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Rev Jeff Black @jeffblack945
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#RevThread # 102
Rev Jeff Black
The Yeast of Herod

1/ One of Jesus’ slyest remarks: “Beware the yeast of the Pharisees and of Herod.” (Mark 8:15) Yeast inflates the dough; it’s an expander.
2/ What expands the Pharisees? What inflates the religious? That’s pretty easy -- it’s on display all the time. It’s the air of superiority, the stance towards everyone who doesn’t measure up that says, “I’m ok; you’re not so hot.” Lot of that going around.
3/ But what is “the yeast of Herod”? What expanded Herod?...
4/ Herod is the New Testament’s portrait of corruption. (I know, I know, there are two New Testament Herods, but for this thread I’ll smush them together into one glob of governmental ick.) What makes Herod seem big, seem great? What makes his image rise?...
5/ Mostly it’s Herod's great show of wealth: the regal garments, the gold palaces throughout the land, the wonderful chariots, the endless horses, his own 737 -- wow, what a man!
6/ The problem with Mammon worship is that your soul dies; you can’t trust anybody; every relationship gets reduced to a transaction.
7/ You can do terrible things to defend your wealth. Herod had not just caged little children; he had slaughtered them.
8/ Herod had seemed so free! He was a party boy. There’s a famous scene of his birthday party, when, having invited in all the lesser nobles and kept the commoners out...
9/ Herod got wasted. Then a girl came dancing before him. He was aroused. The girl had been his niece, until Herod married her mother (his brother’s wife). Wonderful family, those Herods - the nicest people. Now, of course, the girl was the king’s own stepdaughter. And so hot!
10/ Herod offered her half the kingdom in exchange for some fun. “I took her furniture shopping.” So the girl ran out and asked mom what to ask for...
11/..Now Herod had already imprisoned John the Baptist after John criticized Herod for seizing his brother’s wife for himself...
12/ Mom wanted John executed for challenging her right to be queen.
So the step-daughter came back to the party demanding the head of John the Baptist. (A truth-teller who was clearly the enemy of the state.)
13/ What’s a king to do? He orders John’s murder.
14/ Oh, and there’s this: Unlike our ruler, Herod didn’t profess to be “such a strong Christian” while defying everything Jesus taught. Instead, the original Herod handed Jesus himself over to be murdered.
15/ What did it all come to? What did God think of Herod? One day Herod got all dolled up and went to a rally and gave a speech and the crowd was going wild, saying, “The voice of a god and not a man!..…
16/ [And Scripture adds]... “Immediately an angel of the Lord struck him down, because he did not give God the glory, and he was eaten by worms and breathed his last.” (Acts 12: 22 - 23) Very cool.
17/ When the first actual and honest biography of this president gets written, I have a title to suggest:
"American Herod"
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#RevThread # 120 c
What the Hell? Part 3 of 5
Of God and Greed

1/ “Greedy. I was always greedy, greedy, greedy. Maybe I shouldn’t admit that. But now, I’m going to be greedy for America!” Thus, approximately, spake the Don, to throngs of adoring white evangelicals.
2/ The warnings by Jesus about greed are many and severe. He creates parables about money, he teaches straight out about its dangers. Successful churches sail on by, oblivious to His urgent warnings.
3/ Jesus focussed so much on money because it is an object of our heart’s desire, and therefore it’s really dangerous. We kill for it, divorce for it, lie for it, commit treason for it. Nobody thinks they're greedy, but greed lurks just behind everyone's door.
Read 39 tweets
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#RevThread #120 b
“What the Hell?” part 2 of 5

1/ How did Evangelical teachings about sex help prepare their people to support Trump as God’s anointed choice to be President? (“President Trump,” observed Jerry Falwell the other day, “has saved America.”)
2/ When I ask my fellow Evangelicals why they are such enthusiastic Republicans, especially when Scripture is so clear about compassion for the poor and the sick, they usually tell me that for them, abortion is just murder, and they trust the Republican promise to end it,...
3/..to change the Supreme Court and overturn Roe v Wade. (There’s still, in the more rigid Evangelical churches, a strong and regrettable dose of homophobia, but Trump hasn’t yet tried to exploit that, so I won’t deal with it here.)
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#RevThread # 120
What the Hell?
(part 1 of 5)

1/ Here comes a 5-part series, triggered by Brian K’s great question, “What the hell has happened to Christianity?”
2/ After today’s introduction will come one on sex, one on money and one on science. Each will argue that recently screwed-up Evangelical teaching prepared church members to fall for Trump’s con. Then I’ll do a concluding piece on hope.
3/ Brian shares that he is Jewish. Yet he knows the New Testament well enough to know that Jesus would never support Trump’s lies and crimes; Jesus would be ministering to the victims of this cruel administration.
Read 17 tweets

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Jeff Flake came back to DC from Namibia in 1990 & launched a consulting firm Interface Public Affairs;he signed up the Rossing Uranium Mine as a client.
Rossing Mine is co-owned by Rio Tinto Group & the Government of Iran.
Jeff Flake’s job was to ensure that sanctions enacted by state & local governments in the U.S. didn’t prevent the sale of Rössing Uranium to some of the utilities around the country.
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Ahight bring some 🌳I got a story to tell.
Let me tell you how I got worked.
It's a long story but I'm try to make it an easy read....
Lil background on me I don't really trip off my follower count so this ain't no stunt. I reached out to #black twitter on some funny shyt..
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Should we care about the weak and vulnerable Christian, the abused, the victim?

“Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it would be better for him to have a heavy millstone hung around his neck, and to be drowned in the depth of the sea.”

The Lord
That warning comes from the Lord, who became a human.
Though strong, He became weak;
though imperishable, He became vulnerable;
though able to protect Himself, He let Himself be abused;
though the sovereign Judge of all, He allowed himself to become the victim.
Our Crucified God
The first time Jesus came, He came as a humble Lamb. He was sacrificed to atone for our wickednesses. All who believe He died and arose for them can be saved.

But the second time He comes, He will come as the wrathful Lion. He will judge the wicked and avenge the weak.

#Beware
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One would think having your feelings returned would make your raging crush easier to deal with, but no. No, for Jimin, being courted only makes everything worse, what with him being rendered even more of a mess when Yoongi brings him gifts.

Or looks at him. Or is near him. Or—
A continuation of this threadfic;
“To our newest brother, our newest omega.” The clan elder stands from his seat, cup raised over his head. “After all these years,” he calls out, eyes glittering in the light of the fires, “we finally welcome him as part of the clan. To Jimin!”

“TO JIMIN!” the whole rest
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But you—come here, you children of a sorceress, Who are you mocking?At whom do you sneer and stick out your tongue? Are you not a brood of rebels, the offspring of liars?
You burn with lust among the oaks and under every spreading tree;
you sacrifice your children in the ravines
and under the overhanging crags.
The idols among the smooth stones of the ravines are your portion; indeed, they are your lot. Yes, to them you have poured out drink offerings and offered grain offerings. In view of all this, should I relent?
You have made your bed on a high and lofty hill; there you went up to offer your sacrifices. Behind your doors and your doorposts you have put your pagan symbols. Forsaking me, you uncovered your bed,you climbed into it and opened it wide;
you made a pact with those
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1/ #THREAD Ah, teeny tiny demographical instance of something, hastily wound up to a coy, careful kind of un-endorsement of something else, even uses paper in a medical / scientific journal to try substantiate this un-endorsement placement #Beware #BullAtWork How 'well-connected'
2/ and how reminiscent of a certain type of anti-vaccination trolling / disinformation.😬 #Questions such as: A/what percentage of the population actually use the product B/ what percentage of that specific demographic have been injured seriously, in a clinical sense or in the --
3/ particular mode described in the, eh, 'article' ? C/ So even if as seems likely this only verifiably happened to a tiny % of users,& even if the argument that it is all just public knowledge/public info. is applied so it appears to be, lets say for the heck of it, 'authentic',
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