Tag: Dear MAGA

Dear Maga: 20210905 Open Topic

This Sanctuary Sunday Open Thread, with full respect to those who worship God on the Sabbath, is a place to reaffirm our worship of our Creator, our Father, our King Eternal.

It’s also a place to read, post, and discuss news that is worth knowing and sharing. Please post links to any news stories that you use as sources or quote from.

In the QTree, we’re a friendly and civil lot. We encourage free speech and the open exchange and civil discussion of different ideas. Topics aren’t constrained, and sound logic is highly encouraged, all built on a solid foundation of truth and established facts.

We have a policy of mutual respect, shown by civility. Civility encourages discussions, promotes objectivity and rational thought in discourse, and camaraderie in the participants – characteristics we strive toward in our Q Tree community.

Please show respect and consideration for our fellow QTreepers. Before hitting the “post” button, please proofread your post and make sure you’re addressing the issue only, and not trying to confront the poster. Keep to the topic – avoid “you” and “your”. Here in The Q Tree, personal attacks, name-calling, ridicule, insults, baiting, and other conduct for which a penalty flag would be thrown are VERBOTEN.

In The Q Tree, we’re compatriots, sitting around the campfire, roasting hot dogs, making s’mores, and discussing, agreeing, and disagreeing about whatever interests us. This board will remain a home for those who seek respectful conversations.

Please also consider the Guidelines for posting and discussion printed here: https://www.theqtree.com/2019/01/01/dear-maga-open-topic-20190101/

Wait Patiently On The Lord

Recently, we read about resting in the Lord, where that rest referred to a spiritual rest from confusion, worry, stress, useless human effort, and a break from all internal, external, mortal, and spiritual enemies. The Hebrew word translated as “rest” means “to be at peace,” “to be still,” “to be quiet or calm.”

In place of “rest in the Lord,” some Bible translations say, “Be still before the Lord” (ESV and NIV), “Be silent before the Lord”(CSB), “Surrender yourself to the Lord” (GW), and “Be still in the presence of the Lord” (NLT). These versions convey the essential idea that to rest and be at peace, one must dwell in the presence of the Lord, surrendered to His lordship.

A main verse referenced for resting in the Lord was Psalm 37:7 “Rest in the LORD, and wait patiently for Him” which introduces waiting patiently for the Lord as a companion to resting in the Lord.

In the Psalms, Proverbs, and many other books of the Bible, we find commands to wait on the Lord” like this one: “Wait on the LORD: Be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: Wait, I say, on the LORD” (Psalm 27:14, KJV). Most modern translations use “wait for the Lord.” To English readers, the idea of waiting on the Lord might seem like a passive exercise, but a closer study reveals that it’s nothing of the sort.

Patient, confident trust in the Lord is the central idea of the exhortation to wait on the Lord. The entire Psalm 27 is a prayer to God for help. It beautifully illustrates the meaning of waiting on the Lord. Throughout the psalm’s eloquent lines, David expresses authentic faith and courageous trust in God, based on his confident expectation that the Lord will rescue and save him in his time of trouble.

First, we see that we can wait on the Lord by trusting in Him. David expressed great confidence in the Lord, who was his light, salvation, and stronghold (Psalm 27:1–2). This kind of dynamic trust dispels fear and despair: “When the wicked advance against me to devour me, it is my enemies and my foes who will stumble and fall. Though an army besiege me, my heart will not fear; though war break out against me, even then I will be confident” (verses 2–3).

We can wait on the Lord by seeking Him. David conveyed his trust in the Lord by longing to be with Him, to commune in God’s presence and worship in His temple: “One thing I ask from the LORD, this only do I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze on the beauty of the LORD and to seek him in his temple” (Psalm 27:4). In God’s dwelling place, praising and worshiping the Lord, David felt safe and secure: “For in the day of trouble he will keep me safe in his dwelling; he will hide me in the shelter of his sacred tent and set me high upon a rock. Then my head will be exalted above the enemies who surround me; at his sacred tent I will sacrifice with shouts of joy; I will sing and make music to the LORD” (verses 5–6).

We can wait on the Lord through prayer, as David did in eager expectation of deliverance (Psalm 27:7–14). David asked God for wisdom, direction (verse 11), and protection (verse 12), wholly believing he would “see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living” (verse 13). Those who wait on the Lord can fully expect Him to fulfill their hope: “Indeed, none who wait for you shall be put to shame” (Psalm 25:3, ESV).

Waiting on the Lord involves the confident expectation of a positive result in which we place a great hope. This expectation is based on knowledge of and trust in God. Those who do not know the Lord will not wait on Him; neither will those who fail to trust Him. We must be confident of who God is and what He is capable of doing. Those who wait on the Lord do not lose heart in their prayers: “This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us” (1 John 5:14). Waiting on the Lord renews our strength (Isaiah 40:31). Waiting on the Lord by trusting, seeking, and praying establishes our faith and brings serenity and stability: “I waited patiently for the LORD; he turned to me and heard my cry. He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand. He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God. Many will see and fear the LORD and put their trust in him” (Psalm 40:1–3). As this passage affirms, waiting on the Lord is also a testimony to others who will see our faith and, as a result, put their trust in God.

Waiting on the Lord brings God’s blessings: “Since ancient times no one has heard, no ear has perceived, no eye has seen any God besides you, who acts on behalf of those who wait for him” (Isaiah 64:4; see also 1 Corinthians 1:7).

Sometimes we might feel as though the Lord does not see or hear us—that He’s not answering our prayers. During these moments, we can put our complete faith and trust in the living God. We can wait on the Lord in eager anticipation, knowing that He is with us and in control of our lives. He will do what He has promised. He will rescue and save us. He is always working for our good, even when we don’t feel Him (Romans 8:28). Through patient, courageous, active trusting, seeking, and prayer, we can learn to wait on the Lord.

Why is waiting on God so difficult?

Waiting on God is not only difficult; sometimes it seems impossible. We want things to happen in our own timing, according to our plans. But God doesn’t operate on our schedules, and expecting that He will sets one up for disappointment.

Waiting on God means going without answers to prayer, wondering why the wicked seem to prosper, and having desires delayed and hope deferred. God has a greater perspective of life’s events, and His perspective, plans, and schedules are perfect and holy, because He is perfect and holy. The psalmist tells us, “As for God, His way is perfect” (Psalm 18:30). If God’s ways are “perfect,” then we can trust that whatever He does—and whatever His timing—is also perfect. When we grasp that fact, waiting on God is not only made less difficult, it actually becomes joyful.

The promises of God are clear on this matter—in waiting on God, we find our strength renewed (Isaiah 40:31). But we are human, and we live in a fast-paced culture that demands everything now. That’s one reason why waiting on God is difficult. Sometimes, the prayers we lift up to the Lord of Hosts are answered immediately, and that encourages us to further trust and confidence. However, sometimes the Lord’s answers are delayed. Over a period of time, the Lord tests our faith, and that’s when we can really struggle. We may even start to wonder whether the Lord is really listening to our prayers.

Waiting on God should not cause the believer to doubt or to worry. The apostle Paul exhorts us to not be anxious about anything (Philippians 4:6). The King James Version translates this as the command to be “careful for nothing.” This means we are not to be full of care over anything; we should be mindful of nothing that might cause concern, except to bring it to God in prayer. Anxiety in the believer suggests a lack of faith, and that grieves the Lord (see Matthew 8:26).

Waiting on God can keep us out of trouble. Abraham had God’s promise of a son through whom the covenant would be fulfilled (Genesis 15:4). Abraham and Sarah tried and waited, but they could have no child. Rather than waiting on God and His timing, they unwisely took matters into their own hands, and Ishmael was the result (Genesis 16).

One divine attribute that will enable us to patiently wait on God is His sovereignty. We can have complete confidence in His total, independent control over every creature, event, and circumstance at every moment in history. Subject to none, influenced by none, and absolutely independent, God does what He pleases, only as He pleases, and always as He pleases. Nothing can stay His hand: “I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. I say: My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please” (Isaiah 46:10). Once we better understand God’s sovereignty, coupled with His goodness, waiting for God to act becomes a matter of a child trusting in his father’s faithfulness, sure of his father’s strength.

Waiting on God is never easy, but we wait in the knowledge that God knows our situation, He cares for our needs, and He is good to the end. “Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life” (Proverbs 13:12).

On this day and every day –

God is in Control
. . . and His Grace is Sufficient, so . . .
Keep Looking Up

Hopefully, every Sunday, we can find something here that will build us up a little . . . give us a smile . . . and add some joy or peace, very much needed in all our lives.

“This day is holy to the Lord your God;
do not mourn nor weep.” . . .
“Go your way, eat the fat, drink the sweet,
and send portions to those for whom nothing is prepared;
for this day is holy to our Lord.
Do not sorrow,
for the joy of the Lord is your strength.”

DEAR MAGA: Open Thread 20210902

Given the situation at the usual site, TQT, this is our temporary headquarters. Some of our usual participants have not visited here to comment in the past, so their first comment will go into moderation when they stop by. Wolf will get everyone set up and approved as we progress through life here.

In the meantime, as we are in a holding pattern waiting for something, anything to happen, let me get this out of the way as it touched something in me.

Be still my heart. Just like my mother used to do. Correct syntax matters.

Alright, I know I said yesterday that I would deal with fear of losing a job meaning fear of losing oneself today, but Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano has written another extraordinary letter about the COVID situation all the way around that is worth giving a day in court. Here’s a sample:

The criminal mens

Once it is understood that the present events have been intended in order to obtain certain results – and consequently to pursue certain interests on behalf of a minority part of humanity, with incalculable harm for the majority – we must also have the honesty to recognize the criminal mens [mind] of the authors of this plan. This criminal design also makes us understand the fraud perpetrated by civil authority in presenting certain measures as an unavoidable response to unpredictable events, when the events have been artfully created and magnified with the sole purpose of legitimizing a revolution – which Schwab identifies as the fourth industrial revolution – intended by the elite to the detriment of all humanity. The enslavement of authority is on the other hand the result of a process that began even earlier, with the French Revolution, and which made the political class the servant not of God (whose Lordship it disdainfully disregards) nor of the sovereign people (which it despises and uses only to legitimize itself), but of the economic and financial potentates, of the international oligarchy of bankers and usurers, of multinationals and pharmaceutical companies. In reality, on closer inspection, all these subjects belong to a small number of well-known very rich families.

Equal enslavement is also evident in the media: journalists have accepted – without any scruple of conscience – prostituting themselves to the powerful, going so far as to censor the truth and spread shameless lies without even trying to give them the appearance of credibility. Up until last year journalists counted the numbers of the “victims” of Covid by presenting anyone who tested positive as terminally ill; today those who die after being vaccinated are always and only taken by a vague “illness,” and even before the post mortem examinations they officially decide that there is no correlation between a person’s death and the administration of the gene serum. They twist the truth with impunity when it does not confirm their narrative, bending it to fit their purposes.

What has been happening for a year and a half had been widely announced, down to the smallest detail, by the creators of the Great Reset themselves; just as we were told the measures that would be adopted. On February 17, 1950, testifying before the United States Senate, the well-known banker James Warburg said, “We will have a world government, whether you like it or not. The only question that arises is whether this world government will be established by consensus or by force.” Four years later, the Bilderberg Group was born, which has counted among its members characters such as [Italian businessman Gianni] Agnelli, Henry Kissinger, Mario Monti, and the current Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi. In 1991, David Rockefeller wrote: “The world is ready for a world government. The supranational sovereignty of an intellectual elite and world bankers is certainly preferable to the national self-determination practiced in past centuries.” And he added: “We are on the verge of a global transformation. All we need is the ‘right’ global crisis and the nations will accept the New World Order.” Today we can affirm that this “right crisis” coincides with the pandemic emergency and with the “lockstep” outlined since 2010 by the Rockefeller Foundation document “Scenarios for the Future of Technology and International Development,” in which the events we are now witnessing are all anticipated (here).

In short, they have created a false problem in order to be able to impose population control measures as an apparent solution, cancel small and medium-sized businesses with lockdowns and the green pass to the benefit of a few international groups, demolish education by imposing distance learning, lower the cost of manpower and employees with “smart working,” privatize public health for the benefit of Big Pharma, and allow governments to use the state of emergency to legislate in derogation of the law and impose so-called vaccines on the entire population, making citizens traceable in all their movements and either chronically ill or sterile.

Everything the elite wanted to do, they have done. And what is incomprehensible is that in the face of the evidence of the premeditation of this terrible crime against humanity, which sees the leaders of almost the whole world as accomplices and traitors, there is not a single magistrate who opens a file against them to ascertain the truth and condemn the guilty and complicit. Those who disagree are not only censored but pointed out as public enemies, as infectors, as non-persons for whom no rights are recognized.

Whatever one does in life, getting on Vigano’s bad side would not be advisable.

Okay, let’s see what I’ve got.

This is why we are here.

And now for the business portion. While we are at the U Tree, there are a few changes:

Please review our HOST and site owner’s Guidelines for posting and discussion for this site. Wolf is kind enough to put up with *most* of us and our antics after thorough vetting. Violators of the baiting and deliberately attempting to divide the group rules WILL face consequences.

The discourse on this site – FOR THE MOMENT – is to be CIVIL – no name calling, baiting, or threatening others here is allowed. Company manners are appreciated. Those who are so inclined may visit Wolf’s other sanctuary, the U-Tree, to slog out discussions best saved for a wrestling mat. Say hi to anyone who is actually hanging out there for the rest of us. If, for some reason, this site is not available, head over to the UTree and visit the post at the top of the list.

This site is a celebration of the natural rights endowed to humans by our Creator as well as those enshrined in the Bill of Rights adopted in the founding documents of the United States of America. Within the limits of law, how we exercise these rights is part of the freedom of our discussion.

THAT MEANS THAT ALL OF US HERE ARE ENTITLED TO OUR OPINIONS AND PREJUDICES, ETC., SO LONG AS THEY CAUSE NO PHYSICAL HARM TO OTHERS OR DOXX OUR FELLOW TREE DWELLERS.

All opinions here are valued for the diversity they bring to the issues, and the shaping of understanding regarding topics for which many of us do not have all information. Correcting the record on any one topic is appreciated.

Be careful in expressing thoughts as we would all like to think well of the rest of the group, and ill-thought out comments have a way of wrecking that for everyone.

Fellow tree dweller Wheatie gave us some good reminders on the basics of civility in political discourse:

  1. No food fights
  2. No running with scissors
  3. If you bring snacks, be sure they are made with bacon

Auntie DePat’s requests as we are all supposedly adults and don’t just play them on TV like the body doubles pretending to be the squatter in chief:

If you see something has not been posted, do us all a favor, and post it. Please, do not complain that it has not been done yet.

The scroll wheel on your mouse can be your friend. As mature adults, please use it here in the same manner you would in avoiding online porn.

Thank you so much for any and all attention to such details. It is GREATLY appreciated by more than one party here.

____________________________________________________

COLOSSIANS 1:9-14

9And so, from the day we heard of it, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, 10to lead a life worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God. 11May you be strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy, 12giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. 13He has delivered us from the dominion of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, 14in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

_____________________________________________________

Despair and Disillusionment

sun behind tower

This very special DESPAIR & DISILLUSIONMENT thread
commemorates the greatest psy-op ever
attempted against Heaven’s beloved, mankind.

holy-saturday-grief

Here we are again

Imagine being Peter, seeing the miracles, the honor given to his teacher, the wild popularity with the people, and then, Jesus explains all of this is going to change.

31 He then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again.
32 He spoke plainly about this, and Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. 33 But when Jesus turned and looked at his disciples, he rebuked Peter. “Get behind me, Satan!” he said. “You do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.”

Mark 8:31-33

Peter feels he must help his teacher out. Jesus must be tired and have made a mistake. It’s hard to imagine the intensity of the sting of that rebuke from Jesus. Peter, soon to be the rock of the church, had been the mouthpiece of satan? Ouch.

But Jesus then pivots and turns this into a teaching moment Peter would never forget.

The Way of the Cross

34 Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. 35 For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it.
36 What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? 37 Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul? 38 If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when he comes in his Father’s glory with the holy angels.”

Mark 8:34-38

And then the ministry starts to get really busy. I wonder if Peter forgot those words in the whirlwind of activity, or did he in quiet moments would revisit that stinging encounter and try to make sense of it all?

Later on, Jesus would tell the parable of the tenants.

“A man planted a vineyard. He put a wall around it, dug a pit for the winepress and built a watchtower. Then he rented the vineyard to some farmers and moved to another place. 2 At harvest time he sent a servant to the tenants to collect from them some of the fruit of the vineyard. 3 But they seized him, beat him and sent him away empty-handed. 4 Then he sent another servant to them; they struck this man on the head and treated him shamefully. 5 He sent still another, and that one they killed. He sent many others; some of them they beat, others they killed.

6 “He had one left to send, a son, whom he loved. He sent him last of all, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’
7 “But the tenants said to one another, ‘This is the heir. Come, let’s kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.’ 8 So they took him and killed him, and threw him out of the vineyard.

Mark 12:1b-8

Would that story haunt Peter’s dreams?

Then, in Bethany, a woman pours a very expensive perfume on Jesus’ head, scandalizing all present, excepting Jesus. Again Jesus patiently explains what is coming.

6 “Leave her alone,” said Jesus. “Why are you bothering her? She has done a beautiful thing to me. 7 The poor you will always have with you, and you can help them any time you want. But you will not always have me.
8 She did what she could. She poured perfume on my body beforehand to prepare for my burial. 9 Truly I tell you, wherever the gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her.”
Mark 14:6-9

This is when Judas snapped. He’d been following a madman. How could the Son of God be talking of defeat and death this way?

But Jesus did indeed suffer humiliation, torture, and death. Afterwards his closest disciples are ashamed at their lack of courage and in deep grief. His betrayer, Judas, hangs himself in despair.

The disciples of Jesus have taken a gut punch. The women following Jesus have proven to have much more courage than the men. What embarrassment! The only leadership shown was by Joseph of Arimathea, not in the inner circle at all,  who boldly goes to Pilate and asks for the body of Jesus and gave some dignity to him in his death.

The disillusionment stung. The grief nearly unbearable. Such a dark fog of evil swirling around them, that they can’t even remember the promise he gave to rise on the third day.

While Christ is plundering hell, his disciples grieve.

christ-holy-saturday-jail-break

Male & Female

This very special MALE & FEMALE thread
celebrates Heaven’s original blueprint for
both the male and the female genders.

Adam-and-Eve-eat-the-fruit

An African Cardinal Speaks

I believe this Cardinal, Robert Sarah, brings a beautiful moral clarity to many of the topics discussed here at Wolf’s Q Treehouse, but let’s to focus on the gender issue for a moment.

Cardinal Sarah, Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship, says that the spiritual crisis that currently blights “the whole world” has its roots in Europe, because Europe has rejected God:

“Western people are convinced that receiving is contrary to the dignity of human persons. But civilised man is fundamentally an heir, he receives a history, a culture, a language, a name, a family. This is what distinguishes him from the barbarian. To refuse to be inscribed within a network of dependence, heritage, and filiation condemns us to go back naked into the jungle of a competitive economy left to its own devices. Because he refuses to acknowledge himself as an heir, man is condemned to the hell of liberal globalisation.”

Cardinal Sarah links this idea of the rejection of humanity’s inheritance to another that he says is at the root of current malaise: the rejection, in the West, of the idea of fatherhood.

The two rejections, he explains, are intimately bound up with our rejection of God.

“From Him we receive our nature as man and woman. This is intolerable to modern minds. Gender ideology is a Luciferian refusal to receive a sexual nature from God. Thus some rebel against God and pointlessly mutilate themselves in order to change their sex. But in reality they do not fundamentally change anything of their structure as man or woman. The West refuses to receive, and will accept only what it constructs for itself.”

He continues: “Because it is a gift from God, human nature itself becomes unbearable for western man… This revolt is spiritual at root. It is the revolt of Satan against the gift of grace.”

— Excerpt, Interview of Cardinal Robert Sarah, The Tablet

Adam-and-Eve-silouette.jpg

We ignore the gift of grace found in gender differences to our great loss.

However, I’d like to redirect our attention to something else about the Divine blueprint. There are two versions of the creation story in the book of Genesis. The first is more like a requirements specification, the second is more like an elaboration process.

So God created human beings in his own image.
In the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them.

— Genesis 1:27

woman-out-of-man

18 Then the Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper who is just right for him.” 19 So the Lord God formed from the ground all the wild animals and all the birds of the sky. He brought them to the man to see what he would call them, and the man chose a name for each one. 20 He gave names to all the livestock, all the birds of the sky, and all the wild animals. But still there was no helper just right for him.
21 So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep. While the man slept, the Lord God took out one of the man’s ribs and closed up the opening. 22 Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib, and he brought her to the man.
23 “At last!” the man exclaimed.

“This one is bone from my bone,
and flesh from my flesh!
She will be called ‘woman,’
because she was taken from ‘man.’”

 

24 This explains why a man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one.

25 Now the man and his wife were both naked, but they felt no shame.
— Genesis 2:18-25

Have you ever considered that Wolf’s famous BOTH logic applies to God? In the first reference the term human beings (Hebrew ’ādām) is the generic term for humankind and does not imply gender. In the blueprint, humankind is created in the image of God, BOTH male and female. To truly defend and honor gender, we must first respect this reality. There is the biology AND the spirituality.

John Eldredge’s writing have captured the power of celebrating the qualities of gender for the most recent generation. And recently a theologian has pointed out that section in that corresponds to the governmental portion of the Mosaic law in the Ten Commandments is, “honor your father AND your mother.” Talk about revolutionary. There have been patriarchal cultures and matriarchal cultures, but a culture of honor for BOTH???

What if we’ve been duped into looking at the wrong thing (again). What if true leadership and authority and inner peace flow out of embracing the partnership of two very powerful and very different genders, BOTH made in the image of God?

To be honest, I’m just scratching the surface of what feels like an intense and very deep reality here. I don’t think I’m even close to where we need to be on this. There is something here that we must understand in order to prevail in the culture/spiritual war we are dealing with. But it seems this needs to be put out there for discussion.

Wonder Woman - 2017

Despair & Disillusionment

This very special DESPAIR & DISILLUSIONMENT thread
commemorates the greatest psy-op ever
attempted against Heaven’s beloved, mankind.

holy-saturday-grief

Think’s Thoughts

Imagine being Peter, seeing the miracles, the honor given to his teacher, the wild popularity with the people, and then, Jesus explains all of this is going to change.

31 He then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again.
32 He spoke plainly about this, and Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. 33 But when Jesus turned and looked at his disciples, he rebuked Peter. “Get behind me, Satan!” he said. “You do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.”

Mark 8:31-33

Peter feels he must help his teacher out. Jesus must be tired and have made a mistake. It’s hard to imagine the intensity of the sting of that rebuke from Jesus. Peter, soon to be the rock of the church, had been the mouthpiece of satan? Ouch.

But Jesus then pivots and turns this into a teaching moment Peter would never forget.

The Way of the Cross

34 Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. 35 For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it.
36 What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? 37 Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul? 38 If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when he comes in his Father’s glory with the holy angels.”

Mark 8:34-38

And then the ministry starts to get really busy. I wonder if Peter forgot those words in the whirlwind of activity, or did he in quiet moments would revisit that stinging encounter and try to make sense of it all?

Later on, Jesus would tell the parable of the tenants.

“A man planted a vineyard. He put a wall around it, dug a pit for the winepress and built a watchtower. Then he rented the vineyard to some farmers and moved to another place. 2 At harvest time he sent a servant to the tenants to collect from them some of the fruit of the vineyard. 3 But they seized him, beat him and sent him away empty-handed. 4 Then he sent another servant to them; they struck this man on the head and treated him shamefully. 5 He sent still another, and that one they killed. He sent many others; some of them they beat, others they killed.

6 “He had one left to send, a son, whom he loved. He sent him last of all, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’
7 “But the tenants said to one another, ‘This is the heir. Come, let’s kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.’ 8 So they took him and killed him, and threw him out of the vineyard.

Mark 12:1b-8

Would that story haunt Peter’s dreams?

Then, in Bethany, a woman pours a very expensive perfume on Jesus’ head, scandalizing all present, excepting Jesus. Again Jesus patiently explains what is coming.

6 “Leave her alone,” said Jesus. “Why are you bothering her? She has done a beautiful thing to me. 7 The poor you will always have with you, and you can help them any time you want. But you will not always have me.
8 She did what she could. She poured perfume on my body beforehand to prepare for my burial. 9 Truly I tell you, wherever the gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her.”
Mark 14:6-9

This is when Judas snapped. He’d been following a madman. How could the Son of God be talking of defeat and death this way?

But Jesus did indeed suffer humiliation, torture, and death. Afterwards his closest disciples are ashamed at their lack of courage and in deep grief. His betrayer, Judas, hangs himself in despair.

The disciples of Jesus have taken a gut punch. The women following Jesus have proven to have much more courage than the men. What embarrassment! The only leadership shown was by Joseph of Arimathea, not in the inner circle at all,  who boldly goes to Pilate and asks for the body of Jesus and gave some dignity to him in his death.

The disillusionment stung. The grief nearly unbearable. Such a dark fog of evil swirling around them, that they can’t even remember the promise he gave to rise on the third day.

While Christ is plundering hell, his disciples grieve.

christ-holy-saturday-jail-break

Dear MAGA: Open Topic 20190104

This special FALL OF THE HOUSE OF COMMIES FRIDAY open thread is VERY OPEN – a place for everybody to post whatever they feel they would like to tell the White Hats, and the rest of the MAGA world.

Say what you want, comment on what other people said, comment on people’s comments.  Keep it civil.  Treehouse rules, but expect lots of QAnon.

Remember – your greatest gift to President Trump is FIVE WORDS:

I AM PRAYING FOR YOU

See the January 1st daily thread for the rules of the road, which are few but important.

Let the great battle to erase the error of communism from this Planet begin with the FALL OF THE HOUSE OF COMMIES.

W

Come on, Nancy. Show America what you’re REALLY made of.

Dear MAGA: Open Topic 20181216

This SPECIAL FREE SPEECH SUNDAY open thread is VERY OPEN – a place for everybody to post whatever they feel they would like to tell the White Hats, and the rest of the MAGA world.

Say what you want, comment on what other people said, comment on people’s comments.  Keep it civil.  Treehouse rules, but expect lots of QAnon.

No threats or communist provocations allowed.  Though, if you do them, we get to virtue signal for the racist communist treasonoids in DOJ, which is kinda fun.  We assume that some of their FBI rank-n-file slaves snicker at the ridiculous nature of the whole thing, too, so there is that.

Today (Sunday, December 16) is the fifteenth day of Advent.

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/advent-2018-what-meaning-how-13663762

The 146th day of next year, which shall be celebrated here as Ma Cankles Uranium Day, is:

SUNDAY, MAY 26, 2019

Great video here, complete with the classic Tucker Carlson “You gotta be kidding me!” look.

W