0191: Midweek Debrief – The First & Final Story

Podcast Link: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/donavon-riley/episodes/0191-Midweek-Debrief—The-First–Final-Story-e2hvrf4

It was not long then until there was the spirit coming, by God’s power, the holy breath, going under the hard stone to the corpse! Light was at that moment opened up, for the good of the sons of men. The many bolts of Hell were unlocked. The road from this world up to heaven was built. Brilliantly radiating, in such a way that the guards, tough soldiers, were not at all aware of when he got up from death and arose from his rest.

0189: Midweek Debrief – How Lovely It Was

Podcast Link: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/donavon-riley/episodes/0189-Midweek-Debrief—How-Lovely-It-Was-e2h3eja

Those who do not want to live under God’s government will not be forced to. That would erase the principle of love upon which the cosmos is founded — no one will be sent away from the presence of God who wants to stay. So God’s people have prayed for millennia that there will be no such people. But we know it happens, and that there are too many to name. 

Why would anyone want to turn away from God? There are many ways, but rather than try to explain, we pray instead for repentance, and that they, like us, would be transformed. We pray that they may be saved, yes, but even more than that, we pray that they may be changed, to become, in a word, like God. 

0188: Midweek Debrief – Keening Their Swords

Podcast Link: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/donavon-riley/episodes/0188-Midweek-Debrief—Keening-Their-Swords-e2gp442

David was a stone in the path upon which the Paradise King trod. 

This King is the earth shaker. He is the cloud rider. He is the guardian of widows and orphans, and a servant-king who withholds nothing from his people. His face is young, yet old beyond the reckoning of this or any age, for he hails from eternity past. It is a beautiful face, full of humility and adoration and power. And he is crowned with purest golden light. He is the morning star and his eyes burn. They blaze with immortal fires, and there is laughter there, laughter and springtime and joy enough to set the whole cosmos to singing. 

0185: In The Beginning… A Story

Podcast Link: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/donavon-riley/episodes/0185-In-The-Beginning—-A-Story-e2fr8l8

… we must start in the most difficult place: in the beginning. We have to start where the story is not broken or befouled, when wild waves cooled sun-soaked shores and the choruses of birds carried over ebony cliffs, who knows how far. 

It was a wild world, all welter and waste. Unrestrained rivers carved crooked lines across sprawling green plains. The earth birthed bejeweled fruit, and untended forests clawed in vain at the roots of mountains. And God loved it, because he created it. 

That is just a small part of the story of the Bereshit, the “beginning” as the Hebrews call it. It is an old story, the first story told by God, and God is very old, and he is not always easy to understand. But, old things are often hard to understand. 

For this reason, old stories are abandoned, because they allude us. New stories take their place, stories that are not so wild, or weird, or hard to hear. In general, the more remote a story is, and the more work we must do to understand it, the more likely it is that it will suffer mishandling.

And almost every witch, sorcerer, scientist, and pseudo-philosopher has some interest in mishandling this story. It is not hard to see why. In the beginning, you see the end. If you want to control how the story concludes, you attack it at the very start. – Donavon L Riley. Homily on Creation