwork, which ultimately was made to please those patrons. The art in the Tate often was made by artists who were trying to please themselves using art as a statement. As a result, the artists' statements became a key piece of looking at and understanding what the art was meant to represent and the response it was hoping to create. Regardless of whether sponsored representational or abstract and surreal, through art one can give external voice to one's internal dialogue to create a social experience. On today's episode of Experience by Design podcast, I welcome Ali Fawkes, the Head of Social Innovation at the social design firm Humanly. “Humanly is an award-winning design studio specializing in human-centered design for social impact.” On their website, they continue to describe themselves as, “specialising in inclusive, creative and participatory research and design with seldom-heard and underrepresented groups.” I came to learn about Ali and Humanly through a paper she co-authored on “Co-designing the Future of Respiratory Healthcare” in the journal CoDesign - the International Journal of CoCreation in Design and the Arts, detailing their work and approach. Ali is a self-described “art kid,” who found an outlet for her own voice. She went on to get a degree in Fine Art from the University of Kent, as well as additional certifications and degrees in Secondary Art and Special and Inclusive Education from the University of Cambridge. Ali describes co-design efforts she did with students during her work as a secondary school art teacher and educator in schools whose students had special needs. She describes her journey from that rewarding work to working with Humanly. We discuss how being an outsider with little knowledge about a setting or industry can be a real gift to having open eyes and ears to learn from people who are often not listened to. Ali discusses the ethical considerations and methodologies involved in working with underrepresented groups, emphasizing the importance of truthful representation and co-design approaches. We also discuss the importance of her artistic background as a source of challenging norms and disruption, leading to innovative approaches. And if doing social design and impact isn't enough heavy lifting, Ali also participates in strongperson competitions, lifting very heavy things and sometimes having to carry them across distances. Which is not unlike trying to lift complex problems and carry solutions forward. I always love good art talk on Experience by Design, and especially when it is connected to social impact. Ali Fawkes on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alifawkes/ Humanly: https://www.designhumanly.com/ “Co-designing the Future of Respiratory Healthcare”: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15710882.2025.2603298
Hallowed Be Your Name Learning to Pray with Wonder, Confidence, and Peace Jesus does something deeply intentional in the Lord's Prayer. Before He teaches His followers to ask God for anything, He teaches them to remember who God is. Prayer is not meant to begin with panic, requests, or anxiety—it begins with worship. Coleton explains that when Jesus says, “Hallowed be Your name,” He is teaching us to fill our minds and hearts with the greatness, faithfulness, and power of God before we ever bring Him our needs. This message is an invitation to become people who truly pray—not mechanically, not cautiously, but with boldness, awe, confidence, and trust. “Our Father in Heaven” — Remember Who You're Talking To Matthew 6:9–13 “This, then, is how you should pray: ‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name…'” Coleton begins by reminding the church why this prayer series matters so much to him personally. About ten years ago, he began pursuing a deeper prayer life because he wanted prayer to become more than a religious duty—he wanted to love it. During that journey, one quote changed the way he viewed prayer forever. Quote “Satan dreads nothing but prayer. His one concern is to keep the saints from praying. He fears nothing from prayerless studies, prayerless work, prayerless religion. He laughs at our toil, he mocks our wisdom, but he trembles when we pray.” — Samuel Chadwick That quote helped Coleton realize why prayer often feels difficult. The enemy is not intimidated by human strength, intelligence, or activity. He trembles at the power of God accessed through prayer. Prayer matters because God moves through it. Last week's focus in the series was the phrase “Our Father in heaven.” Jesus first teaches us that prayer begins by remembering who we are talking to: not a distant force, but a loving Father who welcomes His children. Now Jesus takes us one step further. “Hallowed Be Your Name” — Prayer Begins with Worship Coleton explains that “hallowed” means to treat God's name as holy, weighty, glorious, and worthy of worship. Quote “‘Hallowed be your name' means ‘let [your name] be regarded as holy.' It is not so much a petition as an act of worship; the speaker, by his words, exalts the holiness of God.” — Tremper Longman III Quote “Hallowing is an active kind of praying—honoring, adoring, and naming the greatness of God. While ‘Our Father' is a reminder of God's intimacy; ‘hallowed' is a reminder of His incomprehensible greatness.” — Tyler Staton Coleton explains that hallowing God's name looks like: Saying what is true about God Remembering what He has done Repeating what He has promised Declaring what is possible with Him This kind of prayer fills the heart with worship before requests are ever made. The Psalms Show Us What Hallowing Looks Like Psalm 44 — Remembering God's Power Scripture “With your hand you drove out the nations and planted our ancestors… it was your right hand, your arm, and the light of your face…” — Psalm 44:2–3 The psalmist spends enormous time recounting God's past faithfulness. He talks about victories God gave, enemies God defeated, and promises God fulfilled. Coleton points out something fascinating: much of this prayer is telling God things He already knows. Why? Not because God needs reminding—but because we do. We forget who He is. We forget what He has done. We forget His power, His promises, and His faithfulness. Hallowing God's name recenters the soul. 1. Hallowing His Name Expands Our Vision of What Is Possible One of the main effects of worshipful prayer is that it stretches our faith. Quote “The wonderful thing about praying is that you leave a world of not being able to do something and enter into God's realm where everything is possible. He specializes in the impossible.” — Corrie ten Boom Coleton says many Christians pray extremely safe prayers: “Keep them safe.” “Help them have a good day.” “Bless this meal.” Those prayers are not wrong—but if we truly believe we are speaking to the God of the impossible, why do we so rarely ask Him for impossible things? Hallowing His name enlarges our imagination for what God can do. Hezekiah's Prayer — Worship Before Deliverance Scripture 2 Kings 19:14–19 King Hezekiah is surrounded by an enormous Assyrian army. Humanly speaking, defeat seems certain. But notice how he prays: “Lord, the God of Israel… you alone are God over all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth…” Before asking for rescue, Hezekiah hallows God's name. He reminds himself that Assyria may be powerful, but God rules every kingdom on earth. Only after worship does he ask for deliverance. Coleton explains that worship gave Hezekiah courage to pray boldly in an impossible situation. The Apostles in Acts 4 — Worship Produces Boldness Scripture Acts 4:24–30 After Peter and John are arrested and threatened, the disciples gather to pray. What is shocking is what they don't pray for. They do not pray for safety. They do not pray for persecution to stop. Instead they pray: “Enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. Stretch out your hand to heal and perform signs and wonders…” Why? Because they began by hallowing God's name. They remembered that God is sovereign, powerful, and able to use evil for good. Worship gave them courage. Even Jesus Prayed This Way Scripture Mark 14:36 “Abba, Father… everything is possible for you.” In Gethsemane, Jesus Himself begins by declaring what is true about the Father: everything is possible for Him. Coleton emphasizes that hallowing God's name even led Jesus to pray honestly and boldly. Hallowing Changes the Way We Pray Coleton gives vivid examples of what this can look like in everyday life. Instead of praying weak, hopeless prayers, we pray with remembrance: “You are the God who split the Red Sea—make a way for me.” “You heard Hannah's prayer after years of waiting—hear mine too.” “You turned Saul into Paul—change this person's heart.” “You used evil for Joseph's good—redeem this painful situation.” Hallowing God's name teaches us to pray according to God's character and history. Asking Big Things Honors God Quote “Our God is so good, gracious, and powerful that we can never ask or assume too much of him. We don't offend Him with large requests; we offend Him with small ones!” — J.D. Greear Coleton shares the story of Alexander the Great generously granting a soldier's extravagant request because the request honored both his wealth and generosity. In the same way, bold prayer honors God because it assumes He is both powerful and good. 2. Hallowing His Name Produces Peace, Rest, and Confidence Hallowing God's name does not only increase boldness—it also calms fear. Psalm 46 — Worship Leads to Fearlessness Scripture “God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.” — Psalm 46:1 Then comes the result: “Therefore we will not fear…” — Psalm 46:2 The psalmist's peace flows from remembering who God is. Coleton explains that worship anchors the soul in unstable moments. Psalm 23 — David's Confidence Came from God's Character Scripture “The Lord is my shepherd…” Outcome: “I lack nothing.” Scripture “You are with me…” Outcome: “I will fear no evil.” David's peace was connected to his remembrance of God's presence and care. Coleton and Rainey's Story of Fear and Faith Coleton shares a deeply personal moment when someone falsely accused him and tried to get him fired. Sitting in the car devastated, he and Rainey began hallowing God's name together. They remembered: God sustaining their long-distance relationship God healing their relationship during difficult seasons God opening ministry doors unexpectedly God never once failing them As they remembered God's faithfulness, peace slowly replaced fear. Their conclusion became: “If God has been faithful before, He will be faithful again.” And God ultimately took care of them. Hallowing God's Name in Real Life Coleton gives practical examples of how worship reshapes fear: When Facing Enemies God used Saul's attacks to prepare David for kingship. No enemy can stop God's plan. When Struggling with Sin God promises grace greater than our failures. Scripture “As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us.” When Worried About Provision Jesus said the Father cares for birds and flowers—and values His children far more. When Life Feels Chaotic God still reigns over nations and history. When Facing Death Jesus transformed death from ultimate loss into the doorway to eternal life. Hallowing His name teaches believers to trust God in every circumstance. Jesus Prepares Us Before We Ask Coleton points out something powerful in the Lord's Prayer: Jesus has not told us to ask for anything yet. Before requests come: We remember He is Father. We remember He is holy. We remember His power. We remember His faithfulness. Only then are we prepared to pray boldly and trustingly. Practical Ways to Practice Hallowing His Name 1. Begin Prayer with Worship Coleton encourages using worship music to shape the heart before praying. Songs mentioned: “Good Plans” — Red Rocks Worship “Same God” — Elevation Worship “Won't Stop Now” — Elevation Worship “Do It Again” — Elevation Worship “I Believe” — Charity Gayle “The Truth” — Megan Woods “Don't Fight Alone” — Jon Reddick 2. Remember God's Promises in Scripture The Bible teaches us what God has done before so we can trust what He will do again. Coleton emphasizes that Scripture fuels confident prayer. 3. Remember God's Faithfulness in Your Own Life Reflect on: Ways God provided Times He protected Seasons He healed Moments He restored Remembering past faithfulness strengthens present trust. 4. Practice Gratitude Coleton references One Thousand Gifts and how gratitude journals helped cultivate trust in God's faithfulness. The more we notice God's goodness, the easier it becomes to trust Him for impossible things. Closing Challenge Quote “Powerful prayer begins with adoration.” — Tyler Staton The heart of this sermon is simple but transformative: Jesus wants His people to pray with power. And powerful prayer begins by hallowing the name of God—remembering who He is, what He has done, and what is still possible with Him. Discipleship Group Questions Why do you think Jesus teaches us to worship before asking for things in prayer? How could that reshape your prayer life? What are some “safe prayers” you tend to pray? What impossible or faith-filled prayers might God be inviting you to begin praying? Which story or example from this sermon encouraged you the most personally, and why? Where have you seen God's faithfulness in your own past? How can remembering those moments strengthen your trust in your current season? What practical step can you take this week to begin “hallowing His name” more intentionally in prayer? Culture of Gospel Share this with someone in your life who doesn't know Jesus Christianity is not about pretending to be strong—it's about discovering that there is a God so loving, powerful, and faithful that you can bring Him your impossible situations and your deepest fears. Jesus teaches us that prayer is not talking into the dark, but speaking to a Father who hears, cares, and still changes lives today.
Andrew and I talk about his early work on the Christian mystical tradition, as well as basic problems with much historical theology. We also discuss the relation of the divine and human in Cyril, Gregory Nazianzen, Dionysius, Maximus, and Rowan Williams' Christ, the Heart of Creation. I recorded this last summer, but unfortunately we had a number of technical issues. Only recently, David+ Harvey was able to make a listenable version. The audio is still hard to follow at times, but what Andrew says is too good not to share. The recording of the first part of the interview didn't work at all, so this picks up mid-conversation. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit cewgreen.substack.com/subscribe
Buckle up, HR tech nerds, because the boys are back to save you from your own snooze-fest industry. On this episode of HR's Most Dangerous Podcast, Joel and Chad are diving headfirst into the chaotic vibes of 2026. They kick things off with a wild ride through the future—from the engineering feat of cleaning toilets on the Artemis moon missions to the "side hustle seduction" of the AI training gold rush. While platforms like Handshake and Mercor see revenues skyrocket, the big question remains: are experts actually mentoring AI, or just training their own replacements? The cynicism stays high as the duo tackles the latest drama from Silicon Valley elites, including Molotov cocktails at Sam Altman's house and Mark Zuckerberg's creepy AI twin. They dig into the "existential threat" AI poses to Gen Z, who are using the tech weekly but fear it's gutting their wages and killing their creativity. On the industry front, they break down Humanly's acquisition of Anthill, questioning if this is a masterstroke in the frontline workforce game or just a high-speed fire sale. Expect the usual blend of sharp analysis, 90s music nostalgia, and enough dad jokes to make you regret your career choices. Chapters 00:00 - Introduction to the Podcast and Current Events 03:00 - Reflections on Space Exploration and Sports 05:58 - Oasis and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame 09:55 - Candidate Fraud and AI Training Market 14:58 - The Future of AI and Human Involvement 21:47 - The Future of AI and Human Interaction 24:21 - Silicon Valley's Controversial Figures 27:43 - The Impact of AI on Jobs and Society 35:10 - Generational Perspectives on AI 41:14 - Humanly's Strategic Acquisitions and Market Positioning
The Shred is a weekly roundup of what's making headlines in the world of employment. The Shred is brought to you today by Jobcase.
The whole company numbered 42,360… (Ezra 2:64). Does that pique your curiosity? Do you want more information? This does not seem like much of a text for a devotional, "The whole company numbered 42, 360..." Stay with me for a moment. The book of Ezra is concerned with telling how the people of Israel returned to Jerusalem from the Babylonian captivity to rebuild the temple of God. The story recounts the challenges this community faced in the return and the rebuilding project. One of the first challenges was to ensure that those returning were descendants of Abraham and Sarah. Ezra 2 is a list of names of those who could trace their ancestry back. The list includes only men and totals 28,529. Add some women and children and the total Israelite returnees are 42,630. But why highlight this? Well, for two reasons. First, it tells us that God is true to his word. God had warned Israel that if they walked away from him, he would return the favour. If his people insisted on rejecting him, he would reject them. Moses warns, "The Lord will scatter you among the peoples, and only a few of you will survive among the nations to which the Lord will drive you" (Deuteronomy 4:27). God fulfilled this warning. Israel insisted on worshipping other gods. And so, the Lord scattered them, only, 42 630 people returned. How decimated was Israel? When they entered the land under Joshua, the number of men was 601 730 (Numbers 26:44). From 600 000 men to 28, 500. That's a huge reduction. This brings us to the second reason for paying attention to this abysmally small number of returnees. Humanly speaking, Israel doesn't have a chance. The task before her is too large, the obstacles too insurmountable. But that is the point. It reminds us of something that keeps happening in the biblical story. Folks like Sarah, Hannah and Elizabeth were barren when they became pregnant with important people. The apostles had had no formal education, and yet they had the courage, wits and intellect to go head-to-head with the best of the Jewish establishment. You see, God can take nothing and make something wonderful out of it. This is something the church always needs to remember. God does not need large numbers or highly skilled people. Israel returned from Babylon greatly deduced in every way. Yet, she was still God's people. God still used her to accomplish his purposes. Jesus said to his disciples that he will build his church. And he has. You may not have much to offer God. But that doesn't matter. He can still use you for his kingdom. Trust him. As you journey on, go with the blessing of God: May the peace of the Lord Christ go with you, wherever he may send you. May he guide you through the wilderness, protect you through the storm. May your day end with rejoicing at the wonders he has shown you. May you rest in his provision as he brings night, and then new dawn.
La Porta | Renungan Harian Katolik - Daily Meditation according to Catholic Church liturgy
Delivered by Gladys from the Parish of Saint Gabriel in the Diocese of Bandung, Indonesia. Acts of the Apostles 4: 23-31; Rs psalm 2: 1-3.4-6.7-9; John 3: 1-8.THE HOLY SPIRIT WHO IS NOT BOUND The theme for our meditation today is: The Holy SpiritWho Is Not Bound. The Early Church was born in a situation that was not easy.Jesus' apostles and disciples faced pressure, threats, and even detention fromreligious leaders who tried to stop their movement. Humanly speaking, it couldmake them afraid and retreat. However, the Holy Spirit that had been breathedout by the risen Jesus worked in a way that no human force could shackle. Themore they were pressed, the more real was the work of the Holy Spirit that movedthem to continue proclaiming the joyful news of Christ's resurrection. When Peter and John were released from prison, theywere reunited with the other disciples. They did not propose any politicalstrategies or seek humanitarian protection. They prayed. It was not a prayerfilled with fear, but a prayer that asked for courage to remain faithful. Andas they prayed, the place swayed, and they were all filled with the HolySpirit. From that experience, they arose with new courage to proclaim the risenJesus. This event shows that the Holy Spirit cannot be confined, cannot be stopped,and cannot be limited by prison walls or human threats. This experience of the Early Church reminds us thatthe Holy Spirit is also at work in our lives today. We often feel afraid totestify our faith, afraid of facing challenges, or hesitating in living ourcalling to live life as followers of Christ. But Jesus had affirmed toNicodemus that a person must be born again in the Spirit. This new birth is away of life that is constantly being renewed every day. When we live in theSpirit, we are no longer overcome by fear, but rather by the hope and couragethat comes from the resurrection of Christ. There was a nurse in a hospital who might facedifficult situations: an angry patient, an anxious family, or exhaustion from aheavy task. She could feel tired and want to give up. But when she prayed andsurrendered her work to the Lord, she found a new strength to serve patientlyand lovingly. Without realizing it, her attitude became a testimony to others.Her presence brought calmness, and her service was a sign that the Holy Spiritwas working through her. The Holy Spirit is not shackled by fatigue ordifficult situations. The Holy Spirit works quietly but so real. He gives uscourage, hope when we are weak, and strength when we are on the verge of givingup. The Holy Spirit encourages us to walk in the light of Christ'sresurrection. The Holy Spirit is notbound by time, place, or circumstance. He continues to work in the Church andin every person who believes in Christ. When we live in the Spirit, we witnessChrist's resurrection in the midst of the world. Letus pray. In the name of the Father ... O Lord God, cleanse our hearts and mindsfrom all stains and darkness, that we may be worthy of the dwelling of the HolySpirit within each of us. Our Father who art in heaven... In the name of theFather ...
These episodes of #thePOZcast, live from Unleash 2026 in Las Vegas, are proudly brought to you by our friends at PIN. AI recruiting tools that automate candidate sourcing, screening, and scheduling across 850M+ profiles. Built for recruiters, agencies, and hiring teams. Learn more and check out a demo: https://www.pin.com/book-a-demo?via=adam-posner Thanks for listening, and please follow us on Insta @NHPTalent and www.youtube.com/thePOZcast For all episodes, please check out www.thePOZcast.com Matt Charney is a prominent voice in the recruiting, talent acquisition, and HR technology space. As Principal Analyst for Industry and Markets at Kyle & Co, he covers startups, M&A, the TA ecosystem, strategic partnerships, and capital markets, providing deep analysis on HR tech funding, market strategy, and industry dynamics. He also serves as Executive Editor at Mediabistro and as an Editor at ERE Media, where he produces sharp, insightful content on the future of work, AI in hiring, recruitment marketing, and emerging trends, served with a side of snark. With over 15 years of experience, Matt has held leadership roles including Editor in Chief and CMO at Recruiter.com, partner and Managing Editor at Recruiting Daily (which he helped grow into a leading HR media brand), Chief Content Officer at Allegis Global Solutions, and Head of Industry & Product Marketing at SmartRecruiters. He began his career as a corporate recruiter for companies like Walt Disney and Warner Bros. A graduate of the George Lucas School for Cinematic Arts at the University of Southern California, Matt also advises a variety of high growth HR Technology companies, including Humanly, Joveo, Dalia, Hiring Branch, HeyHire, Perfect Hire, Boon, Textio and Noota. ⏱️ Chapters 00:00 – Vegas banter & setting the stage Light opening, personality, and rapport—setting the tone for an unfiltered conversation. 02:00 – “What do you actually do?” Charney on connecting startups with capital—and “trolling” the industry as a side effect. 04:30 – From screenwriting to recruiting A non-traditional path from Hollywood to corporate recruiting leadership. 08:00 – Why recruiting is still the best job in the world The overlooked impact: changing lives through employment. 11:00 – Has recruiting actually changed? Spoiler: not really. The goal is still making hires—everything else is layered complexity. 14:00 – The truth about AI in TA tech AI as the latest buzzword cycle, echoing past trends like social recruiting and big data. 18:00 – The “AI anxiety” problem in HR Why TA leaders feel behind—and why no one is actually ahead. 21:00 – Should recruiters become AI experts? Charney pushes back: focus on business outcomes, not technical cosplay. 25:00 – Where AI actually works today High-volume hiring as the strongest real-world use case. 28:00 – Where AI breaks down Knowledge work, personalization, and the limits of automation. 31:00 – Tools that actually impress (Gamma, workflows, experimentation) Practical use cases that genuinely save time and effort. 35:00 – LinkedIn, data control, and the real business model Why LinkedIn doesn't need to “win” recruiting—and why it won't disappear. 40:00 – Why most new HR tech ideas fail Recycled concepts, inherent bias, and “Chatroulette for jobs.” 44:00 – The next disruption: consolidation & enterprise integration The future isn't more tools—it's fewer, integrated systems. 48:00 – VC, PE, and the business of HR tech Private equity driving consolidation while startups chase valuation. 52:00 – Buzzword bingo & industry frustrations AI, “human-centered,” and the marketing clichés that need to die. 55:00 – The 3 questions every vendor must answer How do you make recruiting easier? What do you do differently? How do you make money? 58:00 – Final thoughts: stop chasing trends Focus on outcomes, not tools. Recruiting is still about people.
"Peace Under Pressure" | Acts 23:12-35 Hostility toward the gospel is nothing new. In fact, in Acts 23 we find the apostle Paul at the center of a deadly plot—more than forty men have sworn an oath to kill him. Humanly speaking, it looks like Paul's mission may be coming to an abrupt end. But Luke wants us to see something deeper. What appears to be a threat to Paul is actually part of God's plan to move the gospel forward. Just a few verses earlier, the Lord had told Paul that he would testify about Him in Rome. And no conspiracy, no hostility, and no opposition will stop what God has determined to accomplish. Over the past couple of weeks we've been asking: How do Christians respond when the gospel is met with hostility? We've seen that we can share our testimony—how Christ transformed our lives. We've seen that we can build credibility through humility, forgiveness, and clarity about the heart of the gospel: that Jesus Christ died and rose again for sinners like us. This Sunday, we're going to see something even deeper: where our peace under pressure comes from. When circumstances are hostile, confusing, or even frightening, we can still have peace because God is not absent. He is actively at work, and He is firmly in control. He holds us fast. The Bible reminds us again and again that we only see a small part of what God is doing. Behind the scenes, His purposes are unfolding perfectly. That's why, after losing nearly everything, Job could say with confidence: “I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.” (Job 42:2) The question for us this morning is simple: Do we believe that? And if we do, how does that truth give us peace—even in the hardest situations? Looking forward to worshiping with you this Sunday as a church family. Our sermon is called, Peace Under Pressure. Will you join me in praying that God would come and do in our lives something powerful that fills us all with hope, courage, and peace? See you Sunday. Invite a friend
The Rich and the Kingdom of God Mark 10:17-31 New Living TranslationThe Rich Man17 As Jesus was starting out on his way to Jerusalem, a man came running up to him, knelt down, and asked, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” 18 “Why do you call me good?” Jesus asked. “Only God is truly good. 19 But to answer your question, you know the commandments: ‘You must not murder. You must not commit adultery. You must not steal. You must not testify falsely. You must not cheat anyone. Honor your father and mother.'” 20 “Teacher,” the man replied, “I've obeyed all these commandments since I was young.” 21 Looking at the man, Jesus felt genuine love for him. “There is still one thing you haven't done,” he told him. “Go and sell all your possessions and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” 22 At this the man's face fell, and he went away sad, for he had many possessions. 23 Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How hard it is for the rich to enter the Kingdom of God!”24 This amazed them. But Jesus said again, “Dear children, it is very hard to enter the Kingdom of God. 25 In fact, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of God!” 26 The disciples were astounded. “Then who in the world can be saved?” they asked. 27 Jesus looked at them intently and said, “Humanly speaking, it is impossible. But not with God. Everything is possible with God.” 28 Then Peter began to speak up. “We've given up everything to follow you,” he said. 29 “Yes,” Jesus replied, “and I assure you that everyone who has given up house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or property, for my sake and for the Good News, 30 will receive now in return a hundred times as many houses, brothers, sisters, mothers, children, and property—along with persecution. And in the world to come that person will have eternal life.31 But many who are the greatest now will be least important then, and those who seem least important now will be the greatest then.” What It This Scripture Really Saying? ✅ Simple Summary:This passage teaches that following Jesus requires wholehearted trust in God rather than in wealth, possessions, or status. True life in God's Kingdom comes through surrender, generosity, and faith. Here is How I Have Lived With The Themes In This Scripture 1. It's About TrustWho do you trust for:Your futureYour identityYour security 2. Selflessness vs Self-CenterednessKingdom living means:GivingForgivingServing others 3. How We Handle Money Reveals Our HeartMoney tests:TrustControlFaith Healthy actions that I use to remind/help me to trust and release control:Bless others (tip generously, help people)GiveAvoid debtPlan and budgetSave wisely (no get rich quick schemes) 4. Kingdom Living Expands Your LifeLiving for God moves us from:Self-focused life vs Kingdom-sized life 5. Gratitude and StewardshipAppreciate what you've been given and use it to bless others.
https://wels2.blob.core.windows.net/daily-devotions/20260302dev.mp3 Listen to Devotion The LORD had said to Abram, “Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you.” Genesis 12:1 Leaving Leaving is hard. You empty out your home until it’s nothing but vacant rooms. Once you’re on the road, the rhythms and routines of your old life cease to exist. And when you reach your destination, you know that, for a while, you and your family are going to be the new people—the people no one knows. When Abram had to leave with his family, however, his sources of stress were far worse. At that time, leaving your homeland meant more than leaving the place where you grew up. It meant leaving your sense of identity. It meant leaving those who knew you and your family through generations of shared stories, traditions, inside jokes. It meant leaving a place where you knew the people you could count on. Abram left all that—for what? Permanent camping. Living in a tent. Uncertainty. Unknowns. Always the stranger. Never fitting in. Humanly speaking, that’s what Abram had for the rest of his life. But leaving the familiar happens to you and me, too. We leave the carefree days of school, when easy laughter with friends was the norm. Many of us have had to leave a workplace where we felt appreciated. Through illness or injury or age, many of us have had to leave behind the days when our bodies were quick and strong. And when death strikes, many of us have had to leave behind those moments when we were never alone for the evening meal. Leaving is hard. Thankfully, Abram had the LORD. He had the One who would already be there, waiting for him, when his future arrived. He had the One who would be his constant. He had the One who would never change. He had the One who would keep his every promise. He had the One who would bring to Abram a kind of fulfillment and joy he could not even imagine. All this Abram possessed through faith in the promise of a Savior from sin. You and I have the same. Prayer: Lord Jesus, when I leave the familiar, remind me that you never leave. Amen. Daily Devotions is brought to you by WELS. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. ™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide.
https://wels2.blob.core.windows.net/daily-devotions/20260302dev.mp3 Listen to Devotion The LORD had said to Abram, “Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you.” Genesis 12:1 Leaving Leaving is hard. You empty out your home until it’s nothing but vacant rooms. Once you’re on the road, the rhythms and routines of your old life cease to exist. And when you reach your destination, you know that, for a while, you and your family are going to be the new people—the people no one knows. When Abram had to leave with his family, however, his sources of stress were far worse. At that time, leaving your homeland meant more than leaving the place where you grew up. It meant leaving your sense of identity. It meant leaving those who knew you and your family through generations of shared stories, traditions, inside jokes. It meant leaving a place where you knew the people you could count on. Abram left all that—for what? Permanent camping. Living in a tent. Uncertainty. Unknowns. Always the stranger. Never fitting in. Humanly speaking, that’s what Abram had for the rest of his life. But leaving the familiar happens to you and me, too. We leave the carefree days of school, when easy laughter with friends was the norm. Many of us have had to leave a workplace where we felt appreciated. Through illness or injury or age, many of us have had to leave behind the days when our bodies were quick and strong. And when death strikes, many of us have had to leave behind those moments when we were never alone for the evening meal. Leaving is hard. Thankfully, Abram had the LORD. He had the One who would already be there, waiting for him, when his future arrived. He had the One who would be his constant. He had the One who would never change. He had the One who would keep his every promise. He had the One who would bring to Abram a kind of fulfillment and joy he could not even imagine. All this Abram possessed through faith in the promise of a Savior from sin. You and I have the same. Prayer: Lord Jesus, when I leave the familiar, remind me that you never leave. Amen. Daily Devotions is brought to you by WELS. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. ™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide.
https://wels2.blob.core.windows.net/daily-devotions/20260302dev.mp3 Listen to Devotion The LORD had said to Abram, “Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you.” Genesis 12:1 Leaving Leaving is hard. You empty out your home until it’s nothing but vacant rooms. Once you’re on the road, the rhythms and routines of your old life cease to exist. And when you reach your destination, you know that, for a while, you and your family are going to be the new people—the people no one knows. When Abram had to leave with his family, however, his sources of stress were far worse. At that time, leaving your homeland meant more than leaving the place where you grew up. It meant leaving your sense of identity. It meant leaving those who knew you and your family through generations of shared stories, traditions, inside jokes. It meant leaving a place where you knew the people you could count on. Abram left all that—for what? Permanent camping. Living in a tent. Uncertainty. Unknowns. Always the stranger. Never fitting in. Humanly speaking, that’s what Abram had for the rest of his life. But leaving the familiar happens to you and me, too. We leave the carefree days of school, when easy laughter with friends was the norm. Many of us have had to leave a workplace where we felt appreciated. Through illness or injury or age, many of us have had to leave behind the days when our bodies were quick and strong. And when death strikes, many of us have had to leave behind those moments when we were never alone for the evening meal. Leaving is hard. Thankfully, Abram had the LORD. He had the One who would already be there, waiting for him, when his future arrived. He had the One who would be his constant. He had the One who would never change. He had the One who would keep his every promise. He had the One who would bring to Abram a kind of fulfillment and joy he could not even imagine. All this Abram possessed through faith in the promise of a Savior from sin. You and I have the same. Prayer: Lord Jesus, when I leave the familiar, remind me that you never leave. Amen. Daily Devotions is brought to you by WELS. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. ™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide.
In this episode I explore the journey of self-discovery, emphasizing the importance of embracing our human flaws and the growth that comes from them. Let's discuss the impact of societal and personal conditioning on self-perception, the significance of self-forgiveness, and the necessity of repairing relationships. My goal is to encourage you to strive for the best selves while accepting that imperfection is a natural part of being human.Connect with me:Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/annamaluskitzmann/Breathe with me: https://www.tinyspacetobreathe.comPlant trees: https://onetreeplanted.org/Takeaways: *Allow yourself to be beautifully human.* We are all beautifully humanly flawed.* It's exhausting to aim for perfection.* We should love ourselves through our flaws.* It's okay to not be the best version of ourselves.* Sometimes growth lies in our messiness.* We put people on pedestals and get disappointed.* Being a good person means being a person in progress.* Forgiveness is key to repairing relationships.* Strive for the best version of yourself every day.Keywordsself-discovery, personal growth, human flaws, self-acceptance, forgiveness, emotional healing, life lessons, personal development, spirituality, self-loveDisclaimer: The content shared in this podcast is for educational and informational purposes only and is not intended as medical, psychological, therapeutic, legal, or professional advice. The host is not a licensed medical or mental health professional, and the information provided is not a substitute for professional care, diagnosis, or treatment.Always seek the advice of a qualified healthcare provider or other licensed professional with any questions you may have regarding a medical or mental health condition. Never disregard or delay seeking professional advice because of something you heard on this podcast.Participation in this podcast and any practices, suggestions, or reflections discussed is voluntary, and you assume full responsibility for your choices, actions, and results.Advertising & Endorsements:This podcast may include advertisements, sponsorships, affiliate links, or paid partnerships. Any views or opinions expressed are those of the host and guests and do not necessarily reflect the views of sponsors or advertisers. While products or services may be mentioned or recommended, these references do not constitute guarantees, endorsements, or claims of effectiveness. You are encouraged to do your own research and use your own judgment before purchasing or engaging with any product or service mentioned.
Jack Phillips was a senior radioman on the maiden voyage of the ill-fated Titanic. On that fatal night when two-thirds of her passengers and crew would die, Phillips actually received a message from a ship called the Masaba. That ship was reporting on a major ice field ahead and the message gave the coordinates where the Titanic could expect to encounter those icebergs. It was the place where just two hours later, the Titanic would, in fact, hit one of those icebergs. The message with the warning of what was ahead - would you believe it - didn't get delivered. Jack Phillips was really busy at the time - a lot of radio traffic - and he stuck the message on a spindle to be delivered sometime later, and it never was. That one decision would cost the lives of 1,500 people and the life of the radioman himself. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Deadly Silence." Life-saving information never delivered. That is a tragedy that has been repeated countless times, as followers of Jesus Christ fail to deliver the life-saving message God has given to them. The message of how His Son's death on the cross paid the penalty for our sin and made the way for our sin to be forgiven so we could go to heaven. But if those who know it never tell those who don't, lives are going to be lost forever. That is the deadly silence. If you belong to Jesus, you may not fully realize the reason you are where you are and the incredibly important role you play in the plans of God and in the eternal destiny of people you know. There's a story in the Bible that wonderfully illustrates your position in the lives of your family, your coworkers, and your neighbors. It's found in 2 Kings 5:1-3, and it's our word for today from the Word of God. The Bible says: "Now Naaman was commander of the army of the king of Aram. He was a great man in the sight of his master and highly regarded, because through him the Lord had given victory to Aram. Naaman was a valiant soldier, but he had leprosy." Okay, highly successful, very famous leader suddenly facing something bigger than he is - the fatal disease of leprosy. The story continues: "Now bands from Aram had gone out and had taken captive a young girl from Israel, and she served Naaman's wife. She said to her mistress, 'If only my master would see the prophet who is in Samaria (that was Elijah) he would cure him of his leprosy.'" Ultimately, General Naaman acts on that information. His body is healed and he opens his heart to Jehovah God. Someone close to him knew how he could be saved and she took the risk to point him to the only person who could help. Humanly speaking, she was working there because of something bad that had happened to her; she was captured by enemy soldiers. But she came to understand that she had been divinely positioned where she was to save a life there. So have you. God, not circumstances, has positioned you where you are so you can help save the lives of the people there by pointing them to your Jesus; the only one who can save them. Like the girl working as a servant in the home of a very important man, it's a risk to tell them how they can be cured of the cancer of sin and how they can live forever. You won't take that risk if you're thinking about yourself. You will take the risk if you realize that the greatest risk of all is that they will die without the information that could have helped them go to heaven with you. We can't be this close to them for so long and never tell them the life-saving information we know. Pray each day that God will give you natural opportunities to share what you know about Jesus. Ask God to show you how to approach each person, and even ask Him to give you the words to say. He's promised He would. Living a Christlike life in front of them is very important, but it's not enough. They'll never guess that Jesus died for them just cause you're a good person. You'll have to tell them that. You have the message that can save their life. To leave that message undelivered is unthinkable.
Jack Phillips was a senior radioman on the maiden voyage of the ill-fated Titanic. On that fatal night when two-thirds of her passengers and crew would die, Phillips actually received a message from a ship called the Masaba. That ship was reporting on a major ice field ahead and the message gave the coordinates where the Titanic could expect to encounter those icebergs. It was the place where just two hours later, the Titanic would, in fact, hit one of those icebergs. The message with the warning of what was ahead - would you believe it - didn't get delivered. Jack Phillips was really busy at the time - a lot of radio traffic - and he stuck the message on a spindle to be delivered sometime later, and it never was. That one decision would cost the lives of 1,500 people and the life of the radioman himself. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Deadly Silence." Life-saving information never delivered. That is a tragedy that has been repeated countless times, as followers of Jesus Christ fail to deliver the life-saving message God has given to them. The message of how His Son's death on the cross paid the penalty for our sin and made the way for our sin to be forgiven so we could go to heaven. But if those who know it never tell those who don't, lives are going to be lost forever. That is the deadly silence. If you belong to Jesus, you may not fully realize the reason you are where you are and the incredibly important role you play in the plans of God and in the eternal destiny of people you know. There's a story in the Bible that wonderfully illustrates your position in the lives of your family, your coworkers, and your neighbors. It's found in 2 Kings 5:1-3, and it's our word for today from the Word of God. The Bible says: "Now Naaman was commander of the army of the king of Aram. He was a great man in the sight of his master and highly regarded, because through him the Lord had given victory to Aram. Naaman was a valiant soldier, but he had leprosy." Okay, highly successful, very famous leader suddenly facing something bigger than he is - the fatal disease of leprosy. The story continues: "Now bands from Aram had gone out and had taken captive a young girl from Israel, and she served Naaman's wife. She said to her mistress, 'If only my master would see the prophet who is in Samaria (that was Elijah) he would cure him of his leprosy.'" Ultimately, General Naaman acts on that information. His body is healed and he opens his heart to Jehovah God. Someone close to him knew how he could be saved and she took the risk to point him to the only person who could help. Humanly speaking, she was working there because of something bad that had happened to her; she was captured by enemy soldiers. But she came to understand that she had been divinely positioned where she was to save a life there. So have you. God, not circumstances, has positioned you where you are so you can help save the lives of the people there by pointing them to your Jesus; the only one who can save them. Like the girl working as a servant in the home of a very important man, it's a risk to tell them how they can be cured of the cancer of sin and how they can live forever. You won't take that risk if you're thinking about yourself. You will take the risk if you realize that the greatest risk of all is that they will die without the information that could have helped them go to heaven with you. We can't be this close to them for so long and never tell them the life-saving information we know. Pray each day that God will give you natural opportunities to share what you know about Jesus. Ask God to show you how to approach each person, and even ask Him to give you the words to say. He's promised He would. Living a Christlike life in front of them is very important, but it's not enough. They'll never guess that Jesus died for them just cause you're a good person. You'll have to tell them that. You have the message that can save their life. To leave that message undelivered is unthinkable.
In this episode of the NeuroVeda podcast, we sit down with Sujatha Reddy, LPC, BC-TAM, BAMS, a deeply experienced mental health clinician and Ayurvedic practitioner whose work bridges ancient wisdom and modern therapeutic practice. Sujatha is a Licensed Professional Counselor in Colorado and Ohio, a Licensed Natural Medicine Facilitator in Colorado, a Board-Certified Traditional Ayurvedic Medicine practitioner, certified psychedelic-assisted psychotherapist, holosomatic breathwork therapist, and yoga therapist. With over 35 years of Ayurvedic practice in the U.S. and 25 years in the mental health field, she brings a rare depth of perspective to the conversation. She is the founder and executive director of Ayumind LLC and Heartland Wellness PLLC, and also owns a Humanly mental health franchise in Lakewood, Colorado.Together, we explore the Ayurvedic understanding of mental health as a metabolic and systemic process rather than a standalone diagnosis. Sujatha explains the concept of the koshas, the layers of self, and how disconnection across these layers contributes to anxiety, depression, and emotional dysregulation. She shares how the gunas shape our mental and emotional states, and how practices like breathwork, meditation, mantra, yoga therapy, and personalized Ayurvedic protocols can release stored trauma and restore balance. This episode offers a powerful look at truly integrative mental health care, blending Ayurveda, Western psychology, and psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy to address root causes rather than symptoms, while emphasizing the importance of resilience, community, and reconnection to self in healing.TakeawaysAyurveda views mental health as a metabolic disorder.The mind is interconnected with the body and spirit.Understanding the koshas helps in addressing mental health.Disconnection from self leads to anxiety and depression.Breathwork can release trauma stored in the body.The gunas influence our mental and emotional states.Personalized programs are essential for mental health.Holistic approaches integrate body, mind, and spirit.Ayurvedic practices can enhance resilience and well-being.Community and social engagement are vital for mental health.
What do you do when everything you planned falls apart?In this special 5-year celebration message, we look back at the story of Oasis Church. A story that was never supposed to work. A church plant launched during a global pandemic. Big dreams met impossible odds. Attendance dropped. Resources dried up. The future looked bleak.Humanly speaking, it was over.But God had other plans.This message is for anyone staring at an impossible situation. A diagnosis. A financial wall. A broken relationship. A calling that feels dead. Through the words of Jesus in Matthew 19:26 and powerful moments throughout Scripture, we're reminded of this truth: what looks impossible to us is never impossible for God.If you've ever done the math and realized it does not add up, this message is for you. If you need faith to believe again, this message is for you. If you need a reminder that God is still writing the story, this message is for you.Humanly speaking, it may look impossible.But with God, all things are possible.
Treasure Island, A Child's Garden of Verses - those are just some of the literary classics written by Robert Louis Stevenson. He must have had a way with words from the time he was a boy. Anne Graham Lotz tells of a night in his boyhood when his nanny just couldn't get him to bed. Young Robert just kept staring out the window, oblivious to her talking to him. Finally, she said, "Robert, what in the world are you looking at out there?" As she pulled back the curtain, she realized he was watching the lamplighter making his way down the street, lighting one street lamp after another. Young Robert Louis Stevenson saw something more. He said, "Look at that man! He's punching holes in the darkness!" I'm Ron Hutchcraft, and I want to have A Word With You today about "You Are the Light of Your World." What an awesome description of the reason God has placed you where you are! You're not there to shake your head and bemoan how dark it is where you work or go to school or whatever your environment. You're there to punch holes in the darkness! So, how are you doing on that so far? Well, let's listen to what Jesus said in Matthew 5:14-16, our word for today from the Word of God. If you belong to Jesus, He's including you in this. "You are the light of the world." Wow! Think of your personal world and people in your world. Jesus says you are their light. He goes on to say, "A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp or put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven." Look, we live in a pretty dark world, right. But it is not a world without light unless the Christian in a situation fails to punch holes in the darkness by living like Jesus would live there, treating people like Jesus would treat people there, and handling situations and temptations as Jesus would handle them. So many of Jesus' followers don't realize who they are - His personal representative in their personal world. You punch another hole in the darkness every time you show up with joy instead of gloom on your face, with good things to say instead of griping, every time you stop for someone who's struggling, when you consciously put someone else ahead of you, when you insist on taking the high road when it's tempting to cut corners, every time you weep with someone who's weeping, or you rejoice with someone who's rejoicing, and when you reach out to someone who's really been acting pretty unloveable. The lost folks around you probably won't be all that impressed with your don'ts or all the religious meetings you go to. No, they need to see meaningful differences in you because of Christ in you. But it isn't enough that they just see that you're different. They need to know why, or they'll never be able to get out of the darkness themselves. They need Jesus. See, He put you in their life so they could find out what Jesus did for them on the cross; so they could find out from someone who's living proof that Jesus is alive and how they, too, could have a life-changing relationship with Him. Have you told them about your Jesus yet? Humanly speaking, you may very well be their best chance at heaven - or maybe their only chance. They could watch you for the rest of your life and they're never going to say, "You know, Charlie's such a nice guy. I'll bet Jesus died on the cross for my sins." They're not going to figure that out. You have to tell them that. Every morning, before your Lord, tell Him and tell yourself, "I am the light of my world." And go out there, showing a harsh and lonely and self-serving world that there's another way to be. Defy the darkness wherever you go. Punch holes in the darkness with the brilliant light of Jesus Christ that lives in you!
Treasure Island, A Child's Garden of Verses - those are just some of the literary classics written by Robert Louis Stevenson. He must have had a way with words from the time he was a boy. Anne Graham Lotz tells of a night in his boyhood when his nanny just couldn't get him to bed. Young Robert just kept staring out the window, oblivious to her talking to him. Finally, she said, "Robert, what in the world are you looking at out there?" As she pulled back the curtain, she realized he was watching the lamplighter making his way down the street, lighting one street lamp after another. Young Robert Louis Stevenson saw something more. He said, "Look at that man! He's punching holes in the darkness!" I'm Ron Hutchcraft, and I want to have A Word With You today about "You Are the Light of Your World." What an awesome description of the reason God has placed you where you are! You're not there to shake your head and bemoan how dark it is where you work or go to school or whatever your environment. You're there to punch holes in the darkness! So, how are you doing on that so far? Well, let's listen to what Jesus said in Matthew 5:14-16, our word for today from the Word of God. If you belong to Jesus, He's including you in this. "You are the light of the world." Wow! Think of your personal world and people in your world. Jesus says you are their light. He goes on to say, "A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp or put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven." Look, we live in a pretty dark world, right. But it is not a world without light unless the Christian in a situation fails to punch holes in the darkness by living like Jesus would live there, treating people like Jesus would treat people there, and handling situations and temptations as Jesus would handle them. So many of Jesus' followers don't realize who they are - His personal representative in their personal world. You punch another hole in the darkness every time you show up with joy instead of gloom on your face, with good things to say instead of griping, every time you stop for someone who's struggling, when you consciously put someone else ahead of you, when you insist on taking the high road when it's tempting to cut corners, every time you weep with someone who's weeping, or you rejoice with someone who's rejoicing, and when you reach out to someone who's really been acting pretty unloveable. The lost folks around you probably won't be all that impressed with your don'ts or all the religious meetings you go to. No, they need to see meaningful differences in you because of Christ in you. But it isn't enough that they just see that you're different. They need to know why, or they'll never be able to get out of the darkness themselves. They need Jesus. See, He put you in their life so they could find out what Jesus did for them on the cross; so they could find out from someone who's living proof that Jesus is alive and how they, too, could have a life-changing relationship with Him. Have you told them about your Jesus yet? Humanly speaking, you may very well be their best chance at heaven - or maybe their only chance. They could watch you for the rest of your life and they're never going to say, "You know, Charlie's such a nice guy. I'll bet Jesus died on the cross for my sins." They're not going to figure that out. You have to tell them that. Every morning, before your Lord, tell Him and tell yourself, "I am the light of my world." And go out there, showing a harsh and lonely and self-serving world that there's another way to be. Defy the darkness wherever you go. Punch holes in the darkness with the brilliant light of Jesus Christ that lives in you!
My Story Talk 35 Hope for the Future Throughout this series I have tried to show how, in the words of another David, God's goodness and mercy have followed me all the days of my life (Psalm 23:6). Of course, to give an account of every single day would be completely impossible, not least because my life is not over yet! So this, the fiinal talk in this series, will not be the end of my story. That's in the hands of the One who has loved and pardoned me, protected and provided for me, and who will guide my steps until his purpose for my life is finally accomplished. So I'll conclude my story with: a reminder of God's past blessings a record of my most recent activities, and my reason for hope for the future. A reminder of God's past blessings First, I'm so grateful for Christian parents who prayed for me before I was born, brought me up to believe in Jesus, taught me the way of salvation, encouraged me to believe that God answers prayer and that nothing is impossible with him. They showed me how much they loved me and taught me that God loves me too. So even through the terrible years of World War 2, I always felt loved and protected. I'm thankful, too, for the good teaching I received at Sunday School and Church and that I was educated at a time when the truths of the Christian faith were still widely accepted in our society, so that there was little conflict between what I learnt at school and what I was taught at home and at church. And that, when there was a difference of emphasis, my father was always able to give me an intelligent answer and show me why the Christian message made sense. As I have already mentioned, it was clear from my earliest years that I was academically gifted, and I'm grateful for the good education I received at Brentwood School which led by God's grace to my gaining admission to Oxford University. A hymn we often used to sing at Elm Pak Baptist was Take my life and let it be consecrated, Lord, to thee… and I remember feeling strongly about the verse where it says, Take my intellect and use every power as though shalt choose. For as long as I can remember I have always wanted to use whatever abilities God has given me to spread the good news about Jesus. But I was soon to learn that intellectual ability is not enough. Our battle is not primarily intellectual but spiritual, and when I first heard about the baptism in the Holy Spirit I was eager to receive. I'm so grateful for Laurie Dixon who shared his testimony with me, for Harold Young who laid hands on me when I first spoke in tongues, and for Pentecostal pastors like Alfred Webb and Richard Bolt who taught me so much about the things of the Spirit. In those early years I was also greatly influenced by the writings of some of the pioneers of the Pentecostal Movement, notably Harold Horton, Donald Gee, and Willie Burton. Much of my thinking on the baptism and gifts of the Holy Spirit has been founded on their teaching and I thank God for such men of God who were willing to break free from the cessationist traditions of their forebears to pursue the all the fulness of life in the Spirit. My experience at Oxford is a source of many happy memories. Coming only four weeks after I was baptised in the Spirit, my studies in Philosophy, Politics and Economics were, I confess, of relatively little importance to me. I was more interested in telling others about my Christian experience, witnessing about Christ to unbelievers and about the Holy Spirit to those who were already Christians. Of particular importance were the prayer meetings we held which led to the formation of the Students' Pentecostal Fellowship and which were, by the grace of God, part of the beginnings of the Charismatic Renewal. The years we spent in pastoral work, both at Colchester and Basingstoke led not only to the considerable growth of both those churches with souls being saved, bodies healed, and believers filled with the Holy Spirit, but also to a deeper understanding of the Word, a wider ministry beyond the local church, and a growing recognition within the Pentecostal Movement of the teaching gift the Lord had given me. For this I am truly thankful. Despite the rocky road to Mattersey which I described in an earlier talk, the 27 years we spent there were possibly the most productive period of my life. Life was not without its problems, but I thank God for every minute of it. The privilege of training hundreds of future church leaders and the joy of seeing the fruits of their ministry more than made up for the difficulties we faced. And the founding of EPTA led to an international ministry of Bible College teaching was an unexpected privilege which I could never have dreamed of when I felt God's call to ministry at the age of sixteen. The opportunity to share with so many students the importance of the baptism in the Spirit and spiritual gifts, illustrated by personal experience that was firmly rooted in biblical truth, and to present a balanced understanding of God's promises of healing were and still are sources of great joy and personal satisfaction. I'm even grateful today for the difficulties we faced only some of which I have outlined in this book. Of course, at the time we would have preferred not to have them, but as I look back I have no doubt that the Lord had a purpose in it all. That does not mean that I know precisely what that purpose was, but because I believe in an all-powerful God who loves me and gave himself for me, I have learnt that problems produce patience and ultimately deepen our faith. And it is by faith and patience that we inherit his promises. Which brings me to Eileen, my faithful wife, who devoted her life, first to serving Jesus, and then to serving his purpose for me as we journeyed through life together. The concluding words of the tribute to her that I wrote for her farewell service express well how I still feel: Although I am missing her already, I am full of joy, knowing that she is now where she wanted to be. Until we meet again in Heaven, I will remember her for her love, her faithfulness, her devotion, her patience, her sense of humour, her impact on our children's lives, her smile, her perseverance in suffering, her courage in face of adversity, and above all, her childlike trust in Jesus and her total commitment to him. I thank God for the precious gift of Eileen and the privilege of being her husband for sixty-two years. The Lord gives and the Lord takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. Eileen went to be with the Lord on 28th February 2024 and, although I still miss her every day, her departure to Heaven has meant that I am now free to resume some of the activities that were curtailed by the severe stroke she had in 2016. Which brings me to a brief statement of my most recent activities taken from my Christmas newsletter 2025. A record of my most recent activities A year ago, I was brought back onto the Leadership Team of our church and have been preaching and leading regularly every month. I have also been able to accept invitations to minister and attend at churches and conferences further afield. Here's a quick summary: o January – 2 days' teaching at Light and Life conference o March – was privileged to pay a tribute at Keith Monument's funeral in Nottingham o June – a weekend preaching at Walthamstow (when I also took the opportunity to visit Eileen's sister, Joan, and her husband, David) o July – participated in the EPTA conference held in Malvern at Regent's Theological College o September – attended the wedding of Jotham (grandson) and Chesca in Brighton o October – a weekend's preaching in Leyland followed by the Ocean Wings Conference in Llandudno where I was one of the speakers o November – attended Sarah's Graduation (MA in Applied Theology with Distinction) at Moorlands College and Christchurch Priory. So proud of all my wonderful children! o December – participated in the Charismatic and Pentecostal Leaders' Gathering in Northamptonshire As most of these activities involved long journeys, I was grateful for the comfort of my E-Class Mercedes, acquired earlier this year. I'm also grateful for the health and strength God gives me to do all this, although I confess I do get more tired than I used to! However, I do manage to swim 500 metres about twice a week. This has helped me lose a couple of stones in weight. Finally, I'm still writing and doing regular podcasts. All this year I've been writing my memoirs and am almost finished. Let me know if you'd like a copy. So, have a wonderful Christmas and may the Lord bless you and use you in the coming year. So thankful for Jesus – for all he has done and continues to do for us. With much love David My reason for hope for the future At the time of recording this I will be 87 years old in a few days' time. When she was in her eighties, referring to some of her aches and pains my mother used to say, Oh David, don't get old, to which I would reply, Why? You don't want me to die young, do you?! She knew of course that I was joking, and I, of course, fully understand what she was saying. Humanly speaking there isn't much to look forward to when you're old. So, what reasons do we have for hope for the future? As I conclude the story of my life so far, let me give you three reasons: My past experience of God's goodness My present observation of what he is doing My understanding of what the Bible says about our future. I shall say little about the first of these as all that have written so far has been a record of how God's goodness and mercy have followed me all the days of my life. Now it's enough to summarise all this by saying that God's goodness to me in the past informs my belief for the future. The God who has loved me, saved me, protected me, and provided for me throughout my life will not fail me now. My second reason for hope is my observation of what God is doing right now. I see this particularly in the lives of my children and grandchildren. Debbie, Sarah, and Jonathan are all faithfully serving the Lord and using the many gifts and talents God has given them. And the same is true of most of my grandchildren, four of whom are either recently, or soon about to be, married to wonderful Christian partners. I see in them the same passion to serve the Lord Jesus as Eileen and I have carried down through the years and know that this will continue when I am gone. But of course, what God is doing is far wider than just our family. There is a fresh expectation in the hearts of God's people as we see an increasing openness to the gospel among those we meet. The tide is beginning to turn. The apathy and antagonism that have for so long been prevalent in our society are being replaced, particularly among young people, by a genuine interest and desire to know more. Yes, we have every reason to hope. And finally, and most important of all, I have hope because of what the Bible says. One of my favourite verses is Romans 15:13, where Paul says: May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. Paul's prayer is that we should overflow with hope. Not just have hope, or even be filled with hope, but overflow. God wants us to have so much hope that it overflows to others! But how can we overflow with hope? The surrounding verses show us four main things. Two of these are found in verse 4: For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope. The first secret to having hope is endurance. However difficult our situation we must press on. One thing's for sure – if we give up, there is no hope. As Pastor Stan Hyde used to encourage us, we must keep on keeping on. But God has not left us to ourselves on this. He enables us to keep on hoping through the encouragement of the Scriptures. This happens in two ways. First, the Bible is full of examples of men and women who, like the heroes mentioned in Hebrews 11, endured despite great difficulty. And secondly, it gives us great promises and assurance of God's love – see the last few verses of Romans 8 for example. But it's not just the examples and promises in the Bible that give us hope. As we have already seen, we can overflow with the hope through the power of the Holy Spirit (v 13). A few verses later Paul goes on to connect the power of the Spirit with the power of signs and wonders (v19). Miracles give us hope. Nothing is impossible with God. Whatever our situation, God has the answer, and it may well be miraculous. But the power of the Spirit is not limited to miracles. It's manifested in fruit as well as gifts (Galatians 5:22-23). Sometimes God does not deliver us from our troubles, he delivers us in them. He fills us with joy and peace as we trust in him (v13 again). And in doing so he gives us hope. So the final key to overflowing with hope is trusting in the God of hope. We simply have to trust him. That his promises will be fulfilled. That he will bring us through. That he will perfect that which concerns us. And we can do that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures and having confidence in the power of the Holy Spirit. But what are we hoping for? Our ultimate hope is found in verse 12 where Paul quotes the prophet Isaiah: The Root of Jesse will spring up, One who will arise to rule over the nations; the Gentiles will hope in him We are waiting for the One who is to rule over the nations! We are waiting for that blessed hope – the glorious appearing of our great God and Saviour, Jesus Christ (Titus 2:13). Why do I have hope? Because Jesus is coming again! Every eye shall see him. Every knee shall bow before him. Every tongue will confess that he is Lord. He is coming to reign. He is coming to judge. He is coming to make all things new. He is coming to take us to be with him forever. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain. We will be like him because we shall see him! Glorious hope! All other hopes pale into insignificance. I'm so grateful that God's goodness and mercy have followed me all the days of my life and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Will you?
The Weapon of Worship: Learning from Jehoshaphat Thanksgiving Week Message Scripture: 2 Chronicles 20:1-30 Summary Following our seven-week "Suited Up" series on spiritual warfare, this Thanksgiving week message explores one of the most unusual and powerful weapons in spiritual battle: worship. Not just worship on Sunday morning when everything's going well, but worship in the trenches—worship when you're surrounded, outnumbered, and facing impossible odds. The story of King Jehoshaphat in 2 Chronicles 20 demonstrates how worship invites God to fight our battles for us. The Story: King Jehoshaphat ruled Judah during a time of relative peace. But one day, messengers came with terrifying news: three armies—Moab, Ammon, and others—were united and marching against Judah. They were outnumbered, outmatched, and out of time. Humanly speaking, the situation was hopeless. But what Jehoshaphat did next is one of the most remarkable displays of faith in Scripture, teaching us how to fight spiritual battles with the weapon of worship. Key Points: 1. When Facing Impossible Battles, Turn to God First Jehoshaphat's first response reveals his character. 2 Chronicles 20:3 says, "And Jehoshaphat feared, and set himself to seek the Lord, and proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah." Notice three things: First, he felt fear—the text doesn't hide this. Three armies were bearing down and he was terrified. But fear drove him TO God, not away from God. Second, he sought the Lord with determination and focus—this wasn't casual prayer but desperate, all-in seeking. Third, he called the nation to fast, recognizing this battle was too big for human effort. Jehoshaphat's prayer (2 Chronicles 20:6-12) is a masterclass in praying during impossible circumstances: He starts with WHO GOD IS: "You rule over all kingdoms. In Your hand is power and might." He recalls WHAT GOD HAS DONE: "You drove out the inhabitants. You gave us this land." He acknowledges THEIR HELPLESSNESS: "We have no power. We don't know what to do." He declares THEIR DEPENDENCE: "Our eyes are upon You." This is brilliant praying. Jehoshaphat doesn't deny the threat's reality, doesn't pretend they can handle it, doesn't give God suggestions. He simply reminds himself and the nation of God's character, God's past faithfulness, and their complete dependence on Him. The first step when facing impossible battles: Turn to God first, not as a last resort. 2. God Responds With a Promise and a Strategy After Jehoshaphat prayed, God responded through the prophet Jahaziel: "Do not be afraid nor dismayed because of this great multitude, for the battle is not yours, but God's. Tomorrow go down against them...You will not need to fight in this battle. Position yourselves, stand still and see the salvation of the Lord." God's message had three parts: A promise: "The battle is not yours, but God's"—one of the most important truths about spiritual warfare. When you're facing battles as God's child, you're not fighting alone. The battle ultimately belongs to God. Strange instructions: "You will not need to fight. Position yourselves, stand still"—go to the battlefield but don't fight? Just stand there? This made no sense militarily, but God's strategies rarely make human sense. Repeated reassurance: "Do not fear or be dismayed"—God knows fear is natural, so He repeats the command three times. Before they saw any evidence of victory, they worshiped (2 Chronicles 20:18-19). The armies were still coming. The threat hadn't changed. But they worshiped anyway. That's faith—not waiting until the problem is solved to give thanks, but giving thanks because God has promised to solve it. The next morning, Jehoshaphat did something audacious: "He appointed those who should sing to the Lord...as they went out BEFORE the army" (2 Chronicles 20:21). He sent worshipers to the front lines. Not warriors. Not weapons. Worshipers. The choir went first, armed with nothing but praise, singing about God's mercy while enemy armies bore down. When God makes you a promise, respond with worship—before you see it fulfilled. 3. Worship Invites God to Fight Your Battles Watch what happened when worship went to the front lines: "Now when they began to sing and to praise, the Lord set ambushes against the people of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir, who had come against Judah; and they were defeated" (2 Chronicles 20:22-23). When they began to sing and praise, God set ambushes. The three armies that had united against Judah suddenly turned on each other. By the time Judah's army arrived, the enemy was already destroyed. Judah didn't swing a single sword. They just worshiped, and God fought. The principle: Worship invites God's presence, and God's presence defeats the enemy. When you worship, you're declaring several truths: God's supremacy over your circumstances Your dependence on Him Your trust in His character Your confidence in His promises Every one of those declarations is an act of spiritual warfare. The enemy cannot stand in the presence of genuine worship because worship acknowledges the truth about who God is and who the enemy is not. How this works practically: When anxiety attacks, worship shifts focus from the problem to the Problem-Solver When bitterness takes root, worship reminds you of God's goodness and mercy When discouragement overwhelms, worship reorients perspective from temporary circumstances to eternal truth When temptation seems irresistible, worship reminds you that God's presence is more satisfying than sin Worship isn't just singing songs—it's declaring truth about God that drives out lies from the enemy. 4. Victory Through Worship Brings Abundant Blessing The story doesn't end with the enemy's defeat. When Judah came to the battlefield, they found the dead bodies of their enemies and "an abundance of valuables...more than they could carry away; and they were three days gathering the spoil" (2 Chronicles 20:24-25). Three days to collect the plunder. They went to battle empty-handed with only worship, and came home with more wealth than they could carry. They named the battlefield "The Valley of Berachah" (blessing) because that's what it became. They went to battle with worship. They came home with worship. And in between, God gave them victory and abundant blessing. When God fights your battles, the victory is complete and the blessing is abundant. When you fight in your own strength, even if you win, you're exhausted and barely surviving. But when God fights for you, you come out blessed, strengthened, and with more than you had before. The final result: "And the fear of God was on all the kingdoms of those countries when they heard that the Lord had fought against the enemies of Israel. Then the realm of Jehoshaphat was quiet, for his God gave him rest all around" (2 Chronicles 20:29-30). The Bottom Line: When you face impossible battles, worship is a weapon that invites God to fight for you. Jehoshaphat turned to God first in desperate prayer, believed God's promise before seeing the outcome, sent worship to the front lines, and watched God fight and give abundant blessing. This Thanksgiving, when battles come—and they will—send worship to the front lines. Declare God's character. Praise His faithfulness. Thank Him for past victories. Trust Him for present battles. Watch Him fight for you.
We really hope you are enjoying this week and the amazing story of Joseph. God had given him a strange, mystical gift of being ability to hear someone's crazy-sounding dream and be able to offer a credible interpretation that applied to the person's future. And would most certainly come true.After Pharaoh had a very strange dream and no one could tell him what it meant, he was finally made aware of Joseph and called him before the throne to hear the dream, this is in Genesis 41:15“I dreamed a dream,” Pharaoh told Joseph. “Nobody can interpret it. But I've heard that just by hearing a dream you can interpret it.” Joseph answered, “Not I, but God. God will set Pharaoh's mind at ease.”When the dust had settled after Joseph heard, interpreted, and offered solutions for all of Pharaoh's dreams, the ruler of Egypt made a surprising declaration to everyone, but most especially to Joseph:We pick up in verse 38Then Pharaoh said to his officials, “Isn't this the man we need? Are we going to find anyone else who has God's spirit in him like this?”So Pharaoh said to Joseph, “You're the man for us. God has given you the inside story—no one is as qualified as you in experience and wisdom. From now on, you're in charge of my affairs; all my people will report to you. Only as king will I be over you.”Every problem that humans threw at Joseph, God always in time provided a promotion for him. Ultimately, he became the second most powerful leader in the known world.This story is much like when Jesus told the disciples in Matthew 19:26: “Humanly speaking, it is impossible. But with God everything is possible.”God can overcome anything if we will simply place the circumstance in His hands. The handing-over can be very hard sometimes, because we feel out-of-control. But giving control of something we cannot control anyway to the God who is always in control will be the best decisions we make—every time. Like Joseph told Pharaoh: “It is beyond my power to do this, but God can …”Is there an impossible situation in your life right now that you can turn over to God?Let's pray: “Father, thank You that whatever happens, You can. What is impossible for me is always possible for You. What seems impossible to happen or not happen, You have control over. I submit my life, my purpose, my own need to be in control to You. As above, so below.”
Matthew 19:23-26New Living Translation23 Then Jesus said to his disciples, “I tell you the truth, it is very hard for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. 24 I'll say it again—it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of God!”25 The disciples were astounded. “Then who in the world can be saved?” they asked.26 Jesus looked at them intently and said, “Humanly speaking, it is impossible. But with God everything is possible.”Music: "Rest in the Shadow" by Julian & Melissa Wiggins,Used with permission.
Suffering as a Means of Spiritual Growth Sufferings (pathēma) encompass a broader category that includes pain, hardship, or affliction resulting from life in a fallen world, the hostility of others, or divine discipline. The word pathēma derives from paschō, meaning “to experience, suffer, endure…affliction.”[1] The word is frequently used in the New Testament to describe the sufferings of Christ as well as those of His followers (Phil 3:10). Peter wrote, “After you have suffered [paschō] for a little while, the God of all grace…will Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen, and establish you” (1 Pet 5:10). Suffering may come through persecution for righteousness (2 Tim 3:12), through physical weakness or limitation (2 Cor 12:7–9), or simply through the general consequences of living in a sin-cursed world (Rom 8:18–22). While trials test faith, sufferings train the soul through endurance, humility, and dependence upon God's sustaining grace. Paul's personal afflictions illustrate this reality well. Though he pleaded three times for relief from his “thorn in the flesh,” the Lord replied, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness” (2 Cor 12:8–9). Likewise, Joseph's prolonged suffering in Egypt, though marked by injustice and hardship, became the means by which God shaped his character and positioned him for blessing and service (Gen 37–50). The Hebrew counterpart to pathēma is עָנָה (ʿānâ), which means to “be bowed down, afflicted…be put down or become low.”[2] It is often used to describe the suffering of God's people under pressure (Ex 1:11–12; Deut 8:2–3) or the self-humbling that accompanies dependence upon the Lord (Lev 16:29, 31; cf. Jam 4:6; 1 Pet 5:6). Both pathēma andʿānâ express the spiritual principle that God uses adversity not to crush His people but to conform them to His character. Through suffering rightly endured, believers are drawn into closer fellowship with Christ, as Paul wrote, “that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings [pathēma]” (Phil 3:10). Categories of Suffering Scripture presents several categories of suffering in the believer's life, each serving distinct purposes within God's sovereign plan. Some suffering comes because of righteousness, as Paul wrote, “Indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted” (2 Tim 3:12). Peter echoes this when he states, “Even if you should suffer for the sake of righteousness, you are blessed” (1 Pet 3:14). To suffer for righteousness means God permits evil men to persecute the believer who is walking in His will (John 15:18–19; 2 Tim 3:12). Yet God blesses by supplying grace sufficient in the moment (2 Cor 12:9), and future reward at the judgment seat of Christ where faithful endurance will be recognized (1 Cor 3:12–15; 2 Cor 5:10). At times, suffering comes for the sake of testimony, advancing the gospel and glorifying God. Paul wrote, “Now I want you to know, brethren, that my circumstances have turned out for the greater progress of the gospel” (Phil 1:12). The “circumstances” Paul refers to are his imprisonment in Rome, which placed him under house arrest while awaiting trial before Caesar (Acts 28:16, 30).[3] There is also the category of shared suffering with Christ, as Paul longed “that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings” (Phil 3:10). These forms of suffering reveal God's sovereign use of adversity for His glory and the believer's growth. Apart from these, Scripture identifies two main forms of suffering that promote spiritual growth: corrective suffering, which restores the disobedient to fellowship, and perfective suffering, which refines the obedient toward greater maturity in Christ. Steven R. Cook, D.Min., M.Div. [1] Moisés Silva, ed., New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology and Exegesis (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2014), 666. [2] Francis Brown, Samuel Rolles Driver, and Charles Augustus Briggs, Enhanced Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1977), 776. [3] This was likely during his first Roman imprisonment (around A.D. 60–62). Though restricted, Paul was permitted to receive visitors and to preach and teach from his rented quarters (Acts 28:30–31). Paul had been falsely accused in Jerusalem, arrested, and after a series of hearings before Jewish and Roman authorities—including Felix, Festus, and Agrippa—he exercised his right as a Roman citizen to appeal to Caesar (Acts 25:11–12). This led to his voyage to Rome, where he endured shipwreck and eventually arrived under guard (Acts 27–28). Humanly speaking, imprisonment might have looked like a setback. His chains gave him opportunity to share Christ with the Praetorian Guard (Phil 1:13), Rome's elite soldiers, and word spread even into Caesar's household (Phil 4:22). Furthermore, his example emboldened other believers to speak the word of God without fear (Phil 1:14). In other words, the “circumstances” of Phil 1:12 were Paul's unjust arrest, Roman confinement, and looming trial. Yet, rather than hindering God's work, these very hardships became the platform for advancing the gospel, both among unbelievers in high places and among believers who gained courage from Paul's faithfulness.
1 Corinthians 10:23-33 The Principle of Sacred Liberty (vv. 23-24) Libertys reality Libertys range Libertys root (Psalm 24) The Exercise of Sacred Liberty (vv. 25-30) A clear conscience A careful compassion A considered conduct The Goal of Sacred Liberty (vv. 31-33) The glory of God The gospel of Christ More to Consider "Why should my strong conscience be judged by a brother's weak conscience? And what damage can there be in meat for which I have given thanks?" The answer is: regardless of what we do, be it eating or drinking, we must do it for God's glory and not just to please ourselves. Humanly speaking, it may seem wrong for a strong Christian to bow to a weaker brother, but this is what glorifies God. Making that weaker brother stumble into sin would disgrace the church and the name of Christ. There are only three groups of people in the world: the Jews, the Gentiles, and the church. God expects the church to seek to win Jews and Gentiles to the Lord. If a Christian lives to win souls, these questions about conduct will take care of themselves. It is the idle Christian, the carnal Christian, who frets over how far he can get involved with the world. When believers live to build the church and win the lost, they put first things first and glorify the name of Christ. Warren W. Wiersbe The principle which summarized Pauls response to the question of eating food offered as a pagan sacrifice was an application of the command to love God and neighbors. Christian behavior should be for the glory of God. Also it should build up the church of God by leading some to new birth (v. 33b) and others to maturity in the process of salvation (justification, sanctification, glorification; cf. 1:30). Christians should avoid behavior that would cause otherswhether Jews (cf. 9:20), Greeks (cf. 9:21), or the church of God to stumble (lit., fall; cf. 10:12). Lowery, D. K. (1985). 1 Corinthians. In J. F. Walvoord R. B. Zuck (Eds.), The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures (Vol. 2, p. 528). Victor Books. A man's worst difficulties begin when he is able to do as he likes. Thoman Huxley, "Address on University Education," Collected Essays, 1902, III, 236.
Facebook is bringing back its job board to Facebook Marketplace for users in the US with a focus on connecting young adults with local, entry-level job opportunities and part-time work. This move comes at a time of a slowdown in the job market and growing concerns over AI's impact on entry-level positions. The relaunch is happening more than two years after Meta phased out job listings in 2023. The announcement came here. https://recruitingheadlines.com/facebook-jobs-is-back/ NEW YORK – Deel, the leading global HR and payroll platform, today announced a $300 million strategic investment from new investor Ribbit Capital along with long-time Deel partners Andreessen Horowitz and Coatue Management and others… Deel's new valuation is $17.3 billion. he investment comes on the heels of what has been a record year of performance at Deel. September 2025 marked the company's third straight year of profitability and its first $100 million revenue month. Earlier this year, the company surpassed $1 billion in annual recurring revenue. Deel now serves 37,000+ businesses and 1.5 million workers across 150+ countries, processing $22 billion in payroll annually. https://hrtechfeed.com/deel-secures-300-million-in-series-e-funding/ Mega HR announced the launch of Megan, the first fully functional AI recruiter available directly inside Greenhouse. Hiring teams using Greenhouse can now invite Megan into their process the same way they would onboard any new teammate. Once added, she begins assisting instantly with screening, outreach, scheduling, interview documentation, and candidate communication. https://hrtechfeed.com/greenhouse-adds-ai-recruiter-tech-from-mega-hr/ Humanly has acquired Sprockets, Qualifi, and HourWork — the company announced on its blog. https://hrtechfeed.com/humanly-acquires-3-companies-including-qualifi/ Fama, the leading provider of social media screening for employers, today announced the launch of comprehensive YouTube screening, expanding its ability to surface workplace misconduct across the world's largest video platform. https://hrtechfeed.com/fama-becomes-the-first-to-screen-youtube-for-misconduct-at-scale/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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It's not enough to describe the world we live in, the world that was created as "perfect". Genesis 1 shows us at least three good things about this world - its real, it's ordered, and it's good. It's a home, and that is what is should feel like. That uncanny feeling that you don't belong can only get fixed with the stranger who made this place his home. A sermon on Genesis 1:3-25 on October 5th 2025
Faith of a Mustard Seed: Messages of faith Through challenges with M.S.
Podcast 353 Beyond anything humanly possible or natural Joyful! Evangelist Laverna Spain.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/faith-of-a-mustard-seed-messages-of-faith-through-challenges--4257220/support.
Faith of a Mustard Seed: Messages of faith Through challenges with M.S.
Beyond anything humanly possible or natural Author Evangelist Laverna Spain. Joyful! Evangelist Laverna Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/faith-of-a-mustard-seed-messages-of-faith-through-challenges--4257220/support.
On this episode, my guest is Stephen Jenkinson, culture activist and ceremonialist advocating a handmade life and eloquence. He is an author, a storyteller, a musician, sculptor and off-grid organic farmer. Stephen is the founder/ principal instructor of the Orphan Wisdom School in Canada, co-founded with his wife Nathalie Roy in 2010. Also a sought-after workshop leader, articulating matters of the heart, human suffering, confusions through ceremony.He is the author of several influential books, including Money and the Soul's Desires, Die Wise: A Manifesto for Sanity and Soul (2015), Come of Age: The Case for Elderhood in a Time of Trouble (2018), A Generation's Worth: Spirit Work While the Crisis Reigns (2021), and Reckoning (2022), co-written with Kimberly Ann Johnson. His most recent book, Matrimony: Ritual, Culture, and the Heart's Work, was released in August 2025. He is also involved in the musical project Nights of Grief & Mystery with singer-songwriter Gregory Hoskins, which has toured across North America, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand.Show Notes:* The Bone House of the Orphan Wisdom Enterprise* Matrimony: Ritual, Culture and the Heart's Work* The Wedding Industry* Romantic Sameness and Psychic Withering* The Two Tribes* The Roots of Hospitality* The Pompous Ending of Hospitality* Debt, And the Estrangement of the Stranger* More Than Human Hospitality* The Alchemy of the Orphan Wisdom SchoolHomework:Matrimony: Ritual, Culture, and the Heart's Work | PurchaseOrphan WisdomThe Scriptorium: Echoes of an Orphan WisdomTranscription:Chris: This is an interview that I've been wondering about for a long time in part, because Stephen was the first person I ever interviewed for the End of Tourism Podcast. In Oaxaca, Mexico, where I live Stephen and Natalie were visiting and were incredibly, incredibly generous. Stephen, in offering his voice as a way to raise up my questions to a level that deserve to be contended with.We spoke for about two and a half hours, if I remember correctly. And there was a lot in what you spoke to towards the second half of the interview that I think we're the first kind of iterations of the Matrimony book.We spoke a little bit about the stranger and trade, and it was kind of startling as someone trying to offer their first interview and suddenly hearing something [00:01:00] that I'd never heard before from Stephen. Right. And so it was quite impressive. And I'm grateful to be here now with y'all and to get to wonder about this a little more deeply with you Stephen.Stephen: Mm-hmm. Hmm.Chris: This is also a special occasion for the fact that for the first time in the history of the podcast, we have a live audience among us today. Strange doings. Some scholars and some stewards and caretakers of the Orphan Wisdom enterprise. So, thank you all as well for coming tonight and being willing to listen and put your ears to this.And so to begin, Stephen, I'm wondering if you'd be willing to let those who will be listening to this recording later on know where we're gathered in tonight?Stephen: Well, we're in... what's the name of this township?Nathalie: North Algona.Stephen: North Algona township on the borders, an eastern gate [00:02:00] of Algonquin Park. Strangely named place, given the fact that they were the first casualties of the park being established. And we're in a place that never should have been cleared - my farm. It should never have been cleared of the talls, the white pines that were here, but the admiralty was in need back in the day. And that's what happened there. And we're in a place that the Irish immigrants who came here after the famine called "Tramore," which more or less means "good-frigging luck farming."It doesn't technically mean that, but it absolutely means that. It actually means "sandy shore," which about covers the joint, and it's the only thing that covers the joint - would be sand. You have to import clay. Now, that's a joke in many farming places in the world, but if we wanted any clay, we'd have to bring it in and pay for the privilege.And the farm has been in [00:03:00] my, my responsibility for about 25 years now, pretty close to that. And the sheep, or those of them left because the coyotes have been around for the first time in their casualty-making way... They're just out here, I'm facing the field where they're milling around.And it's the very, very beginnings of the long cooling into cold, into frigid, which is our lot in this northern part of the hemisphere, even though it's still August, but it's clear that things have changed. And then, we're on a top of a little hill, which was the first place that I think that we may have convened a School here.It was a tipi, which is really worked very well considering we didn't live here, so we could put it up and put it down in the same weekend. [00:04:00] And right on this very hill, we were, in the early days, and we've replaced that tipi with another kind of wooden structure. A lot more wood in this one.This has been known as "The Teaching Hall" or "The Great Hall," or "The Hall" or "The Money Pit, as it was known for a little while, but it actually worked out pretty well. And it was I mean, people who've come from Scandinavia are knocked out by the kind of old-style, old-world visitation that the place seems to be to them.And I'd never really been before I had the idea what this should look like, but I just went from a kind of ancestral memory that was knocking about, which is a little different than your preferences, you know. You have different kinds of preferences you pass through stylistically through your life, but the ones that lay claim to you are the ones that are not interested in your [00:05:00] preferences. They're interested in your kind of inheritance and your lineage.So I'm more or less from the northern climes of Northern Europe, and so the place looks that way and I was lucky enough to still have my carving tools from the old days. And I've carved most of the beams and most of the posts that keep the place upright with a sort of sequence of beasts and dragons and ne'er-do-wells and very, very few humans, I think two, maybe, in the whole joint. Something like that. And then, mostly what festoons a deeply running human life is depicted here. And there's all kinds of stories, which I've never really sat down and spoken to at great length with anybody, but they're here.And I do deeply favour the idea that one day [00:06:00] somebody will stumble into this field, and I suppose, upon the remains of where we sit right now, and wonder "What the hell got into somebody?" That they made this mountain of timber moldering away, and that for a while what must have been, and when they finally find the footprint of, you know, its original dimensions and sort of do the wild math and what must have been going on in this sandy field, a million miles in away from its home.And wherever I am at that time, I'll be wondering the same thing.Audience: Hmm.Stephen: "What went on there?" Even though I was here for almost all of it. So, this was the home of the Orphan Wisdom School for more than a decade and still is the home of the Orphan Wisdom School, even if it's in advance, or in retreat [00:07:00] or in its doldrums. We'll see.And many things besides, we've had weddings in here, which is wherein I discovered "old-order matrimony," as I've come to call it, was having its way with me in the same way that the design of the place did. And it's also a grainery for our storage of corn. Keep it up off the ground and out of the hands of the varmints, you know, for a while.Well that's the beginning.Chris: Hmm. Hmm. Thank you Stephen.Stephen: Mm-hmm.Chris: You were mentioning the tipi where the school began. I remember sleeping in there the first time I came here. Never would I have thought for a million years that I'd be sitting here with you.Stephen: It's wild, isn't it?Chris: 12 years later.?: Yeah.Chris: And so next, I'd like to do my best in part over the course of the next perhaps hour or two to congratulate you on the release of [00:08:00] your new book, Matrimony: Ritual, Culture, and the Heart's Work.Stephen: Thank you.Chris: Mm-hmm. I'm grateful to say like many others that I've received a copy and have lent my eyes to your good words, and what is really an incredible achievement.For those who haven't had a chance to lay their eyes on it just yet, I'm wondering if you could let us in on why you wrote a book about matrimony in our time and where it stands a week out from its publication.Stephen: Well, maybe the answer begins with the question, "why did you write a book, having done so before?" And you would imagine that the stuff that goes into writing a book, you'd think that the author has hopes for some kind of redemptive, redeeming outcome, some kind of superlative that drops out the back end of the enterprise.And you know, this is [00:09:00] the seventh I've written. And I would have to say that's not really how it goes, and you don't really know what becomes of what you've written, even with the kind people who do respond, and the odd non-monetary prize that comes your way, which Die Wise gamed that.But I suppose, I wrote, at all partly to see what was there. You know, I had done these weddings and I was a little bit loathe to let go, to let the weddings turn entirely into something historical, something that was past, even though I probably sensed pretty clearly that I was at the end of my willingness to subject myself to the slings and arrows that came along with the enterprise, but it's a sweet sorrow, or there's a [00:10:00] wonder that goes along with the tangle of it all. And so, I wrote to find out what happened, as strange as that might sound to you. You can say, "well, you were there, you kind of knew what happened." But yes, I was witness to the thing, but there's the act of writing a book gives you the opportunity to sort of wonder in three-dimensions and well, the other thing I should say is I was naive and figured that the outfit who had published the, more or less prior two books to this one, would kind of inevitably be drawn to the fact that same guy. Basically, same voice, new articulation. And I was dumbfounded to find out that they weren't. And so, it's sort of smarted, you know?And I think what I did was I just set the whole [00:11:00] enterprise aside, partly to contend with the the depths of the disappointment in that regard, and also not wanting to get into the terrible fray of having to parse or paraphrase the book in some kind of elevator pitch-style to see if anybody else wanted to look at it. You know, such as my touchy sense of nobility sometimes, you know, that I just rather not be involved in the snarl of the marketplace any longer.So, I withdrew and I just set it aside but it wasn't that content to be set, set aside. And you know, to the book's credit, it bothered me every once in a while. It wasn't a book at the point where I was actually trying to engineer it, you know, and, and give it some kind of structure. I had piles of paper on the floor representing the allegation of chapters, trying to figure out what the relationship was [00:12:00] between any of these things.What conceivably should come before what. What the names of any of these things might be. Did they have an identity? Was I just imposing it? And all of that stuff I was going through at the same time as I was contending with a kind of reversal in fortune, personally. And so in part, it was a bit of a life raft to give me something to work on that I wouldn't have to research or dig around in the backyard for it and give me some sort of self-administered occupation for a while.Finally, I think there's a parallel with the Die Wise book, in that when it came to Die Wise, I came up with what I came up with largely because, in their absolute darkest, most unpromising hours, an awful lot of dying people, all of whom are dead now, [00:13:00] let me in on some sort of breach in the, the house of their lives.And I did feel that I had some obligation to them long-term, and that part of that obligation turned into writing Die Wise and touring and talking about that stuff for years and years, and making a real fuss as if I'd met them all, as if what happened is really true. Not just factually accurate, but deeply, abidingly, mandatorily true.So, although it may be the situation doesn't sound as extreme, but the truth is, when a number of younger - than me - people came to me and asked me to do their weddings, I, over the kind of medium-term thereafter, felt a not dissimilar obligation that the events that ensued from all of that not [00:14:00] be entrusted entirely to those relatively few people who attended. You know, you can call them "an audience," although I hope I changed that. Or you could call them "witnesses," which I hope I made them that.And see to it that there could be, not the authorized or official version of what happened, but to the view from here, so to speak, which is, as I sit where I am in the hall right now, I can look at the spot where I conducted much of this when I wasn't sacheting up and down the middle aisle where the trestle tables now are.And I wanted to give a kind of concerted voice to that enterprise. And I say "concerted voice" to give you a feel for the fact that I don't think this is a really an artifact. It's not a record. It's a exhortation that employs the things that happened to suggest that even though it is the way it is [00:15:00] ritually, impoverished as it is in our time and place, it has been otherwise within recoverable time and history. It has.And if that's true, and it is, then it seems to me at least is true that it could be otherwise again. And so, I made a fuss and I made a case based on that conviction.There's probably other reasons I can't think of right now. Oh, being not 25 anymore, and not having that many more books in me, the kind of wear and tear on your psyche of imposing order on the ramble, which is your recollection, which has only so many visitations available in it. Right? You can only do that so many times, I think. And I'm not a born writing person, you know, I come to it maniacally when I [00:16:00] do, and then when it's done, I don't linger over it so much.So then, when it's time to talk about it, I actually have to have a look, because the act of writing it is not the act of reading it. The act of writing is a huge delivery and deliverance at the same time. It's a huge gestation. And you can't do that to yourself, you know, over and over again, but you can take some chances, and look the thing in the eye. So, and I think some people who are there, they're kind of well-intended amongst them, will recognize themselves in the details of the book, beyond "this is what happened and so on." You know, they'll recognize themselves in the advocacy that's there, and the exhortations that are there, and the [00:17:00] case-making that I made and, and probably the praying because there's a good degree of prayerfulness in there, too.That's why.Chris: Thank you. bless this new one in the world. And what's the sense for you?Stephen: Oh, yes.Chris: It being a one-week old newborn. How's that landing in your days?Stephen: Well, it's still damp, you know. It's still squeaky, squeaky and damp. It's walking around like a newborn primate, you know, kind of swaying in the breeze and listening to port or to starboard according to whatever's going on.I don't know that it's so very self-conscious in the best sense of that term, yet. Even though I recorded the audio version, I don't think [00:18:00] it's my voice is found every nook and cranny at this point, yet. So, it's kind of new. It's not "news," but it is new to me, you know, and it's very early in terms of anybody responding to it.I mean, nobody around me has really taken me aside and say, "look, now I want to tell you about this book you wrote." It hasn't happened, and we'll see if it does, but I've done a few events on the other side of the ocean and hear so far, very few, maybe handful of interviews. And those are wonderful opportunities to hear something of what you came up with mismanaged by others, you know, misapprehend, you could say by others.No problem. I mean, it's absolutely no problem. And if you don't want that to happen, don't talk, don't write anything down. So, I don't mind a bit, you know, and the chances are very good that it'll turn into things I didn't have in mind [00:19:00] as people take it up, and regard their own weddings and marriages and plans and schemes and fears and, you know, family mishigas and all the rest of it through this particular lens, you know. They may pick up a pen or a computer (it's an odd expression, "pick up a computer"), and be in touch with me and let me know. "Yeah, that was, we tried it" or whatever they're going to do, because, I mean, maybe Die Wise provided a bit of an inkling of how one might be able to proceed otherwise in their dying time or in their families or their loved ones dying time.This is the book that most readily lends itself to people translating into something they could actually do, without a huge kind of psychic revolution or revolt stirring in them, at least not initially. This is as close as I come, probably, to writing a sequence of things [00:20:00] that could be considered "add-ons" to what people are already thinking about, that I don't force everybody else outta the house in order to make room for the ideas that are in the book. That may happen, anyway, but it wasn't really the intent. The intent was to say, you know, we are in those days when we're insanely preoccupied with the notion of a special event. We are on the receiving end of a considerable number of shards showing up without any notion really about what these shards remember or are memories of. And that's the principle contention I think that runs down the spine of the book, is that when we undertake matrimony, however indelicately, however by rote, you know, however mindlessly we may do it, [00:21:00] inadvertently, we call upon those shards nonetheless.And they're pretty unspectacular if you don't think about them very deeply, like the rice or confetti, like the aisle, like the procession up the aisle, like the giving away of someone, like the seating arrangement, like the spectacle seating arrangement rather than the ritual seating arrangement.And I mean, there's a fistful of them. And they're around and scholars aside maybe, nobody knows why they do them. Everybody just knows, "this is what a wedding is," but nobody knows why. And because nobody knows why, nobody really seems to know what a wedding is for, although they do proceed like they would know a wedding if they saw one. So, I make this a question to be really wondered about, and the shards are a way in. They're the kind of [00:22:00] breadcrumb trail through the forest. They're the little bits of broken something, which if you begin to handle just three or four of them, and kind of fit them together, and find something of the original shape and inflection of the original vessel, kind of enunciates, begins to murmur in your hands, and from it you can begin to infer some three-dimensionality to the original shape. And from the sense of the shape, you get a set sense of contour, and from the sense of contour, you get a sense of scale or size. And from that you get a sense of purpose, or function, or design. And from that you get a sense of some kind of serious magisterial insight into some of the fundament of human being that was manifest in the "old-order matrimony," [00:23:00] as I came to call it.So, who wouldn't wanna read that book?Chris: Mm-hmm.Thank you. Mm-hmm. Thank you, Stephen. Yeah. It reminds me, just before coming up here, maybe two weeks ago, I was in attending a wedding. And there was a host or mc, and initially just given what I was hearing over the microphone, it was hard to tell if he was hired or family or friends. And it turned out he was, in fact, a friend of the groom. And throughout the night he proceeded to take up that role as a kind of comedian.Audience: Mm-hmm.Chris: This was the idea, I guess. Mm-hmm. And he was buzzing and mumbling and swearing into the microphone, [00:24:00] and then finally minimizing the only remnant of traditional culture that showed up in the wedding. And his thing was, okay, so when can we get to the part where it's boom, boom, boom, right. And shot, shot, shot, whatever.Stephen: Right.Chris: There was so much that came up in my memories in part because I worked about a decade in Toronto in the wedding industry.Mm-hmm. Hospitality industry. Maybe a contradiction in terms, there. And there was one moment that really kind of summed it up. I kept coming back to this reading the book because it was everything that you wrote seemed to not only antithetical to this moment, but also an antidote.Anyways, it was in North Toronto and the [00:25:00] owner of the venue - it was a kind of movie theatre turned event venue - and there was a couple who was eventually going to get married there. They came in to do their tasting menu to see what they wanted to put on the menu for the dinner, for their wedding.And the owner was kind of this mafioso type. And he comes in and he sees them and he walks over and he says, "so, you're gonna get married at my wedding factory."Audience: Mm-hmm.Chris: In all sincerity.Stephen: Mm-hmm.Chris: Right.Without skipping a beat. Could you imagine?Stephen: Yeah.I could. I sure could.Chris: Yeah. Yeah.Stephen: I mean, don't forget, if these people weren't doing what the people wanted, they'd be outta business.Audience: Mm-hmm.Stephen: No, that's the thing. This is aiding and abetting. This is sleeping with the enemy, stylistically-speaking. [00:26:00] The fact that people "settle" (that's the term I would use for it), settle for this, the idea being that this somehow constitutes the most honest and authentic through line available to us is just jaw dropping. When you consider what allegedly this thing is supposed to be for. I mean, maybe we'll get into this, but I'll just leave this as a question for now. What is that moment allegedly doing?Not, what are the people in it allegedly doing? The moment itself, what is it? How is it different from us sitting here now talking about it? And how is it different from the gory frigging jet-fuelled aftermath of excess. And how's it different from the cursing alleged master of ceremonies? How can you [00:27:00] tell none of those things belong to this thing?And why do you have such a hard time imagining what doesAudience: Hmm mmChris: Well that leads me to my next question.Stephen: Ah, you're welcome.Chris: So, I've pulled a number of quotes from the book to read from over the course of the interview. And this one for anyone who's listening is on page 150. And you write Stephen,"Spiritually-speaking, most of the weddings in our corner of the world are endogamous affairs, inward-looking. What is, to me, most unnerving is that they can be spiritually-incestuous. The withering of psychic difference between people is the program of globalization. It is in the architecture of most things partaking of the internet, and it is in the homogeneity of our matrimony. [00:28:00] It is this very incestuous that matrimony was once crafted and entered into to avoid and subvert. Now, it grinds upon our differences until they are details.And so, this paragraph reminded me of a time in my youth when I seemed to be meeting couples who very eerily looked like each other. No blood or extended kin relation whatsoever, and yet they had very similar faces. And so as I get older, this kind of face fidelity aside, I continue to notice that people looking for companionship tend to base their search on similitude, on shared interests, customs, experiences, shared anything and everything. This, specifically, in opposition to those on the other side of the aisle or spectrum, to difference or divergence. And so, opposites don't attract anymore. I'm curious what you think this psychic [00:29:00] withering does to an achieve understanding of matrimony.Stephen: Well, I mean, let's wonder what it does to us, generally, first before we get to matrimony, let's say. It demonizes. Maybe that's too strong, but it certainly reconstitutes difference as some kind of affliction, some kind of not quite good enough, some kind of something that has to be overcome or overwhelmed on the road to, to what? On the road to sameness? So, if that's the goal, then are all of the differences between us, aberrations of some kind, if that's the goal? If that's the goal, are all the [00:30:00] differences between us, not God-given, but humanly misconstrued or worse? Humanly wrought? Do the differences between us conceivably then belong at all? Or is the principle object of the entire endeavor to marry yourself, trying to put up with the vague differences that the other person represents to you?I mean, I not very jokingly said years ago, that I coined a phrase that went something like "the compromise of infinity, which is other people." What does that mean? "The compromise of infinity, which is other people." Not to mention it's a pretty nice T-shirt. But what I meant by the [00:31:00] phrase is this: when you demonize difference in this fashion or when you go the other direction and lionize sameness, then one of the things that happens is that compromise becomes demonized, too. Compromise, by definition, is something you never should have done, right? Compromise is how much you surrender of yourself in order to get by. That's what all these things become. And before you know it, you're just beaten about the head and shoulders about "codependence" and you know, not being "true to yourself" as if being true to yourself is some kind of magic.I mean, the notion that "yourself is the best part of you" is just hilarious. I mean, when you think about it, like who's running amuck if yourself is what you're supposed to be? I ask you. Like, who's [00:32:00] doing the harm? Who's going mental if the self is such a good idea? So, of course, I'm maintaining here that I'm not persuaded that there is such a thing.I think it's a momentary lapse in judgment to have a self and to stick to it. That's the point I'm really making to kind of reify it until it turns ossified and dusty and bizarrely adamant like that estranged relative that lives in the basement of your house. Bizarrely, foreignly adamant, right? Like the house guest who just won't f**k off kind of thing.Okay, so "to thine own self be true," is it? Well, try being true to somebody else's self for ten minutes. Try that. [00:33:00] That's good at exercise for matrimony - being true to somebody else's self. You'll discover that their selves are not made in heaven, either. Either. I underscore it - either. I've completely lost track of the question you asked me.Chris: What are the consequences of the sameness on this anti-cultural sameness, and the program of it for an achieved understanding of matrimony.Stephen: Thank you. Well, I will fess up right now. I do so in the book. That's a terrible phrase. I swear I'd never say such a thing. "In my book... I say the following," but in this case, it's true. I did say this. I realized during the writing of it that I had made a tremendous tactical error in the convening of the event as I did it over the years, [00:34:00] and this is what it came to.I was very persuaded at the time of the story that appears in the chapter called "Salt and Indigo" in the book. I was very, very persuaded. I mean, listen, I made up the story (for what it's worth), okay, but I didn't make it up out of nothing. I made it up out of a kind of tribal memory that wouldn't quite let go.And in it, I was basically saying, here's these two tribes known principally for what they trade in and what they love most emphatically. They turn out to be the same thing. And I describe a circumstance in which they exchange things in a trade scenario, not a commerce scenario. And I'm using the chapter basically to make the case that matrimony's architecture derives in large measure from the sacraments of trade as manifest in that story. [00:35:00] Okay. And this is gonna sound obvious, but the fundamental requirement of the whole conceit that I came up with is that there are two tribes. Well, I thought to myself, "of course, there's always two tribes" at the time. And the two tribe-ness is reflected in when you come to the wedding site, you're typically asked (I hope you're still asked) " Are you family or friend of the groom or friend of the bride?" And you're seated "accordingly," right? That's the nominal, vestigial shard of this old tribal affiliation, that people came from over the rise, basically unknown to each other, to arrive at the kind of no man's land of matrimony, and proceeded accordingly. So, I put these things into motion in this very room and I sat people accordingly facing each other, not facing the alleged front of the room. [00:36:00] And of course, man, nobody knew where to look, because you raised your eyes and s**t. There's just humans across from you, just scads of them who you don't freaking know. And there's something about doing that to North Americas that just throws them. So, they're just looking at each other and then looking away, and looking at each other and looking away, and wondering what they're doing here and what it's for. And I'm going back and forth for three hours, orienting them as to what is is coming.Okay, so what's the miscalculation that I make? The miscalculation I made was assuming that by virtue of the seating arrangement, by virtue of me reminding them of the salt and indigo times, by virtue of the fact that they had a kind of allegiance of some sort or another to the people who are, for the moment, betrothed, that those distinctions and those affiliations together would congeal them, and constitute a [00:37:00] kind of tribal affiliation that they would intuitively be drawn towards as you would be drawn to heat on a cold winter's night.Only to discover, as I put the thing into motion that I was completely wrong about everything I just told you about. The nature of my error was this, virtually all of those people on one side of the room were fundamentally of the same tribe as the people on the other side of the room, apropos of your question, you see. They were card carrying members of the gray dominant culture of North America. Wow. The bleached, kind of amorphous, kind of rootless, ancestor-free... even regardless of whether their people came over in the last generation from the alleged old country. It doesn't really claim them.[00:38:00]There were two tribes, but I was wrong about who they were. That was one tribe. Virtually everybody sitting in the room was one tribe.So, who's the other tribe? Answer is: me and the four or five people who were in on the structural delivery of this endeavour with me. We were the other tribe.We didn't stand a chance, you see?And I didn't pick up on that, and I didn't cast it accordingly and employ that, instead. I employed the conceit that I insisted was manifest and mobilized in the thing, instead of the manifest dilemma, which is that everybody who came knew what a wedding was, and me and four or five other people were yet to know if this could be one. That was the tribal difference, if you [00:39:00] will.So, it was kind of invisible, wasn't it? Even to me at the time. Or, I say, maybe especially to me at the time. And so, things often went the way they went, which was for however much fascination and willingness to consider that there might have been in the room, there was quite a bit more either flat affect and kind of lack of real fascination, or curiosity, or sometimes downright hostility and pushback. Yeah.So, all of that comes from the fact that I didn't credit as thoroughly as I should have done, the persistence in Anglo-North America of a kind of generic sameness that turned out to be what most people came here ancestrally to become. "Starting again" is recipe for culture [00:40:00] loss of a catastrophic order. The fantasy of starting again. Right?And we've talked about that in your podcast, and you and I have talked about it privately, apropos of your own family and everybody's sitting in this room knows what I'm talking about. And when does this show up? Does it show up, oh, when you're walking down the street? Does it show up when you're on the mountaintop? Does it show up in your peak experiences? And the answer is "maybe." It probably shows up most emphatically in those times when you have a feeling that something special is supposed to be so, and all you can get from the "supposed to" is the allegation of specialness.Audience: Mm-hmm.Stephen: And then, you look around in the context of matrimony and you see a kind of febral, kind of strained, the famous bridezilla stuff, all of that stuff. [00:41:00] You saw it in the hospitality industry, no doubt. You know, the kind of mania for perfection, as if perfection constitutes culture. Right? With every detail checked off in the checkbox, that's culture. You know, as if everything goes off without a hitch and there's no guffaws. And in fact, anybody could reasonably make the case, "Where do you think culture appears when the script finally goes f*****g sideways?" That's when. And when you find out what you're capable of, ceremonially.And generally speaking, I think most people discovered that their ceremonial illiteracy bordered on the bottomless.That's when you find out. Hmm.Chris: Wow.Stephen: Yeah. And that's why people, you know, in speech time, they reach in there and get that piece of paper, and just look at it. Mm-hmm. They don't even look up, terrified that they're gonna go off script for a minute as [00:42:00] if the Gods of Matrimony are a scripted proposition.Chris: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Thank you for sharing that with us, that degree of deep reflection and humility that I'm sure comes with it.Stephen: Mea Culpa, baby. Yeah, I was, I got that one totally wrong. Mm-hmm. And I didn't know it at the time. Meanwhile, like, how much can you transgress and have the consequences of doing so like spill out across the floor like a broken thermometer's mercury and not wise up.But of course, I was as driven as anybody. I was as driven to see if I could come through with what I promised to do the year before. And keeping your promise can make you into a maniac.Audience: Hmm hmm.Chris: But I imagine that, you [00:43:00] know, you wouldn't have been able to see that even years later if you didn't say yes in the first place.Stephen: Oh, yeah. Yeah. And I wouldn't have been able to make the errors.Chris: Right.Stephen: Right. Yeah. I mean, as errors go, this is not a mortal sin. Right, right. And you could chalk it up to being a legitimate miscalculation. Well, so? All I'm saying is, it turns out I was there too, and it turns out, even though I was allegedly the circus master of the enterprise, I wasn't free and clear of the things we were all contending with, the kind of mortality and sort of cultural ricketiness that were all heirs to. That's how I translated it, as it turns out.So, PS there was a moment, [00:44:00] which I don't remember which setting it was now, but there was a moment when the "maybe we'll see if she becomes a bride" bride's mother slid up to me during the course of the proceedings, and in a kind of stage whisper more or less hissed me as follows."Is this a real wedding?"I mean, that's not a question. Not in that setting, obviously not. That is an accusation. Right. And a withering one at that. And there was a tremendous amount of throw-down involved.So, was it? I mean, what we do know is that she did not go to any of the weddings [00:45:00] that she was thinking of at the time, and go to the front of the room where the celebrant is austerely standing there with the book, or the script, or the well-intentioned, or the self-penned vows and never hissed at him or her, "is this a real wedding?"Never once did she do that. We know that.Right.And I think we know why. But she was fairly persuaded she knew what a real wedding was. And all she was really persuaded by was the poverty of the weddings that she'd attended before that one. Well, I was as informed in that respect as she was, wasn't I? I just probably hadn't gone to as many reprobate weddings as she had, so she had more to deal with than I did, even though I was in the position of the line of fire.And I didn't respond too well to the question, I have to say. At the moment, I was rather combative. But I mean, you try to do [00:46:00] what I tried to do and not have a degree of fierceness to go along with your discernment, you know, just to see if you can drag this carcass across the threshold. Anyway, that happened too.Chris: Wow. Yeah. Dominant culture of North America.Stephen: Heard of it.Chris: Yeah. Well, in Matrimony, there's quite a bit in which you write about hospitality and radical hospitality. And I wanted to move in that direction a little bit, because in terms of these kind of marketplace rituals or ceremonies that you were mentioning you know, it's something that we might wonder, I think, as you have, how did it come to be this [00:47:00] way?And so I'd like to, if I can once again, quote from matrimony in which you speak to the etymology of hospitality. And so for those interested on page 88,"the word hospitality comes from hospitaller, meaning 'one who cares for the afflicted, the infirm, the needy.' There's that thread of our misgivings about being on the receiving end of hospitality. Pull on it. For the written history of the word, at least, it has meant, 'being on the receiving end of a kind of care you'd rather not need.'"End quote.Stephen: That's so great. I mean, before you go on with the quote. It's so great to know that the word, unexamined, just kind of leaks upside, doesn't it? Hospitality, I mean, nobody goes "Hospitality, ew." [00:48:00] And then, if you just quietly do the obvious math to yourself, there's so much awkwardness around hospitality.This awkwardness must have an origin, have a home. There must be some misgiving that goes along with the giving of hospitality, mustn't there be? How else to understand where that kind of ickiness is to be found. Right? And it turns out that the etymology is giving you the beginnings of a way of figuring it out what it is that you're on the receiving end of - a kind of succor that you wish you didn't need, which is why it's the root word for "hospital."Chris: Hmm hmm. Wow.Audience: Hmm.Chris: May I repeat that sentence please? Once more."For the written history of the word, at least, it has meant, [00:49:00] 'being on the receiving end of a kind of care you'd rather not need.'"And so this last part hits home for me as I imagine it does for many.And it feels like the orthodoxy of hospitality in our time is one based not only in transaction, but in debt. And if you offer hospitality to me, then I owe you hospitality.Stephen: Right.Chris: I'm indebted to you. And we are taught, in our time, that the worst thing to be in is in debt.Stephen: Right?Chris: And so people refuse both the desire to give as well as the learning skill of receiving. And this is continuing on page 88 now."But there's mystery afoot with this word. In its old Latin form, hospice meant both 'host' and 'guest.'"Stephen: Amazing. One. Either one, This is absolutely amazing. We're fairly sure that there's a [00:50:00] acres of difference between the giver of hospitality and the receiver that the repertoire is entirely different, that the skew between them is almost insurmountable, that they're not interchangeable in any way. But the history of the word immediately says, "really?" The history of the word, without question, says that "host" and "guest" are virtually the same, sitting in different places, being different people, more or less joined at the hip. I'll say more, but you go ahead with what you were gonna do. Sure.Chris: "In it's proto Indo-European origins, hospitality and hospice is a compound word: gosh + pot. And it meant something like [00:51:00] 'stranger/guest/host + powerful Lord.'It is amazing to me that ancestrally, the old word for guest, host, and stranger were all the same word. Potent ceremonial business, this is. In those days, the server and the serve were partners in something mysterious. This could be confusing, but only if you think of guest, host, and stranger as fixed identities.If you think of them as functions, as verbs, the confusion softens and begins to clear. The word hospice in its ancient root is telling us that each of the people gathered together in hospitality is bound to the others by formal etiquette, yes, but the bond is transacted through a subtle scheme of graces.Hospitality, it tells us, is a web of longing and belonging that binds people for a time, some hithereto unknown to each other is a clutch of mutually-binding elegances, you could say. In its ancient practice, [00:52:00] hospitality was a covenant. According to that accord, however we were with each other. That was how the Gods would be with us. We learn our hospitality by being on the receiving end of Godly administration. That's what giving thanks for members. We proceed with our kin in imitation of that example and in gratitude for it."Mm-hmm.And so today, among "secular" people, with the Gods ignored, this old-time hospitality seems endangered, if not fugitive. I'm curious how you imagine that this rupture arose, the ones that separated and commercialized the radical relationships between hosts and guests, that turned them from verbs to nouns and something like strangers to marketplace functions.[00:53:00]Stephen: Well, of course this is a huge question you've asked, and I'll see if I can unhuge it a bit.Chris: Uhhuh.Stephen: Let's go right to the heart of what happened. Just no preliminaries, just right to it.So, to underscore again, the beauty of the etymology. I've told you over and over again, the words will not fail you. And this is just a shining example, isn't it? That the fraternization is a matter of ceremonial alacrity that the affiliation between host and guest, which makes them partners in something, that something is the [00:54:00] evocation of a third thing that's neither one of them. It's the thing they've lent themselves to by virtue of submitting to being either a host or a guest. One.Two. You could say that in circumstances of high culture or highly-functioning culture, one of the principle attributes of that culture is that the fundament of its understanding, is that only with the advent of the stranger in their midst that the best of them comes forward.Okay, follow that. Yeah.So, this is a little counterintuitive for those of us who don't come from such places. We imagine that the advent of strangers in the midst of the people I'm describing would be an occasion where people hide their [00:55:00] best stuff away until the stranger disappears, and upon the disappearance of the stranger, the good stuff comes out again.You know?So, I'm just remembering just now, there's a moment in the New Testament where Jesus says something about the best wine and he's coming from exactly this page that we're talking about - not the page in the book, but this understanding. He said, you know, "serve your best wine first," unlike the standard, that prevails, right?So again, what a stranger does in real culture is call upon the cultural treasure of the host's culture, and provides the opportunity for that to come forward, right? By which you can understand... Let's say for simplicity's sake, there's two kinds of hospitality. There's probably all kinds of gradations, [00:56:00] but for the purposes of responding to what you've asked, there's two.One of them is based on kinship. Okay? So, family meal. So, everybody knows whose place is whose around the table, or it doesn't matter - you sit wherever you want. Or, when we're together, we speak shorthand. That's the shorthand of familiarity and affinity, right?Everybody knows what everybody's talking about. A lot of things get half-said or less, isn't it? And there's a certain fineness, isn't it? That comes with that kind of affinity. Of course, there is, and I'm not diminishing it at all. I'm just characterizing it as being of a certain frequency or calibre or charge. And the charge is that it trades on familiarity. It requires that. There's that kind of hospitality."Oh, sit wherever you want."Remember this one?[00:57:00]"We don't stand on ceremony here.""Oh, you're one of the family now." I just got here. What, what?But, of course, you can hear in the protestations the understanding, in that circumstance, that formality is an enemy to feeling good in this moment, isn't it? It feels stiff and starched and uncalled for or worse.It feels imported from elsewhere. It doesn't feel friendly. So, I'm giving you now beginnings of a differentiation between how cultures who really function as cultures understand what it means to be hospitable and what often prevails today, trading is a kind of low-grade warfare conducted against the strangeness of the stranger.The whole purpose of treating somebody like their family is to mitigate, and finally neutralize their [00:58:00] strangeness, so that for the purposes of the few hours in front of us all, there are no strangers here. Right? Okay.Then there's another kind, and intuitively you can feel what I'm saying. You've been there, you know exactly what I mean.There's another kind of circumstance where the etiquette that prevails is almost more emphatic, more tangible to you than the familiar one. That's the one where your mother or your weird aunt or whoever she might be, brings out certain kind of stuff that doesn't come out every day. And maybe you sit in a room that you don't often sit in. And maybe what gets cooked is stuff you haven't seen in a long time. And some part of you might be thinking, "What the hell is all this about?" And the answer is: it's about that guy in the [00:59:00] corner that you don't know.And your own ancestral culture told acres of stories whose central purpose was to convey to outsiders their understanding of what hospitality was. That is fundamentally what The Iliad and The Odyssey are often returning to and returning to and returning to.They even had a word for the ending of the formal hospitality that accrued, that arose around the care and treatment of strangers. It was called pomp or pompe, from which we get the word "pompous." And you think about what the word "pompous" means today.It means "nose in the air," doesn't it? Mm-hmm. It means "thinks really highly of oneself," isn't it? And it means "useless, encumbering, kind of [01:00:00] artificial kind of going through the motions stuff with a kind of aggrandizement for fun." That's what "pompous" means. Well, the people who gave us the word didn't mean that at all. This word was the word they used to describe the particular moment of hospitality when it was time for the stranger to leave.And when it was mutually acknowledged that the time for hospitality has come to an end, and the final act of hospitality is to accompany the stranger out of the house, out of the compound, out into the street, and provision them accordingly, and wish them well, and as is oftentimes practiced around here, standing in the street and waving them long after they disappear from view.This is pompous. This is what it actually means. Pretty frigging cool when you get corrected once in a while, isn't it? [01:01:00] Yeah.So, as I said, to be simplistic about it, there's at least a couple of kinds, and one of them treasures the advent of the stranger, understanding it to be the detonation point for the most elegant part of us to come forward.Now, those of us who don't come from such a place, we're just bamboozled and Shanghai'ed by the notion of formality, which we kind of eschew. You don't like formality when it comes to celebration, as if these two things are hostile, one to the other. But I'd like you to consider the real possibility that formality is grace under pressure, and that formality is there to give you a repertoire of response that rescues you from the gross limitations of your autobiography.[01:02:00]Next question. I mean, that's the beginning.Chris: Absolutely. Absolutely. Mm-hmm. Thank you once again, Stephen. So alongside the term or concept of "pompe," in which the the guest or stranger was led out of the house or to the entrance of the village, there was also the consideration around the enforcement of hospitality, which you write about in the book. And you write that"the enforcement of hospitality runs the palpable risk of violating or undoing the cultural value it is there to advocate for. Forcing people to share their good fortune with the less fortunate stretches, to the point of undoing the generosity of spirit that the culture holds dear. Enforcement of hospitality is a sign of the eclipse of hospitality, typically spawned by insecurity, contracted self-definition, and the darkening of the [01:03:00] stranger at the door.Instead, such places and times are more likely to encourage the practice of hospitality in subtle generous ways, often by generously treating the ungenerous."And so there seems to be a need for limits placed on hospitality, in terms of the "pompe," the maximum three days in which a stranger can be given hospitality, and concurrently a need to resist enforcing hospitality. This seems like a kind of high-wire act that hospitable cultures have to balance in order to recognize and realize an honorable way of being with a stranger. And so I'm wondering if you could speak to the possibility of how these limits might be practiced without being enforced. What might that look like in a culture that engages with, with such limits, but without prohibitions?Stephen: Mm-hmm. That's a very good question. [01:04:00] Well, I think your previous question was what happened? I think, in a nutshell, and I didn't really answer that, so maybe see how I can use this question to answer the one that you asked before: what happened? So, there's no doubt in my mind that something happened that it's kind of demonstrable, if only with the benefit of hindsight.Audience: Right.Stephen: Or we can feel our way around the edges of the absence of the goneness of that thing that gives us some feel for the original shape of that thing.So you could say I'm trafficking in "ideals," here, and after a fashion, maybe, yeah. But the notion of "ideals," when it's used in this slanderous way suggests that "it was never like that."Chris: Mm-hmm.Stephen: And I suggest to you it's been like that in a lot of places, and there's a lot of places where it's still like that, although globalization [01:05:00] may be the coup de grâce performed upon this capacity. Okay. But anyway.Okay. So what happened? Well, you see in the circumstance that I described, apropos of the stranger, the stranger is in on it. The stranger's principle responsibility is to be the vector for this sort of grandiose generosity coming forward, and to experience that in a burdensome and unreciprocated fashion, until you realize that their willingness to do that is their reciprocity. Everybody doesn't get to do everything at once. You can't give and receive at the same time. You know what that's called? "Secret Santa at school," isn't it?That's where nobody owes nobody nothing at the end. That's what we're all after. I mean, one of your questions, you know, pointed to that, that there's a kind of, [01:06:00] what do you call that, teeter-totter balance between what people did for each other and what they received for each other. Right. And nobody feels slighted in any way, perfect balance, et cetera.Well, the circumstance here has nothing of the kind going with it. The circumstance we're describing now is one in which the hospitality is clearly unequal in terms of who's eating whose food, for example, in terms of the absolutely frustrated notion of reciprocity, that in fact you undo your end of the hospitality by trying to pay back, or give back, or pay at all, or break even, or not feel the burden of "God, you've been on the take for fricking hours here now." And if you really look in the face of the host, I mean, they're just getting started and you can't, you can't take it anymore.[01:07:00]So, one of the ways that we contend with this is through habits of speech. So, if somebody comes around with seconds. They say, "would you like a little more?"And you say, "I'm good. I'm good. I'm good." You see, "I'm good" is code for what? "F**k off." That's what it's code for. It's a little strong. It's a little strong. What I mean is, when "I'm good" comes to town, it means I don't need you and what you have. Good God, you're not there because you need it you knucklehead. You're there because they need it, because their culture needs an opportunity to remember itself. Right?Okay. So what happened? Because you're making it sound like a pretty good thing, really. Like who would say, "I think we've had enough of this hospitality thing, don't you? Let's try, oh, [01:08:00] keeping our s**t to ourselves. That sounds like a good alternative. Let's give it a week or two, see how it rolls." Never happened. Nobody decided to do this - this change, I don't think. I think the change happened, and sometime long after people realized that the change had had taken place. And it's very simple. The change, I think, went something like this.As long as the guest is in on it, there's a shared and mutually-held understanding that doesn't make them the same. It makes them to use the quote from the book "partners," okay, with different tasks to bring this thing to light, to make it so. What does that require? A mutually-held understanding in vivo as it's happening, what it is.Okay. [01:09:00] So, that the stranger who's not part of the host culture... sorry, let me say this differently.The culture of the stranger has made the culture of the host available to the stranger no matter how personally adept he or she may be at receiving. Did you follow that?Audience: A little.Stephen: Okay. Say it again?Audience: Yes, please.Stephen: Okay. The acculturation, the cultured sophistication of the stranger is at work in his or her strangerhood. Okay. He or she's not at home, but their cultural training helps them understand what their obligations are in terms of this arrangement we've been describing here.Okay, so I think the rupture takes place [01:10:00] when the culturation of one side or the other fails to make the other discernible to the one.One more time?When something happens whereby the acculturation of one of the partners makes the identity, the presence, and the valence of the other one untranslatable. Untranslatable.I could give you an example from what I call " the etiquette of trade," or the... what was the word? Not etiquette. What's the other word?Chris: The covenant?Stephen: Okay, " covenant of trade" we'll call it. So, imagine that people are sitting across from each other, two partners in a trade. Okay? [01:11:00] Imagine that they have one thing to sell or move or exchange and somebody has something else.How does this work? Not "what are the mechanics?" That can be another discussion, but, if this works, how does it work? Not "how does it happen?" How does it actually achieve what they're after? Maybe it's something like this.I have this pottery, and even though you're not a potter, but somebody in your extended family back home was, and you watched what they went through to make a fricking pot, okay?You watched how their hands seized up, because the clay leached all the moisture out of the hands. You distinctly remember that - how the old lady's hands looked cracked and worn, and so from the work of making vessels of hospitality, okay? [01:12:00] It doesn't matter that you didn't make it yourself. The point is you recognize in the item something we could call "cultural patrimony."You recognize the deep-runningness of the culture opposite you as manifest and embodied in this item for trade. Okay? So, the person doesn't have to "sell you" because your cultural sophistication makes this pot on the other side available to you for the deeply venerable thing that it is. Follow what I'm saying?Okay. So, you know what I'm gonna say next? When something happens, the items across from you cease to speak, cease to have their stories come along with them, cease to be available. There's something about your cultural atrophy that you project onto the [01:13:00] item that you don't recognize.You don't recognize it's valence, it's proprieties, it's value, it's deep-running worth and so on. Something happened, okay? And because you're not making your own stuff back home or any part of it. And so now, when you're in a circumstance like this and you're just trying to get this pot, but you know nothing about it, then the enterprise becomes, "Okay, so what do you have to part with to obtain the pot?"And the next thing is, you pretend you're not interested in obtaining the pot to obtain the pot. That becomes part of the deal. And then, the person on the making end feels the deep running slight of your disinterest, or your vague involvement in the proceedings, or maybe the worst: when it's not things you're going back and forth with, but there's a third thing called money, which nobody makes, [01:14:00] which you're not reminded of your grandma or anyone else's with the money. And then, money becomes the ghost of the original understanding of the cultural patrimony that sat between you. That's what happened, I'm fairly sure: the advent, the estrangement that comes with the stranger, instead of the opportunity to be your cultural best when the stranger comes.And then of course, it bleeds through all kinds of transactions beyond the "obvious material ones." So, it's a rupture in translatability, isn't it?Chris: You understand this to happen or have happened historically, culturally, et cetera, with matrimony as well?Stephen: Oh, absolutely. Yeah.Yeah. This is why, for example, things like the fetishization of virginity.Audience: Mm-hmm. [01:15:00]Stephen: I think it's traceable directly to what we're talking about. How so? Oh, this is a whole other long thing, but the very short version would be this.Do you really believe that through all of human history until the recent liberation, that people have forever fetishized the virginity of a young woman and jealously defended it, the "men" in particular, and that it became a commodity to trade back and forth in, and that it had to be prodded and poked at to determine its intactness? And this was deemed to be, you know, honourable behavior?Do you really think that's the people you come from, that they would've do that to the most cherished of their [01:16:00] own, barely pubescent girls? Come on now. I'm not saying it didn't happen and doesn't still happen. I'm not saying that. I'm saying, God almighty, something happened for that to be so.And I'm trying to allude to you now what I think took place. Then all of a sudden, the hymen takes the place of the pottery, doesn't it? And it becomes universally translatable. Doesn't it? It becomes a kind of a ghosted artifact of a culturally-intact time. It's as close as you can get.Hence, this allegation of its purity, or the association with purity, and so on. [01:17:00] I mean, there's lots to say, but that gives you a feel for what might have happened there.Chris: Thank you, Stephen. Thank you for being so generous with your considerations here.Stephen: You see why I had to write a book, eh?Audience: Mm-hmm.Stephen: There was too much bouncing around. Like I had to just keep track of my own thoughts on the matter.But can you imagine all of this at play in the year, oh, I don't know, 2022, trying to put into motion a redemptive passion play called "matrimony," with all of this at play? Not with all of this in my mind, but with all of this actually disfiguring the anticipation of the proceedings for the people who came.Can you imagine? Can you imagine trying to pull it off, and [01:18:00] contending overtly with all these things and trying to make room for them in a moment that's supposed to be allegedly - get ready for it - happy.I should have raised my rates on the first day, trying to pull that off.But anyway.Okay, you go now,Chris: Maybe now you'll have the opportunity.Stephen: No, man. No. I'm out of the running for that. "Pompe" has come and come and gone. Mm.Chris: So, in matrimony, Stephen, you write that"the brevity, the brevity of modern ceremonies is really there to make sure that nothing happens, nothing of substance, nothing of consequence, no alchemy, no mystery, no crazy other world stuff. That overreach there in its scripted heart tells me that deep in the rayon-wrapped bosom of that special day, the modern wedding is scared [01:19:00] silly of something happening. That's because it has an ages-old abandoned memory of a time when a wedding was a place where the Gods came around, where human testing and trying and making was at hand, when the dead lingered in the wings awaiting their turn to testify and inveigh."Gorgeous. Gorgeous.Audience: Mm-hmm.Chris: And so I'm curious ifStephen: "Rayon-wrapped bosom." That's not, that's not shabby.Chris: "Rayon-wrapped bosom of that special day." Yeah.So, I'm curious do you think the more-than-human world practices matrimony, and if so, what, if anything, might you have learned about matrimony from the more-than-human world?Stephen: I would say the reverse. I would say, we practice the more-than-human world in matrimony, not that the more-than-human world practices matrimony. We practice them, [01:20:00] matrimonially.Next. Okay. Or no? I just gonna say that, that's pretty good.Well, where do we get our best stuff from? Let's just wonder that. Do we get our best stuff from being our best? Well, where does that come from? And this is a bit of a barbershop mirrors situation here, isn't it? To, to back, back, back, back.If you're thinking of time, you can kind of get lost in that generation before, or before, before, before. And it starts to sound like one of them biblical genealogies. But if you think of it as sort of the flash point of multiple presences, if you think of it that way, then you come to [01:21:00] credit the real possibility that your best stuff comes from you being remembered by those who came before you.Audience: Hmm.Stephen: Now just let that sit for a second, because what I just said is logically-incompatible.Okay? You're being remembered by people who came before you. That's not supposed to work. It doesn't work that way. Right?"Anticipated," maybe, but "remembered?" How? Well, if you credit the possibility of multiple beginnings, that's how. Okay. I'm saying that your best stuff, your best thoughts, not the most noble necessarily. I would mean the most timely, [01:22:00] the ones that seem most needed, suddenly.You could take credit and sure. Why, why not? Because ostensibly, it arrives here through you, but if you're frank with yourself, you know that you didn't do that on command, right? I mean, you could say, I just thought of it, but you know in your heart that it was thought of and came to you.I don't think there's any difference between saying that and saying you were thought of.Audience: Mm-hmm.Stephen: So, that's what I think the rudiments of old-order matrimony are. They are old people and their benefactors in the food chain and spiritually speaking. Old people and their benefactors, the best part of them [01:23:00] willed to us, entrusted and willed to us. So, when you are willing to enter into the notion that old-order matrimony is older than you, older than your feelings for the other person, older than your love, and your commitment, and your willingness to make the vows and all that stuff, then you're crediting the possibility that your love is not the beginning of anything.You see. Your love is the advent of something, and I use that word deliberately in its Christian notion, right? It's the oncomingness, the eruption into the present day of something, which turns out to be hugely needed and deeply unsuspected at the same time.I used to ask in the school, "can you [01:24:00] have a memory of something you have no lived experience of?" I think that's what the best part of you is. I'm not saying the rest of you is shite. I'm not saying that. You could say that, but I am saying that when I say "the best part of you," that needs a lot of translating, doesn't it?But the gist of it is that the best part of you is entrusted to you. It's not your creation, it's your burden, your obligation, your best chance to get it right. And that's who we are to those who came before us. We are their chance to get it right, and matrimony is one of the places where you practice the gentle art of getting it right.[01:25:00] Another decent reason to write a book.Chris: So, gorgeous. Wow. Thank you Stephen. I might have one more question.Stephen: Okay. I might have one more answer. Let's see.Chris: Alright. Would I be able to ask if dear Nathalie Roy could join us up here alongside your good man.So, returning to Matrimony: Ritual, Culture and the Heart's Work. On page 94, [01:26:00] Stephen, you write that"hospitality of the radical kind is
“O our God, won’t you stop them? We are powerless against this mighty army that is about to attack us. We do not know what to do, but we are looking to you for help.” (2 Chronicles 20:12 NLT) Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah, was in trouble. The armies of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir had joined forces to attack their common enemy, Judah. Military strategy, no matter how brilliant or daring, would not be able to overcome the size differential of the fighting forces. The armies that were descending on Judah had the potential to annihilate. King Jehoshaphat recognized that this was no time for false bravado. All he could do was pray and trust in God’s mercy and strength. In 2 Chronicles 20, we find him standing with his men, along with their families and children, praying, “O our God, won’t you stop them? We are powerless against this mighty army that is about to attack us. We do not know what to do, but we are looking to you for help” (verse 12 NLT). God’s answer came through Jahaziel, one of the men standing with the king. “This is what the Lord says: Do not be afraid! Don’t be discouraged by this mighty army, for the battle is not yours, but God’s” (verse 15 NLT). I love that scene. Humanly speaking, it is a picture of weakness. King Jehoshaphat was saying, in effect, “Lord, here we are. We have the kids. We have an army coming toward us. What am I going to do here? Our eyes are on You.” That is a good thing to pray. God answered Jehoshaphat’s prayer, intervened, and rescued the people of Judah. In the New Testament, we read of a time when there was a storm at sea, and the disciples were calling out to God for help. Jesus finally showed up, walking toward them on the water. He had arrived during the fourth watch of the night, which is the last part of the night, right before the sun begins to rise. Technically, it’s the morning, but it still feels like it’s night. This means the disciples had been toiling at sea for hours, trying to get through that storm, and Jesus came along at the last possible moment. The point is that He did come to them. And He will do the same for you and me. He always will—when the time is right. We need to just trust Him. God’s reckoning of time is much more accurate than ours is. He is eternal. He can see past, present, and future with perfect clarity. He knows the ripple effect of every action. He also knows how to bring good from any situation. He is the perfect Consultant—One who wants only the best for us and knows when and how that best can be achieved. Remember this: He loves us with an everlasting love. That love is not fickle. That love doesn’t change. That love is persistent. That love is consistent. We are loved by God. Reflection question: When have you experienced God’s amazing timing? Discuss Today's Devo in Harvest Discipleship! — The audio production of the podcast "Daily Devotions from Greg Laurie" utilizes Generative AI technology. This allows us to deliver consistent, high-quality content while preserving Harvest's mission to "know God and make Him known."All devotional content is written and owned by Pastor Greg Laurie. Listen to the Greg Laurie Podcast Become a Harvest PartnerSupport the show: https://harvest.org/supportSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Episode Synopsis:2 Corinthians just may well be the most difficult of all of Paul's letters. 2 Corinthians assumes that the reader has a basic understanding of the geography of the Greco-Roman world (a map really helps), as well as some understanding of the ongoing situation in the Corinthian church which leads Paul to compose this letter (the fourth in a series of letters which Paul has sent to the church in Corinth). To get the most out of this letter, you need to get up to speed with its background and purpose. But don't let this keep you from taking the time to dig in with us was we strive to get to the heart of the letter, which is filled with meaty theology and practical application. Paul's reason for writing amounts to a defense of his ministry and apostolic office. We learn a great deal about Paul as a person and the history of his Gentile mission in 2 Corinthians. As he prepares to return to Corinth, Paul explains his actions and motives including revealing his secret weapon–he is strongest when he is weak, because then he can do nothing else but count upon the mercy of God and the power of the gospel. Humanly speaking, Paul has much to boast about but he directs his readers back to the proper reason for boasting–to give God the glory and honor he alone deserves. We'll also find in 2 Corinthians more of Paul's robust Trinitarian theology. In 2 Corinthians 13:14, Paul offers one of the most definitive Trinitarian declarations in all the New Testament. “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.” Paul does much to explain the saving work of Jesus Christ in reconciling sinners unto the Father, as well as discussing the Holy Spirit's role in God's redemptive purposes. Paul is also clear about fallen human nature. We are as fragile as jars of clay and our bodies are mere tents until we are made alive by the Father, through the Son, and in the Spirit. There is much in 2 Corinthians about the glory of the new covenant, and the fading glory of the old, as Paul gives the Corinthians yet another lesson in understanding the course of redemptive history.In the closing chapters, Paul lowers the boom on those whom he calls “false” apostles, men who are doing the devil's work through teaching another Jesus and another gospel. He also identifies men he calls “super” apostles whose eloquent speech and style are vastly superior to Paul, and may have some sort of charismatic ministry, which they used not to glorify God, but to undermine Paul and drive a wedge between the apostle and the saints in Corinth. Paul will have none of it.So even though 2 Corinthians can be tough going at first, it is very well worth our time and study.For show notes and other recommended materials located at the Riddleblog as mentioned during the Blessed Hope Podcast, click here: https://www.kimriddlebarger.com/
Ever feel that everything is against you? We wonder if Paul was ever inclined to feel that way? Remember how he writes of his “countless beatings … many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food …” [2 Cor.11 v.23,27] In view of such experiences, let us take special notice of his testimony that we read today in his letter to the Romans, “If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him, graciously give us all things? [8 v.31,32]Humanly speaking many things were “against” Paul, but his mind and heart were absolutely committed to his relationship with Christ: this is evident as he states that Christ “is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? … in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, not things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” [8 v.34,35,37-39]How much do our brethren in some countries of the world today need this spirit that Paul writes about! And tomorrow? Let us, with Christ's help, because we have become fully committed to him, become “ more than conquerors” for “who can be against us?”The answer is no one can succeed in destroying our faith as long as we really “hear” in our hearts the words of Jesus. , “Hold fast what you have” Jesus told those in Philadelphia, “I know you have but little power, and yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name …I will keep you from the hour of trial that is coming on the whole world, to try those who dwell on the earth. I am coming soon. Hold fast what you have, so that no one may seize your crown.” [Rev. 3 v.8, 10,11] , The hour of trial that came then, as with other ‘hours' to subsequent generations all foreshadowed an ultimate “hour of trial” of which we read last week in Matthew (ch. 24) Let us “Hold fast” for nothing can succeed “against us” “if God be for us.”
In this episode, we welcome Prem Kumar, the CEO and co-founder of Humanly, an AI-powered hiring platform. We discuss how AI is reshaping the world of recruiting by improving speed, enhancing the candidate experience, and allowing for greater scalability without losing the essential human touch. Prem also discusses the importance of building trust with candidates through empathetic AI interactions, and provides real-world examples of how companies are using these new tools to make their hiring processes more efficient and effective. [0:00] Introduction Welcome, Prem! Today's Topic: How AI is Reshaping Recruiting [8:31] How is AI helping recruiters balance speed and candidate experience? AI can make bad processes happen faster just as easily as it can good ones; it's not a replacement for a sound strategy. The role of the recruiter will evolve into one of orchestration, strategically deciding where to implement AI in the hiring workflow. [16:10] How can you build an AI that earns candidate trust? Earning trust is about providing immediate value and setting clear expectations. The goal is not to trick a candidate into thinking an AI is human, but to be transparent about its role in assisting them. [24:57] What are some real-world examples of AI improving hiring efficiency? For AI to be effective, it must be integrated directly into a company's primary workflow, such as its Applicant Tracking System (ATS). Chat agents are now handling candidate intake, answering questions, and initial screening. Companies are using AI to re-engage with the vast pools of candidates they already have in their databases. [35:23] Closing Thanks for listening! Quick Quote “AI, like any technology, has the ability to make this happen faster, more efficiently, and at a higher quality; but it also has the ability to make bad things happen faster, more efficiently bad, and at a higher quality of bad. It isn't a way of getting around sound process.”
While they were eating, he said, “Truly I tell you, one of you will betray me.” — Matthew 26:21 The patience and generosity Jesus shows as he prepares for his last supper with his disciples is really awe inspiring. Without anger or malice he tells the truth of what is about to happen. He not only sets a table in front of an enemy but also serves that enemy. This too is amazing grace. The good shepherd feeds his sheep both physically and spiritually with a meal (the Lord's Supper) that the flock will eat in remembrance of his sacrifice and love for years and years to come. It will nourish them spiritually so that they will have what they need to stay on mission. And even in underground churches to the present day his sheep have joined in this meal despite being surrounded by enemies. Humanly speaking it would not have been easy to think about the sheep in his care as Jesus set his face toward the cross and he became the sacrifice for sin for the sake of all who would follow him. But while Jesus was fully human, he was also fully the Son of God who continued to care for his flock even as he faced death on their behalf. Here we see his overwhelming love for both the Father and the flock, including any who opposed him. We are called to live and act like Jesus. How does his example of showing love to both his faithful followers and his enemies inform how we can engage with people who are unkind to us? We praise you, Lord Jesus, for your undying love shown to us in so many ways as you walked toward your death for our sake. Amen.
JoséI am sitting on the cracked, faux black leather couch in a white beam of LED light. Underneath the sparkling sheath of my green-blue dress is my matching tangerine orange underwear set. José is crouched on his knees on the floor in front of me.I notice the way he sees me. His drunken eyes double-take as I open my legs. I look down over the lip of my dress and back up into his brown eyes, teasing. I want to control him. It's like I've made up a game with my own body. I will spruce up these used goods. Put the fruit back on the shelf at the supermarket, nice and ripe again.I touch myself over my underwear as I look up at him. I am putting on a show for him. I quite like it. I feel powerful, in control. I notice the grey hairs in the scruff of his beard as he sips his beer. He leans in closer, tasting me with his nose.When we are f*****g in his room, the breath is forced out of my lungs by the weight of his body and his protruding belly. He has cute brown moles on his face, deep brown eyes, and a wicked smile. Eight years older than me. He comes quickly. I feel dainty, young, fresh.José drives me home at 3 in the morning. In his car, I hug my knees, my orange underwear back on but readjusted and slightly twisted. He winks at me, and I pause for a moment. I wonder. We can both look at my body, but perhaps we see very different things. How does he see me? As some kind of walking beauty? Humanly imperfect yet highly f******e?Come back for more
Just Shoot It: A Podcast about Filmmaking, Screenwriting and Directing
Trey Edward Shults https://www.imdb.com/name/nm4099092/ has been called a visionary film director. Matt and Oren chat with Trey about his bold leap into auteur filmmaking—what it means to claim that title and how he made it happen.What did he learn as a nineteen-year-old loading IMAX film for Terrence Malick on the edge of a live volcano? And is going to Cannes or winning at SXSW really enough to eventually land Hollywood's most sought-after actors for your film?His latest film, "Hurry Up Tomorrow" (@hurryuptomorrowmovie on Instagram), opens Friday, is a collaboration with The Weeknd (Abel Tesfaye), and stars Jenna Ortega.---Matt's Endorsement: Breaking and Entering on LinkedIn. https://www.linkedin.com/company/breakingandentering/posts/?feedView=all It's basically "Everything You Need to Know in Advertising in 60 Seconds."Oren's Endorsement: Amazing AI art that defies the horrifically bad tells of AI art. Humanly artistic and possessing a sense of authorship and voice. @voidstomper on Instagram. He has millions of followers, but hasn't figured out how to monetize it. So help him out and watch his new videos.Trey' Endorsements: Chicken Joe's aka CJ's in Santa Teresa, Costa Rica https://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g635538-d2041184-Reviews-Chicken_Joe_s-Santa_Teresa_Province_of_Puntarenas.html Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
White Sox better trade Luis Robert Jr. as soon as humanly possible full 589 Tue, 25 Mar 2025 22:21:06 +0000 sDcvl2ltgAolwI2izoQN8Kr0GBCb3vQE mlb,chicago white sox,sports Spiegel & Holmes Show mlb,chicago white sox,sports White Sox better trade Luis Robert Jr. as soon as humanly possible Matt Spiegel and Laurence Holmes bring you Chicago sports talk with great opinions, guests and fun. Join Spiegel and Holmes as they discuss the Bears, Blackhawks, Bulls, Cubs and White Sox and delve into the biggest sports storylines of the day. Recurring guests include Bears cornerback Jaylon Johnson, former Bears coach Dave Wannstedt, former Bears center Olin Kreutz, Cubs manager Craig Counsell, Cubs second baseman Nico Hoerner and MLB Network personality Jon Morosi. Catch the show live Monday through Friday (2 p.m. - 6 p.m. CT) on 670 The Score, the exclusive audio home of the Cubs and the Bulls, or on the Audacy app. 2024 © 2021 Audacy, Inc. Sports False https://player.amperwavepo
Many Americans work their entire lives and end up retiring with nothing. But a group of frugal obsessives is challenging that.They call their approach FIRE: “financial independence, retire early.”Amy X. Wang, the assistant managing editor of The New York Times Magazine, looks at the people behind this growing movement and their bid to rethink how long we work.Guest: Amy X. Wang, the assistant managing editor of The New York Times Magazine. Background reading: Allen Wong is one of the FIRE adherents who always knew how he wanted to live life. After decades of tolerating workaholic culture as the norm, employees are tired and unafraid to show it.FIRE started in the early 2000s with a mantra of extreme saving, but the pandemic forged new followers.For more information on today's episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.
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