Author: Frank Hubeny

I enjoy walking, poetry and short prose as well as taking pictures with my phone.

Six Sentence Story: Gifts

After hearing that Thomas’s lease was terminated the minister gave Thomas $1,000 in cash with no strings attached.

Thomas refused it.

Then the minister gave Thomas a check for $100,000 with no strings attached.

Again Thomas refused it.

Finally the minister came back with a cashier’s check for $10,000,000 which he personally placed into Thomas’s hand all with no strings attached.

Once again Thomas refused to give the devil any grounds to say that the devil made him rich knowing that there was no gift from the devil, the father of lies, without a string attached.

______

Denise offers the prompt word “lease” for this week’s Six Sentence Stories.

Genesis 14:21-23 KJV – 21 And the king of Sodom said unto Abram, Give me the persons, and take the goods to thyself.
22 And Abram said to the king of Sodom, I have lift up mine hand unto the LORD, the most high God, the possessor of heaven and earth,
23 That I will not take from a thread even to a shoelatchet, and that I will not take any thing that is thine, lest thou shouldest say, I have made Abram rich:

Cosmic Photo Challenge: Here’s Some Cool Stuff I Found

Dale offers the prompt “here’s some cool stuff I found” for this week’s Cosmic Photo Challenge.

One of the places I walk to in order to take pictures of the sunset is a small park.

The photos show my walk to and from that park as the sun set recently.

______

As I crossed this bridge I could see the sun setting and reflecting in the clouds.
Here is a view of the park, but I was attracted to the shadow of the bike on the wall.
Looking away from the sun the cloudy skies stood out on the water.
On the way back it was dark enough for the bridge lights to be on.

Stardust

Our words affirm who we think we are.

Beyond their truth values, they are powerful spells. They bless. They curse. Though others might get in the way, we ourselves are the ones who are blessed or defiled by what comes out of our own mouths.1

A song written by Joni Mitchell called Woodstock2 in 1969 influenced me through the early 1970s. In the final refrain is a declaration of what Mitchell thought we were.

We are stardust
Billion year old carbon

However, as I’ve come to realize, there is no natural way that we could be stardust and as a metaphor the idea is sentimental nonsense.

There are those who fantasize how that stardust to man might have happened, but the only thing they proclaim is their rebellion against a Creator. Dust from a supernova cannot get back together again no matter how often one waves a magic wand – or a professor’s hand – insisting on billions of years of evolution.

And yet, back in the 1970s, I had no problem believing such mythology. I had no more problem with it than an ancient Greek would have had with Zeus or a Hindu with Krishna. Those were the words spoken to me and those were the words I chose to listen to. Today, I repent of that misleading idolatry.

That our bodies come from the earth is true.3 However, the dust of the earth has never been stardust no more than it has ever been pixie dust.

The words we speak and the words we listen to matter. I can testify – first hand – that God is not mocked. What we sow we shall reap.4

I can also testify that repentance brings more joy than delusion, rebellion and disobedience5.

  1. Matthew 15:17-20 KJV – 17 Do not ye yet understand, that whatsoever entereth in at the mouth goeth into the belly, and is cast out into the draught? 18 But those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart; and they defile the man. 19 For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies: 20 These are the things which defile a man: but to eat with unwashen hands defileth not a man. ↩︎
  2. https://jonimitchell.com/music/lyricsprint.cfm?id=75 ↩︎
  3. Genesis 2:7 KJV – 7 And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. ↩︎
  4. Galatians 6:7-8 KJV – 7 Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. 8 For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. ↩︎
  5. Luke 15:10 KJV – 10 Likewise, I say unto you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth. ↩︎

Biblical Prayer

Matthew 6:10 KJV – Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.

Biblical prayer is a command spoken to the earth that the Lord’s will be done throughout it.

That includes not merely the problems we face, but ourselves as well.

Matthew 6:7 KJV – 7 But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking.

Prayer is not a powerless, showy, vain speaking.

Prayer is our thoughts and words confirmed by our actions conforming only to the Lord’s will, not to our own.

When we get our thoughts, words and actions in line with the Lord’s will we pray effortlessly and without ceasing, because we then no longer know how to do anything else but insist that the Father’s kingdom come and that His will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Thursday Doors: Sliding Glass Doors

Sliding glass doors are doors, but since you can see through them they are also windows.

So think of this as Thursday Windows.

These are pictures taken from where we are staying.

______

To the left are the doors. In the distance is Miami or close enough to it.
This is later in the same day but looking through the doors from the inside at the sunset
Or you could go outside on the balcony and get a picture without the doors.

______

Linked to Thursday Doors.

Ritva at Ritva Sillanmäki Photography
Ritva at Ritva Sillanmäki Photography

Ovi Poetry Challenge: Rivers

The rivers flow. The waters go.
Understand: the rivers flow.
Are you thirsty? Drink and so
they’ll flow from you as well.

______

Ronovan Hester offers the inspiration “understand” for this week’s Ovi Poetry Challenge. Also posted on Poet’s Corner.

John 7:37-38 KJV – 37 In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink.
38 He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.

Six Sentence Story: Advice

The plumber watched his apprentice work on a shower faucet. It was old and probably could use more repair than he was authorized to perform.

The apprentice tried to loosen a tight connection. He asked the plumber, What if I break it?

The idea haunted the plumber as well, but he wasn’t particularly worried, because what good would worrying do? The only advice that came to his mind and which he offered while those who owned the condo watched the repair was, Don’t break it.

______

Denise offers the prompt word “haunt” to be used in this week’s Six Sentence Stories.

Matthew 6:25 KJV – Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?

Fun In The Sun

Dale offers the prompt “fun in the sun” for this week’s Cosmic Photo Challenge.

The first photo could also viewed as fun in the wind. Since I can’t swim, this is not something I plan on trying to do.

When the sun rises the birds are there to greet it. Sunrises are more fun with a few clouds to color the sky and many birds.

I imagine whoever is in the boat in the last photo is trying to get home before it’s dark.

______

Some people call whatever they’re doing out there fun.
When the sun rises the birds come out to start the new day.
There’s not much sun left in the day, but people are still out there on their boats