Tomorrow it will be 156 weeks ago that my husband Bryan died.  It was June 7th of 2019.  Fridays used to be very hard for me the first year. The second year was a lot easier and this third year most Fridays are good days for me thanks be to the Lord.

For those of you who know the manner in which he passed I am sure you can understand how and why Fridays are so hard. Especially the annual ones. I'm not sure how my day will go. PTSD rears it's ugly head when it feels like it. And it can be on any day under any circumstances. Most times though I don't cry but sometimes I do uncontrollably.

I have a busy day tomorrow as has been every day this week. My body is not as strong as it used to be so I can't work in my yard like I am used to doing but I have a lot to do out there and it is a first day in a long time that I've actually had a few hours to myself where I can. Perhaps the Lord blessed me in that way by giving me an opportunity to keep myself occupied doing something that I love to do. He is so kind in that way. I raise my arms uplifted to Him and rejoice for He is so loving and so forgiving and so patient and so kind and so compassionate and so understanding.

What else can I say but "Praise You Jesus"!

My son-in-law Bill and my two youngest grandchildren, ages 10 and 12, are flying out early tomorrow morning at 7 a.m. ET and heading for Las Vegas where they will be picked up by Bill's sister. They are then going to drive to the Grand Canyon for a couple of days and then drive up to where his sister lives in Salt Lake City Utah. They will fly back here in 8 days.

I have asked the Lord to put hedges of His angels around them and protect them every moment. I've asked Him to be with the pilots and all the crew and anybody that is anywhere around my children.

I told my kids (amongst other things) to always use sunscreen because it's hot out there but most importantly to always stay with their dad or their aunt.

Pray with me for them please for their safekeeping while they are gone.

Thank you my dear family

We are participating in our weekly prayer time at 5pm EST. Check out the prayer request forum for some prayer topics, but feel free to lift up your own.

You may also fast. There's no obligation or guidelines to how you should do it, or if you should do it at all. Just fast as the Lord leads and speaks to your convictions.

When you read the parallel passages between Matthew, Mark and Luke, you get a small conflict about where Jesus is on the map about this time. Matthew and Mark are thinking in Hebrew terms, so they mention that Jesus is leaving the old Jericho of ancient days. Luke is writing for a Roman sponsor, so he refers to Jesus approaching the new Jericho Herod had built as a winter palace, and had become a center of Roman activity in that area.

Between the two sites along the main road we discover a pair of blind men, one of them named Bartimaeus. Jesus healed them. While certainly a whole lot better than alms in a bowl, it was small change for the Kingdom when the real treasure was two souls who truly believed in the Messiah. However noisy was the crowd that got their attention in the first place, it now became a raucous celebration of His power as they joined the march.

Toward the New Jericho, Herod had planted a long row of sycamore trees. They would grow faster here in the valley than anywhere else in Palestine, so were quite large by now. As they approached the city, the chief customs contractor for Herod (this is a major trade route) got wind of this famous rabbi approaching and tried to see Him. However, being too short, he decided to run ahead of the crowd and climb up on some of the lower limbs that sprouted from these sycamores. He didn't really have to get very high to see over the heads of the people in the crowd.

Not only did Zacchaeus see Jesus, but Jesus claimed that He had come to see Zacchaeus! This famous rabbi declared that He wanted this customs chief to host Him and His disciples for the night. Of course he was wealthy enough to do so; not only did he get a hefty cut of the taxes, but since he had employees doing all the work, he was a man of leisure who could invest his wealth wisely based on his knowledge of tax policy and business. But he was also quite the social outcast among Jews, and to finally be treated as a man worthy of such company was thrilling to him.

The Pharisees in the crowd fussed about Jesus socializing with a hated tax collector. Men like him were treated as Gentiles, total outcasts. It was deeply embarrassing for them that a Jew could become wealthy without bearing the burden of their silly Talmudic rules. His was dirty money in their eyes, not a blessing from God.

Jesus and the Twelve spent the balance of the day with him. After hearing Jesus teach in person, the man arose at dinner and announced that he would give half of his substantial wealth to the poor. Further, he would go back and review his collections. If there was anywhere that he had unjustly confiscated property for a tax debt, it wasn't just a fraud -- a 20% bonus added to the original. No, he would treat it as robbery, returning four times the amount.

Jesus declared that a soul had been delivered that day. He was not a true Son of Abraham, something far more significant than merely saying he was a Son of the Law. This man was walking the faith of Abraham, the one who was ready to sacrifice his own son at God's whim. Jesus came seeking among His nation for those who had such faith, but had been pushed aside by false rules of religion.

Now that Jesus had such a wealth and politically important backer, the throng that accompanied Him was really feeling the sense of power about what was coming. So, the next day they began the long ascent toward Jerusalem. The initial path was rocky and dusty, a steep climb, a narrow road cut into the walls of a tight rocky gorge. The group would have spread out along the trail. Taking a final climb over a dry ridge, they came to a greener area that was flatter for a while.

It would take most of the day to reach Jerusalem, a 3000 foot climb in a dozen or so miles of linear distance. They would typically stop to rest and have lunch about two-thirds of the way up. Ruins and tradition indicate there were inns at this point, selling food as well. There Jesus offered another parable.

It's based on the infamous dispute between Herod Antipas and his brother Archelaus over the portion of the kingdom given to the former by the bequest of their father, Herod the Great. Because Antipas had to stand before Caesar in Rome for this challenge, he was gone a few years. He left portions of his royal affairs in the hands of noble managers in his absence, just in case he didn't return alive.

Jesus takes off on this well known practice by using the image of the mina -- a sum of money equivalent to 100 days common labor wages. Each of the ten trustees received a mina to keep for the king.

Antipas did eventually win his case and return. In the parable, the man came back as king and called in his trustees to account for what they had managed. The first had invested wisely and was able to return ten times the amount granted. He was promoted to having stewardship of ten cities. The next was a little less successful, but still had five minas. He was promoted to managing five cities in the realm. A third came with the exact amount he was given. It was wrapped in a cloth and had been hidden safely.

The steward claimed that he knew this money was not his, and so he had to be careful dealing with a ruler who was known for seizing property on the smallest pretext. It was a sarcastic insult. And the king decided he would judge the man based on his own words. Why didn't the servant at least have the sense to invest it in banking, so that the king could collect a little interest on it? We're talking several years of absence, so it would be worth a bit more than one mina.

So he ordered the man relieved of his fearful obligation and the money was handed over to the first one, so that he now managed eleven. Better to invest it with the man who brought the best return.

The lesson should be obvious. The people to whom God had entrusted great blessings were obliged to use those blessings to increase the treasure of the Messianic Kingdom -- souls who would be drawn by the testimony of the blessings and become faithful. Israel had failed in this duty. To those who never quite understand why they were entrusted with so much, what little they had would be taken from them. Israel would lose their place as God's household on earth. Faith is the biggest blessing of all, but if you can't embrace it as yours, then it won't matter whatever else God gives you. It accomplishes nothing. Those who enrich the Kingdom of Heaven will see their lives filled with power.

To nail it down clearly, Jesus refers to the large block of Jewish activists who supported Archelaus in his suit against Antipas. We should not doubt that when Antipas returned from Rome, a good many political opponents were executed. What do you think God will do to those who opposed the idea of Jesus as the Messiah? He was referring to the Jewish rulers.

Jesus is warning His followers that the Kingdom was not what they were expecting, and that it was not going to be immediate. He would have to go away and win a highly contested bequest from His Father. In the meantime, He expected His supporters to serve as managers. They would take the rich faith and other blessings from His hand and grow a Kingdom worthy of His taking possession when He returned. He expects His servants to take what they have and bring in far more wealth -- committed covenant believers.

Again, we know the teaching was caught in their hearts, saved up for the day when their brains would finally surrender and understand the truth. Until then, it was just another enigmatic story Jesus told them.

I worked in public education for a while. I can tell you that the curriculum and teaching methods themselves are the primary reason for the rise of school shooters. The system was hijacked long ago and turned into a tool for destroying culture and social stability. The reason we have such strong differences between generations is that children are packed off to a huge warehouse where they are remote from their parents' social structure. So, they form their own social structure in isolation from the past, and it breeds radical changes in all the little things that combine to become big things. Meanwhile, it's also the place where they are force-fed a nihilist doctrine of life.

It's a meat-grinder. All children are damaged. Some who are on the margins get even more damage, and they are the ones who come back and shoot up the places where they were tormented.

We are participating in our weekly prayer time at 5pm EST. Check out the prayer request forum for some prayer topics, but feel free to lift up your own.

You may also fast. There's no obligation or guidelines to how you should do it, or if you should do it at all. Just fast as the Lord leads and speaks to your convictions.

It's been around for a long time, and now the MSM has decided that they have what they want to run with it. I used to be a Southern Baptist, so let me unwind some of this.

The problem is not unique to the SBC. I've personally seen hidden sex abuse in several other denominations. However, the way Southern Baptists handle things has made this a major slap in the face of evangelical religion. The SBC has been sexually blue-pilled for a very long time, but they tried to deny the implications of it. It's a peculiar hypocrisy that comes from denying the obvious. It's not a question of women having influence, but that they held such influence from a feminist viewpoint. They weren't walking in biblical religion. Women taken with feminist mythology don't act like godly women, and men who allow it don't act like godly men.

They were also very hypocritical about how the denomination worked. They claimed to be democratic, and in some ways that was true, but there have always been heavy-duty power brokers who got their way on everything. As soon as a church got beyond a certain size, voting and open meetings faded into insignificance. A big church is just another political institution. Churches that did things according to the book seldom got to play with the big boys.

There is a high probability that this will cause a significant exodus from the denomination. Even that would be somewhat hypocritical, because a great many not-so-big-shot leaders knew and didn't warn their own people. The internal political repercussions will be significant. The whole denomination has lost their reputation forever. I seriously doubt anyone is smart enough to use this opportunity to solve deeper problems.

They just didn't get it.

It's not just the Twelve, but by this time, Jesus has a substantial group following Him around. As is typical with Jewish folk, a significant portion of them were relatives. However, you can be sure that by this time, everyone in the group was committed to following Jesus as the Messiah. That much they assuredly believed. The part that troubled them was the otherworldly focus. Jesus wasn't going to have much effect on the human situation. His Kingdom would not be of any worldly kind, but a heavenly kind that would simply manifest in this world.

The parallel passages in Mark and Luke tell us that Jesus was making another journey, approaching the Old Jericho where Herod had built one of his palaces. Passover is near. The crowd following Him were convinced they were about to escort Him in triumph into Jerusalem to claim His rightful throne. He called the Twelve aside for a private discussion.

Then He told them again that His purpose in going to Jerusalem was to face charges before the Sanhedrin, who would sentence Him to death. They would turn Him over to Gentiles to slander, abuse and crucify Him. And then, on the third day, He would rise again. His description is rather detailed. The Scripture makes it clear the whole thing went in one ear and out the other, or so it seemed. We know that they later recalled everything, once the Holy Spirit fell on them, but this kind of revelation went into their hearts; it had no place in their minds.

Among His entourage, now these many months away from their home in Galilee, was His mother's sister, Salome. Her two sons, James and John, had prevailed upon her to make a formal request. It was an old Hebrew tradition that a female relative could make extravagant requests of a king, as we saw with David and Solomon, among others. On their behalf, she asked if her two sons could assume in His royal court the places on His left and right hands, the two most powerful men below the Master.

This isn't as unreasonable as it sounds, on human terms. James and John were His closest kin among His followers, and already among the Twelve. The other cousins were somewhat more removed in kinship. These two were just trying to get things lined up before they arrived for a whirlwind takeover of the throne in Jerusalem, currently vacant, with Pilate serving as Rome's representative. Shouldn't such matters be settled before all that?

Jesus played along for a moment. Would they be ready to pass through the same testing and sorrows with Him? They were convinced they could do it. He agreed that they couldn't avoid it, but that their request was not His to grant. Such matters would remain in the Father's hands.

The other ten disciples overheard enough to become rather peeved at this sneaky tactic James and John employed. But Jesus shut them down. None of them was getting the message, yet. Among humans, greatness is power over each other. In the Kingdom of the Messiah, greatness is power over the fallen human self. You must conquer the self and make it serve the Kingdom purpose. If you care about position and power, you are disqualified already.

Jesus turned everything upside down: Humility was greatness. Service was leadership. An ignoble death was victory. They had a lot to learn.

"If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained." John 20:23
I know we recently covered forgiveness.
But could we discuss this verse amongst us for some deeper clarity?
Interesting to note how the Lord Jesus repeated shalom to the disciples twice and breathed upon them then said "receive the Holy Spirit," before John 20 :23.
What are you guys encounters with this scripture?

Some talks are exhausting.
"...the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity: so is the tongue amongst our members, that it defileth the whole body, and sets on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire of hell."
I beat out fires all around me after  talks with particular persons in my life. Whew weee