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Day 2889, 12 May 2026

Sweet Fragrance

“Then Noah built an altar to the Lord, …and offered burnt offerings on the altar. The Lord smelled the soothing aroma; and the Lord said to Himself, “I will never again curse the ground on account of man…” Gen 8:20-21NASB

Noah’s sacrifice was his worship. God found this worship-sacrifice pleasing. Could Jehovah God have needed to be worshiped from the heart of the few living souls left? I believe God’s heart hurt. He received both pleasure and comfort in their heart of worship and obedience by smelling their sacrifices.

Today’s society listens to Christian songs on radio, cellphone, internet— whatever media available. For some people music is a form of worship, with a special song, ushering them into their quiet time with God. Is the music worship? Does God find worship in the music? Music helps settle my mind to God’s time, but I believe it takes the heart to worship.

Matt Redman wrote a song about the music fading and bringing God a heart of worship. How often do we truly give our hearts over to simply worshipping the Lord? During our church services, when the music fades, the preacher arises to preach his sermon. Isn’t that worship as well?

One night, I attended an impromptu worship service. Praise and worship had been moving forward for a time of yielding during practice. Sunday morning singing-worship service could hardly be closed down. Many gathered to continue with an evening of worshiping the Lord.

With no timeline set for the service, worship continued for hours. God’s Presence entered heavily upon us all, during this time of worship. Through a message in tongues and the interpretation I heard something I’ve never heard God say before: “I appreciated your worship. I needed your worship.”

God— who is self-sufficient in every way— needing from man? WOW. As I meditated on this statement, my mind went to our text scripture. Yahweh God had to rid the earth of evil, by flooding and killing most all animals and humans, read Genesis 6-8. His reasonings—“…for the intent of man’s heart is evil from his youth…” Genesis 8:21. Noah's family began God’s repopulation program with obedience and worship, meeting God’s need.

There’s little wonder satan works to occupy our minds with music blaring everywhere, the hullabaloo of our daily life— we often don’t take the time or have the time to really approach God with worship— not long enough for Him to say the worship meets His need. Only from hearts being sold out to God in worship, can we become a “sweet fragrance” (MSG translation).

Paul wrote in 2Cor 2:14-16NASB “But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and manifests through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of Him in every place. For we are a fragrance of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing; to the one an aroma from death to death, to the other an aroma from life to life.”

To be found pleasing by Almighty God is my heart’s desire. Sure this will cost time. Everything worthwhile costs the highest price. Benefits out-weigh the cost: —In worship, we can approach the throne of God with our petitions. —Our nearness to Him will rub off on us. Fragrance from God will attract “those who are being saved.” Equally so, God’s fragrance often repels “those who are perishing.” Certainly, we can’t choose for them.

What kind of fragrance do you carry? Have you become the fragrance of godliness— a soothing aroma to God? Only you can decide how you will smell. It’s your choice. You choose.

PRAYER: Papa God, we desire to serve You and bless Your heart. Help us to give You the praise and worship that will make You smell good to You, in Jesus’ name I pray.

Ah! Gosh, I don’t even know where to start…Ok, ok, let’s start with my girl Fury.I imagine Fury to be the most grumpy, right next to older brother, Death. She can come off as brash or pig-headed, but once things have settled down and things get relaxed, so to does she. Sure, she’s always angry; Is assume she’s got some hyooge anger issues, but she knows how to cool off. In spite of all this, there’s still a compassionate and strong person under that perpetual snarl.I also think she would be the most rational, channeling her abilities to control her feelings and assess the situations around her with more clarity. She’s more or less my idea of how a meaner, harsher Garnet would be.

Death would be the grumpiest grumpy old man to ever grace the face of my world, and the most witty to boot. I loved his sarcastic bite in the Abomination Vault, and felt the need to incorporate his dry and morbid humor as much as possible. More often than not, when I see the Horsemen all together, I see Death being some sort of comic relief, always saying or doing something completely awful or horrible and making it seem like nothing at all. From his bitter jokes come stark wisdom and truth, and no matter what, he can always get a laugh from someone.

Strife, as you can already imagine, would be the brains of my operations; both a strategic planner and a resourceful tinkerer. He’s almost always fiddling with his guns in one or more ways or another, and has always had a thing for taking things apart and putting them back together again. Mathematics, science, and technology get him excited. He can calculate and measure ridiculous quantities in his head as well as figure out his current place in the universe by watching the skies. If you ask me, I think my boi here would make an excellent astronaut~

Either that or some eccentric scientist somewhere, living in a secluded location off in the middle of nowhere, inventing weapons of mass destructio- I mean rockets.

Last, but certainly not least, my beloved War. I absolutely adore this big, violent dude for an eternity of reasons, but mainly because of his honorable nature and sense of duty when it came to acting as an enforcer of the balance. Sure, he can be easy to anger, and might even occasionally bite the hand that feeds him, but he’s got a good control of that temper of his. As long as he keeps his anger in check, I imagine War being capable of just about anything.

War can be pretty level, and seems to be down for just about anything, so long as it pertains to protecting Balance. Given my experience with the Big Guy, I’d say all he needs is a boxing training gym and that’s it!

Today in history, June 8, 1492: the death of Elizabeth Woodville:

"Elizabeth Woodville (also spelled Wydville, Wydeville, or Widvile; c. 1437– 8 June 1492) was Queen consort of England as the spouse of King Edward IV from 1464 until his death in 1483. At the time of her birth, her family was mid-ranked in the English aristocracy. Her first marriage was to a minor supporter of the House of Lancaster, Sir John Grey of Groby; he died at the Second Battle of St Albans, leaving Elizabeth a widowed mother of two sons. Her second marriage, to Edward IV, was a cause célèbre of the day, thanks to Elizabeth's great beauty and lack of great estates. Edward was only the second king of England since the Norman Conquest to have married one of his subjects, and Elizabeth was the first such consort to be crowned queen. Her marriage greatly enriched her siblings and children, but their advancement incurred the hostility of Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick, 'The Kingmaker', and his various alliances with the most senior figures in the increasingly divided royal family.

This hostility turned into open discord between King Edward and Warwick, leading to a battle of wills that finally resulted in Warwick switching allegiance to the Lancastrian cause. Elizabeth remained politically influential even after her son, briefly proclaimed King Edward V of England, was deposed by her brother-in-law, Richard III, and she would play an important role in securing the accession of Henry VII to the throne in 1485, which ended the Wars of the Roses. After 1485, however, she was forced to yield pre-eminence to Henry's mother, Lady Margaret Beaufort, and her influence on events in these years, and her eventual departure from court into retirement, remains obscure.

Elizabeth Woodville was born about 1437, possibly in October, at Grafton Regis, Northamptonshire. She was the first-born child of a socially unequal marriage that had briefly scandalised the English court. Her father, Sir Richard Woodville, was merely a knight at the time of her birth. The Woodvilles, though an old and respectable family, were genteel rather than noble; a landed and wealthy family that had previously produced commissioners of the peace, sheriffs, and MPs rather than peers of the realm. Sir Richard's own father had made a good career in royal service, rising to become chamberlain to the Duke of Bedford. Sir Richard followed his father into service with the duke, and so first met his wife Jacquetta of Luxembourg. The daughter of Peter of Luxembourg, Count of Saint-Pol, and Margaret de Baux, she had been married to the Duke of Bedford in 1433 at the age of 17. The duke was significantly older than Jacquetta of Luxembourg, his second wife, and he was in ill health. He died in 1435, leaving Jacquetta of Luxembourg a childless, wealthy widow. She was required to seek permission from King Henry VI before she could remarry. But in March 1437, it was revealed that she had secretly married Sir Richard Woodville, who was far below her in rank and not considered a suitable husband for the lady still honoured as the king's aunt. The couple was fined £1000, but this was remitted in October of the same year.

Despite this inauspicious start, the married couple soon prospered, thanks mainly to Jacquetta's continuing prominence within the royal family. She retained her rank and dower as Duchess of Bedford, the latter initially providing an income of between £7000 and £8000 per year. Over the years, this income would diminish due to territorial losses in France and collapsing royal finances in England. Sir Richard was honoured with military ranks, in which he proved himself a capable soldier. Further honours for both came when Henry VI married Margaret of Anjou, whose uncle was Jacquetta's brother-in-law (Jacquetta's sister Isabelle married Margaret of Anjou's paternal uncle Charles du Maine). The Woodvilles were among those chosen to escort the bride to England, and the family benefited further through this double connection to the royal family. Sir Richard was raised to the rank of Baron Rivers in 1448. Their children therefore would grow up enjoying considerable privilege and material comfort.

In about 1452, Elizabeth Woodville married Sir John Grey of Groby, the heir to the Barony Ferrers of Groby. He was killed at the Second Battle of St Albans in 1461, fighting for the Lancastrian cause. This would become a source of irony, since Elizabeth's future husband Edward IV was the Yorkist claimant to the throne. Elizabeth Woodville's two sons from this first marriage were Thomas (later Marquess of Dorset) and Richard.

Elizabeth Woodville was called "the most beautiful woman in the Island of Britain" with "heavy-lidded eyes like those of a dragon."

In 1485, Henry Tudor invaded England and defeated Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth Field. As King, Henry VII married Elizabeth of York and had the Titulus Regius revoked and all found copies destroyed. Elizabeth Woodville was accorded the title and honours of a queen dowager.

Scholars differ about why Dowager Queen Elizabeth spent the last five years of her life living at Bermondsey Abbey, to which she retired on 12 February 1487. Among her modern biographers, David Baldwin believes that Henry VII forced her retreat from the Court, while Arlene Okerlund presents evidence from July 1486 that she was already planning her retirement from court to live a religious, contemplative life at Bermondsey Abbey. A more likely suggestion is that her retreat to Bermondsey was forced on her because she was in some way involved in the 1487 Yorkist rebellion of Lambert Simnel, or at least was seen as a potential ally of the rebels, a curious role for her to take if she was convinced that both her sons had died in 1483.

At Bermondsey Abbey, Elizabeth was treated with all the respect due to a queen dowager. She lived a regal life and received a pension of £400 and small gifts from Henry VII. She was present at the birth of her granddaughter Margaret at Westminster Palace in November 1489 and at the birth of her grandson, the future Henry VIII, at Greenwich Palace in June 1491. Her daughter Queen Elizabeth visited her on occasion at Bermondsey, although another one of her other daughters, Cecily of York, visited her more often.

Henry VII briefly contemplated in marrying his mother-in-law off to King James III of Scotland, when James III's wife, Margaret of Denmark, died in 1486. However, James III was killed in battle in 1488, rendering these plans moot.

Today in history, February 1, 1328, death of Charles IV:  

"Charles IV (Clermont 18/19 June 1294 – Vincennes 1 February 1328), called the Fair (le Bel) in France and the Bald (el Calvo) in Navarre, was the last direct Capetian King of France and King of Navarre (as Charles I) from 1322 to his death. Charles was the third son of Philip IV; like his father, he was known as "the fair" or "the handsome".

Beginning in 1323 Charles was confronted with a peasant revolt in Flanders, and in 1324 he made an unsuccessful bid for the elective German monarchy. As duke of Guyenne, King Edward II of England was a vassal of Charles, but he was reluctant to pay homage to another king. In retaliation, Charles conquered the Duchy of Guyenne in a conflict known as the War of Saint-Sardos (1324). In a peace agreement, Edward II accepted to swear allegiance to Charles and to pay a fine. In exchange, Guyenne was returned to Edward but with a much-reduced territory.

Charles IV died in 1328 at the Château de Vincennes, Val-de-Marne, and is interred with his third wife, Jeanne d'Évreux, in Saint Denis Basilica, with his heart buried at the now-demolished church of the Couvent des Jacobins in Paris.

Like his brothers before him, Charles died without a surviving male heir, thus ending the direct line of the Capetian dynasty. Twelve years earlier, a rule against succession by females, arguably derived from the Salic Law, had been recognised – with some dissent – as controlling succession to the French throne. The application of this rule barred Charles's one-year-old daughter Mary, by Jeanne d'Évreux, from succeeding as the monarch, but Jeanne was also pregnant at the time of Charles' death. Since she might have given birth to a son, a regency was set up under the heir presumptive Philip of Valois, son of Charles of Valois and a member of the House of Valois, the next most senior branch of the Capetian dynasty.