You pray for the blessing on the meeting, confident that God hears.
Concerning Bredd, my notes lack any indication that he has manifested any spiritual gifts to this point. I recall that the other young orc was healing, but not whether there was a gift here. That matters at this point; remind me if you recall anything. Thanks.
--M. J. Young
Nikolaj
Member
Nothing has been said here. I do not believe he has a gift yet. He has had his conversion, so he has the gift of eternal life, but other then that, as far as I know, there has not been a baptizing or outpouring of the Spirit yet. (He still needs to do the water baptism first anyway, unless God decided to baptize him in the Spirit before the water baptism.)
Are there people giving testimonies? Do they remember the message well? Are there any visible effects on people hearing the message (like miss Kucher?)
Sorry to be taking so long to work through these points slowly; I want to be certain I understand everything aright.
You wrote,
I will start with a small prayer. About five minutes. In it I will ask God to bless us and speak to us. I will also ask Him to reveal himself to those that do not know Him yet. I will be standing before a crowd* with my eyes closed and praying out loud.I think I can safely conclude that "speak to us" and "reveal himself" are the same request; my concern is whether "bless us" has some specific intended effect that is different from the other two.
--M. J. Young
Nikolaj
Member
it's only this long because it's post by post. (but I was getting a little annoyed by it. ;))
1) bless us: Blessing us in bringing the message.
2) speak to us: Mainly in guiding us in what to say, which words to use. You'll probably link it up to a modifier of some stat. But also possible that He might tell/show us some vital point (not to miss, to change, to emphasize or to leave out entirely.)
3) reveal Himself to ... : the openness of the receivers of the message.
Backtracking, I find that the pages are yellow, black, red, white, green, in that order; did I miss anything?
The yellow page goes by without comment, but as you talk about the black page, one of the men stands to speak.
"I never really realized it before," he says, "but this week, well, you know, there are some things I probably shouldn't do. And hearing you last week talking about this religion, and about how we're all really bad and need to be changed, well, I thought maybe I would make some changes--and that's not so easy as I thought it would be. I always thought that I did those things because they were what I wanted to do, and I could do different if I wanted; but now I find that what I want doesn't make so much difference as I thought."
Somewhat embarrassed, he says, "Well, that's what I wanted to say. Whatever it is you're talking about that changes people, I'm listening, because I can't change myself, and I can't expect everyone else to change to suit me if I can't even change myself."
Then when you get to the red page, Bredd stands up. "I know I'm supposed to talk about Baptism," he says, "but listening to Master Paul talk about his struggles, I wanted to say that I know those struggles, too, but that Jesus can change that. He can forgive you, and He can give you the strength to live better, and the love for others that you can't make yourself. I know I'm not perfect, but already He's begun doing that for me."
You finish the book from there. People are still listening.
--M. J. Young
Nikolaj
Member
That's correct.
At Master Paul:
It's very good that you see that. We all need to realize that.
I am suprized to see Bredd take this liberty, so I smile and nodd. I am encouraged, but do not know how the people react to it.
Then I take stage again just to give it back to Bredd after finishing the 'book'.
"You know how we're supposed to talk about baptism now, since that is the next step for those who want to follow Christ. Now Christ said that His Father back then revealed it to the least of the people. And thus now I will let a child and slave teach you about this. Will you be too stubborn, or will you die to yourself and your pride and learn of this salvation? It's all yours Bredd."
And I step back and start interceding (from interseccion?) in tongues during the entirety of Bredd's talk. (under my breath, not out loud)
(I do not have interpretation of tongues so I won't know what I'll be praying.)
"interceding" is correct, but the other word is "intercession".
Bredd starts very humbly, saying that you had explained about Christ to him, and that God had spoken to him (my recollection is that this was an answer to your prayer) telling him to be baptized. So he had asked, and you had explained. Christ promises to deliver us from death, and so to recognize this we allow ourselves to be put to death "in pretend", and then rescued from death. So we go under the water, like drowning or being buried, and then are brought up again. After that, we know that Christ saved our lives, and we live our lives for Him, because we owe our lives to him.
Anyway, that's the gist of what he says he understands of it, and why he is going to be baptized. He does not ask for questions.
--M. J. Young
Bredd does not remember the example. He says, "You were saying about how your people bury the dead under ground, and that being buried in the water was like being dead because you were buried. Is that what you mean?"
--M. J. Young
Nikolaj
Member
"It has something to do with that. I'll explain from here. You did well Bredd, thank you!"
I turn myself to the crowd.
"As I was trying to explain to Bredd what baptism was, I had to think about how to make it clear. An example proved best. You see, baptism, being under the water and coming up again is only an outward sign of something that happens within."
I clear my throat.
"It's almost the same as how, when you are happy, you smile and sing a song when doing your work. You can tell if people are happy, right?" I let them answer if they want to give a bit time to let it sink in. "But we also know that not all people who smile or sing are happy, right? The smiling merchant may just want that you trade something with him, maybe he's even a bit annoyed, but he smiles. A performer can dance and sing, but that doesn't always mean that he's happy, right? Right.
"Now in the same way, not everybody who gets dunked into the water and get's out again will have this new life, because the real baptism comes from inside. Like a real smile comes from being happy."
"Do you understand?"
(I quite like this explanation :) )
That's a pretty good explanation which every Baptist would approve--and hey, the Baptists got their start in Belgium, even though they were English refugees.
"So," one of the men says, "how do we do this, this baptism thing?"
--M. J. Young
Nikolaj
Member
Was that with William Tyndale? I didn't know it started here. Right now the non-Catholic Christian believers in Belgium only add up to 1% of the population (or so I've heard)
I try to remember how it was when I got baptized.
"Because you are letting the world know that you want to follow Christ and live a holy life, usually friends and family will be invited to come and see this declaration you make, this decision. Then, where I come from, people would in short share why they want to be baptized, how they've come to that decision. After that a person in christian authority, which in this case I guess would be me, dunks you in the water. Seeing that we might be with a bunch of people, I suggest we'd do it at a lake or river, or maybe a pound or brook. I don't think I saw a sea here somewhere.
"Also, because you would be second only to Qormlach in being baptized, we'd better have a little meeting first, explaining all this again to those who don't know it. Then the sharing and then the submerging in water. After that it would be good to have a bit of celebration. Food, drink and maybe music.
"But before all that everyone who wants to get baptized should search his heart in the time going up to that meeting, and ask God for forgiveness. If you've wronged a fellow men or orc in any way, it would be right to set things right.
"Now, who wants to get baptized?"
Actually, I was researching this just recently. A John Smyth of England (rather a common English name, in various forms) was an Anglican priest who joined the Puritans, who were a subgroup of Anglicans who believed that the Church of England had not been sufficiently reformed--mostly, that it was still too much like the Roman Catholic Church. These were dedicated to personal holiness; most stayed in the Anglican congregations, but a Separatist movement began which was highly Congregational in polity, asserting independence from the Church of England, and being persecuted for it. Smyth took his congregation to Holland, I think, among whom was Thomas Helwys. Smyth and his congregation rejected infant baptism in favor of believers immersion (then practiced by the Mennonites since before Luther), but they had no one to baptize them, so Smyth baptized himself and then baptized the rest of the congregation. They returned eventually to England. Smyth grew closer to the Mennonites in his beliefs, and after his death his congregation joined the Mennonites; but Helwys continued to defend Smyth's combination of Arminianism, Believer's Baptism, and a rejection of Sacramentalism and disdain for liturgy, and added to it the doctrine of the independence of the church from the state, that no man could be either mediator or judge between God and man, and thus the king had no say in a man's personal religion. Helwys was consistent in this, strongly defending the rights of others with whom he disagreed to believe what they believed. King James (who authorized the King James Version) had Helwys jailed in Newgate Prison, where he eventually died, but Roger Williams took the concepts of the Baptist faith to the Massachusetts Bay Colony, where he was rejected by Puritan Separatists who thought that everyone should be required to be part of their church, and so moved south to establish the Colony of Rhode Island, which as far as anyone knows is the first place where all religions were treated equally.
More than you wanted to know, I'm sure.
When you ask who wants to be baptized, something between a third and a half of the roughly thirty people present wave hands in some way that suggests they're candidates. Neither Bredd's mother nor Kathrine Kucher is among them.
--M. J. Young
Nikolaj
Member
Oh, also: I smile. I'm happy! I give a prayer of thanksgiving. (out loud) In it I thank and praise God for touching the hearts of these people, I thank the people for responding to His call and I ask God to protect them in their spiritual life during the coming week.
(Bless(protect) specific group, loudly spoken, eyes closed, hands held high in turn to the sky and to the people)
Then, with personal contact and talks, the meeting ends. I congratulate Bredd for coming and explaining and I go over to his parents and Miss Kucher to thank them for coming. "It means much for me, and I do believe it means much for Bredd as well."
Let me again clarify that Bredd's father was not permitted to come, so only his mother is there.
Miss Kucher responds. "You've got some very unusual ideas in this belief of yours. I'm a bit confused, though. Where does Gaia fit into all this? Is she not our mother, source of all that is on the earth?"
--M. J. Young
Nikolaj
Member
I realized that after posting.
I smile to miss Kucher. "As far as I understand Gaia is a spiritual being who is a servant of this God. She could, I think, in a way have helped in creating this earth, but my God has created the universe. And He wants that people only worship Him."
I smile again. "In a vision or a dream I saw Gaia before my God. He sais that the people had to be following Him now. It was time for her to become smaller so He could become bigger."
I'm assuming that your comment about what you understand concerning Gaia is simply your own thoughts, not a statement, because you did not put it in quotes and you did put the other in quotes. If you meant both as statements, correct me. If you wanted me to confirm your understanding, God created Gaia and gave Gaia the authority to create this world and its people with a view toward ultimately bringing more people to Himself, so Gaia did create this particular universe in something of the same sense that you created that leather jacket, as something of a derivative work based on the skills and materials God gave her.
I personally don't have a problem with that notion of the creation of some particular other universe in the multiverse, particularly as it's all fiction anyway; but it's not that important to the concept if it bothers you, and we can settle it that she was involved in forming this earth in a more limited sense. However, just for information, I think the earth is flat and the stars are angelic beings looking down about the creatures of the world. You're not in Kansas anymore.
She wrinkles her nose (which is really rather cute), and says, "That's not very like what they taught us in gatherings. I thought Gaia made the Earth and gave everything on it. You seem to be saying that Gaia works for someone else."
--M. J. Young
She wrinkles her nose (which is really rather cute), and says, "That's not what they taught us in gatherings. You're saying that Gaia works for your God, like God made Gaia and instructed Gaia to make the Earth and all that is on it. It's like, when that kid asked who made Gaia and the leader said that's not a question anyone can answer, you're telling us you know the answer. How do you come by this unusual bit of knowledge?"
--M. J. Young
Nikolaj
Member
Hahah, a miss Kucher who looks cute when she wrinkles her nose. What are you scheming at? Perhaps a more detailed description of the miss would be in order so that I can imagine things better. Or do you leave that up to my discretion?
I cannot help but smile when she wrinkles her nose. I suddenly realize that she is indeed quite beautiful. Mostly so in the way she acts. I start back out of the dreamy look I must just have had and startle a bit.
"Um, yes, well. It's quite complicated to explain, at least now, while other people are also wanting to speak with me. Perhaps we could meet tomorrow and talk about it while there would be more time? I would be able to give you a more satisfying answer really, and you would have the time to ask questions in return without the probability of interruption. But I will tell you this ... it's all written in here too." I show her my bible. "The only unfortunate thing is that it is in my native tongue. But I started translating it. Perhaps later on, you would like to read it?"
I immediately regretted that last question. It was way too pushy, though I was not certain what I was pushing. Was I pushing a chance to meet her again, or a chance that she might meet God? And it was also too familiar. They were my employers after all!
I don't "scheme" anything, Nikolaj. I'll say more about that behind the screen, though, I think. I will, however, accommodate you with my image of her, such as it is.
Kathrine Kucher is of above average height for a girl, perhaps five foot seven inches (I'm afraid my shortcut conversions to metric are just inaccurate enough that I would not rely on them to give you the sense of her height in metric--after all, even an inch more or less would be significant when talking about the relative height of people). She is slender but well-muscled as might be expected of someone who grew up on a ranch, curvaceous but not overly so. Her hair and eyes are both a moderate brown, and her skin lighter than the men who work in the sun all day but somewhat tanned and paler around her cuffs and collar and behind her neck and under her hair where the sun is less likely to tan it. Untanned it would probably not be as dark as Mediterranean people but slightly darker than northern Europeans and Scandinavians. It is smooth and clean without scar or blemish that you can see, and her lips are moderate both in size and color. Her nose might be described as a "button nose", relatively small and turned up a bit at the end. Her jawline is gentle, not prominent, her forehead smooth but not high, her eyebrows somewhat light. Her neck is long but strong. Her height is well distributed--not all in her legs nor all in her torso, but comfortably present in both. She also radiates an air of confidence, as of someone who knows who she is and what her place is in life, who is comfortable with herself. She is probably twenty or twenty-one years old, looks a bit younger but acts a bit older.
She notices the crowd, and nods after a brief hesitation. "You're right," she says. "Tomorrow. Lunch. Come up to the main house whenever Robert gives you your break, and I'll have the kitchen staff serve us privately in the breakfast room so we can talk about this. If you really do have the answer to who made Gaia, I'd like to know about that."
She looks around at the others. "Well, I probably should get back myself. You'll see to it that [here she mentions a name which you realize must be Bredd's mother] returns to her quarters when she's finished here, I'm sure."
If you don't detain her, she will leave. Others will have questions, mostly ones you find fairly easy to answer, and a significant number are interested in the baptism.
--M. J. Young
Nikolaj
Member
I did not mean to offend you. It was a lighthearted remark. My apologies. It was no accusation in any way. (au contraire)
"Thank you miss. I will see you at lunch tomorrow.", I say smiling. "And I will escort Bredd's mother to her quarters myself", I assure her. "A good night to you, and may God bless it.", I say to her, meaning it. I part from her in the local custom, which, if it's not a handshake, I figure I'll have learned by now.
I turn to shake hands with someone and as the door closes behind miss Kucher I sigh inwardly and shake my head slightly to regain a better focus and concentration. There were questions to be answered! And I did. Afterward, after Bredd and I cleaned up, I wanted to escort Bredd's mother to her barracks, but thought of something. I asked Bredd to join me in thanksgiving for the night, if he wants. And we close our eyes, lift our hands up to the sky and praise God for this evening, which I think would take 10 minutes each, at minimum, probably more.
(I also think we would have settled on an exact date for the baptism, and/or a place.)
Then I escort Bredd's mother home and let Bredd join me (or more importantly, her).
(I'm not quite sure if Bredd sleeps at his mother's or his father's barracks or in a separate child-barracks. If Bredd sleeps somewhere else, I escort him as well.)
As I walk towards my own barracks, I pray for Katherine. (Prayer for third party revelation) I pray that God will reveal Himself to her in a way He pleases. Through my words tomorrow and/or through a dream this night or the next. That she might understand the answer to her question and that it may have lasting effect. That He may inspire me how best to approach this question.
It was evening, it was morning, the next day :)
I was not offended; I just did not want there to be any confusion in the matter. If I create a character you find attractive, and your character expresses that, I consider how the other character might respond and roll some dice, and play it accordingly; but I don't really create characters specifically to catch the eye of the player characters--I just keep creating different characters, and frequently one of them will. There are, after all, attractive women in the world of many types, and it would be rather unrealistic if you never met any of them.
I agree that you know the appropriate social conventions, and am not particularly worried (in this world) what they are, if you have any particular preferences.
Bredd is in the men's barracks, not really with his father; they eat together as a family among the orcs, in much the same way that some of the men and women do at meals among the humans. There are more orc children than human children here, though.
Baptism in three days at the eastern watering hole. It's a bit muddy but you can wade in easily, and the sheep are in the west pastures right now so it won't be overrun by animals.
You take your forty minute prayer walk focused on Kathrine Kucher, and feel very assured that God is answering your prayer.
--M. J. Young
Nikolaj
Member
cool. And you are right of course. I just thought it might be one of those cases as in the scenario with the princesses (which I've only read about on these forums.)
Okay, in the mornings I work on the saddle. Lunchtime with Katherine. I'm a bit nerveous about that. I quickly send up a prayer that I might keep focussed. (words, not spoken aloud. A kind of Nehemiah prayer again) I straighten my beard out a bit with my hands, wondering when it was the last time I trimmed it and immediately wonder why I'm wondering it. If for some reason I might now that it's custom to wear your best suit when meeting the Kuchers, then I will switch my clothes as well.
There are other things, but they will have to wait untill after this lunch meeting.
You have had dinner with the Kuchers before, and the workmen who joined did wash up but did not change before coming, so it would not be expected that you would take the time to change out of your work clothes other than removing your apron before joining Miss Kucher.
An orc girl probably older than Bredd but younger than Qormlach in simple black and white functional dress answers the door, and says "Miss is expecting you." She leads the way down a hall to a room with a rectangular table that might comfortably seat eight, which makes it considerably smaller than the one in the dining room where you had your first meals here. There are only two chairs, set across from each other near one end, and Kathrine is seated facing the door. She rises as you enter, and says, "Mr. Nikolaj, please have a seat." She is dressed in discrete but delicate clothing, recently groomed and washed, with a somewhat more nervous and shy look about her than she had previously.
There is sliced meat, lamb or mutton most likely, on a platter, along with a loaf of bread in thick slices, fresh butter, a bit of lettuce and sliced onion and chunked tomato, a light yellow hard cheese also with a few slices already cut.
"What would you like to drink? There is coffee, tea, or we can get some wine or beer from the cellar, and I believe there is some peach juice from breakfast."
The orc girl appears to be awaiting directions.
--M. J. Young
Nikolaj
Member
I smile at the girl as she waits for me (the servant that is). As she guides me to the dining room I follow her. As I enter and am being greeted by miss Kucher, I do my best to greet back well. "Thank you miss Kucher.", I say with a slight bow. I take my seat and smile. "It is an honor to be here. I hope I did not keep you waiting for too long?"
As the girl ask for drink I answer. "Oh, a coffe please, black, no sugar.", I answer her. "Thank you for asking." I smile.
"The food looks lovely."
"... and so does she."
"... stop thinking about that! That's not why we are here. Speaking of which ..."
"Miss Kucher, uhm, is there any chance that my God has, uhm, showed you some of the answer I will try to give to day already? You see, I asked Him and strongly felt that He obliged." I smile a bit unsure. "I can't believe I asked that! What if it were just some feelings and no truth? I would feel very stupid then!"
She bites her lower lip in a cute look of consternation. "Well--sort of? Not exactly?"
As you prompt her to continue, she does. "You had said last night that your God had made Gaia as His servant, so that she worked for Him. Now, we have people here who work for us--in fact, you work for us, don't you?"
She seems to think better of that as soon as she says it, but plows ahead.
"I thought, if anyone were to ask Mr. Nikolaj, or Mr. Robert, or any of our employees, they would answer that they worked for the Kuchers; why would it be different for Gaia? Of course, I don't know that I expected an answer. I've spoken to Gaia before, but I've never spoken with her. But I thought it wouldn't hurt to ask, maybe partly because I didn't really expect to get an answer. So I asked. I prayed to Gaia, and asked if she worked for someone else.
"Then--and I don't know if it was a dream, because it was late and it was dark; but it didn't really seem like a dream, if you see my meaning. Gaia appeared in my room. That was frightening; it was really terrifying, because--well, whatever, she said that I shouldn't be afraid, and that yes, she did work for someone. She said that she had been created by a greater God who created all the gods, and that He had allowed her the privilege of creating our world and our peoples, and of trying to bring us toward the truth. But, she said, that God had now sent someone into the world from another world, to introduce Himself to us so that we could know the great Creator God of all things.
"Then she was gone.
"Now, she didn't say that you were that person. But then, everyone is a bit vague about where you are really from, and no one has heard anything about this God of whom you speak so freely, and you had already said that your God was Gaia's creator, so it seems pretty likely that she meant you.
"And I guess, if she does work for your God, then yes, I'd have to say that your God has already shown me some of the answer, although He did it by sending word through my god. At least, I think that's what happened."
--M. J. Young
Nikolaj
Member
I smile as I hear that. I smile very much.
"Well yes", I tell her. "That's about how I would have wanted to explain it. I also had a dream on one of the first days I arrived here. I had never heard of Gaia before. Well, I had heard the name, but not as a goddess. So I asked God what to think of it, and he showed me Gaia before Himself, wondering why I needed to come, being a bit uncomfortable with me. Then He answered that she needed to get smaller so that He could become greater in this world."
Then I watch her reaction to this.
"So then, I guess Gaia is heading for retirement." She looks out the window across the pastures toward the jungle. "She's been taking care of this world for a long time. I guess she deserves a rest."
Drawing her eyes back to the room after a moment, she says, "So I guess then I have to find out how I become a--what do you call people of your religion again? Anyway, I have to do that. I also am going to have to talk to my father, and he's not going to be happy with any of this. Maybe I should talk to my mother first. I don't think I should mention it to Joe--my brother can be pretty upset about what he sees as 'other gods'. I don't guess we can blame him. Gaia has meant peace between humans, elves, and dwarfs for centuries. We don't all view her the same, but we all agree that she is the same. There will be people who don't want her to go, and they're not going to listen to us, I expect.
"But that doesn't change what has to be done. I guess this bap-thing you were saying is the next step?"
--M. J. Young
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