Brian built a following by blending doom and gloom prophecies with prayer that the prophecies would not come true.
If a prophecy occurred, he took credit for being a pretty good prophet. If it didn’t, he declared that his prayers had enough pull with the Lord for them to work.
When Brian’s critics pointed out that being right on one leg of a hedged bet implied he would have to be wrong on the other, he ridiculed them. He reminded them that the Lord Himself was telling him what to do.
The Lord could not recall telling Brian anything.
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Denise offers the prompt word “blend” to be used in this week’s Six Sentence Stories.
Matthew 6:5 KJV – And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.
With ancient soundtracks playing in the background that synched with the mantras running from his mouth, the wizard gazed for spiritual insight into a large, shallow pool of water reflecting his image.
A voice said, What are you looking at, George?
Not used to hearing voices interfere with his imagination George asked, “What?”
You won’t find your way back on your own.
“That garden never existed,” he countered.
By the way, I didn’t make you in My image from stardust, but from the dust of the earth.
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Denise offers the prompt word “pool” to be used in this week’s Six Sentence Stories.
Matthew 7:13-14 KJV – 13 Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: 14 Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.
I found the following video on Robert Carter’s site Biblical Genetics. The key take-away from this video is that the ultimate benefit of all of the genealogical data in the Bible was to trace the ancestry of Jesus back to Adam.
Most people (including myself) skip over the biblical genealogies unless they know what to look for. Carter says it is like looking for a fossil in a river basin. If you know what to look for you can find an amazing fossil. If you don’t, well, there are plenty of other things to enjoy.
Robert Carter and Chris Hardy were the authors of a paper on Creation Ministries International that I keep going back to called The biblical minimum and maximum age of the earth. The creation year of the minimum age supported by at least one biblical manuscript tradition is 3822 BC. The creation year of the maximum age is 5665 BC. That’s a difference of 1,843 years.
Many Christians support the younger age close to James Ussher’s chronology with a creation date of 4004 BC. Since that was a bit over 6000 years ago many of them also get tempted by speculations of the end of the age.
Early Christians along with Henry B. Smith, Jr at the Associates for Biblical Research support an older creation year of around 5500 BC. Based on this chronology the rabbinic tradition of the Messiah coming during the 6th millennium has already been fulfilled by Jesus. Smith, Jr’s argument in favor of the older age is available at the 2018 International Conference on Creationism called The case for the Septuagint’s chronology in Genesis 5 and 11. It’s another one of the papers I keep going back to.
At the moment, I favor Smith, Jr’s view, but I am a recent supporter of creationism. I am still learning. I only began taking the Bible seriously, that is, more seriously than, say, the Bhagavad Gita, about five years ago.
Over five years ago, I would have thought the earth was a gazillion years old. Why? Because that’s what I was told. My religious traditions were a mix of Catholic Teilhard de Chardin new age leaning mysticism and Protestant William Lane Craig atheist leaning rationalizations. Don’t worry if you aren’t familiar with those two names. I wish I weren’t as well.
When I was about 10 years old I remember telling my aunt that chickens came from dinosaurs. Why? Because that’s what I was told. Looking back on that incident as an adult who has now listened to many children talk I imagine she thought I was a cute kid, but stupid.
I realize today that she was right about the stupid part. Or, better put, deceived part, but then those telling me the “truth” were deceived as well. They are not the enemy. I forgive them. Today I have more important things to do like taking back all that stolen life, stolen hope, stolen joy and stolen peace.
When Glen’s daughter died in his arms something smacked him around. He vowed to make the devil pay. As his notoriety increased from his warfare against the rulers of darkness he became more and more unorthodox in the eyes of those envying that notoriety.
Unlike a machine mindlessly set upon its task Glen had a real brain driven by a real spirit that made real choices and so he made plenty of real mistakes all of which were itemized by his opposition and recited against him.
The devil, trying to make a bigger mess, enflamed Glen’s opposition, but Glen did at least one thing right. Rather than taking the devil’s bait, he forgave all those flesh and blood critics allowing him to keep his eyes focused on the real target.
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Denise offers the prompt word “machine” to be used in this week’s Six Sentence Stories.
Ephesians 6:11-12 KJV – 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.
Somewhat less than eight thousand years ago in Eden, before the flood plowed, sifted and buried the place below a mile or so of sediment, Eve, and then Adam, found out the difference between good and evil. Henceforward, the only Creator-creature distinction that would be worth remembering was that God was good and they weren’t.
Before the incident with the forbidden fruit they didn’t need to know that. After it, creation itself shook, because they had been given dominion over the Earth and their style of dominion messed things up.
Today the Jacks and Jills, fighting all the way, are still climbing hills which rose above the retreating flood waters searching for the Living Water that would give them the power to stop falling down again and again. Should they ever find that Water, creation itself would rejoice.
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Denise offers the prompt word “style” to be used in this week’s Six Sentence Story.
Rom 8:19 KJV – 19 For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God.
Jack and Jill went up the hill to fetch a pale of water. Jack fell down and broke his crown and Jill came tumbling after.
Some rambling prophet said, Either the Spirit or one of those other spirits will be blessing or cursing….
James heard enough. He closed the YouTube tab.
Downstairs his younger brother and sister were running about in the early morning light excited to see that Santa came.
And I will be joining James downstairs as soon as I figure out a way to use the prompt word, “admission”, in this six sentence story. Whether I figure that out or not, whatever words I do write may they be words of blessing to shatter every curse: Merry Christmas!
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Denise offers the prompt word “admission” to be used in this week’s Six Sentence Stories.
The promise moved from Eve down through the generations. At each dip along the way the Lord was faithful to break every faithless fall.
Finally, as sure as the rising of the sun but against every natural odd, the promise reached a young virgin whom we know today as Maria or Mary. As a servant of the Lord she spoke the simple, but universe transforming, words of obedience: Be it done unto me according to your word.
And so it was.
Mary gave birth to Jesus in Bethlehem Who would fulfill the promise the Lord made to Eve long, long ago.
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Denise offers the prompt word “dip” to be used in this week’s Six Sentence Stories.
Genesis 3:13-16 KJV – 13 And the LORD God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat. 14 And the LORD God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life: 15 And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. 16 Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.
Gen 4:1 KJV – And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the LORD.
Luke 1:38 KJV – And Mary said, Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word. And the angel departed from her.
Luke 1:46-47 KJV – 46 And Mary said, My soul doth magnify the Lord, 47 And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour.
When Stan got offended he became offensive. That was when all hell broke loose as he tormented those around him and they reciprocated. Stan poured fuel on the flames with the way he explained how each and every one of them deserved it.
And sometimes the people who deserved it actually did deserve it, but hell being what it is, even worthy Stan was made miserable by all his divisiveness. The thought that good folk, like himself, suffered right along with the bad guys got Stan even more offended.
Eventually people, getting tired, put hell back in its cage where it belonged and God gave them more time to start loving each other unless they really wanted to all get locked up in that cramped cage together.
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Denise offers the prompt word “even” to be used in this week’s Six Sentence Stories.
Many generations ago Jared told his children how their very first father and mother lived in a garden. He said that there was a snake in that garden who told their ancient mother that, if she wanted to be a god, all she had to do was something the Lord said would cause her to die that very day. Convinced the snake knew more than the Lord did, she disobeyed the Lord and got her husband, witless or not, to do the same.
When the Lord realized that a deception had occurred, He went looking for them, but they were so ashamed, being now woke, that they wanted only to die before He could find them. He found them in time, extended their lives beyond that day and promised that the snake’s masters who usurped dominion over the Earth would be crushed by the woman’s seed.
And that was the first step the Lord took to break our fall, Jared said telling his children as much as he could remember of the parcel of information and explanation which held a sacred promise that his own father and mother had passed on to him years ago.
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Denise offers the prompt word “parcel” to be used in this week’s Six Sentence Stories.
Genesis 2:16-17 KJV – 16 And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: 17 But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.
Genesis 3:9-19 KJV – 9 And the LORD God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou? 10 And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself. 11 And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat? 12 And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat. 13 And the LORD God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat. 14 And the LORD God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life: 15 And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. 16 Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee. 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; 18 Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field; 19 In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.
Less than an hour after the dog broke loose from his chain, after he killed Joe’s chickens and after he hunkered down at the far end of Joe’s isolated, one-room cabin, Joe walked through the cabin’s open door with a repaired chain in his hand. The dog growled and Joe knelt down a few feet from him so their eyes could stare each other down.
Pressing his index finger on the wooden floor, Joe said, “GET YOUR“—and may the gentle reader forgive me for not repeating the unfortunate adjectives Joe chose to describe the dog’s—”ASS OVER HERE!” The dog correctly understood that there were only two choices: either submit or someone was going to die. The dog bowed his head, turned his growl into a whimper and received the chain.
Joe forgave the dog stoking his fur to draw him out of the shadow of transgression as Joe led him out of the cabin back to the dog house.
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Denise offers the prompt word “shadow” to be used in this week’s Six Sentence Stories.
Genesis 1:26 KJV – 26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
Poetry, Short Prose and Walking 