Prose – Page 10 – Poetry, Short Prose and Walking

Six Sentence Story: Dragons

“When it comes to dragons I’m with Saint George,” Paul said.

“You’d wound or even kill them?”

“With a sword,” Paul affirmed.

“They’ll go extinct!” Paul’s opposition cried.

“Precisely,” Paul said resting on a bunch of obvious assumptions which, since they’re obvious, don’t need to be stated.

At this point I must confess that I don’t know where this story’s going so I’ll just end it by saying, I’m with Paul, or, if you prefer, being more with Paul’s opposition, just pretend I said, Look, squirrel!

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

Revelation 12:7-9 KJV –
7 And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels,
8 And prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven.
9 And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.

Road to Emmaus

The following is a 25 minute video reenacting the journey on the road to Emmaus described in Luke 24.

Luke 24:13-35 KJV – 13 And, behold, two of them went that same day to a village called Emmaus, which was from Jerusalem about threescore furlongs.
14 And they talked together of all these things which had happened.
15 And it came to pass, that, while they communed together and reasoned, Jesus himself drew near, and went with them.
16 But their eyes were holden that they should not know him.
17 And he said unto them, What manner of communications are these that ye have one to another, as ye walk, and are sad?
18 And the one of them, whose name was Cleopas, answering said unto him, Art thou only a stranger in Jerusalem, and hast not known the things which are come to pass there in these days?
19 And he said unto them, What things? And they said unto him, Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, which was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people:
20 And how the chief priests and our rulers delivered him to be condemned to death, and have crucified him.
21 But we trusted that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel: and beside all this, to day is the third day since these things were done.
22 Yea, and certain women also of our company made us astonished, which were early at the sepulchre;
23 And when they found not his body, they came, saying, that they had also seen a vision of angels, which said that he was alive.
24 And certain of them which were with us went to the sepulchre, and found it even so as the women had said: but him they saw not.
25 Then he said unto them, O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken:
26 Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory?
27 And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.
28 And they drew nigh unto the village, whither they went: and he made as though he would have gone further.
29 But they constrained him, saying, Abide with us: for it is toward evening, and the day is far spent. And he went in to tarry with them.
30 And it came to pass, as he sat at meat with them, he took bread, and blessed it, and brake, and gave to them.
31 And their eyes were opened, and they knew him; and he vanished out of their sight.
32 And they said one to another, Did not our heart burn within us, while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the scriptures?
33 And they rose up the same hour, and returned to Jerusalem, and found the eleven gathered together, and them that were with them,
34 Saying, The Lord is risen indeed, and hath appeared to Simon.
35 And they told what things were done in the way, and how he was known of them in breaking of bread.

Six Sentence Story: Perfect Vision

During the regular part of the Sunday service when Brian satirized critics of his ministry, he read, out-loud, a social media post which commanded that the eyes of everyone in his congregation start functioning with “20/20, cataract-less, floater-less, astigmatism-less, whatever-ails-you-less perfect vision”.

“Fat chance that’s going to happen,” Brian mocked just before his six-year old granddaughter sitting in the front row, nearly blind from birth, jumped up and down screaming, “Grandpops, Grandpops, I can SEE!!“

As others in the congregation admitted sudden vision improvement as well, Brian wondered if his own eyes had been healed (hoping not). Looking down at his Bible, a ministry-produced, three-ribboned, leather-bound, authorized version adulterated with his commentaries, he was surprised to clearly make out even the fine print of the footnotes without glasses.

For the next hour Brian read verse after verse. When he finally looked up, all that came out of his mouth was: “So that’s what it says.”

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

Does Starlight Take Billions of Years To Reach Earth?

I posted the following as a comment on this video:

This is the clearest presentation of the distant starlight (non)problem that I have heard to date. We cannot use distant starlight to tell us how old the universe is given relativity physics. So, we will have to find other evidence to estimate the age of the universe. Radioactive decay might be one, but those rates aren’t reliable based on conflicting erosion rates, the discovery of soft tissue in fossils and the rates of dispersion of decay particles from zircon crystals. What we are left with is historical evidence, but that takes us back only about 5000 years which is surprisingly close to the time of the flood in the Septuagint chronology.

The video is almost two hours long, but John Hartnett does a good job of describing three rejected solutions to the distant starlight problem to arrive at the anisotropic synchrony convention proposed by Jason Lisle.

Six Sentence Story: Jeffrey

Jeffrey’s reactions were like those of a corpse in an open coffin. No matter how you insulted him, no matter how harshly the wind of cursing blew across his face, he didn’t respond.

And they did insult him accusing him of this and that while lying about that and this. They gave him as much hell as their trapped imaginations could come up with. However, the service Jeffrey and his team agreed to perform demanded that they focus exclusively on the assignment.

They only had a brief period of time to free those brainwashed hostages before the missiles arrived.

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

Romans 12:1 KJV – I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.

Drawbridge Door

While walking across the drawbridge connecting Normandy Isles and Treasure Island in the Miami area I noticed a door on the drawbridge mechanism right in the middle of the Intracoastal Waterway.

Waiting for the bridge to close so I can cross

The door where I would have least expected to find one

View heading back across the bridge from the other direction

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Linked to Thursday Doors.

Six Sentence Story: Victim

“Wield the sword with one hand and protect the baby with the other,” John proclaimed to the devil as it approached.

“What?” the devil responded.

“You heard me,” John replied.

The devil didn’t say anything, but that didn’t stop John from continuing.

“I’m looking for a good fight,” John said.

The devil backed away knowing there must be, somewhere, a softer victim, someone easier to tip over into disobedience.

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

1 Peter 5:8 KJV – Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:

Ephesians 6:14-17 KJV – 14 Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness; 15 And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace; 16 Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. 17 And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God:

Six Sentence Story: High Rank

George reached an age when his wickedness began to manifest in unrighteous ways on the shape of his body. For decades it had limited its manifestations to various wrinkles freezing funny frowns on his face, but now other parts of his body were wrecking havoc on his health.

It’s logically impossible – not that it hasn’t ever happened – for the wicked who have convinced themselves that they’re righteous to repent. The other guy has to go first. But that other guy, ranking as wickedly high on the righteousness scale as George has, isn’t about to do any such thing.

And that’s why this story about George isn’t going anywhere.

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

Is Being `Slain in the Spirit` Biblical?

In Pentecostal religious traditions being slain in the spirit is the ritual of someone falling over backwards when a leader yells, waves his hands or touches the person. Over the last two years I have attended various churches where such rituals were practiced on a regular basis.

In searching for biblical justifications for these practices I found the assessment of the Got Questions site informative: “The biblical instances [justifying these practices] were few and far between, and they occurred only rarely in the lives of a few people.”

However, I myself have fallen down. Admittedly, that happened for real only once. I was not expecting to fall. I had no intention of falling. I did not know I was falling. It was totally involuntary. Suddenly I found myself looking up from the floor wondering how I got there.

When that happened it was a kind of sign and wonder, much like a divine healing would be, but without the healing. It also made me suspect that the minister had superpowers. Weeks later I stood in that same minister’s prayer line. He did not make me fall like he did before as I expected he would, but I did go down in what is known as a courtesy fall. As I was going down I realized that this minister didn’t have the superpowers I should have never expected him to have had in the first place.

Although signs and wonders are important, the Bible also tells us to be wary of them. They may be a sign of false prophets or of the last days.

Matthew 24:23-24 KJV – 23 Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there; believe it not. 24 For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.

Since that time I fell, I have been watching people fall over backwards, caught by an usher and covered with a cloth. I have also watched a few who defiantly refused to fall down, even as a courtesy.

At the moment, I am more aligned with those who refuse to fall. My reason for this is, as the Got Questions site confirmed, I don’t see much biblical justification for the practice and such signs and wonders may be used for deceptive purposes.

There is, on the contrary, biblical justification for standing, not for being slain by some “spirit”. The most powerful verses that come to mind are from Ephesians 6 where Paul tells us to put on the whole armor of God and to stand:

Ephesians 6:10-13 KJV – 10 Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. 11 Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. 12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. 13 Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.

As warriors against the rulers of darkness we are called to stand, stand, stand always being prepared to exercise dominion over, without ever capitulating to, that defeated, demonic darkness.

So, stand. Don’t fall. If for some spooky reason you find yourself on the floor involuntarily, get up and stand.

Six Sentence Story: Close

Adam’s first mistake was letting Eve wander off alone with that snake.

His second was listening to her.

Hey, Adam, you’ve gotta try this stuff! It’s off the chain.

His third was taking a bite.

And that’s how Adam closed the deal turning over dominion to the lords of the snake.

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

Genesis 3:17 KJV – 17 And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life;