Six Sentence Story: The Cookie

People at work said there was something odd about the cafe on the ground floor of the building where our heroine rented her apartment. However, as far as she could tell, nothing seemed at all “odd” about it and the food was delicious.

Today as she entered the cafe the breakup with her boyfriend made her forget what others said about this mom-and-pop Chinese noodle shop. She ordered the same spicy noodles she always did when her mind flagged her with doubts.

After the meal she paid the bill, hesitated before opening the homemade fortune cookie, but then read its message.

The love of God for YOU is the greatest story ever told.

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

Proverbial Fairy Tales: Wolf! Wolf! – The End

Once upon a time there was a wolf who loved to eat and a lad who loved crying “Wolf! Wolf!” even when there was no wolf. When people realized after a month or so that the lad was nowhere to be seen they figured the wolf must have eaten him. So, they erected a statue in the lad’s honor even though they couldn’t remember his name and barbecued the wolf.

Pigeons loved the statue. So did the tourists who couldn’t believe that anyone in his right mind would have erected it.

After all of that everyone realized that there were no good reasons, no matter how many times they shuffled them, for anyone not to live happily ever after – which meant there were no good reasons for me not to either – and so we all did.

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

Proverbial Fairy Tale: Wolf! Wolf! – Ladville

Once upon a time there was a tiny town that became recklessly prosperous when it erected a statue to a lad who was eaten by a wolf and then found to be uneaten. The town grew and grew and grew to the point that the authorities of Middleuh Noware decided it was time to put it on the map.

Everyone agreed that the town should be called after the lad, but no one knew the lad’s name. Fortunately, when the lad returned they had the opportunity to ask him just what his name was hoping it would be something catchy like Tom, Dick or Harry. The lad was only too delighted to relay to them that his full name was Gregorio Gregoritos Gregorino Pretentious the Third, but his friends called him simply Daturd.

Given those circumstances, they named the town Ladville and everyone lived happily ever after.

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

He Is Risen – He Is Risen Indeed!

But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach; That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.

Romans 10:8-9 KJV
Sunrise over the Sea of Galilee

Proverbial Fairy Tales: Wolf! Wolf! – The Explanation

Once upon a time when the lad returned uneaten questions arose. If the lad wasn’t eaten, how were the town folk going to explain the statue and the truly tall tales they were telling to the tourists?

The town’s scientist came to the rescue explaining that if they only knew science the way he did they would see that when light hit the lad’s chiral polypeptide lipid loving amino acids they’d order the polymerization end to end bringing back together again the lad as if nothing happened. Our beloved scientist patiently lectured the uneducated town folk (since they patiently listened) on how science had proven over and over again that stuff that couldn’t happen happened all the time.

Although the town folk didn’t buy his tale (deep down anyway), they were glad to have something to tell those tourists who wouldn’t shut their mouths when they were told nonsense. Besides – town folk being town folk – once they realized that they were just too stupid to understand, what they couldn’t understand previously suddenly made sense so everyone could go back to living happily ever after again.

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

Proverbial Fairy Tale: Wolf! Wolf! – The Lad Comes Home

Once upon a time there was a big bad wolf who liked to eat and a lad who liked to cry “Wolf! Wolf!” even when big bad wasn’t hungry. The wolf got barbequed and the lad – whom, it turned out, wasn’t eaten – went off to make his fortune somewhere where people listened to him when he cried wolf.

After many, many years our dear lad heard about a town with a weird statue and realized that this was his home town and after hearing the truly tall tales the tourists were told figured that statue must be a statue of him.

He went on a march back home to see the statue and ran into many of the lassies who still hadn’t washed those spots where they insisted, despite his faulty memory, that he kissed them long, long ago. These lassies, who now ran the town, set the lad up in a prosperous business of freely kissing any lassie – tourist or local – for only $10 per decent peck on the cheek.

After that who wouldn’t want to live happily ever after?

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Denise offers “march” as the prompt for this week’s Six Sentence Stories.

David Flees From Absalom

It is amazing what a map can do to bring to life events in the Bible.

Today, David P. Barrett of Bible Mapper Atlas posted a map of the events of 2 Samuel 15-16 where David leaves Jerusalem after hearing that his son Absalom has been declared king in Hebron.

Below is the map from Bible Mapper Atlas detailing the events. The events are described in more detail on the site along with links to other maps.

Map from Bible Mapper Atlas

Proverbial Fairy Tales: Wolf! Wolf! – The Investigations

Once upon a time the leaders of the town where the lad used to live decided to conduct a series of investigations to find out precisely what happened to the lad in all its gory details. However, no one actually saw the lad get eaten by the big bad wolf in spite of the tall tales offered to tourists.

One investigation centered on the lassies who said they were kissed by the lad and had vowed never ever to wash that spot again. These lassies were highly popular with the tourists.

The town leaders commissioned the most renowned scientist they could afford to construct from those unwashed spots where the lad kissed these gorgeous lassies his full DNA sequence that they planned to display in their newly opened museum. In spite of there being hundreds of distinct Y-chromosomes on those unwashed spots our brilliant scientist was able to swing a home run by miraculously producing with the help of a random number generator the commissioned DNA sequence that allowed him to live happily ever after.

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

Proverbial Fairy Tale: Wolf! Wolf! – The Pigeons

Once upon a time there was an ever-growing clan of pigeons who found the statue of the lad and the big bad wolf as attractive as the photographers who featured photos of it everywhere. It was a beautiful bronze color, that is, it was until the pigeons did what they normally do when they float over your head and take aim.

Over the years people thought the spots turned the statue into a magical masterpiece that the town council – to save funds – cheerfully agreed to leave uncleaned. Eventually all that the tourists who came looking for the statue could find was a huge whitish gray, compost wannabe pile that the pigeons kept contributing to.

Thankfully most tourists thought the artistic touch added by the pigeons was even more impressive than the original statue which was no longer visible. By doing nothing the town found itself living happily ever after.

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

Can the Book of Esther Be Viewed As History?

YES, it can!

In the following video Henry B. Smith, Jr from the Associates for Biblical Research interviews Bryan Windle who provides a top ten list of archeological discoveries that justify taking the book of Esther in the Bible as actual history.

As a conclusion, Windle quotes Karen H. Jobes’ NIV Application Commentary on the book of Esther:

Judaism and Christianity rest not on the inward, mystical journey of the mind and soul of the individual, but on events in history through which the Creator-Redeemer God revealed himself to people.

Biblical narratives such as Esther are the record of those events in the form of story. Purim would be a hollow religious celebration if the Jews in Persia had not truly been delivered from destruction.