Author - Artist - Voice Over Actor

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Extinction Event that wasn’t

As mentioned in my last post, I taught Sunday School this past weekend.

For some time now, probably two or three years I have been thinking about a single word in in Matthew 26: 42.

The word that was nagging me was ‘unless’. I knew there was something very important in the use of that, but I couldn’t place what it was beyond just in my own imagination.

Since the new year, my wife and I have been reading the Bible each night, she would read from the Old Testament, and I the New Testament, and from time to time our readings would match thematically or each connected with the stories. It was during one of these reading that I gained my answer, or at least a clue as to what to look for.

When an opportunity arose to teach class again, I volunteered and decided I would take my little question and research it and turn it into a full Bible Study.

Though it fell on Palm Sunday, I brought the class forward to the events happened in the hours just before what we call Good Friday, upon the Mount of Olives and in the Garden known as Gethsemane. A lot happens in that garden scene, but I forced on one particular thing.

However, to stress how important this was, I had to take my class much further back in time. Actually, I took them back somewhere around 66 Million Years Ago. When a massive asteroid struck what we know as the Yucatan Peninsula. This was the asteroid that brought about the death of the dinosaurs. Scientists call this an EXTINCTION EVENT.

Yes, I brought up Dinosaurs in a Sunday School lesson.

I then brought us back to the bible with Noah and the Floor. In Chapters 6 and 7 of the Book of Genesis, God had decided that all the wickedness of man should be destroyed and brings about the Great Flood.  This too could be called an EXTINCTION EVENT.

Now I turned the class attention to an Extinction Event that should have happened, but didn’t.

We then looked to the Gospels and the events in the garden called Gethsemane.

I read the Four Gospel accounts, in a different order than is traditional.

I begin with the Gospel of John, because, well… As John focus on Christ’s spiritual side while on Earth, he doesn’t include the Gethsemane scene even though he was there. Oh, right, he slept through it.

However, as this was Palm Sunday, we looked to a scene from the Triumphal Entry (John 12:27) and Christ sounds a lot like the torment he goes through in the garden nearly a week later.

“Now my heart is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour?’ No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour. Father, glorify your name!’

I then brought us to the Gospel of Luke and read chapter 22, verses 39 to 46.

There are many things in the Gethsemane scene I could break down into several lessons:

Luke is the researcher and documentarian of the facts.

He is a physician and so he is the only one that mentions that Jesus sweated drops of blood.

It think it is interesting that this man who “I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning” (Luke 1:3) is the only one to record the appearance of an angel.

Matthew and Mark say that an angel came to Christ’s aid after the Temptation.

Christ starts and ends the scene by saying “Pray. That you will not fall into temptation.” And “Get up and pray so that you will not fall into temptation.”

Luke records online one PRAYER that Christ makes to his Father in Heaven.

We then turned to the Gospel of Mark and read Chapter 14 verses 32-14

“Abba, Father.” Expressing intimacy with his Father. Like a child calling out “Daddy.”

Even before his prayers he is already “overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death.” – Does he feel like he’s dying, or that he wishes he was dead? Both very human feelings in the midst of the stress Christ is going through.

Mark records two Prayers of Christ.

Now turning to the Gospel of Matthew Chapter 26:36-45

I will include the entire section here as it is important to the lesson.

Then Jesus went with his disciples to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to them, “Sit here while I go over there and pray.” He took Peter and the two sons of Zebedee along with him, and he began to be sorrowful and troubled. Then he said to them, “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.”

            Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.”

            Then he returned to his disciples and found them sleeping. “Could you men not keep watch with me for one hour?” he asked Peter “watch, and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the body is weak.”

            He went away a second time and prayed, “My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done.”

            When he came back, he again found them sleeping because their eyes were heavy. So, he left them there and went away once more and prayed the third time, saying the same thing.

            Then he returned to the disciples and said to them, “Are you still sleeping and resting? Look the hour is near, and the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. Rise, let us go! Here comes my betrayer!”

            (Matthew 26:36-45- The New International Version Study Bible)

Again, Christ feels overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death.

He asks the others to keep watch, but they fall asleep, and again he asks them the keep watch, but this time he says “keep watch with me for one hour?” Not keeping watch to protect Him, but to watch with him. He’s including them in the events.

Again “Pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the body is weak.” He knows that last one too well, his human body is week, but his spirit keeps going forward to do the work of his Father.

Now let’s focus on the Prayers of Christ in Matthew. Matthew writes that Christ prayed THREE times, but only recorded two of them. Over all the prayers are nearly the same as what Mark and Luke recorded, but there are subtle differences.

            • “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.”

            • “My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done.”

In the first prayer, Jesus knowing that is to come is asking that this CUP be taken from him. Yet, he is willing to follow God’s Will.

In the second prayer, Jesus’ prayer is not about himself, but about us.

It is this second prayer that I am focusing on.

All three of the synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke) mention The Cup in Christ’s prayers. So, it must be something important.

It is not the “The Holy Grail” of legend or the Cup that he drank from in the Last Supper.

Though related, it is something far mor important.

According to the notes in my NIV Study Bible – the CUP represents – is a symbol of deep sorrow and suffering. Here it refers to his Father’s face being turned away from him when he who has no sin was made sin (a sin offering) for us.

The Cup of Sorrow

As much as Christ is going to feel that his Father has turned away from him:

            “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Mark 15:34)

I don’t see The Cup mentioned in the prayer is about Christ’s own suffering and sorrow. It is far more than that…

My Study Bible calls us to look at two Old Testaments references.

Isaiah 51: 17

Awake, awake!

            Rise up, O Jerusalem,

            You who have drunk from the hand of the Lord

            The cup of his wrath

            You who have drained to its dregs

            The goblet that makes men stagger.

Ezekiel 23: 32-34

“You will drink your sister’s cup,

            a cup large and deep;

            It will bring scorn and derision,

            For it holds so much.

            You will be filled with drunkenness and sorrow,

            The cup of ruin and desolation,

            The cup of your sister Samaria.

            You will drink it and drain it dry;

            You will dash it to pieces

            And tear your breasts.

And then referees to the Psalms

Psalm 74:7-8

But it is God who executes judgment, putting down one and lifting up another. For in the hand of the Lord there is a cup with foaming wine, well mixed, and he pours out from it, and all the wicked of the earth shall drain it down to the dregs.

Isaiah calls it the CUP OF HIS WRATH

Ezekiel calls it the CUP OF RUIN AND DESOLATION

Psalms says all the wicked of the world will drink of it.

It was while my wife and I were doing our nightly reading that we came across something else. She was reading from the book of Jeremiah:

Jer 25: 15-30

            This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, said to me: “Take from my hand this cup filled with the wine of my wrath and make all the nations to whom I send you to drink it. When they drink it, they will stagger and go mad because of the sword I will send among them.”

            So I took the cup from the Lord’s hand and made all the nations to whom he sent me drink it: Jerusalem and the towns of Judah, its kings and officials to make them a ruin and an object of horror and scorn and cursing, as they are today, Pharaoh king of Egypt, his attendants, his officials and all his people, and all the foreign kings of the Philistines (those of Ashkelon, Gaza, Ekron, and the people left at Ashdod); Edom, Moab and Ammon; all the kings of Tyre and Sidon, the kings of the coastlands across the sea; Dedan, Tema, Buz the kings of Arabia and all the kings of the foreign people who live in the desert; all the kings of Zimri, Elam and Media; and all the kings of the north, near and far, one after the other – all the kingdoms on the face of the earth. And after all of them, the king of Sheshach will drink it too.

            Then tell them, “This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: Drink, get drunk and vomit, and fall to rise no more because of the sword I will send among you. But if they refuse to drink, tell them, ‘This is what the Lord Almighty says: You must drink it! See, I am beginning to bring disaster the city that bears my Name, and will you indeed go unpunished? You will not go unpunished, for I am calling down a sword upon all who live on the earth declares the Lord Almighty.’

Here is is clear that EVERONE must drink of the CUP – every nation of the world, starting with God’s own people first. – For all have fallen short of the Glory of God. We are all sinners, all wicked, and must take the CUP of our punishment. It will bring about the end of all the wicked on the earth. – We must all drink of it, unless…

Here we return to Christ’s second prayer from Matthew:

“My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done.”

That word UNLESS is caring a lot of weight here. This isn’t about that Christ is going to take up the Cup and drink, but that we were all the one destined to drink of it. This cup is intended destruction of all that is Wicked, it is meant to wipe of all out.

Another way of writing this prayer is:

“I know that it is your will, Father, that I must drink of this Cup so that they will not have to.”

Where the asteroid struck the earth and wiped out the dinosaurs, this Cup was meant to punish us. However, Christ drank of the Cup of God’s Wrath instead of us, and we are saved from the Extinction of all who are wicked.

Instead of an Extinction Event, we had the Crucifixion.

After the lesson, as always, the entire class added their own thoughts, building upon what I brought forward.

As always, everything I teach even if it’s a bit odd, like including dinosaurs, always begins with the scripts and ends with the scriptures.

Thoughts before a Lesson

            This past Sunday, I had the privilege to teach Sunday School. This is an adult, mostly older, members of the church.

The class goes by the name of Bereans after the church by the same name in Macedonia as described in Acts 17:11 – Now the Bereans were of more noble character than those in Thessalonica, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined all the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.

Don’t blame the Devil

This one’s going to be a bit short folks.
I am in the midst of working on a Bible lesson I’ll be giving in Sunday School this weekend.
But the devil is putting up obstacles in my path.


No, I do not blame the devil for this. I don’t give credit to the devil for anything I do in my life. That’s not taking responsibility for my successes, failure, or mistakes.
It would be easy to blame him, especially when something goes wrong at absolutely the wrong time.
I am near finished in writing up this Bible study, but I want to include three or four drawings to illustrate parts of the lesson. So I turn on Photoshop and my Wacom table, which I use to do my webcomic and other artwork.
However, as I start drawing my mouse begins to slow down and it becomes a struggle to make the sketches.
Hopefully the computer isn’t going to crash on me. If I can’t do the drawings I’ll rework part of the lesson, but I also plan to use my laptop in class. It’ll be doomed if that happens.
Even if that happens, I refuse to give the devil credit for messing up my work.
I do know that I’m going to have to buy a new computer soon, but please dear God, not yet. I need a stable job before that happens.
It’s also the reason I have the Ko-Fi link on my page here. Any help is appreciated.
Talk to you next week and I’ll let you know how this turns out.
Thanks, God bless.

WonderCon Day 2 Show up Early

As the day before we drove down to the bus depot and caught the bus down to the Anaheim Convention Center. The price of parking there is just too high. In the past we’ve stayed at a local hotel, but that’s gotten to be too high as well. Hopefully, once I’m employed again, we’ll be able to stay for the entire weekend.

In the meantime, …

WonderCon – Day One

Hi all,

My wife and I went to WonderCon this past weekend. We were only there for two days, but it was an enjoyable time. We can’t afford to go down to San Diego for Comic-Con right now. Even with my pro-badge, it’s just too expensive. So, WonderCon is the next best thing—

In some ways, WonderCon is actually better. Let me explain.

Culver City and I

My wife got a last-minute call this morning for a temp job. We hopped int the car and I drove her there. Afterward, I headed out to explore a city that is an important part of Hollywood history and the history of my own family:
Culver City.

I wanna be a VTuber

I had a Twitch account for several years, and watched a few streamed from time to time, especially Critical Role and comedian Hal Sparks. Had no concept of doing any streaming of my own, I certainly didn’t know what I would stream if I did.
Then this happened:

An Glas
An Glas – my PNGtuber Avatar

That WICKED Kid

The movie Wicked is now streaming, but we did get to see it in the theater before it left. It is one of those films that is best seen on the big screen. Go out to movie theaters, people!
I absolutely enjoyed the play and liked the movie equally as much…
But this isn’t about the movie, rather the experience in the theatre and the Wicked Kid who sat behind us.

LOCK YOUR DOORS

Remember in my last blog I mentioned that I didn’t know what I was going to write about? How I just rambled about walking around the neighborhood looking for ideas.

Well, God has other ways of providing interesting things for me to write about:

I had a visit from the police this morning.

I don’t know what to write…

There are times when you don’t know what to Blog about.

I know I need to create a calendar and list of ideas for upcoming blogs, but sometimes that takes as much work as writing the blog itself does.

So where do ideas come from? I have no idea.

Music Unites the World

Today was the second day of work I’ve had so far this year. It was a two-day temp-job provided event support to Education Through Music Los Angeles and their “Music Unites the World Festival”

Anime: Voice Actors/VTubers

Thoughts on two anime series my wife and I have been watch. It’s not a review, just expressing enjoyment:

VTUBER LEGEND:
HOW I WENT VIRAL AFTER FORGETTING TO TURN OFF MY STREAM
And
MANY SIDES OF VOICE ACTOR RADIO

It all came to this

Engaging Humor – Writing a Compelling Blog

Okay, it took a couple of extra days, but I was finally able to do a recording of my Toastmasters Speech that was based on the blog series I began writing at the start of the year. So let’s get to it.

The Nerve You Say


Hi all,

I’ll be telling you about the Toastmasters speech in an upcoming blog once I get a good recording of it to share with you.
What I can tell you now is my nerves really got to me during the and I’m not really certain why.
I think it had to do with having to work with running my PowerPoint presentation on Zoom while maintaining eye contact with the camera while trying not to look at my script.
That’s all an excuse, I stumbled through it but I got it done. Surprisingly, people liked the speech, I’ll tell you about that soon.
I felt like I was back in school when I was scared to speak up at all. I’ve already told you about the one time in High School I gave a speech.
As an adult I was still nervous about doing any public speaking, but things began to change in our adult Sunday School when I began to speech up with my thoughts on what the teacher was saying and the Biblical verses we were studying. I then began finding myself volunteering to teach the class from time to time. My wife and I have taught together a few times as well. I was also being ask to do the Bible reading each week in class.
Then came the next and newest part of my life. An interest in Voice Acting. As a scriptwriter I wanted to know what the actor needed from me.
So, I took a voice acting class. I wasn’t expecting much, and certain I would be nervous stepping up to the mic in front of the entire class for the very first time.
You know what? I had no nerves what so ever and I read the script and performed with joy. I was so surprised by how I felt doing it I knew this was something I would continue to do. I would go on to take further voice acting classes over the next several years, have demo reels produced, and audition for roles.
So why did the nerves swell up during this speech? I really can’t say, but I won’t let them stop me from doing anything anymore.
Hope to have the speech up soon.

Kevin

The Speech Approaches

If I’m going to keep this up, writing two blogs a week, I’ll need to learn how to be better plan them out in advance. I also have to schedule my writing periods for the blog in the middle of everything else I’m doing.

As mentioned in my previous post, I am currently working on a speech I’m going to be giving at Toastmasters this Saturday.

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