Podcasts about judas

Have you ever gotten to the end of the Gospel booksMatthew, Mark, Luke, and Johnand asked, So what happened next? Beginning on the same day that the Gospel of Luke ends, written by the same writer, Acts continues the story with Jesus' ascension and promise to return, the wait for the Holy Spirit, and Judas' replacement.

HOS 10:1-3, 7-8, 12  (1:49) Father talks about the life of St. Maria Goretti and the power of forgiveness  MT 10:1-7 What does a disciple mean?  Letters (22:01) Jim writes in about those that don't believe in God and the moral law My pastor doesn't read the Gospel or Eucharistic prayers, he reads them from memory. How much latitude does a priest have?  Listener comments on politicians who receive communion despite abortion stance Word of the Day: Forgive (33:46) Callers (35:54) - There seems to be a movement to reinterpret the scriptures. How do we interpret the Scriptures?  (39:41) - Why don't we bow at the name of Jesus?  (41:58) - Did Jesus know that Judas knew would betray him?  (44:35) - What do you think about choir substituting songs for the psalm during mass? (46:25) - Are Jesus and the Father co-equal?  (48:44) - How does a priest become a monsignor

After the disciples get a little full of themselves and begin arguing over who would be the greatest in the Kingdom, Jesus gently teaches them. As you listen to and visualize this lesson from Matthew 18:1-5, Mark 9:33-37, and Luke 9:46-48, open your heart and ask God how this applies to your life. ****** Welcome to Walking in the Word, the biblical teaching arm of the Women World Leaders podcast. My name is Julie Jenkins – I hope that you consider me your walking partner as we take this stroll together through the Bible, uncovering all that God wants to teach us today. I appreciate YOU for holding ME accountable to spending time in the Word! As I study, write and record these podcasts, I am always amazed at how much God teaches ME through the process. I hope you feel the same as you listen! Let me wish you a Happy July! I'm always amazed at how fast the summer goes! With that in mind, I want to take a moment to remind you that if you are not a current subscriber to Voice of Truth, there is still time to sign up before our August edition comes out. Subscriptions are free – just visit our website at womenworldleaders.com. We are awed at God's provision as we put together each edition, both from the contributor standpoint and from the donation side. If you are involved in writing, editing, producing, or giving financially for Voice of Truth, we want you to know how grateful we are! And if you are a recipient, we would love to hear how the magazine is ministering in your life. Please drop us a note at info@womenworldleaders.com! Today's Scripture, as we go along our journey, is Matthew 18:1-5, Mark 9:33-37, and Luke 9:46-48. Before we begin, let's pray… Dear Most Holy God, We come to you today with open hearts, ready to learn whatever you have for us. God, as we walk through your Word together, we recognize that bit by bit, we are getting a clearer picture of you and developing a closer walk with you. You promise us that if we ask for wisdom, you will grant it. And God, I know that you often give your wisdom through the reading and understanding of Scripture. So as we read and study today, will you shower us with your wisdom? We ask this in Jesus' almighty name, Amen. As we walk with Jesus through the Bible, we do indeed see Him clearer with each step. And, as the disciples literally walked with Jesus, they saw Him clearer as well. Peter, James, and John had just seen Jesus in all His glory at the transfiguration, and Peter received a personal miracle when Jesus provided him a coin from a fish's mouth meant to pay the temple tax. All of this personal attention, however, turned the disciples' thoughts to themselves. They were recently filled with grief at the news that Jesus would be killed, but apparently, they quickly forgot that grief about Jesus' upcoming pain as they each focused on themselves and began to wonder, “what's in this for me?” Luke 9:46 from the New Living Translation sets the scene… 46 Then his disciples began arguing about which of them was the greatest.  This may be perplexing to us, but I bet, if we think about it, we can all personally relate. There were 12 men, after all, and our logical minds tell us that SOMEONE had to be the favorite. We don't know who or exactly what instigated the argument, but one thing is certain: a lot of feelings likely played into the scenario. It is possible that Peter, James, and John were feeling prideful – because they were definitely emerging as Jesus' inner circle. They saw it, and so did the other nine disciples. And let's remember that in Jesus' absence (while He was out gallivanting with Peter, James, and John), the other disciples had been unable to heal the demon-possessed boy – which may have led to a lack of self-esteem and feelings of inferiority. And then there was Judas, who we later learn wasn't about following Jesus at all, but was likely in it only for himself anyway. In most situations, there is a web of feelings and circumstances that can lead us to sin. And this was no different. Their argument was about status – which the world honors. And it makes worldly sense that the more people who are below us – no matter how they got there – the higher we climb. The world teaches us to claim our place at the top of the heap, even if that means stepping on or over other people to get there. We may look down on the disciples for arguing their case about who was the greatest in words, but we often argue the case for our own superiority in actions. For example, it is all too common for us to amass ridiculous stores of riches rather than use what God has given us to serve others. We often use our time to get degrees for the purpose of putting a lot of letters after our name to impress others, rather than for gaining knowledge to serve others. And it is commonplace for us to look sideways … and down … at those who may be living a sinful lifestyle, instead of reaching out a loving hand to help them. Before we judge the disciples for foolishly arguing who was greater, we owe it to ourselves to look at ourselves and our own lifestyles and assess where we claim greatness over someone else. If you are feeling really brave, ask JESUS to show you where YOU are claiming greatness. But when you do, get ready, because Jesus knows…and you might be surprised as He takes off your blinders. Jesus knows. He knows our thoughts, our actions, and our words. But when we ask, we don't have to be afraid, because we can trust Jesus' gentle guidance to help us grow. In Mark 9:33, we see that gentle guidance… 33 After they arrived at Capernaum and settled in a house, Jesus asked his disciples, “What were you discussing out on the road?” 34 But they didn't answer, because they had been arguing about which of them was the greatest.  As I read this, I had to ask myself, how often have I closed my ears to what Jesus was asking me? How many times have I refused to answer a question that I KNOW He already has the answer to? If you read through the Bible, you will begin to notice that Jesus' style of teaching often involves questions. Lots of questions! There is a truth in teaching that says that when someone figures out something rather than being told it, they develop a deeper understanding. Jesus asked the disciples what they were discussing to make them think and to help them understand their sin of pridefully leapfrogging each other to greatness. Then Jesus answered the question THEY had…who IS the greatest in the Kingdom? Mark 9:35… 35 He sat down, called the twelve disciples over to him, and said, “Whoever wants to be first must take last place and be the servant of everyone else.” This is so different from the world's teaching, and something we must each take to heart. While there is nothing wrong with ambition or success, Jesus teaches us that HIS WAY to success and authentic leadership is through personal humility and service to others. Jesus is a master at teaching through questions, and also through stories and illustrations. So next, He does something very memorable…Matthew 18:1… 2 Jesus called a little child to him and put the child among them. (Mark tells us He took the child in His arms…I love that visual) 3 Then he said, “I tell you the truth, unless you turn from your sins and become like little children, you will never get into the Kingdom of Heaven. 4 So anyone who becomes as humble as this little child is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven. Let's talk about a child's place in the first century. We tend to elevate our children, to craft our family culture around the needs and desires of our children. But that was not the case in Jesus' day, when children had no power, status, or rights. A child was often seen only in terms of adding to the family work structure and carrying on the family trade. Children were expected to be obedient and submissive and were completely dependent on their father's goodwill. So Jesus welcomes this child into the conversation and holds him in His arms. A picture of love and protection and acceptance. And then He tells the disciples that even to ENTER the kingdom of heaven, they must become like this insignificant child, serving in humble submission and becoming completely dependent on the Father's goodwill. And then He drops the bombshell, the MOST humble will become the greatest. What a paradigm shift – for the disciples AND for us! I read a devotion today by Rick Renner that I want to share the gist of – it is based on 1 Corinthians 4:1, in which the apostle Paul calls himself a “mere servant of Christ.” The word Paul uses in the original Greek is huperetas (hu pair EH tays), which means “the essential attitude necessary to get a job done.” Renner wrote that the original word hearkened back to the very lowest class of criminals who were often assigned to the galleys of the ship to row the ship – to keep it moving. Picture a ship powered by oars below, with the passengers and even workers up above in the sunlight moving swiftly across the sea. The reality is that the boat would not be moving at all without the power of the workers below, covered in sweat, working hard, hidden from glory. That's the kind of minister Paul was. That is who we are called to be. To be great in the kingdom, and I can't think of a better place to be great, we must humbly submit to our Father and depend on Him for wisdom, guidance, protection, and peace. We must serve those we are given the honor to serve. We must be the helping hands to pull others up when they fall. We must be the shoulders hoisting others to greatness. We must sit in the bottom of the ship and row our hearts out in the shadows, understanding that if we don't do what we are called to do, the ship will become stagnant in the water. Luke 9:48 assures us… Whoever is the least among you is the greatest.” While that is an amazing thought, being the greatest should never be our focus, because God is the greatest! In my home growing up we had a hanging that said J.O.Y …joy…Jesus. Other. You. Our first duty as Christians is to Jesus. Our second duty as Christians is to others. When we raise up Jesus and Others, our status will automatically get upgraded! We are called to be like the children of the first century. Obedient. Submissive. Willing to listen in complete dependence to our Heavenly Father. THAT is being the greatest in the Kingdom. Let's pray… Dear Loving Father! Your teaching is SO clear. We are to serve in humble obedience. We are honored to do so! For you are the best father ever. God, we give you our service, and we ask that you empower us to follow your call every step of every day. Show us who you would have us serve today. Give each listener a practical step to take, and remind her of your teaching today as she rows the boat. Always for your glory. In Jesus' name, I pray. Amen.

Ann Coulter, John Zmirak, Eric Metaxas. French Revolution and the American Revolution were Exact Opposites. Pro-Choice Demons Go to War. Judas Gun Stealing Republicans.   The American History You Don't Know HAPPY JULY 4TH!!! Ann Coulter Ann Coulter, AUTHOR OF 13 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLERS, chats about politics, religion, war, crime, history, sex, race, soccer (even real sports!) – all the things we're told it's impolite to raise in polite company. Coulter's UNSAFE podcast is the Rapid Response Team to the Democratic Party and its subsidiaries, The New York Times, The Washington Post, MSNBC, CNN, et al — as well as 90 percent of the Republican Party. Listen here first – and be 3 days ahead of all the cable news channel hosts, who will undoubtedly be listening too   The Eric Metaxas Show John Zmirak  Jul 01 2022   Big Bad John Zmirak brings his usual thunder and lightning with focus on new articles at Stream.org, including, "Pro-Choice Arguments Are Dead, Now We See the Demons" and "Can SCOTUS Save Our Gun Rights from Republicans in the Senate?"   The Eric Metaxas Show The Eric Metaxas Show- https://metaxastalk.com/podcasts/   Book Mentioned- Death by Government by RJ Rummel. Get yours free at- https://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/DBG.CHAP1.HTM   About the Author- Rudolph Rummel From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia   Rudolph Rummel   Born Rudolph Joseph Rummel October 21, 1932 Cleveland, Ohio, U.S. Died March 2, 2014 (aged 81) Kaneohe, Hawaii, U.S. Education University of Hawaiʻi (B.A., political science, 1959) (M.A., political science, 1961) Northwestern University (Ph.D., political science, 1963) Occupation Political scientist Employer Indiana University (1963–1964) Yale University (1964–1966) University of Hawaiʻi (1966–1995) Known for Research on war and conflict resolution Website hawaii.edu/powerkills Rudolph Joseph Rummel (October 21, 1932 – March 2, 2014)[1] was an American political scientist and professor at the Indiana University, Yale University, and University of Hawaiʻi. He spent his career studying data on collective violence and war with a view toward helping their resolution or elimination. Contrasting genocide, Rummel coined the term democide for murder by government, such as the genocide of indigenous peoples and colonialism, Nazi Germany, the Stalinist purges, Mao Zedong's Cultural Revolution, and other authoritarian, totalitarian, or undemocratic regimes, coming to the conclusion that democratic regimes result in the least democides.[2] Rummel estimated that a total of 212 million people were killed by all governments during the 20th century,[3] of which 148 million were killed by Communist governments from 1917 to 1987.[4] To give some perspective on these numbers, Rummel stated that all domestic and foreign wars during the 20th century killed in combat around 41 million. His figures for Communist governments have been criticized for the methodology which he used to arrive at them, and they have also been criticized for being higher than the figures which have been given by most scholars.[5][6][7][8][9][10][11] In his last book, Rummel increased his estimate to over 272 million innocent, non-combatant civilians who were murdered by their own governments during the 20th century.[12] Rummel stated that his 272 million death estimate was his lower, more prudent figure, stating that it "could be over 400,000,000."[13] Rummel came to the conclusion that a democracy is the form of government which is least likely to kill its citizens because democracies do not tend to wage wars against each other.[2] This latest view is a concept, which was further developed by Rummel, known as the democratic peace theory.[14] Rummel was the author of twenty-four scholarly books, and he published his major results between 1975 and 1981 in Understanding Conflict and War (1975).[15] He spent the next fifteen years refining the underlying theory and testing it empirically on new data, against the empirical results of others, and on case studies. He summed up his research in Power Kills (1997).[16] His other works include Lethal Politics: Soviet Genocides and Mass Murders 1917–1987 (1990),[17] China's Bloody Century: Genocide and Mass Murder Since 1900 (1991),[18] Democide: Nazi Genocide and Mass Murder (1992),[19] Death by Government: Genocide and Mass Murder Since 1900 (1994),[20] and Statistics of Democide (1997).[21] Extracts, figures, and tables from the books, including his sources and details regarding the calculations, are available online on his website. Rummel also authored Applied Factor Analysis (1970)[22] and Understanding Correlation (1976).[23]

Garrett Kell, Pastor of Del Ray Baptist Church. New Testament Biographies Class: Lesson 4. Taught July 3, 2022.

Psalms and Wisdom: Ecclesiastes 2:24–26 Ecclesiastes 2:24–26 (Listen) 24 There is nothing better for a person than that he should eat and drink and find enjoyment1 in his toil. This also, I saw, is from the hand of God, 25 for apart from him2 who can eat or who can have enjoyment? 26 For to the one who pleases him God has given wisdom and knowledge and joy, but to the sinner he has given the business of gathering and collecting, only to give to one who pleases God. This also is vanity and a striving after wind. Footnotes [1] 2:24 Or and make his soul see good [2] 2:25 Some Hebrew manuscripts, Septuagint, Syriac; most Hebrew manuscripts apart from me (ESV) Pentateuch and History: Joshua 2 Joshua 2 (Listen) Rahab Hides the Spies 2 And Joshua the son of Nun sent1 two men secretly from Shittim as spies, saying, “Go, view the land, especially Jericho.” And they went and came into the house of a prostitute whose name was Rahab and lodged there. 2 And it was told to the king of Jericho, “Behold, men of Israel have come here tonight to search out the land.” 3 Then the king of Jericho sent to Rahab, saying, “Bring out the men who have come to you, who entered your house, for they have come to search out all the land.” 4 But the woman had taken the two men and hidden them. And she said, “True, the men came to me, but I did not know where they were from. 5 And when the gate was about to be closed at dark, the men went out. I do not know where the men went. Pursue them quickly, for you will overtake them.” 6 But she had brought them up to the roof and hid them with the stalks of flax that she had laid in order on the roof. 7 So the men pursued after them on the way to the Jordan as far as the fords. And the gate was shut as soon as the pursuers had gone out. 8 Before the men2 lay down, she came up to them on the roof 9 and said to the men, “I know that the LORD has given you the land, and that the fear of you has fallen upon us, and that all the inhabitants of the land melt away before you. 10 For we have heard how the LORD dried up the water of the Red Sea before you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to the two kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan, to Sihon and Og, whom you devoted to destruction.3 11 And as soon as we heard it, our hearts melted, and there was no spirit left in any man because of you, for the LORD your God, he is God in the heavens above and on the earth beneath. 12 Now then, please swear to me by the LORD that, as I have dealt kindly with you, you also will deal kindly with my father's house, and give me a sure sign 13 that you will save alive my father and mother, my brothers and sisters, and all who belong to them, and deliver our lives from death.” 14 And the men said to her, “Our life for yours even to death! If you do not tell this business of ours, then when the LORD gives us the land we will deal kindly and faithfully with you.” 15 Then she let them down by a rope through the window, for her house was built into the city wall, so that she lived in the wall. 16 And she said4 to them, “Go into the hills, or the pursuers will encounter you, and hide there three days until the pursuers have returned. Then afterward you may go your way.” 17 The men said to her, “We will be guiltless with respect to this oath of yours that you have made us swear. 18 Behold, when we come into the land, you shall tie this scarlet cord in the window through which you let us down, and you shall gather into your house your father and mother, your brothers, and all your father's household. 19 Then if anyone goes out of the doors of your house into the street, his blood shall be on his own head, and we shall be guiltless. But if a hand is laid on anyone who is with you in the house, his blood shall be on our head. 20 But if you tell this business of ours, then we shall be guiltless with respect to your oath that you have made us swear.” 21 And she said, “According to your words, so be it.” Then she sent them away, and they departed. And she tied the scarlet cord in the window. 22 They departed and went into the hills and remained there three days until the pursuers returned, and the pursuers searched all along the way and found nothing. 23 Then the two men returned. They came down from the hills and passed over and came to Joshua the son of Nun, and they told him all that had happened to them. 24 And they said to Joshua, “Truly the LORD has given all the land into our hands. And also, all the inhabitants of the land melt away because of us.” Footnotes [1] 2:1 Or had sent [2] 2:8 Hebrew they [3] 2:10 That is, set apart (devoted) as an offering to the Lord (for destruction) [4] 2:16 Or had said (ESV) Chronicles and Prophets: Zephaniah 2:4–15 Zephaniah 2:4–15 (Listen) 4   For Gaza shall be deserted,    and Ashkelon shall become a desolation;  Ashdod's people shall be driven out at noon,    and Ekron shall be uprooted. 5   Woe to you inhabitants of the seacoast,    you nation of the Cherethites!  The word of the LORD is against you,    O Canaan, land of the Philistines;    and I will destroy you until no inhabitant is left.6   And you, O seacoast, shall be pastures,    with meadows1 for shepherds    and folds for flocks.7   The seacoast shall become the possession    of the remnant of the house of Judah,    on which they shall graze,  and in the houses of Ashkelon    they shall lie down at evening.  For the LORD their God will be mindful of them    and restore their fortunes. 8   “I have heard the taunts of Moab    and the revilings of the Ammonites,  how they have taunted my people    and made boasts against their territory.9   Therefore, as I live,” declares the LORD of hosts,    the God of Israel,  “Moab shall become like Sodom,    and the Ammonites like Gomorrah,  a land possessed by nettles and salt pits,    and a waste forever.  The remnant of my people shall plunder them,    and the survivors of my nation shall possess them.”10   This shall be their lot in return for their pride,    because they taunted and boasted    against the people of the LORD of hosts.11   The LORD will be awesome against them;    for he will famish all the gods of the earth,  and to him shall bow down,    each in its place,    all the lands of the nations. 12   You also, O Cushites,    shall be slain by my sword. 13   And he will stretch out his hand against the north    and destroy Assyria,  and he will make Nineveh a desolation,    a dry waste like the desert.14   Herds shall lie down in her midst,    all kinds of beasts;2  even the owl and the hedgehog3    shall lodge in her capitals;  a voice shall hoot in the window;    devastation will be on the threshold;    for her cedar work will be laid bare.15   This is the exultant city    that lived securely,  that said in her heart,    “I am, and there is no one else.”  What a desolation she has become,    a lair for wild beasts!  Everyone who passes by her    hisses and shakes his fist. Footnotes [1] 2:6 Or caves [2] 2:14 Hebrew beasts of every nation [3] 2:14 The identity of the animals rendered owl and hedgehog is uncertain (ESV) Gospels and Epistles: Matthew 13 Matthew 13 (Listen) The Parable of the Sower 13 That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat beside the sea. 2 And great crowds gathered about him, so that he got into a boat and sat down. And the whole crowd stood on the beach. 3 And he told them many things in parables, saying: “A sower went out to sow. 4 And as he sowed, some seeds fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured them. 5 Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and immediately they sprang up, since they had no depth of soil, 6 but when the sun rose they were scorched. And since they had no root, they withered away. 7 Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. 8 Other seeds fell on good soil and produced grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. 9 He who has ears,1 let him hear.” The Purpose of the Parables 10 Then the disciples came and said to him, “Why do you speak to them in parables?” 11 And he answered them, “To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. 12 For to the one who has, more will be given, and he will have an abundance, but from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. 13 This is why I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. 14 Indeed, in their case the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled that says:   “‘“You will indeed hear but never understand,    and you will indeed see but never perceive.”15   For this people's heart has grown dull,    and with their ears they can barely hear,    and their eyes they have closed,  lest they should see with their eyes    and hear with their ears  and understand with their heart    and turn, and I would heal them.' 16 But blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear. 17 For truly, I say to you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it. The Parable of the Sower Explained 18 “Hear then the parable of the sower: 19 When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart. This is what was sown along the path. 20 As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy, 21 yet he has no root in himself, but endures for a while, and when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately he falls away.2 22 As for what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and it proves unfruitful. 23 As for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it. He indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty.” The Parable of the Weeds 24 He put another parable before them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field, 25 but while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds3 among the wheat and went away. 26 So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared also. 27 And the servants4 of the master of the house came and said to him, ‘Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have weeds?' 28 He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.' So the servants said to him, ‘Then do you want us to go and gather them?' 29 But he said, ‘No, lest in gathering the weeds you root up the wheat along with them. 30 Let both grow together until the harvest, and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, “Gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.”'” The Mustard Seed and the Leaven 31 He put another parable before them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his field. 32 It is the smallest of all seeds, but when it has grown it is larger than all the garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.” 33 He told them another parable. “The kingdom of heaven is like leaven that a woman took and hid in three measures of flour, till it was all leavened.” Prophecy and Parables 34 All these things Jesus said to the crowds in parables; indeed, he said nothing to them without a parable. 35 This was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet:5   “I will open my mouth in parables;    I will utter what has been hidden since the foundation of the world.” The Parable of the Weeds Explained 36 Then he left the crowds and went into the house. And his disciples came to him, saying, “Explain to us the parable of the weeds of the field.” 37 He answered, “The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man. 38 The field is the world, and the good seed is the sons of the kingdom. The weeds are the sons of the evil one, 39 and the enemy who sowed them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels. 40 Just as the weeds are gathered and burned with fire, so will it be at the end of the age. 41 The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all law-breakers, 42 and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 43 Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear. The Parable of the Hidden Treasure 44 “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. The Parable of the Pearl of Great Value 45 “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, 46 who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it. The Parable of the Net 47 “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was thrown into the sea and gathered fish of every kind. 48 When it was full, men drew it ashore and sat down and sorted the good into containers but threw away the bad. 49 So it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous 50 and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. New and Old Treasures 51 “Have you understood all these things?” They said to him, “Yes.” 52 And he said to them, “Therefore every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house, who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old.” Jesus Rejected at Nazareth 53 And when Jesus had finished these parables, he went away from there, 54 and coming to his hometown he taught them in their synagogue, so that they were astonished, and said, “Where did this man get this wisdom and these mighty works? 55 Is not this the carpenter's son? Is not his mother called Mary? And are not his brothers James and Joseph and Simon and Judas? 56 And are not all his sisters with us? Where then did this man get all these things?” 57 And they took offense at him. But Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in his hometown and in his own household.” 58 And he did not do many mighty works there, because of their unbelief. Footnotes [1] 13:9 Some manuscripts add here and in verse 43 to hear [2] 13:21 Or stumbles [3] 13:25 Probably darnel, a wheat-like weed [4] 13:27 Or bondservants; also verse 28 [5] 13:35 Some manuscripts Isaiah the prophet (ESV)

With family: Joshua 5–6:5; Psalms 132–134 Joshua 5–6:5 (Listen) The New Generation Circumcised 5 As soon as all the kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan to the west, and all the kings of the Canaanites who were by the sea, heard that the LORD had dried up the waters of the Jordan for the people of Israel until they had crossed over, their hearts melted and there was no longer any spirit in them because of the people of Israel. 2 At that time the LORD said to Joshua, “Make flint knives and circumcise the sons of Israel a second time.” 3 So Joshua made flint knives and circumcised the sons of Israel at Gibeath-haaraloth.1 4 And this is the reason why Joshua circumcised them: all the males of the people who came out of Egypt, all the men of war, had died in the wilderness on the way after they had come out of Egypt. 5 Though all the people who came out had been circumcised, yet all the people who were born on the way in the wilderness after they had come out of Egypt had not been circumcised. 6 For the people of Israel walked forty years in the wilderness, until all the nation, the men of war who came out of Egypt, perished, because they did not obey the voice of the LORD; the LORD swore to them that he would not let them see the land that the LORD had sworn to their fathers to give to us, a land flowing with milk and honey. 7 So it was their children, whom he raised up in their place, that Joshua circumcised. For they were uncircumcised, because they had not been circumcised on the way. 8 When the circumcising of the whole nation was finished, they remained in their places in the camp until they were healed. 9 And the LORD said to Joshua, “Today I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you.” And so the name of that place is called Gilgal2 to this day. First Passover in Canaan 10 While the people of Israel were encamped at Gilgal, they kept the Passover on the fourteenth day of the month in the evening on the plains of Jericho. 11 And the day after the Passover, on that very day, they ate of the produce of the land, unleavened cakes and parched grain. 12 And the manna ceased the day after they ate of the produce of the land. And there was no longer manna for the people of Israel, but they ate of the fruit of the land of Canaan that year. The Commander of the Lord's Army 13 When Joshua was by Jericho, he lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, a man was standing before him with his drawn sword in his hand. And Joshua went to him and said to him, “Are you for us, or for our adversaries?” 14 And he said, “No; but I am the commander of the army of the LORD. Now I have come.” And Joshua fell on his face to the earth and worshiped3 and said to him, “What does my lord say to his servant?” 15 And the commander of the LORD's army said to Joshua, “Take off your sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy.” And Joshua did so. The Fall of Jericho 6 Now Jericho was shut up inside and outside because of the people of Israel. None went out, and none came in. 2 And the LORD said to Joshua, “See, I have given Jericho into your hand, with its king and mighty men of valor. 3 You shall march around the city, all the men of war going around the city once. Thus shall you do for six days. 4 Seven priests shall bear seven trumpets of rams' horns before the ark. On the seventh day you shall march around the city seven times, and the priests shall blow the trumpets. 5 And when they make a long blast with the ram's horn, when you hear the sound of the trumpet, then all the people shall shout with a great shout, and the wall of the city will fall down flat,4 and the people shall go up, everyone straight before him.” Footnotes [1] 5:3 Gibeath-haaraloth means the hill of the foreskins [2] 5:9 Gilgal sounds like the Hebrew for to roll [3] 5:14 Or and paid homage [4] 6:5 Hebrew under itself; also verse 20 (ESV) Psalms 132–134 (Listen) The Lord Has Chosen Zion A Song of Ascents. 132   Remember, O LORD, in David's favor,    all the hardships he endured,2   how he swore to the LORD    and vowed to the Mighty One of Jacob,3   “I will not enter my house    or get into my bed,4   I will not give sleep to my eyes    or slumber to my eyelids,5   until I find a place for the LORD,    a dwelling place for the Mighty One of Jacob.” 6   Behold, we heard of it in Ephrathah;    we found it in the fields of Jaar.7   “Let us go to his dwelling place;    let us worship at his footstool!” 8   Arise, O LORD, and go to your resting place,    you and the ark of your might.9   Let your priests be clothed with righteousness,    and let your saints shout for joy.10   For the sake of your servant David,    do not turn away the face of your anointed one. 11   The LORD swore to David a sure oath    from which he will not turn back:  “One of the sons of your body1    I will set on your throne.12   If your sons keep my covenant    and my testimonies that I shall teach them,  their sons also forever    shall sit on your throne.” 13   For the LORD has chosen Zion;    he has desired it for his dwelling place:14   “This is my resting place forever;    here I will dwell, for I have desired it.15   I will abundantly bless her provisions;    I will satisfy her poor with bread.16   Her priests I will clothe with salvation,    and her saints will shout for joy.17   There I will make a horn to sprout for David;    I have prepared a lamp for my anointed.18   His enemies I will clothe with shame,    but on him his crown will shine.” When Brothers Dwell in Unity A Song of Ascents. Of David. 133   Behold, how good and pleasant it is    when brothers dwell in unity!22   It is like the precious oil on the head,    running down on the beard,  on the beard of Aaron,    running down on the collar of his robes!3   It is like the dew of Hermon,    which falls on the mountains of Zion!  For there the LORD has commanded the blessing,    life forevermore. Come, Bless the Lord A Song of Ascents. 134   Come, bless the LORD, all you servants of the LORD,    who stand by night in the house of the LORD!2   Lift up your hands to the holy place    and bless the LORD! 3   May the LORD bless you from Zion,    he who made heaven and earth! Footnotes [1] 132:11 Hebrew of your fruit of the womb [2] 133:1 Or dwell together (ESV) In private: Isaiah 65; Matthew 13 Isaiah 65 (Listen) Judgment and Salvation 65   I was ready to be sought by those who did not ask for me;    I was ready to be found by those who did not seek me.  I said, “Here I am, here I am,”    to a nation that was not called by1 my name.2   I spread out my hands all the day    to a rebellious people,  who walk in a way that is not good,    following their own devices;3   a people who provoke me    to my face continually,  sacrificing in gardens    and making offerings on bricks;4   who sit in tombs,    and spend the night in secret places;  who eat pig's flesh,    and broth of tainted meat is in their vessels;5   who say, “Keep to yourself,    do not come near me, for I am too holy for you.”  These are a smoke in my nostrils,    a fire that burns all the day.6   Behold, it is written before me:    “I will not keep silent, but I will repay;  I will indeed repay into their lap7     both your iniquities and your fathers' iniquities together,      says the LORD;  because they made offerings on the mountains    and insulted me on the hills,  I will measure into their lap    payment for their former deeds.”2 8   Thus says the LORD:  “As the new wine is found in the cluster,    and they say, ‘Do not destroy it,    for there is a blessing in it,'  so I will do for my servants' sake,    and not destroy them all.9   I will bring forth offspring from Jacob,    and from Judah possessors of my mountains;  my chosen shall possess it,    and my servants shall dwell there.10   Sharon shall become a pasture for flocks,    and the Valley of Achor a place for herds to lie down,    for my people who have sought me.11   But you who forsake the LORD,    who forget my holy mountain,  who set a table for Fortune    and fill cups of mixed wine for Destiny,12   I will destine you to the sword,    and all of you shall bow down to the slaughter,  because, when I called, you did not answer;    when I spoke, you did not listen,  but you did what was evil in my eyes    and chose what I did not delight in.” 13   Therefore thus says the Lord GOD:  “Behold, my servants shall eat,    but you shall be hungry;  behold, my servants shall drink,    but you shall be thirsty;  behold, my servants shall rejoice,    but you shall be put to shame;14   behold, my servants shall sing for gladness of heart,    but you shall cry out for pain of heart    and shall wail for breaking of spirit.15   You shall leave your name to my chosen for a curse,    and the Lord GOD will put you to death,    but his servants he will call by another name,16   so that he who blesses himself in the land    shall bless himself by the God of truth,  and he who takes an oath in the land    shall swear by the God of truth;  because the former troubles are forgotten    and are hidden from my eyes. New Heavens and a New Earth 17   “For behold, I create new heavens    and a new earth,  and the former things shall not be remembered    or come into mind.18   But be glad and rejoice forever    in that which I create;  for behold, I create Jerusalem to be a joy,    and her people to be a gladness.19   I will rejoice in Jerusalem    and be glad in my people;  no more shall be heard in it the sound of weeping    and the cry of distress.20   No more shall there be in it    an infant who lives but a few days,    or an old man who does not fill out his days,  for the young man shall die a hundred years old,    and the sinner a hundred years old shall be accursed.21   They shall build houses and inhabit them;    they shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit.22   They shall not build and another inhabit;    they shall not plant and another eat;  for like the days of a tree shall the days of my people be,    and my chosen shall long enjoy3 the work of their hands.23   They shall not labor in vain    or bear children for calamity,4  for they shall be the offspring of the blessed of the LORD,    and their descendants with them.24   Before they call I will answer;    while they are yet speaking I will hear.25   The wolf and the lamb shall graze together;    the lion shall eat straw like the ox,    and dust shall be the serpent's food.  They shall not hurt or destroy    in all my holy mountain,”      says the LORD. Footnotes [1] 65:1 Or that did not call upon [2] 65:7 Or I will first measure their payment into their lap [3] 65:22 Hebrew shall wear out [4] 65:23 Or for sudden terror (ESV) Matthew 13 (Listen) The Parable of the Sower 13 That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat beside the sea. 2 And great crowds gathered about him, so that he got into a boat and sat down. And the whole crowd stood on the beach. 3 And he told them many things in parables, saying: “A sower went out to sow. 4 And as he sowed, some seeds fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured them. 5 Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and immediately they sprang up, since they had no depth of soil, 6 but when the sun rose they were scorched. And since they had no root, they withered away. 7 Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. 8 Other seeds fell on good soil and produced grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. 9 He who has ears,1 let him hear.” The Purpose of the Parables 10 Then the disciples came and said to him, “Why do you speak to them in parables?” 11 And he answered them, “To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. 12 For to the one who has, more will be given, and he will have an abundance, but from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. 13 This is why I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. 14 Indeed, in their case the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled that says:   “‘“You will indeed hear but never understand,    and you will indeed see but never perceive.”15   For this people's heart has grown dull,    and with their ears they can barely hear,    and their eyes they have closed,  lest they should see with their eyes    and hear with their ears  and understand with their heart    and turn, and I would heal them.' 16 But blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear. 17 For truly, I say to you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it. The Parable of the Sower Explained 18 “Hear then the parable of the sower: 19 When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart. This is what was sown along the path. 20 As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy, 21 yet he has no root in himself, but endures for a while, and when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately he falls away.2 22 As for what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and it proves unfruitful. 23 As for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it. He indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty.” The Parable of the Weeds 24 He put another parable before them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field, 25 but while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds3 among the wheat and went away. 26 So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared also. 27 And the servants4 of the master of the house came and said to him, ‘Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have weeds?' 28 He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.' So the servants said to him, ‘Then do you want us to go and gather them?' 29 But

Judas – Lessons From a Traitor

Judas – Lessons From a Traitor

Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Hebrews 12:2 NKJV The most critical element to being in God's will is to want more than anything to be in God's will! You are a chosen people. You are royal priests, a holy nation, God's very own possession. As a result, you can show others the goodness of God, for he called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light. 1 Peter 2:9 NLT Now Saul was consenting to his death. At that time a great persecution arose against the church which was at Jerusalem; and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles. And devout men carried Stephen to his burial, and made great lamentation over him. As for Saul, he made havoc of the church, entering every house, and dragging off men and women, committing them to prison. Acts 8:1-3 NKJV Lostness is often obvious, but you don't have to look lost to be lost. Meanwhile, Saul was uttering threats with every breath and was eager to kill the Lord's followers. So he went to the high priest. He requested letters addressed to the synagogues in Damascus, asking for their cooperation in the arrest of any followers of the Way he found there. He wanted to bring them—both men and women—back to Jerusalem in chains. As he was approaching Damascus on this mission, a light from heaven suddenly shone down around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul! Saul! Why are you persecuting me?” “Who are you, lord?” Saul asked. And the voice replied, “I am Jesus, the one you are persecuting! Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.” Acts 9:6 NLT The men with Saul stood speechless, for they heard the sound of someone's voice but saw no one! Saul picked himself up off the ground, but when he opened his eyes he was blind. So his companions led him by the hand to Damascus. He remained there blind for three days and did not eat or drink. Acts 9:7-9 NLT Don't allow circumstances or broken choices to title a chapter or define your story. Now there was a believer in Damascus named Ananias. The Lord spoke to him in a vision, calling, “Ananias!” “Yes, Lord!” he replied. The Lord said, “Go over to Straight Street, to the house of Judas. When you get there, ask for a man from Tarsus named Saul. He is praying to me right now. I have shown him a vision of a man named Ananias coming in and laying hands on him so he can see again.” “But Lord,” exclaimed Ananias, “I've heard many people talk about the terrible things this man has done to the believers in Jerusalem! And he is authorized by the leading priests to arrest everyone who calls upon your name.” But the Lord said, “Go, for Saul is my chosen instrument to take my message to the Gentiles and to kings, as well as to the people of Israel. And I will show him how much he must suffer for my name's sake.” So Ananias went and found Saul. He laid his hands on him and said, “Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road, has sent me so that you might regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” Instantly something like scales fell from Saul's eyes, and he regained his sight. Then he got up and was baptized. Afterward he ate some food and regained his strength. Saul stayed with the believers in Damascus for a few days. Acts 9:10-19 NLT Powering through to the redemption is the best way to make the enemy sorry He ever messed with your story! And immediately he began preaching about Jesus in the synagogues, saying, “He is indeed the Son of God!” Acts 9:20 NLT A good beginning is great, but in the end it's how you finish that matters most to God.

Judas – Lessons From a Traitor

What are the nuts in your life? And why did Judas pick such a specific signal for Jesus? And what scared Jesus so bad he sweated blood?

Movies1. Spider-Man: No Way Home2. Judas and the Black Messiah3. The Harder they Fall4. Bad Trip5. Dune6. Don't Look Up7. The Tragedy of Macbeth8. Rayah9. The Last Duel10. 14 PeaksTV Shows:1. Reality TV with JB2. Yellowjackets3. Search Party4. We Are Ladyparts5. WandaVision6. Succession7. I Think You Should Leave8. Reservation Dogs9. For All Mankind10. The Beatles: Get Back11. Ted LassoMusic1. Preacher's Kid - Semler2. In These Silent Days - Brandi Carlile3. The Million Masks of God - Manchester Orchestra4. Stand for Myself - Yola5. Without People - Donovan Wood6. I Don't Live Here Anymore - The War on Drugs7. Drama - Rodrigo Amarante8. Pressure Machine - The Killers9. Backslider - David Ramirez10. The Moon and Stars - Valerie June

Morning: Job 16–18 Job 16–18 (Listen) Job Replies: Miserable Comforters Are You 16 Then Job answered and said: 2   “I have heard many such things;    miserable comforters are you all.3   Shall windy words have an end?    Or what provokes you that you answer?4   I also could speak as you do,    if you were in my place;  I could join words together against you    and shake my head at you.5   I could strengthen you with my mouth,    and the solace of my lips would assuage your pain. 6   “If I speak, my pain is not assuaged,    and if I forbear, how much of it leaves me?7   Surely now God has worn me out;    he has1 made desolate all my company.8   And he has shriveled me up,    which is a witness against me,  and my leanness has risen up against me;    it testifies to my face.9   He has torn me in his wrath and hated me;    he has gnashed his teeth at me;    my adversary sharpens his eyes against me.10   Men have gaped at me with their mouth;    they have struck me insolently on the cheek;    they mass themselves together against me.11   God gives me up to the ungodly    and casts me into the hands of the wicked.12   I was at ease, and he broke me apart;    he seized me by the neck and dashed me to pieces;  he set me up as his target;13     his archers surround me.  He slashes open my kidneys and does not spare;    he pours out my gall on the ground.14   He breaks me with breach upon breach;    he runs upon me like a warrior.15   I have sewed sackcloth upon my skin    and have laid my strength in the dust.16   My face is red with weeping,    and on my eyelids is deep darkness,17   although there is no violence in my hands,    and my prayer is pure. 18   “O earth, cover not my blood,    and let my cry find no resting place.19   Even now, behold, my witness is in heaven,    and he who testifies for me is on high.20   My friends scorn me;    my eye pours out tears to God,21   that he would argue the case of a man with God,    as2 a son of man does with his neighbor.22   For when a few years have come    I shall go the way from which I shall not return. Job Continues: Where Then Is My Hope? 17   “My spirit is broken; my days are extinct;    the graveyard is ready for me.2   Surely there are mockers about me,    and my eye dwells on their provocation. 3   “Lay down a pledge for me with you;    who is there who will put up security for me?4   Since you have closed their hearts to understanding,    therefore you will not let them triumph.5   He who informs against his friends to get a share of their property—    the eyes of his children will fail. 6   “He has made me a byword of the peoples,    and I am one before whom men spit.7   My eye has grown dim from vexation,    and all my members are like a shadow.8   The upright are appalled at this,    and the innocent stirs himself up against the godless.9   Yet the righteous holds to his way,    and he who has clean hands grows stronger and stronger.10   But you, come on again, all of you,    and I shall not find a wise man among you.11   My days are past; my plans are broken off,    the desires of my heart.12   They make night into day:    ‘The light,' they say, ‘is near to the darkness.'313   If I hope for Sheol as my house,    if I make my bed in darkness,14   if I say to the pit, ‘You are my father,'    and to the worm, ‘My mother,' or ‘My sister,'15   where then is my hope?    Who will see my hope?16   Will it go down to the bars of Sheol?    Shall we descend together into the dust?”4 Bildad Speaks: God Punishes the Wicked 18 Then Bildad the Shuhite answered and said: 2   “How long will you hunt for words?    Consider, and then we will speak.3   Why are we counted as cattle?    Why are we stupid in your sight?4   You who tear yourself in your anger,    shall the earth be forsaken for you,    or the rock be removed out of its place? 5   “Indeed, the light of the wicked is put out,    and the flame of his fire does not shine.6   The light is dark in his tent,    and his lamp above him is put out.7   His strong steps are shortened,    and his own schemes throw him down.8   For he is cast into a net by his own feet,    and he walks on its mesh.9   A trap seizes him by the heel;    a snare lays hold of him.10   A rope is hidden for him in the ground,    a trap for him in the path.11   Terrors frighten him on every side,    and chase him at his heels.12   His strength is famished,    and calamity is ready for his stumbling.13   It consumes the parts of his skin;    the firstborn of death consumes his limbs.14   He is torn from the tent in which he trusted    and is brought to the king of terrors.15   In his tent dwells that which is none of his;    sulfur is scattered over his habitation.16   His roots dry up beneath,    and his branches wither above.17   His memory perishes from the earth,    and he has no name in the street.18   He is thrust from light into darkness,    and driven out of the world.19   He has no posterity or progeny among his people,    and no survivor where he used to live.20   They of the west are appalled at his day,    and horror seizes them of the east.21   Surely such are the dwellings of the unrighteous,    such is the place of him who knows not God.” Footnotes [1] 16:7 Hebrew you have; also verse 8 [2] 16:21 Hebrew and [3] 17:12 The meaning of the Hebrew is uncertain [4] 17:16 Or Will they go down to the bars of Sheol? Is rest to be found together in the dust? (ESV) Evening: Acts 9:1–22 Acts 9:1–22 (Listen) The Conversion of Saul 9 But Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest 2 and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the Way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. 3 Now as he went on his way, he approached Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven shone around him. 4 And falling to the ground, he heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” 5 And he said, “Who are you, Lord?” And he said, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. 6 But rise and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do.” 7 The men who were traveling with him stood speechless, hearing the voice but seeing no one. 8 Saul rose from the ground, and although his eyes were opened, he saw nothing. So they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus. 9 And for three days he was without sight, and neither ate nor drank. 10 Now there was a disciple at Damascus named Ananias. The Lord said to him in a vision, “Ananias.” And he said, “Here I am, Lord.” 11 And the Lord said to him, “Rise and go to the street called Straight, and at the house of Judas look for a man of Tarsus named Saul, for behold, he is praying, 12 and he has seen in a vision a man named Ananias come in and lay his hands on him so that he might regain his sight.” 13 But Ananias answered, “Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much evil he has done to your saints at Jerusalem. 14 And here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who call on your name.” 15 But the Lord said to him, “Go, for he is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel. 16 For I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name.” 17 So Ananias departed and entered the house. And laying his hands on him he said, “Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus who appeared to you on the road by which you came has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” 18 And immediately something like scales fell from his eyes, and he regained his sight. Then he rose and was baptized; 19 and taking food, he was strengthened. Saul Proclaims Jesus in Synagogues For some days he was with the disciples at Damascus. 20 And immediately he proclaimed Jesus in the synagogues, saying, “He is the Son of God.” 21 And all who heard him were amazed and said, “Is not this the man who made havoc in Jerusalem of those who called upon this name? And has he not come here for this purpose, to bring them bound before the chief priests?” 22 But Saul increased all the more in strength, and confounded the Jews who lived in Damascus by proving that Jesus was the Christ. (ESV)

Bride Rewarded; Factious and Apostates Judged (11) David Eells - 6/26/22 (Audio) A Storm of Witchcraft Fails Claire Pienaar - 6/18/22 (David's notes in red)     (Claire is representing the Bride because of her name which means, “Brilliant” which describes her garment in Rev. 19.) I dreamed I was in my parents' old house. (Being at my parents' home with both parents represents abiding in the ways of the ancient Church.) I was sleeping in the bed I had in my room as a child. My mother and Father came into the room and gently woke me up and said, “It's time”. (As we will see, This represents that "It's time" for the Bride to really fight against the faction in the Church and state and their witchcraft.) I looked out through the curtains and saw it was dark outside. (It's very dark in the world around us right now, but we can rest in the promises and goodness of Our Lord). I walked to the kitchen to get a drink of water from the faucet. (The water in the kitchen represents the water of the Word which is our spiritual food.) As I did that, In my dream, I remembered a teaching from David Eells about a time when he and his family were under intense persecution. His wife (Representing the Bride; the wife of the David/Man-child reformers.) got up to get water from the kitchen and she saw bullets being shot through the water and the faucet from somewhere outside the house. (The bullets through the water represent the fiery darts fired at the Woman through the river of waters that the factious Dragon body spewed out of his mouth to try to swallow her up. Rev. 12:15-16 And the serpent cast out of his mouth after the woman water as a river, that he might cause her to be carried away by the stream. 16 And the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened her mouth and swallowed up the river which the dragon cast out of his mouth.)She rebuked it and it stopped. (The Bride will fight against the words coming from the factious Dragon.) Then, I had the exact same experience in my dream, and I also rebuked the bullets. The bullets were big and black. (So this confirms that Claire is representing the Bride. The lies and slander of the factious are very big and very evil.) There was no fear in my head or voice when I rebuked the bullets, but I was just astonished at the lengths people would go to curse us. (Psa. 36:1-4 The transgression of the wicked saith within my heart, There is no fear of God before his eyes. 2 For he flattereth himself in his own eyes, That his iniquity will not be found out and be hated. 3 The words of his mouth are iniquity and deceit: He hath ceased to be wise and to do good. 4 He deviseth iniquity upon his bed; He setteth himself in a way that is not good; He abhorreth not evil.)s ... Then I realized David Eells was sleeping in the master bedroom where my parents were supposed to be. I had an intense desire to pray for him. Then I woke up. David is representing the first fruits David/Man-child reformers that are at rest in the Master bedroom representing the Throne anointing of authority they have received.) Then Riaan and I woke up around the same time and we prayed down all witchcraft and word curses. As we were praying, I had a vision of David Eells' heart and a big black cloud or storm was trying to land on it, but we kept rebuking it. The storm never landed on his heart, and we soon fell back to sleep in prayer. (This is the storm of witchcraft sent by the factious Dragon body in an attempt to devour the Man-child as in Rev.12.) This is the verse I received by faith at random for the dream: Col 2:3 (in context 2-3) that their hearts may be comforted, they being knit together in love, and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding, that they may know the mystery of God, even Christ, 3 in whom are all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge hidden. The Enemy Attempts to Kill the Bride and Steal the Gifts Eve Brast - 6/18/22 (David's notes in red)     I believe that this dream has a corporate meaning: I dreamed Local UBM had set up the white pot blessing tables in a U shape in the living room of the left mobile home on the land that my dad (Representing the Father) had given me. There were no more factious people living in this left mobile home who had lived there according to previous dreams. (Father had cleared them out like He did the factious wasps in previous dreams.) As I was going around the tables and placing the chairs, these gold medallions appeared at each place setting along with a small white box that contained a cleaning cloth and solution to shine up the coins because they were very old coins. I knew these were a gift from heaven above. (This has both a literal interpretation as well as a spiritual interpretation. Father is going to provide all the finances necessary for us to be able to provide for His elect in the coming wilderness tribulation and He has provided us with spiritual giftings that are very old because Jesus had them 2000 years ago before He passed them on to His disciples.) I picked up the coin in front of me and looked closely at it. On the front of the coin there was a profile of a man with a beard. (Presidents or rulers are on the face of coins. I believe that this bearded man represents Jesus who returns manifested by Word and Spirit in the Man-child reformers to lead God's elect through the tribulation. Isa. 40:10-11 Behold, the Lord Jehovah will come as a mighty one (in the Man-child Reformers), and his arm will rule for him: Behold, his reward is with him, and his recompense before him. 11 He will feed his flock like a shepherd, he will gather the lambs in his arm, and carry them in his bosom, and will gently lead those that have their young.) On the back there was a circle of small stars all around the outer circumference. (God said He would make Abraham's seed, whom we are by faith, as the stars of Heaven for a multitude. Also, the Woman in Rev. 12 has 12 stars around her head representing the doctrine of the apostles which most of the Church does not have yet.) I cleaned the coin with the cleaning kit provided and it was shiny and beautiful with all the years of corrosion cleaned off of it. (The Bride will be able to clearly see her leadership on the coin who is Jesus. It is also Jesus manifested in the Man-child as it was with so many in the Bible including Moses, Joseph, Jesus, etc.) Suddenly, a black Cobra helicopter descended upon the left mobile home and was about to open fire on us. (The Cobra helicopter represents serpent spirits in the Dragon body whose thoughts or fiery darts attack and try to poison the mind.) I knew that they wanted to kill us and steal our gold coins or medallions sent from heaven to us by God. (This represents trying to separate God's people from their true leadership. The factious enemy always tries to spiritually kill us by their lies and slander to separate the head from the body and paralyze us so that we are ineffective to use the gifts Father has given to us for His kingdom.) I began to gather up all the gold from each place setting and put it into a large white tote bag with a small floral design all over it. (The corporate Bride body must put the gifts of God given to her down into her heart, represented by the white floral bag, where they are safe from being stolen by the enemy.) I also grabbed what else I could in a hurry and ran out the door, across the big porch and down the steps to the gravel driveway before they had a chance to open fire. (Rev.12:13-14 And when the dragon saw that he was cast down to the earth, he persecuted the woman that brought forth the Man-child. 14 And there were given to the woman the two wings of the great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness unto her place, where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent. [Represented by the Cobra helicopter.]) Leon (Representing Jesus, the Lion of Judah, in the anointed Man-child reformers.)came driving up quickly in his SUV and circled around to me. He rolled down the front passenger window and said, “Hurry and get in. We have to leave now!” (To go into the wilderness Tribulation.) I opened the rear passenger door, and to my surprise, all of Local UBM was supernaturally squeezed into his SUV. I was barely able to squeeze in there myself and shut the door as Leon was peeling out down the driveway towards Calendar Rd. (Calendar road represents the passage of time wherein the the Woman is nourished by the Man-child reformers for "a thousand two hundred and threescore days.”) Then I woke up. The Lord Will Judge the Factious Enemy and Then Give the Bride Her Reward David Eells - 6/17/22 It was so in Isaiah 40: Isa 40:1-2 Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. 2 Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem; and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned, that she hath received of Jehovah's hand double for all her sins. 9-11 O thou that tellest good tidings to Zion, get thee up on a high mountain; O thou that tellest good tidings to Jerusalem, lift up thy voice with strength; lift it up, be not afraid; say unto the cities of Judah, Behold, your God! 10 Behold, the Lord Jehovah will come as a mighty one (in the Man-child Reformers), and his arm will rule for him: Behold, his reward is with him, and his recompense before him. (Notice that the Lord smites the factious and then rewards the Bride for her crucifixion by them.) 11 He will feed his flock like a shepherd, he will gather the lambs in his arm, and carry them in his bosom, and will gently lead those that have their young. It was so in Isaiah 62-64: Isa 62:11-63:6 Behold, Jehovah hath proclaimed unto the end of the earth, Say ye to the daughter of Zion, Behold, thy salvation cometh; behold, his reward is with him, and his recompense before him. 12 And they shall call them The holy people, The redeemed of Jehovah: and thou shalt be called sought out, A city not forsaken. 63:1 Who is this that cometh from Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah? (The Edomite sheepfold.) this that is glorious in his apparel, marching in the greatness of his strength? I that speak in righteousness, mighty to save. 2 Wherefore art thou red in thine apparel, and thy garments like him that treadeth in the winevat? 3 I have trodden the winepress alone; and of the peoples there was no man with me: yea, I trod them in mine anger, and trampled them in my wrath; and their lifeblood is sprinkled upon my garments, and I have stained all my raiment. 4 For the day of vengeance was in my heart, and the year of my redeemed is come. 5 And I looked, and there was none to help; and I wondered that there was none to uphold: therefore mine own arm brought salvation unto me; and my wrath, it upheld me. 6 And I trod down the peoples in mine anger, and made them drunk in my wrath, and I poured out their lifeblood on the earth. … And Pharoah's army was destroyed at the Red sea but the people of God celebrated on the other side. Isa 63:11-14 Then he remembered the days of old, Moses and his people, saying, Where is he that brought them up out of the sea with the shepherds of his flock? Where is he that put his holy Spirit in the midst of them? 12 that caused his glorious arm to go at the right hand of Moses? that divided the waters before them, to make himself an everlasting name? 13 that led them through the depths, as a horse in the wilderness, so that they stumbled not? 14 As the cattle that go down into the valley, the Spirit of Jehovah caused them to rest; so didst thou lead thy people, to make thyself a glorious name. Isa 64:1-4 Oh that thou wouldest rend the heavens, that thou wouldest come down, that the mountains might quake at thy presence, (I believe that the DS will be retaliating with earthquakes when the Lord returns in His Man-child.) 2 as when fire kindleth the brushwood, and the fire causeth the waters to boil; to make thy name known to thine adversaries, that the nations may tremble at thy presence! 3 When thou didst terrible things which we looked not for, thou camest down, the mountains quaked at thy presence. 4 For from of old men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither hath the eye seen a God besides thee, who worketh for him that waiteth for him. The Lord Judged the Factious Enemy and then Gave the Bride her Reward. It was so with the Bride and Man-child in Esther. The King of Kings gave authority to Esther and Mordecai to destroy Haman and his people in Purim and then rewarded Esther and Mordecai. We received this by faith at random this morning. Est 10:1-3 And the king Ahasuerus laid a tribute upon the land, and upon the isles of the sea. 2 And all the acts of his power and of his might, and the full account of the greatness of Mordecai, (meaning "little man” which is a Man-child.) whereunto the king advanced him, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Media and Persia? 3 For Mordecai the Jew was next unto king Ahasuerus, and great among the Jews, and accepted of the multitude of his brethren, seeking the good of his people, and speaking peace to all his seed. It was so with the Bride and Man-child in Joel 2. The Northern army advanced toward Jerusalem, the Bride. They cried unto the Lord, the Bride and Man-child were revealed to the people. The Lord then smote the army and then rewarded the Bride with revival and restoration. This was probably the Assyrian army of Sennecherib who were smitten of the Lord who killed 185,000 in one night. And here it is... Joe 2:16 gather the people, sanctify the assembly, assemble the old men, gather the children, and those that suck the breasts; let the bridegroom go forth from his chamber, and the bride out of her closet... 20 but I will remove far off from you the northern army, and will drive it into a land barren and desolate, its forepart into the eastern sea, and its hinder part into the western sea; and its stench shall come up, and its ill savor shall come up, because it hath done great things... 23-25 Be glad then, ye children of Zion, and rejoice in Jehovah your God; for he giveth you the former rain in just measure, and he causeth to come down for you the rain, the former rain and the latter rain, in the first month. 24 And the floors shall be full of wheat, and the vats shall overflow with new wine and oil. 25 And I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten, the canker-worm, and the caterpillar, and the palmer-worm, my great army which I sent among you. (So we see again the judgment of the enemies like the Red Sea and then the reward of the Bride.) It was so with the Bride and Man-child in 2 Ch 20. The three armies advanced towards Jerusalem, the Bride. Jehoshaphat commanded the praisers to the front line. The enemies killed each other off. The people took the plunder as it will be with the DS and our faction. 2Ch 20:22-23 And when they began to sing and to praise, Jehovah set liers-in-wait against the children of Ammon, Moab, and mount Seir, that were come against Judah; and they were smitten. 23 For the children of Ammon and Moab stood up against the inhabitants of mount Seir, utterly to slay and destroy them: and when they had made an end of the inhabitants of Seir, every one helped to destroy another. So what has happened to prove this will happen with the faction? Some of our missionaries were killed by the factious Catholics who blamed us for converting their cult members with the Word. They warned us to get out of their country or we would all die. They did a Black mass to enforce this. We called upon the Lord who then started a war between the Catholics, Coptics, and JW's, who were also persecuting the Christian missionaries. So now they have been killing each other off for weeks. This happened as it did with Abimelek and the men of Shechem like I showed the lead evangelist. The Catholics said it was my black magic that did this to them and are doing a Black Mass, which is witchcraft, to get rid of us but they are still being killed by the grace of God. The Missionaries have been spared all of this civil war. Also President Trump and the Alliance have started the mass arrests of the Elites with their DS leadership in the nations and are trying and sentencing many to death by bullet. They just changed the rules because hanging was too time consuming and expensive and we are talking about 3000 elites and many more DS leaders. The witches around the world are with these satanists to support them and destroy the Alliance and Christians but they are failing and so will our faction. And we have received from the Lord that there is a parallel between Trump draining the political swamp and the Man-child draining the Church swamp. So all of this is a type for us. Draining the Swamp Eve Brast - 5/12/19 (David's notes red) I dreamed that I was standing near the edge of a swamp that took up the whole dirt road in the middle of an old western town. (This swamp represents the DS corruption in the “Wild West.”). The sky overhead was overcast (An omen of Darkness over the Land) and I was looking in the direction of a covered, wooden, porch of one of the buildings in town. (The sun/Son has been obscured by the haze of corruption over this country in the Church and state.) I saw a man who was a politician and seemed to be in charge, dressed in a tan tweed suit. He had light colored hair and a single spectacle in one eye. He also had a walrus mustache. There were two or three men standing around him who were dressed like FBI agents with black suits, white shirts, and thin black ties and they were wearing dark black sun glasses. They seemed to be talking over their sinister plans for the town. (Parts of the FBI have been involved in much corruption and criminality with evil government leaders.) I knew these men were dangerous and I slowly skirted around the edge of the swamp to get to the other side and avoid detection by them. They were so busy with their plans that they took no notice of me. (God will protect His people from their evil plans.) When I got to the other side of the swamp all the local UBM people had joined behind me and I knew that we had to wade through this swamp in order to get to where we were going. (God allows this testing to clean us up and get us where we are going in His plan.) (We have been delivered of many “swamp creatures”, just as the Alliance is purging them from the Governmental swamp.) The swamp water was up to all our necks and we were repulsed by it and the feel of water weeds brushing up against our bodies as we kept searching for an area where it was possible to exit the swamp. (So many people in this country in Church and state are sick and repulsed by the wickedness that has infiltrated the Church and government.) I noticed the top of a wooden structure in the middle of the swamp that looked like a gallows where they used to hang criminals in the town a long time ago, but now it was useless because the swamp waters were so high. (“The swamp” has perverted and stifled justice, but once it's drained, justice will return to the “Wild West”. Ultimately the Man-child reformers will deliver God's elect out of the apostate swamp.) Suddenly, the angel named Shemuel, that I've witnessed standing next to the “Drain the Swamp” sign in David's house near the water filter appeared in front of our group. I've watched him at David's house smile and gesture with his head towards the sign and tap it with his sword. (Shemuel represents that not only is God going to drain the swamp of corruption but He is also going to restore the pure water of the Word, the original gospel for the people.) (This angel appears in our house regularly along with two other angels who stand in the balcony, all of whom go forth to conquer when we speak the word concerning draining the swamp in Church or Government.) LINK: Ministering Angels Through UBM. - UBM [David Eells] Shemuel appeared above our group to our right hovering above the swamp waters. He shone very brightly and his sandals were golden as well as his golden curly hair. He still wore the baby blue, velvet sash tied around his waist as I've seen him in David's house. (Shemuel means: Shem = Name and El = >God. Exo 23: 20 Behold, I send an angel before thee, to keep thee by the way, and to bring thee into the place which I have prepared. 21 Take ye heed before him, and hearken unto his voice; provoke him not; for he will not pardon your transgression: for my name is in him. 22 But if thou shalt indeed hearken unto his voice, and do all that I speak; then I will be an enemy unto thine enemies, and an adversary unto thine adversaries. This is clear that the angel who bears God's name, meaning nature and authority, is here to lead us to conquer the enemies in the land. And as we hear his directions with humility towards God's Word, he will be an enemy to our enemies.) He was pointing to the politician and the FBI agents that surrounded him and was making proclamations and judgments against them and declaring the immanent draining of the swamp as he pointed with his left finger at them. They were completely oblivious to the judgment proclaimed against them. Only we from UBM heard the sentencing against them. (They do not believe there is a judgment against them even though the scriptures declare it over and over. He says, “The slanderer I will destroy.") I remember that we all let out a sigh of relief when the angel said this, especially Merlene because she had been struggling because of her height to get through the swamp waters. We knew that relief was coming soon. Then I woke up. (In the political realm this seems to be the reality on the ground.) (God is paralleling judgment on this political factious swamp with declassification and judgment of the religious factious swamp. Both have the same demons of faction, witchcraft, slander, lies, fornication of all kinds. It is all the harlot of Babylon. The Dragon seeking to devour God's people. Almost every morning a group of us gathers for prayer and warfare. We all get a word from the Lord by faith at random. In all of these meetings we get warnings of God's plan to drain the political and religious swamp of corruption.) This mornings words by faith at random: Even now the D.S. are destroying the food supply by weather warfare, interfering with food distribution, burning food processing plants, culling whole cattle and chicken populations, and massive inflation which the Lord will give back through His people: Joel 1:15-18 Alas for the day! for the day of Jehovah is at hand, and as destruction from the Almighty shall it come. 16 Is not the food cut off before our eyes, yea, joy and gladness from the house of our God? 17 The seeds rot under their clods; the garners are laid desolate, the barns are broken down; for the grain is withered. 18 How do the beasts groan! the herds of cattle are perplexed, because they have no pasture; yea, the flocks of sheep are made desolate. (We just had 10,000 cows die in Kansas all at once.) Judgment is coming on the apostate leadership of Christianity by the hand of the D.S.: Lam. 2:8, 8-10, Jehovah hath purposed to destroy the wall of the daughter of Zion; He hath stretched out the line, he hath not withdrawn his hand from destroying; And he hath made the rampart and wall to lament; they languish together. 9 Her gates are sunk into the ground; he hath destroyed and broken her bars: Her king and her princes are among the nations where the law is not; Yea, her prophets find no vision from Jehovah. 10 The elders of the daughter of Zion sit upon the ground, they keep silence; They have cast up dust upon their heads; they have girded themselves with sackcloth: The virgins of Jerusalem hang down their heads to the ground. (Judgment on the leadership of the factious swamp in the apostate Church) Jer 2:14-21 Is Israel a servant? is he a home-born slave? why is he become a prey? 15 The young lions have roared upon him, and yelled; and they have made his land waste: his cities are burned up, without inhabitant. 16 The children also of Memphis and Tahpanhes have broken the crown of thy head. 17 Hast thou not procured this unto thyself, in that thou hast forsaken Jehovah thy God, when he led thee by the way? 18 And now what hast thou to do in the way to Egypt, to drink the waters of the Shihor? or what hast thou to do in the way to Assyria, to drink the waters of the River? 19 Thine own wickedness shall correct thee, and thy backslidings shall reprove thee: know therefore and see that it is an evil thing and a bitter, that thou hast forsaken Jehovah thy God, and that my fear is not in thee, saith the Lord, Jehovah of hosts. 20 For of old time I have broken thy yoke, and burst thy bonds; and thou saidst, I will not serve; for upon every high hill and under every green tree thou didst bow thyself, playing the harlot. 21 Yet I had planted thee a noble vine, wholly a right seed: how then art thou turned into the degenerate branches of a foreign vine unto me? (Judgment on apostate Church.) Eze 39:17-22 And thou, son of man, thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Speak unto the birds of every sort, and to every beast of the field, Assemble yourselves, and come; gather yourselves on every side to my sacrifice that I do sacrifice for you, even a great sacrifice upon the mountains of Israel, that ye may eat flesh and drink blood. 18 Ye shall eat the flesh of the mighty, and drink the blood of the princes of the earth, of rams, of lambs, and of goats, of bullocks, all of them fatlings of Bashan. 19 And ye shall eat fat till ye be full, and drink blood till ye be drunken, of my sacrifice which I have sacrificed for you. 20 And ye shall be filled at my table with horses and chariots, with mighty men, and with all men of war, saith the Lord Jehovah. 21 And I will set my glory among the nations; and all the nations shall see my judgment that I have executed, and my hand that I have laid upon them. 22 So the house of Israel shall know that I am Jehovah their God, from that day and forward. (The Red Sea victory over the factions.) Jer 50:5-7 They shall inquire concerning Zion with their faces thitherward, saying, Come ye, and join yourselves to Jehovah in an everlasting covenant that shall not be forgotten. 6 My people have been lost sheep: their shepherds have caused them to go astray; they have turned them away on the mountains; they have gone from mountain to hill; they have forgotten their resting-place. 7 All that found them have devoured them; and their adversaries said, We are not guilty, because they have sinned against Jehovah, the habitation of righteousness, even Jehovah, the hope of their fathers. (Draining the factious religious swamp.) Dream of Faction Bombed and Scattered and the Elect's Return Eve Brast - 2020 (David's notes red) I dreamed that it was dark outside and I was standing in a line with the local UBM brethren. (Eve along with Local UBM is being used to represent the corporate body of the Bride of Christ.) We were all facing the factious enemie's camp and holding hands and praying. (The Bride must stand united against the faction and their witchcraft in prayer and spiritual warfare.) The camp was being bombed from above and I saw a bombed out vehicle about 50 yards in front of our prayer line. (Vehicles represent lives. It appears God is going to recompense the wicked for their evil committed against His people.) I saw a group of factious men who had been standing in front of the vehicle begin to scatter because of the bombings. One of the factious men who was holding a packet of legal documents was ducking for cover and trying to run away towards his left from the bombed out camp. (The legal documents represent the factious leaders plan to sue UBM and David. Also, the accuser of the brethren, satan, who persecutes the righteous through his vessels or vehicles of dishonor with his accusations in the court of Heaven.) I could see little embers from the bombings floating around in the air. Then a black woman who was deceived by faction appeared in front of me in our prayer line. (This may represent another dream we had of her dying by a plague but repenting. We've had dreams of other factious people dying of the plagues too. This could represent some of the bombing of their camp.) Her skin and clothing were charred from the bombings and she was very thin now. She was dressed in a large floral print dress but it was all tattered. Her hair was all a mess and there was blood on her face and her mouth. (The blood on her mouth represents devouring the saints by slander.) She was crying and weak and she was holding out her hands towards me, palms up, in repentance. Then I woke up. (Also, some who have been deceived by the faction will return as a result of the judgments upon them from God.) UBM Protected by Special OPs Angels Eve Brast - 6/1/21 (David's notes red) I dreamed that local UBM was encamped outdoors near the large, grey, stone wall that I've seen in previous dreams. (This wall represents sanctification which separates us from the world and their wicked practices. We are the stones that are fitted together tightly and they are grey representing our crucified life of death to self.) Our camp was at peace and was lit by a light that came from overhead. (The righteous have a "covenant of peace” through the light from Heaven called the Word and the Holy Spirit. Isa 54:10 For the mountains may depart, and the hills be removed; but my lovingkindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall my covenant of peace be removed, saith Jehovah that hath mercy on thee. Num 25:12-13 Wherefore say, Behold, I give unto him my covenant of peace: 13 and it shall be unto him, and to his seed after him, the covenant of an everlasting priesthood; because he was jealous for his God, and made atonement for the children of Israel. Eze 37:26 Moreover I will make a covenant of peace with them; it shall be an everlasting covenant with them; and I will place them, and multiply them, and will set my sanctuary in the midst of them for evermore. ) We had the white pot blessing tables set up and our chairs for a meeting. (White tables represents feeding on the pure Word. The wicked faction hate the Word and the God who wrote it and the people who stand for it, because it convicts them of sin. Therefore in Isa 57: 21 There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked. ) Everyone was happy and in peaceful fellowship with each other. (Psalm 133:1-3, Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity! 2 It is like the precious oil upon the head, That ran down upon the beard, even Aaron's beard; That came down upon the skirt of his garments; 3 Like the dew of Hermon, That cometh down upon the mountains of Zion: For there Jehovah commanded the blessing, Even life for evermore. 13 And all thy children shall be taught of Jehovah; and great shall be the peace of thy children. (“Peaceful fellowship" will be God's gift to Zion, the Bride. Isa 54:10 For the mountains may depart, and the hills be removed; but my lovingkindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall my covenant of peace be removed, saith Jehovah that hath mercy on thee. …) Isa 55:12 For ye shall go out with joy (From Babylonish bondage), and be led forth with peace: the mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing; and all the trees of the fields shall clap their hands. Isa 57:2 He entereth into peace; they rest in their beds, each one that walketh in his uprightness. … 21 There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked.) The factious people, who had been driven from us in bitterness and hatred because of their own sins, were camped about 100 yards or so North of our location. (100 here represents 100% complete separation from Zion, the Bride, whom they consider their enemies because of their demon possession.) (The beast enemy attacks Zion from the North. Jer.6:22-30, Thus saith Jehovah, Behold, a people cometh from the north country; and a great nation shall be stirred up from the uttermost parts of the earth. 23 They lay hold on bow and spear; they are cruel, and have no mercy; their voice roareth like the sea, and they ride upon horses, every one set in array, as a man to the battle, against thee, O daughter of Zion . … 27 I have made thee a trier and a fortress among my people; that thou mayest know and try their way. (Mar 12:10 Have ye not read even this scripture: The stone which the builders rejected, The same was made the head of the corner.) 28 They are all grievous revolters, going about with slanders; they are brass and iron: they all of them deal corruptly. 29 The bellows blow fiercely; the lead is consumed of the fire: in vain do they go on refining; for the wicked are not plucked away. 30 Refuse silver shall men them, because Jehovah hath rejected them. (The northern army who attacks Zion will be destroyed. Psa 101:5 Whoso privily slandereth his neighbor, him will I destroy… Joel 2:15-17 Blow the trumpet in Zion, sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly; 16 gather the people, sanctify the assembly, assemble the old men, gather the children, and those that suck the breasts; let the bridegroom go forth from his chamber, and the bride out of her closet. (The Bride and Groom will be revealed) 17 Let the priests, the ministers of Jehovah, weep between the porch and the altar, and let them say, Spare thy people, O Jehovah, and give not thy heritage to reproach, that the nations should rule over them: wherefore should they say among the peoples, Where is their God? 18 Then was Jehovah jealous for his land, and had pity on his people. … 20 but I will remove far off from you the northern army, and will drive it into a land barren and desolate, its forepart into the eastern sea, and its hinder part into the western sea; and its stench shall come up, and its ill savor shall come up, because it hath done great things. (Just like Pharoah's army at the Red Sea.) It was dark and shadowy over and around their camp and everything was chaotic and in disarray. I could hear shouting and gunfire with mini explosions and the whiz of bullets flying. (It reminded me of the night fire training courses that we practiced on in Army Basic Training. Isa. 57:14-21, And he will say, Cast ye up, cast ye up, prepare the way, take up the stumbling-block out of the way of my people. 15 For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy: I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite. … 19 I create the fruit of the lips: Peace, peace, to him that is far off and to him that is near, saith Jehovah; and I will heal him. 20 But the wicked are like the troubled sea; for it cannot rest, and its waters cast up mire and dirt. 21 There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked.) In this dream, I was standing at the perimeter of the UBM camp, looking out, across the way, towards the factious camp. It was like I was seeing in the Spirit because no one else in the UBM camp was aware of or concerned by what was happening. (It is very peaceful to miss out on the whole battle while the angels take out the enemy.) (Father gives us prophetic dreams and revelations to be able to warn our brethren so that we can do spiritual warfare against the demons in our enemies.) I was watching a bunch of tracer bullets flying towards our direction and orange basket balls, with bombs hidden inside them, being launched towards us as well. (The basketball bombs represent the juvenile mentality of the faction and their slander and games they like to play.) But they were all being supernaturally stopped. They were either falling short of our camp or were being turned back upon the factious camp by 2 Special OPs soldiers (who were Angels) that stood guarding the UBM camp. (The Lord said of those who curse us, “I will curse those who curse thee”. Notice that the wicked curse themselves because their curses fall back on them. We are not to personally curse our enemies but to pray for them. Rom 12:14 Bless them that persecute you; bless, and curse not. … 19 Avenge not yourselves, beloved, but give place unto the wrath of God: for it is written, Vengeance belongeth unto me; I will recompense, saith the Lord. 20 But if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him to drink: for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire upon his head. God can speak prophetically through the righteous to judge the wicked as He has done all through scriptures. The Spirit of God spoke through Paul to turn apostates over to Satan. 1Co 5:5 to deliver such a one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. 1Ti 1:20 of whom is Hymenaeus and Alexander; whom I delivered unto Satan, that they might be taught not to blaspheme (Meaning to speak against God or others). We should not do this to defend ourselves or to fight with others. We should be neutral in this regard. Also, we do not need to turn one over to Satan when we can obviously see that they have already been turned over by God. The Spirit of God spoke curses on blasphemers or railers through David and they are still true. Psa 109:1 For the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David. Hold not thy peace, O God of my praise; 2 For the mouth of the wicked and the mouth of deceit have they opened against me: They have spoken unto me with a lying tongue. 3 They have compassed me about also with words of hatred, And fought against me without a cause. 4 For my love they are my adversaries: But I give myself unto prayer. 5 And they have rewarded me evil for good, And hatred for my love. 6 Set thou a wicked man over him; And let an adversary (Satan) stand at his right hand. (turned over to Satan) 7 When he is judged, let him come forth guilty; And let his prayer be turned into sin. 8 Let his days be few; And let another take his office (Satan entered Judas). (To the railers and cursers God spoke in) 17 Yea, he loved cursing, and it came unto him (Their curses returned upon their own heads as the angels were doing); And he delighted not in blessing, and it was far from him. 18 He clothed himself also with cursing as with his garment, And it came into his inward parts like water, And like oil into his bones. 19 Let it be unto him as the raiment wherewith he covereth himself, And for the girdle wherewith he is girded continually. 20 This is the reward of mine adversaries from Jehovah, And of them that speak evil against my soul. … 28 Let them curse, but bless thou: When they arise, they shall be put to shame, But thy servant shall rejoice. Isa 54:17 No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. [So the wicked who judge the righteous will condemn themselves because of this promise from God.] This is the heritage of the servants of Jehovah, and their righteousness which is of me, saith Jehovah. The 2 Special OPs soldiers had short military haircuts and were wearing the standard issue, camouflage, billed caps on their heads. and were dressed in grey, urban combat BDUs (Battle Dress Uniforms). They had matching backpacks with supplies and weapons to counter the attacks of our enemies. I knew immediately that they were angels because of their large, pure white wings that were spread out to each side underneath their backpacks. (A symbol that people recognize as angels) Their wings were also part of the protection barrier that they provided for the UBM camp. (Psalm 91:4, He will cover thee with his pinions, And under his wings shalt thou take refuge: His truth is a shield and a buckler.) Since their backs were to me, I couldn't see exactly what they were doing to repel the enemy fire or what weapons they were using upon the enemies camp; all I saw was their arm movements which indicated some type of invisible bow and arrow weaponry. (Psalm 7:9-16, O let the wickedness of the wicked come to an end, but establish thou the righteous: For the righteous God trieth the minds and hearts. 10 My shield is with God, Who saveth the upright in heart. 11 God is a righteous judge, Yea, a God that hath indignation every day. 12 If a man turn not, he will whet his sword; He hath bent his bow, and made it ready. 13 He hath also prepared for him the instruments of death; He maketh his arrows fiery shafts . 14 Behold, he travaileth with iniquity; Yea, he hath conceived mischief, and brought forth falsehood. 15 He hath made a pit, and digged it, And is fallen into the ditch which he made. 16 His mischief shall return upon his own head, And his violence shall come down upon his own pate.) I was noticing that every time the enemy launched a ‘basketball bomb' towards us, the angels would hold up their hands in a 'stop gesture' and the bombs would reverse course and fall back into the enemies camp and explode upon them causing much chaos and casualties. The 2 angels looked like traditional traffic cops but instead of directing traffic they were directing the bullets and the bombs. (Like Daniel in the lions den was kept safe while his enemies who plotted against him and their families were devoured by them. Psa 141:9-10 Keep me from the snare which they have laid for me, And from the gins of the workers of iniquity. 10 Let the wicked fall into their own nets, Whilst that I withal escape. Psa 140:9-11 As for the head of those that compass me about, Let the mischief of their own lips cover them. 10 Let burning coals fall upon them: Let them be cast into the fire, Into deep pits, whence they shall not rise. 11 An evil speaker shall not be established in the earth: Evil shall hunt the violent man to overthrow him. Psa 35:7-8 For without cause have they hid for me their net in a pit; Without cause have they digged a pit for my soul. 8 Let destruction come upon him unawares; And let his net that he hath hid catch himself: With destruction let him fall therein. Psa 37:14-15 The wicked have drawn out the sword, and have bent their bow, To cast down the poor and needy, To slay such as are upright in the way. 15 Their sword shall enter into their own heart, And their bows shall be broken. Psa 57:6 They have prepared a net for my steps; My soul is bowed down: They have digged a pit before me; They are fallen into the midst thereof themselves. Selah. Pro 26:27 Whoso diggeth a pit shall fall therein; And he that rolleth a stone, it shall return upon him. Pro 28:10 Whoso causeth the upright to go astray in an evil way, He shall fall himself into his own pit; But the perfect shall inherit good. Mat 7:1-3 Judge not, that ye be not judged. 2 For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured unto you. 3 And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye? Most of what the factious throw at us is demons of faction, witchcraft, slander, etc. but whatever they throw it returns upon them because God said in Gal 6:7 Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.) After witnessing this, I walked over to David and was reporting to him everything that I was seeing. I don't remember what David replied but he seemed pleased that the angels were doing a good job of protecting us. Then I woke up. Psalm 91:1-12, He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High Shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. 2 I will say of Jehovah, He is my refuge and my fortress; My God, in whom I trust. ... 4 He will cover thee with his pinions, And under his wings shalt thou take refuge: His truth is a shield and a buckler. 5 Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night, Nor for the arrow that flieth by day; … 8 Only with thine eyes shalt thou behold, And see the reward of the wicked. ...10 There shall no evil befall thee, Neither shall any plague come nigh thy tent. 11 For he will give his angels charge over thee, To keep thee in all thy ways. 12 They shall bear thee up in their hands, Lest thou dash thy foot against a stone. Factious Dogs in the DS and Church Rounded Up and Euthanized Eve Brast - 10/12/21 (David's notes red) I dreamed that I was in a huge warehouse that had many different sections and at least 3 levels. (As we will see, the Father not only stores up provision for His people in His warehouse but judgement is also stored up for the wicked. Rom.2:5 but after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest (or storeth) up for thyself wrath in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God. (The ground level of this warehouse represents this earth and the earthly happenings. The second level represents the spirit realm where the directives are handed down from the Father and also from the intercessions of His saints to the angels who are the law enforcers and who carry out the directives of the Bride and the Man-child. Psalm 103:20-21 Bless Jehovah, ye his angels, That are mighty in strength, that fulfil his word, Hearkening unto the voice of his word. 21 Bless Jehovah, all ye his hosts, Ye ministers of his, that do his pleasure.) I was standing on the cement ground floor with a 7 ft. tall, very muscular policeman at my right side who was dressed in a navy blue policeman's uniform. He had a silver badge on the right side of his uniform pocket. Even though he was dressed as a 'beat cop', I knew in the dream that he was a police detective. (This police detective represents the angels that carry out and enforce God's directives according to His Word and His will.) On the ground floor of the warehouse was a veterinary medical bay in the back left corner with exam tables and I.V.'s set up along with I.V. catheters and syringes for lethal injections for euthanasia. In front of that was a large chain link fence containment or holding area. (This lethal injection could also be representative of the vaccines that are putting many of the DS minions to death through the side effects. We've heard that many arrests of DS individuals are taking place currently and that they are being questioned and held awaiting military tribunals and sentencing to be put to death. (Our parallel runs true because many of the factious in the church leadership are also being arrested for spiritual child trafficking and crimes against God's children.)The actively factious in the church will also be put to death through lethal injection, (and for many it will be the jab), because they are killing God's children.) I asked the police officer where we were; what I was seeing and what was going on? He began explaining everything to me. It was dark on the ground floor of the warehouse except in the veterinary bay which had some very limited lighting capabilities. (Could this take place on a grand scale during the 10 days of darkness when all the power is cut off and the EBS is enabled to expose all the DS evil crimes against humanity? On the political side they are rounding up these people and executing many. (But also God is using their own spike proteins to take down these people as He said.) As the police officer began explaining I had a vision of the second floor of the warehouse which was very well lit. There were many offices and cubicles with law enforcement support personnel talking on phones and typing on computers and doing all kinds of office work. It was busy and bustling. I asked the officer what all the bustle was about and he said, “A directive has been handed down from the top to round up all the dogs.” (These dogs represent the faction in the Babylonish DS and the religious faction that have conspired to crucify the righteous just as it was with Jesus.) (Prophesying of David, Jesus, and the man-child's persecutions we are told in:) Psa. 22:16,17,&20 For dogs have compassed me: A company of evil-doers have inclosed me; They pierced my hands and my feet. 17 I may count all my bones; They look and stare upon me. ... 20 Deliver my soul from the sword, My darling from the power of the dog.) Then I saw the woman in charge of carrying out this directive. (The woman represents the Bride, who in Esther as a type, is given authority by the King, representing Father God, to put Haman and his sons to death as well as all of the other enemies who have lifted up their hands against her to kill her and her people.) She had a lot of authority from the top and was in charge of the second floor and all the law enforcement personnel. She was a thin woman with very straight hair that was shoulder length and she was standing in the middle of it all dressed in a women's business suit with her arms folded. (This woman is thin because she has gotten rid of all her excess flesh. Her hair is straight representing submission to Jesus, the Word, which is the straight and narrow way.) Occasionally, I saw her bring out her right arm and point off into the distance with her pointer finger and I would see many law enforcement personnel going around the city and rounding up large groups of all different sizes and breeds of dogs. They would put them in temporary holding areas until they could be transported to the warehouse. I was not able to see the third level of the warehouse. (The Bride is dressed in a business suit because she is about her Father's business just as Jesus was and commanding the angels as she sees and discerns the Father's will. Heb. 1:13-14 But of which of the angels hath he said at any time, Sit thou on my right hand, Till I make thine enemies the footstool of thy feet? 14 Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to do service for the sake of them that shall inherit salvation?) (But the head of the Bride is the Man-child who is shown in all the scripture to take down the factious Edomites. A Christian brother had a dream where the Lord quoted the following text to speak of the David Man-childs in whom Jesus lives. Isa 11:1-5 And there shall come forth a shoot out of the stock of Jesse, and a branch out of his roots shall bear fruit. 2 And the Spirit of Jehovah shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of Jehovah. 3 And his delight shall be in the fear of Jehovah; and he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes, neither decide after the hearing of his ears; 4 but with righteousness shall he judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth; and he shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth; and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked. 5 And righteousness shall be the girdle of his waist, and faithfulness the girdle of his loins.) Suddenly, I felt a dark presence behind me and I turned around to see a large black dog the size of a Great Dane. (This great dog is a factious person we know.) Its ears were clipped like a Doberman Pincher. I asked the police officer what it was doing? He said, “Some of them are turning themselves in because there is nowhere left to go and no other choice.” (They are coming under the authority of these angels because of their great sins. They have "no other choice".) It came into the warehouse through a large open bay door and was turning itself in to the authorities because the round up campaign was so wide and far reaching that there was nowhere else for it to go. None of the dogs realized that a death sentence was decreed for them and some were turning themselves in in hopes of leniency. (Hopefully, some may repent and be saved right before they die.) When I turned back around I saw many kinds of dogs in the fenced holding area in front of the veterinary bay waiting to be euthanized... I asked Father for a word for this dream by faith at random and my finger landed on the phrase, the king's business” in Est. 9:3. (I laughed when I saw where my finger landed because of the woman dressed in the "business suit" in this dream. God has such a sense of humor!) Est. 9:3 (In context 1-5) Now in the twelfth month, which is the month Adar, on the thirteenth day of the same, when the king's commandment and his decree drew near to be put in execution, on the day that the enemies of the Jews hoped to have rule over them, (whereas it was turned to the contrary, that the Jews had rule over them that hated them,) 2 the Jews gathered themselves together in their cities throughout all the provinces of the king Ahasuerus, to lay hand on such as sought their hurt: and no man could withstand them; for the fear of them was fallen upon all the peoples. 3 And all the princes of the provinces, and the satraps, and the governors, and they that did the king's business, helped the Jews; because the fear of Mordecai (Meaning little man or Man-child) was fallen upon them. 4 For Mordecai was great in the king's house, and his fame went forth throughout all the provinces; for the man Mordecai waxed greater and greater. 5 And the Jews smote all their enemies with the stroke of the sword, and with slaughter and destruction, and did what they would unto them that hated them.   Printer-friendly version

In this cautionary tale, Judas demonstrates the danger of using Jesus as a means to an end. Check out the latest teaching from "Cautionary Tales: Good Lessons From Bad Guys". [ Continue the conversation at ncvisalia.com/discuss ]

A Study of Matthew and Judas

This week's episode looks at “All You Need is Love”, the Our World TV special, and the career of the Beatles from April 1966 through August 1967. Click the full post to read liner notes, links to more information, and a transcript of the episode. Patreon backers also have a thirteen-minute bonus episode available, on "Rain" by the Beatles. Tilt Araiza has assisted invaluably by doing a first-pass edit, and will hopefully be doing so from now on. Check out Tilt's irregular podcasts at http://www.podnose.com/jaffa-cakes-for-proust and http://sitcomclub.com/ NB for the first few hours this was up, there was a slight editing glitch. If you downloaded the old version and don't want to redownload the whole thing, just look in the transcript for "Other than fixing John's two flubbed" for the text of the two missing paragraphs. Errata I say "Come Together" was a B-side, but the single was actually a double A-side. Also, I say the Lennon interview by Maureen Cleave appeared in Detroit magazine. That's what my source (Steve Turner's book) says, but someone on Twitter says that rather than Detroit magazine it was the Detroit Free Press. Also at one point I say "the videos for 'Paperback Writer' and 'Penny Lane'". I meant to say "Rain" rather than "Penny Lane" there. Resources No Mixcloud this week due to the number of songs by the Beatles. I have read literally dozens of books on the Beatles, and used bits of information from many of them. All my Beatles episodes refer to: The Complete Beatles Chronicle by Mark Lewisohn, All The Songs: The Stories Behind Every Beatles Release by Jean-Michel Guesdon, And The Band Begins To Play: The Definitive Guide To The Songs of The Beatles by Steve Lambley, The Beatles By Ear by Kevin Moore, Revolution in the Head by Ian MacDonald, and The Beatles Anthology. For this episode, I also referred to Last Interview by David Sheff, a longform interview with John Lennon and Yoko Ono from shortly before Lennon's death; Many Years From Now by Barry Miles, an authorised biography of Paul McCartney; and Here, There, and Everywhere: My Life Recording the Music of the Beatles by Geoff Emerick and Howard Massey. Particularly useful this time was Steve Turner's book Beatles '66. I also used Turner's The Beatles: The Stories Behind the Songs 1967-1970. Johnny Rogan's Starmakers and Svengalis had some information on Epstein I hadn't seen anywhere else. Some information about the "Bigger than Jesus" scandal comes from Ward, B. (2012). “The ‘C' is for Christ”: Arthur Unger, Datebook Magazine and the Beatles. Popular Music and Society, 35(4), 541-560. https://doi.org/10.1080/03007766.2011.608978 Information on Robert Stigwood comes from Mr Showbiz by Stephen Dando-Collins. And the quote at the end from Simon Napier-Bell is from You Don't Have to Say You Love Me, which is more entertaining than it is accurate, but is very entertaining. Sadly the only way to get the single mix of "All You Need is Love" is on this ludicrously-expensive out-of-print box set, but the stereo mix is easily available on Magical Mystery Tour. Patreon This podcast is brought to you by the generosity of my backers on Patreon. Why not join them? Transcript A quick note before I start the episode -- this episode deals, in part, with the deaths of three gay men -- one by murder, one by suicide, and one by an accidental overdose, all linked at least in part to societal homophobia. I will try to deal with this as tactfully as I can, but anyone who's upset by those things might want to read the transcript instead of listening to the episode. This is also a very, very, *very* long episode -- this is likely to be the longest episode I *ever* do of this podcast, so settle in. We're going to be here a while. I obviously don't know how long it's going to be while I'm still recording, but based on the word count of my script, probably in the region of three hours. You have been warned. In 1967 the actor Patrick McGoohan was tired. He had been working on the hit series Danger Man for many years -- Danger Man had originally run from 1960 through 1962, then had taken a break, and had come back, retooled, with longer episodes in 1964. That longer series was a big hit, both in the UK and in the US, where it was retitled Secret Agent and had a new theme tune written by PF Sloan and Steve Barri and recorded by Johnny Rivers: [Excerpt: Johnny Rivers, "Secret Agent Man"] But McGoohan was tired of playing John Drake, the agent, and announced he was going to quit the series. Instead, with the help of George Markstein, Danger Man's script editor, he created a totally new series, in which McGoohan would star, and which McGoohan would also write and direct key episodes of. This new series, The Prisoner, featured a spy who is only ever given the name Number Six, and who many fans -- though not McGoohan himself -- took to be the same character as John Drake. Number Six resigns from his job as a secret agent, and is kidnapped and taken to a place known only as The Village -- the series was filmed in Portmeirion, an unusual-looking town in Gwynnedd, in North Wales -- which is full of other ex-agents. There he is interrogated to try to find out why he has quit his job. It's never made clear whether the interrogators are his old employers or their enemies, and there's a certain suggestion that maybe there is no real distinction between the two sides, that they're both running the Village together. He spends the entire series trying to escape, but refuses to explain himself -- and there's some debate among viewers as to whether it's implied or not that part of the reason he doesn't explain himself is that he knows his interrogators wouldn't understand why he quit: [Excerpt: The Prisoner intro, from episode Once Upon a Time, ] Certainly that explanation would fit in with McGoohan's own personality. According to McGoohan, the final episode of The Prisoner was, at the time, the most watched TV show ever broadcast in the UK, as people tuned in to find out the identity of Number One, the person behind the Village, and to see if Number Six would break free. I don't think that's actually the case, but it's what McGoohan always claimed, and it was certainly a very popular series. I won't spoil the ending for those of you who haven't watched it -- it's a remarkable series -- but ultimately the series seems to decide that such questions don't matter and that even asking them is missing the point. It's a work that's open to multiple interpretations, and is left deliberately ambiguous, but one of the messages many people have taken away from it is that not only are we trapped by a society that oppresses us, we're also trapped by our own identities. You can run from the trap that society has placed you in, from other people's interpretations of your life, your work, and your motives, but you ultimately can't run from yourself, and any time you try to break out of a prison, you'll find yourself trapped in another prison of your own making. The most horrifying implication of the episode is that possibly even death itself won't be a release, and you will spend all eternity trying to escape from an identity you're trapped in. Viewers became so outraged, according to McGoohan, that he had to go into hiding for an extended period, and while his later claims that he never worked in Britain again are an exaggeration, it is true that for the remainder of his life he concentrated on doing work in the US instead, where he hadn't created such anger. That final episode of The Prisoner was also the only one to use a piece of contemporary pop music, in two crucial scenes: [Excerpt: The Prisoner, "Fall Out", "All You Need is Love"] Back in October 2020, we started what I thought would be a year-long look at the period from late 1962 through early 1967, but which has turned out for reasons beyond my control to take more like twenty months, with a song which was one of the last of the big pre-Beatles pop hits, though we looked at it after their first single, "Telstar" by the Tornadoes: [Excerpt: The Tornadoes, "Telstar"] There were many reasons for choosing that as one of the bookends for this fifty-episode chunk of the podcast -- you'll see many connections between that episode and this one if you listen to them back-to-back -- but among them was that it's a song inspired by the launch of the first ever communications satellite, and a sign of how the world was going to become smaller as the sixties went on. Of course, to start with communications satellites didn't do much in that regard -- they were expensive to use, and had limited bandwidth, and were only available during limited time windows, but symbolically they meant that for the first time ever, people could see and hear events thousands of miles away as they were happening. It's not a coincidence that Britain and France signed the agreement to develop Concorde, the first supersonic airliner, a month after the first Beatles single and four months after the Telstar satellite was launched. The world was becoming ever more interconnected -- people were travelling faster and further, getting news from other countries quicker, and there was more cultural conversation – and misunderstanding – between countries thousands of miles apart. The Canadian media theorist Marshall McLuhan, the man who also coined the phrase “the medium is the message”, thought that this ever-faster connection would fundamentally change basic modes of thought in the Western world. McLuhan thought that technology made possible whole new modes of thought, and that just as the printing press had, in his view, caused Western liberalism and individualism, so these new electronic media would cause the rise of a new collective mode of thought. In 1962, the year of Concorde, Telstar, and “Love Me Do”, McLuhan wrote a book called The Gutenberg Galaxy, in which he said: “Instead of tending towards a vast Alexandrian library the world has become a computer, an electronic brain, exactly as an infantile piece of science fiction. And as our senses have gone outside us, Big Brother goes inside. So, unless aware of this dynamic, we shall at once move into a phase of panic terrors, exactly befitting a small world of tribal drums, total interdependence, and superimposed co-existence.… Terror is the normal state of any oral society, for in it everything affects everything all the time.…” He coined the term “the Global Village” to describe this new collectivism. The story we've seen over the last fifty episodes is one of a sort of cultural ping-pong between the USA and the UK, with innovations in American music inspiring British musicians, who in turn inspired American ones, whether that being the Beatles covering the Isley Brothers or the Rolling Stones doing a Bobby Womack song, or Paul Simon and Bob Dylan coming over to the UK and learning folk songs and guitar techniques from Martin Carthy. And increasingly we're going to see those influences spread to other countries, and influences coming *from* other countries. We've already seen one Jamaican artist, and the influence of Indian music has become very apparent. While the focus of this series is going to remain principally in the British Isles and North America, rock music was and is a worldwide phenomenon, and that's going to become increasingly a part of the story. And so in this episode we're going to look at a live performance -- well, mostly live -- that was seen by hundreds of millions of people all over the world as it happened, thanks to the magic of satellites: [Excerpt: The Beatles, "All You Need is Love"] When we left the Beatles, they had just finished recording "Tomorrow Never Knows", the most experimental track they had recorded up to that date, and if not the most experimental thing they *ever* recorded certainly in the top handful. But "Tomorrow Never Knows" was only the first track they recorded in the sessions for what would become arguably their greatest album, and certainly the one that currently has the most respect from critics. It's interesting to note that that album could have been very, very, different. When we think of Revolver now, we think of the innovative production of George Martin, and of Geoff Emerick and Ken Townshend's inventive ideas for pushing the sound of the equipment in Abbey Road studios, but until very late in the day the album was going to be recorded in the Stax studios in Memphis, with Steve Cropper producing -- whether George Martin would have been involved or not is something we don't even know. In 1965, the Rolling Stones had, as we've seen, started making records in the US, recording in LA and at the Chess studios in Chicago, and the Yardbirds had also been doing the same thing. Mick Jagger had become a convert to the idea of using American studios and working with American musicians, and he had constantly been telling Paul McCartney that the Beatles should do the same. Indeed, they'd put some feelers out in 1965 about the possibility of the group making an album with Holland, Dozier, and Holland in Detroit. Quite how this would have worked is hard to figure out -- Holland, Dozier, and Holland's skills were as songwriters, and in their work with a particular set of musicians -- so it's unsurprising that came to nothing. But recording at Stax was a different matter.  While Steve Cropper was a great songwriter in his own right, he was also adept at getting great sounds on covers of other people's material -- like on Otis Blue, the album he produced for Otis Redding in late 1965, which doesn't include a single Cropper original: [Excerpt: Otis Redding, "Satisfaction"] And the Beatles were very influenced by the records Stax were putting out, often namechecking Wilson Pickett in particular, and during the Rubber Soul sessions they had recorded a "Green Onions" soundalike track, imaginatively titled "12-Bar Original": [Excerpt: The Beatles, "12-Bar Original"] The idea of the group recording at Stax got far enough that they were actually booked in for two weeks starting the ninth of April, and there was even an offer from Elvis to let them stay at Graceland while they recorded, but then a couple of weeks earlier, the news leaked to the press, and Brian Epstein cancelled the booking. According to Cropper, Epstein talked about recording at the Atlantic studios in New York with him instead, but nothing went any further. It's hard to imagine what a Stax-based Beatles album would have been like, but even though it might have been a great album, it certainly wouldn't have been the Revolver we've come to know. Revolver is an unusual album in many ways, and one of the ways it's most distinct from the earlier Beatles albums is the dominance of keyboards. Both Lennon and McCartney had often written at the piano as well as the guitar -- McCartney more so than Lennon, but both had done so regularly -- but up to this point it had been normal for them to arrange the songs for guitars rather than keyboards, no matter how they'd started out. There had been the odd track where one of them, usually Lennon, would play a simple keyboard part, songs like "I'm Down" or "We Can Work it Out", but even those had been guitar records first and foremost. But on Revolver, that changed dramatically. There seems to have been a complex web of cause and effect here. Paul was becoming increasingly interested in moving his basslines away from simple walking basslines and root notes and the other staples of rock and roll basslines up to this point. As the sixties progressed, rock basslines were becoming ever more complex, and Tyler Mahan Coe has made a good case that this is largely down to innovations in production pioneered by Owen Bradley, and McCartney was certainly aware of Bradley's work -- he was a fan of Brenda Lee, who Bradley produced, for example. But the two influences that McCartney has mentioned most often in this regard are the busy, jazz-influenced, basslines that James Jamerson was playing at Motown: [Excerpt: The Four Tops, "It's the Same Old Song"] And the basslines that Brian Wilson was writing for various Wrecking Crew bassists to play for the Beach Boys: [Excerpt: The Beach Boys, "Don't Talk (Put Your Head on My Shoulder)"] Just to be clear, McCartney didn't hear that particular track until partway through the recording of Revolver, when Bruce Johnston visited the UK and brought with him an advance copy of Pet Sounds, but Pet Sounds influenced the later part of Revolver's recording, and Wilson had already started his experiments in that direction with the group's 1965 work. It's much easier to write a song with this kind of bassline, one that's integral to the composition, on the piano than it is to write it on a guitar, as you can work out the bassline with your left hand while working out the chords and melody with your right, so the habit that McCartney had already developed of writing on the piano made this easier. But also, starting with the recording of "Paperback Writer", McCartney switched his style of working in the studio. Where up to this point it had been normal for him to play bass as part of the recording of the basic track, playing with the other Beatles, he now started to take advantage of multitracking to overdub his bass later, so he could spend extra time getting the bassline exactly right. McCartney lived closer to Abbey Road than the other three Beatles, and so could more easily get there early or stay late and tweak his parts. But if McCartney wasn't playing bass while the guitars and drums were being recorded, that meant he could play something else, and so increasingly he would play piano during the recording of the basic track. And that in turn would mean that there wouldn't always *be* a need for guitars on the track, because the harmonic support they would provide would be provided by the piano instead. This, as much as anything else, is the reason that Revolver sounds so radically different to any other Beatles album. Up to this point, with *very* rare exceptions like "Yesterday", every Beatles record, more or less, featured all four of the Beatles playing instruments. Now John and George weren't playing on "Good Day Sunshine" or "For No One", John wasn't playing on "Here, There, and Everywhere", "Eleanor Rigby" features no guitars or drums at all, and George's "Love You To" only features himself, plus a little tambourine from Ringo (Paul recorded a part for that one, but it doesn't seem to appear on the finished track). Of the three songwriting Beatles, the only one who at this point was consistently requiring the instrumental contributions of all the other band members was John, and even he did without Paul on "She Said, She Said", which by all accounts features either John or George on bass, after Paul had a rare bout of unprofessionalism and left the studio. Revolver is still an album made by a group -- and most of those tracks that don't feature John or George instrumentally still feature them vocally -- it's still a collaborative work in all the best ways. But it's no longer an album made by four people playing together in the same room at the same time. After starting work on "Tomorrow Never Knows", the next track they started work on was Paul's "Got to Get You Into My Life", but as it would turn out they would work on that song throughout most of the sessions for the album -- in a sign of how the group would increasingly work from this point on, Paul's song was subject to multiple re-recordings and tweakings in the studio, as he tinkered to try to make it perfect. The first recording to be completed for the album, though, was almost as much of a departure in its own way as "Tomorrow Never Knows" had been. George's song "Love You To" shows just how inspired he was by the music of Ravi Shankar, and how devoted he was to Indian music. While a few months earlier he had just about managed to pick out a simple melody on the sitar for "Norwegian Wood", by this point he was comfortable enough with Indian classical music that I've seen many, many sources claim that an outside session player is playing sitar on the track, though Anil Bhagwat, the tabla player on the track, always insisted that it was entirely Harrison's playing: [Excerpt: The Beatles, "Love You To"] There is a *lot* of debate as to whether it's George playing on the track, and I feel a little uncomfortable making a definitive statement in either direction. On the one hand I find it hard to believe that Harrison got that good that quickly on an unfamiliar instrument, when we know he wasn't a naturally facile musician. All the stories we have about his work in the studio suggest that he had to work very hard on his guitar solos, and that he would frequently fluff them. As a technical guitarist, Harrison was only mediocre -- his value lay in his inventiveness, not in technical ability -- and he had been playing guitar for over a decade, but sitar only a few months. There's also some session documentation suggesting that an unknown sitar player was hired. On the other hand there's the testimony of Anil Bhagwat that Harrison played the part himself, and he has been very firm on the subject, saying "If you go on the Internet there are a lot of questions asked about "Love You To". They say 'It's not George playing the sitar'. I can tell you here and now -- 100 percent it was George on sitar throughout. There were no other musicians involved. It was just me and him." And several people who are more knowledgeable than myself about the instrument have suggested that the sitar part on the track is played the way that a rock guitarist would play rather than the way someone with more knowledge of Indian classical music would play -- there's a blues feeling to some of the bends that apparently no genuine Indian classical musician would naturally do. I would suggest that the best explanation is that there's a professional sitar player trying to replicate a part that Harrison had previously demonstrated, while Harrison was in turn trying his best to replicate the sound of Ravi Shankar's work. Certainly the instrumental section sounds far more fluent, and far more stylistically correct, than one would expect: [Excerpt: The Beatles, "Love You To"] Where previous attempts at what got called "raga-rock" had taken a couple of surface features of Indian music -- some form of a drone, perhaps a modal scale -- and had generally used a guitar made to sound a little bit like a sitar, or had a sitar playing normal rock riffs, Harrison's song seems to be a genuine attempt to hybridise Indian ragas and rock music, combining the instrumentation, modes, and rhythmic complexity of someone like Ravi Shankar with lyrics that are seemingly inspired by Bob Dylan and a fairly conventional pop song structure (and a tiny bit of fuzz guitar). It's a record that could only be made by someone who properly understood both the Indian music he's emulating and the conventions of the Western pop song, and understood how those conventions could work together. Indeed, one thing I've rarely seen pointed out is how cleverly the album is sequenced, so that "Love You To" is followed by possibly the most conventional song on Revolver, "Here, There, and Everywhere", which was recorded towards the end of the sessions. Both songs share a distinctive feature not shared by the rest of the album, so the two songs can sound more of a pair than they otherwise would, retrospectively making "Love You To" seem more conventional than it is and "Here, There, and Everywhere" more unconventional -- both have as an introduction a separate piece of music that states some of the melodic themes of the rest of the song but isn't repeated later. In the case of "Love You To" it's the free-tempo bit at the beginning, characteristic of a lot of Indian music: [Excerpt: The Beatles, "Love You To"] While in the case of "Here, There, and Everywhere" it's the part that mimics an older style of songwriting, a separate intro of the type that would have been called a verse when written by the Gershwins or Cole Porter, but of course in the intervening decades "verse" had come to mean something else, so we now no longer have a specific term for this kind of intro -- but as you can hear, it's doing very much the same thing as that "Love You To" intro: [Excerpt: The Beatles, "Here, There, and Everywhere"] In the same day as the group completed "Love You To", overdubbing George's vocal and Ringo's tambourine, they also started work on a song that would show off a lot of the new techniques they had been working on in very different ways. Paul's "Paperback Writer" could indeed be seen as part of a loose trilogy with "Love You To" and "Tomorrow Never Knows", one song by each of the group's three songwriters exploring the idea of a song that's almost all on one chord. Both "Tomorrow Never Knows" and "Love You To" are based on a drone with occasional hints towards moving to one other chord. In the case of "Paperback Writer", the entire song stays on a single chord until the title -- it's on a G7 throughout until the first use of the word "writer", when it quickly goes to a C for two bars. I'm afraid I'm going to have to sing to show you how little the chords actually change, because the riff disguises this lack of movement somewhat, but the melody is also far more horizontal than most of McCartney's, so this shouldn't sound too painful, I hope: [demonstrates] This is essentially the exact same thing that both "Love You To" and "Tomorrow Never Knows" do, and all three have very similarly structured rising and falling modal melodies. There's also a bit of "Paperback Writer" that seems to tie directly into "Love You To", but also points to a possible very non-Indian inspiration for part of "Love You To". The Beach Boys' single "Sloop John B" was released in the UK a couple of days after the sessions for "Paperback Writer" and "Love You To", but it had been released in the US a month before, and the Beatles all got copies of every record in the American top thirty shipped to them. McCartney and Harrison have specifically pointed to it as an influence on "Paperback Writer". "Sloop John B" has a section where all the instruments drop out and we're left with just the group's vocal harmonies: [Excerpt: The Beach Boys, "Sloop John B"] And that seems to have been the inspiration behind the similar moment at a similar point in "Paperback Writer", which is used in place of a middle eight and also used for the song's intro: [Excerpt: The Beatles, "Paperback Writer"] Which is very close to what Harrison does at the end of each verse of "Love You To", where the instruments drop out for him to sing a long melismatic syllable before coming back in: [Excerpt: The Beatles, "Love You To"] Essentially, other than "Got to Get You Into My Life", which is an outlier and should not be counted, the first three songs attempted during the Revolver sessions are variations on a common theme, and it's a sign that no matter how different the results might  sound, the Beatles really were very much a group at this point, and were sharing ideas among themselves and developing those ideas in similar ways. "Paperback Writer" disguises what it's doing somewhat by having such a strong riff. Lennon referred to "Paperback Writer" as "son of 'Day Tripper'", and in terms of the Beatles' singles it's actually their third iteration of this riff idea, which they originally got from Bobby Parker's "Watch Your Step": [Excerpt: Bobby Parker, "Watch Your Step"] Which became the inspiration for "I Feel Fine": [Excerpt: The Beatles, "I Feel Fine"] Which they varied for "Day Tripper": [Excerpt: The Beatles, "Day Tripper"] And which then in turn got varied for "Paperback Writer": [Excerpt: The Beatles, "Paperback Writer"] As well as compositional ideas, there are sonic ideas shared between "Paperback Writer", "Tomorrow Never Knows", and "Love You To", and which would be shared by the rest of the tracks the Beatles recorded in the first half of 1966. Since Geoff Emerick had become the group's principal engineer, they'd started paying more attention to how to get a fuller sound, and so Emerick had miced the tabla on "Love You To" much more closely than anyone would normally mic an instrument from classical music, creating a deep, thudding sound, and similarly he had changed the way they recorded the drums on "Tomorrow Never Knows", again giving a much fuller sound. But the group also wanted the kind of big bass sounds they'd loved on records coming out of America -- sounds that no British studio was getting, largely because it was believed that if you cut too loud a bass sound into a record it would make the needle jump out of the groove. The new engineering team of Geoff Emerick and Ken Scott, though, thought that it was likely you could keep the needle in the groove if you had a smoother frequency response. You could do that if you used a microphone with a larger diaphragm to record the bass, but how could you do that? Inspiration finally struck -- loudspeakers are actually the same thing as microphones wired the other way round, so if you wired up a loudspeaker as if it were a microphone you could get a *really big* speaker, place it in front of the bass amp, and get a much stronger bass sound. The experiment wasn't a total success -- the sound they got had to be processed quite extensively to get rid of room noise, and then compressed in order to further prevent the needle-jumping issue, and so it's a muddier, less defined, tone than they would have liked, but one thing that can't be denied is that "Paperback Writer"'s bass sound is much, much, louder than on any previous Beatles record: [Excerpt: The Beatles, "Paperback Writer"] Almost every track the group recorded during the Revolver sessions involved all sorts of studio innovations, though rarely anything as truly revolutionary as the artificial double-tracking they'd used on "Tomorrow Never Knows", and which also appeared on "Paperback Writer" -- indeed, as "Paperback Writer" was released several months before Revolver, it became the first record released to use the technique. I could easily devote a good ten minutes to every track on Revolver, and to "Paperback Writer"s B-side, "Rain", but this is already shaping up to be an extraordinarily long episode and there's a lot of material to get through, so I'll break my usual pattern of devoting a Patreon bonus episode to something relatively obscure, and this week's bonus will be on "Rain" itself. "Paperback Writer", though, deserved the attention here even though it was not one of the group's more successful singles -- it did go to number one, but it didn't hit number one in the UK charts straight away, being kept off the top by "Strangers in the Night" by Frank Sinatra for the first week: [Excerpt: Frank Sinatra, "Strangers in the Night"] Coincidentally, "Strangers in the Night" was co-written by Bert Kaempfert, the German musician who had produced the group's very first recording sessions with Tony Sheridan back in 1961. On the group's German tour in 1966 they met up with Kaempfert again, and John greeted him by singing the first couple of lines of the Sinatra record. The single was the lowest-selling Beatles single in the UK since "Love Me Do". In the US it only made number one for two non-consecutive weeks, with "Strangers in the Night" knocking it off for a week in between. Now, by literally any other band's standards, that's still a massive hit, and it was the Beatles' tenth UK number one in a row (or ninth, depending on which chart you use for "Please Please Me"), but it's a sign that the group were moving out of the first phase of total unequivocal dominance of the charts. It was a turning point in a lot of other ways as well. Up to this point, while the group had been experimenting with different lyrical subjects on album tracks, every single had lyrics about romantic relationships -- with the possible exception of "Help!", which was about Lennon's emotional state but written in such a way that it could be heard as a plea to a lover. But in the case of "Paperback Writer", McCartney was inspired by his Aunt Mill asking him "Why do you write songs about love all the time? Can you ever write about a horse or the summit conference or something interesting?" His response was to think "All right, Aunt Mill, I'll show you", and to come up with a lyric that was very much in the style of the social satires that bands like the Kinks were releasing at the time. People often miss the humour in the lyric for "Paperback Writer", but there's a huge amount of comedy in lyrics about someone writing to a publisher saying they'd written a book based on someone else's book, and one can only imagine the feeling of weary recognition in slush-pile readers throughout the world as they heard the enthusiastic "It's a thousand pages, give or take a few, I'll be writing more in a week or two. I can make it longer..." From this point on, the group wouldn't release a single that was unambiguously about a romantic relationship until "The Ballad of John and Yoko",  the last single released while the band were still together. "Paperback Writer" also saw the Beatles for the first time making a promotional film -- what we would now call a rock video -- rather than make personal appearances on TV shows. The film was directed by Michael Lindsay-Hogg, who the group would work with again in 1969, and shows Paul with a chipped front tooth -- he'd been in an accident while riding mopeds with his friend Tara Browne a few months earlier, and hadn't yet got round to having the tooth capped. When he did, the change in his teeth was one of the many bits of evidence used by conspiracy theorists to prove that the real Paul McCartney was dead and replaced by a lookalike. It also marks a change in who the most prominent Beatle on the group's A-sides was. Up to this point, Paul had had one solo lead on an A-side -- "Can't Buy Me Love" -- and everything else had been either a song with multiple vocalists like "Day Tripper" or "Love Me Do", or a song with a clear John lead like "Ticket to Ride" or "I Feel Fine". In the rest of their career, counting "Paperback Writer", the group would release nine new singles that hadn't already been included on an album. Of those nine singles, one was a double A-side with one John song and one Paul song, two had John songs on the A-side, and the other six were Paul. Where up to this point John had been "lead Beatle", for the rest of the sixties, Paul would be the group's driving force. Oddly, Paul got rather defensive about the record when asked about it in interviews after it failed to go straight to the top, saying "It's not our best single by any means, but we're very satisfied with it". But especially in its original mono mix it actually packs a powerful punch: [Excerpt: The Beatles, "Paperback Writer"] When the "Paperback Writer" single was released, an unusual image was used in the advertising -- a photo of the Beatles dressed in butchers' smocks, covered in blood, with chunks of meat and the dismembered body parts of baby dolls lying around on them. The image was meant as part of a triptych parodying religious art -- the photo on the left was to be an image showing the four Beatles connected to a woman by an umbilical cord made of sausages, the middle panel was meant to be this image, but with halos added over the Beatles' heads, and the panel on the right was George hammering a nail into John's head, symbolising both crucifixion and that the group were real, physical, people, not just images to be worshipped -- these weren't imaginary nails, and they weren't imaginary people. The photographer Robert Whittaker later said: “I did a photograph of the Beatles covered in raw meat, dolls and false teeth. Putting meat, dolls and false teeth with The Beatles is essentially part of the same thing, the breakdown of what is regarded as normal. The actual conception for what I still call “Somnambulant Adventure” was Moses coming down from Mount Sinai with the Ten Commandments. He comes across people worshipping a golden calf. All over the world I'd watched people worshiping like idols, like gods, four Beatles. To me they were just stock standard normal people. But this emotion that fans poured on them made me wonder where Christianity was heading.” The image wasn't that controversial in the UK, when it was used to advertise "Paperback Writer", but in the US it was initially used for the cover of an album, Yesterday... And Today, which was made up of a few tracks that had been left off the US versions of the Rubber Soul and Help! albums, plus both sides of the "We Can Work It Out"/"Day Tripper" single, and three rough mixes of songs that had been recorded for Revolver -- "Doctor Robert", "And Your Bird Can Sing", and "I'm Only Sleeping", which was the song that sounded most different from the mixes that were finally released: [Excerpt: The Beatles, "I'm Only Sleeping (Yesterday... and Today mix)"] Those three songs were all Lennon songs, which had the unfortunate effect that when the US version of Revolver was brought out later in the year, only two of the songs on the album were by Lennon, with six by McCartney and three by Harrison. Some have suggested that this was the motivation for the use of the butcher image on the cover of Yesterday... And Today -- saying it was the Beatles' protest against Capitol "butchering" their albums -- but in truth it was just that Capitol's art director chose the cover because he liked the image. Alan Livingston, the president of Capitol was not so sure, and called Brian Epstein to ask if the group would be OK with them using a different image. Epstein checked with John Lennon, but Lennon liked the image and so Epstein told Livingston the group insisted on them using that cover. Even though for the album cover the bloodstains on the butchers' smocks were airbrushed out, after Capitol had pressed up a million copies of the mono version of the album and two hundred thousand copies of the stereo version, and they'd sent out sixty thousand promo copies, they discovered that no record shops would stock the album with that cover. It cost Capitol more than two hundred thousand dollars to recall the album and replace the cover with a new one -- though while many of the covers were destroyed, others had the new cover, with a more acceptable photo of the group, pasted over them, and people have later carefully steamed off the sticker to reveal the original. This would not be the last time in 1966 that something that was intended as a statement on religion and the way people viewed the Beatles would cause the group trouble in America. In the middle of the recording sessions for Revolver, the group also made what turned out to be their last ever UK live performance in front of a paying audience. The group had played the NME Poll-Winners' Party every year since 1963, and they were always shows that featured all the biggest acts in the country at the time -- the 1966 show featured, as well as the Beatles and a bunch of smaller acts, the Rolling Stones, the Who, the Yardbirds, Roy Orbison, Cliff Richard and the Shadows, the Seekers, the Small Faces, the Walker Brothers, and Dusty Springfield. Unfortunately, while these events were always filmed for TV broadcast, the Beatles' performance on the first of May wasn't filmed. There are various stories about what happened, but the crux appears to be a disagreement between Andrew Oldham and Brian Epstein, sparked by John Lennon. When the Beatles got to the show, they were upset to discover that they had to wait around before going on stage -- normally, the awards would all be presented at the end, after all the performances, but the Rolling Stones had asked that the Beatles not follow them directly, so after the Stones finished their set, there would be a break for the awards to be given out, and then the Beatles would play their set, in front of an audience that had been bored by twenty-five minutes of awards ceremony, rather than one that had been excited by all the bands that came before them. John Lennon was annoyed, and insisted that the Beatles were going to go on straight after the Rolling Stones -- he seems to have taken this as some sort of power play by the Stones and to have got his hackles up about it. He told Epstein to deal with the people from the NME. But the NME people said that they had a contract with Andrew Oldham, and they weren't going to break it. Oldham refused to change the terms of the contract. Lennon said that he wasn't going to go on stage if they didn't directly follow the Stones. Maurice Kinn, the publisher of the NME, told Epstein that he wasn't going to break the contract with Oldham, and that if the Beatles didn't appear on stage, he would get Jimmy Savile, who was compering the show, to go out on stage and tell the ten thousand fans in the audience that the Beatles were backstage refusing to appear. He would then sue NEMS for breach of contract *and* NEMS would be liable for any damage caused by the rioting that was sure to happen. Lennon screamed a lot of abuse at Kinn, and told him the group would never play one of their events again, but the group did go on stage -- but because they hadn't yet signed the agreement to allow their performance to be filmed, they refused to allow it to be recorded. Apparently Andrew Oldham took all this as a sign that Epstein was starting to lose control of the group. Also during May 1966 there were visits from musicians from other countries, continuing the cultural exchange that was increasingly influencing the Beatles' art. Bruce Johnston of the Beach Boys came over to promote the group's new LP, Pet Sounds, which had been largely the work of Brian Wilson, who had retired from touring to concentrate on working in the studio. Johnston played the record for John and Paul, who listened to it twice, all the way through, in silence, in Johnston's hotel room: [Excerpt: The Beach Boys, "God Only Knows"] According to Johnston, after they'd listened through the album twice, they went over to a piano and started whispering to each other, picking out chords. Certainly the influence of Pet Sounds is very noticeable on songs like "Here, There, and Everywhere", written and recorded a few weeks after this meeting: [Excerpt: The Beatles, "Here, There, and Everywhere"] That track, and the last track recorded for the album, "She Said She Said" were unusual in one very important respect -- they were recorded while the Beatles were no longer under contract to EMI Records. Their contract expired on the fifth of June, 1966, and they finished Revolver without it having been renewed -- it would be several months before their new contract was signed, and it's rather lucky for music lovers that Brian Epstein was the kind of manager who considered personal relationships and basic honour and decency more important than the legal niceties, unlike any other managers of the era, otherwise we would not have Revolver in the form we know it today. After the meeting with Johnston, but before the recording of those last couple of Revolver tracks, the Beatles also met up again with Bob Dylan, who was on a UK tour with a new, loud, band he was working with called The Hawks. While the Beatles and Dylan all admired each other, there was by this point a lot of wariness on both sides, especially between Lennon and Dylan, both of them very similar personality types and neither wanting to let their guard down around the other or appear unhip. There's a famous half-hour-long film sequence of Lennon and Dylan sharing a taxi, which is a fascinating, excruciating, example of two insecure but arrogant men both trying desperately to impress the other but also equally desperate not to let the other know that they want to impress them: [Excerpt: Dylan and Lennon taxi ride] The day that was filmed, Lennon and Harrison also went to see Dylan play at the Royal Albert Hall. This tour had been controversial, because Dylan's band were loud and raucous, and Dylan's fans in the UK still thought of him as a folk musician. At one gig, earlier on the tour, an audience member had famously yelled out "Judas!" -- (just on the tiny chance that any of my listeners don't know that, Judas was the disciple who betrayed Jesus to the authorities, leading to his crucifixion) -- and that show was for many years bootlegged as the "Royal Albert Hall" show, though in fact it was recorded at the Free Trade Hall in Manchester. One of the *actual* Royal Albert Hall shows was released a few years ago -- the one the night before Lennon and Harrison saw Dylan: [Excerpt: Bob Dylan, "Like a Rolling Stone", Royal Albert Hall 1966] The show Lennon and Harrison saw would be Dylan's last for many years. Shortly after returning to the US, Dylan was in a motorbike accident, the details of which are still mysterious, and which some fans claim was faked altogether. The accident caused him to cancel all the concert dates he had booked, and devote himself to working in the studio for several years just like Brian Wilson. And from even further afield than America, Ravi Shankar came over to Britain, to work with his friend the violinist Yehudi Menuhin, on a duet album, West Meets East, that was an example in the classical world of the same kind of international cross-fertilisation that was happening in the pop world: [Excerpt: Yehudi Menuhin and Ravi Shankar, "Prabhati (based on Raga Gunkali)"] While he was in the UK, Shankar also performed at the Royal Festival Hall, and George Harrison went to the show. He'd seen Shankar live the year before, but this time he met up with him afterwards, and later said "He was the first person that impressed me in a way that was beyond just being a famous celebrity. Ravi was my link to the Vedic world. Ravi plugged me into the whole of reality. Elvis impressed me when I was a kid, and impressed me when I met him, but you couldn't later on go round to him and say 'Elvis, what's happening with the universe?'" After completing recording and mixing the as-yet-unnamed album, which had been by far the longest recording process of their career, and which still nearly sixty years later regularly tops polls of the best album of all time, the Beatles took a well-earned break. For a whole two days, at which point they flew off to Germany to do a three-day tour, on their way to Japan, where they were booked to play five shows at the Budokan. Unfortunately for the group, while they had no idea of this when they were booked to do the shows, many in Japan saw the Budokan as sacred ground, and they were the first ever Western group to play there. This led to numerous death threats and loud protests from far-right activists offended at the Beatles defiling their religious and nationalistic sensibilities. As a result, the police were on high alert -- so high that there were three thousand police in the audience for the shows, in a venue which only held ten thousand audience members. That's according to Mark Lewisohn's Complete Beatles Chronicle, though I have to say that the rather blurry footage of the audience in the video of those shows doesn't seem to show anything like those numbers. But frankly I'll take Lewisohn's word over that footage, as he's not someone to put out incorrect information. The threats to the group also meant that they had to be kept in their hotel rooms at all times except when actually performing, though they did make attempts to get out. At the press conference for the Tokyo shows, the group were also asked publicly for the first time their views on the war in Vietnam, and John replied "Well, we think about it every day, and we don't agree with it and we think that it's wrong. That's how much interest we take. That's all we can do about it... and say that we don't like it". I say they were asked publicly for the first time, because George had been asked about it for a series of interviews Maureen Cleave had done with the group a couple of months earlier, as we'll see in a bit, but nobody was paying attention to those interviews. Brian Epstein was upset that the question had gone to John. He had hoped that the inevitable Vietnam question would go to Paul, who he thought might be a bit more tactful. The last thing he needed was John Lennon saying something that would upset the Americans before their tour there a few weeks later. Luckily, people in America seemed to have better things to do than pay attention to John Lennon's opinions. The support acts for the Japanese shows included  several of the biggest names in Japanese rock music -- or "group sounds" as the genre was called there, Japanese people having realised that trying to say the phrase "rock and roll" would open them up to ridicule given that it had both "r" and "l" sounds in the phrase. The man who had coined the term "group sounds", Jackey Yoshikawa, was there with his group the Blue Comets, as was Isao Bito, who did a rather good cover version of Cliff Richard's "Dynamite": [Excerpt: Isao Bito, "Dynamite"] Bito, the Blue Comets, and the other two support acts, Yuya Uchida and the Blue Jeans, all got together to perform a specially written song, "Welcome Beatles": [Excerpt: "Welcome Beatles" ] But while the Japanese audience were enthusiastic, they were much less vocal about their enthusiasm than the audiences the Beatles were used to playing for. The group were used, of course, to playing in front of hordes of screaming teenagers who could not hear a single note, but because of the fear that a far-right terrorist would assassinate one of the group members, the police had imposed very, very, strict rules on the audience. Nobody in the audience was allowed to get out of their seat for any reason, and the police would clamp down very firmly on anyone who was too demonstrative. Because of that, the group could actually hear themselves, and they sounded sloppy as hell, especially on the newer material. Not that there was much of that. The only song they did from the Revolver sessions was "Paperback Writer", the new single, and while they did do a couple of tracks from Rubber Soul, those were under-rehearsed. As John said at the start of this tour, "I can't play any of Rubber Soul, it's so unrehearsed. The only time I played any of the numbers on it was when I recorded it. I forget about songs. They're only valid for a certain time." That's certainly borne out by the sound of their performances of Rubber Soul material at the Budokan: [Excerpt: The Beatles, "If I Needed Someone (live at the Budokan)"] It was while they were in Japan as well that they finally came up with the title for their new album. They'd been thinking of all sorts of ideas, like Abracadabra and Magic Circle, and tossing names around with increasing desperation for several days -- at one point they seem to have just started riffing on other groups' albums, and seem to have apparently seriously thought about naming the record in parodic tribute to their favourite artists -- suggestions included The Beatles On Safari, after the Beach Boys' Surfin' Safari (and possibly with a nod to their recent Pet Sounds album cover with animals, too), The Freewheelin' Beatles, after Dylan's second album, and my favourite, Ringo's suggestion After Geography, for the Rolling Stones' Aftermath. But eventually Paul came up with Revolver -- like Rubber Soul, a pun, in this case because the record itself revolves when on a turntable. Then it was off to the Philippines, and if the group thought Japan had been stressful, they had no idea what was coming. The trouble started in the Philippines from the moment they stepped off the plane, when they were bundled into a car without Neil Aspinall or Brian Epstein, and without their luggage, which was sent to customs. This was a problem in itself -- the group had got used to essentially being treated like diplomats, and to having their baggage let through customs without being searched, and so they'd started freely carrying various illicit substances with them. This would obviously be a problem -- but as it turned out, this was just to get a "customs charge" paid by Brian Epstein. But during their initial press conference the group were worried, given the hostility they'd faced from officialdom, that they were going to be arrested during the conference itself. They were asked what they would tell the Rolling Stones, who were going to be visiting the Philippines shortly after, and Lennon just said "We'll warn them". They also asked "is there a war on in the Philippines? Why is everybody armed?" At this time, the Philippines had a new leader, Ferdinand Marcos -- who is not to be confused with his son, Ferdinand Marcos Jr, also known as Bongbong Marcos, who just became President-Elect there last month. Marcos Sr was a dictatorial kleptocrat, one of the worst leaders of the latter half of the twentieth century, but that wasn't evident yet. He'd been elected only a few months earlier, and had presented himself as a Kennedy-like figure -- a young man who was also a war hero. He'd recently switched parties from the Liberal party to the right-wing Nacionalista Party, but wasn't yet being thought of as the monstrous dictator he later became. The person organising the Philippines shows had been ordered to get the Beatles to visit Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos at 11AM on the day of the show, but for some reason had instead put on their itinerary just the *suggestion* that the group should meet the Marcoses, and had put the time down as 3PM, and the Beatles chose to ignore that suggestion -- they'd refused to do that kind of government-official meet-and-greet ever since an incident in 1964 at the British Embassy in Washington where someone had cut off a bit of Ringo's hair. A military escort turned up at the group's hotel in the morning, to take them for their meeting. The group were all still in their rooms, and Brian Epstein was still eating breakfast and refused to disturb them, saying "Go back and tell the generals we're not coming." The group gave their performances as scheduled, but meanwhile there was outrage at the way the Beatles had refused to meet the Marcos family, who had brought hundreds of children -- friends of their own children, and relatives of top officials -- to a party to meet the group. Brian Epstein went on TV and tried to smooth things over, but the broadcast was interrupted by static and his message didn't get through to anyone. The next day, the group's security was taken away, as were the cars to take them to the airport. When they got to the airport, the escalators were turned off and the group were beaten up at the arrangement of the airport manager, who said in 1984 "I beat up the Beatles. I really thumped them. First I socked Epstein and he went down... then I socked Lennon and Ringo in the face. I was kicking them. They were pleading like frightened chickens. That's what happens when you insult the First Lady." Even on the plane there were further problems -- Brian Epstein and the group's road manager Mal Evans were both made to get off the plane to sort out supposed financial discrepancies, which led to them worrying that they were going to be arrested or worse -- Evans told the group to tell his wife he loved her as he left the plane. But eventually, they were able to leave, and after a brief layover in India -- which Ringo later said was the first time he felt he'd been somewhere truly foreign, as opposed to places like Germany or the USA which felt basically like home -- they got back to England: [Excerpt: "Ordinary passenger!"] When asked what they were going to do next, George replied “We're going to have a couple of weeks to recuperate before we go and get beaten up by the Americans,” The story of the "we're bigger than Jesus" controversy is one of the most widely misreported events in the lives of the Beatles, which is saying a great deal. One book that I've encountered, and one book only, Steve Turner's Beatles '66, tells the story of what actually happened, and even that book seems to miss some emphases. I've pieced what follows together from Turner's book and from an academic journal article I found which has some more detail. As far as I can tell, every single other book on the Beatles released up to this point bases their account of the story on an inaccurate press statement put out by Brian Epstein, not on the truth. Here's the story as it's generally told. John Lennon gave an interview to his friend, Maureen Cleave of the Evening Standard, during which he made some comments about how it was depressing that Christianity was losing relevance in the eyes of the public, and that the Beatles are more popular than Jesus, speaking casually because he was talking to a friend. That story was run in the Evening Standard more-or-less unnoticed, but then an American teen magazine picked up on the line about the Beatles being bigger than Jesus, reprinted chunks of the interview out of context and without the Beatles' knowledge or permission, as a way to stir up controversy, and there was an outcry, with people burning Beatles records and death threats from the Ku Klux Klan. That's... not exactly what happened. The first thing that you need to understand to know what happened is that Datebook wasn't a typical teen magazine. It *looked* just like a typical teen magazine, certainly, and much of its content was the kind of thing that you would get in Tiger Beat or any of the other magazines aimed at teenage girls -- the September 1966 issue was full of articles like "Life with the Walker Brothers... by their Road Manager", and interviews with the Dave Clark Five -- but it also had a long history of publishing material that was intended to make its readers think about social issues of the time, particularly Civil Rights. Arthur Unger, the magazine's editor and publisher, was a gay man in an interracial relationship, and while the subject of homosexuality was too taboo in the late fifties and sixties for him to have his magazine cover that, he did regularly include articles decrying segregation and calling for the girls reading the magazine to do their part on a personal level to stamp out racism. Datebook had regularly contained articles like one from 1963 talking about how segregation wasn't just a problem in the South, saying "If we are so ‘integrated' why must men in my own city of Philadelphia, the city of Brotherly Love, picket city hall because they are discriminated against when it comes to getting a job? And how come I am still unable to take my dark- complexioned friends to the same roller skating rink or swimming pool that I attend?” One of the writers for the magazine later said “We were much more than an entertainment magazine . . . . We tried to get kids involved in social issues . . . . It was a well-received magazine, recommended by libraries and schools, but during the Civil Rights period we did get pulled off a lot of stands in the South because of our views on integration” Art Unger, the editor and publisher, wasn't the only one pushing this liberal, integrationist, agenda. The managing editor at the time, Danny Fields, was another gay man who wanted to push the magazine even further than Unger, and who would later go on to manage the Stooges and the Ramones, being credited by some as being the single most important figure in punk rock's development, and being immortalised by the Ramones in their song "Danny Says": [Excerpt: The Ramones, "Danny Says"] So this was not a normal teen magazine, and that's certainly shown by the cover of the September 1966 issue, which as well as talking about the interviews with John Lennon and Paul McCartney inside, also advertised articles on Timothy Leary advising people to turn on, tune in, and drop out; an editorial about how interracial dating must be the next step after desegregation of schools, and a piece on "the ten adults you dig/hate the most" -- apparently the adult most teens dug in 1966 was Jackie Kennedy, the most hated was Barry Goldwater, and President Johnson, Billy Graham, and Martin Luther King appeared in the top ten on both lists. Now, in the early part of the year Maureen Cleave had done a whole series of articles on the Beatles -- double-page spreads on each band member, plus Brian Epstein, visiting them in their own homes (apart from Paul, who she met at a restaurant) and discussing their daily lives, their thoughts, and portraying them as rounded individuals. These articles are actually fascinating, because of something that everyone who met the Beatles in this period pointed out. When interviewed separately, all of them came across as thoughtful individuals, with their own opinions about all sorts of subjects, and their own tastes and senses of humour. But when two or more of them were together -- especially when John and Paul were interviewed together, but even in social situations, they would immediately revert to flip in-jokes and riffing on each other's statements, never revealing anything about themselves as individuals, but just going into Beatle mode -- simultaneously preserving the band's image, closing off outsiders, *and* making sure they didn't do or say anything that would get them mocked by the others. Cleave, as someone who actually took them all seriously, managed to get some very revealing information about all of them. In the article on Ringo, which is the most superficial -- one gets the impression that Cleave found him rather difficult to talk to when compared to the other, more verbally facile, band members -- she talked about how he had a lot of Wild West and military memorabilia, how he was a devoted family man and also devoted to his friends -- he had moved to the suburbs to be close to John and George, who already lived there. The most revealing quote about Ringo's personality was him saying "Of course that's the great thing about being married -- you have a house to sit in and company all the time. And you can still go to clubs, a bonus for being married. I love being a family man." While she looked at the other Beatles' tastes in literature in detail, she'd noted that the only books Ringo owned that weren't just for show were a few science fiction paperbacks, but that as he said "I'm not thick, it's just that I'm not educated. People can use words and I won't know what they mean. I say 'me' instead of 'my'." Ringo also didn't have a drum kit at home, saying he only played when he was on stage or in the studio, and that you couldn't practice on your own, you needed to play with other people. In the article on George, she talked about how he was learning the sitar,  and how he was thinking that it might be a good idea to go to India to study the sitar with Ravi Shankar for six months. She also talks about how during the interview, he played the guitar pretty much constantly, playing everything from songs from "Hello Dolly" to pieces by Bach to "the Trumpet Voluntary", by which she presumably means Clarke's "Prince of Denmark's March": [Excerpt: Jeremiah Clarke, "Prince of Denmark's March"] George was also the most outspoken on the subjects of politics, religion, and society, linking the ongoing war in Vietnam with the UK's reverence for the Second World War, saying "I think about it every day and it's wrong. Anything to do with war is wrong. They're all wrapped up in their Nelsons and their Churchills and their Montys -- always talking about war heroes. Look at All Our Yesterdays [a show on ITV that showed twenty-five-year-old newsreels] -- how we killed a few more Huns here and there. Makes me sick. They're the sort who are leaning on their walking sticks and telling us a few years in the army would do us good." He also had very strong words to say about religion, saying "I think religion falls flat on its face. All this 'love thy neighbour' but none of them are doing it. How can anybody get into the position of being Pope and accept all the glory and the money and the Mercedes-Benz and that? I could never be Pope until I'd sold my rich gates and my posh hat. I couldn't sit there with all that money on me and believe I was religious. Why can't we bring all this out in the open? Why is there all this stuff about blasphemy? If Christianity's as good as they say it is, it should stand up to a bit of discussion." Harrison also comes across as a very private person, saying "People keep saying, ‘We made you what you are,' well, I made Mr. Hovis what he is and I don't go round crawling over his gates and smashing up the wall round his house." (Hovis is a British company that makes bread and wholegrain flour). But more than anything else he comes across as an instinctive anti-authoritarian, being angry at bullying teachers, Popes, and Prime Ministers. McCartney's profile has him as the most self-consciously arty -- he talks about the plays of Alfred Jarry and the music of Karlheinz Stockhausen and Luciano Berio: [Excerpt: Luciano Berio, "Momenti (for magnetic tape)"] Though he was very worried that he might be sounding a little too pretentious, saying “I don't want to sound like Jonathan Miller going on" --