Podcasts about so paul

Download I Thessalonians 1-5 We are in the Church Stream reading from the New English Translation. 7streamsmethod.com | @7StreamsMethod | @serenatravis | #7Streams | Donate Commentary by Dr. Drake Travis Lord Jesus, your word to us from Paul glistens with joy and wonder and endless hope. May we be strengthened by the joy we have in you and live accordingly.  Amen. Thessalonians is written to the Christians of a city we label as Thessalonica.  The locals call it Thess-a-lo-NEE-ki.  It is among the first of the 13 letters that Paul wrote to the first century churches - if not the first. Most who've studied the matter date the letter at 51 A.D. Paul wrote it to encourage the believers there and to settle questions they had about the Second Coming of Christ. Their puzzlement was about faithful Christians who had died and they were wondering how the deceased were going to enjoy Jesus' Return if they weren't here....legitimate and fair question, I'd say.  Paul had not been in the city long but the result of his visit was such a wave of conversions that his enemies perceived that Paul's visit was "destroying everything", so to speak. Prominent women were converting, plus such a large number of Grecians were getting saved that the whole country was hearing this news from Thessaloniki.  It was a city of 200,000 in Paul's day (just over 310K today with a metro area exceeding 1M). And it's intriguing how this book still pertains to them now - as well as the rest of us.  The Thessalonian Christians were being persecuted.  So Paul writes to comfort, strengthen, encourage, and instruct.  He instructs them to remain godly and dutiful in their daily discipleship.  He saw that their persecution could add tremendous power to their testimony as they persevered in Christ.  And you probably noticed that Paul closed each chapter with a word about The Return of Our Lord 1 - Silas and Timothy helped found the church here so they are included in the greeting.  Highlights of this short chapter are the reminders about the power in the Holy Spirit and the testimony they had in this influential city. It was merely made more powerful by the manner in which they persevered through the struggles. 2 - talks much about Christian conduct. This was more than needed as the persecution was thickening and the attempt to destroy Paul's character, reputation, and his work in this town was at a furious pitch come A.D. 51.  In this reticent atmosphere, Paul urges that they "Preach good news, keep motives godly and pure, and do it all for God, avoid greed and being burdensome, be gentle and loving and industrious and holy and encouraging. Paul gave them a great run of pastoral instruction about conduct.  Paul explains the significance of their suffering and reminds them that they are in good company since Jesus was persecuted for living and speaking the truth. Paul adds to the affection of the moment in his statement of his desire to visit them again. 3 - Paul/Silas/Timothy had left Thessalonica, gone to Berea, south to Athens (this from Acts 17&18), and by the time they reached Athens, the news came that persecution had turned awful back in Thessalonica, so Paul sent Timothy back to be an encouragement.  Timothy went and later returned to Paul with the report of the Thessalonian Christians' steadfast commitment, devotion, and character and it made Paul as joyful as he could possibly be !! 4 - People are always wondering what is God's will for their lives.  Well here's a memo.  Five times in the Bible, it says what God's will is and all five of them are in these next two chapters. Catch these. 1] Be holy (like God) and to do this one must, 2] avoid sexual immorality. It isn't mentioned here but our prayer life and our love life is intimately linked. An immoral person is an intrinsically dishonest person, and such a person cannot walk with God. Other vitals in this chapter is to love each other as family. The giving to help the poor was commendable, yet there were some on the receiving end who were taking advantage and using the occasion to maximize the opportunity for laziness. He wanted admirable, productive, charitable, forthright Christians to be their trademark. This chapter ends with the typical theme ending each chapter.  The salient matter here is the clear assertion that there is going to be a rapture where Christ where all Believers (everywhere and from every era are gathered and together and conscious and overjoyed to be with Jesus.  This is by no means the end of history, but the end of this age. We'll stop there before opening a colossal discussion that is still be talked through 19+1/2 centuries after the doctrines were laid forth...that being "eschatology"; the study of the End Times. 5 - the eschatology teaching continues from Paul. His revelation about the End Times is coming rapid fire and it's exciting material that is intended to keep us on the edge of our seats and eager. It ought affect how we interpret the news, invest, minister, plan, live, love: everything.  He reminds them to respect Pastors and then Paul stacks together a quiver full of advice -15 loving orders-  that, were it all obeyed, [vv. 14-22] stop and ponder the countless changes that would happen for the good on earth! God's will issues #3,4,5 were in that list: always rejoice/pray/be thankful.         Paul's conclusion is golden. What else can be said?  For all to be godly and holy, for all to have undying hope, to revere and celebrate one another, to read the Bible together. It's how to offer the world a foretaste of heaven. The Thread Through the Streams "Follow my Word, do what I have told you, keep your commitments - I'll help you do this." In Numbers, there are duties to follow, vows to make and keep and the Lord would bless them AND KEEP them.  This means they are in good standing and God would not fail them. In Chronicles, we see a long list of faithful and unfaithful souls listed in brief though we recall many and where their decisions took them. We see decisions made that took one's destiny into oblivion and their future tribe to ruin. We saw prayers made and recall vows laid down and the Lord hung onto these words and these giants of the Bible. In Psalms, the WORD is the stellar matter. No one who has put their trust in HIM has ever been forsaken. God hangs onto us and we are to hang onto His Word In Jeremiah, the good news is rather sparse as Babylon is read a long list of disasters that will transform this degenerate place into a sand dune. Jerusalem falls and the scenes are horrible. But Jehoichin does not fight the whole process, but succumbs and cooperates as he was prophetically told to. After an initial period in Babylon, he is pardoned, brought to the palace, treated even nicer than family was, he is exalted above most other kings and specially fed/cared for the rest of his days In Micah a world is going to be transformed and Zion will be at the lead. They will teach, and mediate, a world of war will morph to a world of plenty. This was God's call and it shall come. This is what happens to those who follow the Lord forever [Mi.4:5] In Luke.we read much assertion about forgiveness; the trait that marks the Christian faith like no other. But the grateful leper shone bright this week. He had a moment and resolved to go back, find Jesus and be grateful. Our Lord declared that his faith healed him. You can bet that he, of the 10 lepers healed, had the longest healthiest life.  Grateful people do. I Thessalonians. 4:3 /+/ 5:16-18  Give the five orders for us to follow for they are the will of God. All who follow this find themselves in God's Will and with ne'er a regret all their lives.

The Thessalonians expected to be alive when Jesus returned and were concerned for their Christian brother and sisters who had already dies. Death and the end times are confusing enough, but these early believers didn't have a Bible to study to find their answers. So Paul provides one for them.

Our study in the book of Acts resumes in Chapter 19 where Dr. Mitchell marks off three sections beginning first at vss 8-12 - the Gospel's power. Here Paul speaks out in the synagogue in Ephesus for three months. But there was opposition to the message. So Paul gathering those who believed the message took them to a school where he reasoned with them for two years. The second - vss.13-16 is the Gospel's opposition. Seven sons of an high priest tried to imitate the power of the gospel by casting out a demon. Since they did not know the Lord Himself, the demon over powered them. The third - vss.17-20 is the Gospel‘s fruitage. The Word of the Lord produced cleansing in all who believed and grew. We are in Acts 19:8-20 with Dr. Mitchell on the Unchanging Word Bible Broadcast. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/unchanging-word/message

Intro: We have been through some very bad storms. It will be a long time before we forget the impact of superstorm Sandy. The loss of life, property, electricity, was devastating for many. More recently, we have all been affected by the Covid-19 virus pandemic. Some of us have lost relatives and friends. Many businesses and churches were shut down, and some may never open again. We were told to not to leave our homes until absolutely necessary. And now, just as it seemed to be under control because of the vaccine, there has been a resurgence of a variant Covid-19 virus. Because of the pandemic, new stresses were put on people and families. These stresses  included financial, physical, and emotional stresses. So, the question I want to raise this morning is; Where is Jesus in the storm? The Cast of People v. 1-2 Luke, Paul,  and some other prisoners started their journey to Rome Julius, the centurion, was in charge of the prisoners Aristarchus, a voluntary prisoner and assistant to Paul was with them The Start of the Journey v. 3-8 They boarded a ship at Adramyttium to sail to ports along the coast of the province of Asia Sidon, a stop where friends ministered to Paul allowed by Julius They set out again and the journey started to get rough The Warning v. 9-12 It took a lot of time to travel minimal distances because of the winds and weather in the fall Paul gave them a warning We don't know if Paul gave them a warning from his experience as a traveler 2 Cor. 11:25 This was a warning to be taken seriously Great loss to the ship, cargo, and their own lives The centurion decided to do things his way and followed the advise of the pilot and the ship's owner Note: There are consequences when we don't listen to godly counsel The Storm v. 13-20 There was an usual south wind, so they started to sail again thinking they could make good traveling time before the bad weather came It wasn't too long after they set sail that they ran into a nor'easter storm of hurricane force winds The ship got caught in the storm and could not head into the wind and the ship was tossed about Even the life boat which was towed behind the ship was in peril The crew tried to save the ship with ropes because of the possibility of running aground on a sandbar The boat took a beating and the next day, the crew began to jettison cargo One the third day, they threw the ship's tackle overboard The storm went on for many days and they finally gave up all hope of being saved The Encouragement v. 21-26 After they all had gone a long time without food, Paul stood up before them and said to them that they should have taken his advice Then he urges them to keep up their courage, because bot one of them will be lost, only the ship will be destroyed This was a Word from the Lord An angel of the God stood beside Paul and said, "Don not be afraid, Paul. You must stand trial before Caesar; and God has graciously given you the lives of all who sail with you." So Paul admonished them to keep up their courage because Paul has faith in God that He always keeps his promises So, Paul told the crew to be prepared when they run aground on some island Closing: Storms of life: Death of a loved one Divorce A diagnosis of a terminal disease A diagnosis of a chronic disease A loss of a job A serious auto accident Losing a house in a super storm or fire Others What storms of life are you experiencing right now? If you are Christ follower, I want to suggest to you that Jesus is right there with you in the storm to give you assurance and strength and encouragement. If you are not a Christ follower, then the question is; Where do you go for encouragement and strength to meet the challenge of the storm?

After Paul left Athens, he travels 50 miles to Corinth. Here, Paul finds two believers who had been exiled from Rome. These two, Aquila and Priscila, also were tentmakers, so Paul stayed with them working along side of them. But on the sabbath days, Paul would reason from the Scriptures about the Messiah, Jesus. But once again there was opposition from the unbelievers. So Paul went to the Gentiles among the Corinthians, and many, hearing him, believed. Romans 10:17 says, “Faith comes by hearing and hearing comes by the word of Christ.” Luke writes, that Paul spent a year and six months there teaching the the Word of God among them. In first Corinthians 2:2, Paul writes to them the word of the cross “..he determined to know nothing among them but Jesus Christ and Him crucified.” Let turn to Acts 18:1 with Dr. Mitchell on the Unchanging Word Bible Broadcast. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/unchanging-word/message

In stranded knitting what is the opposite of the dominant color?  Is it the submissive color? There are lessons we've apparently not learned about alternating skeins and we have a Patreon patron giveaway! Thank you to all our patrons! You can join them in supporting us at patreon.com/twoewes Show notes with full transcript, photos, and links can be found in the podcast section of our shop website: TwoEwesFiberAdventures.com.  Subscribe on Apple Podcasts or Subscribe on Android or Subscribe on Google Podcasts Marsha's Projects Atlas (Ravelry link) by Jared Flood using Navia Tradition. The pattern is also available at his website. I have attached the sleeves to the body and have knit about five rows of the colorwork. The Jared Flood video on stranded knitting was great and the tutorial on trapping the floats holding yarn in the right hand was very good except it did not show how to capture the floats with continental stitch. Knitting Help had a very good short video Trapping the Yarn (Continental). Kelly's Projects Dark Green Forest cardigan (Ravelry link) by Christina Körber-Reith. She also has the pattern at her website, Strickhauzeit. The yarn is an overdyed handspun CVM in a 3-ply (fingering to sport weight). I have completed the body and one pocket lining. This is the only knitting or spinning that I've done.  All my creative energy has been going to class materials for my two different online classes for fall. Classes start on August 30.  Patreon Pattern Giveaway! Thank you patrons! We appreciate your generous support! Patrons get a pattern of their choice up to $8.00. Contact Kelly with your pattern selection! Email twoewes@twoewesfiberadventures.com or message 1hundredprojects on Ravelry or Instagram.  Summer Spin In - Ends September 6th About a month to go! We have prizes generously donated by  Three Green Sisters. They make beautiful bags for your knitting, looms, spinning wheels or travel. They also have now have table linens.  Show Transcript Marsha 0:03 Hi, this is Marsha Kelly 0:04 and this is Kelly. Marsha 0:05 We are the Two Ewes of Two Ewes Fiber Adventures. Thanks for stopping by. Kelly 0:10 You'll hear about knitting, spinning, dyeing, crocheting, and just about anything else we can think of as a way to play with string. Marsha 0:17 We blog and post show notes at Two Ewes Fiber Adventures dot com. Kelly 0:22 And we invite you to join our Two Ewes Fiber Adventures group on Ravelry. I'm 1hundredprojects, Marsha 0:29 and I am betterinmotion. Kelly 0:31 We are both on Instagram and Ravelry. And we look forward to meeting you there. Both 0:36 Enjoy the episode. Marsha 0:42 Hi, Kelly. Kelly 0:43 Hey, Marsha. How are you doing? Marsha 0:45 I'm doing well. Kelly 0:46 Good. Do you have wine tonight? Marsha 0:49 No, I don't. Kelly 0:50 It's not morning. So we could be drinking wine! Marsha 0:53 No, it's uh, it's now let's see what time is. It's almost it's a little past five 5:30. Yeah. On Thursday. Yeah. And full disclosure. I already had a beer. Kelly 1:03 Okay. Well, I... that's why I don't have... I guess we're in the same boat because that's why I don't have a glass of wine. Because Robert and I went out to Monterey. And we took the dogs and we walked on the rec trail. And this is the first time I've been out on the rec trail. I'm pretty sure it's the first time I've been out there since since March of 2020. Marsha 1:28 Mm hmm. Kelly 1:29 So it was really nice as a beautiful day. We got to see-- we got to watch... There were two women there with SPCA shirts on. And they had these boxes that were like the pet store boxes like you know, you bring home an animal in with holes in the sides. Marsha 1:46 All right, yeah. Kelly 1:47 And so I saw that and then I saw their shirts and I thought, Oh, I bet they're releasing, releasing something from the Wildlife Center! On the edge of this little point where they were sitting was a gull, a seagull. And they were watching it and so Robert and I stopped to watch too and pretty soon-- and then the bird is making all kinds of noise and you know... And they're just standing you know, just kind of standing back and watching and and finally it takes off. And the one woman says, "Go, Falcon, go! And never come back!" So we watched, we got to watch a seagull be released for you know, who knows what was the reason that it was in the Wildlife Center. But that was pretty cool. And Beary had a good time. We did probably three miles on the rec trail with him. So he's he's doing better. Marsha 2:39 That's good. Kelly 2:40 Yeah, yeah. Yeah, he's gotten Marsha 2:42 and what's he like on those three miles? Is he huffin' and puffin'? Or is he doing pretty good? Kelly 2:47 He, by the end, he was kind of slow. And we... It was one of those kind of walks where, you know, we weren't just powering through it. We we stopped let him sniff and stopped to look at the scenery, you know. It's that kind of walk. So slower than Bailey would like to go. She's itching to just, you know, I mean, she likes to stop and sniff too, but she's itching to just take a walk where we just move, you know. Actually, I think she would probably like it if I ran. I don't know that that's gonna happen. But I think she would like that. So they had a good time. We had a good time. And then, but the reason I'm not having wine is not because I saw a bird on the rec trail, but because after that, this was our little date day, it was Robert's day off. We went to lunch and wine tasting at Taste of Monterey. We had our subscription to pick up for the month of August. And so Robert made reservations. And it was the first time I've been inside, like inside eating. Marsha 3:51 Oh, yeah? Kelly 3:52 Since, you know, since March. They had probably... it's a pretty good sized space. And they had I would say probably six tables, five tables, maybe was the most they had while we were there. And they had these big fans going and and we were all sitting you know, spaced apart. And you know, of course wearing masks when you arrive but you can't eat or drink wine with a mask. But they don't do wine tasting like where you stand at the bar and do the wine tasting where they pour you the, you know, the six little pours. They're doing flights. So we got our free flights. And oh my gosh! Marsha 4:41 Well, Kelly, I saw your Instagram posts today. And I know there was a lot of wine but there was no food. Did you have lunch? Kelly 4:49 We did! Yes. We started with wine first we had, well, we both had clam chowder, and then they have a like a flat... They have a lot of different food but we got this flatbread pizza. Then we each had a bowl of clam chowder. So, but yeah, I've had my wine for the day because we had the flight. And then one of the ones from the flight, I decided that I wanted a glass of it, but, but it was pretty, pretty generous flight! Kelly 5:03 I sometimes find that the wine tasting is a lot of wine. Yeah, it can add up to several classes. Kelly 5:21 Yeah, no, these were, I think... because they don't have a lot of customers. You know, it's all very restricted. We had to have reservations. And I think it was supposed to be three, two ounce pours, but I think these were more than that. Because they looked like they... they looked like very generous, very generous pours. So, but very good. I had white wine Robert had red. And it was a fun day. We, you know, I haven't done anything like that in a really long time. Well, like everyone else, you know? Marsha 5:53 Yeah. Yeah. Kelly 5:54 So. Marsha 5:55 So are they...? Sounds like they're pretty...they're still sort of strict about masks. And Marsha 6:01 oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Marsha 6:03 Because it's interesting here in Seattle, they're still well, it's like, it's hard to know, people are out walking around without masks on. Kelly 6:11 Yeah, outside was mixed. Yeah. And I don't wear a mask outside unless... There was a couple of places on the trail where it got crowded... that, you know, I put my mask on. Just because there were so many people. Marsha 6:25 It's interesting, where you go in stores, like, I went, Oh, the hardware store everybody's masked up, the grocery store everybody's masked up. I went down...this was a couple weeks ago, I went down to pick up some Thai food, they are a masked up at the Thai place. But right next door, there's a bottle shop and I bought like a four pack a beer. Nobody in there had a mask on. So I don't know. Now that's several weeks ago, and now the Delta variant is now I guess, sort of taking off. Kelly 6:59 Yeah. Marsha 6:59 So maybe people are getting more cautious. I wear a mask. And I'm also trying to wear a mask, too, around... I'm not around a lot of children. But the the little girl across the alley from me comes over a lot. And you know, she's seven, I think right? And she can't get vaccinated. And I hear different stories that even if you're vaccinated, you can carry it. And then I've also heard you can't carry it. So I don't know. I thought it's better just to mask up when Frances comes over. Kelly 7:28 Well, if you're vaccinated, it's rare. It's rare, but you can actually contract it. Marsha 7:33 Right. Kelly 7:34 And if you do contract it, it's not generally as bad. The people who are ending up in the hospital, most of them are, are people who have not been vaccinated. But yeah, while you had it, if you had a breakthrough case, while you had it, you would be infectious. Marsha 7:50 It's not a hardship to wear a mask around Frances. So... Kelly 7:53 Right, right, Marsha 7:54 or out in public at all. So I'm still masking up in store. Kelly 7:57 Yes, me too. But well, I don't go to the store very often. But yeah, I have I have been been doing that. So. But it was nice to get out. Marsha and I were talking about this before the episode started. And she said to me, Kelly, have you been off the property since last March? Marsha 8:13 It sounds like maybe you have not been off? Kelly 8:17 Your answer to that is pretty much no. Where did I go? Oh, I know. I went to meet some work friends. We went to... we got together and we worked on some stuff to get ready for classes. And I mean, we're talking about, you know, Watsonville. So it was not that far away. Maybe 25 miles, maybe 35 miles. I was like, Oh my god, I don't think I've been in the car and gone this far in over a year! I mean, my longest car trip has been like to go pick up groceries or you go to the grocery store, which I don't do very often. That's, you know, during the worst of it, we had it delivered and then and then... or Robert would go get groceries. And then once everybody was vaccinated, Aunt Betty went back to doing some of the grocery shopping and Robert was doing the other grocery shopping so you know, I'm lucky to not have to do that. It's not my favorite task anyway. But honestly, that's the furthest I've gone! Marsha 9:20 You have staff. [laughing] You have staff to take care of you. [laughing] Kelly 9:26 Yes. And so and, and you know, there'll be days where I think oh, I'm going to go I'll go out to Monterey and walk on the rec trail. But you know, like Robert takes the car. The truck is almost always now parked in the backyard. It's a little bit of a... it's not like Oh, just run outside and jump in the car. Right? And then if I'm gonna take two dogs, I can't walk that far yet. So am I going to take one? What am I going to do? Am I going to take Bailey because she can go far? She could do a you know, a normal rec trail walk without stopping at every bush and, you know, lots of breaks. And then I If I leave Bailey home, or I mean, leave Beary home? What am I gonna do with him is Aunt Betty gonna be home? Can she watch him? Or she you know, does she have other things to do? So anyway, it's just my-- you know, it is just become, it's just become so easy to stay at home. So it was...I have to say it was really nice to blow the dust off. Get out and, and actually smell the ocean. Yeah, so that was really, really nice! Marsha 10:28 And dust off your restaurant manners. Kelly 10:31 Exactly. Marsha 10:32 Did you know how to behave? At the restaurant? Kelly 10:34 I did! Actually, yes, yes, I did! Marsha 10:38 I read in the New York Times that a lot of people don't want to go back to waiting tables because people are being so rude. You know, they they're out of practice going to a restaurant I guess. So well, I'll tell you why I had a beer already. I'm making an effort to get out of a certain room that's under my house. The name can't be mentioned. So I went for a hike today. I don't remember if I talked about this or not. But I went to visit. Kelly 11:07 You did, yes. Marsha 11:08 Ben up in Index. Yes, I did. That's what part of the discussion... Anyway, there was a woman who was on that hike with with me. And so I gave her my name and email address and she contacted me. And so we got together today. And we did a hike and a friend, another friend of hers. And so when I got home, I gave the dog a bath. Because he's very dusty. I took a bath. And then I poured myself a beer and I laid on the bed and knitted for a while until it was time to record. So that's why I had a beer so early. But anyway, it was a nice hike. And I'm just gonna say it was... People who live here in the northwest will know what I'm talking about. People who don't live in the northwest will be kind of amused by the name of where I went. Um, so the the hike was to Fragrant Lake. I don't know why it's called Fragrant Lake. It didn't smell bad. It didn't smell good. It just was a lake. But anyway, it's um, near Larrabee State Park, which is on-- this is the part that people are gonna laugh--Chuckanut drive. And so, Kelly, full disclosure, before we recorded we were looking at, I think when we first started when we first called you said what are you doing? I said, I'm trying to figure out why is it called Chuckanut. So and we figure it out. It's a ... it's a native name. Kelly 12:33 Yeah, and Wikipedia says that it's Chuckanut well there's mountain a mountain range and, and Chuckanut is a word for a long beach far from a narrow entrance. Okay, so just south of Bellingham is what it says. Yeah, Marsha 12:55 so it basically connects. It's about about 21 miles long. Oh, Kelly, we can walk it! Kelly 13:02 The trail? Oh, fun. Yeah. Marsha 13:04 21 miles, that's our number. Anyway, the it runs from about Burlington...No it's further north than Burlington up to Bellingham. Kelly 13:15 okay, Marsha 13:15 And it runs along the water so it reminds me very much of.. kind of Big Sur a lane in each direction, you know. Steep wall to one side and steep drop off to the other side down to the water and more trees than Big Sur but it's just as dramatic as that. Really pretty. So anyway, we went on that hike today so Kelly 13:36 but not 21 miles? Marsha 13:38 No, we didn't do 21 miles it's four or something. Kelly 13:41 Yeah, nice. Marsha 13:43 But I have been I have been out and about and I don't know if you saw my Instagram post, but the the in-laws or yeah, the... so well I should say actually, technically my former brother-in-law and sister-in-law and nephew, but they came to visit. And I have to say we had a great time. It was just a fun visit. And we did all kinds of things. But one of the things we did is I, as I talked about in the last episode, Ben is just obsessed with Index, Washington because that's the big-- where all the walls are for climbing. And that's where I had gone two weeks ago for the hike. Well, they were having on Saturday, July 31, they were having a kind of an art festival with music and and all different kinds of crafts for sale and he really wanted us to go up there for it. Okay, whatever. So we went. It was really fun, really good music. They had a brought in a... like a trailer with a woodfired pizza oven on it, you know, so you can get pizza there. And Kelly 13:43 Nice! Marsha 13:48 But so that was really fun. So we walked around, did that and then and then they were really wanting to do a hike. So Paul--no Ben said, Yeah, there's a couple of different hikes but the one I would recommend is one called Lake Serene. Now I know I have listeners that live here in the Pacific Northwest who are hikers, and they'll go, yes, Lake Serene. Ben said, "I don't know," he said. And I said, "How long is it?" He said, "So like maybe like six miles round trip. And you know, the elevation gain," he said, "I think it's less than 2000." Wrong! It's eight miles! I think... now I don't remember if it's 2400 or 2600 feet of elevation gain, they actually... Someone's done a great job on the trail where they've... so it's pretty easy going at the beginning kind of wide. And not a lot of rocks or roots, you know, on the trail. But the further you go, it becomes actually like stairs. Someone's done, built the trail, they've actually taken the rocks and put them in place where they actually form steps that you have to climb up. And then at certain points, they've actually brought up big like four by eight beams and made stairs. Kelly 16:00 Okay, Marsha 16:00 Yeah, it's, it was hard. It was really hard. And we started way too late, because Ben and I got to index about 10 o'clock in the morning. But the... my brother in law and sister in law and the nephew and Paul, they arrived, they got there about 12:15 even though we all left at the same time. They stopped and had breakfast and they did all this stuff along the way. So they were really late. They got there at 12:15. Looked at the Art Festival, then they decided they want lunch. So we get to the trail at 2:50. Which is way too late to be starting. And Kelly 16:33 oh yeah. Marsha 16:34 But I didn't know it was eight miles. Kelly 16:36 Oh my gosh. Marsha 16:37 Anyway, so we start out, it takes us about two hours to get to the top. I arrived at the top at five I think and we hung out there till six. And then we started the the trip back down. And we got back to the trailhead, probably around eight o'clock or 8:30, something like that. Then we had to go from the trail head back into Index. And the thing is, Index is such a small town. There's no restaurants there. And the pizza truck was gone. So we decided we have to find food. Because now it's like we've been out. And now we're you know, we get back in. I mean, now it's like the minutes are just ticking away. Kelly 17:13 Yeah. Marsha 17:14 And it's now like 9:30. And and so I think the only thing we can do is just start heading down the road, down Highway 2 back towards Seattle. And to see what we come up with. Well, everything's closed, right. So the nearest town we can find anything is the city of Monroe, which is... they have fast food and everything. Well, like, and but the thing is, if you're that starving, I don't think you could be that picky. But like nobody can eat McDonald's. Nobody can eat Taco Time. So we end up at this pizza place. But the pizza place is now...it's 10 o'clock and they start, they stop indoor dining at 10. So everybody walks away and I said but the door the door said they're open till 11. Well, they're open for takeout or delivery till 11. I said, let's just order the pizza and we'll just go sit in the car, because now it's Kelly 18:00 The voice of reason, Marsha! Marsha 18:03 I know! So it's now you know, it's like 10, 10:15, 10:30 we finally get this pizza. And my sister in law said to me, Well, are we going to go find a picnic table? Where are we going to eat this? I said, you're eating in the car. We're not finding a picnic table. We're not driving around in that hour of the night looking for a picnic table. And her son, my nephew said, we've got all those chairs in the back of the car that Paul had brought for us to listen to music. I said pull those chairs out. So we pull the chairs out and set them up in the parking lot of the pizza place. And we sit there till about 11:30 at night in a row in the strip mall parking lot eating pizza and salad and having root beer and anyways. I don't know, do you know how... do you ever have that experience where something should be awful, really the idea of being-you're so hungry and you're tired and you know you're super sweaty but now you're just really cold because you're wet and it's cold. But then you end up having like a great time sitting in the pizza place because was because we now we've been fed. And we're laughing and everybody sort of revived. It was like the funniest thing. And then in the middle of all of this, I posted a picture of this on Instagram and the video. It's the streetsweeper. The street sweeper arrived in the parking lot. So we're sitting there now with this truck going around. I don't know, the whole thing was so ridiculous... Kelly 19:28 Funny! Marsha 19:30 ...that I think in some ways it was sort of the highlight of the day in some ways. You know? Kelly 19:35 yeah, yeah, Marsha 19:36 Do you know what I mean. Like something that should be so awful ended up being so funny. Kelly 19:41 An adventure! Marsha 19:42 it's a kind of an adventure. Yeah. And I have to say my nephew is 14 and that's that age. That's the age grumpy and crabby. You know, honestly, and... Kelly 19:54 teenager... Marsha 19:57 Teenager truthfully! That's how they are. He is the most chipper kid! I mean, he's just cheerful. He didn't complain once on the hike. Happy. So it's like, oh my gosh, like, teenagers can be happy? [laughing] So yeah, just really just, he's a cool kid and it was just a really, really fun visit from the family. Kelly 20:23 Nice. That's really good. Marsha 20:24 So, yeah. Anyway, so those are my adventures in hiking. Because I have to get out of... as we know, we have to get out of a certain part of the house. Kelly 20:34 Well, and apparently, I just need to get off of the property. Marsha 20:40 You have to get off your property. Anyway. Well, okay, so we've now... this is... I'm looking at the clock here. That's 22 minutes and we haven't even gotten to fibers. Kelly 20:50 Yeah, I think you have the most interesting things to talk about. Marsha 20:55 So I've been working on, let me say I've been working on the Atlas. It's a pullover, colourwork pullover, by Jared flood. And it's been... it's been really interesting. So since we last recorded, I finished the second sleeve. I stayed up till... because today is Thursday... Tuesday night, I stayed up till 2:30 in the morning, because I became obsessed with the sweater. [laughing] Marsha 21:24 So I attached both sleeves. So as a reminder, this is you know, bottom up. You knit the bottom, you know the sweater from the bottom up, then knit the sleeves and attach them under, under the arms and then do the yoke. And when you Kelly 21:37 when you attach them, it seems like a really amazingly high number of stitches. Marsha 21:45 Seems like an amazingly high number of stitches! And it's also, I have to say, it's really hard to attach. Because you have the big circle of the body. And then you have these two little circles on the sleeves. And it's it's it's hard to get the, the... well, they're not...they're circular needles, but a certain section of the circular needles are straight, right, And it's really hard, it's not my favorite. Kelly 22:14 When I've done a sweater like that I've used two circular needles. So that... so that one of them is going like on the front part of one sleeve, the front of the sweater and then the front part of the other sleeve. And then the other circular needle... Marsha 22:28 Oh, that might be better... Kelly 22:29 ...the back part of the sleeve, the back of the sweater and the back part of the other sleeve. Yeah, I was not able... I did a baby sweater that way because I was trying to understand the construction before I did a sweater than I was making. And when I did the baby sweater I think that that's where I found that suggestion. Because in a baby sweater it's especially hard because the turns are so tight. Marsha 22:53 Yeah. really tight then, you know, yeah. Kelly 22:55 So it was like oh, okay, this is not just good for a small sweater. This would work really well. I was having that same trouble with the large sweater so I so I used the two circular needles. You know, you have to make sure you keep track of where the starting of your... where's the starting row marker supposed to go? Marsha 23:15 Right Kelly 23:16 I suggested that to Aunt Betty on a sweater that she was doing. And she was having a little bit of trouble at first because it was color work too. And so she had to kind of like rethink when the pattern says at the start of your round, the start of her round wasn't between the two needles. The two sets of circular needles. Like it wasn't the middle of the sleeve. If that makes sense? Marsha 23:42 Yeah, no, it does. I should have done that because it was it was kind of a struggle I have to admit it was not really-- but I wrestled it into submission. Kelly 23:50 but you're done, yeah, wrestled it Marsha 23:51 I wrestled the thing. So the sleeves are attached and so I that that night Tuesday as I say I stayed up till about 230 in the morning to attaching the sleeves and then I did two rows of the color work and then I was like okay, I'm still wide awake at 2:30. I thought, you have to go to bed, that's ridiculous Kelly 24:11 Well after that and still being wide awake if you if you did keep going, you could have been awake all night. [laughing] Marsha 24:21 So I've learned... so as everybody knows I've not really done color work. I did years ago and I did it the wrong way. You know, I just kept dropping and picking up the different colors and that's not the way you're supposed to do it. So I talked about this in the last episode, but Jared Flood has a great video which there's a link on the show notes about how to-- about color dominance. So we talked about that. So I do know that the the dominant color is in your left hand and I guess the submissive color... [laughing] is in your right hand. And so then he has a really good video too, about trapping the yarn. And so that that's excellent. What I did not know how to do though in this while I was doing the color work is there are some areas where you are... So let me just say, when the the submissive color is in your right hand you're throwing, right, and the dominant color in your left hand you're picking. I throw when I knit, I don't pick. I don't know what throwing is really called. I always have the yarn in my right hand and I throw and so I don't pick or continental with the yarn in my left hand. So I'm having to learn sort of get comfortable with that. So he talks about picking up or trapping the yarn. But I'm throwing so with the yarn is in your right hand. Kelly 25:52 I mean, it's with both colors in his right hand. Is that right? I think that's what you said. Marsha 25:57 That's true. Yeah, he was demonstrating holding the dominant color in your right hand. But he also does, he said he's more comfortable holding both colors in his right hand. So I had to watch a video, how do you trap the yarn, continental style. And so I put it... There is... I found one a really good one, it's short. It's only a minute long. And it's from knittinghelp.com. And they have a great video. It's just Trapping the Yarn, Continental in parentheses. So I have that in the show notes. So I had to figure that out. And there are you know, all these... Everybody says this, but what did we do before we had YouTube? Because there's so many tutorials, you can get a question answered instantly by looking at a YouTube video. What I'm at now, though, is, and I talked about this before, is the chart tells you...The color work has three colors, and it tells you which is going to be the dominant color each row. But let me restate that a better way. Each row indicates which is the dominant color and which is the submissive color. So and then some of the rows, you have the dominant color in your left hand and some of them you're going to have to submissive colors in your right hand. Okay, yeah, this has got me confused. I'm not sure how you manage, do yarn management, with two colors in your... well with three colors. So one in my left hand and two in my right hand. So I have to... I've stopped because I now need to go watch another... there's got to be a video about how you do that. Yeah, because right now I was started out and I'm just twisting the yarn, I mean, the yarn keeps getting twisted and twisted. And so there's got to be a way, perhaps his technique of holding the two colors where you twist your hand. To watch that again, Kelly 27:48 I had three colors when I did the Orcas Run sweater in some rows, very few. But there were some rows where I ended up with the the white, the dark brown and the beige color of the CVM. And I think I looked up something, but it was really a matter of just kind of like angling your finger one way or the other. Yeah, you didn't really have to twist it. It turned out that you didn't really have to twist anything. I could not describe it to you now. But when I was doing it, I do remember it was kind of like something about the angle of your finger holding the yarn. So yeah, I'm sure you can find something because I must have found it. I must have found it somewhere. Although I'm not... I'm not much of a video tutorial person. I would much rather see the words like a blog post. I'm sure I probably found a blog post somewhere. You know, what people used to do before, before we used to read blog posts. And then before that they had grandmothers and mothers who really taught them I guess or friends. It doesn't involve all that twisting. Although I guess your yarn could get twisted up as you're going but but you really aren't twisting things. Yeah. Marsha 29:04 So I've done...let's see how many rows have I done of this so far? I've done eight rows. Kelly 29:12 Okay. How's the color looking? Marsha 29:16 Oh, it looks pretty good. I've not done-- I've not done really any more than I did. I've not done as much as I did in my sample. Kelly 29:22 Oh, okay. Okay, because I remember with your swatch you were feeling... you were telling yourself to just keep going with that plan, but you were kind of questioning how it was gonna look. So I'm curious. Just, Marsha 29:38 I'm still questioning. But I'm planning ahead. Yeah, yeah. Because I have no choice. Kelly 29:45 Right. You have the yarn. You have the yarn you have. Yeah, Marsha 29:48 I have the yarn I have and I don't and there really are. I think there's only eight colors. And they're really--the only one that would possibly work is maybe like the cream would be more contrast? Kelly 29:59 Right. But that wasn't what Mark wanted. Marsha 30:03 No, and I and I, but everything else is sort of, I don't know, I just don't think that the work. So I'm plowing ahead and I, and I like this yarn. It's very, it's it's a woolly wall, and I'm finding all kinds of things in it. Straw and plastic. I'm not sure where that's from, oh, it's almost like they, they bundled the wool up in a, you know that that plastic, you know, like blue tarps? You know, they're sort of fibrous, Kelly 30:33 Kind of like feed bags. Yeah, this is the reason that you should never if you're a fiber producer, you should never store your fiber in a in a feed bag, those plastic feed bags, because that's basically what they are. They're woven. They're woven plastic strips. Yeah, they're woven out of plastic strips and those plastic strips break off and anyway, it gets in the wool, and that's what you're seeing. Marsha 31:03 Yeah, yeah. Like I and just before we started recording, I pulled this like, little piece and like, Oh, I'm gonna pull that out. Because that can't be comfortable. You know, having it in there. I'll pull it out. It's like, it's like it was about two inches long. Kelly 31:15 Yeah, spun into the wool. It really degrades the price of your of your wool. I can't even remember now where I heard this. It must have been at like a fleece judging where someone was talking about it, and how how bad it is for the price of your wool if you have if you have any of that plastic in it. So. So anyway, that's why when you said that it was like, Oh, I remember. I remember hearing about this stuff. Marsha 31:43 But that's all I have for projects either. Then I have not picked up my socks. I've not picked up my shawl. I have in the evenings in the nice weather, I just been sitting on the deck and spinning for about an hour or 45 minutes or so. So I'm, I'm still spinning but not any... No progress of any significance to report. Kelly 32:05 You still have quite a bit of that spinning to do before you're finished with that project. Marsha 32:09 Yeah, yeah. But I've just been obsessed with this sweater. Kelly 32:15 Well, that's cool. It sounds like it's gonna be really pretty. Marsha 32:18 I think it's gonna be pretty. It's shockingly bright. I mean, I don't think most men want to wear this sweater. But Mark is. He likes color. Kelly 32:29 Yeah, yeah. No, I think it's really it's gonna be really pretty. Yeah. Marsha 32:34 You'll see him on the beach from a mile away. Kelly 32:37 Right! Well, Robert has a couple of T shirts that are bright like that. He has a bright Kelly green one and bright orange. Marsha 32:45 And he likes bright socks too. Kelly 32:47 Yeah. Marsha 32:48 And Mark likes breaks. He likes brown socks too. So anyway. Well, enough of my projects. What about you? What's going on with your cardigan? Kelly 32:56 Well, yeah, I'm also pretty monogamous. And not, not very much has happened. Although I think from the last episode. I have actually finished and bound off the bottom. Marsha 33:11 Oh, wow! Kelly 33:12 Yeah, I think I was in the pockets. Marsha 33:14 Yeah, we were talking about pockets. Kelly 33:17 And so the pockets are, I want to say like six inches deep. I think I might have gone a little too far. I thought I was following the pattern and counting but maybe not. I think I was supposed to have five in the honeycombs. And that's what I have. So I have the the pockets. They're they're kind of... well it's not blocked, so you can't really tell and the ribbing on the top and the cables pull them in. But right now they look like skinny deep pockets. Marsha 33:49 Mm hmm. Kelly 33:50 But I think once it's blocked, they'll be more proportional and they won't... they actually won't look that deep. So I got past the point I finished the pockets. I did the... I think it's a one inch of ribbing or an inch and a half of ribbing at the bottom which seemed too short to me because I always put like... I love ribbing so I just do a lot at the bottom. But I didn't. I thought, This sweater is already long enough. Because it's it's tunic kind of. Well, like a sweater you could wear over leggings and you're behind will not show. Marsha 34:20 Right. Kelly 34:21 So I don't know if you'd call that tunic length but it is long. That was my--that's what I wanted and I looked on the project pages. Oh, by the way, the name of this sweater is called Dark Green Forest. And if you look on the pattern, I think on the pattern page it looks pretty long. But then if you look on the project pages, there are quite a few people who put quite a bit of length into the sweater. I mean it is designed to be long. The woman the the very first picture shows it like below the pocket you know, below the back pocket of a pair of jeans. So anyway, I'm excited about the progress that I've made because I got to bind off the bottom. But then once I bound off the bottom, it just sat for a while. And then the other night I picked it up and I needed something just mindless to do. So I, I work the pocket lining of one of the pockets. So while we've been sitting here, right now, I've picked up the stitches for the other pocket lining. But I'm not very good at counting. I think I've admitted that before. And for these pocket linings, I really want to make sure I do the right number of rows. So I'm not knitting on it right now because I know I would... It's such a short little bit of knitting that I know I would go across and back and across and be like, Oh, wait, am I on this row? Or did I just do two rows? And so I'm not knitting on it right now. I'm just sitting it on my lap and I'm, I'm petting it. But then I have to pick up the sleeves. And I'm gonna admit to something here. So how many conversations have we had about alternating skeins? Marsha 36:16 Oh, my God, Kelly. Don't tell me. Kelly 36:19 So I am alternating skeins. I am! Marsha 36:21 Okay. Kelly 36:22 And what did I tell you about your sweater? How you should like save off some of the yoke yarn for the sleeves. Marsha 36:32 Mm hmm. Kelly 36:32 So that you're not going to start the sleeves with a totally different skein? Marsha 36:36 Mm hmm, Kelly 36:38 Guess what I did not do? I did not save any of that yarn at that level where I separate it off for the sleeves. So I think it'll be all right... Marsha 36:49 Well, we're always good at giving advice, but not following advice, right? Kelly 36:52 Like what's the point of learning from your mistakes? Then after you've learned from the mistake, you make the same mistake again another time. I mean, I felt like I learned from my mistakes because I was able... as they say you know if you can teach another person, then you know something. And I taught you how to do that, I talked about it in the podcast, I taught all our listeners about that. And yet, I just plowed ahead. So there will be a color change mark. But there's a... it's very slight. And there's a color change mark when one of my skins ran out and I had to put another one in. It's just I mean, you know, hand dyed yarn. So I don't know, I'll look for the skein that looks the most. I mean, they all... this is the problem. They all look, they all look exactly the same. So maybe it will be more fine than I think. But I wish I had a few yards of... I wish I had a few yards of the yarn where I left off with the sleeve to blend into the next one. So anyway Marsha 38:05 Lesson learned--again. Kelly 38:07 I know. And I was trying to think well, could I undo it? And like rip back but you can't because if I rip back I'm gonna be ripping back across the body. Not doing that! So we'll see. I'll report back. It's a it's a, but it's not meant to be a you know, go out to dinner sweater. So it's not going to be a big deal if it's terrible. But I don't think it... I don't think it'll be terrible. I just wish I had remembered. It's dumb not to remember that. Marsha 38:39 Yes, it is. Both 38:40 [laughing] Marsha 38:44 But you know what I would have done? I mean, the thing is, you know I made a very similar... I mean, it's sort of the same vein as this sweater that--I don't even remember what it was called. Remember it was--we dyed the yarn at your house? That teal color. Kelly 39:01 Yeah, Recoleta? Marsha 39:03 No, wasn't the Recoleta Looking at my page... looking at this... Oh, here it is Northern Lights. Oh no, I'm sorry. It's called Iba I-B-A by Bonne Marie Burns, or Bonnie Marie Burns. And I called it Northern Lights Iba. And it's very... It almost looks like it's variegated yarn. If you look-- I'm looking at the pictures of it now. And that's what I did is, I knit the whole body and then I went to pick up the sleeves and they're completely different. So I had to rip the whole I ripped it all the way back and just recast on and redid the whole thing alternating. So dumb! Kelly 39:41 Yeah, cuz you didn't alternate at all. Marsha 39:42 I didn't. At all. Yeah, Kelly 39:44 Yeah. Well, at least I at least I managed to do that. And But yeah, I was like, yeah. Oh, well. Oh, well. Well, we'll see. I mean, maybe, maybe you won't even be able to tell I pick up the sleeves, but I think I think you probably will. Marsha 40:06 It's funny. I'm just it's just a comment. I haven't worn that sweater in years. And when did I finish that? 2018. I need to wear that sweater. Kelly 40:16 We should do...We should do a sweater round up on one of our episodes where we just get out all our sweaters. And we just talk about them and why we're gonna keep them, why we don't wear them, or why we don't wear them, what are the ones we do wear? Why do we wear them? That would be very interesting. We should do that. Let's do that next episode. Marsha 40:39 Okay, Let me write this down. Kelly 40:42 Okay. Yeah, I think that would be interesting. I would like to know... Well and the other thing about about skeins and handspun is that I... With a funky grandpa sweater, in that one I was saved by the stripes, because it has those little thin stripes of dyed color. Because that yarn when I... I mean that was a sweaters worth of wool that I carded and spun. And those skeins when I would put a new skein on. I mean, just because of the the variation in the wool. Those skeins were different colors. It was natural. I hadn't dyed it at all. It was just the natural gray but the skeins were different colors. And so even if I were making a sweater out of handspun that wasn't dyed, I might consider alternating skeins. When you have done a sweaters worth from a fleece you know they, the skeins, can be very different. Not the whole skein is different. But the part of the skein where you start the new skein can be different than the skein, the part of the skein, where you leave off, Marsha 42:02 right Kelly 42:03 and it can make a stripe. You know, you can have a sharp division of color. Whereas in within the skein, you have color variation, but it's not a sharp division of color. Marsha 42:16 Yeah. Kelly 42:17 So anyway, that's just a tip, if you're planning to do a handspun sweater with your summer spin in yarn. But that's where I am with my project. That's the only thing I worked on, I did not do any spinning, I don't think since the last, since the last episode. Really everything that I have, all my creative energy has been going toward getting my class materials ready for school. We don't start until... students come back on the 30th of August. So I still have a good chunk of summer left, which feels really good. But you know, we'll be online, I'm online. Our classes are-- they were trying to get back face-to-face with more classes. So they have some that are fully face-to-face. Very few. Some that are hybrid, where students will be on campus, one or two days a week, and then the rest of it is online. And that's that's a type of class we've always had. That's just not in the pandemic, we've always had hybrid classes and online classes. But we have many more online classes, you know, now with the pandemic, and very few hybrid or face-to-face, about maybe 40%, I think. But my classes are all online, because I've worked so dang hard to get them ready. Plus, plus, I am not confident that-- I'm not confident that we're going to stay. Marsha 43:48 Oh, in class? Kelly 43:49 ...any of the... Yeah, yeah, I think that at some point during the fall semester, it's likely that we might have to close down the face-to-face classes. So I didn't want to be in a position to have started with plans to do face-to-face and then ended up online anyway. So I just elected to do... I selected online classes. So anyway, I've been working on those. And actually, it's been fun. I've been enjoying that work. And it's been a long time since I've thought it was really fun to get my classes prepared. Yeah. So, you know, I've had some professional development and some of the things that we've done in these workshops, I'm now getting to implement and I'm feeling more comfortable with the system that we're using. So anyway, it's just been, it's been really fun. And it's quite a creative process because you have to create all these materials, you know, all the things I would have told... All this is obvious but but when you really think about all the things you would have told students while you were in class, because I'm doing an asynchronous online format. So everything I would have told students in class now has to be created to be provided to them on the, the, you know, the learning management system. So that's a lot of content creation. But it's creative. I mean, it feels creative to me. So it's been, it's been really, it's been pretty fun. Marsha 45:22 That's good. Because it, it didn't start out so fun. This whole online thing. So I'm glad you're having fun. Kelly 45:29 Yeah, then I won't go into a lot of detail about my pain. Everyone's heard it. But yeah, I'm getting some of the... I'm starting to reap some of the benefits of the learning that you know, all of that learning that I had to do. And so that's nice. It's nice when you move from rank novice, to feeling like you actually have a little bit of expertise. That is a good feeling. Marsha 46:00 Yeah. Kelly 46:01 It's taken a while, but, but I started to feel that way. So ask me again in November. [laughing] Marsha 46:09 Okay. Kelly 46:12 We'll see! We'll see whether I have progressed from rank novice to having some expertise or not. When it's not hypothetical, so. So anyway, yeah, that's all my all of my projects, I am going to just talk briefly about one of Robert's projects, because it's so interesting. So we have a toilet, that is 1938. I think the date stamped on the toilet is 1938. Purple. And it hasn't worked for a while. The mechanism on the inside was leaking. And he tried to get another one and it was still leaking. And so for a while we were using it like, turn the water off at the wall after using it, go back in to use it turn the water on at the wall, use it, turn the water off. Which is was terrible because the thumping in our pipes, I mean, something about that particular valve made that thumping sound happen in the pipes almost every time and sometimes it was like, Oh, my Gosh it's gonna shake them loose, and they're gonna break and that can't be good. So he took it out and put in a more modern toilet. Oh, the idea was, we're going to do this for now and then see what we can do with this. So anyway, he's been cleaning it out. Well, okay, it was not, it was not a dirty toilet. We-- it was cleaned before it was taken out of the house. So, but he's been cleaning off all of the deposits, mineral deposits from you know, since 1938. And so he's been working on this project for about, I don't know, five days, with different kinds of products. First starting with vinegar, and then moving on to hydrochloric acid. He brought me in a chunk, I took a picture and I showed it to Marsha, when we were first starting to get ready to record. He brought a chunk of this in that had just come off. And he said there were like four or five of them. It's like three eighths of an inch thick of calcium deposits. Marsha 48:22 It's shocking.I had no idea. Like, I.. Kelly 48:25 We'll put a picture in the show notes. Yeah. We have hard water. And then think, you know, 80 some years of hard water deposits. It's a, it's a chunk, a good three eighths of an inch thick, and about four inches long. And he said there were, I think at least four of them that came off like that. Four big pieces like that, plus a whole bunch of other, a whole bunch of other little bits that came off. But yeah, Marsha 48:56 yeah, who knew? I mean, it's just amazing. It really is kind of, I mean, Kelly 49:00 So and I could do the math, I'm kind of curious. I'm not-- I can't do it in my head here during the podcast. But you know, think about the circumference of the of the pipe, you know, where it flushes. The circumference, and think about going in three eighths of an inch all the way around. Like how much smaller that is. How much that restricts the flow. So anyway, very interesting. It's been an interesting project, he's found a place to get the interior workings of the toilet. He found out the model number. He's going to be able to I think get the interior workings but they're backordered. It's not the same kind of interior workings as a modern toilet has. So anyway, I'm excited about this project but very gross. The calcium I mean, it's just calcium, but Kelly 49:43 It's calcium, yeah. Kelly 49:59 But it's just it's, it's gross. Marsha 50:04 I find it less gross as more just sort of amazing. Well, what I want, I was like, what does it do to your insides? Like you're drinking that water? Right? Is it just passing it through? Kelly 50:18 Yeah, it doesn't sit. It doesn't just sit there. Well, it's calcium. Your body uses it. Marsha 50:22 Oh, that's true. Well then you're absorbing it I guess. Kelly 50:25 I think, yeah, yeah. I would think, I don't know. But this little chunk, it has all these striations like, archeology, Marsha 50:34 you need to count all those and see the rings. So yeah, like I like how many years is that? 1938 to 2021? Kelly 50:43 It's over eighty years. Marsha 50:45 Oh see this is why your the math teacher. Kelly 50:46 Yeah, it's over eighty years. Marsha 50:48 So you have like, in theory, you got 80 layers. Yeah, you need to get a bandsaw, cut it in half and count all the layers. Kelly 50:57 Yeah, when I was in, when I was in junior high we... I grew up in Fremont. And in Fremont. Well, right now it's the Tesla plant. But it was the GM plant, there was a GM auto plant there. And when I was in junior high, I took a class, a plastics class. And so we got to use all the like, tools, you know, lathe, and bandsaw, and sanding and all that, like they do in woodshop in metal shop, but it was with plastic. And one of the things that we got to work with, which was I thought was really fun. And it's the same idea. It's all the auto paint that had built up on the pipe over the, you know, there's like piping over the, I want to say conveyor belt, I don't know if that's the right, the right word, but in the, Marsha 51:45 in the assembly line, Kelly 51:46 assembly line. Yeah. So there's like a pipe and the paint spray. So these layers of paint build up on these pipes, and then they would crack them off. And you'd get this big chunk of layers of paint. And then, and then you could sand it down and make things out of it. So you know, people make rings or small things, but, but it was about probably, maybe three quarters of an inch thick. And round, you know, like, round on one side, because they've been attached to a, like a pipe. And then, and then you sand it down and shape it and all that. And it was really fun, because you could get some really cool colors. And you could see the rings, like the, the rings of, you know, in wood. And it was all different colors, depending on what they were painting. And so, so. So that's kind of cool. And it was, you know, kind of ugly at first because it was all rough you know. But I don't think you could polish this calcium. I don't know, maybe you could I'm not gonna do it. Marsha 52:55 Well, it'll be interesting to see, you know, if once he gets the new mechanism, how well it works, you know, because it probably was so constricted. There's no flow, you know? Kelly 53:05 Yeah, no, it didn't work very well before. But But I can Yeah, I can see why. So anyway, that that that's not my project. But it's something that has been going on here that I think is interesting to share. So all right, well, we do have the summer spin in and that ends in about a month. So keep spinning. And we are going to have prizes, we're going to have prizes provided by Three Green Sisters. And so get your finished objects into the finished object thread. There's one for skeins, finished skeins, and one for finished projects made out of handspun. So we don't have as many people participating as last year. But we do have quite a few people participating. And we do have a lot of people who are still weaving from the winter weave along. So that's kind of fun, to still be going into the winter weave along thread and... saying I have to get going to my Marsha 54:07 I have to get going on my spinning project. I have to finish it by the sixth. I have to get going. Kelly 54:12 You have a month. Yeah, well, you have time, you can do it, you have time. And then the other thing is we wanted to take some time to thank our patrons. So we have a Patreon account. And that's a way that listeners can contribute to the podcast if they like to, you sign up to be a patron at a particular a particular level and then you just, you, know make that contribution monthly. The idea of it is it's a, you know, monthly monthly contribution for however long you would like to support us. And we have some patrons that I want to thank so I'm going to just read off the names and then we also have a Patreon Patreon patron giveaway. So I just want to make sure that we thank Connie and Cheryl and Jan and Heddi, and Jane and Colleen, Mindy, Eman, Amy, and Patti and Joan. And we have Tammy and Teresa to thank and Kathy. And Nathalie, thank you so much. Martha, Melody, Angie, Joanne, JoyLaine. Thank you! Gretta, Barbara, Rachel W., Angela, Vicki, Charlene, Erika N. Debbie, Erica J, Rachel S. Pat, Carin, Catherine, Jenn, and Janine. So yeah, thank you so much. I really appreciate all of the support from our patrons and the funds that come in through the Patreon account go to our hosting fees, prizes, or shipping costs. All of those things. Our transcribe, transcribing to make the transcript. We have that expense. All that is covered by our patrons. So we really appreciate it! Yeah, we really appreciate all they do for the podcast, making it available to everyone. Marsha 56:12 So thank you. Kelly 56:13 Yeah. So what we're gonna do... Marsha 56:16 we're not done? Kelly 56:18 We're not done, Marsha 56:18 we're thanking them but we're thanking them in another way, too. Kelly 56:22 Exactly. any of our patrons can get a pattern of their choice up to $8. So all they have to do is contact me on Ravelry. Let me know what your pattern selection is. And you can... then I'll just go ahead and and get that pattern dropped into your Ravelry-- your Ravelry inbox. So yeah, we just want to let people know how much we appreciate their support. Marsha 56:48 So start looking at your patterns. Pick your favorite pattern and let us know! Kelly 56:52 Yeah, it's always interesting. We did this last summer and it was really interesting to see what people were were choosing. I got a few things added to my queue. . Marsha 57:01 Oh, yeah, dangerous. [laughing] Kelly 57:03 Yeah. Inspirational you could say, Marsha 57:06 Okay, well, anything else? Kelly 57:08 No, I think that will do it for us, Marsha. Marsha 57:11 Okay. Well, I'm gonna go back to my sweater. Kelly 57:16 Okay. Marsha 57:17 Get lost in color work. Kelly 57:19 Yeah, that sounds fun. Yeah, I'm looking forward to seeing it. Marsha 57:23 Hopefully, well...Hopefully when we record in two weeks, I'll have the yoke done. We'll see. Kelly 57:28 Oh, that'll be good. Yeah. See, anyway. Marsha 57:31 Alrig`ht. Kelly 57:31 Okay. Marsha 57:32 Okay. Well, we'll talk in two weeks. All right. Bye. Kelly 57:36 Bye bye. Thank you so much for listening. To subscribe to the podcast visit Two Ewes Fiber Adventures dot com. Marsha 57:44 Join us on our adventures on Ravelry and Instagram. I am betterinmotion and Kelly is 1hundredprojects. Until next time, Both 57:53 We're the Two Ewes doing our part for world fleece! Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Scripture For Today:2 Timothy 1:3“I thank God, whom I serve, as my ancestors did, with a clear conscience, as night and day I constantly remember you in my prayers.”Praying for Our Food pt 1We've been talking about following scriptural instructions that the Apostle Paul has given to the Church – which means he, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, has given to us as well. In addition to praying for those in authority and to rightly divide New Testament scriptures, Paul also told us how to sanctify our food. Paul was talking about prayer. Let's read the entire context and find out exactly what he was saying concerning sanctifying our food. We can read this in 1 Timothy 4:1-5: “Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons, 2 through the insincerity of liars whose consciences are seared, 3 who forbid marriage and require abstinence from foods that God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth. 4 For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, 5 for it is made holy by the word of God and prayer.” In verse 1, Paul was talking here about people who had been in the Faith, but who had departed from the Faith. He was not talking about sinners or heathen because he said, “Now, the Spirit speaks expressly, that in the later times, some will depart from the Faith, devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and the teaching of demons.” Those who teach doctrines of devils teach believers that they are not to marry and that must abstain from eating meat and all sorts of weird stuff. Have you ever come into contact with anyone who told you that you cannot eat any meat? I guess we all have at some point in time. I'm not talking about someone who makes an individual choice not to eat meat. I'm talking about someone who says you will go to hell if you eat meat. That type of person. Notice here, the Apostle Paul emphasizes his point. He says, “…the Spirit speaks EXPRESSLY…” In other words, Paul is saying that this what the Holy Spirit is saying to us. So Paul is saying he is speaking under the authority of the Holy Spirit.  A few folks have said, “Oh, that's just Paul speaking about his own feelings about this stuff.” But, when they say things like that, they are really saying that Paul's statement is NOT inspired by the Holy Spirit. Which puts them at odds with the entire Bible. Why? Because the Word says, in 2 Timothy 3:16, that “ALL scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.” So, when you look at like that, it is really the devil who promotes and inspires that kind of thinking. And he does it to lead people astray and get them off course from following the Bible. We will continue this discussion tomorrow. Amen! Let's Pray! Please subscribe to this podcast, leave us a quick 5 star review on Apple Podcasts to help us grow and be sure to visit our website for more information on our ministry: https://podcastersforchrist.com/ (https://podcastersforchrist.com). And while you are at the website, download the free resource I have for you… it is free and is called, “How to Start a Christian Podcast.” It will bless you – go and download it today. You can also WATCH these session on our Facebook Playlist at this link: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLtKWeKtmv-BwgkquBTsSh-GznbmuUp_R2 (https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLtKWeKtmv-BwgkquBTsSh-GznbmuUp_R2)

Proper 12 First Psalm: Psalms 75–76 Psalms 75–76 (Listen) God Will Judge with Equity To the choirmaster: according to Do Not Destroy. A Psalm of Asaph. A Song. 75   We give thanks to you, O God;    we give thanks, for your name is near.  We1 recount your wondrous deeds. 2   “At the set time that I appoint    I will judge with equity.3   When the earth totters, and all its inhabitants,    it is I who keep steady its pillars. Selah4   I say to the boastful, ‘Do not boast,'    and to the wicked, ‘Do not lift up your horn;5   do not lift up your horn on high,    or speak with haughty neck.'” 6   For not from the east or from the west    and not from the wilderness comes lifting up,7   but it is God who executes judgment,    putting down one and lifting up another.8   For in the hand of the LORD there is a cup    with foaming wine, well mixed,  and he pours out from it,    and all the wicked of the earth    shall drain it down to the dregs. 9   But I will declare it forever;    I will sing praises to the God of Jacob.10   All the horns of the wicked I will cut off,    but the horns of the righteous shall be lifted up. Who Can Stand Before You? To the choirmaster: with stringed instruments. A Psalm of Asaph. A Song. 76   In Judah God is known;    his name is great in Israel.2   His abode has been established in Salem,    his dwelling place in Zion.3   There he broke the flashing arrows,    the shield, the sword, and the weapons of war. Selah 4   Glorious are you, more majestic    than the mountains full of prey.5   The stouthearted were stripped of their spoil;    they sank into sleep;  all the men of war    were unable to use their hands.6   At your rebuke, O God of Jacob,    both rider and horse lay stunned. 7   But you, you are to be feared!    Who can stand before you    when once your anger is roused?8   From the heavens you uttered judgment;    the earth feared and was still,9   when God arose to establish judgment,    to save all the humble of the earth. Selah 10   Surely the wrath of man shall praise you;    the remnant2 of wrath you will put on like a belt.11   Make your vows to the LORD your God and perform them;    let all around him bring gifts    to him who is to be feared,12   who cuts off the spirit of princes,    who is to be feared by the kings of the earth. Footnotes [1] 75:1 Hebrew They [2] 76:10 Or extremity (ESV) Second Psalm: Psalm 23; Psalm 27 Psalm 23 (Listen) The Lord Is My Shepherd A Psalm of David. 23   The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.2     He makes me lie down in green pastures.  He leads me beside still waters.13     He restores my soul.  He leads me in paths of righteousness2    for his name's sake. 4   Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,3    I will fear no evil,  for you are with me;    your rod and your staff,    they comfort me. 5   You prepare a table before me    in the presence of my enemies;  you anoint my head with oil;    my cup overflows.6   Surely4 goodness and mercy5 shall follow me    all the days of my life,  and I shall dwell6 in the house of the LORD    forever.7 Footnotes [1] 23:2 Hebrew beside waters of rest [2] 23:3 Or in right paths [3] 23:4 Or the valley of deep darkness [4] 23:6 Or Only [5] 23:6 Or steadfast love [6] 23:6 Or shall return to dwell [7] 23:6 Hebrew for length of days (ESV) Psalm 27 (Listen) The Lord Is My Light and My Salvation Of David. 27   The LORD is my light and my salvation;    whom shall I fear?  The LORD is the stronghold1 of my life;    of whom shall I be afraid? 2   When evildoers assail me    to eat up my flesh,  my adversaries and foes,    it is they who stumble and fall. 3   Though an army encamp against me,    my heart shall not fear;  though war arise against me,    yet2 I will be confident. 4   One thing have I asked of the LORD,    that will I seek after:  that I may dwell in the house of the LORD    all the days of my life,  to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD    and to inquire3 in his temple. 5   For he will hide me in his shelter    in the day of trouble;  he will conceal me under the cover of his tent;    he will lift me high upon a rock. 6   And now my head shall be lifted up    above my enemies all around me,  and I will offer in his tent    sacrifices with shouts of joy;  I will sing and make melody to the LORD. 7   Hear, O LORD, when I cry aloud;    be gracious to me and answer me!8   You have said, “Seek4 my face.”  My heart says to you,    “Your face, LORD, do I seek.”59     Hide not your face from me.  Turn not your servant away in anger,    O you who have been my help.  Cast me not off; forsake me not,    O God of my salvation!10   For my father and my mother have forsaken me,    but the LORD will take me in. 11   Teach me your way, O LORD,    and lead me on a level path    because of my enemies.12   Give me not up to the will of my adversaries;    for false witnesses have risen against me,    and they breathe out violence. 13   I believe that I shall look6 upon the goodness of the LORD    in the land of the living!14   Wait for the LORD;    be strong, and let your heart take courage;    wait for the LORD! Footnotes [1] 27:1 Or refuge [2] 27:3 Or in this [3] 27:4 Or meditate [4] 27:8 The command (seek) is addressed to more than one person [5] 27:8 The meaning of the Hebrew verse is uncertain [6] 27:13 Other Hebrew manuscripts Oh! Had I not believed that I would look (ESV) Old Testament: 2 Samuel 5:22–6:11 2 Samuel 5:22–6:11 (Listen) 22 And the Philistines came up yet again and spread out in the Valley of Rephaim. 23 And when David inquired of the LORD, he said, “You shall not go up; go around to their rear, and come against them opposite the balsam trees. 24 And when you hear the sound of marching in the tops of the balsam trees, then rouse yourself, for then the LORD has gone out before you to strike down the army of the Philistines.” 25 And David did as the LORD commanded him, and struck down the Philistines from Geba to Gezer. The Ark Brought to Jerusalem 6 David again gathered all the chosen men of Israel, thirty thousand. 2 And David arose and went with all the people who were with him from Baale-judah to bring up from there the ark of God, which is called by the name of the LORD of hosts who sits enthroned on the cherubim. 3 And they carried the ark of God on a new cart and brought it out of the house of Abinadab, which was on the hill. And Uzzah and Ahio,1 the sons of Abinadab, were driving the new cart, 4 with the ark of God,2 and Ahio went before the ark. Uzzah and the Ark 5 And David and all the house of Israel were celebrating before the LORD, with songs3 and lyres and harps and tambourines and castanets and cymbals. 6 And when they came to the threshing floor of Nacon, Uzzah put out his hand to the ark of God and took hold of it, for the oxen stumbled. 7 And the anger of the LORD was kindled against Uzzah, and God struck him down there because of his error, and he died there beside the ark of God. 8 And David was angry because the LORD had broken out against Uzzah. And that place is called Perez-uzzah4 to this day. 9 And David was afraid of the LORD that day, and he said, “How can the ark of the LORD come to me?” 10 So David was not willing to take the ark of the LORD into the city of David. But David took it aside to the house of Obed-edom the Gittite. 11 And the ark of the LORD remained in the house of Obed-edom the Gittite three months, and the LORD blessed Obed-edom and all his household. Footnotes [1] 6:3 Or and his brother; also verse 4 [2] 6:4 Compare Septuagint; Hebrew the new cart, 4and brought it out of the house of Abinadab, which was on the hill, with the ark of God [3] 6:5 Septuagint, 1 Chronicles 13:8; Hebrew fir trees [4] 6:8 Perez-uzzah means the breaking out against Uzzah (ESV) New Testament: Acts 17:16–34 Acts 17:16–34 (Listen) Paul in Athens 16 Now while Paul was waiting for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him as he saw that the city was full of idols. 17 So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons, and in the marketplace every day with those who happened to be there. 18 Some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers also conversed with him. And some said, “What does this babbler wish to say?” Others said, “He seems to be a preacher of foreign divinities”—because he was preaching Jesus and the resurrection. 19 And they took him and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, “May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting? 20 For you bring some strange things to our ears. We wish to know therefore what these things mean.” 21 Now all the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there would spend their time in nothing except telling or hearing something new. Paul Addresses the Areopagus 22 So Paul, standing in the midst of the Areopagus, said: “Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious. 23 For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription: ‘To the unknown god.' What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. 24 The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man,1 25 nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. 26 And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, 27 that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, 28 for   “‘In him we live and move and have our being';2 as even some of your own poets have said,   “‘For we are indeed his offspring.'3 29 Being then God's offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man. 30 The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, 31 because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.” 32 Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked. But others said, “We will hear you again about this.” 33 So Paul went out from their midst. 34 But some men joined him and believed, among whom also were Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named Damaris and others with them. Footnotes [1] 17:24 Greek made by hands [2] 17:28 Probably from Epimenides of Crete [3] 17:28 From Aratus's poem “Phainomena” (ESV) Gospel: Mark 8:1–10 Mark 8:1–10 (Listen) Jesus Feeds the Four Thousand 8 In those days, when again a great crowd had gathered, and they had nothing to eat, he called his disciples to him and said to them, 2 “I have compassion on the crowd, because they have been with me now three days and have nothing to eat. 3 And if I send them away hungry to their homes, they will faint on the way. And some of them have come from far away.” 4 And his disciples answered him, “How can one feed these people with bread here in this desolate place?” 5 And he asked them, “How many loaves do you have?” They said, “Seven.” 6 And he directed the crowd to sit down on the ground. And he took the seven loaves, and having given thanks, he broke them and gave them to his disciples to set before the people; and they set them before the crowd. 7 And they had a few small fish. And having blessed them, he said that these also should be set before them. 8 And they ate and were satisfied. And they took up the broken pieces left over, seven baskets full. 9 And there were about four thousand people. And he sent them away. 10 And immediately he got into the boat with his disciples and went to the district of Dalmanutha.1 Footnotes [1] 8:10 Some manuscripts Magadan, or Magdala (ESV)

With family: Judges 13; Acts 17 Judges 13 (Listen) The Birth of Samson 13 And the people of Israel again did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, so the LORD gave them into the hand of the Philistines for forty years. 2 There was a certain man of Zorah, of the tribe of the Danites, whose name was Manoah. And his wife was barren and had no children. 3 And the angel of the LORD appeared to the woman and said to her, “Behold, you are barren and have not borne children, but you shall conceive and bear a son. 4 Therefore be careful and drink no wine or strong drink, and eat nothing unclean, 5 for behold, you shall conceive and bear a son. No razor shall come upon his head, for the child shall be a Nazirite to God from the womb, and he shall begin to save Israel from the hand of the Philistines.” 6 Then the woman came and told her husband, “A man of God came to me, and his appearance was like the appearance of the angel of God, very awesome. I did not ask him where he was from, and he did not tell me his name, 7 but he said to me, ‘Behold, you shall conceive and bear a son. So then drink no wine or strong drink, and eat nothing unclean, for the child shall be a Nazirite to God from the womb to the day of his death.'” 8 Then Manoah prayed to the LORD and said, “O Lord, please let the man of God whom you sent come again to us and teach us what we are to do with the child who will be born.” 9 And God listened to the voice of Manoah, and the angel of God came again to the woman as she sat in the field. But Manoah her husband was not with her. 10 So the woman ran quickly and told her husband, “Behold, the man who came to me the other day has appeared to me.” 11 And Manoah arose and went after his wife and came to the man and said to him, “Are you the man who spoke to this woman?” And he said, “I am.” 12 And Manoah said, “Now when your words come true, what is to be the child's manner of life, and what is his mission?” 13 And the angel of the LORD said to Manoah, “Of all that I said to the woman let her be careful. 14 She may not eat of anything that comes from the vine, neither let her drink wine or strong drink, or eat any unclean thing. All that I commanded her let her observe.” 15 Manoah said to the angel of the LORD, “Please let us detain you and prepare a young goat for you.” 16 And the angel of the LORD said to Manoah, “If you detain me, I will not eat of your food. But if you prepare a burnt offering, then offer it to the LORD.” (For Manoah did not know that he was the angel of the LORD.) 17 And Manoah said to the angel of the LORD, “What is your name, so that, when your words come true, we may honor you?” 18 And the angel of the LORD said to him, “Why do you ask my name, seeing it is wonderful?” 19 So Manoah took the young goat with the grain offering, and offered it on the rock to the LORD, to the one who works1 wonders, and Manoah and his wife were watching. 20 And when the flame went up toward heaven from the altar, the angel of the LORD went up in the flame of the altar. Now Manoah and his wife were watching, and they fell on their faces to the ground. 21 The angel of the LORD appeared no more to Manoah and to his wife. Then Manoah knew that he was the angel of the LORD. 22 And Manoah said to his wife, “We shall surely die, for we have seen God.” 23 But his wife said to him, “If the LORD had meant to kill us, he would not have accepted a burnt offering and a grain offering at our hands, or shown us all these things, or now announced to us such things as these.” 24 And the woman bore a son and called his name Samson. And the young man grew, and the LORD blessed him. 25 And the Spirit of the LORD began to stir him in Mahaneh-dan, between Zorah and Eshtaol. Footnotes [1] 13:19 Septuagint, Vulgate; Hebrew Lord, and working (ESV) Acts 17 (Listen) Paul and Silas in Thessalonica 17 Now when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews. 2 And Paul went in, as was his custom, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures, 3 explaining and proving that it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead, and saying, “This Jesus, whom I proclaim to you, is the Christ.” 4 And some of them were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, as did a great many of the devout Greeks and not a few of the leading women. 5 But the Jews1 were jealous, and taking some wicked men of the rabble, they formed a mob, set the city in an uproar, and attacked the house of Jason, seeking to bring them out to the crowd. 6 And when they could not find them, they dragged Jason and some of the brothers before the city authorities, shouting, “These men who have turned the world upside down have come here also, 7 and Jason has received them, and they are all acting against the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, Jesus.” 8 And the people and the city authorities were disturbed when they heard these things. 9 And when they had taken money as security from Jason and the rest, they let them go. Paul and Silas in Berea 10 The brothers2 immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea, and when they arrived they went into the Jewish synagogue. 11 Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so. 12 Many of them therefore believed, with not a few Greek women of high standing as well as men. 13 But when the Jews from Thessalonica learned that the word of God was proclaimed by Paul at Berea also, they came there too, agitating and stirring up the crowds. 14 Then the brothers immediately sent Paul off on his way to the sea, but Silas and Timothy remained there. 15 Those who conducted Paul brought him as far as Athens, and after receiving a command for Silas and Timothy to come to him as soon as possible, they departed. Paul in Athens 16 Now while Paul was waiting for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him as he saw that the city was full of idols. 17 So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons, and in the marketplace every day with those who happened to be there. 18 Some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers also conversed with him. And some said, “What does this babbler wish to say?” Others said, “He seems to be a preacher of foreign divinities”—because he was preaching Jesus and the resurrection. 19 And they took him and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, “May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting? 20 For you bring some strange things to our ears. We wish to know therefore what these things mean.” 21 Now all the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there would spend their time in nothing except telling or hearing something new. Paul Addresses the Areopagus 22 So Paul, standing in the midst of the Areopagus, said: “Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious. 23 For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription: ‘To the unknown god.' What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. 24 The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man,3 25 nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. 26 And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, 27 that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, 28 for   “‘In him we live and move and have our being';4 as even some of your own poets have said,   “‘For we are indeed his offspring.'5 29 Being then God's offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man. 30 The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, 31 because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.” 32 Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked. But others said, “We will hear you again about this.” 33 So Paul went out from their midst. 34 But some men joined him and believed, among whom also were Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named Damaris and others with them. Footnotes [1] 17:5 Greek Ioudaioi probably refers here to Jewish religious leaders, and others under their influence, in that time; also verse 13 [2] 17:10 Or brothers and sisters; also verse 14 [3] 17:24 Greek made by hands [4] 17:28 Probably from Epimenides of Crete [5] 17:28 From Aratus's poem “Phainomena” (ESV) In private: Jeremiah 26; Mark 12 Jeremiah 26 (Listen) Jeremiah Threatened with Death 26 In the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, this word came from the LORD: 2 “Thus says the LORD: Stand in the court of the LORD's house, and speak to all the cities of Judah that come to worship in the house of the LORD all the words that I command you to speak to them; do not hold back a word. 3 It may be they will listen, and every one turn from his evil way, that I may relent of the disaster that I intend to do to them because of their evil deeds. 4 You shall say to them, ‘Thus says the LORD: If you will not listen to me, to walk in my law that I have set before you, 5 and to listen to the words of my servants the prophets whom I send to you urgently, though you have not listened, 6 then I will make this house like Shiloh, and I will make this city a curse for all the nations of the earth.'” 7 The priests and the prophets and all the people heard Jeremiah speaking these words in the house of the LORD. 8 And when Jeremiah had finished speaking all that the LORD had commanded him to speak to all the people, then the priests and the prophets and all the people laid hold of him, saying, “You shall die! 9 Why have you prophesied in the name of the LORD, saying, ‘This house shall be like Shiloh, and this city shall be desolate, without inhabitant'?” And all the people gathered around Jeremiah in the house of the LORD. 10 When the officials of Judah heard these things, they came up from the king's house to the house of the LORD and took their seat in the entry of the New Gate of the house of the LORD. 11 Then the priests and the prophets said to the officials and to all the people, “This man deserves the sentence of death, because he has prophesied against this city, as you have heard with your own ears.” 12 Then Jeremiah spoke to all the officials and all the people, saying, “The LORD sent me to prophesy against this house and this city all the words you have heard. 13 Now therefore mend your ways and your deeds, and obey the voice of the LORD your God, and the LORD will relent of the disaster that he has pronounced against you. 14 But as for me, behold, I am in your hands. Do with me as seems good and right to you. 15 Only know for certain that if you put me to death, you will bring innocent blood upon yourselves and upon this city and its inhabitants, for in truth the LORD sent me to you to speak all these words in your ears.” Jeremiah Spared from Death 16 Then the officials and all the people said to the priests and the prophets, “This man does not deserve the sentence of death, for he has spoken to us in the name of the LORD our God.” 17 And certain of the elders of the land arose and spoke to all the assembled people, saying, 18 “Micah of Moresheth prophesied in the days of Hezekiah king of Judah, and said to all the people of Judah: ‘Thus says the LORD of hosts,   “‘Zion shall be plowed as a field;    Jerusalem shall become a heap of ruins,    and the mountain of the house a wooded height.' 19 Did Hezekiah king of Judah and all Judah put him to death? Did he not fear the LORD and entreat the favor of the LORD, and did not the LORD relent of the disaster that he had pronounced against them? But we are about to bring great disaster upon ourselves.” 20 There was another man who prophesied in the name of the LORD, Uriah the son of Shemaiah from Kiriath-jearim. He prophesied against this city and against this land in words like those of Jeremiah. 21 And when King Jehoiakim, with all his warriors and all the officials, heard his words, the king sought to put him to death. But when Uriah heard of it, he was afraid and fled and escaped to Egypt. 22 Then King Jehoiakim sent to Egypt certain men, Elnathan the son of Achbor and others with him, 23 and they took Uriah from Egypt and brought him to King Jehoiakim, who struck him down with the sword and dumped his dead body into the burial place of the common people. 24 But the hand of Ahikam the son of Shaphan was with Jeremiah so that he was not given over to the people to be put to death. (ESV) Mark 12 (Listen) The Parable of the Tenants 12 And he began to speak to them in parables. “A man planted a vineyard and put a fence around it and dug a pit for the winepress and built a tower, and leased it to tenants and went into another country. 2 When the season came, he sent a servant1 to the tenants to get from them some of the fruit of the vineyard. 3 And they took him and beat him and sent him away empty-handed. 4 Again he sent to them another servant, and they struck him on the head and treated him shamefully. 5 And he sent another, and him they killed. And so with many others: some they beat, and some they killed. 6 He had still one other, a beloved son. Finally he sent him to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.' 7 But those tenants said to one another, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.' 8 And they took him and killed him and threw him out of the vineyard. 9 What will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and destroy the tenants and give the vineyard to others. 10 Have you not read this Scripture:   “‘The stone that the builders rejected    has become the cornerstone;211   this was the Lord's doing,    and it is marvelous in our eyes'?” 12 And they were seeking to arrest him but feared the people, for they perceived that he had told the parable against them. So they left him and went away. Paying Taxes to Caesar 13 And they sent to him some of the Pharisees and some of the Herodians, to trap him in his talk. 14 And they came and said to him, “Teacher, we know that you are true and do not care about anyone's opinion. For you are not swayed by appearances,3 but truly teach the way of God. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not? Should we pay them, or should we not?” 15 But, knowing their hypocrisy, he said to them, “Why put me to the test? Bring me a denarius4 and let me look at it.” 16 And they brought one. And he said to them, “Whose likeness and inscription is this?” They said to him, “Caesar's.” 17 Jesus said to them, “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's.” And they marveled at him. The Sadducees Ask About the Resurrection 18 And Sadducees came to him, who say that there is no resurrection. And they asked him a question, saying, 19 “Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man's brother dies and leaves a wife, but leaves no child, the man5 must take the widow and raise up offspring for his brother. 20 There were seven brothers; the first took a wife, and when he died left no offspring. 21 And the second took her, and died, leaving no offspring. And the third likewise. 22 And the seven left no offspring. Last of all the woman also died. 23 In the resurrection, when they rise again, whose wife will she be? For the seven had her as wife.” 24 Jesus said to them, “Is this not the reason you are wrong, because you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God? 25 For when they rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven. 26 And as for the dead being raised, have you not read in the book of Moses, in the passage about the bush, how God spoke to him, saying, ‘I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob'? 27 He is not God of the dead, but of the living. You are quite wrong.” The Great Commandment 28 And one of the scribes came up and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, asked him, “Which commandment is the most important of all?” 29 Jesus answered, “The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 30 And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.' 31 The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no other commandment greater than these.” 32 And the scribe said to him, “You are right, Teacher. You have truly said that he is one, and there is no other besides him. 33 And to love him with all the heart and with all the understanding and with all the strength, and to love one's neighbor as oneself, is much more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.” 34 And when Jesus saw that he answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” And after that no one dared to ask him any more questions. Whose Son Is the Christ? 35 And as Jesus taught in the temple, he said, “How can the scribes say that the Christ is the son of David? 36 David himself, in the Holy Spirit, declared,   “‘The Lord said to my Lord,  “Sit at my right hand,    until I put your enemies under your feet.”' 37 David himself calls him Lord. So how is he his son?” And the great throng heard him gladly. Beware of the Scribes 38 And in his teaching he said, “Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes and like greetings in the marketplaces 39 and have the best seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at feasts, 40 who devour widows' houses and for a pretense make long prayers. They will receive the greater condemnation.” The Widow's Offering 41 And he sat down opposite the treasury and watched the people putting money into the offering box. Many rich people put in large sums. 42 And a poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which make a penny.6 43 And he called his disciples to him and said to them, “Truly, I say to you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the offering box. 44 For they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on.” Footnotes [1] 12:2 Or bondservant; also verse 4 [2] 12:10 Greek the head of the corner [3] 12:14 Greek you do not look at people's faces [4] 12:15 A denarius was a day's wage for a laborer [5] 12:19 Greek his brother [6] 12:42 Greek two lepta, which make a kodrantes; a kodrantes (Latin quadrans) was a Roman copper coin worth about 1/64 of a denarius (which was a day's wage for a laborer) (ESV)

With family: Judges 9; Acts 13 Judges 9 (Listen) Abimelech's Conspiracy 9 Now Abimelech the son of Jerubbaal went to Shechem to his mother's relatives and said to them and to the whole clan of his mother's family, 2 “Say in the ears of all the leaders of Shechem, ‘Which is better for you, that all seventy of the sons of Jerubbaal rule over you, or that one rule over you?' Remember also that I am your bone and your flesh.” 3 And his mother's relatives spoke all these words on his behalf in the ears of all the leaders of Shechem, and their hearts inclined to follow Abimelech, for they said, “He is our brother.” 4 And they gave him seventy pieces of silver out of the house of Baal-berith with which Abimelech hired worthless and reckless fellows, who followed him. 5 And he went to his father's house at Ophrah and killed his brothers the sons of Jerubbaal, seventy men, on one stone. But Jotham the youngest son of Jerubbaal was left, for he hid himself. 6 And all the leaders of Shechem came together, and all Beth-millo, and they went and made Abimelech king, by the oak of the pillar at Shechem. 7 When it was told to Jotham, he went and stood on top of Mount Gerizim and cried aloud and said to them, “Listen to me, you leaders of Shechem, that God may listen to you. 8 The trees once went out to anoint a king over them, and they said to the olive tree, ‘Reign over us.' 9 But the olive tree said to them, ‘Shall I leave my abundance, by which gods and men are honored, and go hold sway over the trees?' 10 And the trees said to the fig tree, ‘You come and reign over us.' 11 But the fig tree said to them, ‘Shall I leave my sweetness and my good fruit and go hold sway over the trees?' 12 And the trees said to the vine, ‘You come and reign over us.' 13 But the vine said to them, ‘Shall I leave my wine that cheers God and men and go hold sway over the trees?' 14 Then all the trees said to the bramble, ‘You come and reign over us.' 15 And the bramble said to the trees, ‘If in good faith you are anointing me king over you, then come and take refuge in my shade, but if not, let fire come out of the bramble and devour the cedars of Lebanon.' 16 “Now therefore, if you acted in good faith and integrity when you made Abimelech king, and if you have dealt well with Jerubbaal and his house and have done to him as his deeds deserved—17 for my father fought for you and risked his life and delivered you from the hand of Midian, 18 and you have risen up against my father's house this day and have killed his sons, seventy men on one stone, and have made Abimelech, the son of his female servant, king over the leaders of Shechem, because he is your relative—19 if you then have acted in good faith and integrity with Jerubbaal and with his house this day, then rejoice in Abimelech, and let him also rejoice in you. 20 But if not, let fire come out from Abimelech and devour the leaders of Shechem and Beth-millo; and let fire come out from the leaders of Shechem and from Beth-millo and devour Abimelech.” 21 And Jotham ran away and fled and went to Beer and lived there, because of Abimelech his brother. The Downfall of Abimelech 22 Abimelech ruled over Israel three years. 23 And God sent an evil spirit between Abimelech and the leaders of Shechem, and the leaders of Shechem dealt treacherously with Abimelech, 24 that the violence done to the seventy sons of Jerubbaal might come, and their blood be laid on Abimelech their brother, who killed them, and on the men of Shechem, who strengthened his hands to kill his brothers. 25 And the leaders of Shechem put men in ambush against him on the mountaintops, and they robbed all who passed by them along that way. And it was told to Abimelech. 26 And Gaal the son of Ebed moved into Shechem with his relatives, and the leaders of Shechem put confidence in him. 27 And they went out into the field and gathered the grapes from their vineyards and trod them and held a festival; and they went into the house of their god and ate and drank and reviled Abimelech. 28 And Gaal the son of Ebed said, “Who is Abimelech, and who are we of Shechem, that we should serve him? Is he not the son of Jerubbaal, and is not Zebul his officer? Serve the men of Hamor the father of Shechem; but why should we serve him? 29 Would that this people were under my hand! Then I would remove Abimelech. I would say1 to Abimelech, ‘Increase your army, and come out.'” 30 When Zebul the ruler of the city heard the words of Gaal the son of Ebed, his anger was kindled. 31 And he sent messengers to Abimelech secretly,2 saying, “Behold, Gaal the son of Ebed and his relatives have come to Shechem, and they are stirring up3 the city against you. 32 Now therefore, go by night, you and the people who are with you, and set an ambush in the field. 33 Then in the morning, as soon as the sun is up, rise early and rush upon the city. And when he and the people who are with him come out against you, you may do to them as your hand finds to do.” 34 So Abimelech and all the men who were with him rose up by night and set an ambush against Shechem in four companies. 35 And Gaal the son of Ebed went out and stood in the entrance of the gate of the city, and Abimelech and the people who were with him rose from the ambush. 36 And when Gaal saw the people, he said to Zebul, “Look, people are coming down from the mountaintops!” And Zebul said to him, “You mistake4 the shadow of the mountains for men.” 37 Gaal spoke again and said, “Look, people are coming down from the center of the land, and one company is coming from the direction of the Diviners' Oak.” 38 Then Zebul said to him, “Where is your mouth now, you who said, ‘Who is Abimelech, that we should serve him?' Are not these the people whom you despised? Go out now and fight with them.” 39 And Gaal went out at the head of the leaders of Shechem and fought with Abimelech. 40 And Abimelech chased him, and he fled before him. And many fell wounded, up to the entrance of the gate. 41 And Abimelech lived at Arumah, and Zebul drove out Gaal and his relatives, so that they could not dwell at Shechem. 42 On the following day, the people went out into the field, and Abimelech was told. 43 He took his people and divided them into three companies and set an ambush in the fields. And he looked and saw the people coming out of the city. So he rose against them and killed them. 44 Abimelech and the company that was with him rushed forward and stood at the entrance of the gate of the city, while the two companies rushed upon all who were in the field and killed them. 45 And Abimelech fought against the city all that day. He captured the city and killed the people who were in it, and he razed the city and sowed it with salt. 46 When all the leaders of the Tower of Shechem heard of it, they entered the stronghold of the house of El-berith. 47 Abimelech was told that all the leaders of the Tower of Shechem were gathered together. 48 And Abimelech went up to Mount Zalmon, he and all the people who were with him. And Abimelech took an axe in his hand and cut down a bundle of brushwood and took it up and laid it on his shoulder. And he said to the men who were with him, “What you have seen me do, hurry and do as I have done.” 49 So every one of the people cut down his bundle and following Abimelech put it against the stronghold, and they set the stronghold on fire over them, so that all the people of the Tower of Shechem also died, about 1,000 men and women. 50 Then Abimelech went to Thebez and encamped against Thebez and captured it. 51 But there was a strong tower within the city, and all the men and women and all the leaders of the city fled to it and shut themselves in, and they went up to the roof of the tower. 52 And Abimelech came to the tower and fought against it and drew near to the door of the tower to burn it with fire. 53 And a certain woman threw an upper millstone on Abimelech's head and crushed his skull. 54 Then he called quickly to the young man his armor-bearer and said to him, “Draw your sword and kill me, lest they say of me, ‘A woman killed him.'” And his young man thrust him through, and he died. 55 And when the men of Israel saw that Abimelech was dead, everyone departed to his home. 56 Thus God returned the evil of Abimelech, which he committed against his father in killing his seventy brothers. 57 And God also made all the evil of the men of Shechem return on their heads, and upon them came the curse of Jotham the son of Jerubbaal. Footnotes [1] 9:29 Septuagint; Hebrew and he said [2] 9:31 Or at Tormah [3] 9:31 Hebrew besieging, or closing up [4] 9:36 Hebrew You see (ESV) Acts 13 (Listen) Barnabas and Saul Sent Off 13 Now there were in the church at Antioch prophets and teachers, Barnabas, Simeon who was called Niger,1 Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen a lifelong friend of Herod the tetrarch, and Saul. 2 While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” 3 Then after fasting and praying they laid their hands on them and sent them off. Barnabas and Saul on Cyprus 4 So, being sent out by the Holy Spirit, they went down to Seleucia, and from there they sailed to Cyprus. 5 When they arrived at Salamis, they proclaimed the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews. And they had John to assist them. 6 When they had gone through the whole island as far as Paphos, they came upon a certain magician, a Jewish false prophet named Bar-Jesus. 7 He was with the proconsul, Sergius Paulus, a man of intelligence, who summoned Barnabas and Saul and sought to hear the word of God. 8 But Elymas the magician (for that is the meaning of his name) opposed them, seeking to turn the proconsul away from the faith. 9 But Saul, who was also called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked intently at him 10 and said, “You son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, full of all deceit and villainy, will you not stop making crooked the straight paths of the Lord? 11 And now, behold, the hand of the Lord is upon you, and you will be blind and unable to see the sun for a time.” Immediately mist and darkness fell upon him, and he went about seeking people to lead him by the hand. 12 Then the proconsul believed, when he saw what had occurred, for he was astonished at the teaching of the Lord. Paul and Barnabas at Antioch in Pisidia 13 Now Paul and his companions set sail from Paphos and came to Perga in Pamphylia. And John left them and returned to Jerusalem, 14 but they went on from Perga and came to Antioch in Pisidia. And on the Sabbath day they went into the synagogue and sat down. 15 After the reading from the Law and the Prophets, the rulers of the synagogue sent a message to them, saying, “Brothers, if you have any word of encouragement for the people, say it.” 16 So Paul stood up, and motioning with his hand said: “Men of Israel and you who fear God, listen. 17 The God of this people Israel chose our fathers and made the people great during their stay in the land of Egypt, and with uplifted arm he led them out of it. 18 And for about forty years he put up with2 them in the wilderness. 19 And after destroying seven nations in the land of Canaan, he gave them their land as an inheritance. 20 All this took about 450 years. And after that he gave them judges until Samuel the prophet. 21 Then they asked for a king, and God gave them Saul the son of Kish, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, for forty years. 22 And when he had removed him, he raised up David to be their king, of whom he testified and said, ‘I have found in David the son of Jesse a man after my heart, who will do all my will.' 23 Of this man's offspring God has brought to Israel a Savior, Jesus, as he promised. 24 Before his coming, John had proclaimed a baptism of repentance to all the people of Israel. 25 And as John was finishing his course, he said, ‘What do you suppose that I am? I am not he. No, but behold, after me one is coming, the sandals of whose feet I am not worthy to untie.' 26 “Brothers, sons of the family of Abraham, and those among you who fear God, to us has been sent the message of this salvation. 27 For those who live in Jerusalem and their rulers, because they did not recognize him nor understand the utterances of the prophets, which are read every Sabbath, fulfilled them by condemning him. 28 And though they found in him no guilt worthy of death, they asked Pilate to have him executed. 29 And when they had carried out all that was written of him, they took him down from the tree and laid him in a tomb. 30 But God raised him from the dead, 31 and for many days he appeared to those who had come up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem, who are now his witnesses to the people. 32 And we bring you the good news that what God promised to the fathers, 33 this he has fulfilled to us their children by raising Jesus, as also it is written in the second Psalm,   “‘You are my Son,    today I have begotten you.' 34 And as for the fact that he raised him from the dead, no more to return to corruption, he has spoken in this way,   “‘I will give you the holy and sure blessings of David.' 35 Therefore he says also in another psalm,   “‘You will not let your Holy One see corruption.' 36 For David, after he had served the purpose of God in his own generation, fell asleep and was laid with his fathers and saw corruption, 37 but he whom God raised up did not see corruption. 38 Let it be known to you therefore, brothers, that through this man forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you, 39 and by him everyone who believes is freed3 from everything from which you could not be freed by the law of Moses. 40 Beware, therefore, lest what is said in the Prophets should come about: 41   “‘Look, you scoffers,    be astounded and perish;  for I am doing a work in your days,    a work that you will not believe, even if one tells it to you.'” 42 As they went out, the people begged that these things might be told them the next Sabbath. 43 And after the meeting of the synagogue broke up, many Jews and devout converts to Judaism followed Paul and Barnabas, who, as they spoke with them, urged them to continue in the grace of God. 44 The next Sabbath almost the whole city gathered to hear the word of the Lord. 45 But when the Jews4 saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy and began to contradict what was spoken by Paul, reviling him. 46 And Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly, saying, “It was necessary that the word of God be spoken first to you. Since you thrust it aside and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we are turning to the Gentiles. 47 For so the Lord has commanded us, saying,   “‘I have made you a light for the Gentiles,    that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth.'” 48 And when the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord, and as many as were appointed to eternal life believed. 49 And the word of the Lord was spreading throughout the whole region. 50 But the Jews incited the devout women of high standing and the leading men of the city, stirred up persecution against Paul and Barnabas, and drove them out of their district. 51 But they shook off the dust from their feet against them and went to Iconium. 52 And the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit. Footnotes [1] 13:1 Niger is a Latin word meaning black, or dark [2] 13:18 Some manuscripts he carried (compare Deuteronomy 1:31) [3] 13:39 Greek justified; twice in this verse [4] 13:45 Greek Ioudaioi probably refers here to Jewish religious leaders, and others under their influence, in that time; also verse 50 (ESV) In private: Jeremiah 22; Mark 8 Jeremiah 22 (Listen) 22 Thus says the LORD: “Go down to the house of the king of Judah and speak there this word, 2 and say, ‘Hear the word of the LORD, O king of Judah, who sits on the throne of David, you, and your servants, and your people who enter these gates. 3 Thus says the LORD: Do justice and righteousness, and deliver from the hand of the oppressor him who has been robbed. And do no wrong or violence to the resident alien, the fatherless, and the widow, nor shed innocent blood in this place. 4 For if you will indeed obey this word, then there shall enter the gates of this house kings who sit on the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, they and their servants and their people. 5 But if you will not obey these words, I swear by myself, declares the LORD, that this house shall become a desolation. 6 For thus says the LORD concerning the house of the king of Judah:   “‘You are like Gilead to me,    like the summit of Lebanon,  yet surely I will make you a desert,    an uninhabited city.17   I will prepare destroyers against you,    each with his weapons,  and they shall cut down your choicest cedars    and cast them into the fire. 8 “‘And many nations will pass by this city, and every man will say to his neighbor, “Why has the LORD dealt thus with this great city?” 9 And they will answer, “Because they have forsaken the covenant of the LORD their God and worshiped other gods and served them.”'” 10   Weep not for him who is dead,    nor grieve for him,  but weep bitterly for him who goes away,    for he shall return no more    to see his native land. Message to the Sons of Josiah 11 For thus says the LORD concerning Shallum the son of Josiah, king of Judah, who reigned instead of Josiah his father, and who went away from this place: “He shall return here no more, 12 but in the place where they have carried him captive, there shall he die, and he shall never see this land again.” 13   “Woe to him who builds his house by unrighteousness,    and his upper rooms by injustice,  who makes his neighbor serve him for nothing    and does not give him his wages,14   who says, ‘I will build myself a great house    with spacious upper rooms,'  who cuts out windows for it,    paneling it with cedar    and painting it with vermilion.15   Do you think you are a king    because you compete in cedar?  Did not your father eat and drink    and do justice and righteousness?    Then it was well with him.16   He judged the cause of the poor and needy;    then it was well.  Is not this to know me?    declares the LORD.17   But you have eyes and heart    only for your dishonest gain,  for shedding innocent blood,    and for practicing oppression and violence.” 18 Therefore thus says the LORD concerning Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah:   “They shall not lament for him, saying,    ‘Ah, my brother!' or ‘Ah, sister!'  They shall not lament for him, saying,    ‘Ah, lord!' or ‘Ah, his majesty!'19   With the burial of a donkey he shall be buried,    dragged and dumped beyond the gates of Jerusalem.” 20   “Go up to Lebanon, and cry out,    and lift up your voice in Bashan;  cry out from Abarim,    for all your lovers are destroyed.21   I spoke to you in your prosperity,    but you said, ‘I will not listen.'  This has been your way from your youth,    that you have not obeyed my voice.22   The wind shall shepherd all your shepherds,    and your lovers shall go into captivity;  then you will be ashamed and confounded    because of all your evil.23   O inhabitant of Lebanon,    nested among the cedars,  how you will be pitied when pangs come upon you,    pain as of a woman in labor!” 24 “As I live, declares the LORD, though Coniah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, were the signet ring on my right hand, yet I would tear you off 25 and give you into the hand of those who seek your life, into the hand of those of whom you are afraid, even into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and into the hand of the Chaldeans. 26 I will hurl you and the mother who bore you into another country, where you were not born, and there you shall die. 27 But to the land to which they will long to return, there they shall not return.” 28   Is this man Coniah a despised, broken pot,    a vessel no one cares for?  Why are he and his children hurled and cast    into a land that they do not know?29   O land, land, land,    hear the word of the LORD!30   Thus says the LORD:  “Write this man down as childless,    a man who shall not succeed in his days,  for none of his offspring shall succeed    in sitting on the throne of David    and ruling again in Judah.” Footnotes [1] 22:6 Hebrew cities (ESV) Mark 8 (Listen) Jesus Feeds the Four Thousand 8 In those days, when again a great crowd had gathered, and they had nothing to eat, he called his disciples to him and said to them, 2 “I have compassion on the crowd, because they have been with me now three days and have nothing to eat. 3 And if I send them away hungry to their homes, they will faint on the way. And some of them have come from far away.” 4 And his disciples answered him, “How can one feed these people with bread here in this desolate place?” 5 And he asked them, “How many loaves do you have?” They said, “Seven.” 6 And he directed the crowd to sit down on the ground. And he took the seven loaves, and having given thanks, he broke them and gave them to his disciples to set before the people; and they set them before the crowd. 7 And they had a few small fish. And having blessed them, he said that these also should be set before them. 8 And they ate and were satisfied. And they took up the broken pieces left over, seven baskets full. 9 And there were about four thousand people. And he sent them away. 10 And immediately he got into the boat with his disciples and went to the district of Dalmanutha.1 The Pharisees Demand a Sign 11 The Pharisees came and began to argue with him, seeking from him a sign from heaven to test him. 12 And he sighed deeply in his spirit and said, “Why does this generation seek a sign? Truly, I say to you, no sign will be given to this generation.” 13 And he left them, got into the boat again, and went to the other side. The Leaven of the Pharisees and Herod

9 But some of thembecame obstinate; they refused to believe and publicly maligned the Way. So Paul left them. He took the disciples with him and had discussions daily in the lecture hall of Tyrannus.

Apollos was telling people about Jesus with enthusiasm but when he would baptize people that wanted to follow Jesus, he would baptize them with the baptism of John the baptizer, a baptism of repentance. Aquila and Priscilla heard Apollos give an invitation call one Sabbath Day in the synagogue and pulled him off to the side and taught him correctly, that he should be baptizing people in the name of Jesus because that was what Jesus taught and He fills people with the Holy Spirit which was lacking under John's baptism. So Apollos goes off to preach in Achaia and Paul arrives back in Ephesus where he finds a group of believers that were probably converted by Apollos because they had been baptized under John's baptism and had never heard of the Holy Spirit. So Paul explains to them about Jesus and that they needed to be baptized in the name of Jesus and be filled with the Holy Spirit...which they gladly did immediately. If baptism isn't important, then why bother? Why didn't Paul just say, "Well you all believed in Jesus so you're good"? Forget how you have been taught and study the word of God on your own. You will see that being baptized (fully immersed in water) is more important than you've been lead to believe!

Proper 10 First Psalm: Psalm 31 Psalm 31 (Listen) Into Your Hand I Commit My Spirit To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David. 31   In you, O LORD, do I take refuge;    let me never be put to shame;    in your righteousness deliver me!2   Incline your ear to me;    rescue me speedily!  Be a rock of refuge for me,    a strong fortress to save me! 3   For you are my rock and my fortress;    and for your name's sake you lead me and guide me;4   you take me out of the net they have hidden for me,    for you are my refuge.5   Into your hand I commit my spirit;    you have redeemed me, O LORD, faithful God. 6   I hate1 those who pay regard to worthless idols,    but I trust in the LORD.7   I will rejoice and be glad in your steadfast love,    because you have seen my affliction;    you have known the distress of my soul,8   and you have not delivered me into the hand of the enemy;    you have set my feet in a broad place. 9   Be gracious to me, O LORD, for I am in distress;    my eye is wasted from grief;    my soul and my body also.10   For my life is spent with sorrow,    and my years with sighing;  my strength fails because of my iniquity,    and my bones waste away. 11   Because of all my adversaries I have become a reproach,    especially to my neighbors,  and an object of dread to my acquaintances;    those who see me in the street flee from me.12   I have been forgotten like one who is dead;    I have become like a broken vessel.13   For I hear the whispering of many—    terror on every side!—  as they scheme together against me,    as they plot to take my life. 14   But I trust in you, O LORD;    I say, “You are my God.”15   My times are in your hand;    rescue me from the hand of my enemies and from my persecutors!16   Make your face shine on your servant;    save me in your steadfast love!17   O LORD, let me not be put to shame,    for I call upon you;  let the wicked be put to shame;    let them go silently to Sheol.18   Let the lying lips be mute,    which speak insolently against the righteous    in pride and contempt. 19   Oh, how abundant is your goodness,    which you have stored up for those who fear you  and worked for those who take refuge in you,    in the sight of the children of mankind!20   In the cover of your presence you hide them    from the plots of men;  you store them in your shelter    from the strife of tongues. 21   Blessed be the LORD,    for he has wondrously shown his steadfast love to me    when I was in a besieged city.22   I had said in my alarm,2    “I am cut off from your sight.”  But you heard the voice of my pleas for mercy    when I cried to you for help. 23   Love the LORD, all you his saints!    The LORD preserves the faithful    but abundantly repays the one who acts in pride.24   Be strong, and let your heart take courage,    all you who wait for the LORD! Footnotes [1] 31:6 Masoretic Text; one Hebrew manuscript, Septuagint, Syriac, Jerome You hate [2] 31:22 Or in my haste (ESV) Second Psalm: Psalm 35 Psalm 35 (Listen) Great Is the Lord Of David. 35   Contend, O LORD, with those who contend with me;    fight against those who fight against me!2   Take hold of shield and buckler    and rise for my help!3   Draw the spear and javelin1    against my pursuers!  Say to my soul,    “I am your salvation!” 4   Let them be put to shame and dishonor    who seek after my life!  Let them be turned back and disappointed    who devise evil against me!5   Let them be like chaff before the wind,    with the angel of the LORD driving them away!6   Let their way be dark and slippery,    with the angel of the LORD pursuing them! 7   For without cause they hid their net for me;    without cause they dug a pit for my life.28   Let destruction come upon him when he does not know it!  And let the net that he hid ensnare him;    let him fall into it—to his destruction! 9   Then my soul will rejoice in the LORD,    exulting in his salvation.10   All my bones shall say,    “O LORD, who is like you,  delivering the poor    from him who is too strong for him,    the poor and needy from him who robs him?” 11   Malicious3 witnesses rise up;    they ask me of things that I do not know.12   They repay me evil for good;    my soul is bereft.413   But I, when they were sick—    I wore sackcloth;    I afflicted myself with fasting;  I prayed with head bowed5 on my chest.14     I went about as though I grieved for my friend or my brother;  as one who laments his mother,    I bowed down in mourning. 15   But at my stumbling they rejoiced and gathered;    they gathered together against me;  wretches whom I did not know    tore at me without ceasing;16   like profane mockers at a feast,6    they gnash at me with their teeth. 17   How long, O Lord, will you look on?    Rescue me from their destruction,    my precious life from the lions!18   I will thank you in the great congregation;    in the mighty throng I will praise you. 19   Let not those rejoice over me    who are wrongfully my foes,  and let not those wink the eye    who hate me without cause.20   For they do not speak peace,    but against those who are quiet in the land    they devise words of deceit.21   They open wide their mouths against me;    they say, “Aha, Aha!    Our eyes have seen it!” 22   You have seen, O LORD; be not silent!    O Lord, be not far from me!23   Awake and rouse yourself for my vindication,    for my cause, my God and my Lord!24   Vindicate me, O LORD, my God,    according to your righteousness,    and let them not rejoice over me!25   Let them not say in their hearts,    “Aha, our heart's desire!”  Let them not say, “We have swallowed him up.” 26   Let them be put to shame and disappointed altogether    who rejoice at my calamity!  Let them be clothed with shame and dishonor    who magnify themselves against me! 27   Let those who delight in my righteousness    shout for joy and be glad    and say evermore,  “Great is the LORD,    who delights in the welfare of his servant!”28   Then my tongue shall tell of your righteousness    and of your praise all the day long. Footnotes [1] 35:3 Or and close the way [2] 35:7 The word pit is transposed from the preceding line; Hebrew For without cause they hid the pit of their net for me; without cause they dug for my life [3] 35:11 Or Violent [4] 35:12 Hebrew it is bereavement to my soul [5] 35:13 Or my prayer shall turn back [6] 35:16 The meaning of the Hebrew phrase is uncertain (ESV) Old Testament: 1 Samuel 21 1 Samuel 21 (Listen) David and the Holy Bread 21 1 Then David came to Nob, to Ahimelech the priest. And Ahimelech came to meet David, trembling, and said to him, “Why are you alone, and no one with you?” 2 And David said to Ahimelech the priest, “The king has charged me with a matter and said to me, ‘Let no one know anything of the matter about which I send you, and with which I have charged you.' I have made an appointment with the young men for such and such a place. 3 Now then, what do you have on hand? Give me five loaves of bread, or whatever is here.” 4 And the priest answered David, “I have no common bread on hand, but there is holy bread—if the young men have kept themselves from women.” 5 And David answered the priest, “Truly women have been kept from us as always when I go on an expedition. The vessels of the young men are holy even when it is an ordinary journey. How much more today will their vessels be holy?” 6 So the priest gave him the holy bread, for there was no bread there but the bread of the Presence, which is removed from before the LORD, to be replaced by hot bread on the day it is taken away. 7 Now a certain man of the servants of Saul was there that day, detained before the LORD. His name was Doeg the Edomite, the chief of Saul's herdsmen. 8 Then David said to Ahimelech, “Then have you not here a spear or a sword at hand? For I have brought neither my sword nor my weapons with me, because the king's business required haste.” 9 And the priest said, “The sword of Goliath the Philistine, whom you struck down in the Valley of Elah, behold, it is here wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod. If you will take that, take it, for there is none but that here.” And David said, “There is none like that; give it to me.” David Flees to Gath 10 And David rose and fled that day from Saul and went to Achish the king of Gath. 11 And the servants of Achish said to him, “Is not this David the king of the land? Did they not sing to one another of him in dances,   ‘Saul has struck down his thousands,    and David his ten thousands'?” 12 And David took these words to heart and was much afraid of Achish the king of Gath. 13 So he changed his behavior before them and pretended to be insane in their hands and made marks on the doors of the gate and let his spittle run down his beard. 14 Then Achish said to his servants, “Behold, you see the man is mad. Why then have you brought him to me? 15 Do I lack madmen, that you have brought this fellow to behave as a madman in my presence? Shall this fellow come into my house?” Footnotes [1] 21:1 Ch 21:2 in Hebrew (ESV) New Testament: Acts 13:13–25 Acts 13:13–25 (Listen) Paul and Barnabas at Antioch in Pisidia 13 Now Paul and his companions set sail from Paphos and came to Perga in Pamphylia. And John left them and returned to Jerusalem, 14 but they went on from Perga and came to Antioch in Pisidia. And on the Sabbath day they went into the synagogue and sat down. 15 After the reading from the Law and the Prophets, the rulers of the synagogue sent a message to them, saying, “Brothers, if you have any word of encouragement for the people, say it.” 16 So Paul stood up, and motioning with his hand said: “Men of Israel and you who fear God, listen. 17 The God of this people Israel chose our fathers and made the people great during their stay in the land of Egypt, and with uplifted arm he led them out of it. 18 And for about forty years he put up with1 them in the wilderness. 19 And after destroying seven nations in the land of Canaan, he gave them their land as an inheritance. 20 All this took about 450 years. And after that he gave them judges until Samuel the prophet. 21 Then they asked for a king, and God gave them Saul the son of Kish, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, for forty years. 22 And when he had removed him, he raised up David to be their king, of whom he testified and said, ‘I have found in David the son of Jesse a man after my heart, who will do all my will.' 23 Of this man's offspring God has brought to Israel a Savior, Jesus, as he promised. 24 Before his coming, John had proclaimed a baptism of repentance to all the people of Israel. 25 And as John was finishing his course, he said, ‘What do you suppose that I am? I am not he. No, but behold, after me one is coming, the sandals of whose feet I am not worthy to untie.' Footnotes [1] 13:18 Some manuscripts he carried (compare Deuteronomy 1:31) (ESV) Gospel: Mark 3:7–19 Mark 3:7–19 (Listen) A Great Crowd Follows Jesus 7 Jesus withdrew with his disciples to the sea, and a great crowd followed, from Galilee and Judea 8 and Jerusalem and Idumea and from beyond the Jordan and from around Tyre and Sidon. When the great crowd heard all that he was doing, they came to him. 9 And he told his disciples to have a boat ready for him because of the crowd, lest they crush him, 10 for he had healed many, so that all who had diseases pressed around him to touch him. 11 And whenever the unclean spirits saw him, they fell down before him and cried out, “You are the Son of God.” 12 And he strictly ordered them not to make him known. The Twelve Apostles 13 And he went up on the mountain and called to him those whom he desired, and they came to him. 14 And he appointed twelve (whom he also named apostles) so that they might be with him and he might send them out to preach 15 and have authority to cast out demons. 16 He appointed the twelve: Simon (to whom he gave the name Peter); 17 James the son of Zebedee and John the brother of James (to whom he gave the name Boanerges, that is, Sons of Thunder); 18 Andrew, and Philip, and Bartholomew, and Matthew, and Thomas, and James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus, and Simon the Zealot,1 19 and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him. Footnotes [1] 3:18 Greek kananaios, meaning zealot (ESV)

Readings for Friday, July 16, 2021 “Those who live at earth's farthest bounds are awed by your signs; you make the gateways of the morning and the evening shout for joy.” -- Psalm 65:8 Morning Psalm 51 1 Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions. 2 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. 3 For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. 4 Against you, you alone, have I sinned, and done what is evil in your sight, so that you are justified in your sentence and blameless when you pass judgment. 5 Indeed, I was born guilty, a sinner when my mother conceived me. 6 You desire truth in the inward being; therefore teach me wisdom in my secret heart. 7 Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. 8 Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones that you have crushed rejoice. 9 Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities. 10 Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me. 11 Do not cast me away from your presence, and do not take your holy spirit from me. 12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and sustain in me a willing spirit. 13 Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will return to you. 14 Deliver me from bloodshed, O God, O God of my salvation, and my tongue will sing aloud of your deliverance. 15 O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise. 16 For you have no delight in sacrifice; if I were to give a burnt offering, you would not be pleased. 17 The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. 18 Do good to Zion in your good pleasure; rebuild the walls of Jerusalem, 19 then you will delight in right sacrifices, in burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings; then bulls will be offered on your altar. Psalm 148 1 Praise the Lord ! Praise the Lord from the heavens; praise him in the heights! 2 Praise him, all his angels; praise him, all his host! 3 Praise him, sun and moon; praise him, all you shining stars! 4 Praise him, you highest heavens, and you waters above the heavens! 5 Let them praise the name of the Lord, for he commanded and they were created. 6 He established them forever and ever; he fixed their bounds, which cannot be passed. 7 Praise the Lord from the earth, you sea monsters and all deeps, 8 fire and hail, snow and frost, stormy wind fulfilling his command! 9 Mountains and all hills, fruit trees and all cedars! 10 Wild animals and all cattle, creeping things and flying birds! 11 Kings of the earth and all peoples, princes and all rulers of the earth! 12 Young men and women alike, old and young together! 13 Let them praise the name of the Lord, for his name alone is exalted; his glory is above earth and heaven. 14 He has raised up a horn for his people, praise for all his faithful, for the people of Israel who are close to him. Praise the Lord ! Midday 1 Samuel 21:1-15 21 David came to Nob to the priest Ahimelech. Ahimelech came trembling to meet David, and said to him, “Why are you alone, and no one with you?” 2 David said to the priest Ahimelech, “The king has charged me with a matter, and said to me, ‘No one must know anything of the matter about which I send you, and with which I have charged you.' I have made an appointment with the young men for such and such a place. 3 Now then, what have you at hand? Give me five loaves of bread, or whatever is here.” 4 The priest answered David, “I have no ordinary bread at hand, only holy bread—provided that the young men have kept themselves from women.” 5 David answered the priest, “Indeed women have been kept from us as always when I go on an expedition; the vessels of the young men are holy even when it is a common journey; how much more today will their vessels be holy?” 6 So the priest gave him the holy bread; for there was no bread there except the bread of the Presence, which is removed from before the Lord, to be replaced by hot bread on the day it is taken away. 7 Now a certain man of the servants of Saul was there that day, detained before the Lord ; his name was Doeg the Edomite, the chief of Saul's shepherds. 8 David said to Ahimelech, “Is there no spear or sword here with you? I did not bring my sword or my weapons with me, because the king's business required haste.” 9 The priest said, “The sword of Goliath the Philistine, whom you killed in the valley of Elah, is here wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod; if you will take that, take it, for there is none here except that one.” David said, “There is none like it; give it to me.” 10 David rose and fled that day from Saul; he went to King Achish of Gath. 11 The servants of Achish said to him, “Is this not David the king of the land? Did they not sing to one another of him in dances, ‘Saul has killed his thousands, and David his ten thousands'?” 12 David took these words to heart and was very much afraid of King Achish of Gath. 13 So he changed his behavior before them; he pretended to be mad when in their presence. He scratched marks on the doors of the gate, and let his spittle run down his beard. 14 Achish said to his servants, “Look, you see the man is mad; why then have you brought him to me? 15 Do I lack madmen, that you have brought this fellow to play the madman in my presence? Shall this fellow come into my house?” Acts 13:13-25 13 Then Paul and his companions set sail from Paphos and came to Perga in Pamphylia. John, however, left them and returned to Jerusalem; 14 but they went on from Perga and came to Antioch in Pisidia. And on the sabbath day they went into the synagogue and sat down. 15 After the reading of the law and the prophets, the officials of the synagogue sent them a message, saying, “Brothers, if you have any word of exhortation for the people, give it.” 16 So Paul stood up and with a gesture began to speak: “You Israelites, and others who fear God, listen. 17 The God of this people Israel chose our ancestors and made the people great during their stay in the land of Egypt, and with uplifted arm he led them out of it. 18 For about forty years he put up with them in the wilderness. 19 After he had destroyed seven nations in the land of Canaan, he gave them their land as an inheritance 20 for about four hundred fifty years. After that he gave them judges until the time of the prophet Samuel. 21 Then they asked for a king; and God gave them Saul son of Kish, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, who reigned for forty years. 22 When he had removed him, he made David their king. In his testimony about him he said, ‘I have found David, son of Jesse, to be a man after my heart, who will carry out all my wishes.' 23 Of this man's posterity God has brought to Israel a Savior, Jesus, as he promised; 24 before his coming John had already proclaimed a baptism of repentance to all the people of Israel. 25 And as John was finishing his work, he said, ‘What do you suppose that I am? I am not he. No, but one is coming after me; I am not worthy to untie the thong of the sandals on his feet.” Mark 3:7-19a 7 Jesus departed with his disciples to the sea, and a great multitude from Galilee followed him; 8 hearing all that he was doing, they came to him in great numbers from Judea, Jerusalem, Idumea, beyond the Jordan, and the region around Tyre and Sidon. 9 He told his disciples to have a boat ready for him because of the crowd, so that they would not crush him; 10 for he had cured many, so that all who had diseases pressed upon him to touch him. 11 Whenever the unclean spirits saw him, they fell down before him and shouted, “You are the Son of God!” 12 But he sternly ordered them not to make him known. 13 He went up the mountain and called to him those whom he wanted, and they came to him. 14 And he appointed twelve, whom he also named apostles, to be with him, and to be sent out to proclaim the message, 15 and to have authority to cast out demons. 16 So he appointed the twelve: Simon (to whom he gave the name Peter); 17 James son of Zebedee and John the brother of James (to whom he gave the name Boanerges, that is, Sons of Thunder); 18 and Andrew, and Philip, and Bartholomew, and Matthew, and Thomas, and James son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus, and Simon the Cananaean, 19 and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him. Evening Psalm 142 1 With my voice I cry to the Lord ; with my voice I make supplication to the Lord . 2 I pour out my complaint before him; I tell my trouble before him. 3 When my spirit is faint, you know my way. In the path where I walk they have hidden a trap for me. 4 Look on my right hand and see— there is no one who takes notice of me; no refuge remains to me; no one cares for me. 5 I cry to you, O Lord ; I say, “You are my refuge, my portion in the land of the living.” 6 Give heed to my cry, for I am brought very low. Save me from my persecutors, for they are too strong for me. 7 Bring me out of prison, so that I may give thanks to your name. The righteous will surround me, for you will deal bountifully with me. Psalm 65 1 Praise is due to you, O God, in Zion; and to you shall vows be performed, 2 O you who answer prayer! To you all flesh shall come. 3 When deeds of iniquity overwhelm us, you forgive our transgressions. 4 Happy are those whom you choose and bring near to live in your courts. We shall be satisfied with the goodness of your house, your holy temple. 5 By awesome deeds you answer us with deliverance, O God of our salvation; you are the hope of all the ends of the earth and of the farthest seas. 6 By your strength you established the mountains; you are girded with might. 7 You silence the roaring of the seas, the roaring of their waves, the tumult of the peoples. 8 Those who live at earth's farthest bounds are awed by your signs; you make the gateways of the morning and the evening shout for joy. 9 You visit the earth and water it, you greatly enrich it; the river of God is full of water; you provide the people with grain, for so you have prepared it. 10 You water its furrows abundantly, settling its ridges, softening it with showers, and blessing its growth. 11 You crown the year with your bounty; your wagon tracks overflow with richness. 12 The pastures of the wilderness overflow, the hills gird themselves with joy, 13 the meadows clothe themselves with flocks, the valleys deck themselves with grain, they shout and sing together for joy. You can also find all of today's readings at PCUSA.org. The Daily Lectionary podcast is a ministry of First Presbyterian Church of Plattsburgh, NY, read by Pastor Timothy J. Luoma.

Skip the Queue is brought to you by Rubber Cheese, a digital agency that builds remarkable systems and websites for attractions that helps them increase their visitor numbers. Your host is  Kelly Molson, MD of Rubber Cheese.Download our free ebook The Ultimate Guide to Doubling Your Visitor NumbersIf you like what you hear, you can subscribe on iTunes, Spotify, and all the usual channels by searching Skip the Queue or visit our website rubbercheese.com/podcastIf you've enjoyed this podcast, please leave us a five star review, it really helps others find us. And remember to follow us on Twitter for your chance to win the books that have been mentioned in this episode.Competition ends August  27th 2021. The winner will be contacted via Twitter. Show references:https://www.rubbercheese.com/https://www.linkedin.com/in/kellymolsonhttps://twitter.com/TheChiefCheesehttps://www.skipthequeue.fm/https://twitter.com/Skip_the_Queuehttps://www.painshill.co.uk/https://twitter.com/PGriffiths_PHP Transcription:Kelly Molson: Welcome to Skip The Queue, a podcast for people working in, or working with visitor attractions. I'm your host Kelly Molson. Each episode, I speak with industry experts from the attractions world. If you like what you hear, you can subscribe on iTunes, Spotify, and all the usual channels by searching Skip The Queue.In today's episode, everything has been turned on its head. Paul Griffiths, Director of Painshill Park, is interviewing me about what it really takes to launch a podcast, and why we started Skip The Queue in the first place. I think I should probably be worried about the ice breaker questions.Paul Griffiths: Hello, and welcome to this latest edition of Skip The Queue. And I'm your guest presenter today, Paul Griffiths, and I'm delighted to have a very special guest for you today, Chief Cheese herself, Kelly Molson. Kelly, welcome to Skip The Queue.Kelly Molson: Thank you for welcoming me to my podcast. Paul Griffiths: All right, it's an honour. I know we've been trying to get you on the show for a long time, so it's great to finally get there. Now, we're here today to talk about how you made a podcast, and how you turned Skip The Queue into the ultimate podcast for visitor attractions. But, before we do that, of course, regular listeners will know, we have to start with our ice breaker questions. Kelly, are you ready for some ice breaker questions?Kelly Molson: No, I don't think I am, if I'm completely honest. I'm starting to feel like this is a big mistake.Paul Griffiths: No, no. Well just think, all the people you've had on, and all the questions you've asked them...Kelly Molson: I am.Paul Griffiths: I think we're going very easy on you like you do for your guests. You hope you'll not get difficult questions. Now Kelly, through the series of podcasts, I think we've all learned little bits about you from various things you've said, or say. So, I've tried to theme these questions slightly on your interests. So, I know you're a big fan of all things '80s, so particularly music. So, I want to know, and our guests want to know, what is your favourite '80s dance floor filler of all time?Kelly Molson: Oh, okay. Do you know what, so this is really weird because we were just talking about '80s music on our morning catch up with the team. Because one of my team members... So, we've got a password system that we built ourselves, and it's called Kenny Loggins.Paul Griffiths: Nice.Kelly Molson: And one of... Yeah, I know, great, right? But one of our team was like, "Who's Kenny Loggins?" I lost my mind. Okay, so I think a great '80s dance floor filler, it's got to be Wham, hasn't it? I feel like something like Club Tropicana.Paul Griffiths: Nice.Kelly Molson: Would be a good choice. But I do, on the theme of Kenny Loggins, I do love a bit of Footloose, and I also am a massive Top Gun fan. So, Highway To The Danger Zone. I mean, is there anything more '80s than that?Paul Griffiths: It's the perfect song, isn't it? The Aviator sunglasses. Funny enough you should mention Club Tropicana, my son Barney, who I think I got mentioned before on Skip The Queue, his class got the '80s as an era for world music decade. Each class got a decade. And they had to vote on what song they wanted to sing and dance to. But Club Tropicana didn't make it. Kelly Molson: Oh.Paul Griffiths: They had Club Tropicana, Madonna's Holiday, or Madness' Our House. And they went for Our House as a class vote.Kelly Molson: Oh right. I'm disappointed. It's the spirit of the '80s for me.Paul Griffiths: Absolutely. Okay, now we all know that you are a big Spurs fan, so we're going to give you an option here, you've got to pick one of these two strikers, who is going to play for Spurs forever. But the one you reject is off to play for the Arsenal forever. Kelly Molson: Oh.Paul Griffiths: So, will you take Harry Kane upfront for Spurs forever, or will you an in his prime Gary Lineker to play for Spurs forever? The other's off to The Emirates Stadium. Kelly Molson: Oh, God.Paul Griffiths: Now, I'll give you some help here, maybe. Lineker scored 80 goals in 138 games for the Spurs. Kane's, at the time of recording, 166 goals in 242 games. Obviously, a lot more games played now with European football. But, who are you going to take, and who's off to The Emirates?Kelly Molson: Oh my God. This is awful. This is a dreadful question if you're a Tottenham fan, because Gary Lineker, Gary Lineker was just, I mean, he was just an absolute hero. Oh, and I can't imagine him. No, God, this is dreadful. I'm going to have to go Lineker. Yeah, no, I'd have to, because I just feel like I couldn't live with watching him on the telly, and him having played for Arsenal. No. I'd have to go for Lineker. I know that doesn't work out in terms of how many goals, and stuff, but...Paul Griffiths: No, but that ratio [crosstalk 00:04:58].Kelly Molson: It's from my childhood. Yeah, I couldn't bear that.Paul Griffiths: Oh, you Gazza as well as a package. He comes with Gazza [inaudible 00:05:07].Kelly Molson: I wanted to marry Gazza, genuinely, when I was a kid. Gazza was like my... Yeah, I thought I was going to marry Paul Gascoigne. Maybe I had a bit of a lucky escape there, though. Paul Griffiths: I was just going say, probably better you didn't [inaudible 00:05:15]. Right, and the other thing we know you love is visitor attractions, especially as you've spent so much time on podcast talking. So, there's some either ors for you here, would you go to, Disney Park, or Merlin Park?Kelly Molson: Disney.Paul Griffiths: Museum or stately home? Kelly Molson: Stately home because I really like the grounds as well that become part of a... Like that kind of outside space too. So, stately home I think.Paul Griffiths: Good answer. National Park, or landscape garden.Kelly Molson: Oh, that would be National Park.Paul Griffiths: Fair enough.Kelly Molson: I'm going to feel like I've upset... I'm going to upset someone along the line, aren't I? But how can I not say National Parks?Paul Griffiths: And that's what ice breakers are all about, but moving on to upsetting people, of course, we have to ask you, what is your unpopular opinion?Kelly Molson: Right, well I thought about this, and I've got many. I've got one about Lorraine Kelly, but I don't know if I'm prepared to take the backlash for that one yet, so, I might save that for another day. So, I'm going to go... Oh, I've got so many, I'm going to go with afternoon tea is rubbish, absolute rubbish. I don't understand why, when you get to a certain age as a woman, every... I don't know, all of your mates are like, "Hey, let's go out for afternoon tea." Like, "Really?" I'd rather go to the pub. Kelly Molson: And, I don't understand what meal afternoon tea actually is, because you always have it at about 3.00 o'clock. So, do you have lunch before you go, because I'd be hungry by 3.00. So do you have lunch, and then you have tea? And then dinner? So you're having an extra meal. And then you never get enough sandwiches. Too much sweet stuff, not enough sandwiches. And you have it with tea. I just don't get it. It's just not for me.Paul Griffiths: That's a really well thought out answer, Kelly, there. And I have to say, I'm with you on a lot of those points, although, as someone who's selling afternoon teas from this afternoon on, I'm a great fan of course. But ours do come with Prosecco, so maybe that's an added bonus.Kelly Molson: Yeah, I mean... Yeah, if it is a Prosecco based one, it elevates it slightly for me, but I still just... I don't understand the big hoo-ha about an afternoon tea. And I just... The idea of it is actually better than the reality I think. Paul Griffiths: I think that's going to be an unpopular opinion that splits a few of our listeners, but I think it's a good answer, and well thought out.Kelly Molson: Thank you.Paul Griffiths: It's okay. Thanks for coming to the show.Kelly Molson: You're very welcome.Paul Griffiths: No, it's great to have you. You know that we're all great fans of Skip The Queue, and I think we'll talk about it later, you've got an amazing, almost family, of listeners who almost become a little group that talk regularly together, et cetera. And it has been a lifeline for many over the last year, with resource, and with so much great content that's helped so many of us through lockdown, re-opening, sharing... I mean, the amount of times I've been in the car chortling at peoples' experiences because of the laughter of recognition because I've been there myself. Paul Griffiths: Now I think we want to know a little about how you set up the podcast, and I thought it would be really useful to start with because, over the podcast, we've learned a lot about you as well. But I thought it would great if you told us a bit about how you became chief cheese, and how you set up Rubber Cheese, why you got the name. I know you did tell us on another podcast, but people might not have listened to our American friends. So, just chat a bit about the background before we go into podcasting.Kelly Molson: Gosh. So, Rubber Cheese has been around for 18 years now, which is... It is the longest job that I've ever had in my entire life. I met my co-founder, Paul, when we were working at an internet company. So it was like... It was the first foray into people being able to build their own e-commerce stores. You know you've got Shopify now, where you can go on and load your own store. So, about 20 years ago, there was a version of that called iShop which is still around now. And Paul and I met working there. And I think there was just something. We just always wanted to do something for ourselves. So I think I worked there for a couple of years, got a bit of a taste for web stuff. I was a graphic designer previously to that. I used to design branding, and brochures, and marketing materials, all kinds of stuff, and packaging as well.Kelly Molson: And so, yeah, we were 24, and 25, and we just thought, "Hey, let's leave our jobs, and go and set up an agency, right? What could be difficult about that?" Paul Griffiths: What could go wrong?Kelly Molson: What could go wrong? And lots went wrong. But no, actually, it was great. It was... Look we didn't really have a huge amount of ties at that point, so it was like, "Let's just give this a go, and see what happens after a year." And about two months in, we won a really big contract with Tescos, via a friend of mine who I had recently reconnected with on Friends Reunited, which is really ageing me. Paul Griffiths: Yeah, we are ageing ourselves there, for both doing that one, yeah.Kelly Molson: Massively. And just... It started there really, so we won this big contract with Tescos, it was a two-year contract, it put us in a really great position of then being able to go, "Okay, well great, our rent's paid." And we could then start to look at clients that we were working with, and just grew quite organically. It was just the two of us for five years. And then we took on our first full-time employee, who... She came in as a designer. So she took my design role, and then that was at the point where I became Chief Cheese. So I then had to stop learning about design, so to speak, and start learning a lot about spreadsheets, and pipelines, and sales forecasts, and all the stuff that was really hugely complicated to my creative brain. Kelly Molson: And it's just gone from strength to strength really. So we've been really, incredibly lucky. I mean, there's seven of us. We're not a huge, huge agency, but we work with global brands, and I just think we've been so incredibly fortunate over the years to work with some amazing clients. Kelly Molson: And the last six, seven years, a lot of them have been within the tourism attractions sector, which is where we end up today.Paul Griffiths: What about the name, how did you come up with Rubber Cheese, because it is fabulous?Kelly Molson: Thank you. I really want to tell you that there's an amazing story behind it, but it's so dull. So Paul and I were, again, this is nearly 20 years ago, we were teaching ourselves to use Flash animation, which was all the rage back then. And we needed a website where we could upload stuff, and test it out, and see if it was working. And Paul was like, "Oh, we'll buy a domain. Rubber Cheese, that'll do." So we just bought this domain, and then when we left the company, we said, "Well, we'll take that domain with us, we'll buy it, and take it with us." Kelly Molson: And that was it. There was no... It was just, "Okay, well great, we've got this ridiculous name, that will draw some attention, won't it?" So, I'd love to say from a branding perspective, you should really think about your name, and what that means. But we didn't do any of that whatsoever. It just became this odd name. But it was quite... It was quite funny because when we'd start to go networking events, or even just a bank to pay in a cheque, how retro is that? You'd get asked, "What is Rubber Cheese?" And you'd end up having these great conversations with people about what it was. Sometimes I'd go to a networking event and people would go, "We've been waiting for you to turn up, because we really wanted to know what Rubber Cheese is." And it was like, "Oh, this works in a way." Because people want to talk to you and find out a little bit more. I think we did... We might have thought about changing the name at one point, but it's there to stay.Paul Griffiths: Perfect. And then now, she's been chief cheese, what more could you want?Kelly Molson: Exactly.Paul Griffiths: So, from Rubber Cheese, and obviously you've said, in the last six, seven years you've been focusing... Well, not focusing, but doing a lot of visitor attractions, talk a little bit about how you set up Skip The Queue, and what made you do that and why, if you're working in a number of sectors, you thought actually tourism, we'll focus on visitor attractions.Kelly Molson: So we have worked in lots of different sectors over the years. We've been really lucky. But what happened is, we started working so... I mentioned a global client earlier, we've been working with Pernod Ricard for, probably about 10 years, in various forms. And probably, it must have been about five or six years ago, that we started talking to them about the Plymouth Gin Distillery Visitors' Center, a fabulous place. And we were contracted to build a platform for them, which was a ticket booking platform. And what was really great about that project is, it was our first foray into understanding the visitor experience, and the experience economy, and a tourist attraction, and a visitor attraction, and what challenges they had. And it was the best project. Everybody loved working on this project. And it was such a good learning experience for us, and so that worked really well for them. Kelly Molson: They then rolled it out to the Beefeater Distillery, and then we've been working it again with four of the Whiskey Distilleries up in Scotland as well. And so, over those three years, four years that we've worked with them, we've just built up this huge amount of knowledge about what they were doing, and their challenges, and how we could make things work better for them, which then led to winning other projects in that sector. So, it was fabulous that we worked with Eureka, The National Children's Museum, who are just wonderful. If you haven't been there, please go. Find a child to take so that you can go. It's definitely, it's worth it, you know.Paul Griffiths: Brilliant. One of your podcasts with you a few episodes ago and listen to a chat about the new Eureka, that's really inspiring. I think everyone then was like, "I want to go, I want to go." Kelly Molson: Oh definitely. Yeah. And the new centre is going to be incredible, I cannot wait for next year when that opens.Paul Griffiths: We'll go with our Crocs and socks on. Kelly Molson: Oh, Michelle. Michelle. No Crocs and socks. Please don't do that. So yeah. It came from there really, and I think what was interesting is that all of the team are very much... We're all people that spend our money on doing things, rather than buying stuff if that makes sense. Paul Griffiths: Yeah, it does.Kelly Molson: We want to spend our money on things that make memories, so we love to travel, Lee and I, we travel a lot. We like to go to different places, we like to... Even like Christmas presents, we don't really buy each other stuff, we'll go, "Okay, well, why don't we go to the theatre, or why don't we go and..." That's what we would rather do with the money that we have. And we just spoke to the team, and said, "Look, we've never done this before, but we'd really like to focus all of our attention on one sector, what do you think?" And everyone was up for it. Everyone was behind it. And that's really where the idea came from because although we'd been working in that sector, we didn't know enough, it wasn't broad enough for us. So the podcast was a way for us to learn more from people. Paul Griffiths: Mm-hmm (affirmative).Kelly Molson: And so that's how we came up with the idea of starting it.Paul Griffiths: I should have said earlier actually, I must say thank you to a number of regular listeners who have emailed in or LinkedIn or Twitter with questions. And lots of these, I hope I'm covering in the next bit of the show. And a number of questions that people have sent in. And a lot of people are interested, Kelly, to know how you initially set this up from a brainwave of, "Let's do a podcast." To recording and turning Skip The Queue into what it is. But how did you start up in that sense?Kelly Molson: So, I guess there are quite a few facets to it really because you have to think about why you're doing it in the first place. So that for me is the first starting point. It's like, "Why are you doing it?" So, what are your objectives with the podcast, and ours was really... It was initially about education. We wanted to understand about the sector, understand about people's individual challenges, what the sector was going through. Good things, bad things. Kelly Molson: We wanted to meet people in the sector, so again, we wanted to expand our network. We really wanted to create a platform where we celebrated the people that worked in attractions as well, because we thought that was really important. There's a lot of things that happen behind the scenes in attractions that you don't realise when you visit them. And even the people that you're talking to front of house, you don't realise the kind of pressures that they're under, or you're sometimes not aware of the service that they're delivering you. So it was like, "Well, why don't we celebrate that?" And then, ultimately, it was a way of raising our profile in the sector as well. Kelly Molson: So from a marketing perspective, a podcast is a really great thing to have, because it can position you right in the centre of that industry that you want to be part of. So that was a big part of it. And then, we had to look at how we were going to do this. And what skills did we have internally to be able to set up a podcast? And so, I think Paul and I were like, "Okay, well we can host." I do a lot of public speaking for the agency anyway, so I was quite comfortable talking, although a podcast is very different from standing up in front of hundreds of people at an event. It's... In some ways, it's more uncomfortable, but I'll tell you why it started off being a bit more uncomfortable. And then you have to think about what format your podcast is going to be. Kelly Molson: So, is it going to be you just delivering your knowledge, or are you going to try and get guests in? What are those topics going to be? What are you going to talk about? How are you going to find the guests that you want to come on? Are they going to say, "Yes?" Is anyone going to say, "Yes," they want to come on this podcast, I don't know. What kind of content is there going to be? And then you have to really think about where your audience is because anyone can set up a podcast but not everyone is going to find it, and listen to it. So you have to think about, "Is there an element of community building that you need to do around this podcast as well?" Where you promote it, and how you get that out to the right people. And then, once you've done all of that, you have to think about, "Okay, well, who's going to edit this podcast? How are we going to actually make it a thing?" I can sit and record something. Kelly Molson: None of us internally had any podcast editing skills, and we made the decision really early, that nobody was going to learn that. It was going to be too much of a time drain for us. So we were going to outsource that element, so we work with Steve Folland, who is super. We knew Steve, he works and is based locally to where our office is. But he works on some really awesome podcasts. And he actually has his own podcast, Doing It For The Kids. He's got a really great podcast for the freelance community as well. And then it's down to, where are you going to host the podcast, you need some kind of platform to host it on? What are you going to record it on? And how are you going to promote it? So, we talked about building a community. If you're going to promote a podcast, you need things like graphics created. Are you going to have our podcast transcribed? That was really important to us. Kelly Molson: We wanted to make the podcast as accessible as possible to everyone, so not everyone can listen to a podcast. So we make sure that it's transcribed, so you need to have that done so that people can read the podcast if they want to. So there is a huge amount of things to decide on before you go, "Right, let's do it."Paul Griffiths: It's interesting. Lots of the points you've touched on, I'd like to delve into a bit more in detail, if we can, over the next few questions. A lot of people... One of the things that came up a lot when we put a plea out for questions, and what people want to know was costs. Because you just described things that people aren't doing free of charge. And I wondered if you could give an idea of what it costs to do an episode, or what it costs to set up, or whatever figures you're happy to give. It's just, I think a lot of people would be interested to know what sort of budgets they would need if they're looking to set up a podcast.Kelly Molson: Yeah, totally. So, I've thought about this in quite great detail. So because we knew initially we were not going to edit, we didn't have to buy any editing equipment. So I'm really sorry I can't answer any questions about that because genuinely, the best thing that we ever did was hire Steve to do the editing. He's a specialist. He makes everything sound brilliant. He even makes me sound funny sometimes. But what we did purchase were things like a really good microphone. So this is my microphone. A blue yeti microphone. Which was about £120, £150, somewhere around that. But that's a really great investment. It was a bit of trial and error actually, we bought other microphones that weren't that great, and ended up going back, but this has been the best one that we've bought. You need good headphones. These are average headphones. My good headphones I actually left at the office, and I haven't been back there for a while. So a good pair of headphones, noise cancelling ones are normally quite good. I don't know, 30, 40 quid for a pair like that. You could go higher if you want, but something around that price bracket would be fine. Editing an episode is an interesting one. You can hear my little dog barking in the background. Steve will edit her out.Paul Griffiths: Oh really?Kelly Molson: He'll work his magic somehow. You probably won't be able to hear her. But that for us is worth the weight in gold. So...Paul Griffiths: Desperate to be on the show, isn't she?Kelly Molson: She's such a drama queen. She's just... She craves attention. I mean, I wonder where she gets that from?Paul Griffiths: Ooh.Kelly Molson: But then you need to think about your site hosting. So we host our podcast on a platform called Simple Cast. That's about £15 per month. We record through Zoom. And Steve curses me for recording through Zoom because the sound quality is not great. We used to record through a platform called Zencaster, which again, is a cloud-based platform. It's about £15 a month. Now, the reason we stopped recording through Zencaster is, it became a bit complex for the guests, and sometimes some of the guests didn't really understand what they need to do, even if I'd sent instructions. People are really busy. They don't always read the things that they need to before they come on, which is understandable. Zoom, everyone was really comfortable using, because they were using it every day for all of their meetings. So it just became easier for us to do Zoom. So we've got a pro Zoom account. But obviously, we use that for other things as well, so I don't really tie that into podcast costs. But then you need to think about who's going to create your promotion graphics for this. We're lucky, we've got in-house designers. Kelly Molson: We've got an amazing VA who supports me hugely with our podcasts. So we've got templates set up, she will then create all of the podcast graphics from the templates that we've already got in place, but that is potentially a cost that someone needs to think about.Paul Griffiths: Mm-hmm (affirmative).Kelly Molson: Then I said we get it transcribed, each episode. It's roughly about $40 to get it transcribed. So there are lots of little things that you don't think about, that you need to think about in advance. We also run a competition. So there is a cost to that in the fact that you have to purchase the books that people recommend, sometimes they recommend two or three when I ask for one. And then that puts my budget up. And then the postage for that, and things like that. So I think we worked it out that the podcast probably costs about five, to six grand a year.Paul Griffiths: Oh. Kelly Molson: Which isn't a huge amount if you've got... It depends on what your marketing budget is, but it also then depends on what the returns, or what your expected returns are for that podcast, and for that amount.Paul Griffiths: Yeah. Kelly Molson: So you have to work out... And that takes you back to why are you doing this in the first place? And is this a worthwhile investment for you?Paul Griffiths: I think that that would be one of my later questions actually. Thank you for that Kelly, that's really honest, and I think that's really useful for people. Because I think that's one of the things that a lot of people, me included, probably felt that you go on Zoom, you record speaking to someone, bang, it's up live. But actually, there's so much more work behind it which is just quite frightening.Paul Griffiths: You obviously manage to attract brilliant guests, and I think they get better and better all the time, but how did you go about... Well, firstly can you tell us about how you got the initial guest, because you had no podcast, you were starting up. You had to invite 10 people on, and you had some fabulous people in those early days, real industry leaders coming on the show. And then, how do you now go about getting guests and picking topics, and thinking about what people might want to hear about?Kelly Molson: Yeah, so it was really difficult to get guests when we first started because you haven't got anything to show them. You've no proof of concept, you're just getting in touch with people and saying, "Hey, we've started this podcast, it's about this subject, we'd really love you to come on and talk to us, how do you feel about it?" And we would get emails back from people, and they'd be like, "Well, can you send us an episode? What is it? How many listeners have you got? How long..." We were like, "Well, zero listeners at this moment in time. Hey, we're listening." So, it was quite tricky. We lucked out a little bit, I'm not going to lie. So we had the CEO of Paradise Wildlife Park come on. Which, for us, was quite a big coup, because they're quite local to where we are, but the luck that we had is, one of our team members was actually related to her. So we had a little bit of an ins there already.Kelly Molson: And then I think some of the others we, again, it was just... We maybe just got them at the right time. They had something that they wanted to talk about, that they were quite keen to get out in the world. And then, actually, it was a case of, I stalked people a little bit. So, I went to the visitor attractions conference at the end of 2018, or no, it was in 2019. So, I'd been stalking people that had spoken at the attractions conference previously, and saying, "Oh, I really loved your talk, it was really interesting, I wondered if you could come on and talk about the same thing on our podcast?" And that's how I got a few of the early, of the second series people, come on. Kelly Molson: So Jules Ozbek, who I think is fantastic, I heard her speak at the Visitor Attractions Conference at the end of 2019, and then I... I basically just stalked her a little bit on LinkedIn and asked her really kindly if she would come on the podcast, which she agreed to. And also Abigail Olive, as well, who was awesome, from Castle Howard. Her story about... She shared the love story.Paul Griffiths: Yes.Kelly Molson: You must go back and listen to this episode because it's a brilliant story. But it was about how they... There's a wonderful love story that had happened that then brought them all of these incredible Chinese tourists to the place. And she was fabulous. And I think once people hear the calibre of guests that you can get, it sort of spirals a little bit from then.Kelly Molson: But those first ones were... It was really, really tough. And I just think you've just got to keep ploughing on, and asking people. People will say no, but don't be offended by that. Some of the people that have said no, would probably say yes now if I went back because I can showcase what we've done, and who's been on.Paul Griffiths: And so, how about now Kelly, do you have a long waiting list of guests lined up, you plan your series, don't you? So, are you finding it easier to get guests now, how do you go about it now, now you're that you're already onto this podcast?Kelly Molson: So, I still stalk people, if I'm honest. So, what I think, what's great is that the guests we've had on... There is something really lovely about the attractions sector, in that, there is a community there already.Paul Griffiths: Mm-hmm (affirmative). Yeah.Kelly Molson: And what is wonderful is that we've had guests on, that I've then been able to say, "Who do you think that we should have on? Who do you think has got a really interesting story?" And I can remember doing this with Carly Straughan, and Johnny Lyle as well, both of them. I had really good chats with them after their episodes. And said, "Could you recommend some people that you think that would be really great for us?" And they're so well connected, and they know everybody in the industry, and they were like, "Yeah." And they sent me lists of people. They were like, "You need to speak to this person, this person would be great." And so, that's how it spiralled. But because they knew them, obviously those guests come on, and then they knew more people and more people. So, that's one of the best ways, is like saying to your guests, "Who do you think should come on and talk about this? Because you know the industry better than we do right now." Kelly Molson: And then I do stalk people. I go on to Twitter, and like I said, there is quite an active attractions community on Twitter.Kelly Molson: And I see who people are talking to, or I see Blooloop is a fantastic resource, Attractions Magazine is another great resource. I see stories that come up in there, and I think, "Wow, that would make a great podcast episode, let's talk to them." So I've got my eye on the Black County Living Museum at the moment. So, I'm doing a little bit of stalking at the moment, because I'd love them to come on and talk about their Tik Tok fame.Kelly Molson: And so, stuff like that happens where you see what's going on, and you think, "Great, they would be awesome. And then you just reach out to them." But you do... I do get people to email us. Not very often actually, but occasionally people email us and say, "I think this person would make a great guest on the podcast, or we've got this thing that we'd love to talk about." I have to be really conscious that there are sometimes will contact that... I don't want the podcast ever to be salesy.Paul Griffiths: Right yeah.Kelly Molson: For me, it is an education piece, and it's really important that it stays an education piece, so I'll try to get that balance right between the kind of people that do come on, and what they're talking about and those topics. So, sometimes people will say, "I've got this thing that I've launched, and I want to come and talk about." And I don't know that that's a good fit for the audience at that point. So...Paul Griffiths: Fab. And what about the promotion of a podcast, from the early days of getting it known, I guess was word of mouth. And now, how do you promote it? How do you keep gaining more listeners, and how have you got your success?Kelly Molson: Well, it's lovely that you think it's successful. It is interesting because I think that success is really subjective. So, again, it goes back to your objectives, and what you are trying to achieve from it. Because our top one was always about education, we weren't that focused on what the numbers were. So, people are, "Oh, how many downloads do you get?" It's not really that relevant to us because that's not what we were... We weren't aiming to be number one in the podcast charts. So, the way that we've promoted it is by understanding where the community is. So, where do the people that would be our listeners hang out, and it's mostly Twitter. Kelly Molson: It's a very active community on Twitter, so that's really where we do most of our promotion. So we've got a Twitter account, specifically for Skip The Queue. We will post out on there when the new episodes are coming, and we'll make graphics and snippets, and we'll do as much as we can to promote the guest.Kelly Molson: It's actually probably more about promoting the guest than it is about promoting the podcast if that makes sense? So we really try to highlight those people and raise them up. And what's great is that so many people then help us spread the word. So, the best people to share, and promote the podcasts, are the guests that come on. And we've been really lucky that we've had great guests that have wanted to do that. We've had other great guests that have come on, and that's it. They've come on, they've done the podcast, they've shared their knowledge, we don't hear from them again. They're not, they haven't shared any of the Tweets, or any of the posts. And that's fine. If that's not their bag. But then, you do get a huge proportion of people that really want to. They're really proud of the fact that they've been on. They want to share what they've done with other people. And that's really where you see the numbers start to grow, and the interaction happen. We've got some really incredible loyal fan base.Kelly Molson: You are one of them Paul. You're always super generous with sharing what you think about the podcast, or what you've learned from it. And Mark Ellis does as well, from the National Arboretum. And that's how you spread the word. There are other things that you can do, which we haven't done as actively as we could. But things like going on other people's podcasts is a really good way of promoting your own podcast.Paul Griffiths: Right.Kelly Molson: And I was very kindly invited on the Attraction Pros podcast, which is our... It's the US equivalent. Josh and Matt who run that are fabulous. And honestly, all of our listeners should subscribe to that if you're not already because they get some really interesting guests on there, and they ask great questions as well. So that was a really lovely opportunity for us to cross-promote. And Matt and Josh have both been back on our podcast as well. So hopefully, that's helped and crossed the big pond. Kelly Molson: Sometimes it is also about getting a big name to come on the podcast too. And that drives up your listeners because they... So I reached out, oh God, I was so nervous about doing this. So I asked the ex VP of Disney if he would come on the podcast. And I was terrified. I sent this email on LinkedIn thinking, "He's never going to reply to me." And honestly, five minutes later he emailed back, and was like, "Yeah, I'll come on." "Oh God, now I've got to actually interview him." I was so nervous. But that was incredible, the value that that gave to the podcast, and how it was able to position it. After that, no one said no to coming on the podcast since that point so...Paul Griffiths: Lee Cockerell and you really are hard-hitting, aren't you? And of course, I think from his perspective, I guess because he's got a brilliant weekly podcast. Dan's got a brilliant weekly podcast. So they are, as you said, going on other people's podcast as a guest is a great way. And you said, was a brilliant episode of you on Attractions Pro, as was then, Matt and Josh came on yours. You talk about not worrying about the stats. Is there a little bit of you Kelly, that thinks it's like Top of The Pops, back in the old days, and you're wanting to see where you are on that list, and seeing how many people are listening, I know I would?Kelly Molson: I don't check it very frequently. I'll be completely honest.Paul Griffiths: Really.Kelly Molson: No, I don't check it very frequently. I started to do a top three on Twitter. Like the top three downloaded episodes, because I thought that would be interesting for listeners to know. But I did check it before we recorded this because I knew you were going to ask, so the most downloaded episode at the moment is The Making Of Harry Potter.Paul Griffiths: Oh yeah. It was a-Kelly Molson: With Geoff Spooner So, that was a great episode. And that, at the moment is on about 270 downloads. So, that's like 270 individual brand new downloads. And at the minute I think we're just about to hit 6,000 downloads in total. I don't really even know what that means though. So, again, I'm just not that bothered about it. It is a niche podcast. It's not for everybody.Paul Griffiths: No.Kelly Molson: And it was never made to be for everybody as well. So, I just think, for me, the numbers don't really matter that much.Paul Griffiths: Good answer. Yeah, it's interesting, isn't it? And I suppose for you it's a quality, not quantity because you're getting some people who are in that business, and going back to your original objectives, might well want to work with a digital agency, and you guys are therefore on the tips of everyone's tongues I guess, which is achieving your objective.Kelly Molson: Hopefully, yes. If it's achieving one of the objectives, that would be wonderful.Paul Griffiths: Yeah. Absolutely. The next question was all about the tech side, and I think you've already talked about a lot of things like the equipment you need, but also... So, when you're planning your episodes, so your guest has agreed to come on. You've contacted them, and stalked them through various social medias, they know they're being followed, and it's like, "Better say yes, otherwise Kelly is never going to leave me alone." Tell me a bit about what you do after that to prepare your guests, or to plan the episode. Kelly Molson: So, a lot of the time I will have invited that guest on for a specific reason. So, there will have been something that I've seen, that they've been talking about, that I'll think, "That would be really great to understand a bit more about that, and I think our listeners would like that as well." So, that's normally how it starts. Sometimes we have a pre podcast chat, so it might just be a five or 10-minute chat about what we're going to talk about. Sometimes it might just be, I'll email over and say, "Look, I heard you speak about this topic, I think it would be great to come on to the podcast, how do you fancy it?" If they say yes, then I work out a few pre questions. So, I don't like it to be super structured, I mean, obviously, there is a structure to the podcast. Kelly Molson: You all know that there's ice breaker questions coming. You know that I'm going to ask for an unpopular opinion. But the rest of the podcast is... I try to structure it in a way where there's three or four key questions that I really want to understand, but the rest of it is quite conversational, so it can go off on a bit of a tangent, and sometimes that's a bit more relaxed for the guest. But also, some guests, they like to know what we're going to be talking about, and what they're going to be asked. So, by giving them three or four questions that structure the topic of that conversation, it makes them feel a bit more at ease because they know what to expect. So that's what I do. I just... And then there'll be other times where I just think, "This person's really great, and they would make a really great guest. I think they'd be a great guest." But I might not have seen anything that I think they've been showcasing, or they've been talking about. Kelly Molson: So then we'll have a chat and say, "What could you share with the listeners?" What would you think would be relevant for them right now? Have you been through anything recently that's been a learning curve for you? Have you had any challenges that you're happy to come on and talk about?" Or, "Is something really exciting just about to happen that you think our listeners would be really interested in understanding more about why that's happened?" So it's a bit of a mixture.Paul Griffiths: Brilliant. So, I'm sure some of our listeners today have been listening in because they are thinking about starting a podcast, or they've... And I think it's been really great, Kelly, you've been so honest. Because I think it isn't an easy process it seems. There's a lot of work involved in it. I think it's great that people know that. But if people were thinking of starting a podcast, what are your key tips, or advice you'd give them?Kelly Molson: So I think that it's going back to what we talked about initially, so it's, "Why are you doing this in the first place? What are your objectives for starting a podcast?" And they're going to be very different, depending on what you do as an organisation, whether you're a supplier to the industry, whether you are the National Football Museum, for example, came on. And they talked a lot about why they started their podcast. Paul Griffiths: Yes of course.Kelly Molson: And a lot of that was to facilitate the fact that they weren't open, they'd got all of these fantastic artefacts, shirts, all of those things that they could talk about, and have conversations about. And they've got a lot of content already that they knew that they could do something with. So the podcast seemed like a natural way of getting that out to the public when they couldn't visit the centre. So, go right back, and think about what it is that you want to achieve by setting up this podcast. Kelly Molson: And that might education, it might be getting something out to the world that you've got to share. It might be... It genuinely might just be, you're an agency and you want to position yourselves in a certain sector. There's other agencies that we know have podcasts who work in the tech sector, for instance. So they focus on having tech guests, and those kinds of conversations. And then you really need to think about where your audience is, because I don't think it's enough to just have a podcast. You really want to be building some kind of community around that podcast. Or it's just output all the time. There's no engagement. There's no... It doesn't go to a deeper level. We've had so many incredible guests on there now. And a lot of those guests have turned into people that I can just call on about stuff. Or I can email and say, "How about this?" Or, "Oh, I saw this thing that I think that you'd really love. Here you go"Kelly Molson: And I like that. I think that there's a real positive energy to that. So, really think about what your objectives are? Who your audience is? Where they are? What do they want? What does your audience want to listen to? What is going to be relevant to them right now? We launched Skip The Queue in the middle of 2019, which was very different to the middle of 2020. And so, when we brought it back in 2020, for us, it was all about, "Okay, maybe COVID situation has given us a little bit of an opportunity here, because our audience is going to be, probably, far more engaged this year than they would last year. They've got a lot of time on their hands, sadly, with venues being closed and people on furlough. What would help them right now? What would be useful to them right now?"Kelly Molson: And so, we pitched it as, "Let's get people on that can share their experiences of how this has impacted them, what they're doing to plan for re-opening. What things are they thinking about past COVID? How has this changed what their marketing plans might look like? How has this changed their digital strategy, and what that might look like?" Kelly Molson: So, really, really think about what's relevant to the audience that you're trying to get in front of, at that time. Yeah, I think they're my top tips.Paul Griffiths: You've mentioned objectives quite a bit, Kelly, which is fascinating during this. And do you feel, when you sit back or look back at why you started it out, you've ticked those objectives? I mean, it sounds like you have, but do you feel that you have?Kelly Molson: Yeah, I do. And I feel really proud of what we've achieved actually. I think that I've always been quite honest and said that I think that actually, the podcast was the thing that got me through last year, because although we work in the sector, we were very fortunate to be relatively busy last year as a digital agency, because of the situation, and people having to pivot, and make those changes. But it was still really, really tough, and for me, being able to speak to someone new and really interesting every week, or every couple of weeks, that could come on the podcast, was just a bit of lifesaver really. It really helped me. But yeah. In terms of the objectives, has it ticked all the boxes? I mean, absolutely. I mean, what we know now about the sector, and what we know about the people in it, and the network that we have in it, is phenomenal. I couldn't have asked for more from it. Kelly Molson: And it has really brought some really interesting things. So, for example, I talked about going on the Attractions Pro's podcast. Because of our podcast, we've been asked to go on to other people's podcast. And that's helped promote our services. And our services, and what we do isn't really what we talk about on the podcast that much. So, that's been really nice. We've been asked to speak at webinars. We were always going to exhibit at the Visitor Attractions conference last year, which we did. But I think the fact that we had the podcast helped me then get a speaker slot at that as well, because they could hear that I was, maybe not a bumbling idiot. Kelly Molson: I don't know? So, maybe that bolstered my chance of getting a speaker slot. And we've been asked to contribute to publications, we, like I said, we've got an amazing network, we've built up all of these fantastic connections and community. But actually, it has brought leads as well. It has brought us leads and things into the business, where people have said, "Well, I was looking for an agency and found you, but then I heard the podcast as well." And so it reinforces your understanding of the sector, which I think makes people feel more trustworthy towards you. And more confident that you know... You'll understand what's important to them in their challenges.Paul Griffiths: Yeah. No, I think it's really done that. And moving forward, obviously, the last year has been successful, as we've said earlier, some amazing guests. What do you see... How do you take it forward? How do you take Skip The Queue forward, is it more of the same, or do you branch off into different things? Or what do you do next?Kelly Molson: That's a really good question. So, there's lots of things that I've been thinking about doing. We are going to have a little bit of a Summer break.Paul Griffiths: Yeah.Kelly Molson: And we're going to come back in October. So, just because we've been doing this continuously for a whole year now. And it wasn't what I expected. I always thought we'd do... I thought we'd make it very seasonal. So we'd do eight or 10 episodes, and then have a break, and then do more. But I loved it so much last year, and genuinely it was keeping my spirits up, I said to Paul, "I'm just going to carry on. I'm just going to keep going through." But it is definitely time for a little bit of a rest while all you guys open up this Summer, and go crazy with all the visitors that are going to come. I might just put my feet up for a little while.Kelly Molson: I definitely want to do some panel events. There's some things that Hannah and I, Hannah Monteverde from BeWILDerwood, spoke about. About women in the sector, which I think would be really interesting. Paul Griffiths: Yeah.Kelly Molson: And I'd like to get more... I'd like to do more panel events in terms of hot topics in the sector as well. And so, have three or four panellists that come on and talk about things. I really would like to do an event. I would love to do some kind of Skip The Queue event. I don't know what that would be, whether it would be like a little mini-conference or a live podcast event. I think live podcast... Steve would probably go insane listening to this, and go, "No, don't do it." But I think I would really like to do something where we get everybody together because it has really felt like a bit of a community effort where people have got behind us.Paul Griffiths: Yeah.Kelly Molson: And it would be really nice to put something on when we've got everyone together when we're able to do. So, I've got something like that ticking around in my head. Definitely more of the same as well. If that's what everyone wants to hear. But I take this opportunity to ask, what would our listeners want? If you're happy with the way it's going, great. We'll do more of that. If there are extra things that you'd love us to do, or you think would be really interesting, then email me at kelly@rubbercheese.com. Don't be shy.Paul Griffiths: Brilliant. Kelly, thank you so much for sharing everything with us today, but more importantly, thank you for everything you've done in the last year. These podcasts have been a lifeline for so many of us. We've all loved listening, and you've built up this family of regular listeners who comment all the time. And I know people look forward to it, and can't wait to download and listen. And you see that now, how quickly are responding to your episodes, and we've commented on it. But I know, from what you've told us today, you've really got into just how much work it is. So, on behalf of everyone, all the listeners, thank you so much.Paul Griffiths: But we can't finish, of course, without a book recommendation, and I hope you've got several. So you have to drive your marketing budget through the roof, so, Kelly, I want to know a book that you would recommend, and our listeners can get by re-Tweeting this episode, and saying, "I want Kelly's book." On Twitter. So, what is your book recommendation? Kelly Molson: So, this is the book that I have probably recommended the most throughout my career. And I read it about a year into having set up Rubber Cheese, well maybe about six to eight months into setting up Rubber Cheese, because somebody said to me, "Oh you need to get out, and you need to start networking." And I was like, "What the hell is that then? I don't know. What is networking? What do you do?" And they said, "Oh you go to meetings, and you meet loads of interesting people, and you just talk to them." And I was like, "All right." I was 25. I was like, "Okay, that sounds weird, but I'll do it." But somebody recommended Dale Carnegie's How To Win Friends And Influence People.Paul Griffiths: Really?Kelly Molson: And it is a really old book, but it is genuinely the book that I credit with changing my whole perspective about how to listen to people. About how to have really good conversations. And ultimately, it is the book that I've given out the most to people. So, I think a really lovely girl that I know, I was mentoring her for a little while a couple of years ago, and that was the first book that I sent her. And said, "Have a read of this, I think you'll really enjoy it." And it's just the one book that I've sent out religiously to people. I've made Lee read when he started his photography business. Because I just think there's something about it that just makes you really understand that it is about the other person, more than it is about you.Paul Griffiths: Mm-hmm (affirmative).Kelly Molson: And I think when you're younger, you maybe... Well, me personally, when I was younger, maybe didn't really understand that fully, about how to listen to people, and understand what was important to them, and letting them speak. So, that would be my recommendation.Paul Griffiths: Well, thank you. And as I said, if you want that book, re-Tweet this episode link, and put, "I want Kelly's book." And Kelly will send you a copy if you're the winner. Kelly Molson: I will.Paul Griffiths: If you're the one lucky winner, I should say. She won't send them out to everyone, because Kelly's budget doesn't stretch that far. Well, Kelly, thank you so much for coming on Skip The Queue, it's been so insightful, so brilliant. And thank you for coming on.Kelly Molson: Oh, you're welcome. I really enjoyed this Paul. So thank you for being a fabulous interviewer today.Paul Griffiths: You're very kind. Kelly Molson: Thanks for listening to Skip The Queue. If you've enjoyed this podcast, please leave us a five-star review, it really helps others find us. And remember to follow us on Twitter for your chance to win the books that have been mentioned. Skip The Queue is brought to you by Rubber Cheese, a digital agency that builds remarkable systems and websites for attractions, that helps them increase their visitor numbers. You can find show notes, and transcriptions from this episode, and more over on our website, rubbercheese.com/podcast.

The Council at Jerusalem 15 Certain people came down from Judea to Antioch and were teaching the believers: “Unless you are circumcised, according to the custom taught by Moses, you cannot be saved.” 2 This brought Paul and Barnabas into sharp dispute and debate with them. So Paul and Barnabas were appointed, along with some other believers, to go up to Jerusalem to see the apostles and elders about this question. 3 The church sent them on their way, and as they traveled through Phoenicia and Samaria, they told how the Gentiles had been converted. This news made all the believers very glad. 4 When they came to Jerusalem, they were welcomed by the church and the apostles and elders, to whom they reported everything God had done through them. 5 Then some of the believers who belonged to the party of the Pharisees stood up and said, “The Gentiles must be circumcised and required to keep the law of Moses.” 6 The apostles and elders met to consider this question. 7 After much discussion, Peter got up and addressed them: “Brothers, you know that some time ago God made a choice among you that the Gentiles might hear from my lips the message of the gospel and believe. 8 God, who knows the heart, showed that he accepted them by giving the Holy Spirit to them, just as he did to us. 9 He did not discriminate between us and them, for he purified their hearts by faith. 10 Now then, why do you try to test God by putting on the necks of Gentiles a yoke that neither we nor our ancestors have been able to bear? 11 No! We believe it is through the grace of our Lord Jesus that we are saved, just as they are.” 12 The whole assembly became silent as they listened to Barnabas and Paul telling about the signs and wonders God had done among the Gentiles through them. 13 When they finished, James spoke up. “Brothers,” he said, “listen to me. 14 Simon[a] has described to us how God first intervened to choose a people for his name from the Gentiles. 15 The words of the prophets are in agreement with this, as it is written: 16 “‘After this I will return and rebuild David's fallen tent. Its ruins I will rebuild, and I will restore it, 17 that the rest of mankind may seek the Lord, even all the Gentiles who bear my name, says the Lord, who does these things'[b]— 18 things known from long ago.[c] 19 “It is my judgment, therefore, that we should not make it difficult for the Gentiles who are turning to God. 20 Instead we should write to them, telling them to abstain from food polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from the meat of strangled animals and from blood. 21 For the law of Moses has been preached in every city from the earliest times and is read in the synagogues on every Sabbath.” The Council's Letter to Gentile Believers 22 Then the apostles and elders, with the whole church, decided to choose some of their own men and send them to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas. They chose Judas (called Barsabbas) and Silas, men who were leaders among the believers. 23 With them they sent the following letter: The apostles and elders, your brothers, To the Gentile believers in Antioch, Syria and Cilicia: Greetings. 24 We have heard that some went out from us without our authorization and disturbed you, troubling your minds by what they said. 25 So we all agreed to choose some men and send them to you with our dear friends Barnabas and Paul— 26 men who have risked their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. 27 Therefore we are sending Judas and Silas to confirm by word of mouth what we are writing. 28 It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us not to burden you with anything beyond the following requirements: 29 You are to abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the meat of strangled animals and from sexual immorality. You will do well to avoid these things. Farewell. 30 So the men were sent off and went down to Antioch, where they gathered the church together and delivered the letter. 31 The people read it and were glad for its encouraging message. 32 Judas and Silas, who themselves were prophets, said much to encourage and strengthen the believers. 33 After spending some time there, they were sent off by the believers with the blessing of peace to return to those who had sent them. [34] [d] 35 But Paul and Barnabas remained in Antioch, where they and many others taught and preached the word of the Lord. Disagreement Between Paul and Barnabas 36 Some time later Paul said to Barnabas, “Let us go back and visit the believers in all the towns where we preached the word of the Lord and see how they are doing.” 37 Barnabas wanted to take John, also called Mark, with them, 38 but Paul did not think it wise to take him, because he had deserted them in Pamphylia and had not continued with them in the work. 39 They had such a sharp disagreement that they parted company. Barnabas took Mark and sailed for Cyprus, 40 but Paul chose Silas and left, commended by the believers to the grace of the Lord. 41 He went through Syria and Cilicia, strengthening the churches.

Morning: Psalms 10–12 Psalms 10–12 (Listen) Why Do You Hide Yourself? 10   Why, O LORD, do you stand far away?    Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble? 2   In arrogance the wicked hotly pursue the poor;    let them be caught in the schemes that they have devised.3   For the wicked boasts of the desires of his soul,    and the one greedy for gain curses1 and renounces the LORD.4   In the pride of his face2 the wicked does not seek him;3    all his thoughts are, “There is no God.”5   His ways prosper at all times;    your judgments are on high, out of his sight;    as for all his foes, he puffs at them.6   He says in his heart, “I shall not be moved;    throughout all generations I shall not meet adversity.”7   His mouth is filled with cursing and deceit and oppression;    under his tongue are mischief and iniquity.8   He sits in ambush in the villages;    in hiding places he murders the innocent.  His eyes stealthily watch for the helpless;9     he lurks in ambush like a lion in his thicket;  he lurks that he may seize the poor;    he seizes the poor when he draws him into his net.10   The helpless are crushed, sink down,    and fall by his might.11   He says in his heart, “God has forgotten,    he has hidden his face, he will never see it.” 12   Arise, O LORD; O God, lift up your hand;    forget not the afflicted.13   Why does the wicked renounce God    and say in his heart, “You will not call to account”?14   But you do see, for you note mischief and vexation,    that you may take it into your hands;  to you the helpless commits himself;    you have been the helper of the fatherless.15   Break the arm of the wicked and evildoer;    call his wickedness to account till you find none. 16   The LORD is king forever and ever;    the nations perish from his land.17   O LORD, you hear the desire of the afflicted;    you will strengthen their heart; you will incline your ear18   to do justice to the fatherless and the oppressed,    so that man who is of the earth may strike terror no more. The Lord Is in His Holy Temple To the choirmaster. Of David. 11   In the LORD I take refuge;  how can you say to my soul,    “Flee like a bird to your mountain,2   for behold, the wicked bend the bow;    they have fitted their arrow to the string    to shoot in the dark at the upright in heart;3   if the foundations are destroyed,    what can the righteous do?”4 4   The LORD is in his holy temple;    the LORD's throne is in heaven;    his eyes see, his eyelids test the children of man.5   The LORD tests the righteous,    but his soul hates the wicked and the one who loves violence.6   Let him rain coals on the wicked;    fire and sulfur and a scorching wind shall be the portion of their cup.7   For the LORD is righteous;  he loves righteous deeds;    the upright shall behold his face. The Faithful Have Vanished To the choirmaster: according to The Sheminith.5 A Psalm of David. 12   Save, O LORD, for the godly one is gone;    for the faithful have vanished from among the children of man.2   Everyone utters lies to his neighbor;    with flattering lips and a double heart they speak. 3   May the LORD cut off all flattering lips,    the tongue that makes great boasts,4   those who say, “With our tongue we will prevail,    our lips are with us; who is master over us?” 5   “Because the poor are plundered, because the needy groan,    I will now arise,” says the LORD;    “I will place him in the safety for which he longs.”6   The words of the LORD are pure words,    like silver refined in a furnace on the ground,    purified seven times. 7   You, O LORD, will keep them;    you will guard us6 from this generation forever.8   On every side the wicked prowl,    as vileness is exalted among the children of man. Footnotes [1] 10:3 Or and he blesses the one greedy for gain [2] 10:4 Or of his anger [3] 10:4 Or the wicked says, “He will not call to account” [4] 11:3 Or for the foundations will be destroyed; what has the righteous done? [5] 12:1 Probably a musical or liturgical term [6] 12:7 Or guard him (ESV) Evening: Acts 17:16–34 Acts 17:16–34 (Listen) Paul in Athens 16 Now while Paul was waiting for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him as he saw that the city was full of idols. 17 So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons, and in the marketplace every day with those who happened to be there. 18 Some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers also conversed with him. And some said, “What does this babbler wish to say?” Others said, “He seems to be a preacher of foreign divinities”—because he was preaching Jesus and the resurrection. 19 And they took him and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, “May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting? 20 For you bring some strange things to our ears. We wish to know therefore what these things mean.” 21 Now all the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there would spend their time in nothing except telling or hearing something new. Paul Addresses the Areopagus 22 So Paul, standing in the midst of the Areopagus, said: “Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious. 23 For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription: ‘To the unknown god.' What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. 24 The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man,1 25 nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. 26 And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, 27 that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, 28 for   “‘In him we live and move and have our being';2 as even some of your own poets have said,   “‘For we are indeed his offspring.'3 29 Being then God's offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man. 30 The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, 31 because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.” 32 Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked. But others said, “We will hear you again about this.” 33 So Paul went out from their midst. 34 But some men joined him and believed, among whom also were Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named Damaris and others with them. Footnotes [1] 17:24 Greek made by hands [2] 17:28 Probably from Epimenides of Crete [3] 17:28 From Aratus's poem “Phainomena” (ESV)

There is more suffering in the Christian life than you ever thought you could handle but there is also more joy than you ever thought possible. It is necessary to understand the religious climate of the cities in which Paul visited. It's now believed that the cult of Caesar was the dominant religion of Paul's time in much of the Roman world. Caesar was deified and worshipped as a god in the flesh. It's been argued that this is why Rome had such success in ruling much of the known world because the people willingly swore their allegiance to the god Emperor. They even offered sacrifices to him. Who needs an army to control the population when you have the people worshipping you and believing that you are a gift from the heavens? This is especially true in the cities where Paul has been preaching, particularly Antioch and Iconium. In both places there has been discovered imperial temples that were created for the worship of Caesar. A good example of this deification of Caesar can be seen in an inscription carved into an ancient government building. It speaks of Caesar Augustus who ruled the Roman Empire at the time of Jesus.  Here's what the inscription says… Since Providence, which has ordered all things and is deeply interested in our lives, has set in most perfect order by giving us Augustus, whom she filled with virtue that he might benefit humankind, sending him as a savior, both for us and for our descendants, that he might end war and arrange all things, and since he, Caesar, by his appearance (excelled even our anticipations), surpassing all previous benefactors, and not even leaving to posterity any hope of surpassing what he has done, and since the birthday of the god Augustus was the beginning of the gospel for the world that came by reason of him. Paul's world the main “gospel” was the news of, or the celebration of Caesar. When Paul speaks and uses the word gospel he's not inventing a new concept. He's not saying "I'm here to give you a new religion.” Rather, Paul was using a word from his time but he was focusing it on a different person. He takes the word “gospel” and applies it to Jesus. It's as if he says, “Everyone under Roman influence knows about the gospel of Caesar, but I'm here to tell you about the gospel of Jesus. My good news does not have Caesar at the center of worship, but rather it has Jesus as the center of worship. Jesus is the true king, not Caesar!” So Paul's gospel is a direct challenge to the gospel of Rome. This is a bold and inflammatory statement. And one that does not go unnoticed, after all, this is the reason why Paul gets run out of town. (Acts 17:6-8) Early believers were prepared for a life of hardship because their loyalty was to a different king. Obedience to this king will set you at odds with the kings of culture. Paul was not content to simply say, “Jesus is one of many gospels alongside Caesar", he said the gospel of Jesus is the only true gospel there is. It's as true today as it was then, if you are heralding the gospel of Jesus, understand that the larger culture in which you live will view you as belonging to a subversive little group. However, from the standpoint of God, you are setting your face toward His kingdom. Absolutely incredible!

What's with the head coverings? As Paul has advocated before, this is a measure of unity. In ancient days, women sometimes uncovered their heads to show a higher social status. Unmarried women in some cultures would go without head coverings in order to attract a husband, still others considered women with uncovered heads immodest. You can imagine how distracting this argument must have been for the church. So Paul gets to the heart of it: ladies, wear a head covering. We're coming together in a spirit of unity to worship, not argue about what statement a woman makes by covering her head. (Information taken from page 2003 of the Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, NIV version.)

Morning: Job 31–32 Job 31–32 (Listen) Job's Final Appeal 31   “I have made a covenant with my eyes;    how then could I gaze at a virgin?2   What would be my portion from God above    and my heritage from the Almighty on high?3   Is not calamity for the unrighteous,    and disaster for the workers of iniquity?4   Does not he see my ways    and number all my steps? 5   “If I have walked with falsehood    and my foot has hastened to deceit;6   (Let me be weighed in a just balance,    and let God know my integrity!)7   if my step has turned aside from the way    and my heart has gone after my eyes,    and if any spot has stuck to my hands,8   then let me sow, and another eat,    and let what grows for me1 be rooted out. 9   “If my heart has been enticed toward a woman,    and I have lain in wait at my neighbor's door,10   then let my wife grind for another,    and let others bow down on her.11   For that would be a heinous crime;    that would be an iniquity to be punished by the judges;12   for that would be a fire that consumes as far as Abaddon,    and it would burn to the root all my increase. 13   “If I have rejected the cause of my manservant or my maidservant,    when they brought a complaint against me,14   what then shall I do when God rises up?    When he makes inquiry, what shall I answer him?15   Did not he who made me in the womb make him?    And did not one fashion us in the womb? 16   “If I have withheld anything that the poor desired,    or have caused the eyes of the widow to fail,17   or have eaten my morsel alone,    and the fatherless has not eaten of it18   (for from my youth the fatherless2 grew up with me as with a father,    and from my mother's womb I guided the widow3),19   if I have seen anyone perish for lack of clothing,    or the needy without covering,20   if his body has not blessed me,4    and if he was not warmed with the fleece of my sheep,21   if I have raised my hand against the fatherless,    because I saw my help in the gate,22   then let my shoulder blade fall from my shoulder,    and let my arm be broken from its socket.23   For I was in terror of calamity from God,    and I could not have faced his majesty. 24   “If I have made gold my trust    or called fine gold my confidence,25   if I have rejoiced because my wealth was abundant    or because my hand had found much,26   if I have looked at the sun5 when it shone,    or the moon moving in splendor,27   and my heart has been secretly enticed,    and my mouth has kissed my hand,28   this also would be an iniquity to be punished by the judges,    for I would have been false to God above. 29   “If I have rejoiced at the ruin of him who hated me,    or exulted when evil overtook him30   (I have not let my mouth sin    by asking for his life with a curse),31   if the men of my tent have not said,    ‘Who is there that has not been filled with his meat?'32   (the sojourner has not lodged in the street;    I have opened my doors to the traveler),33   if I have concealed my transgressions as others do6    by hiding my iniquity in my heart,34   because I stood in great fear of the multitude,    and the contempt of families terrified me,    so that I kept silence, and did not go out of doors—35   Oh, that I had one to hear me!    (Here is my signature! Let the Almighty answer me!)    Oh, that I had the indictment written by my adversary!36   Surely I would carry it on my shoulder;    I would bind it on me as a crown;37   I would give him an account of all my steps;    like a prince I would approach him. 38   “If my land has cried out against me    and its furrows have wept together,39   if I have eaten its yield without payment    and made its owners breathe their last,40   let thorns grow instead of wheat,    and foul weeds instead of barley.” The words of Job are ended. Elihu Rebukes Job's Three Friends 32 So these three men ceased to answer Job, because he was righteous in his own eyes. 2 Then Elihu the son of Barachel the Buzite, of the family of Ram, burned with anger. He burned with anger at Job because he justified himself rather than God. 3 He burned with anger also at Job's three friends because they had found no answer, although they had declared Job to be in the wrong. 4 Now Elihu had waited to speak to Job because they were older than he. 5 And when Elihu saw that there was no answer in the mouth of these three men, he burned with anger. 6 And Elihu the son of Barachel the Buzite answered and said:   “I am young in years,    and you are aged;  therefore I was timid and afraid    to declare my opinion to you.7   I said, ‘Let days speak,    and many years teach wisdom.'8   But it is the spirit in man,    the breath of the Almighty, that makes him understand.9   It is not the old7 who are wise,    nor the aged who understand what is right.10   Therefore I say, ‘Listen to me;    let me also declare my opinion.' 11   “Behold, I waited for your words,    I listened for your wise sayings,    while you searched out what to say.12   I gave you my attention,    and, behold, there was none among you who refuted Job    or who answered his words.13   Beware lest you say, ‘We have found wisdom;    God may vanquish him, not a man.'14   He has not directed his words against me,    and I will not answer him with your speeches. 15   “They are dismayed; they answer no more;    they have not a word to say.16   And shall I wait, because they do not speak,    because they stand there, and answer no more?17   I also will answer with my share;    I also will declare my opinion.18   For I am full of words;    the spirit within me constrains me.19   Behold, my belly is like wine that has no vent;    like new wineskins ready to burst.20   I must speak, that I may find relief;    I must open my lips and answer.21   I will not show partiality to any man    or use flattery toward any person.22   For I do not know how to flatter,    else my Maker would soon take me away. Footnotes [1] 31:8 Or let my descendants [2] 31:18 Hebrew he [3] 31:18 Hebrew her [4] 31:20 Hebrew if his loins have not blessed me [5] 31:26 Hebrew the light [6] 31:33 Or as Adam did [7] 32:9 Hebrew many [in years] (ESV) Evening: Acts 13:1–23 Acts 13:1–23 (Listen) Barnabas and Saul Sent Off 13 Now there were in the church at Antioch prophets and teachers, Barnabas, Simeon who was called Niger,1 Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen a lifelong friend of Herod the tetrarch, and Saul. 2 While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” 3 Then after fasting and praying they laid their hands on them and sent them off. Barnabas and Saul on Cyprus 4 So, being sent out by the Holy Spirit, they went down to Seleucia, and from there they sailed to Cyprus. 5 When they arrived at Salamis, they proclaimed the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews. And they had John to assist them. 6 When they had gone through the whole island as far as Paphos, they came upon a certain magician, a Jewish false prophet named Bar-Jesus. 7 He was with the proconsul, Sergius Paulus, a man of intelligence, who summoned Barnabas and Saul and sought to hear the word of God. 8 But Elymas the magician (for that is the meaning of his name) opposed them, seeking to turn the proconsul away from the faith. 9 But Saul, who was also called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked intently at him 10 and said, “You son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, full of all deceit and villainy, will you not stop making crooked the straight paths of the Lord? 11 And now, behold, the hand of the Lord is upon you, and you will be blind and unable to see the sun for a time.” Immediately mist and darkness fell upon him, and he went about seeking people to lead him by the hand. 12 Then the proconsul believed, when he saw what had occurred, for he was astonished at the teaching of the Lord. Paul and Barnabas at Antioch in Pisidia 13 Now Paul and his companions set sail from Paphos and came to Perga in Pamphylia. And John left them and returned to Jerusalem, 14 but they went on from Perga and came to Antioch in Pisidia. And on the Sabbath day they went into the synagogue and sat down. 15 After the reading from the Law and the Prophets, the rulers of the synagogue sent a message to them, saying, “Brothers, if you have any word of encouragement for the people, say it.” 16 So Paul stood up, and motioning with his hand said: “Men of Israel and you who fear God, listen. 17 The God of this people Israel chose our fathers and made the people great during their stay in the land of Egypt, and with uplifted arm he led them out of it. 18 And for about forty years he put up with2 them in the wilderness. 19 And after destroying seven nations in the land of Canaan, he gave them their land as an inheritance. 20 All this took about 450 years. And after that he gave them judges until Samuel the prophet. 21 Then they asked for a king, and God gave them Saul the son of Kish, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, for forty years. 22 And when he had removed him, he raised up David to be their king, of whom he testified and said, ‘I have found in David the son of Jesse a man after my heart, who will do all my will.' 23 Of this man's offspring God has brought to Israel a Savior, Jesus, as he promised. Footnotes [1] 13:1 Niger is a Latin word meaning black, or dark [2] 13:18 Some manuscripts he carried (compare Deuteronomy 1:31) (ESV)

Download II Corinthians 1-4 We are starting a new book in the Church Stream. The Apostle Paul is addressing the church of Corinth in a 2nd letter. We are reading from The Message this week. 7streamsmethod.com | @7StreamsMethod | @serenatravis | #7Stream | Donate Commentary by Dr. Drake Travis Jesus we thank you for the gift you give us that fills our lives with joy and purpose and gracious mercy that saves us. Amen. Paul is writing to the church in Corinth a second time. This time he is addressing the believers in the Achaia region also. In Paul's first letter to the Corinthian church he was instructing a splintered body of believers. They were disorderly.  Unsanctification/sexual matters/immorality and ebullience were problems, They were even suing eachother, and their competitions regarding the Communion were silly; just wrong (?who brought the most elaborate food to the event?! -yeesh). Simply put, they were a bustling church but they were divided and had not been loving.  Many were duplicitous as there was debate and tension over how to conduct their lives in a city where paganism had been the rule for centuries. Titus had caught up with Paul during his third missionary journey. The purpose was to relay that Paul's 'year-and-a-half' in Corinth had done much good. There was however a faction in Corinth (imagine that!) that was raising the question whether Paul was authentically one of the Apostles of Christ. The latter was a slickly calculated attempt to discredit Paul since he had spoken to issues 'spot on' in his first letter.  The naysayers knew there were things that needed to be remedied and they preferred to deride Paul v.s. grow in their faith. For them it was more natural to act like hucksters, change the subject - turning the focus to Paul being an illicit source of leadership. So Paul goes right at this topic in his second letter.  He had founded the church in Corinth and he knew what he was doing since he was getting direction from the Holy Spirit. 1 - Paul's greeting is rich and warm as he had met with Titus after escaping a brush with death in Ephesus. And despite notable unsavory matters in Corinth, they were a loyal group who in many ways wanted to know Jesus better. Paul is realizing more-so all the time, the suffering that accompanies mission work and Christian service. He is relieved to meet up with Titus but there had been anxiety involved from his hearing of situations in Corinth. All in all, the time with Titus was of a comfort that strengthened Paul.  He needed to remind the Corinthians that he was delayed because of hardship along the way, not because he was fickle. Paul is not like that. 2 - the chapter opens with talk of discipline. The scalliwag who had a "relationship" with his stepmom [he was exhorted in I Cor. 5] was a painful mess that called for discipline.  Apparently that discipline had been administered come the time Paul is writing II Cor. so Paul is sounding conciliatory by now. It had been a painful pilgrimage, but prayerfully it is dealt with and over by now.  Paul had been so embroiled, hoping this matter would get settled that he had scuttled right past an evangelistic opportunity in Troas to tend to the trouble.  Be that as it may, Paul experienced triumph in Christ and the Providence that walking with Christ had brought him everywhere Paul traversed. Yes, some men violently rejected Paul's message but that came with the territory and Paul was content regardless. 3 - the opening issue here is most likely Paul refuting the n'ere-do-wells traveling from Jerusalem that trolled the Empire and insisted that the new Christians adhere to the Law of Moses namely to circumcision [along with the rest of the Law!]. And as they traveled they always touted their reference letters from the Sanhedrin who sent them along with their resumes hoping that would enhance reverence for them as they traveled ... to cause trouble for Paul! Paul smacks 'em pretty soundly here. These Judaizers were proud of their resumes, while Paul was gratified by the Church he planted; the Corinthians themselves who were testament to his anointing by God Himself.  The Law of Moses was the last word on righteousness in the former era but Jesus is the one we are to look to now. He is the Light. Only Jesus can bring us into the Presence of God. Following the Law only has one ... following a set of laws that do not save. 4 - Paul's calling and mission in entirely consuming joyful assignment. Persecutions at any and/or all levels are not going to intimidate or sway him in the least. The joy of following God is that great for him. Paul noted that there were souls who were blinded to God's Love - that's the only explanation for people rejecting God. Paul's analogy of clay pots has become a timeless illustration.  Valuable documents were preserved in clay pots. These pots weren't necessarily much to look at but the value of the contents altered history. With the Spirit of Christ living in us; as "jars of clay", we then become lives that transport, transmit and divulge value that translates into eternal wonder and also blesses the clay pot in a glorious way.  The joy of the whole process blossoms into a beauty that overtakes everything as we follow Paul's instruction and immerse ourselves in Jesus' grace. The theme that reoccurred each day this week surfaced to be "what are we going to do with the sin?" In Leviticus 1-6, most of the offerings brought to God were for sin; accidental or deliberate, simply bring it to God and therein it is redemptive.  In I Kings 11-14 the matter came home for Solomon. He had gathered foreign/pagan women like people collect anything collectible. What would Solomon do with this sin? He was king and he did it because he could and he wouldn't put this matter away. It altered and corrupted the nation forever.  Psalm 78-79 was a litany of God's faithfulness contrasted against the Israelites' sinfulness. Would God's love ever get them to turn from their shameful sin? Their sin had caused them to be routed. When will this obvious memo ever 'sink in'?  Jeremiah brought up their sin as a nation and --> they attacked Jeremiah, not the sin. They would be sent into exile for this. Also ignoring the lesson from the yoke Jeremiah put on would end up being costly. We'll read about that next week.  Amos bellowed that the whole region was living sinfully. And all were impenitent as well.  They would burn for it. John/Baptist, in Luke, was preaching powerfully against sin. People repented and were baptized. It was marvelous.  In Corinth, Paul was doing some follow up regarding a man in the church who was living in terrible sin and ... it turned out that by then the matter was rectified and propriety had been restored.  The memo this week is that sin shall be dealt with God's way or it will only continue to get worse - and more so until things are handled God's way.

How do you handle problems of life? How do you deal with, conquer and thrive in this season? How We Thrive and not just survive? In part 5 of, Walking In The Spirit, I share from 2Timothy 1, how the Apostle Paul helped his son Timothy overcome the absolute impossible situations that he was facing! We do have problems, but nothing compared to Timothy who was 17 and his spiritual Father is in Jail and this (the 17 year old kid) has been given the leadership to the gentile church, which was 30 to 35,000 members strong! Just think of the issues of taking care of the children because their parents were just thrown into the Coliseum and eaten by lions. Just to mention one little detail! So Paul told  Timothy, “I am mindful of your tears, but here's the answer to all of them!! Just stir up the Gift that is on the inside of you! In this episode I share on how to release that same Spirit that is on the inside of you that was on the inside of Timothy! Jump on this podcast and receive yet another tool to walk in total victory! Much Love, Barry C. Maracle

Download I Corinthians 15-16 We are in the Church Stream finishing the book of I Corinthians today. We are using the New American Standard Bible this week. 7streamsmethod.com | @7StreamsMethod | @serenatravis | #7Stream | Donate Commentary by Dr. Drake Travis 15 - The theme, in case anyone missed it, is: THE RESURRECTION.  Christ Jesus raised from the dead and we who are His and with Him shall raise from the dead too.  Paul belabors that Jesus rose, appeared to hundreds, plus the 12, and more times to the chosen ones in Jesus' inner circle. I mean really folks (reading between the lines) do you think all these people were hallucinating in unison? 'can't happen!  Jesus ROSE from the dead.  Believe it for real / forever. Paul explains the order of the Resurrection, the logic of it and the importance of it. Instead of reciting, or rather repeating again what Paul said, it's important to realize what he was encountering as he was traveling through Greece, and Asia Minor:   - - - Paul would periodically have a person in the congregation interject while he/Paul was teaching and preaching.  They would blurt out, "yeah, but He died. They killed Him. Was He a crook? and He let them kill him?...was this because He felt guilty?" The pattern of this century was that when a self proclaimed Messiah came on the scene, He either took over and then He would reign, or he was killed. and between 50 BC and 50 AD scores of "Messiahs" came forth and they were all executed along with their followers. Jesus appeared to be one of them.  The shame associated with following a false Messiah often never left someone who was duped by their false messiah. Jesus' and the events of his last week looked too similar to the false messiahs and so some were puzzled as to how seriously to take Jesus Christ of Nazareth, born in Bethlehem, to a virgin, ad infinitum. So Paul takes this entire ch. 15 to explain to full orb' of the Resurrection of Jesus; it's veracity and the comprehensive logic behind it.  We remember Paul asserting that he was not ashamed of the gospel in Rom. 1:16.  Well he wasn't - and he wanted all others to feel the same way. -The description and Paul making a clear distinction between our bodies here and our bodies in the Resurrection is poignant and necessary. REmember that Corinth is in Greece. The Greeks were obsessed with strength, and bodies, and training and health - the muscle statues all over the empire attest to this.  And along with this, the Greek/Roman perplexity of aging was a mental embarrassment or conundrum of the heart to most all the pagan world.  Why did it have to be that we aged, and weakened and died and were then just ... gone?  The Gospel solved this situation!!. And how quickly will this change be to our new bodies? as fast as one can bat their eye. 16 - The collection of names and concepts listed here is a description of Paul's warm heart for those he is discipling as well as those he is talking about.  He is gathering an offering for Jerusalem Believers.  The instruction and tips that he gives of how to treat each person is wonderful.  He says to thank such and such, honor so and so, care for so and so.  His word for how to treat Timothy was because Timothy was a great teacher yet was insecure regarding his family; a Greek parent and a Jewish parent and Timothy was getting "looked at sideways" in some places and Paul wanted that to stop.  The particulars are a little bit amusing/ /perhaps entertaining in that they give personal insight to the settings and persons back then.  Many of us know what it's like to leave a note for a baby sitter. It says things like, "be sure and make certain that Joey drinks all his milk.  Remember that Jill is afraid of heights so when you do the walk, take the lower path.  Timmy prefers to be read to first thing in the morning as well as at bedtime so be sure to do this. He will miss it if you forget.  Etc.  Paul  just outright cares about all these people and ... He gets it from Jesus.  We should too. We have seen all this week that "completion invites visitation" The Tabernacle was finished at the end of Exodus and God showed up gloriously and the whole nation was is awe - in a way that stuck with them permanently When the Temple is completed in I Kings, the ark is brought in and there is a regal ceremony, prayer and dedication and sacrifices and God appeared to Solomon!! oh my word! In the Psalms this week, especially 76 and 77, we see a completion of a mind going full circle from complaining to enjoying the triumph of God as God's victories and great deeds are recalled. Gratitude brings on the visitation for that is the main thing God wants in our heart. Jeremiah tells of a punishment that is going to be walked through, Jerusalem will fall a remnant will be preserved, just complete the Babylon time and in Jer. 23, he tells us that the Savior will visit... Joel 3 tells that the nations will be judged. Once this is completed there will be a visitation [on the Day of the Lord ] that will be blessings that flow like streams down mountsides and it will be more than just sweet water Luke1 tells of the completion of all the years and preparation coming up to the arrival of the greatest visitation of all time.  It will happen in Luke 2 but by the end of Luke 1 all items and preparation have been completed after 4,000 years since exiting Eden. Angels are visiting - more than once and once all this is completed, the Main Visitation of all time happens [next week!] I Cor. 15 explains the completion of the explanation of the Gospel.  Christ Arose, haleluia.  Paul wanted them to understand this.  And he wanted to visit them again soon.

Is the whole Bible really about Jesus? Here at Theocast, we believe that it is. Jon and Justin consider the pattern of Jesus and the apostles with regard to how they understood the Bible. The guys consider typology and how it is useful in understanding the Scriptures–and biblicism and how it is not helpful.Semper Reformanda: Justin talks about the thing that has most impacted his preaching. Jon and Justin then discuss how important it is to see that every promise of Scripture finds its fulfillment in Jesus.Resources:Episode: Is Christ-Centered Preaching Dangerous?“The Mystery of Christ, His Covenant & His Kingdom” by Samuel Renihan“Preaching Christ in All of Scripture” by Edmond Clowney“The Unfolding Mystery: Discovering Christ in the Old Testament” by Edmond ClowneyFREE Ebook: theocast.org/primerSUPPORT Theocast: https://theocast.org/give/   Podcast TranscriptJustin Perdue: Hi, this is Justin. Today on Theocast, we are going to answer the question, “Is the whole Bible really about Jesus?” We don’t like to bury the lead here at Theocast, and so our position is that yes, in fact, the whole Bible is about Christ and what he has accomplished on behalf of sinners in order to save us. We’re going to have this conversation from a couple of different perspectives. We’re going to talk about typology and how that works in the Bible. If you don’t even know what typology is, don’t worry, we’re going to define it and try to explain it for you.We’re also going to talk about Biblicism and how it is unhelpful to understanding the Scriptures accurately. Again, if you don’t know what Biblicism is, stay tuned. We’re going to try to explain it to you and help you see how it relates to this conversation.We really hope this is an encouraging and life-giving conversation for you, and that is a conversation that will open up the Scriptures and show you how from Genesis to Revelation, Jesus really is the point of it.The title of the episode is Is the Whole Bible Really About Jesus? What we want to do today is answer that question. But we’re really just pulling the curtain back here and having a conversation about a couple of different things—and I’m going to try to explain briefly what we mean by these terms and then we’ll just kind of take-off and run with this. We’re having a conversation today about typology and somewhat also about Biblicism. And so just briefly to define those terms for the listener: when we talk about typology, we are talking about the way that God reveals Himself, the way He reveals redemption—in particular, the way He reveals redemption through Christ in Scripture—where there are things that occur earlier on in biblical revelation, referred to as types, that are significant in and of themselves but they point to something that is greater, different, and ultimate. So those greater, different, ultimate fulfillments of the types are often referred to as antitypes. We’re going to talk about examples of some of that today. But if the Bible is read appropriately in a typological way, we are going to see types and shadows and pointers to Jesus all throughout the Old Testament before Christ even shows up on the scene in the New Testament.If you think about, for example, the writer to the Hebrews and how he explains the fact that the sacrificial system, and so many of the other things that were revealed to Israel in the law, were ultimately about Christ. They were ultimately shadows and pointers to Jesus and the redemption that would be accomplished through him. That is a biblical example of typology. We’re going to talk about some other biblical examples of typology in this episode. So we’re having that conversation about how typology is really helpful in coming to the Bible, and it’s helpful to us, in particular, in seeing Christ through all of Scripture.But then we’re also going to be having a conversation about something referred to as Biblicism. The goal of a biblicist is a good goal; it’s a good aim. It’s admirable that you want to be a Bible person and only say things that the Scripture says, and you don’t want to add to it or take away from it. That’s a good aim. But oftentimes, the way that Biblicism presents itself is that if the text does not specifically and explicitly say something, that it just must not be true. And so there’s a real concern in Biblicism for some of the systematic categories, the covenantal categories, the redemptive-historical categories that the Reformed have always had that help us to see Christ in all of Scripture. The biblicist gets very anxious about that. We’re going to explain what we mean by that, too.Before you check out, if you’re sitting here and you’re thinking, “Oh my gosh. This is an academic conversation and this is something that’s going to be over my head,” it is not going to be. We’re going to talk about this at a street level, as a couple of pastors who deal with the Scriptures regularly and are trying to teach the Scriptures to our people. This conversation ultimately is about seeing Christ in all of Scripture in ways that are legitimate and responsible, and really upholding what Jesus Christ himself says about the Bible, namely, that it’s all about him. We hope that you come away from this episode more encouraged to study the Scriptures, more encouraged to sit under the Scriptures on the Lord’s Day as you hear your pastor preach them to you, or if you’re a pastor out there and you’re more excited to get in the pulpit and herald Christ from any text in the Bible.I might just launch us off, Jon, in thinking about the words of Jesus Christ himself in Luke 24 and in John 5. Luke 24, the road to Emmaus. Jesus is resurrected and he appears to a couple of his disciples and he says to them that they are slow of heart to believe everything that the Scriptures have revealed. Beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he explained to these disciples everything in Moses and the prophets that was written about him.Then in John 5, at a couple of different points, Jesus makes it very clear to his Jewish audience. He says to them, “You search the Scriptures thinking that in them you find eternal life; yet it is they that bear witness about me.” And then he goes on later in John 5 to say they talk about Moses a lot, and, “if you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote of me.”This is the conversation that we’re having today. I get excited for this because this has changed my Christian life. It has changed the way that I think about the Bible wholesale. This is probably the single greatest thing that informs my preaching from a week to week basis: it is the fact that all of the Scriptures from Genesis to revelation are about Christ and what he has done for sinners.Jon Moffitt: I was preaching through the book of John, and John is probably one of the greatest prolific writers when it comes to the Old Testament in terms of how much he references in typology, in referencing to ceremonies and the law. He mentions the Psalms and Isaiah a lot. He won’t do a direct quote, but he’ll even say things like “to fulfill scripture” to allow the reader to know what Scripture something is in reference to.To add to the Scriptures that talk about Jesus in the Old Testament, there’s a couple more. You have Acts 8:35: “Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning with this Scripture he told him the good news about Jesus.”Book of Acts. Let’s do some math here. The New Testament has not been written at the moment; it’s being recorded as past history. What Scriptures is he referencing? What is he talking about?Justin Perdue: Whenever we hear the apostles in the New Testament reference the Scriptures or Jesus reference the Scriptures, they’re talking about what we call the Old Testament.Jon Moffitt: Philip is telling the eunuch about Jesus from the Old Testament, which I can tell you right now that Justin and I both can preach the gospel clearly from the Old Testament because the apostles did. We can use Old Testament text to preach Christ and we do, and we’ll always do. We are not crippled by only having the New Testament in order to preach the gospel because what else was Philip using?Another verse that would be connected to this is Acts 18:28 where he powerfully refuted the Jews in public, showing by the Scriptures that Christ was Jesus. Again, Scripture has to reference the Torah, the Old Testament, and he’s referencing the Old Testament to show that it is about Jesus. It’s not one little reference. I know sometimes people say, “Well, you guys always quote Luke 24 and you’re basing an entire theological system and way of reading the Bible based on one verse. It’s not. There are multiple examples of New Testament writers using the Old Testament to teach us about Jesus. There is much that can be learned and should be learned about Jesus.Now, this is where understanding typology is so important. It took me a long time to understand this and so I’m going to say it in such a way that if you’re brand new to Reformed theology, if you’re brand new to redemptive-historical biblical theology or covenant theology, typology is really important. When someone said “type” and “antitype”, my brain didn’t have a category for that. So if you’re smart unlike me and you already know it, you can fast forward the next 30 seconds. But if you’re like me and you need help in these categories, the antitype thing is what threw me off.A type is an example or a picture of something, but not the reality of it. We use these illustrations all the time, but one of my favorite ones is if you go to a Mexican restaurant and you get that real big laminated menu. I love that the more expensive ones will have a picture of the burrito and underneath it, it says, “Not the actual size.” Thanks for clarifying. But it’s a picture; it’s a type of the burrito. You look at it, anticipate it, and are excited about what you see, but the picture is not what you taste, it is not what sustains you, it is not what gives you energy. The substance, or the real burrito, is called the antitype.So when we say type and antitype, which we’re going to give some examples here in the Old Testament, those are the theological terms for it. A great example of this is when Jesus says to Nicodemus, “as the serpent was raised in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.” The serpent in the wilderness was a type, an example, a picture of what is going to happen to Jesus, because those who looked on the serpent and believed were healed, and those who looked to Christ on the cross and believed are also healed of their sins. That’s a good example of type and antitype as it relates to Jesus being referenced in the Old Testament, pointing us towards the New Testament reality.Justin Perdue: Jesus, of course, picks up on that very thing in his conversation with Nicodemus in John 3. The New Testament is replete with examples of this kind of thing being done by Christ and the apostles.You mentioned earlier how the apostles write what I might even call the apostolic pattern when it comes to this conversation. When we are saying that we read the Bible from a redemptive-historical perspective, meaning it’s redemptive history with Christ at the center, and we read it in that Christ-centered way, and we read it with an eye for typology—types and shadows and pointers and fulfillment and all those things—all we are saying and all we are advocating is, “Hey guys, let’s read the Bible. In particular, let’s read the Old Testament the way that the apostles understood it and the way that Christ understood it.” We’re not coming up with anything new. We are looking to Christ, Paul, Peter, John, and the writer to the Hebrews, and we are just following their lead in terms of how they understood the Old Testament Scriptures to bear witness to Christ and the redemption that he would accomplish for sinners.This is maybe one of the more controversial pieces of this conversation: we have freedom to not only go to the texts that the apostles specifically reference, but we have freedom to read the entire Old Testament that way, because they have given us a pattern; they have shown us how to do it.For example, the way that Peter in 1 Peter 3 connects the ark and the flood and what happened there, to redemption and to baptism. That means that it is legitimate to now go back to the Old Testament as saints have done for a long, long time and see other passages, to use Peter’s language, where the saints are brought safely through water. And we can see those things as a pointer to our baptism, through which we are united to Christ, we are sealed into him, and our sins are drowned in the waters of baptism because Christ ultimately has taken the judgment of God for us. We’ve died in Christ to the law.So Peter connects that in 1 Peter 3 to Genesis 6-8. But then there are other ways that the saints have seen the same connection, like Exodus and the parting of the Red Sea, where God’s people walk safely through water. People have said this is a pointer to baptism—they’re entirely right about that. Because it’s a pointer ultimately to the deliverance that God would accomplish for us through the Lord Jesus Christ.But a lot of times—again, talking about that Biblicism thing where it’s gotta be on the face of the text and if the text doesn’t say it, we shouldn’t draw the conclusion—if you do that, if you go to the parting of the Red Sea in Exodus, where if you were to preach the flood from Genesis and you were just conclude that Moses, in writing about the ark and the flood, doesn’t say anything about baptism, doesn’t say anything about Jesus and the ark being a type of Christ, and so as you preach this, you think, “The original authorial intent must have been this thing and this is what I need to say.” In order for you to do that, you have now divorced the account of the ark and the flood in Genesis 6-8, you have divorced that from the entire canon, you have divorced it from the entire context of the whole Bible, and have actually been irresponsible in preaching it if you do not preach Christ and baptism from Genesis 6-8.That’s the really controversial thing, I think, to say here. There is such an obsession sometimes over original authorial intent in the Old Testament that we almost academically, thinking that we’re smart, convince ourselves to not preach Christ from the Old Testament.Jon Moffitt: To go back to explain what you mean by authorial intent, for those who this might be new to if you didn’t grow up a part of a church that does expository teaching or preaching, what Justin is getting at is that when an author like Moses sat down to write the history, inspired by the Spirit, there’s a reason behind their writing. That’s authorial intent. What’s the intention of the author? You can see these things in the epistles, you can hear in the beginning when Paul says, “I’m writing you for this reason.” Even in the gospels, you can see the introductions to the gospels and what they’re writing them for. The argument has been—within conservative, evangelical Calvinistic churches—is that you cannot give any other application than the original intention of that individual author. What we mean by author is Paul, David, Moses, etc.There’s a danger when you read Scripture in that way because it disconnects the Bible as if it’s a library of books that are all of the same time period, and God is a part of them—but they’re not all connected as if there was one theme.Our argument is that according to the New Testament, there is a theme and there is a driving message. We can go to Ephesians 1 and it literally says that before the foundations of the world, God made a pactum, a covenant, that there would be salvation promised to sinners. This was before the first mention of Scripture; this is before creation. We take great heart in that because Paul is saying there’s a greater theme that’s going on; there’s a major theme of what all of Scripture is about. Paul thankfully gives us a good peek into that to say, “This is how you should read your Bible: from a redemption of sinners that unfolds through history.” This is why we use the term that’s been used for many years: redemptive-historical understanding of Scripture.So our argument would be the author of Scriptures, the intention of the author, which is God by means of the Holy Spirit. The authorial intent is redemption. And then you go down into the writer. I would argue the author is God, the writers are the humans; they’re instruments. So the authorial intent is always God and His redemptive plan as revealed to us in Scripture. And then we go down and say, what did the writer say in their context? We don’t want to interpret it in our own means saying, “Well, I can say whatever I want now because the writer just wrote something.” No, the writer wrote it for a purpose, but it’s not disconnected from all of Scripture and God’s authorial plan, which was told to us before.Justin Perdue: A few comments here. 1 Peter 1:10-12 in that area. The apostle there makes it clear. I’ll just read 1 Peter 1:10 and following: “Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully, inquiring what person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories. It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves but you, in the things that have now been announced to you through those who preach the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which angels long to look.” That’s 1 Peter 1:10-12. What that is saying is that the prophets of old, as they wrote down things inspired of the Holy Spirit, did not fully, in their humanity, understand everything that they were writing. That right there has to be taken into consideration when we have this conversation about original authorial intent.Did Moses understand everything that he wrote completely in terms of how it pointed to Christ and would be fulfilled in Jesus? No, he didn’t. Did Isaiah in Isaiah 53 fully understand what was going to happen? No, he didn’t. So if you are going to govern yourself by what Isaiah or Moses or David or whoever understood then you’re going to gut the Scriptures of their ultimate meaning that point to Christ and his work for sinners to save us. That’s just one thing for us to keep in mind.Here are two examples that I think are very illustrative and perhaps provocative when it comes to this conversation. They are both from the pen of the apostle Paul. 1 Corinthians 10, in particular, verse four is where I want to get. But I’m going to begin with chapter 10 in verse one and read it real quick. Paul says, “For I want you to know, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ.” That is a reference to Exodus 17. Now, in Exodus 17, what’s happening? In verse four of 1 Corinthians 10, it’s a reference to that chapter; in Exodus 17, the people had been brought out of Egypt, they’ve been brought through the Red Sea, and they are grumbling because they’re thirsty. And Moses says to God, “What am I supposed to do with these people?” Basically. And God says, “I will stand before you there on the rock of Horeb, and you shall strike the rock, and water shall come out of it, and the people will drink.” and Paul is saying that that rock and the water that came out of it is about Jesus.Can you imagine in an Old Testament class or in a hermeneutics class, if a student in many seminaries today were to preach that text or to write an expositional paper on Exodus 17 and to ultimately make the point of that. “Well, Jesus is the point of this.” You will get a failing grade in many seminary classes because that is irresponsible hermeneutics and exegesis of the text. But that’s what the apostle Paul does.Another passage that perhaps is even more illustrative of what we’re talking about is Ephesians 4:7 and following. Paul has just been talking about how there’s unity in the church. Then he goes on to say, he’s going to talk now about how each of us have been given gifts for the use of the body and for the building of the body. He says, “But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift. Therefore it says,” and he is referencing now Psalm 68, “‘When he ascended on high he led a host of cap his, and he gave gifts to men.'” And then he goes on to talk about how that’s ultimately about Jesus giving gifts to the church.If a person were to read Psalm 68, that psalm is about God being enthroned on Mount Sinai, traveling from the wilderness to Mount Sinai and being thrown on Mount Sinai. We would be looking at that again in an Old Testament class, an exegesis situation, or a hermeneutics class. And if someone were to stand up and say, “Hey, that right there—God being enthroned on the mountain—what that’s ultimately about is Jesus Christ and his ascension. And then it’s about him giving gifts to the church.” Again, I think that many people would be rebuked for such an interpretation. I think Paul himself would have gotten an F in many seminary classes for saying that that’s what this is ultimately about. He would be scolded to consider original authorial intent. “Paul, what are you doing?” These are the things that we’re talking about, and we could give a dozen, 20, or 30 more examples like that from the New Testament and how the apostles write. And so all we’re contending for today is for us to interpret the Scriptures just like Paul. Let’s look to the Old Testament and when we preach the old Testament, let’s preach it asking this question: where does this text stand in relation to Christ? It’s so helpful because then we are kept from moralizing.Think 1 Corinthians 10, Exodus 17. We can talk about the people grumbling, we can talk about our sin and all those kinds of things, and we can talk about God’s provision for the things that people need. But ultimately, what are we going to leave people with? That God in His grace—not only has He already rescued people from bondage to Egypt, which is a pointer to the rescue that’s going to come from our bondage to Satan and sin, not only has He brought the people safely through the Red Sea, which is a pointer to baptism and how we’ve been brought safely through water. But now He’s sustaining His people in the wilderness while they are sojourners. And He is saying that the water that He gives for their sustenance is ultimately about Jesus Christ himself. That’s what we can say. It’s so wonderful. It’s beautiful.Jon Moffitt: In Sam Reniham’s book, The Mystery of Christ, His Covenant, and His Kingdom, chapter 13 on the mystery of Christ is really helpful in this because that is what we’re dealing with: the revelation of the mystery of the Messiah and the final consummation where Jesus does finally show up from type to antitype, or from shadow to substance.I want to allow Justin and I to speak into this for a moment where it does change two things: I think it changes God in the way in which God interacts with you and His Word, and number two, I think it allows the Word of God to come alive. My kids love putting together puzzles. They’re up there right now. It’s summer break and they don’t have school. I wake up and they’re out there putting together a puzzle, which I don’t do. To me, I’d rather read a book or something. Puzzles just seem puzzling to me. But if I were to go in there and flip the puzzle upside down where all the color is now gone and there are only shapes, they could painstakingly, and probably with not a lot of joy, put that together. It’s going to be confusing and they could get the outer border and the frame down. But after that, it’s just not gonna be as enjoyable because part of the puzzle is seeing the progress. That’s how most people read the Bible; they don’t see the picture, they don’t have the box cover, and they are not looking at the live colors of the illustration. They hear about how powerful the Word of God is, they hear about how wonderful it is, but what they look at is a puzzle turned upside down. I can see the general idea; I know the corner pieces are obvious, but the rest of it doesn’t make sense.What we’re trying to say is once someone introduced to us the historical understanding—and this is how the Word of God has been taught and read for hundreds of years—all of a sudden, we couldn’t stop putting the puzzle pieces together and seeing Christ come to life as the Old Testament reveals him.Justin Perdue: You just talked about power. People were told that the Word of God is powerful. Last I checked, Jesus Christ is the power of God: the gospel and the message of Christ and his cross are the power of God unto salvation. If the word of God is powerful, which it is, and if the word of God accomplishes its work, which it does, ought we not herald the one that the Word is about, who is described as the power of God, the wisdom of God, our Redeemer, our righteousness, our sanctification, and our redemption? Yes. We should preach him. I get geeked up about this, which is probably evident even on this podcast today.I’m going to continue to illustrate some of this just to maybe demonstrate my excitement over this and how this fires me up. I’m saying this publicly so I’m bound to this forever: if someone were to push me on my favorite book of the Bible, I usually say whichever one I’m reading and studying or preaching through at the moment. It’s my favorite because it’s on the front of my mind. But I think I am at a place finally in my life where if somebody told me to pick one book, it is unquestionably the book of Hebrews for me at this point because of this very reality.What’s the book of Hebrews about? It’s about Christ and how he’s greater than everything and how he’s the point of it all. The writer is telling people, “Don’t go back to the law. Don’t neglect such a great salvation and go back to the law. You know why? Because Jesus is greater than the law. He’s greater than angels. He’s greater than Moses. He’s greater than Aaron. The law, the sacrificial system, the priesthood, and the whole nine yards: all of that was about Jesus Christ. He has accomplished your salvation. He has once and for all made an atonement for your sins. He is seated at the right hand of God in the heavens and he’s coming back. He’s got you and you’ve been given a Kingdom that can never be shaken. It’s ultimately all about Jesus and what he’s done for you. And so now, in full assurance of faith, draw near to the throne of God with confidence and boldness.” What a wonderful message. That’s one.Another one is John 6. This just pops into my brain and it encourages me to no end. This illustrates our point too: when Jesus has given this whole business to people about how he’s the bread of life, and how he’s the bread that came down from heaven, he references the manna in the wilderness. He says your fathers were fed with bread from heaven. How many people, in preaching manna from the Old Testament, are gonna preach Christ? Because we should. As Jesus spoke about it, he said, “I am the bread that comes down from heaven. Just like your fathers were sustained in the wilderness by heavenly bread, you and your pilgrimage on this earth will be sustained by me. You need to eat my flesh and drink my blood because I am true food and true drink for you.” He’s pointing to the Lord’s Supper, but ultimately he’s talking about union with him, how he is our nourishment, and how he is what we need.This is just another example of how we often are not taught from the whole Bible everything that Christ understood the Scriptures to be saying about him. When I come to the Scriptures and when I sit under the Word, I need instruction on wisdom. I need instruction on things that I need to avoid doing because they’ll wreck my life. I need instruction on things that I should pursue because it will be good for me. I need good teaching on God’s law so that I understand what God requires and how I have not met the test. But ultimately, what do I need and what do you need when we come to the Scriptures? We need Christ proclaimed to us because he’s the only hope for sinners—and he is everywhere.I’ve said this before and I just want to clarify. Forgive me for being excited about all this, but when we talk about preaching the Bible and understanding the Bible this way, we are not saying that the Bible is a Where’s Waldo? book, Jesus is Waldo, and on every page, we’re trying to find him hidden underneath words and rocks and everything else. It’s not what we’re saying, but we are asking the questions of the text, always knowing that everything in the Bible is oriented toward and around Christ. And so then we preach that way and we understand it that way. To your point, Jon, it makes the Bible come alive.There’s actually good news all throughout. Because if I’m only told about wisdom or if I’m only given law, there’s no good news in that. Or if I’m only told that God is holy and God is good, or if I’m only told that Jesus is Lord, there is no inherent good news in that for me because I’m a sinner. You’ve got to give me the whole thing and you got to tie it together for me with Christ as my Savior.Jon Moffitt: If I were to hand you a drill that’s got a screwdriver bit in it and there’s no battery in it, and you’re over there and you’re twisting it, you’re getting the job done. You’re using it like a screwdriver. That’s how most people see the Old Testament. They understand it’s supposed to screw or unscrew something. Then I walk over, I pop a battery in, I hit a button and I say, “Watch this. Your mind is going to explode at the capacities and the abilities of how much more you’re going to be able to accomplish.” That is understanding the Old Testament in light of the power of the New Testament.One more passage I want to give as an example of this is 2 Corinthians 1:20 where it says, “For all the promises of God find their Yes in him.” He just summarized the Old Testament. The Old Testament is just one massive unfolding promise. It started with Adam, clarified with Abraham, moving on to David and Solomon, and all the way through the prophets. And he says, “For all the promises of God find their Yes in him. That is why it is through him that we utter our Amen to God for his glory.” So Paul in the beginning of his letter in 2 Corinthians, he’s concluding for you that Jesus is the finality of all that has been written. He is it; he is the point. There’s nothing wrong with asking how this promise is connected to the greater reality of Christ. So when we look at Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, the prophets and all of that, he says all the promises of God. All of them. If Paul didn’t mean to say that, he should have clarified it like “some of the promises of God”. But he says, “all of them” are pointed in a redemptive nature to a Person of redemption who saves sinners. It is exhilarating to go back and read a book full of, you can say fantasy, but it’s not fantasy, but it feels like fantasy, because there’s so many miraculous texts in there. It’s Narnia on steroids.When you go, “Hey, this is God showing how He’s going to fulfill the promise of a Messiah, and Paul already told us it’s going to happen. So let’s go back and watch it over,” now you have one conclusion. You begin to read the Bible as one story, promise, and one covenant after another of God always being faithful. Even when the children of Israel went down to one person, God was still faithful to preserve His seed, to preserve His promise in the midst of debauchery and sin and absolute chaos. God is still in control. You look at the death of Christ, which is utter chaos, and yet John says that was according to the plan.Justin Perdue: Well, how many times does it look like the light is going out on redemption as you read the Scriptures? I just preached the account of Noah and the flood not long ago because we’re in Genesis right now, and the line of the promise is down to one guy and his family. There are going to be other points like David and Goliath: is redemption about to be over if this giant kills this guy? What’s going to happen? And that happens over and over again in the Bible. Ultimately that’s about God and what He’s doing—this is His movie and we should sit on the edges of our seats with our popcorn and jumbo Coke ready, watch it, and behold what our God has done.This is maybe my closing thought: let’s just say that you watch a really good movie for the first time and you’re watching all these things unfold. Then you get to that point in the movie where this thing happens that makes everything that happened before it clear. It makes everything that happened before it obvious. Everything that you were watching for the last two hours was about this. It changes everything for you in terms of how you think about that movie.Jon Moffitt: Can I give one example? The Village.Justin Perdue: Exactly. That’s a good illustration of what we’re discussing today. Jon, if you go back and watch The Village tonight, you’re going to watch it knowing that, and it’s going to change how you see it, because you’re going to identify all of these things throughout the movie before that revelation really occurs—and we read our Bibles that way now because we’ve been told the point of it all, and we’ve been shown how to read it by the apostles and by Christ himself. Why on earth would we go back and read the Scriptures that were written before Christ came as though he isn’t the point? We shouldn’t.It’s kind of crazy. And I think it’s just a joyful and joyous experience for people when you read and study the Scriptures, or you sit under preaching, where it becomes very clear that there are sermons about Christ all throughout the Old Testament. What a wonderful book the Bible is.Jon Moffitt: I know you’re going to take us into the Semper Reformanda and explain what it is, but in there, I would like to talk about the dangers of not reading your Bible this way and how modern day history, through different biblical interpretation models that have been given to us, have actually caused pietism, legalism, doubt, fear, and anxiety when it relates to the Old Testament, instead of hope and joy.Justin Perdue: We’ll have that conversation. Saints, if we’re going to leave you with one final thought today, it’s that read your Bible, study it, and sit under the preaching of God’s Word knowing that the whole Bible is about your Savior who died for you, who atoned for your sin, in whom you died to the law and your penalty has been dealt with, and he is the one who provided you with righteousness and you’re secure in him. Read your Bibles that way and they’ll come alive, we pray, for you.We are now headed into our Semper Reformanda podcast. This is a second podcast that we record every week for people that have partnered with our ministry. If you’re not familiar with Semper Reformanda and what it is, you can go over to our website theocast.org, and you will find all the information that you need to know about Semper Reformanda over there. We would encourage you, if you’ve not already done so, to go check that out and consider joining the Reformation as we seek to spread this message of the sufficiency of Christ and the rest that is ours in him as far and wide as possible. We would love for you to lock arms with us.For many of you that are listening to the regular podcast and will not be listening to the other one, we’ll talk with you again next week. For those of you Semper Reformanda folks, we’ll talk with you guys in just a moment. 

Fresh Pentecost Lesson 4. Did you receive the Holy Spirit? Fresh Pentecost Lesson 4. Did you receive the Holy Spirit? Acts 19:1-20 Paul’s Ministry at Ephesus 1 While Apollos was at Corinth, Paul took the road through the interior and arrived at Ephesus. There he found some disciples 2 and asked them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” They answered, “No, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.” 3 So Paul asked, “Then […]

"We have what the world needs. And that's the true knowledge of God. There is the knowledge that God exists. But what so many ask is what is God like? "So Paul, standing in the midst of the Areopagus, said: 'Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious. For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription: 'To the unknown god.' What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you.'" Acts 17:16, 22-24 * Brad talks about getting to know Jesus and what it really means. * Bob follows up on Lynn's question concerning Hebrews 6:4-6. * Join us in October for United. https://basicgospel.net/united/

This week Kim gives us the download about her West Coast road trip from Seattle to Los Angeles, California. Planning a West Coast Road Trip Driving from Seattle to Southern California takes about three days if you want to take the scenic routes and make stops along the way. Ideally you will take 10-14 days for this trip. However, if you have less time you can drive from Seattle to Southern California and then fly home. The best way to take the trip is from north to south (Seattle to LA) versus south to north because you will have better views and the scenic pullouts will be on your side of the road. Try to plan no more than four hours of driving time a day to leave plenty of time for stops and attractions. There are three main routes that you can take once you are in California. The fastest route is on Interstate 5. Highway 1 is the coastal route which is the slowest but most scenic. Highway 101 will still take you through vineyards and farms with some scenic attractions but it is faster than Highway 1. You can start in Seattle or Portland, Oregon. If you start in Seattle, cut over to the Olympic Peninsula where you can see the Hoh Rainforest, Rialto Beach, Ruby Beach, and the famous tree of life before hitting some of Washington's small beach towns like Long Beach and Ocean Shores. On Kim's trip they drove straight to the Oregon border and stayed the first night in Astoria, which is a neat little town where the Goonies was filmed. You can also visit the Naval Maritime Museum. If you are traveling in the summer of 2021, keep in mind that many restaurants are still understaffed or not fully open so plan accordingly as these small towns get very crowded and overwhelmed with tourists, especially on the weekend. A few other stops in Oregon should include: Cannon Beach with Haystack Rock, Tillamook Creamery, Devil's Punchbowl, and the Oregon Dunes Recreation Area, and Agate Beach. Kim stayed her second night in Klamath on the Oregon/California border (be aware that there is major road construction going on in this area.) On the Oregon coast, check the tide charts to know when the high and low tides are because it can make a big difference in the experience. Try to avoid weekends in the small touristy town as much as possible. Google will also sometimes give predictions on when the busiest times are for attractions, which can help plan your itinerary. In Northern California, Kim stopped at the drive through tree in Klamath, Trees of Mystery, and Avenue of the Giants in the Redwoods. On the third night, Kim stayed in Ukiah, CA. The next day, Kim and the girls stayed in a glamping tent at Safari West and got to do the drive through safari. Kim then spent two nights in Monterey (read all about things to do in Monterey) and did an e-bike tour with Mad Dogs and Englishmen and visited Pacific Grove, staying at the Hyatt Regency Monterey Hotel and Spa. In Monterey, Kim recommends eating at Rio Grill, Alta Bakery, and Lucy's on Lighthouse, which is a hot dog stand with a skateboard theme. Keep in mind that highway 1 is often closed by Big Sur because of landslides so always check ahead to see what is open and take Highway 101 as an alternate. You can drive as far south as Bixby Bridge, but be careful and stay within the boundaries when taking a picture. Lily Valley is another great stop where wild calla lillies grow. If you are going to hike to the Hollywood sign, look for options for a four-mile hike, versus the six-mile hike from the Griffith Observatory, and go mid-week if you can. There is then so much more to do in Southern California but what Kim did would be at least a 7-8 day trip. Read Kim's Olympic National Park itinerary Read all about Kim's West Coast Road Trip itinerary and tips Read Tamara's tips for driving from San Francisco to Cambria on Highway 1 [00:00:00.060] - Kim Tate Today, we're winding down the West Coast.   [00:00:14.880] - Announcer Welcome to Vacation Mavens, a family travel podcast with ideas for your next vacation and tips to get you out the door. Here are your hosts, Kim from Stuffed Suitcase and Tamara from We3Travel.   [00:00:29.820] - Tamara Gruber Today's episode is brought to us by Safe Travels Kit, which does exactly what it sounds like and it helps keep you safe when you're traveling, whether it's on an airplane, a train or even in the car, it is all in one little pouch that includes a seat cover and a pillowcase and sanitizing wipes and a face mask. What I love about it is that it's super soft. So, Kim, the material, you know how sensitive my skin is, but if I'm going to put my face on a pillow case, I want it to be like super soft and comfortable.   [00:00:57.660] - Kim Tate And I love that part. And if there's anything that we've learned in this last years that there's a lot of germs out there and now I'm even more like not wanting them to touch me, definitely.   [00:01:07.950] - Kim Tate I can't even imagine using one of those airplane pillows at this point where you're never quite sure if they actually changed that white little non soft cover that they put over them.   [00:01:18.450] - Tamara Gruber Definitely. So this is very easy to pack in your carry on. It's actually sold on Amazon as well as you'll find it in many of the Brookstone airport stores or in Bloomingdale's. But you can find it on Safe Travels, Kit.Com, and we thank them for their support.   [00:01:35.360] - Tamara Gruber So, Kim, I know that your West Coast road trip feels like probably ancient history by now, but I know that we wanted to come back to it and really do a deep dive because so many of our listeners have planned on doing some type of California or West Coast road trip.   [00:01:52.010] - Tamara Gruber So I thought it'd be really helpful if we could, you know, talk about what you've done. And I know that you've done this trip quite a few times. You have a lot of knowledge to share. But can you fill us in, I know you did, what, two weeks down back in April from Washington down to California. But give us an idea of what was your overall itinerary like?   [00:02:14.890] - Kim Tate So in this trip, yeah, we had two weeks, but part of that was because we were going to hang out with friends at the end of our trip and then spent three days getting home. So I would say for this trip, we just focused on mainly driving along the Oregon coast and California coast a bit and then headed over and near Santa Barbara where we stopped, which is kind of the southern central. It maybe is considered like the northern tip of, I consider central California.   [00:02:44.140] - Kim Tate But some people might think it's kind of So Cal because it's near L.A. But I think of L.A. is kind of the northern part of SoCal. So anyways, that was a long ramble. So I would say we spent 14 days, but of that, we took about a five day, five to seven days to drive down. That's the timeline. I think that there's a few options. Like you said, we've done this trip quite a bit.   [00:03:07.850] - Kim Tate When we were going to Disneyland and spent a few days in Disneyland and we actually did a one way car rental and we drove from Seattle down and just did kind of the California coast and then stayed in Disneyland for a couple of days and then flew home to help save as much time as possible. So I definitely think that's an option for people. This trip, we actually did some of the Oregon coast and then California coast, which again is adds time and all of these things.   [00:03:34.360] - Kim Tate You just have to think about how much time you have. And then another option, if we had a lot of extra time and didn't want to spend as much time like in California being a tourist in California, if that makes sense, if you're just in it for the road trip, then adding the or The Washington Post, which is basically Olympic National Park, the Olympic Peninsula and a few of the Washington Southern Washington coastal beach towns, that's another option as well.   [00:03:59.020] - Kim Tate So I think if people are looking at a timeline, then it's going to depend on how much time you have on how much you can do.   [00:04:07.120] - Tamara Gruber Yeah, like what things you need to skip or whether you're taking the highway or the coastal route. And I mean, obviously the point of this is to see as much of the scenic parts as you can. So nobody wants to spend all of their time on the interstate. And I definitely think if people are from not from that area. So if you're coming from the East Coast, like us you would want to fly in and then just do it one way.   [00:04:29.530] - Tamara Gruber And if you did that, do you think which do you like better? Do you like the north to south or the south to north?   [00:04:34.510] - Kim Tate This is a huge, huge tip I have. And this I actually wrote this in my West Coast road trip post. I think north to south is the only way to go. Absolutely. And the reason I say that is for two reasons. One, the driver's most always going to be focused on the road and for safety reasons. I think that's good. So I think it's good that the passenger gets to look out and can have a phone and take pictures if they want.   [00:04:56.260] - Kim Tate But the bigger point that I think north to South works is because all the turnouts are on the, you know, far west side of the highway. And so if you're headed on the right side of the road, you are easily you have easy access to enter and exit the pull out into the lane of traffic as opposed to trying to cross traffic, which on busy you know, travel day is not a busy route like that. It actually can make a huge difference and kind of be a safety hindrance.   [00:05:22.780] - Kim Tate So I think north to south is the way to go.   [00:05:25.990] - Tamara Gruber Absolutely. I've only done, you know, a piece of it, you know, from basically San Francisco down to Central Coast. And I would totally agree. Definitely the better option, you know, from a driver and a passenger standpoint.   [00:05:41.200] - Kim Tate Yeah. And I think a few other tips for just planning when people are thinking about this is this is the kind of route where you really need to allow a lot of spontaneity and stopping time. And so our first time we did this and I mentioned this before, we way over packed our drive times and we were looking at, you know, five hour days and stuff and then with stops and getting started and going in the morning and then traffic and winding roads.   [00:06:08.080] - Kim Tate We we were getting into our next stop like at 7:00 or 8:00 at night sometimes. And it was just brutal. And so this trip, I tried to make sure that no day was longer than four hours and my target time for drive time each day was around three hours. So that's something to keep in mind that really, I think makes a difference in planning. It's not your typical, you know, open highway type road trip planning. It's a very I mean, you want to take it slow and easy.   [00:06:35.080] - Kim Tate I'm sure some people would even want to do, you know, a couple of days in one place and then an hour and another day and, you know, take it really slow. But for us, I found the three hour mark, kind of the sweet spot.   [00:06:46.270] - Tamara Gruber Yeah. I mean, if you have the ability to do slow travel and you can take, you know, the summer. Yeah. And that's wonderful. But otherwise, yeah, you have to have some trade offs. But it's good that you gave yourself that extra time this time, especially since you were the only driver to. But it well I guess Lizzy could have driven, but it gives you, you know, a nice little break and it makes it much more relaxed.   [00:07:07.720] - Tamara Gruber I hate that feeling of like I'm usually the one that wants to stop so the other people don't like mind skipping as much, but I hate that. Feeling of like missing out, you know, is something I really want to do, like how many times am I doing this trip? And so I hate like having to skip things that I wanted to do. But I also hate that feeling of like stress, like, are we going to get they're going to get there is going to be too late.   [00:07:29.530] - Tamara Gruber Everyone's going to be so hungry, you know.   [00:07:31.990] - Kim Tate Yeah, it can be horrible. And I'll just mention, like for people planning who are and pretend that people that maybe are not aware at all, even with all the extra time I had and trying to allow all this time, I still made some choices to shorten the trip. And so this is I'll give this little tip and information. I think people need to know that there's three main north south routes along, mainly along the California section. But this sort of applies to the Oregon and Washington, a little Oregon and Washington, the one and one on one, are kind of the same through a lot of it.   [00:08:04.780] - Kim Tate So it's not as noticeable. But once you get past the redwood forests of Northern California, you kind of start having this choice of Highway one is what hugs the coast. That is the one that, you know, is right there on the coast. And it's extremely slow going, but it's extremely beautiful. And then you have the 101 that kind of juts over. And that's when you start to get into like wine country and some of the agriculture area.   [00:08:31.180] - Kim Tate And you'll notice that the 1 and the 101 kind of travel together until you hit San Francisco and they kind of merge in a little bit together again. And then they split off again. And you're you're left with that same choice of the coastal routes versus the a little more. It's still coastal and not coastal, but it's still close to the coast in a way. But anyways, that's two things to know, that there are those two routes and they do separate.   [00:08:54.040] - Kim Tate And it's a very different driving experience over time as well as visual like what you're going to see. And then, of course, Interstate five is the main interstate that runs north and south all the way up to the California border, to the I mean, the Canada border to the Mexico border. So for us, we went down along, you know, the one and then we actually cut over to the 101 because between like Santa Rosa and San Francisco, the one, it's beautiful.   [00:09:20.410] - Kim Tate And there's some cool things to see. And like just north of San Francisco, you have Muir Woods, which is, you know, I've still never spent a lot of time on that side of the route. But it does add, you know, probably a couple of hours to what you would plan if you just went the 101, which is a little bit faster and more heavily trafficked. And then on our way home, we just drove by five the whole way because at that point we were just hurrying to get home.   [00:09:48.850] - Kim Tate So when people. Yeah. So I just wanted to give you a heads up that there's three main routes that people need to think of. One's going to be your slowest. So if you want to do the one the whole way, you really need to allow a lot of time.   [00:10:00.700] - Tamara Gruber Yeah, we've done part of the one. And I know what when we moved back up to San Francisco, we did the five and it was like, how did we just do that? And what, like an hour or two while the other took all day. And even that was kind of scenic because you go through so many like agricultural, like giant farms. And we realized like we're so much produce comes from. But yeah. So let's dig into your trip a little bit.   [00:10:23.650] - Tamara Gruber So what like what was your first day like, where did you stop along the way. Like if you can walk us through some of your itinerary would be great.   [00:10:31.240] - Kim Tate Yeah. So I think that like I said, if people are wanting to do this and they're not they don't live on the West Coast, Seattle is a great starting point. You could also do Portland, Oregon. That would be if you don't care about the Washington section of it. If you do want to do Seattle, you can do Seattle and then cross over onto the Olympic Peninsula and do your Washington side of the road trip, which is where you're going to see like the HOH Rain Forest.   [00:10:54.130] - Kim Tate You're going to see some of the beautiful, like beaches like Rialto Beach, Ruby Beach, a few things on the Olympic Peninsula. You'll see that famous tree of life that some people maybe have seen. And then you'll come into a few of the popular little Washington State beach cities. I think Long Beach and Ocean Shores are two of the main ones right there, the the border. And then you can also cross there's a really cool bridge that you can cross into.   [00:11:19.300] - Kim Tate But our first day we just drove I5 straight down to the Oregon border and then crossed over. And we stayed overnight in Astoria, Oregon, which we've been to before. It's kind of a neat little town. People may be familiar with it because of its famous for being the place where they filmed a lot of The Goonies.   [00:11:37.690] - Tamara Gruber That's what I thought.   [00:11:38.860] - Kim Tate Yeah, exactly. And they definitely have a kind of a seaside. They have a beautiful naval, kind of a fun Naval Maritime Museum. That's cool. So if you have a kid that is really into ships or even an adult that's really in the ships, that's a neat place. And the actual it's really neat to think because Astoria sits at the mouth of the Columbia River, which is a major, major, you know, like through route. And they have these pilot boat captains.   [00:12:05.410] - Kim Tate And it's one of the most rigorous piloting, I don't know what you would call it, like waters. There's a lot of sandbars and a lot of heavy. Tides and currents, and so it's a very you know, it's you have to have a lot of skill and experience to be able to pilot a boat and help get the barges in and out of that that little Columbia River mouth. So it's kind of cool to learn about that history. So I think a story is that is cool that way.   [00:12:31.440] - Kim Tate It's definitely a little bit of a grungy, you know, small northwest town. It's got some limited dining experiences, especially, you know, like we've talked about on our episodes. We hit there on a Saturday night and our dining experience was a headache. So just a heads up, if you are planning summertime trips around some of these smaller coastal towns, you really need to think ahead of your dinner time planning shows early. No, it's mostly just because there's only a few restaurants and then they have all these tourists that come in.   [00:13:05.490] - Kim Tate And so you have, you know, to wait for an hour to order or they're a small little restaurant and so they have five tables. And so people are waiting to just get takeout, even if there's just a long line, because you only have if you don't want fast food, you only have like three restaurants to choose from to find food. So it's just kind of a tricky situation with that. So just a heads up on some of those.   [00:13:27.360] - Kim Tate You know, the weekends, summer weekends we were traveling during spring break can just be a bit of a headache. We waited about an hour, just under an hour to order our food. And then it was another 40 minutes to actually get the food to take back to our hotel room. So, yeah.   [00:13:43.250] - Tamara Gruber Yeah. So some angry people at that point.   [00:13:46.440] - Kim Tate Yeah. And we had that same experience in Port Angeles on the Olympic Peninsula when we did our Olympic National Park trip in August of 2020, we had the same thing where those smaller coastal towns are just not used to it. And so on the weekends when you have a bunch of tourists that come in, they just really flood the few restaurants that are available and they just are so small they don't have a lot of seating area. And then their take out program gets really bogged down.   [00:14:11.460] - Tamara Gruber So, yeah, and we should mention that we did do an episode on your Olympic National Park, a trip last year, so people can look that up. And I'm sure you have a post on your website about it too. I do too.   [00:14:22.170] - Kim Tate Yeah, definitely. Yeah. So our first night was in Astoria, but we just basically got in there at night and that was probably the longest little stretch of our our drive, you know, of our trip. And then the next morning we set out and I had all these great. This is where you have to be, you know, fluid with a road trip. I had all these great plans. And of course, we're on the Oregon coast.   [00:14:42.270] - Kim Tate It's going to be awesome. We were going to go to Cannon Beach and see the famous Haystack Rock, which, you know, we had never really seen. And it was disgusting whether it was blowing blowing winds like, you know, you're holding white knuckling the steering wheel. So when the you know, the winds, the rain is blowing sideways and it's just gross. So my day for that day was a little ruined because I had all these plans.   [00:15:04.380] - Kim Tate So we were going to see Haystack Rock. We skipped we drove over there and kind of looked at it. But no, we didn't get out and hang out on the beach at all. And then we also were planning to go to the Tillamook Creamery, which is we've been to before. And it's really it's so funny because we went to years and years ago, it was actually when me we were headed down to California on this road trip for Mia's fifth birthday.   [00:15:25.080] - Kim Tate So that gives you an idea. It's almost, you know, ten years, nine years and it's gone through. Evidently, everyone figured out that it's an awesome destination because they have fully made a whole tourist attraction museum tour system. And on a Sunday, it was jam packed with wall to wall, people waiting outside to get in because they had limited entrance. So we skipped the Tillamook Creamery because we didn't want to stand in line for hours outside.   [00:15:55.170] - Kim Tate There's also a famous stop along the way called Devil's Punchbowl, which we skipped because of the weather. And then we finally we're going to end right around the Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area. And again, because of the weather, we skipped that. So we got in really early to our, you know, best Western basic hotel in Reidsport. Oregon was where I kind of picked because it was near those dunes. And I thought it would be a fun a fun stopover, but it did not happen.   [00:16:22.380] - Tamara Gruber So, yeah, I it's so hard. Like we talked about, like, you know, letting go of things. I think, you know, you're a photographer. Like we both, you know, do this for work. It's it's sometimes it's not even just about missing seeing something, but it's like, oh, we had these dreams of like the pictures that you're going to get and, you know, how are you going to use them and you know all of that.   [00:16:41.340] - Tamara Gruber And then you're like, yeah, now this does not cooperate at all. I've had so many of those experiences where it's like, oh, I'm going to get these epic photos. And you're like, yep, nope, that's not happening. Yeah, but I think I find it interesting, like what you're saying about Tillamook, because I feel like in general, like agritourism has become so much more popular. You know, it's just something that is, you know, of a lot more interest.   [00:17:02.670] - Tamara Gruber And I really I think it's smart the way a lot of these farms and, you know, other makers have turned it into, you know, another revenue stream for them. You know, so it's interesting, I remember one time we were staying for a week on Cape Cod and it was pouring rain, so it's like opening the summer, like what are you going to do? You look like indoor stuff. And we're like, oh, let's go to the Cape Cod potato chip factory.   [00:17:25.940] - Tamara Gruber And we stood outside in line, you know, with an umbrella overhead for like an hour. Yes. Get into like this potato chip factory where basically all we did was like shuffle down a hallway and like, look at the machines working. Yes, we know. Yeah, they went to the gift shop. But I'm like, you could have gone to the grocery store and bought like five different flavors, like, why did we do this?   [00:17:44.070] - Kim Tate Yeah, yeah. That's what I was thinking. That's why we skipped Tillamook, because we kind of know already. I mean, it had been improved. So we thought, oh, it'll be neat to see it. And but you do you kind of just walk and you get to see the factory and, you know, the machines working. But it you know, it was a Sunday, too. So I was like, well, it's probably not really in operation right now because most of those factories also are just, you know, the the next day.   [00:18:06.740] - Kim Tate Yeah. So anyways, we skipped it and. Yeah. Just kept going. But yeah, I think that's, that was our, that was our idea is like, oh it'll be nice, go inside and have those inside things since it's such a gross day. But everyone had that same idea here. But the next the fun thing was this was where I talked about once we got to our hotel, since we're there early, I kind of started looking the next day to see if there were any, you know, like dunes on that stretch on our next day out.   [00:18:31.490] - Kim Tate And that was where I found that one random all trails where it was like some weird trailhead that held ten cars. And we went and it turned out to be this awesome, cool sand dune that we spent an hour at. So I think that, you know, it is fun when you can have those kind of things.   [00:18:47.120] - Tamara Gruber Yeah, it's nice. You can find, you know, find something that you didn't plan on that makes up for the things that you missed.   [00:18:53.690] - Kim Tate Yeah, exactly. And I think that's cool. You know, that would be something for people to know about, like the Oregon coast that I know California has it as well. There's you know, Pismo Beach is known and famous for their dunes. But that is something to just be known that Oregon is known for. And then as we made our way sort of south, we did, like I said, that scenic. It was like this scenic corridor that I saw from road trippers.   [00:19:14.930] - Kim Tate And again, it's just on the road, basically. And you just turned off. We just turned off and parked and did a little hike. And it's where you start getting that feel a little more of the California, you know, rocky coastal feel of stuff. But it's cool because in Oregon, it was still very Pacific Northwest with lots of, you know, evergreen trees. And so it was kind of a neat feeling as you move south and just see a little bit how things start different, differing, a little.   [00:19:42.650] - Kim Tate It's cool.   [00:19:44.000] - Tamara Gruber It makes me kind of want to see that landscape. But, yeah, one of the things about the summer is like, Glen, no matter what we do, like, I need a different landscape. I'm super excited about the trips that I have coming up around New England. And, you know, really, I can't wait for it, but I really want just a different landscape. And I remember years ago when Hannah and I were driving through central Oregon and we landed in Portland, we did a little bit of the Columbia River Gorge.   [00:20:07.130] - Tamara Gruber And then we started driving down to Bend and just driving through those forests, the pine forests of those towering trees. It's like we just don't have that here. And so, yeah, I'm picturing that as you're talking. Yeah. Like the redwoods and everything. Just kind of it's exciting to be in one of those types of forest. They're just so. Like magnificent.   [00:20:25.910] - Kim Tate You know, it is it's a really it's a cool part of nature and it's fun.   [00:20:30.170] - Kim Tate And when you do the whole coast, like, you know, Washington, Oregon, and then you make your way down into California, it's neat just to see, you know, when you're doing it on one trip like that, it's fun to go, wow, you know, things really start changing and feeling different. And it's cool. It's neat and fun. So, yeah, but then we so we kind of stayed overnight, right at the.   [00:20:51.140] - Kim Tate It's kind of funny how this happened too, because we ended up staying overnight in Northern California, a place called Klamath, California. And the cool thing about that, that you know, how you everyone's mind you get lucky on something is there was major road construction. And this is something to keep in mind, you know, on these smaller routes. And it's where it's, you know, the piloted car allowance. Do you know where they it's only one lane open.   [00:21:15.470] - Kim Tate And so they'll have like a truck that guides the, you know, northbound through and then the truck running right around three.   [00:21:21.530] - Tamara Gruber So I've experienced that before.   [00:21:22.930] - Kim Tate Yeah. So you know what I'm talking about. Well, we were crossing and it was right along the Oregon to California border and we were crossing and we didn't have any weight at all. We were like the fifth car and we got picked up on the next pilot and it was fine and didn't think anything of it. And then the next morning, like where we we're when we were getting out of the we were checking out of our hotel that we stayed at, they had notices all about like Oregon border, you know, construction and two hour delays.   [00:21:51.470] - Kim Tate And so I was like, oh, my goodness. So that's something to keep in mind also is that when you're on those two lane highway routes, you have to really be mindful of construction and stuff because they that route, Highway One is so susceptible to landslides and, you know, erosion where they have to close the road down because they're doing major repairs. So it's just something to keep in mind and. We lucked out being, you know, kind of at the end of the day and doing that crossover.   [00:22:18.210] - Tamara Gruber Yeah, well, it's funny, we were just talking, you know, on a recent episode about how bad the roads are and how much they need them fixed. I was thinking that today as I was driving Hannah home from school and there was road construction, two places that I had to, like, detour around. And I was like, you know, our roads are terrible, but why do they have to fix these?   [00:22:37.360] - Kim Tate We get all mad. Really, right? Can it just happen magically? Yeah. Yeah.   [00:22:43.380] - Tamara Gruber Well it sounds like that good that you avoided that. At least you got a good start.   [00:22:47.730] - Kim Tate Yeah. So I do think that, you know, something to keep in mind is like weekends right now in this season of local road trip travel that I feel like people are doing weekends. If you can avoid weekends as much as possible, it's definitely the thing to know, especially on those small, like touristy coastal towns. It seems like a lot of locals are going to them as well and are doing things on the weekends so that you're getting tourists as well as locals that are just getting out of their house and trying to do something.   [00:23:16.020] - Kim Tate And so just a heads up to people if you're planning a vacation at all, that's involving like smaller towns are road tripping, trying to avoid the weekends because that's something I noticed, not the most surprising.   [00:23:27.720] - Tamara Gruber Everyone is so excited to do anything and everything. Yeah. I mean, I found any little thing that we try to do is, you know, it's busy. Everyone is excited to be out of the house.   [00:23:38.680] - Kim Tate Exactly. Yeah. We have that experience. A couple places that I can mention, but definitely something I noticed. So as I said, we moved into Northern California and we were susceptible to billboard advertising, which how many people can actually say that? I didn't even know they worked anymore. But evidently when you have a 14 year old kid in your car, they can still work because my daughter saw this trees of mystery mentioned on the billboard as we were getting ready to cross into California.   [00:24:06.160] - Kim Tate And she's like, I really want to do that. You know, I always see that. And I you know, I never let them stop because I've always got the schedule planned. I'm like, no, we don't have time. And so this time, since I did try and allow more flexibility, I called them and they the last entrance was like four or something. And they said we probably wouldn't make it in time. And so I told me I was like, well, let's go do we'll do the drive thru tree, which I had planned for in the morning, and then we'll do the trees of mystery thing in the morning.   [00:24:32.310] - Kim Tate We'll just drive back up because it was about a ten minute is about ten minutes away from the hotel. So we backtracked a little, but it wasn't a big deal at all and that worked out perfect. So I would say try and have some flexibility with your planning, if you can at all. But it actually paid off because and here's another tip for people. We if you do like Google, if you do a search for Google, like for the destination.   [00:24:56.310] - Kim Tate So, for instance, I did the tour through Tree in Klamath, California, and I had navigated to it or something. And sometimes you'll see Google will give you like it's busier than normal or they'll have you seen that where they give you a little line graphs and tell you how busy it is? Well, I noticed that on the daytime, like in the mornings, it's very busy, but in the evenings it's not busy at all. And I was like, well, this will actually work perfect.   [00:25:21.870] - Kim Tate We'll go in on that Monday evening, get the pictures and do it because it's still fairly light out, you know, until 7:00 p.m. or so and do that. And then the next morning, it gave us time to go to Trees of Mystery. And we drove up and had no wait. And while we were there taking pictures, only one other car showed up. So that's the other thing to think about are some of these things. If you can actually, you know, eat somehow and then really use that, I would say it's the final two minutes, kind of it's like the five p.m. to seven, eight, especially in the summers.   [00:25:50.610] - Kim Tate You can really push it to eight or nine with the longer daylight. I think that's a sweet spot of like avoiding a lot of crowds if you if the places are operational and open.   [00:26:01.320] - Tamara Gruber So. Yeah, yeah. Well, it's like typical dinnertime. Yeah, no. So if you can either eat earlier or eat late, but just make sure that places are open, especially in small places like that. But that's good.   [00:26:12.780] - Kim Tate Well it's funny, the road trip routes, people kind of get to their hotels by four or five p.m. and they're kind of done for the day they go eat. And I mean, that's sort of what we would do. So then if you add something in during that time or go back out from your hotel, which is what you know, we did it, it really can pay off.   [00:26:28.590] - Tamara Gruber Yeah. It's funny that you mention, though, the the roadside like advertising, because I actually like that part of road trips where it's advertising a an attraction, you know, and not just, you know, whatever business or lawyer, you know, fill up at Shell. Yeah. Yeah. So when we were driving to Steamboat Springs, I was probably about two hours on this like smaller road. And I can't even tell you how many signs it had to be like one hundred signs, just like every, you know, whatever number of feet advertising this one, like cowboy hat and cowboy boots off.   [00:27:06.450] - Tamara Gruber So when we were in Steamboat Springs, we we had lunch there and then we walked around a little bit before we went to the ranch. I'm like, we have to go into this. Or I mean, they put so much effort into it, like not and we walked in and Glenn was like I'll be next door, I was like, OK, but I had to at least check it out. Yeah, exactly. Kind of like the wall drugs or, you know, of those sort of tourist attraction kind of places.   [00:27:29.170] - Tamara Gruber I don't know. Yeah. It kind of makes me happy to see those kind of things.   [00:27:32.050] - Kim Tate Yeah. There was another one in like southern Oregon that we kept passing signs for. That was like a wildlife drive through park thing. And the girls were like, oh, that's cool. And, you know, so, you know, it seems like that's the thing to do for some of those those attractions is probably how they get a lot of people. But again, that's where I say having some flexibility and not over scheduling your drive times allow you those a little bit of ability to be a little more spontaneous, which I think makes a road trip because and we've talked about this on our road trip thing where you needed to decide if the road trip is going to be just about getting to a destination or if the road trip is going to be a the the trip of itself.   [00:28:11.770] - Kim Tate Right.   [00:28:12.370] - Tamara Gruber Yeah. So so I'm getting from you, though, that the trees of mystery is worth skipping, whatever that mystery is.   [00:28:20.290] - Kim Tate I think it depends. It was definitely like it's a little pricey. It's like 20 dollars a person. So but if you we had fun. It's like rope walks and then you take like a little gondola way high on a hill. And the look from the hill isn't anything fun. But the girls had fun riding in the gondola and I mean, walking through the bridges, through the trees is fun.   [00:28:44.530] - Kim Tate And the girls liked that. But it's short. And I mean, I think I'd be more comfortable at the ten dollars per person mark. However, you know, I don't regret going. And the girls enjoyed it. And it was a good way to stretch your legs and stuff. And it's kind of a fun way to it's a quirky roadside attraction. It was the one thing where we saw it definitely was attract a lot of out-of-state tourists. We saw a lot of out-of-state plates in the parking lot.   [00:29:09.550] - Kim Tate We did see a lower mask compliance, just like passing people because it's outdoors and stuff. And this is where the outdoor like if you're vaccinated. So it I think it just attracts like it's an outdoorsy type place. So I could see that it could get really crowded on a weekend. Yeah. We definitely by the time we left, so it was good because we got up early because we are and like I say, we were only ten minutes away from our hotel.   [00:29:31.990] - Kim Tate We got up early, went there and it was it was great. I mean, we weren't like maybe it seemed like there was five other people there same night we were. But when we came out, it was just packed. And so we probably were leaving around eleven ish and we got there around nine thirty and. Yeah. Yeah. So that gives you an idea of just earlier the better for that thing. Right. Yeah. So then we entered into the redwoods as always that we've been to before.   [00:30:00.190] - Kim Tate We did notice something weird, like the main exit I normally take because I wanted to drive along like the Prairie Creek Road. They had that closed for some reason. So I went south and I could have come back in from the north route. But I don't know why they had it closed for any reason. But we decided to skip that little leg of it and just kept going. But here's something to think about. If you are doing a coastal trip and this is something that I mentioned in my Olympic National Park Post, and it also matters.   [00:30:28.360] - Kim Tate On the Oregon coast you really need to become familiar with tide charts when you're on the West Coast. And I'm sure the East Coast is the same thing. But it it makes a difference when you're expecting these great like things. One of the things we looked at that I wanted to do is called Agate Beach, and it's supposed to be a really popular place where you go and you can walk along a pretty beach and find these really cool Agate rocks and kind of collect some if you want.   [00:30:54.370] - Kim Tate And we found out, though, as we were coming through and looked at the tide schedule, that we are going to be there basically smack dab at high tide. It seems like it's not finding any rocks. Yeah. So we wouldn't and so I pulled in and it was a ten dollar. I thought, well, we'll still go look and see, but it was ten dollar, you know, park admission. And so I asked the they had a actually they had a park ranger on site there.   [00:31:17.560] - Kim Tate And so I asked if they had a you know, if it was even worth going down there. And he was like not really, not during high tide. So just something to keep in mind that if you're doing any like beach visits and things like that, that it can really make a difference depending on the tide charts.   [00:31:31.810] - Tamara Gruber Yeah, I feel like I saw that recently. Someone had posted something somewhere about the sea glass beach that you had gone to in the past, much in the past.   [00:31:40.270] - Tamara Gruber And they were super disappointed with it. And I was like, oh, that's interesting because someone else, you know, really liked it. So clearly it's a different experience, depending on if you're there, you can actually collect sea glass or not.   [00:31:51.430] - Kim Tate Yeah, exactly. Yeah. And that makes a difference. You know, we had the same thing, like with tide pools, like when the tide pool, when things are really high, the tide pools aren't as cool, you know, because sure, you can't walk out and see all the pools. And so you want to visit during low tide. And then something to keep in mind is it's always good when you look at the charts, you always kind of want the tide to be leaving as opposed to the tide come.   [00:32:13.520] - Kim Tate And because if you happen to go around like a jut that seems like it's dry at the time, but the tides coming in, suddenly you turn around to go back to where you parked or whatever, and it used to be a beach and now it's, you know, two feet underwater. And so that's just something to keep in mind when you're doing an app for that or just just the weather app that shows you the the tides as well. I just do Google searches and I click on one of the websites that does the tides.   [00:32:39.530] - Kim Tate I don't use just a general weather one. I definitely do like a specific, but I don't have an app. I'm sure you could install an app. I just do a Google search for it and I just search for the destination. So if I'm like I beach or it was called some park, you know, tide schedule and you can normally find a few different ones and I'll show you. And there's, you know, it'll show you like low tide times.   [00:32:59.030] - Kim Tate And based on the chart they give you, you can easily figure out if the tides leaving or the tides coming in. And then we kind of the big thing we did was the Avenue of the Giants, which is one of my favorite parts of the Redwood Forest. And so we still did that. And even though we've done the redwoods a lot in, the girls are just kind of like your mom. I don't need to do any hikes. And I accepted that.   [00:33:20.330] - Kim Tate I was like, yeah, we've done a lot of like walking in the redwoods. We still pulled over. There's a lot of little turnouts and we still pulled over and tried to get kind of some fun, you know, like tree road drive shots, like tree road pictures. That's a tip is you know, that would be another thing that if you're there at night, like between five to seven, it would look so much better because with the sunlight dappling through the trees, it looks pretty.   [00:33:42.170] - Kim Tate And it seems like it would be really pretty on like in photos. But it's not it doesn't look right at all. You definitely want the darker, moodier shot for those kind of shots. But sorry, that's a little photography talk. But we did have one little stop where we went and kind of explored a little. And there is this awesome big tree that the girls climbed on. And I got a fun picture on that, that you guys might have seen.   [00:34:02.120] - Kim Tate Those of you who follow me on Instagram. Yeah.   [00:34:04.340] - Tamara Gruber And reminded me of a shot that you and I had when we were in Santa Rosa.   [00:34:08.450] - Kim Tate Yeah, exactly. Yeah. It was even bigger than that tree at the Armstrong Woods in Santa Rosa. So it was kind of cool, but it was pretty epic. It was funny because I was taking these pictures with Lizzy and all of a sudden I'm like, Mia, where are you? And then she's like, I'm up here like thirty feet in the sky. It was crazy. But yeah. So we did the Avenue, the Giants, and then we went and stayed at a hotel just for the night to prepare for our two little kind of partnership things.   [00:34:35.120] - Kim Tate So we the next day we headed into Santa Rosa. This was a funny I'll just share with people our little tip, because this is something fun that I want to share. We so the weather in Seattle is normally pretty moderate. I mean, we don't even have an air conditioner at our house that I think, you know. You know, that summer we hadn't had major harsh hot weather yet from this road trip. Mm. Especially being on the coast.   [00:34:59.450] - Kim Tate Well, we stayed overnight in a place called Ukiah, and that was where we had kind of moved away from the redwoods in the coast. And we started moving inland at that point. And we woke up the next morning and we slept in it was asleep and day and got in the car and started driving. And it was boiling hot. I think by the I think when we left just before noon, the it was about seventy two or seventy three and then the temperature was going to hit like 81 or 82 that day.   [00:35:26.780] - Kim Tate And we started driving and we're all like sweating and the air conditioner is not working. Like I'm literally like my shirt sticking to my back and we're like, oh my goodness. And I'm trying to get a hold of Paul. I'm driving or trying to call Paul. And he's in meetings all day. And he's normally my I'll be I'll admit, like he's definitely the car guy for us and the fix it guy. And we then decided, like, what am I going to do?   [00:35:50.060] - Kim Tate And so I asked me to help look up a Honda dealership because thankfully this was a really short drive into Santa Rosa and there was a Honda dealership there. So I called them and said, here's the situation. We have a busy road trip. Like, I don't have any time, do you have any time to get in and look at it and maybe be able to fix it if it's something easy and they're like, yeah, go ahead, bring it on in.   [00:36:09.410] - Kim Tate And I said, OK, we'll be there in forty minutes. We're on the road. And so then we pull into this Honda dealership and they tell us that it's a five hundred dollar diagnosis fee, like just to diagnose. I'm not even to fix it. And Lizzie jumps on because she's learned from her dad, she jumps on YouTube and she types in like a Honda Odyssey air conditioner not working. And she finds this YouTube video that she starts to watch.   [00:36:34.850] - Kim Tate And in it, the guy talks about a Fuse, you know, they call it a Fuse. It's actually called a relay, I guess, or something. But she learned she's like, Mom, I watched this video. And there's just you take the you open the hood and you take off this lid on this thing and you use some pliers and pull out this thing. And I'm going, oh, great. You know, OK. And so we've sure enough find an auto autozone.   [00:36:54.860] - Kim Tate I get a hold of Paul. Finally, he has a short break and he's like, yeah, just go ahead and try it. And, you know, I've got another Mini I can't talk. And so I'm like, OK, great. So I'm going to the AutoZone and Lizzy and I just are watching this YouTube video. And so we talk to the AutoZone. They don't have any pliers or anything we can use. They try and sell us a fuse puller, because of that point, Lizzy keeps calling it a Fuse, and so we buy this Fuse puller, we go out there and open it all up and are like, this doesn't fit. This is not what it is. And so we go back in and return that and ask the guy like, can we just borrow some pliers? Because Lizzie said that's what the guy used on YouTube. And we buy the had to buy pliers for ten dollars.   [00:37:30.710] - Kim Tate And sure enough, we pull the piece, the part out that the guy recommended and take it into AutoZone. Do you guys sell this part? Nope, they don't sell it. So then we call Lizzy actually gets on the phone calls the Honda dealership that just told us they'd charge us five hundred dollars to diagnose it and asks if they have this part. Sure enough, they have the part for thirty four dollars. So we all hop in the car and drive back over to the Honda dealership, going to the parts department, buy the part in the parking lot.   [00:37:56.240] - Kim Tate We swap out this little Fuse relay and put it all back together, turn on the car. We have air conditioning. So instead of spending five hundred dollars plus, you know, they probably would have charged us seventy dollars for the part and another hundred dollars for to install it. We came out of there having Lizzy empowered about fixing her own car, our own car problem, and then also only spending thirty four dollars.   [00:38:20.780] - Tamara Gruber Yeah I think that's amazing. When you shared that story I even told Glenn and Hannah and we were all like, wow, we were so impressed with, with Lizzy and you guys are figuring that out. So awesome job. So Paul should be very proud of you.   [00:38:33.740] - Kim Tate He was, he was so excited. He thought it was the coolest thing ever. And he was a little, you know, worried, like, did you keep the did you put it all back together? You sure? You know, like a little a little concern, but we're like, no. And so it Lizzy is very proud of herself to which I think was was a lot of fun. But just a heads up for you guys. YouTube can teach a lot.   [00:38:52.910] - Kim Tate I feel bad sometimes for the parts departments, but my goodness. Or I mean not part the service departments of car places.   [00:38:59.360] - Tamara Gruber But it's helped me with my washing machine when I've had.   [00:39:02.010] - Kim Tate Yes, yeah. We fix so many things on YouTube. And I was so happy that Lizzy, you know, learn from her dad to look it up. And yeah, that was her thinking.   [00:39:09.230] - Tamara Gruber So empowering.   [00:39:10.340] - Kim Tate Yeah. So sorry guys. That was a little side note, but we did make it to Santa Rosa finally. And then, you know, we had air conditioning and we headed over to Safari West, which you and I have been to. And I think we talked about it on the podcast whenever we talked about our little getaway to Santa Rosa. But Safari West is a it's an accredited zoo association. It's part of the ACA and it's a wildlife park that, you know, is works towards conservation and education about primarily African animals.   [00:39:41.360] - Kim Tate And it's pretty cool because you can camp there overnight and they have these amazing, you know, like really luxury Botswana camping tents. And Tamara, you and I have stayed in one and we got to stay with the girls and had a great time.   [00:39:56.270] - Tamara Gruber Yeah, they're really nice tents, too. It's gorgeous. Yeah. I was always I was very impressed. I mean, I've now done a few different glamping tents and I would say that they were the best. I was. Yeah, probably. Yeah. Better than under canvas even which I would put maybe second. Yeah. Yeah. Really. Like although I did do a really nice one at KOA that had electricity and he and a bathroom with like a rain shower kind of thing, but not a super, super nice because where else in the U.S. can you stay in that tent and then step out onto your porch and look at giraffes.   [00:40:29.600] - Kim Tate Yeah. And that's where, you know, you you and I, we had a different they were like fully booked when they hooked us up for our stay. And so we were in a different location. We were up on a hillside. And I definitely like you and I had the better cabin and it's worth it. I think they cost probably about fifty more dollars to stay at that lower location. But for reasons of sound and just accessibility to the main lobby areas and then the view of the giraffes, I think the Antelope Valley is what those ones were called and it was well worth a little bit of extra, but they're definitely the premium.   [00:41:00.380] - Kim Tate I love all the linens they have, like you said, like the heating blankets. And it's you don't and they've got the space heater, whereas, you know, under canvas you're kind of dumping you have to manage your own fire to make heat. And then I also like that it's got two plugs in the bathroom. So you do have some electricity and then you can also turn on the shower like a normal shower with under canvas. It's a pull chain shower.   [00:41:22.160] - Kim Tate So. Yeah, yeah. But yeah, it was it was so nice. And I love it there because you can truly do, you know, like a getaway where they've got the restaurant, they serve you breakfast and then you can have dinner there as well. You can even arrange lunch if you want it. And then you get to do this, you can do this wildlife tour, which is about two and a half to three hours, and they drive you around and you get to see see all the different animals.   [00:41:44.540] - Kim Tate So it's really fun.   [00:41:46.460] - Tamara Gruber Do the girls really love it? I mean, they haven't been before, so now they haven't.   [00:41:50.630] - Kim Tate They loved it. Yeah, they thought it was cool. And they're excited about the they of course, really loved the giraffes and then they just had fun. Once we moved to the top, we weren't on the top in the giraffe section, but once we moved up to the top later on, they had a lot of fun. And when we were lower on, the ostriches came over in like we're really close to me.   [00:42:06.860] - Kim Tate And she thought it was so fun. And we just sat there and kind of looked at them up close and personal and it was pretty cool. So I think it's great and the food there is really good I mean, we had a great time and with it being covered right now, they've got it where you get to order your breakfast in advance and they have, like kind of your tent. You have a section you can set out for dinner and everything is just spaced well and you're eating outdoors.   [00:42:28.380] - Kim Tate And it just felt really nice. And relaxing, I think is the big thing is it's just a really relaxing type of trip, I will say, which you and I experienced. Mara, you do have to look at the temperature, especially the overnight temps, because when you go to bed at night, it can get cold fast. And then when you wake up in the morning to go into that bathroom, you keep the door to the bathroom close because they keep it kind of airflow for smells, I think, or something.   [00:42:51.540] - Kim Tate But it's really cold. So when you if you choose to take a shower in the morning, it's icy, the water's warm, but the room is just really cold.   [00:43:00.600] - Tamara Gruber Yeah, I had that when I did my glamping stay in New Hampshire and I think it was early October, but I was freezing, absolutely freezing. And I had like a little space heater in the bathroom and the warm shower. But it's still like it was harsh stepping out of it. Yeah, well, it sounds like a neat and fun, very different thing for California. So, yeah. So now you're like, you know, heading like out of Northern California to central California.   [00:43:27.810] - Tamara Gruber What was your next, you know, day?   [00:43:29.340] - Kim Tate So the next stop after Santa Rosa is passing through San Francisco and we almost always have driven across the Golden Gate Bridge. But on this trip, this was where we wanted to go swing by and just see the UC Berkeley campus. And so we actually went across the other bridge, which I don't know if it's the Oakland Bridge or if it's just some other bridge. I'm not sure which bridge it's called, but it was a pretty nice bridge as well.   [00:43:50.490] - Kim Tate And it just passed is kind of a little more east than the Golden Gate Bridge. And we drove through the Berkeley campus and then got back on the road and we were going to go to Santa Cruz near Santa Cruz place called Watsonville. There's the Martinelli's cider. And we've done that cider tasting there and we were so excited to do it again. But before we left, I made sure to check and I realized they're not even doing the tastings because of covid.   [00:44:16.620] - Kim Tate And so we didn't stop, you know, because it's all closed down. So thankfully, we figured that out before. We actually because it was a little out of the way, but not too bad. But we determined that. And we just made our way to Monterey, where we spent two nights in Monterey, and that was kind of the last part of our trip. So I think you've done more of the central coast, like from Monterey down you go through Big Sur and all of that.   [00:44:39.690] - Kim Tate Cambria, there's a lot of beautiful stuff that as you get ready to come in, like Ventura and Santa Barbara and stay along the coast there, the highway one was closed at Big Sur. So Monterey was kind of sort of the most the main the southernmost, most section that was still open. And so we headed over after Monterey, back over to the 101 and then headed down to stay with our friends.   [00:45:05.700] - Tamara Gruber So what do you do in Monterey? Did you go to the aquarium?   [00:45:08.160] - Kim Tate We did not. The aquarium was still closed, so they had not opened yet. But we actually did a couple of things. So we did a bike tour. So we kind of did an E bike tour, which was fun with a company called Mad Dogs and Englishmen. And so we headed out in the morning, met them, and they actually have a new little spot right there in Monterey on Cannery Row. And so you can park at the hotel.   [00:45:32.910] - Kim Tate They do free valet parking for the tour guests, which was a huge perk. And you can then get on your little E bikes. And they took us around like part of seventeen mile, seventeen mile, you know, Pebble Beach. Yeah. And only part of it though. And then we headed back around and came through some of the town and they just would stop occasionally. And of course Pacific Grove where they had the beautiful purple flowers just along the coast and just gave us some little tips and had some pretty stops along the way.   [00:46:00.930] - Kim Tate And it was E bikes, which is yeah, it's gorgeous. And it was kind of a cold morning. So I actually ended up buying like seventy dollar hoodies for the girls because both of them somehow managed to not get the message to wear coat because I guess it had been so hot, you know, at their other things. So we stayed at the Hyatt Regency Monterey Hotel and Spa, which is just kind of remodeled, I think, not remodeled.   [00:46:24.240] - Kim Tate The the rooms have been upgraded. So more of a soft linens upgrade and kind of refashion. And it looked really nice. And so we we stayed there. They are like fully open and have a couple pools open and then they also have a golf course there. So they at night they do these fire pits, kind of communal fire pits. But if one group's already there, you're not you're not supposed to go into it, if that makes sense.   [00:46:46.660] - Kim Tate So it was kind of a central it was a good jumping off point because we stayed there and then went around and did a few things. So that was good. We did drive down to the famous Bixby Bridge, which we just wanted to take a look at that.   [00:46:59.550] - Tamara Gruber Yeah, but I saw you guys there.   [00:47:01.920] - Kim Tate Yeah. And they're really they're trying to, like, not encourage travel there. People are just insane. So it's really limited parking, of course, but then they have these big, big rocks to try and. Encourage people to stay in, like right along the parking area and just look at the bridge and the coast, but I mean, these people are insane. They're like climbing over the rocks and climbing, like off the ledge, a little bit of the you know, because it's a it goes to the ocean and people have gotten hurt there and people are not caring.   [00:47:32.630] - Kim Tate So they're not necessarily encouraging that. But I just encourage you, if you're going to go to Bixby Bridge, make sure you stay safe on the ground. That's next. The parking area. And don't try and go get that perfect Instagram shot, which is what I saw. All the crazy people that were doing it were kind of going past that section. But sorry, I'm doing a so it's really a shame. Like how many things have turned into that?   [00:47:54.980] - Kim Tate Like, because of Instagram, I was going to get like this shot and it's it's definitely not worth taking your life in your hands.   [00:48:04.280] - Kim Tate So right near that is a place called Garrapata State Park.   [00:48:09.920] - Tamara Gruber I stopped there. That's beautiful.   [00:48:13.310] - Kim Tate It's beautiful. Beautiful. And they actually have a beautiful you can go, they have a white sandy beach area that you can hike down to and they also have not too far from there are really famous spot called Lily Valley which is where all these wild calla lilies grow. Wow. And it's kind of along a stream that empties over into the ocean and along this little streamy valley is this calla lilly Valley. It's just insane of all these wild calla lilies. So it's kind of a popular little tourist spot.   [00:48:41.030] - Kim Tate And we hiked around there and all the wildflowers and just kind of the it's like a cliff beach of a sort. So you're you're up a little higher and then you kind of look down on the white sand beach and the waves, it just seemed like a really nice place to hang out. And I think the parking lot is very the parking is limited. And you could see that it's probably really popular and can get busy.   [00:49:03.440] - Tamara Gruber So, yeah, when we stayed in Carmel, we we stopped there like on our way down towards Big Sur. But then we had also done like a day hike or, you know, like a spent part of a day at Point Lobos State Park, which is another gorgeous spot right now.   [00:49:19.130] - Kim Tate Yeah, that's that's a really popular spot. We didn't go there, but yeah, I could tell that was popular. There was people like hiking out to the highway from the from the park entrance. They marked it closed because there was no parking. I mean the park was open but you couldn't drive in there.   [00:49:32.460] - Tamara Gruber Yeah, I was full. I love that part of the coast. It's really beautiful. And it's so especially if you can if you can. I know some other people do like kayaking tours are where you can see otters and things like that. So there is definitely a lot to do if you, you know, for people that want to spend. Yeah. A couple or a few days in that area.   [00:49:49.040] - Kim Tate Well, in the Monterey Bay Aquarium is amazing and really cool. But like I said, that was it was closed, but it was opening. It was opening in May. So it will be reopen soon. And I have to say, I'll give a couple shout outs to food places in Monterey just because this is one place I know we're getting a little long, but one place that I really had some good experiences, one place we ate at was called Rio Grill, which it's kind of cool.   [00:50:09.530] - Kim Tate You can tell that they have kind of made their sidewalk and outdoor seating area and it was quaint. They had, you know, heating the heaters going and they had created kind of a wall of sorts from the parking lot with plants and. Yeah, fence. And it just looked great. So they did a good job at that. And the food was delicious and they were so helpful. Mia had ordered something and felt like she was like she started eating it.   [00:50:34.490] - Kim Tate They thought it was safe. But she's like, no, and it's normally eggs will do this. It wasn't nothing. But she's like, no, it doesn't seem right. And so they were like, oh, no problem, let's get you something. And so she took a Benadryl and then they got her something different. And it was so awesome. And the food was delicious and they were so friendly and so helpful. And then there's also a really famous bakery in Monterey called Alta Bakery.   [00:50:58.280] - Kim Tate And we stop there for breakfast the next morning before our bike ride. And I have to say they had some amazing things. There's a huge line normally waiting outside to place your order and stuff. So you do have to allow a little bit of time. And finding parking can be a little tricky, but it was an awesome little spot. And then lastly, I want to give a shout out to a place called Lucie's on Lighthouse, which was a hot dog joint that's got like kind of a skateboard theme.   [00:51:22.460] - Kim Tate And basically they have all these crazy hot dogs that you can get all these different, whatever it's called, you know, like toppings and stuff. So a little bit about that. It was really awesome. Sound fun. Yeah. And so for Monterey, we went, like I said, to our friend's house and that was kind of it, and that was in Ojai. And so we didn't really do much else. We did some day trips.   [00:51:45.950] - Kim Tate We hiked the Hollywood sign, which was a pretty epic fun thing to do. And that was about a I think it was just over four mile hike, round trip and, you know, some great views of L.A. It was not t

Acts 13:16-25 - So Paul stood up, and motioning with his hand said: “Men of Israel and you who fear God, listen. 17 The God of this people Israel chose our fathers and made the people great during their stay in the land of Egypt, and with uplifted arm he led them out of it. 18 And for about forty years he put up with them in the wilderness. 19 And after destroying seven nations in the land of Canaan, he gave them their land as an inheritance. 20 All this took about 450 years. And after that he gave them judges until Samuel the prophet. 21 Then they asked for a king, and God gave them Saul the son of Kish, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, for forty years. 22 And when he had removed him, he raised up David to be their king, of whom he testified and said, ‘I have found in David the son of Jesse a man after my heart, who will do all my will.’ 23 Of this man's offspring God has brought to Israel a Savior, Jesus, as he promised. 24 Before his coming, John had proclaimed a baptism of repentance to all the people of Israel. 25 And as John was finishing his course, he said, ‘What do you suppose that I am? I am not he. No, but behold, after me one is coming, the sandals of whose feet I am not worthy to untie.’ Not A Needy Person is now LIVE - Submit needs or meet the needs of others  https://NotANeedyPerson.org  Join me for "Scripture Sketches" - weekly video teaching on my YouTube channel - SUBSCRIBE SO YOU DON'T MISS ANY OF THESE STUDIES:  https://careygreen.com/youtube  SUBMIT YOUR PRAYER REQUEST OR PRAISE:  https://careygreen.com/prayer  BECOME A MORNING MINDSET PARTNER: 1) monthly partner: https://mm-partners.supercast.tech/ 2) Give a one-time gift: https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/yourmorningmindset

Partakers Bible Thought 30 May 2021 A New Problem Arises 1 Certain people came down from Judea to Antioch and were teaching the believers: ‘Unless you are circumcised, according to the custom taught by Moses, you cannot be saved.’ 2 This brought Paul and Barnabas into sharp dispute and debate with them. So Paul and Barnabas were appointed, along with some other believers, to go up to Jerusalem to see the apostles and elders about this question. 3 The church sent them on their way, and as they travelled through Phoenicia and Samaria, they told how the Gentiles had been converted. This news made all the believers very glad. 4 When they came to Jerusalem, they were welcomed by the church and the apostles and elders, to whom they reported everything God had done through them. 5 Then some of the believers who belonged to the party of the Pharisees stood up and said, ‘The Gentiles must be circumcised and required to keep the law of Moses.’ 6 The apostles and elders met to consider this question. 7 After much discussion, Peter got up and addressed them: ‘Brothers, you know that some time ago God made a choice among you that the Gentiles should hear from my lips the message of the gospel and believe. 8 God, who knows the heart, showed that he accepted them by giving the Holy Spirit to them, just as he did to us. 9 He did not discriminate between us and them, for he purified their hearts by faith. 10 Now then, why do you try to test God by putting on the necks of Gentiles a yoke that neither we nor our ancestors have been able to bear? 11 No! We believe it is through the grace of our Lord Jesus that we are saved, just as they are.’(Acts 15:1-11)   The very early church at the time of this event, does not seem to have had any very formal authority structure. Elders don’t appear until Acts 11:30; also the ‘deacons’ of Acts 6:2 were probably not carrying out anything except the specific function of ‘waiting on tables’ or administering the available charity. In Acts 12:17 Peter sends a message to James and the other brothers and sisters, not James and the elders; in Acts 13:1-3 the whole church seem to be acting together, not the leadership. However they organised themselves discipline was exercised, in which members who had fallen into sin and remained unrepentant were excluded from the church. The church was never individualistic: that is to say, people did not suddenly decide to 'join' or 'leave' the church, as is too often the case in modern churches. The church was a corporate entity, in which pastoral oversight and spiritual authority were exercised by the leadership or somebody. They had a leadership raised up by the Lord and set apart according to a church policy mediated by the divinely inspired guidance of the apostles. This did not mean that there was neither controversy nor the threat of disunity. From the beginning, problems arose which needed to be resolved with pastoral, spiritual and judicial authority. It is therefore no surprise to find early on in Church history, a question arising about the nature of membership in the church and to see the matter being dealt with through the collective leadership of the church, the apostles and elders, who met together in a deliberative assembly (Acts 15:6) but who also reported back to the whole church (Acts 15:4, 22). Download or listen to the Podcast to discover more. Click or tap here to download this podcast as a MP3 Click or tap here to visit our Amazon site and purchase our book on the early Church - paperback and Kindle.  

This is the point, says Paul, in verse 4, you die to the power of the law when you died with Christ. And now you are united with the one who was raised from the dead. As a result, we can now produce a harvest of good deeds for God. How is all this done? By the one who did it all. He came and lived and died, was raised and ascended on behalf of all humanity. He came in love. And in perfect righteousness, he defeated death, sin in the grave, and drag all of humanity with him into resurrection life. So Paul says, Here, you died in Christ. And now you are united with the one who was raised from the dead, and you were raised with him? Did you hear that? You are united with Christ, drawn into the triune life of God, you share in their love. And now you can share this love, and this life and this healing with the world. You can produce a harvest of good deeds, because you are united with Christ, not by your effort, but by God's gracious gift. And his abounding love for you and for the whole world. You are now able to be and to do, the things you were created to do, and the person you were created to be. So go, go in the calm and confident assurance of your union with God in Christ, in his name, and in his power. do those things. He's asking you to do. works of righteousness, works of love, works of peace and healing. In the name of Jesus, you can share his love. That's the prayer that I have for my own soul. That's the prayer that I have for my family for my wife, my daughters, my son. And that's the prayer that I have for you. May be so  

Old Testament: 2 Samuel 5–6 2 Samuel 5–6 (Listen) David Anointed King of Israel 5 Then all the tribes of Israel came to David at Hebron and said, “Behold, we are your bone and flesh. 2 In times past, when Saul was king over us, it was you who led out and brought in Israel. And the LORD said to you, ‘You shall be shepherd of my people Israel, and you shall be prince1 over Israel.’” 3 So all the elders of Israel came to the king at Hebron, and King David made a covenant with them at Hebron before the LORD, and they anointed David king over Israel. 4 David was thirty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned forty years. 5 At Hebron he reigned over Judah seven years and six months, and at Jerusalem he reigned over all Israel and Judah thirty-three years.2 6 And the king and his men went to Jerusalem against the Jebusites, the inhabitants of the land, who said to David, “You will not come in here, but the blind and the lame will ward you off”—thinking, “David cannot come in here.” 7 Nevertheless, David took the stronghold of Zion, that is, the city of David. 8 And David said on that day, “Whoever would strike the Jebusites, let him get up the water shaft to attack ‘the lame and the blind,’ who are hated by David’s soul.” Therefore it is said, “The blind and the lame shall not come into the house.” 9 And David lived in the stronghold and called it the city of David. And David built the city all around from the Millo inward. 10 And David became greater and greater, for the LORD, the God of hosts, was with him. 11 And Hiram king of Tyre sent messengers to David, and cedar trees, also carpenters and masons who built David a house. 12 And David knew that the LORD had established him king over Israel, and that he had exalted his kingdom for the sake of his people Israel. 13 And David took more concubines and wives from Jerusalem, after he came from Hebron, and more sons and daughters were born to David. 14 And these are the names of those who were born to him in Jerusalem: Shammua, Shobab, Nathan, Solomon, 15 Ibhar, Elishua, Nepheg, Japhia, 16 Elishama, Eliada, and Eliphelet. David Defeats the Philistines 17 When the Philistines heard that David had been anointed king over Israel, all the Philistines went up to search for David. But David heard of it and went down to the stronghold. 18 Now the Philistines had come and spread out in the Valley of Rephaim. 19 And David inquired of the LORD, “Shall I go up against the Philistines? Will you give them into my hand?” And the LORD said to David, “Go up, for I will certainly give the Philistines into your hand.” 20 And David came to Baal-perazim, and David defeated them there. And he said, “The LORD has broken through my enemies before me like a breaking flood.” Therefore the name of that place is called Baal-perazim.3 21 And the Philistines left their idols there, and David and his men carried them away. 22 And the Philistines came up yet again and spread out in the Valley of Rephaim. 23 And when David inquired of the LORD, he said, “You shall not go up; go around to their rear, and come against them opposite the balsam trees. 24 And when you hear the sound of marching in the tops of the balsam trees, then rouse yourself, for then the LORD has gone out before you to strike down the army of the Philistines.” 25 And David did as the LORD commanded him, and struck down the Philistines from Geba to Gezer. The Ark Brought to Jerusalem 6 David again gathered all the chosen men of Israel, thirty thousand. 2 And David arose and went with all the people who were with him from Baale-judah to bring up from there the ark of God, which is called by the name of the LORD of hosts who sits enthroned on the cherubim. 3 And they carried the ark of God on a new cart and brought it out of the house of Abinadab, which was on the hill. And Uzzah and Ahio,4 the sons of Abinadab, were driving the new cart, 4 with the ark of God,5 and Ahio went before the ark. Uzzah and the Ark 5 And David and all the house of Israel were celebrating before the LORD, with songs6 and lyres and harps and tambourines and castanets and cymbals. 6 And when they came to the threshing floor of Nacon, Uzzah put out his hand to the ark of God and took hold of it, for the oxen stumbled. 7 And the anger of the LORD was kindled against Uzzah, and God struck him down there because of his error, and he died there beside the ark of God. 8 And David was angry because the LORD had broken out against Uzzah. And that place is called Perez-uzzah7 to this day. 9 And David was afraid of the LORD that day, and he said, “How can the ark of the LORD come to me?” 10 So David was not willing to take the ark of the LORD into the city of David. But David took it aside to the house of Obed-edom the Gittite. 11 And the ark of the LORD remained in the house of Obed-edom the Gittite three months, and the LORD blessed Obed-edom and all his household. 12 And it was told King David, “The LORD has blessed the household of Obed-edom and all that belongs to him, because of the ark of God.” So David went and brought up the ark of God from the house of Obed-edom to the city of David with rejoicing. 13 And when those who bore the ark of the LORD had gone six steps, he sacrificed an ox and a fattened animal. 14 And David danced before the LORD with all his might. And David was wearing a linen ephod. 15 So David and all the house of Israel brought up the ark of the LORD with shouting and with the sound of the horn. David and Michal 16 As the ark of the LORD came into the city of David, Michal the daughter of Saul looked out of the window and saw King David leaping and dancing before the LORD, and she despised him in her heart. 17 And they brought in the ark of the LORD and set it in its place, inside the tent that David had pitched for it. And David offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before the LORD. 18 And when David had finished offering the burnt offerings and the peace offerings, he blessed the people in the name of the LORD of hosts 19 and distributed among all the people, the whole multitude of Israel, both men and women, a cake of bread, a portion of meat,8 and a cake of raisins to each one. Then all the people departed, each to his house. 20 And David returned to bless his household. But Michal the daughter of Saul came out to meet David and said, “How the king of Israel honored himself today, uncovering himself today before the eyes of his servants’ female servants, as one of the vulgar fellows shamelessly uncovers himself!” 21 And David said to Michal, “It was before the LORD, who chose me above your father and above all his house, to appoint me as prince9 over Israel, the people of the LORD—and I will celebrate before the LORD. 22 I will make myself yet more contemptible than this, and I will be abased in your10 eyes. But by the female servants of whom you have spoken, by them I shall be held in honor.” 23 And Michal the daughter of Saul had no child to the day of her death. Footnotes [1] 5:2 Or leader [2] 5:5 Dead Sea Scroll lacks verses 4–5 [3] 5:20 Baal-perazim means Lord of breaking through [4] 6:3 Or and his brother; also verse 4 [5] 6:4 Compare Septuagint; Hebrew the new cart, 4and brought it out of the house of Abinadab, which was on the hill, with the ark of God [6] 6:5 Septuagint, 1 Chronicles 13:8; Hebrew fir trees [7] 6:8 Perez-uzzah means the breaking out against Uzzah [8] 6:19 Vulgate; the meaning of the Hebrew term is uncertain [9] 6:21 Or leader [10] 6:22 Septuagint; Hebrew my (ESV) New Testament: Acts 17:16–34 Acts 17:16–34 (Listen) Paul in Athens 16 Now while Paul was waiting for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him as he saw that the city was full of idols. 17 So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons, and in the marketplace every day with those who happened to be there. 18 Some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers also conversed with him. And some said, “What does this babbler wish to say?” Others said, “He seems to be a preacher of foreign divinities”—because he was preaching Jesus and the resurrection. 19 And they took him and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, “May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting? 20 For you bring some strange things to our ears. We wish to know therefore what these things mean.” 21 Now all the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there would spend their time in nothing except telling or hearing something new. Paul Addresses the Areopagus 22 So Paul, standing in the midst of the Areopagus, said: “Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious. 23 For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription: ‘To the unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. 24 The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man,1 25 nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. 26 And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, 27 that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, 28 for   “‘In him we live and move and have our being’;2 as even some of your own poets have said,   “‘For we are indeed his offspring.’3 29 Being then God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man. 30 The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, 31 because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.” 32 Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked. But others said, “We will hear you again about this.” 33 So Paul went out from their midst. 34 But some men joined him and believed, among whom also were Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named Damaris and others with them. Footnotes [1] 17:24 Greek made by hands [2] 17:28 Probably from Epimenides of Crete [3] 17:28 From Aratus’s poem “Phainomena” (ESV) Psalm: Psalm 119:121–128 Psalm 119:121–128 (Listen) Ayin 121   I have done what is just and right;    do not leave me to my oppressors.122   Give your servant a pledge of good;    let not the insolent oppress me.123   My eyes long for your salvation    and for the fulfillment of your righteous promise.124   Deal with your servant according to your steadfast love,    and teach me your statutes.125   I am your servant; give me understanding,    that I may know your testimonies!126   It is time for the LORD to act,    for your law has been broken.127   Therefore I love your commandments    above gold, above fine gold.128   Therefore I consider all your precepts to be right;    I hate every false way. (ESV) Proverb: Proverbs 16:16–17 Proverbs 16:16–17 (Listen) 16   How much better to get wisdom than gold!    To get understanding is to be chosen rather than silver.17   The highway of the upright turns aside from evil;    whoever guards his way preserves his life. (ESV)

Old Testament: 1 Samuel 29–31 1 Samuel 29–31 (Listen) The Philistines Reject David 29 Now the Philistines had gathered all their forces at Aphek. And the Israelites were encamped by the spring that is in Jezreel. 2 As the lords of the Philistines were passing on by hundreds and by thousands, and David and his men were passing on in the rear with Achish, 3 the commanders of the Philistines said, “What are these Hebrews doing here?” And Achish said to the commanders of the Philistines, “Is this not David, the servant of Saul, king of Israel, who has been with me now for days and years, and since he deserted to me I have found no fault in him to this day.” 4 But the commanders of the Philistines were angry with him. And the commanders of the Philistines said to him, “Send the man back, that he may return to the place to which you have assigned him. He shall not go down with us to battle, lest in the battle he become an adversary to us. For how could this fellow reconcile himself to his lord? Would it not be with the heads of the men here? 5 Is not this David, of whom they sing to one another in dances,   ‘Saul has struck down his thousands,    and David his ten thousands’?” 6 Then Achish called David and said to him, “As the LORD lives, you have been honest, and to me it seems right that you should march out and in with me in the campaign. For I have found nothing wrong in you from the day of your coming to me to this day. Nevertheless, the lords do not approve of you. 7 So go back now; and go peaceably, that you may not displease the lords of the Philistines.” 8 And David said to Achish, “But what have I done? What have you found in your servant from the day I entered your service until now, that I may not go and fight against the enemies of my lord the king?” 9 And Achish answered David and said, “I know that you are as blameless in my sight as an angel of God. Nevertheless, the commanders of the Philistines have said, ‘He shall not go up with us to the battle.’ 10 Now then rise early in the morning with the servants of your lord who came with you, and start early in the morning, and depart as soon as you have light.” 11 So David set out with his men early in the morning to return to the land of the Philistines. But the Philistines went up to Jezreel. David’s Wives Are Captured 30 Now when David and his men came to Ziklag on the third day, the Amalekites had made a raid against the Negeb and against Ziklag. They had overcome Ziklag and burned it with fire 2 and taken captive the women and all1 who were in it, both small and great. They killed no one, but carried them off and went their way. 3 And when David and his men came to the city, they found it burned with fire, and their wives and sons and daughters taken captive. 4 Then David and the people who were with him raised their voices and wept until they had no more strength to weep. 5 David’s two wives also had been taken captive, Ahinoam of Jezreel and Abigail the widow of Nabal of Carmel. 6 And David was greatly distressed, for the people spoke of stoning him, because all the people were bitter in soul,2 each for his sons and daughters. But David strengthened himself in the LORD his God. 7 And David said to Abiathar the priest, the son of Ahimelech, “Bring me the ephod.” So Abiathar brought the ephod to David. 8 And David inquired of the LORD, “Shall I pursue after this band? Shall I overtake them?” He answered him, “Pursue, for you shall surely overtake and shall surely rescue.” 9 So David set out, and the six hundred men who were with him, and they came to the brook Besor, where those who were left behind stayed. 10 But David pursued, he and four hundred men. Two hundred stayed behind, who were too exhausted to cross the brook Besor. 11 They found an Egyptian in the open country and brought him to David. And they gave him bread and he ate. They gave him water to drink, 12 and they gave him a piece of a cake of figs and two clusters of raisins. And when he had eaten, his spirit revived, for he had not eaten bread or drunk water for three days and three nights. 13 And David said to him, “To whom do you belong? And where are you from?” He said, “I am a young man of Egypt, servant to an Amalekite, and my master left me behind because I fell sick three days ago. 14 We had made a raid against the Negeb of the Cherethites and against that which belongs to Judah and against the Negeb of Caleb, and we burned Ziklag with fire.” 15 And David said to him, “Will you take me down to this band?” And he said, “Swear to me by God that you will not kill me or deliver me into the hands of my master, and I will take you down to this band.” David Defeats the Amalekites 16 And when he had taken him down, behold, they were spread abroad over all the land, eating and drinking and dancing, because of all the great spoil they had taken from the land of the Philistines and from the land of Judah. 17 And David struck them down from twilight until the evening of the next day, and not a man of them escaped, except four hundred young men, who mounted camels and fled. 18 David recovered all that the Amalekites had taken, and David rescued his two wives. 19 Nothing was missing, whether small or great, sons or daughters, spoil or anything that had been taken. David brought back all. 20 David also captured all the flocks and herds, and the people drove the livestock before him,3 and said, “This is David’s spoil.” 21 Then David came to the two hundred men who had been too exhausted to follow David, and who had been left at the brook Besor. And they went out to meet David and to meet the people who were with him. And when David came near to the people he greeted them. 22 Then all the wicked and worthless fellows among the men who had gone with David said, “Because they did not go with us, we will not give them any of the spoil that we have recovered, except that each man may lead away his wife and children, and depart.” 23 But David said, “You shall not do so, my brothers, with what the LORD has given us. He has preserved us and given into our hand the band that came against us. 24 Who would listen to you in this matter? For as his share is who goes down into the battle, so shall his share be who stays by the baggage. They shall share alike.” 25 And he made it a statute and a rule for Israel from that day forward to this day. 26 When David came to Ziklag, he sent part of the spoil to his friends, the elders of Judah, saying, “Here is a present for you from the spoil of the enemies of the LORD.” 27 It was for those in Bethel, in Ramoth of the Negeb, in Jattir, 28 in Aroer, in Siphmoth, in Eshtemoa, 29 in Racal, in the cities of the Jerahmeelites, in the cities of the Kenites, 30 in Hormah, in Bor-ashan, in Athach, 31 in Hebron, for all the places where David and his men had roamed. The Death of Saul 31 Now the Philistines were fighting against Israel, and the men of Israel fled before the Philistines and fell slain on Mount Gilboa. 2 And the Philistines overtook Saul and his sons, and the Philistines struck down Jonathan and Abinadab and Malchi-shua, the sons of Saul. 3 The battle pressed hard against Saul, and the archers found him, and he was badly wounded by the archers. 4 Then Saul said to his armor-bearer, “Draw your sword, and thrust me through with it, lest these uncircumcised come and thrust me through, and mistreat me.” But his armor-bearer would not, for he feared greatly. Therefore Saul took his own sword and fell upon it. 5 And when his armor-bearer saw that Saul was dead, he also fell upon his sword and died with him. 6 Thus Saul died, and his three sons, and his armor-bearer, and all his men, on the same day together. 7 And when the men of Israel who were on the other side of the valley and those beyond the Jordan saw that the men of Israel had fled and that Saul and his sons were dead, they abandoned their cities and fled. And the Philistines came and lived in them. 8 The next day, when the Philistines came to strip the slain, they found Saul and his three sons fallen on Mount Gilboa. 9 So they cut off his head and stripped off his armor and sent messengers throughout the land of the Philistines, to carry the good news to the house of their idols and to the people. 10 They put his armor in the temple of Ashtaroth, and they fastened his body to the wall of Beth-shan. 11 But when the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead heard what the Philistines had done to Saul, 12 all the valiant men arose and went all night and took the body of Saul and the bodies of his sons from the wall of Beth-shan, and they came to Jabesh and burned them there. 13 And they took their bones and buried them under the tamarisk tree in Jabesh and fasted seven days. Footnotes [1] 30:2 Septuagint; Hebrew lacks and all [2] 30:6 Compare 22:2 [3] 30:20 The meaning of the Hebrew clause is uncertain (ESV) New Testament: Acts 13–14 Acts 13–14 (Listen) Barnabas and Saul Sent Off 13 Now there were in the church at Antioch prophets and teachers, Barnabas, Simeon who was called Niger,1 Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen a lifelong friend of Herod the tetrarch, and Saul. 2 While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” 3 Then after fasting and praying they laid their hands on them and sent them off. Barnabas and Saul on Cyprus 4 So, being sent out by the Holy Spirit, they went down to Seleucia, and from there they sailed to Cyprus. 5 When they arrived at Salamis, they proclaimed the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews. And they had John to assist them. 6 When they had gone through the whole island as far as Paphos, they came upon a certain magician, a Jewish false prophet named Bar-Jesus. 7 He was with the proconsul, Sergius Paulus, a man of intelligence, who summoned Barnabas and Saul and sought to hear the word of God. 8 But Elymas the magician (for that is the meaning of his name) opposed them, seeking to turn the proconsul away from the faith. 9 But Saul, who was also called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked intently at him 10 and said, “You son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, full of all deceit and villainy, will you not stop making crooked the straight paths of the Lord? 11 And now, behold, the hand of the Lord is upon you, and you will be blind and unable to see the sun for a time.” Immediately mist and darkness fell upon him, and he went about seeking people to lead him by the hand. 12 Then the proconsul believed, when he saw what had occurred, for he was astonished at the teaching of the Lord. Paul and Barnabas at Antioch in Pisidia 13 Now Paul and his companions set sail from Paphos and came to Perga in Pamphylia. And John left them and returned to Jerusalem, 14 but they went on from Perga and came to Antioch in Pisidia. And on the Sabbath day they went into the synagogue and sat down. 15 After the reading from the Law and the Prophets, the rulers of the synagogue sent a message to them, saying, “Brothers, if you have any word of encouragement for the people, say it.” 16 So Paul stood up, and motioning with his hand said: “Men of Israel and you who fear God, listen. 17 The God of this people Israel chose our fathers and made the people great during their stay in the land of Egypt, and with uplifted arm he led them out of it. 18 And for about forty years he put up with2 them in the wilderness. 19 And after destroying seven nations in the land of Canaan, he gave them their land as an inheritance. 20 All this took about 450 years. And after that he gave them judges until Samuel the prophet. 21 Then they asked for a king, and God gave them Saul the son of Kish, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, for forty years. 22 And when he had removed him, he raised up David to be their king, of whom he testified and said, ‘I have found in David the son of Jesse a man after my heart, who will do all my will.’ 23 Of this man’s offspring God has brought to Israel a Savior, Jesus, as he promised. 24 Before his coming, John had proclaimed a baptism of repentance to all the people of Israel. 25 And as John was finishing his course, he said, ‘What do you suppose that I am? I am not he. No, but behold, after me one is coming, the sandals of whose feet I am not worthy to untie.’ 26 “Brothers, sons of the family of Abraham, and those among you who fear God, to us has been sent the message of this salvation. 27 For those who live in Jerusalem and their rulers, because they did not recognize him nor understand the utterances of the prophets, which are read every Sabbath, fulfilled them by condemning him. 28 And though they found in him no guilt worthy of death, they asked Pilate to have him executed. 29 And when they had carried out all that was written of him, they took him down from the tree and laid him in a tomb. 30 But God raised him from the dead, 31 and for many days he appeared to those who had come up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem, who are now his witnesses to the people. 32 And we bring you the good news that what God promised to the fathers, 33 this he has fulfilled to us their children by raising Jesus, as also it is written in the second Psalm,   “‘You are my Son,    today I have begotten you.’ 34 And as for the fact that he raised him from the dead, no more to return to corruption, he has spoken in this way,   “‘I will give you the holy and sure blessings of David.’ 35 Therefore he says also in another psalm,   “‘You will not let your Holy One see corruption.’ 36 For David, after he had served the purpose of God in his own generation, fell asleep and was laid with his fathers and saw corruption, 37 but he whom God raised up did not see corruption. 38 Let it be known to you therefore, brothers, that through this man forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you, 39 and by him everyone who believes is freed3 from everything from which you could not be freed by the law of Moses. 40 Beware, therefore, lest what is said in the Prophets should come about: 41   “‘Look, you scoffers,    be astounded and perish;  for I am doing a work in your days,    a work that you will not believe, even if one tells it to you.’” 42 As they went out, the people begged that these things might be told them the next Sabbath. 43 And after the meeting of the synagogue broke up, many Jews and devout converts to Judaism followed Paul and Barnabas, who, as they spoke with them, urged them to continue in the grace of God. 44 The next Sabbath almost the whole city gathered to hear the word of the Lord. 45 But when the Jews4 saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy and began to contradict what was spoken by Paul, reviling him. 46 And Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly, saying, “It was necessary that the word of God be spoken first to you. Since you thrust it aside and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we are turning to the Gentiles. 47 For so the Lord has commanded us, saying,   “‘I have made you a light for the Gentiles,    that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth.’” 48 And when the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord, and as many as were appointed to eternal life believed. 49 And the word of the Lord was spreading throughout the whole region. 50 But the Jews incited the devout women of high standing and the leading men of the city, stirred up persecution against Paul and Barnabas, and drove them out of their district. 51 But they shook off the dust from their feet against them and went to Iconium. 52 And the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit. Paul and Barnabas at Iconium 14 Now at Iconium they entered together into the Jewish synagogue and spoke in such a way that a great number of both Jews and Greeks believed. 2 But the unbelieving Jews stirred up the Gentiles and poisoned their minds against the brothers.5 3 So they remained for a long time, speaking boldly for the Lord, who bore witness to the word of his grace, granting signs and wonders to be done by their hands. 4 But the people of the city were divided; some sided with the Jews and some with the apostles. 5 When an attempt was made by both Gentiles and Jews, with their rulers, to mistreat them and to stone them, 6 they learned of it and fled to Lystra and Derbe, cities of Lycaonia, and to the surrounding country, 7 and there they continued to preach the gospel. Paul and Barnabas at Lystra 8 Now at Lystra there was a man sitting who could not use his feet. He was crippled from birth and had never walked. 9 He listened to Paul speaking. And Paul, looking intently at him and seeing that he had faith to be made well,6 10 said in a loud voice, “Stand upright on your feet.” And he sprang up and began walking. 11 And when the crowds saw what Paul had done, they lifted up their voices, saying in Lycaonian, “The gods have come down to us in the likeness of men!” 12 Barnabas they called Zeus, and Paul, Hermes, because he was the chief speaker. 13 And the priest of Zeus, whose temple was at the entrance to the city, brought oxen and garlands to the gates and wanted to offer sacrifice with the crowds. 14 But when the apostles Barnabas and Paul heard of it, they tore their garments and rushed out into the crowd, crying out, 15 “Men, why are you doing these things? We also are men, of like nature with you, and we bring you good news, that you should turn from these vain things to a living God, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and all that is in them. 16 In past generations he allowed all the nations to walk in their own ways. 17 Yet he did not leave himself without witness, for he did good by giving you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, satisfying your hearts with food and gladness.” 18 Even with these words they scarcely restrained the people from offering sacrifice to them. Paul Stoned at Lystra 19 But Jews came from Antioch and Iconium, and having persuaded the crowds, they stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city, supposing that he was dead. 20 But when the disciples gathered about him, he rose up and entered the city, and on the next day he went on with Barnabas to Derbe. 21 When they had preached the gospel to that city and had made many disciples, they returned to Lystra and to Iconium and to Antioch, 22 strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith, and saying that through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God. 23 And when they had appointed elders for them in every church, with prayer and fasting they committed them to the Lord in whom they had believed. Paul and Barnabas Return to Antioch in Syria 24 Then they passed through Pisidia and came to Pamphylia. 25 And when they had spoken the word in Perga, they went down to Attalia, 26 and from there they sailed to Antioch, where they had been commended to the grace of God for the work that they had fulfilled. 27 And when they arrived and gathered the church together, they declared all that God had done with them, and how he had opened a door of faith to the Gentiles. 28 And they remained no little time with the disciples. Footnotes [1] 13:1 Niger is a Latin word meaning black, or dark [2] 13:18 Some manuscripts he carried (compare Deuteronomy 1:31) [3] 13:39 Greek justified; twice in this verse [4] 13:45 Greek Ioudaioi probably refers here to Jewish religious leaders, and others under their influence, in that time; also verse 50 [5] 14:2 Or brothers and sisters [6] 14:9 Or be saved (ESV) Psalm: Psalm 119:97–104 Psalm 119:97–104 (Listen) Mem 97   Oh how I love your law!    It is my meditation all the day.98   Your commandment makes me wiser than my enemies,    for it is ever with me.99   I have more understanding than all my teachers,    for your testimonies are my meditation.100   I understand more than the aged,1    for I keep your precepts.101   I hold back my feet from every evil way,    in order to keep your word.102   I do not turn aside from your rules,    for you have taught me.103   How sweet are your words to my taste,    sweeter than honey to my mouth!104   Through your precepts I get understanding;    therefore I hate every false way. Footnotes [1] 119:100 Or the elders (ESV) Proverb: Proverbs 16:10–11 Proverbs 16:10–11 (Listen) 10   An oracle is on the lips of a king;    his mouth does not sin in judgment.11   A just balance and scales are the LORD’s;    all the weights in the bag are his work. (ESV)

The Daily Radio Bible Podcast takes listeners through the Bible in one year with Hunter Barnes. Listen on Spotify  Google Podcast  or Apple Podcasts   become an ambassador for the podcast and share with your friends.  Share with one person and I'll give you a shout out on the podcast, share with 10 and I'll send you a "You Are Loved" t-shirt!  CLICK HERE TO SHARE  or visit us at www.dailyradiobible.comMusic provided by David Nevue find out more at www.davidnevue.com  Transcription begins here: Love leads to service in generosity. When we fail to experience the love of God, we grow despondent, we become idle, we do not serve. And we are not generous, working, serving, giving, they all become hard to do. We want to take what we can rather than give what we have. And yet we can't give what we don't have. That's why we must experience God's love. If we are to show love, we must be filled in growing our understanding and expression of His love, if we are to give that love to others. So Paul prays for us here in verse 5, he says, may the Lord lead your hearts into full understanding and expression of the love of God, and the patient endurance that comes from Christ. Do you know that you are loved? Sometimes it's hard to remember that we are. It takes patient endurance, to hold firmly to that truth. So that in the end, it is deeply rooted in your very soul. And we must do this. God's love is exactly what emerges from the Gospel. When we look and see the face of Jesus, we see what he has done. And so each and every day we open our hearts to the Spirits working in our lives. And we come to the Word of God day after day to be reminded of who he is, what he has done, and who we have become in him. Through his presence in us, we begin to be led into a full understanding and expression of the love of God. We patiently endure when it seems like the heavens are silent. More and more. We learned that this walk with Christ is a long obedience in the same direction. He is with us and we can grow and experience His love out of this will come a life of service, generosity, joyfulness and hope. So let us grow into a fuller understanding of His love. Amen.  

WHI Classic • In his second letter to the Corinthians, Paul warned his readers about various slick preachers that he referred to as the "super-apostles." Though their style was smooth and rhetorically attractive, the substance of the gospel was either being ignored or distorted. So Paul admonishes the Corinthians church saying, "if someone comes and proclaims another Jesus...you put up with it readily enough!" On this edition of the White Horse Inn, the hosts discuss Paul's concerns about style over substance, especially as it relates to trends in the contemporary church (originally Aird 08-28-11). __________ Sign up now to join Michael Horton and others for one of our two-day Modern Reformation Weekend Conferences. You will receive Michael Horton’s two-volume set on Justification as well as other supplemental material to help prepare you for deep conversations and fellowship over good food and drink. To sign up, head over to modernreformation.org/events __________ Become a partner and you will receive all of the White Horse Inn extended episodes, access to our extensive archive as well as a subscription to our magazine, Modern Reformation. Head over to whitehorseinn.org/podcastpartner

Philadelphia is known as the “City of Brotherly Love.” The motto references the Greek word phileo which means “brotherly love” or the love between friends. Christians revolutionized the way this term was used. In Paul’s day, the word was used only to reference actual family relationships. Only Christians called one another “brother” or “sister” when it wasn’t literally true. Loving one another is an essential part of Christian discipleship and pleasing the Lord. One might say that living to please the Lord is the vertical dimension of the greatest commandment while loving one another is the horizontal dimension (see Matt. 22:37–39). In yesterday’s reading, sexual immorality was condemned as sinful in part because it involved harming a brother or sister in Christ (1 Thess. 4:6). In other words, Christian love is our best defense against the temptation to give in to lust and other selfish desires. Paul encouraged the Thessalonians by recognizing that they’d been doing very well in the area of loving one another (vv. 9–10). In fact, they had earned a reputation throughout the region for this virtue (see 1 Thess. 1:8). Since Paul and his team had been forced to leave, the apostle concluded that the young church had been “taught by God” Himself! God would accomplish His will for the Thessalonians despite pagan hostility and persecution and despite the absence of His chosen missionaries. So they could now rest on their laurels, right? No.  As is true so often in the Christian life, the reward for faithfulness is more opportunities to be faithful. So Paul exhorted the Thessalonians to grow “more and more” in love (v. 10). We’ve already noted that sanctification is progressive—spiritual growth should be ongoing! >> Today, identify a specific act of Christian love that you can do for a specific brother or sister in Christ. If you’re unsure, pray about who and what. Then, make plans to act on it!

Neville GoddardThe Man Within1/12/68 Tonight's subject is “The Man Within.” The man within is Jesus Christ. How will I know that Jesus Christ really is within me? I hope tonight to make it just as plain and as clear as I possibly can, I hope. I tell you this, because last Monday night I thought it was clear, and the next day a very dear friend of mine called me and told me that her phone had been busy all morning where so many who have been coming over the years were disturbed. It was not clear to them. Something said simply disturbed them and she herself was disturbed by an answer I gave to some question asked after the meeting. I thought I had made it clear.   So tonight, again, I hope I can make it clear. How do I know that he is within me? Well here, let me first turn to a small little poem of Blake, it's called A Little Boy Lost. You'll find it in Songs of Experience: “Nought loves another as itself, nor venerates another so, nor is it possible to Thought a greater than itself to know: And God, how can I love you or any of my brothers more? I love you like the little bird that picks up crumbs around the door.” When the priest heard this, he went into a rage and took the little boy by his hair and led him up to the altar high, and burned him as he had many burned before. Here, it is impossible for man a greater than himself to now. So if I would know God and God is greater, then God has to become me that I may discover myself as God.   There is no possibility of my knowing greater than myself. Therefore, if the Lord God who created the universe is greater and he wants me to know him, I can know no greater than myself; therefore, God becomes as I am that I may be as he is. So Paul tells us in his letter to the Galatians: “I have been crucified with Christ”—I no longer live—“it is not I but Christ who lives in me; and the life I know live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and became me” (2:20). He wanted my love, well, I couldn't love something greater than myself —“Nought loves another as itself.”   Now I know the so-called holy people of the world will scream like the priest in the little poem, because they aren't honest with themselves. Oh, they will say, I love my country so I'll die for it…if you draft me and I have no choice in the matter. I love so and so, so I'll die for him…and all this palaver. No one really looks right into the mirror of his own mind and is honest with himself. Blake was: “Nought loves another as itself, nor venerates another so, nor is it possible for thought a greater than itself to know.”   So, O Father, you want my love? Well then, you've got to become me, because I don't know you…I can't know anything greater than myself. So, will I know you? Well then, become me and let me discover you as myself. I'm discovering self. So he plotted and planned the whole thing when he became me. He brought the plan within himself; and then as I discover self, I discover it through the plan, and I reveal myself as he who became me.   So this is the mystery of discovering this inner man. “I am crucified with Christ.” It's the past tense, really—“I have been”—for that is over. Now anyone who teaches, Paul tells us, he said it in his 2nd letter to Timothy, “There are those who teach that the resurrection is over and past. They're upsetting the faith of some” (2:18). It is not over…it has started, it is continuing, but it's not over. It's taking place in all whom he became and he became all; for he chose us in himself before the foundation of the world…and then came the descent. Alternate Universe Reality Activation  get full access to new meditations, new lectures, recordings from the reality con and the 90 day AURA meditation schedulehttps://realityrevolutionlive.com/aura45338118 BUY A COPY OF MY BOOKhttps://www.amazon.com/Reality-Revolution-Mind-Blowing-Movement-Hack/dp/154450618X/ Listen my book on audible https://www.audible.com/pd/The-Reality-Revolution-Audiobook/B087LV1R5V Music By Mettaversesolacesolitudegolden lotusinto the omniversejourney into the multiversenocturne ➤ Listen on Soundcloud: http://bit.ly/2KjGlLI➤ Follow them on Instagram: http://bit.ly/2JW8BU2➤ Join them on Facebook: http://bit.ly/2G1j7G6➤ Subscribe to their channel here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCyvjffON2NoUvX5q_TgvVkw  All My Neville Goddard Videos In One Playlist - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLKv1KCSKwOo8kBZsJpp3xvkRwhbXuhg0M For all episodes of the Reality Revolution – https://www.therealityrevolution.com Like us on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/The-Reality-Revolution-Podcast-Hosted-By-Brian-Scott-102555575116999 Join our facebook group The Reality Revolution https://www.facebook.com/groups/523814491927119  Subscribe to my Youtube channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOgXHr5S3oF0qetPfqxJfSw #nevillegoddard #audiobooks #imagination #newthought #lawofattraction #totalhumanoptimization

There is a storm on the horizon. There is a cultural (a spiritual) revolution occurring before our eyes which will bring trouble and trial to true believers. ... In the not to far distant future, this storm will arrive at our doorstep. And we will be called to stand. Society will seek to overwhelm us and force us to comply with their beliefs. The outer walls have been breeched and we have a decision to make. Will we stand or will we fall?In the first century, the church at Ephesus faced a similar crossroads. Pagan society encroached into the church. The people were to busy obsessing over myths and foolish teaching to notice. Interpreting Scripture to fit their agenda. So Paul wrote this epistle to inform them and Timothy how to stand against the oncoming storm. As he closes the epistle, he gives Timothy and the church a command: Stand for the Truth. 

Our Lord Jesus went into the slave market of sin, bought us, and took us out and set us free. So Paul could then write, "Stand fast therefore in the liberty where Christ hath made us free." Ah yes, when He said it's finished, God's law was satisfied, God's holiness was vindicated, and God's redemptive purpose was fulfilled. Broadcast #6968

A SEVENFOLD VIEW OF THE HOLY SPIRITJohn 16:13"Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come."There is a sense in which the Holy Spirit has always been in the world. For instance the Holy Spirit was in and worked in the lives of the saints in the Old Testament. David said in Psalms 51:11, "Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me." According to the way David prayed here, the Holy Spirit would come and go at will. He did not permanently indwell those who were permanently saved. So David prays, “Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy Holy Spirit from me.”There when Jesus came and at the point where His public ministry began, He received the Holy Spirit without measure. John 3:34 says, “For he whom God hath sent speaketh the words of God: for God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto him.” Matthew 3:16 says, “And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him:”I want us to get a sevenfold view of the Holy Spirit in this meditation.THE SPIRIT OF LIFERomans 8:2 says, "For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death."The Holy Spirit is called “The Spirit of life in Christ Jesus.” And we are told what this means practically and eternally. We are made free from the law of sin and death. This is in Christ Jesus. Are you in Christ? I'm not talking about, are you in a Church? As important as church is in its proper place, the church cannot set one free from the law of sin and death. Only Jesus can do that. And the way He does that is first of all settle the penalty that was justly passed against us, i.e., death. This is the reason He came and died. He came and paid our sin debt in full. Next he sets us free from the law of sin and death by meeting the just demands of the law. The law no longer has a claim on us. Jesus has paid the penalty for us and the JUDGE has agreed that the payment He made for us satisfies His judgment against us. So, I am a sinner set free by grace as a gift to faith that will reach out and receive it as a gift. THE SPIRIT OF SONSHIPRomans 8:15, "For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father."The words “For ye have not received the spirit of bondage. . .” translate “lambano” and means, “to take with the hand, lay hold of, any person or thing in order to use it.” It is an aorist tense verb which means a once-for-all act. Paul is saying that the gift of the Spirit was received at a time and place. The active voice means that a decision had to be made on their part. God forces salvation on no one. It is offered, and those receive salvation as a gift based on God's promise, come immediately into possession of eternal life. Eternal life is the present possession of the believer.When one is saved, he is indwelt from that time forward by the Holy Spirit which is the earnest of our salvation. The idea of the Spirit being the earnest of our salvation is for the purpose of assurance. How do I know I am saved? Because I already have the earnest of salvation and this earnest will never be taken away. Paul speaks of this in 2 Corinthians 1:22, “Who hath also sealed us, and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts.” The earnest is the down payment on and our guarantee of the completion of the transaction. The Holy Spirit is just a part of the whole that will be finished at the coming of our Lord. By this we know that God will finish what He set out to do. He will glorify us and take us as His bride and establish us in His eternal kingdom. He wants us to live on this earth after we are saved believing this. So He gives us the firm guarantee of the finished work. Salvation is God's work and you can be sure He will finish it.THE SPIRIT OF PROMISEEphesians 1:13 says, "In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise," The steps are clearly set out in this verse. Paul says, “In whom ye also trusted, after ye heard the word of truth.” There are two important steps spelled out here. First, one must hear the word of truth. It is not just any truth that one must believe to be saved. Second, he defines what word of truth He is speaking of. He spells it out, “the gospel of your salvation.” The gospel is the power of God unto salvation. This gospel is defined in 1 Cor. 15:1-3. Then it must be believed without mixture or error. It is not the death and resurrection plus something else like baptism or the Lord's Supper. These are great ordinances but they have no saving power. It is faith that what Jesus did on the cross completely satisfied the wrath of God against sin.I believe that and so does every saved person alive on this earth. If you are a church member and do not believe this, please go no further in your hypocrisy. It is not the brand that saves but the blood of the sinless Son of God that saves.The Spirit is the Spirit of promise. He is able to make a promise and keep it. This is what He did that sets us free. We have received the Holy Spirit of promise.THE SPIRIT OF POWER2 Timothy 1:7, "For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind." We have not been given the spirit of fear. The word “fear” translates “deilia” and means, “timidity, fearfulness, cowardice.” The words “sound mind” translates “sophronismos” and means, “an admonishing or calling to soundness of mind, to moderation and self-control.” Many believe Timothy was a timid person. And Paul used this to exhort him to boldness inpreaching the gospel. The word of God is, our authority. And when one teaches the Scripture he is not to do it apologetically. It is the word of God and once we are convinced of what it says, we are to preach with boldness.So Paul tells Timothy that God has not given us the Spirit of fear but of power and of love and of a sound mind. Next Paul tells Timothy that the Spirit we received from God is,THE SPIRIT OF TRUTHThe Holy Spirit has nothing to do with wrong theology or wrong methods. Truth is the essence of the Holy Spirit's revelation. Thank the Lord we have His infallible illumination and his unfaltering guidance into all truth.Jesus deals with this in John 16:13, "Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come."THE SPIRIT OF WISDOMThe Holy Spirit of wisdom is the Holy Spirit in essence. It is impossible for the Holy Spirit not to be wise. He has all the attributes of God because He is God. And God is Wisdom personified. There are many things said about the Spirit of wisdom in the Bible. Exodus 28:3 says, “And thou shalt speak unto all that are wise hearted, whom I have filled with the spirit of wisdom, that they may make Aaron's garments to consecrate him, that he may minister unto me in the priest's office.” God has given certain men the Spirit of wisdom to make the garments for the priest's office.James 1:5 says, “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.”The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of wisdom and He is available continually. He indwells the believer supplying his every need. Wisdom is not knowledge. Wisdom is knowing how to apply knowledge. Believers are pilgrims in a world that cares nothing for God. And we need the wisdom that God gives to make it in this world. There are the visas that missionaries have to get to enter the country of their calling. We definitely need the wisdom of God to give the right answers, to make the right statements, to be silent when we need to be silent, if we are going to obtain the legal status we need to enter the land. God alone can give the wisdom that we need. There are probably missionaries who will read this who could give testimony that they obtained a visa when it was said that it could not be done. But God . . .”I am sure that many have missed it because they did not find James 1:5 in time. God is so infinitely wise that He can give what is needed at the right time so that the people with whom we deal are surprised at themselves when they realize what they have done in granting certain things to the people of God. Only by God wisdom could it have been done. Then finally,THE SPIRIT OF GLORY1 Peter 4:14, "If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye; for the spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you: on their part he is evil spoken of, but on your part he is glorified."As we are hated and reproached because of our identification with Christ and our love for Him, Peter says, “happy are ye; for the spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you.” And this likeness of Christ in suffering is a Divine enablement. God gives that special anointing so that the glow of God is upon the suffering saint, and the grace of God is manifest so that the observer sees that the reproached and suffering saint is getting power from another world. Manyhave been saved just by observing the suffering of the saints. How could this be? Because the spirit of glory and of God rests upon them. It is unexplainable but also undeniable. May the Lord bless these words to our hearts.Don't forget to visit HardwareOnTheSquare.com and find out more about our amazing service and the only Pizza Restaurant in San Augustine Texas.

One of the greatest joys of serving this church as an elder is the privilege we have to listen to everyone share their testimony. Each story is unique, but they all have that familiar pattern. If someone has grown up in a Christian home, there still comes that point where the faith of their parents becomes personal. Often times, the stories begin outside the church and it is not until a friend invited them to church that they heard and responded to the gospel. We never tire of hearing the various ways that God has worked in your lives. We encourage you to tell your testimonies to one another. We've heard a lot of testimonies, and I will say that there is a bit of a learning curve. Some need to be coached through their testimony with questions, others seem pretty familiar with the concept. The main idea that we are looking for is fairly basic. Do you understand your need salvation? Do you understand that apart from Christ you are without hope? Everyone who professes Christ as their Lord ought to recognize their need for him, whether they grew up inside or outside of the church. Then we are also looking to hear how you came to trust in Christ for your salvation. Paul shares his testimony with the Philippians in this morning's passage. He speaks of his experience in Judaism apart from Jesus, then he explains how Jesus changed his view of everything. We have the tendency to create standards for ourselves that serve to assuage our guilty conscience. Or we base our salvation upon whether or not we possess a particular set of virtues. Christ may be a helpful means to achieving the real goal of self-justification. But a true conversion is a supernatural transformation that is accomplished by God through faith. In Christ we gain a new identity and belong to a new community for all eternity. Pray & Read https://ref.ly/logosref/Bible.Php3.1-11 (Philippians 3:1-11).  I. The Loss of  Tribal  Identity (4-7)Last week, we talked about Paul making an abrupt shift in tone at the start of this chapter. He issues a stern warning about those who are corrupting the truth. He takes another unexpected turn in the fourth verse. Paul had just given several characteristics of the community of saints. “For we are the circumcision, who worship by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh—though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh also.” Paul recognizes that the community does not eradicate the individual. We must treasure Christ personally and individually. So Paul begins to explain how that took place in his own life. It begins, therefore, with a discussion of the things that used to define his life. What were things that he valued? What gave him purpose and meaning? Paul's pedigree gave him great confidence in the flesh, more even than his opponents (4). Anyone who assumes the need to meet a certain standard according to the flesh, will find Paul is more than qualified. They cannot find fault with his background. He belonged to the elite class of Israelites. He took his religion more seriously than anyone else he knew. For those estimating one's worth by resume, Paul's was one few others could compete with (5-6). He rattles off everything that he once held up to God as his justification. The first five characteristics reflect the tribes Paul belonged to, while the latter two characteristics reflect the way in which those tribes influenced Paul's life. • “Circumcised on the eighth day” Paul meets the first qualification better than any circumcised Gentile. • “of the people of Israel” https://ref.ly/logosref/Bible.Ro9.3 (Rom 9:3), https://ref.ly/logosref/Bible.Ro9.4 (4); https://ref.ly/logosref/Bible.Ro11.1 (11:1). This is not the typical word for “people” in Greek. γένος denotes “ancestral stock, common ancestry, nationality” (BDAG). Paul belonged to the nation of Israel, the chosen people of God. He possessed all...

PegaWorld, the annual event put on by Pega, a leading customer engagement and process automation platform provider, will be taking place virtually on May 4th. And earlier this week my CRM Playaz co-host Paul Greenberg and I had the opportunity to hold a LinkedIn Live conversation with company founder and CEO Alan Trefler to talk about the event a lot more leading up to the event. Actually, “a lot more” may be an understatement when it comes to speaking with Trefler as there are so many areas you can delve into with him. Not only is he still at the helm of the company he founded back in 1983, he’s having a lot of fun while also leading Pega to cross $1 billion in annual revenues for the first time last year. He credits a lot of Pega’s success to the lessons he learned working in the family’s restoration business – which will be celebrating its 100th year anniversary next year. He’s also a chess master and an accordion player. So Paul and I covered a lot of bases in our time with Alan, and below is an edited transcript of a portion of our conversation. To hear the full discussion click on the embedded SoundCloud player.

What do you really want? Is it comfort, security, pleasure, recognition. Maybe it's something related to your family, maybe you want healing for a child or spouse, for yourself. Paul wanted something too. He wanted it badly. He pleaded for it. He wanted relief. He wanted this "thing" that was bothering him to stop. He called it his thorn in the flesh. And the origins of this thing came from Satan himself, we're told, we're not exactly sure what it was. But the description seems to cover all the bases, whether it was something spiritual or physical. We all have needs physical and spiritual needs. And we all end up crying out to God, asking him to deliver us, to take that thing, to correct that thing, to heal that thing, whatever that thing is. And we see that Paul was no different. He pleaded and pleaded and continued to plead. Whatever it was, Paul felt that it was holding him back. This is what Paul really wanted. He saw God delivering and providing and doing miracles that were both spiritual and physical for others. Why didn't God do the same for Paul? Why does he do the same thing for you for me? Maybe it's because there's something Paul, and you and I need. That's more important than what we want. Paul needed to know the power of grace in his life. God tells Paul, not once, but three times. Grace is what you need. My grace is perfected in your weakness. So Paul, began to treasure even his weaknesses. Because they became a doorway, to the grace, the presence, the love of God, that he needed. Maybe there's something that we need, that's more important than what we want. And the prayer of my own soul today is that I will have the wisdom, the courage, the grace to receive it. And that's the prayer that I have for my family, for my wife and my daughters and my son. And that's a prayer that I have for you may be so.  

Old Testament: Deuteronomy 28 Deuteronomy 28 (Listen) Blessings for Obedience 28 “And if you faithfully obey the voice of the LORD your God, being careful to do all his commandments that I command you today, the LORD your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth. 2 And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, if you obey the voice of the LORD your God. 3 Blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed shall you be in the field. 4 Blessed shall be the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground and the fruit of your cattle, the increase of your herds and the young of your flock. 5 Blessed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl. 6 Blessed shall you be when you come in, and blessed shall you be when you go out. 7 “The LORD will cause your enemies who rise against you to be defeated before you. They shall come out against you one way and flee before you seven ways. 8 The LORD will command the blessing on you in your barns and in all that you undertake. And he will bless you in the land that the LORD your God is giving you. 9 The LORD will establish you as a people holy to himself, as he has sworn to you, if you keep the commandments of the LORD your God and walk in his ways. 10 And all the peoples of the earth shall see that you are called by the name of the LORD, and they shall be afraid of you. 11 And the LORD will make you abound in prosperity, in the fruit of your womb and in the fruit of your livestock and in the fruit of your ground, within the land that the LORD swore to your fathers to give you. 12 The LORD will open to you his good treasury, the heavens, to give the rain to your land in its season and to bless all the work of your hands. And you shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow. 13 And the LORD will make you the head and not the tail, and you shall only go up and not down, if you obey the commandments of the LORD your God, which I command you today, being careful to do them, 14 and if you do not turn aside from any of the words that I command you today, to the right hand or to the left, to go after other gods to serve them. Curses for Disobedience 15 “But if you will not obey the voice of the LORD your God or be careful to do all his commandments and his statutes that I command you today, then all these curses shall come upon you and overtake you. 16 Cursed shall you be in the city, and cursed shall you be in the field. 17 Cursed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl. 18 Cursed shall be the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground, the increase of your herds and the young of your flock. 19 Cursed shall you be when you come in, and cursed shall you be when you go out. 20 “The LORD will send on you curses, confusion, and frustration in all that you undertake to do, until you are destroyed and perish quickly on account of the evil of your deeds, because you have forsaken me. 21 The LORD will make the pestilence stick to you until he has consumed you off the land that you are entering to take possession of it. 22 The LORD will strike you with wasting disease and with fever, inflammation and fiery heat, and with drought1 and with blight and with mildew. They shall pursue you until you perish. 23 And the heavens over your head shall be bronze, and the earth under you shall be iron. 24 The LORD will make the rain of your land powder. From heaven dust shall come down on you until you are destroyed. 25 “The LORD will cause you to be defeated before your enemies. You shall go out one way against them and flee seven ways before them. And you shall be a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth. 26 And your dead body shall be food for all birds of the air and for the beasts of the earth, and there shall be no one to frighten them away. 27 The LORD will strike you with the boils of Egypt, and with tumors and scabs and itch, of which you cannot be healed. 28 The LORD will strike you with madness and blindness and confusion of mind, 29 and you shall grope at noonday, as the blind grope in darkness, and you shall not prosper in your ways.2 And you shall be only oppressed and robbed continually, and there shall be no one to help you. 30 You shall betroth a wife, but another man shall ravish her. You shall build a house, but you shall not dwell in it. You shall plant a vineyard, but you shall not enjoy its fruit. 31 Your ox shall be slaughtered before your eyes, but you shall not eat any of it. Your donkey shall be seized before your face, but shall not be restored to you. Your sheep shall be given to your enemies, but there shall be no one to help you. 32 Your sons and your daughters shall be given to another people, while your eyes look on and fail with longing for them all day long, but you shall be helpless. 33 A nation that you have not known shall eat up the fruit of your ground and of all your labors, and you shall be only oppressed and crushed continually, 34 so that you are driven mad by the sights that your eyes see. 35 The LORD will strike you on the knees and on the legs with grievous boils of which you cannot be healed, from the sole of your foot to the crown of your head. 36 “The LORD will bring you and your king whom you set over you to a nation that neither you nor your fathers have known. And there you shall serve other gods of wood and stone. 37 And you shall become a horror, a proverb, and a byword among all the peoples where the LORD will lead you away. 38 You shall carry much seed into the field and shall gather in little, for the locust shall consume it. 39 You shall plant vineyards and dress them, but you shall neither drink of the wine nor gather the grapes, for the worm shall eat them. 40 You shall have olive trees throughout all your territory, but you shall not anoint yourself with the oil, for your olives shall drop off. 41 You shall father sons and daughters, but they shall not be yours, for they shall go into captivity. 42 The cricket3 shall possess all your trees and the fruit of your ground. 43 The sojourner who is among you shall rise higher and higher above you, and you shall come down lower and lower. 44 He shall lend to you, and you shall not lend to him. He shall be the head, and you shall be the tail. 45 “All these curses shall come upon you and pursue you and overtake you till you are destroyed, because you did not obey the voice of the LORD your God, to keep his commandments and his statutes that he commanded you. 46 They shall be a sign and a wonder against you and your offspring forever. 47 Because you did not serve the LORD your God with joyfulness and gladness of heart, because of the abundance of all things, 48 therefore you shall serve your enemies whom the LORD will send against you, in hunger and thirst, in nakedness, and lacking everything. And he will put a yoke of iron on your neck until he has destroyed you. 49 The LORD will bring a nation against you from far away, from the end of the earth, swooping down like the eagle, a nation whose language you do not understand, 50 a hard-faced nation who shall not respect the old or show mercy to the young. 51 It shall eat the offspring of your cattle and the fruit of your ground, until you are destroyed; it also shall not leave you grain, wine, or oil, the increase of your herds or the young of your flock, until they have caused you to perish. 52 “They shall besiege you in all your towns, until your high and fortified walls, in which you trusted, come down throughout all your land. And they shall besiege you in all your towns throughout all your land, which the LORD your God has given you. 53 And you shall eat the fruit of your womb, the flesh of your sons and daughters, whom the LORD your God has given you, in the siege and in the distress with which your enemies shall distress you. 54 The man who is the most tender and refined among you will begrudge food to his brother, to the wife he embraces,4 and to the last of the children whom he has left, 55 so that he will not give to any of them any of the flesh of his children whom he is eating, because he has nothing else left, in the siege and in the distress with which your enemy shall distress you in all your towns. 56 The most tender and refined woman among you, who would not venture to set the sole of her foot on the ground because she is so delicate and tender, will begrudge to the husband she embraces,5 to her son and to her daughter, 57 her afterbirth that comes out from between her feet and her children whom she bears, because lacking everything she will eat them secretly, in the siege and in the distress with which your enemy shall distress you in your towns. 58 “If you are not careful to do all the words of this law that are written in this book, that you may fear this glorious and awesome name, the LORD your God, 59 then the LORD will bring on you and your offspring extraordinary afflictions, afflictions severe and lasting, and sicknesses grievous and lasting. 60 And he will bring upon you again all the diseases of Egypt, of which you were afraid, and they shall cling to you. 61 Every sickness also and every affliction that is not recorded in the book of this law, the LORD will bring upon you, until you are destroyed. 62 Whereas you were as numerous as the stars of heaven, you shall be left few in number, because you did not obey the voice of the LORD your God. 63 And as the LORD took delight in doing you good and multiplying you, so the LORD will take delight in bringing ruin upon you and destroying you. And you shall be plucked off the land that you are entering to take possession of it. 64 “And the LORD will scatter you among all peoples, from one end of the earth to the other, and there you shall serve other gods of wood and stone, which neither you nor your fathers have known. 65 And among these nations you shall find no respite, and there shall be no resting place for the sole of your foot, but the LORD will give you there a trembling heart and failing eyes and a languishing soul. 66 Your life shall hang in doubt before you. Night and day you shall be in dread and have no assurance of your life. 67 In the morning you shall say, ‘If only it were evening!’ and at evening you shall say, ‘If only it were morning!’ because of the dread that your heart shall feel, and the sights that your eyes shall see. 68 And the LORD will bring you back in ships to Egypt, a journey that I promised that you should never make again; and there you shall offer yourselves for sale to your enemies as male and female slaves, but there will be no buyer.” Footnotes [1] 28:22 Or sword [2] 28:29 Or shall not succeed in finding your ways [3] 28:42 Identity uncertain [4] 28:54 Hebrew the wife of his bosom [5] 28:56 Hebrew the husband of her bosom (ESV) Psalm: Psalm 93 Psalm 93 (Listen) The Lord Reigns 93   The LORD reigns; he is robed in majesty;    the LORD is robed; he has put on strength as his belt.  Yes, the world is established; it shall never be moved.2   Your throne is established from of old;    you are from everlasting. 3   The floods have lifted up, O LORD,    the floods have lifted up their voice;    the floods lift up their roaring.4   Mightier than the thunders of many waters,    mightier than the waves of the sea,    the LORD on high is mighty! 5   Your decrees are very trustworthy;    holiness befits your house,    O LORD, forevermore. (ESV) New Testament: Acts 17 Acts 17 (Listen) Paul and Silas in Thessalonica 17 Now when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews. 2 And Paul went in, as was his custom, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures, 3 explaining and proving that it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead, and saying, “This Jesus, whom I proclaim to you, is the Christ.” 4 And some of them were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, as did a great many of the devout Greeks and not a few of the leading women. 5 But the Jews1 were jealous, and taking some wicked men of the rabble, they formed a mob, set the city in an uproar, and attacked the house of Jason, seeking to bring them out to the crowd. 6 And when they could not find them, they dragged Jason and some of the brothers before the city authorities, shouting, “These men who have turned the world upside down have come here also, 7 and Jason has received them, and they are all acting against the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, Jesus.” 8 And the people and the city authorities were disturbed when they heard these things. 9 And when they had taken money as security from Jason and the rest, they let them go. Paul and Silas in Berea 10 The brothers2 immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea, and when they arrived they went into the Jewish synagogue. 11 Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so. 12 Many of them therefore believed, with not a few Greek women of high standing as well as men. 13 But when the Jews from Thessalonica learned that the word of God was proclaimed by Paul at Berea also, they came there too, agitating and stirring up the crowds. 14 Then the brothers immediately sent Paul off on his way to the sea, but Silas and Timothy remained there. 15 Those who conducted Paul brought him as far as Athens, and after receiving a command for Silas and Timothy to come to him as soon as possible, they departed. Paul in Athens 16 Now while Paul was waiting for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him as he saw that the city was full of idols. 17 So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons, and in the marketplace every day with those who happened to be there. 18 Some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers also conversed with him. And some said, “What does this babbler wish to say?” Others said, “He seems to be a preacher of foreign divinities”—because he was preaching Jesus and the resurrection. 19 And they took him and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, “May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting? 20 For you bring some strange things to our ears. We wish to know therefore what these things mean.” 21 Now all the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there would spend their time in nothing except telling or hearing something new. Paul Addresses the Areopagus 22 So Paul, standing in the midst of the Areopagus, said: “Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious. 23 For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription: ‘To the unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. 24 The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man,3 25 nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. 26 And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, 27 that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, 28 for   “‘In him we live and move and have our being’;4 as even some of your own poets have said,   “‘For we are indeed his offspring.’5 29 Being then God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man. 30 The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, 31 because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.” 32 Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked. But others said, “We will hear you again about this.” 33 So Paul went out from their midst. 34 But some men joined him and believed, among whom also were Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named Damaris and others with them. Footnotes [1] 17:5 Greek Ioudaioi probably refers here to Jewish religious leaders, and others under their influence, in that time; also verse 13 [2] 17:10 Or brothers and sisters; also verse 14 [3] 17:24 Greek made by hands [4] 17:28 Probably from Epimenides of Crete [5] 17:28 From Aratus’s poem “Phainomena” (ESV)

On this Episode of The Kasabian Lavoe Show . Off server misconduct . How is this suppose to work . So Paul had a party and lost his job . YG has his music taken down . Why ? Oakland update . So we're building the wall again , go figure . What are the cost of politics and business . Heres a hint 100 million . All this and more . www.klavoe.com linktr.ee/kasabianlavoe ** Like ** Subscribe ** Follow

Old Testament: Deuteronomy 18–20 Deuteronomy 18–20 (Listen) Provision for Priests and Levites 18 “The Levitical priests, all the tribe of Levi, shall have no portion or inheritance with Israel. They shall eat the LORD’s food offerings1 as their2 inheritance. 2 They shall have no inheritance among their brothers; the LORD is their inheritance, as he promised them. 3 And this shall be the priests’ due from the people, from those offering a sacrifice, whether an ox or a sheep: they shall give to the priest the shoulder and the two cheeks and the stomach. 4 The firstfruits of your grain, of your wine and of your oil, and the first fleece of your sheep, you shall give him. 5 For the LORD your God has chosen him out of all your tribes to stand and minister in the name of the LORD, him and his sons for all time. 6 “And if a Levite comes from any of your towns out of all Israel, where he lives—and he may come when he desires3—to the place that the LORD will choose, 7 and ministers in the name of the LORD his God, like all his fellow Levites who stand to minister there before the LORD, 8 then he may have equal portions to eat, besides what he receives from the sale of his patrimony.4 Abominable Practices 9 “When you come into the land that the LORD your God is giving you, you shall not learn to follow the abominable practices of those nations. 10 There shall not be found among you anyone who burns his son or his daughter as an offering,5 anyone who practices divination or tells fortunes or interprets omens, or a sorcerer 11 or a charmer or a medium or a necromancer or one who inquires of the dead, 12 for whoever does these things is an abomination to the LORD. And because of these abominations the LORD your God is driving them out before you. 13 You shall be blameless before the LORD your God, 14 for these nations, which you are about to dispossess, listen to fortune-tellers and to diviners. But as for you, the LORD your God has not allowed you to do this. A New Prophet like Moses 15 “The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers—it is to him you shall listen—16 just as you desired of the LORD your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly, when you said, ‘Let me not hear again the voice of the LORD my God or see this great fire any more, lest I die.’ 17 And the LORD said to me, ‘They are right in what they have spoken. 18 I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers. And I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him. 19 And whoever will not listen to my words that he shall speak in my name, I myself will require it of him. 20 But the prophet who presumes to speak a word in my name that I have not commanded him to speak, or6 who speaks in the name of other gods, that same prophet shall die.’ 21 And if you say in your heart, ‘How may we know the word that the LORD has not spoken?’—22 when a prophet speaks in the name of the LORD, if the word does not come to pass or come true, that is a word that the LORD has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it presumptuously. You need not be afraid of him. Laws Concerning Cities of Refuge 19 “When the LORD your God cuts off the nations whose land the LORD your God is giving you, and you dispossess them and dwell in their cities and in their houses, 2 you shall set apart three cities for yourselves in the land that the LORD your God is giving you to possess. 3 You shall measure the distances7 and divide into three parts the area of the land that the LORD your God gives you as a possession, so that any manslayer can flee to them. 4 “This is the provision for the manslayer, who by fleeing there may save his life. If anyone kills his neighbor unintentionally without having hated him in the past—5 as when someone goes into the forest with his neighbor to cut wood, and his hand swings the axe to cut down a tree, and the head slips from the handle and strikes his neighbor so that he dies—he may flee to one of these cities and live, 6 lest the avenger of blood in hot anger pursue the manslayer and overtake him, because the way is long, and strike him fatally, though the man did not deserve to die, since he had not hated his neighbor in the past. 7 Therefore I command you, You shall set apart three cities. 8 And if the LORD your God enlarges your territory, as he has sworn to your fathers, and gives you all the land that he promised to give to your fathers—9 provided you are careful to keep all this commandment, which I command you today, by loving the LORD your God and by walking ever in his ways—then you shall add three other cities to these three, 10 lest innocent blood be shed in your land that the LORD your God is giving you for an inheritance, and so the guilt of bloodshed be upon you. 11 “But if anyone hates his neighbor and lies in wait for him and attacks him and strikes him fatally so that he dies, and he flees into one of these cities, 12 then the elders of his city shall send and take him from there, and hand him over to the avenger of blood, so that he may die. 13 Your eye shall not pity him, but you shall purge the guilt of innocent blood8 from Israel, so that it may be well with you. Property Boundaries 14 “You shall not move your neighbor’s landmark, which the men of old have set, in the inheritance that you will hold in the land that the LORD your God is giving you to possess. Laws Concerning Witnesses 15 “A single witness shall not suffice against a person for any crime or for any wrong in connection with any offense that he has committed. Only on the evidence of two witnesses or of three witnesses shall a charge be established. 16 If a malicious witness arises to accuse a person of wrongdoing, 17 then both parties to the dispute shall appear before the LORD, before the priests and the judges who are in office in those days. 18 The judges shall inquire diligently, and if the witness is a false witness and has accused his brother falsely, 19 then you shall do to him as he had meant to do to his brother. So you shall purge the evil9 from your midst. 20 And the rest shall hear and fear, and shall never again commit any such evil among you. 21 Your eye shall not pity. It shall be life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot. Laws Concerning Warfare 20 “When you go out to war against your enemies, and see horses and chariots and an army larger than your own, you shall not be afraid of them, for the LORD your God is with you, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt. 2 And when you draw near to the battle, the priest shall come forward and speak to the people 3 and shall say to them, ‘Hear, O Israel, today you are drawing near for battle against your enemies: let not your heart faint. Do not fear or panic or be in dread of them, 4 for the LORD your God is he who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies, to give you the victory.’ 5 Then the officers shall speak to the people, saying, ‘Is there any man who has built a new house and has not dedicated it? Let him go back to his house, lest he die in the battle and another man dedicate it. 6 And is there any man who has planted a vineyard and has not enjoyed its fruit? Let him go back to his house, lest he die in the battle and another man enjoy its fruit. 7 And is there any man who has betrothed a wife and has not taken her? Let him go back to his house, lest he die in the battle and another man take her.’ 8 And the officers shall speak further to the people, and say, ‘Is there any man who is fearful and fainthearted? Let him go back to his house, lest he make the heart of his fellows melt like his own.’ 9 And when the officers have finished speaking to the people, then commanders shall be appointed at the head of the people. 10 “When you draw near to a city to fight against it, offer terms of peace to it. 11 And if it responds to you peaceably and it opens to you, then all the people who are found in it shall do forced labor for you and shall serve you. 12 But if it makes no peace with you, but makes war against you, then you shall besiege it. 13 And when the LORD your God gives it into your hand, you shall put all its males to the sword, 14 but the women and the little ones, the livestock, and everything else in the city, all its spoil, you shall take as plunder for yourselves. And you shall enjoy the spoil of your enemies, which the LORD your God has given you. 15 Thus you shall do to all the cities that are very far from you, which are not cities of the nations here. 16 But in the cities of these peoples that the LORD your God is giving you for an inheritance, you shall save alive nothing that breathes, 17 but you shall devote them to complete destruction,10 the Hittites and the Amorites, the Canaanites and the Perizzites, the Hivites and the Jebusites, as the LORD your God has commanded, 18 that they may not teach you to do according to all their abominable practices that they have done for their gods, and so you sin against the LORD your God. 19 “When you besiege a city for a long time, making war against it in order to take it, you shall not destroy its trees by wielding an axe against them. You may eat from them, but you shall not cut them down. Are the trees in the field human, that they should be besieged by you? 20 Only the trees that you know are not trees for food you may destroy and cut down, that you may build siegeworks against the city that makes war with you, until it falls. Footnotes [1] 18:1 Or the offerings by fire to the Lord [2] 18:1 Hebrew his [3] 18:6 Or lives—if he comes enthusiastically [4] 18:8 The meaning of the Hebrew is uncertain [5] 18:10 Hebrew makes his son or his daughter pass through the fire [6] 18:20 Or and [7] 19:3 Hebrew road [8] 19:13 Or the blood of the innocent [9] 19:19 Or evil person [10] 20:17 That is, set apart (devote) as an offering to the Lord (for destruction) (ESV) Psalm: Psalm 89:30–52 Psalm 89:30–52 (Listen) 30   If his children forsake my law    and do not walk according to my rules,131   if they violate my statutes    and do not keep my commandments,32   then I will punish their transgression with the rod    and their iniquity with stripes,33   but I will not remove from him my steadfast love    or be false to my faithfulness.34   I will not violate my covenant    or alter the word that went forth from my lips.35   Once for all I have sworn by my holiness;    I will not lie to David.36   His offspring shall endure forever,    his throne as long as the sun before me.37   Like the moon it shall be established forever,    a faithful witness in the skies.” Selah 38   But now you have cast off and rejected;    you are full of wrath against your anointed.39   You have renounced the covenant with your servant;    you have defiled his crown in the dust.40   You have breached all his walls;    you have laid his strongholds in ruins.41   All who pass by plunder him;    he has become the scorn of his neighbors.42   You have exalted the right hand of his foes;    you have made all his enemies rejoice.43   You have also turned back the edge of his sword,    and you have not made him stand in battle.44   You have made his splendor to cease    and cast his throne to the ground.45   You have cut short the days of his youth;    you have covered him with shame. Selah 46   How long, O LORD? Will you hide yourself forever?    How long will your wrath burn like fire?47   Remember how short my time is!    For what vanity you have created all the children of man!48   What man can live and never see death?    Who can deliver his soul from the power of Sheol? Selah 49   Lord, where is your steadfast love of old,    which by your faithfulness you swore to David?50   Remember, O Lord, how your servants are mocked,    and how I bear in my heart the insults2 of all the many nations,51   with which your enemies mock, O LORD,    with which they mock the footsteps of your anointed. 52   Blessed be the LORD forever!      Amen and Amen. Footnotes [1] 89:30 Or my just decrees [2] 89:50 Hebrew lacks the insults (ESV) New Testament: Acts 13 Acts 13 (Listen) Barnabas and Saul Sent Off 13 Now there were in the church at Antioch prophets and teachers, Barnabas, Simeon who was called Niger,1 Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen a lifelong friend of Herod the tetrarch, and Saul. 2 While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” 3 Then after fasting and praying they laid their hands on them and sent them off. Barnabas and Saul on Cyprus 4 So, being sent out by the Holy Spirit, they went down to Seleucia, and from there they sailed to Cyprus. 5 When they arrived at Salamis, they proclaimed the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews. And they had John to assist them. 6 When they had gone through the whole island as far as Paphos, they came upon a certain magician, a Jewish false prophet named Bar-Jesus. 7 He was with the proconsul, Sergius Paulus, a man of intelligence, who summoned Barnabas and Saul and sought to hear the word of God. 8 But Elymas the magician (for that is the meaning of his name) opposed them, seeking to turn the proconsul away from the faith. 9 But Saul, who was also called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked intently at him 10 and said, “You son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, full of all deceit and villainy, will you not stop making crooked the straight paths of the Lord? 11 And now, behold, the hand of the Lord is upon you, and you will be blind and unable to see the sun for a time.” Immediately mist and darkness fell upon him, and he went about seeking people to lead him by the hand. 12 Then the proconsul believed, when he saw what had occurred, for he was astonished at the teaching of the Lord. Paul and Barnabas at Antioch in Pisidia 13 Now Paul and his companions set sail from Paphos and came to Perga in Pamphylia. And John left them and returned to Jerusalem, 14 but they went on from Perga and came to Antioch in Pisidia. And on the Sabbath day they went into the synagogue and sat down. 15 After the reading from the Law and the Prophets, the rulers of the synagogue sent a message to them, saying, “Brothers, if you have any word of encouragement for the people, say it.” 16 So Paul stood up, and motioning with his hand said: “Men of Israel and you who fear God, listen. 17 The God of this people Israel chose our fathers and made the people great during their stay in the land of Egypt, and with uplifted arm he led them out of it. 18 And for about forty years he put up with2 them in the wilderness. 19 And after destroying seven nations in the land of Canaan, he gave them their land as an inheritance. 20 All this took about 450 years. And after that he gave them judges until Samuel the prophet. 21 Then they asked for a king, and God gave them Saul the son of Kish, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, for forty years. 22 And when he had removed him, he raised up David to be their king, of whom he testified and said, ‘I have found in David the son of Jesse a man after my heart, who will do all my will.’ 23 Of this man’s offspring God has brought to Israel a Savior, Jesus, as he promised. 24 Before his coming, John had proclaimed a baptism of repentance to all the people of Israel. 25 And as John was finishing his course, he said, ‘What do you suppose that I am? I am not he. No, but behold, after me one is coming, the sandals of whose feet I am not worthy to untie.’ 26 “Brothers, sons of the family of Abraham, and those among you who fear God, to us has been sent the message of this salvation. 27 For those who live in Jerusalem and their rulers, because they did not recognize him nor understand the utterances of the prophets, which are read every Sabbath, fulfilled them by condemning him. 28 And though they found in him no guilt worthy of death, they asked Pilate to have him executed. 29 And when they had carried out all that was written of him, they took him down from the tree and laid him in a tomb. 30 But God raised him from the dead, 31 and for many days he appeared to those who had come up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem, who are now his witnesses to the people. 32 And we bring you the good news that what God promised to the fathers, 33 this he has fulfilled to us their children by raising Jesus, as also it is written in the second Psalm,   “‘You are my Son,    today I have begotten you.’ 34 And as for the fact that he raised him from the dead, no more to return to corruption, he has spoken in this way,   “‘I will give you the holy and sure blessings of David.’ 35 Therefore he says also in another psalm,   “‘You will not let your Holy One see corruption.’ 36 For David, after he had served the purpose of God in his own generation, fell asleep and was laid with his fathers and saw corruption, 37 but he whom God raised up did not see corruption. 38 Let it be known to you therefore, brothers, that through this man forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you, 39 and by him everyone who believes is freed3 from everything from which you could not be freed by the law of Moses. 40 Beware, therefore, lest what is said in the Prophets should come about: 41   “‘Look, you scoffers,    be astounded and perish;  for I am doing a work in your days,    a work that you will not believe, even if one tells it to you.’” 42 As they went out, the people begged that these things might be told them the next Sabbath. 43 And after the meeting of the synagogue broke up, many Jews and devout converts to Judaism followed Paul and Barnabas, who, as they spoke with them, urged them to continue in the grace of God. 44 The next Sabbath almost the whole city gathered to hear the word of the Lord. 45 But when the Jews4 saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy and began to contradict what was spoken by Paul, reviling him. 46 And Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly, saying, “It was necessary that the word of God be spoken first to you. Since you thrust it aside and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we are turning to the Gentiles. 47 For so the Lord has commanded us, saying,   “‘I have made you a light for the Gentiles,    that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth.’” 48 And when the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord, and as many as were appointed to eternal life believed. 49 And the word of the Lord was spreading throughout the whole region. 50 But the Jews incited the devout women of high standing and the leading men of the city, stirred up persecution against Paul and Barnabas, and drove them out of their district. 51 But they shook off the dust from their feet against them and went to Iconium. 52 And the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit. Footnotes [1] 13:1 Niger is a Latin word meaning black, or dark [2] 13:18 Some manuscripts he carried (compare Deuteronomy 1:31) [3] 13:39 Greek justified; twice in this verse [4] 13:45 Greek Ioudaioi probably refers here to Jewish religious leaders, and others under their influence, in that time; also verse 50 (ESV)

There is something beyond death. Something more powerful, something more final. Death is not the final word. Death is not the final note. It's not the end of the story. No, Jesus is bigger and more powerful and victorious over death. Death doesn't have the final word Jesus does. Jesus is making all things new, a new creation, he's reworking, remaking all things and all things will be filled by him. He will be all in all. He is the divine Telos.  He is the end point and purpose behind all creation. All that is, and all of this has already been done. It is finished. Jesus has rested from his work. He is resting in his eternal Sabbath, and we are invited to enter into his rest. His place of victory, his place of strength, his place of joy and peace. So Paul tells us very plainly, be strong. Be strong, be immovable. You are with Christ in His finished work you are with the one who is the final word Amen.  

The book of Hebrews is written for people with whom many of us could relate; a people who had lost a measure of their passion for Jesus, who had gotten so wrapped up in other pursuits that they had less and less time for God. They didn't have video games, social media, Netflix, or 24/7 News, but the question has been the same since time began...how will I pursue life? They had tried to find life in so many pursuits other than God but they had become, as one commentator writes, a world-wearied and discontent people. So Paul's trying to encourage them. He's trying to encourage them by regaling them with the blessings of the new way of approaching God through Christ. He's trying to challenge them to persevere with the image of a stadium filled with those who have gone before cheering them on.He is pouring out hope into dry and thirsty hearts with the promise that their story is not finished. That's where we will pause in this episode; Hebrews 11-12. Hebrews 11 is known as the faith hall of fame and Hebrews 12 begins with this timeless challenge, “Therefore since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us…fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author of our faith."Can I tell you what I believe? If Jesus is the author of your story, then hope is the story of your life! 

With Paul Zelizer, founder of the Awarepreneurs Community and Podcast. Paul is one of the first business coaches to focus on the needs of conscious entrepreneurs and social impact businesses. He also works with leaders to help them increase the transformational impact that they have. Paul is the former Director of Social Media for Wisdom 2.0, one of the premier mindfulness brands in the world. In 2017, he founded Awarepreneurs - two of the things the company is known for is our popular podcast and the Awarepreneurs Community, a dynamic group of hundreds social and wellness entrepreneurs who support each other in growing their businesses, increasing their positive impact and practicing self care. In this conversation, we dig into Paul's path, beginning with his introduction to awareness practices, his roots in service and a career oriented to service, and how compassion fatigue and social work led him to becoming an entrepreneur and coach to other socially conscious entrepreneurs. One of the ways Paul supports his clients is help them in creating massive shifts in their thinking around what makes a business successful - it turns out that the data shows that businesses that are socially conscious, values driven businesses, are navigating the current disruption in the marketplace much better, massively better, than "traditional" businesses. So Paul helps his clients embrace this new paradigm in creating their own path to success.

What are you building your life upon. Where and what is solid in your life? Paul tells you what he is building his life upon, and he is admonishing us to do the same. For Paul, he is building his life on the cornerstone, the foundation of Christ Jesus. Jesus is the ground from which we build. Our lives find their complete and truest definition and meaning in Him. And Paul wants us to rest assure that the truest thing about us will find its way though, will ultimately be known. It may be through fire, and that fire is the white hot fire of God's love, burning up from us all that is not of Christ and God's love. It's easy to build on something other than what is true, and it's easy to find ourselves building with things that are not worthy of the foundation, and who we are. Paul wants us to be wise here, not to be deceived. So Paul directs us once again to the truth of our being. "you belong to Christ, that's where you are, thats who you are, build your life there, And Christ belongs to God. That's where he is, in his father's life and embrace, and you are there too. amen.

Free, From the Inside Out Numbers 5 -6,  Psalm 22, and  Acts 26 It seems crazy to everyone but Paul is speaking the sober truth. To most people the idea of a dead man being raised to life seems crazy.  But Paul says: Why does it seem incredible to any of you that God can raise the dead? (Acts 26:8 NLT) To Paul, this is the sober truth.  There is nothing crazy about it.  And when we believe in this sober truth and trust the risen Christ, he sets us free from the inside out. So Paul, the prisoner, stands before this crowd and says, I pray to God that both you and everyone here in this audience might become the same as I am, except for these chains. (Acts 26:29 NLT) He has chains but he is the freest man there. The irony is that at the end of this speech Agrippa and Festus, and the others, walk away and their final comment is that He could have been set free if he hadn’t appealed to Caesar.” (Acts 29:32 NLT) Unfortunately, they weren’t sober minded and couldn’t see that the freest man among them was Paul.  He had been freed of the guilt of his former life, where he had overseen the death of Christians, and had persecuted Christ himself. He had been freed from the self righteousness that blindley led him to that kind of life.  He may have been in chains but Paul was sober and free.  Through the resurrection you have been included in the sober, free life of God.  Live a sober and free life.  Don’t let religion come in and entangle. Don’t let your past come in and chain you up anymore.  Like Paul live in the reality of what is. What is true about all that God has done in Christ, not only for you but for the whole world.  You are sober, you are free.  Live in it!