A few prayer requests:

For myself:

1. To stop with the gaming and the screen time and instead reading my bible and other books.

2. To actually exercise obedience and discipline in general.

3. To actually sacrifice my time, energy, comfort, and all else needed to be physically helpful to others and to be a good witness and servant for Christ.

4. To accept rebuke, to discern properly between good counsel and unwarranted advice, and to finally respond to my chats.

Jeeves & Wooster academia AU where Jeeves is forever getting Bertie out of being on committees that he accidentally agreed to

"I can't do this, Jeeves. I would not survive. If I have to go to Madeline's Mindfulness Seminar every week, you will see my position advertised on the listservs by the end of the semester. What is mindfulness, anyway? Does she not use her mind otherwise?"

"I have often thought that Professor Bassett's approach to scholarship differs from your own in important ways, sir. I fear your collaboration would be unproductive."

"But I can't back out now. You know how keen the Chair is on what's-its-name."

"Interdisciplinarity, sir?"

"That's the ticket. Seems to think our mission in life is giving poets Erdos numbers."

"Nevertheless, sir, it occurs to me that if your course section were rescheduled to fill the slot currently occupied by Professor Little, you would be unable to participate through no fault of your own."

"But why would they be switched? Not that the old bean isn't one to help out a pal in distress, but he was desperate to wangle that slot."

"Circumstances have altered, sir. It transpires that Dr. Banks, whose day is almost entirely occupied with first-year writing seminars, takes her lunch break at just that time."

I felt as if the sword of whoever it was, the fellow who had the sword hanging over him, had been taken away. "Write the email, Jeeves. No, emails: one to Bingo to switch the sections, one to Madeline telling her how awfully sorry I am I can't go to her seminar."

"I have already done so, sir." Jeeves opened the windows and showed me.

The emails were masterly. "All done out of your own head, too, I suppose!" I commented.

"Yes, sir. I have never felt the need for artificial aid in composition."

"You're a marvel, Jeeves. The dining hall must be pretty nearly out of fish."

Anyways, I really like how Matthew emphasizes women of foreign backgrounds in the genealogy of Christ.

With the exception of Mary, EVERY SINGLE WOMAN in the genealogy of Christ is a remarried Gentile woman with a Past.

Tamar - abandoned Canaanite widow whose two sons were born by incestuous harlotry

Rahab - Canaanite prostitute

Ruth - Moabitess widow

Bathsheba - adulterous Hittite widow.

It's almost as if God is telling foreign sinful women that they can be part of His story and His people too . . .

Merlin - Season 1, Episode 04: The Poisoned Chalice (2008)

More proof (like I needed it) that Gwen and Arthur had a lot of meaningful, personal interaction even as early on in the series as this.

In Episode 3 he defends Gwen before Uther and notices her crush on Merlin. In Episode 4, he and Gwen conspire to help Merlin twice and act like people who have known each other for a long time and very well. They show a surprising amount of workmates chemistry even then.

Men will be like: "Wow, you're beautiful. I will love and cherish you. I will commit to you and guard your heart. I'll never leave you. Oh, you don't want to have premarital with me? Sorry, I'm just so busy lately. Too busy to talk to you."

#the christian men who are out there having premarital sex are not even christian

SAY IT LOUDER FOR THE PEOPLE IN THE BACK

GUINEVERE

Merlin 3x10 | Queen of Hearts

There is a lot of talk—a lot of rhetoric—about the God of the Old Testament being this wrathful God, striking at and punishing those who disobey. I think the thing that stands out more is the long arc of patience and mercy. Israel shows herself to be an adulterous harlot, embodying a contumely spirit, disobedient to her bridegroom at every turn. The ending of the book of Judges, for example, shows us just how far Israel has fallen—to the point that they were far more gruesome and depraved than even their surrounding nations who God had dispossessed and exterminated for their sins. Yet, after all of that, the Father kept His promises and the Messiah was gifted unto them.

A lesson in that.

Added to this: Jesus talks about the eternal fire where the worm does not die and the fire is not quenched. He says that it is better for a great millstone to be hung around your neck and be thrown into the sea than to stumble others. He says if your eye or hand causes you to sin, pluck it out or cut it off, because it is better to enter the kingdom lame or maimed than the whole body be thrown into Gehenna. Paul talks about how it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

Let's not say the God of the Old Testament is nasty and the God of the New Testament is nice, as someone once told me. That's a heresy refuted by the text itself.

Let us instead say that the God of the Bible is One God, and that He is loving and righteous, and that those things go together instead of being at odds in Him. It was Satan who divorced love and righteousness to keep us trapped in sin. In God those two things are united. They might even be one and the same.

The Romanian equivalent of "to be caught in the crossfire" is "a fi între ciocan și nicovală" (to be between the hammer and the anvil) and I think that's extremely evocative.

Are you sure that's not the equivalent of 'between a rock and a hard place' instead?

Excerpts from: Lundy Bancroft. Men’s Angry Messages to Me Part 2. November 14, unknown.

He specifically said no onions

“I would die for them.”

Yes, but would you live for them? Would you take care of yourself for them? Would you have discipline and do what’s right, even when it feels mundane or fruitless? Would you persevere and have hope? Would you see the best in people and the possibility of a future worth fighting for?

Hypothetical death is easy. Living is not hypothetical.

This makes Christ all the more sweet because yes, He died for our salvation - *big* BIG deal, amazing.

But He LIVED for you too, saints. He lived the perfect life, exercised perfect righteousness, lived without sin *for you*. Now when God looks on you, covered by the blood, He doesn't just see a lack of sin.

He sees His Son's perfect righteousness, in you. And by the Spirit, you can be made more and more into the image of your older brother, whose life and death has set you free.

Mara Jade: Whenever I’m around your brother I feel at ease and like I don’t have to be on my guard and when I look at him my face feels weird and I forget stuff. What kind of jedi mind control is he using on me?

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