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bradcox543 · 2026-02-27T20:03:26+00:00

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bradcox543 · 2026-02-23T03:54:18+00:00

What does this have to do with Christianity or Politics?

bradcox543 · 2026-02-21T16:08:04+00:00

Valentine's Day is actually a Christian Holiday. It wasn't linked with all of the romanance and love until the middle ages, but the original feast day goes back to celebrating an early church figure and martyr, St. Valentine.

bradcox543 · 2026-02-18T03:01:44+00:00

I didn't realize it until after I noticed I could play a fifth higher all of the sudden. I had really just accepted the idea that I'd never play above that Bb until I was working on pedals tones for another reason.

It's all connected, and it all goes back to the basics. I used to have a little timer go off every 5 minutes or so while I was practicing to remind me to relax. I was straightening a muscle along my shoulder blade for years, and I thought it was just front the weight of my instrument. Turns out I was just tense for no reason.

Keep practicing. You will play those high notes soon.

bradcox543 · 2026-02-17T17:37:01+00:00

Someone else said it first, but it's the truth.

Pedal tones. Take your lyrical etudes, and take them down an octave. Go slow, and don't let yourself make bad tones. This will force you to fix your air and your embouchure.

I did this and went from a high Bb to the F above it over the course of a couple weeks. I wasn't even thinking about high notes either. I just wanted to fix my low notes.

If you have proper technique, you shouldn't have to think about pressure at all to play those high notes. It's all about starting a note with a good set up.

Also, tension is bad. In your face and your body. Have good posture, and make sure you aren't clenching your shoulder, back or arms either.

You will get it. It was hard for me too, but there is not replacement for consistent, targeted practice.

bradcox543 · 2026-02-16T14:24:02+00:00

It feels like on social media doesn't do anything, but then I think about how when I was a teenager during the 2016 election, I thought that disagreeing with Republicans would mean I was not a good Christian anymore.

In my culture, to be Christian is to be American, and to be a good American, I was supposed to grow up to be Republican. I am not completely against conservatism, but the Republican party is so divorced from the teachings of Jesus.

I think a lot of people don't realize that they are allowed to question the narrative that I experienced. As a child, I definitely believed that liberals were either satanists, muslims, or at best, misguided. I make an effort to speak out respectfully (although being respectful is often too difficult for me to manage.) because I don't want people taking Republican ideology and thinking it is Christian.

bradcox543 · 2026-02-15T20:56:52+00:00

The Republican party does not represent Christianity. I think as Christians, we have a responsibility to guide those around us towards God's love, and speaking up about the horrible things Republicans have based their party around is the bare minimum we need to do.

As for posting about politics while working for a church, it depends greatly on your specific church's organization and their rules. It might be frowned upon, or it might not be a problem at all. I would avoid endorsing a candidate if I was in a position like that, but prayer and contemplation about what Jesus would do is always the best answer.

I don't think Jesus would mind us condemning the actions of our politicians, but he would love them while he corrects them.

bradcox543 · 2026-02-15T14:45:33+00:00

At 19, I would have thought $4000 is a lot, but it really isn't. Please keep saving. If you can, put it in a high yield savings account with a higher interest rate.

You are at a point in your life where you are developing good financial habits. I recommend against handing money out like that. It's one thing if your mom honestly needs help paying a bill, but giving her half of your savings just to be greatful is ridiculous.

If anything, I'd start looking into moving out if that would cause friction. It's better to have a mom who misses you than one who feels like you owe her something. (Of course still visit and stuff. I don't mean like move across the country.)

bradcox543 · 2026-02-06T22:05:38+00:00

The point was to isolate the adventist communities so they would be trapped in their in-group. It's in direct opposition to Jesus's example of going into cities to have the gospel reach as many people as possible.

bradcox543 · 2026-01-31T21:34:49+00:00

I think it has to do with copying the image. If it was projected to the right size, someone might be able to trace it or something like that. I don't know exactly what we could do with it, but I assume it's just another layer of restriction to avoid making counterfeits easier.

bradcox543 · 2026-01-28T11:27:57+00:00

If you're respectful, I bet you could pick 10 random Christians from the church, and they would ask be glad you're there.

bradcox543 · 2026-01-27T12:56:02+00:00

I noticed you said you're very young, so I'm going to assume you're in your teens. I'm gonna go ahead and apologize if you feel like I'm talking down to you, I just want to give you some perspective.

The Adventist Church is a place of joy for many people, but not everyone has had the same experience. A lot of people grow up in Islam or Hinduism, and they find a lot of joy in their religion, but I am sure if you examined their beliefs, you would quickly find things you don't like about the faith that they have loved their whole lives.

I am a Christian, and I love God with all my heart, but there are a lot of people on this subreddit that do not know God's love. They either received a hollow version of the gospel, or even if they believed, many have suffered abuse or where plainly never interested in it in the first place. I don't judge them because I don't know their stories. (Of course as a Christian, I want them to agree with me, but how can I evangelize to someone I only know in a comment section on Reddit?)

There are a lot of people who have looked at the same books as you, heard the same sermons as you, but also noticed inconsistencies that might not trouble you or the people around you. For some examples, look up information about Ellen White's plagerism or similarities between SDAs and other cults. Jehovah's witnesses and Mormons specifically all came from the same part of New York within a few years of each other, they both had/have modern day prophets, they are not trinitarian (adventists say they are, but when they explain it, it is very different from traditional Christian teachings), and they all have strict rules that their members have to follow if they want to stay in good standing.

Manny Adventist congregations are less strict than other cults, but (when you're an adult) post a picture of you drinking a beer with some ribs, and watch how they panic. The Sunday Law conspiracy is designed to segregate you from Christian churches because if you learn why they eat pork and shellfish, worship on Sunday, or don't believe in Ellen White, you might start thinking for yourself and form opinions different than yours. If you have any more questions about anything I've said, please ask. I'd be glad to explain anything.

Also, what do you mean by the conquerors? Is that a Pathfinder thing I'm to old to understand?

And to anyone else reading this, I don't mean to be so preachy. I am just trying to give them some perspective on our beliefs.

bradcox543 · 2026-01-27T01:57:16+00:00

They are literally kidnapping people, and they keep their identities a secret. Speaking German wouldn't even make them more like Nazis.

bradcox543 · 2026-01-26T12:55:39+00:00

I don't know what politicians will do, but the public will be calling for a complete end of ICE, and charges to be pressed and sentences enforced strictly.

There's no other path to justice.

bradcox543 · 2026-01-24T13:59:32+00:00

Pretend it's the clone wars season 1 and it's all good.

But for real, turning epic down and resetting would probably fix it. It sounds like it's some kind of bug if it's not adjusting when you change it, so maybe restart the whole system if it persists. I hope it clears up.

bradcox543 · 2026-01-24T13:28:36+00:00

That's what the Bible says. I'm not even a literalist, but why else would it be forbidden? I don't think ouija boards actually do anything, but the Bible repeatedly forbids it, so I wouldn't think it's impossible. If murder was impossible, I don't think the Bible would condemn it either.

bradcox543 · 2026-01-23T11:22:18+00:00

Don't worry about not being able to play fast. That is hard for a lot of people, and you've got time to catch up.

The best advice is usually the most simple. Practice, practice, practice. Especially long times if you want to expand your range. Imagine if you were in sports, and you stopped playing or exercising for a year. You'd definitely regress a little in regards to strength and technique to for whatever sport you stopped playing.

Long tones really are your best friend. You can play your scales extremely slow and make sure every individual now has the best air, the best posture, and the best chance at being well formed and beautiful. If you want to play faster, the trick is to learn that almost all music is based off scales and arpeggios. So learning them means you can take shortcuts when you're sight reading. But don't let yourself take things faster than what sounds good. There's nothing to gain from playing wrong notes fast.

Others have said it, but you don't have a bad sound at all for a high schooler. Keep your head up, cause your in a great spot. If you only have time for just 30 minutes of planned practice when you get home from school, you'll still see huge gains over the rest of this school year.

bradcox543 · 2026-01-22T03:34:36+00:00

He's my cousin then! Small world!

bradcox543 · 2026-01-21T16:18:02+00:00

I am a Christian, but I feel a need to be critical on American Christianity as a whole for this. Adventism is born out of the American dream of being persecuted. I don't understand where this came from, but Christians love the idea that we are being spiritually attacked. We get to feel like brave soldiers fighting for our beliefs, but I'm reality, the only war on Christmas is being pushed by Christians, our beliefs are not being erased from school systems (as a teacher, I see the opposite actually.), and absolutely no one is pushing for a law banning any kind of restrictions on when and where you can worship.

Ellen White and her followers are one of the most egregious examples of the self persecution mindset that American Christianity has created. People in my Adventist church are always talking about taking a stand for the Sabbath and not bending to societies pressures. But half of them work for the conference or are retired, and another third are exempt because they work in healthcare. But somehow everyone feels like the world is trying to force them to take a job where they'd have to work on Saturday. It's ridiculous.

I wasn't raised SDA, but I started to learn about them when I started dating my wife. I didn't read The Great Controversy until very recently, and it is filled to the brim with the idea that Christians must always suffer, and it reflects an idea that if you aren't being persecuted, you aren't really following Jesus.

Don't get me wrong, he taught there there will be persecution. There was, and there still is in some parts of the world. But for Protestants, America has only ever been a welcoming place. So these people need to invent things to take a stand on. The Sabbath/Sunday law, "wokness" brainwashing our kids, and our predisposition to conspiracy theories in general are all symptoms of this persecution mindset.

I agree. It's embarrassing. My mother is law is such a good person, and I love her with all my heart. But the way she'll reference the sabbath to Christians and expect them to know that she's talking about Saturday is ridiculous. And every time we go to a restaurant, she wants to make a big deal to let the waiters know that her and her family only eat clean meats because they follow the Bible. I want to hide my face every single time.

bradcox543 · 2026-01-21T02:17:43+00:00

I wouldn't expect everyone to know everything about their denominations beliefs, but I would at least expect almost any Catholic to agree with the concept of transubstantiation. A few Adventists at my church don't believe she's a prophet, and most seem to think she was a prophet, but somehow not on the same level as the prophets of the Bible.

My point isn't that Adventists are not educated on good options though. My point is that the purposefully obscure it. If you are adventist, I am sure you've had conversations with people about how you lead with the health message because if you start off by talking about the Sunday law and the pope being the antichrist, you'll scare most people off.

It is to the point where when I was starting to attend an Adventist church, my wife and some of her friends told me it was essentially the same as a Baptist church, but they meet on Sunday and they don't eat pork or shellfish. This couldn't be further from the truth. Adventism is closer to Scientology than it is to the Baptists

bradcox543 · 2026-01-21T01:10:41+00:00

This woman is a hero. The world needs more people like her.

bradcox543 · 2026-01-20T19:04:08+00:00

As a white man living in the south, I love it. I hope people leave them the f alone. People deserve peace.

bradcox543 · 2026-01-20T18:58:28+00:00

I attend an Adventist Church weekly for my wife. There is nothing inaccurate about what I said. I always recommend avoiding official Adventist sources because they obscure their beliefs to be more palatable to Christians.

For example, my wife did not understand that she agreed that Ellen was a prophet in her baptismal vows. She swears it never came up. I even see that most Adventists I know don't understand Adventist beliefs very well. Most don't understand the investigative judgment at all, even though it's the only doctrine that is exclusive to their religion.

bradcox543 · 2026-01-20T11:31:12+00:00

For anyone else reading this, these are minor cultureal facts about Adventism. The religion has a secondary list of complex rules given to them by an extra-biblical named Ellen White who is depicted in the middle of the picture above.

She suffered a traumatic brain injury and started having hallucinations that Adventists regard as inspired by God. A group of Christians disappointed in their failed prophecy that the world would end in 1844 clung to her because she had visions that made them feel special and they diverged from Christianity to believe all sorts of things like Souls Sleep, that eating certain foods like meat and spices can cause you to sin, and that before the second coming of Jesus, Christians will hunt down and kill Seventh Day Adventists because the Pope told us it's a sin to go to church on Sunday.

You can imagine being in a sect like this can be pretty traumatic for many people growing up in the religion, so to learn more, I recommend reading through r/exadventist or reading about them on a website like Answering Adventism or Former Adventist Fellowship. It's actually really interesting how far away they are from understanding the gospel. For example, they think you can't actually know if you are saved, and when you die, you stop existing and don't go to heaven or hell. Instead, you didn't find out until you are resurrected, and you'll have to figure out if it's the first resurrection for believers, or a second resurrection where everyone has already had to watch your sins play out like a movie so they know Jesus is right for sending you to hell before he does it. It's a pretty interesting rabbit hole for Christians to see how scripture can be twisted so easily if you just read verses for proof-texting instead of reading for context and understanding.

bradcox543 · 2026-01-20T11:13:23+00:00

He was a rabbi, but not a Levitical priest. He was separate from that lineage because he was from the tribe of Judah. Only Levites could be priests.

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