Dale offers the prompt “the heat is on” for this week’s Cosmic Photo Challenge.
It’s been rather hot around the Charlotte area, but I prefer it hot to cold.
The following photos are of flowers from gardens in the neighborhood.
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There is much advice on how to avoid addiction and victoriously weather storms. Some of them work for a few weeks or even years.
However, there’s a short-cut to victory. Every storm bows forever if you keep your mind on Him: the narrow way, the truth and the life.
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I listened to all 28 chapters of the Gospel of Matthew one after the other today. Some parallels stood out like Peter’s denial and the betrayal of Judas. They both bitterly regretted what they did.
I remember well the beatitudes and the woes. However, I didn’t associate them with each other until now. The structure of this gospel is well crafted as one would expect. It was inspired by no ordinary muse, after all, but by the Holy Spirit Himself.
The Nine Beatitudes
Matthew 5:3-12 KJV – 3 Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
4 Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.
5 Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.
6 Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.
7 Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.
8 Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.
9 Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.
10 Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
11 Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake.
12 Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.
The Eight Woes
Matthew 23:13-31 KJV – 13 But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men: for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in.
14 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye devour widows’ houses, and for a pretence make long prayer: therefore ye shall receive the greater damnation.
15 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves.
16 Woe unto you, ye blind guides, which say, Whosoever shall swear by the temple, it is nothing; but whosoever shall swear by the gold of the temple, he is a debtor!
17 Ye fools and blind: for whether is greater, the gold, or the temple that sanctifieth the gold?
18 And, Whosoever shall swear by the altar, it is nothing; but whosoever sweareth by the gift that is upon it, he is guilty.
19 Ye fools and blind: for whether is greater, the gift, or the altar that sanctifieth the gift?
20 Whoso therefore shall swear by the altar, sweareth by it, and by all things thereon.
21 And whoso shall swear by the temple, sweareth by it, and by him that dwelleth therein.
22 And he that shall swear by heaven, sweareth by the throne of God, and by him that sitteth thereon.
23 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone.
24 Ye blind guides, which strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel.
25 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess.
26 Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also.
27 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men’s bones, and of all uncleanness.
28 Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.
29 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because ye build the tombs of the prophets, and garnish the sepulchres of the righteous,
30 And say, If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.
31 Wherefore ye be witnesses unto yourselves, that ye are the children of them which killed the prophets.
Linda G. Hill’s One Liner Wednesday.
One of my poems, Words, has been published today in Whispers and Echoes. I am grateful to Sammi Cox for accepting it.
When reading the Bible online I have found Blue Letter Bible to be very helpful. I can copy verses and then paste them on photos (like the one at the bottom of this post). It also includes a well-formatted interlinear option among other tools.
Sometimes I just want to hear the Bible read slowly with the dialog dramatized. The Time Is Up channel offers such a dramatized, slow reading of the books of the Bible. Earlier today, I listened to Daniel.
The Bible Society in Israel also offers dramatizations of the scriptures, but these are in Hebrew.
Don’t know Hebrew? It’s not that hard to learn, at least to learn well enough to not be intimidated by an interlinear translation, but ask the Holy Spirit if learning Hebrew is what you should be doing now. If He encourages you, one resource that has helped me is the Alef with Beth biblical Hebrew lessons.
Whether you know Hebrew or not there are many wonderful songs you can enjoy such as those offered by Shilo Ben Hod and MIQEDEM.
Blessings to you!
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Emperor Dunklematerie walked down the street in his new clothes which were so finely made that he might have appeared – to the untrained eye – naked.
“I applaud our glorious Emperor who’s not only a brilliant scientist but a connoisseur of the arts,” one well-paid servant of the realm posted with a billion AI-generated likes.
Another showcased the ingenious tailors who fashioned the exquisite clothing out of the “density of the darkest gravity”.
And another remarked how pricelessly expensive those designer clothes were with holes in them everywhere – not just the knees – to cover the Emperor “in the cosmic void itself”.
Unfortunately, once a certain breed of children reach a certain age and before they reach a certain other age when they start thinking like they’re supposed to, there’s not much you can do with them. Thanks to them the whole world got to see AI-manipulated clips of Dunklematerie before their social media accounts where locked.
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Denise offers the prompt word “breed” for this week’s Six Sentence Stories.
Proverbs 16:18 KJV – 18 Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.
One of my poems, Words, has been published today in Whispers and Echoes. I am grateful to Sammi Cox for accepting it.
Dale offers the prompt “in the garden” for this week’s Cosmic Photo Challenge.
The following photos were taken last year at Mirabell, the garden in Salzburg, Austria, where the song, Do Re Me, from the Sound of Music was partially filmed.
I think I was in the 8th grade when our class went to see this film at a theater in Chicago when it first came out in 1965.
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Brian spent most of his life running away from blessings, but they overtook him anyway. His heart changed as he physically stopped, turned around and went home. Although the time he wasted overtaking useless stuff overwhelmed him, he was relieved that he no longer felt compelled to do any of that.
They say the narrow way is narrow and Brian was just beginning to realize how narrow, yet fulfilling, it was.
One day the devil challenged God, “Being omniscient and all, surely You still know, even though You might not want to remember, all those wicked things I got Brian to do, don’t You?”
The devil stared at God trying without success to penetrate the Light with the dense darkness of his trimmed vision hoping God would give him a philosophically precise answer this time that he could pick apart with satisfaction through eternity, but all God said was, “Nope.”
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Denise offers the prompt word “trim” to be used in this week’s Six Sentence Stories.
Hebrews 10:16-17 KJV – 16 This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them; 17 And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.
All of these limericks were originally posted to Esther Chilton’s Laughing Along With A Limerick during the month of June. Some I have slightly modified.
I’ve added two photos for those who prefer a picture to a thousand words.
There’s a trail that some call the Way.
There are others that lead one astray.
Some are wide. Some are paved.
Some are sweetly depraved,
but astray I won’t wander today.
Prompt Word “trail” June 2, 2025 (modified)
Though I thought I was perfectly Frank,
I was Jerry. Then Bill. My heart sank.
Then it rose with the thought
that whatever I caught . . .
You caught what? . . . and my mind drew a blank.
Prompt word: “frank” June 9, 2025 (modified)
There’s a bowl filled with soup and a spoon
as a girl, Goldilocks, hums a tune.
Since the bears are away
she’ll have soup, but she may
have to leave and she’d better leave soon.
Prompt word: “bowl” June 16, 2025
There once was a crack in the code
and a hack from a coder who showed
if the hack fixed the crack
then the crack was the hack
and the code with the hack would explode.
Prompt word: “hack” June 23, 2025
There once were some thieves and a clock
with a sonorous tick for each tock,
but the thieves weren’t aware
that a lock was placed there
as a block of foul theft of our clock.
Prompt word: “block” June 30, 2025 (modified)
Poetry, Short Prose and Walking 