Prose – Page 16 – Poetry, Short Prose and Walking

Remote—Six Sentence Story

While on vacation Willard and Matilda visited a notorious, but remote, congregation their pastor warned held services “too indecent for decent worship” so they could report back a few good words of condemnation against them.

With the service having gone on for hours and with no end in sight, Matilda told Willard, “Tell that girl behind us to stop giggling so much so I can hear the heresies the preacher is preaching.”

Willard said that for the past God knows how long the preacher hasn’t said anything worth noting but merely wandered up and down the rows of people touching some, here and there, who’d fall back laughing like idiots too dumb to stop.

“I have a mind to give him a piece of my mind before it’s too late,” Matilda said.

Willard wanted to say something, perhaps that it might already be too late, as Matilda, with eyes and mouth wide open, watched her husband giggle uncontrollably. Then, sensing the heavy ashes of mourning she didn’t know she was carrying transform into beautiful garments of praise, she herself began to laugh with tears flowing down her cheeks grateful that even she was loved enough to be anointed with the oil of gladness.

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

Isaiah 61: “…beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning…”

Ace—Six Sentence Story

Although Jairus knew that Jesus had healing power, as a ruler of the synagogue he didn’t want to expose his belief by playing the only real ace in his hand until it became clear that his beloved twelve-year-old daughter would likely die that very day if he did not. At his request Jesus followed Jairus to his house, but on the way a woman with a twelve-year issue of blood which no physician could cure crept close enough to Jesus to just touch the border of His robe without being noticed. Jesus stopped, asked who touched Him and after the woman revealed herself He told her that her faith had healed her.

While Jairus waited impatiently for this testimony of the woman to be over, people from his house told him what he feared that his daughter had died, but Jesus told him to only believe and she would be made whole.

At the house Jesus allowed Peter, James, John, Jairus and his wife to go in with Him where the child lay. Then Jesus said, “Maid, arise.”

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

Luke 8:41-56 KJV
41 And, behold, there came a man named Jairus, and he was a ruler of the synagogue: and he fell down at Jesus’ feet, and besought him that he would come into his house: 42 For he had one only daughter, about twelve years of age, and she lay a dying. But as he went the people thronged him. 43 And a woman having an issue of blood twelve years, which had spent all her living upon physicians, neither could be healed of any, 44 Came behind [him], and touched the border of his garment: and immediately her issue of blood stanched. 45 And Jesus said, Who touched me? When all denied, Peter and they that were with him said, Master, the multitude throng thee and press [thee], and sayest thou, Who touched me? 46 And Jesus said, Somebody hath touched me: for I perceive that virtue is gone out of me. 47 And when the woman saw that she was not hid, she came trembling, and falling down before him, she declared unto him before all the people for what cause she had touched him, and how she was healed immediately. 48 And he said unto her, Daughter, be of good comfort: thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace. 49 While he yet spake, there cometh one from the ruler of the synagogue’s [house], saying to him, Thy daughter is dead; trouble not the Master. 50 But when Jesus heard [it], he answered him, saying, Fear not: believe only, and she shall be made whole. 51 And when he came into the house, he suffered no man to go in, save Peter, and James, and John, and the father and the mother of the maiden. 52 And all wept, and bewailed her: but he said, Weep not; she is not dead, but sleepeth. 53 And they laughed him to scorn, knowing that she was dead. 54 And he put them all out, and took her by the hand, and called, saying, Maid, arise. 55 And her spirit came again, and she arose straightway: and he commanded to give her meat. 56 And her parents were astonished: but he charged them that they should tell no man what was done.

Nail—Six Sentence Story

Although Sam’s wife was ready with cough drops, apple cider vinegar and honey she was getting annoyed with his colds. After they rebuked any spirits of infirmity, she opened an audio Bible on her phone, selected the Book of Psalms and set them to play continuously throughout the night.

Sam would pop out of dreams to hear a psalm he was familiar with and then seemingly moments later one he didn’t remember hearing before. The cooling perspiration on his chest in the morning made him realize: he was healed!

The demons who tried to nail him down and make him useless couldn’t get a moment’s worth of peace with those psalms playing. However, considering their defeat at the battle of the Resurrection, those psalms were better than what they’d have to face when the end finally came.

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

Sunrise, Atlantic Ocean, Southern Florida

Star Formation vs Star Creation

SlimJim reviewed a book by R.J. Rushdoony, The Word of Flux, so I searched to see if Rushdoony believed in a six-day creation as reported in Genesis 1. Not only did he support it (see The Mythology of Science), but he clarified what was at stake. God performed a creative act in Genesis 1. What He did NOT do was participate in a creative process involving natural laws.

If God were merely guiding some natural processes, what were those processes? There is no point in claiming, as Alvin Plantinga has done, that God guided natural processes, if those natural processes do not exist.

In the video from Answers In Genesis below Dr. Terry Mortenson brings home the point that the problem with star formation is that there are no natural processes that permit star formation. In particular at (20:00), he quotes Neil deGrasse Tyson:

The scary part is that if none of us knew in advance that stars exist, frontline research would offer plenty of convincing reasons for why stars could never form. (Neil deGrasse Tyson, Death by Black Hole and Other Cosmic Quandaries, New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 2007, p. 187)

On the other hand, the origins of stars as a creative act of God, as Rushdoony would put it, is not a problem. An act of creation (when God does it) does not require a natural process to explain it. All it requires, which is more than any atheist and even some Christians can tolerate, is accepting a Creator Who can do what He says He did in Genesis 1.

Some people I know are attracted to the creative process (rather than creative act) views of Hugh Ross. They like to think they are being “rational”. Dr. Mortenson puts a special focus on Ross (starting about 3:30) showing how he exaggerates what naturalists themselves claim they know to justify his own handwaving. If one takes being rational seriously, one would no longer trust anything someone had to say who is willing to exaggerate.

Bottom Line

If you want to accept the atheist fairy tales, the handwaving stories, that naturalists and Ross want you to believe, then you might as well give up on Christianity as many have already done as a result of such philosophical diversions.

Why? Because Jesus said “But from the beginning of the creation God made them male and female.” (Mark 10:6 and other verses).

If the fairy tales are right then Jesus got that wrong, because the beginning of Ross-style process creation happened a god-awful number of years prior to the appearance of men and women.

Now continue that deductive chain to see what else it entails.

If Jesus got something wrong, then He is not God.
If Jesus is not God, then the Trinity is false.
If the Trinity is false, then the death of Jesus could not have been the sacrifice that Christianity has made it out to be.

So, who are you going to believe?

If you are at all tempted to believe atheists because they like to portray themselves as “scientists” (more accurately, pseudo-scientists which is all one is when someone abandons operational science) consider that the earliest “historical date of any real certainty” goes back no further than 5000 years which falls in line with a global flood of about 5300 years ago.

If you are tempted to doubt that a global flood occurred, consider the signs of a global catastrophic water event: glaciers, continent wide sedimentary strata, catastrophic plate tectonics, planation surfaces.

If you are still tempted to think that naturalistic processes can pop a universe into existence, then which natural process gets us something from nothing? And which natural process takes us from pond scum to human beings before the observable natural process of genetic entropy drives humanity to extinction?

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And if you are still tempted after that, remind the devil (for me) that he’s a doofus and soon it will all be over.

Pass—Six Sentence Story

One of two things happens as they pass by. Either they start rationalizing or they start crying.

We try to reason with those who start rationalizing. When that doesn’t work, we get rough. When that doesn’t work, our hearts break.

All we do for those who cry is let God wipe away their tears.

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

The River School of Healing

I just finished attending a two-week long session in February of the River School of Healing made available by Revival Ministries International (RMI) centered at Tampa Bay, Florida. If you are looking for a never-the-same-again transformation experience I highly recommend this.

I don’t have any life-threatening issue affecting me, but I know people who do. I wanted to know what healing meant in a biblical context. That is, I wanted to experience healing as a Christian. And I wanted to be confident I was doing the right thing should I recommend this school to my relatives and friends.

About the School

Although pre-registration is required, the sessions are free. They do accept donations to RMI during the last hour of the last day of the session, but only if the Holy Spirit tells you to do so. Participants themselves are responsible for transportation, food and lodging. A new two-week session starts every two weeks.

Being near the RMI campus there are opportunities to participate in other events such as The Stand every evening except Saturday from 7 pm to about 10:30 pm and Sunday services at The River Church. The instructors, PJ and DNA, of the healing school, led Night 1334 of The Stand.

Finally, this school of healing is NOT a medical school. If you are seeking that kind of training you will need to look elsewhere. The Bible is the only focus in the teaching and even that is from a believing, Holy Spirit led, Christian perspective.

The Two Bookends of the Session

In the classroom many Bible verses appeared on the monitors. The aim of the instructors was to revive us by getting us to receive those verses into our hearts so we could respond with our own words. This blog post is an example of such a response.

There were two verses that acted as bookends. Here is the first one:

Proverbs 17:22
A merry heart doeth good like a medicine: but a broken spirit drieth the bones.

That verse should make sense to everyone even to those reading this who aren’t smiling. So, receive it. Don’t take offense. Don’t just think, but receive. Then respond with joy coming out of your mouth. Be that person people want to be around because they know, whatever comes out of your mouth, that you don’t hate them. You might even, and probably do, love them.

The alternative is dry bones. The alternative is death.

Everyone knows this. So, why isn’t everyone merry and healthy? I don’t know of any meaningful justification for such deep rejoicing that does not involve the death and resurrection of Jesus, but no one is going to smile based merely on a theological justification for doing so. Every Christian with a frown on his face, or even a dumb stare, proves that point. They have the doctrine, that is, they have the logical propositions, but they clearly don’t have the heartfelt joy.

Nor do I know of any power whether that comes from some New Age meditation technique or some mind over matter gymnastics that opens the floodgates of rejoicing except what comes from the Holy Spirit. Without the death and resurrection of Jesus which makes you a child of God, a child of the Father, and without the power of the Holy Spirit within you there is only fake rejoicing.

We fake a merry heart through our various addictions and ideologies, but they lead to broken spirits which dry our bones. If you’re smiling right now with true joy that you can feel from your heart, treasure it as a supernatural miracle. Many have no clue what I’m talking about nor what you’re experiencing. It is the pearl without price.

Mark 16:18
…they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.

This second bookend relates healing specifically to believers in Jesus. Believing Christians have the authority to lay hands on the sick in the name of Jesus with the expectation that the sick will recover.

It is important to keep in mind that this assumes those who are sick want to recover. This healing is not a magic trick nor is it a mechanical procedure. It does not go against the wills of those who are sick.

There are many people who feel so unloved that they want to die. They need to know that they are loved. There are some who don’t want to lose their disability benefits. They need to lose their fears. And there are some who just plain enjoy what they’re addicted to (sugar, porn, anger, dubious “highs”). They need to grow up.

Let’s exclude those classes of people who want to be sick (unless they choose to repent). The rest shall recover.

Testimony

When we think of healing in terms of having the authority to lay hands on someone and of recovery as a sign, testimonies become the way those signs are made known to others. So, if we’re sick and we honestly want to recover, we should be ready to give our testimonies. It is our joyful response to what we have received in our hearts.

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And that’s it!

That’s my testimony of how my view of the world changed in two weeks at The River School of Healing. I had a sick view going in without even knowing it, but I am seeing more clearly today. Thank you, Jesus! Hallelujah!

Heart—Six Sentence Story

Joe thought and thought about what to write as a six sentence story, but nothing came to mind and so he asked his wife if she had any ideas but his wife had better things to do and gave him a look and so he asked his daughter if she had any ideas for a six sentence story, but his daughter was practicing becoming a teenager and so he got nothing from her but another look and so he asked his son if he had any ideas for a six sentence story and just then his son spoke his first word saying, “Dada”, which annoyed his wife who hoped at least one of their children would have the heart to say, “Mama”, first and so Joe decided to come up with an idea on his own, but nothing came to mind.

“What did you think of my six sentence story?” Joe asked his family.

“That’s only one sentence,” his wife said.

“It sounded like twenty sentences to me,” his daughter said.

“I didn’t understand a word of it,” his son said.

So he posted it.

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

Game—Six Sentence Story

Although Jeremy and his wife, Martha, welcomed everyone to the warehouse they converted into a chapel, there were signs telling newcomers before they entered to first write the names of any demons they planned on keeping outside on the wall of the building facing the street. Martha waited by the wall for any who were foolish enough to want to keep a demon.

Those who slipped past Martha ran into Jeremy wearing a T-shirt that read: I specialize in scaring the HELL out of stuff. When he asked them if they’d like to get rid of their demons they didn’t completely understand what they were being asked to do, but to be polite and figuring they didn’t have any demons, except maybe little ones, said, “Sure, Pastor, go for it.”

So, in the name of Jesus and in a loud voice, Jeremy rebuked in detail god-awful lists of demonic addictions and disabling stupidities that burned convicting blushes on their cheeks. He then said, “Your demons are gone and you’ve been forgiven for the time you’ve wasted playing games with them, but it’s up to you to decide whether you’ll run after them or stay here to rejoice with thanksgiving.”

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

Revelation 21:27
And there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie: but they which are written in the Lamb’s book of life.

With thanks to Michael Wilson for reminding me of this verse

The Craft of Tyranny—Six Sentence Story

To Gideon’s credit after the Lord’s victory over the Midianite raiders he had no desire to lord it over the Israelites as king. To his discredit he did take some of the gold plundered from the Midianites which helped him attract enough women to sire seventy sons.

Although no Baal could get its hands on him, Gideon’s own greed set his family up for a fall after his death when one of his many sons, Abimelech, a bloodthirsty Nimrod wannabe, decided to craft for himself a kingdom. Abimelech made sure there was no resistance from Gideon’s other sons by slaying all of them at Ophrah except for Jotham, the youngest, who escaped to curse him from Mount Gerizim.

Abimelech’s adventures evolved shamefully until a woman fleeing into the tower at Thebez dropped a piece of millstone upon his head as he tried to burn to death those in the tower. His armorbearer, at his own command, killed him so no one could say that a woman brought about his death, but we all know what happened.

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

Judges 9:53-54
⁵³And a certain woman cast a piece of a millstone upon Abimelech’s head, and all to brake his skull.
⁵⁴Then he called hastily unto the young man his armourbearer, and said unto him, Draw thy sword, and slay me, that men say not of me, A women slew him. And his young man thrust him through, and he died.

The map below centered on Abimelech’s mother’s home, Shechem, comes from the BibleMapper Blog. Ophrah where Abimelech slayed his brothers is northwest of Beth-shan just off this map. Abimelech died at Thebez after making a mess at Shechem.

Promise—Ovi Poetry Challenge

The Shepherd’s voice, the sheep all know.
The goats aren’t sure which way to go.
The tares are bundled quickly so
the harvest can begin.

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Ronovan Hestor offers the inspiration “promises” for this week’s Ovi Poetry Challenge. Also posted on Poet’s Corner.

John 10:27
²⁷My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me:

Matthew 13:24-30
²⁴Another parable put he forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his field:
²⁵But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way.
²⁶But when the blade was sprung up, and brought forth fruit, then appeared the tares also.
²⁷So the servants of the householder came and said unto him, Sir, didst not thou sow good seed in thy field? from whence then hath it tares?
²⁸He said unto them, An enemy hath done this. The servants said unto him, Wilt thou then that we go and gather them up?
²⁹But he said, Nay; lest while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them.
³⁰Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn.