Podcasts about that david

David is confronted by Roxy's ex.Based on a post by dark overlord 6, in 4 parts. Listen to the ► Podcast at Connected.The following week David was back at the plant, and discovering that his body was slowly acclimating itself to the earlier schedule since at least he hadn't fallen back to sleep in the car on the way. Roxy had them doing a file purge of all the old requisition forms that were more than three years in the past, and he was sitting cross-legged in front of a filing cabinet with piles of paper lying around him when she came to check on his progress."How is it that you guys haven't digitized any of this crap?" he asked, waving at the stacks."I've been bitching about that for years, but the company has other priorities I guess. Thanks for raising the parenting bar for me by the way.""Huh?" David looked up with a clueless face."All week long it's been, 'I want stories about dragons and princes,' every time I want that toot to go to bed! You know how much bullshit I've had to make up, off the top of my head?""Maybe I could write down some stories for you," offered David with a laugh."I should make you do that, but we have bigger fish to fry. Just keep purging, Paper Boy!"She left him to his work, and Thomas was kind enough to bring him another box from the storage closet brimming with old forms."Thanks;" moaned David unhappily."Anytime! I like to see a guy earning his keep. Think of it a ‘job security.'" said Thomas, with a grin that David instantly wanted to smack off his face.An hour later, cramps in both his legs forced him to take a break. Getting up off the floor for the first time all morning. He was making his way to the security door to visit the bathroom when a booming sound, loud enough to make his ears ring, broke the relative silence of the building; and seconds later the walls rattled as if a God-like hand was shaking it."Holy Crap! It's a fucking meltdown," thought David, seeing his whole short life pass before his eyes and wishing instantly that he had enjoyed way more sex than he had. His brain locked and he couldn't remember a single thing from the safety video he had been shown in orientation. So he did the only thing he could think of, and dove under a nearby desk. As he sat there, shaking and contemplating just how painful death by radiation exposure must be, Roxy's head suddenly appeared from above."So it's loud noises; and spiders?" she asked."Didn't you hear that? Why aren't we evacuating?" asked David in a rush."We aren't evacuating because that wasn't the reactors, Bozo. They're purging excess steam off the turbines. Didn't you watch the orientation video?""I might have fallen asleep during it," admitted David sheepishly."Oh, for Heaven's sake; Just get out from under there before someone sees you cowering like a whipped dog. You keep this up, and they're going to quit calling you 'Spider-Man,' and start calling you, 'Duck and Cover,'""They call me Spider-Man?" ask David to Roxy's back."Don't worry. I wouldn't let them stencil it on your hard hat," she said over her shoulder.David felt a hand on his arm, and he turned to look at Thomas."Hey! 'Duck and Cover,' want me to bring you another box?""This day just keeps getting better;" muttered David as he shrugged off the hand and went in search of the restroom.Thankfully, the afternoon that followed was free of embarrassing moments, and the approach of the final whistle was a welcome relief. David had placed the last of the file boxes back in the closet, the contents much reduced in size from when he had started, when Roxy came walking up, looking slightly uncomfortable."David; I was wondering if I could ask you another favor?""Uh; Yeah, sure.""Feel free to say 'No,' it isn't a big deal," Roxy started to say, making David wonder what was going on since he had never seen Roxy Doyle beat around the bush ever."Okay," he said, looking suspicious at what was coming next."See; The thing is, Emily has called me three times today because she is doing this play at day camp, and; uh; she keeps asking if you'll come.""Oh," said David in surprise, not expecting this at all."As I said, don't feel obligated or anything I just had to ask;" Roxy said, expecting him to decline."No; I mean, it's fine I'd love to go." David said with casual resolve."Are you sure? We aren't talking a Broadway musical here.""I get it. It's fine. I wouldn't want to let Emily down.""You wouldn't be the first;" she said under her breath."Excuse me?" He inquired."Never mind. It's at 6:30; I'll text you the address."Emily's day camp was actually in an old Methodist church near the apartment complex where she and Roxy resided. David arrived a bit late, having gotten caught in traffic, but he found that Roxy had saved him a seat right alongside a rather rotund, older, gray-haired woman who turned out to be Emily's regular babysitter, Mrs. Foster."Emily speaks very highly of you," whispered Mrs. Foster as she shook his hand."Thanks," David replied taking a seat.The skit was short and sweet, based on a parable that David remembered well from school about a lion with a thorn in its paw. Emily played the part of the girl that removed the thorn and did it with quite a bit of talent as far as David was concerned. He clapped along with the other parents while the kids took their bows like real professionals.Afterward, the adults filed outside to await the release of their children."I think you have a future Academy Award winner on your hands," said David."I should be so lucky. If she makes it big, maybe she will buy me a house, and I can retire," said Roxy.The smile that adorned her face fell a second later, though; when something over David's shoulder drew her gaze."Shit;" she grumbled, moving to the parking lot."What?" asked David, but she was already passed him with a head of steam up."Todd," said Mrs. Foster from where she stood nearby."Her ex-husband? Todd?""The same. Roxy told him about this, and he said he would come, but he is late as usual. At least he showed up at all."David took a few steps closer, not wanting to look like he was trying to eavesdrop, but dying of curiosity at the same time. He got close enough he could make out their conversation."I said 6:30, Todd. Did they not have a clock in the bar?""Hey! I just got stuck at work, that's all. Totally not my fault.""Bullshit! I can smell the beer on you from here.""Okay, so I stopped for one lousy beer to take the edge off a long day. It's not the end of the world, so don't make a Federal case out of it.""One beer, Todd! I think it was a lot more than one, and anyway, you missed the whole damn thing.""What? Huh? I guess it took longer than I thought, but at most, it was two beers okay? Where is Emily? I want to see her.""Not when you've been drinking. I've told you that before!""Give me a break! You don't have to be a bitch every day of your life, you know!"David felt a bolt of anger shoot through him, and before he even realized he was going to do it, he was by Roxy's side facing her ex-husband. Todd was shorter than him by a good four inches, but broader across the chest with tattoos adorning both arms and reeking of cheap malt liquor."Is there a problem?" he asked, glaring at the shorter man."It's fine, David," said Roxy in a tight voice."Who the Hell is this, Roxy?""This is David. We work together."Todd looked him up and down then turned his head to spit a gob of phlegm onto the pavement, "Jesus, Roxy, you dating grade school kids now?"David started to snap a comeback, but Roxy beat him to it."Let me tell you something! This kid is already more of a man than you'll ever be, Todd. At least he was here for your daughter, which is more than I can say for you!""Whatever; Take some advice, Kid. Enjoy the tits and then run. She'll make your life Hell if you stick around too long."It ended up being David that had to hold Roxy back as she tried to kick Todd who beat a hasty retreat, jumping on his motorcycle and roaring off in a cloud of exhaust."Easy there, Tyson. I think your opponent has left the ring," said David as he let her go."Mother Fucker!"She turned a complete circle in place, finally shaking her shoulders and groaning in defeat."Man! I don't know what I ever saw in that prick!""Couldn't have been his winning personality," deadpanned David.Roxy looked at him, still huffing and puffing in anger, then let out a laugh shaking her head."Come on! Let's get some ice cream! I need a sugar fix!"It had been a while since the last time David had been in a booth at Farley's Ice Cream Parlor, and this was nothing like the crowd he usually had with him. On one side of the table sat a seven-year-old girl with more ice cream on her face than in her mouth, while next to her was a large older woman making a massacre of her dessert. Next to him, Roxy was pressed almost uncomfortably close in the tiny booth, close enough he could feel the heat coming off her skin, and it made him more than a little nervous."Something wrong with your ice cream?" asked Roxy noticing that David had only taken a few bites."It's good. I'm just watching my weight. Got to protect this girlish figure," he said which sent Emily into a fit of giggles.Mrs. Foster and Roxy joined in, and soon, the whole table was filled with the sounds of their mirth.David looked around the restaurant, happy that it appeared they had arrived on a night when Heather wasn't working. He wasn't ready to deal with seeing her again at this point. The mall was reasonably quiet for a weeknight. They had the ice cream parlor mostly to themselves, although the food court across from them seemed to still be doing a brisk business. There were quite a few teenagers and college-age kids roaming around the multiple available food options; either standing around talking or sitting at the many open tables, sharing French fries and gossip in equal measure. As David looked on, the crowd parted near the sandwich shop, and his spoon stopped in mid-air."What's wrong," asked Roxy, "you having a brain-freeze?""Heather;" was all he said.The gap in the crowd had revealed a table where it seemed as if every friend David had, was sitting around. Right in the middle of the group sat Heather with Alex by her side, his arm draped around her shoulders."So that's the infamous Heather. I thought she'd be taller," commented Roxy."Whose Heather?" asked Mrs. Foster."His old girlfriend," said Roxy."Why, she's a lovely girl." Was Mrs. Foster's first impression."She cheated on him with another guy.""Dirty hussy;" amended Mrs. Foster."You should go say hello," counseled Roxy between bites of her desert."You're nuts! I don't want to talk to her." David protested."Come on, David. Be the bigger person. You guys were together for three years. Don't you at least want to see if she's pining for you?""How will I be able to tell?""You'll know. Just watch her eyes.""I don't know;" said David waffling, but Roxy elbowed him in the side, forcing him out of the booth."Fine; Fine," he said, fidgeting his hands together and trying to still his racing heart."If this goes badly, I'm blaming you," said David as he moved off toward the food court.The closer he got to his group of friends, the more he thought this had been a horrible idea. But once they spotted him, there was no turning back."Hey Guys!" he said, stepping into their midst.

David is confronted by Roxy's ex.Based on a post by dark overlord 6, in 4 parts. Listen to the ► Podcast at Connected.The following week David was back at the plant, and discovering that his body was slowly acclimating itself to the earlier schedule since at least he hadn't fallen back to sleep in the car on the way. Roxy had them doing a file purge of all the old requisition forms that were more than three years in the past, and he was sitting cross-legged in front of a filing cabinet with piles of paper lying around him when she came to check on his progress."How is it that you guys haven't digitized any of this crap?" he asked, waving at the stacks."I've been bitching about that for years, but the company has other priorities I guess. Thanks for raising the parenting bar for me by the way.""Huh?" David looked up with a clueless face."All week long it's been, 'I want stories about dragons and princes,' every time I want that toot to go to bed! You know how much bullshit I've had to make up, off the top of my head?""Maybe I could write down some stories for you," offered David with a laugh."I should make you do that, but we have bigger fish to fry. Just keep purging, Paper Boy!"She left him to his work, and Thomas was kind enough to bring him another box from the storage closet brimming with old forms."Thanks;" moaned David unhappily."Anytime! I like to see a guy earning his keep. Think of it a ‘job security.'" said Thomas, with a grin that David instantly wanted to smack off his face.An hour later, cramps in both his legs forced him to take a break. Getting up off the floor for the first time all morning. He was making his way to the security door to visit the bathroom when a booming sound, loud enough to make his ears ring, broke the relative silence of the building; and seconds later the walls rattled as if a God-like hand was shaking it."Holy Crap! It's a fucking meltdown," thought David, seeing his whole short life pass before his eyes and wishing instantly that he had enjoyed way more sex than he had. His brain locked and he couldn't remember a single thing from the safety video he had been shown in orientation. So he did the only thing he could think of, and dove under a nearby desk. As he sat there, shaking and contemplating just how painful death by radiation exposure must be, Roxy's head suddenly appeared from above."So it's loud noises; and spiders?" she asked."Didn't you hear that? Why aren't we evacuating?" asked David in a rush."We aren't evacuating because that wasn't the reactors, Bozo. They're purging excess steam off the turbines. Didn't you watch the orientation video?""I might have fallen asleep during it," admitted David sheepishly."Oh, for Heaven's sake; Just get out from under there before someone sees you cowering like a whipped dog. You keep this up, and they're going to quit calling you 'Spider-Man,' and start calling you, 'Duck and Cover,'""They call me Spider-Man?" ask David to Roxy's back."Don't worry. I wouldn't let them stencil it on your hard hat," she said over her shoulder.David felt a hand on his arm, and he turned to look at Thomas."Hey! 'Duck and Cover,' want me to bring you another box?""This day just keeps getting better;" muttered David as he shrugged off the hand and went in search of the restroom.Thankfully, the afternoon that followed was free of embarrassing moments, and the approach of the final whistle was a welcome relief. David had placed the last of the file boxes back in the closet, the contents much reduced in size from when he had started, when Roxy came walking up, looking slightly uncomfortable."David; I was wondering if I could ask you another favor?""Uh; Yeah, sure.""Feel free to say 'No,' it isn't a big deal," Roxy started to say, making David wonder what was going on since he had never seen Roxy Doyle beat around the bush ever."Okay," he said, looking suspicious at what was coming next."See; The thing is, Emily has called me three times today because she is doing this play at day camp, and; uh; she keeps asking if you'll come.""Oh," said David in surprise, not expecting this at all."As I said, don't feel obligated or anything I just had to ask;" Roxy said, expecting him to decline."No; I mean, it's fine I'd love to go." David said with casual resolve."Are you sure? We aren't talking a Broadway musical here.""I get it. It's fine. I wouldn't want to let Emily down.""You wouldn't be the first;" she said under her breath."Excuse me?" He inquired."Never mind. It's at 6:30; I'll text you the address."Emily's day camp was actually in an old Methodist church near the apartment complex where she and Roxy resided. David arrived a bit late, having gotten caught in traffic, but he found that Roxy had saved him a seat right alongside a rather rotund, older, gray-haired woman who turned out to be Emily's regular babysitter, Mrs. Foster."Emily speaks very highly of you," whispered Mrs. Foster as she shook his hand."Thanks," David replied taking a seat.The skit was short and sweet, based on a parable that David remembered well from school about a lion with a thorn in its paw. Emily played the part of the girl that removed the thorn and did it with quite a bit of talent as far as David was concerned. He clapped along with the other parents while the kids took their bows like real professionals.Afterward, the adults filed outside to await the release of their children."I think you have a future Academy Award winner on your hands," said David."I should be so lucky. If she makes it big, maybe she will buy me a house, and I can retire," said Roxy.The smile that adorned her face fell a second later, though; when something over David's shoulder drew her gaze."Shit;" she grumbled, moving to the parking lot."What?" asked David, but she was already passed him with a head of steam up."Todd," said Mrs. Foster from where she stood nearby."Her ex-husband? Todd?""The same. Roxy told him about this, and he said he would come, but he is late as usual. At least he showed up at all."David took a few steps closer, not wanting to look like he was trying to eavesdrop, but dying of curiosity at the same time. He got close enough he could make out their conversation."I said 6:30, Todd. Did they not have a clock in the bar?""Hey! I just got stuck at work, that's all. Totally not my fault.""Bullshit! I can smell the beer on you from here.""Okay, so I stopped for one lousy beer to take the edge off a long day. It's not the end of the world, so don't make a Federal case out of it.""One beer, Todd! I think it was a lot more than one, and anyway, you missed the whole damn thing.""What? Huh? I guess it took longer than I thought, but at most, it was two beers okay? Where is Emily? I want to see her.""Not when you've been drinking. I've told you that before!""Give me a break! You don't have to be a bitch every day of your life, you know!"David felt a bolt of anger shoot through him, and before he even realized he was going to do it, he was by Roxy's side facing her ex-husband. Todd was shorter than him by a good four inches, but broader across the chest with tattoos adorning both arms and reeking of cheap malt liquor."Is there a problem?" he asked, glaring at the shorter man."It's fine, David," said Roxy in a tight voice."Who the Hell is this, Roxy?""This is David. We work together."Todd looked him up and down then turned his head to spit a gob of phlegm onto the pavement, "Jesus, Roxy, you dating grade school kids now?"David started to snap a comeback, but Roxy beat him to it."Let me tell you something! This kid is already more of a man than you'll ever be, Todd. At least he was here for your daughter, which is more than I can say for you!""Whatever; Take some advice, Kid. Enjoy the tits and then run. She'll make your life Hell if you stick around too long."It ended up being David that had to hold Roxy back as she tried to kick Todd who beat a hasty retreat, jumping on his motorcycle and roaring off in a cloud of exhaust."Easy there, Tyson. I think your opponent has left the ring," said David as he let her go."Mother Fucker!"She turned a complete circle in place, finally shaking her shoulders and groaning in defeat."Man! I don't know what I ever saw in that prick!""Couldn't have been his winning personality," deadpanned David.Roxy looked at him, still huffing and puffing in anger, then let out a laugh shaking her head."Come on! Let's get some ice cream! I need a sugar fix!"It had been a while since the last time David had been in a booth at Farley's Ice Cream Parlor, and this was nothing like the crowd he usually had with him. On one side of the table sat a seven-year-old girl with more ice cream on her face than in her mouth, while next to her was a large older woman making a massacre of her dessert. Next to him, Roxy was pressed almost uncomfortably close in the tiny booth, close enough he could feel the heat coming off her skin, and it made him more than a little nervous."Something wrong with your ice cream?" asked Roxy noticing that David had only taken a few bites."It's good. I'm just watching my weight. Got to protect this girlish figure," he said which sent Emily into a fit of giggles.Mrs. Foster and Roxy joined in, and soon, the whole table was filled with the sounds of their mirth.David looked around the restaurant, happy that it appeared they had arrived on a night when Heather wasn't working. He wasn't ready to deal with seeing her again at this point. The mall was reasonably quiet for a weeknight. They had the ice cream parlor mostly to themselves, although the food court across from them seemed to still be doing a brisk business. There were quite a few teenagers and college-age kids roaming around the multiple available food options; either standing around talking or sitting at the many open tables, sharing French fries and gossip in equal measure. As David looked on, the crowd parted near the sandwich shop, and his spoon stopped in mid-air."What's wrong," asked Roxy, "you having a brain-freeze?""Heather;" was all he said.The gap in the crowd had revealed a table where it seemed as if every friend David had, was sitting around. Right in the middle of the group sat Heather with Alex by her side, his arm draped around her shoulders."So that's the infamous Heather. I thought she'd be taller," commented Roxy."Whose Heather?" asked Mrs. Foster."His old girlfriend," said Roxy."Why, she's a lovely girl." Was Mrs. Foster's first impression."She cheated on him with another guy.""Dirty hussy;" amended Mrs. Foster."You should go say hello," counseled Roxy between bites of her desert."You're nuts! I don't want to talk to her." David protested."Come on, David. Be the bigger person. You guys were together for three years. Don't you at least want to see if she's pining for you?""How will I be able to tell?""You'll know. Just watch her eyes.""I don't know;" said David waffling, but Roxy elbowed him in the side, forcing him out of the booth."Fine; Fine," he said, fidgeting his hands together and trying to still his racing heart."If this goes badly, I'm blaming you," said David as he moved off toward the food court.The closer he got to his group of friends, the more he thought this had been a horrible idea. But once they spotted him, there was no turning back."Hey Guys!" he said, stepping into their midst.

In this hodgepodge of truth bombs, David and Isabelle cover a bit about how menopause and hormonal changes make it less rewarding to help others, how to assume your partner is doing more than you and turn tedious tasks into bigger wins, and how much we still need positive reinforcement as adults. That David and Isabelle explore the truth that in every silverware drawer there is a good spoon and a bad fork...and the return of David's beloved industrial-pack of fruit leather for a true ice cream win.—-We talk all about how kids need routine and structure and compassion and positive reinforcement, but you're going about your life as a parent or adult, and you may want to yell “I need an adult!” And there is no one. David then names that parents beat themselves up because we didn't do the taxes or whatever—but you just needed help. How much you need to do in a day, it is an impossible task. People that get everything done in a day are not happy. Isabelle shares that it helps her to stay busy when she's taking care of everything all the time instead of staying present when she's understimulated by playing with kids in activities she's not super jazzed about (despite her kids being incredible!) What does it mean to chronically take care of everyone's needs…and then menopause hits and suddenly, after perhaps toxically trying to take care of everyone all the time and making that where you get your sense of value from, you have to reset? This brings up all the hormonal shifts women experience throughout life—puberty, menstrual cycles, trying to conceive, pregancies, perimenopause and menopause (technically perimenopause lasts on average 3-5 years and menopause lasts on average 7-14 years, so I guess it's a 10-20 year span depending). David names that dopamine bonds to estrogen, you will naturally feel good taking care of people, and then all of a sudden it cuts off, it's gone—so doing the things you used to no longer provides any enjoyment and what do you do now? Acknowledging that no one talks about it and partners are left flummoxed. Isabelle is standing on her little rebounder/trampoline and almost fell off because it was hitting her that this makes so much sense but also, WTF?!  Why isn't this a part of our larger conversation? Because everywhere in medicine, we are following a history and setup that is designed to care for cis, White men and we're missing so many people and leaving people feeling like they're doing something wrong. In his day to day, David tries to be extra careful about what he makes other people responsible for, and actively attempts to take things off of someone else's plate. Because he can see this affecting everyone in his life—checking his male privilege. But beyond this, it's also that he assumes his partner is doing more than him at all times—whether this is true or not. It changes the establishing operation and puts new value onto the little things. It means because we take the hit we will do it for our team or our group member. It makes tedious tasks into being more important. As a parent you are also busy parenting yourself, you have to see yourself through things as an adult, and you practice doing it for yourself. For neurodivergent folx, we can struggle with identifying with the internal states we have or our emotions or expressing the emotion. Isabelle finds it is easier to externalize her feelings, like visualizing a little you needing things and speaking to that little you makes it easier for her to figure out what she's actually feeling and needing. Also comes from not having a bunch of fellow neurodivergent people around you sometimes, if there is no person around you to validate you, your experience gets missed--you need to get that mirrored back. It's like being a room of neurodivergent people and suddenly feeling that someone else gets how in every drawer there is a "good spoon" and a "bad fork." Isabelle deeply concurs. There are bad forks! There are good spoons!  there's a good spoon in every drawer—which leads Isabelle down the road of ice cream spades and sample spoons (go Jeni's) — and what about ice cream scoops? David thinks we should be able to slice out our ice cream with dental floss or peel away the outside of the carton, or even have a timer system and go to town. Isabelle remembers how her friends that worked at ice cream shops would grow massive Popeye arms (just on the side they were scooping with). Her kid also showed her how to use the ice cream scoop, she's hacking away at the ice cream scoop, it's not dissimilar to how to watch kids pick things up—full squat to pick things up. Because of heaviness and just nature, kid let the weight of the scoop do the work and then twisted it. She has not been able to be replicate it, and it is maybe part her and part scoop that leads to this problem she has with the scoops. David believes it is still an engineering flaw. David then shares his recent ice cream invention, using his giant packs of fruit leather. Cut out like wide pizza slices of fruit leather, fill with a spoonful of ice cream, then wrap fruit leather around the ice cream. You gotta work fast because it freezes instantly...but then you can handhold your ice cream. We will totally collaborate with a listener who wants to partner with us on creating the perfect ice cream scoop. This also brings up how for David, the key to being able to wait for his fruit leather was totally forgetting about it. The best hack for delaying gratification? Forgetting you're waiting. Forgetting is way easier than remembering, actually--you skip the extra steps and accommodations you use to remember (like marking your calendar, flagging the email, writingi it down)...and voila! Distract yourself! Teflon mind (minus the hazardous chemicals).Rocky Road to Perimenopause (Harvard Health) Menopausal transition (NIH Institute on Aging)Dopamine loss with estrogen loss (as in menopause)Dopamine's relationship to serotonin, dopamine, and glutamate Jeni's is an OHIO thing The spoons mentioned are the Jeni's tasting spoons and ice cream spades; if you go to your local Jeni's or order from your specific closer shop, you can find them; they won't appear on the main Jeni's merch site. -----Cover Art by: Sol VázquezTechnical Support by: Bobby RichardsSpecial Thanks to Jeni's. For our ice cream tasting spoons, spades, and flavors. Isabelle recalls the glory of your ol' sundaes...with that dark chocolate and amarena cherries and candied pecans and buttery fresh whipped cream...(sigh). 

Scripture Reading: Acts 2:14-47 14 But Peter stood up with the eleven, raised his voice, and addressed them: “You men of Judea and all you who live in Jerusalem, know this and listen carefully to what I say. 15 In spite of what you think, these men are not drunk, for it is only nine o'clock in the morning. 16 But this is what was spoken about through the prophet Joel:17 ‘And in the last days it will be,' God says,‘that I will pour out my Spirit on all people,and your sons and your daughters will prophesy,and your young men will see visions,and your old men will dream dreams.18 Even on my servants, both men and women,I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy.19 And I will perform wonders in the sky aboveand miraculous signs on the earth below,blood and fire and clouds of smoke.20 The sun will be changed to darknessand the moon to bloodbefore the great and glorious day of the Lord comes.21 And then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.'22 “Men of Israel, listen to these words: Jesus the Nazarene, a man clearly attested to you by God with powerful deeds, wonders, and miraculous signs that God performed among you through him, just as you yourselves know— 23 this man, who was handed over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you executed by nailing him to a cross at the hands of Gentiles. 24 But God raised him up, having released him from the pains of death because it was not possible for him to be held in its power. 25 For David says about him,‘I saw the Lord always in front of me,for he is at my right hand so that I will not be shaken.26 Therefore my heart was glad and my tongue rejoiced;my body also will live in hope,27 because you will not leave my soul in Hades,nor permit your Holy One to experience decay.28 You have made known to me the paths of life;you will make me full of joy with your presence.'29 “Brothers, I can speak confidently to you about our forefather David, that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. 30 So then, because he was a prophet and knew that God had sworn to him with an oath to seat one of his descendants on his throne, 31 David by foreseeing this spoke about the resurrection of the Christ, that he was neither abandoned to Hades, nor did his body experience decay. 32 This Jesus God raised up, and we are all witnesses of it. 33 So then, exalted to the right hand of God, and having received the promise of the Holy Spirit from the Father, he has poured out what you both see and hear. 34 For David did not ascend into heaven, but he himself says,‘The Lord said to my lord,“Sit at my right hand35 until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.”'36 Therefore let all the house of Israel know beyond a doubt that God has made this Jesus whom you crucified both Lord and Christ.”37 Now when they heard this, they were acutely distressed and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “What should we do, brothers?” 38 Peter said to them, “Repent, and each one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39 For the promise is for you and your children, and for all who are far away, as many as the Lord our God will call to himself.” 40 With many other words he testified and exhorted them saying, “Save yourselves from this perverse generation!” 41 So those who accepted his message were baptized, and that day about 3,000 people were added.42 They were devoting themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. 43 Reverential awe came over everyone, and many wonders and miraculous signs came about by the apostles. 44 All who believed were together and held everything in common, 45 and they began selling their property and possessions and distributing the proceeds to everyone, as anyone had need. 46 Every day they continued to gather together by common consent in the temple courts, breaking bread from house to house, sharing their food with glad and humble hearts, 47 praising God and having the good will of all the people. And the Lord was adding to their number every day those who were being saved.Main ThemesSettingAramaic or Greek It is unlikely that Peter originally preached the sermon in Aramaic. Some of Peter's hearers (like the Mesopotamians) would have known Aramaic, but many would not have been able to understand it. So, Peter probably preached in Greek. The Septuagint quotes support this inference. Public SpeakingMuch like today, in ancient times one would rise to speak. This was helpful visually and acoustically. The text tells us that Peter “raised his voice,” a frequent idiom in the Septuagint, making Peter seem like an Old Testament prophet. The phrase also appears in Greek writings with a literal meaning. One would expect Peter to project his voice loudly to address more than three thousand people. There is no reason to doubt that someone could address thousands of people without a modern sound system. For example, the famous preacher Charles Spurgeon (1834 - 1892) once preached to over 23,000 without amplification. George Whitefield (1714-1770), another well-known pastor, had similar fame for preaching to thousands at certain events. Curiously enough, Benjamin Franklin was skeptical of these reports. Nevertheless, Franklin investigated and determined that as many as thirty thousand people could hear Whitefield at a time. However, raising one's voice will not reach many people if there is much noise. The scene implies that the crowd went silent. This makes sense after the miracle of Pentecost, which puzzled those present.The SpeechI. IntroductionDeflectingRemember where we left off last week. Jesus' followers are preaching the good news in the different languages of people from all over the known world. The crowd, amazed and confused at the ability of these Galileans (i.e., country bumpkins, explains the phenomenon by accusing the disciples of being drunk. Our reading today starts with Peter's deflection. You men of Judea and all you who live in Jerusalem, know this and listen carefully to what I say. In spite of what you think, these men are not drunk, for it is only nine o'clock in the morning. Acts 2:14b-15This is a witty aside to the audience. Imagine Peter delivering the line with a bit of irony. These interactions between speakers and their audience, sometimes making points at each others' expense, was common in antiquity. However, notice that Peter deflects the mockery with a potentially humorous response that does not shame the hecklers. Peter seems determined to win over the entire audience—not to antagonize them.9 A.M.Peter remarks that men are not drunk in the third hour, which our translation appropriately calls nine in the morning. Just like today, drunkenness was a night activity. The few people who were said to start drinking in the morning and continue through the day were considered exceptional and viewed quite negatively. The mention of the third hours gives some more insight into the scene. At that time of day, the temple courts would have been very busy. This partly explains and grants credibility to the account of a large crowd. The AddressPeter addresses the men, but such a manner of speaking would not have excluded the women—it merely presupposes an androcentric society. Peter invites the audience to hear him carefully because “know this,” or as other translations may put it, “let it be known.” This was daring speech, often used in Jewish and Greek rhetoric. In the Old Testament, this phrase was often used to confront Israel.II. The Argument Quoting Joel, KindaPreview: Peter explains that the power to speak in other tongues was the outward sign of the fulfilment of Joel's prophecy that God would pour out his Holy Spirit on all his people. In Joel this promise was associated with the Day of the Lord; Peter asserts that this event has now occurred in history. It results from the fact that God had exalted the crucified Jesus, had enthroned him at his right hand, thus inaugurating his messianic reign; and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon his people was nothing less than the blessing of the messianic age.Peter begins his main argument by quoting Joel 2:28-32. But, something we often miss is that Peter does not provide an exact quotation. He adds or modifies Joel's text at different points to bring out its implications. This is neither deception nor error. Imagine if I was sharing the gospel with someone, and I quoted John 3:16 as follows: For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, Jesus, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.The word “Jesus” is not in the original verse. It is my attempt to quickly explain the text. Peter is doing something similar. Moreover, this was a common rhetorical device used by Torah teachers at the time. These teacher peppered their expositions with numerous biblical allusions while making deliberate changes.So, what did Peter modify? The two most relevant changes are: (1) Peter changes “after these things” to “in the last days, says God.” Thus, Peter reinforces the eschatological nature of the gift of the Spirit. Obviously, Peter's argument is that the disciples' inspired praise in other languages represents the gift of the Spirit, also showing that the “last days” have come.(2) Peter omits “because in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem will be survivors (those saved), just as the Lord said.” His omission of the specifically Israel-centered part of the quotation seems significant to universalize the promise of the Spirit to all peoples. This reinforces the universality of the text quoted. The quotation speaks of men and women, young and old, seeing visions and prophesying—that is, the promise of the Spirit is for everyone. Last Days I have discussed the realized eschatology of Acts quite extensively, so I will make the current discussion of the last days brief. The phrase “in the last days” and other similar expressions, such as “last times” are found all over the Old Testament. Generally, they relate to the period of Israel's restoration. However, if we pay more attention, we find that the phrase has at least two meanings. On one hand, it has that meaning of restoration (Isa 2:2; Hos 3:5; Mic 4:1; Dan 2:28).Here is the message about Judah and Jerusalem that was revealed to Isaiah son of Amoz. In future days the mountain of the Lord's temple will endure as the most important of mountains and will be the most prominent of hills. All the nations will stream to it . . . . Isaiah 2:1-2On the other hand, this eschatological title also applied to a period of great suffering just before that restoration (Jer 23:20; 30:24; Ezek 38:16; Dan 10:14). But just watch! The wrath of the Lord will come like a storm! Like a raging storm it will rage down on the heads of those who are wicked. The anger of the Lord will not turn back until he has fully carried out his intended purposes. In future days you people will come to understand this clearly. Jeremiah 23:19-20“Therefore, prophesy, son of man, and say to Gog: ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: On that day when my people Israel are living securely, you will take notice and come from your place, from the remote parts of the north, you and many peoples with you, all of them riding on horses, a great company and a vast army. You will advance against my people Israel like a cloud covering the earth. In future days I will bring you against my land so that the nations may acknowledge me, when before their eyes I magnify myself through you, O Gog. Ezekiel 38:14-16The New Testament continues this dual description, speaking of an advancing kingdom with eventual glory but also a period of great suffering and apostasy. We find this “already/not yet” tension in the writings of Paul and in the words of Jesus.Peter's “last days” fits the expectation that the disciples had entered an interim era between the first and the second comings of the Messiah, called to testify to the nations by the eschatological gift of the Spirit. The very affirmation that the Christ had come constituted the basis for a realized eschatology alongside a future one. All Flesh (“On All People”)In Acts 2:17, the phrase translated as “on all people” would more literally translate to “all flesh.” The translation, however, accurately captures the intended meaning of the phrase—particularly how Peter intends it. Clearly Acts teaches that Joel's prophecy of the Spirit is not only for the apostles, but for all of Christ's followers. Luke undoubtedly interprets “all flesh” as referring not simply to the men and women, young and old, and servants stated in Joel 2:28-29 but to people from all nations. Calling on the Lord's NameThe Joel quotation ends with everyone “calling on the name of the Lord.” The expression “call on the Lord's name” was familiar in Jewish texts, generally referring to praying to him or praising him. The term carried additional punch at the time, since it is also the expression that would have been used to make a formal appeal to Caesar.Peter will expand on this phrase, making clear that this Lord upon which people must call is Jesus, they must do so particularly during baptism. In Greek, the term for Lord was kurios or (kyrios). In the Old Testament, this title generally referred to God. It is partly because the word kurios is not specific that the early church is able to apply it to Jesus and also make an equivalence with God Almighty. Notice how early this high christological understanding appears in the narrative. Jesus is not understood as God progressively throughout the history of the early church. For Luke, God the Father is “Lord” (Acts 2:20, 39; 3:19-20, 22; 4:25-26, 29), but Christ also receives this title by exaltation (1:21; 2:36; 4: 33; 5:14; 9:1); Jesus receives faith (Acts 3:16) and prayer (7:59) and is the world's judge (10:42; 17:31). Contrary to what some scholars would expect, most of the uses of “Lord” for Jesus in Acts appear in the first half of the book and hence are attributed to the Jerusalem church. In fact, this view of Jesus as God is found early in the gospels. For example, we encounter it in the story of John the Baptist declaring that Jesus would baptize with the Spirit—clearly a role of God and God alone. We may still wonder how Peter came to this high christology when he does not seem to “get it” in the gospels. Luke probably expects his audience to infer Peter's further learning during the forty days of resurrection appearances in Acts 1:3. Jesus and His Powerful Signs and WondersIn verse 22, Peter again invites the audience to listen—to pay attention. In typical rhetorical style, this frames the exhortation to come.Peter opens this new section of the speech with a mention of Jesus and then with a sort of proof—the signs and wonders. We must remember that in the gospels, signs are central to demonstrating Jesus' identity and his relationship with the father. Notice also that Peter is connecting the signs and miracles attested in the gospels to those prophesied in Joel (verse 19), bolstering the point that the end times have come.The pairing of signs and wonders appears elsewhere in the New Testament, probably always evoking the Old Testament story of Moses. (This pairing appears elsewhere in the Old Testament, but the most recognizable and iconic story would be that of Moses.) The narrative of Moses is found in Exodus, but below I quote the summary provided in Deuteronomy.No prophet ever again arose in Israel like Moses, who knew the Lord face to face. He did all the signs and wonders the Lord had sent him to do in the land of Egypt, to Pharaoh, all his servants, and the whole land, and he displayed great power and awesome might in view of all Israel. Deuteronomy 34:10-11Notice that one would not expect Diaspora Jewish visitors to be as familiar with Jesus's signs as Galileans or some Jerusalemites, but Luke seems to imply that the word had spread far and wide. Jesus' Death and God's PlanPeter clarifies that Jesus did not die by surprise. This is a point we discussed extensively during out study of John, so I will keep it brief. Particularly in verse 23, Peter highlights the fulfillment-of-prophecy theme and summarizes the Gospel's plot as a part of God's larger plan in salvation history. God's sovereignty stands even behind the very political powers and treacherous actions that brought about Jesus's death. Luke is sometimes accused of minimizing the cross and focusing almost exclusively on the resurrection. This misunderstands Luke. Notice that Peter's speech begins with cross—it was a key part of God's salvific plan. There is simply no need to explain the cross. His audience was well aware of the brutal, shameful execution by Roman crucifixion. Moreover, the resurrection is what proves the significance of the cross, so highlighting the resurrection makes sense in a context of speeches and arguments. Peter charges the “men of Israel” with Jesus's death. Presumably, he does so because of the participation of the crowds and the leaders. Sometimes, Christians and non-Christians alike accuse Luke (and Peter and John) of antisemitism. Forgive my strong language, but such a charge is ridiculous. First, Biblical prophets often denounced Israel as a whole. And Jewish people understood well the notion of corporate responsibility and its demands for atonement or restitution. Second, speaking in collective terms, particularly in relation to nations, does not imply an inherently negative view of individual people. For example, in modern day we speak of Russia invading Ukraine. Or more poignantly, we may say “Russians” invaded Ukraine. This by no means entails that individual Russians are somehow predisposed (e.g., genetically) to be invaders. Notice that Peter gives the “men of Israel” no breaks. Not only does he fault them directly for the death of Jesus but claims that they have killed Jesus by the hands of the Gentiles—literally “lawless men.” The lawless were Romans and other Gentiles who did not acknowledge God's law. In other words, Peter is accusing audience, which presumably prided itself of its obedience to the Torah, of getting in bed with those who rejected the Torah. Peter held no punches, using deeply offensive rhetoric. (Peter's use of the phrase “by the hand” of another to commit the crime is also reminiscent of Old Testament passages were someone sought to kill another but avoid personal guilt.) In this Bible study, I try not to make overly broad prescriptive conclusions from the text, so I will not claim that we ought to take homiletic lessons from Peter's speech. But I think we can safely say that one is not necessarily wrong to be offensive for the sake of the gospel. Released from Death and Psalm 16Summary. In Acts 2:25-36, Peter makes an argument from Scripture that the risen one is the Lord (2: 25– 31, 34– 35), an argument from the testimony of eyewitnesses and the Spirit's present confirmation that Jesus has risen (2: 32– 33), with the resulting conclusion that Jesus is the Lord (2: 36). Although Jesus's death is pivotal, Peter's speech focuses on the resurrection. Resurrection is a theme in the speeches in Acts, even more so than in the gospels. Peter begins this new section of his speech pointing out that Jesus was delivered from the pains or “pangs” of death. (The term translated pains is frequently used to describe pains associated with giving birth, which is why the translation “pangs” is appropriate.) Deliverance from the “pangs of death” alludes to Psalm 16, “inviting” it as part of the argument. Peter will then explain psalm 16 by connecting it to anoher—Psalm 110. (Peter does this using gezerah shevah on the premise that similar language among the psalms might convey related ideas or at least evoke related feelings.) The quoted section of Psalm 16 is:‘I saw the Lord always in front of me,for he is at my right hand so that I will not be shaken.Therefore my heart was glad and my tongue rejoiced;my body also will live in hope,because you will not leave my soul in Hades,nor permit your Holy One to experience decay.You have made known to me the paths of life;you will make me full of joy with your presence.'The way that New Testament writers understood the original meaning of certain Old Testament passages can be perplexing. For example, one is not certain whether Peter believed that the psalm referred simply to David's restoration of health but its basic principle could be subject to a greater fulfillment, or if Peter believed that the psalm was always about the resurrection of the Messiah, which encouraged David that death would not separate him from God. One may argue that the first interpretation (that the psalm refers to David's restoration of health) is the obvious, plain reading of the text. However, not only Peter and the early church, but later rabbis interpreted the passage eschatologically.One scholar argues that even though the psalmist had no prediction of a messiah's resurrection in mind, the New Testament teaching of the resurrection from the dead and the thoughts which here occupy the mind of the psalmist are based on the same fundamental conviction, namely, an unshakable belief in the life-giving power of God.Lord at the Right HandLuke and other New Testament authors affirm that Christ is at the Father's right hand. The idea was pervasive in early Christianity, making it into the Apostle's Creed. Presumably, the idea is based on Psalms 16 and 110. The language of the right hand is often used metaphorically. Most ancients associated the left hand with dishonor (although being at a king's left hand was still a position of honor). A temporary seat at a ruler's right hand was a position of honor, but this was still more the case if the seat was permanent. The position at the right hand of the throne invested its holder with delegated authority to act for the ruler.JoyThe theme of joy in Acts 2:28) is probably deliberate. After all, Luke could have skipped this part of the quotation. Rejoicing characterizes the early church following Pentecost. The theme of joy appears in momentous events such as miracle working, suffering in hope of divine vindication, celebrating eternal life, celebrating others' conversions, and celebrating other good news. Joy was sometimes empowered by the Holy Spirit.Notice that, as explained above, Peter hits the crowd hard. However, he does not do so to leave them in disgrace or despair but to invite them into joy. Hades and DecayA key part of Peter's argument (which Luke repeats later in Acts) is the idea that the Holy One was not left in Hades, and he did not see decay. That Jesus was no longer in “Hades” (emphasized again in 2:31) simply means that he was no longer dead. (The mention of Hades is both rhetorically colorful and it provides a contrast with heaven.) If the soul was in Hades, then the body would decay. Hence, Hades and decay are both pointing towards death. However, notice that (as some Christians suggest) even if Hades were a metaphor for nonexistence (not its typical usage in ancient texts), the experience of death for the body here, though parallel and related, does not appear identical to that for the soul. As evidenced by the psalm, early Judaism often accepted this differentiation between the soul and the body.Conclusion—Jesus Is the One Who Lives, Jesus is the Exalted KingFinally, Peter argues that David, having died and been buried yet not having ascended, cannot be the true fulfillment of Psalm 16. Rather, both the apostles as eyewitnesses and the outpoured Spirit attest that Jesus has risen and ascended to God's right hand. Therefore Jesus is the Lord of Psalm 16—the “Christ,” the ultimate Davidic king. Peter's line of argumentation was typical at the time. A teacher who wanted to argue that a psalm (or any other text) applied in a way other than what it seemed to claim literally could begin by showing that the apparent literal meaning was not fulfilled. That David (in contrast to, e.g., Moses or Ezra) died, was not disputed. Peter can point out the obvious: the tomb is in plain view among them, and David has not vacated it. We must also keep in mind that to use David as a sort of title for the messiah was not unusual. The Old Testament is full of such uses.Nevertheless, Peter makes his argument respectfully. His use of the phrase, “I can speak confidently” (sometimes translated as “I may say boldly”), can mean something like “Do not be offended if I point out.”Peter emphasizes that David spoke not of himself but in his role as a prophet. Probably many Jewish teachers would have shared the assumption that prophets spoke especially of the messianic era.Peter completes his argument by mentioning God's promises to David, including the promise of his kingship (2 Sam 3:9) and his continuing seed (Ps 132:11). Christ's Exaltation and Psalm 110Summary. If Jesus is in God's presence (Acts 2:25, 29), Peter can infer for his hearers that Jesus is in heaven. Peter bolsters his argument with Psalm 110. If Jesus is already enthroned at the Father's right hand, then he has begun his messianic reign, and hence the messianic age has begun and the messianic blessings have been given.Jesus and the SpiritOn the theological level, the Spirit's outpouring stems from Christ's exaltation (Acts 2:33). Notice that in verse 33 Jesus “pours out” the Spirit. This is a clear allusion to God's pouring out the Spirit in 2:17-18 (the only other passage in Luke-Acts using that expression). Jewish texts also speak of God's pouring out wisdom as his gift. Wisdom would also sit by God's throne. Again, notice the high Christology. If Jesus is the Spirit-baptizer, he takes on a divine role in light of the Old Testament, where only God can pour out God's Spirit (e.g., Isaiah 44:3). Acts 2:33 is among the most important for understanding Luke's Christology and pneumatology and their relationship with each other. According to Acts, Jesus is enthroned as Messiah and now reigns in his church by the Spirit. Instead of an absentee Christology, by relating the Spirit to Jesus in the way Jewish people had understood the Spirit's relationship to God, Luke takes the reader beyond anything Judaism conceived of the messiah. The Exalted LordPeter shows that David, being dead and buried, could not fulfill the promise of resurrection or incorruption in Psalm 16. Then Peter produces another key text that David could not fulfill—Psalm 110. Peter claims that it is self-evident that Psalm 110, with which Peter links Psalm 16, cannot apply to David both because David did not ascend and because he speaks of his Lord. As Psalm 110 shows, the exaltation of Jesus involves sitting at the right hand of God. Jesus's position here is familiar in terms of a viceroy or vizier. Sometimes this position could apply to a son installed or functioning as coregent. For example, Titus dictated letters and edicts in his father's name and publicly read his speeches.“Lord”As a title for the Messiah, “Lord” predates Luke's writings. For example, the pre-Christian work called the Psalms of Solomon speaks of the “Lord Messiah.” That is, the basic line of interpretation was established even before Jesus. Christian sources differ from this pre-Christian tradition only in associating this title with Jesus's deity.The church's use of the title “Lord” for Jesus was certainly dominant well before Luke wrote (and before the later speeches in Acts would have occurred). It is Paul's primary title for Jesus and appears in every part of early Christianity In Psalm 110, if one assumes Davidic authorship for the psalm, as most first-century hearers would have done, “my Lord” becomes someone greater than David (the greatest king). A midrashic connection to Ps 16:2 also suggests the deity of “my lord,” as it is addressed directly to God. This fits the exposition here, where this “Lord” bears the specific divine name on which hearers must call to be saved. His FootstoolsThe remainder of the quotation in Acts 2:35 is hardly simple decoration. Although Peter's primary point in quoting Psalm 110 is Christology, it also support his eschatology. In this eschatology, Jesus's present reign is an interim period until its consummation. First-century readers would still understand the metaphor of enemies being made a footstool. Prisoners had long been symbolically “trampled underfoot,” as lavishly illustrated, for example, by Egyptian royal sandals with bound prisoners portrayed on the soles. Conclusion: Lord and ChristSpeakers commonly provided a final summation of their argument. That's the case in Acts 2:36. The proclamatory “Let all the house of Israel know” fits such a climax. Jesus is the “Lord” of in Joel's passage (Acts 2:21) by way of Psalm 110 (Acts 2:34-35). By way of Psalm 16, he is “Christ” (Acts 2: 31)—that is, the king from David's line. That Jesus is Messiah (i.e., Israel's king) and that he is Lord at God's right hand are truth claims that demand universal allegiance; that is, they demand the response of all humanity. Notice that this response could costly. “King” was a dangerous title in the Roman world. (“Lord” could be construed in less political, purely religious terms.)The closing reference to Peter's hearers crucifying their own king invites a response. The plural pronoun “you” is emphatic in 2:36. The ResponseThe crowd is persuaded by Peter. Contrite over killing their own graciously God-given king, the crowd asks what to do. Peter summons them to repentance, as in the prophets, and to call on Jesus's name in a baptism involving such repentance. God's promise to them is the Holy Spirit. In Acts 2:38 and 3:19, Peter preaches repentance like the Old Testament prophets calling Israel to return. The biblical prophets summoned Israel to “turn” or “return” to the Lord. Individuals needed to turn from wickedness to righteousness, that is, change their lifestyle, not merely indulge in guilty feelings. Early Judaism heavily emphasized the value of repentance.Although the very deep emotional response described here (“struck to the heart”) produces a favorable behavioral response, Luke provides two other occasions where, by contrast, the emotional response provoked deadly hostility (Acts 5:33; 7:54). I think that we are so used to our current Christian world, we simply assume that joining a religious movement involves repentance. This was not the case at the time (and it is not the case today with many non-Abrahamic religions). Gentiles did not speak much of moral repentance in light of religion. Joining a new mystery cult simply supplemented one's previous religious experience.Because God's “kingdom” was his reign, those who turned to embrace his reign were accepting a new king. Genuine faith in Jesus as Lord requires acknowledgment of his lordship and beginning to adjust to its practical demands.BaptismJust as John the Baptist preached a baptism symbolizing or effecting repentance, so now does Peter. One Jewish use of baptism in antiquity was as an act of conversion (as part of the process of conversion), although Jewish people traditionally applied this function of immersion only to Gentiles. Peter here demands a conversion no less radical, but from members of his own people who must likewise turn to Israel's God and the divinely appointed king, Jesus. The “forgiveness of sins” is explicitly associated especially with repentance in Acts and in Luke. Most importantly, Jesus' final command to the disciples in the Gospel of Luke was that of preaching repentance.Then he opened their minds so they could understand the scriptures, and said to them, “Thus it stands written that the Christ would suffer and would rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance for the forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. And look, I am sending you what my Father promised. But stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.” Luke 24:45-49One could debate to what extent forgiveness of sins is also associated with baptism (i.e., the act of baptism itself as distinct from repentance). Some of the arguments are based on the grammar of the text we just read. Those arguments are complex and, frankly, beyond me. Besides, grammar alone is probably not dispositive of the issue. If we surveyed texts in Luke and Acts relating to forgiveness, we would find that forgiveness is more often associated with repentance than baptism, and repentance is never missing when baptism is mentioned with forgiveness of sins. Nevertheless, we cannot ignore the fact that for Luke baptism is not dissociated from repentance. At least under normal circumstances, one does not separate the two.As I remarked above, we live in such a Christianized age, we are not surprised by facts that ought to surprise us. The fact that Jesus' followers used baptism as the initiation rite is unexpected. Ritual lustrations were common throughout the ancient world. Various temples had their own rules mandating ritual purity. The early Jewish practice of ritual washings was widespread long before the time of the Jesus movement. Although such Jewish lustrations and their broader cultural background provide a context for John's and early Christian baptism, they cannot define them. John's baptism in the Synoptic tradition was initiatory and eschatological, a baptism of repentance in light of the coming kingdom of God. The Qumran community practiced initiatory baptism, but unlike for early Christians, the initial baptism at Qumran was apparently viewed only as the first among many. The closest Jewish parallel to John's and early Christian baptism, namely, proselyte baptism, a specific and extremely potent form of ritual purification. Major differences naturally distinguish John's baptism from proselyte baptism, including the former's public and eschatological orientation and particularly its summoning of Jews as well as Gentiles to turn to Israel's God. However, the conversion ritual provided a clear, symbolic line of demarcation between a proselyte's Gentile past and Jewish present, much like the baptism suggested in Acts.In Jesus NamePeter calls his audience to be baptized in Jesus' name. Jewish people were known for “calling on the Lord's name,” and the more specific application to Jesus would be striking. (Again, this reveals a high Christology.) But what does the phrase mean? Baptism “in Jesus's name” distinguishes this baptism from other Jewish immersion practices noted above, with respect to its object. That is, it clarifies the convert's new allegiance.We should also note that for Luke, baptism in Jesus's name does not involve a ritual formula uttered over an initiate but the new believer's calling on the name of Jesus. In Luke's writings, the verb to baptize (βαίτίζω) appears in both passive and active forms. However, in the formula “in the name of Jesus,” it appears only with passive uses of the verb. Put simply, I do not baptize you, you are baptized. This indicates that the formula has to do with receiving rather than giving. This is not to argue that early Christians would not have cared who supervised baptisms. The Promise of the SpiritLuke recalls earlier teachings about the Spirit through his terms “gift” and “promise.”. By noting that the promise is for others, he makes the proper response for the present crowd (namely, repentance and baptism in Jesus's name) and the gift of the Spirit paradigmatic for all subsequent believers. By alluding to “far-off” Gentiles by way of Isaiah's language, Luke also reiterates the prominence of the Spirit for the Gentile mission. By concluding that the gift was available to “as many as God calls,” Luke clearly echoes the end of Joel 2:32, completing the quotation interrupted in Acts 2:21.It will so happen thateveryone who calls on the name of the Lord will be delivered.For on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there will be those who survive,just as the Lord has promised;the remnant will be those whom the Lord will call.Summary and ExhortationVerse 2:40 (“[w]ith many other words he testified”) probably means that Luke skips through many supplementary proofs and arguments provided by Peter. Instead, Luke's narrative moves quickly the final exhortation and emotional appeal: “Save yourselves!” This restates briefly the speech's central idea. The immediate referent of “save” here is Joel's prophecy in Acts 2:21: whoever calls on the Lord's name will be saved. Therefore this salvation at least includes deliverance from God's eschatological wrath and destruction, available through Christ. For Peter's hearers to save themselves from the generation's wickedness was not, as some later Gentile Christian interpreters would have it, a summons to leave Israel and their Jewishness; rather, it was a summons to leave their rebellion against God, like a repeated prophetic summons to Israel in the Old Testament.Peter's term γενεά (genea) means here a temporal “generation,” not (as some would interpret it) “race” (γένος). By calling the generation crooked here, Peter is appealing to the Old Testament, particularly Deuteronomy 32:5. Peter's point is an exhortation not to harden their hearts as their ancestors did in the wilderness.Peter thus continues the preaching tradition followed by John the Baptist, underlining the continuity of salvation history and of the saving message.

This episode your hosts have a catch-up on their respective summers and what they've been making and doing over the last couple of weeks.In this epsiode you'll hear:David share details of the wild fires that are currently raging in Kelowna, and the Shuswap in Canada - not far from where he is staying.That David has been teaching some workshops to adults with learning differences and the two discuss the rewards associated with sharing their skills with others.David talk about the challenges of job-hunting in CanadaThat David has also been socializing and networking with Canadian creatives.How Ange is gearing up for her local open studios and talks about what she will be showing this year. That Ange attended a private view of a textile artist Donna Lynch at Hauser & Wirth Gallery, London.That David will be interviewing Dahna @madame.mak_jewellery over the next two episodesDavid J LillyInstagramWebsiteAngela BenjaminInstagramWebsiteOur makers-to-follow recommendations this week are: Ange's recommendations is textile artist Donna Lynch @studio_ashayDavid's recommendation is the jeweller Thierry Vendome @thierry_vendommeJoin us next time for more insight into our creative processes, latest projects and how 2023 is moving along.Want to submit a question? Email your jewellery (or other) questions to: littlegemsonjewellery@gmail.com

Our hosts are reunited after a lengthy separation. David is settling into Canadian life and Ange is recovering from a cold.In this epsiode you hear:David and Ange discuss their personal takes on Russell's podcast episodes.That David has been wax carving and designing some gemstone pieces with some interesting sounding stones.David talk about a stained-glass workshop that he's been running in his local community, including classes for people with physical differences. David also share his previous experience of working with diverse client groups.How David has been socializing and networking with Canadian creatives.Ange share her latest wax carved works and talk about her struggles with clean-up and the perils of soldering mix metals.David gives Ange his tips on naming jewellery collections and Both of them share their contrasting design and sometimes 'dangerous' design styles.The pair chat about their respective creative/jewellery communities and Ange extols the virtues of WhatsApp groups!That David has a job interview and Ange has a secret to be revealled sometime in the future!David J LillyInstagramWebsiteAngela BenjaminInstagramWebsiteOur makers-to-follow recommendations this week are: Ange's recommendations are Pepe Tools @pepetools_usa and Penny of Amanti Argenti @amanti_argentiDavid's recommendation is Dahna, known as Madame Mak @madame.mak_jewelleryJoin us next time for more insight into our creative processes, latest projects and how 2023 is moving along.Want to submit a question? Email your jewellery (or other) questions to: littlegemsonjewellery@gmail.com

Okay... today's episode is a SPIRITUAL SUNDAY episode. That's the day of the week we reserve to talk about and/or dig into spiritual stuff. But hey... if this isn't your jam... feel free to skip to another episode! No harm... no foul! Today... as this goes LIVE... it's Easter. So... HAPPY EASTER TO YOU! We all know that the Easter story is the ultimate come back story of ALL TIME! But today... I felt the "nudge" you might need to hear about a lesser known come back story... buried in the Old Testament. It's a story of when David (Yes... THAT David... of David and Goliath fame) was at his lowest point. That's right. He'd been hit by a series of incredible setbacks... all at once. Seriously... the future King hit bedrock. Beat up. Abandoned. Now... THIS is one of my favorite... of all time... Bible stories... and recently my wife asked me why. Well... in THIS episode I tell you... not only... why it's one of my favorites but I also share why it reminds us that a BREAKTHROUGH might be right around the corner! Stay encouraged my friend and we'll talk tomorrow. _______________ Be sure to hit me up with questions at www.encouragingtheencouragers.com and I'll answer them as we go! Check it out and be sure to grab our free "WELL PAID ENCOURAGER'S SECRET TOOL BOX!"  (Plus... that's how you can start to get emails from me to stay in the know!) Be sure to check out my other podcast called "DREAM THINK DO too: here And hey... let's connect on Facebook and Instagram too! #letsdothis #IlovejesusbutIcussalittle #coaching #speaker #lifecoach #motivation #lifecoaching #coaching #love #coach #mindset #inspiration #selflove #life #selfcare #success #lifestyle #mentalhealth #mindfulness #personaldevelopment #entrepreneur #goals #happiness #loveyourself #meditation #healing #motivationalquotes #lifequotes #fitness #positivevibes #motivationalspeaker #businesscoach #personalgrowth #business

Audio Transcript: This media has been made available by Mosaic BostonChurch. If you'd like to check out more resources, learn about Mosaic Boston inour neighborhood churches, or donate to this ministry, please visitmosaicboston.com. Lord Jesus, as we just sang, when we walk with you, Lord, in the light of your word, what glory you shed on our way. While we do your good will, you abide with us still, and with all who will trust and obey, and in fellowship suite, we will sit at your feet, or we will walk by your side in the way. What you say we will do, and where you send, we will go. Never fear, only trust and obey. Jesus, I pray that you would help our minds to understand, and our hearts, to believe that true happiness is found in you. The good life, that we are all long for, that we're all after, a life of purpose and meaning of peace and joy and fulfillment, it is offered to all who commit to follow Jesus Christ, to walk with you and the obedience of faith that we've just studied over the last year in the book of Romans, Lord. Lord, I pray that every soul here would come to experience the fullness of what it means to be happy in Jesus. It's in His name that we pray. Amen. Well, it's kind of a bittersweet morning after a really good long year in the book of Romans, we are turning to a new sermon series today in this new series that we're starting, we've called Committed: Essential Habits of an Abundant Life. This is going to take us from now all the way until Easter. I'm really praying that this is a blessing to God, a blessing to our church, a blessing to each one of you. The big idea of the series is simply this, that Jesus Christ said that I have come to give them life and to give them life to the full. Other translations say to give them abundant life. Jesus gives this as a gift. It's not something we have to earn. It's something that is given to us on account of what he has done for us. But it is a gift that we are never going to fully experience and enjoy unless we commit our lives to follow him in obedience and faith. It's like hopefully you got some good gifts. You're coming out of the holiday season. Hopefully you got a good gift or two over a Christmas. It's one thing to get a gift, but it's a whole lot more fun if you actually take it out of the box and play with it. You don't just set it on the shelf and look at it from time to time. You've got to do something with it. Christianity is a whole lot more fun when you don't just set Jesus on the shelf, don't just invite him into your life once in a while or on Sunday mornings, but you've got to take him out. You've got to do something with him. You got to walk with him in obedience and faith. I asked Caleb kind of last minute if we could sing that old hymn, Trust and Obey, because it really sums up the big idea of where we're going with this series, that to be happy in Jesus is to trust and obey. We all want the good life. We all want a happy life. I'm not talking about a life that's full of pleasures and comforts, right? We know that you don't have to look very hard to find people who are surrounded by comforts and pleasures and yet their lives are miserable. They feel meaningless and depressed. No, deep down, we're longing for something deeper than just comfort or pleasure. We long for purpose. We long for meaningful relationships. I would argue that whether you fully understand this or not, you long for that meaningful relationship, not just with the people around you, but you long for it with your creator. You long to feel the love and the approval of a heavenly Father and to live in his presence, to go where he goes and to do what he does. As a father and myself, I have two kids and I can tell you that one of the most satisfying experiences in my kids' life is when they get to go to work with their dad. It doesn't matter what it is. It can be something as simple as washing the dishes, taking out the trash, shoveling the snow, but just to be with me and to feel that they're doing something important, accomplishing something meaningful. They love that. They long for it. We long for that with God as well. How do we get there? How do we live this good, this satisfying life? We get there by committing to a life of obedience and faith in Jesus Christ. I say committing, because we all know that good intentions aren't good enough. As the saying goes, the road to hell is paved with good intentions. It's easy to have a vision for who you want to be, for where you want to go, or for what you want to do, but that vision isn't going to get you anywhere unless it's accompanied by a couple of other things. First of all, having a good vision isn't going to get you to where you want to go unless you also have a strong motivation. Why do I urgently need to be that person, get to that place, accomplish that whatever. Your vision and your motivation, really most importantly, what you need along with those is a strong commitment to make sure that you get there. That vision and motivation without commitment, it's like going on a journey without a map. You might be excited to get to where you want to go, but if you don't have a fixed course of action to know how you're going to get there, you just end up driving in circles. And so we need that vision, we need that motivation, and then we need to make that commitment: to stay the course, to follow the right path, to not get distracted along the way, to not get discouraged along the way, and to keep pressing on that goal, no matter how hard it gets, no matter what stands in our way. There's going to be difficulties. Anything worth doing is going to be hard. But this is the example that Jesus set. This is the example that he calls us to follow. This is Hebrews 12:1. Since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay us aside every weight and sin which clings us so closely and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfector of our faith. Who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising its shame and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him, who endured such hardship from sinners such hostility against himself, that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. For some of you, what I hope, what I'm praying, is that this series would compel you to count the cost of following Jesus for the first time. Not so that you see the cost and that you're scared away, but so that you count it and you see how worthy it is so that you commit to follow him, to run this race with endurance, knowing that it's not going to be easy, but it's going to be worth it. For others, maybe you've been running the race and you're tired. You feel your endurance being tested. Your pace has slowed, and if you're honest with yourself, you're not following Jesus as closely as you once did. I hope this series helps you to refix your eyes on Jesus, the founder and perfector of our faith, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. Then some of you, by God's grace, you're running well, your hearts are on fire and you just need to know how do I keep this pace? How do I keep running? How do I keep my endurance? How do I maybe even stoke or fan this into an even greater passion and even greater flame? My hope is that this series would serve as kind of a training program for your soul. That these are the commitments that we need to make, the habits that we need to instill in our lives so that we can continue pressing on, progressing in our spiritual maturity and health. Over the next 11 weeks, we're going to be taking a look at some of the essential non-negotiable, super practical commitments that every single Christian needs to make in order to grow in their faith, in order to persevere through the trials and the difficulties of life, in order to fulfill God's purpose and calling on your life, and in order to truly experience and to enjoy this abundant life that Jesus came to give. We're starting our series today with the first and most important commitment, that every single one of us we need to make at a certain point in time, but then we also need to continually make every day thereafter. The title of today's sermon is just simply this, Commit to Follow Jesus. Commit to follow Jesus Christ. In John 10, Jesus said, I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and he'll go in and out and he'll find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. I'm the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. This is the life that he promises, and how do we experience that? He tells us a little bit later on in verse 27, he says, this is how my sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me. I give them eternal life and they will never perish and no one will snatch them out of my hands. If you have your Bibles, open up to Acts 2. We're going to be looking at verses 22 through 41. This is the birth of the church. The context is the Holy Spirit has just been poured out on the disciples. They're hiding behind the locked doors. The spirit is poured out. All of a sudden they burst out into the street, and in the power of the Holy Spirit, they begin preaching the gospel. Out in the streets what you find is people from all over the Roman Empire had gathered in the city of Jerusalem in order to celebrate the Pentecost. And so, the disciples go out into the streets, they begin preaching the gospel, and the crowds are amazed because they miraculously hear the disciples preaching, all of them in their own native tongues and from a variety of languages as people from all over the empire had gathered here. And in the midst of this, the apostle Peter, he stands up and he preaches the sermon that we're going to look at today. As a result, what we're told is that 3000 souls get saved, that 3000 people repent of their sin, turn and commit their lives to following Jesus Christ, and receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. That's the context. We're going to be looking at kind of the second half of Peter's sermon from Acts 2, beginning in verse 22. Peter says this, men of Israel hear these words. Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs, that God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know. This Jesus delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. But God raised him up. Loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it, David says concerning him, and he quotes from the Psalms. I saw the Lord always before me, for he is at my right hand, that I may not be shaken. Therefore, my heart was glad and my tongue rejoice and my flesh also will dwell in hope. For you will not abandon my soul to Hades. Whether your holy ones see corruption, you have made known to me the paths of life. You will make me full of gladness with your presence. Brothers, I may say to you with confidence about the patriarch David that he both died, and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. But being therefore a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that he would set one of its descendants on his throne, he foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of the Christ. That he was not abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption. This Jesus God raised up, and of that we are all witnesses. Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing. For David did not ascend into the heavens, but he himself says the Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool. Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified. Now, when they heard this, they were cut to the heart. They said to Peter and to the rest of the apostle's, brothers, what shall we do? And Peter said to them, repent and be baptized, every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ, for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promises for you and for your children, all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord God calls to himself. And with many other words, he bore witness and continued to exhort them, saying, save yourselves from this crooked generation. Those who received his word were baptized and they were added that day, about 3000 souls. This is the reading of God's word for us this morning. This is my hope and my prayer for you, that as these 3000 did, that you would commit your life to follow Jesus Christ, some of you perhaps for this first time, but all of us with a deeper commitment, with a deeper passion and devotion. Peter gives us three compelling reasons in this sermon for why we should follow Jesus Christ. The first and the most obvious reason is that we should follow Christ because he is the risen Lord. A lot of people say like, oh, I would believe in God if he would just come down and show himself, reveal himself. Let me tell you a little about Jesus Christ. That's exactly what he did. He came down in the flesh. Jesus Christ is the son of God, the Messiah, fully God, fully man, second person of the triune God. He is the Lord. He is Yahweh come taking on human form. In other words, we follow Jesus because Jesus is exactly who he claimed to be. And who did Jesus claim to be? On John 10, we have this story. In verse 24, we're told that some of the Jews gathered around him. They said, how long are you going to keep us in suspense? If you're the Christ, tell us plainly. Jesus answered them, I told you and you didn't believe me. The works that I do in my father's name bear witness about me, but you do not believe because you're not among my sheep. This is where he says, my sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me. I give them eternal life and they will never perish and no one will snatch them out of my hand. The Father who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the father's hand. And then he says, I and the father are one. The Jews picked up stones again to stone him. Jesus answered, for I've shown you many good works from the Father, of which of these are you going to stone me? And the Jews answered, it is not for good work that we are going to stone you, but for blasphemy, because you being a man make yourself God. Jesus claimed to be God. He was not merely some confused carpenter as some people would say. He wasn't just some nice moral teacher who kind of taught us to get along and to love one another. If that's all that Jesus was, if that's all that he was, then why would he have been crucified? And historically we know that Jesus Christ was, he's a real historical figure, and historically we know that he was crucified under Pontius Pilate. Even non-Christian scholars now readily admit that the evidence is there, that Jesus Christ is not just myth or legend. He was a historical figure, a real person, in that he really was crucified in Jerusalem under Pontius Pilate. We're not going to have time to get into all of that today, but if you're curious to learn more about the historical evidence of Jesus' life and death and resurrection, I preached a sermon on this a few years ago called Jesus Among our Doubts. You can go to our website. You can go to YouTube. That whole sermon kind of in 50 minutes unpacks and looks at some of the historical evidence for why it is not just reasonable but probable that Jesus Christ really did live. He really did die. He really did rise from the dead. The question is not was Jesus crucified. We know historically this is true. The question is why. Why would this nice man, this good moral teacher, need to be put to death executed in such a gruesome manner? We see why. The reason we just saw is because this guy claimed to be God. Peter here in this sermon gives us three pieces of evidence as to why those claims were actually true. Now, the first piece of evidence Peter points to is that of the miracles of Jesus Christ. Jesus was known as a worker of miracles. In verse 22, he says, men of Israel hear these words. Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know. Everybody knew. Word had spread all over the region about this Jesus and the miracles that he did. The religious leaders, they may have hated it, but they couldn't deny it. And so, what are they to do with this man who's healing the sick and giving sight to the blind, who is walking on water, who was calming the storm in the raging sea? This guy who even raised a man from the dead. We're told in the following chapter in John 11, that after Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, we were told that many of the Jews therefore who had come with Mary and had seen what Jesus did believed in him. But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done. The chief priest in the Pharisees gathered the council and said, what are we to do, for this man performs many signs, and if we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him. And then the Romans will come and take away both our place, our position of authority and power, and they'll take away our nation. And then a little bit further on in verse 53, it says so therefore from that day on, they made plans to put Jesus to death. Jesus was a worker of miracles, and everybody knew this. He did things that no human being could do and that really no human being could explain. The second evidence that Peter gives us comes from Jesus' fulfillment of prophecy. He gives us just one example here in this text. Verse 23 says Jesus delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men, but God raised him up loosing the pangs of death because it was not possible for him to be held by it, for David says concerning him. This was not a surprise to God, that the crucifixion of Jesus Christ was part of God's will God, the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, which God had revealed to King David more than a thousand years earlier and that David in Psalm 16 prophesied about when he talked about verse 27, my soul not being abandoned to Hades, you're not going to let your holy one see corruption. Well, as Peter says in verse 29, brothers, I can tell you with confidence about David that he both died and was buried and his tomb is with us to this day. Clearly he wasn't talking about himself, but verse 30, being therefore a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that he would set one of his descendants on his throne, he foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of the Christ. That David was looking forward prophetically writing about the resurrection of the Christ, of Jesus Christ. Now, this is just one example, but if you study the Hebrew scriptures, there are hundreds of prophecies, illusions, references to the Messiah of what he would do, of who he would be, and Jesus Christ fulfilled them all. You can go down like crazy rabbit holes of statistics on this, but out of the hundreds of prophecies that we have in the Old Testament, there are 60 or 70 or so that are considered to be major prophecies. The chances of one individual fulfilling even a small handful of these major prophecies is so astronomically, statistically ... it's unfathomable that anyone could do and fulfill even 5, 6, 7, 8 of these prophecies. And yet Jesus Christ fulfilled every single one. Peter gives us just this one example, that again, points to the Lordship of Christ. But this example itself is also another piece of evidence. It's not just that Jesus performed miracles. It's not just that he fulfilled prophecy. He also rose from the dead, Jesus' death and resurrection, something that was foretold not just by King David, but by Jesus himself. He said, I will rise again in three days. Next, chapter two, verse 32 says this Jesus God raised up, and Peter says, and of that, we are all witnesses. This wasn't something that just kind of happened in secret in a corner somewhere. Peter's making it clear, we're not talking about Jesus figuratively rising from the dead, spiritually in some sense. We're not just saying that his memory or his legacy or his teachings live on in us. No, he's saying Jesus Christ physically rose from the dead in a resurrected body and and we are witnesses to it. In fact, there were hundreds of eyewitnesses to the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Some will say, well, yeah, but people can say whatever they want. It doesn't mean that it's true. But what makes the testimony of these early disciples so compelling is not just what they claimed, but that these people were willing to suffer to the point of persecution, the punishment, even death, rather than recant their claims that they saw Jesus Christ rise from the dead. Right? We know that the Apostle John was punished, was exiled to the island of Patmos for his testimony. We know that every single one of the other apostles died a brutal martyr's death because they refused to deny that they really had seen Jesus Christ raise from the dead. The early church endured severe persecution at times because they refused to deny that Jesus really truly rose physically in a body and we saw it. Paul talks about this in 1 Corinthians 15. He says I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, that he was buried and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas. That's Peter. Then to the 12. Then he appeared to more than 500 brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive. You can go talk to them right now, he says. You can ask them what they saw. He says though some of them have died, some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James and then to all the apostles, and last of all, as the one untimely born, Paul says, he appeared also to me. Jesus performed miracles. He fulfilled prophecy. He rose from the dead. Then the final piece of evidence we see that Peter gives us here is that after this, he ascended to the right hand of God and he poured the Holy Spirit out on his church. This is verse 32 and 33, that this Jesus God raised up and of that we are all witnesses, and being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father of the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing. Peter says, "You want proof? Just look around. Look at what is happening before your eyes right in this very moment, on the day of Pentecost." We stand here, Peter, an uneducated fisherman, boldly preaching this gospel message, as people from all over the empire hear him miraculously speaking to them in their own language. He's like, "You're seeing a miracle of the Holy Spirit. You're experiencing it right now." For those of you who are maybe on the fence about Christianity, along with these other pieces of evidence, I would challenge you to do what he's saying, calling on the crowd to do right now. Look around. Look around this room. Get to know some of the people in this room. Ask them about their stories. Ask them what has the Holy Spirit done in your life. What evidence is there of his work in your life? Because I can tell you that there are people in this room whose lives have been miraculously transformed: addictions that have been broken, marriages that have been restored, miraculous healings that the doctors couldn't explain, but we can explain them, because we serve the living God, the creator of heaven and earth. Jesus Christ is Lord and he's here, and his Holy Spirit is working in his church. Get to know some of these people. Ask them to tell them you their testimonies. We commit to follow Jesus because he is the risen Lord, and these things have proven that to be true. But secondly, we also follow Jesus because he's our merciful savior. He is both Lord and Savior. That's important. It's not enough to just merely know Jesus' identity or to agree to the facts, to the reality that he is God, that he is Lord. Because as James tells us in James 2:19, it's like you believe that God is one you do well, that good for you. But don't you know even the demons believe and they shutter? Peter continues in verse 36. Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified. Now, when they heard this, they were cut to the heart. They said to Peter and to the rest of the apostles, brothers, what shall we do? And Peter said to them, repent and be baptized, every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. As Peter preaches, the crowd hears that Jesus is Lord. They believe it to be true. But more than that, they are cut to the heart. That it's not just an intellectual acceptance of the facts that Jesus rose from the dead and proved to be God. It's more than that. They are convicted. They feel a heartfelt remorse. Now why? Because suddenly they realize that yeah, Jesus is Lord, and we crucified him. Verse 36, let all the house of Israel know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified. A few verses earlier, verse 23, Jesus delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified by the hands of lawless men. The lawless men that Peter's talking about, it's the Pontius Pilate. Right? The Jews, the religious leaders didn't have the authority to have Jesus executed, and so they get Rome involved to do their dirty work. And so, is Peter just placing the blame for Jesus' death here on the Jews? No, that's not what's going on. If you remember the context, the Jewish people that are here in the crowd that Peter is preaching to, they've just gathered in the city to celebrate Pentecost, people that have come from all over the Roman Empire. Most of them weren't even in town when Jesus was crucified. How could they have crucified Jesus? If they hadn't been directly involved in the crucifixion of Jesus, then why are they cut to the heart? That's what you need to ask. The reason is because they understood. It wasn't the Romans that killed Jesus. It wasn't the Jews that crucified Jesus. It was them. It was us. It was you and it was me. That Jesus wasn't being punished for his own crimes before Rome. He was innocent. Even Pontius Pilate admitted that, washes his hands, I say find no fault and guilt in this man. Jesus wasn't being punished for his own crimes before Rome, he was being punished for our crimes, our sin before God. That he went to the cross and account of their sin, of your sin, of my sin, and they're cut to the heart because they understood this. This is what we all need to understand personally, that Jesus died for your sins and for mine. Have you ever watched the Passion of the Christ. The movie came out when I was in college. I remember Kelly and I, we were dating at the time, and we actually went and we watched it in the movie theater. I have never experienced anything like that. The experience of walking out of that movie theater when the movie was over was just silence. Nobody knew what to say. The gravity of what Jesus did just left every single person in the room speechless. The price that he paid so that we could be forgiven, it was chilling. It was sobering. One of the things that always stands out to me when I think about that movie was Mel Gibson who directed it, he shared in an interview that he wanted to make a cameo in the film. The only scene where you can be seen, you can't see his face, you can't see his body, but it was the moment, Jesus' body is bloody and broken and bruised. They lay him on that rugged cross. Mel Gibson says, "In that scene, you can see that it is my hands that are holding the nails as they're pounded into the hands and feet of Jesus Christ." That he wanted to communicate and he wanted to commemorate this reality, that he knew on a personal level that Jesus died because of him. That it wasn't the Romans or the Jews that killed him, that Jesus died for me, not just because of me, but for me. That it was my sin that held him there. That this was the price he paid so that I could be forgiving. Jesus didn't merely come as Lord. He came as Lord and as Savior, as the Christ, the Messiah. He did not die according to the schemes of man alone, but Peter says he died according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God. Think about that, that before the foundation of the earth was laid, an eternity passed, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, they knew that this day would come. They planned it together. That this is what it was going to cost us to love our creation. This is the price that would need to be paid to save people from their sins. That Jesus would have to come, not just as a shepherd, but as the good shepherd. The shepherd who lays down his life to save the sheep, as the sacrificial lamb of God, who by his own blood shed on the cross, would take away the sins of the world to redeem God's elect. Jesus seeing every one of us, long before you were born, he knew you, everything about you. He could see every sin you've ever committed and every sin that you will ever commit. He knew it all and yet he still chose to love you and to give himself up for you. To go to that cross, to pay the penalty that our sin deserves. The crowd sees and they feel this reality for the first time. In verse 37 it says when they heard this, they were cut to the heart. They say, brothers, what shall we do? I'm praying that right now, some of you are asking that. We've rebelled against the holy loving, perfect, innocent creator of the universe, that God came and showed himself to us, and we crucified him. What shall we do? What could we possibly hope to do to write this wrong? Thankfully Peter tells us right away, he just says repent and be baptized. Every one of you for the forgiveness of your sins in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. He says this promise is for you, and for your children, all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord God calls to himself. This promise is for you, that Jesus died for your sins. Now, how do we respond to this? Well, Peter says first of all, Jesus died for your sins, therefore repent. Repentance, if you're not familiar with the word, it's not really a word we use very often in our culture today. It just simply means that you turn around. You're walking this direction, living life your way, you turn around and you begin following Jesus, living life God's way. You reverse course to follow Jesus Christ. That when the Holy Spirit regenerates your heart, when Jesus Christ gives you the gift of faith, when those lights are turned on, when you're cut to the heart, you should feel remorse as they did. But that remorse should lead you to repentance. Not to run away from God, but to turn to God in faith and to run and to embrace him. You embrace Christ as your Lord and savior. Repentance, it's not just something that we do once, it's something we do continually, day after day. We take up our cross. We follow Jesus. We continue to repent and submit our lives to Jesus Christ. 1 John 1:9 says that if we confess our sins, he's faithful and he's just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. In Romans 13:14, we read the Apostle Paul says put on the Lord Jesus Christ to make no provision for the flesh to gratify its desires. I like that imagery of putting on Christ, that the act of repentance, of faith, of committing your life to Jesus Christ, I've heard it described its kind of like putting on Christ is like putting on a parachute. Right? It's one thing to say that you understand how the parachute works and that it exists. It's another thing to claim that you trust it. The question is, when it's time to jump as the plane's going down, are you actually going to put the thing on, strap in, and hold on for dear life? That if you know who God is and if you trust that Jesus Christ can save, then you put on Christ and you jump. You live this life of repentance and faith, that yes, Jesus, I am going to follow you wherever you go. Jesus died for your sins, therefore repent. Then next, Peter says and be baptized. What is baptism? Literally the word just means to be immersed. It's like to be plunged underwater. All right? It is something that Jesus commanded us to do as his disciples, and as we say around mosaic, what is baptism? Baptism is an outward sign of an inward reality. It doesn't save us, but it shows that we were saved. It's an outward sign of an inward reality in which we publicly reenact what Jesus has done for us. Romans 6:1 says what then shall we say? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means. How can have died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. This is what baptism symbolizes. Baptism symbolizes that just as Jesus died and was buried, that when we repent and put our faith in him, when we commit our lives to Jesus Christ, that we are dying to our old life, our old life of sin, of living in the flesh. We are buried under the waters of baptism. Then we are raised up out of the waters of baptism to symbolize that just as Jesus Christ was raised from the dead, we too had been raised to walk in this newness of life by the power of the Holy Spirit. Not only that, but we also live life now with this expected anticipation that Christ is going to return to make all things new, and when he does, we will be given physically resurrected, glorified bodies then as well for all of eternity. That's what baptism symbolizes. Now, the second question is if that's what baptism is, who should be baptized? The answer is just simply only those for who this symbol is true. If this symbol is true for you, that Christ has saved you, he's raised you to this new life, then you should be baptized. Everyone who has made a commitment to repent and put their faith in Christ to follow him as Lord and Savior should get baptized. Jesus commanded this. All right? It is a blessing to you as a believer. It is an encouragement to the church. And it is a testimony to the world, that you didn't save yourself, that Jesus Christ saved you and gave you new life. And so if you haven't been baptized, you should get baptized. And you should do it soon. Ideally, this is the first act of obedience to a follower of Christ when a person comes into faith. And so if you haven't been baptized yet, we would love to talk to you. Get connected to us somehow. Pastor Andy and I will be up here after the service. We'd love to talk to you about baptism. Pastor Andy routinely leads a baptism class where you can learn more about baptism and how we do that, but definitely encourage you to do that. You can mark that on your connection card if that's easier. Talk to somebody at the welcome center. Whatever you need to do, encourage you to do that. Jesus died for your sins, therefore repent and be baptized. Then 3 Peter says, and receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Repentance is something we do. Baptism is something that is done to us. We don't baptize ourselves. We're baptized by someone else as a symbol of what Jesus has done for us. The gift of the Holy Spirit is the gift that we receive. This is something that every Christian receives at the moment of salvation. The moment that you put your faith in Christ, repent of your sins, and commit to follow him, you receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. You look in the Book of Acts and you realize if you've read through Acts. Yeah, there's some weird exceptions to this where some of the believers in the beginning days of the church didn't receive the Holy Spirit until a little bit later. But as the teaching of the apostles to the church was established, it becomes clear that those cases were unique. But that what is normal and what we should expect is that every believer has the Holy Spirit and received the Holy Spirit the moment that they were saved. The Holy Spirit is a gift. It's a gift that can't be taken away from you. It's a gift that can't be lost. It's a gift you can't return. That Jesus says, no one will snatch you out of my hands. But it is important to understand that our experience of the power and the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives, while the Holy Spirit can't be taken away, that our experience of his power and presence is something that can be quenched. The scripture talks about this, that when we grieve, the Holy Spirit through pride, through stubbornness, through unrepentant sin, you can quench the Holy Spirit. Therefore, if you are in Christ, you have received the Holy Spirit. Therefore, now walk in the Spirit. Live in the power and in the presence of the Holy Spirit. We commit to follow Jesus because he is the risen Lord. We've looked at the evidence for that. We commit to follow Jesus because he is the merciful savior, and we've seen how we should respond to that. Then finally, before we close, we commit to follow Jesus because he is our beautiful inheritance. We kind of skimmed over this earlier. But before I close, I want to kind of quickly go back to the Psalm that Peter was quoting in his sermon. As in Acts chapter 2:25 through 28, peter quotes a Psalm of David in order to show that David was prophetically writing about the resurrection of Jesus Christ. But it's clear, however, when you read that psalm that David was not only talking about what was true for Christ, he is also prophetically writing about what is true and about what will be true for all of us who are in Christ. And so as I close, I want to read that psalm for us as an encouragement to us this morning. This is Psalm 16, beginning in verse one. King David writes this. It says, Preserve me, oh God, for in you I take refuge. I say to the Lord, you are my Lord and I have no good apart from you. As for the saints in the land, they are the excellent ones in whom is all my delight. The sorrows of those who run after another God shall multiply their drink offerings of blood. I will not pour out or take their names on my lips. The Lord is my chosen portion and my cup. You hold my lot. The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places. Indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance. I bless the Lord who gives me counsel, in the night also my heart and instructs me. Upset the Lord always before me, because he is at my right hand. I shall not be shaken. Therefore, my heart is glad, and my whole being rejoices. My flesh also dwells secure. For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol or let your holy one see corruption. And make known to me the path of life. In your presence, there is fullness of joy, and at your right hand are pleasures forevermore. This is a glimpse of the good life that the good shepherd came to give, of the abundant life that Jesus promised. It's a life that we live in the presence and in the pleasure of our God and Father. It's a life that we can experience and enjoy in part right now as we turn and trust and follow Jesus and walk in the Holy Spirit. But it is also a life that we will fully inherit, that we will most perfectly enjoy in the future and for all of eternity when Christ, our good shepherd, returns. As surely as Christ was raised from the dead, we live with the expectation, the anticipation, and the hope that when he returns, he's going to raise us up as well with him to share in his beautiful inheritance. That for all of eternity, we will be with our Lord and Savior and see him face to face. That as the psalmist wrote there in his presence, there will be fullness of joy, and at his right hand will be pleasures forevermore. Listen, if you want to commit to follow Jesus Christ and to begin this new life today, I want you to pray right now as I close. I want you to cry out to God in repentance and faith. God promises that all who call upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, they will be saved, and so ask him to save you. Also, if you have chosen to make that commitment, would you please let us know? Please talk to us. Every week we have people that mark out on the little connection card that I've committed my life to Christ today or have recommitted my life to Christ this week, but not very many of those people follow up with us. We want to get to know you. We want to talk with you. We want to pray with you. We want to answer any questions that you might have. We want to talk about why baptism is important, why it's important, and why it's going to be a tremendous blessing for you to get plugged into a community group to begin building some meaningful relationships here at church. Because you're going to need people around you to support you, to love you, to care for you, to hold you accountable. We're going to talk a whole lot more about that next week, but for now, if you've made this decision, please come talk to us. Members of our prayer team will be up here after service. Pastor Andy and myself will be over here. You can mark that on your card and we'll try to follow up with you. You can talk to people at the welcome center. Whatever you need to do, we just want to talk to you and we want to pray for you. Jesus told us that when every time one single sinner repents, that there is rejoicing among God and among the angels in heaven, that this is a big deal. We want to know about it. We want to celebrate it with you and want to do whatever we can to help you as you commit to this life of following Christ. All right. That being said, let's spend some time in prayer and then we're going to spend some time just praising God together for his amazing grace toward us. Let's pray. God, we just thank you and we praise you for the mystery and the majesty of your gospel, of your plan of salvation. It's hard for us to grasp the greatness of your love for us, that you would send your son, your beloved son, our Lord Jesus Christ, to die for us, to save us from sin and death and to offer us this abundant life, a life that we know is not going to be easy, but we also see is going to be worth it. That Jesus, you are truly worthy of all of our praise and devotion and allegiance and obedience, and it is so good to follow you together, our good shepherd, and to worship you together right now. Lord, I pray that as we continue and worship and as we sing these songs, that the sound of our praise would be pleasing to your ears and that would bring joy to your heart. Lord, we love you. We praise You. In the name of your Son and the power of your Holy Spirit, we worship you together now. Amen.

Audio Transcript: This media has been made available by Mosaic BostonChurch. If you'd like to check out more resources, learn about Mosaic Boston inour neighborhood churches, or donate to this ministry, please visitmosaicboston.com. Lord Jesus, as we just sang, when we walk with you, Lord, in the light of your word, what glory you shed on our way. While we do your good will, you abide with us still, and with all who will trust and obey, and in fellowship suite, we will sit at your feet, or we will walk by your side in the way. What you say we will do, and where you send, we will go. Never fear, only trust and obey. Jesus, I pray that you would help our minds to understand, and our hearts, to believe that true happiness is found in you. The good life, that we are all long for, that we're all after, a life of purpose and meaning of peace and joy and fulfillment, it is offered to all who commit to follow Jesus Christ, to walk with you and the obedience of faith that we've just studied over the last year in the book of Romans, Lord. Lord, I pray that every soul here would come to experience the fullness of what it means to be happy in Jesus. It's in His name that we pray. Amen. Well, it's kind of a bittersweet morning after a really good long year in the book of Romans, we are turning to a new sermon series today in this new series that we're starting, we've called Committed: Essential Habits of an Abundant Life. This is going to take us from now all the way until Easter. I'm really praying that this is a blessing to God, a blessing to our church, a blessing to each one of you. The big idea of the series is simply this, that Jesus Christ said that I have come to give them life and to give them life to the full. Other translations say to give them abundant life. Jesus gives this as a gift. It's not something we have to earn. It's something that is given to us on account of what he has done for us. But it is a gift that we are never going to fully experience and enjoy unless we commit our lives to follow him in obedience and faith. It's like hopefully you got some good gifts. You're coming out of the holiday season. Hopefully you got a good gift or two over a Christmas. It's one thing to get a gift, but it's a whole lot more fun if you actually take it out of the box and play with it. You don't just set it on the shelf and look at it from time to time. You've got to do something with it. Christianity is a whole lot more fun when you don't just set Jesus on the shelf, don't just invite him into your life once in a while or on Sunday mornings, but you've got to take him out. You've got to do something with him. You got to walk with him in obedience and faith. I asked Caleb kind of last minute if we could sing that old hymn, Trust and Obey, because it really sums up the big idea of where we're going with this series, that to be happy in Jesus is to trust and obey. We all want the good life. We all want a happy life. I'm not talking about a life that's full of pleasures and comforts, right? We know that you don't have to look very hard to find people who are surrounded by comforts and pleasures and yet their lives are miserable. They feel meaningless and depressed. No, deep down, we're longing for something deeper than just comfort or pleasure. We long for purpose. We long for meaningful relationships. I would argue that whether you fully understand this or not, you long for that meaningful relationship, not just with the people around you, but you long for it with your creator. You long to feel the love and the approval of a heavenly Father and to live in his presence, to go where he goes and to do what he does. As a father and myself, I have two kids and I can tell you that one of the most satisfying experiences in my kids' life is when they get to go to work with their dad. It doesn't matter what it is. It can be something as simple as washing the dishes, taking out the trash, shoveling the snow, but just to be with me and to feel that they're doing something important, accomplishing something meaningful. They love that. They long for it. We long for that with God as well. How do we get there? How do we live this good, this satisfying life? We get there by committing to a life of obedience and faith in Jesus Christ. I say committing, because we all know that good intentions aren't good enough. As the saying goes, the road to hell is paved with good intentions. It's easy to have a vision for who you want to be, for where you want to go, or for what you want to do, but that vision isn't going to get you anywhere unless it's accompanied by a couple of other things. First of all, having a good vision isn't going to get you to where you want to go unless you also have a strong motivation. Why do I urgently need to be that person, get to that place, accomplish that whatever. Your vision and your motivation, really most importantly, what you need along with those is a strong commitment to make sure that you get there. That vision and motivation without commitment, it's like going on a journey without a map. You might be excited to get to where you want to go, but if you don't have a fixed course of action to know how you're going to get there, you just end up driving in circles. And so we need that vision, we need that motivation, and then we need to make that commitment: to stay the course, to follow the right path, to not get distracted along the way, to not get discouraged along the way, and to keep pressing on that goal, no matter how hard it gets, no matter what stands in our way. There's going to be difficulties. Anything worth doing is going to be hard. But this is the example that Jesus set. This is the example that he calls us to follow. This is Hebrews 12:1. Since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay us aside every weight and sin which clings us so closely and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfector of our faith. Who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising its shame and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him, who endured such hardship from sinners such hostility against himself, that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. For some of you, what I hope, what I'm praying, is that this series would compel you to count the cost of following Jesus for the first time. Not so that you see the cost and that you're scared away, but so that you count it and you see how worthy it is so that you commit to follow him, to run this race with endurance, knowing that it's not going to be easy, but it's going to be worth it. For others, maybe you've been running the race and you're tired. You feel your endurance being tested. Your pace has slowed, and if you're honest with yourself, you're not following Jesus as closely as you once did. I hope this series helps you to refix your eyes on Jesus, the founder and perfector of our faith, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. Then some of you, by God's grace, you're running well, your hearts are on fire and you just need to know how do I keep this pace? How do I keep running? How do I keep my endurance? How do I maybe even stoke or fan this into an even greater passion and even greater flame? My hope is that this series would serve as kind of a training program for your soul. That these are the commitments that we need to make, the habits that we need to instill in our lives so that we can continue pressing on, progressing in our spiritual maturity and health. Over the next 11 weeks, we're going to be taking a look at some of the essential non-negotiable, super practical commitments that every single Christian needs to make in order to grow in their faith, in order to persevere through the trials and the difficulties of life, in order to fulfill God's purpose and calling on your life, and in order to truly experience and to enjoy this abundant life that Jesus came to give. We're starting our series today with the first and most important commitment, that every single one of us we need to make at a certain point in time, but then we also need to continually make every day thereafter. The title of today's sermon is just simply this, Commit to Follow Jesus. Commit to follow Jesus Christ. In John 10, Jesus said, I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and he'll go in and out and he'll find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. I'm the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. This is the life that he promises, and how do we experience that? He tells us a little bit later on in verse 27, he says, this is how my sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me. I give them eternal life and they will never perish and no one will snatch them out of my hands. If you have your Bibles, open up to Acts 2. We're going to be looking at verses 22 through 41. This is the birth of the church. The context is the Holy Spirit has just been poured out on the disciples. They're hiding behind the locked doors. The spirit is poured out. All of a sudden they burst out into the street, and in the power of the Holy Spirit, they begin preaching the gospel. Out in the streets what you find is people from all over the Roman Empire had gathered in the city of Jerusalem in order to celebrate the Pentecost. And so, the disciples go out into the streets, they begin preaching the gospel, and the crowds are amazed because they miraculously hear the disciples preaching, all of them in their own native tongues and from a variety of languages as people from all over the empire had gathered here. And in the midst of this, the apostle Peter, he stands up and he preaches the sermon that we're going to look at today. As a result, what we're told is that 3000 souls get saved, that 3000 people repent of their sin, turn and commit their lives to following Jesus Christ, and receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. That's the context. We're going to be looking at kind of the second half of Peter's sermon from Acts 2, beginning in verse 22. Peter says this, men of Israel hear these words. Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs, that God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know. This Jesus delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. But God raised him up. Loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it, David says concerning him, and he quotes from the Psalms. I saw the Lord always before me, for he is at my right hand, that I may not be shaken. Therefore, my heart was glad and my tongue rejoice and my flesh also will dwell in hope. For you will not abandon my soul to Hades. Whether your holy ones see corruption, you have made known to me the paths of life. You will make me full of gladness with your presence. Brothers, I may say to you with confidence about the patriarch David that he both died, and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. But being therefore a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that he would set one of its descendants on his throne, he foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of the Christ. That he was not abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption. This Jesus God raised up, and of that we are all witnesses. Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing. For David did not ascend into the heavens, but he himself says the Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool. Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified. Now, when they heard this, they were cut to the heart. They said to Peter and to the rest of the apostle's, brothers, what shall we do? And Peter said to them, repent and be baptized, every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ, for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promises for you and for your children, all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord God calls to himself. And with many other words, he bore witness and continued to exhort them, saying, save yourselves from this crooked generation. Those who received his word were baptized and they were added that day, about 3000 souls. This is the reading of God's word for us this morning. This is my hope and my prayer for you, that as these 3000 did, that you would commit your life to follow Jesus Christ, some of you perhaps for this first time, but all of us with a deeper commitment, with a deeper passion and devotion. Peter gives us three compelling reasons in this sermon for why we should follow Jesus Christ. The first and the most obvious reason is that we should follow Christ because he is the risen Lord. A lot of people say like, oh, I would believe in God if he would just come down and show himself, reveal himself. Let me tell you a little about Jesus Christ. That's exactly what he did. He came down in the flesh. Jesus Christ is the son of God, the Messiah, fully God, fully man, second person of the triune God. He is the Lord. He is Yahweh come taking on human form. In other words, we follow Jesus because Jesus is exactly who he claimed to be. And who did Jesus claim to be? On John 10, we have this story. In verse 24, we're told that some of the Jews gathered around him. They said, how long are you going to keep us in suspense? If you're the Christ, tell us plainly. Jesus answered them, I told you and you didn't believe me. The works that I do in my father's name bear witness about me, but you do not believe because you're not among my sheep. This is where he says, my sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me. I give them eternal life and they will never perish and no one will snatch them out of my hand. The Father who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the father's hand. And then he says, I and the father are one. The Jews picked up stones again to stone him. Jesus answered, for I've shown you many good works from the Father, of which of these are you going to stone me? And the Jews answered, it is not for good work that we are going to stone you, but for blasphemy, because you being a man make yourself God. Jesus claimed to be God. He was not merely some confused carpenter as some people would say. He wasn't just some nice moral teacher who kind of taught us to get along and to love one another. If that's all that Jesus was, if that's all that he was, then why would he have been crucified? And historically we know that Jesus Christ was, he's a real historical figure, and historically we know that he was crucified under Pontius Pilate. Even non-Christian scholars now readily admit that the evidence is there, that Jesus Christ is not just myth or legend. He was a historical figure, a real person, in that he really was crucified in Jerusalem under Pontius Pilate. We're not going to have time to get into all of that today, but if you're curious to learn more about the historical evidence of Jesus' life and death and resurrection, I preached a sermon on this a few years ago called Jesus Among our Doubts. You can go to our website. You can go to YouTube. That whole sermon kind of in 50 minutes unpacks and looks at some of the historical evidence for why it is not just reasonable but probable that Jesus Christ really did live. He really did die. He really did rise from the dead. The question is not was Jesus crucified. We know historically this is true. The question is why. Why would this nice man, this good moral teacher, need to be put to death executed in such a gruesome manner? We see why. The reason we just saw is because this guy claimed to be God. Peter here in this sermon gives us three pieces of evidence as to why those claims were actually true. Now, the first piece of evidence Peter points to is that of the miracles of Jesus Christ. Jesus was known as a worker of miracles. In verse 22, he says, men of Israel hear these words. Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know. Everybody knew. Word had spread all over the region about this Jesus and the miracles that he did. The religious leaders, they may have hated it, but they couldn't deny it. And so, what are they to do with this man who's healing the sick and giving sight to the blind, who is walking on water, who was calming the storm in the raging sea? This guy who even raised a man from the dead. We're told in the following chapter in John 11, that after Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, we were told that many of the Jews therefore who had come with Mary and had seen what Jesus did believed in him. But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done. The chief priest in the Pharisees gathered the council and said, what are we to do, for this man performs many signs, and if we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him. And then the Romans will come and take away both our place, our position of authority and power, and they'll take away our nation. And then a little bit further on in verse 53, it says so therefore from that day on, they made plans to put Jesus to death. Jesus was a worker of miracles, and everybody knew this. He did things that no human being could do and that really no human being could explain. The second evidence that Peter gives us comes from Jesus' fulfillment of prophecy. He gives us just one example here in this text. Verse 23 says Jesus delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men, but God raised him up loosing the pangs of death because it was not possible for him to be held by it, for David says concerning him. This was not a surprise to God, that the crucifixion of Jesus Christ was part of God's will God, the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, which God had revealed to King David more than a thousand years earlier and that David in Psalm 16 prophesied about when he talked about verse 27, my soul not being abandoned to Hades, you're not going to let your holy one see corruption. Well, as Peter says in verse 29, brothers, I can tell you with confidence about David that he both died and was buried and his tomb is with us to this day. Clearly he wasn't talking about himself, but verse 30, being therefore a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that he would set one of his descendants on his throne, he foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of the Christ. That David was looking forward prophetically writing about the resurrection of the Christ, of Jesus Christ. Now, this is just one example, but if you study the Hebrew scriptures, there are hundreds of prophecies, illusions, references to the Messiah of what he would do, of who he would be, and Jesus Christ fulfilled them all. You can go down like crazy rabbit holes of statistics on this, but out of the hundreds of prophecies that we have in the Old Testament, there are 60 or 70 or so that are considered to be major prophecies. The chances of one individual fulfilling even a small handful of these major prophecies is so astronomically, statistically ... it's unfathomable that anyone could do and fulfill even 5, 6, 7, 8 of these prophecies. And yet Jesus Christ fulfilled every single one. Peter gives us just this one example, that again, points to the Lordship of Christ. But this example itself is also another piece of evidence. It's not just that Jesus performed miracles. It's not just that he fulfilled prophecy. He also rose from the dead, Jesus' death and resurrection, something that was foretold not just by King David, but by Jesus himself. He said, I will rise again in three days. Next, chapter two, verse 32 says this Jesus God raised up, and Peter says, and of that, we are all witnesses. This wasn't something that just kind of happened in secret in a corner somewhere. Peter's making it clear, we're not talking about Jesus figuratively rising from the dead, spiritually in some sense. We're not just saying that his memory or his legacy or his teachings live on in us. No, he's saying Jesus Christ physically rose from the dead in a resurrected body and and we are witnesses to it. In fact, there were hundreds of eyewitnesses to the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Some will say, well, yeah, but people can say whatever they want. It doesn't mean that it's true. But what makes the testimony of these early disciples so compelling is not just what they claimed, but that these people were willing to suffer to the point of persecution, the punishment, even death, rather than recant their claims that they saw Jesus Christ rise from the dead. Right? We know that the Apostle John was punished, was exiled to the island of Patmos for his testimony. We know that every single one of the other apostles died a brutal martyr's death because they refused to deny that they really had seen Jesus Christ raise from the dead. The early church endured severe persecution at times because they refused to deny that Jesus really truly rose physically in a body and we saw it. Paul talks about this in 1 Corinthians 15. He says I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, that he was buried and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas. That's Peter. Then to the 12. Then he appeared to more than 500 brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive. You can go talk to them right now, he says. You can ask them what they saw. He says though some of them have died, some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James and then to all the apostles, and last of all, as the one untimely born, Paul says, he appeared also to me. Jesus performed miracles. He fulfilled prophecy. He rose from the dead. Then the final piece of evidence we see that Peter gives us here is that after this, he ascended to the right hand of God and he poured the Holy Spirit out on his church. This is verse 32 and 33, that this Jesus God raised up and of that we are all witnesses, and being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father of the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing. Peter says, "You want proof? Just look around. Look at what is happening before your eyes right in this very moment, on the day of Pentecost." We stand here, Peter, an uneducated fisherman, boldly preaching this gospel message, as people from all over the empire hear him miraculously speaking to them in their own language. He's like, "You're seeing a miracle of the Holy Spirit. You're experiencing it right now." For those of you who are maybe on the fence about Christianity, along with these other pieces of evidence, I would challenge you to do what he's saying, calling on the crowd to do right now. Look around. Look around this room. Get to know some of the people in this room. Ask them about their stories. Ask them what has the Holy Spirit done in your life. What evidence is there of his work in your life? Because I can tell you that there are people in this room whose lives have been miraculously transformed: addictions that have been broken, marriages that have been restored, miraculous healings that the doctors couldn't explain, but we can explain them, because we serve the living God, the creator of heaven and earth. Jesus Christ is Lord and he's here, and his Holy Spirit is working in his church. Get to know some of these people. Ask them to tell them you their testimonies. We commit to follow Jesus because he is the risen Lord, and these things have proven that to be true. But secondly, we also follow Jesus because he's our merciful savior. He is both Lord and Savior. That's important. It's not enough to just merely know Jesus' identity or to agree to the facts, to the reality that he is God, that he is Lord. Because as James tells us in James 2:19, it's like you believe that God is one you do well, that good for you. But don't you know even the demons believe and they shutter? Peter continues in verse 36. Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified. Now, when they heard this, they were cut to the heart. They said to Peter and to the rest of the apostles, brothers, what shall we do? And Peter said to them, repent and be baptized, every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. As Peter preaches, the crowd hears that Jesus is Lord. They believe it to be true. But more than that, they are cut to the heart. That it's not just an intellectual acceptance of the facts that Jesus rose from the dead and proved to be God. It's more than that. They are convicted. They feel a heartfelt remorse. Now why? Because suddenly they realize that yeah, Jesus is Lord, and we crucified him. Verse 36, let all the house of Israel know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified. A few verses earlier, verse 23, Jesus delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified by the hands of lawless men. The lawless men that Peter's talking about, it's the Pontius Pilate. Right? The Jews, the religious leaders didn't have the authority to have Jesus executed, and so they get Rome involved to do their dirty work. And so, is Peter just placing the blame for Jesus' death here on the Jews? No, that's not what's going on. If you remember the context, the Jewish people that are here in the crowd that Peter is preaching to, they've just gathered in the city to celebrate Pentecost, people that have come from all over the Roman Empire. Most of them weren't even in town when Jesus was crucified. How could they have crucified Jesus? If they hadn't been directly involved in the crucifixion of Jesus, then why are they cut to the heart? That's what you need to ask. The reason is because they understood. It wasn't the Romans that killed Jesus. It wasn't the Jews that crucified Jesus. It was them. It was us. It was you and it was me. That Jesus wasn't being punished for his own crimes before Rome. He was innocent. Even Pontius Pilate admitted that, washes his hands, I say find no fault and guilt in this man. Jesus wasn't being punished for his own crimes before Rome, he was being punished for our crimes, our sin before God. That he went to the cross and account of their sin, of your sin, of my sin, and they're cut to the heart because they understood this. This is what we all need to understand personally, that Jesus died for your sins and for mine. Have you ever watched the Passion of the Christ. The movie came out when I was in college. I remember Kelly and I, we were dating at the time, and we actually went and we watched it in the movie theater. I have never experienced anything like that. The experience of walking out of that movie theater when the movie was over was just silence. Nobody knew what to say. The gravity of what Jesus did just left every single person in the room speechless. The price that he paid so that we could be forgiven, it was chilling. It was sobering. One of the things that always stands out to me when I think about that movie was Mel Gibson who directed it, he shared in an interview that he wanted to make a cameo in the film. The only scene where you can be seen, you can't see his face, you can't see his body, but it was the moment, Jesus' body is bloody and broken and bruised. They lay him on that rugged cross. Mel Gibson says, "In that scene, you can see that it is my hands that are holding the nails as they're pounded into the hands and feet of Jesus Christ." That he wanted to communicate and he wanted to commemorate this reality, that he knew on a personal level that Jesus died because of him. That it wasn't the Romans or the Jews that killed him, that Jesus died for me, not just because of me, but for me. That it was my sin that held him there. That this was the price he paid so that I could be forgiving. Jesus didn't merely come as Lord. He came as Lord and as Savior, as the Christ, the Messiah. He did not die according to the schemes of man alone, but Peter says he died according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God. Think about that, that before the foundation of the earth was laid, an eternity passed, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, they knew that this day would come. They planned it together. That this is what it was going to cost us to love our creation. This is the price that would need to be paid to save people from their sins. That Jesus would have to come, not just as a shepherd, but as the good shepherd. The shepherd who lays down his life to save the sheep, as the sacrificial lamb of God, who by his own blood shed on the cross, would take away the sins of the world to redeem God's elect. Jesus seeing every one of us, long before you were born, he knew you, everything about you. He could see every sin you've ever committed and every sin that you will ever commit. He knew it all and yet he still chose to love you and to give himself up for you. To go to that cross, to pay the penalty that our sin deserves. The crowd sees and they feel this reality for the first time. In verse 37 it says when they heard this, they were cut to the heart. They say, brothers, what shall we do? I'm praying that right now, some of you are asking that. We've rebelled against the holy loving, perfect, innocent creator of the universe, that God came and showed himself to us, and we crucified him. What shall we do? What could we possibly hope to do to write this wrong? Thankfully Peter tells us right away, he just says repent and be baptized. Every one of you for the forgiveness of your sins in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. He says this promise is for you, and for your children, all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord God calls to himself. This promise is for you, that Jesus died for your sins. Now, how do we respond to this? Well, Peter says first of all, Jesus died for your sins, therefore repent. Repentance, if you're not familiar with the word, it's not really a word we use very often in our culture today. It just simply means that you turn around. You're walking this direction, living life your way, you turn around and you begin following Jesus, living life God's way. You reverse course to follow Jesus Christ. That when the Holy Spirit regenerates your heart, when Jesus Christ gives you the gift of faith, when those lights are turned on, when you're cut to the heart, you should feel remorse as they did. But that remorse should lead you to repentance. Not to run away from God, but to turn to God in faith and to run and to embrace him. You embrace Christ as your Lord and savior. Repentance, it's not just something that we do once, it's something we do continually, day after day. We take up our cross. We follow Jesus. We continue to repent and submit our lives to Jesus Christ. 1 John 1:9 says that if we confess our sins, he's faithful and he's just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. In Romans 13:14, we read the Apostle Paul says put on the Lord Jesus Christ to make no provision for the flesh to gratify its desires. I like that imagery of putting on Christ, that the act of repentance, of faith, of committing your life to Jesus Christ, I've heard it described its kind of like putting on Christ is like putting on a parachute. Right? It's one thing to say that you understand how the parachute works and that it exists. It's another thing to claim that you trust it. The question is, when it's time to jump as the plane's going down, are you actually going to put the thing on, strap in, and hold on for dear life? That if you know who God is and if you trust that Jesus Christ can save, then you put on Christ and you jump. You live this life of repentance and faith, that yes, Jesus, I am going to follow you wherever you go. Jesus died for your sins, therefore repent. Then next, Peter says and be baptized. What is baptism? Literally the word just means to be immersed. It's like to be plunged underwater. All right? It is something that Jesus commanded us to do as his disciples, and as we say around mosaic, what is baptism? Baptism is an outward sign of an inward reality. It doesn't save us, but it shows that we were saved. It's an outward sign of an inward reality in which we publicly reenact what Jesus has done for us. Romans 6:1 says what then shall we say? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means. How can have died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. This is what baptism symbolizes. Baptism symbolizes that just as Jesus died and was buried, that when we repent and put our faith in him, when we commit our lives to Jesus Christ, that we are dying to our old life, our old life of sin, of living in the flesh. We are buried under the waters of baptism. Then we are raised up out of the waters of baptism to symbolize that just as Jesus Christ was raised from the dead, we too had been raised to walk in this newness of life by the power of the Holy Spirit. Not only that, but we also live life now with this expected anticipation that Christ is going to return to make all things new, and when he does, we will be given physically resurrected, glorified bodies then as well for all of eternity. That's what baptism symbolizes. Now, the second question is if that's what baptism is, who should be baptized? The answer is just simply only those for who this symbol is true. If this symbol is true for you, that Christ has saved you, he's raised you to this new life, then you should be baptized. Everyone who has made a commitment to repent and put their faith in Christ to follow him as Lord and Savior should get baptized. Jesus commanded this. All right? It is a blessing to you as a believer. It is an encouragement to the church. And it is a testimony to the world, that you didn't save yourself, that Jesus Christ saved you and gave you new life. And so if you haven't been baptized, you should get baptized. And you should do it soon. Ideally, this is the first act of obedience to a follower of Christ when a person comes into faith. And so if you haven't been baptized yet, we would love to talk to you. Get connected to us somehow. Pastor Andy and I will be up here after the service. We'd love to talk to you about baptism. Pastor Andy routinely leads a baptism class where you can learn more about baptism and how we do that, but definitely encourage you to do that. You can mark that on your connection card if that's easier. Talk to somebody at the welcome center. Whatever you need to do, encourage you to do that. Jesus died for your sins, therefore repent and be baptized. Then 3 Peter says, and receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Repentance is something we do. Baptism is something that is done to us. We don't baptize ourselves. We're baptized by someone else as a symbol of what Jesus has done for us. The gift of the Holy Spirit is the gift that we receive. This is something that every Christian receives at the moment of salvation. The moment that you put your faith in Christ, repent of your sins, and commit to follow him, you receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. You look in the Book of Acts and you realize if you've read through Acts. Yeah, there's some weird exceptions to this where some of the believers in the beginning days of the church didn't receive the Holy Spirit until a little bit later. But as the teaching of the apostles to the church was established, it becomes clear that those cases were unique. But that what is normal and what we should expect is that every believer has the Holy Spirit and received the Holy Spirit the moment that they were saved. The Holy Spirit is a gift. It's a gift that can't be taken away from you. It's a gift that can't be lost. It's a gift you can't return. That Jesus says, no one will snatch you out of my hands. But it is important to understand that our experience of the power and the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives, while the Holy Spirit can't be taken away, that our experience of his power and presence is something that can be quenched. The scripture talks about this, that when we grieve, the Holy Spirit through pride, through stubbornness, through unrepentant sin, you can quench the Holy Spirit. Therefore, if you are in Christ, you have received the Holy Spirit. Therefore, now walk in the Spirit. Live in the power and in the presence of the Holy Spirit. We commit to follow Jesus because he is the risen Lord. We've looked at the evidence for that. We commit to follow Jesus because he is the merciful savior, and we've seen how we should respond to that. Then finally, before we close, we commit to follow Jesus because he is our beautiful inheritance. We kind of skimmed over this earlier. But before I close, I want to kind of quickly go back to the Psalm that Peter was quoting in his sermon. As in Acts chapter 2:25 through 28, peter quotes a Psalm of David in order to show that David was prophetically writing about the resurrection of Jesus Christ. But it's clear, however, when you read that psalm that David was not only talking about what was true for Christ, he is also prophetically writing about what is true and about what will be true for all of us who are in Christ. And so as I close, I want to read that psalm for us as an encouragement to us this morning. This is Psalm 16, beginning in verse one. King David writes this. It says, Preserve me, oh God, for in you I take refuge. I say to the Lord, you are my Lord and I have no good apart from you. As for the saints in the land, they are the excellent ones in whom is all my delight. The sorrows of those who run after another God shall multiply their drink offerings of blood. I will not pour out or take their names on my lips. The Lord is my chosen portion and my cup. You hold my lot. The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places. Indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance. I bless the Lord who gives me counsel, in the night also my heart and instructs me. Upset the Lord always before me, because he is at my right hand. I shall not be shaken. Therefore, my heart is glad, and my whole being rejoices. My flesh also dwells secure. For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol or let your holy one see corruption. And make known to me the path of life. In your presence, there is fullness of joy, and at your right hand are pleasures forevermore. This is a glimpse of the good life that the good shepherd came to give, of the abundant life that Jesus promised. It's a life that we live in the presence and in the pleasure of our God and Father. It's a life that we can experience and enjoy in part right now as we turn and trust and follow Jesus and walk in the Holy Spirit. But it is also a life that we will fully inherit, that we will most perfectly enjoy in the future and for all of eternity when Christ, our good shepherd, returns. As surely as Christ was raised from the dead, we live with the expectation, the anticipation, and the hope that when he returns, he's going to raise us up as well with him to share in his beautiful inheritance. That for all of eternity, we will be with our Lord and Savior and see him face to face. That as the psalmist wrote there in his presence, there will be fullness of joy, and at his right hand will be pleasures forevermore. Listen, if you want to commit to follow Jesus Christ and to begin this new life today, I want you to pray right now as I close. I want you to cry out to God in repentance and faith. God promises that all who call upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, they will be saved, and so ask him to save you. Also, if you have chosen to make that commitment, would you please let us know? Please talk to us. Every week we have people that mark out on the little connection card that I've committed my life to Christ today or have recommitted my life to Christ this week, but not very many of those people follow up with us. We want to get to know you. We want to talk with you. We want to pray with you. We want to answer any questions that you might have. We want to talk about why baptism is important, why it's important, and why it's going to be a tremendous blessing for you to get plugged into a community group to begin building some meaningful relationships here at church. Because you're going to need people around you to support you, to love you, to care for you, to hold you accountable. We're going to talk a whole lot more about that next week, but for now, if you've made this decision, please come talk to us. Members of our prayer team will be up here after service. Pastor Andy and myself will be over here. You can mark that on your card and we'll try to follow up with you. You can talk to people at the welcome center. Whatever you need to do, we just want to talk to you and we want to pray for you. Jesus told us that when every time one single sinner repents, that there is rejoicing among God and among the angels in heaven, that this is a big deal. We want to know about it. We want to celebrate it with you and want to do whatever we can to help you as you commit to this life of following Christ. All right. That being said, let's spend some time in prayer and then we're going to spend some time just praising God together for his amazing grace toward us. Let's pray. God, we just thank you and we praise you for the mystery and the majesty of your gospel, of your plan of salvation. It's hard for us to grasp the greatness of your love for us, that you would send your son, your beloved son, our Lord Jesus Christ, to die for us, to save us from sin and death and to offer us this abundant life, a life that we know is not going to be easy, but we also see is going to be worth it. That Jesus, you are truly worthy of all of our praise and devotion and allegiance and obedience, and it is so good to follow you together, our good shepherd, and to worship you together right now. Lord, I pray that as we continue and worship and as we sing these songs, that the sound of our praise would be pleasing to your ears and that would bring joy to your heart. Lord, we love you. We praise You. In the name of your Son and the power of your Holy Spirit, we worship you together now. Amen.

     The Bible describes David as a man after God's own heart (1 Sam 13:14; cf. Acts 13:22). This is a huge compliment, but what does it mean? God certainly knew David's heart and what kind of king he would be, for He informed His prophet, Samuel, saying, “God sees not as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart” (1 Sam 16:7). The statement of David being a man after God's own heart occurs within the context of Saul's disobedience to the Lord. Samuel told Saul, “You have acted foolishly; you have not kept the commandment of the LORD your God, which He commanded you” (1 Sam 13:13), and again, “you have not kept what the LORD commanded you” (1 Sam 13:14). Saul had disobeyed God's command through His prophet, so the Lord promised to take the kingdom from him and give it to one who would be more obedient. David was that man. He was an obedient king, for the most part, and subsequent kings were measured by him (1 Ki 3:14; 9:4; 11:4; 14:7-8; 15:1-3; 11; 2 Ki 16:2; 18:1-3; 22:1-2). David set the bar for what it meant to be a good king, and this allowed others to have a standard to guide them. However, we should not conclude that David was perfectly obedient and kept the Lord's will in all matters in his life. He did not. No believer ever does, for there are none who are sinless (1 Ki 8:46; Prov 20:9; Eccl 7:20; 1 John 1:8, 10), except the Lord Jesus Christ (Matt 5:17; 2 Cor 5:21; Heb 4:15; 1 John 3:5).      Biblically, we should understand some acts of obedience are more important than others, and some acts of sin are more egregious than others. For example, Samuel, told Saul, “Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice” (1 Sam 15:22). Solomon wrote, “To do righteousness and justice is desired by the LORD more than sacrifice” (Prov 21:3). Jesus told the scribes and Pharisees, “You tithe mint and dill and cummin, and have neglected the weightier provisions of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness” (Matt 23:23). Likewise, some sins are worse than others and bring greater judgment. Jesus told His disciples not to be like the Scribes, “who devour widows' houses, and for appearance's sake offer long prayers”, saying, “These will receive greater condemnation” (Luke 20:47). Concerning the citizens of Chorazin and Bethsaida, Jesus said, “it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the day of judgment than for you” (Matt 11:22). The apostle John, writing to believers, states, “All unrighteousness is sin” (1 John 5:17a). However, he drew a distinction, saying, “there is a sin that results in death” (1 John 5:16b), and “there is a sin that does not result in death” (1 John 5:17b). These are obvious statements that show some acts of obedience are better than others, and some acts of sin are worse than others. Furthermore, of the 613 commands given in the Mosaic Law, only 15 demanded the death penalty, namely: intentional murder (Ex 21:12-14; cf. Gen 9:6), attacking or cursing a parent (Ex 21:15), kidnapping (Ex 21:16), habitual rebellion against God (Deut 17:12), sacrificing to pagan gods (Ex 22:20), cursing God (Lev 24:15-16), working on the Sabbath (Ex 35:2), being a false prophet and leading Israelites into idolatry (Deut 13:1-5), religious human sacrifice (Lev 20:2), the practice of divination, sorcery or witchcraft (Ex 22:18; Deut 18:9-14), adultery and premarital sex (Lev 20:10-14; 21:9; Deut 22:20-22), sex with an animal (Ex 22:19; Lev 20:15-16), incest (Lev 20:11-12, 14), homosexuality (Lev 18:22; 20:13), and the rape of a married woman (Deut 22:25-27).      In fact, David personally acknowledged his sins, saying “my iniquities are gone over my head; as a heavy burden they weigh too much for me” (Psa 38:4). He also wrote, “For evils beyond number have surrounded me; my iniquities have overtaken me, so that I am not able to see; they are more numerous than the hairs of my head, and my heart has failed me” (Psa 40:12). Among David's recorded sins, the most offensive was his adulterous affair with Bathsheba and the murder of her husband, Uriah (2 Sam 11:1-17). Scripture tells us that David had slept with Bathsheba and had her husband, Uriah, killed; and “the thing that David had done was evil in the sight of the LORD” (2 Sam 11:27). What is commendable about David is that he handled his sin in a biblical manner by confessing it and seeking the Lord's forgiveness. Under the Mosaic Law, it was always God's will that His people walk according to His directives. However, if God's people sinned (and they did), it was His will that they be restored to fellowship by means of confession and sacrificial offering (Lev 17:11; Heb 9:22). Concerning Uriah and Bathsheba, David said, “I have sinned against the LORD” (2 Sam 12:13; read Psalm 51 for the longer version of David's confession). And upon his confession, the prophet Nathan said to David, “The LORD also has taken away your sin; you shall not die” (2 Sam 12:13). Here we see God's grace and government at work; for though David was forgiven and restored to fellowship with God, there were still consequences for his actions and the Lord dispensed judgment upon David and Bathsheba (2 Sam 12:14-18).      On another occasion, David followed Satan's temptation and “sinned greatly” by taking a census in Israel (1 Ch 21:1, 8), presumably because he was trusting in his military strength rather than the Lord. When God judged David for this, David confessed his sin and declared, “I have sinned greatly, in that I have done this thing” (1 Ch 21:8a). It is a hallmark of a mature believer to own his sin and humble himself before the Lord through confession. Not only did he confess his sin, but he also sought the Lord's forgiveness, saying, “Please take away the iniquity of Your servant, for I have done very foolishly” (1 Ch 21:8b), and “I am in great distress; please let me fall into the hand of the LORD, for His mercies are very great” (1 Ch 21:13).      Furthermore, David practiced the sin of polygamy contrary to the Law of Moses, which specifically forbade the king of Israel from the practice, saying, “he shall not multiply wives for himself” (Deut 17:17).[1] From Scripture we know the names of eight of David's wives: Michal (1 Sam 18:27), Abigail (1 Sam 25:39-42), Ahinoam (1 Sam 25:43), Bathsheba (2 Sam 12:24), Maacah, Haggith, Abital, and Eglah (2 Sam 3:2-5). And he had other wives and concubines that are not named, as Scripture reveals, “David took more concubines and wives from Jerusalem, after he came from Hebron” (2 Sam 5:13a). Scripture records an incident in which two of David's wives were captured by Amalekites who made a raid on the Negev and Ziklag (1 Sam 30:1-5). David sought the Lord in prayer (1 Sam 30:6-8a), and God said, “Pursue, for you will surely overtake them, and you will surely rescue all” (1 Sam 30:8b). In this account, God gave David victory (1 Sam 30:9-17), and “David recovered all that the Amalekites had taken, and rescued his two wives” (1 Sam 30:18). Interestingly, the Bible says nothing about David's practice of polygamy, and though it is a sin according to Scripture, it was apparently tolerated in David's life, perhaps because it never resulted in his wives leading him into idolatry as it had with his son, Solomon (see 1 Kings 11:1-11).      But doesn't this seem unfair? That David could commit such heinous sins as murder, adultery, and polygamy and still be called a man after God's own heart, as well as being the standard of a good king to all subsequent kings in Israel? I think there's an answer to this, and it is found in two words; grace and humility. Grace on God's part and humility on David's part. There is a pattern in David's life: when God charged David with acting contrary to His will (as His righteousness demands), David accepted it and humbled himself before the Lord, accepting whatever came to him; preferring forgiveness alone, but accepting punishment also, if that's what the Lord decided. David knew that grace is a chief characteristic of God. The Bible reveals God is gracious, “The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness” (Ex 34:6), and, “You, O Lord, are a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness and truth” (Psa 86:15). God the Father is described as “the God of all grace” (1 Pet 5:10), who sits upon a “throne of grace” (Heb 4:16), who “gives grace to the afflicted” (Prov 3:34), and provides salvation “by grace” through faith in Jesus (Eph 2:8-9; cf. Acts 15:11; Rom 3:24). Jesus is said to be “full of grace and truth” (John 1:14), and the Holy Spirit is called “the Spirit of grace” (Heb 10:29). Grace is undeserved favor. It is the love, mercy, or kindness that one person freely confers upon another who deserves the opposite (Matt 5:44-45; Rom 11:6; Eph 1:6; 2:1-9; 2 Tim 1:9; Tit 3:5-7). The kindness shown is rooted in the goodness, bounty, and open-handedness of the giver.      The other word is humility. Humility is a lowliness of mind, an inward quietness before the Lord that reflects a poverty of spirit. The humble know they need God and seek Him for wisdom, guidance and strength. Humility is not a natural quality, nor does it come easily, but it is what the Lord requires of His people (Mic 6:8; Eph 4:1-2; Phil 2:3-4). The humble live with a constant sense of their weaknesses and inabilities to cope with life apart from God, and are keenly aware of their sinful nature and propensity to turn away from the Lord and befriend the world. Humility is not a sense of worthlessness, but unworthiness of the Lord's love and blessings. The humble realize they deserve nothing good in this life, and any blessing they receive is from God's grace. Though David had his failings, he realized God is gracious and forgiving to the humble believer, as Scripture states, “God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble” (1 Pet 5:5). For this reason, David could say: "The LORD is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in lovingkindness. He will not always strive with us, nor will He keep His anger forever. He has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is His lovingkindness toward those who fear Him. As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us. Just as a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear Him. For He Himself knows our frame; He is mindful that we are but dust." (Psa 103:8-14).      David was not perfect, and neither are we. But I want to close with the point that we too can be described as a person “after God's own heart” if we walk daily with Him and prioritize His commands in our lives, and humbly accept His correction when He gives it. To be a person after God's own heart meant David was primarily disposed to seek God's will rather than his own (as was the case with Saul). David desired to know God's will and walk in it, and to lead others to do the same. To be a person after God's own heart is to love what He loves, to walk with Him in the same direction He is going, to be sensitive to what pleases Him and to obey His commands. David had this kind of heart, saying, “I delight to do Your will, O my God; Your Law is within my heart” (Psa 40:8).     [1] Monogamy was and is God's ideal (Gen 2:24-25; Matt 19:4-6); however, under the Mosaic Law, polygamy was permitted, though not promoted. Biblically, we know Abraham took Hagar to be his wife, even though he was married to Sarah (Gen 16:3). Jacob had four wives: Leah (Gen 29:23-25), Rachel (Gen 29:28), Zilpah (Leah's maid; Gen 30:9) and Bilhah (Rachel's maid; Gen 30:1-4). But Abraham's and Jacob's acts of polygamy were consistent with the cultural norms of their day, which were practiced before the giving of the Mosaic Law.

What does it mean when the Bible says….. • That David was a man after God's own heart? • Didn't he commit adultery and murder? • How can that be “after God's own heart?” In today's podcast, we'll take an in-depth look at that statement and be challenged on how our hearts can be ones that please God. For more on this, notes, and links to a video, go to https://www.Bible805.com --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/yvon-prehn8/support

Series: Be'erot, Love & Relationship with God.   Synopsis:  The time-bound specific self vs. simple beingness.   Episode Transcript: (After singing a niggun) It's a niggun about things that we are learning. It's set to the pasuk that David Halmelech says, Yamin Haromema…asaseh yah, which means: the right hand of G-d is raised up. It's the higher power in relationship to the power of din and of justice and judgment, and the right hand is the hand which enables Hashem to do chayil--He has the power to create hosts, and create many wondrous and myriad expressions of life… David Hamelech declares about himself, I will not die, but I will live. I will tell the story of the doings of yud key--an abbreviation of one of the names of G-d-- and it has a very powerful connection to what I want to explore today, regarding David and his expression of the love of G-d that we began to see last time. Here is the context: We saw in Rashi's divinely inspired perush on the pasuk v'ahavta hashem elokecha… that you love G-d with all of your heart, and all of your force or soul, and with all of your meod, that Rashi told us about meod, that the highest level of this love of G-d is expressed through mamoncha-- through your creative investment in life, your possessions-- and then Rashi told us that the other person who is present at the end of this process is King David, who we've been following the emergence of (since we saw the dudaim with Leah, which is in reference to his name) and now David actually turns out to be the one who is the final expression of love of G-d. His name "dod" actually means the loved, and the lover, and therefore Shlomo Hamelech, when he begins Shir Hashirim asher l'shlomo yishakeini m'neshikot pihu, he said, Kiss me with the kisses of His mouth, ki tovim dodecha miyayin, that your dodim are more dear to me than wine is. So he is referring here to his father, dodecha, davidecha, your David, who the kisses of Your mouth, G-d, are expressed through David, and they are more worthy and valuable to me than any of the wine of Your direct and expressed revelation. That there is something that happens between us, Shlomo haMelech says, that happens in a kiss, that can't happen if all there is is just wine. And this we understood with the help of Chazal; it was a reference to the incredible power that G-d has given by virtue of coming into unity with Him through the kisses of the mouth, which are teachings of the Torah she b'al peh and the halachah, and we saw how that becomes realized in this world with the halachah also being hakalah, the bridemaid who is where all of G-d's teaching and revelation arrive in that act , that one act of love towards him in fulfilling His will, which is our way of kissing Him. And the other aspect is the kiss of the Torah she b'al peh, the creative involvement in the revelation of His word, and a new element which I want to also refer to today, is something else about these neshikim. But the transpersonality, the power in the world which is embodied in David, is a kind of power of love which comes to realization in the bechol meodecha. And what was the bchol meodecha?  That David becomes the one who expresses at the meeting of all of the various and sometimes trying meetings with life, is the one who achieves the level of bchol midah u midah she moded lecha, that with every measuring out that G-d sends to you, that He measures out to you, haveh modeh lo, so acquiesce to Him. And I believe that's the correct translation here, as opposed to hodaya, with giving thanks. Here it's--in a sense--surrender, it's an acceptance of, it's a being whole with that, David says. And Rashi goes on and says that David is the one who says: kos yeshuot esah, uv'shem adonai ekrah, that I raise up the cup of salvation and I call out the name of G-d. Tzara v'yagon emtza. I find difficulty and travail, uvshem adonai ekrah, and I call out the name of G-d. Whether it's kos yeshuot, whether it's tzarah v'yagon, whether it's salvation, or it's travail, bshem hashem ekrah. And I want to point out that bshem hashem ekrah, doesn't seem to be an expression of thanks. Hes not thanking G-d. He's not saying, uvashem odeh, that I will give thanks to G-d. He says that in many other places-- it's not that David is short on giving hodaya. But here, in meodecha, what he is doing is being modeh. How? By calling out G-d's name. And this is a very powerful and crucial element in all of the work that we have been doing in the love of G-d. And especially in the aspect of the creative force which we explored last week in the lev tov, which is the heart of creativity, the pounding life-giving force, which a person, in his right purity, becomes that. That lev tov is rooted in that maayan mitgaber, in a spring that is overcoming all kinds of obstacles, whether it be fear, whether it be self-denigration, or--but that the maayan comes to be expressed in the lev tov, and in attaching oneself to that, so one learns to be modeh. How is one modeh? So we saw last time, in telling a tale of someone who had a tremendously liberating breakthrough in a certain context that we were together, that breakthrough for instance may even be the kind of plug that is in the neck of the bottle, that's the plug of his own self-hatred, or self-denigration, or calling into question his ability to be an expression of all of those but block the expression of the maayan mitgaber which flows out. And the incredible thing is then when a person becomes modeh--meaning accepts--and here I'm giving the explanation of what the modeh is, he accepts the reality as it's being given to him. He accepts that and he is modeh to it. That's the first stage. He is at one with the is-ness of things, just as they are. Without all of the lies and blockages. Just as they are, that's the first stage. Just with the is-ness of things just as they are which attaches them to, as we've explained in the past, to the Tree of Life, as opposed to the Tree of Judgment of Good and Evil. And now that he is attached to that place, there is a marvelous thing: and that is, that there is a life-force which in a sense protects from becoming complacent when you're modeh, a life-force that pushes ahead to evolve further and grow creatively into more.                 Now I want to look at u'vshem hashem ekrah, that he's calling out G-d's name. So we saw profoundly last time that this is actually a reflection of the love of G-d which the Maharal taught us; it was a reflection of it's ahavah she aina t'luyah b'davar, it's a love which doesn't depend on anything, meaning it's not a matter of whether G-d's doing good things to me  or things that I don't like. Because I'm so at one with Him, and so connected to Him, and all of life is experienced as the wellspring of G-d bubbling up through reality, so that actually pushes us ahead in our growth in the participation of that. That, the Maharal taught us is love, because love is the deepest communing of our soul with G-d. And already at this point, the love that we are describing is really in a sense vaguely connected to the lover and the beloved as two separate entities. It's devotion to expression, it's connectivity of all, and it's a process of birthing, which is what life then becomes about.                 So something very powerful which the Rabbis tell us and actually has a lot to do with the day which is coming out, Tu B'shvat, Rosh Hashanah la ilan, and the way in which we're always called upon to live our lives of creativity and action in this world. And that is, I would say, the most important contemplation that we have in our literature, which is the shliuv of shem yud kay vav key and alef dalet nun yud, that those two names be ever intertwined. And there is a way of writing them which is intertwined, which you've seen in certain siddurim, and it is encouraged, when a person is praying, to have either in imagination, or on the print in front, the shiluv of these two names. And the reason for that is because, the shem Adny, is the most dear --and dangerous--place. It's most dear, because it's the place of our realization and creativity, because shem Adny is a reference to the soul as it becomes expressed in the world as an Adan. An aden in Hebrew is a socket. Like the sockets that were holding the tabernacle in its place. Life is Adny, life is My aden, G-d expresses through that name. Your life is My adan, Your life is holding all of this divine influx. That it should have a place to stand. That's shem Adny. But shem Adny has a profound danger, and is most present specifically in our creative moments, which are so endeared and we've given so much space to in our teachings. That is because the experience of creativity can become a profoundly separating one. We saw this in the trial of Yaakov, who remains lvado, alone, for the small shards and the image of him being alone (and the first time of his being talked about being alone.) It's very painful--it's painful, in a sense, to be a creative person. The artist's life is a trying one, and I think anyone who has any kind of creative realization that is personal and dear to them knows that there is a very curious path that seems to be followed in that there is--maybe it's not that way for everyone--but my sense of it is that there is a period of sorrow or trial, which then leads to a realization that I'm not about these trials and sorrows;  they are what I am experiencing, but there is a depth to my selfhood and my being that is beyond the depth of my sorrows and my trials. There is something that actually the pain brings about by virtue of being a tzarah, which is the word that means a narrow straight, and somehow that narrow straight--like water that flows through that narrow straight--becomes energized, where there must be a great word like impetuized--empowered--by passing through that straight. And then there is this opening that happens; this is a pathway of creative output which is a trying one, a very difficult and lonely one. But in that loneliness, there is a tremendous meeting that we saw that Yaakov has with, so to speak, the lonely one. The lonely one being Hashem Himself, Who, no thing, no one, is like. And it's very important to maintain a consciousness of the shiluv between the place of the outer expression and personal and specific and unique creator, and the one who is simply a mouthpiece for the G-d who is speaking through me. And I don't say that lightly, but that is indeed what we call upon G-d to do. Every time we pray, we say Hashem sfatati tiftach, You G-d open up my mouth. So that is a shiluv of Havayah and Adny. How so? Because the name Havayah is the name of simple being, as we've seen from the Grah and other places. It has no time frame, no future, no past, there is only present in shem Havayah. That's the meaning of that name. And even present is a misnomer, because there really is no present that's just simply being. That's shem Havayah. And Adny is, as we said, a place where there is a specific casing for the appearance of being in the form which is time-bound, time involved, specific, and seems to be putting out its own stuff. This is why, the name Adny--alef dalet nun yud-- is the word ani, alef nun yud, with a dalet in it. And this isn't just a word game, this is very important, because in the Kabbalah, shem Adny is actually called ani. It's me. The I, the place of the I, I am, and the place of the I is the deep experience of being able to stand up to, being able to assert, be an act, or in life. That's the place of ani. But it only connects to Adny when the letter dalet is there. Literally, the letter dalet, as we saw, is so important in the name Yehudah, for instance, which is also a connecting of the dalet from Adny into the yud key vav key. G-d's name is the yud key vav key with the dalet from Adny, so that the ani can appear, which will be David Hamelech, who comes out of Yehudah, so that the ani of David Hamelech can appear. The dalet remains bound to yud key vav key, so that the consciousness of being connected to simple being, and G-d in His own changing presence will not be lost  But then David comes down as the ani, the I who is the creative output, and this then becomes revealed in the world, through the specific and creative activities which were so dear and about which we say ki tovim dodecha mi yayin, that your dodim are so dear, they are deeper than all of the wine, which is the place of the place right now. There are higher worlds than this, but [this is] the place of statis, the secret place. Yayin is gematria sod, which is the secret place of being, which is always a secret because we're always in the world of doing. So, it can't be spoken--it's an essential secret, in the sense of as soon as you begin to speak it, so then it is no longer being. It's already doing language, letters, forms, etc. so it's a perfect secret.                 For us, the David has to become a right reflection, with the dalet --and the dalet, David-- right? The dalet and the dalet has to have the clear and powerful--  powerful is the wrong word, but the very clear and zach, clean, transculent awareness of him being an expression of being, a mouthpiece for being. Very hard to hold that together. You could see why every time you say G-d's name you have to create a shiluv, a merging of these two names together. Very hard to hold that because as soon as you become creative, a new creativity, wow! you're excited and there's energy and there you are, and unbelievable, and even if it's not egotistical and self-centered, but the experience of it--it's me, it's happening to me and then you have to pull back and oscillate back to it's G-d, it's pure being, and go back there. When you're there it's a statis and there's all kinds of creative movement, so then you begin again and it becomes this oscillation which is indeed the oscillation of the shir which we spoke of once. It's the oscillation also between Havayah and Adny, which creates by virtue of its movement back and forth the song, which is the song that Shlomo Hamelech sings, the Shir Hashirim asher l'Shlomo. But this very crucial holding is actually what we are referring to every time we say amen, every time we say a bracha. So in the bracha, he's brought it down from the highest shefa into this piece of fruit, or this piece of bread, or whatever it is, and then it has created this yichud, and then the person answering amen is actually saying something that is completely faithful and integrous. That's what amen means: Be faithful and integrous. And I'm connected by asserting that this is faithful and integrous. This world is indeed nothing but Him in His expression. And that is why the word amen itself is the numerical value of these two names of G-d, yud key vav key and Adny, because that is what needs to be established by the person who has heard the bracha, Amen. It's Adny and Havayah together. This is the real ne'emanut, the faithfulness that one's creativity is not experienced which is ajar from  or [inaud—revert/overt?]  from. I must say a little bit of a digression, but it is important, too, because I would really like to see this more clearly, but I have a sense that eating fruits on Tu B'shvat isn't really--excuse me for bringing up my penchants. I am not so convinced that it's such a good idea to be so focused on the fruits on Tu B'shvat. Because it's about the tree, it's Rosh Hashanah ilan, and the word ilan is the same gematria of these two names. It's the same numerical value. Because the ilan is the place which is the connector between the ground and the fruit, or as the Maharchu of Reb Chaim Vital explains it, that there's a soul root which is in the higher worlds. And it's rooted and comes down through the tree and then it blossoms and becomes a fruit in this world. But lo! to the one who decides it's only the fruit. Has v'shalom. On Sukkot, which is the only holiday on which we deal with fruit, it's very important to keep connected to the lulav. Because the lulav connects it back up to the tree-ness of it and we're never supposed to be separated when they're being held. Because the most powerful and significant downfall is when the fruit is pulled away from the tree, and in fact has a great deal, --as we've explained in other contexts--, a great deal to do with eating only the product and not of the one who is its source and so we'll put that aside, but I will point out that historically, it's fairly late that we Jews are eating fruits on Tu B'shvat. It's mentioned in the Magen Avraham, 1600s, and there's good reason to believe that the source of having a seder Tu B'shvat with all these fruits is not a particular holy one. I'll put that aside…                 In terms of our lives, it's very much that way. It's very easy to become fruit-oriented, because you're very much oriented around the productivity and the produce and the output and just in terms of personal terms, forget about what am I becoming and how am I connecting to Source. Who is producing this fruit? I mean, it's all a bunch of great words, but what is your life? Who are you? We live in a society which is so divorced from Source. Just give me the stuff! Go into the store and pull it off the shelf. I don't want to deal with mechanism. I don't want to deal with process. I just want to have the stuff at the end. And our personalities become that way, where it becomes like our personality culture or persona-culture, which is what you're projecting, which is far more important than who you've become. So you get these things, you know, like learning ways to get people to like you, or to make a certain impression without the transformation itself. So that's on the level of our humanity. But on the level of our divinity, it's the same way. In a creative mode it becomes disconnected from that first origin of expression. You know that one of the great and most important contemplations that we have is the knowing that all of this is always in becoming; it's always being made by G-d, He's always speaking this. You can even imagine in a mediation, the emergence of a thought; just watch the emergence of a thought which comes from perfect at-oneness with that which that thought is emerging. Where did that thought come from? What was the nature of it, that thought, a moment before you thought it? Certainly it was there in thought, in mind, somewhere, it didn't come from nowhere. Well, that is the very beginnings of contemplation of unity coming into manifestation in a very mysterious, wondrous way in which that thought is not in your mind before you think it, it's not there. You can't find it, identify it, but it is there. Now that is a low level example of, if we imagine it as far more supernal that (33:24) all is present within G-d before it becomes manifest and real, or is it, or in what sense is it there before it becomes manifest and real? It is there and it's not, and there's this wonderous transition. I'm teaching you this because it's very important for us as Jews to always be attentive to that transition point, that we become creative and expressed, but we know it was a thought that was thunk by G-d. And that's what it is and that's what our lives are. It's His thinking it.  Even though we experience it, and we have to experience it, the Adanim which is the hard socket that holds it, and if we don't experience ourselves with substance, so then we're not going to do anything.   But the ani must always be connected or expressed through the dalet, which is a delet, which I began to explain twenty minutes ago, the letter dalet in Hebrew is a delet, [a door], a passageway, and so in the ani has a passageway that it's adni,  and then when it connects up to yud key vav key, and its dalet becomes interpenetrated into the yud key vav key, then it becomes Yehudah, who is able to both acquiesce to and surrender to and give thanks for--and only from there can David our King emerge. And only from there can a true, redemptive consciousness emerge. And only from there can come true song and speaking of Torah and prayer, almost ironically, and prayer. And this David says about himself: v'ani tefilah. My selfhood is prayer. And the reason why he says that--it's so important-- is because--well, (hesitating) the prayers we say, in the Kabbalah, the Arizal, the prayers that we say, are kisses. This is the profound terminology of our teachings which must be taken with a right orientation of zakut, of non-materiality, but in the prayers we pray, so the first three brahcot are the chibuk, the hug, and the request we make of G-d are the kisses, so the Arizal teaches. What, the kisses? That yeshakeni m'neshikot pihu. Because when we pray, so there's a mixing of our breath with His breath, and this in the Kabbalah is a very high place of unification. The prayers are actually His voice speaking through us, and that's the only way to truly pray, which is with an awareness that it's Havayah who's speaking through my Adny, my Ani. And I'll say it in simpler terminology. It's His will and desire which I seek to align myself with in my prayers, and to speak His word, so that I will be speaking what it is which He Himself desires and it will never be anything else other than that. Just like it should never be anything other than His Torah that I speak when I say something which is a chiddush, something new. What does that mean something that is new? Is it not what G-d Himself thought? Of course it is! If it's new and disaligned from He, then it is nothing. And when it is very ancient, only then is it something, but in its being ancient, and the more ancient it is, the newer it is when it is received in this world, and in this body. It's this profound paradox that we live. We only want to say the most ancient thing, the ones that are the deepest thoughts of His will. The Zohar teaches that when a person says a chiddush, the angels raise it up and bring it to G-d, because He asks that a chiddush come to Him so that He might kiss it, and He kisses every chiddush. That's yeshakeni m'neshikot pihu, we're asking Him to kiss us with the kisses of His mouth. Pihu, which is the peh of yud key vav, with us providing the final heh, which is the soul's return up to Him to be kissed by Him and rejoined with Him, and then His breath becomes at one with our breath-- through a teaching which is a true teaching. This is what we really long for, and this is where love becomes so deeply at one with Him that in the end, David Hamelech himself says, it doesn't matter what you send my way, I am in full at-oneness with it. The Rabbis say that at the end of time, and I say this with trepidation and had it not been printed in the Talmud, then I wouldn't, but as you'll hear, because as the verse says in Zacharia, in chapter fourteen, v'hayah adny hamelech al kol ha'aretx, v'yom hahu….ushmo echad, that it will be that G-d will be King over all the earth, and on that day G-d will be one and His name one. So the Rabbis say….(40:49) what , today he is not one?… Amar… so Rebbe acha bar chaninah, his name is like the fraternerous one, his name is the binding one who is the son of the one who has chen…. The World to Come is not like this one. In this world, when something good happens, we say, baruch hatov v' hamativ, blessed is the One Who is good and Who does good, but when bad news comes, so we say baruch dayan haemet, blessed is the True Judge…. In the World to Come, the only thing will be hatov v'hamativ, there only will be good and the good one. Shmo echad, so that was He will be one, and His name one. What? His name now is not one? ,…. Rebbe Nachman bar Yitzchak, not like this world, but in the World to Come. In this world, My name is written yud key but is read aleph dalet. In this world, it is written yud key vav key but we don't say that, we don't pronounce that, we only pronounce the aleph dalet nun yud. But in olam habah, kulo echad, but in the World to Come, He will be called yud hey and he will be written yud heh. We will call Him by His real name. Because in the World to Come the simple being of all will be so present and apparent, that the experience will not be of things will are antithetical to or in favor of. It will only be Him. That's what David is calling to, when it says ubhem hashem ekrah, I call out His name, Havayah. B'shem havayah ekrah. Calling upon that His name should become One.                 But we should experience life that way and indeed he is the one who is raising that cup at the end of the feast, at the end of time, at the end of G-d's sustenance for creation to give Him this blessing, which is this odecha of the final and most intimate love with Him which it's no longer a calling out of His name, it's a being to being with. This love, which is one which is-- there's glimmerings available to us in this world, glimmerings of it whenever we accept life, when we accept what G-d gives us, when we know it as good what He has sent us and what we have faced in our lives. And I want to tell you something that is a great secret. And so much so that the Gemara goes on and says, Ravah, who was one of the greatest teachers of the Talmud, wanted to give over this teaching in a very public place, in the pirchah. The pirchah is when there would be very large masses of people that would gather for the teachings of the Rabbis. So amar le ha husaba (44:47) so there was an old man there, who said to him, l'olam ktiv, it says, ze shmi l'olam. This is My name to be hidden. This is to be hidden. So he didn't. (That's what I meant when I said I would give it over, it wasn't printed.) But the truth is, it's a secret whether you've heard it or not. It forever remains a secret, because it stands as an antithesis to our primary experience of life, which is of the ani, and the transition all the time from the ani back into Adny, through Havayah and Yehudah back up into the ayin, is one which is an ongoing oscillation and flux, which is truly the song of life, and the great love song, which is the Shir Hashirim asher l'Shlomo.                 (46:12) There was once a man who lived something of  this. He was the great teacher of Rebbe Akiva, who is of all the tanaim, is the most primary origin of Torah sheba'al peh. In fact, so much so that when Moshe saw Rebbe Akiva, he said, "You have Rebbe Akiva. What are You giving the Torah through me for?" I could go on and on about Rebbe Akiva…His name is actually the ending letters of a verse which is big important verse about our lines: Or zarua l'tzaddik uv'yisreh lev simchah. If you take the ending letters of each word, it spells out Rebbe Akiva. Or--resh, zarua--ayin,   l'tzaddik--kuf, uv'yishrey--yud, lev--vet, simchah--hey. And Rebbe Akiva is the expression of the Torah she b'al peh, who lives his life in oneness, as we know that's how he indeed ended his life. He had a teacher, whose name was--we only know his first name--and apparently, both the place he came from, and the way he lived life. And the name of his teacher was Nachman Ish Gamzu, the consoled one who was of Gam Zu. What is Gamzu? This, too. Why was he called Nachman of Gamzu? (48:28) Because kol milte de hava salka le, On everything that would happen to him, he would say of it, gam zu l'tovah. This is also good. This is also for the good. Gamzu l'tovah. Fantastic. So, there was actually something here that could be put to use, a guy like this. You could send him to all kinds of situations, and he would say, gamzu l'tovah. Nice, but will it always work out? I guess, he'll always see it as working out, so I guess it's okay. I guess it's kind of like a no-risk thing. So the Rabbis needed someone to go speak to the Caeser, who was going to or had made a bad declaration against the Jews. So they wanted to send him a package of a bribe, of extravagant and precious stones. So they said, who can we send this with? So they said, well, let's send it with Nachum Ish Ganzu-- d'iluma b'nisim, miracles are always happening with him. He's learned of miracles. Actually an interesting phrase, because it doesn't acutally mean always happening with him, it means he's learned of them. Already you have a sense that miracles that happen to him don't just happen to him, they're related to somethng about his consciousness about life and the world. He's learning. His learning is a miraculous learning. So, what do they do? They sent him a suitcase of precious stones. On his way to Rome, or wherever he was going, he had to sleep over somewhere. So he put it wherever he put it, he went to sleep, and in the nighttime, the owners of this little rest spot came in his room, took the suitcase, emptied all of the stones out of it, put them in their bag, and filled it with dirt.                 Now there are two versions of this story. In the one version, in the morning he saw it, and said, gamzu l'tovah. Another version has this in parenthesis, that dar , I don't know. In any case, (51:12) kimatva hatam, when he arrived in Rome or wherever he was going, sharinu l'sifta, so he presented the suitcase to the Caesar, they opened it up, and they saw it was full of dirt. The King wanted to kill him and all the Jews. They're making fun of me, those Jews. Nachum Ish Gamzu said, gamzu l'tovah. Eliyahu appeared, he looked like he was one of the king's advisors, and he said, maybe this is the dirt of Avraham, their father. You know, when he took dirt, he would throw it and it would turn into arrows, knives and swords, there's even a verse in their prophets that their swords are turned into dust. And the archer's bow is turned into chaff, actually the direction in the prophet, of course. There was this one that they couldn't overcome --lo matmu lmichtma she (52:41)-- So they checked it out, and they threw this dirt at the capital city, or at the country, and they were able to capture the country! Whoa! So they came back and they went into the King's treasury and they brought out all kinds of precious stones and they give them to Nachum Ish Gamzu, and they said, Here, take this back and give this to your people. They were thrilled. Okay, so on his way back, so he goes and he sleeps in this place. I don't know, good things seem to happen in this place, so he goes and sleeps there again. So they asked him, What happened with your mission?  How did things work out? So he told them what happened. They said, Well, what did you bring? He said, What I took from here I brought to there. Okay, as soon as he left, they pulled down their house, dug up all the dirt, put it into big boxes, and they brought it to the Caesar. And they said, this is it! This is the stuff! We are the owners, we're the ones he brought it from. So, they said, okay, let's check it out. Of course they checked it out and it didn't do anything. And so these scoundrals had an unhappy end. And that's was the story of Nachu, Ish Gamzu, teacher of Rabbi Avika. What's this Nachum Ish Gamzu? Gamzu l'tovah.                 So the Maharal says a deep thing, "What did Nachum Ish Gamzu always say "gamzu l'tovah"? He was always saying "Gamzu l'tovah." As if it needs to be enunciated. It couldn't be, so to speak, just an attitude. So he says the following crucial teaching: It says that everything that comes from G-d is coming from His good, and when something comes upon a person which seems to be bad, listen carefully, (55:41) hu boteach bo… yitbarach. That he completely relies on G-d. Hashem Yitbarach…tovah. G-d turns it to good… by virtue of his reliance on Him.  Vey interesting--listen carefully. Everything which comes from G-d is good. When it comes, trust Him. And if You trust Him, he turns it to good. Huh? Wait a minute. Is it good, or isn't it good? What are you telling me? Is it good, or isn't it good? Why are you telling me that my trust will determine whether it's good or not good? You just told me that everything that comes from G-d is good. Yeah. But its goodness depends on your reliance, bitachon, betach, is your ability to cling. In Hebrew, tiach is what clings to, rest in Him. Boteach bo. It's like sitting on the floor now. Let your weight be in it. Cling to Him, be davek in Him. And then He turns it to good. That's not to say that if I didn't, then it wouldn't be good? Well, you know what? Yeah. Because then you'd be living a lie, you'd be living the lie of your interpretive and judgmental mind which is pushing it off and not willing to be modeh to.  But when you are boteach and modeh to, then the good comes.                 Now I want to warn you.  Don't try to make sense of this, because it's a tautology. It's not like I'm proving to you that what G-d is sending you is good, the proof being when you accept it, it's good. It's not a proof of anything. It's an experience of life. We could never prove such a thing, because we can't stand outside saying, it should be this way, or it should be that way, if you remember the young man from last week. You can't say it should be this way or it should be that way. You should be standing outside the whole system to determine such a thing, so shut up. Just shut up. Shtok. Ki kachah lah b'machshavah. You can't say what it should be, shouldn't be. But what you can become is an experiencer of life as it is. And you can know, thanks to G-d having revealed Himself to us, that He made this world and held it because He saw that it was good. And when he saw the suffering and travail, the midrash says, that came about on yom sheni, on the second day, which is the introduction of duality. He didn't say tov about that. That if you look on the second day of Creation, He doesn't say tov, because it's the day when duality is created. But on the day of tov meod, He interincluded all the elements into one. And then even yisurim--which are the experiences of life which are antagonistic to what it is that we enjoy or like--becomes included, the midrash says, in the tov meod. And so it is that as long as we stay in the place of claiming omniscience, so forget it. What are you proving to me? That G-d is good because when I accepted what happened to me, that it turned out for the good? What, are you trying to trick me into believing in G-d? No, I'm not trying to trick anyone. I'm just trying to describe an experience and that's what the Maharal is doing for us; he describes the experience when you're boteach, he's m'hapech it l'tovah. But I'm telling you it's good. So if you're telling me it's good, it's good, even if I don't accept it--No, it doesn't work that way, sorry!                 Here, give Me a kiss. Can you give Me a kiss, G-d says, can you become at one with Me? Ki tovim dodecha m'yayin, it's better than all of the joys which you could have thought to experience had you not come into being and stayed the simple wine in the place of the secret. If you can, then you've entered the moed . Meod? Like more than? More than. More than what? How could there be more than? You're right, there isn't. It's all Me. But know that meod is the same letters as Adam. Because you are the meod, if you live your life right.  And the way to live your life right is when the meod becomes mah, which is the same numeric value, the question of what. The statement of we are what, which was Moshe, who said about himself, and Aharon, anachu mah. We are meod realized as mah. And that's when the ani becomes ayin , and the Talmud says that you should know the whole world stands on that, the mah of Moshe, as it says: toleh eretz al limah, that he hangs the whole of reality on li mah. On the ones who say the li mah, for me, it's what. And I'm complete bitul to Him, I'm complete abnegation to Him, it's only Him. (1:02:39)                 The beautiful thing is, when that mah has the beginnings of ani added to it, the aleph, so it becomes meah, the one hundred brachot that a person is meant to say every day. But it's Moshe and the power of his humility which allows this to be, it's his power of humility which allows for the yichud for the connection of shem Adny and shem havayah as one, that the ani never lose its awareness of where it is always, and who is always thinking it and who is always speaking it, and who is always expressing it, and that is ultimate love and ultimate communion in a way that, in the end of time, will be expressed by the meodecha of acceptance.                 (1:04:30) You're welcome to ask questions… We discussed creativity in the beginning, and you talked about creativity in the sense of aloneness. How do you define creativity? Because you're not really defining it in a purely artistic sense, obviously. I really appreciate your asking that. Because it's not always that way, and the truth is, when it's a true creation, there's always people together in it. Nevertheless, I don't know exactly how to explain what's lonely about it. In the end nobody can know your heart. They bring five things--I need to find this Gemara again--five things that no one can ever really know, and one of them is the heart of another person. So that's creativity? The heart? Creativity is-- the lev tov is the creative origin of the life-giving force which is creative power. But creative power means what? That you're bringing something new to the world? It's something from you? Life-giving. I mean, one one level, it's life-giving. When it's new life-giving, so it's even more joyuous? So life-giving is a lonesome process? No, that I don't think. The amazing thing is the way that G-d made it is that the only way to give life is with another person. Until technologically came along and tried to rake that up too. But the incredible thing is, the creation of a child, the creation of anything, really, always involves another person. If you remember, we saw (1:06:34)  ashrei yulad'to, it says, happy is the one who gives birth to him, is the one who teaches be a chaver tov, know how to connect. So I'm contradicting myself, because I'm exploring different aspects of it. I'll try to say it as succinctly as possible. On the one hand, creation is always a co-opting activity, really, deeply. Creation is always cooperative. But there are moments in Creation that are experienced as just me doing it. Just me. And not only that: how could I possibly share this? Who would understand me? --on the one hand. On the other hand, of course it's with others and with all of reality and the whole world and G-d who is speaking it through me. And that is experienced very intimately. But I may be wrong, and I'm not the cleanest in the world. But I have the sense, at least this is where my madrega is, I have the sense that it shifts back and forth. And then you just want to share it, and then you realize: This isn't my doing, it's like everything and every person I've come into contact with and all life experience, this is reality. And then you're not alone at all. So does the loneliness—is the loneliness not knowing if the-whatever the creative item is--is going to be received? Is that what the loneliness is? Never able to fully share. One. And on the other, it's an expression of my utter and complete uniqueness. Right. So that's not knowing if it will be received or not. Not only the question of knowing if it will be received . It's unreceivable, because it's utterly unique. It didn't come from anyone else, it came from me. On the one hand. On the other hand, it's a very tameh place that I'm describing. Meaning, it's a very impure and incorrect. It's not right. The truth is, the whole of reality is participating in this and taking pleasure in it and contributing to it. And being part of it. That's the truth. Halevai that we hold that in the creative.  But, nevertheless, it is still l'vado. Because this particular expression is so unique and different that it's really alone. I'm kind of like trying to draw for you the shiluv for you of shem yud key vav key, and Adny. You can hold it in a picture, with a yud and an aleph and a hey and a dalet and a vav, etc.                 What I also want to say, it's the deepest love when it's experienced as something which is what I just described. We're all together in this. But who could you love more than someone who's participating in that with you? Also you said that it doesn't really come from you. So if you're not really alone, then what you're doing is tapping into Hashem. Right. So then is it an illusion, then, the (inaud) (1:10:51) ? Yeah, on a certain level, yeah. The class is over..and I'll continue to take questions. I'm always very wary of the word "illusion". False understanding. It's called, like I like it better, in the non-judgemental that's called da'at tachton. It's lower consciousness. The reason why I prefer that is because lower consciousness is crucial. The Rabbis said, when they tried to get rid of the yetzer harah, they looked around the kingdom and they locked it up. For three days, the yetzer harah, and they looked around the kingdom and they didn't find one egg that had been laid by a hen. Not one egg. You know, no fruit. Sad to say, but you need a lower consciousness. Then you catch yourself, and then like-- I know, high souls, maybe, I don't know, but it doesn't oscillate that way. But it's good to always have someone who reminds you. I have a dear I guess former talmid and friend. He reminds me, It's good to have someone who reminds you, when you're in your LOW! G-d. Because you can really only sort of hold it pictorially with a shiluv of Havayah and Adni and to be in the ilan. Was that helpful? It is, but I don't want to continue, because I could do it for two hours. (Continuing) Amanut, omanut in Hebrew, craftmanship and artistry, has its root as amen; aman has its root as shiluv. Because real craftsmanship, which is the creative output, is always with this kind of consciousness. When you're purely in it, when the creative inflow happens, so then it's from G-d. Then you start working it out, thinking about it, presenting it, getting it into how it's going to look, packaging it, etc. But the real moment of omanut, is very much like that. I'm just going to say one other thing. We're just referring back to our learning in the Rambam. (1:14:28) about Simcha bmitzvotav ahavat hakel shetzivah bahem. And David and his dancing and letting go, and it's all flowing through him, and Michal trying to stop that and etc. So the Rambam learned his teachings about simcha shel mitzvah from a sugiah that in a sense doesn't make any sense at all. Listen to this piece of Talmud. It says, Kohelet said two things. One thing he said was simchah--ech! It's a bunch of trash! As Ecclesiastes talks. And the other one says, Eshabeach ani et hasimchah. I praise nothing other than simchah. So the Rabbis say, What are you going to do with this contridiction? So they say, one is simchah, and the other is simchah shel mitzvah. And where do we learn simchah shel mitzvah, the joy of a mitzvah? So here's their proof. They say, well, you know, it says, that when Shaul was troubled and crazy, so his advisor said, We need to bring someone who can play you music. And, of course, they bring him no other than David Hamelech.(1:15:46) Vayehi knagen hamenagen, And then, when he played him the music, so his spirit was calmed. It's the same language which is used when the prophets would play and prophecy would begin. Huh? That's the proof that simchah she b'mitzvah, that's something. Now you look at that piece of the Talmud and you say, What? I mean if you had said, He brought him a lulav and he shook the lulav in joy, or if he had brought his tefillin and it said, He put on his tefillin in joy, then it would have been a mitzvah, right? Then it would have been the joy of doing a mitzvah, right? No. That's not simchah shel mitzvah. Simchah shel mitzvah is the joy in the joining. That's mamash, it's the only way to explain the Gemara. When he played the music, so he joined Him, G-d's spirit was resting upon him. That's simchah she b'mitzvah. The joy is in the joining. And Rashi says, well, it's a mitzvah to have G-d's spirit rest upon you, that's how Rashi, what they say in yeshivish, "tyches it up." But that's the point. That's simchah she b'mitzvah. The joy is in the joining. And that's music. The music is there. And that's David who plays the music for Shaul. Can you tell me more about the day of tov meod? It says that at the end of Creation on the sixth day, that G-d looked at everything, V'hiney, tov meod. Up until that day he looked at the particular creation of that day and He saw that it was good. He looked at the light, He saw that it was good. He looked at the plants, He saw that they were good. He looked at the orbs, He looked at the animals, etc. And then at the end, He looks at it all and says, it's tov meod, the allness of it that's malchut, the entirety of it. So the Rabbis said, You know what He saw when He said tov meod? He saw death. He saw suffering, pain, hell. Gehenom. And He said, tov meod. Gey shteis. Go understand that. That was the tov meod. I'm kind of loath to explain these kinds of things, but they have everything to do with what we've been talking about. Because that's the root for that pain and travail, as painful as that is, if you ask me, I don't know if I'd ever make the world like this, don't ask me, but that's the pathway that takes us to the meod. It's just that way, and when you're modeh to that, then it is that. Is that helpful for you? There's a number of midrashim on that, quite astounding. (1:19:55) You're describing the oscillation. You see, it's very much like whiplash, like I'm hearing you say oscillation, and I'm thinking halivay, to be in some kind of like sweet oscillation..  Thank you, I'm being, I'm sweetening it.  And that in that, I guess, I'm not sure what the question is, I think maybe that sitting in the reality in the Adny of it, say, how to sit in that and feel it and accept it, without feeling the need to push it off and say, no,but I'm really bitul and I'm really gamzu l'tovah, even if there's a deep emunah in the gamzu l'tovah, in the moment, how do you experience it and feel it and love it? How do you have both the gam, which reflects an awareness of my needing to see it, experience it, with all of its difficulty, how do you hold the gam, this too, is good. Both the trial and the l'tovah. Right now, I think I've described as best I can in a different plane. If you try to step over that experience of trial and tribulation, than the zu l'tovah won't happen either. You can't walk out on it, it's a perversion. It's a disgusting perversion--is the word that comes to mind-- it's a disgusting perversion of life, to G-d's gift of life, to try to not be in that. If it's just your thoughts, drop them. I have this, I'll think all kinds of bad things, or regrets about, or judgments of, etc. You don't have to walk through those. You can just lay those aside, you don't have to think about those, because it's not more real than the reality you're investing it with now. So drop that. That's not G-d sending that to you. Put that aside, think of Him, think of something good, etc. But when it's in life, person got his leg chopped off, or a child hurt, or whatever, things that we share, just like, oh, it's okay, it's G-d and it's good, that's a bunch of crap--that's a bunch of crap, and I specifically call it that, because I have something in mind, but I have like someone shared with me a lecture that he heard from a professor of philosophy from Berkley. And among the garbage in the lecture there was a good scene he described. When he was in the 1960s in an ashram, a a Buddhist teacher was telling the people there: So what would it be for you to have this rose without the thorns? That's enlightment. And they went around the circle and everyone said, Yes! And they got to this professor, who said, "What are you talking about? That's not life!" Jewish guy. "Where would love be? Where would growth be? Where would trials be? What are you talking about?"  And it's not that we don't know this, and in the end the Gemara says, ubayom hahuh yiyeh Hashem echad u'shmo echad. That, by the way, is what we started with, with the niggun (1:24:17) Yemim Hashem romema…ma'aseh ya. I am telling the story of yed keh Because in the end, yud key will be G-d's name: yihyah. Yud key yud key, which is just the mochin, just the higher consciousenss, not the lower consciousnes, that will be in the end of time, but that's not now.  But when you try to pretend that it's now, then sort of like jump the gun, then it's a short circuit. That's what the Rabbis say to people who try to go the long path through a short cut. Like in the famous mashal that the Tanya brings, that there's a longer shorter path and a short longer path. When you try to take the long path as if it's a shorter path, then you don't end up at the palace, you're just pretending. This has everything to do with what you were saying before about illusion. G-d created it, see that's where we're different from the Buddhists. G-d made this, that we should see things this way. What are you going to do with that? So if you live in a will-less reality, so then all you're going to focus on is, this is all illusion, maya, higher consciousness. But if you live in a reality which is willed by a loving G-d Who is good, and Who has made this in His goodness, well, then, don't skip it over, it's the meod and the tov. Love me. If you experience G-d as a loving G-d, so He made this not as some perverse and false image, illusion, but He made it as a reality that's meant to be lived. And then when you pass through it, and you do pass through it, what comes out at the other end, is the chelah yeterah, that the Zohar says, is the chelah yeterah of tshuvah and other things that what life is here on this planet for, you passed through the narrow path of mitzraim. You had to go there, the metzar hagaron, the narrow path, between your heart and your mind. Was that helpful, was I relating to you, Debbie? Yeah. Chaya, what's…? Still breathing. Okay. Gam zu l'tovah does that mean, this is wonderful? Pleasant and good are two different things. Yeah, Gam zu l'tovah. I don't know that it always means, to enjoy, it's to have a consciousness and awareness that it's not happening without reason, that there's a higher course It's going for the good.  and you're a part of that, and that's way it's good. But it doesn't mean that-- It's is l'tovah  "l" tovah. Yeah, it's for the good, it doesn't mean that it's good for you Correct. Gam zu l'tovah. I think Rebbe Akiva has a higher consciousness, and more geuladic consciousness, and ultimately there's even more, but he's the beginning --Nachum ish Gamzu, of this kind of consciousness, that's expressed in Rebbe Akiva in the great love of G-d that he lives. But you're right, and there's another story, which is a counterpart story of Nachum Ish Gamzu, if you remember where he meets a poor person, and the poor person asks him to --are you familiar with this story? There's a story about Nachum ish Gamzu, I don't know if I really want to tell the story, it's painful but it's important to see the other side, the Rabbis came to him once, he was ill, he was lying on the bed, he had no arms, no legs, and he was blind, the house was falling down. So they came to visit him, and the legs of the bed were sitting in pools of water so that the ants wouldn't climb up on the bed and gnaw at him. So he said to the Rabbis, First take all of the stuff out of the house, and then take me out, so they took all the stuff out and they took him out, and of course, as soon as they took him out, the house fell down. Because it was only in his merit that the house was still standing. So they said to him, How did this happen to you? So he said, Once I was walking on the way, and I had a load on my donkey, and a poor man came up to me and said, Could you give me some food, and he said, I will give it to you as soon as I unload. It's like the equivalent of I guess, like you're taking a hitchhiker. You'd like to stop here and the other one would like to stop ahead, I'll stop over there, and you'll get out and walk back. Something like that, I guess, so he said, I'll unload, and then I'll give you. In the meantime, the poor man died. So then, Nachum Ish Gamzu said: these hands that did not move quickly for him should no longer be, these legs that didn't run or him should no longer be. These eyes that didn't see his suffering and compassion should no longer see.  Wait a minute, why didn't he say Gamzu l'tovah? Well, apparently, it's not so simple. I don't have an answer, just leave that as paradox. But it's not so simple. Is that in the Gemara? That story appears right before the one I told. Because then the Gemara says, so why did they call him Nachum Ish Gamzu? Well, because he always said Gamzu l'tovah. What? And there he is, with the earth of Avraham, the man of love of G-d. It was his love of G-d, the earth of Avraham. It's not simple to be Jewish, you don't have the thorns, you want to go on a different path. Yeah, we have thorns and roses together. Because it's not an illusion, and your choices matter, and your response before them. And they have consequences. That's the next series. About fear of G-d. Oh yeah? No! Have a good day, bye!

< Back to 1 Samuel IndexTALKS FOR GROWING CHRISTIANSThe Lord Rescues David from a Major Dilemma Printed version BACKGROUND NOTESDOCTRINAL POINT(S)Moral mistakes of believers always result in greater problems.God sometimes delivers believers from the consequences of their mistakes.PRACTICAL APPLICATIONTake the way of escape that God provides.QUESTIONSWhat were the Philistines planning according to 1 Samuel 28?What had God prophesied would happen in this battle?What dilemma did David cause for himself here?What are moral mistakes?What was King Achish' opinion of David?How did God deliver David from this dilemma?ANSWERSThe Philistines had joined their various military divisions together and were planning to attack Israel.King Saul and his sons would die, and the army of Israel would fall into the hands of the Philistines.David and his men had turned to the Philistine King Achish for protection from King Saul. They had served him as a mercenary army, and now were obligated to fight for the Philistines against their own countrymen.Moral mistakes in life are sinful. They involve not doing what we know we should do.That David was a loyal servant who had faithfully served him well.He caused the Philistine commanders to pressure King Achish with questions about David's loyalty, until the King was compelled to send David home.DISCUSS/CONSIDERDiscuss the Law of Multiplication in moral mistakes. How is this principle sobering to you?Our sins can be eternally forgiven because of Jesus' death on the cross. But we may have to live with the consequences of our sin. Recall a time when the Lord graciously delievered you from the consequences of a mistake.CHALLENGEGod provides a way of escape from a temptation or test of faith you may face. Take the way of escape when God provides it!KEY VERSES“Is this not David, the servant of Saul king of Israel, who has been with me these days, or these years? And to this day I have found no fault in him since he defected to me.” 1 Samuel 29:3“No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.” 1 Corinthians 10:13

< Back to 1 Samuel IndexTALKS FOR GROWING CHRISTIANSDavid's Victory Over Goliath Printed Version BACKGROUND NOTESDOCTRINAL POINT(S)God is not confined to conventional methods in spiritual warfare.God can use a believer's former experience in spiritual warfare.PRACTICAL APPLICATIONDon't practice fanciful interpretation of Scripture.QUESTIONSWhy does it seem at the end of the chapter that King Saul didn't know David?Who do David and Goliath represent as an illustration of spiritual warfare?What was Saul's response when David volunteered to fight Goliath?How did God use David's former experience in his victory over Goliath?What principle can verse 48 teach us about spiritual warfare?ANSWERSOne possible answer is that while Saul knew David as his harp player and armor bearer, now that he was about to become his son-in-law, Saul was asking about his lineage.Goliath represents satanic forces opposed to God's people. David represents committed and courageous believers who are willing to step out in faith and fight the Goliaths.He objected that David was an untrained youth. He insisted that David wear his armor into battle.David became skilled in using a slingshot when he shepherded his sheep. David had killed a lion and bear while tending his sheep, which certainly gave David confidence and courage against Goliath.That David ran toward Goliath is an illustration of staying on the offensive in spiritual warfare.DISCUSS/CONSIDERDiscuss how David is ultimately a spiritual picture of Christ Himself who conquered Satan. A number of points were mentioned in the background section of this Talk.What former experience do you have that God can use in spiritual warfare? Have you seen this happen in your life?CHALLENGEDon't practice fanciful interpretation of Scripture, the story of David and Goliath is incredible as it is!KEY VERSES“The LORD, who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear, He will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine.” 1 Samuel 17:35“You come to me with a sword, with a spear, and with a javelin. But I come to you in the name of the LORD of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied.” 1 Samuel 17:45“The battle is the LORD's, and He will give you into our hands.” 1 Samuel 17:47

Melissa Costello is the creative lead and chief storyteller for MELISSACOSTELLO.COM's video-centric take on branding and marketing. In this episode, she shares the value of telling stories in marketing and why marketing through video works for lawyers. They talk about how lawyers today need to start thinking differently about their business and embrace marketing. The most important kind of marketing that is especially effective for law firms is using client testimonials. Melissa says that there's no substitute for testimonial videos, story telling is the most engaging medium of communication and people will want to do business with you if you tell them your clients' stories.  Timestamps:Marketing through storytelling (1:16)How to create engaging marketing (7:50)Different types of video (19:51)Why video marketing works for lawyers (28:20) “It is one of your greatest assets, the stories that your clients would be only too happy to tell - of how you changed their life, how you saved their business. Attorneys to a very large degree think that they provide a very intellectual product, and a legal product is anything but.” - Melissa Costello Connect with Melissa Costello:Website: https://melissacostello.com/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MelissaCostello.comChicago/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/melissacostellochicago/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/melissacostelloYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbZ8FHOYkCwD078T9dJgVYg/featured Melissa Costello, Creative Lead and Story TellerMarketingMelissa Costello is the creative lead and chief storyteller for MELISSACOSTELLO.COM's video-centric take on branding and marketing. Telling stories and building brands that impact people's businesses and people's lives is her passion. Her upbringing engaged her in a lively mix of both the fine arts and the marketing arts, joint passions shared by numerous members of the extended family. It's in the blood as is a restless curiosity. Costello has been awarded both domestic and international honors for the videos and television commercials she has produced for more than 30 years through her companies in Chicago and Los Angeles, and in collaboration with former political media consultant, David Axelrod for clients such as President Barack Obama and Mayor Rahm Emanuel.LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/melissacostello Have comments, questions, or concerns? Contact us at feedback@1958lawyer.com Episode Transcript:Ron Bockstahler  0:29  Welcome to the show. I am your host, Ron box dollar. And today we have a super special guest because he's one of my favorite people. And definitely one of my favorite people to talk to Melissa Costello. Welcome to the show, Melissa.Melissa Costello  0:40  Hey, thanks, Ron. It's really fun to be here already. Thanks.Ron Bockstahler  0:46  Again, it's funny because we generally get together for coffee, and now we're doing it over a show.Melissa Costello  0:50  Exactly. And we can't stop. You know, it's also good to have a 45 minute cut off point, I suppose.Ron Bockstahler  0:57  Well, you know, let's talk about you take us, you know, in your bio, which I didn't read the whole thing, but you actually talk about, there's my notes here. Your family engaged in a lively mix of fine arts and marketing arts. What are you talking about?Melissa Costello  1:10  What does that mean? You know, storytelling is actually what it means we it's coming at storytelling from a number of different disciplines. My dad's dad was an attorney. He was a litigator, he was brilliant at they used to say he created a spell in the courtroom, my father became a copywriter, my father, you know, took that notion of storytelling and applied it to, you know, huge corporations in America, he worked at Leo Burnett, his brother started an advertising agency, and you know, was another brilliant storyteller and writer, my sister is a script writer, it's in the blood, my son is a writer. So at the dining room table, you know, my sisters and I were the in house focus group. So it's like, girls, what would you think if we could cut apples into stars? Would you like that? What would you call it? What would you dip it into? You know, was, to me, the notion of marketing of advertising was play, this is what we're playing. This is fun. And I still bring that sense of playful discovery to my work, because that is what storytelling is, you find the story and you share it. And who doesn't love to tell a good story?Ron Bockstahler  2:26  We're talking most of our audiences are attorneys. And they're generally if they're litigators, they got to be a great storyteller. But Why do so few use video to tell their story digitally, to prospective customers?Melissa Costello  2:42  Well, that's a really that's a really good question. Ron. It's mystifying in the 21st century. You know, when you look back at where this whole thing started, you know, originally, video storytelling was called TV commercials. And it was in the very, you know, it was in the mix for an advertising agency, and it was cost prohibitive for most, because you'd have to have a massive crew. And you'd have, you know, in those days, I can't even imagine what the rates were like in the 50s and 60s when they began advertising. And by the way, it was very primitive. When you look at some of those old ads, they're horrible. I mean, by today's standards, things would, you know, the art has evolved. It's very sophisticated. But I would say that, as things have shifted forward, as things have evolved, I don't understand why people don't use it more often. Except that if you buy it on your own, you're usually not going to get a great product, you're going to if you go through an advertising agency, they have vetted a solid filmmaker, for you to work with. But I think smaller organizations have a hard time accessing those individuals accessing those companies. And they also have a hard time justifying the cost, you know, and expense is something that comes up often. But I, you know, what I say to my clients is what's really expensive, is doing it poorly and not using it. I mean, you're throwing money away, do it right. And you can use it over and over and over and over and over again. So, you know, in the legal world, you have such extraordinary stories to tell. They are the thing that almost every law firm leaves on the table. Every time they talk about marketing, it is one of your greatest assets are the stories that your clients would be only too happy to tell of how you change their life, how you saved their business. I think attorneys to a very large degree, think that they provide an intellectual product and a legal product is anything but I know from my own experience, having been in small claims court, represented by David Goodman, thanks very much, David, shout out. I know and I haven't done anything wrong, but the Feeling you have the anxiety? The Am I a bad person? What am I doing in small claims court? That David, you know, definitely stepped in, corrected everybody's perception. The judge was like, Oh, well, yeah, da, I can't tell you what he the gift he gave me. It's beyond money. It is He gave me peace of mind. And he also well gave me peace of mind and what,Ron Bockstahler  5:27  hopefully a win.Melissa Costello  5:30  He definitely gave me a win. He definitely gave let's backRon Bockstahler  5:32  up because I want to go into the cost, the sticker shock of quality, storytellers and what you need. But I want to talk more about let's get a little I want our listeners to have a more of a understanding of your past your history, the amazing clients you've worked with. I mean, you've worked with David Axelrod and a lot of his clients. So let's talk about maybe your top one or two clients that you've done video done storytelling with?Melissa Costello  5:57  Well, certainly, Barack Obama. Yeah, that was a high point it working with somebody, first of all, who's so verbal, so bright, and so kind and such a gentleman and really couldn't find anything wrong with him. Like I didn't, I didn't have to cover up any flaws in the filmmaking, you could say. And also working with David Axelrod, who you know, just an utterly brilliant strategist, and then bringing the emotion to his work through film. It was absolutely a high point. And then my children even started to feel like they were engaged in the campaign to the point that on the night that he won, I was in Grant Park with my son, and he turned to me and he said, Mom, we did it with tears in his eyes. Because, you know, the politicians would cycle in and out of our home, we would shoot in our home all the time, it became kind of a backstage for Axelrod's company. And you know, mayors and governors and whatever everybody would kind of pass through at some point, and the children would get to meet them.Ron Bockstahler  7:03  You know, David Axelrod is a brilliant marketer, political media strategist is what he's doing. whatever title you give him, at the end of the day, he understands if he was running a law firm, he would know how to make that the number one law firm in Chicago. That's true. And so when we're talking to the law firms right now that are listening, the attorneys that are listening to this, they need to start thinking maybe bigger or differently about how they're going out and approaching their business in general, and marketing in today's world, and I'm actually been slow to the digital world arena, and you know, tick tock, and everything's on video. And, you know, but everyone has to embrace that, which means they got to embrace someone that can make them look really good. And help them tell their story.Melissa Costello  7:50  I you know, again, back to the intellectual product concept. The other thing that almost all firms want to communicate is we're worth it worth worth the money that you're spending on us. And how do they do that? They do that with the ubiquitous skyline. It's like, you know, Attorney law firms have no idea how often someone in marketing says, Don't tell me they've got a skyline right there at the top of the homepage, and the or they've got, you know, some fabulous shot of their marble clad, you know, lobby or whatever they've got. That's not what moves people to hire you what moves people to hire you. First of all, is testimonials. You know, if there's one thing to me in marketing, the biggest thing that social media shifted, is the shift from, I'll take you at your word that you're a brilliant lawyer versus ah, I want to hear it from your clients. That's what social media taught us is to go to the people who are the user of the product or the user of the service, and ask them what they think, what was their experience like? Well, it's come to the point where there is no substitute for testimonial marketing. I mean, you and I did it together. It because every time you show, a testimonial video, in a room, you have just invited your most vulnerable, most enthusiastic, you know, former clients who love to hang out with you. They're right there in the room with you. And they are absolutely consistent. Every single time they show up. They are just as brilliant as they were the last time just as effective. How can you not do that?Ron Bockstahler  9:30  It's funny, you brought up the skyline and you know the most of these websites, you go find the five white guys that are sitting in their suits, and that's the picture to put it on their website. But that is not the picture that gets anyone to want to work with them. And it's hosted on they missed the emotional connection. If you go to one of these, you're watching TV and a commercial comes on to donate money to dogs or to kids, you know, St. Jude's it's an emotional video play and they are raising money from people they don't know No. So it's almost like the attorneys got to catch on law firms got to understand that they got to do the same thing, they got to create emotion, when someone's going through a difficult time. And you they, they want to call you because you show that emotion, in a video on your website, anywhere that that potential client can go and see it, that's what's gonna bring them in.Melissa Costello  10:20  Absolutely. And when we say emotion, emotion isn't just hand wringing and tears. Emotion is a full spectrum, emotion is surprise, emotion is humor. You know, it's this whole spectrum that pulls people in, it's like, oh, my gosh, there are human beings there. They're human beings, they're this is one of the first things that you learn when you go to art school is that one of the things that defines art is surprise. And, you know, like, Oh, I didn't expect to see that, or I didn't expect to hear that. Or the surprise, in terms of a testimonial could be, oh, my goodness, somebody else has experienced that. That's emotion. That's the kind of emotion you want to build into marketing, that engages anyone who goes to your site, you can do it in a website, you can do it in collateral, you can even do it in print. You know, certainly in video, it's easier in video, because video is real time and people moving and the sound of their voice and all of it.Ron Bockstahler  11:21  But if you're putting together a marketing campaign, which this is what every law firm should be looking at as an all all encompassing marketing campaign, you want to have the same messaging going out there. It's just, yeah,Melissa Costello  11:31  well, the thing that consistency does for you, is it doesn't undo you, because it stays the same as it travels, you know, as people experience it. For instance, you know, if I do a really great video, and you put it on a really bad website, and most websites are really bad, they're just incomplete. That's the way I view it. You put it on a really bad website, a visitor to your site goes, which firm? Are they? Are they the website? Or are they the people, the brilliant people in the video? Or are they somewhere not even represented? You know, anytime you raise questions, you lose them, you lose them, if you make them stop and go hang on a minute, they're gone, they're gone. So it's your opportunity,Ron Bockstahler  12:13  which is interesting. You're doing digital marketing, you can measure and you'd have video out there you can measure if people are coming and talking to you from that, versus the billboard that's a big argument with you know, spending a ton of money on those billboards. Are they really effective? Well,Melissa Costello  12:27  you know, they're doing something Otherwise, they wouldn't still be up there. I go ahead.Ron Bockstahler  12:32  No, no, no, I agree. They're doing something if they're being done in conjunction with a really solid digital campaign.Melissa Costello  12:41  You know, I always found it just so curious that, you know, the attorneys who generally advertise on the highways are the PIO attorneys who might be causing accidents, because their billboards. So it's like, it becomes, you know, it's, you know, ethically, I don't know, I don't know, makes me wonder.Ron Bockstahler  13:01  Lot of questions. Let's keep, let's see, is there any one particular area of law that does better with video?Melissa Costello  13:09  Well, I would say yes, certainly, personal injury, big in part. Now, this is a funny thing, in part, because you've got these guys who are just run volume practices, they don't know your name, they don't know your story, they just get in the door and hand you off. And I feel like when a personal injury attorney actually demonstrates that they care, it is flying in the face of that wallpaper of billboards, and of late night TV ads that just, you know, these people why it's so clear why they're doing what they're doing. Let me put it that way. It's about money. It's about a volume practice. So it creates an opportunity for a different kind of pie attorney to demonstrate it to demonstrate it in video to demonstrate it on their website.Ron Bockstahler  13:56  What about family law? Let's talk family news. Some areas of law. Oh, do they all I mean, does everyone benefit from video?Melissa Costello  14:06  Everyone benefits from good video? Yes. You know, it's back to that. What's really expensive, what's really expensive? Is spending any kind of money on video that doesn't represent you and represent your firm. And when I say represent, I mean the why, as well as the What the Who are you? You know, so many websites, so many videos, Rob, you have the pleasure of getting to know someone through conversation, you know, the conversation you and I are having and I'm watching you nod and I'm watching a smile. That needs to be a part of what happens when you go to someone's website. That's the whole purpose. It's an introduction, so why not make it as round and compelling as possible and that means showing up with the why showing up with your humor showing up with your surprises.Ron Bockstahler  14:57  And when they don't. This is what we did do video together and you were amazing, because you sit, you know, they don't see you on a video. But you're the one that's asking questions. You're talking, you're having a conversation. And then the end product is that client that's giving those responses, which, you know, at least I know, for a model office suite, it was amazing. I was like, wow, this is this is crazy good at this. We have so many great clients are saying so many great things that I never would have even thought to ask those questions. And that I think, is what the benefit. That's where law firms attorneys are gonna really benefit from working with Melissa costello.com.Melissa Costello  15:34  Well, thank you, Ron, it's, you know, interviewing. Interviewing is an interesting skill when I started. And I had my production company in Los Angeles, and I was interviewing for Jenny Craig. And I thought it was about getting a really great list of questions. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. They're not expecting this. And then go plowing through that list so diligently and hang on a minute, don't cut. Let me make sure we haven't forgotten. No, that's not what it's about what I discovered as I became, you know, a more mature and more skilled interviewer. And watched great interviewers like David Axelrod, for instance, what I discovered is, it's about being present for the dialogue. That's really what it is. If you are a good listener, you will have a good interview. Because you have to find that story. It's not something you already necessarily know when you walk into the interview. Yes, I have the basic, okay. The person went here, they were hurt in a car accident, they met this attorney, everything is good. Okay. That's not really the story. The story could be, my daughter was sick. You know, I was at risk of losing my job. I didn't know how. That's the deeper story. And that's, that's what's fun to find.Ron Bockstahler  16:49  Big, I'm thinking to myself, wow, you know how many people I mean, I was, and I mentioned this before, it's like, you have the opportunity to call Melissa Costello and just talk to her about putting together video, to me is amazing. We could all just reach out to you, because you've done so many celebrities, and just obviously super famous people and your experiences is unsurpassed. You are a great storyteller. So I just think it's that connection that you have, if I'm a listener, I'm going to be hanging out as soon as the show's over, I'm going I'm going to give her a call, I want to I need to have her in my office, because I need to understand how I can better connect with more clients or even better connect with my current clients.Melissa Costello  17:26  Thanks, Ron, so much of it is so simple. I will say this, you know, one thing I do you know, for instance, I call it videos, let me back up a second. I call it video centric marketing. Because I lead with video, I lead with your most powerful marketing tool. And then I take everything we gather on the day of the shoot, all of those stories, all of those images, all of those surprises, all of that emotion. And I share it on all media, I put it on your website, I put it in social media, I cut the video down into bite sized chunks, and I share it everywhere. And that is that is the power of consistent storytelling. I mean, I even do something on websites lately. I've been doing something I call case stories forget case studies, case stories, which means Ron box dollar came to me he had been in a car accident and buffet and I tell both sides of the story in a more complete way than I can afford to take the time to do in the video. Because the videos got to be under three minutes. And you got to finish watching it and go, Wow, I just found my law firm. You know, that's my objective.Ron Bockstahler  18:41  Okay, so that made me think you do different types of video because you did. You know, we had a three minute longer video branding video. And I called you and I said, I got a pitch. I'm doing a pitch. And I need a short video. And you cranked out I don't know what like a 32nd client testimonial video. I don't know exactly what you call it. But I was like, wow, like changed everything. Even I was sitting during the pitch I was sitting there going. This is amazing. changed everything. So talk to the different types of videos that are that you put together.Melissa Costello  19:15  Sure, sure, sure. And they're all kinds. They're the typical product that most law firms are interested in is a branding video. So it gets featured at the top of your landing page. And it's, you know, here are the big, you know, the important people in the firm you need to meet you know, here are the founders. And then here are some of their clients. Not every law firm feels comfortable putting their clients on camera. I hear this every time Oh, nobody will agree to do it. And I say you know what, when you have performed the kind of life changing business changing service that you have performed for them, they are delighted and actually honored to be asked. And by the way, they have a great time on the shoot. That's a whole other story. Like I think Your client can go if they want to. They're hanging out. They're hanging out. They're like, this is cool. I'm sorry, I lost my, I lost my thread where it was.Ron Bockstahler  20:09  You know? That's funny because I think I was hesitant that how many clients would sign up and say, hey, yeah, we'll come in and do video. And it was overwhelming. I think we had in two days, it was so many clients. So you're right.Melissa Costello  20:21  It's surprising. It's surprising. But don't you love to help someone who has done something wonderful for you? Absolutely.Ron Bockstahler  20:30  It's a pleasure. It's human nature.Melissa Costello  20:32  It is human nature. So that's your basic branding video. There's, you can also do a straight up testimonial, like you and I did together on a straight up testimonial video just clips of people saying extraordinary things. One client of mine likened it to going to your own funeral without having to die. He said the things I heard them saying I can't. What are they talking about me? Another type of video is you can do practice area videos, you can do bio videos, lino, let's talk about who you are, and why you got into law and you know, give us the whole backstory. Oh, another thing you can do is, you know, I also do animation. It not necessarily, though, actually, the Uniform Law Commission wanted to talk about an animated piece about how a uniform law gets developed, how it gets passed, you know, what that process is like? SoRon Bockstahler  21:27  isn't that when you talk about the bios, I mean, cut you off, but make the attorney human. Exactly making it. So that those prospective clients are going, Man, I just want I connect with this person. Yeah, you know, I mean, how often I talk to family law attorneys that it's not unusual for someone to hire someone and then leave with, you know, six months later, fire them, and jump to someone else. But if they've gone through that video, and they've had that experience, and you're human, it's very unlikely that they're going to do that.Melissa Costello  21:56  And I think it's especially important for legal practices, because there is a great deal of mistrust for attorneys on the street, there is not just PII attorneys, I know from my own experience, looking for a divorce attorney, how harrowing that was, if I could have gone to someone's website, clicked on a button, and countered a human being who actually seemed like they had my best interest at heart, it would have been done deal. And this is the thing, this is the thing about, there's an opportunity here for smaller firms, because big firms are not doing it either, by the way, and when they do it, they do it poorly. So you have the opportunity to not only compete with bigger firms, but to beat bigger firms, if you are doing a better job of representing who you are, what your values are, what life changing things you've done for your clients. It's I don't know why everybody isn't trying to do it. I can't get itRon Bockstahler  22:57  digital marketing world that we're in today, which didn't exist 20 years ago, it has given everyone a level playing field. So if you're out there, and you're picking a business today, and if you get clients, but they're not real repeat business, and you see one firm grow, but that small solo practice has the opportunity to become just as large in today's market if they do it the right way.Melissa Costello  23:18  Mm hmm. And you know what, the smart ones get this, the smart ones there. It's not that they have more money. It's that they recognize that there's something missing from the way they're representing their firm and their work. They get it, they get it before others get it. And in family law, it's incredibly powerful for that reason I was talking about before that, how do I find someone I can trust? How do I find someone who I really think is going to listen? How do I find someone who doesn't view me as a case number, who really views me as a human being as a mother, you know, in a complex network that I'm trying to save and move forward in a safe way?Ron Bockstahler  23:58  We have so much, there's so much there. But I really want to jump into the world of TiC tock videos out there everywhere you see, I've seen a couple of attorneys that are doing their own videos and my old school thought was if you're doing something that's better than nothing, but I'm not always so sure that's the case. When you're doing in I get you try to create something low budget you're trying to get started. But it's just that I guess it's I guess you maybe want to look at what type of clients you want to go after. Mm hmm. And you bring in a professional bringing in Melissa Costello's team and creating thing and by the way, let's talk about B roll footage. So explain to people I guess maybe talk about the process. So I don't think people understand it. Just because I come in for two days. You got footage for two years of new new stuff. So let's talk how it all works.Melissa Costello  24:46  Well, this is you know that my style of shooting is not like anybody else's style of shooting and it's because of my layered history. I did television commercials for quite a few years and then I did political commercials for 11 years. And then I decided to take all the skills that I had learned in those two areas and distill them and create a method of shooting, that would work for a smaller budget, you know, because those were 40 5060 to 100. And, you know, the television commercials were hundreds of 1000s of dollars for a one day shoot. And, you know, without editing, by the way, and you know, the political commercials would be 4050 60,000 a day, well, that's not tenable for the average smaller firm, and I want to work with the smaller front, I want to work with a midsize firm, and help them differentiate. So, damn, I lost my train of what was that? A B roll. My style of shooting. So what I do is I, first of all, I shoot with three cameras, there are three cameras rolling all day long. I'm doing interviews all day back to back to back to back. And the other two cameras are grabbing B roll. What B roll is, it's anything that gets cut into your video, that doesn't feature a person talking on camera. So a person like a newscaster talking on camera. And by the way, this is one of the things I learned in filmmaking at the School of the Art Institute is if what you are looking at is the same thing that as what you are hearing, you are missing 50% of the opportunity to communicate, right? So talking heads, even though you need it because you need to see who is this guy? How does he move? What do I see in his eyes? That's important. But what's equally important is when you get to look at that person in their environment, not talking, what is the office look like? What are their clients look like? How do they look like? They're they have an easy relationship between each other? Can they laugh? Or is it all terribly serious? Does it look respectful? And you know, what's the demographic at this firm? Are there women? Are there people of color? What kind of you know, is there an economic diversity of clients at this firm? All of this is something that gets communicated through B roll. It's the subtext of everything that the attorney says on camera. So you know, this is why this gets into, you know, this is like film class, and I apologize, but this is why it is such a concentrated powerful tool. It's because, you know, the what's the trope, a picture's worth 1000 words, it has been estimated by Forrester Research, I think it is that a minute a video is worth like 1.8 million words or 1.7 million words. How can that possibly be true? It's because of all the things that are unspoken. What am I wearing? Do I nod when I listen to you speak? Am I do I look like a happy person? What's my environment like previous that office, I heard a train go by all of this is subtext. And it is a gift to be able to communicate some of those softer values without having to say, I'm actually a very nice person. If somebody said that on camera, you wouldn't believe them anyway. So that's the value of B roll.Ron Bockstahler  28:20  Here's where I get excited about you social media and video. It's so popular, but you almost have to have it. But you could do shorts, I don't know what the technical icon shorts, quick shorts of that B roll footage where everything you're communicating the atmosphere who you are without saying a word, but you can have a talk over telling another story. I bet it happens more. And I'm going to try to pay attention when I watch TV. Again, in a commercial, what I'm looking at is not someone talking but I'm looking at B roll and someone's talking. It's not the same I bet that happens 95% of the time. But using a quality operation, like what you've done. And what I've experienced with you is I can put out your shorts on social media saying New messages with that B roll that's already been shot time and time and time again. And that the more you do that, whatever the initial cost was, I mean, your ROI just is going it's going to explode. And the business you're going to bring in you at some point want to maybe pause the commercials or do those shorts going on social media because you're gonna have so much work coming in. But here's the great thing is you're running a law firm is stressful, and you got to do so many things. And one of the biggest things that attorneys have to worry about is where's my next client coming in? Because when I'm done with this, you know, it's that it's like all sales, right? The roller coaster goes up and down and things are great. I'm working, I'm busy, busy, but I'm not prospecting my getting a business off sudden, I got nothing. And I got to start the whole process again. But if you had quality video, and you're okay, let me turn my video back on let me put my short school back on social media and then I could just bring in those clients again, it's almost like turning the faucet on. Mm hmm.Melissa Costello  29:51  And in a funny way, you know, the pandemic and zoom has habituated people to communicating like this So I feel like videos even more important than it has ever been. I mean, we all got hooked on it, you know how it is you get on a phone call and you go, yeah, it's kind of flat, the phone is a little bit flat, it's a little empty compared to what I'd become used to communicating with you, as I see right now. You know, the other thing I want to talk about it and social media, social shorts, I agree with you, as I call them to, is, it is so economical to change them up. They are basically a 32nd television commercial or a 22nd, television commercial, they're tight. And, you know, if you create them in a group, they are incredibly affordable, really, the most expensive part is the day of the shoot, that's where the bulk of your money is going, then you've got assets that you can be rolling out, for forever, forever. I mean, unless you leave your firm like that, or you sell your firm or whateverRon Bockstahler  30:57  did your firm but I mean, it's still the same day, you can just recreate using that asset as you go, I love this, you'd say it's an asset, because that's what it is. Now you actually have a marketing asset that you can reuse, you could voiceover for a very long time.Melissa Costello  31:11  Exactly. It's limitless. The problem, actually, the problem is coming up with the best, you know, choose the best idea for the social short, because I, you know, sitting here, the two of us could sit here and talk about a model Office suites, and in one minute have 20 ideas for social shorts. That's the challenge is trying to rein yourself in and do the best 20 That's what it is. I'll tell you,Ron Bockstahler  31:36  Melissa, it's only a challenge when you're sitting with someone that's creative, and understand how to tell a story. That's the difference. You know, I've worked with you I've worked with others. And that is a huge difference. And I just don't think it's prevalent. I don't think a lot of great storytellers are out there that are law firms can go to and say, I want to bring you on to tell our firm story because no one's saying it that way. So when they're saying, hey, I want a videographer to come in and shoot a video.Melissa Costello  32:01  i You're absolutely right. And you have to start with the story. If you don't have there's an old what, how does it go? If it ain't on the page, it ain't on the stage. This is a Hollywood, a Hollywood or maybe it's Broadway, you know, Maxim, that, you know, if you don't have the story, you got nothing. And the same thing is true of a video. And the same thing is true of a website. And I It shocks me that even though 90 At least no, probably more like 95% of all law firm websites are indistinguishable from each other. They are all utterly generic. I mean, you go to the homepage, and you're like, give me can you give me something to sink my teeth into Please, I'm begging you. But oh, my train of thought, let me write stories. That's gonna what store gonnaRon Bockstahler  32:53  run out of time. Okay, here's the great news. Melissa's gonna be coming back. And we are going to co host several shows over the next two months. And we're going to focus on marketing. Marketing is such a big world is so much involved in there's so many different specialty areas. And I think if you know, the law firm, the attorneys I talked to I know or just an even myself, sometimes we're like, wow, this is so overwhelming. Where do I start? How do I go find someone, I'm going to upgrade my website, I'm going to I'm going to do some SEO, or I'm going to do some PPC, but they're not doing it all, you know, as one encompassing, you're basically then a we keep spending money, but not getting the results that in our mind, we think we should get. So we're going to try to help them with that. So Melissa, and I will be interviewing different experts in their area of marketing. Let's understand those areas. And let's find out what they need. It will be taken. I'll set it up so you can feed us Ron be at a matassa calm, you can ask questions, we'll address your questions during the shows, we're gonna have a lot of fun with talking about marketing and how you can make the most of what's out there with the resources you have. Now, I know there's you want to talk about and the investment because you know, videos, not inexpensive. Good video, it's definitely not inexpensive. It's gonna cost you some capital. But the ROI is there. I know you want to chat about that. Let's give us your take.Melissa Costello  34:09  Well, I would say again, because I was explaining earlier about this asset that you create isn't just a video, it creates the content for your website. It creates social media shorts that you send out on a regular basis. So you use the same asset you keep going back to and when I by the way. Another thing that I do whenever I shoot is arguably I give too much content there. There probably is such a thing run you would know. I mean, hours and hours and hours, literally eight hours of interviews with multiple people and eight hours no 16 hours because they're two cameras shooting B roll 16 hours of B roll. I know what to pull out of there. But I think I do are amortizing that shoot day across all these different chains. Animals, that is a great value, that is a terrific value. And the imagery is beautiful. And the quality of the interviews are shared over and over again. And I mean, you could send out a social short, that was nothing but a couple of quotes from people on your video, that would be really powerful just in and out done, and go, Wow. And there are so many moments like that, that we capture over the course of a day. In addition to that, I asked my clients, can you anticipate something that you'd like to talk about perhaps down the road, something you might want to add to your website, something you might want to future in social media, it could be something happening in the industry, it could be something happening in our larger culture, it could be, hey, maybe we want to get video bios in the can and use them down the road, you don't have to spend it all now that's the point. It's an investment that you can roll out, you know, over time, over years, really over years.Ron Bockstahler  36:03  I'm sold on it, I've just seen how it works. It's so effective. But if you want to take the risk of not having a new clients coming in the door, not having the revenue to support your lifestyle, and you know, enjoy your life, because it's all about you know, work life balance. That's what we always talk about. You got to have some video in your marketing blitz, you got also had redefine your marketing, I think, you know, meeting with Melissa, I think that is definitely the first start to understand this. Here's the other thing. I got a lie love by Melissa. It's not about oh, can I get this work? It's about how do we create? What's your story? Let's talk about your story. And let's see isn't an effective a compelling story that we can present to clients? And that's your approach, your approach is just different. It's not about oh, here's my fee, and here's what we're gonna do. No, no, no, no, it's not. Let's talk about your story. And it makes the attorney it makes your clients come out and say, Wow, let me think through what is my story.Melissa Costello  36:56  And it's growing things is growing things. Ron, you and I, this is one of the reasons we always have a lively conversation. We both love to grow things. We both love to make things happen for other people. I mean, when I hear back, you know, from a client, this happened not long ago, a client said, you know how you said, I can't give you an exact measurement of you know, what you can expect video to do. And she said, You're wrong. A week later, I had clients saying, you know, I am hiring you. I saw your video. And now I get what you know, I get how you're different. That's the thing. What differentiates you isn't your practice area, it's you. And that's what's palpable on video in a way that isn't palpable anywhere else. Powerful, huh, we have toRon Bockstahler  37:45  wrap it up. But we will be back. I think our next show that I'm going to have is we got Micah Dylon coming on and we're going to talk about being an author, what's the value of being an author and how that sets you apart in your area of practice. So come back into the next show. But Melissa, I want to leave it back to you as the last words. Last thing you want to communicate more is yours.Melissa Costello  38:04  I would say show up, do whatever you can to show up in you know in your full complexity in your in the richness of who you are as an individual and who you are as a professional. And the best way to do it is on video. The most unforgettable way to do it is on video. It sticks.Ron Bockstahler  38:23  So Melissa, on your website, you got a quote from Mark Lebowski, any firm that doesn't have video and the best video they can afford is losing business every day. They just don't know it.Melissa Costello  38:36  Isn't that amazing? Yeah. Mark. Mark said it was palpable. It was a palpable shift. Yeah,Ron Bockstahler  38:43  it's a must have in today's digital world. Yeah, Melissa, it's been how can our listeners get a hold of you?Melissa Costello  38:51  They can go to my website, Melissa costello.com is my very simply the name of my company and my URL. They can take it my phone number? Absolutely. They can call me at 312305 7500 and leave a message because I don't necessarily pick up calls I don't recognize. But I do get back to people.Ron Bockstahler  39:14  I've always found your really, really easy to get ahold of. So give us a call. I mean best just go to Melissa costello.com. Reach out to her from there, or just continue listening to the 1958. Lawyer Melissa will be co hosting and we'll be talking about marketing. So tune in the next several shows will be dedicated to understanding marketing, what you need, how we will answer any questions. So you know, send in your questions to Ron be at a Mott ofs.com and we will address those questions. Thanks for joining us today. I look forward to hearing from you and having you on the show next month. Thanks, Melissa.Melissa Costello  39:46  Thank you, Ron. Transcribed by https://otter.ai

What is humor? Why does it matter with regard to the workplace? How can it help organizations and leaders? In this episode, we talk with comedian and speaker David Horning about the changing nature of work and how humor fits into it all. Specifically, we discuss: The work landscape Why humor helps How to--how NOT to--incorporate humor into the workplace and leadership   Links and Other Information David Horning's website David's organization, Water Cooler Comedy David's podcast, You Can't Laugh at That David on Twitter Avolio, B. J., Howell, J. M., & Sosik, J. J. (1999). A funny thing happened on the way to the bottom line: Humor as a moderator of leadership style effects. Academy of Management Journal, 42(2), 219-227. Click here Pundt, A., & Venz, L. (2017). Personal need for structure as a boundary condition for humor in leadership. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 38(1), 87-107. Click here Huo, Y., Lam, W., & Chen, Z. (2012). Am I the only one this supervisor is laughing at? Effects of aggressive humor on employee strain and addictive behaviors. Personnel Psychology, 65(4), 859-885. Click here 

The Old Testament is a story desperate for a conclusion. This introductory message to the book of Chronicles demonstrates that the story finds its fulfillment in Jesus. Series: Never Too Late, Speaker: Pastor Don Dodge, Scripture: 2 Chronicles 36:23, 2 Chronicles 7:13-15, Matthew 1:1, John 1:1, John 1:14, Video: https://www.facebook.com/avalonchurch/videos/1007829879649744/, Sermon page: https://www.avalonchurch.org/sermons/never-too-late-hope-part-1/, Sermon Notes: 2020-07-19_never-too-late-part-1_sermon-notes.pdf, Discussion Questions: 2020-07-19_never-too-late-part-1_discussion-questions.pdf, Notes: I’d like to begin today reading the story of Audrey Mahn, Her and her husband Rich have done so much to help us communicate to you during this COVID pandemic. Audrey’s story is powerful, And common throughout the world. Audrey’s Story I was born in a small city in China. Most were Buddhist. There were no Christians around me. Though my family was not Buddhist, we had Buddha statues at home. Sometimes we would pray to them. When I was 9 or 10 years old, I liked going out on our balcony and looking at the sky and other buildings and I would talk to God. I didn’t know how I knew there was a God at that time, but when I had troubles, I prayed to him... or at least made a wish. During this time, my dad also had a friend who claimed to have supernatural power. He called it a “third eye” on his forehead, and said he could see and do supernatural things. This man’s daughter and I played together and pretended to have “third eye” power. When I was around 13, my mom began practicing a new cult religion emphasizing the supernatural. I was innocent and naïve and would join my mom and practice this for fun. However, when I was around 15 years old, I began hearing a voice and had destructive, evil, even suicidal thoughts. I tried to resist, but the voice and the thoughts tortured me. I felt so helpless. I couldn’t sleep at night because my heart beat so fast. I read lots of psychology and philosophy books. I didn’t know what was wrong with me. I thought it was a battle of my will... and I was losing. It was much later I learned that this was a spiritual battle between good and evil. When I went to college, I chose English as my major. Part of learning western culture was reading the Bible. I was even invited to a bible study, and that’s where I decided to become a Christian. That summer I was invited to stay with an American friend, Hannah, who was living in China. One night I shared with her my experiences of hearing that voice and fighting against those evil thoughts; how I felt this spiritual oppression and was scared. She noted that “I couldn’t even look her in the eyes.” We prayed in Jesus name that God would free me. Hannah called a friend of ours, Pauline, an American who was a Christian psychologist. Pauline invited me to kneel and confess my sins; to forgive those in my life who hurt me. I prayed and invited the Holy Spirit to come and occupy every area of my heart. We prayed for 2 hours. I was shaking and felt this battle inside me. Pauline asked for the demon’s name and I heard a voice inside say an English name that none of us recognized. We looked it up in the dictionary and the word meant “the third eye,” that supernatural power I practiced as a child. It was then when that power left me. It was an immediate change. I looked at the mirror and saw the light in my eyes return. And I could look straight to my friends’ eyes. I felt so free. God set me free and broke the chains on me. I had been tortured by evil for 7 years. I had no hope, but now God had saved me. He had a great plan for me and I could now live for him and tell his story so others would know God could change their life, too. INTRO We’re starting a new series called “Never Too Late” For the next 5 weeks, we’re going to look at some stories from the book of 2 Chronicles ...where God unexpectedly got a hold of someone’s heart, And their life was changed forever. My hope is that some of your stories will be shared, too. ...We have some great stories in our church-family. Whether you write them out or record a video, I think it would be encouraging for all of us to hear each others stories ...of how God has transformed, ...and is continuing to transform people’s lives. We’ve set up a webpage for you to share your story. AvalonChurch.org/Stories You can write it out, You can share a video. Whatever you want. That way we can all read what God has done, ...and I’d like to share a story each week As we look at various stories in 2 Chronicles. God Background Before jumping in, I need to frame the book of Chronicles, ...Because every story leads to a singular purpose, ...Hope. You may be aware that in our OT, 1-2 Chronicles follows the books of Samuel and Kings, ...and to the frustration of many readers, ...And after 9 chapters of genealogies, It repeats a lot content from both of those books. So often, when people realize they’ve already read some of these stories before, ...they just skip these books. Which is a shame. Because Chronicles is doing something very different than The books of Samuel and Kings. Which is much more obvious to Jewish readers. ...Because the books in our OT Are in a different order than the Hebrew Bible of the Jews. In our Bible, Chronicles is right in the middle of all the historical books. But in the Hebrew Bible, Chronicles is the very last book. The reason is that Chronicles is one of the last of the OT books that were written. The books of 1-2 Chronicles were always read as 1 book; But they couldn’t fit on just 1 scroll, ...so Chronicles Scroll 1 and 2. Chronicles summarizes the entire story of God. It chronicles the story, ...Starting with Adam and Abraham and Moses, And then King David, And when Israel split into 2 kingdoms. And it touches a little on the N. Kingdom’s destruction, ...but really focuses on the S. Kingdom, David’s kingdom, Before and after it was defeated by Babylon. . eventual destruction of the North all the way through the Jewish exile and return. Why do I tell you all this? Because when Babylon captured Jerusalem And destroyed the Temple, ...It looked like the end of the Jewish people, ...And the end of YHWH’s story. Yet, God, through his prophets, continued to offer hope that one day they would return home. Exiles returning was unprecedented. But the prophets promised ...Jerusalem would be restored, ...And the temple would be rebuilt. And that God would again live among them, And that Messiah would rule as God’s anointed king, ...that he would take back what they had lost ...and that all nations would come and live under his rule. This was the promise as Jerusalem lied in rubble. And as the people made new homes in Babylon. So around 50-60 years later, When the kingdom of Persia defeated Babylon, ...And when Cyrus, King of Persia allowed the Jewish exiles to return home, They saw the beginning of the fulfillment Of those prophetic promises. And that is what the book of Chronicles is all about. When it was written, Jews had been living back in the Promised Land for generations. Yet, none of the other promises had been fulfilled. There was no Messiah. The rebuilt temple was just a shadow of the first temple. And they were still under foreign control. So the writer of Chronicles retold and reshaped the stories of the past. They wanted to rekindle hope for the future, The hope for the coming Messianic King. The One who would come from the line of David. So the focus of Chronicles is exclusively on the kings from David’s lineage. Every story is a story pointing towards hope. That David was a good king, And the coming Messiah was going to be like David, ...But even better! Everything was written to help the Jewish people learn from their family history ...To prepare themselves for the coming Messiah. This is true even to the very last line. It’s a quote from Cyrus, The Persian king, after defeating Babylon. He said, “Whoever is among you of all his people, may the Lord his God be with him. Let him go up...” (2 Chronicles 36:23, ESV). And it literally ends with an incomplete sentence. It ends in expectation. Of course, the writer of Chronicles knew what happened when the Jews returned home. He knew the book of Ezra about rebuilding the 2nd Temple And the book of Nehemiah about rebuilding the wall. But clearly these were not seen as fulfillment of the prophetic hope. For the author, hope is set on another return from exile When Messiah will finally come, ...when the temple will be rebuilt, ...And God’s people will be restored. The book of Chronicles, And the entire Hebrew Scriptures, ...end by pointing forward. The OT story is a story that is incomplete. It ends unfulfilled, ...It’s like a show that is “to be continued.” And Chronicles wants the people to know: God is not done. God has a plan to finish what he started. God is brining restoration. And like he did in the past, God is inviting you and me back to him. This is a theme that occurs over and over in the book. We see it in the famous passage ...Where the Lord appeared to Solomon at the inauguration of the 1st temple, ...and said... “13 At times I might shut up the heavens so that no rain falls, or command grasshoppers to devour your crops, or send plagues among you. 14 Then if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and restore their land. 15 My eyes will be open and my ears attentive to every prayer made in this place. --2 Chronicles 7:13-15 (NLT) It’s never too late. I will never forget you. You have freedom to run from me. You have freedom to reject me. ...But I will always be here. ...Always inviting, ...always willing to restore our relationship, ...And welcome you home. That’s good news! That’s the invitation for all of us. And that’s the promise that Chronicles points to, ...That God will finally bring peace and restoration to the world ...through this king from the line of David, ...Through this Messiah. That’s why the Gospel of Matthew begins with a genealogy. 1This is a record of the ancestors of Jesus the Messiah, a descendant of David and of Abraham: --Matt 1:1 (NLT) It’s saying, The One you’ve been waiting for, The One who would fulfill all of the promises of the Prophets, ...He is here. ...His name is Jesus. The Messianic King from the line of David. This is why the Gospel of John begins: 1 In the beginning the Word already existed. The Word was with God, and the Word was God.... 14 So the Word became human and made his home among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness. And we have seen his glory, the glory of the Father’s one and only Son. –John 1:1,14 (NLT) The disciples of Jesus knew their Hebrew Bible. They knew the promises. And they wanted to make sure everyone knew ...The promises of the Hebrew Scriptures Were all fulfilled in Jesus. You (Application. So What?) And what does that mean for us? You, too, are made for a purpose. You, too, are desired by God. ...And that he came, suffered, died, and rose again, ...for you. You have not gone too far. It’s never too late. God used the writer of Chronicles to spread hope. And to tell God’s story BACK THEN. ...he wants you to do the same... NOW. ...To share the story that it’s never too late. So during this series, As I share stories from the past, ...I pray you will share your stories of what God has done in your life. AvalonChurch.org/Stories You can write it out. You can post a video. But tell God’s story. Share how it’s never too late to say yes to him, ...and find life in him. (Pray) We (Closing and Challenge) Action Steps: crushed Salvation. For Church Life Group Questions (send to Dennis) Mention Connection Card and Prayer Team

This week on MIA Radio we share what is something of an anniversary for us at MIA. This interview marks one hundred episodes since we launched our podcast in July 2017. And for this episode, we interview David Joslin. David is a retired army medic, having served in Iraq in 2003 and Afghanistan in 2008. David currently works as a senior healthcare administrator and he has co-founded Remedy Alpine, a veterans therapeutic recreation non-profit dedicated to providing wilderness therapy adventures in Alaska. David has also written for Mad in America, having published Broken is Not All I’ll Ever Be in August 2019 and he has recently launched a new podcast called Bullets to Beans, which is a military and veteran-centric podcast focused on current military and veteran topics, blended with discussions on mountain oriented recreational and adventure-based therapy programs. We discuss: How upon leaving the military, David felt that he had lost his identity, suddenly working in private healthcare and not being able to care directly for colleagues as he had as a combat medic. That to help deal with the change, David started going out into the backcountry wilderness to find peace and healing. How this interest led him to meet Eric Collier, a like-minded veteran interested in wilderness hiking. How David and Eric saw the benefits to be had in sharing wilderness adventure experiences and launched their first event for veterans in 2017 and when they got home, realising the amount of interest in and support for similar future events. David and Eric then took the time to establish themselves as a business during the Winter of 2018. During 2019, David and Eric led 49 veterans into the Alaska wilderness and connected with 150 veterans via outreach and community enrichment events. That David came to see that many veterans attending the wilderness therapy had struggled with multiple medications, prescribed during their service years. How David’s experiences within the military led to treatment for Post-traumatic Stress Disorder, resulting in being prescribed a drug cocktail. How the initial drugs were followed by others for insomnia, drugs for nightmares, blood pressure problems and for focus and concentration. How at the height of David’s ‘better living through chemistry’ he was on 13 different drugs. That through David’s pharmacological training he realised that one of the top ten side effects of many of the drugs he had been put on was suicidal thinking. How David came to take himself off all his drugs and strongly advises others never to do this themselves. That it was planning his own suicide that brought him to face that his life was unsustainable, accepting that he didn’t want to live as he had been. As he was planning it, he found that he didn’t want to suffer and came to realise that he did want to live, and realised that the suicidal thoughts were very likely as a result of treatment. That during his service years, David had assisted with at least three suicide interventions and that caused him to consider what might be driving veterans to consider suicide. How having confronted his suicidal thoughts and coming off his drugs, David then went on to find solace and comfort in wilderness adventures. That David still sometimes struggles with nightmares, hypervigilance and social anxiety but that he could deal with this without feeling numbed by the drugs and by being away from society but with trusted colleagues and friends in an environment conducive to healing. That Remedy Alpine is now starting to work as a government contractor to provide recreationally-based programs to the veteran community. How Remedy Alpine operates year-round and provides single-day hikes, single overnight camping events and multi-day hikes which can range from 26 to 30 miles through the Alaskan mountains. The recent launch of the Bullets 2 Beans podcast which focuses on post-military life challenges. That Remedy Alpine were attendees at the Nature’s Grace Conference, which focussed on America's veterans and the healing power of nature. How Remedy Alpine is now focussed on expanding the business side, applying for grants, developing their therapeutic programs and training veteran peer mentors. Relevant Links: Broken Is Not All I’ll Ever Be Remedy Alpine Bullets 2 Beans podcast Remedy Alpine on Facebook Nature’s Grace Conference

EveryWord003 Mark 2   Welcome to this THIRD podcast in a series that I am calling the Every Word Podcast. This is a podcast series for those who enjoy studying details found in God’s Word. In every episode I will read from Dr. Wilbur Pickering’s fresh-sounding translation of the New Testament, to which he gave the name, “The Sovereign God Has Spoken.” In today’s episode, I will read and comment on Pickering’s translation of Mark chapter 2.   Please bear in mind that the episode notes for all of my podcasts provide the text of everything I’m saying and links to supporting documentation.   Dr. Pickering’s translation is based on the Majority Text of the Greek New Testament, which is also called the Byzantine Text. I consider the Majority Text to be superior to the Eclectic Greek Text** which was used as the basis of most of the NT translations of the last century.  **Footnote: The Eclectic Text is also called the Critical Text, the Nestle-Aland text, and the United Bible Societies (UBS) Text. The succeeding editions of the Eclectic Text have primarily followed Wescott and Hort, while the apparatus (or footnotes) dealing with textual variations has grown significantly to show details about textual variants found among Alexandrian manuscripts.   The shift in the Greek text used for our Bible translations began around 1881, with the publication of Wescott and Hort’s Greek New Testament, which was based on an extremely small sampling of manuscripts of the Alexandrian Text Type*— that is from Egypt.  *Footnote: The two are Codex Sinaiticus and Codex Vaticanus. These are dated at 330-360 AD and 300-325 respectively. At the time Wescott and Hort were working, it was anticipated that research into newly discovered ancient New manuscripts from Egypt would reveal a coherent textual stream that would point to the authentic initial form of the Greek text. Now, over a century later, those ancient Egyptian papyrus manuscripts have been analyzed, but they do not reveal a coherent textual stream that can be followed. Instead the papyri manuscripts reveal that Egyptian scribes very freely edited the texts they copied. In contrast, the Majority Text of the New Testament was made by copyists who lived in the same places as the original recipients of the apostles’ writings. Individual scribal errors have been weeded out, since this text type is based on the majority reading of thousands of Greek manuscripts.   The Majority Text has been stable over the centuries and is the best academically defendable text of the Greek New Testament that we have today. It is my hope that these podcasts will build awareness of the faulty Greek text that underlies almost all of the English Bible translations of the last century, starting with the ASV (1901), and including RSV, NASB, NIV, GNT, NLT, NET, and ESV.   It is high time (now that I’ve reached the 3rd podcast) that I admit to you that— although I have worked as a Bible translator for most of my life— I am a new-comer to the whole study of textual criticism. In my article Playing Follow-the-Leader in Bible Translation, I speak about how little missionary Bible translators of my generation were trained in the area of textual criticism. I— unlike many of my colleagues— did not have the benefit of seminary education. My degrees are in the field of music. But from what I have heard from my seminary-trained colleagues, there is not much taught to normal seminary students about textual criticism. Few pastors today know anything about the subject.   It was in April of 2018 that I had the opportunity to visit Timothy and Barbara Friberg in Indonesia. Four years prior to this my team and I had published the Plain Indonesian NT. Dr. Timothy Friberg is famous for compiling the Analytical Greek New Testament, which is a reference work that virtually all Bible translators use. (Incidentally the AGNT is now being released in a new and improved edition.) I sought Dr. Fribergs advice because of his experience translating the NT for Muslim background audiences, because I am a consultant for such a project. During my two-day visit, I received excellent advice, but also received a bonus I didn’t expect. Tim Friberg convinced me that the Majority Greek Text should be used in translating the New Testament for Muslim background believers.    But then he asked, “Well, what about your Plain Indonesian New Testament? Are you going to revise that to follow the Majority Text?” This was a hard question for me because that NT was already published. I had just played follow-the-leader in basing that translation on the Eclectic text. After some thought and prayer, I concluded that God would be most glorified if my translation team and I  revised our published New Testament to follow the Majority Text. The revisions are now about 75% complete. Please pray for us in this: Please pray that we will work carefully so that we do not make mistakes as we revise the Plain Indonesian New Testament. Please pray that Bible readers in Indonesia would be happy to have a translation following the Majority Text, even though that will make our translation different from the default Indonesian Bible. Being aware that the United Bible Society publishes the Eclectic Greek Text, please pray that the Indonesian Bible Society or other parties will not publicly criticize our move to the Majority Text.    As I admitted above, I do not have training in the field of textual criticism. Because of that, I am sure that I have already made mistakes in these EveryWord podcasts. If you find errors in my statements, feel free to use the contact button at dailybiblereading.info to send your input to me.    Mark 2  Pickering’s footnotes are indented and italicized in the PDF attached to this podcast. Find EveryWord003 at dailybiblereading.info and use the red Download PDF button to get it. A paralytic— the evaluation ¹ Well a few days later, He again entered Capernaum, and it was heard that He was at home. ² Without delay so many were gathered together that there was no more room, not even around the door, and He was speaking the Word to them. ³ Then four men came, carrying a paralytic to Him. ⁴ And not being able to get near Him because of the crowd, they removed the roof where He was;  The roof was presumably flat, with an outside staircase leading up to it. I suppose damaging someone else’s roof could be considered a crime, but they were determined. If Jesus was in His own house, there would be no problem.  upon breaking through they lowered the pallet on which the paralytic was lying. ⁵ So seeing their faith Jesus says to the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven you”. ⁶ Now some of the scribes were sitting there, and reasoning in their hearts: ⁷ “Why does this guy speak blasphemies like that? Who can forgive sins but God alone?” ⁸ Immediately Jesus perceived in His spirit what they were reasoning within themselves  *Time and again the Inspired Record will point out that Jesus could read people’s thoughts. and said to them: “Why are you reasoning these things in your hearts? ⁹ Which is easier:  *I suppose the point to be that the first is easier to say, because no one can see whether it happened or not. But if you tell a paralytic to get up and he doesn’t, you get egg on the face. The Lord did it that way to help them believe that He could really forgive sin. There was nothing wrong with the scribes’ inference; indeed only God can forgive sin, so in fact Jesus was claiming to be God!  to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins have been forgiven’, or to say, ‘Get up, pick up your pallet and start walking!’? ¹⁰ But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on the earth to forgive sins” —He says to the paralytic: ¹¹ “To you I say, get up, pick up your pallet and go to your house!” ¹² So forthwith he got up, picked up his pallet and went out in front of them all; so that all were amazed and glorified God, saying, “We never saw anything like this!”  Quite right; they never had!   PCF: I agree heartily with Pickering’s footnote on v. 8. I think especially of the Gospel of John that repeatedly shows that Jesus could read people’s thoughts.   I do not agree with Pickering’s first sentence about ‘which is easier to say’. The idea he supports is that it would be easier to forgive sins because no one could tell if it happened. But even he seems a bit doubtful about saying that, because his sentence starts with, “I suppose the point to be …”  Yes, the interpretation he gives— that forgiving the man’s sins would be the easier to say— can be found in some commentaries. But that is worldly thinking. Jesus would have known that saying ‘I forgive your sins’ would mean that He would pay for those sins on the cross.    But Pickering is right in the last part of that footnote. Only God can forgive sin, so the scribes’ inference was right. He might as well as said, ‘I am God’.   There is interesting linguistic support for only God being able to forgive sins. In the Orya language of Papua, Indonesia, and in many other languages, ordinary persons cannot ‘forgive’ someone else’s wrongs or sins. The word  the Orya language uses for forgiving on a person-to-person level is simply to ‘forget’. You can choose to ‘forget’ a sin someone commits against you. But the real word for ‘forgive’ in Orya means to ‘finish’ or ‘nullify’ the sin. Only God can finish all the liabilities of a sin or nullify the consequences. So the scribes were right that it takes an action of God to have one’s sins forgiven. Matthew called ¹³ Then He went out again by the sea; and the whole crowd came to Him, and He began to teach them. ¹⁴ As He passed by, He saw Levi the son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax office, and He said to him, “Follow me”. So he got up and followed Him. ¹⁵ Now it happened, as He was reclining at the table in his house,  Matthew’s—he evidently put on a big dinner and invited all his associates.  that many tax collectors and sinners  ‘Tax collectors and sinners’ seems to have been almost a frozen idiom. A Jew who collected taxes for Rome was viewed as a traitor and held in very low esteem.  joined Jesus and His disciples at the table; for there were many and they followed Him. ¹⁶ The scribes and the Pharisees, seeing Him eating with the tax collectors and sinners, said to His disciples, “Why is it that He is eating and drinking with the tax collectors and sinners?” ¹⁷ Upon hearing it Jesus said to them: “It is not the healthy who have need of a doctor, but those who are sick. I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”  Perhaps 10% of the Greek manuscripts omit ‘to repentance’, to be followed by NIV, NASB, LB, TEV, etc.   Fasting ¹⁸ Now John’s disciples and those of the Pharisees were fasting; and they came and said to Him, “Why do John’s disciples and those of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not?” ¹⁹ So Jesus said to them: “Can the groomsmen fast while the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom to themselves they cannot fast. ²⁰ But the time will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast, in those days.  Some 15% of the Greek manuscripts read ‘day’ instead of ‘days’ (as in NIV, NASB, TEV, etc.), but obviously the fasting would take place on more than one day.   PCF: The two textual variants from the Majority Text that Pickering points out in verses 17 and 20 both make better sense than what is found in the Eclectic text. In particular, it seems a shame that most Bibles of the last century left out the words ‘to repentance’ in verse 17. The men who compiled the Eclectic Text chose a principle that would favor the Alexandrian manuscripts. They decided that a shorter variant in a text was more likely to be correct. Verse 17 is shorter without the two words ‘to repentance’ but it leaves the reader wondering, “Where is Jesus calling sinners to come to?” In the early years of the Eclectic Text movement, people did not yet realize that Alexandrian copyists frequently shortened the texts they copied. This goes for secular works as well as NT books. Alexandrian copies of Homer’s poems are much shorter than manuscripts found in other places.    Together with verse 17, there are four places where Mark’s account uses the words ‘repent’ and ‘repentance’. Clearly the call to repentance was an important part of what both John the Baptist and Jesus taught. In Mark, Jesus sent the disciples out preaching that people ‘should repent’. (6:11) So having Jesus say that his mission was to call sinners to repent makes good sense in the context of this gospel. Cloth and wineskins ²¹ “Further, no one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, or else the new tears away some of the old, and a worse hole results. ²² And no one puts new wine into old wineskins, or else the new wine bursts the wineskins, the wine spills out and the skins will be ruined; rather, new wine must be put into new wineskins.”  There is no way of renewing an old wineskin. Whenever a church becomes an ‘old wineskin’, any introduction of new wine will always cause a split.   Jesus is Lord of the Sabbath ²³  Between verses 22 and 23 all of John chapter 5 takes place—that chapter revolves around the second Passover of His public ministry, in 28 A.D. A year and a half have passed since His baptism.  Now it happened, on a Sabbath, that He was passing through some grain fields, and His disciples began to make a path, picking the heads of grain. ²⁴ So the Pharisees said to Him, “Just look, why are they doing on a Sabbath that which is not permitted?” ²⁵ And He said to them: “Did you never read what David did when he was in need and hungry, he and those with him? ²⁶ How he entered the house of God (making Abiathar high priest)  My rendering is rather different than the ‘in the days of Abiathar the high priest’ of the AV. We are translating three Greek words that very literally would be ‘upon Abiathar high priest’. When we go back to the Old Testament account, we discover that David actually conversed with Ahimelech, Abiathar’s father, who was the high priest at that moment (1 Samuel 21:1-9). Within a few days Saul massacred Ahimelech and 84 other priests (1 Samuel 22:16-18), but his son Abiathar escaped and went to David, taking the ephod with him (1 Samuel 22:20-23; 23:6). That David could use it to inquire of the LORD rather suggests that it had to be the ephod that only the high priest wore (1 Samuel 23:9-12). That ephod was to a high priest like the crown was to a king; so how could Abiathar have it? The Text states that David’s visit filled Ahimelech with fear, presumably because he too saw Doeg the Edomite and figured what would happen. Now why wasn’t Abiathar taken with the others? I suggest that Ahimelech had a pretty good idea what would happen, so he deliberately consecrated Abiathar, gave him the ephod, and told him to hide; Abiathar escaped, but carried the news of the massacre with him; only now he was the high priest. Putting it all together, it was David’s visit that resulted in Abiathar’s becoming high priest prematurely, as David himself recognized, and to which Jesus alluded.  and ate the consecrated bread, which only priests are permitted to eat, and shared it with those who were with him?” ²⁷ Then He said to them: “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.  This is a crucial point. The Pharisees, etc., had turned the Sabbath into an instrument of domination that they used to impose their authority on the people. ²⁸ Therefore the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.”  The Lord of the Sabbath can change the rules, or even retire it!   Abiathar is not Ahimelech  Mark 2:26 X 1 Samuel 21:1  Some of my readers may be aware that this verse has destroyed the faith of at least one scholar in our day, although he was reared in an evangelical home. He understood Jesus to be saying that Abiathar was the priest with whom David dealt, when in fact it was his father, Ahimelech. If Jesus stated an historical error as fact, then he could not be God. So he turned his back on Jesus. I consider that his decision was lamentable and unnecessary, and in the interest of helping others who may be troubled by this verse, I offer the following explanation:  “How he entered the house of God (making Abiathar high priest) and ate the consecrated bread, which only priests are permitted to eat, and shared it with those who were with him.”    My rendering is rather different than the ‘in the days of Abiathar the high priest’ of the AV, NKJV and NIV. We are translating three Greek words that very literally would be ‘upon Abiathar high-priest’ (but the preposition here, επι, is the most versatile of the Greek prepositions, and one of its many meanings/uses is 'toward'―the standard lexicon, BDAG, lists fully eighteen areas of meaning, quite apart from sub-divisions). When we go back to the Old Testament account, we discover that David actually conversed with Ahimelech, Abiathar’s father, who was the high priest at that moment (1 Samuel 21:1-9). Within a few days Saul massacred Ahimelech and 84 other priests (1 Samuel 22:16-18), but his son Abiathar escaped and went to David, taking the ephod with him (1Samuel 22:20-23; 23:6). That David could use it to inquire of the Lord rather suggests that it had to be the ephod that only the high priest wore, since only that ephod had the Urim and Thummim (1 Samuel 23:9-12; cf. Numbers 27:21, Ezra 2:63).    That ephod was to a high priest like the crown was to a king; so how could Abiathar have it? The Text states that David’s visit filled Ahimelech with fear, presumably because he too saw Doeg the Edomite and figured what would happen. Now why wasn’t Abiathar taken with the others? I suggest that Ahimelech foresaw what would happen (Doeg probably took off immediately, and Ahimelech figured he wouldn't have much time), so he deliberately consecrated Abiathar, gave him the ephod, and told him to hide―he probably did it that very day (once the soldiers arrived to arrest Ahimelech and the other 84, it would be too late). Abiathar escaped, but carried the news of the massacre with him; only now he was the high priest.    Putting it all together, it was David’s visit that resulted in Abiathar’s becoming high priest prematurely, as David himself recognized, and to which Jesus alluded in passing (which is why I used parentheses). But why would Jesus allude to that? I suppose because the Bible is straightforward about the consequences of sin, and David lied to Ahimelech. Although Jesus was using David's eating that bread as an example, He did not wish to gloss over the sin, and its consequences.    Recall that Jesus was addressing Pharisees, who were steeped in the OT Scriptures. A notorious case like Saul's massacre of 85 priests would be very well known. And of course, none of the NT had yet been written, so any understanding of what Jesus said had to be based on 1 Samuel (“Have you never read…?”). If we today wish to understand this passage, we need to place ourselves in the context recorded in Mark 2:23-28. The Pharisees would understand that if Abiathar was in possession of the ephod with the Urim and Thummim, then he was the high priest. And how did he get that way? He got that way because of David's visit. It was an immediate consequence of that visit.    Some may object that 'making' is a verb, not a preposition. Well, the 'in the days of' of the AV, etc., though not a verb, is a phrase. Both a pronoun and an adverb may stand for a phrase, and a preposition may as well. TEV and Phillips actually use a verb: ‘when… was’; NLT has ‘during the days when… was’. Where the others used from two to five words, I used only one.     PCF: Just a little comment from me on the this topic. The problem in this verse is very hard to deal with, and I am linking an article here written by Dr. Daniel Wallace to illustrate how hard this is. As I said before, we can’t prove anything because of how vague Greek prepositions are. An added thing to think about is that Jesus could have been speaking in Aramaic, not Greek, because that was the everyday language for him. I am willing to set this aside as a problem we cannot solve for sure. But one thing I hold onto is that God’s Word is true in the Old Testament record, and what Jesus said was also true. It seems more likely to me to conclude that He knew much more than us about it, and various things could have happened like what Pickering posits.   Secondly I think the comment about this verse destroying the faith of a Christian scholar is interesting. If you know who that scholar was, please let me know. My searches on the internet for likely choices failed to turn up the answer. Just the other day my son, David, mentioned how a little thing like this that erodes one’s faith puts a person on a dangerous slippery slope. He told about a fellow graduate of his Christian university who was his friend. But the friend learned things that shook his faith. He ended up as a pastor in an extremely liberal denomination. But now he has left even that and has taken up with Hindus in India, but it is unclear if he really believes what they teach either.    A little thing like the presence of footnotes in our Bibles could be the thing that would cause someone to embark on that slippery downward slope. People will think, “Well, who knows what the apostles really wrote?” This has been a problem with the adoption of the Eclectic Text starting in 1901, which has contributed to liberalism in the church for over a century. Now I ask my listeners, Would your church hire someone as (let’s say) an associate pastor if the person did not believe in the inspiration of the Bible? I think I can hear the answer. My church wouldn’t. If someone interviewed for a job at my church without believing in Jesus or the inspiration of the Bible, the interview would quickly change to my pastor seeking to share the Gospel with that person. So then I ask, Do you think that it would be a good idea to trust a person with beliefs like that to manage the Greek text that is translated for our Bibles? I don’t think so! I recommend an an article I found about the beliefs of Kurt Aland, the one whose name is on the publications of the Nestle-Aland Eclectic Greek Text. It is linked here in the episode notes.      The episode notes for all of the Every Word podcasts will include a Resources section which gives links to articles that will give further documentation about all of my claims about the Majority Text, the Eclectic Text, and about different Bible translations.   All of Dr. Wilbur Pickering’s works are released according to the Creative Commons License and are available at PRUNCH.net. Additionally, his second edition (2016) NT translation is available for a free download via the Kindle app. It is also freely available as a module in the MyBible program for Android and Apple devices.    Dr. Pickering named his NT, “The Sovereign Creator Has Spoken.” That title contains three concepts that were not believed by Wescott and Hort. In their age Darwinism had invaded the church. W&H  did not believe that our Creator created humans as described in Genesis. They did not believe in the sovereignty of God. Nor did they believe that God has actively inspired every word of Scripture and has made sure that every word has been preserved.   Moses and Jesus said, “Man shall not live on bread alone, but by Every Word of God.” (Deut. 8:3; Luk. 4:4)   May the Lord bless you ‘real good’!   Resources: Fields, Philip: Playing Follow the Leader in Bible Translation, 2019, by Phil Fields. See the Resources list in that article for many more helpful articles on the superiority of the Majority Greek Text.   Friberg, Timothy:  On the text of the Greek New Testament that also happens to be the right one for cousin audiences Although the title of this four-page paper refers to translating for Muslims, the principles and summary is widely applicable.  I suggest reading this paper before reading Friberg’s other articles listed below.   Layman’s Guide — A modest explanation for the layman of ideas related to determining the text of the Greek New Testament, 2019.   What is what? — Differences between the Traditional Text and the Bible Society Text of the Greek New Testament. Some data for the reader to weigh, 2019.   Pickering, Wilbur: New Translation of the New Testament: The Sovereign Creator has Spoken Greek Text of the New Testament based on Family 35   Articles and other major works: See PRUNCH.net. Robinson, Maurice: The New Testament in the Original Greek: Byzantine Textform, 1991, 2005, 2018.  This is available in free digital form in the MyBible Bible app, and in other ways.   Article: Full Text of the 105 verses lacking overall Greek Manuscript Support in the NA edition 27

EveryWord003 Mark 2   Welcome to this THIRD podcast in a series that I am calling the Every Word Podcast. This is a podcast series for those who enjoy studying details found in God’s Word. In every episode I will read from Dr. Wilbur Pickering’s fresh-sounding translation of the New Testament, to which he gave the name, “The Sovereign God Has Spoken.” In today’s episode, I will read and comment on Pickering’s translation of Mark chapter 2.   Please bear in mind that the episode notes for all of my podcasts provide the text of everything I’m saying and links to supporting documentation.   Dr. Pickering’s translation is based on the Majority Text of the Greek New Testament, which is also called the Byzantine Text. I consider the Majority Text to be superior to the Eclectic Greek Text** which was used as the basis of most of the NT translations of the last century.  **Footnote: The Eclectic Text is also called the Critical Text, the Nestle-Aland text, and the United Bible Societies (UBS) Text. The succeeding editions of the Eclectic Text have primarily followed Wescott and Hort, while the apparatus (or footnotes) dealing with textual variations has grown significantly to show details about textual variants found among Alexandrian manuscripts.   The shift in the Greek text used for our Bible translations began around 1881, with the publication of Wescott and Hort’s Greek New Testament, which was based on an extremely small sampling of manuscripts of the Alexandrian Text Type*— that is from Egypt.  *Footnote: The two are Codex Sinaiticus and Codex Vaticanus. These are dated at 330-360 AD and 300-325 respectively. At the time Wescott and Hort were working, it was anticipated that research into newly discovered ancient New manuscripts from Egypt would reveal a coherent textual stream that would point to the authentic initial form of the Greek text. Now, over a century later, those ancient Egyptian papyrus manuscripts have been analyzed, but they do not reveal a coherent textual stream that can be followed. Instead the papyri manuscripts reveal that Egyptian scribes very freely edited the texts they copied. In contrast, the Majority Text of the New Testament was made by copyists who lived in the same places as the original recipients of the apostles’ writings. Individual scribal errors have been weeded out, since this text type is based on the majority reading of thousands of Greek manuscripts.   The Majority Text has been stable over the centuries and is the best academically defendable text of the Greek New Testament that we have today. It is my hope that these podcasts will build awareness of the faulty Greek text that underlies almost all of the English Bible translations of the last century, starting with the ASV (1901), and including RSV, NASB, NIV, GNT, NLT, NET, and ESV.   It is high time (now that I’ve reached the 3rd podcast) that I admit to you that— although I have worked as a Bible translator for most of my life— I am a new-comer to the whole study of textual criticism. In my article Playing Follow-the-Leader in Bible Translation, I speak about how little missionary Bible translators of my generation were trained in the area of textual criticism. I— unlike many of my colleagues— did not have the benefit of seminary education. My degrees are in the field of music. But from what I have heard from my seminary-trained colleagues, there is not much taught to normal seminary students about textual criticism. Few pastors today know anything about the subject.   It was in April of 2018 that I had the opportunity to visit Timothy and Barbara Friberg in Indonesia. Four years prior to this my team and I had published the Plain Indonesian NT. Dr. Timothy Friberg is famous for compiling the Analytical Greek New Testament, which is a reference work that virtually all Bible translators use. (Incidentally the AGNT is now being released in a new and improved edition.) I sought Dr. Fribergs advice because of his experience translating the NT for Muslim background audiences, because I am a consultant for such a project. During my two-day visit, I received excellent advice, but also received a bonus I didn’t expect. Tim Friberg convinced me that the Majority Greek Text should be used in translating the New Testament for Muslim background believers.    But then he asked, “Well, what about your Plain Indonesian New Testament? Are you going to revise that to follow the Majority Text?” This was a hard question for me because that NT was already published. I had just played follow-the-leader in basing that translation on the Eclectic text. After some thought and prayer, I concluded that God would be most glorified if my translation team and I  revised our published New Testament to follow the Majority Text. The revisions are now about 75% complete. Please pray for us in this: Please pray that we will work carefully so that we do not make mistakes as we revise the Plain Indonesian New Testament. Please pray that Bible readers in Indonesia would be happy to have a translation following the Majority Text, even though that will make our translation different from the default Indonesian Bible. Being aware that the United Bible Society publishes the Eclectic Greek Text, please pray that the Indonesian Bible Society or other parties will not publicly criticize our move to the Majority Text.    As I admitted above, I do not have training in the field of textual criticism. Because of that, I am sure that I have already made mistakes in these EveryWord podcasts. If you find errors in my statements, feel free to use the contact button at dailybiblereading.info to send your input to me.    Mark 2  Pickering’s footnotes are indented and italicized in the PDF attached to this podcast. Find EveryWord003 at dailybiblereading.info and use the red Download PDF button to get it. A paralytic— the evaluation ¹ Well a few days later, He again entered Capernaum, and it was heard that He was at home. ² Without delay so many were gathered together that there was no more room, not even around the door, and He was speaking the Word to them. ³ Then four men came, carrying a paralytic to Him. ⁴ And not being able to get near Him because of the crowd, they removed the roof where He was;  The roof was presumably flat, with an outside staircase leading up to it. I suppose damaging someone else’s roof could be considered a crime, but they were determined. If Jesus was in His own house, there would be no problem.  upon breaking through they lowered the pallet on which the paralytic was lying. ⁵ So seeing their faith Jesus says to the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven you”. ⁶ Now some of the scribes were sitting there, and reasoning in their hearts: ⁷ “Why does this guy speak blasphemies like that? Who can forgive sins but God alone?” ⁸ Immediately Jesus perceived in His spirit what they were reasoning within themselves  *Time and again the Inspired Record will point out that Jesus could read people’s thoughts. and said to them: “Why are you reasoning these things in your hearts? ⁹ Which is easier:  *I suppose the point to be that the first is easier to say, because no one can see whether it happened or not. But if you tell a paralytic to get up and he doesn’t, you get egg on the face. The Lord did it that way to help them believe that He could really forgive sin. There was nothing wrong with the scribes’ inference; indeed only God can forgive sin, so in fact Jesus was claiming to be God!  to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins have been forgiven’, or to say, ‘Get up, pick up your pallet and start walking!’? ¹⁰ But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on the earth to forgive sins” —He says to the paralytic: ¹¹ “To you I say, get up, pick up your pallet and go to your house!” ¹² So forthwith he got up, picked up his pallet and went out in front of them all; so that all were amazed and glorified God, saying, “We never saw anything like this!”  Quite right; they never had!   PCF: I agree heartily with Pickering’s footnote on v. 8. I think especially of the Gospel of John that repeatedly shows that Jesus could read people’s thoughts.   I do not agree with Pickering’s first sentence about ‘which is easier to say’. The idea he supports is that it would be easier to forgive sins because no one could tell if it happened. But even he seems a bit doubtful about saying that, because his sentence starts with, “I suppose the point to be …”  Yes, the interpretation he gives— that forgiving the man’s sins would be the easier to say— can be found in some commentaries. But that is worldly thinking. Jesus would have known that saying ‘I forgive your sins’ would mean that He would pay for those sins on the cross.    But Pickering is right in the last part of that footnote. Only God can forgive sin, so the scribes’ inference was right. He might as well as said, ‘I am God’.   There is interesting linguistic support for only God being able to forgive sins. In the Orya language of Papua, Indonesia, and in many other languages, ordinary persons cannot ‘forgive’ someone else’s wrongs or sins. The word  the Orya language uses for forgiving on a person-to-person level is simply to ‘forget’. You can choose to ‘forget’ a sin someone commits against you. But the real word for ‘forgive’ in Orya means to ‘finish’ or ‘nullify’ the sin. Only God can finish all the liabilities of a sin or nullify the consequences. So the scribes were right that it takes an action of God to have one’s sins forgiven. Matthew called ¹³ Then He went out again by the sea; and the whole crowd came to Him, and He began to teach them. ¹⁴ As He passed by, He saw Levi the son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax office, and He said to him, “Follow me”. So he got up and followed Him. ¹⁵ Now it happened, as He was reclining at the table in his house,  Matthew’s—he evidently put on a big dinner and invited all his associates.  that many tax collectors and sinners  ‘Tax collectors and sinners’ seems to have been almost a frozen idiom. A Jew who collected taxes for Rome was viewed as a traitor and held in very low esteem.  joined Jesus and His disciples at the table; for there were many and they followed Him. ¹⁶ The scribes and the Pharisees, seeing Him eating with the tax collectors and sinners, said to His disciples, “Why is it that He is eating and drinking with the tax collectors and sinners?” ¹⁷ Upon hearing it Jesus said to them: “It is not the healthy who have need of a doctor, but those who are sick. I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”  Perhaps 10% of the Greek manuscripts omit ‘to repentance’, to be followed by NIV, NASB, LB, TEV, etc.   Fasting ¹⁸ Now John’s disciples and those of the Pharisees were fasting; and they came and said to Him, “Why do John’s disciples and those of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not?” ¹⁹ So Jesus said to them: “Can the groomsmen fast while the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom to themselves they cannot fast. ²⁰ But the time will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast, in those days.  Some 15% of the Greek manuscripts read ‘day’ instead of ‘days’ (as in NIV, NASB, TEV, etc.), but obviously the fasting would take place on more than one day.   PCF: The two textual variants from the Majority Text that Pickering points out in verses 17 and 20 both make better sense than what is found in the Eclectic text. In particular, it seems a shame that most Bibles of the last century left out the words ‘to repentance’ in verse 17. The men who compiled the Eclectic Text chose a principle that would favor the Alexandrian manuscripts. They decided that a shorter variant in a text was more likely to be correct. Verse 17 is shorter without the two words ‘to repentance’ but it leaves the reader wondering, “Where is Jesus calling sinners to come to?” In the early years of the Eclectic Text movement, people did not yet realize that Alexandrian copyists frequently shortened the texts they copied. This goes for secular works as well as NT books. Alexandrian copies of Homer’s poems are much shorter than manuscripts found in other places.    Together with verse 17, there are four places where Mark’s account uses the words ‘repent’ and ‘repentance’. Clearly the call to repentance was an important part of what both John the Baptist and Jesus taught. In Mark, Jesus sent the disciples out preaching that people ‘should repent’. (6:11) So having Jesus say that his mission was to call sinners to repent makes good sense in the context of this gospel. Cloth and wineskins ²¹ “Further, no one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, or else the new tears away some of the old, and a worse hole results. ²² And no one puts new wine into old wineskins, or else the new wine bursts the wineskins, the wine spills out and the skins will be ruined; rather, new wine must be put into new wineskins.”  There is no way of renewing an old wineskin. Whenever a church becomes an ‘old wineskin’, any introduction of new wine will always cause a split.   Jesus is Lord of the Sabbath ²³  Between verses 22 and 23 all of John chapter 5 takes place—that chapter revolves around the second Passover of His public ministry, in 28 A.D. A year and a half have passed since His baptism.  Now it happened, on a Sabbath, that He was passing through some grain fields, and His disciples began to make a path, picking the heads of grain. ²⁴ So the Pharisees said to Him, “Just look, why are they doing on a Sabbath that which is not permitted?” ²⁵ And He said to them: “Did you never read what David did when he was in need and hungry, he and those with him? ²⁶ How he entered the house of God (making Abiathar high priest)  My rendering is rather different than the ‘in the days of Abiathar the high priest’ of the AV. We are translating three Greek words that very literally would be ‘upon Abiathar high priest’. When we go back to the Old Testament account, we discover that David actually conversed with Ahimelech, Abiathar’s father, who was the high priest at that moment (1 Samuel 21:1-9). Within a few days Saul massacred Ahimelech and 84 other priests (1 Samuel 22:16-18), but his son Abiathar escaped and went to David, taking the ephod with him (1 Samuel 22:20-23; 23:6). That David could use it to inquire of the LORD rather suggests that it had to be the ephod that only the high priest wore (1 Samuel 23:9-12). That ephod was to a high priest like the crown was to a king; so how could Abiathar have it? The Text states that David’s visit filled Ahimelech with fear, presumably because he too saw Doeg the Edomite and figured what would happen. Now why wasn’t Abiathar taken with the others? I suggest that Ahimelech had a pretty good idea what would happen, so he deliberately consecrated Abiathar, gave him the ephod, and told him to hide; Abiathar escaped, but carried the news of the massacre with him; only now he was the high priest. Putting it all together, it was David’s visit that resulted in Abiathar’s becoming high priest prematurely, as David himself recognized, and to which Jesus alluded.  and ate the consecrated bread, which only priests are permitted to eat, and shared it with those who were with him?” ²⁷ Then He said to them: “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.  This is a crucial point. The Pharisees, etc., had turned the Sabbath into an instrument of domination that they used to impose their authority on the people. ²⁸ Therefore the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.”  The Lord of the Sabbath can change the rules, or even retire it!   Abiathar is not Ahimelech  Mark 2:26 X 1 Samuel 21:1  Some of my readers may be aware that this verse has destroyed the faith of at least one scholar in our day, although he was reared in an evangelical home. He understood Jesus to be saying that Abiathar was the priest with whom David dealt, when in fact it was his father, Ahimelech. If Jesus stated an historical error as fact, then he could not be God. So he turned his back on Jesus. I consider that his decision was lamentable and unnecessary, and in the interest of helping others who may be troubled by this verse, I offer the following explanation:  “How he entered the house of God (making Abiathar high priest) and ate the consecrated bread, which only priests are permitted to eat, and shared it with those who were with him.”    My rendering is rather different than the ‘in the days of Abiathar the high priest’ of the AV, NKJV and NIV. We are translating three Greek words that very literally would be ‘upon Abiathar high-priest’ (but the preposition here, επι, is the most versatile of the Greek prepositions, and one of its many meanings/uses is 'toward'―the standard lexicon, BDAG, lists fully eighteen areas of meaning, quite apart from sub-divisions). When we go back to the Old Testament account, we discover that David actually conversed with Ahimelech, Abiathar’s father, who was the high priest at that moment (1 Samuel 21:1-9). Within a few days Saul massacred Ahimelech and 84 other priests (1 Samuel 22:16-18), but his son Abiathar escaped and went to David, taking the ephod with him (1Samuel 22:20-23; 23:6). That David could use it to inquire of the Lord rather suggests that it had to be the ephod that only the high priest wore, since only that ephod had the Urim and Thummim (1 Samuel 23:9-12; cf. Numbers 27:21, Ezra 2:63).    That ephod was to a high priest like the crown was to a king; so how could Abiathar have it? The Text states that David’s visit filled Ahimelech with fear, presumably because he too saw Doeg the Edomite and figured what would happen. Now why wasn’t Abiathar taken with the others? I suggest that Ahimelech foresaw what would happen (Doeg probably took off immediately, and Ahimelech figured he wouldn't have much time), so he deliberately consecrated Abiathar, gave him the ephod, and told him to hide―he probably did it that very day (once the soldiers arrived to arrest Ahimelech and the other 84, it would be too late). Abiathar escaped, but carried the news of the massacre with him; only now he was the high priest.    Putting it all together, it was David’s visit that resulted in Abiathar’s becoming high priest prematurely, as David himself recognized, and to which Jesus alluded in passing (which is why I used parentheses). But why would Jesus allude to that? I suppose because the Bible is straightforward about the consequences of sin, and David lied to Ahimelech. Although Jesus was using David's eating that bread as an example, He did not wish to gloss over the sin, and its consequences.    Recall that Jesus was addressing Pharisees, who were steeped in the OT Scriptures. A notorious case like Saul's massacre of 85 priests would be very well known. And of course, none of the NT had yet been written, so any understanding of what Jesus said had to be based on 1 Samuel (“Have you never read…?”). If we today wish to understand this passage, we need to place ourselves in the context recorded in Mark 2:23-28. The Pharisees would understand that if Abiathar was in possession of the ephod with the Urim and Thummim, then he was the high priest. And how did he get that way? He got that way because of David's visit. It was an immediate consequence of that visit.    Some may object that 'making' is a verb, not a preposition. Well, the 'in the days of' of the AV, etc., though not a verb, is a phrase. Both a pronoun and an adverb may stand for a phrase, and a preposition may as well. TEV and Phillips actually use a verb: ‘when… was’; NLT has ‘during the days when… was’. Where the others used from two to five words, I used only one.     PCF: Just a little comment from me on the this topic. The problem in this verse is very hard to deal with, and I am linking an article here written by Dr. Daniel Wallace to illustrate how hard this is. As I said before, we can’t prove anything because of how vague Greek prepositions are. An added thing to think about is that Jesus could have been speaking in Aramaic, not Greek, because that was the everyday language for him. I am willing to set this aside as a problem we cannot solve for sure. But one thing I hold onto is that God’s Word is true in the Old Testament record, and what Jesus said was also true. It seems more likely to me to conclude that He knew much more than us about it, and various things could have happened like what Pickering posits.   Secondly I think the comment about this verse destroying the faith of a Christian scholar is interesting. If you know who that scholar was, please let me know. My searches on the internet for likely choices failed to turn up the answer. Just the other day my son, David, mentioned how a little thing like this that erodes one’s faith puts a person on a dangerous slippery slope. He told about a fellow graduate of his Christian university who was his friend. But the friend learned things that shook his faith. He ended up as a pastor in an extremely liberal denomination. But now he has left even that and has taken up with Hindus in India, but it is unclear if he really believes what they teach either.    A little thing like the presence of footnotes in our Bibles could be the thing that would cause someone to embark on that slippery downward slope. People will think, “Well, who knows what the apostles really wrote?” This has been a problem with the adoption of the Eclectic Text starting in 1901, which has contributed to liberalism in the church for over a century. Now I ask my listeners, Would your church hire someone as (let’s say) an associate pastor if the person did not believe in the inspiration of the Bible? I think I can hear the answer. My church wouldn’t. If someone interviewed for a job at my church without believing in Jesus or the inspiration of the Bible, the interview would quickly change to my pastor seeking to share the Gospel with that person. So then I ask, Do you think that it would be a good idea to trust a person with beliefs like that to manage the Greek text that is translated for our Bibles? I don’t think so! I recommend an an article I found about the beliefs of Kurt Aland, the one whose name is on the publications of the Nestle-Aland Eclectic Greek Text. It is linked here in the episode notes.      The episode notes for all of the Every Word podcasts will include a Resources section which gives links to articles that will give further documentation about all of my claims about the Majority Text, the Eclectic Text, and about different Bible translations.   All of Dr. Wilbur Pickering’s works are released according to the Creative Commons License and are available at PRUNCH.net. Additionally, his second edition (2016) NT translation is available for a free download via the Kindle app. It is also freely available as a module in the MyBible program for Android and Apple devices.    Dr. Pickering named his NT, “The Sovereign Creator Has Spoken.” That title contains three concepts that were not believed by Wescott and Hort. In their age Darwinism had invaded the church. W&H  did not believe that our Creator created humans as described in Genesis. They did not believe in the sovereignty of God. Nor did they believe that God has actively inspired every word of Scripture and has made sure that every word has been preserved.   Moses and Jesus said, “Man shall not live on bread alone, but by Every Word of God.” (Deut. 8:3; Luk. 4:4)   May the Lord bless you ‘real good’!   Resources: Fields, Philip: Playing Follow the Leader in Bible Translation, 2019, by Phil Fields. See the Resources list in that article for many more helpful articles on the superiority of the Majority Greek Text.   Friberg, Timothy:  On the text of the Greek New Testament that also happens to be the right one for cousin audiences Although the title of this four-page paper refers to translating for Muslims, the principles and summary is widely applicable.  I suggest reading this paper before reading Friberg’s other articles listed below.   Layman’s Guide — A modest explanation for the layman of ideas related to determining the text of the Greek New Testament, 2019.   What is what? — Differences between the Traditional Text and the Bible Society Text of the Greek New Testament. Some data for the reader to weigh, 2019.   Pickering, Wilbur: New Translation of the New Testament: The Sovereign Creator has Spoken Greek Text of the New Testament based on Family 35   Articles and other major works: See PRUNCH.net. Robinson, Maurice: The New Testament in the Original Greek: Byzantine Textform, 1991, 2005, 2018.  This is available in free digital form in the MyBible Bible app, and in other ways.   Article: Full Text of the 105 verses lacking overall Greek Manuscript Support in the NA edition 27

"BLESSED BE THE LORD WHO DAILY BEARS US UP” Feb 6 There are interesting parallels between our two Old Testament readings today. Chapters 13 & 14 of Exodus describe the drama of the Israelites’ escape from Egypt. We noted the fear they had when the Egyptians started pursuing them and Moses reassurance that the LORD was in control, they must “Fear not and stand firm” [14 v.13]; their God would complete their deliverance and, in doing so, make a “name” for himself. Psalm 68 gives us David’s perceptions of how God arises and so enemies are scattered and those who hate God flee before him (v.1) which is what happened to Pharaoh’s armies. That David’s words are somewhat inspired by these events is plain from v.7. “O God, when you went out before your people, when you marched through the wilderness … the heaven poured down rain, before God, the one of Sinai, before God, the God of Israel” Then we noted how David had also reflected on situations with individuals, how God watches over them as “Father of the fatherless and protector of widows … God settles the solitary in a home” [v.5,6] David would think of the times he was alone when fleeing from Saul, his anxieties of mind, but, ultimately, the realization of God’s protection. Moses could well have had similar thoughts at times in the 40 years before he encountered God at the burning bush. So David is thinking of himself and other individuals when he writes, “Blessed be the Lord, who daily bears us up; God is our salvation.” [v.19] The Lord Jesus also experienced this, the disciples had little ability to bear him up and so, at times, he retreated to the mountains alone as we will read in a few days’ time. (Mark 6 v.46). The ultimate time was in Gethsemane before his arrest, “Could you not watch one hour?” followed by special personal advice, “Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation.” [Mark 14 v.37] As we daily read the Bible – it should have the effect of bringing us closer to God – and as we do this we will sense more and more how he “daily bears us up.”

That David kid is still up to his hijinks, and so are we! This episode: Chekhov's chihuahuas, Animorphs 99, and the most emo bugs.

David was a guest we had on episode 12 last January. He talked about his journey from addiction to sobriety. That David was a totally different David than today’s David. After the episode, he joined the military, had a relapse, and became sober again. We talk about his journey and the LGBT recovery community. He shares how the military was a scapegoat for him, but it didn’t work out. He ended up getting discharged and going on a party bender right afterwards. He then went back to detox for a week and spent 90 days in Rock Recovery. He has been sober for eight months now and shares the entire story with us. Show Notes [01:56] David was here at the beginning of the year in Episode 12. He had a slip after the episode was recorded. He has since been sober for about 8 months. [02:00] David joined the military and had a mental and emotional relapse before the physical relapse. [03:03] Recovering addicts and alcoholics are some of the most accepting people on the face of the planet. [03:58] David about nine months ago talked about his journey and going into the military. [04:32] When he knows people are going to tell him something opposite from what he wants to do, he just doesn't talk about that thing. [04:55] In the back of his mind, he thought that joining the military would be a way to leave and use again without people knowing. [05:43] He discovered that the military environment wasn't the most supportive emotionally, plus he was being messed with for being gay. [06:09] The Baker Act means you spend a week in a psych ward and then he got a medical discharge. [07:15] After his discharge, he went on a party binge. [08:02] He was in the military for three months. [09:55] He did learn discipline and a code of ethics while he was in the military. [11:55] After his binge, he went back to detox for a week and then 90 days in Rock Recovery. [12:14] He has a new sponsor and has been sober first. He went through the steps in the book. [15:43] From David's experience, LGBT people want to be treated equal, but they want their struggles to also be recognized. [17:08] The common denominator between all of us is that all addicts have the same type of issues. [22:49] How some gay people may feel that making themselves vulnerable and showing who they are is showing weakness, so they use deflection to stay apart from the group. [23:39] Many gay guys take on the identity of stereotypes, because that's what society tells them is their role. [24:43] Doing the steps and finding a higher power can help someone become more comfortable with who they are. [25:35] You can grow from the steps. You figure out what defense mechanisms you use in your life with other people, and then you can change them and grow as a person. [26:03] Being vulnerable is a key step to recovery. [29:18] Things that we can't control don't need to differentiate us so much that we can't bond with other people. Our underlying experiences and emotions are similar. [31:14] If we look at our similarities instead of looking at what makes us different, our experiences are going to be so much greater. [31:19] If you get vulnerable, other people around you will get vulnerable. [36:36] We all have different issues. Gay people can have different issues in therapy, but a lot of us have the same issues. Everyone has traumatic events. [39:29] David tries to treat people the same and not look at them as being different. The only thing about being gay that sets him apart is that he's attracted to men. [40:41] Ben gets David's opinion on transgender people. [42:31] Ben also asks David about LGBT exclusive recovery meetings. David thinks these might be distracting. [44:55] While doing steps, people don't really have an idea about who they are. It's not the best time to be in a relationship to give love and respect. [45:38] Know who you are before getting in a relationship. [46:14] Exclusive meetings can be closing yourself off. [47:17] Gay men may be more prone to sex addiction. Sometimes people can get confused as sex as love. [51:03] It's very easy for gay guys to find hookups. [54:22] David suggests not to only hang out with people in the gay community when you're a gay person in recovery. Also, stay off of the dating apps. Open up and share your story. Use your drug addiction experiences as a beacon of light. [56:56] Ben is super proud of David, he is nailing quality sobriety. [57:42] Giving back to the community is what keeps him sober. Links and Resources: Ep. 12 - A Discussion with David, His journey from Addiction to Sobriety

David Grayson has worked in Corporate Responsibility before there was a term for it. As a former Proctor and Gamble employee, he has taken his skills from that world and applied to the third sector. Today he is an author, educator, and consultant. In this episode, David talks about how Corporate Social responsibility needs to move away from a lens of mitigating risk, to one of opportunity maximization.In this episode, he referenced a quote from Peter Drucker in which he said, “every global problem and social issue is a business opportunity in disguise”. That David describes as an aha moment for him. For him, he sees the Sustainable Development Goals as a purchase order from the future. The Business and Development Commission has argued that the SDG’s represent a 12 Trillion dollar opportunity.For him, referencing the work of Don Tapscott, businesses are going to have to get naked and when they do they will need to be buff. We are entering into an era of ultra-transparency. Companies will have to improve the standards of ethical and sustainable impact. For businesses who wish to generate returns for their shareholders, they are going to need to also think about their stakeholders.In his most recent book All In The Future of Business Leadership, he makes the case that business has a growing role to play in sustainable development. They can no longer be halfhearted in their efforts around sustainability. They can no longer be diffident. Business needs to go All In around five critical interlinking attributes:They need a purpose:Businesses need to demonstrate how they create value for themselves and for society.They need a comprehensive plan:A plan that includes the entirety of their business. For example, their employees, their value chain and all the stakeholders within their ecosystem.Sustainable culture:They need to develop a culture that engages its employees, is open to ideas from all parts of the business ecosystem. Their culture needs to forefront innovation.They need to be able to collaborate with others business and other parts of society.Businesses in today’s world need to learn how to work with, or collaborate with, people they would not usually collaborate with. They need to cross the aisle and think about innovative partnerships that meet the needs of SDG's.Speaking out and Speaking up.Businesses need to speak up for issues that are unfair and unjust. No longer can they remain neutral on these issues.I hope you enjoyed this episode of disruptive conversations with David Grayson.You can find David at: https://davidgrayson.net/

David Grayson has worked in Corporate Responsibility before there was a term for it. As a former Proctor and Gamble employee, he has taken his skills from that world and applied to the third sector. Today he is an author, educator, and consultant. In this episode, David talks about how Corporate Social responsibility needs to move away from a lens of mitigating risk, to one of opportunity maximization.In this episode, he referenced a quote from Peter Drucker in which he said, “every global problem and social issue is a business opportunity in disguise”. That David describes as an aha moment for him. For him, he sees the Sustainable Development Goals as a purchase order from the future. The Business and Development Commission has argued that the SDG’s represent a 12 Trillion dollar opportunity.For him, referencing the work of Don Tapscott, businesses are going to have to get naked and when they do they will need to be buff. We are entering into an era of ultra-transparency. Companies will have to improve the standards of ethical and sustainable impact. For businesses who wish to generate returns for their shareholders, they are going to need to also think about their stakeholders.In his most recent book All In The Future of Business Leadership, he makes the case that business has a growing role to play in sustainable development. They can no longer be halfhearted in their efforts around sustainability. They can no longer be diffident. Business needs to go All In around five critical interlinking attributes:They need a purpose:Businesses need to demonstrate how they create value for themselves and for society.They need a comprehensive plan:A plan that includes the entirety of their business. For example, their employees, their value chain and all the stakeholders within their ecosystem.Sustainable culture:They need to develop a culture that engages its employees, is open to ideas from all parts of the business ecosystem. Their culture needs to forefront innovation.They need to be able to collaborate with others business and other parts of society.Businesses in today’s world need to learn how to work with, or collaborate with, people they would not usually collaborate with. They need to cross the aisle and think about innovative partnerships that meet the needs of SDG's.Speaking out and Speaking up.Businesses need to speak up for issues that are unfair and unjust. No longer can they remain neutral on these issues.I hope you enjoyed this episode of disruptive conversations with David Grayson.You can find David at: https://davidgrayson.net/

3D天籁人声净化你的心灵！天籁之音响彻云霄，余音袅袅娓娓动听，喜欢这首歌就点红心收藏吧！喜欢我作品的朋友可以关注一下我哦。 I’d heard there was a secret chord 我似乎听到美妙的旋律暗涌 That David played and it pleased the Lord 来自大卫为...

This episode I speak to Tom Stabb from popular UK podcast 'Monkey Tennis' and David Liebe Hart from 'Tim & Eric Awesome Show Great Job'. Things You Will Learn: 1: What to Watch on Streaming Services 2: That David wants me to buy him trains 3: That David wants me to find him a lady 4: That David was abducted by Aliens Subscribe, Rate and Review on Itunes and come say hi on twitter @jedshepherd.

At Villa Cappelli, we often surround ourselves with stereotypical Italian music like pizzica or Neopolitan classics, but when guest Michael Hynes visited, we were entertained with the likes of Elton John, Billy Joel and more!  It was another magical moment with our guests, and hopefully, the podcast captures even just a little bit of that. Topics we cover: How guests surprise us with their talents here at Villa Cappelli, including our latest guest from Australia, Michael Hynes How Steven has never tried Vegemite What Vegemite is actually like How we "discovered" Michael talent at the piano How Michael can easily memorize the songs, but is slower in memorizing the lyrics Paul's favorite song from his Catholic Confirmation (and yes, he really does sing in during the episode) Michael is a human jukebox, knowing over 500 songs!!! How Steven couldn't memorize a song for the life of him during high school band Michael doesn't consider himself a genius, but the writers of the songs are the geniuses How we got our piano at Villa Cappelli, especially since neither Paul nor Steven play Other guests have also just sat down at the piano and started playing Mike plays Hallelujah by Leonard Cohen Here is  Leonard's version, but dare I say I like Michael's better? Here are the lyrics for those die-hard fans: "Hallelujah" Now I've heard there was a secret chord That David played, and it pleased the Lord But you don't really care for music, do you? It goes like this The fourth, the fifth The minor fall, the major lift The baffled king composing Hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah Your faith was strong but you needed proof You saw her bathing on the roof Her beauty and the moonlight overthrew you She tied you to a kitchen chair She broke your throne, and she cut your hair And from your lips she drew the Hallelujah Hallelujah, Hallelujah Hallelujah, Hallelujah You say I took the name in vain I don't even know the name But if I did, well really, what's it to you? There's a blaze of light In every word It doesn't matter which you heard The holy or the broken Hallelujah Hallelujah, Hallelujah Hallelujah, Hallelujah I did my best, it wasn't much I couldn't feel, so I tried to touch I've told the truth, I didn't come to fool you And even though it all went wrong I'll stand before the Lord of Song With nothing on my tongue but Hallelujah Hallelujah, Hallelujah Hallelujah, Hallelujah Hallelujah, Hallelujah Hallelujah, Hallelujah Hallelujah, Hallelujah Hallelujah, Hallelujah Hallelujah, Hallelujah Hallelujah, Hallelujah Hallelujah The pianos that Michael has at home Michael's whole family is musically inclined The amazing organ in the Terlizzi cathedral The day of shopping Paul and Michael did Steven's theory on why some Italian Americans call pasta sauce "gravy" How the Italians and Irish never got along, until.... Some Australian slang A little about the cockney rhyming slang Michael sings a bit of "I get no kick from champagne" A bit about songwriters and how songwriters and lyrists work together The mural discovered in Terlizzi showing the story of Joseph and his multi-colored coat Paul's experience seeing an Elton John concert Michael sings "Candle in the wind" Goodbye Norma Jean Though I never knew you at all You had the grace to hold yourself While those around you crawled They crawled out of the woodwork And they whispered into your brain They set you on the treadmill And they made you change your name And it seems to me you lived your life Like a candle in the wind Never knowing who to cling to When the rain set in And I would have liked to have known you But I was just a kid Your candle burned out long before Your legend ever did Loneliness was tough The toughest role you ever played Hollywood created a superstar And pain was the price you paid Even when you died Oh the press still hounded you All the papers had to say Was that Marilyn was found in the nude Goodbye Norma Jean From the young man in the 22nd row Who sees you as something as more than sexual More than just our Marilyn Monroe Written by Bernie Taupin, Elton John • Copyright © Universal Music Publishing Group Why Paul believes that song has done more for Marilyn's legend than anything else The famous castrato from Terlizzi Three of Paul's most memorable concerts 1. Three Dog Night And Michael sings a bit of "Joy to the World (Jeremiah Was a Bullfrog)" 2. Watkins Glen Racetrack with 700,000 people Billy Joel at Carnegie Hall A Michael sings "New York State of Mind" Some folks like to get away Take a holiday from the neighborhood Hop a flight to Miami Beach Or to Hollywood But I'm taking a Greyhound On the Hudson River Line I'm in a New York state of mind I've seen all the movie stars In their fancy cars and their limousines Been high in the Rockies under the evergreens But I know what I'm needing And I don't want to waste more time I'm in a New York state of mind It was so easy living day by day Out of touch with the rhythm and blues But now I need a little give and take The New York Times, The Daily News It comes down to reality And it's fine with me 'cause I've let it slide Don't care if it's Chinatown or on Riverside I don't have any reasons I've left them all behind I'm in a New York state of mind It was so easy living day by day Out of touch with the rhythm and blues But now I need a little give and take The New York Times, The Daily News It comes down to reality And it's fine with me 'cause I've let it slide Don't care if it's Chinatown or on Riverside I don't have any reasons I've left them all behind I'm in a New York state of mind I'm just taking a Greyhound on the Hudson River Line 'Cause I'm in a New York state of mind And finally, Michaels sings us out with "Somebody to love" Can anybody find me somebody to love? Each morning I get up I die a little Can barely stand on my feet (take a look at yourself) Take a look in the mirror and cry Lord, what you're doing to me I have spent all my years in believing you But I just can't get no relief, Lord! Somebody, somebody Can anybody find me somebody to love? I work hard (he works hard) every day of my life I work 'til I ache my bones At the end (at the end of the day) I take home my hard-earned pay all on my own I get down (down) on my knees (knees) And I start to pray (praise the Lord) 'Til the tears run down from my eyes Lord, somebody, somebody (please) Can anybody find me somebody to love? (he works hard) everyday (everyday) I try, and I try, and I try But everybody wants to put me down They say I'm goin' crazy They say I got a lot of water in my brain I got no common sense I got nobody left to believe in Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah Oh, Lord Somebody, somebody Can anybody find me somebody to love? (Can anybody find me someone to love) Got no feel, I got no rhythm I just keep losing my beat (you just keep losing and losing) I'm OK, I'm alright (he's alright, he's alright) I ain't gonna face no defeat I just gotta get out of this prison cell One day (someday) I'm gonna be free, Lord! Find me somebody to love [repeat] Can anybody find me somebody to love? Some pics of Michael and Tanya during their stay with us:     What did you think of our non stereotypical Italian music?  Let us know in the comments.