Prose – Page 13 – Poetry, Short Prose and Walking

Dream—Six Sentence Story

Between the evening and the morning Bryan’s dream suddenly came true. When he realized what had happened he began dancing and shouting with joy.

Offended by all the noise, Bryan’s mind, being rational and all, reminded him, “Your dream couldn’t have happened in a billion years!”

Bryan’s celebrating stopped.

Though officially brainless, Bryan’s gut made an observation: “Well, we do know that a dream with a supposed look-back time of a billion years actually happened, don’t we?” The confused body parts remained silent until they felt Bryan himself resume his joy with thankfulness.

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

Genesis 1:5 KJV
And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.

Catastrophic Plate Tectonics and the Genesis Flood

Sarah Peterson presented for Logos Research Associates an explanation of the geology of western North America using catastrophic plate tectonics (CPT) informed by the Genesis flood.

CPT shows that a global catastrophe occurred which formed the geology of western North America. No breathing creature would have survived such a catastrophe without miraculous intervention. Genesis tells the miraculous side of the story.

Don’t Worry—Six Sentence Story

When Gerald’s daughter acted goofy, he said, Don’t worry. He reminded her that she finished college with an advanced degree in half the time it took him to do so.

When Gerald’s son acted goofy, he said, Don’t worry. In the good old days his own brain used to hatch even worse ideas that he unfortunately followed.

When Gerald’s wife acted goofy, he said, Don’t worry. I still love you.

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

Romans 8:37-39 KJV
37 Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.
38 For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,
39 Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Love locks attached to a bridge with their keys thrown into the river for safe keeping

Dial—Six Sentence Story

Brian was a mathematician. He loved to pontificate on all kinds of nonsense like how many infinities can dance on the head of a pin. When George, an astronomer, asked him for advice Brian was confident he could dial up more elegant advice than George’s empirical predisposition could handle.

What George wanted to know, however, was why were the research schedules of the space and terrestrial telescopes suddenly put on hold to gather data on specific dense regions within three parsecs of Sagittarius A*? Before Brian’s speculations found words, reports came in of the appearance of unrecognized stars whose light had just passed through the gravitational potential near the Milky Way’s center of mass.

Brian thought to himself that this ominously felt like the beginning of the end, and he was right, but his worldview blinded him from seeing just what was ending.

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

The Miraculous and Modern Unbelief

There is no such thing as a Christian worldview that rejects the miraculous.
Daniel Kolenda (video 9 in his series on cessationism at 1:05:19)

Most Christians would agree with Kolenda until one gets specific about what counts as a miraculous event. There are two forms of Christian unbelief which sometimes act as polar opposites.

Unbelief in the Bible as history
The events reported in Genesis 1-11—the Creation, the Fall, the genealogies, the Global Flood and the the Babel Dispersion—really happened. When you hear a Christian try to allegorize these events away because they are embarrassed by them, you are witnessing unbelief no matter how committed that Christian is to the miraculous gifts of the Spirit.
Unbelief in the ongoing miraculous gifts of the Holy Spirit
When you hear Christians argue that the gifts of the Spirit no longer occur today you are witnessing unbelief no matter how committed that Christian is to the events in Genesis 1-11. Such unbelief should not be confused with an appropriate discernment when testimonies are given: each reported claim of a miracle, whether a healing or a prophecy or whatever, must be tested. The unbelief that is a problem here is the total rejection, in advance, of all modern miraculous testimonies.

A Pentecostal or Catholic Charismatic can not get by with mere belief in the continuation of the miraculous gifts without also accepting Genesis 1-11 as history that really happened. A Reformed Protestant can not get by with mere belief in Genesis 1-11 without also believing in Acts and Paul’s presentation of the gifts of the Holy Spirit in his letters as ongoing today.

They go together. They are both biblical. Reject any of this and the Christian who does so undermines belief for himself and for others in the New Testament.

The rejection of the miraculous, either as unbelief in Biblical history or as unbelief in the ongoing miraculous gifts of the Holy Spirit, is grounded in an atheistic worldview that gullibly trusts in its own rationalized construction of the so-called natural world. Modern unbelief pits a depersonalized and dying natural world against a wondrous reality given to us through its miraculous Creation.

One way to counter this is to reject the construct of the natural world except as a convenient, useful fiction, a crude approximation to reality that allows one to build deterministic, human technology. That is its only value. Then we can look at reality with continual childlike wonder. It really is all miraculous. It is all wonderful.

At the same time we need to be wary of the serpent, that lover of death and deception, even though, thanks to the Resurrection of Jesus, it has been defeated. There are liars still desiring to manipulate or fool others as Ananias and Saphira tried to do. One of the wonderful, miraculous gifts of the Spirit that is still with us today is our ability to discern the truth as Peter did long ago should we allow the Holy Spirit to lead us.

Swirl—Six Sentence Story

Seemingly unprovoked and coming from who-knows-where, certainly not from him, George heard the words enunciate through his mind: Don’t let the devil run your mouth.

“How do I know you’re not the devil giving me that advice?” George countered in self-defense.

Why would the devil give you such advice?

A swirl of confusion funneled through George’s mind reaching down to his heart where it came to rest like soft vanilla ice cream filling a generous cone. When he saw the topping dipped in melted chocolate and offered to him, he didn’t know how to respond to this unexpected kindness, indeed uncalled-for kindness given everything he had done, except to regret pretty much—no—he regretted every wacky thing he ever said.

“Ok,” George cried through tears of joy, “I’ll keep my mouth shut unless it be in praise of You.”

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

Job 42:1-9 KJV
1 Then Job answered the LORD, and said,
2 I know that thou canst do every thing, and that no thought can be withholden from thee.
3 Who is he that hideth counsel without knowledge? therefore have I uttered that I understood not; things too wonderful for me, which I knew not.
4 Hear, I beseech thee, and I will speak: I will demand of thee, and declare thou unto me.
5 I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth thee.
6 Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.
7 And it was so, that after the LORD had spoken these words unto Job, the LORD said to Eliphaz the Temanite, My wrath is kindled against thee, and against thy two friends: for ye have not spoken of me the thing that is right, as my servant Job hath.
8 Therefore take unto you now seven bullocks and seven rams, and go to my servant Job, and offer up for yourselves a burnt offering; and my servant Job shall pray for you: for him will I accept: lest I deal with you after your folly, in that ye have not spoken of me the thing which is right, like my servant Job.
9 So Eliphaz the Temanite and Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite went, and did according as the LORD commanded them: the LORD also accepted Job.

Platform—Six Sentence Story

From the platform provided by the Kaibab Plateau George looked down into the Grand Canyon. He saw the water-deposited sedimentation layers on the canyon’s opposite side. He looked deep into the canyon where he saw the Colorado River flowing at the base of a relatively tiny channel it had eroded away.

George realized that no mere river could have eroded such a gorge in the earth after smoothing the huge planation region upon which he stood. Initially he thought some lake or sea must have burst its dam over 50 million years ago, but given erosion rates nothing that old would still be here for him to see.

Then he wondered: maybe, just maybe, some kid in his basement, with nothing better to do, instantiated a simulation of him, his memories and his sensations of this whole canyon riddled plateau, because in George’s stony heart that nonsense would be more tolerable than acknowledging what actually happened.

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

Genesis 8:1-3 KJV
1 And God remembered Noah, and every living thing, and all the cattle that was with him in the ark: and God made a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters asswaged;
2 The fountains also of the deep and the windows of heaven were stopped, and the rain from heaven was restrained;
3 And the waters returned from off the earth continually: and after the end of the hundred and fifty days the waters were abated.

Political Correctness—Six Sentence Story

Brian told Steve that he better be careful. He could tick off a lot of people.

Since Steve was by disposition a hermit wannabe, except for his internet connection, he said that his goal was to tick off everyone who needed it.

And so he did.

And so they did.

And when that was finished everyone lived happily ever after, or, at least Steve (thought he) (knew he) (wondered if he) did.

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

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Next week I will be away for a couple of weeks after turning off the computer.

Entropy, Evolution, Devolution, Creation

Entropy

Change leads to decay which can be described as entropy. With real natural processes doing their thing, things run down. They don’t run up.

Erosion washes the landscape into the oceans. People grow old and die. Species undergo mutational meltdown leading to extinction. Even stars blow up.

The universe is overrun with death at all levels. Death through disobedience is what the fall in Genesis 3 is all about. If you want to own the universe without the Lord you will have to hold it together all by yourself. Entropy is your enemy.

Evolution

Although entropy is all around us, what we don’t see is evolution (except in the imaginations of some biologists). We don’t see stuff becoming more complex through some natural process before the real natural processes leading to entropy, decay and death expose the fictitious ones as fantasies.

We don’t see pond scum turn into fish, dogs or dragons. Various kinds of living creatures do go extinct because they suffer genetic entropy which leads to mutational meltdown. Dinosaurs (better known in the past as “dragons”) simply died off. They did not evolve into chickens or tooth fairies. They went extinct and some of them left their remains as fossils. Indeed, some of those fossils still contain soft tissue showing that all of this happened not very long ago giving evolutionary magic no time at all to work.

In a similar way we don’t see stars form out of gas clouds (except in the imaginations of some astronomers). They do blow up. Entropy is real; evolution is not.

Devolution

If evolution didn’t happen, what about devolution, the flip side of evolution? If there are no natural processes for evolution (except in the imaginations of evolutionists), then there would be no mechanisms for devolution either. Things just run down, decay, blow up, erode or die. They don’t devolve.

We don’t see dinosaurs turn into pond scum. Pond scum, already present, might eat a dead dinosaur, but dinosaurs don’t devolve into pond scum. Dragons (aka “dinosaurs”) simply died off. They did not transition into an evolutionary biologist’s tooth fairy.

Creation

We do see the effects of creation. We see stars. We see the world around us. We experience ourselves. How do we know the world was “created”? God told us so in Genesis 1.

Someone might ask, “Are you asking me to believe the Bible?”

Sure. Why not? It is the best explanation for what we see around us and why we are here. It is more plausible than the pseudoscientific magic tricks offered in its place to waste our lives.

Conclusion

If you’re an atheist thinking you can overcome entropy, then get off your butt and do so. Stars are exploding all over the universe. What are you waiting for? Species have or will undergo mutational meltdown. Follow the serpent’s lead and hold this universe together all by yourself.

Or, smarten up. Realize that the Lord loves you, even you. He wants none to perish. Stop wasting your life on fantasies.

If you’re a Christian with a pastor, with a Bible school teacher or with a seminary professor promoting the pseudoscience of people like Hugh Ross or the big bang idolatry of people like William Lane Craig, find a real church. Find a real Bible school. Find a real seminary. God has a plan for your life. Follow His lead, not the lead of rebellious men.

If you’re into New Age spirituality, how has that sentimental nonsense been treating you? Gaia does not exist. Neither does the tooth fairy. The devil, on the other hand, does. The only thing the devil wants to do is to get you to waste (that is, abort) your own life. This present life is shorter than you think. Only the real thing, only Jesus, is worth your attention. He won’t lead you astray. Thank Him. Praise Him. You will never be the same again.

No matter who you are, make sure you are on board before the last days end and the Lord shuts the door.

Frequency—Six Sentence Story

With a frequency that annoyed Steve, Brian would tell him, “You better get whatever you were supposed to do done before the world ends.”

“The world’s not going to end,” Steve responded one afternoon putting his attention back on the game which his team was winning.

“You never know,” Brian countered.

“I know.”

“You don’t.”

And just like that, to the surprise of both Steve and even Brian, the world ended.

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

Luke 12:40 KJV
Be ye therefore ready also: for the Son of man cometh at an hour when ye think not.