Prose – Page 12 – Poetry, Short Prose and Walking

Six Sentence Story: Temptation

The devil tempted George to curse the idiots around him, to just lay into them with full force. However, George couldn’t see what good that would do, so – since the devil reminded him of them – he blessed them instead.

Annoyed by George’s disobedience – not that George owed the devil any obedience whatsoever – the devil then reminded him that his silly blessings amounted to a hill of beans on the commodity market of prayers, because everyone knew those idiots weren’t going to change no matter how nice he was to them.

Don’t forget, George, that it is up to them to decide if they want to change, not you which was the only observation the devil made that George could agree with.

Regardless, those blessings were a win-win-win for George.

If nothing happened, as the devil predicted, those George blessed would remain good examples to point out of bad behavior, but if something unexpected happened – something admittedly miraculous in their cases – they would become an awesome fount of blessings for everyone around them and yet no matter what they did by blessing them George at least did what he was told to do: bless, and curse not.

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Denise offers the prompt “market” for this week’s Six Sentence Story.

Six Sentence Story: Myth

Unable to naturally get there from here, Brian began mythologizing. He wasn’t sure if he should make it new-age spooky or stick to his usual pseudo-science.

Trying to make a good impression he began at the beginning with In the beginning the universe popped itself out of nothing and after an eternity it randomly evolved into what we see today.

He realized that no one in his right mind would buy that, but just how many people actually were in their right minds today nobody knew.

Just in case there were still a few around, Brian continued with Then the witch told the wizard that if you keep stirring the pot eventually no one will be in his right mind.

None of this is supposed to make any sense, so don’t worry except for the fact that Brian has been stirring the pot ever since.

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

Psalm 14:3 KJV – They are all gone aside, they are all together become filthy: there is none that doeth good, no, not one.

Six Sentence Story: Rattling the Brain

“I know the Bible better than you do,” Brian taunted trying to rattle Mark’s brain.

“Even the devil knows the Bible better than I do,” Mark quickly countered unsure just how much the devil actually knew about anything.

“I am – NOT – the devil 😈 😈 😈!”

“How do you know the devil’s not running your month?” Mark wondered -unfortunately out-loud.

“How do – YOU – know 😠 😠 😠?”

Not having a good comeback for this, Mark wondered if perhaps the devil does know the Bible better than he does having heard it from every Tom, Dick and Harry he unsuccessfully tried to harass – not that such knowledge could ever, any more, do the devil any good.

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

Matthew 4:5-6 KJV – 5 Then the devil taketh him up into the holy city, and setteth him on a pinnacle of the temple,
6 And saith unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down: for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee: and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone.

Noah’s Flood Date: 3298 BC

Yesterday John Hartnett provided a model based on historic measurements collected by George F. Dodwell of the change in the earth’s tilt¹ confirming the biblical chronology that Henry B. Smith, Jr argued for in 2018².

The date Hartnett’s model estimated for the flood event was 3154 ± 191 BC. That range excludes Ussher’s flood date of 2348 BC³ but Smith, Jr’s date of 3298 BC still fits.

If we use Smith, Jr’s chronology, that would put creation at about 5500 BC, Noah’s flood at about 3300 BC, the Tower of Babel at about 2850 BC, the call of Abraham in 2091 BC, the Exodus from Egypt in 1446 BC, Solomon crowned in 971 BC and the birth of Jesus in 2 BC.⁴

The reason for the discrepancy between Ussher’s and Smith, Jr’s dates is due to conflicting dates provided in the chronologies of Genesis 5 and 11 coming from different manuscript traditions of the Bible. Smith, Jr argued that the Hebrew manuscript which became the Masoretic text was modified in the first or second century after the fall of Jerusalem in 70 AD to void prophecies that Jesus could have been the Messiah. The Septuagint, however, preserved the original text, but the Masoretic text became the preferred source for modern bible translations.

Hartnett’s model not only excluded Ussher’s date, but it also estimated a date for something which happened affecting the tilt of the earth at a time which aligned with the biblical chronology that Smith, Jr has promoted.

Six Sentence Story: Speculations Upon Nothing

Simon leased a room above the cafe a block from the Charles Bridge. He told them he was a tourist and they told him how to get to Prague’s Old Town. Since they didn’t understand why he was alone nor why he tipped so well in the cafe, some speculated that something was going to happen.

However, while Simon was there nothing happened. Even after he left nothing much happened and nothing at all happened that could be linked back to him.

This story is a tale of what happens when nothing happens – or, look at it this way – from nothing you get nothing unless you have the ability to speak the words (which most of us unwittingly do) to curse or bless the unexpected into existence.

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

This is my second story for the week. Those who speculate that I have nothing better to do may be right.

Genesis 1:3 KJV – And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.

Early evening in Prague from the Charles Bridge

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.

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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:

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.

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. ↩︎
https://jonimitchell.com/music/lyricsprint.cfm?id=75 ↩︎
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. ↩︎
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. ↩︎
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.

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.

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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?

Six Sentence Story: Flakes

As Brian paced back and forth through the park he was unaware that an old man, sitting on a bench in the shade, was listening to him as he complained about some guy he called a “flake” and then whined about some other guy he said needed to get his “head screwed on straight”.

Ya gotta forgive um, the old man finally shouted as Brian wandered past him once more.

WHAT?

They’re idiots.

Ah . . . good point.

And so are you.

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

Matthew 18:21-22 KJV – 21 Then came Peter to him, and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times?
22 Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven.