Been working on recording an audio drama for a podcast over the last few days, unfortunately the apartment building just next to ours is going through some remodeling and the noise is constantly interrupting me. That noise is teaching me to be patient, and it is also teaching me to relax in my recording. I pay too much attention to every mistake I make, every breath I take, every noise I create. I stop too often and go back and make corrections.
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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.
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:

Hi all,
Been a while since I regularly posted a blog entry. Am hoping that will change soon. I have plan for some up coming blog posts. Will let you know when that will start.
In the meantime, as a Voice Actor, I wanted to let you know that I have just completed a second Voice Over Demo Reel. The first one I had produced was for Animation and Character voices. This new reel focuses on Commercials.
Am posting both of them here for you to listen to:
If you’re a Producer, Casting Director, or Agent my contact information is in the videos.
To celebrate All Hallow’s Eve this year, I’ve incorporated my Voice Acting training and done readings of gothic poems.
The first poem is Edgar Allen Poe’s “Annabel Lee”.
The second poem is H.P. Lovecraft’s “Hallowe’en in a Suburb”.
Is that a word?
During my recent Voice Over Workshop/Class with actor Richard Horvitz I was determined to have my own Home Studio Recording Booth. Working with other students and Mr. Horvitz, I researched a lot of potential booth concepts. From the far too expensive (and would never fit in the apartment) down to seeing if I could rearrange my closet (not possible). All the research finally lead to VocalBoothsToGo.com where they have numerous types of booths from large to small, permanent to portable, and I found what I wanted and could afford.
They have a DYI booth made of PVC pipes and sound dampening moving blankets. I chose to have them pre-cut the pipes to the size I needed and a couple of weeks later I began to assemble the booth. Have a look.
I have to really learn to to commit to writing a blog a week or more, especially when it’s the continuation go a topic from earlier posts. Sorry about that, you’ve been patiently waiting to hear what I have to say… Sure you do.
I completed the six week Voice Over Acting Class in North Hollywood. Though the final four were done on Zoom several weeks late.
Won’t go into detail, but I will say that I had a fabulous time, and the teacher really complimented me on my work and how I sounded at the mike. Took direction well. He even said I had a similar voice to another actor he’s worked with.
So I came away from that class feeling really great, and wanting to continue further into Voice Over work.
I’m awaiting to sign up for his second workshop, in the meantime I took a one day voice acting class through a studio that I have longed to visit, and taught by an actor I had listened to in my childhood. It was a great introductory experience to the work they do there, even though like all the other classes right now it was on Zoom.
Am really looking forward to taking more courses and getting a chance to audition for voices in animation and commercials.
Will see where the Lord leads me and where I will speak up next.

by Michael Housel
Cover Art by Chris Rawling
Pick up a copy on Amazon.
Here is the latest novel which I’ve been doing interior illustration for:
The Persona Green-Fleshed Fiends by Michael Housel, the second in his Persona series. Published by Airship 27 Production.
I did nine illustrations through the story. Here is a sample of one of them.

We know that in the CW’s Arrowverse of shows at some point in the future THE FLASH will go missing in the CRISIS
Next season’s crossover story will be CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTH…
I’m thinking that during that ‘missing’ period The Flash should visit EARTH PRIME and go past the DC Comics offices, to pay homage to when the Flash used to visit Julius Schwartz.
…yeah, right!
The rain was fierce today. It was so bad this morning that I chose not to drive the freeways to my part-time job.
After I took my wife to her job I headed straight home. Figured I could get some writing done.
That was not meant to be.
I lucked out and got a parking space right out front the apartment. However, my lucked failed when I discovered that someone had broken their key off in the gate’s lock.
With the rain pouring down on me I attempted to get the piece of the key out, but to no avail. So I headed back to the car where I waited in vain for someone to come out the gate but no one arrived.
After talking with my wife on the phone, and attempting to reach the apartment manager, I planned to go spend the day at a local shopping mall before someone could get the door repaired. But before doing so I wanted to check one more time to see if anyone was around that might let me. But by then the rain was coming down so hard that the street was a flood and when I opened the car door I stepped out into ankle deep cold water soaking my shoes and socks.
So for the next few hours I spent in the mall with ice cold soaking wet feet until the manager finally got back to me with the code that would let me in without a key.
So don’t anyone ever tell me it doesn’t rain in California.
At least I didn’t come down with a cold.
Kevin Paul Shaw Broden
Four Names of Professional Creativity
Today marks the publication of ALL-STAR PULP COMICS #4. This issue includes the story “The DA’s Dilemma” staring the Golden Age of comics masked vigilante THE VEILED AVENGER, a public domain heroine in a brand new 8 page story.
This marks Kevin’s first published work where he both wrote and illustrated the story. He would very much like to thank the great crew at Airship 27 and Redbud Studios Comics.
Available now at Amazon.
The Bay Phantom
Kevin did nine (9) interior illustrations for this novel. Ron Fortier and and everyone Airship 27 has been a great support as added my own work to this great book.
THE BAY PHANTOM – FEAST OF THE CANNIBAL GUILD by Chuck Miller.
Cover by Adam Shaw – (No relation.)
AIRSHIP 27 PRODUCTIONS
RETURN OF THE BAY PHANTOM
Airship 27 Productions, a leader in the New Pulp publishing community, is excited to present the second book in writer Chuck Miller’s series; “The Bay Phantom – Feast of the Cannibal Guild.”
When a shadowy group of criminals start shaking down restaurants in Mobile, Joe Perrone once again dons the cloak and goggles of the Bay Phantom. Shortly thereafter, wealthy young men begin dropping dead without warning. What do these things have in common with a mysterious psychic, a sinister funeral home, and a nationalist movement known as the Transatlantic Patriots Guild?
That is what the Bay Phantom must learn, and he must do it without his trusted aide, Mirabelle Darcy. She is away on a mission of her own; one that necessitates her breaking into the Leavenworth Federal Penitentiary. Thus left to his own devices, can the Phantom thwart the Cannibal Guild and their deadly assassin, the Mummifier? Or will he become their next victim?
“Chuck Miller is one of the most original writers in New Pulp today,” states Airship 27 Productions’ Managing Editor, Ron Fortier. “His storytelling is truly unique and he envisions the most startling characters, both good and bad, ever to grace a pulp thriller. When Miller puts a spin on a tale, you’d best hang for a truly wild ride.”
Once again Chuck Miller offers up a thrilling new adventure set in the Deep South and starring his original pulp hero; The Bay Phantom. This is pulp action with an added spicy kick. Along for the adventure are cover artist Adam Shaw and, debuting for the first time with Airship 27, interior illustrator, Kevin Paul Shaw Broden.
AIRSHIP 27 PRODUCTIONS –
PULP FICTION FOR A NEW GENERATION!